WorldNews

SAO PAULO (AP) — A bus carrying about 50 passengers plunged down into a deep ravine in the mountains of southeastern Brazil late Saturday, killing at least 40 people a police official said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18925[/attach] Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini believes the Premier League title race is not over despite a damaging 1-0 defeat to relegation battlers Burnley at Turf Moor. Burnley forward George Boyd scored the decisive goal with a superb half-volley to give the Clarets a deserved victory against the reigning champions on Saturday. The defeat means City are now five points behind league leaders Chelsea having played two games more than Jose Mourinho's side. Should Chelsea win their two matches in hand they would be 11 points clear of City, but Pellegrini refused to concede that they can no longer win the title. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18924[/attach] As the drive to reach an accord with Iran on its nuclear programme heads towards a March 31 deadline, France is digging into its role as chief hawk -- a position inclined to annoy US allies, but not likely to scuttle an eventual accord, diplomats say. The French hard-line among its US, British, Chinese, Russian and German partners to hammer out a nuclear agreement with Tehran is rooted in ideological, historical, and even personal concerns that tend to stiffen as Paris recognises Washington's increasing pragmatism in seeking to conclude a deal swiftly. "France has taken the opposite path to that of the United States, which changed strategies with the arrival of Barack Obama," said Bernard Hourcade, an Iran specialist at the National Centre of Scientific Research, who says France's current Socialist-led government adopted and defends the wary, intransigent stance towards Iran set down by previous conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18923[/attach] Arsene Wenger insists his Arsenal players believe they can overturn a 3-1 deficit against Monaco in the Champions League on Tuesday, but the Gunners manager is less confident about their chances of winning the Premier League. Goals from Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini secured a 3-0 win over West Ham that left Arsenal in buoyant mood ahead of their tricky last 16 second leg trip to Monaco in midweek. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18917[/attach] SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A wildfire burning near the Pacific ports of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar was contained but still a threat Saturday, authorities said, as many of 7,000 people who had been evacuated began returning home. Continue reading...

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Jonas and Eliseu Pereira scored to help Benfica beat 10-man Braga 2-0 at home Saturday and increase its overnight lead in the Portuguese league. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18916[/attach] BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Lionel Messi moved ahead of rival Cristiano Ronaldo with his 31st and 32nd Spanish league goals of the season as Barcelona won 2-0 at Eibar on Saturday to stay atop the standings. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18915[/attach] The World Cup's marathon group stage finally comes to an end on Sunday with the last two quarter-final places still up for grabs. Pakistan, the 1992 champions, 1975 and 1979 winners the West Indies and non-Test side Ireland are the three teams battling for two remaining places in the knockout phase from Pool B. The winners of the match between Pakistan and Ireland in Adelaide will be guaranteed a quarter-final spot in a fixture that will take place almost eight years to the day since the Irish knocked Pakistan out of the 2007 World Cup. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18914[/attach] Nigerian soldiers on Saturday detonated two homemade bombs found in a camp housing people displaced by Boko Haram violence in the restive northeastern city of Maiduguri, witnesses told AFP. The school was converted into a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) after Boko Haram Islamists captured the town of Bama, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) from Maiduguri, last July. Butari accused Boko Haram of being behind the foiled bomb attack. Scores of IDP camps dot Maiduguri following a huge influx of people fleeing towns and villages seized by Boko Haram, doubling the population of the city which stood at around one million people. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18904[/attach] KONTIOLAHTI, Finland (AP) — Germany ended Norway's three-year win streak in the men's relay at the biathlon world championships, winning the 4x7.5-kilometer race by 15.4 seconds on Saturday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18903[/attach] Leicester remain anchored to the bottom of the Premier League after failing to overcome 10-man Hull in a goalless draw at the King Power Stadium on Saturday. Nigel Pearson's side are seven points from safety after their seventh successive league game without a win. The visitors maintain a five-point cushion above the bottom three, and could have claimed the win despite the controversial second-half sending off of midfielder Tom Huddlestone. With games running out to save their Premier League status, the home team began at a high tempo but lacked the cutting edge to trouble Hull 'keeper Allan McGregor. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18902[/attach] Sierre Leone's Vice President Sam Sumana has applied for asylum at the US embassy in Freetown and is in hiding while his request is considered, a source close to him said Saturday. Sumana was expelled from the governing All People's Congress (APC) party this month for what was described as "his anti-party activities, including fomenting violence", although he denied the allegations and has appealed against his suspension to the party leadership. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18901[/attach] LEICESTER, England (AP) — Leicester missed a huge chance to earn three points in its fight for survival in the Premier League by drawing 0-0 at home to 10-man Hull on Saturday. Continue reading...

