A US Marine who vanished a decade ago in Iraq was convicted today of desertion for leaving his post there and then fleeing to Lebanon after a brief return to the US.
	The judge, Marine Maj Nicholas Martz, ruled that Cpl Wassef Hassoun was guilty of deserting for the 2004 and 2005 disappearances. Hassoun was also convicted of causing the loss of his service pistol.
	Sentencing is expected later this week after more witnesses are called. A spokesman for the US Marines, Captain Stewart Coles, said in a release that Hassoun faces a maximum penalty of seven and a half years in prison, reduction in rank and a dishonourable discharge.
	While the judge determined Hassoun intentionally fled during the two disappearances at the heart of the case, his ruling leaves the defendant facing a less severe punishment than he did at the trial's outset.
	Had he been convicted of all charges and specifications, he could have been sentenced to a maximum of 27 years in prison.
	Hassoun was found not guilty .

US Marine who vanished in Iraq found guilty of desertion

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The federal government has filed a notice of appeal of a ruling that temporarily blocked President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration.
	The three-page notice was filed today with US District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas. The appeal will be handled by the 5th US Circuit Court in New Orleans.
	Court documents detailing the legal arguments were expected to be filed at a later date.
	Hanen issued a preliminary injunction last week that put on hold Obama's orders, issued in November, that could spare from deportation as many as 5 million people in the US illegally.
	Federal officials today also asked Hanen to put the injunction on hold.
	Hanen's decision gives a coalition of 26 states time to pursue a lawsuit aimed at permanently stopping the orders.

US seeks stay of ruling on Obama immigration action

The death toll from crashes involving General Motors cars with defective ignition switches has climbed to 57.
	The total is one more than last week. It was posted today on an internet site by compensation expert Kenneth Feinberg.
	Feinberg and his aides are checking claims filed or postmarked before a January 31 deadline to determine which are eligible for compensation.
	Each eligible death claim is worth at least USD 1 million under his guidelines. Feinberg was hired by GM to make payments.
	As of Friday, he received 479 death claims and 3,866 injury claims. Of the injury claims, 94 will get compensation, up from 87 a week ago.
	Feinberg has received a total of 4,345 claims, up 33 from the 4,312 filed as of February 13. Of the claims filed by Friday, 666 were deemed ineligible and 151 are eligible for payments. Feinberg is reviewing or seeking documents for the rest.
	The total number of claims could rise slightly, said Camille Biros, the fund's deputy administrator. A few claims ...

Death toll from General Motors ignition switches rises to 57

Italy and Switzerland have signed an accord ending Swiss banking secrecy.
	The neighbouring countries, in the agreement signed in Milan today, pledged to exchange information for tax purposes in line with international standards.
	Italy hopes the arrangement will help it fight tax evasion. Under a recent law, Italians with Swiss bank accounts can voluntarily disclose them, pay the tax due and incur milder sanctions if they do so within September 2015.
	Italy's finance ministry said that with the new accord, Italian authorities can immediately try to "pinpoint potential Italian tax evaders who keep wealth in Swiss territory."
	Premier Matteo Renzi says the accord means "billions of euros" will return to Italy in tax revenues.
	Both sides also pledged to revise rules on how cross-border workers will pay income tax.

Italy and Switzerland sign deal to end Swiss banking secrecy

Doctors were optimistic 10-month-old conjoined twin girls will survive the surgery that has separated them.
	It took 26 hours last week to separate the girls, Knatalyne Hope Mata and Adeline Faith, who shared a chest wall, lungs, a part of their heart lining, diaphragm, liver, colon, intestines and pelvic area, according to lead surgeon Dr Darrell Cass.
	The surgery, which took place at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, had been planned since before they were born last April.
	"The surgery was not without its challenges, with the girls sharing several organ systems, but we're very pleased with how they're doing," Cass told the Houston Chronicle. "We're very optimistic they can both have a really great outcome."
	The girls were in stable but critical condition, will be on ventilators for the next week and are expected to be in intensive care for a couple of months, then have more surgery later.
	Cass said about five hours into the operation, Adeline's blood pressure dropped to ...

