WorldNews

[attach=full]19418[/attach] SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's Olympic body said Thursday it is considering easing its eligibility rules for athletes entering international competitions, which would allow banned former Olympic swimming champion Park Tae-hwan a chance at qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. Continue reading...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is contributing 100 warplanes and 150,000 soldiers to the military operation in Yemen, al-Arabiya television reported on Thursday. Planes from Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain are also taking part in the operation, it said. Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Sudan are ready to participate in a ground offensive, the broadcaster said. (Reporting by William Maclean; Editing by Paul Tait) Continue reading...

A journey by African migrants as they tried to reach the European Union through the Balkans ended largely in defeat after a 10-day, 200-kilometer (125-mile) hike. But weeks later a dogged, lucky few finally reached their EU destination of Hungary. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19417[/attach] England's slain king Richard III, exhumed from an undignified grave beneath a car park, will finally be buried with honour on Thursday in an unprecedented ceremony filled with pageantry and poignancy. Some 530 years on from his brutal demise, the last English monarch killed in battle will be laid to rest in Leicester Cathedral, across the street from where his remains were located in 2012 in a feat of archaeology. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the spiritual head of the Church of England, will preside over the reinternment, while Queen Elizabeth has sent a personal message that will appear inside the order of service. Her daughter-in-law Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, will attend on the sovereign's behalf, as will the queen's cousin Prince Richard the Duke of Gloucester, patron of the Richard III Society and a blood relative of the slain king. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19411[/attach] WASHINGTON (AP) — Saudi Arabia began airstrikes Wednesday against Houthi rebel positions in Yemen, vowing that the Sunni kingdom will do "anything necessary" to restore a deposed government that has been routed by the Iranian-backed group. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19410[/attach] WASHINGTON (AP) — At Iraq's request, the U.S. began airstrikes in Tikrit on Wednesday in support of a stalled Iraqi ground offensive to retake the city from Islamic State fighters. The bombing marked a significant expansion of the U.S. military role in Iraq. Continue reading...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican senator asked the Pentagon on Wednesday to take every reasonable step to make sure that the five Taliban leaders released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl are not allowed to return to the battlefield in Afghanistan. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19409[/attach] US officials said that a nuclear deal with Iran was in sight by a March 31 deadline, as top US diplomat John Kerry arrived in Switzerland for down-to-the-wire talks. The landmark agreement -- which would cap more than a decade of painstaking negotiations -- is designed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb in return for the lifting or easing of crippling economic sanctions. We see a path to do that," a senior State Department official told reporters, cautioning that it was still possible the political framework to rein in Iran's nuclear program could elude them at the last. Kerry is set to meet in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Thursday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, for what he hopes will be the successful culmination of months of closed-door negotiations. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19408[/attach] WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum hopes Saturday's Cricket World Cup final in Melbourne will be "one more, big fairytale finish" to the international career of Daniel Vettori. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19402[/attach] Kiev (AFP) - Sacked regional governor Igor Kolomoisky is one of Ukraine's richest men with a sprawling business empire whose ruthless methods are admired, feared and denounced in equal measures, making him one of the war-hit country's key players. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19401[/attach] French-US oil services giant Schlumberger Ltd. was fined $232.7 million by the Justice Department Wednesday for violating sanctions on Iran and Sudan. Fully owned subsidy Schlumberger Oilfield Holdings Ltd. admitted guilt to one count of "knowingly and willfully conspiring to violate" the US International Emergency Economic Powers Act, under which US sanctions are applied, the department said. According to the charges, the company's Texas-based drilling and measurements unit provided services to Iran and Sudan between 2004 and 2010 and tried to hide the fact from authorities. While Schlumberger Oilfield Holdings, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, was allowed to work in both Iran and Sudan, the Department said the US Drilling and Measurements unit was not. Continue reading...

