WorldNews

[attach=full]18688[/attach] The United Arab Emirates promised a fitting spectacle complete with a glittering new stadium and plenty of fans on Tuesday after winning hosting rights for the 2019 Asian Cup. UAE Football Association chief Yousuf Al Serkal told AFP the Gulf state could host the regional showpiece "next week" if it had to, but that it planned to build a new venue in Dubai. Games will be played in Dubai, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi and possibly Sharjah, in an event which comes just three years before neighbouring Qatar hosts the 2022 World Cup. UAE, chosen ahead of Iran by the Asian Football Confederation's executive committee, has a tough task in following Australia where the total attendance soared to 650,000 and games sold out in all five host cities. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18683[/attach] SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert is set to be released Tuesday after five days in a South Korean hospital for treatment of injuries caused by a knife attack. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18682[/attach] TOKYO (AP) — Japan mourned Tuesday for the 105,400 people killed in a single night 70 years ago, when U.S. B-29 bombers obliterated much of Tokyo in the deadliest conventional bomb attack ever. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18681[/attach] TOKYO (AP) — Asian stock markets mostly fell Tuesday as the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates dimmed the outlook for equities. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18680[/attach] IGUALA, Mexico (AP) — The rattletrap sedan cruised the streets of Iguala, its roof crowned by a loudspeaker blaring headlines from the day's newspaper: "Another killed! Another killed!" Continue reading...

[attach=full]18679[/attach] China's consumer inflation rebounded in February from a more-than-five-year low, official data showed Tuesday, but a plunge in factory gate prices added to persistent concerns about deflation in the world's second-largest economy. The result, which exceeded the median forecast for a 1.0 percent gain in a survey of analysts by Bloomberg News, came largely due to higher prices for food and services surrounding China's annual Lunar New year holiday, which economists largely saw as a one-off. The PPI fell 4.8 percent year-on-year, the NBS said, more than the 4.3 percent decline recorded in January, and the worst result since October 2009. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18675[/attach] England's pitiful performance at the Cricket World Cup has many critics wondering again how a country which invented the sport could have plummeted so far in elite international competition. Continue reading...

NEW YORK (AP) — To Roger Federer, the math is simple: He owns a record 17 major titles, Rafael Nadal has 14, and the Spaniard dominates a certain clay-court Grand Slam tournament. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18674[/attach] Mali vowed Monday not to bow to terror and to punish the jihadists behind a deadly nightclub attack in the capital, as local and French investigators joined forces to hunt down the killers. Bamako has been on high alert since a heavily-armed gunman burst into La Terrasse, a popular venue among expatriates, early Saturday and killed five people, including a French national and a Belgian. A counter-terrorism team arrived from Paris overnight to join the investigation, with the assailant and a suspected accomplice still at large despite a huge manhunt and stepped-up vehicle checks across the capital. "We are still standing," President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said in a defiant first public reaction after visiting La Terrasse and eight people wounded in the attack, including two Swiss nationals. Continue reading...

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Education officials say a school crossing guard in Jamaica has been fatally shot by masked gunmen while she was working just outside a primary school. Continue reading...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has sided with the ex-wife of a former Mexican governor as she tries to regain access to their three children. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18663[/attach] Greece agreed to start urgent technical talks on extending its crucial bailout on Wednesday after its eurozone partners accused debt-stricken Athens of wasting time in previous negotiations. The main talks will be in Brussels but teams from Greece's creditors will also be on the ground in Athens, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said, despite the new left-wing government's earlier insistence that they should not return. The announcement came after a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels on Monday at which the Greek government outlined the reforms demanded by lenders in exchange for further cash. The ministers agreed last month to extend Greece's current bailout until June as long as Athens comes up with suitable proposals, but Dijsselbloem accused the Greeks of wasting time. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18662[/attach] A contingent of Cuban health professionals has arrived in Bahrain to begin work in the tiny Gulf kingdom under a deal forged last year, the government said Monday. "The first group of medical professionals has arrived... in Manama, the capital of the kingdom of Bahrain," Cuba's Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on its website. "The agreement forms the basis for cooperation in the areas of medical services and biotechnology, as well as medical research and other areas of mutual interest," the ministry said. A photo accompanying the statement showed about 15 people in this first group of medical experts, who have been assigned to work at a hospital in Muharraq, Bahrain's third largest city. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18661[/attach] Mexican police arrested four armed men on Monday accused of firing at the mayor's convoy in Matamoros, a northern city bordering Texas in the grips of drug cartel violence. Mayor Leticia Salazar escaped unscathed from Sunday night's shooting, which took place as she was arriving home in a sport utility vehicle protected by two other vehicles and eight bodyguards, said an official from the Tamaulipas state prosecutor's office. Continue reading...