Houston surgeons separate 10-month-old conjoined twin girls

The United States and Iran are working on a two-phase deal that clamps down on Tehran's nuclear programme for at least a decade before providing it leeway over the remainder of the agreement to slowly ramp up activities that could be used to make weapons.
	Officials from some of the six-power talks with Iran said details still needed to be agreed on, with US and Iranian negotiators meeting today for the third straight day ahead of an end-of-March deadline for a framework agreement.
	US Secretary of State John Kerry joined the negotiations after arriving yesterday.
	A breakthrough was not expected before Kerry returns to Washington later. Still, Western officials familiar with the talks cited long-awaited progress on some elements that would have to go into a comprehensive deal.
	They described the discussions as a moving target, however, meaning changes in any one area would have repercussions for other parts of the negotiation.
	The idea would be to reward Iran for good behaviour ...

Phased US-Iran nuclear deal taking shape

Yemen's Shiite rebels today threatened to arrest and try for treason the Prime Minister and all the Cabinet members if they fail to return to work, as thousands took to the streets in the capital, Sanaa, to denounce the rebels and show support for the country's embattled President.
	The developments were the latest in Yemen's escalating crisis in the wake of the power grab by the Shiite rebels known as the Houthis.
	The rebels' expansion has threatened to fracture this impoverished Arabian Peninsula country along sectarian and regional fault lines.
	The Houthis swept into Sanaa last September, after battling their way from the northern Shiite heartland and imposing control over at least nine provinces.
	Since taking over the country, they also disbanded the parliament and empowered their security arm, known as the Revolutionary Committee, to act as the country's top decision- makers.
	Today's protesters in Sanaa chanted in support of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who over the ...

Yemen's Shiite rebels threaten to arrest, charge ministers

An official in the United Arab Emirates says the Gulf federation has reached a deal valued at just over USD 1 billion to buy satellite systems from European manufacturers Airbus and Thales.
	The deal was announced today, the second day of the International Defense Exhibition, in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi.
	Exhibition chairman Obadi al-Ketbi says the deal for the satellites and related equipment is worth 3.75 billion dirhams (USD 1.02 billion), part of roughly USD 2.6 billion in equipment purchases announced by the Emirates. He did not give details on the satellites' use.
	The seven-state Emirates federation has been investing heavily in space technology, and last year announced plans to send the first unmanned Arab spaceship to Mars.
	IDEX is the largest expo of military equipment in the Middle East.

United Arab Emirates spends USD 1 billion on satellite system

The brother of an American woman who was killed after spending months as a hostage of Islamic State militants says Kayla Mueller's situation worsened after the government traded five Taliban commanders for a captive US soldier.
	The militants increased their demands after the May swap for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, Eric Mueller told NBC's "Today" in an interview that aired Monday.
	"That made the whole situation worse because that's when the demands got greater," he said. "They got larger. They realized that they had something."
	Mueller's death was confirmed February 10 by her family and US officials. The Islamic State group claimed she died in a Jordanian airstrike, but U.S. Officials have not confirmed that. The Pentagon said it didn't know how she was killed.
	The 26-year-old international aid worker, who grew up in Prescott, Arizona, was captured in August 2013 after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria.
	The young woman's father, Carl Mueller, said that the .

Kayla Mueller's brother: Swap with Taliban raised IS demands

Keurig said today that it will pay about USD 624 million to buy back its shares owned by Italian coffee company Luigi Lavazza SpA.
	Lavazza has been reducing its stake in Keurig to raise cash for deals with other companies.
	Keurig, which sells single-serve coffee machine, said it will buy 5.23 million shares of its shares from Lavazza for USD 119.18 per share, a three per cent discount from Keurig's closing price of USD 122.87 on Friday.
	The deal is expected to close by March 3. At that time, Lavazza's stake in Keurig will drop to three per cent from 6.1 per cent.
	Lavazza owned a 7.8 per cent stake in Keurig as of January 26, but has been steadily reducing its stake. It sold about two million shares between January 26 and February 3, and about 380,000 shares on January 23, according to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
	Shares of Keurig Green Mountain Inc, based in Waterbury, Vermont, rose USD 1.14 to USD 124.01 in morning trading today.

