Pacquiao has grand design for Mayweather

Freddie Roach said Thursday he has devised an elaborate strategy that will deliver a decisive victory for Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao in his 'Fight of the Century' against Floyd Mayweather.

The revered trainer said he expects a bulked up Mayweather to seek an early rounds knockout but warned Pacquiao would be ready to go the distance if necessary

"I have the winning formula for Manny," Roach said at the MGM Grand Hotel, with Saturday's bout just over 48 hours away.

"He (Mayweather) put on a lot of muscle for this fight. I think he will come out in early rounds and try to knock us out.

"He could also run all night. I have fallen asleep at a couple of his fights before. So I am ready for whatever he brings to the ring."

Pacquiao set up his training camp for the richest fight in boxing history in a private facility built underneath Roach's Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.

They gutted the old laundromat that was there and replaced it with a de facto war room where Roach and Pacquiao have been crafting the plan they believe will end Mayweather's unbeaten record.

Roach said the new gym allowed Pacquiao to escape the clamour and chaos of the Wild Card that comes with having the Filipino superstar training there.

"I blocked the gym off and we kept it private. This camp I didn't have Manny trying to perform for an audience, he was performing for himself," Roach said.

- Happy campers -

"We had a good training camp. A lot of good sparring partners. We had eight sparring partners and we switched them up.

"Manny is too nice to his sparring partners all the time. Once he got too friendly with them we got a new one. That is why we used so many sparring partners."

Roach said earlier he thought Mayweather's unusually quiet demeanour in the build up to the fight was a sign he lacked motivation.

Pacquiao meanwhile went for a "light" run Thursday morning followed by another low-key workout in the afternoon.

"We are not focused on one strategy but two or three strategies," Pacquiao said earlier in the week. "Any way he wants to fight me is good. If he wants to run we will cut the ring off."

Roach said they are going to use Mayweather's fights against Zab Judah and Oscar De La Hoya as a blueprint for what they want to achieve in the ring. Mayweather beat Judah by a unanimous decision in 2006 and De La Hoya by a split decision a year later.

Roach said if De La Hoya had continued to use his jab effectively in the later rounds he could have beaten Mayweather.

"Oscar beat him in the first six rounds and lost to him in the last six. Oscar started following him around. We will improve on that. Zab just started tiring."

- 'Nothing but fear' -

Roach said they are waiting to see if the gloves that Mayweather will use meets the standards. They have asked the boxing officials to press the issue because it is past the deadline for both camps to turn in their gloves in for inspection.

"We turned ours in. They are long past their due," he said. "Their gloves are hand made and our gloves are made by a computer system. I just want to make sure the weight on the gloves is fair."

Mayweather's trainer, Mayweather Sr., said Thursday the gloves issue reflected fear in the Pacquiao camp.

"The gloves are not an issue. They ain't got nothing but fear," Mayweather Sr. said.

Asked about former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson's comment that Mayweather was "a very small, scared man", Roach said he agrees.

"Mike knows a lot about boxing," said Roach, who believes Mayweather's 38-year-old legs may not be as elusive as they once were.

"I don't think his legs are there anymore. He can't move like he used to. We will catch him," Roach said.

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US keeps China, India on intellectual rights watch list

The United States on Thursday kept China and India on its Priority Watch List of trading partners that fail to protect intellectual property rights (IPR), hurting the economy.

In its annual Special 301 Report, the Commerce Department's US Trade Representative said there were now 13 trading partners on its Priority Watch List, three more than its previous report. Ecuador and Ukraine were newcomers, and Kuwait was added late last year.

Ecuador made the Priority Watch List because of its repeal last year of its criminal IPR provisions. "The current lack of criminal procedures and penalties invites transnational organized crime groups that engage in copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting to view Ecuador as a safe haven," the USTR report said.

Ukraine's government had not resolved problems identified two years ago by the US that include widespread use of illegal software by Ukrainian government agencies and the failure to adopt effective means to combat online copyright infringement, it said.

