First lady Michelle Obama has said she had no desire to follow Hillary Clinton and run for president herself, saying she could have more impact outside of Washington's polarized politics.
	Obama made the remarks as she addressed the South by Southwest festival in Austin yesterday, Texas, where she introduced a song for charity to support a UN-backed campaign to improve education access for the 62 million unschooled girls around the world.
	"I will not run for president. Nope, nope, not going to do it," she said in response to a question.
	"There is so much that I can do outside of the White House, and sometimes there is much more that you can do outside the White House without the constraints, and the lights and the cameras, and the partisanship," she added.
	"There is a potential that my voice could be heard by many people who can't hear me now because I'm 'Michelle Obama, the first lady.'"
	Part of the first African American first family, the 52-year-old is a Harvard-educated lawyer 

Michelle Obama says has no plans to seek presidency

PTI Automatic

The United Nations has condemned Morocco's decision to reduce its contribution to the world body's MINURSO mission in Western Sahara, saying it would now take "mitigating measures."
	UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has now canceled previously announced plans to travel to Rabat given tensions with Morocco, which has condemned his use of the term "occupation" to describe the status of the contested territory.
	Morocco's "decision came as a surprise," Dujarric said yesterday, vowing to "take measures to ensure that MINURSO can continue to fulfill its mandate."
	"There is no talk of withdrawing MINURSO," the spokesman insisted.
	The United Nations hopes its envoy, American former diplomat Christopher Ross, will be able to pursue his efforts to reach a resolution.
	"We very much hope it will not be the end of the political process," Dujarric said.
	"The people of Western Sahara deserve a political process and a light at the end of the tunnel."
	Morocco ...

UN deplores Rabat's Western Sahara

US President Barack Obama has signed an order implementing UN-backed sanctions on North Korea, amid a series of reprisals from Pyongyang.
	The White House yesterday said Obama had signed an executive order targeting the volatile hermit state's energy, financial and shipping assets.
	The measures were agreed to at the United Nations in response to a January 6 nuclear test and February 7 ballistic missile launch.
	"The order is not targeted at the people of North Korea, but rather is aimed at the government," said the document signed by Obama.
	Among the entities targeted are the "Propaganda and Agitation Department" of the Workers' Party of Korea and mining firms that provide the regime with much-needed revenues.
	The US Treasury Department estimates that coal revenues alone generate over $1 billion a year for the government of Kim Jong-Un.
	In response to the UN sanctions and a US-South Korean drill, Kim has already ordered an upcoming nuclear warhead test and multiple ballistic ...

Obama moves to implement US sanctions on North Korea

Thirty insurgents in Somalia's Al-Qaeda-aligned Shebab jihadist group were killed in heavy clashes in the south and northeast of the country, Kenya's armed forces and local authorities said separately.
	In the first incident, the Kenya Defence Force (KDF) yesterday said it had thwarted an assault on a military camp at Afmadhow in the Lower Juba area in southern Somalia, killing 19 rebels and seizing a haul of weapons.
	Kenyan troops operating under the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) mission "foiled a planned attack" near the camp, operated by the Somali National Army (SNA) and AMISOM, the KDF said in a statement.
	"The... Terrorists had approached the camp at night with the intent to attack and cut off the SNA from the AMISOM KDF camp," it said.
	"KDF soldiers on patrol identified the militants and engaged them in a fierce battle. The (Shebab) attempted to fight back, but were swiftly repulsed by the KDF soldiers on patrol and those at the camp," it said, quoting army ...

30 Shebab killed in two clashes in Somalia, say officials

US network Fox News today called off a Republican debate next week after frontrunner Donald Trump announced he wasn't taking part.
	The debate -- being organized in partnership with the Republican Party -- would have been held Monday in Salt Lake City, Utah.
	"The Salt Lake City debate is canceled," said a statement from Fox News' executive vice president of news, Michael Clemente.
	"I think we've had enough debates," Trump had told the same network earlier.
	Already on Friday, the billionaire had told reporters he thought it was time to end the debates.
	Twelve Republican debates have been held since August. Trump already boycotted one such forum held in Iowa in late January, also hosted by Fox News.
	"I think we've had enough, how many times can the same people ask you the same questions?" Trump said. "So I was very surprised when I heard that Fox called for a debate, nobody told me about it, and I won't be there, no."
	Instead of taking to the stage in Utah, Trump said he would be .

