Lawmakers failed to elect a new Italian president today in balloting that tests Premier Matteo Renzi's ability to rally his fractured party behind a candidate that is also acceptable to opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi, whose support he has courted for the government's ambitious reform agenda.
	Even as the names on the hand-written ballots from the 1,009 electors were still being read aloud, it was clear that, as expected, no candidate had come remotely close to the two-thirds majority needed to elect a new head of state in the first three rounds.
	Electors will have another crack at it Friday. The biggest "vote-getter" was "blank ballot," a sign that broad consensus for a figure who is supposed to be above the political fray was still elusive despite days of political maneuvering by Renzi to secure backing for his choice.
	Starting Saturday, the threshold for victory drops to a simple majority, enhancing the probability that sufficient agreement could be found among Italy's myriad 

Italy lawmakers fail to elect new president in 1st round

PTI Automatic

Britain summoned Russia's ambassador today and asked him to explain why Russian warplanes flew near British airspace, disrupting civil aviation.
	The Foreign Office said today that Royal Air Force Typhoon jets were scrambled to escort Russian Bear bombers in a "U.K. area of interest" on Wednesday. The Russian planes did not enter British airspace, but flew along the coast and over the English Channel without communicating with British air traffic control.
	The Foreign Office called the maneuvers "part of an increasing pattern of out-of-area operations by Russian aircraft" and said the ambassador had been summoned to account for the incident.
	Tensions between Russia and NATO nations have been high amid fighting between Ukrainian government troops and Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.
	NATO said its pilots conducted more than three times as many intercepts of Russian planes in 2014 as the year before. Britain's Ministry of Defense said it intercepts Russian planes about once a ..

London summons Russian envoy after bombers near UK airspace

Youths angry at the Nigerian government's failure to fight Islamic extremists threw stones today at President Goodluck Jonathan's electioneering convoy in the eastern town of Jalingo, breaking windshields and windows on several vehicles.
	Police used tear gas and whips to disperse the mob. From Jalingo, Jonathan flew to Yola, capital of Adamawa state, where officials had declared the route of his motorcade a no-go area.
	The presidential cavalcade already had been stoned in northern Katsina city and northeast Bauchi last week. Youths in Bauchi flung shoes and plastic bottles at Jonathan's podium at a rally.
	In Jalingo, soldiers guarded billboards and posters of Jonathan, who is running for re-election on Feb. 14. Protesters shouted that the troops should instead be fighting the Boko Haram insurgents blamed for the deaths of some 10,000 people in the past year.
	"Why are they using soldiers and other security operatives? They should be deployed to Sambisa and fight with Boko Haram, ...

Angry youths stone Nigerian leader's convoy; police fire gas

A powerful gas tank truck explosion shattered a maternity and children's hospital in Mexico City today, killing at least three adults and one baby and injuring dozens.
	Claudia Dominguez, spokeswoman for the city's civil defense agency, confirmed the deaths and said she expected an updated toll soon.
	She said she could not confirm the report by the local borough chief, Adrian Rubalcava, that seven had died Rescuers continued digging through the rubble even as smoke rose from remaining fires.
	Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera earlier told the Televisa network that at least 54 people were injured, 22 of them children. Most of the injuries were relatively minor, he said, many caused by flying glass.
	Fausto Lugo, the city's civil defense director, said 37 people were transported to other hospitals and he said other people were likely still buried in the rubble.
	The explosion sent a column of smoke billowing over the area on the western edge of Mexico's capital and television images showed ...

Gas blast at Mexico children's hospital, at least 4 dead

Helen Eustis, an Edgar Award-winning mystery writer who later translated works by Georges Simenon and other European authors, has died.
	Eustis' son, Adam Fisher, said Thursday that she died Jan. 11 at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. She was 98 and died of natural causes, Fisher said.
	Eustis' "The Horizontal Man" was a crime story about a murdered English professor that won the Edgar in 1947 for best debut novel.
	"Horizontal Man" will be included this fall in a Library of America anthology of 1940s-'50s crime fiction by women. Eustis also wrote "The Fool Killer" and the children's story "Mr. Death and the Redheaded Woman."
	Her translations include Simenon's "When I Was Old" and Edmond Charles-Roux's "To Forget Palermo.