While welcoming promising efforts by the Ukrainian authorities, the USTR said it was looking forward to seeing "tangible and lasting improvement, both in legislative reform and in practice."

Kuwait was moved to the Priority Watch List in November after failing "to introduce legislation resulting in a copyright law consistent with international standards, and resume effective enforcement against copyright and trademark infringement."

The other countries on the Priority Watch List were Argentina, Algeria, Chile, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand and Venezuela.

China, the second-largest US trading partner, remained on the list despite certain improvements, including an intellectual property law reform effort, the report said.

- Broad China concerns -

There were new and longstanding concerns about IPR protection and enforcement. The report highlighted new measures such as conditioning market access on the use of Chinese-indigenous IPR and the conduct of research and development in China.

"A wide range of US stakeholders in China continues to report serious obstacles to effective protection of IPR in all forms, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and protection of pharmaceutical test data," it said.

"Given the size of China's consumer marketplace and its global importance as a producer of a broad range of products, China's protection and enforcement of IPR continues to be a focus of US trade policy."

India also remained on the list but the Obama adminstration was upbeat about future improvements under the government of business-friendly Narendra Modi, who took office last May, following last year's out-of-cycle (OCR) review to encourage progress on IPR issues.

The USTR has "the full expectation that the new channels for engagement created in the past year will bring about substantive and measurable improvements in India's IPR regime for the benefit of a broad range of innovative and creative industries."

It said it would not announce another OCR for India "at this time" but would monitor progress over the coming months.

- NAFTA partners eyed -

The USTR had 24 countries on its less-serious Watch List for underlying IPR problems that included North America Free Trade Agreement partners Canada, the largest US trading partner, and Mexico, the number three.

The Special 301 Report, based on public testimony in a review of 72 trading partners, covers a broad range of issues, from online piracy and counterfeiting to theft of trade secrets and legal barriers.

"Tens of millions of Americans owe their jobs to intellectual property-intensive industries. Strong and balanced protection and enforcement of intellectual property are critical for promoting exports of US innovative and creative goods and services, and sustaining those jobs here at home," said US Trade Representative Michael Froman.

Froman said in a statement that the report served as an "important tool" in the government's effort to "ensure that Americans can bring their inventions and creations to people all over the world without their work being infringed or misappropriated."

The 2015 report also underscored some success stories. Italy, for example, had implemented new regulations in 2014 to combat online copyright piracy.

The Philippines, which came off the Watch List last year, had undertaken enforcement reforms that included increased seizures of pirated and counterfeit goods.

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NASA spacecraft crashes on Mercury after 11-year mission

An unmanned NASA spacecraft has crashed on the surface of the planet Mercury, after it ran out of fuel following a successful 11-year mission, the US space agency said Thursday.

The MESSENGER probe -- short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging -- was the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, and issued a final farewell on Twitter shortly before its demise at 3:26 pm (1926 GMT).

"Well, I guess it's time to say goodbye to all my friends, family, support team. I will be making my final impact very soon."

Shortly after, the official @MESSENGER2011 Twitter account posted another image of Mercury's surface, with the caption: "MESSENGER's LAST ACT? THAT'S SMASHING!"

The image was not of Mercury's fall. NASA has said previously that there could be no real-time pictures of the impact, which would take place on the side of the planet facing away from the Earth.

But the US space agency confirmed that the probe had indeed crash-landed.

"A NASA planetary exploration mission came to a planned, but nonetheless dramatic, end Thursday when it slammed into Mercury's surface at about 8,750 miles per hour (3.91 kilometers per second) and created a new crater on the planet's surface," the agency said in a statement.

The spacecraft itself was just about three meters long.

The crater it would cause was expected to be 16 meters (52 feet) in diameter, NASA said.

