WorldNews

[attach=full]18930[/attach] At least 49 people were killed when a tour bus plunged hundreds of meters into a densely wooded ravine in southern Brazil, authorities said. Among the dead were eight children and 24 women, regional government spokeswoman Ana Paula Keller told AFP. The toll had initially been put at about 30 but the number rose throughout the night as rescuers continued to find bodies at the difficult-to-access crash site in Santa Catarina state, and other victims succumbed to their injuries at a nearby hospital. The crash site was near a lookout point in the Dona Francisca mountains, a popular stop for tourists. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18929[/attach] Police arrested at least two people as nightly protests in the racially troubled US suburb of Ferguson over the police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown shifted into the heart of St Louis. Up to 50 youthful demonstrators gathered after sunset at the Midwestern city's historic 19th century Old Courthouse to march through streets lined with bars filled with St Patrick's revelers. "Justice is dead! We have to wake it up," one protester, David Ragland, shouted from the steps of the white colonnaded courthouse where in 1846 black slave Dred Scott filed his unsuccessful but historic lawsuit to win his freedom. When some of the protesters briefly held up traffic, police stepped in and took away two men -- a young protester with a kerchief over his face and a freelance photojournalist, Philip Montgomery, on assignment for the Mashable website. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18928[/attach] ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — William Porterfield posted his first World Cup century in an otherwise mediocre batting display by Ireland as it was restricted to 237 against Pakistan in the last game of the group stage. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18927[/attach] Concerns are rising that a deadly jihadist attack on a popular nightclub in Mali's capital may foreshadow moves by extremist groups that have been routed in the desert to sneak operatives into towns to mount strikes. Responsibility for the March 7 nightclub attack in Bamako by a heavily-armed gunmen that left three Malians, one French national and a Belgian dead was claimed by al-Murabitoun, a jihadist group run by Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, whose fighters were pushed from northern Mali into the barren Sahel by the French-led military intervention launched in 2013. Continue reading...

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian security officials say a garbage collector and his donkey have been killed in a bomb explosion in a Cairo district. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18926[/attach] Syria's conflict enters its fifth year on Sunday with the regime emboldened by shifting international attention and a growing humanitarian crisis exacerbated by the rise of the Islamic State group. More than 210,000 people have been killed and half of the country's population displaced, prompting rights groups to accuse the international community of "failing Syria". The country has been carved up by government forces, jihadist groups, Kurdish fighters and the remaining non-extremist rebels. Diplomacy remains stalled, with two rounds of peace talks achieving no progress and even a proposal for a local ceasefire in Aleppo fizzling out. Continue reading...

SAO PAULO (AP) — A bus carrying about 50 passengers plunged down into a deep ravine in the mountains of southeastern Brazil late Saturday, killing at least 40 people a police official said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18925[/attach] Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini believes the Premier League title race is not over despite a damaging 1-0 defeat to relegation battlers Burnley at Turf Moor. Burnley forward George Boyd scored the decisive goal with a superb half-volley to give the Clarets a deserved victory against the reigning champions on Saturday. The defeat means City are now five points behind league leaders Chelsea having played two games more than Jose Mourinho's side. Should Chelsea win their two matches in hand they would be 11 points clear of City, but Pellegrini refused to concede that they can no longer win the title. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18924[/attach] As the drive to reach an accord with Iran on its nuclear programme heads towards a March 31 deadline, France is digging into its role as chief hawk -- a position inclined to annoy US allies, but not likely to scuttle an eventual accord, diplomats say. The French hard-line among its US, British, Chinese, Russian and German partners to hammer out a nuclear agreement with Tehran is rooted in ideological, historical, and even personal concerns that tend to stiffen as Paris recognises Washington's increasing pragmatism in seeking to conclude a deal swiftly. "France has taken the opposite path to that of the United States, which changed strategies with the arrival of Barack Obama," said Bernard Hourcade, an Iran specialist at the National Centre of Scientific Research, who says France's current Socialist-led government adopted and defends the wary, intransigent stance towards Iran set down by previous conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18923[/attach] Arsene Wenger insists his Arsenal players believe they can overturn a 3-1 deficit against Monaco in the Champions League on Tuesday, but the Gunners manager is less confident about their chances of winning the Premier League. Goals from Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini secured a 3-0 win over West Ham that left Arsenal in buoyant mood ahead of their tricky last 16 second leg trip to Monaco in midweek. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18917[/attach] SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A wildfire burning near the Pacific ports of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar was contained but still a threat Saturday, authorities said, as many of 7,000 people who had been evacuated began returning home. Continue reading...

