Suicide bomb strikes top NATO envoy team in Afghanistan

1 of 5. U.S. soldiers arrive at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul February 26, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ismail

KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed a car laden with explosives into a vehicle belonging to NATO's top envoy in Afghanistan, killing one Turkish soldier and wounding at least one person, Turkish officials said.
The explosion struck in the heart of the heavily fortified capital Kabul, close to the German, Iranian and Turkish embassies, rattling windows and putting embassy staff on high alert.
The NATO Senior Civilian Representative and former Turkish ambassador to Afghanistan could not immediately be reached by phone. Details on his location at the time of the attack were unclear.
"A car bomb attack has been carried out on the vehicle of the security team of Turkish envoy Ismail Aramaz," the Turkish military said in a statement.
The Taliban swiftly claimed responsibility but appeared to have mistaken the Turkish security team for a U.S. convoy, clarifying on Twitter that they had not intended to kill any other country's citizens.
"The purpose of today's attack in Kabul was a convoy of U.S. troops. The embassy or any other country nationals were not objective," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted.
The Senior Civilian Representative's vehicles are factory-made, armored Mercedes SUVs. The Afghan interior ministry said the one targeted belonged to the Turkish embassy and the driver had been killed in the explosion.
A security report circulated among international security sources in Kabul showed the car had caught fire after the blast, and was burning on its side at the edge of the road just outside the so-called Green Zone.
It was the second time a diplomatic vehicle has been targeted by insurgents in the capital in recent months, after a British embassy car was attacked by a suicide bomber in November.
Afghanistan has taken over full responsibility for efforts to end the Taliban insurgency with the withdrawal of most foreign troops at the end of last year.

(Additional reporting y Hamid Shalizi in Kabul and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Nick Macfie)

Thai bill to restrict protests sails through first reading

Protesters holds up signs during a brief protest against military rule at Thammasat University in Bangkok June 1, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Chaiwat Subprasom

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday in favor of a bill that restricts political demonstrations, something critics fear will be used to smother dissent after martial law is lifted.
The law will impose restrictions on the "time, place and manner" of demonstrations but it was not aimed at banning protests, said Colonel Winthai Suvaree, a spokesman for the junta which seized power last year.
"This law is not designed to prevent protests. It is aimed at giving order to public gatherings," Winthai told Reuters.
The army declared martial law in May, days before it ousted an elected government in a coup.
Martial law remains in place despite calls for it to be lifted from tourism industry operators who fear it damages the country's image. Martial law includes a ban on public gatherings of more than five people.
The coup followed months of street protests aimed at ousting former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Critics say the law on restricting protests that sailed through its first reading on Thursday would help the junta to stifle dissent and maintain its largely unchallenged rule.
"This law will replace martial law and control political protests which is an infringement on people's rights," said Thanawut Wichaidit, a spokesman for the pro-Yingluck United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship activist group.
The bill must pass a second and third reading for it to come law, which looks likely given its support in the National Legislative Assembly whose members were picked by the military.
If the bill becomes law it would ban protests outside courts, parliament and the prime minister's offices, known as Government House, Jate Siratharanont, a member of the assembly, told Reuters.
Police would have to be informed of a protest at least 24 hours in advance and gatherings between 6 p.m and 6 a.m would be banned unless protesters got permission, Jate said.
But authorities would need permission from the courts to disperse protests.
Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, a Southeast Asia-based rights group, said it would be difficult for Thailand to argue that the law was in the public interest.
"On the contrary, this appears to be a move that's inconsistent with Thailand's human rights obligations," said Smith.

