WorldNews

[attach=full]19033[/attach] Pope Francis on Tuesday hailed the bravery of Nigerian priests who have stood strong in the face of Boko Haram violence and worked to build bridges with the Muslim community. "I wish here to express my heartfelt thanks to you, because in the midst of so many trials and sufferings the Church in Nigeria does not cease to witness to hospitality, mercy and forgiveness," he said. Boko Haram has seized swathes of territory in Nigeria's northeast in an Islamist insurgency that began in 2009 and has killed more than 13,000 people, displaced 1.5 million, and destroyed churches and mosques. Boko Haram's violence has intensified over the six-year conflict, with attacks into Chad, Cameroon and Niger. Continue reading...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Rioting in Poland sparked by the death of a teenager, who apparently choked to death while trying to swallow a drug packet as narcotics officers tried to stop him, has left eight people injured and 21 detained, authorities said Tuesday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19032[/attach] Israelis voted Tuesday in a close-fought election pitting the centre left against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is fighting for his political survival after six years in power. The last polls published on Friday indicated a narrow win for the centre-left Zionist Union, with the outcome likely to determine the prospects for new Middle East peace talks and Israel's troubled relations with its US ally. In a last-ditch appeal to the far-right ahead of the vote, Netanyahu ruled out the establishment of a Palestinian state if reelected, effectively reneging on his 2009 endorsement of a two-state solution. With smaller rightwing and religious parties likely to win more seats than the left, experts say Netanyahu has a better chance of piecing together a majority of at least 61 seats needed to win backing for a coalition. Continue reading...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden said on Tuesday a Swedish man died in the huge cyclone that tore across the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. A Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman said the man, aged around 80 and who had emigrated from Sweden, had been found dead. The ministry estimates fewer than 10 Swedes live in Vanuatu. The official death toll on Tuesday had reached 11, less heavy than initially feared. However, with relief workers still battling to reach many of the islands, officials have said the toll is likely to rise. (Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Alison Williams) Continue reading...

MIAMI (AP) — An associate sociology professor at Penn State University faces disorderly conduct charges after being removed from an American Airlines flight. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19031[/attach] Six people, including three young children, were killed in an alleged regime gas attack late Monday in northwestern Syria, a monitoring group and activists said. "Three children, their mother and father, and their grandmother suffocated to death after regime barrel bomb attacks" on their village in the province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Sarmin's local coordinating committee, an activist group, said chlorine gas had been used and published photos of a chaotic field hospital where disoriented victims coughed and held gas masks over their faces. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19030[/attach] LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — In an unusually upbeat assessment, Iran's top nuclear official said Tuesday his government's main disagreements with the U.S. and its negotiating partners have been resolved and expressed optimism about meeting a late March deadline for a framework deal. Continue reading...

The survivors of Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu are desperate for water, food and safe shelter, the Red Cross said on Tuesday as it launched an emergency appeal for 3.9 million Swiss francs ($3.8 million). The United Nations said on Tuesday the official death toll from the cyclone was 11, revising down its earlier figure of 24, but many officials anticipate that number would rise once they are able to more thoroughly inspect the outer islands of the scattered archipelago. "We are extremely concerned for the safety and well-being of many communities affected by the cyclone, particularly in the more remote regions of the country that are only accessible by boat," said Aurélia Balpe, regional head of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The typhoon left some 3,300 people homeless, and officials anticipate that the number will rise once they are able to land on Vanuatu's outer islands. Continue reading...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An American helicopter mechanic whose Facebook post complaining about his employer in the United Arab Emirates got him arrested in the Mideast nation said Tuesday he has been told the company is seeking to dismiss the charges against him. Continue reading...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine government said Tuesday that four Filipino nurses reported to have been kidnapped from a Libyan hospital by militants from an Islamic State group affiliate were actually taken to a safe place by a friend and were not abducted. Continue reading...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Former England international Dimitri Mascarenhas has been appointed bowling coach of the New Zealand cricket team, replacing Shane Bond who will leave the role after the current World Cup. Continue reading...

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal is adding more medical staff at Mount Everest's base camp and working to speed up rescue efforts, officials said Tuesday, in steps to boost safety after 16 local guides were killed by an avalanche last year in the deadliest disaster ever on the world's highest peak. Continue reading...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A Roman Catholic archbishop in Australia was charged Tuesday with covering up for a pedophile priest during the 1970s. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19025[/attach] BEIJING (AP) — The vice chairman of China's biggest state-owned energy company has become the latest prominent executive targeted by Communist Party investigators in a spreading anti-corruption campaign. Continue reading...

