With 500 days to go until the 2016 Olympics begin, Rio de Janeiro's mayor acknowledged yesterday that the much-touted goal of cleaning up the city's blighted waterways for the games would likely not be met.
     In an interview with SporTV, Eduardo Paes said that cleaning up Guanabara Bay, the sewage and trash-filled waterway where the Olympic sailing events are to be held, "is something that we should have been able to achieve."
     "It is indeed a wasted opportunity," Paes said, adding, "as a Rio resident, I think it's a shame."
     Without a well-developed sewage collection and treatment system or reliable garbage collection in the sprawling urban area that rings the bay, tons of garbage and raw sewage flow into the bay, as well as other area waterways - including Rio's world famous beaches.
     While the first government programs to clean up the bay date back more than 20 years, little progress was made, and in Rio's Olympic bid authorities promised a massive cleanup effort ...

Rio mayor: Olympics 'wasted' chance for water cleanup

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A posthumous memoir by Nelson Mandela, recounting his time as South Africa's first democratically elected president, is scheduled to be published around the world next year.
	Pan Macmillan today said that it will publish the sequel to Mandela's best-selling autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom" in Britain, South Africa, India and Australasia in 2016. US and Canadian rights have not yet been sold.
	The publisher said the Nelson Mandela Foundation has "a substantial but incomplete personally written draft" of the book, written before the statesman died in December 2013 at the age of 95. On the wishes of his widow, Graca Machel, it will be completed by a group of Mandela's former advisers.
	Machel said Mandela began work on the book in 1998, near the end of his five-year presidential term. She said Mandela saw it as "a natural progression" from "Long Walk," which covered his early years, his political struggle against South Africa's apartheid regime and the 27 years he spent in ...

Posthumous Nelson Mandela memoir to be published in 2016

The World Health Organization has denied that politics swayed the decision to declare an international emergency over the spread of the Ebola virus last year, despite evidence senior staffers repeatedly discussed the diplomatic and economic fallout of such a move.
	A year after WHO declared that Ebola had been found in Guinea, the agency is on the defensive over reports that it dragged its feet when raising the international alarm over the disease.
	Internal communications published by The Associated Press last week documented senior agency staff discouraging the move about two months before the international alert was finally raised, citing diplomatic relations, mining interests and the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
	WHO spokeswoman Dr Margaret Harris yesterday said that "political considerations did not play a role" and that notions to the contrary were due to a misinterpretation of the leaked documents.
	Political worries appear to loom large in the communications obtained by AP, ...

WHO denies politics swayed Ebola emergency declaration

Utah became the only state to allow firing squads for executions when Gov Gary Herbert signed a law approving the controversial method's use when no lethal-injection drugs are available.
	Herbert has said he finds the firing squad "a little bit gruesome," but Utah is a capital punishment state and needs a backup execution method in case a shortage of the drugs persists.
	"We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty, and we prefer to use our primary method of lethal injection when such a sentence is issued," Herbert spokesman Marty Carpenter said.
	"However, when a jury makes the decision and a judge signs a death warrant, enforcing that lawful decision is the obligation of the executive branch."
	The measure's approval is the latest illustration of some states' frustration over bungled executions and difficulty obtaining the drugs. Utah is one of several states seeking new forms of capital punishment after a botched Oklahoma lethal ..

Governor signs law making Utah only state with firing squad

Canadian film and television actress Alberta Watson has died. She was 60.
	Her agent, Pam Winter, said Watson died Saturday in Toronto after a long battle with cancer.
	Watson was best known for her role on "24" as special agent Erin Driscoll during the Fox series' 2004-05 season.
	More recently, she appeared on the CW series "Nikita" as well as on its earlier version, "La Femme Nikita," on USA.
	Her films included "Hackers" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." TV guest roles included "Hill Street Blues, "Law & Order" and "The Equalizer.

Canadian film and TV actress Alberta Watson dies at 60

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized to Israel's Arab citizens for remarks he made during last week's parliament election and which offended members of the community.
	Netanyahu, whose Likud Party won re-election in the vote, met with members of the Arab community at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem on Monday and apologized.
	He says he knows his "comments last week offended some Israeli citizens and offended members of the Israeli-Arab community."
	Netanyahu says: "This was never my intent. I apologize for this."
	Netanyahu drew accusations of racism in Israel, especially from its Arab minority, and a White House rebuke when, just a few hours before polling stations were to close across the country, he warned that Arab citizens were voting "in droves.

Israel's Netanyahu apologizes to country's Arab minority

Multiple bombings in the Iraqi capital killed at least 19 people and wounded 36, as Iraqi forces continued preparing for a large-scale operation to recapture the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State group.
	The deadliest bombing struck a busy commercial street today in the Habibiya section of Baghdad's Sadr City, killing at least nine people and wounding 22, officials said.
	Another bombing, at a vegetable market in the Tarabya section of Baghdad, killed at least six people and wounded 14.
	Earlier today in northwestern Baghdad, police say a bomb detonated near an intelligence branch of the Interior Ministry, killing four people, a couple and their two children.
	Hospital officials corroborated the casualty figures. All officials spoke anonymously as they are not authorised to brief the media.
	Baghdad has enjoyed relative calm in recent months as compared to the sectarian bloodshed that gripped the city in 2006 and 2007.
	While no one has claimed responsibility for today's attack, ..