(Additional reporting by Aukkarapon Niyomat and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Robert Birsel)

China's top court unveils deadlines for legal reform

Zhou Qiang, President of China's Supreme People's Court, attends National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, March 7, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Stringer

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top court set a five-year deadline on Thursday for legal reforms to protect the rights of individuals, prevent miscarriages of justice and make its judiciary more professional as the ruling Communist Party seeks to quell public discontent.
A statement on the Supreme Court's website promised specific deadlines for each goal, including support for a "social atmosphere of justice" by 2018.
It gave more details of a decision reached at a four-day meeting last year, when the party pledged to speed up legislation to fight corruption and make it tougher for officials to exert control over the judiciary.
Despite the legal reforms, Chinese President Xi Jinping's administration has shown no interest in political change and has detained dozens of dissidents, including lawyers.
China's top court stressed that one of the five basic principles of legal reform was adhering to the party's leadership and "ensuring the correct political orientation".
He Xiaorong, the director of the Supreme People's Court's reform division, said the court "would make officials bear responsibility for dereliction of duty" for cases that have a wide impact.
"Only through the establishment of such a system can we ensure that we can guarantee social fairness and justice in every case," He told a news conference, according to a transcript on the court's website.
The measures reflect worries about rising social unrest. Anger over land grabs, corruption and pollution - issues often left unresolved by courts - have resulted in violence between police and residents in recent years, threatening social order.
The court said it would prohibit criminal defendants from wearing vests and jumpsuits to trials, effectively removing the presumption of guilt that is common in China. It pledged to strengthen the prevention of torture to gain evidence and "effectively prevent miscarriages of justice".
It would also establish a performance evaluation system for judges, "perfect the mechanism for protecting lawyers' rights" and establish media galleries in courts for certain trials.
It also promised to boost transparency, saying it would make more information available, and reduce local protectionism by changing the jurisdiction of courts.
How much impact the reforms would have was uncertain. Laws are often not enforced and can be abused by the police.
On Wednesday, the court urged party officials to shun Western-style judicial independence and reject "erroneous Western thought", state media said on Thursday, as controls over the media, dissent and the Internet are tightened.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Paul Tait)

Australian PM strikes conciliatory note over Indonesia executions

Indonesian students hold placards during a protest against Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in front of the Australian embassy in Jakarta February 25, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Beawiharta

SYDNEY/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott struck a conciliatory tone on Thursday after speaking with Indonesian President Joko Widodo about the looming execution of two convicted Australian drug traffickers.
Abbott said he spoke with his "friend" Widodo on Wednesday evening, adding that the Indonesian leader "absolutely understands our position ... and I think he is carefully considering Indonesia's position".
Widodo has denied clemency to 11 convicts on death row, including Australian, French, and Brazilian nationals, ratcheting up diplomatic tensions amid repeated pleas for mercy.
Abbott had previously angered Jakarta by linking his pleas for clemency for the pair to Australia's aid to Indonesia after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Jakarta responded by warning that threats were not part of diplomatic language.
"It was a positive sign that the conversation took place," Abbott told reporters in Canberra. "It's a sign of the depth of the friendship between Australia and Indonesia."
He declined to comment on the conversation in detail.
"I don't want to raise hope that might turn out to be dashed," Abbott said.
"I want to ensure that as far as is humanly possible, I am speaking out for Australians and for Australian values, but I also have to respect and defend Australia's friendships."
Indonesian government officials have repeatedly said the planned executions, to be carried out by firing squads, would not be delayed or canceled despite diplomatic pressure. No date has been set for the executions.
"We understand the efforts made by Australia to represent their nationals. That's the duty of all governments," said Armanatha Nasir, spokesman for Indonesia's foreign ministry.
Widodo, who also took calls from Brazil, France, and the Netherlands this week, has warned those nations against interfering in Indonesia's sovereign affairs.
Brazil had a citizen executed last month and another is among the next group on death row, along with a French national, the Australians and seven others. A Dutch citizen was executed last month.
"We are keeping communications open with Brazil and we anticipate only good things in our relations with other countries," Nasir said.
Indonesia has harsh penalties for drug trafficking and resumed executions in 2013 after a five-year gap.
On Tuesday, a court in Jakarta threw out an appeal by the two Australians, Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31, against Widodo's rejection of their request for presidential clemency.
Lawyers for the members of the so-called Bali Nine group of Australians, convicted in 2005 as the ringleaders of a plot to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia, have said they plan to appeal against that decision.

