Rolling Stones' saxophone player Bobby Keys, who also performed on recordings with John Lennon and Eric Clapton, has died at his home in Franklin, Tennessee. He was 70 years old.
	Michael Webb, who played keyboard with Keys, said Keys died today after a lengthy illness. Keys had been out on tour with the Stones earlier this year before his health prevented him from performing.
	"The Rolling Stones are devastated by the loss of their very dear friend and legendary saxophone player, Bobby Keys," the band said in a statement. "Bobby made a unique musical contribution to the band since the 1960s. He will be greatly missed."
	Originally from Texas, Keys started playing with Buddy Holly and The Crickets and went on to become a top session and touring musician.

Rolling Stones' sax player Bobby Keys dies

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The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly approved an Arab-backed resolution criticising Israel for refusing to join an international treaty against nuclear proliferation.
	The resolution notes that Israel is the only Middle Eastern country that is not party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
	It called on Israel to join the treaty and put its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.
	The General Assembly approved the resolution in a 161-5 vote, with 18 countries abstaining. The United States and Canada were among four countries that joined Israel in opposing the resolution.
	Israel is widely considered to possess nuclear arms but declines to confirm it.

UN assembly calls on Israel to join nuclear treaty

The World Health Organization says the number of people infected with Ebola has passed 17,000, as Sierra Leone announced that its 10th doctor has been sickened.
	Numbers released today by WHO include about 200 new cases since data was published yesterday. More than 6,000 people have died.
	The vast majority of the infected are in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
	Also today, Sierra Leonean Health Ministry spokesman Jonathan Abass Kamara said that Dr. Thomas Rogers has tested positive for the disease and was admitted a day earlier to the British-built treatment center in Kerry Town, near the capital. Rogers had been working at Connaught Hospital in Freetown.
	He is being cared for at a special clinic reserved for infected health care workers that is staffed by British army medics.

WHO: More than 17,000 people infected with Ebola

Two senior Republican senators are demanding the Obama administration provide Congress with records explaining how suspected Nazi war criminals were paid millions in US government pension benefits and the role the Justice Department played in the program.
	In letters to be publicly released Tuesday, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch cited an Associated Press investigation published in October that revealed that the benefits have been paid to dozens of former Nazis after they were forced out of the United States.
	Grassley and Hatch back legislation to strip former Nazis of these benefits.
	The Social Security Administration, which administers the pension program, refused AP's request that it provide the total number of Nazi suspects who received benefits and the dollar amounts. AP appealed the agency's denial of the information through the Freedom of Information Act.
	In a related development, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a bill that would shut the ..

US senators want details on Nazi benefit payments

A Lebanese security official says six Lebanese soldiers have been killed in an ambush by gunmen near the border with Syria.
	The official said the attack today night occurred in a remote region of Ras Baalbek in eastern Lebanon and was followed by fierce clashes between the two sides. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists.
	The state-run National News Agency also reported the ambush, saying there were several soldiers killed and wounded.
	It said the Lebanese military called in air support to the area.
	It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
	Lebanese soldiers have been battling Islamic militants, including the Islamic State group and Nusra Front, in areas near the border with Syria.

6 Lebanese soldiers killed in ambush by gunmen

Police in the Bahamas say a small plane has crashed near New Providence Island, killing a 77-year-old US man and injuring the 10 other people aboard.
	Superintendent Paul Rolle says the 10-seat Navajo Chieftain went down after departing the nearby island of Eleuthera this morning. He says the other passengers are hospitalized. Their conditions were not immediately known.
	Police have not yet identified the man who died or his hometown.
	The plane was operated by Ferguson Air and was serving as a charter for Southern Air.
	Police said the pilot apparently alerted officials that he was having problems and tried getting the plane close to shallow water before it lost power some 550 feet (170 meters) from the coast.

Plane carrying 11 crashes in Bahamas; US man dies

US health officials today released a draft of long-awaited federal guidelines on circumcision, saying medical evidence supports having the procedure done despite opposition from advocates who decry the pain, bleeding and risk of infections to newborns.
	The guidelines stop short of telling parents to get their sons circumcised. That is a personal decision that may involve religious or cultural preferences, said Dr. Jonathan Mermin of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.
	But "the scientific evidence is clear that the benefits outweigh the risks," added Mermin, who oversees the agency's programs on HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
	Circumcision is a brief medical procedure that involves cutting away the foreskin around the tip of the penis.
	Germs can grow underneath the foreskin, and CDC officials say the procedure can lower a male's risk of sexually transmitted diseases, penile cancer and even urinary tract infections.
	The CDC started working on the 

Circumcision benefits outweigh the risks, US says

Hospital workers say at least 75 people were killed in twin attacks by suspected Islamic extremists on two northeastern Nigerian state capitals.
	The deaths from yesterday's attacks bring the toll to at least 245 people reported killed in a week of increasing violence linked to an Islamic uprising in the northeast of Africa's biggest oil producer.
	The corpses of 33 police officers, six soldiers and 20 members of the Boko Haram extremist group were brought to the hospital in Damaturu, the Yobe state capital stormed yesterday by scores of insurgents, said a morgue worker.
	In Maiduguri, Borno state capital, explosions set off by two female suicide bombers killed 16, according to workers at two hospitals. All spoke today, insisting on anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to reporters.