Keurig to buy back its shares from Lavazza for USD 624 million

Nepal is improving its weather forecasting, stepping up security and promising swift rescues if needed during the upcoming climbing season on Everest in an attempt to recover from the worst mountaineering disaster on the world's highest peak last year.
	Fees for individual climbers will also be cut to lure back climbers after last year's season was abandoned due to grief and safety concerns following an avalanche near base camp last April that killed 16 local guides.
	For the three-month climbing season that begins in March, the government will ensure safer conditions for both international climbers and Nepalese guides and will set up a camp for officials at base camp, the chief of Nepal's Mountaineering Department Puspa Raj Katuwal said Monday.
	"We are working on plans to improve the conditions on the mountain this year. We are setting up a full-time office tent at the base camp which will have our officials throughout the climbing season," Katuwal said.
	That would allow the ...

Nepal pledges to improve climbing conditions on Everest

A former policeman is one of the Chelsea fans being sought by officers investigating an alleged racist incident in Paris, his solicitor said in a statement that apologised to the victim.
	Richard Barklie a former Northern Ireland police officer denied taking part in any racist chanting but admitted to being involved in the incident where a black man was pushed off a Paris metro train. The incident was captured on video before Chelsea's Champions League match at Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.
	London's Metropolitan Police said Saturday that it had identified three men being sought in connection with the incident as it supports a French police probe.
	Barklie's legal team said they have contacted the London force, which "confirmed with us that arrangements were in hand to take the investigation to the next stage."
	After the victim, who was identified in French media as Souleymane S, was videoed being forcibly pushed off the train, fans were heard chanting: "We're racist and that's the 

Solicitor: Fan in Paris incident apologises, denies racism

Further restricting travel to the already isolated country, North Korea barred foreigners from one of its most popular tourist events the annual Pyongyang marathon because of concerns over the Ebola virus, travel agencies said today.
	While no cases of Ebola have been reported anywhere near North Korea, the country shut out foreign tourists in October with some of the strictest Ebola regulations in the world.
 	North Korean media have suggested Ebola was created by the US military as a biological weapon.
	Nick Bonner, co-founder of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, said he did not think the decision reflected any deeper problems in the North's secretive and often enigmatic government, though the news comes amid reports leader Kim Jong Un has called for increased combat readiness and, at a meeting of senior party and military leaders, described tensions on the peninsula as graver than ever before.
	North Korea has been under increasing pressure from the UN over its human rights record and is .

North Korea bars foreigners from Pyongyang marathon

Greece is due to submit a list of proposed reforms to its debt inspectors by tonight to get final approval for an extension to its rescue loans.
	The government and its creditors agreed Friday to extend the country's rescue loans by four months. In return, Greece would have to commit to a series of budget measures meant to keep a lid on debts and improve the economy.
	Greece will have some leeway in deciding what those measures are, but will need approval from the European executive Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Upon receiving the proposed reforms today, those three institutions will decide by tomorrow whether they are enough.
	Greece's European bailout ends after February 28 so it needs a finalized deal this week.

Greece to present reforms to finalise loan extension

Japan's agriculture minister stepped down today following questions over political funding contributions, the latest in a series of such resignations.
	Koya Nishikawa resigned as head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries saying he wanted to avoid disruptions to parliamentary proceedings.
	Questions arose over an alleged 1 million yen (USD 8,400) donation to a ruling Liberal Democratic Party chapter headed by Nishikawa from a company run by a sugar manufacturers association that had received government subsidies.
	"No matter how much I explain the situation, if people don't understand they don't understand," Nishikawa told reporters. "There is absolutely no conflict with the law, but people can still use this to tarnish my image."
	Nishikawa and other government officials said earlier that he had returned the money.
	Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that he had resisted, but in the end accepted Nishikawa's resignation.
	"He was determined to quit, and I have ..

Japan's farm minister resigns amid political funds questions

Australia will strengthen immigration laws and crack down on groups that incite hatred under a raft of counter-terrorism measures intended to combat the threat from home-grown terrorists.
	Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the nation's new anti-extremism strategy today following the release of a government review into December's deadly siege at a Sydney cafe.
	Man Monis, an Iranian-born, self-styled cleric with a long criminal history, took 18 people hostage inside the cafe and demanded he be delivered an Islamic State flag. Monis and two hostages were killed.
	The government review found no major faults with agencies that failed to detect Monis was a threat. But Abbott said Monis should never have been allowed into Australia, should not have been out on bail and should not have had a gun.