Next Republican debate canceled after Trump boycott

When stumping for the White House, the leading candidates in the US presidential race use words and grammar typical of children in middle school, with Donald Trump the worst offender, researchers say.
	The Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh found that most candidates use words and grammar typical of pupils in grades six to eight -- when children are typically aged 11 to 13.
	Trump, his closest Republican rival Ted Cruz, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and her left-wing challenger Bernie Sanders have deployed simpler language as the campaign has gone on, the researchers found.
	An analysis shows that Abraham Lincoln, widely considered one of America's great leaders -- the Republican who abolished slavery -- outclasses all the candidate and more recent presidents by displaying grammar at 11th grade level.
	The most recent Republican president, George W Bush, who ordered the invasion of Iraq and was frequently mocked for use of language, ...

White House candidates talk like school kids: study

The Federal Reserve cut its outlook for the US economy and kept its interest rate policy unchanged today, citing the impact of the global slowdown and turmoil in world markets.
	Giving a picture of the US economy that was less bullish than many had expected, the Fed still forecast continuing hikes to the benchmark federal funds rate this year, but at a slower pace than foreseen in December.
	Fed Chair Janet Yellen said the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's policy body, opted for "a slightly more accommodative path" given "soft" US business investment and weak exports in recent months.
	But, she added, "this decision partly reflects the implications for the US economy of the global economic and financial developments."
	In revisions to its buoyant December forecasts, the FOMC said it expects the US economy to grow only 2.2 per cent this year, compared with 2.4 per cent previously.
	It also said that inflation would likely remain very low at 1.2 per cent by the end of the year, ..

Feeling global slowdown, Fed keeps interest rate unchanged

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff named her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as her chief of staff today, sparing him possible arrest for corruption as she seeks to fend off a damaging crisis.
	The two leftists who have led Brazil for the past 13 years are both fighting for their political survival, and news they were teaming up again in the government deeply divided Brazil even before it was officially announced.
	Allies call Lula the only man capable of saving the embattled government, but opponents condemn the fact that ministerial immunity will now protect him from prosecution in ordinary court.
	Cabinet ministers can only be tried before the Supreme Court in Brazil.
	The appointment is a risky bet for Rousseff, who is battling crises on multiple fronts: an impeachment attempt, a deep recession, mass protests and the fallout of an explosive corruption scandal at state oil giant Petrobras.
	Lula was hugely popular when he stepped down five years ago at the height of an ...

Facing graft charges, Brazil's Lula joins government in crisis

Britain unleashed more austerity today in its latest annual budget and cut its growth outlook, blaming the impact of global markets turbulence rooted in China.
	Finance minister George Osborne also warned that a potential 'Brexit', or departure from the European Union, would risk damaging the nation's economic recovery, ahead of a key referendum in June.
	Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne said the government would seek additional spending cuts totalling 3.5 billion pounds (USD 5.0 billion, 4.5 billion euros) by 2020, when it expects to reach a budget surplus despite higher borrowing.
	The chancellor pointed to a "dangerous cocktail of risks" including "turbulence in financial markets, slower growth in economies like China, and weak growth in the developed world" for the growth downgrades.
	Analysts were meanwhile quick to point out that it was not clear which areas would bear the brunt of the latest cuts.
	"How these cuts will be made has not been outlined other than described ...

British budget extends austerity, cuts growth outlook

An experimental vaccine against dengue, the world's most common mosquito-borne virus, was 100 percent effective in early trials and could speed up the pace of a vaccine against Zika, researchers said today.
	Dengue -- which is in the same family of flaviviruses as Zika -- infects some 390 million people each year in more than 120 countries of the world.
	Dengue symptoms are often mild, but more than two million people annually develop dengue hemorrhagic fever -- which can involve severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, rash, pain in the joints, muscles or bones pain, and leaking blood vessels.
	More than 25,000 people die of dengue hemorrhagic fever each year.
	"Knowing what we know about this new vaccine, we are confident that it is going to work," said lead author Anna Durbin, associate professor in International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
	"And we have to be confident: Dengue is unique and if you don't do it right, you can do more ..

Vaccine against dengue virus is 100 percent effective: study

An Iraqi army plane went down today near Kirkuk, with the military blaming a technical problem but the Islamic State group claiming its fighters shot it down.
	A high-ranking military source told AFP that the plane crashed during a reconnaissance flight near Kirkuk and that its three crew were considered missing.
	The military source said authorities had launched a search for the crew after the Cessna 208 Caravan went down near Kirkuk, around 220 kilometres north of Baghdad.
	In its combat version, the aircraft can be used to launch laser-guided Hellfire missiles.
	The Islamic State jihadist group claimed in a statement posted on Twitter and a video released moments later that its fighters had shot the plane down, killing five crew members.
	It said it used anti-aircraft artillery against a plane that had been on a bombing run against the city of Hawijah, a stronghold of the jihadists in Kirkuk province.
	A video -- which claims to show the moment the aircraft was shot down -- ...

