European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says she is optimistic the world powers and Iran are closing in on a nuclear deal that will have sufficient guarantees Tehran will not be able to build an atomic bomb.
	Mogherini said after today's meeting of EU foreign ministers that a deal "is now a matter of still some steps."
	The United States has said it is well aware of the potential nuclear danger Iran poses to countries in the region, and Mogherini said the EU would never back a deal without ironclad guarantees.
	She said that "the whole world has to be sure that the deal we are working at is a deal that guarantees that there is no military possibility, military development.

EU chief optimistic about finding Iran nuclear deal

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Three of the South African president's children and their cousin have been in a car accident, the president's spokesman said today.
	President Jacob Zuma's children were all in a stable condition and were being treated for various injuries, spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement.
	The children were at a hospital in the city of Pietermaritzburg, in the eastern KwaZulu Natal province, he said.
	The accident happened this morning, Maharaj said. "The Presidency wishes the family all the best during this period and wishes the children a speedy recovery," he said. No further details were given.

SAfrican president's children stable after car accident

US employers extended a healthy streak of hiring in February by adding 295,000 jobs, the 12th straight monthly gain above 200,000.
	It was the latest sign that the US economy is further strengthening and outpacing other major economies around the world.
	The unemployment rate fell to 5.5 per cent from 5.7 per cent, the government said today. But the rate declined mainly because some people out of work stopped looking for jobs and were no longer counted as unemployed.
	February's robust job gain wasn't enough to boost wages by much. The average hourly wage rose just 3 cents to USD 24.78 an hour. Average hourly pay has now risen just 2 per cent over the past 12 months, barely ahead of inflation.
	Still, over that time, 3.3 million more Americans have gotten jobs. More jobs and lower gas prices have led many consumers to step up spending. That's boosting the economy, offsetting sluggish economies overseas and giving employers the confidence to hire.
	Today's figures provide "more ...

US adds a robust 295K jobs; jobless rate falls to 5.5 pct

Lawyers for a Ukrainian military officer imprisoned in Russia say she's ready to end her nearly three-month hunger strike if she's offered a balanced diet.
	Nadezhda Savchenko has been in Russian custody since June on charges that she aided a mortar attack that killed two Russian journalists covering the war between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists. She began a hunger strike on Dec. 13 and concerns for her health have risen sharply in the past week.
	The Russian prison service claimed on Thursday that she agreed to consume chicken broth.
	But her lawyers on Friday posted photos on Twitter of a handwritten statement from Savchenko saying the high-fat broth was dangerous to her health and asking for pureed fruits and vegetables.
	Prison service officials could not be reached for comment.

Imprisoned Ukrainian ready to end hunger strike, lawyers say

Police today investigated the motive of the anti-US activist they say slashed the US ambassador to South Korea, as questions turned to whether security was neglected.
	The attack yesterday on Mark Lippert, which prompted rival North Korea to gloat about "knife slashes of justice," left deep gashes on his face and hand and damaged tendons and nerves. It also raised safety worries in a city with a reputation as a relatively low-risk diplomatic posting, despite regular threats of war from North Korea.
	While an extreme example, the attack is the latest act of political violence in a deeply divided country where some protesters portray their causes as matters of life and death.
	Lippert, 42, was recovering well but complaining of pain in the wound near his left wrist and a finger where doctors repaired nerve damage, Severance Hospital official Yoon Do-Heum said in a televised briefing. Doctors plan to remove the 80 stitches on Lippert's face on Monday or Tuesday and expect him to be out ..

