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 ...

European police arrest 2 dozen in anti-terrorism sweeps

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The Obama administration, following through on its declaration of warming ties with Cuba, has eased travel restrictions and opened a wide range of new export opportunities with the communist island.
	The series of executive branch moves, taken together, have had the effect of punching a large hole in America's half-century-old embargo, although only Congress has the authority to fully end the 54-year embargo. President Barack Obama announced last month that he would soften the restrictions, and a new set of government regulations took effect today.
	Obama argued at the time that "these 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked." The new spirit of cooperation emerged after 18 months of secret talks that culminated in the exchange of imprisoned spies and the release of Alan Gross, a US government contractor who had been imprisoned in Cuba for five years.
	Less than a month after the Cold War foes agreed to end their enmity, the US Commerce and Treasury departments unveiled new ..

Moving swiftly, US eases travel and trade rules on Cuba

An Indonesian search official said today that the crashed AirAsia jet's fuselage will be lifted to the surface after sea conditions again prevented divers from examining the large chunk of wreckage.
	National Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said that rescue teams discovered more wreckage despite the strong current and poor visibility.
	"Apart from the fuselage, we found what we suspected as the aircraft's cockpit and also an engine," he said. "We also found what seems to be a passenger seat in which we thought there still bodies tied on it."
	He did not specify whether or not the seat was inside the fuselage section that sits on the seabed at a depth of 28 meters (92 feet). The 30-meter-long (100-foot-long) part of the plane body with a wing attached was sighted Wednesday.
	Rescuers believe that many of the bodies are still inside the main fuselage.
	Soelistyo said the failure of the underwater examination of the wreckage left no option but to lift the fuselage, 

AirAsia fuselage to be lifted to surface after divers foiled

A senior Russian diplomat says far more than 800 Russians are fighting alongside the Islamic State group.
	Ilya Rogachev, who heads the Foreign Ministry's department for modern challenges and threats, told Ekho Moskvy radio today that those who have joined the group include people from the Russian province of Chechnya and some other regions in the volatile North Caucasus.
	He said precise numbers of Russians among the Islamic State fighters are hard to measure, as they include some Chechen refugees who had moved to Europe, as well as some ethnic Chechens from Russia's ex-Soviet neighbor, Georgia.
	Chechnya, which has seen two devastating separatist wars, has become more stable under the steely grip of a Moscow- backed strongman, but the Islamist insurgency has engulfed other North Caucasus provinces.

Diplomat: over 800 Russians fighting alongside Islamic State

The Council on American-Islamic Relations says it has sought to be removed from a list in the United Arab Emirates that designates it as a terrorist organization along with dozens of other groups.
	CAIR civil rights litigation director Jenifer Wicks said Friday that the Washington-based Muslim civil-liberties group submitted documents this week seeking to appeal the designation.
	The Emirates included CAIR on a list of 83 groups it considers terrorist organisations made public on November 15. The list included the Islamic State organization, a number of al-Qaida linked groups, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood and a number of Western-based Islamic organisations.
	The Emirati Cabinet this week announced an appeals process that designated groups can follow to seek to removal from the terrorism list.

US Muslim rights groups seeks exit from UAE terrorism list

French and German authorities arrested at least 12 people today suspected of links to the Islamic State group and a Paris train station was evacuated, with Europe on alert for new potential terrorist attacks.
	The police raids came the morning after Belgian authorities moved swiftly to pre-empt what they called a major impending attack, killing two suspects in a firefight and arresting a third in a vast anti-terrorism sweep that stretched into the night.
	Visiting a scarred Paris today, US Secretary of State John Kerry met French President Francois Hollande and visited the sites of the city's worst terrorist bloodshed in decades.
	Twenty people, including the three gunmen, were killed last week in attacks on a kosher supermarket and the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and on police.
	Hollande thanked Kerry for offering France support, saying, "You've been victims yourself of an exceptional terrorist attack on September 11. You know what it means for a country. ... We must 