Iraqi army plane crashes, IS claims downing it

Four suspected jihadists were arrested today in the Paris region, one of whom was thought to be planning "violent acts", Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
	"We received information about one individual... That he might commit violent acts in France," Cazeneuve said on French television.
	"So this morning he was arrested along with three members of his entourage and checks are under way. I call on everyone to be extremely prudent regarding reports that are circulating about an imminent violent act."
	Police sources said earlier that three men and a woman were arrested in the dawn raid who were not thought to be planning an imminent attack but were "of interest".
	They said one was placed under house arrest under the state of emergency that has been in force in France since the November 13 attacks in Paris that claimed 130 lives.
	The four had been under surveillance by French intelligence on suspicion of a "possible plan to attack" but the threat has not been confirmed, the ...

Suspected jihadist held in Paris: minister

Latvian veterans who fought for Nazi Germany against the Soviets in World War II staged a controversial march through Riga today to mark a key 1944 battle.
	Police said more than 1,000 people paraded through the Latvian capital's Old Town amid a heavy security presence.
	Jewish groups, Moscow and many in Latvia's large ethnic Russian minority see the parade as glorifying Nazism because the Latvian Legion, founded in 1943, was commanded by the Waffen-SS, the Nazi party's elite police force.
	A quarter of Latvia's two million people identify themselves as Russian.
	Efraim Zuroff of Jerusalem's Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center told AFP: "It's a very sad day to see these people marching and to see Waffen-SS troops glorified as freedom fighters.
	"Anyone who fought for the victory of the Third Reich shouldn't be a hero."
	Latvian Legion veterans have marched in Riga every March 16 since Soviet rule ended in 1991. The date marks the key 1944 battle in which the force ultimately failed ..

Latvia's 'Nazi' veterans stage controversial parade

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected action today on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, minutes after President Barack Obama announced his pick.
	Speaking from the Senate floor, McConnell said he would stick by his earlier decision to withhold action in his chamber until a new president is elected. The Senate must vote to confirm nominees to the high court.
	"The American people may well elect a president who decides to nominate Judge Garland for Senate consideration. The next president may also nominate somebody very different. Either way, our view is this: Give the people a voice in filling this vacancy," McConnell said.
	In announcing his pick, Obama earlier held out Garland as a judge with deep experience who had earned the respect of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
	Urging the Congress to act on the nomination, he stressed that the Supreme Court was supposed to be "above politics."
	Garland, 63, is currently the chief judge on the US Court of Appeals for the .

Senate leader rejects action on Obama high court nominee

The United States remained world leader in international patent filings in 2015, followed by Japan and China, the World Intellectual Property Organization said today.
	International patent applications grew by 1.7 per cent last year, with Chinese innovators accounting for much of the growth, UN agency WIPO said in its annual report.
	The United States has filed the greatest number of patents of any country every year for nearly forty decades.
	In 2015 American companies filed 57,385 patents, down 6.7 per cent from a year earlier.
	Japan filed 44,235 patents, and China 29,846.
	Among individual countries, China clocked up the greatest growth rate in filings last year, followed by South Korea, Israel, Switzerland, Japan and the Netherlands.
	"While the United States of America maintains its premier position, the geography of innovation continues to shift and to evolve, with Asia, and in particular Japan, China and the Republic of Korea, forming the predominant geographical cluster," ...

US still world leader in patent filings

Egypt's president today vowed to do everything he could to shed light on the fate of an Italian student found dead in Cairo bearing signs of having been tortured.
	The corpse of Cambridge University PhD student Giulio Regeni, 28, was found dumped in a ditch on the outskirts of Cairo in February, in a case that has strained ties between Italy and Egypt.
	Egyptian authorities are working "day and night" to solve the crime, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in an interview with Italy's La Repubblica newspaper.
	"I promise you that we will do everything to shed light (on the case) and we will get to the truth," he said.
	Addressing Regeni's family, he added: "We will work with the Italian authorities to bring to justice and punish the criminals that killed your son."
	Sisi said that as a "father first and foremost", he understood the "pain and suffering that you feel at the loss of your son."
	"I feel the shock and bitterness that has broken your heart," he said.
	Regeni disappeared on .

