Militants attacked a police station in an Iraqi village north of Baghdad, killing at least nine people today, officials said.
	The attack started at dawn with a suicide car bomber hitting the blast walls that surround the police station in the village of al-Salman outside the town of Tarmiyah, a police officer said. He said an assault by armed militants followed.
	He said the attack killed five police officers and four civilians, while wounding 11 people.
	Two medical officials confirmed the causality figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information.
	Tarmiyah is about 50 kilometers north of Baghdad. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Iraqi forces, backed by US-led airstrikes, are fighting the extremist Islamic State group, which now controls about a third of the country.
	The attack came a day after a string of bombings targeting Shiite areas around Baghdad killed 10 people amid tight security ...

Attack on police station in Iraq kills 9 people

PTI Automatic

Minimum and maximum temperatures in Celsius, precipitation in centimeters and weather conditions as recorded for the previous day and forecast for the current and following day in each city as of 1230 IST: ;MIN;MAX;COND;PRECIP;MIN;MAX;COND;MIN;MAX;COND Amsterdam;1;8;rn;0.3;2;8;rn;4;7;rn
Athens;12;20;rn;0.0;8;17;pc;11;14;rn
Atlanta;8;18;rn;13.2;3;14;clr;2;9;pc
Auckland;15;22;pc;0.0;16;21;rn;14;20;cdy Basra;12;25;clr;0.0;11;24;clr;9;26;pc
Bahrain;19;23;clr;0.0;18;24;clr;17;22;clr Bangkok;24;33;pc;0.0;24;31;pc;22;32;pc
Barbados;22;29;pc;0.0;24;29;rn;24;29;rn Barcelona;6;14;clr;0.0;7;12;rn;6;14;pc
Beijing;-3;5;clr;0.0;-6;3;clr;-8;4;pc
Beirut;15;23;pc;0.0;16;25;pc;14;24;pc
Belgrade;4;6;rn;2.0;16;25;pc;14;24;pc
Berlin;1;5;rn;0.0;2;4;rn;1;4;pc
Bermuda;20;24;pc;0.0;2;4;rn;1;4;pc
Bogota;9;17;rn;2.0;8;16;rn;8;16;rn
Boston;3;7;rn;27.7;1;3;pc;-6;2;sn
Brasilia;18;26;rn;3.0;18;23;rn;18;21;rn Brisbane;21;29;rn;0.0;22;28;rn;22;30;rn ...

BC-WEA--Global Weather-Asia-Celsius

An Afghan official says a suspected US drone strike has killed nine alleged Pakistani Taliban fighters in a rural village near the border.
	Provincial police chief Gen Abdul Habib Sayedkhili said today that the strike happened yesterday in Kunar province's Shigal District. He says the strike on the village of Shiltan killed a senior Pakistani Taliban commander and wounded one.
	The Taliban had no immediate comment about the strike.
	Taliban fighters from Pakistan and Afghanistan frequently cross the mountainous borders of the two countries to launch attacks on local troops and NATO forces.
	In Laghman province, two suspected US drone strikes recently killed four Taliban fighters as well.
	NATO forces plan to wind down their combat mission in the country at the end of this month.

Afghan official: US drone kills 9 Taliban fighters

The US Geological Survey says a magnitude 6.0 underwater quake has struck off east Indonesia, but no tsunami warnings have been posted.
	USGS said the quake occurred early today local time (2205 GMT) with its epicentre 222 kilometres north-northwest of Samulaki in Indonesia's eastern Maluku province.
	USGS says the quake's depth was measured at 117 kilometres.
	The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says no tsunami warnings are in effect.

Magnitude 6.0 quake hits east of Indonesia

The US Department of Energy faces more than USD 54 million in fines for violations that stem from mishaps at the only US underground nuclear waste repository.
	The New Mexico Environment Department delivered a pair of compliance orders to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz yesterday, marking the state's largest penalty ever imposed on the federal agency.
	Together, the orders outline more than 30 state permit violations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico and at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
	On February 5, a truck hauling salt at WIPP caught fire. Nine days later, a canister of waste from Los Alamos leaked in one of the repository's storage rooms, contaminating 22 workers and forcing the facility's indefinite closure.
	Resuming full operations at WIPP could take years and cost about USD 500 million.

