A pioneering New York City radio and TV host who gave breaks to Al Pacino and Bill Cosby long before they became famous and boasted he never missed a broadcast in decades has died. Joe Franklin was 88.
	Longtime producer Steven Garrin says Franklin died yesterday of cancer.
	Franklin often is credited with developing the standard TV talk show format, sitting behind a desk interviewing want-to-be celebrities, minor celebrities and the occasional bona fide celebrity.
	The host of "The Joe Franklin Show" started in TV in 1950. By the 1990s he said he had chatted with 300,000 guests, including Marilyn Monroe and Madonna.
	But the notables often had to share air time with a tap-dancing dentist or a man who whistled through his nose. Garrin says Tuesday was the first scheduled broadcast Franklin missed in more than 60 years.

New York radio, TV talk show pioneer Joe Franklin dies at 88

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From her hometown in India in 2010, Bhanu Challa said she had no reason to doubt that Tri-Valley University was a legitimate American school where she could pursue a master's degree.
	Its website featured smiling students in caps and gowns and promised a leafy campus in a San Francisco Bay Area suburb.
	Months later, her hands were in cuffs as federal investigators questioned her motives for being in the US.
	Authorities told her that Tri-Valley was a sham school. It was selling documents that allowed foreigners to obtain US student visas, and in some cases work in the country, while providing almost no instruction, according to federal investigators.
	"I was blank, totally blank ...," Challa said, recalling her shock. "I didn't know what to do, who I could approach." Tri-Valley is among at least half a dozen schools shut down or raided by federal authorities in recent years over allegations of immigration fraud. Like Tri-Valley, they had obtained permission from US immigration ...

Fake schools draw scrutiny of federal investigators

More than 30 police commandos were killed in a clash with Muslim insurgents today in the southern Philippines in the biggest single-day combat loss for Philippine forces in many years, officials said.
	The commandos had entered the far-flung village of Tukanalipao at dawn looking for a top terror suspect, but had a "misencounter" with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and other insurgents, Mayor Tahirudin Benzar Ampatuan of Mamasapano town told The Associated Press by telephone.
	Other insurgents in the area later joined in fighting the outnumbered police forces, the mayor said. The Moro group signed a peace deal with the government last year.
	Ampatuan, the Moro group and military officials said the police commandos did not coordinate their plan to enter the Muslim rebel village before sunrise, apparently resulting in the fierce fighting.
	The fighting in the marshy village of corn and coconut plantations subsided after several hours when members of a cease-fire committee .

30 Filipino police commandos killed in clash with rebels

Iran's foreign minister says his outreach to regional rival Saudi Arabia after the death of the kingdom's ruler was "necessary."
	Shiite power Iran and the Sunni-ruled kingdom are at odds over multiple issues in the Middle East, including the ongoing civil war in Syria, turmoil in Yemen and protests in Bahrain.
	However, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was among the first foreign dignitaries to visit Saudi Arabia following the death Friday of King Abdullah.
	Zarif says he hopes his outreach to the Saudi government "prepares the ground for more cooperation in all areas in this very sensitive region based on good neighborliness and rationalism."
	Zarif made the comments today at a news conference in Tehran with Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic.

Iran foreign minister: Outreach to Saudi Arabia 'necessary'

In fierce fighting today, Nigerian troops clashed with Islamic extremists who attacked Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeast Nigeria. Dozens of combatants have been killed and wounded, soldiers and hospital workers said.
	"Coordinated air and land operations are being conducted now," Defense Ministry spokesman Brig Gen Chris Olukolade said in a message posted on Twitter.
	Troops blocked roads leading into the city, which also is preventing civilians from escaping.
	"We believe hundreds of thousands of civilians are now at grave risk," Amnesty International said.
	The attacks come the day US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital nearly 1,000 miles (more than 1,500 kilometres) southwest of Maiduguri.
	Aides said Kerry is concerned about possible violence around Nigeria's February 14 elections and will meet with the main contenders, President Goodluck Jonathan and former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari.
	Jonathan made a surprise visit to ..