Helen Eustis, award-winning mystery writer, dead at 98

Sri Lanka's new government plans to return private land seized by the military in the civil war-ravaged north and release several hundred detainees, a minister said, in an apparent move toward reconciliation with ethnic minority Tamils.
	Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told reporters late Wednesday that the government of new President Maithripala Sirisena will ease its military presence, and that unlike the previous administration that was defeated in the January 8 election, does not believe military action alone can prevent a resurgence of the rebels.
	"Especially for the north, we don't think we need all that security. Our entire concept will be different," he said. "About the lands in the north ... We have already decided whatever acquired for business purposes, other than the security purposes, to give back to the owners."
	He said the administration of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, which defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the civil war, was always ...

Sri Lanka says it will return private land in civil war area

The British government says files from three judge-led inquiries two of them into killings by police have been lost in the mail.
	The Justice Ministry said today that two discs containing documents were reported missing January 8 "having been dispatched by post." It said "intensive searches" had failed to find them.
	The ministry says lawyers are reviewing the documents to determine whether they contain sensitive material.
	Some of the documents relate to inquiries into the fatal police shootings of Azelle Rodney in 2005 and Mark Duggan in 2011. Duggan's death sparked several nights of rioting.
	The third inquiry is looking at the 1997 death of a Northern Ireland man, Robert Hamill.
	The government says it has no evidence to suggest the information was lost through "malicious intent.

UK government: Data from police killings probes lost in mail

Syrian activists say government airstrikes have killed at least eight people in a northern town held by the Islamic State.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes targeted the city of al-Bab today. The Observatory, which obtains its information from a network of activists on the ground, said the dead included women and children and that the toll was likely to rise because many people were wounded.
	The Aleppo Media Center, a local activist group, said 15 people were killed in four airstrikes that targeted a crowded sheep market. Conflicting death tolls are common after such strikes.
	Human rights groups and local activists say Syrian government forces often show disregard for civilians when targeting suspected militants.

Syria government airstrikes kill at least 8 in IS-held city

Nokia made a net profit of 443 million euros (USD 502 million) in the fourth quarter and sales grew nearly 10 per cent, but its share price fell today as the results were offset by a poor performance in some regions, higher costs and a low dividend.
	The Finland-based company said revenue grew to 3.8 billion euros (USD 4.3 billion) in the period from 3.48 billion euros a year earlier, when it reported a net loss of 26 million euros.
	CEO Rajeev Suri noted strong growth in all operations networks, mapping services and technologies and licenses after selling its loss-making devices and services to Microsoft in April.
	The company's core networks business, which accounts for nearly 90 percent of sales, grew 8 percent in the period with broadband sales increasing 13 percent. Sales in North America jumped 95 percent, overtaking China to become its third largest market. Growth in Europe, Africa and the Middle East was up 4 percent.
	But revenue in its largest market, Asia Pacific, was up ...

Nokia turns to fourth quarter profit buoyed by strong growth

Yemen's Shiite rebels took over a key military base south of Sanaa where US advisers had previously trained counter-terrorism forces, officials said today.
	Military officials said the Republican Guard camp captured Wednesday was used by American experts until 2012 to train local forces battling al-Qaida's powerful Yemeni affiliate.
	The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
	The Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, have seized a number of key military facilities in recent days, including the headquarters of the paramilitary special forces.
	Last week the rebels put President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a close US ally, and his Cabinet under house arrest, escalating a prolonged power struggle. The officials resigned in response, and Prime Minister Khaled Baha said today his resignation was "irreversible" according to a statement posted on his Facebook account.
	Baha expressed his "extreme condemnation" over the Houthis' "coup," ...

