Libyan security officials say a bomb thrown near the Algerian Embassy in the country's capital has wounded three security guards.
	The officials say the bomb came from a passing car and struck the guard's station and damaged a diplomatic vehicle today.
	No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists.
	The attack comes as Libya remains mired in chaos since the overthrow and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
	Libya has two rival governments, each backed by an array of militias that have effectively split the nation.
	The internationally recognized parliament was pushed out of the capital, Tripoli, when a previous parliament backed by rival Islamist militias refused to cede power.

3 guards wounded in bombing at Algerian Embassy in Libya

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Responding for the first time to the firestorm of criticism over the lack of diversity in this year's Oscar nominations, film academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs says the all-white acting slate inspires her to accelerate the academy's push to be more inclusive.
	She also hopes the film industry as a whole will continue to strive for greater diversity.
	The first black president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences spoke out Friday night in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press about the Oscar nominations and the widespread criticism that followed.
	All 20 of this year's acting contenders are white and there are no women in the directing or writing categories.
	After the nominations were announced Thursday morning, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite started trending on Twitter. The Asian Pacific American Media Coalition issued a statement Friday saying the nominations balloting "obviously reflects a lack of diversity in Oscar voters as well as in films ...

Academy president responds to Oscar firestorm

Gunmen abducted the chief of staff to Yemen's president today in the center of the capital, Sanaa, security officials said, starkly highlighting the unrest plaguing the Arab world's poorest country.
	The kidnapping of Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak comes as Yemen remains gripped by Shiite Houthi rebels and battered by regular al-Qaida attacks.
	Officials said gunmen kidnapped bin Mubarak and his two guards when they stopped their car in central Sanaa. They said there was no ransom demand made.
	One of the youngest politicians in Yemen, 46-year-old businessman-turned-political figure bin Mubarak emerged during the uprising that forced longtime leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in a US-backed agreement.
	The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists, said they suspect his kidnappers are Shiite Houthi rebels. The Houthis seized large areas of Yemen, including Sanaa, last year as part of their protracted power struggle with ...

Officials say gunmen abduct Yemen president's chief of staff

Authorities in Iraq say two bombings targeting busy markets have killed nine people around the capital, Baghdad.
	Police say the first attack took place today morning when a bomb exploded in a vegetable wholesale market in a village near the town of Iskandariyah, killing four people and wounding 14.
	Iskandariyah is 30 miles south of Baghdad.
	Later that morning, police say a bomb exploded at another market, killing five people and wounding 14 in the Shiite village of Sabaa al-Bour, about 20 miles north of Baghdad.
	No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.
	Hospital officials confirmed the casualty toll from both attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details to journalists.

Officials say market bombings kill 9 around Iraq's capital

A surge in oil and gas companies has pulled the stock market out of a five-day slump, as the price of crude swung higher.
	Oil prices jumped yesterday after the International Energy Agency predicted drillers would cut production this year. Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other energy companies led all 10 sectors of the Standard & Poor's 500 index to gains, climbing 3 per cent. Oil's seven-month slide had cut its price by more than half.
	"Lower oil prices on the whole are supportive of economic growth worldwide," said Jason Pride, director of investment strategy at Glenmede Trust. "They're very helpful for Japan, Europe, China and India. It's clearly a good thing." The S&P 500 index gained 26.75 points, or 1.3 per cent, to finish at 2,019.42.
	The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 190.86 points, or 1.1 per cent, to close at 17,511.57, and the Nasdaq rose 63.56 points, or 1.4 per cent, to 4,634.38.
	The rally came at the end of another rough week for the market. Since the start of ...