Iraq officials: Baghdad bombings kill 19; wound 36

In a ceremony at the Pentagon, Afghanistan's president thanked US troops and taxpayers for their sacrifices in nearly 14 years of war.
	President Ashraf Ghani also offered assurances that his country would not be a burden on the international community as it continues to struggle against the Taliban and its own internal divisions.
	Defence Secretary Ash Carter welcomed Ghani and Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah at a ceremony in the Pentagon's centre courtyard.
	It was a poignant setting for the start of Ghani's Washington visit.
	On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked an American Airlines jetliner and flew it into the Pentagon, killing all aboard and 125 people in the building.
	The US responded to the attacks on Washington and New York by invading Afghanistan a month later.

At Pentagon, Afghan president thanks US troops

A purported affiliate of the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the mass killing of 29 soldiers last week in a southern city taken over by the country's local al-Qaida branch.
	They made the claim today on a Twitter account known to be associated with the militants, who previously claimed responsibility for suicide bombings Friday in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, that killed 137 people.
	US officials have been sceptical about whether the militants have direct links to the Islamic State group.
	Al-Qaida in Arabian Peninsula took over the city of al-Houta on Friday before being pushed out by Yemeni forces.
	Al-Qaida militants had not claimed the soldiers' killing in al-Houta.
	The chaos comes as the country's embattled president faces a Shiite rebel insurrection.

Purported Islamic State affiliate claims Yemen mass killing

Tunisia's prime minister has fired five leading security officials after three gunmen attacked a Tunis museum, killing 21 in the deadliest attack on tourists in Tunisia in 13 years, the government said today.
	The ousted officials include the director of Tunisia's tourist police and the police chief for the neighbourhood around the National Bardo Museum, government spokesman Mufdi Mseddi told The Associated Press.
	The decision was made after the prime minister visited the neighbourhood of the attack and noted security problems, the spokesman said. President Beji Caid Essebsi had also criticised security failings around last week's attack.
	The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for attacking the museum, a trove of Roman mosaics and Tunisia's leading historical museum.
	Several well-armed groups in neighbouring and chaotic Libya have pledged allegiance to IS. Tunisia is also fighting extremists claiming allegiance to al-Qaida in its western mountains.

Tunisian prime minister fires security chiefs after attack

A Ugandan police official says five madrassas across Uganda have been shut down over allegations they are training students to become extremists.
	Patrick Onyango, a spokesman for police in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, said today that some Islamic schools were training children to become fighters in a rebel group opposed to Uganda's government.
	He said three of the schools ordered shut are located in Uganda's central region while two of them are in the east.
	Uganda's Daily Monitor newspaper reported today that a senior Ugandan Muslim leader, Kassim Nakibinge, criticised the police's action, saying Islamic schools are being unfairly targeted.
	Police link the madrassas to the Allied Democratic Forces, a Congo-based armed group whose fugitive Ugandan leader is wanted by Interpol.

Uganda shuts down 5 madrassas over training extremists

An IOC evaluation commission began meetings in Beijing today in preparation for a five-day inspection of the city's bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
	The 19-member commission begins visiting sites for hockey, ice skating and other events in central Beijing on Tuesday before checking proposed skiing and sliding venues further outside the city.
	Beijing is competing against Almaty, Kazakhstan, and is seeking to become the first city to host both the summer and winter games.
	Chinese organizers say hosting the games would raise the profile of winter sports in the world's most populous nation. Most of the proposed venues are left over from the 2008 Games, leading to significant cost savings in keeping with the IOC's Olympic Agenda 2020 goals for a more frugal, athlete-oriented games whose legacy will live on with robust sports programs and continuing use of venues.
	The International Olympic Committee will select the host city on July 31 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In all, Beijing plans ..

IOC commissioners prepare to inspect Beijing's 2022 bid

A Tunisian defense official says one soldier has been killed and three others wounded when a mine blew up their vehicle in a mountainous area known to be a refuge for al-Qaeda linked Islamic radicals.
	Lt Col Belhassen Oueslati, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said the incident occurred yesterday in a mountainous region near the Algerian border.
	Al-Qaeda linked radicals have staged attacks against army and politicians in the area for the past two years.
	The incident comes days after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 21 people at a museum in Tunis. Authorities say the two slain gunmen blamed for that attack had no clear links to extremists.
	Several well-armed groups in neighbouring and chaotic Libya have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

Attack kills Tunisian soldier, wounds 3 near Algerian border

A senior Iranian nuclear negotiator has urged world powers to find a "common position" to achieve a "balanced" final nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic as a deadline for negotiations looms.
	A report today by Iran's state-run Press TV satellite news channel quoted Abbas Araghchi making the comment about talks between Iran and the six-nation group including the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
	The US and Iran broke off nuclear negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Friday for consultations but they are to resume the make-or-break talks Wednesday.
	The talks seek a permanent deal to cap Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the easing of economic sanctions. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. The West fears it could allow Iran to build an atomic bomb.