(Editing by Andrew Roche and Paul Tait)

Avalanches kill 186 in Afghanistan

1 of 2. Relatives of avalanche victims return after conducting a search for the victims in Panjshir province, February 25, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Omar Sobhani

KABUL (Reuters) - More than 180 people have been killed in north Afghanistan in some of the worst avalanches there for 30 years, officials said on Thursday, with heavy snow set to last for two more days after an unusually dry winter led to fears of drought.
Officials warned of an imminent humanitarian emergency in areas most severely hit by the bad weather, with snow sweeping through villages and blocking off roads.
"We haven't seen this much snow, or this many avalanches, for 30 years," said Abdul Rahman Kabiri, acting governor of the mountainous province of Panjshir, north of Kabul, where 186 people were killed and more than 100 injured in avalanches.
Despite bringing misery to so many people, the snow is vital for Afghanistan, where much of the rural population dependent on agriculture relies on snow melting in the mountains to sustain crops in the spring and summer.
Farming drives the troubled Afghan economy, with about three quarters of the people living in rural areas, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated in 2004.
Irrigation is not extensive in Afghanistan, most of which is semi-arid, and aid efforts over the past decade or more have focused on trying to extend it, with mixed results.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Jessica Donati; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Russian Finance Minister says Moody's downgrade had 'political character'

Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov attends the Gaidar Forum 2015 ''Russia and the World: New Dimensions'' in Moscow, January 14, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moody's downgrade of Russia's sovereign rating was based on "factors of a political character," Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said early on Saturday following news that Moody's had cut the rating to below investment grade.
Siluanov also said that the downgrade was based on "unrealistic" forecasts with "no analogies", as the agency had made pessimistic assumptions that went well beyond forecasts by the IMF, World Bank and international banks.
He said the downgrade would not have a serious additional impact on the capital market as Russia's local currency rating from two other agencies remains at the investment grade level of BBB-. Local treasury bonds are currently seen by Russia as the only source of borrowing, Siluanov said.
(Makes clear in third paragraph that BBB- investment grade rating for local debt is from two other agencies)

(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; Writing by Jason Bush; Editing by Chris Reese)

Islamic State militants claim suicide attacks in Libya that kill 42

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State killed 42 people in suicide car bombings in eastern Libya on Friday, in apparent retaliation for Egyptian air strikes.
The three car bombs exploded in Qubbah, a small town near the seat of the official government in what appeared to be another high profile attack by the group after the storming of a Tripoli hotel and the killing of 21 captive Egyptian Copts.
On Monday, Egyptian air force jets bombed Islamic State targets in Derna in far eastern Libya, after the ultra-radical group released a video showing the Coptic Christian migrant workers being decapitated on a beach.
"They killed and wounded tens in revenge for the bloodshed of Muslims in the city of Derna," said a statement issued by the "Islamic State, Cyrenaica province". It could not be verified by Reuters but this group has issued statements before which were not subsequently contested by others.
The bombs exploded shortly before Friday prayers at a petrol station, the local security headquarters and the town council in Qubbah, home town of Parliamentary Speaker Aguila Saleh, security officials said. His house is close to the town council, but he was out of town at the time.
Forty-two people were killed, among them five Egyptian workers, and 70 people were wounded, security officials and medics said.
REVENGE
Four years after rebels overthrew Muammar Gaddafi, the oil-producing North African state is in chaos, with two governments and parliaments allied to armed factions fighting for control, while Islamist groups exploit the power vacuum.
Previous suicide and car bomb attacks, mainly in the east of Libya, have tended to target police and army bases rather than civilians, with security officials blaming Islamist groups such as Ansar al-Sharia which are believed to have links with militants claiming allegiance to Islamic State.
"We are announcing seven days of mourning for the victims of Qubbah," Saleh told Al Arabiya television. "I think this operation was revenge for what happened in Derna."
Hours after the attacks, troops loyal to the official government used military helicopters to attack militant targets in Derna, a military source said.
War planes also attacked forces loyal to the rival government in Ben Jawad, said Ali al-Hassi, a military spokesman. The area is a launchpad for rival forces which have been trying to take the Es Sider oil port.
The internationally recognised prime minister, Abdullah al-Thinni, is based in Bayda, some 40 km (25 miles) from Qubbah. Saleh works out of Tobruk, another eastern town now home to the House of Representatives, the elected parliament.
The capital Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast in the far west is under the control of the rival government and parliament, set up after a faction called Libya Dawn seized the city in summer, forcing Thinni to flee to the east.
Last month, militants claiming affiliation with Islamic State stormed the Corinthia luxury hotel in Tripoli, killing five foreigners and at least four Libyans.
Supporters of the group, which has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria, have also taken over government and university buildings in Sirte, a central city and birthplace of Gaddafi, according to residents.