Oil-company rally snaps 5-day losing streak

Pope Francis cut short his visit to a typhoon-hit region of the Philippines today because of an approaching storm.
	In brief, unscripted comments, Francis took the microphone soon after arriving at the main cathedral in Leyte province and told a surprised crowd that he would have to leave at 1 pm, four hours ahead of schedule.
	"I apologize to all of you," he said, speaking in Italian through a translator. "I am sad about this, truly saddened, because I had something prepared especially for you."
	Some of the priests, nuns and others in the cathedral groaned, though mostly in a good-humored way.
	After a quick exchange of gifts, in which Francis received a wood image of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception made from the debris from the typhoon-damaged church, his motorcade sped to the airport in Tacloban.
	Francis traveled to the far eastern Philippines to comfort survivors of the devastating 2013 typhoon, himself braving rains and heavy winds from an approaching storm and conceding that 

Storm cuts short pope's trip to typhoon-hit Philippine city

Trucks were on standby today to try to rescue more than 1,000 residents trapped in two villages in Myanmar's restive state of Kachin, where fierce fighting broke out between government troops and rebels, residents said.
	The displaced, including children, sought refuge in Buddhist monasteries and Christian churches, said Gam Aung, a resident in Lone Khin, a town within earshot of the gunbattles in the northern state.
	"Everyone is terrified," said Tin Soe, an opposition member who lives in the area.
	Heavily armed soldiers have so far blocked efforts to ferry them to safety, said Dawng Hka, a spokesman for the ethnic insurgents.
	There was no immediate comment from the government.
	Myanmar, also known as Burma, was under dictatorship until 2011, and President Thein Sein's nominally civilian government has spearheaded the country's bumpy transition toward democratic rule. With many of his early reforms now stalled or sliding backward, he is trying to end decades-long civil wars in ...

1,000 villagers trapped by fighting in eastern Myanmar

A Russian initiative to host peace talks this month between the Syrian government and its opponents appears to be unraveling as prominent Syrian opposition figures shun the prospective negotiations amid deep distrust of Moscow and concerns the talks hold no chance of success.
	The faltering effort suggests that even after four years and at least 220,000 people killed, the antagonists in Syria's civil war are far from burning themselves out and will likely keep fighting for a more decisive battlefield advantage before any real talks can take place.
	The planned meetings in Moscow, scheduled to start Jan 26, would be the first on Syria since a UN-sponsored conference in Geneva collapsed early last year after making no headway.
	But the Syrian tableau has changed dramatically since then.
	President Bashar Assad faces growing resentment among his supporters in the wake of bloody defeats, while his main patrons, Russia and Iran, are feeling the pinch from the global plunge in oil prices. ..

In new blow, Syrian opposition shuns Russia peace initiative

Pope Francis traveled to the far eastern Philippines today to comfort survivors of a devastating 2013 typhoon, braving rains and heavy winds himself and conceding that it was hard to find the right words when surrounded by so much pain.
	"So many of you have lost everything," Francis told 150,000 Catholic faithful gathered before Mass under a steady rain in an open field near the airport in Tacloban, the city hit hardest by Typhoon Haiyan.
	"I don't know what to say to you, but the Lord does know what to say to you. Some of you lost part of your families. All I can do is keep silent. And I walk with you all with my silent heart."
	Many in the crowd wept as Francis spoke, overcome by the memory of the November 8, 2013, storm that leveled entire villages with ferocious winds and 7-meter (21-foot) waves and left more than 7,300 people dead or missing. Francis joined them in solidarity, even donning the same yellow rain poncho over his vestments that Mass-goers were given to protect them .

Pope visits typhoon-hit Philippine city to console survivors

Several thousand supporters of Haitian opposition factions marched through the capital's congested streets chanting calls for the president's removal amid political uncertainty accompanying the dissolution of parliament.
	Blowing horns made of scrap metal, protesters passed through a cluster of poor neighborhoods around downtown Port-au-Prince as they built up their numbers on their way toward the former National Palace, which crumbled in Haiti's 2010 earthquake.
	Yesterday, Many carried photos of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and declared allegiance to the Fanmi Lavalas party founded by the popular but also polarizing figure.
	"If Aristide were in power we Haitians could get things accomplished. But Haiti is not united now and the international community is trying to control what happens here," said Isme Dessaline, an unemployed tailor who fastened a dozen small pictures of the twice-elected, twice-deposed Aristide to his dreadlocks.
	The mostly peaceful march was the ...