Mishaps at nuke repository lead to USD 54mn in fines

Marine biologists have flown dozens of endangered sea turtles from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Galveston, Texas, for treatment of hypothermia.
	The 50 Kemp's ridley sea turtles, a critically endangered species, were shocked by recent cold temperatures in the waters off New England in the northeastern US and were rescued from the beaches of Cape Cod over the past few weeks, the Galveston County Daily News reported.
	The group arrived Friday at the Galveston Sea Turtle Facility operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
	There, the turtles will be slowly warmed to a safe temperature and treated for infections, frostbite and other health problems, program manager Ben Higgins said.
	"They're not in great shape," he said.
	Cold-stunned turtles don't drown, but they do stop moving and eating. Eventually, they're washed ashore where they often die.
	The beaching is an annual event, but more turtles have washed ashore this year than in previous years, Higgins ...

Texas biologists warm chilled sea turtles

Seven countries have imposed trade restrictions on Canadian poultry as a fifth farm in British Columbia was put under quarantine for avian influenza.
	Officials said yesterday that more than 140,000 turkeys and chickens from the affected farms will be euthanized.
	The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the fifth farm near Abbotsford was quarantined after higher than normal turkey deaths were reported by a farmer Friday.
	British Columbia (BC) chief veterinary officer Dr Jane Pritchard says 60,000 turkeys are in the fifth farm. Avian influenza was first detected a week ago on a broiler-breeder chicken farm in Chilliwack.
	Officials say no people have fallen ill.
	The BC outbreak has led at least seven countries the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, South Africa and Mexico to ban poultry products from BC or all of Canada.

5 British Columbia farms quarantined for bird flu

A Cuban doctor successfully treated for Ebola at a Swiss hospital returned home and was greeted by his family.
	Felix Baez Sarria contracted Ebola while working with a Cuban government medical team in Sierra Leone and was flown to Geneva for treatment November 20.
	In a brief meeting with journalists at Havana's international airport, Baez said that he and his colleagues in Africa are committed to fighting the Ebola outbreak.
	"I will return there to finish what I started," said the doctor, who was welcomed home by his wife and two sons yesterday.
	The Geneva University Hospital said yesterday that tests this week showed Baez was cured.
	The chief medical officer of Geneva canton (state), Jacques-Andre Romand, said in a statement that "the total recovery of the patient, confirmed by thorough laboratory tests, now allows him to leave the country and travel with no risk of contagion."
	Baez was infected when he rushed to help a patient who was falling over.
	Cuba has sent more than 250 .

Cuban doctor back home after being cured of Ebola

Syrian forces repelled an attack by the Islamic State group on a major air base in the country's east today, in fighting that killed dozens on both sides, activists and state media said.
	The base, outside the city of Deir el-Zour, has been used by the government in the past months to launch air raids on areas held by the Islamic State group bordering Iraq.
	The Islamic State group is trying to capture the air base and a nearby barracks known as Brigade 137 to eliminate the main pocket of resistance in the area and provide a major morale and propaganda boost after a string of setbacks in recent weeks.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the latest attack began with a suicide car bomb at the main entrance of the Deir el-Zour air base. The rebels stormed parts of the base before a counterattack and intense air raids by government forces pushed them back, it added.
	The group said that some Islamic State fighters had breathing problems in the area after government 

Syrian troops repel IS attack on eastern air base

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has accused his vice president of plotting with the United States Embassy in the country to remove him.
	Speaking at the ruling party Zanu-PF's annual conference today, Mugabe said Joice Mujuru has attended secret meetings at the embassy in Harare.
	Mujuru was removed as the party's vice president during the three-day conference, but she remains the country's vice president.
	The party conference re-elected the 90-year-old Mugabe to another five-year term as leader of the party.
	Mugabe was also authorised to personally choose his vice president and other top party posts.

