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.

Death toll in east Ukraine mine blast reaches 33

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A requirement that Yale undergraduates on financial aid pay up to USD 6,400 annually toward their education is coming under protest from students who argue it creates a divide along class lines and keeps them from participating more in campus life.
	A petition drive has gathered signatures from more than a thousand students calling for the elimination of the student contribution.
	The Ivy League university with a USD 23.9 billion endowment has some of the nation's most generous aid policies, including a promise that students can graduate without any loans, but some students say they have been advised to borrow money when they had trouble meeting the financial obligation.
	Cristobal Trujillo, a 3rd year student, said he struggles to meet the requirement despite working eight to 12 hours a week at the school library.
	"For me, it's been kind of stressful to be in the situation of having to give up my time, and seeing other people do extracurriculars, go to office hours," he said. ...

Yale students protest work requirement for aid recipients

Insurgents unleashed a series of attacks mostly targeting civilian areas in and around the Iraqi capital today, killing at least 16, as Islamic State militants in the country's north set oil wells ablaze in an attempt to slow government forces battling to reclaim territory.
	Thirteen civilians were killed in separate attacks on an outdoor market in the Baghdad suburb of Nahrawan, a commercial street in the southern district of Abu Dashir, a residential area in the southern district of Dora and a market in Mahmoudiyah, 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police officers said. At least 39 people were wounded.
	In another attack, a bomb targeted a military patrol in a northeastern district, killing three soldiers and wounding seven.
	Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
	The attacks come as government forces, Iranian-backed Shiite militias and Sunni volunteers continued ...

Insurgent attacks in Iraqi capital kill at least 16 people

The South African government said today that it is investigating allegations, posted on a website, that the state ombudsman and opposition figures spied for the US.
	The site, which is titled Africa Intelligence Leaks and contains no contact information, accused Public Protector Thuli Madonsela of being a CIA spy. She has previously denied the allegations.
	Julius Malema, leader of an opposition party that says it wants to redistribute resources to the poor, was also accused of working for American intelligence.
	The US Embassy in South Africa said it had no comment. The CIA also declined to comment.
	The State Security Agency, South Africa's intelligence service, said it viewed the matter seriously.
	"These allegations will impact negatively on our hard-won democracy and will undermine the independence and credibility of our democratic institutions," the agency said. It said it would work with other security departments to "determine the veracity of the allegations made."
	Madonsela .

South Africa to investigate spy allegations

Daniel von Bargen, who played George Costanza's dim-witted boss Mr Kruger on "Seinfeld," has died. He was 64.
	Von Bargen died on Sunday in the Cincinnati area, Harry Gilligan, owner of Gilligan Funeral Homes, confirmed today.
	Gilligan said he couldn't provide the cause of death, names of relatives or any other information. WLWT-TV in Cincinnati first reported the death.
	In addition to his "Seinfeld" role, von Bargen portrayed Commandant Edwin Spangler on "Malcolm in the Middle." His film credits include "The Silence of the Lambs," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Lord of Illusions." He also had appearances on "Law & Order," ''The West Wing" and "NYPD Blue."
	Von Bargen was a versatile actor and great co-worker, Bob Colonna said via email. Colonna got to know von Bargen during their shared time at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, and while filming several TV films.
	"He was much loved, for himself and his work, both of which were unassailable," Colonna ...

Actor known for role as dim-witted boss on 'Seinfeld' dies

A new report from the UN secretary-general says nearly half a million people were displaced in Darfur last year, the highest number in a decade.
	Ban Ki-moon's latest update on the chaotic region of western Sudan comes as the UN begins meeting with Sudanese officials on plans for an exit strategy for the more than 20,000-strong peacekeeping mission.
	Tensions have been high between the UN and Sudan, especially over a Human Rights Watch-documented mass rape of more than 220 women and girls in a Darfur village last year.
	Ban's report says he deeply regrets that the UN has not been able to access the village.
	More than 450,000 people were displaced throughout Darfur last year, the most since 2004.

