A rights group in Libya says an armed group has kidnapped 14 Tunisian workers near the capital, Tripoli.
The National Commission for Human Rights in Libya said late Saturday that the Tunisians were abducted on their way to work at an oil refinery in the western city of Zawiya.
It said the armed group, which it did not name, demanded the release of a Libyan man, also unnamed, detained in Tunisia on drug-related charges.
Tunisia's Foreign Ministry says the workers were kidnapped on Thursday.
In 2015, an armed militia stormed the Tunisian consulate in Tripoli and took 10 staff members hostage.
Libya slid into chaos after its 2011 uprising that toppled long-time ruler Moammar Gadhafi. The country is currently governed by militia-backed rival authorities in Tripoli and the east.

Rights group: 14 Tunisian workers kidnapped in Libya

PTI Automatic

Hundreds of passengers throughout Europe have been stranded by the abrupt collapse of the British regional airline Flybmi.
British Midland Regional Limited, which operates as Flybmi, said it's filing for administration  a British version of bankruptcy  because of higher fuel costs and uncertainty caused by Britain's upcoming departure from the European Union.
"Current trading and future prospects have also been seriously affected by the uncertainty created by the Brexit process, which has led to our inability to secure valuable flying contracts in Europe and a lack of confidence around bmi's ability to continue flying between destinations in Europe," the airline said on its website late Saturday.
The airline thanked workers for their dedication and said "it is with a heavy heart that we have made this unavoidable announcement."
The airline operated 17 jets on routes to 25 European cities. It employed 376 people in Britain, Germany, Sweden and Belgium and says it carried 522,000 ...

Hundreds stranded as British airline Flybmi collapses

Islamic State militants are preventing more than 1,000 civilians from leaving a tiny area still held by the extremist group in a village in eastern Syria, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian militia fighting the group said Sunday.
"Regrettably, Daesh have closed all the roads," Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told The Associated Press, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.
SDF officials have said the extremists are hiding among civilians in a tented village and using a network of caves and tunnels. IS, which once ruled a proto-state in large parts of Syria and Iraq, is clinging to an area less than a square kilometre in the village of Baghouz, in eastern Syria.
The extremists may include high-level commanders, and could be holding hostages among those trapped inside.
Occasional coalition airstrikes and clashes continue inside the village of Baghouz. Artillery rounds were meant to clear land mines for the SDF fighters to advance. SDF ...

US-backed Syria force says IS holding 1,000 civilians

A series of manhole fires in midtown Manhattan on Saturday forced the evacuation of a theater complex where performances of plays including "Jersey Boys" and "Avenue Q" were underway.
No injuries were reported from the manhole fires at around 8 p.m. at West 50th Street near Eighth Avenue.
But a representative for the theater complex New World Stages said patrons were evacuated as a precaution.
"Thankfully, no one was hurt," said Michael Coco, senior director of theater operations for the Shubert Organization.
The plays that were canceled for the night also included "The Play That Goes Wrong," ''Puffs" and "As Spirited History of Drinking." Photos posted on social media show flames shooting into the air. Tim Teeman, a senior editor at the Daily Beast, posted on Twitter that he was inside the theater complex when he heard "4 or 5 bangs/explosions" and smelled smoke.
The Fire Department says the fires were under control by 9:15 p.m.  Subway trains skipped the 50th Street station on the C 

Manhole fires force evacuation of NYC theater complex

Thousands of people have rallied in Serbia's capital for 11th week in a row against populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government.
The crowds at Saturday's protest lit flares outside the parliament building chanting anti-government slogans. Opposition parties meanwhile offered an "agreement" to the citizens pledging to restore democracy they say Vucic has stifled.
The street protests have spread to other towns challenging Vucic, a former extreme nationalist who now says he supports Serbia's European Union membership bid.
Critics accuse Vucic of stifling hard-won democratic freedoms in the country that went through a series of wars during the 1990s. Protests against Vucic started after thugs beat up an opposition leader last November.
Beleaguered opposition parties say they will boycott any future elections in Serbia unless they are free and fair.

