A Paris court has suspended the corruption trial of France’s former President, Jacques Chirac, in response to a legal challenge.

A lawyer for one of nine co-defendants had argued that it was unconstitutional to merge two cases arising from Mr Chirac’s tenure as mayor of Paris.

The judge, Dominique Pauthe, said the court would reconvene on 20 June.

Mr Chirac denies paying members of his RPR party between 1977 and 1995 for municipal jobs that did not exist.

He is the first French ex-head of state to face a criminal trial since wartime leader Field Marshal Philippe Petain was convicted of treason.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has acknowledged that “a lot still needs to be done” in China over human rights.

Mr Hu was speaking at a rare joint news conference with US President Barack Obama on the first full day of his state visit to the US.

Asked to justify China’s human rights record, Mr Hu said China had “made enormous progress recognized in the world”.

Mr Obama said he saw China’s “peaceful rise” as good for the United States.

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Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been found guilty of embezzlement at his politically charged second trial in Moscow.

The judge said Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were guilty of stealing from their firm Yukos and laundering the proceeds.

Khodorkovsky is already serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion from his 2005 trial.

His lawyers say the verdict was the result of official pressure.

Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been found guilty of embezzlement at his politically charged second trial in Moscow.

The judge said Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev were guilty of stealing from their firm Yukos and laundering the proceeds.

Khodorkovsky is already serving an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion from his 2005 trial.

His lawyers say the verdict was the result of official pressure.

The Netherlands has issued a European arrest warrant for a Dutch-born Nazi war criminal, Klaas-Carel Faber, now living in Germany.

Faber, 88, was sentenced to death in 1947 for the deaths of Jews at the Westerbork transit camp but his term was commuted to life.

He escaped in 1952, was given German citizenship and now lives in Bavaria.

Local media say it is the first time the Netherlands has issued a European arrest warrant for a war criminal.

In a statement, the Netherlands public prosecutor’s office described the warrant as a preliminary step before a formal extradition request is made to Germany.

“We are hopeful and we think that it is important, so that he can at last go to jail. We don’t know if we’ll be successful,” spokeswoman Tineke Zwart told the BBC News website.

Three teenage boys have been found alive after being lost in their boat in the Pacific Ocean for 50 days.

The boys, from the Tokelau Islands, a New Zealand-administered territory in the South Pacific, had been given up for dead after an unsuccessful search.

A tuna fishing boat picked them up near Fiji and is taking them to hospital for treatment for severe sunburn.

The boys survived on coconuts, water they trapped on a tarpaulin and a seabird they managed to catch.
‘Strong mental spirit’

The boys – Samu Perez and Filo Filo, both 15, and Edward Nasau, 14 – had gone missing from Atafu atoll in a small aluminium boat after an annual sporting event on 5 October.

They were presumed to have died after unsuccessful searches by the New Zealand air force.

Five men have been arrested in London by the Metropolitan Police in relation to a potential threat to Pope Benedict XVI’s visit.

The arrests were made at 0545 BST in London after counter-terrorism officers received intelligence of a potential threat.

The five men, all street cleaners in Westminster, were taken to a central London police station.

Officers are searching a number of premises. The arrested are not British.

The men all worked for Veolia Environment Services, a major contract cleaning company that works for Westminster Council.

Armed officers arrested the men at the company’s Chiltern Street depot, Paddington, as they were preparing to go on shift.

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London 2012 organisers have unveiled cartoon animations named Wenlock and Mandeville as the mascots for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Focus groups of children and families helped form the designs and children’s author Michael Morpurgo added a story concept for an animated series.

“We’ve created our mascots for children,” said Locog chair Lord Coe.

“They will connect young people with sport, and tell the story of our proud Olympic and Paralympic history.”

The characters are named after the village of Much Wenlock in Shropshire – which hosted a precursor to the modern Olympic Games in the 19th Century – and the birthplace of the Paralympic Games, Stoke Mandeville hospital in Buckinghamshire.

Children told us a number of things: they weren’t that sold on furry animals and they actually wanted a story

The Wenlock Games gave inspiration to Baron Pierre de Coubertain as he formed his concept of the modern Olympics in 1896.