The mission, which launched in 2004, had achieved "unprecedented success," with its top discovery being that Mercury had lots of frozen water and other volatile materials in its permanently shadowed polar craters on the planet closest to the Sun, the US space agency said.

"Going out with a bang as it impacts the surface of Mercury, we are celebrating MESSENGER as more than a successful mission," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

"The MESSENGER mission will continue to provide scientists with a bonanza of new results as we begin the next phase of this mission -- analyzing the exciting data already in the archives, and unravelling the mysteries of Mercury."

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Ukraine rebels expel Western NGO members for 'spying'

Pro-Russian rebels said Thursday they had expelled seven US and European members of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) NGO for "spying" in the eastern Ukrainian territory under their control.

"The IRC organisation, which works under the auspices of the US international development agency, was for several months acting in an illegal manner," the separatists' self-declared ministry of security said in a statement.

The expelled staff members of the aid organisation -- US and European citizens -- were working without authorisation and "actively attempting to establish contacts with (separatist) representatives in order to obtain information on the situation and social problems," the statement said.

The government in Kiev is fighting pro-Russian separatists who have taken control of parts of two key eastern regions.

The rebels said those expelled had "under cover of providing humanitarian aid to residents," collected personal data and probed locals on their attitude towards the separatist authorities.

Seven IRC members were expelled from the separatist east into government-controlled territory and their office in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk closed, the statement added.

The IRC made no immediate comment on the expulsions.

The rebel authorities said that eight other foreign employees of the same non-governmental group were expelled last year from eastern Ukraine, where numerous international organisations continue to operate, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian rebels and Kiev forces has cost over 6,000 lives so far.

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Syngenta shares surge on talk of Monsanto takeover

Shares of Swiss farm chemicals power Syngenta leaped more than 14 percent in post-market trade Thursday after a report that US seed giant Monsanto had made a takeover offer.

Citing two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported the two global agroindustry leaders held discussions in recent weeks.

But it said Syngenta "has concerns" about a merger, because it could be challenged by regulators on antitrust grounds.

The combined company would be the world market leader in both seeds and crop chemicals.

It was not the first time talks between the two have been reported. Rumors of a possible merger surfaced in June 2014, but nothing came of them.

No prospective price was given in the report, but Syngenta has a market value of about $31 billion, while Monsanto is worth $54 billion.

Neither company could be immediately contacted on the report.

Syngenta's New York Stock Exchange-traded ADR shares surged 14.1 percent in post-market trade to $76.50 after having fallen modestly in regular trade.

Monsanto meanwhile was 3.6 percent higher at $118.07.

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One in six species faces extinction from climate change: study

One out of six species faces extinction as a result of climate change and urgent action must be taken to save large numbers of animals from being wiped out, an analysis said Thursday.

The study, published in the US journal Science, found that a global temperature rise of four degrees Celsius could spell disaster for a huge number of species around the world.

"We urgently need to adopt strategies that limit further climate change if we are to avoid an acceleration of global extinction," said study author Mark Urban, an ecology and evolutionary biology researcher at the University of Connecticut.

The analysis evaluated 131 previous studies about the impact of climate change on flora and fauna around the world.

It concluded that with each rising degree in global temperatures, more species were at risk.

A two degree increase, the study noted, could threaten 5.2 percent of species, while a three degree boost would put 8.5 percent of all species at risk.

"If we follow our current, business-as-usual trajectory (leading to a 4.3 degree Celsius rise)... climate change threatens one in six species (16 percent)," the study said.

Different regions of the world had varied extinction threats.

"Extinction risks were highest in South America, Australia and New Zealand, and risks did not vary by taxonomic group," Urban said.

In South America, the most vulnerable region, 23 percent of species may face extinction.

Fourteen percent could be threatened in New Zealand and Australia.

Five percent of species in Europe could face extinction, compared to six percent in North America, the study found.

Urban said governments must urgently act to prevent widespread extinction.