Arrests in France, Germany amid IS-linked terrorist tensions

Three Los Angeles teenagers were ordered to stand trial on murder charges in the slaying of a Chinese graduate student at the University of Southern California.
	Judge M L Villar made the ruling in Los Angeles County Superior Court after hearing testimony from police and watching videos that a prosecutor said showed the fatal beating of Xinran Ji.
	Ji, 24, was hit with a bat during an attempted robbery July 24 as he walked to his off-campus apartment after a late-night study session. He ran from his attackers, but they caught him a block away and continued the beating until he was on his knees.
	Jonathan Del Carmen, 19, Alberto Ochoa, 17, and Alejandra Guerrero, 16, will be arraigned on the murder count Jan. 29. A fourth teen, Andrew Garcia, 19, faces a preliminary hearing at a later date because of questions raised about his mental competency after outbursts in court. All four pleaded not guilty after their arrests.
	Deputy District Attorney John McKinney said the four were driving ..

Teens to face murder trial in killing of Chinese USC student

Berlin police say they have taken two men into custody on suspicion they were recruiting fighters and procuring equipment and funding for the so-called Islamic State terrorism group in Syria.
	The two were picked up this morning in a series of raids on the German capital involving the search of 11 residences by 250 police officers. Authorities said the raids were part of a months-long investigation into a small group of extremists based in Berlin.
	The group's leader, identified only as 41-year-old Ismet D in accordance with privacy laws, is accused of organising the group of largely Turkish and Russian nationals to fight against "infidels" in Syria. Emin F, 43, is accused of being in charge of finances.
	Police say there's no evidence they were planning attacks inside Germany.

2 arrested in Berlin on suspicion of supporting terrorism

Oklahoma executed a death row inmate in its first lethal injection since a botched one last spring, employing a three-drug method method, challenged by death row inmates as presenting an unconstitutional risk of pain and suffering.
	Florida executed a man using the same three-drug combination, yesterday evening.
	Charles Frederick Warner's execution for the 1997 killing of an 11-month-old girl in Oklahoma City lasted 18 minutes. Prison officials declared him dead at 0128 GMT Friday.
	Meanwhile, officials in Florida announced the death of Johnny Shane Kormondy at 0116 GMT Friday for killing a man in 1993 in Pensacola. The executions, which occurred 12 minutes apart, were both delayed over court questions concerning the drugs used in the punishments.
	"Before I give my final statement, I'll tell you they poked me five times. It hurt. It feels like acid," Warner said before his execution began. He added, "I'm not a monster. I didn't do everything they said I did."
	After the first drug, .

US state carries out its first execution since botched one

Former national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told jurors she was stunned to learn that a classified mission to thwart Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions had been leaked to the news media.
	That leak is now the subject of a criminal trial in federal court. Prosecutors believe ex-CIA case officer Jeffrey Sterling illegally disclosed details of the program to New York Times journalist James Risen because he was bitter about his treatment at the agency.
	In testimony, Rice told jurors that the program was one of the most closely held operations during her tenure as national security adviser in the first term of George W Bush's administration.
	The plan called for using a Russian CIA asset nicknamed "Merlin" to funnel deliberately flawed nuclear blueprints to the Iranians. Rice said the classified operation "was one of the only levers we had to try to disrupt Iran's nuclear program."
	Sterling denies leaking any information to Risen. Defense lawyers say the leak could have come from ...

