WorldNews

[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...

[attach=full]18882[/attach] Aid agencies have found themselves frustrated and increasingly bitter as the Syrian conflict enters a fifth, blood-soaked year and those in need of help become ever-harder to reach. "By comparison, Somalia and Afghanistan seem simple," said Jean-Herve Bradol of the Centre For Reflection on Humanitarian Knowledge and Action, a French think-tank linked to Doctors Without Borders. "Impartial humanitarian aid in a time of war is never easy but in Syria, the complexity and danger are at the highest possible level," he said. Their report, called "Failing Syria", heavily criticised the UN Security Council for failing to implement its resolutions on protecting civilians. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18881[/attach] Zambia's new President Edgar Lungu has undergone surgery in a South African hospital to correct a narrowing of the oesophagus which caused him to fall ill a week ago, his spokesman said. Lungu underwent "a medical procedure" on Friday and he was expected to be discharged from the Pretoria hospital later on Saturday, spokesman Amos Chanda said in a statement. Lungu, 58, went to South Africa on Tuesday after he was discharged from a Zambian hospital, where he had been receiving treatment after feeling unwell while at an International Women's Day event in the capital on Sunday. Lungu assumed the helm of Africa's second-largest copper producer in January after winning a narrow victory in an election to replace former leader Michael Sata, who died in October. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18880[/attach] The Canterbury Crusaders put their season back on track with a rampant second half to secure a 34-6 bonus point win over the Golden Lions in Christchurch on Saturday. Their All Blacks-stacked scrum dominated the Lions, and after stuttering through the first half with one try, they produced a more fluid attack in the second spell to add three more. The Crusaders stacked their side with internationals as Kieran Read, Sam Whitelock and Dan Carter returned along with Fijian winger Nemani Nadolo who was the competition's joint top try scorer last year. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18879[/attach] Auckland (AFP) - Team SCA, the first women's crew to compete in the Volvo Ocean Race for 12 years, won their second in-port race in Auckland on Saturday. Continue reading...

An opponent of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro committed suicide in jail, where he had been locked up on charges of fomenting street violence against the socialist government, the Interior Minister said on Friday. An outraged Venezuelan opposition demanded details surrounding the death of commercial pilot Rodolfo Gonzalez, 64, who was imprisoned in April on accusations of seeking to overthrow the government via massive demonstrations. "Rodolfo Gonzalez took his life by hanging himself," said Interior Minister Gustavo Gonzalez. Reports of a jail transfer are false, said Interior Minister Gonzalez, whom the United States sanctioned earlier this week for alleged human rights violations as head of state intelligence service Sebin. Continue reading...

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — For the first time in a century, babies of the endangered Pinzon giant tortoise have been born in the wild in the Galapagos islands, scientists said. Continue reading...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A video that appears to show a man helping three British schoolgirls on their way to join the Islamic State group in Syria was released Friday by a Turkish news channel. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18877[/attach] Malian special forces killed a suspect in last week's deadly jihadist attack on a nightclub in the capital, later identified as the flatmate of the heavily-armed gunman who stormed the venue. Government sources said the accomplice, who died in a raid in a working-class area of Bamako, had been living with the gunman who opened fire in La Terrasse on Saturday, killing a Frenchman, a Belgian and three locals. He did not want to surrender," a senior special forces commander told AFP. Another special forces source told AFP the suspect -- a shaven-headed, light-skinned man from northern Mali -- was killed during a raid on the flat the two men had rented. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18876[/attach] Celtic take on Dundee United in Sunday's League Cup final as they aim to complete the first part of what could be a potential domestic treble. The Hoops top the Scottish Premiership and face a quarter-final replay against United in the Scottish Cup next week after the sides played out a 1-1 draw at Tannadice last Sunday. You look at Dundee United the other day, they showed great character in the game. Continue reading...