"Climate change is poised to accelerate extinctions around the world unless we adopt new strategies to limit it and implement specific conservation strategies to protect the most threatened species," he said.

- Marine fossils reveal threats -

Meanwhile, a related study in Science Thursday found that marine fossils can help identify which animals and ocean ecosystems face the greatest risk of extinction.

A team of paleontologists and ecologists looked at marine animals that died out over the past 23 million years.

They found that some groups were more vulnerable than others and the threat varied regionally.

"Whales, dolphins and seals show higher risk of extinction than sharks or invertebrates such as corals. Clams and mussels -- so-called bivalves -- had about one-tenth the extinction risk of mammals," the study found.

Regions of the tropics such as the Indo-Pacific and the Caribbean were most at risk. Climate change and other human-related activities such as fishing contributed to that vulnerability.

"Climate change and human activities are impacting groups of animals that have a long history, and studying that history can help us condition our expectations for how they might respond today," said lead author Seth Finnegan, an assistant professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

But he said more research is needed to protect vulnerable species.

"There is a lot more work that needs to be done to understand the causes underlying these patterns and their policy implications," he added.

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Saudi says dozens of Yemen rebels dead in border battle

Saudi Arabia said its forces on Thursday killed dozens of rebels from Yemen who launched their first major attack on the kingdom since Saudi-led air strikes began last month.

Three Saudi soldiers also died in the battle after the rebels targeted their observation posts, the defence ministry said.

"The ground troops today repelled an attack at the southern Najran border" by Shiite Huthis and allied troops loyal to Yemen's former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, it said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

"The ground troops engaged them" with support from air strikes, the ministry said.

"This led to.... the deaths of dozens of militias," the ministry said.

A Saudi-led coalition on March 26 began bombing in Yemen to halt a southern advance of the Iran-backed rebels.

The air strikes have sparked exchanges of fire along the border region, where nine Saudi soldiers and border guards have been killed in periodic incidents.

But this is the first time the military has reported a full-scale Huthi attack against the kingdom.

Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri has said that stopping the Huthis from threatening Yemen's neighbours was an aim of the military operations.

Saudi Arabia has reinforced the border with artillery, tanks and hilltop lookout posts to block the incursion of any Huthis from their traditional highland stronghold just over the boundary.

The rebels swept into Yemen's capital Sanaa last September from those bases and then advanced south on the port of Aden, forcing President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to Riyadh.

The coalition took action, fearing that a regime friendly to Shiite Iran, Sunni Saudi Arabia's regional rival, could take control of all Yemen.

In early April the coalition said that more than 500 rebels had died in border clashes with the Saudi military since the air war began.

On the ground in Yemen, the Huthis and their allies are fighting Hadi loyalists.

The UN says about half of the more than 1,000 people killed in the Yemen fighting since late March were civilians.

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Gurrumul, shy Aboriginal voice, wins star support in US

Gurrumul is painfully shy, blind and grants no interviews, but the indigenous Australian singer's music is so striking that he has won star backing for a first US tour.

With a plaintive yet mellifluous voice, Gurrumul transcends language barriers as he sings in his Gumatj dialect which is understood only by around 3,000 people.

Gurrumul has sold more than half a million albums worldwide, largely in Australia where the reserved 45-year-old has become an unlikely chart sensation with his two albums both entering the top five.

After several plans fell through to play the United States, Gurrumul opened a tour Wednesday night in New York with the support of legendary producer Quincy Jones.

"It's unbelievable. I know you're going to get blown away as much as I was when I first heard him," Jones, best known for his work with Michael Jackson, said of Gurrumul in a video message.

"This is one of the most unusual and emotional and musical voices I've ever heard," Jones said.

Jones, writing on his Facebook page, called Gurrumul's music a reason to reject the mindset of colonization, saying: "When you look at the cultures of the indigenous peoples of the lands, there is always such authentic beauty."

While no one is betting that Gurrumul will win Michael Jackson-type fame, Jones' production company promoted the sold-out show at the Subculture club in Manhattan's NoHo district.

