WorldNews

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev on Thursday urged the West to maintain strong sanctions against Russia over last year's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula to pressure the Russian "aggressors" to leave without using military force. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19141[/attach] Baghdad is sending a payment of $412 million to Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, a sign that a budget deal between the two sides is still on track, the finance minister said Thursday. "A decision has been taken by the government and the finance ministry to send a payment worth... 490 billion Iraqi dinars ($412 million/389 million euros) to the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) to cover actual expenses for February," Hoshyar Zebari told AFP. The payment includes funding for the Kurdish peshmerga security forces, who are battling the Islamic State group that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad last year, Zebari said. Baghdad and Kurdistan had reached a deal under which the three-province region would export 250,000 barrels of oil per day and 300,000 bpd from disputed Kirkuk province, while the federal government would release the region's share of national revenue. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19140[/attach] Saudi Arabia has stopped issuing business visas to Swedish citizens, the Swedish foreign ministry said Thursday amid a deepening diplomatic row between the Nordic country and the Gulf. Sweden "has been informed" by Riyadh of the development, a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP. We don't want this situation with Saudi Arabia," Swedish news agency TT quoted Prime Minister Stefan Loefven as saying in Brussels. Sweden last week cut military ties with Saudi Arabia after Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem accused Riyadh of blocking her from making a speech about human rights to the Arab League. Continue reading...

About 290 U.S. Army paratroopers will travel to western Ukraine next month to train three battalions of Ukrainian national guard troops, the Pentagon said on Thursday, moving ahead with a long-planned mission that was delayed due to a peace deal. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said 290 members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade based at Vicenza, Italy, would carry out the training at the Yavoriv training center in western Ukraine, probably sometime in late April. Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the head of U.S. Army troops in Europe, told reporters this week the training mission had been delayed in part to avoid giving Moscow a reason to back out of a peace deal agreed last month between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists. Continue reading...

NEW YORK (AP) — Watch out Apple: Swiss company Tag Heuer is developing its own smartwatch with tech rivals Google and Intel. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19139[/attach] AL-MARJ, Libya (AP) — Libya's army chief, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, warned in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday that Europe will face infiltration by Islamic State group militants from Libya if the West fails to support his forces with arms and ammunition. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19132[/attach] The Obama administration insisted before skeptical lawmakers Thursday that any deal with Iran would ensure for "perpetuity" that it could not develop nuclear weapons. A comprehensive accord would also see "phased, proportionate" relief from tough sanctions that have severely constrained Iran's economy, but such relief could be swiftly reversed should the Islamic republic violate any final deal, said Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "That is simply not true," Blinken told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19131[/attach] BERLIN (AP) — Thousands of international travelers were stranded Thursday as a strike by Lufthansa pilots was extended to long-haul flights, and Germany's largest airline said it was preparing for even more cancellations on Friday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19130[/attach] The United States is deeply disturbed by reports that Syrian government forces attacked the town of Sarmin using chlorine as a weapon on March 16, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement on Thursday. "While we cannot yet confirm details, if true, this would be only the latest tragic example of the Assad regime's atrocities against the Syrian people, which the entire international community must condemn." A group monitoring the Syrian civil war said on Tuesday that government forces carried out a poison gas attack that killed six people in the northwest, and medics have posted videos of children suffering what they said was suffocation. Kerry has been getting tough on Syria in recent days after raising concerns among Middle East allies that the United States is open to negotiating with Assad, who has been fighting Islamist and other rebels since 2011. The State Department has said the United States is seeking a negotiated political settlement but one that excludes Assad. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19129[/attach] PARMA, Italy (AP) — Crisis-hit Serie A club Parma was declared bankrupt by an Italian court Thursday with debts of more than 200 million euros ($220 million). Continue reading...

[attach=full]19128[/attach] Beirut (AFP) - The Islamic State jihadist group on Thursday claimed responsibility for an attack on Tunisia's national museum that killed at least 21 people. Continue reading...