Thousands in Serbia protest for 11th week against populists

The victims of a disgruntled employee who opened fire at a suburban Chicago industrial warehouse were co-workers ranging from an intern to the plant manager.
A look at the victims: Trevor Wehner
The 21-year-old Northern Illinois University student was on his first day as an intern in human resources at Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora and attended the fateful meeting where the gunman was fired and then started shooting.
Jay Wehner said his nephew grew up about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Aurora in Sheridan and was expected to graduate from Northern Illinois University in May with a degree in human resource management. He was on the dean's list at NIU's business college.
"He always, always was happy," Jay Wehner said. "I have no bad words for him. He was a wonderful person. You can't say anything but nice things about him."
Clayton Parks
The 32-year-old from Elgin, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Aurora, had just joined Henry Pratt in November 2018 as HR manager responsible for .

Aurora shooting victims ranged from intern to plant manager

Ethiopian teenager Samuel Tefera broke a 22-year-old indoor world record in the 1,500 meters on Saturday, clocking 3 minutes, 31.04 seconds at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix.
The 19-year-old Tefera, who won the indoor world title in the distance in Birmingham last year, went past countryman Yomif Kejelcha as the duo entered the final bend and had the stronger finish to win by 0.54 seconds.
He shaved 0.14 off the old mark of 3:31.18 set by Moroccan great Hicham El Guerrouj in February 1997.
"I can't believe that," Tefera said. "I'm delighted with the outcome and to have the world record is a special feeling."
Kejelcha had said before the meet that he was aiming to break the record, after coming within 0.01 seconds of setting a new world mark in the indoor mile last week at the Millrose Games.
El Guerrouj still holds the outdoor world record of 3:26.00, set in 1998. Britain's Laura Muir also pleased the home crowd by beating the national women's indoor record in the mile, which had ...

Tefera sets indoor world record in 1,500m

Three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka reached his first final on Saturday since his comeback a year ago from left knee surgeries.
The unseeded Wawrinka beat top-seeded Kei Nishikori 6-2 4-6 6-4 in the ABN AMRO World Tournament semifinals to face Gael Monfils for the title on Sunday.
The final is Wawrinka's first since the 2017 French Open, where he last met Monfils in the fourth round.
Monfils ousted the other remaining seed, No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, 4-6 6-3 6-4, a week after the Russian beat Monfils in the Sofia semifinals en route to that title.
Wawrinka didn't serve as well as Nishikori but outplayed Nishikori from the baseline. And his returns never let the Japanese feel comfortable even after winning the second set. The Swiss broke Nishikori decisively at 5-4 in the third set.
Wawrinka will be going for his 17th career title and second in Rotterdam, after winning in 2015.
Monfils previously reached the Rotterdam final in 2016. He's going for an eighth career title. He became more 

Wawrinka reaches first final in nearly 2 years in Rotterdam

Police fired tear gas and brought in water cannons and a horse brigade to disperse several thousand yellow vest protesters Saturday massed near a Paris landmark at the end of a march through the French capital, the 14th straight weekend of demonstrations.
Anti-Semitic remarks hurled by a few at a noted philosopher on the protesters' route were the bitter finale to a day of tension.
Acrid clouds of tear gas filled the esplanade of Les Invalides monument, obscuring the gold dome that crowns the monument housing Napoleon's tomb.
Tension also marked demonstrations in other cities.
In Rouen, in Normandy, a car blocked by demonstrators pushed through the crowd, slightly injuring four people, the all-news channel BFMTV reported.
Police used tear gas and water cannon in Bordeaux, a stronghold of the yellow vest movement, and other cities on the 14th straight Saturday of protests.
Another demonstration in the capital was planned for Sunday to mark three months since the movement held its first 

Tear gas, hate speech marks 14th yellow vest protest

The US military airlifted tons of aid to a Colombian town on the Venezuelan border on Saturday as part of an effort meant to undermine socialist President Nicolas Maduro and back his rival to leadership of the South American nation.
Two of three scheduled Air Force C-17 cargo planes that took off from Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida had landed in Cucuta.
That border city, swollen by a flood of migrants from Venezuela, is a collection point for aid that's supposed to be distributed by supporters of Juan Guaido, the congressional leader who is recognized by the US and many other nations as Venezuela's legitimate president.
"This wasn't the first, and it won't be the last," said USAID Administrator Mark Green, standing on the tarmac in Cucuta at a ceremony to receive the aid. "More is on the way."
Commercial planes had been used for earlier shipments of aid, which is aimed at dramatizing the economic crisis  including hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine  gripping ...

