A British man has pleaded guilty to federal charges in New York that he plotted to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
	Haroon Aswat pleaded guilty today to supporting terrorism and conspiracy. He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
	Prosecutors say Aswat conspired with a radical cleric to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon, 15 years ago. He was arrested in 2005 in Zambia and later brought to Great Britain.
	He fought extradition for several years before being sent to the United States in 2014 to face the terror charges. His lawyers say he's been treated for mental illness. He is to be sentenced July 31.

British man pleads guilty in terror camp case

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Saudi-led naval forces imposed a blockade on Yemen's ports as coalition airstrikes today repelled an advance on the southern port city of Aden by Shiite rebels and forces loyal to a former president.
	The move to block ports appeared aimed at preventing the rebels, known as Houthis, from rearming, and comes after the coalition achieved full control of the skies and bombed a number of rebel-held airports.
	The rebels are supported by Iran, but both Iran and the Houthis deny Tehran has armed them.
	Saudi Brig Gen Ahmed Asiri, the coalition spokesman, told reporters in Riyadh that naval forces are blocking the movement of ships to prevent weapons and fighters from entering or leaving Yemen. He said they had not yet intercepted anything.
	The airstrikes have targeted at least nine of Yemen's 21 provinces and have prevented the Houthis from reaching Aden, the former capital of the once-independent south, where President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi declared a temporary capital after fleeing ...

Saudi-led forces strike Yemen rebels, blockade ports

Iran's state TV says two land mines left over from the 1980s Iraq-Iran war have killed five Iranian border guards and a female shepherd near the Iraqi border.
	The TV says the guards were on a regular patrol today near the Iranian border town of Qasr-e Shirin, about 540 kilometers (340 miles) west of the capital, Tehran, when one of the mines went off.
	The second explosion, which killed the woman shepherd, was also in the same area today. Such explosions occasionally take place and to this day cause casualties.
	Iran says it has defused millions of land mines that Iraqi forces planted during the 1980-88 conflict that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein waged against Iran. The eight-year-long war killed more than a million people on both sides.

Wartime land mines kill 5 Iranian border guards, shepherd

US President Barack Obama said today that American politicians in an era of partisanship should try to carry themselves more like Edward M. Kennedy, as politicians from both parties lauded the late senator's collegial spirit at the dedication of an institute that bears his name.
	The USD 79 million institute, built next to the John F. Kennedy presidential library on Boston's Columbia Point, envisioned by Kennedy before he was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008. He died the following year. Edward Kennedy was the late president's youngest brother.
	Obama said it was appropriate for Kennedy to want "a monument not to himself but to what we the people have the power to do together." He said he hoped the institute could help restore confidence in government at a time of great cynicism, giving a young student a chance to debate in its full-scale replica of the Senate chamber.
	"What if our politics, our democracy, were as elevated as he envisions it to be?" Obama said. Instead, he said ...

Obama: Politicians should carry themselves more like Kennedy

Did South Africa's cricket team drop a white player and replace him with an injured black player for a World Cup semifinal match to make its lineup more racially acceptable?
	The question has revived an uncomfortable conversation over race and change in South African sport, where the two most successful national teams cricket and rugby are still mainly white more than two decades after the end of apartheid.
	Sports minister Fikile Mbalula denied that he influenced the cricket team to drop white bowler Kyle Abbott for Vernon Philander in last week's World Cup semifinal against New Zealand.
	Mbalula, who is black, said he was responding to accusations made by "a dying breed of political dinosaurs." He didn't identify the source of the accusations.
	"We know who are spreading these speculations and we will not dignify them by mentioning their names," Mbalula said in a statement over the weekend. "These are acts of desperate colonial apartheid apologist(s) ... We shall not be deterred by .

Racial quotas controversy re-emerges in South African sport

A church van ran through a stop sign, crossed all four lanes of a rural highway and crashed into a canal, killing eight people and injuring ten in Florida early today, authorities said.
	The van with "Independent Haitian Church of Reformation" written on its side was heading back to church in Fort Pierce, north of West Palm Beach on the Atlantic coast, after a weekend convention in Fort Myers, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
	"They didn't see that stop sign. They shot right through it," Glades County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Duane Pottorff said.
	Eighteen people were in the 15-seat van when the van crashed about 12:30 a.M. Today, said Lt. Gregory S. Bueno of the Highway Patrol.
	An emergency dispatch call came in at 12:31 a.M., and deputies arrived four minutes later, officials said. The van had gone down an eight-to-10 foot (two-to-three meter) embankment and landed in shallow water of the canal, which is lined with tall grass and weeds.
	The driver and seven passengers 

8 killed as church van crashes into canal

A US woman's unusual method of finding a kidney donor has paid off: She painted an appeal on the rear window of her car.
	The Portland Press Herald reports that Christine Royles of Maine was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease which led to kidney failure in December 2013.
	She went on the national waiting list to find a donor, but decided to take matters into her own hands.
	Josh Dall-Leighton, a 30-year-old a father of three, saw the message on Royles' car window, which included a phone number. He called.
	The stranger has been classified as a potential match and the surgery is set for May. Royles calls Josh's generosity "unbelievable.