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador's foreign minister says that he and colleagues from Brazil and Colombia suggested Venezuela's president let the International Red Cross visit jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19019[/attach] An eccentric US tycoon was charged Monday over the execution-style killing of a mobster's daughter and could face death if found guilty, in the latest installment of a TV murder mystery which has captivated America. Robert Durst, 71, the scion of a New York real estate dynasty worth $4.4 billion, was charged in Los Angeles with murder over the 2000 death of his close friend Susan Berman, after he was arrested in New Orleans on Saturday. It was not clear if Durst was sincerely confessing, but authorities in Los Angeles reportedly said the television documentary had played a role in their decision to seek the multimillionaire's arrest for Berman's murder. Durst's attorney Dick DeGuerin said earlier Monday his client was innocent and ready to face trial in California. Continue reading...

ZURICH (AP) — FIFA withdrew its objection to Manaus and chose the Amazon jungle city on Monday to host matches at the 2016 Olympics. Continue reading...

By Chris Arsenault ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Economic losses due to natural disasters have tripled over the past decade, with farmers bearing nearly a quarter of the burden in poor countries, a U.N. study said on Tuesday. Floods, droughts, storms and other natural disasters cost the agricultural sector in developing countries $70 billion in damages between 2003 and 2013, said the study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) released during an international conference on reducing disaster risk in Sendai, Japan. Continue reading...

LONDON (AP) — It's a soldier's life no more for Britain's Prince Harry. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19015[/attach] The governor of northern Kenya's Mandera county on Monday attacked what he called a "hopeless" security situation due to a wave of cross-border attacks by Somalia's Shebab militants. Speaking in the capital Nairobi, Ali Roba said he had survived six attempts on his life -- including an ambush of his convoy on Friday -- and questioned why Kenyan soldiers were part of an African Union force supporting Somalia's government while leaving their own country unprotected. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19014[/attach] French experts reexamining evidence have confirmed their earlier conclusion that the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was not the result of poisoning, a prosecutor told AFP Monday. The prosecutor for the western Paris suburb of Nanterre said the experts found there was no foul play in Arafat's death, which sparked immediate and enduring conspiracy rumours. A centre in the Swiss city of Lausanne had tested biological samples taken from Arafat's personal belongings given to his widow after his death, and found "abnormal levels of polonium" -- an extremely radioactive toxin, but stopped short of saying that he had been poisoned by polonium. French experts "maintain that the polonium-210 and lead-210 found in Arafat's grave and in the samples are of an environmental nature," Nanterre prosecutor Catherine Denis said. Continue reading...

The European Union's financial affairs chief Pierre Moscovici said on Monday that Greece needed to repay its debt and could not expect its loans to be written off, adding that Athens needed to implement reforms. There will be no haircut, no debt relief," the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs said in a speech in Berlin. Moscovici said the contagion risks to the rest of the euro zone from the Greek crisis were "much lower" than they were two years ago but stressed that countries needed to press on with reforms. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19013[/attach] Britain's opposition Labour leader on Monday ruled out a formal coalition with Scottish separatists after May's general election, although the Scots' figurehead said an informal partnership was still possible. Labour's hopes of returning to power have been severely dented by a surge in support for the left-wing Scottish National Party, which threatens to wipe out Labour's majority of 40 out of 59 seats in Scotland -- and thereby possibly thwart their bid for a parliamentary majority of 326 seats. Prime Minister David Cameron -- whose own centre-right Tories also look unlikely to secure the majority needed to govern alone after May 7 -- has used the prospect of a coalition with SNP to attack Labour for several weeks. During a campaign speech in Leeds, northern England, on Monday, centre-left Labour leader Ed Miliband finally responded and ruled out a formal coalition with the SNP, saying: "There are big differences between us. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19012[/attach] NEW YORK (AP) — NBA teams will no longer be outfitted by Adidas after the 2016-17 season, as the shoemaker and sports gear company said Monday it wouldn't renew its partnership with the league. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19000[/attach] France has blocked five websites accused of condoning terrorism, in the first use of new government powers that came into force in February, the interior ministry said on Monday. One of the sites -- al-Hayat Media Center -- is accused of links to the Islamic State group, the ministry said. The banning order was given to Internet service providers, who had 24 hours to take "all necessary measures to block the listing of these addresses" under the new rules. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said at the time that 40 more people were likely to be barred from travelling in the coming weeks. Continue reading...