UN: Almost half a million people in Darfur displaced in 2014

Egypt's investment minister says his government hopes to attract up to USD 35 billion from about 50 projects offered to investors during a much-hailed international economic conference later this month.
	Ashraf Salman said today that Egypt's recovering economy has already attracted some USD 1.3 billion in foreign investment in the first quarter of the current fiscal year that ends in June.
	He said the government hopes the figure reaches USD 8 billion by the end of the fiscal year, nearly double the amount from the previous year.
	The 3-day economic conference, which begins March 13, is one tool to attract the investment.
	Egypt's economy was battered by years of turmoil. The country has received more than USD 20 billion in aid from Gulf allies since 2013 as the budget deficit hovered around 12 per cent.

Egypt to offer projects worth USD 35 billion during conference

Officials say six people aboard a plane from Atlanta that skidded off a runway at LaGuardia Airport while landing have injuries that aren't life threatening.
	Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Joe Pentangelo said today that a preliminary count showed six people were injured. The Port Authority runs the airport.
	The plane crashed through a chain-link fence and sent passengers saddled with bags and bundled up in heavy coats and scarves sliding down an inflated chute to safety on the snowy pavement.
	Delta Flight 1086 was carrying 125 passengers and five crew members. Images show the plane resting in several inches of snow.

Plane skids off LaGuardia runway, crashes into fence; 6 hurt

Russia's military today launched maneuvers of air defense forces in the southwest of the country, the latest in a series of frequent drills amid tensions with the West.
	The Southern Military District, where the exercises will take place, includes the regions bordering Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed last year. But the military didn't say exactly where the maneuvers were being held.
	The Defense Ministry said today the exercises would last for more than a month and involve more than 2,000 troops and 500 weapons systems, including air defense missiles. The maneuvers would simulate fending off massive air and missile attacks.
	The West accuses Russia of backing the insurgency with troops and weapons, accusations the Kremlin denies. The Defense Ministry again rejected the latest US claims of a Russian troop presence in eastern Ukraine.
	Lt Gen Ben Hodges, the commander of US Army Europe, has said earlier this week that Russia has 12,000 troops in eastern ...

Russia launches military drills in the southwest

A Russian police officer was convicted today on charges of spying for the US using a cache disguised as a rock and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
	It was the latest in a host of spy cases amid rising Russia-West tensions over Ukraine.
	The Moscow City Court today found Roman Ushakov guilty of treason for handing over classified information to the United States. Prosecutors produced his messages, which contained sensitive information about the Interior Ministry, as well as a rock-like cache with cash and a letter from the CIA, according to the Interfax news agency.
	Interfax quoted prosecutor Viktor Antipov as saying Ushakov was caught red-handed, pleaded guilty and gave detailed testimony about his contacts with US intelligence.
	Antipov said Ushakov worked in Siberia, but gave no further details.
	The court said Ushakov was arrested in 2013 while trying to open the cache, which contained USD 37,000 for his information and a letter from the CIA with further instructions.
	It's not ..

Russian policeman gets 15-year sentence for spying for US

The United Nations' human rights chief is advocating an effort to discredit the Islamic State group and encourage peaceful Muslims to take a stand against extremist violence.
	Zeid Raad al-Hussein told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday that many IS recruits "may genuinely feel they are signing up to protect the abused" because of propaganda.
	Zeid says the fact the majority of the group's victims are Muslims has received less publicity and "a real campaign of ideas to discredit (IS) will need to mobilize such facts."
	He says it should encourage the tolerant majority of Muslims "to take a stand and voice the essential nature of their faith."
	Zeid, who comes from Jordan, says fighting extremist violence also requires tackling "the visions of injustice that fuel it.

