VENEZUELA – After living in a state of emergency for four months, Venezuelans learnt Saturday they have to continue this way for another 60 days, and possibly throughout 2017.

After signing a decree for the extension, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said the decision aims to help restore production capacities, provide better protection for the populace, maintain national stability, and uphold peace. Speaking at a massive gathering of supporters in central Caracas on Saturday, Maduro announced some of the actions to be taken under the decree, which has not yet been published. “We must take all measures to recover productive capacity, which is being paralyzed by the capitalists”, he told the crowd.(Xin hua)…[+]

IRAQ – ISIS has claimed responsibility for an assault on a Baghdad gas plant Sunday, the latest in a series of deadly attacks committed by the Sunni terror group that have claimed more than 100 lives in recent days.

Baghdad Governor Ali al-Tamimi said 10 people, including seven police officers and three guards, were killed during the assault on the facility in the Taji area, north of Iraq’s capital at 5 a.m. local time Sunday. Police officials said the attack began with a suicide car bomb at the entrance of the plant, then a second suicide bomber detonated an explosive inside the facility.(CNN)…[+]

USA –   Here’s a concept new to the 2016 campaign: Donald Trump and détente. Trump, who built a campaign on lambasting Republican elites, yesterday came to the citadel of the political establishment  Capitol Hill for a summit with House Speaker Paul Ryan and other party leaders designed to halt the GOP’s self-immolation.

From the moment the billionaire’s Boeing 757 rolled to a stop to the moment when it lifted into the steel gray skies over Ronald Reagan National Airport nearly six hours later, he whipped up an extraordinary spectacle perhaps a taste of what is to come if he is elected president. It was a day, as CNN’s Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta put it, that was about Republicans beginning to build a “tent big enough for the circus that you have seen roll into town.”…[+]

USA   –  The U.S. Navy officer who oversaw the 10 sailors captured and briefly detained by Iran earlier this year has been relieved of his duties due to “loss of confidence” in his ability, the Navy announced yesterday.

Cmdr. Eric Rasch was fired from his job as the commanding officer of Coastal Riverine Squadron 3 and temporarily reassigned. These type of personnel actions typically result in the officer then retiring from active duty. Rasch had recently taken command of the unit after serving as the No. 2 during January when the incident occurred. Capt. Gary Leigh, the commander of the overall group, made the determination after a preliminary Navy investigation into the incident near Iran’s Farsi Island in the Arabian Gulf over January 12 and 13. CNN has not yet reached out to Rasch for comment. Far from its home port in San Diego, the squadron’s job in the Gulf was to provide maritime security and escort duty for other ships. The boat the 10 sailors were on was in routine transit at the time. .(CNN.COM)…[+]

BELGIUM   –  “Congratulations,” said the voice at the other end of the line. “Your son died as a martyr.” Then nothing no explanation, no details, no body to bury.

The unknown man simply hung up the phone, leaving Saliha Ben Ali reeling, her world shattered. Her 18-year-old son, Sabri Refla, who told her he had left their Brussels home and gone to Syria to fight Bashar al-Assad and “help orphans,” was dead. For Ben Ali, her “life stopped there.” “It was horrible,” she remembers, tears in her eyes. “When I heard about his death I felt like I died myself.” She thought nothing could be worse than the loss of her beloved boy. Now, she says, she knows better and she feels as though her son has died for a second time. Sabri Refla had been recruited by a Brussels-based network which radicalized dozens of youths, alienated them from their parents, and financed their trips to Syria, court records show. Ben Ali says her son was smart and athletic, the happiest of her four children, but that he had a sensitive side..(CNN.COM)…[+]

AUSTRALIA   –  Two pieces of debris found on beaches in South Africa and Mauritius on March 22 and 30, respectively, are “almost certainly” from missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has found.

The flight disappeared in March 2014, seemingly without a trace. A search in the southern Indian Ocean, thousands of kilometers off the west coast of Australia, is ongoing. MH370, two years later: ‘Where are our family members?’ Since then one piece of debris has conclusively been linked to the plane.  The update to the ongoing report, published May 12, states that the two items determined to be a segment from an aircraft engine cowling and an interior panel from the main cabin were from a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, and “almost certainly” from the aircraft registered 9M-MRO, the registration number of the missing plane.(CNN.COM)…[+]

NIGERIA   –  Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari has defended David Cameron’s comments, caught on video this week, about Nigeria being “fantastically corrupt.”

Buhari insisted that Cameron had nothing to apologize for, as he was merely talking about what he knows. “I think he’s being honest about it” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “I don’t think you can fault him.” Speaking at an anti-corruption conference on Wednesday, Buhari said: “I am not demanding an apology from anybody, I am demanding a return of assets.” During a conversation with the Queen that was captured on camera on Tuesday, Cameron declared Nigeria and Afghanistan “possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.” The comment came as world leaders gathered in London for an anti-corruption summit, which has been largely overshadowed by Cameron’s gaffe.(CNN.COM)…[+]

JAPAN – When it comes to electric vehicles, Japan is speeding ahead of the rest of the world, blissfully free of the range anxiety that afflicts plug-in drivers elsewhere.

The country now has more electric car charging stops than petrol stations, according to a recent survey by Nissan. The Japanese automaker, whose fully battery-powered Leaf can travel up to 172km on a single charge, said there were more than 40,000 places nationwide where electric car owners could recharge their vehicles, compared with fewer than 35,000 petrol stations. While the US – where there are currently only 9,000 public charging stations but 114,500 filling stations – and other countries have been slow to develop the infrastructure to encourage electric vehicle take-up, Japanese government subsidies for people buying electric, hybrid and other low-emission cars have spawned a network of public and private power points.(theguardian)…[+]

AUSTRALIA   –  Five men on a terror watch list have been arrested on suspicion of trying to leave Australia by boat to join extremist groups in Syria, Australian police say.

The men are suspected of “potential offenses against the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act, specifically those concerning incursions into foreign countries to engage in hostile activities,” according to a joint press release by the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police and the Queensland Police Service. As the suspects’ passports had been canceled, their only option to leave Australia was by sea. They were found with a seven-meter fiberglass cabin cruiser allegedly bought to make the trip. “We have information to suggest these men had purchased a boat in Victoria, and had driven to far north Queensland, where their intention was to depart Australia,” AFP Deputy Commissioner Neil Gaughan told reporters in a press conference…[+]

SOUTH-AFRICA   –  For a country dubbed the “Rainbow Nation” for its ability to move beyond its apartheid past, South Africa’s social media these days looks like a racial battleground.

Almost every other week a new racism row erupts. I see it on my Twitter feed, read about it in bold headlines in the morning papers, and hear it on talk radio while driving my car. This week the focus is on a white high court judge. In a Facebook conversation between Judge Mabel Jansen and activist Gillian Schutte last year, the judge apparently suggested that black South Africans condone rape writing that gang rapes of a “baby, daughter and mother” are viewed as a “pleasurable past time.”  The discussion was made public this week, sparking heated responses on social media, becoming a trending topic in South Africa on Twitter and the dominant conversation in the country.  In a post on Twitter, Jansen wrote: “What I stated confidentially to somebody in a position to help has been taken completely out of context and referred to specific court cases.”(CNN.COM)…[+]