Security questioned in probe of attack on US envoy to Seoul

President Barack Obama said the type of racial discrimination found in Ferguson's police department is not unique to the Missouri city where a white officer killed an unarmed black 18-year-old.
	America's first black president cast law enforcement reform as a chief struggle for today's civil rights movement.
	Obama said improving civil rights and civil liberties with police is one of the areas that "requires collective action and mobilisation" 50 years after pivotal civil rights marches brought change to the country. The president made his first remarks about this week's Justice Department report of racial bias in Ferguson, which found officers routinely discriminating against blacks by using excessive force.
	"I don't think that is typical of what happens across the country, but it's not an isolated incident," Obama told The Joe Madison Radio Show on Sirius XM radio's Urban View channel. "I think that there are circumstances in which trust between communities and law enforcement have 

Obama: Racial bias within Ferguson police not isolated

Two men have been arrested in the Belgian capital on suspicion of trying to recruit people to fight with Islamic radicals in Syria.
	Geert Schoorens, a spokesman with the Belgian federal prosecutors office, said today an investigation is underway to determine how many people may have been recruited, and if any left the country to fight.
	Belgium has been one of Western Europe's nations to furnish the large numbers of foreign fighters in Syria relative to population size.
	According to Schoorens, the two suspected recruiters, both Brussels residents, were arrested last week. One, aged 45, is still in jail. Schoorens said the other suspect, who is 25, has been granted conditional release.

2 suspected Islamic recruiters arrested in Belgium

A Frenchman accused of helping a 14-year-old runaway try to join Islamic State by arranging her travel is on trial on terrorism charges.
	Today's trial of Riad Ben Cheikh sheds light on the shadowy networks that recruit European adolescent girls to join jihadi fighters in Syria.
	The girl made Facebook contact with an Islamic State recruiter who persuaded her to join him in Syria, where he promised to marry her and teach her to fight. Ben Cheikh, who has a daughter the same age, told investigators he did not know the recruiter beforehand and was helping someone he believed was trying to rejoin his wife.
	He booked a hotel and paid her fare to the airport, where she was detained in line to board a flight to Istanbul.

Frenchman on trial for helping 14-year-old trying to join IS

Germany's Parliament today approved a quota system that will require leading companies in Europe's biggest economy to have at least 30 per cent women on their supervisory boards starting next year.
	The quota will apply to more than 100 listed companies. Another 3,500 firms will be required to set targets to raise the number of female directors and women in other leadership positions.
	A recent study released by the German Institute for Economic Research found that, last year, women accounted for 18.6 per cent of the supervisory board members the German equivalent of directors at the country's biggest 100 companies.
	"If there are no equal opportunities at the top of companies, there are none in other areas either," Manuela Schwesig, the minister for women and families, told ZDF television. "It was important to me to start with the very biggest (companies), where most women work."
	Lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats ...

German Parliament approves quota for female directors

The UN human rights office has called on Indonesia to refrain from executing convicted drug smugglers, saying that the death penalty won't stop narcotics trafficking.
	Ten smugglers from Australia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Brazil, France, Ghana and Indonesia are scheduled to be executed soon.
	The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says "there is no evidence that the death penalty deters drug crimes."
	Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the Geneva-based agency, said today that the government of Indonesia should exercise its right to grant the convicts clemency.
	He said carrying out the executions would weaken Indonesia's position when arguing on behalf of its own nationals facing the death penalty abroad.

UN calls on Indonesia to halt execution of drug smugglers

A suspected Palestinian motorist rammed his car into a group of people near an Israeli police station in east Jerusalem today, injuring five before being shot and wounded by guards, the police said.
	Police spokeswoman Luba Samri described the assault as a "terror attack."
	The attacker plowed onto the curb next to the police station in east Jerusalem, running over five people, including four officers, Samri said. The guards fired at the vehicle from the entrance to the station, she added.
	The motorist then got out of the car, apparently holding a knife, and the guards shot and seriously wounded him, she said. The injured and the motorist were taken to hospital.
	Police were still trying to identify the attacker. Samri said initial reports suggested he is a Palestinian from east Jerusalem and the car he was driving was registered as belonging to a Palestinian from east Jerusalem.
	"The swift and determined response stopped the attack as it was beginning and prevented more innocents ..