Woman's appeal for kidney donor on car window pays off

Families of at least 77 people killed in crashes caused by defective General Motors ignition switches will get compensation from the company.
	Attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who was hired by GM to compensate victims, updated the total Monday. It was up from 74 last week.
	An additional 141 injured people also are eligible for compensation.
	The fund received a total of 4,342 claims by the Jan. 31 deadline. Of those, 1,263 are still under review. Feinberg says more than half are ineligible or lack documentation.
	GM knew about problem switches in Chevrolet Cobalts and other small cars for more than a decade but recalled them only last year. They can slip out of the "on" position, which cuts off the engine, knocks out power steering and turns off air bags.

GM ignition switch death toll rises to 77

Chile's government says 17 people have been killed and 20 are still missing after torrential rains caused flooding in a northern desert region.
	The heavy rains last week swelled rivers and led to flash-flooding that also caused power outages and blocked roads.
	President Michelle Bachelet's spokesman announced Monday that the government will provide nearly USD 10 million to the flood-hit areas.
	The precipitation in the northern desert city of Antofagasta was dramatically abnormal.
	From Wednesday to Thursday morning, about an inch of rain (24 millimeters) fell in an area that typically receives only about 0.07 inches (1.7 millimeters) of rain in a year, according to Chile's meteorological service.

Chile: 17 killed, 20 missing after floods in desert region

An apple a day doesn't necessarily keep the doctor away. That's according to proverb-busting research that found daily apple eaters had just as many doctor visits as those who ate fewer or no apples.
	The findings don't mean apples aren't good for you but they do underscore that it takes more than just one kind of food to make a healthy diet and avoid illness.
	About one-third of the adults studied said they had no more than one doctor visit in the previous year; the remainder reported at least two visits.
	A preliminary analysis found apple eaters had slightly fewer visits than apple avoiders, those who ate less than one daily or no apples. But that difference disappeared when the researchers considered weight, race, education, health insurance and other factors that can influence frequency of medical visits.

An apple a day may not keep the doctor away, study says

A firefight erupted today when two people in a car tried to ram a National Security Agency gate at the Fort Meade military installation, killing at least one person, according to preliminary reports cited by two US officials.
	An FBI spokeswoman said the incident was not believed to be linked to terrorism.
	The two federal officials said at least one of the people in the car died after the firefight ensued. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss an ongoing incident on the record.
	The NSA is headquartered on the sprawling Army installation near Baltimore.
	FBI spokeswoman Amy J Thoreson said in an email today that the shooting scene is contained. The agency is working with the US Attorney's Office in Maryland to determine if federal charges are warranted, she said.
	Thoreson also says FBI agents are doing interviews with witnesses.
	Local television showed two damaged vehicles near a gate and emergency workers loading an injured uniformed man .

US officials: 1 dead after car tries to ram NSA gate

Yemen's Shiite rebels and security forces loyal to the former president launched a fresh offencive today against the southern city of Aden, shelling it and battling local militias, but were pushed back by at least two airstrikes on the fifth day of a Saudi-led air campaign, security officials said.
	The rebels, known as Houthis, meanwhile accused the Saudi-led coalition of bombing a displaced persons camp in the northern rebel stronghold of Saada, killing 40 people, including women and children. The report was carried on the rebels' TV network.
	However, witnesses told The Associated Press that the camp used to house displaced people from an earlier conflict that ended five years ago is now occupied by Houthi forces and that most of those killed were fighters.
	It was not immediately possible to resolve the conflicting accounts.
	Aden, the economic center of the Arab world's poorest nation, was declared the provisional capital by embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi before he ..

Yemeni rebels shell Aden as Saudi launches more airstrikes

Two major companies in a prominent USD 1.4 billion Asia investment fund managed by New York banking giant Morgan Stanley unexpectedly told securities regulators they will not file their financial statements on time and froze trading in their stocks, actions generally considered to be cause for concern.
	The publicly traded companies, Tianhe Chemicals Group Ltd and Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd., separately announced late last week that they would be unable to meet Hong Kong Stock Exchange deadlines because auditors have not yet signed off on their financials. Both companies pledged to cooperate with the auditors.
	Tianhe and Sihuan are valued at USD 3.7 billion and USD 6 billion, respectively. They are among 16 companies that comprise a private equity fund managed by Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, known as Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia Three, or MSPEA III. An Australian and an Indian company owned by that fund have already failed amid criminal and civil fraud ...

Late audits halt trading in Morgan Stanley-backed stocks

Amanda Knox's former Italian boyfriend said today he needs to heal wounds inside his heart and soul, now that he and the American have been definitively acquitted of her British roommate's 2007 murder in the Italian town where all three were then students.
	Raffaele Sollecito, 31, made his first public comments since the judicial saga ended Friday night when Italy's top criminal court overturned earlier convictions.
	"I feel today like someone who was kidnapped, who after seven years and five months has returned to freedom," Sollecito said, referring the time since Meredith Kercher was found fatally stabbed in her bedroom of the house she shared with Knox and other roommates.
	Sollecito and Knox spent four years in jail, including time served after they were convicted early in the case. Later convictions by a Florence appeals court brought sentences of 25 years and 28-and-a-half years respectively.
	"Everyone was pointing a finger at me, like I was a murderer, without a shred of ...

