Captain Michael Clarke is ready to make his return to the Australia team for Saturday's Cricket World Cup match against New Zealand, saying he's as fit and healthy as he's been in years.
     Clarke injured his right hamstring in a test against India in December and underwent immediate surgery to repair it in time for the World Cup.
     The 33-year-old was initially expected to return for Australia's second World Cup match against Bangladesh only to see the game washed out by rain.
     Clarke said Friday at a pre-match news conference that he's as tired of talking about his personal fitness as he's sure cricket fans are of hearing about it.
     "It feels really good, I've worked exceptionally hard and all the boys are really excited about tomorrow's game," he said.
     Clarke, who suffers from chronic back and hamstring issues, said after his latest injury in December that he feared he may never be able to play again. But after sitting out the past two months, he's back to full ...

Australia's Michael Clarke ready to return for World Cup

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The Syrian government expelled two key UN humanitarian staffers because of their contact with armed opposition groups while trying to arrange aid deliveries a decision that could harm a new effort to secure a six-week truce in the country's largest city, the UN humanitarian chief says.
	A message from Valerie Amos, seen yesterday by The Associated Press, says the expulsions this month "set a worrying precedent for all humanitarian staff in Syria, in that any staff member in contact with armed opposition groups for the purpose of negotiating access is potentially under threat of being declared persona non grata."
	The United Nations and other aid groups have struggled to get badly needed aid to millions of people in Syria's civil war, which moves into its fifth year next month.
	Syria's government has been blamed repeatedly for hindering the effort, which is also complicated by multiple armed groups and the recent rise of the Islamic State militant organization.
	Amos' message to ...

Syria expels 2 key UN humanitarian staffers

Britain's Prince William, on his second day of his four-day trip to Japan, is having tea today with Crown Prince Naruhito. Both princes may be equally charming, but it is no contest which one is seen as more approachable.
	Members of the Japanese imperial family lead a highly cloistered life, guarded by the moat-surrounded stone walls of the palace. Their media coverage is just as tightly orchestrated and controlled.
	And that has created a respectful distance between the family and the general public.
	Don't count on regular Japanese clamoring to get the same dress or jewelry spotted on Naruhito's wife Masako, the same way many around the world do for Kate's.
	Comments from the family are few and far between sometimes in a poem issued here, a speech while waving behind bullet-proof glass on a balcony there.
	Crowds have appeared for William, 32, waving to him, snapping cell-phone photos and eager to shake his hand. "Compared to Japanese royalty, he is so friendly," said Naoyuki ...

Prince William strikes a friendly contrast to Japan's prince

President Barack Obama has stepped up his campaign for expanding exports and negotiating new trade deals in Asia and Europe, a rare spot of common ground with Republicans and a raw point of friction with Democrats.
	Obama is pushing his trade themes in interviews with television stations from states represented by the handful of Democratic senators who may be willing to side with the president on his plans for new commerce agreements.
	"There have been times in the past where some of the trade deals didn't work out for particular sectors in particular communities," Obama told KMBC in Kansas City, Missouri.
	"Which is why we're organizing trade in the Asia Pacific region, the fastest growing region in the world, to make sure you have strong enforceable labor provisions, make sure you have strong enforceable environmental provisions, make sure you have a level playing field."
	Before making those deals, however, Obama wants authority to negotiate trade agreements that Congress can only .

Obama steps up pitch for trade, exports, targets Democrats

Immigrants to Canada will have to keep taking an oath to the Queen Elizabeth II after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear a challenge to the citizenship requirement.
	The decision by the top court leaves intact an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling.
	At issue is a provision in Canada's Citizenship Act that requires would-be citizens to swear to be "faithful and bear true allegiance to Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, her heirs and successors."
	Queen Elizabeth II is Canada's titular head of state. Canada is a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies.
	Longtime permanent residents Michael McAteer, Simone Topey and Dror Bar-Natan challenged the law because they do not want to pledge allegiance to the monarchy.
	Informed of the Supreme Court decision that ends the battle, McAteer, 81, of Toronto, said he was disappointed but not surprised.
	"It's been a long haul," said McAteer, a staunch republican who came to Canada from Ireland 51 years ago. "(But) I feel .