Suspected Palestinian attacker injures 5 in Jerusalem

A Taiwan court sentenced a university student to death today for killing four passengers on a Taipei commuter train last year.
	Shortly before rush hour on May 21, Cheng Chieh used a 10-centimeter (3-inch) knife in a train car traveling along the metro system's longest stretch between two stations to slash passengers in the chest and stomach, in some cases as they slept, the court said.
	The apparently random attack also left 22 injured.
	Spokeswoman Lien Yu-chyun said the New Taipei City district court considered "the vicious nature of the method that the defendant ... Used to kill to be significant." She cited public outrage over the case and said that Cheng, 21, would be "hard to reform."
	Before the attack, Cheng posted a message on his Facebook page saying he "wanted to do something big." He told authorities later that the stabbings felt "like slicing tofu," according to local news reports.
	Ahead of the verdict, Taiwan's Apple Daily newspaper quoted him as saying that he would ..

Taiwan subway slasher sentenced to death for killing 4

Dutch Formula One driver Giedo van Der Garde is seeking an urgent hearing in an Australian court to force the Sauber team to reinstate him as a driver ahead of next weekend's season-opening race.
     His lawyers lodged papers with the Victorian Supreme Court today seeking a hearing on Monday in Melbourne, which will host the Australian Grand Prix on March 15.
     Van Der Garde, who was a reserve driver with Sauber last season, claims to have a contract for a race seat this season, but the financially-troubled team has appointed Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr as its drivers for 2015, with both bringing lucrative sponsorship backing.
     The 29-year-old van Der Garde is also considered a leading candidate to be appointed as a race driver for the Manor team, which has just come under new ownership that will allow the team to compete this season.
     In documents lodged with the court, van der Garde said he was guaranteed a spot on this year's Sauber team on June 28, 2014, but team ..

Driver takes Sauber Formula 1 team to court

The head of the UN agency promoting equality for women is lamenting that a girl born today will be an 81-year-old grandmother before she has the same chance as a man to be CEO of a company, and she will have to wait until she's 50-years-old to have an equal chance to lead a country.
	Twenty years after 189 countries adopted a blueprint to achieve equality for women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said in an interview with The Associated Press that not a single country has reached gender parity and equality.
	The executive director of UN Women spoke ahead of International Women's Day today and next week's meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women.
	The commission will review the 150-page platform for action to achieve equality that was adopted at the groundbreaking UN women's conference in Beijing in 1995.
	Then-US first lady Hillary Clinton inspired delegates and women worldwide when she declared in a keynote speech: "Human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human ...

Head of UN Women: No country has reached gender equality

A freight train loaded with crude oil has derailed, bursting into flames and prompting authorities to issue a voluntary evacuation order within 1 mile (1.6 kilometers), authorities said.
	The train derailed around 1:20 pm (local time) yesterday in a rural area where the Galena River meets the Mississippi, said Jo Daviess County Sheriff's Sgt Mike Moser. Authorities didn't say exactly how many people were evacuated, but said it wasn't many.
	The train had 103 cars loaded with crude oil, along with two buffer cars loaded with sand. A cause hadn't yet been determined. No injuries were reported.
	Galena City Administrator Mark Moran told the Dubuque Telegraph Herald newspaper in Iowa that eight tankers had left the track. "Two of those were still upright. The other six were not," she said.
	A release from the Jo Daviess County Sheriff's Department confirmed it was oil from the Northern Plains' Bakken region.
	The derailment occurred 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of Galena in a wooded and ..

Freight train carrying crude oil derails near Illinois city

Authorities in Quebec launched an investigation after envelopes containing a suspicious white powder were found in the district offices of four Conservative Canadian cabinet ministers. A government official later said the powder sent to one of the ministers has been deemed harmless.
	It wasn't immediately clear what the powder was but a senior government official said the material sent to Infrastructure Minister Denis Lebel's office was confirmed as harmless. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the envelope also contained a "threat stating that conservatives will be annihilated."
	Lebel's office in the city Roberval was evacuated yesterday morning after an employee found white powder in an envelope. Two employees who came into contact with the powder were quarantined in the office as firefighters analyzed the scene.
	Another envelope containing white powder was found in International Development Minister Christian .