UN rights chief: discredit IS, give peaceful Muslims courage

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fiery speech this week before the US Congress, in which he argued against an emerging nuclear deal with Iran, has received tacit support from an unlikely quarter -- Saudi Arabia.
	The oil-rich Sunni kingdom views Shiite Iran as a regional rival that is perhaps even more menacing than Israel.
	That was clear in a string of columns this week published in Saudi state-linked media, which is widely seen as reflecting official views and mainstream thought in the kingdom, and which voiced skepticism of President Barack Obama's efforts to broker a landmark nuclear agreement with Tehran.
	"Who could believe that Netanyahu today has taken a better stand than Obama with regard to the Iranian nuclear file?" columnist Ahmed al-Faraj wrote in the Saudi-owned al-Jazira newspaper on Monday, a day before the speech.
	Today, US Secretary of State John Kerry was in the Saudi capital to ease Gulf concerns about the negotiations with Iran, which are aimed at ...

Netanyahu's Iran speech gains tacit support in Saudi Arabia

, Mar 5 PTI) The CPI has demanded, among other things, that the Centre should ensure timely completion of the Polavaram irrigation project, as promised in the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganization Act.
     The Andhra Pradesh branch of CPI held a three-day meeting here which ended today.
     As many as 30 resolutions were passed, including demand to withdraw amendments to the labour act, passage of the women's reservations bill, reservations in the private sector for SCs and STs and stoppage of bauxite mining in AP.

CPI demands timely completion of Polavaram project by Centre

Tanzanian authorities say floods from a heavy 30-minute storm killed at least 42 people in an area close to Lake Victoria in Kahama district.
	Tanzania's Meteorological Agency said today rains from the storm left 900 people homeless and destroyed 160 houses in the deluge Tuesday night.
	Government spokesman Assah Mwambene says that the government is providing support for the victims of the floods.
	The Tanzania Meteorological Agency has said that rains this year are expected to be heavy and warned those living in low lying areas.
	Tanzania generally experiences a long rainy season between March and May and another spell of rains between November and December.

Floods kill 42 people in Tanzania, authorities say

Switzerland's highest court has thrown out a man's claim to an insurance payout for post-traumatic stress suffered after he was kidnapped by the Taliban while driving through Pakistan.
	The police officer and his partner were on their way home from a trip to India when they decided to drive through northern Pakistan without an armed escort in 2011. They were kidnapped and held for eight months.
	The man had taken out accident insurance but his insurer refused a payout because he had ignored longstanding Swiss Foreign Ministry advice against travel to Pakistan. A lower court had backed the insurer.
	The Federal Tribunal today rejected the man's appeal, ruling that he "knowingly accepted the dangers" of his trip and "took an absolute gamble" that justifies the insurer's stance.

Swiss court throws out Pakistan kidnapping insurance claim

North Korea plans to send a team to this year's University Games in South Korea, organisers said today.
	The news comes as North Korea is angrily reacting to this week's start of annual South Korea-US military drills that the North calls a rehearsal for invasion.
	The North's army has threatened to launch unspecified "merciless strikes" against South Korea and the US.
	The University Games' organising committee said in a statement that North Korea wants to send 75 athletes and 33 sports officials to the multi-sport event in the South Korean city of Gwangju from July 3-14.
	The North's intention was conveyed Tuesday via the International University Sports Federation, it said.
	The North wants to compete in eight events, including women's football, table tennis and judo, according to the statement.
	South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said today it plans to approve the North's participation in the games.
	The University Games is an Olympic-style 

North Korea plans to attend University Games in South Korea

A former crewmember on a Japanese battleship that sank during World War II said today he recognised photos of wreckage discovered this week off the Philippines by a team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
	Shizuhiko Haraguchi served as a gunnery officer on the Musashi, one of the largest battleships in history, when it was being fitted in Japan before it departed for the Pacific in 1943.
	He said he recognised underwater photos taken by Allen's team of a large gun turret and a catapult system used to launch planes.
	"I recognised that main turret, which I was assigned to," Haraguchi, 93, said in a telephone interview from his home in Nagasaki, in southern Japan, where the ship was built, fitted and tested. "I felt very nostalgic when I saw that."
	Haraguchi said other details released by Allen convinced him that the wreckage was that of the Musashi. He said a round base shown in a photo of the bow was where a chrysanthemum decoration used to be, an Imperial seal that only ...