Yemen rebels seize military base outside capital

A suicide bomber struck a funeral in Afghanistan for the victims of an earlier Taliban attack, killing 16 people and wounding 39, an Afghan official said.
	The attack took place in eastern Laghman province, according to the local governor's spokesman, Sarhadi Zwak. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but the blame is likely to fall on the Taliban who have staged similar attacks in the past.
	Also, the bombing came on the heels of a spate of Taliban attacks across Afghanistan overnight and this morning that killed at least 17 people.
	The insurgents have been increasingly targeting local police and Afghan forces, inflicting heavy civilian casualties as well, after most foreign combat troops withdrew from the country at the end of last month.
	The bomber at the funeral in Mihtarlam mingled with the mourners gathered for the funeral for a police commander and three other people killed earlier in the day in a roadside bombing, then blew himself up.
	The roadside ...

Suicide bomb at Afghan funeral for Taliban victims kills 16

Police detained and questioned an 8-year-old boy from the south of France who claimed to support the men who attacked the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, drawing criticism today that France's measures to prevent people from defending terrorism have gone overboard.
	Dozens of people have been arrested and accused of defending terrorism since the attacks, with some already drawing yearslong prison terms in special expedited court proceedings.
	But the child from the southern city of Nice appears to be the youngest by far.
	The boy declared "The French must be killed. I am with the terrorists. The Muslims did well, and the journalists got what they deserved," Fabienne Lewandowski, deputy director for public security in the Alpes-Maritimes region, told BFM television.
	She said the child also refused to take part in the national minute of silence for the victims on January 9.
	The storming of the newspaper offices left 12 people dead and launched three days of terror in the Paris region ..

Police question child who backed Charlie Hebdo attackers

The European Union has introduced new measures to help member nations seize the travel documents of people suspected of trying to join terrorist organisations outside the EU.
	France and some of its EU partners are contemplating taking away the travel documents of people suspected of travelling to countries like Syria or Iraq to sign up as foreign fighters for terror groups.
	Should they decide to, the new measures and "technical upgrades" to the EU's vast Schengen Information System computer database will alert authorities stationed on Europe's external borders.
	The European Commission said in a statement yesterday that the measures mean "such documents must be seized and the person concerned will be detained.

EU moves to help states seize terror suspects' passports

Russia has extended its walkout from Europe's human rights watchdog after again losing its right to vote over the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
	The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe yesterday voted to renew sanctions against Russia, which includes stripping its voting rights, over the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
	"They need to withdraw their troops from Ukraine, withdraw their arms from Ukraine, allow Ukraine to enjoy its territorial integrity, and get out of Crimea and behave like a civilized nation," Christopher Chope, a member of the British delegation, told The Associated Press.
	The decision is expected to stand until at least April. In response, Alexei Pushkov told Russian television late Wednesday that the Russian delegation was "walking out of the parliamentary assembly" and will not participate in its sessions until the end of the year.
	Pushkov said this could damage dialogue among European parliaments, but wrote Thursday on Twitter that this "doesn't mean the 

Russia suspends role in Europe's human rights watchdog

The Philippines has urged fellow Southeast Asian nations to jointly demand that China stop its land reclamation in contested South China Sea reefs.
	Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the credibility of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations could be undermined if it does not respond to the Chinese reclamation, which he said appeared "to be near completion as portrayed by available photos."
	Del Rosario expressed the Philippines' alarm over the reclamation in a statement to fellow ASEAN ministers yesterday in Malaysia's Kota Kinabalu city.
	A copy of the statement was obtained by The Associated Press today.
	Del Rosario said: "ASEAN cannot remain silent on these serious developments. To do so would be a grave mistake with fundamental strategic consequences.

Philippines warns ASEAN over China reef reclamation

Late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il repeatedly pushed for summit talks with South Korea before his 2011 death but the plans failed because Pyongyang demanded USD 10 billion and large-scale shipments of food and fertilizer, a former South Korean president says in a memoir to be published next week.
	Parts of the memoir by ex-President Lee Myung-bak, provided to reporters in advance, reveal that senior intelligence officials from the two Koreas made secret visits to each other's countries to explore summit possibilities in 2010, when two deadly attacks blamed on Pyongyang killed 50 South Koreans.
	Lee says a North Korea envoy who visited Seoul that year was later publicly executed after returning to the North.
	The memoir comes as both countries float the idea of a possible summit between Kim's son and current leader, Kim Jong Un, and Lee's successor, President Park Geun-hye. It would be the third summit meeting since the two Koreas were divided 70 years ago, although chances seem low .

