WorldNews

[attach=full]18945[/attach] Iran has launched a smartphone app for all the speeches made by its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over the past quarter of a century, his website announced Sunday. Khamenei.ir is available for mobile devices powered by Android or Apple's operating system, initially only in Farsi, the website said. Browsers will be able to access speeches made by Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader since 1989, as well as his messages and pictures. The speeches have been classified by year and users can type in key words to find specific content. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18938[/attach] By Christopher McCall and Lincoln Feast SYDNEY (Reuters) - The first aid teams to reach Vanuatu reported widespread devastation on Sunday as authorities declared a state of emergency after a "monster" cyclone tore through the Pacific island nation. Aid workers described the situation as catastrophic. Aid workers were particularly worried about the southern island of Tanna. An official with the Australian Red Cross told Reuters an aircraft had managed to land there and aid workers confirmed there was "widespread destruction". Continue reading...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis told the faithful in St. Peter's Square that he was pained by the news of two terror attacks against churches in Pakistan and called for an end of persecution against Christians. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18937[/attach] By Allyn Fisher-Ilan TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel must try to repair relations with the United States no matter who wins Tuesday's election, said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington and a potential foreign minister if his party joins the next government. There's some work to be done," Oren said, citing strained ties after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's March 3 speech to Congress assailing a potential nuclear deal with Iran sought by President Barack Obama. In an interview with Reuters, Oren, a historian, said Israel needed to restore bipartisan Congressional support in the face of Democrats' anger over Netanyahu's acceptance of the Republican invitation to address Congress. One way to try to achieve that, he said, would be to declare that Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank would be limited only to areas which Israel intends to keep in any future land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians. Continue reading...

By Katharine Houreld ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Shepherds found 13 bullet-riddled bodies in northwestern Pakistan, officials said Sunday, and two local residents identified them as men detained by the military in January. Two intelligence officials said the bodies discovered near Mandao village in Shaktoi, South Waziristan, were Taliban fighters. Residents identified the bodies found on Saturday as local villagers and said the incident raises further questions about human rights abuses by Pakistani security forces battling the Taliban insurgents. The Pakistani military has received billions of dollars in foreign funding. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18936[/attach] Pakistan and the West Indies secured the two remaining places in the quarter-finals of the World Cup on Sunday after coming through must-win matches in the last of the tournament's group games. The 1992 champions, Pakistan beat Ireland by seven wickets in a winner-takes-all clash in Adelaide. Earlier in Pool B, the West Indies saw off the United Arab Emirates by six wickets in Napier. West Indies' win saw the 1975 and 1979 champions them edge out Ireland for a last-eight place on net run-rate. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18930[/attach] At least 49 people were killed when a tour bus plunged hundreds of meters into a densely wooded ravine in southern Brazil, authorities said. Among the dead were eight children and 24 women, regional government spokeswoman Ana Paula Keller told AFP. The toll had initially been put at about 30 but the number rose throughout the night as rescuers continued to find bodies at the difficult-to-access crash site in Santa Catarina state, and other victims succumbed to their injuries at a nearby hospital. The crash site was near a lookout point in the Dona Francisca mountains, a popular stop for tourists. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18929[/attach] Police arrested at least two people as nightly protests in the racially troubled US suburb of Ferguson over the police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown shifted into the heart of St Louis. Up to 50 youthful demonstrators gathered after sunset at the Midwestern city's historic 19th century Old Courthouse to march through streets lined with bars filled with St Patrick's revelers. "Justice is dead! We have to wake it up," one protester, David Ragland, shouted from the steps of the white colonnaded courthouse where in 1846 black slave Dred Scott filed his unsuccessful but historic lawsuit to win his freedom. When some of the protesters briefly held up traffic, police stepped in and took away two men -- a young protester with a kerchief over his face and a freelance photojournalist, Philip Montgomery, on assignment for the Mashable website. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18928[/attach] ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — William Porterfield posted his first World Cup century in an otherwise mediocre batting display by Ireland as it was restricted to 237 against Pakistan in the last game of the group stage. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18927[/attach] Concerns are rising that a deadly jihadist attack on a popular nightclub in Mali's capital may foreshadow moves by extremist groups that have been routed in the desert to sneak operatives into towns to mount strikes. Responsibility for the March 7 nightclub attack in Bamako by a heavily-armed gunmen that left three Malians, one French national and a Belgian dead was claimed by al-Murabitoun, a jihadist group run by Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, whose fighters were pushed from northern Mali into the barren Sahel by the French-led military intervention launched in 2013. Continue reading...

