WorldNews

[attach=full]20511[/attach] COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man pleaded not guilty Friday to charges he traveled to Syria and trained alongside terrorists, then returned to the U.S. with plans to attack a military base in Texas or a prison. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20510[/attach] NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are falling broadly in midday trading on Friday following steep declines in Europe. Investors are worrying that Greece may default on its debt. Several big U.S. companies including American Express fell after reporting disappointing results. Continue reading...

BEIJING (AP) — China's securities regulator is tightening control over lending to small investors trading stocks. Continue reading...

The Formula One race set for Sunday in Bahrain drew protests on Friday as activists accused the Gulf kingdom of again staging the annual event to paper over human rights abuses, four years after being forced to cancel it during Arab Spring uprisings. Bahrain's majority Shi'ite Muslim community has used the annual Formula One occasion since then to highlight grievances over what they see as failed promises of democratic reform in the Sunni Muslim-ruled island country. "The regime uses the race to say Bahrain should unite, while in fact they are cracking down and it's just used to burnish the government's image, to make more money and make it look like everything is just business as usual," Bahraini democracy activist Ala'a Shehabi told Reuters. Bahrain, important strategically because it hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet as a bulwark against Shi'ite Iran across the Gulf, has grappled with low-profile but persistent unrest since a Shi'ite-led revolt demanding reforms and a bigger role in government were put down in 2011 with the help of Saudi Arabia. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20504[/attach] MADRID (AP) — Tax agents spent a second day Friday searching the office of former International Monetary Fund chief Rodrigo Rato after he was detained and released as part of a probe into alleged fraud and money laundering. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20503[/attach] NEW YORK (AP) — To improve airline safety, maybe we need to remove the pilots. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20502[/attach] UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate ceasefire in Yemen and begun the hunt for a new peace envoy to the war-torn country, where Al-Qaeda is expanding its territory. Ban's plea follows more than three weeks of air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition aimed at driving back Iran-backed rebels whose sweeping advance forced President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to Riyadh. Yemen "is in flames," Ban told the press in Washington on Thursday. His remarks followed the resignation of his envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, a Moroccan-born career diplomat who lost the confidence of Saudi Arabia and its allies. Continue reading...

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The past two Tour de France champions head a powerful lineup for the six-day Tour de Romandie. Continue reading...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Several shops and cars owned by foreigners were torched in downtown Johannesburg overnight in continued anti-immigrant attacks but another city that had seen the worst violence was calm. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20496[/attach] WASHINGTON (AP) — Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is getting an audience with President Barack Obama. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20495[/attach] BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Pakistan next week to oversee agreements on pipelines, power plants and other projects as part of a massive $46 billion joint development program that Beijing hopes will stabilize its longtime ally's economy and extend China's influence in western Asia. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20494[/attach] Pilgrims descended from all over the world on a small town in Pakistan that is home to one of Sikhism's holiest sites this week, dipping into holy spring water and solemnly offering prayers. They have come from India, Britain and the Middle East to the Panja Sahib Gurdwara in Hasan Abdal, 55 kilometres (35 miles) from Islamabad, where Guru Nanak, the founder of the religion, is said to have imprinted his hand. The 500-year-old religion was founded in what is now part of Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country of nearly 200 million people. Most Sikhs left Pakistan for India after both countries gained independence from Britain in 1947. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20493[/attach] SUNDARBAN TIGER RESERVE, India (AP) — At first, the numbers seem impressive: India's tiger population has gone up 30 percent in just four years. The government lauded the news as astonishing evidence of victory in conservation. Continue reading...

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia test skipper Michael Clarke's will captain the Melbourne Stars in Australia's Big Bash League for the next two seasons after not playing Twenty20 cricket for three years. Continue reading...

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. allies South Korea and Japan put a brave face on their bitter differences over wartime history, saying it should not prevent cooperation between them. Continue reading...

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — A Jamaican judge ruled Thursday that a teenager suspected of hoping to join Islamic extremists in Syria must remain in police custody until next week. Continue reading...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's conservative National Action Party said Thursday that local candidates in the western state of Michoacan have been threatened by crime gangs. Continue reading...

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — Officials from Tinian are voicing concerns about the U.S. military's plan to turn most of the small Pacific island into a training area. Continue reading...

By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Recent satellite images published on Thursday show China has made rapid progress in building an airstrip suitable for military use in contested territory in the South China Sea's Spratly Islands and may be planning another, moves that have been greeted with concern in the United States and Asia. IHS Jane's Defense Weekly said March 23 images provided by Airbus Defence and Space showed work on the runway on reclaimed parts of Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago, which China contests with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. The report said other images suggested China was working to extend another airstrip to that length in the Paracel Islands further north in the South China Sea. The report comes a day after the U.S. military commander for Asia, Admiral Samuel Locklear, said China could eventually deploy radar and missile systems on outposts it is building in the South China Sea that could be used to enforce an exclusion zone should China move to declare one. Continue reading...

WASHINGTON (AP) — China should not be concerned if the U.S. deploys an advanced missile defense system in South Korea to counter the threat from a nuclear North Korea, a U.S. military commander said Thursday. Commander of U.S. forces in Korea, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, told a congressional hearing that if employed, the Theater High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system would be focused on the defense of the Korean Peninsula and would not have "any influence beyond that." Continue reading...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Blind vendors angry about having their stalls removed from a downtown Mexico City subway station this week clashed with police outside city hall Thursday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20486[/attach] DUNCAN, Oklahoma (AP) — The doctor who performed the autopsy on a college baseball player from Australia who was shot in the back while jogging in Oklahoma said Thursday that even immediate medical attention would not have saved his life. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20485[/attach] LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A man indicted in the United States for allegedly smuggling heroin, in a case that was the basis for the TV hit "Orange Is The New Black," has been elected a senator in Nigeria. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20484[/attach] SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen consolidated control over much of the country's largest province on Thursday, capturing a major airport, an oil terminal and the area's main military base, and striking an alliance with local tribal leaders to administer the region. Continue reading...

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Thousands of students marched through the streets of Chile's capital on Thursday to protest recent corruption scandals and to complain about delays in a promised education overhaul. Continue reading...