WorldNews

[attach=full]19961[/attach] KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's police chief said Monday that 17 suspected militants have been detained for allegedly plotting to carry out terrorist acts in the country's largest city, Kuala Lumpur. Continue reading...

China has temporarily closed its embassy and consulate general in Yemen because of worsening security there, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday. Two Chinese navy ships have evacuated 613 Chinese citizens and 279 foreigners from the county, the ministry also said, marking the first time that China's military has helped other countries evacuate their people during an international crisis. "Due to worsening security situations in Yemen, China temporarily closed its embassy and also the consulate general in Aden," the ministry said. Violence has been spreading across Yemen since last year, when Iran-backed Shi'ite Houthi fighters seized the capital, Sanaa, and effectively removed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19960[/attach] Saudi Arabia's cabinet said on Monday it welcomed an interim deal between Iran and world powers over Iran's disputed nuclear program and that it hoped a final deal would rid the region of weapons of mass destruction. Iran and six world powers -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia -- reached a framework agreement on Thursday that would curb Tehran's nuclear research for at least a decade and gradually lift Western sanctions. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19959[/attach] VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Monday again pressed the international community to do something about the killing of Christians in several parts of the world and not "look the other way." Continue reading...

The Kenyan air force bombed two al Shabaab camps in Somalia on Sunday, a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) source said, in the first major military response to last week's attack by the militant group on a Kenyan university. Gunmen from the al Qaeda-aligned group killed 148 people on Thursday when they stormed the Garissa University College campus, some 200 km (120 miles) from the Somali border. Jets pounded the camps in Gondodowe and Ismail, both in the Gedo region bordering Kenya, the military source said on Monday. "We targeted the two areas because according to information we have, those (al Shabaab) fellows are coming from there to attack Kenya," he said. Continue reading...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian court on Monday rejected appeals by two Australian drug traffickers who challenged President Joko Widodo's decision to refuse them clemency and spare their lives. Continue reading...

NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) — Perth beat Newcastle 2-0 Monday for a second successive win after a mid-season slump to move level with the Melbourne Victory at the top of Australian football's A-League. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19958[/attach] Seven civilians were killed in an attack in Chad blamed on Nigerian Boko Haram rebels, officials said Monday. The Islamist militants ambushed people on their way to a market in Tchoukou Telia near Lake Chad on Friday, Dimouya Souapebe, the deputy prefect of Baga Sola told AFP. Improvised mines were later discovered along the road between Tchoukou Telia and Ngouboua close to the Nigerian border, which Boko Haram also raided in recent weeks. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19957[/attach] A 100-year-old Japanese woman has become the world's first centenarian to complete a 1,500-metre freestyle swim, 20 years after she took up the sport. Mieko Nagaoka took just under an hour and 16 minutes to finish the race as the sole competitor in the 100-104-year-old category at a short course pool in Ehime, western Japan, on Saturday. "I want to swim until I turn 105 if I can live that long," the sprightly Nagaoka told Kyodo News. Her achievement is expected to be recognised by Guinness World Records, the agency reported. Continue reading...

A fire at a fuel storage facility near Brazil's largest port Santos entered its fourth day on Sunday as 110 firefighters worked to stop the flames from spreading further, the local fire department said. Six fuel tanks run by Ultracargo, owned by Brazil's Grupo Ultra, were hit since the blaze started on Thursday morning, sending a column of thick black smoke into the air. Two of them were still burning late on Sunday, the fire department and Ultracargo said. Continue reading...

