WorldNews

[attach=full]19850[/attach] Two more Saudi soldiers have been killed on the border with Yemen, the interior ministry said on Friday. "Two soldiers from the border guards were martyred during an exchange of fire at a border point in Asir region" in Saudi Arabia's southwest, said the ministry's spokesman cited by the official Saudi Press Agency. The deaths come a day after the ministry announced the first Saudi casualty -- a soldier shot from the Yemenis side of the border in the same area -- since a coalition led by Riyadh launched air strikes against Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen on March 26. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19841[/attach] Pentagon chief Ashton Carter will travel to Japan and South Korea next week to underscore President Barack Obama's commitment to a strategic shift towards Asia, even as crises in the Middle East preoccupy Washington. Carter embarks on the first of two trips to Asia on Tuesday, stopping in Tokyo and Seoul before meeting the head of US Pacific Command in Hawaii, officials said. Continue reading...

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania's intelligence agency says a Bucharest court has ruled that six foreigners have been banned from the country due to their links with al-Qaida and the Islamic state. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19840[/attach] WASHINGTON (AP) — The framework nuclear deal sealed by world powers and Iran leaves major questions: Could Iran cheat? Possibly. Would the U.S or anyone else be able to respond in time? In theory, yes. Are they prepared to use military force? Questionable. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19839[/attach] SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A Saudi-led coalition trying to halt the advance of Yemen's Shiite rebels airdropped weapons to beleaguered fighters in a southern port city on Friday, while al-Qaida militants overran a key military base in eastern Yemen, further expanding their gains in this violence-wracked country. Continue reading...

SALEM, Massachusetts (AP) — One of Massachusetts' most prestigious art museums is turning a portrait over to federal authorities because it was purchased from a dealer accused of trafficking in stolen antiquities from India. Continue reading...

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama is banning drones from national airspace immediately before, during and after next week's Summit of the Americas. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19834[/attach] Syria's government on Friday welcomed a nuclear deal between its key ally Iran and world powers, saying the framework agreement would "ease regional and international tensions". "Syria welcomes the statement produced by the discussions between Iran and the P5+1 group" of world powers, state media said, citing a foreign ministry source. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19833[/attach] From the far right to the radical left, populist parties across Europe are being courted by Russia's Vladimir Putin who aims to turn them into allies in his anti-EU campaign. The Front National (FN) in France, Syriza in Greece and Jobbik in Hungary may be the most famous ones but they are far from being alone. They are united in their objective to "challenge the EU", and this in turn aligns them with Russia's wish for a "weak and divided Europe", explains Hungarian political analyst Peter Kreko. In the longer term, the Kremlin banks on these parties' accession to power to change Europe and separate it from NATO and the United States. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19832[/attach] The bodies of the 148 students and security officers massacred by Somalia's Shebab Islamists in a Kenyan university were flown Friday to Nairobi and their desperate and grieving loved ones. The day-long siege of Garissa University was Kenya's deadliest attack since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, and the bloodiest ever by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants. The Kenyan government, however, vowed that it would not be "intimidated". Many were forced to phone their parents to urge them to call for Kenyan troops to leave Somalia -- before shooting them anyway. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19831[/attach] NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. government bond prices jumped and the dollar dipped on Friday following news that U.S. employers added the fewest jobs in a month since December 2013. The stock market was closed in observance of Good Friday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19820[/attach] The Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility Friday for deadly attacks on army checkpoints in the Sinai Peninsula that killed 15 soldiers and two civilians. Jihadists launched simultaneous attacks Thursday on five checkpoints in the restive Sinai with assault rifles and grenade launchers, the deadliest in months against Egyptian security forces. "The lions of the Sinai Province early on Thursday launched wide scale simultaneous attacks against security checkpoints on the road between Rafah and Arish," in North Sinai, the group said in a tweet. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis -- Partisans of Jerusalem in English -- changed its name last year to Sinai Province after pledging allegiance to IS, which controls chunks of territory in Iraq and Syria. Continue reading...

