WorldNews

[attach=full]18384[/attach] By Andrew Osborn LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's anti-EU UK Independence Party set out its immigration policy on Wednesday ahead of a national election on May 7, dropping an idea to cap numbers but saying it thought "the right number" was less than 50,000 people a year. UKIP, which has just two of 650 seats in the lower house of parliament, hopes to tap into public frustration about rising immigration, which is currently running at around 300,000 people net per year despite a promise by Prime Minister David Cameron to bring it down to the "tens of thousands." UKIP leader Nigel Farage said his party -- which threatens to split the right-wing vote making it harder for Cameron's Conservatives to get re-elected -- wanted to get the number of immigrants coming to Britain back to "normality." "Normality was what we had ... right up until nearly the year 2000 where we had net migration into Britain running at between 20,000 and 50,000 people a year," Farage told BBC radio. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18383[/attach] NAPIER, New Zealand (AP) — Pakistan finally joined the 300 club at the Cricket World Cup on Wednesday, scoring 339-6 and holding the United Arab Emirates to 210-8 to complete a 129-run win in Pool B which improved its chances of progressing to the quarterfinals. Continue reading...

PARIS (AP) — More than 32 years after a deadly terror attack in Paris' old Jewish quarter, French authorities have identified three suspects and are seeking their arrest. Continue reading...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Scotland has another chance to revive a Cricket World Cup campaign which has fallen below its own expectations when it plays Bangladesh in a Pool A match at Nelson's Saxton Oval on Thursday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18377[/attach] SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — More than 70 passengers aboard an Asiana Airlines flight that crashed in San Francisco two years ago have reached a settlement in their lawsuits against the airline, attorneys for the passengers and airline said in a court filing Tuesday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18376[/attach] British property is a safe haven for money stolen from around the world, with tens of thousands of London properties owned by secretive companies, according to a corruption report released Wednesday. Campaign group Transparency International found 36,342 properties in London covering 3.6 square kilometres are held by companies registered in offshore secrecy havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Jersey and the Isle of Man. In 2011 alone, the report said, £3.8 billion worth of UK property was bought by companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. The group said the use of British property to store stolen wealth may have helped inflate prices -- an explosive political issue due to near-record prices and a lack of affordable housing ahead of Britain's May election. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18375[/attach] South Africa captain AB de Villiers backed Dale Steyn to be a World Cup match-winner despite the strike bowler struggling to hit top form at the tournament. After an indifferent start to the World Cup, Steyn marked his 100th one-day international with 2-39 in the 201-run mauling of Ireland at the Manuka Oval on Tuesday. Bowling with pace and venom, Steyn sent back opener Paul Stirling for nine and then had danger man Ed Joyce picked up for nought as the Proteas claimed their third win in four games. By contrast, fellow fast bowler Morne Morkel has 9-174 from four games while the unheralded Kyle Abbott boasts 6-58 in two matches since he came in to replace the injured Vernon Philander. Continue reading...

Two convicted Australian drug smugglers were removed on Wednesday from a prison in Bali to be taken to an Indonesian island where they are due to be shot by firing squad, Australian media reported. The planned executions of Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31, have ratcheted up diplomatic tensions amid repeated pleas of mercy from Australia for the pair. Continue reading...

U.S. President Barack Obama and his European counterparts agreed on Tuesday to act quickly to impose additional costs on Russia if peace agreements in the Ukraine conflict were not implemented. "The leaders expressed their hope for the successful and complete implementation of the Minsk agreements and agreed that the easing of current sanctions would be linked to the full implementation of these agreements," the White House said in a statement. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18368[/attach] Former American military commander and CIA chief David Petraeus will plead guilty to illegally providing classified secrets to his mistress, a dramatic fall from grace for a general once lauded as a war hero. Petraeus, feted in the US as the man who changed the course of the Iraq war, has signed a plea deal and statement "that indicate he will plead guilty" to unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, the Justice Department said Tuesday. According to the Justice Department, Petraeus acknowledged giving eight "black books" he kept as the commander in Afghanistan to his lover and biographer, Paula Broadwell. The notebooks included his daily schedule, classified notes, the identities of covert officers, details about US intelligence capabilities, code words, summaries of National Security Council sessions, and accounts of his meetings with President Barack Obama, according to court documents. Continue reading...