By John Irish PARIS (Reuters) - Mali's foreign minister said on Monday Tuareg rebels were running out of time to seal a peace accord that would distance them from jihadi groups who are staging violent attacks in the West African country. Mali's government signed up to a preliminary peace proposal on March 1 meant to end fighting with the Tuarag-led northern separatists, but the rebels have demanded more time before agreeing to any accord. Following attacks over the weekend, including one targeting a restaurant in Mali's capital Bamako, Abdoulaye Diop said the government wanted the deal signed by the end of March to ensure unity in the face of the militant Islamist threat. A Sahara-based Islamist group called al-Mourabitoun claimed responsibility for the restaurant attack, the first in Bamako for years, that killed five people, including two foreigners. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18660[/attach] WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican lawmakers warned the leaders of Iran on Monday that any nuclear deal they reach with President Barack Obama could expire the day he leaves office. The White House denounced the Republicans' latest effort to undercut the international negotiations as a "rush to war."Monday's open letter from 47 Republican senators marked an unusually public and aggressive attempt to undermine Obama and five world powers as negotiators try to strike an initial deal by the end of March to limit Iran's nuclear programs. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18654[/attach] LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Zambia's president needs to seek medical attention abroad, officials said Monday after the recently elected leader collapsed during a public ceremony over the weekend. Continue reading...

BERLIN (AP) — Local authorities in an eastern German state said Monday they are considering changing the rules on where demonstrations can be held after a village mayor resigned his post following threats from far-right protesters. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18653[/attach] DORAL, Fla. (AP) — Whether by choice or coercion, Dustin Johnson sat out for six months. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18652[/attach] Iran's Navy took delivery Monday of what a top admiral said was a "faster and more agile" domestically produced destroyer which will be used in the Caspian Sea. The ship, named Damavand after the country's highest mountain, is 90 metres (yards) long, weighs 1,300 tonnes and is armed with cruise missile systems, torpedos and electronic warfare equipment. As state television showed pictures of the ship, Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan said it would be used to aid anti-drugs smuggling operations and counter-terrorism. The Caspian, the largest enclosed sea in the world, is bordered by Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan but there is as yet no definitive legal regime governing its waters. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18651[/attach] A widely-followed "whistle-blower" who tweeted about the Saudi royal family said Monday he has returned to Twitter after a brief suspension by the social media platform of his account. On Friday he told AFP that Twitter cited the posting in April 2014 of a "private document" related to the royal family as the reason his account could no longer be accessed. "I explained to Twitter administrators my high profile as a credible whistle-blower from within the circles of power in Saudi Arabia," he wrote from the email address that was listed with his suspended account. @mujtahidd added that he told Twitter it "constitutes giving in to pressure" if it merely accepted complaints regarding something he published last year. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18648[/attach] MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin bestowed a state award Monday on the leader of Chechnya, the North Caucasus strongman who hailed the suspected killer of an opposition politician as a "true patriot." Continue reading...

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia's war crimes court has marked a decade since its establishment with a public pledge to continue hunting down and prosecuting people suspected of crimes during the country's 1992-95 war. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18647[/attach] As the Syrian crisis ends its fourth year, here are some of the key events since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began: Continue reading...

LONDON (AP) — The co-owners of an Irish setter feared poisoned at Britain's leading dog show are devastated by his death — but they don't believe that one of the other competitors is responsible. Continue reading...