(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli, Omar Fahmy, Aziz Yaakoubi, Ali Abdelati, Feras Bosalum and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Robin Pomeroy)

Self-censoring scandal at newspaper roils UK press landscape

LONDON (Reuters) - One of Britain's most storied newspapers has been accused of self-censoring for commercial gain, raising awkward questions about a centuries-old press culture which has prided itself on its no-holds-barred approach to truth telling.
The 160-year-old Daily Telegraph strongly denied accusations in a resignation letter by one of its best known writers, who said the paper had soft-pedalled coverage of a banking scandal to curry favor with an advertiser.
Britain's press, known collectively as "Fleet Street" in reference to the London lane where newspapers were based for generations, is proud of its independence - able to make or break a political reputation with a merciless approach.
In his letter, Peter Oborne, known for caustic attacks on politicians as the Telegraphs's chief political commentator, said the paper had curbed coverage of reports that the Swiss arm of Europe's biggest bank HSBC helped clients avoid taxes. The Telegraph, he wrote, wanted to keep the bank's advertising.
"(It) amounts to a form of fraud on its readers," he wrote. "If major newspapers allow corporations to influence their content for fear of losing advertising revenue, democracy itself is in peril."
The Telegraph came out fighting, denying it had pulled punches in covering HSBC and saying it had "no apologies" for journalism guided by a pro-business editorial line.
"We are proud to be the champion of British business and enterprise," it wrote in an editorial. "In an age of cheap populism and corrosive cynicism about wealth-creating businesses, we have defended British industries including the financial services industry that accounts for almost a tenth of the UK economy, sustains two million jobs and provides around one in every eight pounds the Exchequer raises in tax."
It also lashed out at rival news sources that had criticized it: "None is the paragon of moral or journalistic virtue that their criticisms this week might suggest," it said. "All have their own self-serving agendas, both political and commercial."
STRUGGLING
Both the accusation and the Telegraph's rebuttal are likely to sting for a newspaper industry struggling to adapt as readership declines and advertisers move online.
Fleet Street's reputation was sorely damaged in 2011 when Rupert Murdoch shut down the News of the World, a Sunday tabloid, after it emerged that its reporters had illegally eavesdropped on voicemails of countless celebrities and a murdered schoolgirl.
Lengthy public hearings were held into journalists' ethics, revealing uncomfortably close ties between press bosses and those who run the country.
Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to apologize for hiring as his spokesman a former News of the World editor who was later jailed. Labour former Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged that he had given advice to another former News of the World editor on how to deal with the scandal.
The right-leaning Daily Telegraph, nicknamed the "Torygraph" for its longstanding support for the Conservative - or Tory - Party, is chided by its critics for appealing to the middle classes and the middle aged.
But it is the biggest-selling of Britain's "broadsheets", the serious-minded national newspapers that distinguish themselves from the popular "tabloids" traditionally printed on paper half the size. It gained stature in 2009 for an expose of lawmakers' expense claims that resulted in resignations and prosecutions on all sides in parliament at Westminster.
However the paper, like its rivals, has cut staffing levels in recent years as it adapted to the tightened financial times.
In Oborne's resignation letter he lamented what he described as a loss of standards, saying stories were chosen for the number of online visits they bring rather than the news value. The paper had recently run a story about a woman with three breasts, he complained.
"Telegraph readers are a pretty loyal bunch but in terms of the paper's status I think it will cause enormous, long-lasting damage," Steven Barnett, communications professor at the University of Westminster, said of Oborne's letter. "It harms its ability to say 'We stand for truth and accuracy.'"

