WorldNews

By Francesco Guarascio BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European countries will carry out by June deeper checks on EU citizens entering the passport-free Schengen area, based on a set of "common risk indicators" aimed at singling out fighters returning from war zones and other dangerous people. European Union home affairs ministers agreed on Thursday to enhance controls at the borders of the Schengen area following a call by EU leaders for stricter checks after the Islamist attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Border control authorities will use the risk indicators "when conducting systematic checks on persons," said EU home affairs commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos. "The list is being finalised with Interpol in the coming weeks and will be implemented with the support of Frontex (the EU border control agency)," Avramopoulos told a press conference. Continue reading...

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — Egypt's president approved a package of amendments to investment laws on Thursday, aimed at enticing foreign investors on the eve of a major economic conference that will bring together hundreds of business executives and foreign leaders. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18798[/attach] GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli authorities allowed the import of Gaza produce on Thursday for the first time since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007, a move that will aid the Palestinian strip's battered economy and help pious Jews observe a biblical farming sabbatical. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18797[/attach] MOSCOW (AP) — Russia accused Ukraine Thursday of dragging its feet on implementing last month's peace deal, citing a wide range of areas in which Kiev is allegedly failing to meet its obligations. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18792[/attach] Israelis vote next week in an election seen as a referendum on the tenure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who could lose but still secure a new term in power. Netanyahu, 65, called for the March 17 vote late last year as his coalition government teetered on the brink of collapse. It will be Israel's third election since 2009 and the premier's biggest challenge after six years at the helm. "Netanyahu is the big question here, after having been in power for so long," said political analyst Tamir Sheafer. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18791[/attach] South Africa's state-owned power company Eskom suspended Thursday its chief executive and three other top officials as its board launched an inquiry into the troubled utility after a series of crippling blackouts. Eskom has been struggling to keep the lights on in Africa's most advanced economy since November with consumer demand repeatedly eclipsing supply. "To ensure that this process is as transparent and uninhibited as possible, the board has also resolved that four of its senior executives... should step down for the duration of this enquiry," said Eskom Chairman Zola Tsotsi. In 2008, South Africa was hit by an energy crisis that forced its mines shut for days, cost the country billions of dollars and led to a sell off in the rand. Continue reading...

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Bundesliga club Cologne has been ordered to pay a heavy fine and close part of its stadium for three home games following crowd disturbances involving its fans. Continue reading...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The United States will open the defense of its CONCACAF Gold Cup title on July 7 against Honduras or French Guiana at Frisco, Texas. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18790[/attach] Three Danish women pleaded guilty on Thursday to breaking Kenyan customs laws by attempting to smuggle suitcases stuffed with a narcotic herb out of the country. The women were arrested at Moi International Airport in Mombasa with four suitcases containing 61 kilogrammes of khat, a mild herbal narcotic also known as miraa, that is grown legally in Kenya but banned in Europe. "Our officers discovered the miraa wrapped and hidden in the suitcases as the three waited to board a flight," said airport police chief Richard Okweya. It is believed the drugs were destined for Britain, where they would have an estimated street value equivalent to 20 million Kenyan shillings ($220,000). Continue reading...

[attach=full]18784[/attach] Iraqi commanders said Thursday that time was on their side as government forces tighten their siege of Tikrit and warned they would not be rushed into a final assault. Since the operation to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State group was launched at the start of the month, thousands of troops and militia have reconquered the land around the city. On Wednesday, they moved deep into Tikrit's sprawling northern district of Qadisiyah and closed in on the few hundred jihadist fighters holed up in the city centre. "We don't want to be rushed because we want to avoid casualties," he told AFP in Albu Ajil, a village from which Tikrit can be seen across the Tigris river. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18783[/attach] Over 200 people have been arrested in Tanzania as part of a nationwide crackdown on witchdoctors linked to a wave of albino attacks and murders, police said Thursday. "Some of those arrested were found in possession of items like lizard skin, warthog teeth, ostrich eggs, monkey tails, bird claws, mule tails and lion skin," said police spokesperson, Advera Bulimba. Bulimba said the police campaign would target the entire network of gangsters, traders and witchdoctors. The mass arrest comes a few days after President Jakaya Kikwete described as "disgusting and a big embarrassment for the nation" the ongoing attacks against people with albinism whose body parts are used for witchcraft. Continue reading...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland is seeking to obtain Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States or another country, Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said Thursday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18782[/attach] TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) — Rockets and mortars echoed across Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Thursday as Iraqi security forces clashed with Islamic State militants a day after sweeping into the Sunni city north of Baghdad. Continue reading...

