UN council has first-ever briefing on rights in Myanmar
UNITED NATIONS, May 28 (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Thursday held its first closed-door briefing on the human rights situation in Myanmar, focusing on the dire situation of the country's Rohingya Muslim minority, council diplomats said.
UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein briefed the council via video link in a meeting that US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power welcomed on her Twitter feed as a"historic first" for the 15-nation body.
"Zeid gave a powerful briefing on the dire situation and'institutional discrimination' faced by the Rohingya in Myanmar," a council diplomat present at the meeting told Reuters on condition of anonymity. READ MORE HERE
Eight convicted of fleecing French billionaire L'Oreal heiress
BERTRAND BOURDEAUX, France(AFP) - A French court on Thursday convicted eight members of L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt's entourage of exploiting the frail billionaire, with one ordered to repay her 158 million euros (S$233 million).
Bettencourt's close confidant, Francois-Marie Banier, a 67-year-old photographer who is godfather to actor Johnny Depp's daughter, was sentenced to three years in prison, six months of which were suspended.
Banier was also given a 350,000-euro fine on top of the 158 million euros in damages. READ MORE HERE
Football: IOC president tells Fifa it's time to clean up its act
ZURICH (Reuters) - Fifa needs to learn from the Olympic movement's experience and become more transparent if it is to regain its credibility, the president of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach told delegates at the opening of the Fifa Congress on Thursday.
Bach spoke after Fifa president Sepp Blatter addressed delegates at a ceremony ahead of the main business on the agenda which begins on Friday morning.
Blatter, himself a member of the IOC, introduced Bach as "The Boss" and admitted that Fifa was ashamed and humiliated following the arrest of several leading football officials on Wednesday, and Bach echoed the gravity of the situation in his speech. READ MORE HERE
Tennis: Serena escapes as women's seeds continue to fall
PARIS (Reuters) - The pre-tournament shortlist of favourites for the French Open women's crown continued to shrink and for a while on Thursday it looked as though top seed, Serena Williams, would also vanish.
Shortly after former world number one Caroline Wozniacki was knocked out by Julia Goerges, meaning the third, fifth and sixth seeds had all gone before round three, Williams, 33, faced unheralded 21-year-old German Anna-Lena Friedsam.
It looked like a mismatch but 105th-ranked Friedsam gave the 19-times grand slam champion a torrid time on Court Suzanne Lenglen, taking the first set before a nervy Williams recovered to scrape into the third round 5-7 6-3 6-3. READ MORE HERE
Google unveils Android Pay in fresh challenge to Apple
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google on Thursday unveiled its pay-with-a-phone system for Android devices, ramping up its challenge to Apple in mobile payments.
Android Pay, unveiled at the Google Developers conference in San Francisco, brings together mobile carriers, payment networks, banks and retailers to allow smartphone users to use their handsets instead of payment cards.
Google engineering vice president Dave Bruke said Android Pay would work in more than 700,000 US retail outlets that accept contactless payments. READ MORE HERE