Zimbabwe's president alleges US plot against him

Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Athens today to mark the sixth anniversary of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager in the Greek capital that led to widespread rioting, while clashes have broken out between demonstrators and police in the northern city of Thessaloniki.
	Alexandros Grigoropoulos, 15, had been out with friends in a central Athens neighbourhood when he was shot on Dec 6, 2008 following a verbal altercation with police. His death led to two weeks of the most violent rioting Greece had seen in decades.
	This year's anniversary marches come at a time when nearly nightly violent protests are being held by supporters of one of Grigoropoulos' friends, jailed anarchist and convicted bank robber Nikos Romanos, 21. He was present when Grigoropoulos was killed, is on a hunger strike, demanding prison leave to attend lectures after he passed university entrance exams.
	Romanos, currently hospitalised under police guard, has been on the hunger ...

Protests in Greece on police shooting anniversary

A string of bombings targeting Shiites killed 10 people today around Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.
	Police officials said the first attack took place today morning when a bomb exploded near a market in the Shiite section of the town of Mahmoudiya, killing five people and wounding 12. Mahmoudiya is 30 kilometers south of the capital.
	Later today, police said a bomb attached to a mini-bus exploded in the capital's northeastern suburb of Husseiniyah, killing two passengers and wounding nine.
	In eastern Baghdad, police said a bomb blast near food stalls serving Shiite pilgrims killed three people and wounded eight. The pilgrims were heading to the Shiite holy city of Karbala to attend the religious commemoration known as Arbaeen.
	Thousands of Shiite pilgrims are converging on Karbala to mark Arbaeen, the passing of 40 days after the anniversary of the seventh century martyrdom of the revered Shiite saint Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
	Medical officials confirmed .

Officials: Bombings kill 10 people in Iraq

A health official says another Sierra Leonean doctor has died from Ebola, the eighth such victim in a country with too few health workers.
	Chief Medical Officer Dr Brima Kargbo said today that Dr Thomas Rogers died a day earlier of the disease. In all, 11 Sierra Leonean doctors have been infected.
	Ebola has sickened more than 17,500 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Of those, about 6,200 have died. The disease is currently spreading fastest in Sierra Leone.
	Ebola is spread through the bodily fluids of people showing symptoms and people who have died of the disease. Because transmission requires close contact with those fluids, health workers are among the most at risk of contracting it and hundreds have become infected in this outbreak.

8th Sierra Leonean doctor dies of Ebola

An American photojournalist and a South African teacher held by al-Qaida militants in Yemen have been killed in a failed US rescue attempt, authorities said today.
	US President Barack Obama said in a statement he ordered the raid that saw Luke Somers and Pierre Korkie killed after al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula posted a video online Thursday threatening to kill Somers.
	Information "indicated that Luke's life was in imminent danger," Obama said. "Based on this assessment, and as soon as there was reliable intelligence and an operational plan, I authorized a rescue attempt. ... I also authorized the rescue of any other hostages held in the same location as Luke."
	The aid group Gift of Givers later identified the second hostage as South African teacher Pierre Korkie, who the group said was to be released tomorrow. They said he was to be flown out of Yemen "under diplomatic cover, then to meet with family members in a 'safe' country (and) fly to South Africa."
	Lucy Somers, the ...

American, South African hostages killed in Yemen

British police have been misusing surveillance laws to access journalists' communications records, a panel of lawmakers said today.
	Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee said it was unacceptable that police have seized reporters' phone and email data to try to determine sources of leaked information.
	Committee chairman Keith Vaz said that using surveillance legislation "to access telephone records of journalists is wrong" and would deter whistleblowers from speaking to reporters.
	The committee said in a report that a key piece of surveillance legislation, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act or RIPA, was being used in a "secretive and disorganized" way that allowed it to be abused.
	Their report follows revelations about two high-profile cases. In one, police seized telephone records from the Sun newspaper in a bid to find out who had leaked a story about Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell's verbal altercation with police officers.
	In the other case, police investigating .