(Editing by Andrew Osborn and Peter Graff)

Venezuela indicts opposition mayor on charges of conspiring

1 of 6. Mitzy de Ledezma (R), wife of arrested Caracas metropolitan mayor Antonio Ledezma, and Lilian Tintori, wife of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, shout during a gathering in support of Ledezma, in Caracas Febreuary 20, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela on Friday indicted a veteran Caracas mayor on charges of plotting violence against President Nicolas Maduro's government and ordered he be jailed in a military prison pending trial.
Maduro, the socialist leader and successor to Hugo Chavez, cast Antonio Ledezma's detention as part of efforts to stop a U.S.-backed coup. Opponents scoffed at that as a smokescreen to distract from Venezuela's economic crisis and staged small protests against what they slammed an authoritarian move.
Intelligence agents had seized the 59-year-old mayor at his office on Thursday.
On Friday night, the state prosecutor's office said he had been indicted for conspiracy and would be jailed in the Ramo Verde military prison, where hardline opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has been locked up for a year.
Ledezma is the highest-profile Maduro opponent jailed after Lopez, arrested for his role in street protests that brought four months of violence and led to the death of 43 Venezuelans in early 2014.
"He's in good spirits and very optimistic of demonstrating he has no links with any wrongdoing," his lawyer, Omar Estacio, said after a brief visit to Ledezma.
Dubbed "The Vampire" by Maduro supporters, the mayor allied himself with opposition radicals last year in supporting the street campaign, dubbed the "La Salida", or "The Exit."
Maduro called the 2014 violence a coup attempt against his socialist government, and officials said last week Ledezma was among various politicians supporting a new plot with dissident military officers to topple the president via air strikes.
"No one is untouchable in Venezuela," Maduro said on Friday night. "We'll use an iron fist against coup-mongers."
The main evidence shown by officials was a public document signed by Ledezma and two other opposition leaders urging a transition, which officials call a roadmap for a coup but opponents term a political strategy paper.
U.S. DENIES INVOLVEMENT
Opposition leaders, who gathered in a Caracas square on Friday with several hundred supporters, said Maduro was trying to make Venezuelans forget the economic recession, the highest inflation in the Americas and widespread scarcities.
Maduro, 52, a former union activist, bus driver and long-serving foreign minister, has seen his popularity plummet since he narrowly won election in 2013 to replace Chavez.
"They're trying to distract us," said pro-Ledezma demonstrator and lawyer Rosibel Torres, 53, waving a Venezuelan flag with "Freedom" written on it. "We're entering a stage of brutal repression. We're openly in dictatorship."
Although opposition leaders lampoon Maduro's coup allegations, there is a history of plotting against Venezuela's socialist government, including a brief 2002 coup against Chavez that was endorsed by the United States at the time.
Some hardline activists acknowledge the existence of an underground movement bent on toppling Maduro, and recently detained student radical Lorent Saleh surfaced in a government-broadcast video praising Ledezma as "an old fox ... the politician who has most supported the resistance."
The public prosecutor's statement mentioned Ledezma's "links with the case of Lorent Saleh," among other activists in jail accused of planning attacks.
Given accusations from Maduro and other officials that right-wing Colombian politicians were also involved in plotting, that country's President Juan Manuel Santos insisted on Friday that was not the case.
"There is no plot whatsoever against any government from Colombia and, of course, if I find out anything concrete in that respect, I'd not only condemn it but act with all the force of the law," Santos said in a speech.
Santos, who clashed in the past with Chavez before they patched up their differences, has irked Maduro by urging Lopez's release and in Friday's speech he called for guarantees of due process for Ledezma. "It interests, hurts and worries us, all what's going on in Venezuela," he said.
The mayor's arrest touched off some isolated protests in Caracas and brought renewed violence in the volatile western city of San Cristobal, witnesses said.
Masked youths threw stones at the governor's residence in San Cristobal, they said, and several dozen faced off with security forces on Friday.
Isolated pot-banging reportedly rang out in affluent areas of Caracas on Friday night in a traditional form of protest.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said that night he would start criss-crossing Venezuela again to shore up the perennially fragmented anti-government base.
The two-time presidential candidate also showed what he said was a Datanalisis poll putting Maduro's popularity at 23.3 percent between Jan. 27 and Feb.7, which would mark a slight increase from around 22 percent at the end of 2014.
Washington, which recently slapped sanctions on some Venezuela officials, called accusations it was trying to destabilize the South American OPEC nation "ludicrous."
"The Treasury Department and the State Department are closely monitoring this situation and are considering tools that may be available that can better steer the Venezuelan government in the direction that they believe they should be headed," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore and Eyanir Chinea in Caracas, Helen Murphy in Bogota, David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Dan Grebler, Tom Brown and Lisa Shumaker)

