An Argentine judge has issued an arrest warrant for Justin Bieber, saying the singer failed to respond to summons related to a 2013 incident in Buenos Aires.
	In a resolution released today, Judge Alberto Julio Banos ordered the "immediate detention" of Bieber and bodyguards Hugo Alcides Hesny and Terrence Reche Smalls.
	Bieber is accused of sending the bodyguards to attack photographer Diego Pesoa outside a Buenos Aires nightclub. Bieber never returned to Argentina to respond to questions about the incident.
	Under Argentine law, Bieber would face from one month to six years in prison if convicted on a charge of causing injuries.
	The warrant did not specify whether it extended beyond Argentina.

Argentine judge orders arrest warrant for Justin Bieber

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Crews searched for missing residents today after at least one tornado brought chaos to a tiny northern Illinois town, killing two people, injuring roughly a dozen more and sweeping homes off their foundations.
	The large storm that rumbled across much of the US also forced the cancellation of more than 850 flights at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport yesterday and dozens of others at the city's Midway International Airport. The outlook was much improved today, although about 90 flights were cancelled and dozens of delays were expected.
	At least two tornadoes swept through Illinois yesterday. At least one of them struck Fairdale, a community of roughly 150 people about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Chicago.
	Two women were killed and about a dozen other people were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life- threatening.
	Authorities said about 15 to 20 homes were destroyed and just about every building in the town was damaged.
	All homes were evacuated as a ...

Tornado kills 2 people, destroys homes in tiny Illinois town

A Palestinian was killed and about a dozen wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers that erupted after a funeral in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said today.
	An emergency room doctor at Al Ahli Hospital in Hebron said 27-year-old Ziad Awad arrived from the nearby town of Beit Ummar in critical condition with a bullet in the abdomen and later died of his wounds.
	Another 10 people were being treated for minor injuries sustained by rubber bullets, he said. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
	Earlier, thousands attended a funeral for the man's cousin, who died three months after being released early from an Israeli prison due to illness.
	After the funeral, Palestinians threw rocks at soldiers manning a watchtower on a road near the town, according to witnesses.
	Israel's military said Palestinians threw rocks and firebombs, and rolled burning tires toward soldiers. It said troops used tear gas at first, but fired ...

Palestinian killed in clashes with Israeli forces

The presidents of the United States and Cuba have spoken by phone for only the second time in more than 50 years, setting the stage for a historic encounter between the two leaders at a regional summit starting today in Panama.
	The call between President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro came on Wednesday, shortly before Obama departed Washington on his trip to Latin America and the Caribbean, the White House said. Both Obama and Castro arrived in Panama City for the Summit of the Americas last evening, only minutes apart.
	The two leaders have been working to restore diplomatic ties, a move that sent shockwaves through Latin America when Obama and Castro announced it in tandem in December.
	In another major step yesterday, the US and Cuba held their highest-level diplomatic meeting since cutting off relations more than half a century ago. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez met behind closed doors in Panama City for a session that ..

Obama, Castro speak by phone amid bid to restore Cuba ties

An international aid group says five local staff in Afghanistan who were abducted last month have been killed.
	Save the Children says it was informed today that the five men had been killed. It says they were abducted in the southern Uruzgan province, without providing further details.
	Dost Mohammad Nayab, spokesman for the governor of Uruzgan, says the five were abducted around 40 days ago and that the government refused their captors' demands for a prisoner exchange.
	He says their bodies were found today, and that they had been shot dead. He did not say who captured the aid workers.

5 aid workers killed after being abducted in Afghanistan

Traffic fumes, dirty air blown in from Europe and Sarahan dust are combining to coat parts of Britain in smog.
	The environment department says air pollution is "high" across much of the country today and could reach the top designation of "very high" in southeast England.
	Officials say people with heart and lung problems or asthma should avoid exertion.
	In London, haze clouded the view of landmarks including Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament from atop the Shard, Britain's tallest building.
	Steven Godby, a geographer at Nottingham Trent University, said a contributing factor was North African dust that was "incorporated into a northerly airflow and can travel long distances before being deposited as far away as the UK."
	Officials say fresher air from the Atlantic should ease pollution tomorrow.