BRUSSELS (AP) — Switzerland has signed a preliminary agreement with the European Union that will make it much harder for the 28-nation bloc's citizens to evade taxes by hiding money in Swiss vaults. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19127[/attach] MERIBEL, France (AP) — Lindsey Vonn won the World Cup super-G title for the fifth time after winning the last race in the discipline on Thursday at the season-ending finals. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19126[/attach] FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — After the disappointment of the Champions League, the Bundesliga returns with a pair of matches that could decide who will be in the elite competition next season. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19125[/attach] DETROIT (AP) — Honda is adding nearly 105,000 vehicles to its growing U.S. recall of driver's side air bag inflators that can explode with too much force. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19124[/attach] By Luke Baker JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The day before Israel's election, with polls showing he could lose, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the Palestinians would never have their own state on his watch. It was a sweeping statement that flew in the face of his own past commitments and 25 years of international efforts to arrive at a two-state solution to the conflict: Israel and an independent Palestine living side-by-side. France and Germany called on the new government to stick to the two-state goal and the European Union counseled calm at a "crucial moment". The United Nations said the only way for Israel to remain democratic was to stick to the peace process, which sees two states as the final objective. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19120[/attach] Britain's economy is set for faster-than-expected growth this year, the coalition government predicted Wednesday as it vowed to move from austerity to prosperity in its last budget before elections. Finance minister George Osborne hiked Britain's 2015 growth forecast to 2.5 percent in the coalition's final budget before May's general election, up from a prior estimate of 2.4 percent after 2.6-percent expansion last year, and cut his deficit forecasts. To cheers and jeers from rowdy lawmakers, and with 50 days to go until election day on May 7, there were voter-friendly sweeteners too with tax cuts on beer, cider and spirits, while a fuel duty rise was axed following a slump in world oil prices. There was also a reward for savers -- who have long been punished by Britain's record-low interest rates -- with the introduction of a new personal savings allowance under which the first £1,000 ( $1,466, 1,381 euros) in interest will be tax free. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19119[/attach] MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Rohit Sharma smashed an authoritative century to help India recover from a slow start and reach 302-6 in its World Cup quarterfinal against Bangladesh on Thursday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19118[/attach] Two men were killed and more than ten were wounded after gunmen opened fire in a pub in a suspected gang-related attack in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, police said. "Two died and between ten and fifteen were wounded," police spokesman Bjoer Blixte told AFP, adding that up to four of those injured were in a serious but stable condition. "We are assuming that this is gang-related and not a terrorist attack," he said. Sweden and neighbouring Denmark have a longstanding problem with criminal gangs, including Hells Angels, Bandidos and several immigrant groups which battle for control of the local drug trade. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19117[/attach] BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's Supreme Court announced Thursday that former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will stand trial for her role in overseeing a rice subsidy program spearheaded by her ousted government that lost billions of dollars, a move likely to deepen the long-running political crisis in the military-ruled nation. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19116[/attach] Two British people were "caught up" in a gun attack on Tunisia's national museum that killed 17 foreign tourists, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said on Thursday. The Foreign Office did not clarify whether the two British people had been hurt in the attack in the capital Tunis. "We can confirm that two British nationals were caught up in the shootings in Tunis on Wednesday and that we are providing consular assistance," the Foreign Office spokesman said. Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the attack, writing on Twitter "Appalled by sickening terrorist attack in Tunis - my thoughts are with those affected. Continue reading...

Three Japanese citizens were killed in an attack on Tunisia's national museum and not five as Tunisia said, Japanese government officials said on Thursday. Earlier, Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said five Japanese were among 19 people killed when gunman wearing military uniforms stormed the museum on Wednesday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said earlier Japan strongly condemned terrorism and the government was gathering information about the attack in Tunisia. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19107[/attach] LONDON (AP) — American tennis player Wayne Odesnik was banned Wednesday for 15 years after a second doping violation, a sanction that essentially ends his career and was widely applauded by several top players. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19106[/attach] Gunmen stormed Tunisia's national museum, killing 17 tourists of various nationalities and two Tunisians in an attack that raised fears for the birthplace of the Arab Spring. The brazen daylight assault sparked panic at the nearby parliament and the National Bardo Museum itself, a magnet for the tourists who contribute so much to the economy. The gunmen, dressed in military uniforms, opened fire on the tourists as they got off a bus then chased them inside the museum, said Prime Minister Habib Essid. Among the dead were five Japanese, four Italians, a Colombian mother and child and one each from Australia, France, Poland and Spain, Essid announced on television in what he said was a definitive toll. Continue reading...

[attach=full]19105[/attach] Fourth seeded Andy Murray, trying to rebound from a subpar 2014, defeated Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth round of the Indian Wells ATP Masters. The 27-year-old Scot's game is gathering steam as he cruised into the quarter-finals of the joint WTA and ATP hardcourt event with a 90-minute victory on Wednesday. Murray moves on to face Spain's Feliciano Lopez who upset fifth seed Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) on centre court. His best finish is runner-up in 2009, when he lost to Rafael Nadal in the final. Continue reading...