Condoleezza Rice testifies at CIA leak trial

A spokesman for Muhammad Ali says the boxing great is back in the hospital for follow-up care related to a urinary tract infection.
	Ali family spokesman Bob Gunnell said yesterday that the former heavyweight boxing champion was admitted to an undisclosed hospital earlier this week. He says Ali is expected to be released today.
	Ali was initially hospitalized on December 20 for what turned out to be a severe urinary tract infection. That hospitalization ended last week.
	Gunnell says Ali hopes to celebrate his 73rd birthday on Saturday at one of his homes with family.
	Ali has also waged a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

Muhammad Ali back in hospital for 'follow-up care'

For Mexicans living in the US illegally and hoping to stay in the country under President Barack Obama's new immigration policy, things just got one step simpler.
	Yesterday, the Mexican government began issuing birth certificates to its citizens at its consulates in the United States.
	That will make it a little easier for Mexicans hoping to obtain US work permits, driver's licenses and protection from deportation.
	Up until now, Mexico required its citizens to get birth certificates at government offices in Mexico. Many of those living in this country had to ask friends and relatives back home to retrieve the paperwork.
	Pedro Zamora, a 52-year-old cook in Southern California, took advantage of the new program to obtain his birth certificate at the Mexican consulate in Santa Ana, California. He plans to apply for a California driver's license this week.
	Before the change too place, Zamora had to ask his sister-in-law to pick up his son's and daughter's birth certificates in Colima, 

Immigrants can now get Mexican birth certificates in US

A second US Navy captain pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery in a massive scheme involving a Malaysian defense contractor accused of bilking the US military out of at least USD 20 million.
	Captain Daniel Dusek entered the plea yesterday in his first appearance in federal court in San Diego and waived his right to present his case before a federal grand jury. His plea comes the same day the key figure in the case defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis, known as "Fat Leonard" is scheduled to change his not-guilty plea.
	The scandal is considered one of the worst corruption cases to rock the Navy in years.
	Dusek is the fourth Navy officer charged in the case. Last week, Captain Jose Luis Sanchez entered a guilty plea. Sanchez admitted to providing shipping route information to Francis' company in exchange for plane tickets, hotels and prostitutes.
	Dusek also accepted hotel stays and prostitution services in exchange for providing confidential ship schedules to ...

2nd US Navy captain pleads guilty in bribery scheme

Large areas of Nigerian towns attacked by Islamic extremists from Boko Haram were razed to the ground in a widespread campaign of destruction, according to satellite images released today by Amnesty International.
	Amnesty said the detailed images of Baga and Doron Baga in Borno state, taken before and after the attack earlier this month, show that more than 3,700 structures were damaged or completely destroyed.
	Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, meanwhile, visited the capital of Borno in northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram has increased attacks and seized more territory.
	Jonathan's office said in a statement that the president traveled to Maiduguri in a "surprise visit" today and met troops involved in the fight against extremists. He also visited hundreds of civilians who were staying in a camp in Maiduguri after fleeing Baga, where Boko Haram fighters overran an army base and attacked civilians.
	Jonathan, who is running for re-election in February, has not visited the ...

Nigerian president visits conflict zone

Russian-backed separatists announced today they had captured the shattered remains of the Donetsk airport terminal in eastern Ukraine and plan to claw back more territory, further dashing hopes for a lasting peace agreement.
	The airport, on the fringes of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, has been at the center of bitter battles since May.
	Control over it was split between the separatists and Ukrainian forces who had held onto the main civilian terminal.
	Reduced to little more than a shell-littered wreck, the building is of limited strategic importance but has great symbolic value.
	An AP reporter saw a rebel flag hoisted over that building today, although fighting still appeared to be ongoing. Ukraine insisted government troops were holding their positions at the airport.
	The rebel leader in Donetsk, Alexander Zakharchenko, said the separatist offensive would continue and its goal was to recapture all territory lost to government forces last year.
	If the separatists do advance ...

Ukraine separatists claim victory in battle for airport

Author Salman Rushdie, who lived for years under a death threat after his 1988 book "The Satanic Verses" drew the wrath of Iranian religious leaders, is defending the absolute right of free speech.
	Rushdie made the comments yesterday at the University of Vermont after being asked about last week's deadly attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
	The Yemen-based group Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility.
	Rushdie spoke of how the writings of authors who offend powerful people frequently outlive the criticism, even if the artists themselves don't survive.
	He says freedom of speech has not been weakened.