Envelopes with white powder found at Canadian offices

Islamic State militants have "bulldozed" the renowned archaeological site of the ancient city of Nimrud near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul using heavy military vehicles, the government said.
	A statement from Iraq's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities didn't elaborate on the extent of the damage, saying only that the group continues to "defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity" with this latest act, which came after an attack on the Mosul museum just days earlier.
	The destruction of the site of one of ancient Mesopotamia's greatest cities yesterday recalled the Taliban's annihilation of large Buddha statues in Afghanistan more than a dozen years ago, experts said.
	Nimrud was the second capital of Assyria, an ancient kingdom that began in about 900 BC, partially in present-day Iraq, and became a great regional power. The city, which was destroyed in 612 BC, is located on the Tigris River just south of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, which was captured by the ...

Iraq says Islamic State militants 'bulldozed' ancient site

Security officials in the northeast Mexico state of Tamaulipas say they have killed four gunmen in a town near the US border.
	The Tamaulipas Coordination Group says in a statement yesterday that a military patrol in Ciudad Mier came under attack early Tuesday from a four-vehicle convoy.
	It says the soldiers fired back and killed three men and one woman. The statement says the dead have not been identified and were wearing camouflage, helmets and military-style boots.
	For several years Ciudad Mier has sat at the center of territory fought over by the Gulf and the Zetas cartels.
	In late 2010, the battle for the town grew so intense that most of its 6,000 residents fled with some seeking refuge at a shelter in neighboring Miguel Aleman.

Mexico: Troops kill 4 in gunbattle near border with Texas

A small plane has crash-landed on a golf course near the Santa Monica Municipal Airport, critically injuring the pilot.
	Authorities say the single-engine plane went down around 2:30 pm (local time) yesterday on the green at Penmar Golf Course in the Venice area of Los Angeles.
	The course is just west of a runway. But there's no word yet on whether the plane had taken off or was trying to land.
	The plane, which was yellow with stars on its wings, appeared to be a Ryan PT-22 Recruit, a vintage plane used for training during World War II. It was mostly intact.
	The pilot was the only person aboard, and nobody on the ground was hurt.
	The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Plane crashes on LA golf course; pilot critically injured

Cardinal Edward Egan, the former archbishop of New York who oversaw a broad and sometimes unpopular financial overhaul of the archdiocese and played a prominent role in the city after the September 11 terror attacks, has died. He was 82.
	Egan died yesterday of cardiac arrest at a New York hospital, the archdiocese announced. He had survived polio as a child, which affected his health as an adult, and also used a pacemaker.
	In 2000, Egan was chosen by Pope John Paul II for the difficult job of succeeding larger-than-life Cardinal John O'Connor, who was a major figure not only in the city, but in the country. From him, Egan inherited an annual deficit of about USD 20 million. Egan was forced to make tough decisions to cut spending including laying off staff and said he wiped out the shortfall within two years.
	Yet, Egan bristled at the suggestion that he was more a manager than shepherd. In a 2001 interview with The New York Times, he said, "I am about, first and foremost, serving ...

Cardinal Egan, retired NY archbishop, dies at age 82

Officials in a separatist rebel-held city in east Ukraine say the death toll from an accidental explosion at a coal mine has risen to 33.
	Alexei Kostrubitsky, head of the emergencies ministry for the rebel government, said late yesterday the last missing miner had been found dead.
	The blast occurred before dawn Wednesday more than 1,000 meters underground at the Zasyadko mine in Donetsk city.
	It is the largest city held by the separatist rebels who have been fighting Ukrainian forces since April. Rebel officials said the accident was caused by methane gas.
	Zasyadko mine has a history of deadly accidents, including one in November 2007 that killed 101 workers, and two more the following month that killed a total of 57.

AP

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