WorldNews

[attach=full]19667[/attach] TOKYO (AP) — Japan is not planning to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, its government spokesman said Tuesday, while Taiwan announced it would apply for membership, joining dozens of countries in signing up to an initiative opposed by Washington. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19666[/attach] Nigerian opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari held a lead of more than two million votes Tuesday in the country's general election, but with President Goodluck Jonathan's strongholds yet to report, the final result was too close to call. Just over half of Nigeria's states have declared returns in the vote pitting Jonathan against former military ruler Buhari in the closest election ever in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and biggest economy. Buhari built his early lead in northern states dominated by the mainly Muslim, Hausa-Fulani ethnic group of which he is a member. So far, Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) has won 10 states, with Jonathan, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) taking eight plus the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19665[/attach] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday he was planning to take part in marathon talks aimed at curtailing Iran's nuclear programme, saying chances of a deal were significant. "Indeed I am planning to return and take part in the final part of the ministerial meeting of the six powers," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow. Moscow had said earlier that Lavrov, who participated in the talks on Monday, would only return if there was a realistic chance of a deal. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19664[/attach] Canadian lawmakers voted Monday to extend a campaign of airstrikes against the Islamic State group and for the first time strike at them in Syria as well as in Iraq. Canada first joined the US-led airstrikes on the IS group in November. Its expanded air campaign was authorized until March 30, 2016. Continue reading...

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Police say a 12-year-old boy was allegedly stabbed to death by a sixth-grade classmate at a Jamaican school. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19663[/attach] MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Pakistan-born refugee Fawad Ahmed was named to Australia's test squad Tuesday for tours of the West Indies and England later this year after an impressive domestic first-class season. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19662[/attach] Marathon talks aimed at stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons reach the finish line Tuesday as global powers scramble to clear the final hurdles hours before a midnight deadline for a framework deal. After 18 months of tortuous talks, foreign ministers from Iran, the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany hope such an accord will end a standoff that has been threatening to escalate dangerously for 12 years. US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Lausanne since Wednesday in the latest in a series of meetings with Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif that have criss-crossed the globe, late Monday said there was still work to do. A meeting between Kerry and his counterparts from the other five powers was expected to begin first thing on Tuesday, without Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov however who left on Monday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19661[/attach] Tottenham's Harry Kane is set for his full England debut alongside Wayne Rooney in a friendly against Italy on Tuesday. Spurs sensation Kane has been in scintillating form in the Premier League this season and scored his maiden England goal when he came off the bench during a 4-0 rout of Lithuania in a Euro 2016 qualifier at the weekend. With Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck both sidelined with injury, England manager Roy Hodgson has had little choice but to give the 21-year-old Kane his full competitive debut at Juventus Stadium. Continue reading...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican officials have announced new measures that would prevent a pilot from being left alone in the cockpit in the wake of a German airliner's crash in France. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19654[/attach] ZAVIDOVICI, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Salem Hajdarovac says he didn't sleep for a week when he heard his workshop had been granted the honor of carving a special chair that Pope Francis will sit on during his visit to Bosnia. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19653[/attach] ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — There was a time when the edge to Juan Pablo Montoya was evident everywhere he went. His arrogance was on display as he walked through the paddock, his confidence in a race car clear with every fearless move he made. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19652[/attach] Bamako (AFP) - The MUJAO jihadist group on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on a Red Cross aid truck in northern Mali that left one international staff member dead and wounded a local colleague. Continue reading...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican civil-defense officer faces a criminal complaint for killing a crocodile with extended bursts of automatic fire from an assault rifle in the northern state of Sinaloa. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19646[/attach] Mexico became the latest country on Monday to require the presence of two airline crew members in cockpits at all times, following the apparently deliberate Germanwings crash by the co-pilot. The transport ministry said it will issue new rules requiring that an authorized and specially-trained crew member stay in the cockpit when one of the pilots needs to get out. "This is a measure to strengthen operational security to guarantee that a person can help the pilot in the cockpit open the door at any time in planes with armored or reinforced cockpits," civil aviation director general Gilberto Lopez told a news conference. When a pilot needs to leave the cockpit, the captain will call in a crew member familiar with how to open or close the door, but that person will not be allowed to sit in the pilot's seat, Lopez said. Continue reading...

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — A trial of six Azerbaijani citizens accused of fighting alongside the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq has begun in Azerbaijan's capital. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19645[/attach] Global powers are racing against the clock to nail down the final pieces of a framework deal aimed at stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb by Tuesday's midnight deadline. Adding to the drama, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov left the crunch talks with Iran in Switzerland after a series of meetings, Russian media reported. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said major points of contention were Iran's "very ambitious" demands once a first "phase" of a deal lasting around 10 years expires. They want Iran to scale back its nuclear programme to give the world ample notice of any dash to make the bomb and end a crisis that has threatened to escalate dangerously for 12 years. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19644[/attach] An Egyptian court Monday commuted a three-year jail sentence given to three men for the brutal street killing of a dog that was recorded and went viral on the Internet. A Cairo appeals court accepted an appeal by the three defendants and reduced the sentence to three months for two of them and one month for the third, a court official told AFP. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19643[/attach] TORONTO (AP) — An Air Canada passenger plane landed so significantly short of the runway in Halifax that it hit a power line and knocked out power at the airport, the lead investigator said Monday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19641[/attach] Thousands of US and South Korean troops, backed by helicopters and jet fighters, staged a massive, amphibious landing drill on Monday -- the centrepiece of an annual military exercise condemned by North Korea. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19640[/attach] Barack Obama will make a long-awaited return to Kenya this July, visiting his father's homeland for the first time since becoming US president, the White House announced Monday. During the much-delayed visit, Obama will attend a summit to encourage entrepreneurship and meet the country's controversial leader Uhuru Kenyatta. Obama's late father was from a small village near the shores of Lake Victoria. He met Obama's white American mother in Hawaii, where they had a son before divorcing. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19639[/attach] ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan named Azhar Ali as captain for limited-overs cricket on Monday after ignoring the middle-order batsman for the Cricket World Cup, where it was eliminated in the quarterfinal. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19638[/attach] An American healthcare worker who contracted the dangerous Ebola virus while working in Sierra Leone has improved and is now listed in fair condition, hospital officials said Monday. The man, whose identity has not been revealed, "has improved from serious to fair condition," said a statement from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. In a statement released on Thursday, PIH co-founder Paul Farmer said that the man had, "in the opinion of some of the best doctors and nurses in the world, turned the corner," after his condition improved from critical to serious. The patient was evacuated from Sierra Leone on March 14 and brought to the NIH's Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland just outside Washington for treatment. Continue reading...

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Prince William has started his new job — working as air ambulance helicopter pilot. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19633[/attach] LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister David Cameron paid a courtesy call on Queen Elizabeth II, then launched a most uncourteous attack on his main political rival, as campaigning formally began Monday in the most unpredictable U.K. election in decades. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19632[/attach] SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Hundreds of Kashmiris in both India and Pakistan moved to higher ground Monday as rain-swollen rivers swamped parts of the disputed Himalayan region placed under an emergency flood alert just six months after some 600 people died in flooding that left the region in shambles. Continue reading...