The tour will also take Gurrumul on Friday to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the history-rooted festival in jazz's birthplace.

Jones is not the only musical giant to support Gurrumul. Elton John joined him on stage in Australia, and Sting recorded a collaboration when Gurrumul earlier toured Europe.

- Folk feel, indigenous imagery -

The singer, whose full name is Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, comes from tropical 280 square-kilometer (100 square-mile) Elcho Island off the coast of Australia's Northern Territory.

Gurrumul is said to know hundreds of songs from his Aboriginal tradition but his music, save for the lyrics, carries a familiarity for Western listeners.

The sound is in line with Western folk music, with occasional echoes of Joan Baez. Gurrumul sings, strums guitar and often carries the melody through humming.

Along with a drummer and second guitarist, the back-up band features double bassist Michael Hohnen, who became Gurrumul's collaborator and alter ego after meeting him on Elcho Island two decades ago and eventually persuading him to record.

Hohnen said the band took advantage of the trip to New York to work in a studio on an upcoming album, which will have a more Gospel feel, a sign of the Methodist Church's strong presence on Elcho Island.

Gurrumul gives no interviews -- a mixture of his shyness and clan traditions -- and rarely budges on stage, instead allowing Hohnen to speak on his behalf.

"If anyone has ever seen a saltwater crocodile lying in the mud, that's about how much he moves," Hohnen said at the New York concert, to laughter of the crowd but no reaction from Gurrumul.

But a saltwater crocodile, Hohnen quickly explained, is a totem for Gurrumul that he has put into verse.

Another totem for Gurrumul's people that appears in song is the djilawurr, known to English settlers as the orange-footed scrub fowl, and Hohnen succeeded in encouraging the audience to imitate the bird's call.

Gurrumul sings occasionally in English as in the plainspoken but moving "Gurrumul History," in which the singer, who has never learned Braille, begins, "I was born blind / And I don't know why."

Gurrumul also chose English for a brief, surprise, comment to the crowd: "We love you, New York."

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Iran arming Yemen's Huthi rebels since 2009: UN report

Iran has been shipping weapons to Yemen's Huthi rebels since at least 2009, according to a confidential UN report, indicating that Tehran's support dates back to the early years of the Shiite militia's insurgency.

The report by a panel of experts was presented to the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee last week as the United Nations seeks to broker an end to the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen and a return to peace talks.

The panel of experts reported on the findings of an investigation into the 2013 seizure by Yemeni authorities of an Iranian ship, the Jihan, that was carrying weapons.

The information collected by the experts "suggests that the Jihan case follows a pattern of arms shipments to Yemen by sea that can be traced back to at least 2009," said the report seen by AFP.

"The analysis further suggests that the Islamic Republic of Iran was the origin of these shipments and that the intended recipients were the Huthis in Yemen or possibly in some cases further recipients in neighboring countries," it added.

"Current military Iranian support to Huthis in Yemen is consistent with patterns of arms transfers going back to more than five years to date."

Iran has denied charges of meddling in Yemen and instead accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out a military "aggression" against the troubled country after it launched an air campaign on March 26.

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Colombia's ex-intel chief jailed for domestic spying

A Colombian former intelligence chief was jailed for 14 years on Thursday for spying on judges, journalists and opposition figures in a high-profile case that stained the legacy of popular ex-president Alvaro Uribe.

The Supreme Court convicted Maria del Pilar Hurtado in February of ordering illegal wiretaps on a former senator, two opposition politicians, the mayor of Bogota and its own judges during Uribe's presidency from 2002 to 2010.

The sentence was less than the 20 years requested by prosecutors.

Uribe's former chief of staff Bernardo Moreno was also sentenced to eight years for soliciting illegally obtained intelligence from Hurtado's agents at the Administrative Department of Security (DAS) in 2007 and 2008.