Taiwan opposition leader Tsai aims to contest 2016 presidential poll

Raindrops fall on the glasses of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen as she meets her supporters at their campaign headquarters in Taipei January 14, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Shengfa Lin

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen has registered as a candidate for the island's presidential primary in March, promising "a new beginning" amid a wave of popular discontent with the China-friendly ruling Kuomintang (KMT).
The ruling party says recent deals with largest trading partner China will help Taiwan's economy, but it took a drubbing in elections in November because of unease over the pace of rapprochement.
That followed a dramatic occupation of the legislature last spring by hundreds of students and activists opposing a bill to free up trade with the mainland.
Tsai, the leader of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), called for a new political environment in Taiwan, but avoided mention of the hot-button cross-Strait issue.
"I hope to let Taiwan have new politics, a new system and a new beginning," she wrote in a Facebook post after registering as a presidential candidate on Sunday.
Taiwan elects its next president in early 2016. Tsai is widely expected to run uncontested in the DPP primary.
Tsai ran in the 2012 presidential election and lost to incumbent Ma Ying-jeou, known for openness toward China and a slew of deals on everything from tourism to finance, signed since he took office in 2008.
The DPP has historically been much more wary over bargains with China, and formally maintains Taiwan's independence in its party platform.
Since fleeing to Taiwan after losing a war against China's communists in 1949, the KMT have only been out of power during one period, when Ma's predecessor Chen Shui-bian held the position from 2000 to 2008.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has not ruled out the use of force to bring it under its control.

(Reporting by Michael Gold; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Facing cover-up allegations, Argentina's Fernandez says she's 'tough'

1 of 2. Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner gestures after inaugurating an amphitheatre in the Patagonian Argentine city of El Calafate, February 14, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Argentine Presidency/Handout via Reuters

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez struck a defiant note on Sunday in her first national address since a prosecutor announced he would continue to investigate allegations she tried to cover up a 1994 bombing, saying harsh Patagonian winters had taught her to be tough.
The accusations - first brought by a state investigator whose mysterious death last month threw the Fernandez administration into turmoil - were deemed credible on Friday by a newly-named prosecutor who said he would press on with the investigation.
In a televised speech, Fernandez did not refer to the probe. But she made it clear she would not bend under the mounting political pressure.
"Some are amazed at how I can endure all I have to endure," said Fernandez, speaking to a crowd at hospital she had just inaugurated in her adopted home province of Santa Cruz.
"I tell them it was here in Patagonia - with the wind, the cold and the snow - that I learned that I can endure anything," she said. "To live in southern Argentina you have to be tough."
Fernandez' image has taken a hit from allegations that she tried to whitewash the alleged involvement of a group of Iranians in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people died.
She denies the accusation, which was first leveled by state prosecutor Alberto Nisman.
Nisman's body was found on Jan. 18 in his Buenos Aires apartment, a bullet in his head and a pistol by his side. The following day he had been scheduled to appear before Congress to present his case that Fernandez conspired with Iran to clear the bombing suspects in order to clinch a deal to trade grains for Iranian oil.
No conclusive evidence of either murder or suicide has surfaced. Fernandez at first speculated that Nisman killed himself, and later said rogue intelligence agents were behind his death.
The saga is expected to strengthen opposition candidates in the October presidential election, in which Fernandez is constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term.

