A suicide car bomb killed 12 Shiite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers today in a town north of Baghdad, authorities said, sparking a battle between security forces and fighters with the extremist Islamic State group.
	The suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a gathering of soldiers and Shiite fighters in the town of Abasiyat, just south of Tikrit, 130 kilometres (80 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
	Police and hospital officials said the attack killed 10 militiamen and two soldiers, while wounding 18 people.
	Clashes between Iraqi security forces and militants from the Islamic State group erupted immediately after the attack, police said, though the extremists did not immediately claim responsibility for the bombing.
	The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to journalists.
	Iraq sees near-daily bombings and other attacks mainly targeting the Shiite majority and security forces. Tikrit, held by the Islamic State group, and .

Officials say suicide bombing kills 12 people in Iraq

PTI Automatic

Volvo Cars, the Chinese-owned Swedish automaker, said today it will export cars made in China to the United States, a step forward for Beijing's ambitions to extend the global reach of its auto manufacturing industry.
	The cars would be exported from Volvo's factories in China, said a Volvo public relations manager, Chen Yu. She said she had no details on when shipments would start or a sales target.
	A handful of vehicles made in China have been exported to the United States but if Volvo's plan goes ahead, it could represent the first mass-market sales of Chinese-made vehicles there.
	China's domestic automakers and joint ventures between global brands such as General Motors Co. And local producers export sedans, minivans and other vehicles to Latin America, the Middle East and other emerging markets.
	Several Chinese brands have expressed interest in entering developed markets but have yet to satisfy U.S. emissions and safety standards.
	Volvo was acquired in 2010 by Geely Holding ..

Volvo to sell Chinese-made cars in US

Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry says one of the attackers who launched a deadly assault on a security patrol near the Iraqi border last week was a Saudi national who belonged to a "deviant group," the phrase commonly used by officials to refer to al-Qaida.
	Spokesman Mansour al-Turki said in a statement late Sunday that the other three gunmen were also Saudi nationals. All four died the attack, which also killed three border guards.
	Saudi police have since arrested three Saudis and four Syrians in connection with the Jan. 5 attack.
	No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, the first deadly assault on Saudi border guards near Iraq since the kingdom joined U.S.-led airstrikes against the Islamic State group, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq.

Saudi says al-Qaida gunman involved in Iraq border attack

A close ally of Edward Snowden has told filmmakers that Russia's intelligence agency sought to recruit the former NSA contractor, but he declined the offer.
	WikiLeaks staffer Sarah Harrison says the Russian FSB intelligence security service approached Snowden while he was stuck in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport for six weeks in 2013.
	At the time, Snowden was unable to enter Russia or fly elsewhere because his passport had been canceled by U.S. authorities seeking to arrest him for leaking secret documents.
	Harrison told German filmmakers in a documentary airing late Monday that the FSB asked only once, and he "didn't give anything to the Russians at all." The FSB did not respond to an AP request for comment.
	Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum in August 2013.

Report: Russian spy agency sought to recruit Snowden

LG Display said today two people were killed and four others sickened by a nitrogen leak at its factory north of Seoul.
	LG Display Co. Said in a statement that the victims, employed by a LG contractor, were carrying out a regular repair and maintenance work when the nitrogen leak occurred not long after midday at the factory in Paju city.
	It said one of the four people sickened was seriously ill but not in a life-threatening condition.
	The factory where the accident occurred, known as P8, manufactures LCD screens for large-size televisions.
	The company expressed regret over the deaths.
	It said it will cooperate with authorities to find out the cause of the leak.

Nitrogen leak at LG Display factory kills 2, sickens 4

Pope Francis today denounced the religious fundamentalism that inspired the Paris massacres and ongoing Mideast conflicts, saying the attackers were enslaved by "deviant forms of religion" that used God as a mere ideological pretext to perpetuate mass killings.
	In his annual foreign policy address to Vatican-based ambassadors, Francis called for a unanimous response from the international community to end "fundamentalist terrorism" in the Mideast. And he called for Muslim leaders in particular to condemn "extremist interpretations" of their faith that seek to justify such violence.
	The leader of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church has stepped up his call for Muslim political, religious and intellectual leaders to vocally insist that Islam doesn't condone such violence.
	Francis said the Paris attacks were the result of a "throwaway culture" in which human beings and even God are rejected outright. Referring to the "tragic slayings" in Paris, Francis said those responsible had ...

Fundamentalist terrorism result of 'deviant religion':Pope

Authorities in Mozambique say the number of people who died after drinking contaminated traditional beer has risen to 69.
	Provincial health director, Paula Bernardo, told Radio Mozambique on Monday that 196 people have been admitted to hospitals in the northeastern Tete province.
	Yesterday district health officials said 56 people had died and 49 were hospitalized after drinking the beer at a funeral on Saturday.
	Pombe, a traditional Mozambican beer, is made from millet or corn flour.
	The exact source of the contamination is still unknown, but authorities believe the drink was poisoned with crocodile bile during the course of the funeral.
	Blood and traditional beer samples were sent to the capital Maputo to be tested, said provincial health director Carle Mosse.

