The Keplar Spacecraft has validated more planets. Picture / artists concept
1 Suspected militants planned attacks
Italian police have arrested three people as part of an investigation into a militant cell suspected of planning attacks in Rome and London, authorities say. The cell had been established in Puglia, in southeastern Italy, "to carry out violent attacks with the purpose of international terrorism, in Italy and abroad", the arrest warrant read. Two Afghan citizens, one suspected of international terrorism and the other of aiding illegal immigration, were arrested, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said. A third man, a Pakistani also suspected of aiding illegal immigration, was detained in Milan later in the day, a police source said. Police confiscated the suspects' phones, on which they found footage of presumed targets including airports, ports, shopping centres and hotels in Rome, London and Bari, the main city in Puglia, the arrest warrant said.
2 The axe is Aussie
The axe was invented in Australia, scientists believe, after the discovery of an almost 50,000-year-old tool fragment in Western Australia's remote Kimberley region. Australian National University archaeologist Professor Sue O'Connor, who uncovered the tool, said it was more than 10,000 years older than any previous discovery. The thumbnail-sized fragment was excavated with other artefacts including food scraps and tools in the early 1990s, but was only recently singled out and dated. Scientists believe the discovery appears to answer the questions of where and when the first axes were invented, and shows early Australians were technological innovators.
The Milky Way has just become more crowded - with planets. Nasa announced that the Kepler Space Telescope has validated 1284 worlds orbiting stars outside our solar system - called exoplanets. That's on top of the 984 previously confirmed exoplanets detected by Kepler. A statistical analysis led by Princeton University researcher Timothy Morton resulted in this huge new batch of planets, the biggest yet. And there are sure to be more. Princeton's method puts the likelihood of true planethood at 99 per cent. Of the 1,284 newly verified planets, nearly 550 of them could be Earth-sized and rocky. Of those, nine appear to orbit in the habitable zone of their stars.
4 There's no trademark on America
Budweiser, now owned by Belgium's AB Inbev, will rename its beer "America" this northern summer and alter its labels with images and phrases affiliated with the republic. The red, white and blue campaign is being launched into a very competitive market already foamy with craft beers, and upon a drinking public bracing itself for a presidential election likely to be unlike any before it.
His White House dreams fading, Bernie Sanders aimed for a win in West Virginia today that would add another state to his tally over Hillary Clinton. Such a result would only serve to underscore the awkward position that Sanders, Clinton and the Democratic Party face as the presidential primary campaign continues into its endgame. Clinton is just 155 delegates short of the 2383 she needs to secure the nomination. To win them, she needs just 17 per cent of the delegates at stake in the remaining contests. That means she could lose all the states left to vote by a landslide and still emerge as the nominee, so long as all of her supporters among the party insiders known as superdelegates continue to back her. Still, Sanders is vowing to fight on.
6 Prince paternity claim
A Colorado prison inmate has filed a paternity claim with a Minnesota court against the estate of Prince. Carlin Williams, of Kansas City, Missouri, is seeking DNA testing to determine if Prince is his biological father, according to papers filed in Carver County District Court. Williams' mother, Marsha Henson, contends that she conceived Williams with Prince at a Kansas City, Missouri, hotel in July 1976. Lawyers overseeing his estate have told the court that no will for Prince has been found, though they were still searching. Under Minnesota law, children are first in line to inherit when someone dies without a will, which would put Williams ahead of Prince's siblings if the court agrees he is Prince's son. Papers filed earlier by Prince's sister, Tyka Nelson, said he had no known children and listed her and five half-siblings as Prince's only known heirs.
7 Bangladesh politician executed
The chief of Bangladesh's largest Islamist political party has been hanged for crimes committed during the country's 1971 war of liberation against Pakistan. The execution of Motiur Rahman Nizami, head of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, was carried out at Dhaka Central Jail, private broadcaster Somoy Television reported. Nizami was convicted for genocide, rapes, incitement to religious hatred and other crimes against humanity during the war. He was convicted of eight out of a total 16 allegations.
8 Security tight in Cannes
Coming six months after the Paris attacks in November, the 69th Cannes Film Festival has elevated security measures, swarming the French Riviera resort town with an increased police presence. But particular care has been made, festival organisers say, to preserving the spirit of the annual cinema celebration. Bomb sweeps and bag checks have been stepped up. A dramatic, unnerving drill was held last month in which mock gunmen stormed the festival's palace hub. And festival president Pierre Lescure has said that about 500 highly-trained security agents will be on guard around Cannes' red-carpeted headquarters, the Palais des Festivals. That's in addition to around 200 police and extensive surveillance cameras throughout Cannes.
9 Rio's missed opportunity
Torben Grael, Brazil's most decorated Olympic athlete, says Rio de Janeiro has missed a once-in-a-lifetime chance to clean polluted Guanabara Bay, the venue for Olympic sailing. In an interview with Canada's CBC television, Grael says the bay "just looks horrible" and that "they're going to be careful collecting the garbage in the racing areas, but that's going to be just for the games." Grael said there had been hopes of an Olympic legacy for the bay "but it's not going to happen, unfortunately". Grael has won five Olympic medals in sailing: two gold, a silver and two bronze medals.
A man has beaten the odds by winning US$1 million in the New York Lottery for a second time. Lottery officials will be revealing the US$1 million winner tomorrow on Long Island. They say the same Suffolk County man won US$1 million in 2012.
11 Satirical street group targeted
Police have arrested four members of a satirical street group that mocked Egypt's President and his supporters in video clips posted online, the latest in an escalating crackdown on dissent that illustrates the Government's diminishing tolerance for criticism. According to Mahmoud Othman, the lawyer for the street performers, the four were arrested in Cairo and are facing charges of inciting terror attacks and street protests as well as insulting state institutions. They were remanded in police custody for 15 days pending the completion of the investigation. The six-man group, Awlad el-Shawarea, or "Street Children," has a large social media following. It shoots selfie-style clips on the streets that deal mostly with social and political issues. Some of the group's recent work has directly mocked President Abdel-fattah al-Sisi.
12 Student dies by firing squad
A Taiwanese university student who stabbed four subway passengers to death in May 2014 has been executed by firing squad at a Taipei prison. Cheng Chieh's three-minute-long attack on a moving train on the Taipei Metro also injured 22 people. He was arrested at the scene. Cheng, born in 1993, was handed a death penalty for each of the four killings.