A former British soldier is set to be prosecuted in connection with the deaths of two civil rights protesters in Northern Ireland more than 40 years ago, part of an event known as Bloody Sunday.
One former soldier, identified as soldier "F',' was one of 17 former members of the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment whose actions in Londonderry on January 30, 1972 were being considered for criminal charges.
He is to be charged with two murders and four attempted murders during Bloody Sunday.
The potential for charges follows a decade-long investigation that concluded soldiers killed 13 unarmed demonstrators protesting Britain's detention of suspected Irish nationalists.
The victims' families have called for justice, while supporters of the soldiers say it is unfair for them to face charges decades after the events.

Ex-soldier to be charged in Bloody Sunday killings

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Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reports that a gas pipeline explosion has killed at least two people in the country's southwest.
Thursday's report cites the fire chief in the city of Ahvaz, Ali Torabpour, as saying the number of injured was still unknown, and that a bus, truck and a private car had also caught fire.
The blast stuck a gas pipeline between Ahvaz and the city of Mahshahr, near the Persian Gulf.
Iran is at a heightened risk of such incidents because of its aging infrastructure, which the country has struggled to maintain through years of Western sanctions. The country also has poor enforcement of safety measures.

Iran says gas pipeline explosion kills at least 2

Tel Aviv has taken its first steps toward assisting pedestrians distracted by their smartphones by embedding LED stoplights at crosswalks.
The municipality installed the "zombie traffic lights" Monday aiming to minimize accidents between vehicles and inattentive pedestrians at crosswalks.
Tomer Dror, head of Traffic Management Division at the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, says the aim is to reduce accidents caused by "pedestrians that are focused too much on the smartphone, and less on the traffic around them." Dror says the idea is to "put the road into their eyes."
Similar systems have already been used in Australia, Singapore and the Netherlands.
For now, the pilot program is limited to a single intersection in central Tel Aviv, but the municipality says it will expand the zombie lights if it proves effective.

Tel Aviv deploys zombie lights for mobile-obsessed walkers

An Afghan official says residents in a northern city are on a daylong strike to protest the appointment of a new provincial police chief over the objections of a former governor and powerful warlord.
The incumbent provincial police chief, Gen. Akram Sammeh, says his replacement, Abdul Raqib Mubarez, landed at the airport in Mazar-e-Sharif on Thursday but the police are blocking him from heading into the city to take up his post.
The development threatens to escalate into an all-out feud between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Atta Mohammed Nur, a powerful warlord who holds sway over Balkh province where Mazar-e-Sharif is the provincial capital.
Nur called for the city-wide shutdown and is demanding Ghani withdraw Mubarez's appointment and instead name Nur's choice for the post, as Ghani allegedly promised.

Northern Afghan city on strike amid dispute with president

The New York Times reports that federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into Facebook's data deals with major electronics manufacturers.
The newspaper says a grand jury in New York has subpoenaed information from at least two companies known for making smartphones and other devices, citing two unnamed people familiar with the request.
It reports that both companies had data partnerships with Facebook that gave them access to the personal information of hundreds of millions of users.
Facebook describes those data deals as innocuous efforts to help smartphone makers provide Facebook features to users before the social network had its own app.
The Times reports that it is not clear when the inquiry began or exactly what it is focusing on. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

Report: Facebook data deals under criminal investigation

After the extreme stress test of a years-long Russian doping scandal, the World Anti-Doping Agency will get a new leader this year while still rebuilding trust with athletes.
The six-year presidency of IOC member Craig Reedie began with the steroid-tainted Sochi Olympics and will end in November with likely dozens of Russian doping cases unresolved in the ongoing fallout.
"This has been a complicated period," Reedie acknowledged Wednesday on the sidelines of WADA's annual hosting of anti-doping experts in the Olympic family's home city.
WADA has been hit from all sides during what the Scottish official described as "one of the biggest political stand-offs in world political affairs" of recent years.
Still, Reedie believes he hands over an organization that "comes out of it with very substantial credit, and if some of that bounces back on me then I will be happy to take it."
The next WADA president will be picked by the public authorities, which jointly fund the global anti-doping ...

Doping watchdog WADA mulling 3 presidential candidates

Everyone on a Taiwanese plane has disembarked safely after one of the plane's wheels got stuck in the grass off a Philippine runway.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokesman Eric Apolonio says all the 122 passengers and an unspecified number of crewmen were safe and the Far Eastern Air Transport plane was towed to the airport terminal in central Kalibo town for inspection.
Apolonio says the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft was maneuvering at the end of the runway after touchdown when one of its wheels rolled onto the grass late Wednesday.
Apolonio says the airport, a gateway to the popular Boracay beach island, reopened after more than an hour of closure.