75 killed in attacks on Nigerian cities: hospital

Army airstrikes today hit a warehouse and a factory in a western Libyan city, killing eight people and wounding 24 as the country's warring sides gave different accounts of the attack.
	The strikes took place in Zwara, 110 kilometers (70 miles) west of the capital, Tripoli.
	Hafez Moammar, a security spokesman in the city, which is allied with Tripoli's Islamist-dominated authorities, said one strike hit a warehouse used to store food and the other a chemical factory.
	But an army spokesman said the buildings were arms depots used by "terrorists" a term Libya's military and the elected government, based in the country's east, use for Islamist militias or militants.
	The town's Media Center said on its Facebook page that eight people were killed, two Libyans and six African workers.
	Those wounded include 14 Libyans and 10 foreign workers.
	It was unclear if anyone was killed in the factory.
	Moammar said the warplanes were operating under the command of Khalifa Hifter, a former army ..

Libyan army airstrikes hit targets in west, kill 8

FIFA president Sepp Blatter says the welfare of migrant workers involved in building facilities for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is the responsibility of the companies who hired them, not FIFA.
	Speaking today during his visit to Sri Lanka, Blatter said the workers are employed by companies from Germany, France and other European countries and "they are responsible for their workers and not FIFA."
	Blatter also said the workers are now having "better conditions" thanks to the World Cup.
	Qatar has come under increasing scrutiny over its labor practices since FIFA awarded it the right to host the tournament.
	The wealthy OPEC nation relies heavily on migrant workers drawn mainly from South Asia to build its roads, skyscrapers and stadiums.

Blatter: FIFA not responsible for workers in Qatar

The Australian Senate today rejected government legislation that would have cut public funding to universities but allowed campuses to raise student fees to make up the shortfall.
	The close 33-to-31 Senate vote was another blow to Prime Minister Tony Abbott's bid to rein in Australia's burgeoning deficit in the final few days that Parliament will sit for the year.
	It came the same day as a prominent opinion poll showed that Abbot was becoming increasing unpopular 15 months after his convincing election victory.
	The government had hoped to save USD 934 million over three years from 2016 under the plan that included reducing government restrictions on how much universities can charge Australian students.
	Fee-paying foreign students, mostly from China and India, currently subsidize Australian students at the same universities, which are largely state-funded.
	The most popular universities welcomed fee deregulation, but the opposition and key independent senators warned that the ...

Australian Senate rejects student fee deregulation

Malaysian police say they have detained another three men, including two civil servants, suspected of being linked to the militant Islamic State group. The detentions bring the number of people held for suspected militant links to 43 this year.
	National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar says the three were detained Nov. 27-28 in operations in Kuala Lumpur and in northern Kedah state.
	Khalid said today that a 36-year-old suspect had fought in Syria for a few months before returning to Malaysia in April, while the two civil servants had allegedly channeled funds to Malaysians heading to Syria to join the Islamic State terror group.
	Prime Minister Najib Razak recently said the government will introduce a new anti-terrorism law next year to counter the spread of militancy.

Malaysia detains another 3 suspected militants

The Russian government has warned that the country's economy will enter recession next year.
	The forecast released by the economic development ministry today was the first acknowledgement that the Russian economy will contract in 2015.
	The forecast was revised from growth of 1.2 per cent to a drop of 0.8 per cent.
	Disposable income is expected to decline by 2.8 per cent against the previously expected 0.4 per cent growth.
	Russia's economy has been battered by low oil prices, the backbone of its budget and Western sanctions over its role in eastern Ukraine. That has led the national currency, the ruble, to drop by more than 40 percent this year.

Russia warns of recession next year

Pilots at German airline Lufthansa have extended their two-day strike to long-haul flights in an ongoing dispute over retirement benefits.
	The airline, Germany's biggest, says a total of 1,350 of its 2,800 flights scheduled through the strike's end today at midnight have been cancelled, affecting 150,000 passengers.
	Yesterday, the strike was primarily focused on inner-Europe flights. Lufthansa said some of its cargo flights were rescheduled, but none had to be canceled.
	Lufthansa says the other airlines in its group, Germanwings, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Air Dolomiti, are not affected.
	The strike follows failed talks with the Vereinigung Cockpit union, which is demanding Lufthansa keep paying a transition payment for those wanting to retire early.
	The airline wants to cut those payments, citing increasingly tough competition.

Lufthansa pilots strike on long-haul flights

Iraq's finance minister says the central government has reached an agreement in a long-standing oil dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdish regional government.
	Hoshyar Zebari tells The Associated Press that the Kurdish government will send a total of 550,000 barrels of oil per day to the Iraqi oil ministry.
	In exchange, the Kurds will receive their 17-percent share of the national budget allocated to their region, plus installments of as much as USD 1 billion to boost the capabilities of Kurdish peshmerga fighters battling the Islamic State militant group.
	Earlier this year, Baghdad cut the 17 percent of the state budget that is supposed to go to the Kurdish region after the Kurds began transporting oil from fields inside the autonomous zone to Turkey against Baghdad's wishes.