US military planes land near Venezuela border with aid

Part of the roof and several floors of university building in Russia's second-largest city collapsed Saturday, but officials say there were no casualties.
The Emergencies Ministry said the collapse at the Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics took place as construction work was underway. An investigation into criminal violation of construction safety has been opened.
St Petersburg acting governor Alexander Beglov told journalists at the scene in the central city that 81 people were evacuated from the building.
"No victims, no injured," he said.
He said about 20 of those evacuated were foreign students attending a weekend class.
The school, known as ITMO University, is one of Russia's national research universities.

Floors collapse at Russian university in St Petersburg

Four children and their father were killed in a fire that ripped through their northern New York home.
Hundreds of people gathered in Watertown for a vigil Friday night to Aaron Bodah and daughters Skylar, Erin, Alexa and Merissa.
The girls ranged in age from 4 to 14.
Investigators say it appears the fire started in the kitchen around 1:30 AM Thursday. They said pots were left on the electric stove and smoke detectors had no batteries.
A fifth daughter escaped and ran to neighbors for help. She was taken to a hospital. WWNY-TV reported Friday that she was back in Watertown.
Authorities say Aaron Bodah's brother lived in the house and was at work when the fire started.
Mourners placed flowers at a makeshift memorial and released balloons.

Father, 4 daughters dead after upstate New York house fire

Battling with one branch of government and opening a new confrontation with another, President Donald Trump announced Friday he was declaring a national emergency to fulfill his pledge to construct a wall along the US-Mexico border.
Bypassing Congress, which approved far less money for his proposed wall than he had sought, Trump said he would use executive action to siphon billions of dollars from federal military construction and counterdrug efforts for the wall, aides said.
The move is already drawing bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill and expected to face rounds of legal challenges.
Trump made the announcement from the Rose Garden, as he claimed illegal immigration was "an invasion of our country."
Trump's move followed a rare show of bipartisanship when lawmakers voted Thursday to fund large swaths of the government and avoid a repeat of this winter's debilitating five-week government shutdown.
The money in the bill for border barriers, about $1.4 billion, is far below the USD ..

Trump declares national emergency to build border wall

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to spend an extra night in Warsaw after his plane was damaged following an airport mishap shortly before departure.
He departed around noon Friday, marking an inauspicious ending to a turbulent visit.
The prime minister and his entire entourage were on-board a chartered El Al plane the night before after a two-day visit to a high-profile security conference, when a vehicle towing the aircraft on the runway crashed into it.
A photo circulated to travelling journalists showed large scrapes in the underbelly of the aircraft.
Netanyahu and his wife were taken off the plane and ushered back to their hotel. Other aides, including Netanyahu's national security adviser and his military secretary, spent the night on the aircraft, saying they did not want to go through the hassle of pre-boarding security checks again.
A replacement plane was dispatched from Israel to urgently return the prime minster before the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath 

Netanyahu leaves Poland after plane mishap delayed departure

With a March 2 deadline looming, US and Chinese negotiators will meet in Washington next week for more talks on a tariff war over Beijing's technology ambitions, China's government announced Friday.
The announcement came after US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Chinese President Xi Jinping that negotiators had "made headway" on important issues in two days of talks that wrapped up Friday in Beijing.
Officials expressed optimism but gave no details of this week's negotiations, which had been the last scheduled before a planned American tariff hike on USD 200 billion of Chinese imports on March 2.
Economists said the talks were too brief to resolve the tariff fight that is dragging on global economic growth.
"I hope you will continue to work hard to promote a mutually beneficial and win-win agreement," Xi told Lighthizer in a meeting after the negotiations ended, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
The announcement of further talks suggested both sides believe they 