Taiwan plane's wheel rolls off Philippine runway, all safe

FIFA Council members will be asked on Friday to approve a pilot tournament for an expanded 24-team Club World Cup in June-July 2021 featuring eight European participants, but plans for a worldwide Nations League are on hold, The Associated Press has learned.
An overhaul of the current seven-team annual Club World Cup, normally in December, is being pursued by FIFA President Gianni Infantino to generate new interest and greater revenue despite ongoing opposition from Europe, with the long-term vision of the bigger tournament being staged every four years.
A 17-page FIFA report on the future of competitions does not specifically mention the financing plans which sparked concern among members of the FIFA Council last year, only that the governing body wants to "ensure that the generated revenues stay within football and do not go to third parties."
Infantino informed council members last March of a $25 billion offer from investors, led by Japan's SoftBank, to guarantee funding to ...

FIFA wants 24-team Club World Cup in 2021

Emergency crews sifted through debris as night fell on frantic efforts to rescue scores of school children and others feared trapped inside a three-story building that collapsed in Nigeria's densely populated commercial capital, Lagos.
At least eight people were confirmed dead and 37 others were rescued alive Wednesday.
Anguished families crowded around the flattened remains of the building, which housed an elementary school, holding out hope that more children would still be found alive in the wreckage.
Scenes of jubilation erupted earlier in the day when a man was brought out alive. But the mood shifted dramatically an hour later when another man was brought out dead. The rescue of a woman carried to an ambulance on a stretcher was greeted with cries of, "She's not dead!" in the local Yoruba language.
The evening call to prayer could be heard as hundreds anxiously waited in the city's Ita Faji neighborhood trying to help in rescue efforts. Using flashlights, some people pulled what .

Dozens trapped in Nigeria school collapse, at least 8 dead

US President Donald Trump is not amused by the #FakeMelania conspiracy theories circulating on social media.
He spun off a new theory on Wednesday to debunk the idea that there's a body double of his wife who steps in for her at times. The "fake news" did it, he claimed without evidence.
Trump alleged on Wednesday in a tweet that photos of his wife had been altered to make them appear as though a look-alike accompanied him to Alabama last week to survey tornado damage.
His favourite morning TV programme, "Fox & Friends," reported on the body-double theory Wednesday as the show's hosts weighed in on a discussion that aired Monday on ABC's "The View."
Hosts of the ABC programme debated whether an impostor had travelled with Trump.
"The Fake News photoshopped pictures of Melania, then propelled conspiracy theories that it's actually not her by my side in Alabama and other places," the president tweeted.
"They are only getting more deranged with time!"
Hosts of "The View" had ...

No body double: Trump blasts #FakeMelania theories

An Israeli organization has minted a coin emblazoned with the face of Nikki Haley, President Donald Trump's former ambassador to the United Nations, to commemorate her defense of Israel in the world body.
The Sanhedrin, a Jewish group that says it aims to restore the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, is one of three organizations behind the coin.
The collector's coin, which costs USD 50, features Haley's face set against the UN building, and a rendition of the Jewish Temple on the back.
Hillel Weiss, spokesman for Sanhedrin, said Wednesday that Haley's criticism of the UN, which he says "seeks to destroy the state of Israel", earned her the recognition.
He says the group last year sold 20,000 "Temple Coins" engraved with Trump's face to honour his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Israeli group honors Nikki Haley with coin

Malaysia's government has ordered 34 schools in southern Johor state to close after toxic waste illegally dumped into a river sickened scores of students and teachers.
Education Minister Maszlee Malek said in a statement Wednesday that the shutdown was necessary because the situation had turned critical.
More than 500 people have reportedly fell ill with symptoms such as breathing difficulties, nausea and vomiting, and treated for chemical poisoning after breathing in toxic fumes from the waste.
Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin was quoted by the country's Bernama news agency as saying that rain could have caused the contamination to spread despite efforts to contain it.
Three people have been detained during an investigation. Two are factory owners.

Malaysia shuts 34 schools as toxic waste sickens students

A Sudanese opposition group says an appeals court has overturned a sentence of flogging and imprisonment against nine women who took part in anti-government protests.
The Democratic Lawyers Alliance says Wednesday the court ordered their release the previous day.
The women were arrested Saturday and an emergency court in the capital, Khartoum, sentenced them to a month in prison and 20 lashes each.
The court later waived the flogging amid pressure from families of the women, who rallied outside the courthouse on Saturday.
The alliance is part of an umbrella organisation that has spearheaded three months of protests across Sudan demanding the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir.
The emergency courts were set up to investigate violations under the state of emergency imposed by al-Bashir last month.

Sudan cancels flogging of 9 women arrested in protests

A key US Navy ship sailed through the South China Sea with its commander renewing an American vow to "sail, fly and operate wherever the law allows us to" despite China's objection to a US military presence in the disputed sea.
Capt Eric Anduze, commander of the USS Blue Ridge, told reporters on board the US 7th Fleet's command and control ship, which anchored at Manila Bay Wednesday, that the visit was the latest affirmation of the strong U.S.-Philippines alliance.
China has opposed US Navy patrols in the disputed waters.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the US is committed to ensuring the South China Sea remains open and that "China does not pose a threat" of closing it off.

