WorldNews

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela is asking foreign governments to share information about large offshore bank deposits amid a spate of reports that $2 billion was siphoned off by corrupt, top-level officials at state-run oil company PDVSA. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19354[/attach] HALTERN, Germany (AP) — A stunned German town mourned 16 students who went down aboard Germanwings Flight 9525 on their way home Tuesday from a Spanish exchange, while the opera world grieved for two singers who were returning from performing in Barcelona — one of them with her baby. Continue reading...

By Oludare Mayowa and Julia Payne LAGOS/ABUJA (Reuters) - The Nigerian federal high court in Lagos has barred the military from deploying around polling stations during March 28 national elections, the lawyer for the parliamentarian who brought the case said on Tuesday. Opposition leader Femi Gbajabiamila argued a deployment would violate the constitution, lawyer Ijeoma Njemanze said, amid opposition fears that soldiers may intimidate voters or tamper with ballot boxes. The ruling, made on Monday by Justice Ibrahim Buba, does not affect troops already dispatched to northeast Nigeria, where Islamists have waged a six-year insurgency, she added. The tight election pits President Goodluck Jonathan against former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari for the leadership of Africa's biggest economy and leading energy producer. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19353[/attach] A German budget airliner crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday with all 150 people on board declared dead, in one of the worst air crashes in France in 40 years. - An Airbus A320 of Lufthansa's low cost company Germanwings, operating Flight 4U 9525, takes off towards 09:35 am (0835 GMT) from Barcelona in Spain for Duesseldorf in Germany, where it is expected to land at 11:57 am. - As it flies over southeastern France the French civil aviation authority DGAC declares that the plane is "in distress" at 10:47 am. The aircraft does not send out a Mayday signal, and the DGAC does not receive any radar signals from the plane or have any contact with the flight crew. - France's interior ministry announces the crash in the Alpine region of Barcelonnette. Continue reading...

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights says Chile has made "extraordinary progress" in economic growth and poverty reduction, but high rates of inequality persist. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19347[/attach] FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germanwings, a low-cost unit of Lufthansa, had recorded no accidents involving passenger deaths until one of its planes crashed in the French Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 on board. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19346[/attach] BOSTON (AP) — The group behind Boston's bid to host the 2024 Olympics said Tuesday that it wants the residents of Massachusetts to decide whether the effort to bring the games to the city should go forward. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19345[/attach] By Denis Dumo JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's parliament voted on Tuesday to extend President Salva Kiir's term in office by three years, after elections due to be held in June were called off and negotiations to end more than a year of internal conflict broke up without agreement. Speaker Manasseh Magok Rundial said parliament overwhelmingly approved Kiir's extension, as well as similar three-year prolongation of parliament's own term. Thousands of people have been killed and more than a million have fled their homes since fighting between supporters of Kiir and former vice president Riek Machar erupted in the world's newest nation in December 2013. The 270 members of parliament present voted on Tuesday to amend the country's transitional 2011 constitution to extend the presidential and parliamentary term until July 9, 2018, with 264 members in favor and a handful opposing it. Continue reading...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Prosecutors are seeking a five-year prison sentence for the owner of a Dutch meat processing plant who is accused of selling horse meat as beef. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19344[/attach] BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Nenad Mihailovic flouts Serbian taboo. He's openly gay in a country notorious for strident homophobia. He uses a wheelchair in a society that shows little sympathy for the disabled. And he's a voice of liberal thinking in a nation where strong leaders have a tendency to quash dissent. Continue reading...

LONDON (AP) — Kevin Pietersen secured a release from his contract with Indian Premier League side Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday in a bid to reignite his England career. Continue reading...

The German government said on Tuesday it was sending air safety experts and its transport minister to the site of a plane crash in France involving GermanWings and the foreign minister said his thoughts were with victims' relatives. Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt will travel to the crash site in southern France, his ministry said, adding that German air safety experts were already on their way. Continue reading...

Turkish security forces have launched an operation targeting shelters and stores believed to belong to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the military said on Tuesday, days after the group's jailed leader called its armed struggle "unsustainable". On Saturday jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan called for his group to hold a congress on ending its armed struggle, which he said had become "unsustainable". Continue reading...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The Maldives government has invited the United Nations and other international organizations to observe the former president's appeal of his 13-year jail sentence. Continue reading...

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Laila Bassam AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of Syria and Iraq met in Damascus on Tuesday to discuss ways to tackle militant groups in their countries and Iraq called for greater international cooperation to combat the violence, Syrian state media said. The Shi'ite Muslim-led government in Baghdad, together with Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, have been important allies for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Iraq's armed forces are also the main partner on the ground for a U.S.-led coalition bombing Islamic State militants in Iraq but Washington and other Western governments have dismissed the idea of cooperating directly with Syria in the same fight. Continue reading...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama welcomes Afghanistan's new president to the White House on Tuesday with a fraught question staring them in the face: Will the U.S. slow its departure from Afghanistan — and for how long? Continue reading...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Two intelligence officials in Pakistan say a suspected U.S. drone strike just across the border in Afghanistan has killed at least nine militants. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19340[/attach] YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Police in northwestern Myanmar have rejected a lawsuit filed by two Buddhist monks against Myanmar's home minister and police chief, saying they are protected by law. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19339[/attach] In a crumbling Khartoum sports hall, a dozen Nuba men in sweat-faded singlets practise wrestling moves under the critical gaze of their Japanese coach, 23-year old Kosuke Sunagawa. The students had to return to work to support themselves, making it difficult to find time for wrestling. Continue reading...

HONG KONG (AP) — China's manufacturing fell to the lowest level in nearly a year as new orders shrank, according to a report Tuesday that underscored the weakening outlook for the world's second biggest economy. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19335[/attach] Auckland (AFP) - South Africa won the toss and opted to bat first against New Zealand in their World Cup semi-final at Eden Park on Tuesday. Continue reading...

By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. diplomat in Yemen on Monday said Washington and its allies need to make decisions quickly to preserve the possibility of a political solution to the crisis in Yemen. Ambassador Matthew Tueller said he was optimistic that rival Yemeni factions could reach a political power-sharing agreement if a broad group of representatives could meet outside the country and without the influence of outside parties such as Iran. "We recognize that we've got to make some decisions quickly," Tueller told Reuters after a meeting of the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, citing rapid advances by the Iranian-allied Houthi militia toward the southern port of Aden, where Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fled. Al-Faisal spoke after Riyadh Yaseen, named by Hadi as his interim foreign minister, called for Gulf Arab military intervention in Yemen, and notably the imposition of a no-fly zone, to stop territorial advances by Houthi fighters. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19338[/attach] An Argentine archaeologist who discovered what he thinks was a hideout built for German Nazis to flee to after World War II said more dark secrets may be buried there. Daniel Schavelzon grabbed headlines and revived uncomfortable memories for Argentina, a notorious refuge for Nazi war criminals, when he went public at the weekend with his discovery of mysterious ruins deep in the jungle that he suspects were planned as a Nazi hideout. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19337[/attach] SAPPHIRE, North Carolina (AP) — A Florida businessman who authorities say faked his own death to dodge debts while reaping millions in life insurance benefits is sitting in a North Carolina jail after allegedly applying for a passport under another man's name. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19336[/attach] African elephants could be extinct in the wild within a few decades, experts warned at a major conservation summit in Botswana that highlighted an alarming decline in numbers due to poaching for ivory. The Africa Elephant Summit, held at a tourist resort in Kasane, gathered delegates from about 20 countries across Europe, Africa and Asia, including China -- which is accused of fuelling the illegal poaching trade. Continue reading...