Under Hurtado, the DAS illegally spied on opposition members and leaked some of the information obtained to the press, overtly political activities that had nothing to do with national security, the court ruled.

The scandal-plagued agency was disbanded by Uribe's successor, President Juan Manuel Santos.

After the allegations emerged, Hurtado fled the country in 2010 and was granted asylum in Panama, but surrendered to Colombian authorities at the end of January after Interpol issued a notice for her arrest.

Uribe, who remains popular and is one of Santos's most vocal opponents, said he was "saddened" to see Hurtado and Moreno jailed for "doing their duty."

He is now a senator and has immunity from prosecution in the case.

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Valencia back into top four despite Rayo draw

Valencia could only manage a 1-1 draw away to 10-man Rayo Vallecano in La Liga on Thursday, but the point was enough to lift them back into the top four above Sevilla.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side trailed in Vallecas to a 19th-minute strike by Adrian Embarba but were handed a route back into the game just after the hour mark when home defender Jorge Morcillo was sent off.

Morcillo was dismissed for denying Andre Gomes a clear goal-scoring opportunity just outside the penalty area and Dani Parejo stepped up to convert the resulting free-kick.

The result leaves Valencia in the fourth and final Champions League qualifying spot, albeit they are level on points with fifth-placed Sevilla with four games remaining.

Sevilla won 3-1 at Eibar on Wednesday to stretch their unbeaten run in La Liga to 10 games, but crucially Valencia hold the edge over the Andalusian side on head to head, which is used as the tie-breaker between teams who finish level on points.

The top three sides in La Liga qualify automatically for the Champions League group stage with fourth going into a play-off.

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Hungary orders clean-up of 'catastrophic' disused chemical plant

Hungary on Thursday moved to make safe a disused Budapest chemical plant that environmentalist group Greenpeace said was in a "catastrophic" state.

Over 2,000 tonnes of dangerous toxic waste were found recently at the Budapest Chemical Works -- which closed in 2008 -- in an industrial zone bordering a densely populated neighbourhood in the Hungarian capital.

The inflammable and toxic materials stored in open air in often leaking barrels were spotted by the news website 444.hu earlier this month.

"Negative" test results have forced the immediate removal of the waste, Richard Tarnai, a government official, told reporters at the site Thursday.

Tarnai said removal of 1,000 barrels of the most dangerous waste could begin at once while the rest of the estimated 2,800 tonnes of material would be removed "within months".

The move was welcomed by Greenpeace which had described the situation as "catastrophic" and called for swift action.

"We hope removing the barrels is not the end of the story, some of the waste has leaked into the ground, potentially exposing the local population to risk," Gergely Simon, a chemicals expert for Greenpeace, told AFP.

Waste removal and site clean-up would cost an estimated 1.2 billion forints (around 3.9 million euros), according to government estimates.

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'Suge' Knight pleads not guilty to murder

Former rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight pleaded not guilty Thursday over a hit-and-run incident earlier this year that left one man dead and another seriously injured in Los Angeles.

Knight denied charges of murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run over the death of Terry Carter, 55, and wounding of Cle "Bone" Sloan, 51, in a parking lot in Compton in January.

Knight's trial is scheduled for July 7. Los Angeles Superior Court judge Ronald Coen again refused a request by his lawyer Matthew Fletcher to lower his $10 million bail. A pre-trial hearing has been set for May 29.

Lawyers for Knight have argued he acted in self-defense after being attacked by Sloan and others in broad daylight.

Sloan, expected to be a key witness in the case, told the court earlier this month that he was only giving evidence because he had been subpoenaed to do so, insisting he was not "a snitch."

He repeatedly said he could not remember key details from the exchange which left him wounded and Carter dead, and also said he was struggling to identify Knight as the man responsible for the incident.

Knight, who has fallen ill and required hospitalization at previous court hearings in the case, co-founded Death Row Records along with hip-hop music king Dr. Dre in the early 1990s.

