WorldNews

[attach=full]21515[/attach] VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cuban President Raul Castro paid a call Sunday on Pope Francis at the Vatican to thank him for working for Cuban-U.S. detente — and said he was so impressed by the pontiff he is considering a return to the Catholic church's fold. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21512[/attach] KUMANOVO, Macedonia (AP) — Eight police officers and 14 alleged members of an armed group have been killed in fighting in a northern Macedonian town, authorities said Sunday, amid increased concern about the political stability in the Balkan nation that has a history of ethnic hostilities. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21511[/attach] KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide attack on a government bus in Kabul on Sunday killed three people and wounded 18, the second attack on employees of the Afghan Attorney General's office in a week, an official said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21510[/attach] Shooting broke out for a second day on Sunday in northern Macedonia after clashes in the restive Balkan nation left at least eight officers and 14 gunmen dead, police said. "Eight police officers were killed and 37 were injured" in shooting in the city of Kumanovo that began Saturday at dawn, a police spokesman said, adding that 14 bodies in uniforms were also found, allegedly those of members of a "terrorist group". As the crisis-hit country declared two days of mourning, the European Union warned of the danger of escalation in a part of the nation hit by an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001. One in four Macedonians is an ethnic Albanian. Continue reading...

BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — About 200 women demonstrated in Burundi's capital, Bujumbura, as street protests resumed against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term in power. Continue reading...

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The United States is giving Jordan about $25 million worth of wheat for resale, with the money to be used for improving agricultural productivity. Continue reading...

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's smallest state, Bremen, is voting in an election that is expected to prolong the dominance there of the country's main center-left party. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21509[/attach] Cuban President Raul Castro arrived at the Vatican on Sunday to thank Pope Francis for his role in brokering the rapprochement between Havana and Washington. The first South American pope played a key role in secret negotiations between the United States and Cuba that led to the surprise announcement in December that they would seek to restore diplomatic ties after more than 50 years of tensions. Castro, who was accompanied by his Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, was due to hold a "strictly private" meeting with the pontiff in a small room adjoining the Paul VI Audience Hall, where large gatherings are held in the Vatican. Pope Francis arrived ten minutes ahead of Castro, while a dozen unformed Swiss Guards stood to attention in front of the building when the limousine bearing the Cuban flag arrived. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21508[/attach] By Marcin Goclowski and Pawel Florkiewicz WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland voted in the first round of a presidential election on Sunday that opinion polls show will send front-runner and incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski into a runoff against a conservative opposition challenger. A comfortable re-election for Komorowski would give a confidence boost to his allies in the centre-right Polish government, who face what will be a tightly fought race for another term later this year. Komorowski, 62, has campaigned on a platform that he is a safe pair of hands on national security. Barbara Gajewska, a 75-year-old pensioner at a polling station in Wegrow, 100 km (60 miles) east of the Polish capital, said she had voted for Komorowski. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21507[/attach] KONOSU, Japan (AP) — Julio Franco is getting the best of both worlds as a 56-year-old player-manager for the Ishikawa Million Stars of Japan's semi-professional Baseball Challenge League. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21506[/attach] SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's Shiite rebels and their allies in the country's splintered armed forces said Sunday they would accept a five-day humanitarian cease-fire to allow aid to reach civilians after more than a month of daily Saudi-led airstrikes. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21503[/attach] A tornado killed one person in a rural part of north Texas on Saturday and destroyed at least two houses, a local emergency official said, just days after a series of twisters tore through several Great Plains states. The twister touched down about 5 miles (8 km) south of the town of Cisco, an area of farms and small ranches, where it traveled in a straight line and tore through several houses in its path, said Eastland County Judge Rex Fields, the local emergency management coordinator. "We don’t even have everybody accounted for." In eastern Colorado, three tornadoes touched down in rural areas on Saturday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Kalina. There were no reports of injuries or property damage from the weak twisters, he said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21502[/attach] ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Kenan Evren, the general who led Turkey's 1980 military coup that ended years of street-clashes between rival left- and right-wing militias and but also unleashed a wave of arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings died on Saturday. He was 97. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21501[/attach] Defence ministers from five EU countries will meet Sunday for talks on a military campaign to stop human trafficking and reinforce the region's defences against the flow of migrants from North Africa. Officials from France, Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain will use events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Lorient, western France, to discuss how to battle the new threat facing Europe that has already cost thousands of lives. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21500[/attach] Crowds of protesters, many dressed in Jamaican colours, made their way through the streets of the French capital from the Place de la Republique to Bastille calling for the legalisation of recreational marijuana use. Rejecting the cliche that only "old hippies" smoke weed, he said cannabis "is the only thing that allows some epileptic children to live". Continue reading...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Saudi-led forces conducted air raids at dawn on Sunday in the Yemeni capital Sanaa targeting former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's house, sources in his political party and residents said. Three loud explosions were heard and plumes of smoke were seen rising from the area where Saleh's residence is located in the capital. (Reporting By Mohammed Ghobari; Writing By Maha El Dahan; Editing by Alex Richardson) Continue reading...

[attach=full]21495[/attach] ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Kenan Evren, the Turkish general who led a 1980 coup that ended years of violence but whose rule unleashed a wave of arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings, died on Saturday. He was 97. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21494[/attach] BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona was one victory away from clinching the Spanish league title after Real Madrid fell four points adrift on Saturday, when Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty in a 2-2 home draw to Valencia. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21493[/attach] Cathedrals and churches across Britain rang their bells on Saturday as part of the three-day commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day). London's St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey joined in the tribute while the HMS Ocean, one of the Royal Navy's largest ships, sounded its horn. Celebrations carried on into the evening with a concert at Horse Guards Parade in London, including performances from opera diva Katherine Jenkins, pop singer Pixie Lott and veteran rockers Status Quo. Continue reading...

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Benfica moved one step closer to successfully defending its Portuguese league title after it sealed bottom-side Penafiel's relegation with a 4-0 win on Saturday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21492[/attach] MILAN (AP) — Roma lost 2-1 at AC Milan to leave it at risk of missing out on second place in Serie A, while Paul Pogba marked his comeback with a goal as newly crowned champion Juventus drew 1-1 against relegation-threatened Cagliari on Saturday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21483[/attach] PARIS (AP) — Lyon's hopes of winning the French league appeared over after losing 3-0 at Caen to be six points behind leader Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday with two rounds left. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21482[/attach] SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — U.S. national team forward Alex Morgan won't play against Ireland in an exhibition game Sunday because of a bone bruise in her left knee. Continue reading...

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea said Saturday that it successfully test-fired a newly developed ballistic missile from a submarine in what would be the latest display of the country's advancing military capabilities. Hours after the announcement, South Korean officials said the North fired three anti-ship cruise missiles into the sea off its east coast. Experts in Seoul say the North's military demonstrations and hostile rhetoric are attempts at wresting concessions from the United States and South Korea, whose officials have recently talked about the possibility of holding preliminary talks with the North to test its commitment to denuclearization. Continue reading...

[attach=full]21481[/attach] MADRID (AP) — Petra Kvitova eased to her second Madrid Open title when she beat an unwell Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-2 in the final on Saturday. Continue reading...