Boko Haram attacks northeastern Nigerian city, dozens killed

A collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia that includes a lock of the slain president's hair has been sold for more than USD 800,000 at auction today in Dallas.
	The Donald P Dow collection brought top bids totaling USD 803,889, doubling expectations, said Eric Bradley, spokesman for Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.
	Greg Dow said his father, who died five years ago, was fascinated with presidential assassinations.
	The lock of hair, taken by Surgeon General Joseph K Barnes shortly after Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, sold for USD 25,000.
	An 1861 letter written by Booth to a friend boasting about his career and value as an actor sold for USD 30,000.
	"The public was so disgusted by Booth's atrocity that most all letters, signatures and documents mentioning him were destroyed after Lincoln's death, making any that survive 150 years later exceedingly rare and valuable," said Don Ackerman, Consignment Director for Historical Americana at Heritage Auctions.
	"The Dow Collection .

Lock of Lincoln's hair among items auctioned in Dallas

Two bombings ripped through commercial areas in Iraq's capital today, killing at least 10 civilians and wounding dozens, officials said.
	The deadliest attack took place in Baghdad's Bab al-Sharji area, where a bomb went off outside a small restaurant, killing seven civilians and wounding 22, a police officer said. Another bombing in the central Sibaa area killed three civilians and wounded 11, he said.
	A health official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release the information.
	No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings. Iraq sees near-daily attacks, mainly targeting the country's Shiite majority and security forces. The attacks often are claimed by the Islamic State group, which seized about a third of the country last year.
	Meanwhile, fierce clashes have been taking place around the town of Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles (90 kilometres) north of Baghdad, between the Islamic State group and .

Officials say bombings kill 10 in Iraq's capital

The World Health Organisation is debating how to reform itself after botching the response to the Ebola outbreak, a sluggish performance that experts say cost thousands of lives.
	WHO's executive board is today discussing proposals that could radically transform the United Nations health agency in response to sharp criticism over its handling of the West Africa epidemic.
	"The Ebola outbreak points to the need for urgent change," said Dr Margaret Chan, WHO's director-general. She acknowledged that WHO was too slow to grasp the significance of the Ebola outbreak, which is estimated to have killed more than 8,600 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
	Critics say the kinds of reform being debated are long overdue but express skepticism that WHO's practices and culture would significantly change.

WHO mulls reforms to repair reputation after bungling Ebola

From prime minister to ordinary people, Japanese responded with shock today at a video purportedly showing one of two Japanese hostages of the extremist Islamic State group had been killed.
	With national attention focusing on efforts to save the other hostage, 47-year-old journalist Kenji Goto, some also criticised Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's drive for a more assertive Japan as responsible for the hostage crisis.
	A somber Abe appeared on Japanese public broadcaster NHK early today demanding the militants release Goto unharmed.
	He said that the latest video was likely authentic, although he added that the government was still reviewing it. He offered condolences to the family and friends of Haruna Yukawa, a 42-year-old adventurer taken hostage in Syria last year.
	Abe declined to comment on the message in the video, which demanded a prisoner exchange for Goto. He said only that the government was still working on the situation, and reiterated that Japan condemns terrorism.
	"I am ...

Japan stunned after video claims death of 1 of 2 IS hostages

The candidate from the ruling Patriotic Front, Edgar Lungu, has won Zambia's presidential election called after President Michael Sata died in October, the acting chief justice has announced.
	Lungu received 48.3 per cent of the vote, while Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development came in second with 46.7 per cent after votes were tallied from all 150 constituencies in the southern African nation, said acting Chief Justice Lombe Chibesakunda late yesterday.
	Lungu, who heads Zambia's justice and defense ministries, will serve out the remainder of Sata's term until elections next year. Sata died after a long illness.
	Earlier yesterday, before the results were announced, Hichilema, the opposition leader, held a briefing in which he described the election as a sham.
	"The election was stolen and does not reflect the will of the people," he said.
	Zambia's electoral commission chairwoman Ireen Mambilima has dismissed the allegations, saying the process was ...