China says trade talks to continue in Washington next week

The US government has suddenly stopped force-feeding a group of men on a hunger strike inside an El Paso immigration detention center, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday.
The dramatic reversal comes as public pressure was mounting on ICE to halt the practice, which involves feeding detainees through nasal tubes against their will. Last week, the United Nations human rights office said the force-feeding of Indian hunger strikers at the facility could violate the UN Convention Against Torture.
On Wednesday, a US district judge said the government had to stop force-feeding two of the detained Indian immigrants, but warned that if their health started to decline he would consider ordering force-feeding again, their attorney said. On Thursday, all force-feeding at the detention center near the El Paso airport had stopped, according to ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa.
"This is a win for us," said Louis Lopez, who is representing Malkeet Singh and Jasvir Singh in the case 

ICE halts force-feeding of immigrant detainees

Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest airport for international travel, has briefly halted flights over an alleged drone sighting.
The airport says it halted flights from 10:13 am to 10:45 am on Friday over "suspected drone activity." It says flights were later resumed.
Alleged drone sightings have previously disrupted flights into the airport, which is the base of the long-haul carrier Emirates.
Drone owners are now required to register with the United Arab Emirates' General Civil Aviation Authority. Authorities also ban hobbyists from putting cameras or lasers on their drones and flying in certain areas.

Dubai airport briefly halts flights over drone sighting

A month into Venezuela's high-stakes political crisis, President Nicolas Maduro revealed in an AP interview that his government held secret talks with the Trump administration and predicted he would survive an unprecedented global campaign to force his resignation.
While harshly criticising President Donald Trump's confrontational stance toward his socialist government, Maduro said Thursday that he holds out hope of meeting the US president soon to resolve a crisis triggered by America's recognition of opponent Juan Guaido as Venezuela's rightful leader.
Maduro said that during two hushed meetings in New York, his foreign minister invited the Washington-based special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, to come to visit "privately, publicly or secretly."
"If he wants to meet, just tell me when, where and how and I'll be there," Maduro said without providing more details. He said both New York meetings lasted several hours.
A senior administration official in Washington who was not ...

Maduro reveals secret meetings with US envoy

A court in Myanmar has sentenced two men to death for the killing of a prominent Muslim lawyer who was a close adviser to the country's top leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
The court found the gunman, Kyi Lin, guilty of premeditated murder and illegal weapons possession for the Jan. 29, 2017 shooting of Ko Ni in broad daylight at the Yangon airport. An accomplice involved in planning the killing was also sentenced to death, and two other men involved in the crime received prison sentences.
A fifth suspect thought to be the crime's mastermind remains at large.  Ko Ni advised Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy on ways to get around articles in the army-imposed constitution that give the military wide powers even after Myanmar transitioned to democracy.

Myanmar court sentences 2 to death for killing Suu Kyi aide

Amazon jilted New York City on Valentine's Day, scrapping plans to build a massive headquarters campus in Queens amid fierce opposition from politicians angry about nearly 3 billion in tax breaks and the company's anti-union stance.
With millions of jobs and a bustling economy, New York can withstand the blow, but experts say the decision by the e-commerce giant to walk away and take with it 25,000 promised jobs could scare off other companies considering moving to or expanding in the city, which wants to be seen as the Silicon Valley of the East Coast.
"One of the real risks here is the message we send to companies that want to come to New York and expand to New York," said Julie Samuels, the executive director of industry group Tech: NYC. "We're really playing with fire right now." In November, Amazon selected New York City and Crystal City, Virginia, as the winners of a secretive, yearlong process in which more than 230 North American cities bid to become the home of the ...

Amazon's exit could scare off tech companies from New York

US and Chinese envoys are holding a second day of trade talks after the top economic adviser to President Donald Trump said he has yet to decide whether to go ahead with a March 2 tariff increase on imports from China.
Business groups and economists say the two days of negotiations due to run through Friday are too brief to resolve a sprawling dispute over Beijing's technology ambitions. They say China's goal is to persuade Trump to push back the March 2 deadline.
Trump's economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, told reporters in Washington the "vibe is good" in the talks, but he said Trump has made no decision on whether to escalate the dispute by letting the March 2 tariff hike go ahead.  Both sides have expressed optimism without releasing details.

AP

AP

Page 1549 - Ap/pti Reuters