Canadian citizenship oath to Queen to remain law

A suspected people-smuggling boat carrying 19 people capsized off the Chinese territory of Macau on Fridtoay, leaving 15 people missing, the Macau government and Chinese state media said.
	Those aboard included the captain, two crew members and 16 suspected illegal immigrants, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. Four people swam to safety, all of whom were from mainland China, Xinhua said.
	The Macau government's information bureau said in a statement that the marine authorities had been notified that a ship had sunk at 5:50 am local time. It said the boat had been carrying more than 10 people, including people suspected of illegally entering Macau.
	Marine authorities dragged the vessel back to the harbor, and were searching for the missing.

Boat capsizes off Macau, 15 people missing

A gunman shot and killed four people today at a home in a city near the capital Seoul in the second such incident in two days, police officials said.
	A police official from Hwaseong City, who didn't want to be named, citing office rules, said the victims included a police officer who was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene. The official said the suspect is believed to be the brother of one of the victims, whose wife was also dead.
	The identity of the fourth victim wasn't immediately known. Police were confronting the suspect at the site of the incident, the official said.
	The incident follows another shooting on Wednesday when a gunman shot and killed three people in Sejong City in the central part of the country before apparently killing himself.

Gunman kills 4 in South Korean city: police

The South Korean nuclear regulator said today it renewed the operating license of the country's second-oldest nuclear power plant until 2022, overriding the objections of residents and anti-nuclear groups.
	The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said that seven of nine commissioners voted to restart the Wolsong No. 1 reactor located in Gyeongju city, 275 kilometers (170 miles) south of Seoul.
	It was the first such decision in South Korea since safety concerns about nuclear energy and older plants were raised following the meltdowns at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi reactors in 2011. South Korea's 23 nuclear power plants mostly located in the country's southeastern coast provide about one-third of its electricity.
	The nuclear regulator said in a statement that it reviewed the plant's ability to withstand natural disasters and its compliance with other legal standards.
	Two commissioners who asked for more time to review the reactor's safety abstained from the vote at the end of the ...

South Korea renews license of 2nd-oldest nuclear plant

A teenager who had been stopped at the airport as he was trying to travel to Syria has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation.
	Abdullahi Mohamud Yusuf, 18, admitted in US District Court yesterday that he had intended to go to Syria last May to join the Islamic State group. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison. No sentencing date has been set.
	Authorities say a handful of Minnesota residents have travelled to Syria to fight with militants in the last year. At
least one Minnesotan has died there. In addition, at least 22 young Somali men have travelled from Minnesota to Somalia since
2007 to join the terrorist group al-Shabab.
	Yusuf admitted in court that he learned about people who had travelled or wanted to travel to Syria to fight against the
regime of President Bashar Assad. Yusuf said he attended meetings in Minnesota last March and April in which participants discussed fighting.
	Court documents show Yusuf, .

Minnesota teen pleads guilty to trying to support terrorism

A US man was convicted today of setting up the fatal shooting of his Pakistan-born wife while the couple was on a walk with one of their young sons.
	A jury deliberated for less than four hours before convicting Kashif Parvaiz of scheming with his girlfriend to kill his wife and make it look like a random attack.
	The August 2011 shooting occurred while Parvaiz and his wife, 27-year-old Nazish Noorani, walked with their son near her family's home in a New Jersey suburb about 50 kilometres from New York that is home to a large Pakistani-American population.
	Noorani was killed, Parvaiz was wounded and the boy was unharmed. The couple's other son was with family members in the house.
	Antoinette Stephen pleaded guilty to murder and other offenses and testified against Parvaiz. Stephen was having an affair with Parvaiz and admitted firing the fatal shots.
	The victim's sister, Lubna Choudhry, cried in the hallway in the arms of her brother, Kaleem Norrani, after the verdict was read. The 

Man guilty of setting up Pakistan-born wife's death

Two men from Malaysia and Hong Kong have been charged with smuggling more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine worth USD 50 million into Sydney in a shipping container from China, authorities said today.
	The men, whose names have not been released, were to appear in a Sydney court today on various drug charges, Australian Federal Police and Australian Customs and Border Protection Service said in a joint statement. They face potential life prison sentences if convicted.
	Customs officers used X-ray equipment to examine a container declared to hold "kids toys" on the Sydney waterfront on Feb 8, the statement said.
	They found the meth in the container concealed under a false floor.
	Police delivered the container yesterday to an address in the southwest Sydney suburb of Prestons. A 30-year-old Hong Kong man and a 37-year-old Malaysian national were later arrested in a nearby car park, the statement said.
	Police have not ruled out further arrests.