Zambia: Ruling party candidate wins presidential election

Russia has blocked a Western- backed UN Security Council statement that would have condemned indiscriminate shelling in Ukraine's southeastern city of Mariupol that killed about 30 civilians and injured more than 90.
	The statement blocked yesterday, obtained by The Associated Press, called for "an immediate de-escalation of violence," implementation of a September cease-fire and an "objective investigation" of Saturday's rocket-fire in Mariupol.
	"This attack marks a significant and disturbing escalation in the level of violence in eastern Ukraine," it said.
	The proposed statement noted that separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko announced the start of an offensive against Mariupol "and condemned in the strongest terms such irresponsible announcements."
	Russia's UN Mission said in a statement that there was no agreement because Britain insisted on condemnation of separatist "self-defense forces" who are backed by Russia. It said Western council members have never condemned any ...

Russia blocks UN condemnation of shelling of Ukraine city

A Taliban truck bomb exploded in the Afghan capital today, wounding two people in the first attack targeting Kabul in almost three weeks, officials said.
	Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi suggested the blast, which happened just before 6 a.M. (local time) at a gas station near Kabul's military airport, might have been a premature suicide attack. The bombing wounded two civilians, Sediqqi said.
	Farid Afzeli, the head of the criminal investigation division of Kabul police, said that the truck was attempting to enter downtown Kabul when it blew up.
	President Ashraf Ghani arrived about two and a half hours before the blast at the adjacent civilian airport from Saudi Arabia, where he had gone to mourn the late King Abdullah, said an official on condition of anonymity as he was unauthorized to speak with journalists.
	The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on Twitter.
	Kabul has been quiet since early January, when a suicide car bomber attacked the ...

Truck bombing in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, wounds 2

Indiscriminate rocket fire slammed into a market, schools, homes and shops in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, killing at least 30 people, authorities have said.
	Ukrainian officials rushed to defend the strategically important port city as the separatists' top leader declared that an offensive against it had begun. He later toned down his threats as the scale of civilian casualties became evident.
	President Petro Poroshenko called an emergency meeting of his military officials and cut short a trip to Saudi Arabia to coordinate the government's response. Military positions in the city were strengthened and forces were being built up, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said yesterday.
	Poroshenko called the attacks on Mariupol a terrorist act.
	"The time has come to name their sponsors. The help given to militants, weapons deliveries, equipment and the training of manpower is this not aiding terrorism?" he said in a recorded statement.
	Russia insists it does not support the ...

Rockets kill 30 in Ukrainian city as rebels launch offensive

Benghazi-based extremist Islamic militant group Ansar al-Shariah said today its leader Mohammed al-Zahawi has been killed.
	Unconfirmed reports that al-Zahawi was injured or killed in an attack late last year had circulated on jihadist websites for months although the group dismissed them at the time.
	The statement, posted on the group's official Twitter account today, gave no details about how or when al-Zahawi was killed.
	It gave condolences and vowed to take revenge and "shake the seat of power." The statement included a photo allegedly showing al-Zahawi after his death.
	The group has been blamed for the September 2012 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi that killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
	In the attack, gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades and stormed the mission, many waving the black banners of Ansar al-Shariah. The compound's main building was set ablaze.
	Stevens suffocated to death inside and another American was shot dead. Later in the 

Libyan extremist group says leader has been killed

A series of bombings, mainly targeting Shiite neighborhoods, killed at least 13 people in Baghdad today, said Iraqi officials.
	Police officials said one bomb exploded today near a small restaurant in Baghdad's mainly Shiite southeastern district of Zafaraniyah, killing four people and wounding 13.
	Later, police say a bomb blast missed a passing police patrol, but killed three civilians and wounded eight in western Baghdad. They say the blast also damaged several cars.
	At night, a blast near a cafe in Baghdad's Shiite district of al-Ameen killed three people and wounded eight others.
	Also, a bomb exploded near a bus stop and a line of shops selling vegetables and fruit in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Mashtal, killing three people and wounding seven others.
	Medical officials in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualties from all the attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to journalists.
	Iraq sees near-daily attacks, mainly 