By Megan Rowling SENDAI, Japan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The number of people forced from their homes each year by disasters has quadrupled over the past four decades, and the risk of being displaced has doubled, said a Norwegian humanitarian group. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), part of the Norwegian Refugee Council, called on governments meeting in Sendai, Japan, later this week to tackle displacement as part of a new global plan to reduce disaster risk worldwide. The plan's predecessor, the Hyogo Framework for Action, did not refer to displacement by disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and drought, the center said. "The world has a unique opportunity at Sendai to prevent millions of people from losing their homes by more robustly linking displacement risk with disaster risk reduction plans," said IDMC director Alfredo Zamudio. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18777[/attach] Despite Western and Arab hopes he would be consigned to the dustbin of history, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad enters his fifth year of war with an increasingly tight hold on power. Alarm over the sweeping expansion of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in Syria and Iraq means that international priorities have shifted away from Assad's removal. "Assad has improved his position internationally. The US, EU states and others are no longer demanding his immediate departure," said Volker Perthes, director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Continue reading...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official visit to Sri Lanka on Friday reflects a bounce back in bilateral relations as the South Asian power seeks to mitigate China's growing influence on its Indian Ocean neighbors. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18776[/attach] The Syrian conflict, which began with peaceful protests before escalating into a grinding civil war, has touched off a humanitarian catastrophe that has inundated the region. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18775[/attach] Formula One minnows Sauber on Thursday lost their appeal against a court ruling that ordered them to allow Giedo van der Garde to drive in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The decision in the Victoria Supreme Court throws their preparations into chaos, with the Swiss team claiming it would be unsafe to let him take part. Van der Garde originally took his complaint to a Swiss arbitration tribunal which ordered Sauber to keep him in the cockpit. Victoria Supreme Court Justice Clyde Croft backed that ruling, enforcing it in Australia. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18774[/attach] By Jared Ferrie YANGON (Reuters) - A student march through central Myanmar in protest against a new education law began as an unremarkable procession from the country's seat of learning and culture, Mandalay, to the commercial hub of Yangon. "I lived under military rule all my life and I never experienced such a crackdown," said Maung Moccy, a student leader and former political prisoner who said he saw police officers batter unarmed students with wooden batons. "Honestly, I'm afraid they have decided to backslide on democracy." The United States and the European Union, which have backed Myanmar's move towards democracy after half a century of military rule, have condemned the violence in the town of Letpadan, about 140 km (90) miles north of Yangon. The opposition National League for Democracy of Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel laureate and Myanmar's icon of political freedom, demanded an inquiry. Continue reading...

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — The port director in the northwest Mexico beach resort of Cabo San Lucas says a Canadian woman has died from injuries suffered when a surfacing gray whale crashed onto a tourist boat. Continue reading...

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) — American wild-card Irina Falconi advanced to the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday, beating Croatia's Ajla Tomljanovic 7-6 (6), 6-4. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18769[/attach] By Shihar Aneez and Sanjeev Miglani COLOMBO/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's suspension of a project to build a glittering skyline on land reclaimed from the Indian Ocean has prompted China to defend its investment, in a test of Beijing's ambitions to fund loans and major infrastructure ventures abroad. Recently elected President Maithripala Sirisena has vowed to look again at deals between China and his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa, saying they were not transparent, while India has eyed China's involvement in Sri Lanka with increasing alarm. China's new ambassador to Colombo, Yi Xianliang, said the port city project off Colombo that President Xi Jinping inaugurated last year would create 83,000 jobs. Continue reading...

Eighty-three percent of all the lights in Syria have gone out since the start of the conflict four years ago, a research report based on satellite images said on Thursday. More than 200,000 people have been killed and nearly four million have fled the country according to the United Nations. The uprising started in 2011 with a pro-democracy movement and a government crackdown and has since spiraled into a civil war. A coalition of 130 humanitarian and human rights organizations, calling themselves WithSyria, in coordination with scientists based at Wuhan University in China, found that the worst hit area was Aleppo province. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18768[/attach] KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The International Monetary Fund agreed Wednesday to extend $17.5 billion in loans to Ukraine as part of a program designed to pull the country back from the verge of economic collapse. Continue reading...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The war in Syria has plunged 80 percent of its people into poverty, reduced life expectancy by 20 years, and led to massive economic losses estimated at over $200 billion since the conflict began in 2010, according to a U.N.-backed report circulated Wednesday. Continue reading...