The label launched stars such as Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur but collapsed in 1996 when Knight was jailed for violating a probation order by beating up a rival in Las Vegas.

He again served a 10-month jail stint in 2003 after getting into a fight outside a Hollywood nightclub. Last year, he was shot six times at a music awards party.

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WFP halts food distribution in Yemen due to fuel shortage

The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday that it is halting its food distribution programme in Yemen due to a severe fuel shortage in the country that has been plagued by heavy fighting since March.

The UN agency, which has over the past two weeks, provided emergency food assistance to 700,000 people in seven provinces, called on all sides in the Yemen conflict to allow food, fuel and other supplies to come into the country.

"We are reaching a point where we can no longer continue to move food from our warehouses to the people who desperately need it,"said Purnima Kashyap, WFP's Yemen country director.

Since Yemen imports almost 90 percent of its food, the WFP says it is "extremely concerned" about the impact on the population, especially on the most vulnerable given the inability of traders to bring in food from outside and transport it across the country.

"This is a country where half the population is considered food-insecure, meaning that many families do not know where their next meal will come from. They cannot absorb any further shocks and it is essential that we continue to reach these families with food," Kashyap said.

The agency is in urgent need of more than 200,000 litres of fuel to be able to continue distributing food supplies already in its warehouses, stocks that can feed 1.5 million people for one month.

Violence has escalated in Yemen since Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels took over the capital Sanaa and other parts of the country, forcing President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi into exile.

A coalition of nine countries led by Saudi Arabia launched a military operation dubbed Decisive Storm on March 26 in Yemen to prevent the rebels from seizing the entire territory and to restore the authority of Hadi.

The operation continues despite Riyadh announcing an end to the intensive air raids on April 21.

The Red Cross last week warned of a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation in the country after Saudi-led jets resumed air strikes after a brief halt in the four-week bombing campaign.

The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed in fighting in Yemen since late March, when Riyadh assembled the coalition in support of Hadi.

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Austria rejects US extradition of Ukrainian oligarch

An Austrian court on Thursday rejected a request to extradite to the United States Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash on bribery charges.

Firtash, 49, one of Ukraine's richest men and previously a close ally of ousted former president Viktor Yanukovych, was arrested in Austria in March 2014.

The US issued a warrant for him last year on charges of corruption linked to titanium mining in India.

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Dark tattoos daunt Apple Watch

Apple aficionados who are also fans of body art are finding out that dark tattoos can daunt the iconic company's hot new smartwatch.

An online Apple support page on Thursday warned that "ink, pattern, and saturation of some tattoos can block light from the sensor, making it difficult to get reliable readings."

Sensors on the back of Apple Watch wrist wear use LED light to detect blood flow and track heart rates of wearers to provide information such as calories burned or workout intensity.

After release of the Apple Watch on April 24, some users went online with tales of the gadgets acting oddly when adorning tattooed wrists. Applications misfired or stopped working when Apple Watch heart rate sensors had trouble with darkly tattooed skin, some users lamented.

"Many factors can affect the performance of the Apple Watch heart rate sensor," the California firm said on a support page.

Those factors included how much blood flows through a person's skin as well as whether movements are rhythmic, as when running, or irregular, as when playing tennis, according to Apple.

"Permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact heart rate sensor performance," Apple said.

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US Navy to ‘accompany’ US-flagged ships passing through Strait of Hormuz

US Navy ships will start accompanying US-flagged commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran's seizure of a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel two days ago, a US defence official told Reuters on Thursday.

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Wiggins happy again after leaving Sky

Olympic and world time-trial champion Bradley Wiggins said he was enjoying life again now that he's left Team Sky and is focusing on track racing.

Wiggins became a legend in British cycling during his spell with Sky as he won the 2012 Tour de France, as well as a host of other prestigious races such as Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie and Criterium du Dauphine.

But it all turned sour over the last couple of years as he was replaced by his former chief lieutenant Chris Froome as Sky's leader for the Tour de France.