Dirty air, Sahara dust blankets parts of Britain in smog

The World Health Organisation says the year-long Ebola outbreak in West Africa still qualifies as an international emergency even though the number of cases has plummeted.
	Last August, the UN health agency declared the epidemic of the lethal virus to be a global emergency after the deaths of nearly 1,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
	At the peak last year, hundreds of new cases were being reported every week. In an update this week, WHO reported there were 30 confirmed cases last week in Guinea and Sierra Leone; the last case in Liberia died on March 27.
	Bruce Aylward, who is leading WHO's Ebola response, said the decline appeared to be real, rather than just "a pothole on the bumpy road to get to zero cases."
	During a press briefing in Geneva today, Aylward said WHO's Ebola emergency committee believes the risk of the virus spreading globally appears to be dropping even though officials still don't know where the virus is spreading in most cases in Guinea ...

Ebola still global emergency despite big drop in cases: UN

Fire has engulfed the main mosque in a town in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan.
	Police spokeswoman Fatina Ubaidatova says no one was hurt when the fire swept through the mosque in Kizlyar, located near the border with Chechnya.
	Fire investigators were still trying to determine the cause of the blaze, which broke out after morning prayers.
	There were no indications that the fire was connected to the Islamic insurgency that spread through Russia's predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region after two separatist wars in Chechnya.
	A number of moderate Muslim clerics who oppose a more fundamentalist form of Islam have been attacked or killed in Dagestan in recent years.

Fire engulfs mosque in Russia's Dagestan, no one hurt

Planes carrying badly needed medical aid have landed in Yemen's embattled capital, the first such deliveries by international organisations since a Saudi-led airstrikes campaign started over two weeks ago targeting Shiite rebels and their allies.
	The International Committee for the Red Cross and the UN children's welfare agency, UNICEF, say two planes, one from each organisation, landed today in Sanaa.
	ICRC spokeswoman in Sanaa Marie Claire Feghali says the Red Cross plane delivered 16.4 tonnes of medical supplies that can treat up to 1,000 wounded.
	UNICEF representative in Yemen Julien Harneis says the agency's 16 tonnes include medicines, medical equipment, nutrients for malnourished children and water supplies for about 80,000 people.

Planes with medical aid land in embattled Yemeni capital

Iraqi officials say two separate bombings have targeted public places in Baghdad and near the Iraqi capital, killing 11 people.
	Police officials say a suicide bomber set off his explosives vest at noon today inside a small restaurant in the town of Mishada, killing six people and wounding 14. Mishada is 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Baghdad.
	A little bit later, a car bomb blast in the downtown Karrada district in Baghdad killed five people and wounded 12. Hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to talk to the media.
	Iraq sees near-daily attacks that are often claimed by the Islamic State group, which last year seized much of the country's northern and western region.

Officials: 2 bombings kill 11 people in Iraq

Officers have shot and killed a man after three people were stabbed outside a church in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood, investigators said.
	Police received a call at about 5 PM local time about a man stabbing people and arrived to find the suspect wielding a knife outside the church.
	A police statement said officers tried to arrest the suspect without success and fired multiple rounds from a bean bag shotgun in an attempt to control him yesterday.
	The man, who police would not identify, was shot and killed when he "turned his attention to a woman who was standing nearby and he began to stab her," the statement said.
	The woman was hospitalised in critical condition and two men who were attacked were treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.