Officials say bombings kill 13 people in Iraq's capital

Indiscriminate rocket fire slammed into a market, two schools, homes and shops today in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, killing at least 29 people, authorities said.
	Ukraine's top rebel leader said an offensive had begun on the strategically important port.
	Ukraine's president called an emergency meeting of his military officials and cut short a trip to Saudi Arabia to rush back to coordinate the government's response.
	The rocket attacks came a day after the rebels rejected a peace deal and announced they were going on a multi-prong offensive against the government in Kiev to vastly increase their territory.
	The rebel stance has upended European attempts to mediate an end to the fighting in eastern Ukraine, which the UN says has killed nearly 5,100 people since April.
	Mariupol, which lies on the Azov Sea, is the major city between mainland Russia and the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Heavy fighting in the region in the fall raised fears that Russian-backed separatist .

Rockets kill 29 in Ukrainian city as rebels launch offensive

Indiscriminate rocket fire slammed into a market, schools and homes today in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, killing at least 21 people, authorities said.
	Ukraine's top rebel leader announced that an offensive had begun on the strategically important port.
	The report came a day after the rebels rejected a peace deal and said they were going on a multi-prong offensive against the government in Kiev to vastly increase their territory.
	The move is upending European attempt\s to mediate an end to the fighting.
	Mariupol, which lies on the Azov Sea, is the major city between mainland Russia and the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
	Heavy fighting in the region in the autumn raised fears that Russian-backed separatist forces would try to establish a land link between Russia and Crimea.
	The RIA Novosti news agency cited eastern Ukrainian rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko as saying an offensive has begun on Mariupol.
	He spoke today as he laid a wreath at the site where at ...

Rockets kill 21 in Ukraine city as rebel offensive begins

Japanese officials said today they were investigating a new online message purporting to be from the extremist Islamic State group about the two Japanese hostages it holds.
	The purported message claimed one hostage has been killed and demanded a prisoner exchange for the other. But the post was deleted quickly, and militants on a website affiliated with the Islamic State group disagreed about the message's authenticity.
	The Associated Press could not verify the contents of the message, which varied greatly from previous videos released by the Islamic State group, which now holds a third of both Syria and Iraq.
	Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said government ministers were holding an emergency meeting about the new message.
	Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters as he rushed into his office that the release of the new message was "an outrageous and unforgivable act. We demand their immediate release."
	Kyodo News agency reported that the same video has been emailed 

Japan condemns new video, not yet verifying it's of hostages

Ukraine's head of reforms says that tackling corruption is the country's top priority as it tries to convince its international rescue creditors to give it more loans.
	The economy and public finances of Ukraine have been drained by uncertainty over the country's future amid a war in its eastern region.
	The country got bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund, European Union and US last year. But with no end in sight to its economic problems, it is asking for more. The IMF and EU have said that would be possible only if Ukraine does better on reforming its economy.
	At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Dmytro Shymkiv, the government official responsible for reforms, said Saturday reducing graft was top of the to-do list, alongside cuts "across everything.

Ukraine: cutting graft top priority to reach new bailout

Authorities in Iraq say two bombings have killed seven people in the capital, Baghdad.
	Police officials say one bomb exploded today near a small restaurant in Baghdad's mainly Shiite southeastern district of Zafaraniyah, killing four people and wounding 13.
	Later, police say a bomb blast missed a passing police patrol, but killed three civilians and wounded eight in western Baghdad. They say the blast also damaged several cars.
	Medical officials in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to talk to journalists.
	Iraq sees near-daily attacks, mainly targeting the country's Shiite majority and security forces. The attacks often are claimed by the Islamic State group, which seized about a third of the country last year.

Officials say 2 bombings kill 7 people in Iraq's capital

A Lebanese military official says a daylong battle with Syria-based militants near the border has killed eight soldiers.
	The official says Lebanese troops found the bodies of three missing soldiers today on the outskirts of the northeastern Lebanese village of Ras Baalbek.
	Late yesterday, an army statement said another five soldiers were killed in the fighting.
	The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the attackers belong to the Islamic State group that controls large parts of Syria.
	In August, al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and Islamic State group fighters conducted a joint raid in the border town of Arsal and captured some two dozen soldiers. Since then, they have killed four of the soldiers.

AP

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