CAIRO (AP) — The Islamic State's branch in Egypt has claimed responsibility for a wave of deadly attacks that killed 15 Egyptian soldiers and three civilians the previous day in volatile northern Sinai. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19819[/attach] Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered Iraqi forces to oppose vandalism in the city of Tikrit, retaken from the Islamic State group this week, and arrest those responsible, his office said Friday. Security and military forces were ordered to "deal with cases of vandalism" carried out by "gangs" seeking to tarnish the achievements of government forces and allied paramilitaries, a statement said. Abadi also called on "forces located in Tikrit to arrest everyone who carries out such acts, and preserve properties and facilities in Salaheddin province," of which Tikrit is the capital. Policemen from the rapid response forces have written graffiti on walls in Tikrit as well. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19818[/attach] British political parties scrambled to claim victory Friday after no clear winner emerged from the only seven-way leaders' debate before the general election. The debate saw Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron's method for balancing the budget come under attack from all corners. Meanwhile Labour main opposition leader Ed Miliband, his chief rival for the premiership, sought to improve an awkward media image with some well-rehearsed pieces to camera. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19817[/attach] US President Barack Obama, eager to resolve at least one intractable conflict in his final two years in office, has his eye on a major prize: reconciliation with Iran. "In Barack Obama's head, there's this fantasy of a grand bargain, an alliance with Iran, and of reconstructing the architecture of the region for a paradigm shift," said Joseph Bahout, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Center. "This is the fantasy of the Obama administration, but he knows it will never happen because Iran is a lot colder. "They'll take the nuclear deal, but everything will remain business as usual," he added. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19812[/attach] Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party has expelled former vice-president Joice Mujuru for allegedly plotting against elderly President Robert Mugabe, the party announced on Friday. Mujuru, 59, was accused of "plotting to unconstitutionally remove President Robert Mugabe from office", according to a statement from Simon Khaya-Moyo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. Mujuru was long considered a likely successor to Mugabe, who is 91 and first came to power in 1980, but she fell out with the veteran leader late last year and was sacked as vice-president in December. Her allies in government were also fired and expelled from ZANU-PF after Mugabe himself accused her of plotting to oust him. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19811[/attach] Piles of bodies and pools of blood running down the corridors: survivors of the Kenya university massacre described how laughing gunmen taunted their victims amid scenes of total carnage. Salias Omosa, an 20-year-old education student, said the victims were woken up at gunpoint in Thursday's pre-dawn attack, and Muslims and non-Muslims picked out by "how they were dressed". Omosa managed to escape amid the carnage at Garissa University, after seeing two of his friends executed by the Al-Qaeda-linked attackers, who he said were wearing masks and military-style uniforms. "I have seen many things, but nothing like that," said Reuben Nyaora, a clinical officer working for the aid agency International Rescue Committee (IRC). Continue reading...

[attach=full]19810[/attach] Well-wishers hailed Iran's nuclear negotiators as they returned to Tehran Friday from reaching a potentially historic framework deal with world powers, but Israel warned it was a "very dangerous" step. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened security chiefs to prepare Israel's response, Iranians awaited the first reaction from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran and six world powers agreed the outlines of the deal aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear drive on Thursday -- in a major breakthrough in the 12-year standoff between Iran and the West. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19809[/attach] SAN PEDRO CUTUD, Philippines (AP) — Screaming in pain, Filipino devotees had themselves nailed to wooden crosses to mimic the suffering of Jesus Christ on Good Friday in Asia's largest Roman Catholic nation. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19808[/attach] Israel warned Friday that Iran's framework accord with world powers on its controversial nuclear programme was "very dangerous," accusing Tehran of seeking an atomic weapon. "This framework (agreement) is a step in a very, very dangerous direction," government spokesman Mark Regev told journalists, adding that Iran's "single goal" behind the accord was to build a nuclear bomb. "Not only does it leave Iran with an expensive nuclear infrastructure but it fails to shut down even a single Iranian nuclear installation. It leaves Iran with thousands of centrifuges to continue to enrich uranium," Regev said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19807[/attach] Devotees in the fervently Catholic Philippines marked Good Friday by being nailed to crosses and whipping their backs bloody, in extreme acts of devotion that attracted thousands of spectators. The annual ritual in scorching hot farmlands just outside of Manila is one of many colourful outpourings of faith in the Southeast Asian nation, where 80 percent of its 100 million people are Catholics. As the flagellants made an excruciatingly slow barefoot march to the hill in San Juan, a rural district of San Fernando north of Manila where the crucifixions were to take place, some of them stopped at times to lay face down on the hot pavement and let children flog them with twigs. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19806[/attach] HUGO CHAVEZ OIL BELT, Venezuela (AP) — You can't miss it, rising off the main highway, a mountain of toxic soot towering over the flat, sunbaked scrubland of eastern Venezuela. Continue reading...

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Australia scrumhalf Will Genia has signed a three-year contract with French Top 14 side Stade Francais. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19805[/attach] LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Capping exhausting and contentious talks, Iran and world powers sealed a breakthrough agreement Thursday outlining limits on Iran's nuclear program to keep it from being able to produce atomic weapons. The Islamic Republic was promised an end to years of crippling economic sanctions, but only if negotiators transform the plan into a comprehensive pact. Continue reading...