UK lawmakers: Spy law needs stronger scrutiny

Activists say Islamic State group fighters have stormed parts of a sprawling army air base in eastern Syria after days of clashes that killed dozens.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the latest attack began today with a suicide car bomb attack on the main entrance of the Deir el-Zour air base.
	The Islamic State group began a major offensive on the air base, one of the last government-held areas in the province of Deir el-Zour, on Thursday.
	Activists who support the Islamic State group posted photos on social media showing two military helicopters that they claimed were captured by the jihadis.
	If jihadis capture the base, they could threaten government-held areas in the provincial capital.

Islamic State group storms air base in east Syria

An American photojournalist held by al-Qaida militants in Yemen has been killed in a failed rescue attempt, his sister said today.
	Lucy Somers told The Associated Press that she learned of her 33-year-old brother Luke Somers' death from FBI agents.
	There was no immediate comment from Washington, nor from security officials in Yemen's capital, Sanaa.
	"We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," Lucy Somers said.
	Yemen's local al-Qaida branch, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, posted a video Thursday that showed Somers, threatening to kill him in three days if the United States didn't meet the group's demands, which weren't specified. He was kidnapped in September 2013 from Sanaa.
	The news of the failed rescue comes after a suspected US drone strike in Yemen killed nine alleged al-Qaida militants early today, a security official said. The drone struck at dawn in Yemen's southern Shabwa province, hitting a suspected militant hideout, the official said. ..

Sister: American hostage killed in Yemen

Authorities in Iraq said two bombings targeting Shiites have killed seven people around the capital, Baghdad.
	Police officials said the first attack took place this morning when a bomb exploded near a market in the Shiite section of the town of Mahmoudiya, killing five people and wounding 12.
	Mahmoudiya is 30 kilometres south of the capital.
	Later today, police said a bomb attached to a mini-bus exploded in the capital's northeastern suburb of Husseiniyah, killing two passengers and wounding nine.
	Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they're not authorised to talk to journalists.
	Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Islamic militants frequently attacks Shiites whom they consider as heretics.

Officials: 2 bombings kill 7 people in Iraq

Britain's top diplomat says his nation has signed a deal with the Gulf Arab nation of Bahrain to bolster the United Kingdom's military presence in the region.
	Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond announced the deal today at a security conference in the Bahraini capital, Manama, where he assured Gulf allies that "your security concerns are our security concerns."
	Hammond says the deal ensures a permanent footing for the Royal Navy in the oil-rich Gulf.
	The agreement calls for improved onshore facilities at Bahrain's Mina Salman port that will give the Royal Navy a base to plan, store equipment and house military personnel. Bahrain already hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.
	The deal comes amid airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition targeting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Britain to boost military presence in Persian Gulf

Authorities say a Taliban attack on a convoy in northern Afghanistan has killed three police officers.
	Police spokesman Abdul Manan Rauofi said the attack happened last night in Jawzjan province. Rauofi said today that Taliban militants killed the officers and wounded four in the assault on the patrol in the province's Aqcha District.
	The Taliban later claimed the attack in an email to journalists. Another Taliban attack in the province earlier in the week killed four police officers at a checkpoint.
	The Taliban have stepped up their attacks targeting local police and Afghan security forces as most foreign combat troops prepare to withdraw at the end of the month.

Police say Taliban attack kills 3 in Afghanistan

Half a million Filipinos fled their homes as differing forecasts about the path of a dangerously erratic typhoon one predicting it will graze the capital, Manila prompted a wide swath of the country to prepare for a weekend of destructive winds and rain.
	Typhoon Hagupit Filipino for "smash" was expected to hit the central Philippines late today, lashing parts of a region that was devastated by last year's Typhoon Haiyan and left more than 7,300 people dead and missing. The typhoon regained strength today but forecasters said it will begin rapidly weakening as it approaches land.
	"I'm scared," said Haiyan survivor Jojo Moro. "I'm praying to God not to let another disaster strike us again. We haven't recovered from the first."
	The 42-year-old businessman, who lost his wife, daughter and mother last year in Tacloban city, said he stocked up on sardines, instant noodles, eggs and water.
	Dozens of domestic flights were canceled and inter-island ferry services were suspended. About half 

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