(Editing by Frances Kerry)

U.N. council demands Houthis withdraw, end Yemen violence

Houthi fighters ride a military truck on a street near the Saudi and UAE embassies in Sanaa February 14, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Sunday demanded Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen withdraw from government institutions, called for an end to foreign interference and threatened "further steps" if the violence does not stop.
The United Nations has warned that Yemen is collapsing. Shi'ite Muslim Houthi fighters have sidelined the central government after seizing the capital Sanaa in September and expanding across Yemen, which borders oil giant Saudi Arabia.
Al Qaeda and other Sunni Muslim militants have since stepped up attacks. Yemen is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, one of the global network's most active arms, which has carried out attacks abroad.
The 15-nation Security Council unanimously adopted a British- and Jordanian-drafted resolution on the crisis on Sunday.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation bloc comprising energy-rich Gulf states, had urged the Security Council to adopt a resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which allows decisions to be enforced with economic sanctions or force. The approved U.N. resolution is not under Chapter 7.
The council declared its readiness to take "further steps" if the resolution is not implemented by parties in Yemen. In November, the council imposed sanctions on Yemen's former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and two Houthi leaders.
It "deplores actions taken by the Houthis to dissolve parliament and take over Yemen's government institutions, including acts of violence."
DEMAND FOR NEGOTIATIONS
It demands the Houthis engage in good faith in U.N.-brokered negotiations on a political settlement, withdraw their forces from government institutions, release Yemen's president, prime minister and other cabinet members from house arrest and stop undermining the political transition and the security of Yemen.
The Houthis started off as a revivalist group for Yemen's Zaydi Shi'ite Muslim sect in the north of the country, before morphing over the past decade into a revolutionary movement with national ambitions, and an ally of Iran.
The resolution "calls on all member states to refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability and instead to support the political transition."
It "demands that all parties in Yemen, cease all armed hostilities against the people and the legitimate authorities of Yemen and relinquish the arms seized from Yemen's military and security institutions."
Tens of thousands of Yemenis demonstrated in several cities on Saturday against the rule of the Houthi movement as clashes between Houthis and Sunnis in a southern mountainous region left 26 dead.
The Security Council called on all parties to ensure the security of diplomats and diplomatic premises. Saudi Arabia, the United States and other western countries have closed embassies due to fears of worsening violence.

(Editing by Stephen Powell and Eric Walsh)

What are Financial Disclosure Reports?

Financial reports contain information about the origin, nature, quantity or value of the income of members, directors, certain employees of the House of Representatives and related offices and candidates for the House of Representatives.

These reports must be submitted to the home office in Title I of the Act on Ethics in Government 1978 requires, as amended. 5 U.S.C. App. 4 § 101 et seq.

Article 8 of the 2012 Act in stock amended by the clerk of the House of Representatives shall be submitted access to public financial reports online by members of Congress and congressional candidates.