69 people die after drinking contaminated beer in Mozambique

A Lebanese security official says they are transferring detainees inside of a notorious prison after an investigation showed that some had exchanged calls with a man who later conducted a suicide bombing that killed nine people.
	The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not offer further information. Lebanon's state-run news agency said some prisoners burned their mattresses to protest today's transfers in the overcrowded Roumieh prison that holds suspected militants.
	But the transfers appeared dramatic enough to warrant an unusual show of force. Local television showed helicopters hovering above the institution near Beirut, as vehicles and ambulances entered and left.
	The bombing on Saturday killed nine people, part of a series of attacks in Lebanon related to the war in neighboring Syria.

Lebanese security forces swoop into notorious prison

Turkey's foreign minister says the common-law wife of one of the perpetrators of the terrorist rampage in France last week crossed into Syria from Turkey on January 8.
	Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu Agency on Monday that Hayat Boumedienne arrived in Turkey from Madrid on January 2, ahead of the attacks and stayed at a hotel in Istanbul.
	He said Turkish authorities established that she had crossed into Syria on Thursday, the day her husband shot a policewoman to death on the outskirts of Paris and a day after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
	French security forces are mobilizing in their search for what the the prime minister calls a "probable" accomplice to three days of bloodshed and terror around the capital.
	Manuel Valls said the search is urgent because "the threat is still present" after the attacks that left 17 people dead journalists at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, hostages at a kosher market and three police officers. All three attackers died Friday in ...

Turkey: French suspect crossed into Syria

A fourth ship with specialized underwater sonar equipment will join the search for a Malaysia Airlines jet 10 months after it vanished under mysterious circumstances off the west coast of Australia, an official said today.
	The ship Fugro Supporter was on its way to the search area after conducting trials off the Indonesian island of Bali, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said in a statement.
	"Fugro Supporter has been equipped with a Kongsberg HUGIN 4500 autonomous underwater vehicle," the statement said. "The AUV will be used to scan those portions of the search area that cannot be searched effectively by the equipment on other vessels."
	Not a single trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been found since the Boeing 777 vanished with 239 people aboard on March 8 last year during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
	The jetliner disappeared after veering off course and flying for hours with its communications systems disabled.
	Three ships two provided by a Dutch .

Fourth ship to join search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Afghanistan national football coach Mohammad Yasouf Kargar was recovering today from stab wounds after being attacked by four men outside his house in the Afghan capital.
	Afghan criminal investigation police chief Mohammad Farid Afzali said that Kargar was in good condition at a Kabul hospital after being injured in his head and waist.
	Police were continuing to investigate the attack and a motive was not immediately clear.
	Kargar has been the national coach since 2008 and helped revive Afghan football with a stunning victory in a regional South Asia tournament in 2013, setting off wild celebrations across the country.

Afghan national football coach stabbed in attack

French security forces are mobilizing in their search for what the the prime minister calls a "probable" accomplice to three days of bloodshed and terror around the capital.
	Manuel Valls said the search is urgent because "the threat is still present" after the attacks that left 17 people dead journalists at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, hostages at a kosher market and three police officers. All three attackers died Friday in nearly simultaneous raids by security forces.
	Video emerged yesterday of one of the attackers explaining how the attacks would unfold and police want to find the person who shot and posted the video.
	Valls told BFM television today that France is at war against "terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam.

France mobilizes to find 'probable' accomplice to attacks

In the eyes of most Iraqis, their country's best ally in the war against the Islamic State group is not the United States and the coalition air campaign against the militants. It's Iran, which is credited with stopping the extremists' march on Baghdad.
	Shiite, non-Arab Iran has effectively taken charge of Iraq's defense against the Sunni radical group, meeting the Iraqi government's need for immediate help on the ground.
	Two to three Iranian military aircraft a day land at Baghdad airport, bringing in weapons and ammunition. Iran's most potent military force and best known general the Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force and its commander General Ghasem Soleimani are organising Iraqi forces and have become the de facto leaders of Iraqi Shiite militias that are the backbone of the fight.
	Iran carried out airstrikes to help push militants from an Iraqi province on its border.
	The result is that Tehran's influence in Iraq, already high since US forces left at the end of 2011, has ..

Iran eclipses US as Iraq's ally in fight against militants

Lionel Messi scored one goal and set up two more for Neymar and Luis Suarez as Barcelona beat defending champion Atletico Madrid 3-1 on Sunday, rejuvenating its Spanish league title bid amid a chaotic week for the Catalan club.
     Stifled by Atletico in six winless meetings last season, Messi shredded its vaunted defense with run after run, passing for Neymar to score in the 12th minute and for Suarez to double the lead at Camp Nou in the 35th.
     Messi was guilty of also setting up Atletico's goal in the 57th when he fouled Jesus Gamez in the area, allowing Mario Mandzukic to score from the spot.
     But the star forward finished off the visitors with a goal three minutes from time for his 25th goal in as many games this season.
     Barcelona took control of second place, one point behind leader Real Madrid. Atletico in third trails the pacesetters by four. Madrid still has a game in hand.
     Elsewhere, Sevilla tightened the race at the top with a 2-0 win at Almeria thanks to 