2 men charged over USD 50M meth shipment from China to Sydney

China imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports that took immediate effect today amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory has fuelled poaching that threatens the existence of African elephants.
	The State Administration of Forestry declared the ban in a public notice posted on its official site, in which it said the administration would not handle any import request.
	In an explanatory news report, an unnamed forestry official told the state-run Legal Evening News that authorities hope the ban would be a concrete step to reduce the demand for African tusks and to protect wild elephants.
	The official said the temporary ban would allow authorities to evaluate its effect on elephant protection before they can take further, more effective steps.
	China is the world's largest importer of smuggled tusks, although Beijing has campaigned against illegal ivory.
	Six tons of illegal ivory was pulverised last year in the southern city of Dongguan, and Chinese courts have stepped .

China bans ivory imports for 1 year to protect elephants

Authorities have defused an unexploded World War II bomb close to Borussia Dortmund's stadium after evacuating the area.
	Dortmund's city government said the 250-kilogram British bomb was defused today.
	The bomb had been unearthed after authorities evaluated aerial photos ahead of planned construction work, and a 250-metre radius around the site was evacuated.
	Because the stadium was inside the evacuated area, the club relocated the news conference of coach Juergen Klopp ahead of the Ruhr derby against Schalke to another facility.
	Unexploded ordnance from WWII is still frequently found in Germany, and that regularly results in temporary evacuations such as today's.

WWII bomb defused near Borussia Dortmund stadium

The number of Christians abducted by the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria has risen to 220 in the past three days, as militants round up more hostages from a chain of villages along a strategic river, activists said today.
	In Iraq, the IS extremists released a video purportedly showing militants using sledgehammers to smash ancient artifacts in Iraq's northern city of Mosul, describing the relics as idols that must be removed.
	This week's abductions of the Christian Assyrians in northeastern Syria is one of the largest hostage-takings by the Islamic State since their blitz last year that captured large swaths of both Syria and Iraq last year.
	The fate of the captives was not known.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants picked up dozens more Christian Assyrians from 11 communities near the town of Tal Tamr in Hassakeh province.
	The province, which borders Turkey and Iraq, has become the latest battleground in the fight against the ...

Number of Syrian Christians abducted by IS rises to 220

Chinese state-owned banks loaned USD 22.1 billion to Latin American countries last year, helping to keep afloat struggling economies that have been hit hard by a fall in prices for oil, minerals and other commodities that they export, according to new numbers released today by the US think tank the Inter-American Dialogue.
	That annual loan total is the second highest in a decade, behind only 2010, and surpassed combined loans to the region from multilateral lenders the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, the data show.
	China loaned USD 8.6 billion to Brazil, USD 7 billion to Argentina, USD 5.7 billion to Venezuela and USD 821 million to Ecuador in 2014.
	Despite its slowing economy, China has emerged as a lender of last resort for Latin America countries that had ridden a decade-long boom in Chinese demand for commodities but are now seeing budget deficits grow and currencies slip as Chinese appetite slackens.
	Many traditional lenders are reluctant to take on the ...

Report: China loaned USD 22 billion to Latin America in 2014

Nigeria's army chief said that Baga town in the country's northeast has been retaken by the military from Islamic extremists, and that displaced residents should be able to return to vote in late March elections.
	Lt Gen Kenneth Minima spoke to journalists yesterday after he said he visited the town on Lake Chad near the border with Cameroon to build troop confidence.
	"They have made Nigerians proud," he told journalists in Maiduguri after the visit on which only a government TV crew was embedded.
	Boko Haram militants had killed hundreds of people in Baga in a January attack after Nigerian troops fled. The military on Feb 21 reported that it had retaken the town from extremists, one of dozens of gains reported by military from Nigeria and Chad in recent weeks. Boko Haram had days earlier denied the military had retaken the town.
	Minima said that Nigeria's army would take back more towns from the Islamic extremists.
	"From today it is never again for insurgents to take hold of any ..