3 people stabbed in Vancouver, suspect killed by police

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was meeting today with the country's top political and military leaders, but said the landmark talks would be meaningful only if they lead to free and fair elections scheduled for later this year.
	At stake is Myanmar's constitution, written by the military in 2008, which does not allow Suu Kyi to run for president because her sons are foreign citizens.
	With the elections months away, time is running out for Suu Kyi and ethnic minorities, who feel the constitution and electoral law put them at a disadvantage.
	The unprecedented talks at the presidential house in Naypyitaw brought together President Thein Sein, Suu Kyi, top military commander Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the speaker and the president of both houses of parliament and a representative of ethnic minorities, Aye Maung.
	Aye Maung was skeptical about progress, but said prior to the meeting that the talks could "open the way for greater understanding and help reach some ...

Suu Kyi hopes high-level meeting leads to fair elections

A suicide car bomber targeting a convoy of US troops in eastern Afghanistan killed three Afghan civilians and wounded four others today, while in another eastern province, 10 people died when their minivan hit a roadside bomb, officials said.
	The Taliban claimed responsibility for the convoy attack, which took place near the US military base not far from the airport in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province.
	None of the American soldiers were hurt in the bombing, said Hazrat Hussain Mashraqiwal, the spokesman for the provincial police chief.
	The attack happened outside the gates of the base, as a convoy was returning from an early patrol, according to an official at the base who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.
	The area is built up, with residential housing mixed with retail outlets, mostly selling vehicles and automobile parts. Friday is the Muslim weekend in Afghanistan and the area is typically bustling with people.
	Taliban .

Bombings, including attack on US troops, kills 13 Afghans

The UN secretary-general has instructed his special envoy to Syria to relaunch a political process aimed at ending the four-year-old conflict, the clearest sign yet that a plan to freeze hostilities in key cities has failed.
	Ban Ki-moon spoke to reporters yesterday about his new directive for Staffan de Mistura, the third UN envoy trying to end the conflict which has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven some 9 million of the prewar population of 23 million from their homes.
	The UN chief ordered de Mistura late last month to consult widely with UN Security Council members, regional governments and the Syrian parties themselves "to operationalise and flesh out" elements of the roadmap for a Syrian political transition adopted at a meeting on June 30, 2012 in Geneva by key nations.
	The roadmap starts with the establishment of a transitional governing body vested with full executive powers and ends with elections but there has been no agreement on how to implement it. It would ...

UN chief instructs Syria envoy to seek political end to war

President Barack Obama has sought to reassert US influence in the Caribbean and the Americas with pledges of energy assistance and diplomatic fence mending.
	Obama huddled yesterday with Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and then with an expanded group of Caribbean leaders as he opened a three-day trip that will conclude with his attendance at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City.
	Obama's travels come after a year spent devoting increased attention to the region by signing executive orders on immigration, seeking to slow the influx of Central American minors to the US border, tussling with Venezuela over human rights and initiating a historic diplomatic opening with Cuba.
	But Obama's efforts are limited, with his most ambitious one facing potential obstacles from the Republican-controlled Congress and his most recent immigration initiative stalled by court order. A USD 1 billion spending initiative aimed at Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador's economic and crime ...

Energy aid, new diplomacy mark Obama visit to Americas

The Argentine government has summoned Britain's ambassador to answer questions about a recent news report that alleged the British conducted electronic spying on the South American country.
	According to a statement yesterday, the Foreign Ministry called British Ambassador John Freeman to speak about last week's report in The Intercept, a British website.
	Intercept said Britain conducted an electronic spying program focused on Argentina between 2006 and 2011. The website said the report was based on documents released by former intelligence officer Edward Snowden.
	It said the operation may have included implanting computer viruses and circulating false information to discredit Argentina's claim on the Falkland Islands.
	The islands about 500 kilometres east of Argentina are claimed by both Britain and Argentina.