Australia to tighten immigration laws in counter-terror bid

Investigators looking into a small plane crash that killed a prominent Christian minister and eight others last year have found it was likely caused by bad decisions by the crew during stormy weather, the islands' civil aviation department has said.
	A Learjet carrying the Rev Myles Munroe and members of his Bahamas Faith Ministries crashed on November 9 after striking a shipping crane as it attempted to land in Grand Bahama. The crash killed everyone on board, including Munroe's wife.
	The islands' civil aviation department said yesterday its accident investigation unit had concluded its probe into the crash. In a final report, investigators determined that poor decision-making by the crew as they attempted to descend below the authorised altitude without being able to see the runway area was the probable cause.
	The jet was trying to land during heavy rain and reduced visibility as a storm front passed over the area. During a second attempt at landing at the Grand Bahama ...

Bahamas cites poor decisions by crew as cause of plane crash

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party has lost the two-thirds supermajority it held in parliament since 2010, which allowed it to pass a new constitution and other legislation without input from the opposition.
	The National Election Office said yesterday that Zoltan Kesz, an independent supported by the left-wing opposition parties, defeated Fidesz candidate Lajos Nemedi in a district centered on the city of Veszprem. With 98 per cent of the votes counted, Kesz led Nemedi by 42.6 per cent to 33.6 per cent. A candidate for the far-right Jobbik party was third with 14.1 per cent.
	Kesz said the result was a warning from voters to the governing parties, "because they will no longer accept the plundering of the country ... And millions being driven into poverty."
	The election was needed because Fidesz's Tibor Navracsics, who won the seat in April, has since become a European Union commissioner.
	Orban's Fidesz party and a much smaller ally have also used their ...

Hungary's governing Fidesz party loses supermajority

A bomb blast killed two at a march in east Ukraine today on the first anniversary of the ouster of the country's Russia-friendly president, a gruesome counterpoint to the hopes spawned by a cease-fire agreement more than a week ago.
	An exchange of prisoners this weekend and acknowledgment by both sides of a commitment to pull back heavy weapons are promising signs that peace may yet prevail, although sporadic exchanges of hostilities between government and separatist forces have yet to subside entirely.
	Ukraine's Interior Ministry said the blast at a march in the eastern city of Kharkiv to mark the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych was due to an "unknown explosive device" and was considered a terrorist act.
	A police officer was one of the dead and about a dozen people were injured, the ministry said.
	A spokesman for the national security service, Markian Lubkivskiy, said four suspects had arrested for the explosion and for planning other attacks, Interfax-Ukraine news agency ..

Blast hits march in eastern Ukraine, killing 2

The foundation launched by former President Bill Clinton more than a decade ago has battled HIV and AIDS in Africa, educated millions of children and fed the poor and hungry around the globe.
	It also has the potential to become a political risk for Hillary Rodham Clinton as she heads toward a potential second presidential campaign.
	The former secretary of state has struggled with some recent bad headlines over large donations to the foundation by foreign governments over the past two years and the USD 200 million-plus it's raised since 2013, ahead of her expected presidential bid.
	Republicans say the foreign government donations could create conflicts of interests if Clinton wins the office. The foundation has defended its financial support and charitable works.

For Clinton, her family foundation may pose campaign risks

All 486 miners trapped underground after a fire broke out at a South African goldmine have been found safe, the mine's spokeswoman said today.
	The 18 miners who were still missing shortly before 9 pm (1900 GMT) have been located, said Harmony Gold Mining Company spokeswoman, Charmane Russell. A rescue mission was underway to bring the remaining miners above ground, the mining company said in a statement.
	The miners were trapped when a fire started 2,300 meters (about 7,545 feet) below the surface, said the mining company.
	About 389 miners had already been brought safely to the surface and Harmony Gold said the fire has been contained.
	South African President Jacob Zuma had urged the mine to do everything to ensure the safe rescue of all the miners.
	"I urge all South Africans to keep the miners in their thoughts and prayers during this difficult period," said Zuma before the miners were found.

AP

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