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials have discovered a new germ in Eastern Europe that is related to the dreaded smallpox and monkeypox viruses but so far seems far less threatening. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19400[/attach] At least three people were killed and six injured in eastern Ukraine when a passenger bus hit a landmine in the government-controlled town of Artemivsk, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the separatist stronghold of Donetsk, a police official told AFP. The accident happened when the bus sought to bypass a checkpoint, said Ilia Kiva, a Kiev-loyal deputy police chief in the Donetsk region. More than 6,000 people have died in fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government troops in eastern Ukraine since April. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19399[/attach] Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu extended a "hand of peace" to the Palestinians Wednesday as he was formally tasked with forming a government after his surprise reelection following a divisive campaign. The prime minister also pledged to shore up crumbling ties with Washington while continuing to oppose an emerging nuclear deal with Iran as he accepted the task of putting together a new coalition government. Last week's victory by Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party came after a bitterly fought campaign that exposed deep splits within Israeli society and a particularly damaging rift with key ally Washington. Netanyahu himself was at the centre of most of the controversy after he ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state if reelected, pledged to build more settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem and played the race card at the expense of Israel's Arab minority. Continue reading...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is providing intelligence and surveillance support for operations in Tikrit against Islamic State militants, the White House said on Wednesday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters he had no comment on additional policy decisions related to operations there. Iraqi President Fouad Massoum on Wednesday said he expected the U.S.-led coalition would soon carry out air strikes in Tikrit. ... Continue reading...

[attach=full]19388[/attach] BRUSSELS (AP) — European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says the Greek government is to present no later than early next week the reform plans that are key to unlocking urgently needed rescue funds. Continue reading...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Historians at the Auschwitz memorial and high school officials in central Poland are trying to determine how a list of 15 Polish and Jewish inmates of the Nazi death camp made it into a school library book. Continue reading...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press has learned that two Americans presumed to have died in the plane crash in the French Alps include a U.S. government contractor and her daughter. Continue reading...

Germany's Bundesbank chief, Jens Weidmann, said on Wednesday Greece was still far from the end of its "marathon" reform process and that it would be "tragic" if Athens gave up the economic adjustments it has already made. The latest debate around Greece showed the euro zone crisis had unfortunately not been overcome, Weidmann, who sits on the European Central Bank's policymaking Governing Council, said in the text of a speech for delivery in Munich. "Those who blame the ECB and European politics for the economic weakness in the crisis countries confuse cause and effect," Weidmann said, adding that reform measures were starting to work in these countries. "It would, therefore, be tragic if Greece were to give up its adjustment process now and give away what it has achieved." "But it is also clear: the economic adjustment process is more like a marathon than a sprint. Continue reading...

Safety in aviation is not a given, the chief executive of Lufthansa said, a day after a plane operated by its Germanwings unit crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 onboard. "Visiting the crash site I was, in a shocking moment, made aware of a fact that all of us know so well - safety in aviation is not a given," Carsten Spohr said in a video message posted on YouTube on Wednesday. It's my promise and the promise of the 120,000 people working at Lufthansa around the world that this priority will continue to be our top target," he added. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19380[/attach] ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Thousands of Greeks lined a main central Athens avenue despite rain on Wednesday to watch the country's annual Independence Day military parade, with spectators allowed along the route for the first time in about three years. Continue reading...

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Aden airport in Yemen closed on Wednesday and all flights were canceled due to security concerns, guards at the facility told Reuters, following a rapid advance towards the southern city by Houthi militia backed by army units. Houthi forces and their army allies appear poised to capture Aden in a military push apparently aimed at unseating President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is based in the city. (Reporting by Sami Aboudi, Writing by Noah Browning, Editing by William Maclean and Alison Williams) Continue reading...

[attach=full]19379[/attach] NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan authorities closed a Chinese restaurant in the capital which was accused by a local newspaper of refusing to serve Africans. Continue reading...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies staged 19 air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq in the latest round of daily attacks, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Wednesday. The strikes occurred between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. In Syria, all five airstrikes hit near the city of Kobani and struck Islamic State tactical units, fighting positions and vehicles. The task force said a total of 14 strikes hit in Iraq near Bayji, Falluja, Mosul and Tal Afar hit tactical units, vehicles, excavators, machine guns and buildings. ... Continue reading...

HOBART, Australia (AP) — Victoria won its 29th Sheffield Shield first-class cricket title on Wednesday with a draw against Western Australia state on the fifth day at Bellerive Oval. Continue reading...