Argentine gov't summons British ambassador on spying report

At least 21 people have died and 17 others are missing in a suspected boat capsizing off Haiti's northern coast, authorities have said.
	The group was among 50 believed to be aboard a boat that was headed north to the nearby Turks & Caicos Islands, said Jean Henri Petit yesterday, an official with Haiti's Civil Protection Department. He said survivors told police the boat encountered bad weather and tried to return to Haiti when it hit something.
	The bodies began to wash ashore yesterday morning in the coastal town of Le Borgne, about 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of Port-au-Prince, police inspector Jean Mesamours told The Associated Press.
	The families of 10 of the victims had picked up the bodies, while the other 11 dead were buried in a mass grave because no one claimed them, Petit said.
	The Turks & Caicos Islands are a popular destination for Haitian migrants despite authorities warning them that the voyage is perilous.

21 people found drowned off Haiti's north coast, 17 missing

An American man traveled to the Middle East in a failed attempt to join the Islamic State group, federal authorities said today.
	Joshua Van Haften, 34, was arrested last night at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago after returning on a flight from Turkey. He is charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
	Van Haften was ordered held without bond during his first court appearance today.
	US Attorney John Vaudreil called Van Haften a flight risk.
	Van Haften's lawyer, Joseph Bugni, said he looks forward to "having all the facts brought to light."
	The criminal complaint, which had been under seal since Oct. 28, alleges that Van Haften talked to people about his plan before leaving the United States in August for Istanbul.
	The complaint cites Facebook posts from Van Haften that said he was unable to cross the border from Turkey into Syria.
	In one post, Van Haften complained that the people who were supposed to ...

US man accused of trying to join Islamic State group

President Barack Obama said today that he soon decide whether to remove Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism now that the State Department has finished a review on the question as part of the move to reopen diplomatic relations with the island nation.
	Obama's remarks came as he opened a three-day trip to the Caribbean and Central America where he's expected to attend a regional summit with Cuban President Raul Castro.
	Havana has eagerly sought removal from the list, and Obama for months has signaled he's prepared to to take the step once he received a formal recommendation.
	Obama, speaking after a meeting with Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in Kingston, said US agencies are now poring over the State Department's review but that he's yet to receive the actual recommendation. Obama is expected to act quickly to formalize Cuba's removal from the list potentially as soon as later this week when he travels to Panama for the Summit of the ...

Obama: Decision near on removing Cuba from terror list

China's state broadcaster is investigating one of its hosts after a video of him insulting Mao Zedong was leaked online, causing a stir and rekindling debate on the complicated legacy of the father of communist China.
	China Central Television said talent show host Bi Fujian would face serious investigation because his jokes have had a "severe social impact."
	In the home video that circulated widely online before censors removed it this week, Bi sings a song about Communist Party-led soldiers battling bandits in northeastern China in the 1940s. To the laughter of guests at a dinner, Bi adds his own commentary in a speaking voice between lines.
	When the lyrics refer to Mao, Bi calls the revolutionary hero a vulgar phrase and says "he has ruined us all." Bi also mocks the soldiers, suggesting their battles were pointless and the song's claim of victory boastful.
	The incident renewed debate both on free speech and about Mao, who many Chinese feel should be held responsible for ...

China TV host's mocking of Mao Zedong draws fire, applause

Iran's top leader today stopped short of giving his endorsement to the framework nuclear deal struck last week between Tehran and world powers, while the country's president warned separately that Tehran's approval of a final deal depends on the immediate lifting of all sanctions related to its controversial nuclear program.
	The comments, taken together, could represent simply a tough bargaining stance by the Islamic Republic ahead of the next round of negotiations in the countdown to the final deal expected by June 30. But President Hassan Rouhani's demand of an immediate and full sanctions relief is likely to complicate efforts to reach a final deal.
	"We will not sign any agreement, unless all economic sanctions are totally lifted on the first day of the implementation of the deal," Rouhani said during a ceremony marking Iran's nuclear technology day, which celebrates the country's nuclear achievements.
	Iran and the six world powers agreed last week in Switzerland on a framework .

AP

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