Ex-crew recognises photos of sunken Japanese battleship

Authorities in Liberia are preparing to discharge the last Ebola patient in the West African country.
	The head of the Incidence Management System, Tolbert Nyenswah, said the recovered patient will be released from a Chinese-built Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia, the capital.
	There were no other confirmed cases of Ebola in the country and as such, Liberia can then begin to count up to 42 days to be declared Ebola free in keeping with World Health Organization protocols and standards, Nyenswah said yesterday.
	He challenged all Liberians to commit themselves to achieving "zero Ebola infections" by rigidly abiding by the anti-Ebola regulations. Liberia, which has had the highest number of deaths, has also reopened schools.
	After causing nearly 10,000 recorded deaths since the outbreak was discovered a year ago, Ebola is also waning in Guinea UN experts said Monday that the spread of the disease in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has dropped to almost 10 percent of what it was in ...

Last Ebola patient to be released in Liberia

A consumer survey showed the popularity of the iPhone 6 has driven Apple's market share in China to its highest ever while Samsung has continued to lose ground.
	Kantar Worldpanel ComTech said today that its latest survey of 15,000 people living in Chinese cities showed Apple's market share reached 25.4 per cent in the November-January period, up from 20.9 per cent a year earlier.
	That was a record for Apple in the world's largest smartphone market, but not enough to catch up Chinese maker Xiaomi, which claimed 27.6 per cent.
	The research firm said the market share of Samsung Electronics Co eroded further to 11.3 per cent. It was 22.2 percent a year earlier.
	Kantar conducts a monthly online survey of the same 15,000 city-dwelling Chinese who are 16 years or older.
	Its latest consumer survey sheds more light on the smartphone market in China amid differing figures from market research companies about which manufacturer came out on top after intense competition in 2014.
	IHS said ...

IPhone 6's popularity drives Apple's China share to record

Singapore today sentenced two German men to three strokes of a rattan cane and nine months in prison after they were found guilty of vandalising a public train carriage, according to court documents.
	The two men were identified as 22-year-old Andreas Von Knorre and 21-year-old Elton Hinz.
	They entered a Singapore train depot at night in November and sprayed paint on a train that was parked there, the court records said.
	The duo then left Singapore, were later spotted by police in Bangkok, and eventually were arrested in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and extradited back to Singapore, according to The Straits Times and other media reports.
	They have been in jail since November, and their sentence will be backdated until then.
	Singapore train operator SMRT suffered roughly 13,650 Singapore dollars in damages from the incident, according to court documents.
	The two men are not the first foreigners to be jailed and caned for vandalism. In 2010, Swiss IT consultant Oliver Fricker was jailed 

Singapore sentences 2 Germans to caning for vandalism

A former teacher convicted of showing a movie including graphic sex and violence to a high school class was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
	Sheila Kearns, a substitute teacher who was convicted in January of four felony counts, apologized in court, saying she hadn't watched the movie before showing it to her Spanish classes at Columbus' East High School in April 2013.
	The movie, "The ABCs of Death," consists of 26 chapters, each depicting some form of grisly death and representing a letter of the alphabet, such as "E is for Exterminate," ''O is for Orgasm" and "T is for Toilet."
	Kearns, 58, was convicted of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.Ly/1M7CFUc ) reported the judge placed her on probation for three years but made the jail time a condition of probation.
	Kearns contended she was unaware of the movie's content. Her attorney said she never would have knowingly showed it.
	But a student testified Kearns had watched the 129-minute movie. ..

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