Iraqi and Kurdish governments agree to oil deal

Two senior Lebanese officials say authorities have detained a wife and son of the leader of the Islamic State group.
	A military official says the woman and her son were detained about 10 days ago using fake identification cards.
	Both officials refused to give any details about the woman who is believed to be one of the wives of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group's reclusive leader.
	The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
	The military official said today that the woman is a Syrian citizen.
	The Lebanese daily As-Safir was the first to break the news, saying they were detained near a border crossing point with Syria. It added that the arrest was in "coordination with foreign intelligence agencies.

Wife of IS leader detained in Lebanon

A West Virginia man suspected in four killings in separate shootings was discovered dead in his truck of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after an hours-long manhunt, police said today.
	Jody Lee Hunt, 39, was found in the woods in Monongalia County, inside his 2011 Ford F-150, according to state police.
	The vehicle and body were found about 7 PM in "a power line right of way," spokesman Lt. Dennis Johnson said.
	Hunt was wanted in two shootings in the Westover area and another in the Cheat Lake area in Monongalia County, spokesman Lt. Michael Baylous said. Medical officials will work to confirm the identity of the body, he said.
	Officials said they would not release further information.
Today, investigators at each of the three crime scenes will "sit down and piece all those puzzle pieces together and find out how this all happened," Baylous said.
	Hunt owned J&J Towing and Repair LLC of Westover, according to state documents.
	By last night, three of the four victims' names had ...

Suspect in 4 West Virginia killings found dead

President Barack Obama is highlighting advances in research for an Ebola vaccine and pushing Congress to approve his request for USD 6.2 billion to confront the disease abroad and to secure against its spread in the United States.
	Obama was to visit the National Institutes of Health in Washington's Maryland suburbs today.
	He planned to congratulate NIH director Francis Collins and the director of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, for their work on a vaccine.
	A study published by US researchers last week concluded an experimental Ebola vaccine appears safe and triggered signs of immune protection in volunteers who tested it.
	Obama's request for money to confront Ebola is pending before Congress. White House spokesman Josh Earnest says lawmakers should "take prompt action on this.

Obama drawing attention to Ebola vaccine research

IOC President Thomas Bach says he's convinced FIFA will keep its pledge to prevent the 2022 World Cup from clashing with that year's Winter Olympics, as soccer's governing body considers whether to move the tournament to January-February to avoid Qatar's summer heat.
     FIFA has assured the International Olympic Committee that the two events won't clash, but some senior soccer officials like UEFA President Michel Platini recently suggested they don't share those concerns.
     However, Bach said he's convinced the pledge from FIFA President Sepp Blatter to keep the events separate on the calendar still stands.
     "I have no reason not to believe (him)," Bach said in an interview with British broadcaster BBC on Monday. "He made it very clear that a clash of these two great events is in nobody's interest."
     FIFA is studying options for when to stage the 2022 tournament in Qatar, with the two main proposals being to play in either January-February or November-December.
     The ..

Bach: 2022 World Cup and Olympics must not clash

A manhunt was underway for a gunman suspected in three separate shootings that left four people dead in north-central West Virginia, including a woman who had filed a domestic violence complaint against the man sought by police.
	Two of the shootings happened in the Westover area and the other was in the Cheat Lake area in Monongalia County, said state police spokesman Lt Michael Baylous, yesterday.
	He identified the two victims from the Cheat Lake shooting as Sharon Kay Berkshire, 39, of Westover, and Michael David Frum, 28, of Maidsville. Baylous had no details on the Westover shootings, saying other law enforcement agencies were handling them. The Monongalia County sheriff's office released no information by yesterday evening.
	Monongalia County emergency dispatch director Mike Wolfe said police are seeking Jody Lee Hunt, 39, of Westover. Police also are searching for a 2011 Ford F-150 extended cab truck. "We ask that everyone stay vigilant and use their discretion about whether ..

Search for gunman who killed 4 in West Virginia

A man who pleaded guilty to trying to sell firearms believed to have been owned by Saddam Hussein's family was fined USD 5,000 by a federal judge.
	Howard Blumenthal, 76, of Fort Lee, New Jersey, had faced up to five years in prison.
	Seven guns with an estimated value of USD 250,000 to USD 350,000 were seized in December 2012. Among the firearms were a .357 semi-automatic pistol featuring a gold medallion "QS." That's presumed to indicate the late Iraqi president's son, Qusay.
	Other guns included two .357 Magnums, a .32-caliber semi-automatic pistol, two 12-gauge shotguns and a semi-automatic, .45-caliber pistol with gold leaf and gold inlays and bearing the initials "QS."
	Blumenthal was recruited to help round up potential buyers for the smuggled guns, prosecutors have said. They say he went to a New Jersey restaurant in July 2012 to meet with three other people who were indicted in the scheme, so they could discuss the sale of six of the seven weapons.
	The investigation into the 

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