Messi nets 1, sets up 2 in Barca's 3-1 win over Atletico

Families of the victims, many weeping and embracing, were also at the front of the march along with the world leaders

World leaders head Paris march to honour terror victims

Press Trust of India

Islamic State group fighters attempting to retake a town in northern Iraq held by Kurdish peshmerga forces have killed at least 30 Kurds, an Iraqi military spokesman said today.
	The battle for the town of Gwer demonstrates the Islamic State group's ability to still launch offensives in Iraq, despite a month long campaign of airstrikes by a US-led coalition.
	And while an alliance of Iraqi troops, Kurdish fighters and Sunni and Shiitte militiamen have made some gains, their advance remains tenuous at best.
	The fighting began yesterday as the extremists approached Gwer, just outside of the northern city of Mosul, which the Islamic State group controls, said Halgurd Hekmat, a spokesman for Iraqi Kurdish forces in Irbil.
	Hekmat said he had no information about casualties suffered by the Islamic State group.
	Backed by US-led airstrikes, Kurdish forces retook Gwer in August after the Islamic State group's offensive saw it seize a wide swath of Iraq.
	Kurdish fighters from Iraq also have 

Official: Islamic State group battle in Iraq kills 30 Kurds

Health authorities in Mozambique say 52 people have died after drinking a contaminated traditional beer.
	Alex Albertini, the health director in the northeastern Songo district, said today that 51 more people were admitted to the hospital after drinking the brew at a funeral yesterday.
	Albertini said an additional 146 people have reported to hospitals for examination in the Chitima and Songo areas, both in the northeastern Tete province.
	Carle Mosse, provincial health director, said blood samples and samples of the traditional beer were being sent to the capital Maputo to be tested.
	Pombe, a traditional Mozambican beer, is made from millet or corn flour. Authorities believe that the drink was poisoned with crocodile bile during the course of the funeral.
	Police are investigating the incident.

52 people die after drinking poisoned beer in Mozambique

Kalashnikov assault rifles. Plenty of ammunition. Molotov cocktails, a grenade, a death-dealing Skorpion machine pistol and a few handguns. Plus a revolving light that could be placed on a car roof to make it look like an undercover police car.
	The list of weapons, along with a jihadi flag, carried by the French Muslim terrorists who launched the Charlie Hebdo attacks is frightening, especially given al-Qaeda's warning of further such assaults.
	And it also represents a striking change for western Europe, where gun crime is far more rare than in the United States.
	The relatively heavy weaponry, a staple of recent attacks, seems to indicate that terrorist networks are moving away from bombs in favour of military-grade assault rifles and machine guns backed by smaller automatic pistols.
	Gun attacks spread a different kind of terror than bombings: more personal, more focused, and able to be drawn out into the kind of protracted urban drama that seizes a society's attention for ...

Paris terror arsenal: Kalashnikovs, rocket launcher, grenade

The Paris prosecutors' spokeswoman says five people detained in connection with the three days of bloodshed in France have been released from custody.
	Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said the five were freed from custody late yesterday.
	The gunmen who carried out the attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a policewoman outside Paris, a kosher market and a printing house all died after standoffs with police.
	Family members of the attackers have been given preliminary charges, but Thibault-Lecuivre said no one was in custody.
	The widow of one of the men, who is named as an accomplice, is believed to have traveled to a Turkish city near the Syrian border and then all traces of her were lost.

Prosecutor's office: 5 detained over Paris attacks freed

Pope Francis is insisting that his concern for the poor and critique of the global economic system isn't some novel, communist-inspired ideology but rather the original and core "touchstone" of the Christian faith.
	Some US conservatives have branded the first Latin American pope a Marxist for his frequent critiques of consumerism and focus on a church "that is poor and for the poor." But in an interview contained in a new book, Francis explains that his message is rooted in the Gospel and has been echoed by church fathers since Christianity's first centuries.
	"The Gospel does not condemn the wealthy, but the idolatry of wealth, the idolatry that makes people indifferent to the call of the poor," Francis says in "This Economy Kills," a study of the pope's economic and social teachings, excerpts of which were provided Sunday to The Associated Press.
	Specifically, Francis summarized a verse from the Gospel of Matthew which is the essential mission statement of his papacy: "I was ...

Pope says concern for poor is Gospel, not communism

France vowed to combat terrorism with "a cry for freedom" in a giant rally for unity today after three days of bloodshed that horrified the world.
	Police searched for a woman linked to the three al-Qaeda-inspired attackers, but a Turkish official said she appears to have already slipped into Syria.
	The rally today is also a huge security challenge for a nation on alert for more violence, after 17 people and three gunmen were killed over three days of attacks on a satirical newspaper, a kosher supermarket and on police that have left France a changed land.
	Hundreds of thousands of people marched yesterday in cities from Toulouse in the south to Rennes in the west to honor the victims, and Paris expects hundreds of thousands more at Sunday's unity rally.
	More than 2,000 police are being deployed, in addition to tens of thousands already guarding synagogues, mosques, schools and other sites around France.
	Unity against extremism is the overriding message for Sunday's rally. Among ...

AP

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