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil AG seeks investigation into 54 politicians allegedly tied to Petrobras kickback scandal. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18367[/attach] The rights group that ran Russia's only museum in a former gulag said Tuesday it has been ousted and the institution will cease as a memorial devoted to Soviet-era repression. The Perm-36 museum -- named after the notorious prison camp where it is housed -- has been open since 1996, but was increasingly threatened by a hostile relationship with Russian leaders. We could not reach an agreement with regional administrators," Tatiana Koursina, head of the Perm-36 association, told AFP. Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has increasingly taken on the mantle of the Soviet Union and prides itself on its victories while downplaying the millions of deaths under Stalin's forced industrialisation, collectivisation and prison camps. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18366[/attach] IRVINE, California (AP) — Federal agents searched more than a dozen homes Tuesday in a crackdown on so-called maternity tourism operators who arrange for pregnant Chinese women to give birth in the U.S., where their babies automatically become American citizens. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18362[/attach] By Renee Maltezou ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's government submitted a bill to offer free food and electricity to thousands of poverty-stricken Greeks as its first legislative act in parliament, in a symbolic move to address what it calls a "humanitarian crisis". Athens, which got a four-month extension of a financial rescue from the euro zone last month, has sought to assure its lenders that such measures will not burden the budget while showing Greeks that it is sticking to pre-election pledges. "The deep recession due to austerity policies and the economic crisis in the past six years had a dramatic social impact," said the bill, which was tabled late on Tuesday. "This draft law aims at tackling the humanitarian crisis through measures which ensure access to basic goods." During a cabinet meeting last week, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that improving living conditions of those hurt by the crisis was the government's "foremost duty", but reiterated Athens was still committed to a balanced budget. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18361[/attach] DORAL, Fla. (AP) — Padraig Harrington's game slipped so badly last year that he failed to keep full status on the PGA Tour for the first time. He wrote letters to tournaments asking for a sponsor's exemption and received one from every tournament but the CIMB Classic in Malaysia. Continue reading...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Manny Pacquiao has always believed he can do what 47 other fighters before him have failed to do — beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the ring. Continue reading...

The U.S. military estimates around 12,000 Russian soldiers are supporting pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine, U.S. Army Europe Commander Ben Hodges said on Tuesday. The Russian forces are made up of military advisers, weapons operators and combat troops, Hodges said in a speech in Berlin, adding that a further 29,000 soldiers were stationed in the Crimea peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine last year. In addition, 50,000 troops are positioned on the Russian side of the border with Ukraine in case the separatists suffer a severe setback and the Ukrainian army gains the upper hand, Hodges said. Russia has repeatedly denied claims that it is directing the rebel assault in eastern Ukraine with its own troops and weapons, despite what the Kiev government and Western countries say is incontrovertible evidence. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18360[/attach] BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Four Portuguese F-16 fighter jets and 150 Portuguese troops and civilians will be sent to Ukraine neighbor Romania in May and June to participate in NATO aerial policing missions, Romania's top defense body said Tuesday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18351[/attach] JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A wildfire burned for a third day around Cape Town's Table Mountain on Tuesday, injuring a firefighter as it caused an explosion at a lodge, an emergency services spokeswoman said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18350[/attach] PARIS (AP) — A British investor who made millions in Russia before his lawyer was imprisoned and died is calling for an international investigation into the killing of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov. Continue reading...

By Isaac Abrak and Julia Payne ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram released a video purporting to show it beheading two men, its first online posting using advanced graphics and editing techniques similar to footage from Islamic State. The footage will raise concerns that Boko Haram, which evolved out of a clerical movement focused on northeast Nigeria, is expanding its scope and seeking inspiration from international militant networks including al Qaeda and Islamic State. Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has said Boko Haram is allied to both al Qaeda and IS, though that has not been confirmed by Boko Haram itself. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18349[/attach] BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi troops and Shiite militias battled the Islamic State group Tuesday on the outskirts of militant-held Tikrit, unable to advance further on Saddam Hussein's hometown as roadside mines and suicide attacks slowed their progress. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18348[/attach] BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Gadget lovers from around the world are in Barcelona to view the latest in handheld and wireless technology. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18341[/attach] BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has strongly condemned Russia for banning Polish and Latvian officials from entering the country to attend slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov's funeral. Continue reading...

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Military reports and witnesses say hundreds of people have been killed as troops from Chad seized the Nigerian town of Dikwa from Boko Haram extremists while Nigerian soldiers fought off a separate attack miles outside the biggest city in northeastern Nigeria. Continue reading...