Nigeria army chief says Baga retaken from extremists

Southeast Asia's top budget carrier, AirAsia, said today it suffered a net loss of 428.51 million ringgit (USD 120 million) in the quarter ending in December, hit by higher costs and a weaker currency.
	It was a reversal from a net profit of 169 million ringgit (USD 47 million) in the same period a year earlier, and was its first quarterly net loss in two years.
	The airline said revenue rose 16 per cent to 1.48 billion ringgit (USD 414 million) for the quarter but operating costs including wages, aircraft maintenance and airport landing charges were higher.
	It said foreign exchange losses of 647.6 million ringgit (USD 181 million) and higher taxes also contributed to the losses.
	For the full year, net profit shrank 77 per cent from 2013 to 82.8 million ringgit (USD 23.2 million).
	"We have seen the competition becoming more rational in the second half of 2014," AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said in a statement. Fares began to rise in the fourth quarter, up 13 percent from .

AirAsia posts losses in 4Q amid higher cost, weaker currency

An Iranian news agency says a helicopter belonging to the country's air force has crashed north of Tehran, killing all three crew members on board.
	The report today by the semi-official Fars news agency quotes a district governor, Ezzatollah Khammohammadi, as saying that rescue teams have rushed to the crash site in the mountains north of the Iranian capital.
	He says the cause of the crash is not immediately known and that an investigation is underway.
	The report did not identify the victims or give the type of helicopter involved. Iran's military has both American and Russian-made helicopters in service.
	Iran has a history of frequent air accidents blamed on its ageing aircraft and poor maintenance. The area north of Tehran experienced snowfall and low visibility today.

Helicopter crash north of Iran's capital, Tehran kills 3

The Islamic State group released a video today purportedly showing militants using sledgehammers to smash ancient artifacts in Iraq's northern city of Mosul, describing them as idols that must be removed.
	The destructions are part of a campaign by the IS extremists, who have destroyed a number of shrines including Muslim holy sites in order to eliminate what they view as heresy. They are also believed to have sold ancient artifacts on the black market in order to finance their bloody campaign across the region.
	The five-minute video shows a group of bearded men inside the Mosul Museum using hammers and drills to destroy several large statues, which are then shown in pieces and chipped. The video then shows a black-clad man at a nearby archaeological site inside Mosul drilling through and destroying a winged-bull Assyrian protective deity that dates back to the 7th century BC.
	The video was posted on social media accounts affiliated with the Islamic State group and though it could ..

New IS video shows militants smashing ancient Iraq artifacts

German consumer groups say they will file a lawsuit against Facebook unless the social network changes its terms of service.
	The Federation of German Consumer Organizations said today it has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Facebook's European headquarters in Ireland.
	The letter cites 19 clauses in the company's terms of service and data protection guidelines that the consumer groups claim breach German law.
	German Justice Minister Heiko Maas backed the complaint, saying Facebook's data protection rules are too vague. He said users should be able to opt out of certain requirements without having to quit Facebook entirely.
	The California-based company has faced regular legal challenges from privacy advocates in Europe.
	Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

German consumer groups warns Facebook over data protection

A Danish court has given another four weeks in custody to two men accused of helping a gunman who killed two people in attacks in Copenhagen this month.
	The Copenhagen police said today that the men, who cannot be named under a court order, were being held until March 26.
	They are suspected of helping Omar El-Hussein, who used an assault rifle to kill a Danish filmmaker attending a free speech event Feb. 14 in Copenhagen.
	Hours later, El-Hussein killed a Jewish security guard outside a synagogue on Feb. 15 with a handgun. Five police officers also were wounded in both episodes. El-Hussein was shot dead in a police shootout later that day.

AP

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