Egypt vows to shed light on 'tortured' Italian student death

A printer fault at Bangladesh's central bank meant that overseas queries about suspicious transactions went unanswered, according to a report seen today on the USD 81 million cyber heist that sent shockwaves through the banking world.
	The report, filed to police yesterday, recounts the events leading to the discovery of the dramatic theft from an overseas account of Bangladesh Bank.
	It says that because of a printer and software problem, it took the Bangladesh central bank nearly four days to ask banks across the globe to halt payments to the hackers.
	They tried to steal around USD 1 billion and got away with USD 81 million from the impoverished country's coffers.
	Central bank governor Atiur Rahman and two of the deputy governors have lost their jobs over the scandal, which has hugely embarrassed the government and raised alarm over the security of the country's foreign exchange reserves of over USD 27 billion.
	Today the government, which has said it was kept in the dark about ...

Faulty printer implicated in USD 81 mn Bangladesh bank heist

President Barack Obama will travel to the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia in April, a visit set to be dominated by doubts over Britain's EU membership and concerns about turmoil in the Middle East.
	The White House said Obama will visit Windsor Castle -- where he will have a private lunch with Queen Elizabeth II -- and 10 Downing Street for a joint press conference with Prime Minister David Cameron.
	His visit comes ahead of Britain's hotly contested June referendum on European Union membership.
	Obama is likely to express his strong backing for keeping Britain in the EU, but will have to rebuff allegations of interference.
	London's loquacious mayor Boris Johnson -- a chief proponent of leaving the bloc -- has accused Obama of "exorbitant hypocrisy" given America's "hysterical vigilance" about its own sovereignty.
	In Saudi Arabia, Obama will attend a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, were Washington's policies toward the Middle East are likely to come under the ...

Obama to travel to UK, Saudi Arabia: White House

Canadian passenger railway Via Rail confirmed today it is beefing up security after having received a threat to train stations.
	Specific aspects of the threat were not released.
	Via Rail spokeswoman Marie-Anna Murat told AFP it appeared to be "unfounded."
	Still, she added, "VIA Rail has advised employees reminding them to be vigilant."
	As a precaution, the railway has also stepped up police and canine patrols "in certain stations" and continues to work closely with law enforcement agencies.
	"Lately, it seems that passenger carriers worldwide are subject to unsubstantiated threats against their facilities," Murat said.
	"Such a threat was received at VIA Rail recently. The police were informed."
	Via Rail trains travel over 12.500 kilometers of track in Canada connecting 143 stations. It transported 3.8 millions passengers in 2014, according to corporate figures.
	Two radical Islamists who plotted to derail a packed passenger train traveling between Toronto and New York were ...

Canada passenger railway tightens security after threat

President Vladimir Putin will bestow state awards tomorrow on Russian military personnel who fought in Syria after ordering the withdrawal of armed forces from the war-torn country, the Kremlin said.
	More than 700 soldiers and officers from the Russian air forces, ground forces and navy, and other military officials, have been invited to take part in the ceremony, the Kremlin said in a statement today.
	The Russian strongman on Monday ordered the withdrawal of most of Russian forces from Syria saying Moscow's task had been "on the whole" completed.
	Russian media and pro-Kremlin observers have hailed the drawdown a political victory for the Kremlin which they said managed to buttress Moscow's ally Bashar al-Assad and break out of international isolation over Ukraine.
	Yesterday, the first Russian warplanes returned home to a hero's welcome, followed by yet more planes today.
	Activists say that Russia's operation in Syria -- and the current partial pullback -- appear a world away ...

Putin to decorate personnel who fought in Syria: Kremlin

Prosecutors have announced the first criminal conviction in connection with the 2014 hacking of Hollywood celebrities that resulted in the online release of hundreds of private nude photos.
	Officials in Los Angeles said yesterday that 36-year-old Ryan Colins of Pennsylvania agreed to enter a guilty plea on hacking charges as part of the "Celebgate" investigation.
	Authorities said Collins admitted to a "phishing" scheme to obtain passwords of more than 100 people, many of them movie stars, and then using that to obtain nude pictures from their "cloud" storage accounts.
	But the officials said there was no evidence that Collins published the pictures online, and that the investigation was continuing.
	The 2014 hack resulted in the release of hundreds of nude photos including those of models and actresses such as Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton, stunning Hollywood.
	The US attorney's office said Collins accessed at least 50 iCloud accounts and 72 Gmail accounts, most of which belonged 

AFP

AFP

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