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Jonas and Eliseu Pereira scored to help Benfica beat 10-man Braga 2-0 at home Saturday and increase its overnight lead in the Portuguese league. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18916[/attach] BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Lionel Messi moved ahead of rival Cristiano Ronaldo with his 31st and 32nd Spanish league goals of the season as Barcelona won 2-0 at Eibar on Saturday to stay atop the standings. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18915[/attach] The World Cup's marathon group stage finally comes to an end on Sunday with the last two quarter-final places still up for grabs. Pakistan, the 1992 champions, 1975 and 1979 winners the West Indies and non-Test side Ireland are the three teams battling for two remaining places in the knockout phase from Pool B. The winners of the match between Pakistan and Ireland in Adelaide will be guaranteed a quarter-final spot in a fixture that will take place almost eight years to the day since the Irish knocked Pakistan out of the 2007 World Cup. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18914[/attach] Nigerian soldiers on Saturday detonated two homemade bombs found in a camp housing people displaced by Boko Haram violence in the restive northeastern city of Maiduguri, witnesses told AFP. The school was converted into a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) after Boko Haram Islamists captured the town of Bama, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) from Maiduguri, last July. Butari accused Boko Haram of being behind the foiled bomb attack. Scores of IDP camps dot Maiduguri following a huge influx of people fleeing towns and villages seized by Boko Haram, doubling the population of the city which stood at around one million people. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18904[/attach] KONTIOLAHTI, Finland (AP) — Germany ended Norway's three-year win streak in the men's relay at the biathlon world championships, winning the 4x7.5-kilometer race by 15.4 seconds on Saturday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18903[/attach] Leicester remain anchored to the bottom of the Premier League after failing to overcome 10-man Hull in a goalless draw at the King Power Stadium on Saturday. Nigel Pearson's side are seven points from safety after their seventh successive league game without a win. The visitors maintain a five-point cushion above the bottom three, and could have claimed the win despite the controversial second-half sending off of midfielder Tom Huddlestone. With games running out to save their Premier League status, the home team began at a high tempo but lacked the cutting edge to trouble Hull 'keeper Allan McGregor. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18902[/attach] Sierre Leone's Vice President Sam Sumana has applied for asylum at the US embassy in Freetown and is in hiding while his request is considered, a source close to him said Saturday. Sumana was expelled from the governing All People's Congress (APC) party this month for what was described as "his anti-party activities, including fomenting violence", although he denied the allegations and has appealed against his suspension to the party leadership. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18901[/attach] LEICESTER, England (AP) — Leicester missed a huge chance to earn three points in its fight for survival in the Premier League by drawing 0-0 at home to 10-man Hull on Saturday. Continue reading...

SAO PAULO (AP) — Sao Paulo may not be able to host games for the 2016 Olympic football tournament because of the high costs involved in the competition, city officials said this week. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18897[/attach] Valparaíso (Chile) (AFP) - Thousands of residents of Valparaiso began returning to their homes on Saturday, hours after fleeing a still-smoldering forest fire that threatened the treasured Chilean seaport city, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Most of the 7,000 people who had been evacuated after Chile declared a state of emergency Friday were permitted to return home, after the fire's "marginal" nighttime spread, according to one official. Meanwhile, a 67-year-old woman died from a heart attack, authorities said, after the national emergency office declared a red alert for Valparaiso and the neighboring city of Vina del Mar. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18896[/attach] US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday that talks on Iran's disputed nuclear programme have made progress, but there were still "important gaps" to overcome. Kerry, who is attending a three-day international investor conference in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, said the purpose of the Iran talks was "not just to get any deal, it is to get the right deal". The negotiations are entering their final phase, with Kerry due to meet his Iranian counterpart in Switzerland after the Sharm el-Sheikh conference ends. Six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany -- aim by the end of this month to nail down the outline of a deal that would prevent Tehran from making a nuclear bomb. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18895[/attach] Zambian President Edgar Lungu was discharged from hospital on Saturday after undergoing a medical procedure in South Africa following his collapse at a public event, his office said. "President Lungu, who was admitted to a Pretoria hospital, has today been discharged after specialist doctors certified (him) fit to resume full duties," press aide Amos Chanda said. "The presidency is working on arrangements for his return to Lusaka," he added. The newly appointed president, who suffers from recurring achalasia, a condition caused by narrowing of the oesophagus, was flown to South Africa last Tuesday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18894[/attach] German conglomerate Siemens has signed a "four billion euro" power deal with Egypt, a company spokesperson said on Saturday. Under a number of accords agreed between the parties, Siemens will build a "4.4 gigawatt combined cycle power plant and install wind power capacity of 2 gigawatt", the company added in a statement. Other projects would include building a factory in Egypt "to manufacture rotor blades for wind turbines". Under two further memorandums of understanding (MoU), Siemens will also propose to build additional "combined cycle power plants with a capacity of up to 6.6 gigawatts and ten substations for reliable power supply", the statement added. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18893[/attach] French sports stars and crew from the ill-fated reality TV series "Dropped" returned home from Argentina on Saturday as experts investigate the helicopter crash that killed 10 people, including three top French sports personalities. The week has been "very long, very long", skater Philippe Candeloro said before flying out of Buenos Aires along with the rest of the 27-person team, landing in the French capital on Saturday morning. Monday's accident killed Olympic champion swimmer Camille Muffat, renowned yachtswoman Florence Arthaud and Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine, as well as five French television crew members and two Argentine pilots. The television programme featured sports stars who were taken blindfolded into rugged environments and given 72 hours to get to a place where they could charge a mobile phone. Continue reading...