The International Committee Red Cross hopes to bring vital medical supplies and aid workers into Yemen on Monday after receiving approval from the Saudi-led military coalition, an ICRC spokeswoman said. The aid agency has been negotiating for nearly a week to deliver life-saving supplies and equipment to Yemen, where the coalition has conducted 11 days of air strikes against Iran-backed Shi'ite Houthis. "We have received permission from the coalition for two planes now, one carrying supplies and one with staff," ICRC spokeswoman Sitara Jabeen told Reuters on Sunday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19949[/attach] NEW YORK (AP) — Luca Salsi was taking a walk with his wife on Manhattan's Upper West Side, when he got a call from Alvaro Domingo, son of the famous singer. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19948[/attach] PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain moved back above Lyon to the top in a hard-fought French title race after twice coming back from a goal down to win 3-2 away to bitter rival Marseille in a frenzied match on Sunday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19947[/attach] By Madjiasra Nako MALAM FATORI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Surveying the charred ruins of the northern Nigerian town of Malam Fatori, which Chadian troops and his own soldiers from Niger liberated from Boko Haram last week, Colonel Toumba Mohamed paused to reflect on Nigeria's landmark election. As the two nations' forces poured into the border town on Tuesday, driving out the Islamist fighters, Nigeria's election commission was announcing the victory of opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari. "We hope that finally the armies of Chad and Niger will be able to fight Boko Haram side by side with the Nigerian army," said Toumba, who expects to see changes when Buhari, a former general and Muslim from the north, is sworn in. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19938[/attach] Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday Israel had released frozen tax revenue to the Authority but that he had ordered the funds to be returned because money had been deducted to cover debts to Israeli utility companies. Israel started withholding around $130 million a month in tax and customs revenue in December. The move came after the Palestinians announced that they were joining the International Criminal Court (ICC), a move finalised on April 1. Under international pressure, Israel agreed last week to resume the transfers, saying it would immediately pay around $400 million, the withheld revenue minus the amount owed by the Palestinians for utilities supplied by Israel. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19937[/attach] Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee is well rested and excited for his fourth Masters start this week at Augusta National, confident more Asian success in golf's majors will come in time. South Korean Yang Yong-Eun's victory in the 2009 PGA Championship remains the only major title won by an Asian man, but 45-year-old Asian Tour star Thongchai has watched a rising tide of talent from India, China, Japan and South Korea. World number 43 Thongchai, one year younger than Jack Nicklaus when he became the oldest Masters winner at age 46, has not given up on making it happen himself, saying the Masters offers his best chance to contend. "I've had a full month of not playing in tournaments and was instead getting myself ready for the Masters. Continue reading...

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Police commanders in Jamaica have ordered a "high-level probe" into allegations that an officer was fatally shot after staging an attempted robbery with an accomplice at a bar. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19936[/attach] Demonstrators in Rio de Janeiro took to the famous sands of Copacabana on Sunday to protest the death of boy who was killed in the crossfire during a police gunfight in a favela. Police say Eduardo de Jesus Ferreira died during a shootout between officers and drug traffickers. Antonio Carlos Costa, the founder of the activist group, told AFP the purpose of the demonstration was to "wake up" Rio's population to the major cause of these violent deaths: the gap between rich and poor. "How will the city of Rio de Janeiro respond? Continue reading...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Olympiakos failed to clinch the Greek league title Sunday as it lost 3-1 to Giannena, delaying the leader's celebrations for at least one more round. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19930[/attach] West African bloc ECOWAS on Sunday withdrew an earlier statement announcing a regional summit on April 8 to discuss the Boko Haram threat, saying no such meeting was planned for that day. ECOWAS did not specify whether the summit had been cancelled or postponed. "We sincerely apologise for this misunderstanding," ECOWAS said, without giving any further details. Earlier on Sunday, ECOWAS had said leaders of west and central African states would gather in the capital of Equatorial Guinea, Malabo, on Wednesday to try to draw up a joint strategy against Nigeria's Boko Haram militants. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19929[/attach] BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq won the battle to retake the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State group, backed by a coalition of the unlikely in Iranian advisers, Shiite militias, and U.S.-led airstrikes, but the country now faces what could be its most important battle: Winning the support of the Sunnis. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19928[/attach] CAIRO (AP) — A bomb blast on a bridge leading to an upscale neighborhood in central Cairo killed a policeman and wounded at least two passers-by on Sunday, hours after Egyptian security forces killed the leader of an extremist group that claimed responsibility, police said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19927[/attach] Pope Francis appealed Sunday for an end to "absurd violence" in hotspots around the world and said the international community must not stand by in the face of the "immense humanitarian tragedy" in Syria and Iraq. In his traditional Easter message, the 78-year-old pontiff said he was praying for those killed in armed conflict, including the students massacred by Somali gunmen at a university in Kenya. In his third Easter message since his election as pope in 2013, the head of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics prayed "for peace, above all, for Syria and Iraq, that the roar of arms may cease". He called on the international community to "not stand by before the immense humanitarian tragedy unfolding in these countries and the drama of the numerous refugees" created by the two conflicts. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19926[/attach] Some 1,500 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy in five different boats were rescued in one day, Italian coastguards said Sunday. Four coastguard vessels and an Italian navy ship intervened Saturday to save three large boats carrying migrants off the Libyan coast after intercepting distress calls from satellite telephones, only to find two other migrants boats in difficulty nearby. The Italian vessels were on Sunday transferring the migrants to the island of Lampedusa and the Sicilian ports of Augusta and Porto Empedocle. In a separate incident on Saturday, 318 migrants were brought to the Sicilian port of Pozzallo after being rescued off Libya by an Icelandic navy ship taking part in a patrol for the EU borders agency Frontex. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19917[/attach] WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional scrutiny and approval of any nuclear agreement with Iran is essential and will help ensure the deal isn't a bad one, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Sunday. Continue reading...