WorldNews

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The African Union chairwoman is "safe and sound," the organization said on Thursday, after leaked intelligence documents revealed a 2012 plot to assassinate her. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18089[/attach] SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has told rival South Korea that it plans to unilaterally raise the minimum wage for North Koreans employed by southern companies at a jointly run industrial park starting in March, officials said Thursday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18088[/attach] BEIJING (AP) — With his latest political exhortation, President Xi Jinping is asserting his influence and advancing his agenda in a time-honored tradition among Chinese leaders. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18087[/attach] The chief executive of Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered will step down in June, the company said Thursday, following poor results, job cuts and fines for failing to detect possible money-laundering. "Peter Sands will stand down from the Board and as Group Chief Executive in June 2015," the British bank said in a statement, adding that he would be replaced by former JP Morgan co-CEO Bill Winters. The bank's chairman John Peace praised Sands, who became the group's chief executive in 2006, saying that he had presided "over a period of huge change and challenge for the entire industry". The bank, which focuses on emerging markets, was under pressure from shareholders and the move was welcomed on the London stock exchange where its shares jumped 1.36 percent to 938.90 pence at 0900 GMT. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18086[/attach] TOKYO (AP) — Britain's Prince William is having afternoon tea on his first visit to Japan on Thursday, but it's green and served by a master in the Japanese ceremonial art in a traditional tea house. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18085[/attach] One person was killed in a bombing outside a pizzeria in the Egyptian capital Thursday as other blasts hit a police station and offices of cell phone companies, a health official said. The bomb tore off the legs of the victim who was pronounced dead in hospital, health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar told AFP. Hours later, an explosion outside a police station in the north of the capital wounded a police conscript and three passersby, police officials said. Bombs also went off outside two offices of British telecoms firm Vodafone and a branch of United Arab Emirates-owned Etisalat, damaging the store fronts but causing no casualties, interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif told AFP. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18084[/attach] Seductive for batsmen, challenging for bowlers and frustrating for captains, Auckland's Eden Park takes centre-stage on Saturday with the ground's peculiar dimensions proving the major talking point for New Zealand and Australia. With the boundary at just 55 metres at both ends and 65m on the square -- much shorter than the International Cricket Council regulations of 64m minimum (straight) -- the ground is exempt from current size demands as Eden Park has been staging international cricket since before 2007. As a result, the compact, diamond-shaped ground means the Pool A clash between co-hosts New Zealand and Australia should be ripe for big scoring. Explosive batsmen such as Glenn Maxwell, David Warner, Aaron Finch and Mitchell Marsh on one side and Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Corey Anderson and Luke Ronchi on the other will strive to match them shot for shot in front of a 40,000 sell-out. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18083[/attach] NEW DELHI (AP) — On Wednesday, a court in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for Khaleda Zia, the opposition leader whose political feud with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has dominated the country's politics for more than a decade. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18082[/attach] SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Asian stocks were mostly higher Thursday on upbeat corporate earnings and rising Chinese factory output after the chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Reserve said it will be patient about increasing interest rates. Continue reading...

TOKYO (AP) — Britain's Prince William is set to have afternoon tea, but it will be green served by a master in the Japanese ceremonial art in a traditional tea house. Continue reading...

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Australia and New Zealand players are trying to tone down the rhetoric around their impending clash at the Cricket World Cup, stressing that the hype around Saturday's game is attaching too much importance to a pool match. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18073[/attach] LONDON (AP) — Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran each won a pair of prizes Wednesday at Britain's leading music awards — but it took Kanye West to introduce some edge, with a song that proved too strong for television. Continue reading...

HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) — A former U.S. defense contractor accused of sending sensitive information about U.S. military jet programs to his native Iran in an effort to land a job there pleaded guilty on Wednesday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18072[/attach] British singers Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith took two prizes each at a glittering Brit Awards on Wednesday marred by a mishap that saw Madonna dragged to the ground by her cape. Sheeran won British male solo artist and album of the year for "x", while 22-year-old Londoner Smith won British breakthrough act and global success award after his debut album "In the Lonely Hour" won worldwide acclaim. "This is incredible, I really didn't expect this," Smith told the crowd, while Sheeran called it a great night for British music that defied those who said "selling records is dead". As pop veteran Madonna took to the stage flanked by muscled male dancers wearing horns, her long black cape caught and dragged her down a set of stage steps in a dramatic fall. Continue reading...

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) — A former Bosnian prison camp guard living in the U.S. is eligible for extradition to his native country to face war-crimes charges, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. Continue reading...

BRUSSELS (AP) — Despite stern talk and solemn pledges from NATO, a British-based think tank says some alliance member nations are cutting their spending on defense. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18060[/attach] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew met with the emir of Qatar and emphasized the importance of fighting "terror financing," amid suspicions that money from one of the key U.S. Middle East allies had gone to violent extremists in the region. "(Secretary Lew) ... emphasized the vital importance of combating the financing of terrorism," Treasury said in a statement. "(Lew) expressed his hope that in the coming months ... the two nations can continue to work together to take effective, lasting action to disrupt the activities of terrorist financiers. ... Continue reading...

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Islamic State militants have abducted at least 150 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria they had raided, Christian Syrian activists said on Tuesday. A Syrian Christian group representing several NGOs inside and outside the country said it had verified at least 150 people missing, including women and the elderly, who had been kidnapped by the militants. ... Continue reading...

[attach=full]18059[/attach] Volcanic ash rained down on the runway of an airport in central Mexico, forcing it to close for several hours on Wednesday and disrupting domestic flights and those to the US. The Popocatepetl volcano began rumbling and exploding late Tuesday, spewing a four-kilometer (2.5-mile) high column of ash and ejecting white hot rock as far as 700 meters from its crater, according to the National Disaster Prevention Center. The airport in Puebla shut down for five hours as crews cleaned up the dusty tarmac, said state civil protection chief Jesus Morales. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18058[/attach] ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's prime minister held a marathon meeting with his party's lawmakers Wednesday, briefing them on pledges made to European creditors to win a four-month extension of the country's bailout amid simmering party discontent over what some see as a capitulation. Continue reading...

SAO PAULO (AP) — Weeklong protests by Brazilian truckers demanding lower fuel and toll prices have spread, causing shortages of gasoline and other products. Continue reading...

Three crew members of a Maltese-flagged supertanker, who were kidnapped by pirates three weeks ago off Nigeria, have been released, Greece's foreign ministry said on Wednesday. The Kalamos crude carrier was heading to Nigeria's main oil terminal when it was attacked on Feb. 3. "We have asked the Greek ambassador in Nigeria to offer them accommodation and assist them with everything they need," said foreign ministry spokesman Konstantinos Koutras. The Kalamos tanker had been sailing at Qua Iboe, a waterway between Cameroon and Nigeria, when it was attacked, in an incident which highlighted the growing threat of violence off oil-rich West Africa. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18051[/attach] LONDON (AP) — First there was money laundering. Then foreign-exchange rigging. Now tax evasion. Continue reading...

[attach=full]18050[/attach] DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian POWs in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk began a task Wednesday that strained their hearts as well as their muscles: digging through the rubble to retrieve the bodies of fellow soldiers killed last month in the bitter battle for the city's airport. Continue reading...

NEW YORK (AP) — US: 3 arrested in NY, Florida on charges they plotted to go to Syria to join Islamic State. Continue reading...