Iran urges world to find 'common position' for nuclear deal

Hundreds of Afghans have protested in Kabul to demand justice for a woman who was killed by a mob outside one of the capital's most famous mosques.
	The woman, a 27-year-old religious scholar named Farkhunda, was beaten, pushed from a roof, run over by a car and set alight before her body was thrown in the Kabul River last Thursday. She was buried amid a huge public outcry yesterday.
	Protesters who gathered today by the Shah Doshamshera mosque demanded the government prosecute all those responsible for the death of Farkhunda, who like many Afghans was known by only one name.
	Police say they have arrested 13 people in relation to the incident, and suspended 13 policemen amid allegations they stood by and did nothing to stop the attack.

Afghan protesters demand justice for woman killed by mob

The US Geological Survey says a magnitude-6.1 earthquake has struck in far northern Chile. There were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami warning.
	The USGS says the quake's epicenter was located 33 kilometers southeast of Putre, Chile, and was at a depth of 128 kilometers. The quake hit at 1:51 am today.
	Chile is one of the world's most seismic countries and is prone to tsunamis because of the way the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the South American plate, pushing the towering Andes cordillera ever higher.

6.1-magnitude quake shakes northern Chile: USGS

Lawmakers say the Secret Service won't let them hear from four employees who witnessed an episode outside the White House in which two high-ranking agency officials are accused of driving into a secure area without authorization.
	Leaders of the House Oversight Committee wrote to agency Director Joseph Clancy yesterday asking him again to let the four agents and officers testify at a hearing Tuesday about what happened March 4.
	They said Clancy agreed earlier only to testify as the agency's sole witness.
	The committee is trying to look into allegations that two senior agents had been drinking when they drove into the area.
	The agents were accused of nudging a construction barrier with their vehicle as they intruded during an investigation of a suspicious item.

Lawmakers seeking answers in Secret Service incident

A small fire in the basement of the UN General Assembly building sent smoke into corridors on the lower floors of the UN complex before it was quickly put out.
	UN spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci said the fire was in the area of the gift shop and was "promptly put out by the UN fire unit and New York Fire Department." She said the preliminary investigation indicated that it was an electrical fire.
	She said there was some water damage to the area. The fire broke yesterday evening shortly after the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Yemen in an adjoining building.

Small fire in UN headquarters' basement quickly put out

Hundreds of people gathered in an English town today as a procession carrying the remains of Richard III, the medieval king whose bones were found under a parking lot, headed to a cathedral before a proper burial ceremony more than 500 years after his death in battle.
	A hearse carrying the monarch's remains, sealed inside an oak coffin, processed past Leicestershire's landmarks, including the battlefield at Bosworth where the monarch was killed in 1485.
	Dozens of people, including some dressed in medieval costumes and carrying torches, turned out at the battlefield to watch the cortege.
	Richard, the last Plantagenet king, was buried hastily without a coffin in a church that was demolished long ago. His bones weren't found until 2012, when archaeologists excavated them from a Leicester parking lot.
	DNA tests, bone analysis and other scientific scrutiny established that the skeleton belonged to the king.
	Michael Ibsen, a descendant of the monarch who built the coffin that carried ..

Richard III remains pass site of 1485 death before burial

Sierra Leone's opposition party is considering impeachment proceedings against the president and said it will refuse all cooperation with the government since the vice president was fired.
	The Sierra Leone People's Party said after an emergency meeting yesterday that it will also ask the Supreme Court to review Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana's removal from office.
	President Ernest Bai Koroma fired Sam-Sumana last week, citing his expulsion from their political party. Several groups have called the move unconstitutional and Sam-Sumana is challenging it in court.
	The removal has raised tensions in Sierra Leone, which is fighting Ebola and only recently recovered from years of civil war. The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists has warned that the police are using emergency measures meant to help contain Ebola to stifle dissent.

Sierra Leone opposition party considers impeaching president

Four years after a towering tsunami ravaged much of Japan's northeastern coast, efforts to fend off future disasters are focusing on a nearly 400-kilometre chain of cement sea walls, at places nearly five stories high.
	Opponents of the 820 billion yen (USD 6.8 billion) plan argue that the massive concrete barriers will damage marine ecology and scenery, hinder vital fisheries and actually do little to protect residents who are mostly supposed to relocate to higher ground.
	Those in favor say the sea walls are a necessary evil, and one that will provide some jobs, at least for a time.
	In the northern fishing port of Osabe, Kazutoshi Musashi chafes at the 12.5-metre-high concrete barrier blocking his view of the sea.
	"The reality is that it looks like the wall of a jail," said Musashi, 46, who lived on the seaside before the tsunami struck Osabe and has moved inland since.
	Pouring concrete for public works is a staple strategy for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its backers .

AP

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