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian security officials say a garbage collector and his donkey have been killed in a bomb explosion in a Cairo district. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18926[/attach] Syria's conflict enters its fifth year on Sunday with the regime emboldened by shifting international attention and a growing humanitarian crisis exacerbated by the rise of the Islamic State group. More than 210,000 people have been killed and half of the country's population displaced, prompting rights groups to accuse the international community of "failing Syria". The country has been carved up by government forces, jihadist groups, Kurdish fighters and the remaining non-extremist rebels. Diplomacy remains stalled, with two rounds of peace talks achieving no progress and even a proposal for a local ceasefire in Aleppo fizzling out. Continue reading...

SAO PAULO (AP) — A bus carrying about 50 passengers plunged down into a deep ravine in the mountains of southeastern Brazil late Saturday, killing at least 40 people a police official said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18925[/attach] Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini believes the Premier League title race is not over despite a damaging 1-0 defeat to relegation battlers Burnley at Turf Moor. Burnley forward George Boyd scored the decisive goal with a superb half-volley to give the Clarets a deserved victory against the reigning champions on Saturday. The defeat means City are now five points behind league leaders Chelsea having played two games more than Jose Mourinho's side. Should Chelsea win their two matches in hand they would be 11 points clear of City, but Pellegrini refused to concede that they can no longer win the title. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18924[/attach] As the drive to reach an accord with Iran on its nuclear programme heads towards a March 31 deadline, France is digging into its role as chief hawk -- a position inclined to annoy US allies, but not likely to scuttle an eventual accord, diplomats say. The French hard-line among its US, British, Chinese, Russian and German partners to hammer out a nuclear agreement with Tehran is rooted in ideological, historical, and even personal concerns that tend to stiffen as Paris recognises Washington's increasing pragmatism in seeking to conclude a deal swiftly. "France has taken the opposite path to that of the United States, which changed strategies with the arrival of Barack Obama," said Bernard Hourcade, an Iran specialist at the National Centre of Scientific Research, who says France's current Socialist-led government adopted and defends the wary, intransigent stance towards Iran set down by previous conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18923[/attach] Arsene Wenger insists his Arsenal players believe they can overturn a 3-1 deficit against Monaco in the Champions League on Tuesday, but the Gunners manager is less confident about their chances of winning the Premier League. Goals from Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini secured a 3-0 win over West Ham that left Arsenal in buoyant mood ahead of their tricky last 16 second leg trip to Monaco in midweek. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18917[/attach] SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A wildfire burning near the Pacific ports of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar was contained but still a threat Saturday, authorities said, as many of 7,000 people who had been evacuated began returning home. Continue reading...

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Jonas and Eliseu Pereira scored to help Benfica beat 10-man Braga 2-0 at home Saturday and increase its overnight lead in the Portuguese league. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18916[/attach] BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Lionel Messi moved ahead of rival Cristiano Ronaldo with his 31st and 32nd Spanish league goals of the season as Barcelona won 2-0 at Eibar on Saturday to stay atop the standings. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18915[/attach] The World Cup's marathon group stage finally comes to an end on Sunday with the last two quarter-final places still up for grabs. Pakistan, the 1992 champions, 1975 and 1979 winners the West Indies and non-Test side Ireland are the three teams battling for two remaining places in the knockout phase from Pool B. The winners of the match between Pakistan and Ireland in Adelaide will be guaranteed a quarter-final spot in a fixture that will take place almost eight years to the day since the Irish knocked Pakistan out of the 2007 World Cup. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18914[/attach] Nigerian soldiers on Saturday detonated two homemade bombs found in a camp housing people displaced by Boko Haram violence in the restive northeastern city of Maiduguri, witnesses told AFP. The school was converted into a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) after Boko Haram Islamists captured the town of Bama, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) from Maiduguri, last July. Butari accused Boko Haram of being behind the foiled bomb attack. Scores of IDP camps dot Maiduguri following a huge influx of people fleeing towns and villages seized by Boko Haram, doubling the population of the city which stood at around one million people. Continue reading...

[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...