Government opponents march through Haiti's capital

A purported drug cartel hit man has been arrested in connection with the disappearance and alleged killing of 43 college students in southern Mexico in September, authorities have said.
	Felipe Rodriguez, alias "The Brush" or "The Stubborn One," is a member of the Guerreros Unidos gang and believed to be the "material author" of the killings, the Federal Prosecutor's Office yesterday said in a statement. It did not give further details.
	Officials say the 43 students were rounded up by police Sept. 26 in the Guerrero state city of Iguala and handed over to Guerreros Unidos gang members, who allegedly killed them, burned the bodies at a trash dump and threw the remains into a river.
	So far only one of the students has been positively identified by DNA testing on human remains, and family members and others have expressed doubts about the official account of the disappearances. They continue to press for information on what happened to the other 42 and have asked investigators not to ..

Mexico detains new suspect in disappearance of 43 students

A series of attacks in Iraq, including an explosion at a booby-trapped house in a village recently retaken from IS militants north of Baghdad, killed 17 people today, officials said.
	The explosion at the house in Zalaya village, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) from Baghdad, took place as Iraqi troops were at the premises, carrying out an inspection of the house, said police officials.
	The blast killed eight soldiers and wounded 12, they said. The village fell into the hands of Islamic State militants last year but was retaken by Iraqi security forces days ago.
	Earlier today, mortar shells landed on houses in Baghdad's northwestern Shiite district of Shula, killing four people and wounding 13. Also, a bomb struck a commercial street in the capital's northeastern Shiite suburb of Husseiniya, killing three people and wounding 11 there.
	Police officials said a bomb also exploded in western Baghdad, near a row of shops for spare parts for cars, killing two people and wounding nine ...

Iraq attacks kill 17, including 8 in village retaken from IS

A local news agency says Turkish prosecutors are seeking up to five years in prison for a former television presenter who was detained last month for posting a tweet suggesting a cover-up in a government corruption scandal.
	Private Dogan news agency reported today that Sedef Kabas was charged with "targeting public servants tasked with fighting against terrorism."
	She was questioned after telling her Twitter followers not to forget the name of a prosecutor who dropped a corruption and bribery probe earlier this year that implicated people close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
	The government, citing an alleged plot to remove it from office, moved to reassign hundreds of police, prosecutors and judges, including those involved in the case.
	The events lead to opposition accusations of a cover-up.

Turkish prosecutors seek prison for TV presenter over tweet

A spokesman for Muhammad Ali says the boxing great has been released from a hospital where he received follow-up care for a severe urinary tract infection. It was the former heavyweight champion's second hospital stay in the last four weeks.
	Ali family spokesman Bob Gunnell said Ali left the undisclosed hospital today and is back in one of his homes.
	Ali and his wife, Lonnie, have homes in Arizona, Michigan and in his native Louisville.
	Gunnell says Ali is looking forward to celebrating his 73rd birthday tomorrow with family and friends.
	Ali was hospitalized late last month with what initially was believed to be a mild case of pneumonia. Doctors later determined Ali was suffering from a urinary tract infection, not pneumonia. That hospital stay lasted until last week.

Muhammad Ali released from hospital after urinary infection

Top Democrats are defending their appointment of a Muslim congressman to the US House Intelligence Committee after protests erupted on social media, warning the move is dangerous.
	House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi this week appointed Rep. Andre Carson to the panel, which oversees the government's intelligence departments and activities. Much of the business that comes before the committee is classified.
	Anti-Muslim protests erupted on Twitter and other social media with complaints that exposing American secrets to Carson could be dangerous.
	Democrats widely rejected that view. Pelosi said Carson is the only member of Congress to have served in a Department of Homeland Security Fusion Center, which provides intelligence sharing and training across levels of government. Carson also serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
	Rep. Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat on the panel, called the protests un-American. He said including Muslim Americans in public policy issues is "an ...