N. Korea demanded USD 10 billion for summit: ex-Seoul leader

An Afghan official says at least 23 people died and 31 were injured when a bus crashed into a fuel truck on a narrow road in southern Zabul province.
	Zabul's governor, Mohammad Ashraf Nasiri, says the crash, which took place this morning near the provincial capital of Qalat was a traffic accident, most likely due to human error.
	The bus was en route to Kandahar province. The collision ignited a fire that burned half the bus and caused most of the fatalities. Nasiri says four children and five women were among those killed.
	He says bad roads and reckless driving have caused scores of such accidents in the country's south.

Bus crashes into fuel truck in Afghanistan, 23 killed

Ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says the confrontation between Russia and the West could spill into all-out war.
	More than 5,100 people have been killed in a bloody conflict in eastern Ukraine between government troops and pro-Russian separatists. Ukraine accuses Russia of aiding the separatists while Russia says the West is behind Ukraine's attempts to retake the rebel-held areas.
	Gorbachev, in comments to the Interfax news agency, said today the West has "dragged" Russia into a new Cold War and warned of risks of a military confrontation:
	"I can no longer say that this Cold War will not lead to a 'Hot War.' I fear that they could risk it," he was quoted as saying.
	Gorbachev was one of the architects of the peaceful dismantling of Communist rule in eastern Europe.

Gorbachev warns of military conflict between Russia, West

A former hedge fund manager who confessed four years ago to running a massive fraud scheme is expected to be sentenced in a case that had its biggest fallout in Venezuela, where the state oil company had hundreds of millions of dollars invested with the disgraced financier.
	Francisco Illarramendi pleaded guilty in March 2011 to several counts of fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
	As the director of several funds in Stamford, prosecutors say Illarramendi lied repeatedly to investors and creditors as he tried to cover up investment losses exceeding half a billion dollars, taking USD 20 million for himself, including USD 5 million to build a lavish home in New Canaan.
	A court-appointed receiver recovered much of the money but prosecutors say losses still exceed USD 200 million.
	Prosecutors have urged US Judge Stefan Underhill in Bridgeport to sentence Illarramendi to at least 12 years in prison. Illarramendi argues he deserves no more than six months of home confinement in ...

Venezuelan hedge fund manager to be sentenced in huge fraud

Afghan officials say a roadside bombing in the country's east killed four people, including a policeman, while a Taliban attack on a checkpoint the previous night left 11 dead.
	Spokesman Sarhadi Zwak in eastern Laghman province says the roadside bombing took place in the provincial capital of Mihtarlam on Thursday morning.
	Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, deputy governor in central Ghazni province, says Taliban insurgents attacked a checkpoint in Andar district last night, killing 11 members of a pro-government militia and wounding six. Ahmadi says six insurgents were killed and seven were wounded in the attack.
	Deputy police chief Asadullha Ensafi says insurgents had inside information from one of their own who had infiltrated the volunteer militia last year.
	In a message, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.

Taliban bomb kills 4, attack kills 11 in Afghanistan

The president of Israel urged the world's nations to wage an all-out war against genocide saying "the Holocaust of the Jews was not the final chapter in the brutal scheme of man against his fellow man."
	Reuven Rivlin told the UN commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp that evil is not limited to any religion, country or ethnic group and warned that it is wrong and misleading to view Islam, Judaism, or Christianity, as "enemies of the world."
	He criticized the United Nations, which was founded on the ashes of World War II with a mission to prevent genocide, for failing to end the slaughters carried out in Bosnia, Rwanda,
	Sudan, Cambodia, Syria, Nigeria and elsewhere. Rivlin urged the 193 U.N. Member states to set "red lines" that define genocide - "and to agree that the crossing of those red lines makes it compulsory to intervene."
	Holocaust survivor Jona Laks movingly described how she was taken from the Jewish ghetto in Lodz, ...

AP

AP

Page 2341 - Ap/pti Reuters