Knox's ex-beau after their acquittals: We're still friends

An international investigation into the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster is officially looking into a scenario that the plane was downed by a missile fired from conflict-ridden eastern Ukraine.
	A Dutch judicial statement said today the international investigating team is looking for witnesses "that can tell more about the transport, crew and firing of a Buk missile system in the Donbass region."
	The cause of the MH17 disaster last summer is a subject of major diplomatic disputes. Ukraine and Western governments say Russia-backed separatist fighters are responsible for downing the plane, while Russian state-run television has claimed Ukraine's air force was to blame. All 298 people aboard the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed.
	The Dutch statement said it was "too early to come to conclusions.

Probe into Ukraine plane disaster eyes Buk missile launchers

President Barack Obama will make his first trip as president to Kenya, the country of his father's birth.
	The White House says Obama will visit Kenya in July for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which brings together business leaders, international organisations and governments. This will be the first time the summit takes place in sub-Saharan Africa.
	Obama visited Kenya as a US senator, but never as president. During a trip to other African countries last year, he said he was likely to visit Kenya before leaving the White House.
	The president's father came to the United States from Kenya for school and returned to his home country after his son's birth. The elder Obama died more than 30 years ago, though the president has other family still living in Kenya.

Obama to make first visit to Kenya as president

Negotiations over Iran's nuclear program entered a critical phase today with differences still remaining less than two days before a deadline for the outline of an agreement.
	With the March 31 target fast approaching, the top diplomats from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Germany and Iran were meeting to try to bridge remaining gaps and hammer out the framework deal that would be the basis for a final accord to be reached by the end of June.
	US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, have been meeting in the Swiss town of Lausanne since Thursday in an intense effort to reach a political understanding on terms that would curb Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
	Officials say the sides have made some progress, with Iran considering demands for further cuts to its uranium enrichment program but pushing back on how long it must limit technology it could use to make atomic arms.
	In addition to ...

Iran nuclear talks at crunch time

The president of Northeastern University is reacting angrily to the discovery of swastikas on campus.
	The Nazi symbol was found drawn on a dry-erase board in the common space of the International Village dorm at around 1:30 am yesterday.
	President Joseph Aoun said in an email to the campus community that "these actions are completely antithetical to the values of our university and all that we stand for." He called it a hateful act of anti-Semitism.
	Campus police are investigating.
	Northeastern dealt with a similar incident in November when swastikas were drawn on fliers publicizing a lecture by an Israeli military official.

Swastika graffiti found at Northeastern University

Incumbent leader Islam Karimov has won a Sunday's presidential election in Uzbekistan in a landslide, as expected, according to preliminary results released today.
	The Central Election Commission said in a statement published on its website that Karimov had garnered a 90.4 percent of the vote as nearly 91 percent of the vote were counted by late afternoon.
	Even before all of the ballots were counted, Russian President Vladimir Putin's office sent congratulations to the 77-year-old Karimov, who has led the former Soviet republic since 1990 and ruthlessly quashed all opposition to his rule.
	Uzbekistan relies heavily on Russia, where 3 million Uzbeks live and work escaping unemployment and extreme poverty of their home country.
	The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in a statement issued today criticised the vote as a foregone conclusion for lacking "genuine political alternatives."
	The OSCE also noted that Karimov was allowed to run despite the constitutional limit 

Uzbekistan's leader scores landslide re-election win

A Jerusalem district court has indicted a Palestinian from east Jerusalem on charges of traveling to Syria to join and fight with the Islamic State militant group.
	The Shin Bet security service says Khalil Khalil, born in 1990, had joined a gym at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to physically prepare for the mission.
	The agency says he told his family he was going on a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, but instead, he and a friend flew to Istanbul in January and then traveled to a safe house in southern Turkey. From there, smugglers brought them to Syria.
	Khalil returned after a few weeks and was later arrested by the Shin Bet.
	It says about 40 Palestinians and Arab-Israeli citizens have gone to fight with militant groups in Syria.

Israel charges Palestinian for fighting with Islamic State

Iran's Revolution Guard says a US drone strike has killed two of its advisers in Iraq, though the US said today it has only struck militants in its campaign against the Islamic State group.
	The claim came as negotiators attempted to reach a deal on Iran's contested nuclear program, which hard-liners in the Islamic Republic have opposed as giving away too much to the West.
	The Guard said on its sepahnews.Ir website the strike happened March 23, just after the US-led coalition began airstrikes to support Iraqi forces trying to retake the Islamic State-held city of Tikrit. It identified the dead as Ali Yazdani and Hadi Jafari, saying they were buried yesterday.
	It called them advisers, without elaborating on whether Iran contacted Iraqi or US forces after the strike.
	The US-led coalition began a campaign of airstrikes and reconnaissance missions around Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, on March 21.
	Reached by The Associated Press, the US Embassy in Baghdad said: "The international .

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