WorldNews

[attach=full]19901[/attach] A super typhoon dissolved into a tropical depression and made landfall in the Philippines Sunday, forecasters said, easing fears after thousands of residents fled remote coastal villages to avoid potential giant waves. Maysak, which began as a Super Typhoon in the Pacific Ocean, reached the northeast coast of the main island of Luzon at 8:00 am (0000 GMT) with winds of 55 kilometres (34 miles) an hour, chief state weather forecaster Esperanza Cayanan said. "As of now, most of our fears have melted away," she told a news conference shortly after the depression reached Dinapigue, a remote town on Luzon's northeast coast, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) from Manila. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19896[/attach] Pope Francis condemned indifference and "complicit silence" to jihadist attacks on Christians as he presided over Easter ceremonies in the wake of a massacre of nearly 150 people at a Kenyan university by Shebab Islamists. The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics brought up the extremist persecution of Christians as the holiest ceremonies of the Church calendar reached a climax Sunday, when believers celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. The Vatican has increasingly voiced frustration that attacks on Christians in places such as Iraq, Libya, Pakistan and Nigeria have not been more strongly condemned by Muslim authorities and Western governments. Continue reading...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A bus carrying Fenerbahce players was shot at on a highway in northern Turkey on Saturday, the region's governor said. The bus driver was wounded and hospitalized. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19895[/attach] At least four people were killed Saturday when suspected Boko Haram fighters raided a local market in a village near the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, security sources said. Scores of Boko Haram gunmen stormed Kayamla village, 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) from Maiduguri, capital of restive Borno state, and opened fire on a weekly market, killing four traders, a senior security official in Maiduguri told AFP. Continue reading...

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Jonas scored twice as Benfica beat Nacional 3-1 to extend its lead of the Portuguese league on Saturday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19894[/attach] LONDON (AP) — With a seven-point lead and a game in hand, Chelsea's title triumph seems assured. What made the English Premier League action so thrilling on Saturday were the wonder goals. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19888[/attach] PARIS (AP) — Lyon kept the heat on Paris Saint-Germain in a close-fought French title race thanks to beating Guingamp 3-1 with a goal each from strike duo Nabil Fekir and Alexandre Lacazette on Saturday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19887[/attach] Hundreds rallied Saturday in the Gaza Strip in support of thousands of fellow Palestinians trapped in Syria's Yarmuk camp, which has been largely overrun by jihadist fighters. Hundreds, many waving Hamas flags, took to the streets in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis in a march organised by the militant Islamic movement, the de facto power in the coastal enclave. He called on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA to use all the influence at its disposal. "Reports of kidnappings, beheadings and mass killings are coming out from Yarmuk, which is under a brutal campaign of murder and occupation at the hands of the terrorist group of Daesh and its allies," he said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19886[/attach] VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis presided over the solemn Easter Vigil service Saturday night amid mounting Vatican concern for modern-day Christian martyrs whose deaths have dominated this Easter season. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19885[/attach] A massive statue of a "Transformers" style robot has gone on display in Ankara not, as some of residents suspected, as an elaborate April Fool's joke but erected by the city's mayor. The mass of metal and polyester, which now towers over a busy road junction in the centre of the Turkish capital, went up on Thursday to promote the new Anka theme park, which mayor Melih Gokcek is having built despite a court injunction over complaints it breaks city planning rules, local press reported. Gokcek, who has been mayor of this city of five million people since 1994, is one of the more colourful members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Turkish prosecutors last month launched an investigation into both him and Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc after the two politicians traded angry accusations as a row within the ruling party widened. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19884[/attach] LONDON (AP) — Chelsea responded to conceding from Charlie Adam's ultra long-range strike and losing Diego Costa to a hamstring injury by beating Stoke 2-1, moving seven points clear at the top of the Premier League on Saturday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19881[/attach] BERLIN (AP) — Robert Lewandowski struck on his first return to Borussia Dortmund as Bayern Munich defeated his former side 1-0 in the Bundesliga on Saturday. Continue reading...

YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Militants of the Urhobo minority ethnic group blew up a natural gas pipeline in Nigeria's Delta state in the early hours on Friday, a Nigerian official said on Saturday. "The Urhobo militants who carried out the attack have claimed responsibility," said Isa Ado, spokesman for the Pulo Shield taskforce, made up of members of various Nigerian security forces investigating oil theft in Nigeria's oil-producing delta region. ... Continue reading...

[attach=full]19880[/attach] Saudi Arabian special forces are involved in the military operation against Shiite Huthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen, a Saudi adviser said Saturday. A Saudi-led coalition began air strikes on March 26 against the Iran-backed rebels, but says it has no plans for now to deploy ground forces. Army special forces supplied weapons and communications equipment to militia loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in the main southern city of Aden, the adviser told AFP. Naval special forces provided "coordination and guidance" to enable the loyalist fighters to launch a counter-attack on the rebels. Continue reading...

CAIRO (AP) — The head of an Egyptian human rights organization said Saturday he is being held in a central Cairo police station following a police raid on the group's online radio station. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19879[/attach] BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State extremists at Iraq's ancient city of Hatra destroyed the archaeological site by smashing sledgehammers into its walls and shooting Kalashnikov assault rifles at priceless statues, a new militant video purportedly from the group shows. Continue reading...

SWANSEA, Wales (AP) — Bafetimbi Gomis scored twice, including a spectacular overhead strike, as Swansea beat 10-man Hull 3-1 in the Premier League on Saturday, dragging the visitors closer to the relegation scrap. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19872[/attach] LOS ANGELES (AP) — The total eclipse of the moon lasted only a short time, but it still dazzled. Continue reading...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A helicopter crashed outside Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, killing all six people on board, including a Malaysian lawmaker who was a former ambassador to the United States, officials said. Continue reading...

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Sevilla beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0 at home on Saturday to stay in the hunt for a top-four finish in the Spanish league. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19871[/attach] A building earmarked to house asylum seekers was set ablaze overnight, German police said Saturday, in an eastern town where the mayor recently resigned over far-right protests against his plans to house refugees. Markus Nierth, mayor of Troeglitz in Saxony Anhalt state, stepped down last month saying he felt abandoned by local authorities in facing neo-Nazi hostility over his support for accommodating about 40 refugees in the small village. The fire broke out early Saturday in the building set to become a home for asylum seek in May, and "no one was hurt," a police spokeswoman told AFP. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19866[/attach] MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine weather bureau on Saturday downgraded Typhoon Maysak into a storm as thousands of people were told to leave the country's northeastern coastline where it was headed from the Pacific after killing four people and destroying hundreds of homes in Micronesia. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19865[/attach] Romania will expel seven foreign nationals accused of recruiting members for the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda and propagating their ideas in the eastern European country, officials said Saturday. The Bucharest court of appeal this week ruled in separate cases that the seven should be prohibited from returning to the country for between three to seven years, Romania's interior intelligence agency SRI said in a statement. Six of the foreigners made up a group "affiliated to radical ideologies of the Al-Qaeda and Islamic State terrorist groups" and carried out "Islamic extremist propaganda... (and) recruitment for religious and military training in conflict zones affected by terrorism," the statement said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19864[/attach] DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — The writer, a thin young man who fears the growing interweaving of religion and politics in Bangladesh, knows his turn could come next. What happened earlier this week, when the second secularist blogger in less than a month was hacked to death in the streets of the capital, made it clear he wasn't safe. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19863[/attach] Sky-gazers in part of the Pacific Rim will have the chance to observe an "unusually brief" total eclipse of the Moon on Saturday night. Weather conditions permitting, the eclipse -- which occurs when the Sun, Earth and Moon are lined up so that the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow -- may be seen in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand as well as western North America. In Sapporo, in northern Japan, some 400 people are expected to flock to an observatory to jointly observe "nature's great phenomenon" on Saturday night, an observatory official said. Fine weather is forecast in northern Japan, while skies are likely to be overcast in other areas, including Tokyo, according to Japan's meteorological agency. Continue reading...