Democrats defend naming Muslim to House Intelligence panel

Afghanistan and Pakistan, home to al-Qaida and Taliban militants and the focus of the longest war in US history, face a new, emerging threat from the Islamic State group, officials have said.
	Disenchanted extremists from the Taliban and other organizations, impressed by the Islamic State group's territorial gains and slick online propaganda, have begun raising its black flag in extremist-dominated areas of both countries.
	In Pakistan, an online video purportedly shows militants beheading a man while pledging their allegiance to the IS. In Afghanistan, there have even been reports of militant rivalries, with clashes erupting between Taliban fighters and Islamic State militants.
	Analysts and officials say the number of IS supporters in the Afghan-Pakistan region remains small and that the group faces resistance from militants with strong tribal links.
	However, the rise of even a small Islamic State affiliate could further destabilize the region and complicate US and NATO efforts to .

Islamic State group reaches for Afghanistan and Pakistan

Novartis AG is closing its manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico as part of a major overhaul of its business.
	The Switzerland-based company said in a statement today that the shutdown of its Humacao plant will conclude in early 2019. Some 270 employees will be laid off.
	Novartis says it will transfer some manufacturing and packaging operations to companies including Eli Lilly & Co. Some operations also will be transferred to Novartis' manufacturing plant in Lincoln, Nebraska.
	Puerto Rico is still considered one of the world's leading centers for pharmaceutical manufacturing, but the sector has been shrinking. The US territory has been offering incentives for manufacturing plants to expand and is pushing to diversify its manufacturing base by seeking aerospace and information technology companies.
	Novartis' Humacao plant opened in 1975.

Novartis to close manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico by 2019

Malawi's vice president says the death toll from flooding has more than tripled with 176 dead and at least 200,000 displaced.
	Vice President Saulos Chilima said today that dozens more people are missing, with at least 153 missing in the worst affected southern parts of the country.
	Speaking at a press conference in Malawi's commercial capital Blantyre, Chilima said a joint operation between the police and the army was underway to rescue hundreds who were trapped in their villages by flood waters.
	Malawi's President Peter Mutharika declared 15 of the country's 28 districts disaster areas.
	Chilima has asked for international assistance.

Death toll from floods in Malawi triples to 176

Iran's foreign ministry says US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart discussed the case of a Washington Post journalist who has been indicted and will stand trial in Iran.
	Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham is quoted today by the official IRNA news agency as saying Kerry raised the issue with Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of the nuclear talks in Geneva this week.
	Afkham says Jason Rezaian's case is proceeding along an "independent path" through the Iranian judicial system.
	The State Department says it has repeatedly raised the case during past talks about a deal to curb Iran's nuclear capacity.
	Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, were detained last July in Tehran. Salehi was later released.
	Iran has not disclosed what charges Rezaian, an Iranian- American national, faces.

Iran: Kerry raised case of indicted Washington Post reporter

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court launched a preliminary probe today that could clear the way for a full-scale investigation into possible war crimes in Palestinian territories, plunging the court into the most politically charged conflict it has ever investigated.
	Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement she will conduct the preliminary examination with "full independence and impartiality."
	The announcement comes after the Palestinian Authority acceded to The Hague-based court's founding treaty and recognised its jurisdiction dating back to the eve of last summer's Gaza war.
	That move opened the door to an ICC investigation that could target possible crimes by both Israel, which is not a member of the court, and Palestinians.
	A preliminary examination is not an investigation, but weighs information about possible crimes and jurisdiction issues to establish whether a full investigation is merited.
	Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed documents to join .

War crimes court opens probe into Palestinian territories

French, German and Belgian police arrested more than two dozen suspects in anti-terrorism raids today, as European authorities rushed to thwart more attacks by people with links to Islamic extremists in the Mideast.
	Rob Wainwright, head of the police agency Europol, told The Associated Press that foiling terror attacks has become "extremely difficult" because Europe's 2,500-5,000 radicalized Muslim extremists have little command structures and are increasingly sophisticated.
	Highlighting the fears, a bomb scare forced Paris to evacuate its busy Gare de l'Est train station during today's morning rush hour. No bomb was found. A man also took two hostages at a post office in Colombes northwest of Paris, but police said the hostage-taker had mental issues and no links to terror.
	Visiting the tense French capital, US Secretary of State John Kerry met President Francois Hollande and toured the sites of last week's terror attacks: the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher ...

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