Rushdie defends free speech, says hasn't been weakened

Bank of America reported an 11 per cent drop in fourth-quarter earnings today, caused partly by the slowdown in trading revenue that has hit Wall Street.
	Its shares fell more than three per cent in morning trading.
	The bank earned USD 3.05 billion, or 25 cents a share, for the three-month period ending in December, compared with a profit of USD 3.44 billion, or 29 cents a share, a year earlier.
	It had three one-time items that lowered its quarterly earnings by seven cents a share. Those items were tied to the valuation of the bank's debt and other underlying securities.
	Rival banks have also readjusted the value of similar items to deal with new accounting rules following the financial crisis.
	Total revenue at Bank of America fell 12.6 per cent to USD 18.96 billion.
	The results fell short of estimates, with analysts surveyed by FactSet expecting earnings of 31 cents a share on revenue of USD 21.08 billion.
	Like JPMorgan Chase, who reported its results yesterday, Bank of America 

Bank of America earnings fall 11 percent

An independent board has asserted that CIA officers acted reasonably when they secretly searched Senate computers last year after learning that Senate aides had removed certain classified documents related to the torture investigation, Disputing the conclusions of the CIA's independent watchdog.
	The documents, part of what is known as the "Panetta review," were compiled by CIA officers who were sifting through the millions of pages being turned over to the Senate as part of the Senate investigation into the CIA's brutal treatment of al-Qaida detainees after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
	The board, led by former Democratic Senator Evan Bayh, found fault with some of the findings by the CIA's inspector general, who said in July that five CIA employees "improperly accessed" a Senate portion of a shared computer network.
	The inspector general, David Buckley, resigned in December in what CIA officials insist is an unrelated development. CIA Director John Brennan apologised after the ..

Board: CIA search of Senate computers reasonable

US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron say strong economies and democratic institutions will defeat "those who think they can muzzle freedom of speech and expression with violence."
	In a joint article for the Times of London newspaper, the two leaders say that "our ability to defend our freedoms is rooted in our economic strength and the values that we cherish," and it is important "to bolster our economies against another global economic downturn."
	Cameron is meeting Obama in Washington today for talks, expected to focus on cybersecurity and counter-terrorism in the wake of gun attacks in Paris that killed 17 people.
	Cameron has said intelligence agencies need new powers to monitor online activity, and wants stronger cooperation from US-based companies such as Facebook and Twitter.

Cameron and Obama: Prosperity will conquer terror

The European Union says the tiny principality of Monaco is too famous to trademark its own name.
	The EU's General Court today upheld an EU decision not to allow the wealthy enclave on France's Mediterranean coast to use its name as a trademark on products including photos, printed matter and services linked to entertainment and sporting activities.
	The court says the word Monaco "corresponds to the name of a globally-known principality, not least due to the renown of its royal family, its organisation of a Formula 1 Grand Prix and its organisation of a circus festival."
	The World Intellectual Property Organization granted Monaco an international trademark covering the European Union in 2010, but the EU in 2013 refused to accept it. The ruling can be appealed.

EU court says Monaco is too famous to trademark its name

Filmmaker Roman Polanski has been questioned by a prosecutor in Poland concerning a US request for his extradition on 1977 sex charges, an official said today.
	Boguslawa Marcinkowska, spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office in Krakow, southern Poland, said the prosecutor questioned the director late yesterday and was writing a report for the court that will decide whether to extradite Polanski.
	She refused to divulge any details of the questioning. In line with Poland's privacy laws, she identified Polanski only as Roman P.
	The Oscar-winning filmmaker is in Poland preparing for a movie he wants to film here in July.
	His movements are restricted by an Interpol warrant in effect in 188 countries, but he is avoiding extradition by traveling only between France, Poland and Switzerland, which in 2010 refused to extradite him. He has Polish and French passports.
	He said today he believes he will not be extradited.
	Last year, Krakow prosecutors refused a US request to arrest Polanski, .

AP

AP

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