SAO PAULO (AP) — Sao Paulo may not be able to host games for the 2016 Olympic football tournament because of the high costs involved in the competition, city officials said this week. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18897[/attach] Valparaíso (Chile) (AFP) - Thousands of residents of Valparaiso began returning to their homes on Saturday, hours after fleeing a still-smoldering forest fire that threatened the treasured Chilean seaport city, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Most of the 7,000 people who had been evacuated after Chile declared a state of emergency Friday were permitted to return home, after the fire's "marginal" nighttime spread, according to one official. Meanwhile, a 67-year-old woman died from a heart attack, authorities said, after the national emergency office declared a red alert for Valparaiso and the neighboring city of Vina del Mar. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18896[/attach] US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday that talks on Iran's disputed nuclear programme have made progress, but there were still "important gaps" to overcome. Kerry, who is attending a three-day international investor conference in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, said the purpose of the Iran talks was "not just to get any deal, it is to get the right deal". The negotiations are entering their final phase, with Kerry due to meet his Iranian counterpart in Switzerland after the Sharm el-Sheikh conference ends. Six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany -- aim by the end of this month to nail down the outline of a deal that would prevent Tehran from making a nuclear bomb. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18895[/attach] Zambian President Edgar Lungu was discharged from hospital on Saturday after undergoing a medical procedure in South Africa following his collapse at a public event, his office said. "President Lungu, who was admitted to a Pretoria hospital, has today been discharged after specialist doctors certified (him) fit to resume full duties," press aide Amos Chanda said. "The presidency is working on arrangements for his return to Lusaka," he added. The newly appointed president, who suffers from recurring achalasia, a condition caused by narrowing of the oesophagus, was flown to South Africa last Tuesday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18894[/attach] German conglomerate Siemens has signed a "four billion euro" power deal with Egypt, a company spokesperson said on Saturday. Under a number of accords agreed between the parties, Siemens will build a "4.4 gigawatt combined cycle power plant and install wind power capacity of 2 gigawatt", the company added in a statement. Other projects would include building a factory in Egypt "to manufacture rotor blades for wind turbines". Under two further memorandums of understanding (MoU), Siemens will also propose to build additional "combined cycle power plants with a capacity of up to 6.6 gigawatts and ten substations for reliable power supply", the statement added. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18893[/attach] French sports stars and crew from the ill-fated reality TV series "Dropped" returned home from Argentina on Saturday as experts investigate the helicopter crash that killed 10 people, including three top French sports personalities. The week has been "very long, very long", skater Philippe Candeloro said before flying out of Buenos Aires along with the rest of the 27-person team, landing in the French capital on Saturday morning. Monday's accident killed Olympic champion swimmer Camille Muffat, renowned yachtswoman Florence Arthaud and Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine, as well as five French television crew members and two Argentine pilots. The television programme featured sports stars who were taken blindfolded into rugged environments and given 72 hours to get to a place where they could charge a mobile phone. Continue reading...

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian prosecutors have arrested a district mayor on charges of taking bribes and money laundering, the latest high-level figure to face corruption charges. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18888[/attach] One prisoner in one of Zimbabwe's most notorious jails has died after hundreds of inmates rioted over the poor quality of their food, state media reported on Saturday. The riot broke out at lunchtime on Friday at the Chikurubi maximum security prison in Zimbabwe's capital Harare. "The inmates had been released to have their lunch, unfortunately they protested the type of relish they had been given - vegetables, which they didn't want," Elizabeth Banda, Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) spokeswoman told the paper. He was caught up in the stampede," she said, adding that eight prisoners were injured and three prison offers were maimed as a result of the unrest. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18887[/attach] US President Barack Obama is "committed" to a two-state solution for Israel and Palestinians, Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday on the stalled Middle East peace process. "The position of the United States with respect to our long expressed hope, the Republicans and the Democrats alike (and) many presidents of the last 50 years or more, has always been for peace and President Obama remains committed to a two-state solution," Kerry said at a news conference in Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. Kerry said that Obama was "hopeful that whatever choice people of Israel make... (they) will be able to move forward on those efforts". Final opinion polls have put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party four seats behind its centre-left rival the Zionist Union for Tuesday's vote. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18886[/attach] MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — McLaren, the most successful team in the history of the Australian Grand Prix, will start Sunday's race with its two cars on the back row of the grid after a predictably bad, but nonetheless humiliating, qualifying session on Saturday. Continue reading...

ISLAMABAD (AP) — An elderly Pakistani mother made an emotional appeal Saturday for authorities to halt the execution of her son, who was sentenced to death at age 14. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18883[/attach] WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Many residents in cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu were forced to hunker a second night in emergency shelters after venturing out Saturday only to find their homes damaged or blown away, according to aid workers. Continue reading...