US Navy flagship visits Manila after sailing in disputed sea

Italy's justice ministry has ordered a preliminary inquiry into an appeals court ruling that overturned a rape verdict on the grounds that the victim was too ugly to be raped.
The ruling has sparked outrage in Italy, including a flash mob Monday outside the Ancona court where protesters shouted "Shame!" and held up signs saying "indignation."
The appeals sentence was handed down in 2017  by an all-female panel  but the reasons behind it only emerged when Italy's high court annulled it March 5 and ordered a retrial.
The Court of Cassation said Wednesday its own reasons for ordering the retrial will be issued next month.
The Justice Ministry says two Peruvian men convicted in the 2015 assault successfully argued the woman was too "masculine" to be a victim.

Italy outraged as court finds victim too ugly to be raped

Just four days ago, the future for Indonesia's Siti Aisyah looked bleak  she was two years into her detention in Malaysia and faced a possible death sentence if convicted of killing the half brother of North Korea's leader.
Then the charges were unexpectedly dropped.
With Aisyah safely back home in Indonesia after Monday's surprise, the only remaining suspect facing justice in the case is Vietnam's Doan Thi Huong and officials in Hanoi are now refreshing calls for her freedom as well.
Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh made the plea in a phone call Tuesday with his counterpart, Malaysia's Saifuddin Abdullah, according to a statement on the ministry website.
It said Minh requested the Malaysian court conduct a fair trial and free Doan Thi Huong.
Huong's trial is to resume Thursday, and prosecutors are expected to reply to a request by Huong's lawyers for the government to withdraw the murder charge against her as well.
Analysts say Malaysia risks creating a rift with Vietnam if 

Vietnamese suspect in Kim killing looking for release

A college entrance exam policy aimed at helping students with disabilities was exploited to enable cheating in what is being described as the biggest school admissions scandal ever prosecuted by federal authorities, according to court papers made public Tuesday.
At least 50 people were charged in the scheme, which included not only cheating on the admissions tests but also bribing coaches to gain admission for students into elite schools. Among the defendants were actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.
A federal affidavit made public Tuesday details allegations of test administrators being bribed "to allow a third party to facilitate cheating" on the ACT and SAT exams. The document says that in some cases, that involved providing answers, correcting answers after the fact or having someone else pose as the student to take the test.
The College Board, which runs the SAT, and ACT Inc. provide accommodations for students with medically documented disabilities that can include ...

Entrance exam cheaters exploited rules for disabled students

Much of the world, including the entire European Union, grounded the Boeing jetliner involved in the Ethiopian Airlines crash or banned it from their airspace, leaving the United States as one of the few remaining operators of the plane involved in two deadly accidents in five months.
The European Aviation Safety Agency took steps to keep the Boeing 737 Max 8 out of the air, joining Asian and Middle Eastern governments and carriers that also had safety concerns in the aftermath of Sunday's crash, which killed all 157 people on board.
Referring to the Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people last year, European regulators said Tuesday that "similar causes may have contributed to both events."
British regulators indicated possible trouble with a reportedly damaged flight data recorder.

Boeing jet grounded in much of world after Ethiopia crash

The black box from the Boeing jet that crashed and killed all 157 people on board will be sent overseas for analysis but no country has been chosen, an Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said Wednesday, as much of the world grounded or barred the plane model and grieving families arrived at the disaster site.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Asrat Begashaw said the airline has "a range of options" for the data and voice records of the flight's last moments. "What we can say is we don't have the capability to probe it here in Ethiopia," he said.
The Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. The disaster is the second with a Max 8 plane in just five months.
While some aviation experts have warned against drawing conclusions until more information on the latest crash emerges, much of the world, including the entire European Union, has grounded the Boeing jetliner or banned it from their airspace.
That leaves the United States as .

BEIJING

An Afghan journalist who has long received death threats was seriously wounded in a bombing in the country's south, while in the western province of Farah, the Taliban stormed an army checkpoint and killed 10 soldiers, officials said Wednesday.
Also in Farah, a local official was gunned down outside his home on Wednesday, a councilman said.
The attacks were the latest violence in war-torn Afghanistan even as the Taliban and the US concluded another round of negotiations held in Qatar, with both sides reporting progress in the talks.
Radio and TV journalist Nesar Ahmad Ahmadi was wounded when a sticky bomb attached to his car exploded as he was heading to work in Helmand province.
Omar Zwak, the governor's spokesman, said the attack happened on Tuesday in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital.
Ahmadi had a leg wound and was transferred to Kabul for further treatment, the spokesman said.
He runs the Sabahoon radio station and is also a reporter for Sabahoon TV in Helmand.
No one ...

Afghan journalist wounded in bombing;10 troops killed

The US Federal Aviation Administration is facing mounting criticism for backing the airworthiness of Boeing's 737 Max jets as the number of countries that have grounded the aircraft grows in the wake of the Ethiopian Airlines crash over the weekend.
The rest of the world typically takes it cues from the FAA, long considered the world's gold standard for aircraft safety. Yet other aviation safety regulators, including the European Union, China, Australia and the United Kingdom, have decided not to wait for the FAA to act. The Ethiopian disaster came just five months after the deadly crash of another new Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Lion Air in Indonesia.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a statement Tuesday that he's concerned that international aviation regulators are providing more certainty to the flying public than the FAA.
"In the coming days, it is absolutely critical that we get answers as to what caused ...

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