Wiggins never raced the Grand Boucle again after illness and injury forced him out of the 2013 defence of his crown and he wasn't even picked by Sky to be a domestique to Froome last year.

His goals changed and he made an unsuccessful bid to bow out in style from Sky earlier this month when finishing 18th at the gruelling cobbled classic Paris-Roubaix, a year after coming ninth in the Hell of the North.

But speaking ahead of the Tour de Yorkshire, which begins on Friday and where he will be riding for a new team he created that carries his name, he says even his wife has seen a change in his demeanour since his Sky career ended and he decided to dedicate himself to the track and a tilt in June at the world hour record before bidding for a fifth gold medal at next year's Rio Olympics.

"I've made quite a big shift, the goals have really changed now on the track," said the 35-year-old.

"I was building to that (returning to the track) and have had a long time to think about that and be ready for that, so it's been really good actually.

"The last few weeks I've been feeling quite liberated and happy again; my wife commented on that, she's never seen me so happy, which is nice."

- relishing mentor role -

Wiggins originally made his name as a track cyclist, winning three Olympic gold medals and six world titles before concentrating on road racing.

A time-trial specialist, he developed into an able climber and overall Grand Tour contender, becoming the first ever Briton to win the Tour de France.

Now he says he's relishing his role as a mentor to young riders with the ambitions to perhaps one day emulate his own achievements on the road.

"We've got some young guys like Owain (Doull) and that in the team who really want to do well," said Wiggins.

"It's a platform for him to hopefully go on to (ride for a) World Tour (team) next year, so it would be nice to just help those guys and really put them in a position to do that.

"The goals really have changed for me now. The days have gone where I'd get all those guys riding for me."

Doull is a twice European champion and world silver medallist with the Great Britain team pursuit squad, which Wiggins is rejoining for Rio.

Before then, though, will come Wiggins's World Hour Record attempt at the London Olympic velodrome on June 7.

And he admits that, rather than the Tour de Yorkshire, is his focus.

"I'd like to stay safe (this weekend) because I don't want to put the hour in jeopardy, but still be part of the race. I don't just want to sit up every day at the back," he said.

And Wiggins believes he's on course to break the 52.491km mark set by Australia's Rohan Dennis in February.

"So far, yeah, it's gone well. Since Roubaix all the initial track sessions were way above what we'd (expected) because I hadn't been on the track for a year.

"I didn't really know where we were going to be in terms of the record, so that all looks pretty good."

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US warships to 'accompany' US-flagged ships into Gulf

US naval forces have started "accompanying" American-flagged commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, defense officials said Thursday, after Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel this week.

The move means American warships will be in the area and in contact with commercial vessels but not carrying out a full-fledged escort, officials in Washington said.

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US smartphone app sends police incident videos to lawyers

Civil rights campaigners on Thursday launched a smartphone app that can video record interactions between police and members of the public, and store them for potential use in legal action.

The free app, developed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), comes amid an upsurge in protests over a series of deaths of African Americans in custody or at the hands of white police officers.

Videos recorded using the Mobile Justice CA cellphone app can be sent to a local ACLU office as a way to report possible civil rights violations by police.

The app, available for Android and iOS phones, will ensure that videos are uploaded and stored even if the user's phone is lost, seized or destroyed.

"The concerns over police practices, including racial profiling and excessive use of force, are very real for communities across the state," ACLU of Southern California Executive Director Hector Villagra said.

"This app will help serve as a check on abuse -- whether by police officers, sheriff's deputies, border patrol, or other officials -- allowing ordinary citizens to record and document any interaction with law enforcement," he said.

The app also can be used to send alerts to others to go to a location to document an incident. A report detailing the event can be sent to ACLU using the app.

Protests in Baltimore following the death of a black man from injuries sustained in police custody turned violent earlier this week, and on Wednesday spread to other cities including New York.

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