WorldNews

[attach=full]20184[/attach] Dístomo (Greece) (AFP) - Loukas Sehremelis was just 12 years old when Nazi troops burst into his house in the Greek village of Distomo, shooting and killing indiscriminately. A small town in central Greece still inhabited today, Distomo has become the symbol of atrocities committed by Nazi troops as they pulled back to Germany in the wake of the Allied Normandy landings in the summer of 1944. A quarter of Distomo's population died -- 218 people including infants and pregnant women who were disemboweled, says the town's deputy mayor Loukas Zissis, who lost his grandfather and uncle in the massacre. Germany's occupying forces used the pretext that they had come under attack by Greek guerrillas. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20183[/attach] Malaysia's parliament early Friday approved tougher penalties for sedition in a move criticised by the United Nations and described by the opposition as "a black day" for democracy and free expression. For the second time this week, the ruling coalition pushed through legislation that has been denounced by rights and legal advocates, after it on Tuesday passed an anti-terrorism law that allows authorities to detain people without charge. The amendments to the Sedition Act extend the maximum jail term to 20 years from the current three years and establish a minimum three-year jail term for certain cases. Courting votes ahead of 2013 elections, Prime Minister Najib Razak had promised to scrap the British colonial-era Sedition Act, long viewed as a tool to gag free speech. Continue reading...

SYDNEY (AP) — Perth Glory will not be allowed to compete in this year's A-League playoffs after Football Federation Australia announced Friday that the club was guilty of breaking rules related to the salary cap. Continue reading...

Japan's weather bureau said in its monthly outlook on Friday that the possibility of an El Nino weather pattern forming by summer remains high, but gave no probability forecast. The previous El Nino, which emerged last summer, ended over winter and conditions appear to be normal now, the bureau said. Last month, it raised its projections for an El Nino pattern emerging by summer to more than 50 percent. U.S. and Australian weather bureaus have also put the probability for the phenomenon emerging this year at 50-70 percent. Continue reading...

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The key hole in the first round of the Masters. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20171[/attach] AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Rory McIlroy knows full well what he can accomplish this week at the Masters. So he decided to remain patient when he found himself over par through the first 11 holes. Continue reading...

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A brief look at the first round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20170[/attach] AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Charley Hoffman considers himself quite the veteran of the Masters. Whenever he's not playing, this storied tournament is must-see TV for him. Continue reading...

AVONDALE, La. (AP) — IndyCar officials are requiring engine manufacturers Honda and Chevrolet to make structural upgrades before this weekend's Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20158[/attach] AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The sight of former champions playing way past their prime is a familiar one at Augusta National. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20157[/attach] Members of an expedition in which two Spaniards died rock climbing in Morocco accused Moroccan authorities on Thursday of letting the climbers perish by obstructing rescue efforts. "It was a murder committed by the Moroccan authorities with the consent of the Spanish government," said expedition member Juan Morilla. He spoke alongside Juan Bolivar, a 27-year-old policeman who spent days trapped in the ravine with the two victims, lawyer Gustavo Virues, 41 and another policeman, Jose Antonio Martinez, also 41. Continue reading...

By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - The Atlantic Ocean will see a "well below average" number of hurricanes this season due to cooler Caribbean waters and a strong El Nino effect, forecasters with Colorado State University predicted on Thursday. In an average year, the Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico see 12 named tropical storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes during the six-month season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, the report said. Continue reading...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — For the first time in its history, European soccer's governing responded to a team's protests by unexpectedly ordering part of a match to be replayed because of a referee's error. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20156[/attach] SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Shiite rebels and allied troops overran the capital of an oil-rich Yemeni province in a heavily Sunni area on Thursday, making significant territorial gains despite Saudi-led airstrikes, now entering their third week. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20143[/attach] HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — When the country's censors blacked out scenes from the film adaptation of the bestselling erotic novel, "Fifty Shades of Grey," many Zimbabwean movie lovers couldn't care less. They soon had another option, which was more explicit and cheaper. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20142[/attach] A Dutchman freed from captivity in Mali by French soldiers this week described his struggle to remain mentally and physically well during the three and a half years he spent sleeping outside in the desert as an Al Qaeda hostage. In his first statement since being freed on Monday, Sjaak Rijke said the years of captivity had been difficult although he had mostly been well treated by his captors. "The past years have been tough, both physically and mentally," he said in a statement issued via the Dutch foreign ministry on Thursday in which he asked for privacy as he and his family recovered from the ordeal. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20141[/attach] MILAN (AP) — A man on trial for fraudulent bankruptcy opened fire in Milan's courthouse Thursday in a "cold, premeditated" spree, killing his lawyer, a co-defendant and a judge before being captured nearly 25 kilometers away as he fled on a motorbike, officials said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20140[/attach] NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged lower Thursday as investors assessed some mixed news on company earnings. Energy stocks rose as oil recouped some of its losses from a big sell-off on Wednesday. Continue reading...

An Egyptian court sentenced a former provincial governor to four years in jail, judicial sources said on Thursday, for violating a law used to jail hundreds of Islamist and secular activists in the last 18 months. Hassan El-Nagar, a former judge, was appointed governor of the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya in 2012 by Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, who was ousted by the army in mid-2013 following protests. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20133[/attach] NEW DELHI (AP) — India's top court on Thursday granted an Italian marine's request to extend his medical leave in Italy before he and a fellow marine face charges over the 2012 shooting of two Indian fishermen. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20132[/attach] TOKYO (AP) — The last time the United States tried the military option on North Korea, more than a million died, a hostile and unexpectedly resilient adversary emerged and instead of regime change it got three generations of the Kim family. Understandably, there is little appetite in Washington to try that again. But if sending in the Marines is off the table, what's an administration to do? Continue reading...

[attach=full]20131[/attach] Kiev (AFP) - The Ukraine parliament on Thursday voted to ban all "propaganda by the totalitarian Communist and Nazi regimes". Continue reading...

GROZNY, Russia (AP) — A U.S. jury found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty of the Boston Marathon bombing, and his own lawyer admitted it in court, but a relative said Thursday that she remains convinced that he and his now-dead elder brother had no reason to carry out such a terrorist attack. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20130[/attach] BEIRUT (AP) — A senior Palestinian official said Thursday that an agreement has been reached with the Syrian government to use military force to expel Islamic State militants from an embattled Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20121[/attach] Oil prices rose more than a percent on Thursday, clawing back part of the 6 percent slump in the previous session that was triggered by a shock jump in U.S. crude inventories and record Saudi output, although analysts said sentiment remained bearish. A 10.95 million-barrel surge in U.S. crude stockpiles to 482.4 million last week, the biggest gain in 14 years, and Saudi oil production of 10.3 million barrels a day in March had battered crude futures on Wednesday. "Total U.S. crude stocks continued to fly far above 5-year highs, setting new records every week," Societe Generale analysts said in a note. Cushing, the delivery point for West Texas Intermediate contracts, is now filled to 85 percent of its total working capacity of 70.1 million barrels, the bank said. Continue reading...