Thousands protest against Houthi rule in Yemen after embassies close

    

1 of 14. Pro-Houthi protesters demonstrate to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the uprising that toppled former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa February 11, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemenis in the capital Sanaa and the central city of Taiz held the largest protests yet against a takeover by a Shi'ite Muslim militia group on Wednesday after the United States, Britain and France shut their embassies over security fears.
Hundreds massed in the capital against the Houthi fighters, who manned checkpoints and guarded government buildings they control. The militants, bedecked in tribal robes and automatic rifles, shot in the air and thrust daggers at the crowds opposing their rule.
Tens of thousands of people also carried banners and chanted anti-Houthi slogans in Taiz, which the militants have not taken.
The Iranian-backed Houthi movement has called its seizure of power a revolution and says it wants to rid the country of corruption and economic peril -- though Yemen's rich Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab neighbors say it is a coup.
Yemen had long been at the forefront of the U.S.-led war against al Qaeda, but the long-standing alliance between Washington and Sanaa appears to have ended for now.
The U.S. ambassador and diplomatic staff left the embassy on Wednesday, local workers said, a day after Washington announced it was closing the mission. Embassy workers had already destroyed weapons, computers and documents, they added.
"Recent unilateral actions disrupted the political transition process in Yemen, creating the risk that renewed violence would threaten Yemenis and the diplomatic community in Sanaa," U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.
Despite the embassy shutdown, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Wednesday that the United States was continuing to carry out counter-terrorism operations in Yemen in cooperation with Yemeni officials.
"There continue to be ... U.S. Department of Defense personnel on the ground in Yemen that are coordinating with their counterparts in Yemen," he said.
France and Britain announced the closure of their embassies on Wednesday, and German embassy employees said the mission was getting rid of sensitive documents and would close soon..
The Houthis, who overran Sanaa in September and formally took power last week, are stridently anti-American, and chant "death to America" at rallies.
Abdel Malik al-Ijri, a member of the Houthi movement's political bureau, said on Facebook the decision to close the embassies was "not justified at all and comes in the context of pressure on our people".
"Governments of brotherly and friendly countries in the near future will realize that it is in their interest to deal with the will of our people with due respect," al-Ijri wrote.
He also dismissed a report from U.S. embassy workers that the militants had seized more than 20 of their vehicles, saying they had been taken by airport authorities.
HOUTHI ADVANCE
Houthi forces advanced far into the south on Tuesday night, according to local officials, continuing their expansion of recent months which is raising fears of an all-out civil war.
Leaders and Sunni tribesmen in the southern and eastern regions, which the group has so far not seized, are arming themselves against their push and are in some cases making common cause with Yemeni Al Qaeda militants.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the global militant group's most powerful arms, has repeatedly bombed and attacked Houthi targets.
Other tribes from Yemen's formerly independent south, which has clamored for secession for almost a decade, vowed on Wednesday to repel any Houthi attack.
The Houthi forces are bolstered by army units widely believed to maintain loyalty to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh -- though he denies any link.
Saleh ruled the country for 33 years, balancing the competing interests for Yemen's kaleidoscope of armed tribes, political bosses and militants - a feat he called "dancing on the heads of snakes."
But he was eased out of power after "Arab Spring" protests against his rule in 2011 under a delicate transition plan drawn up by Yemen's rich Sunni Gulf Arab neighbors - all of them opponents of the Houthis.
Those neighbors have called the Houthi takeover a coup. Saleh and his former ruling party have denied an attempt to settle old scores and reassert its control over the country through the Houthis.
The tenure of Saleh's successor, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, was defined by gridlock among Yemen's array of feuding parties. Hadi resigned last month along with his whole government after Houthi gunmen attacked his home.

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Noah Browning; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Hopes of agreement after Ukraine peace talks, source says

Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko (R), Russia's President Vladimir Putin (2nd L), Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (C, front), Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (2nd R) and France's President Francois Hollande (front L) walk as they take part in peace talks on resolving the Ukrainian crisis in Minsk, February 11, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Mykola Lazarenko/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters

MINSK (Reuters) - The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France may be close to agreement following all-night talks on resolving the Ukraine conflict, diplomatic sources said on Thursday.
Details remained unclear after more than 12 hours of peace talks in the Belarus capital Minsk, with one source saying there was hope agreement could reached and another saying a document would be signed.
But the document, which may be a joint declaration rather than a full agreement, may be signed by lower level envoys rather than by the leaders themselves, the sources said.
The sources said any agreement would however be sent to a "contact group" which includes representatives of the pro-Russian rebels, whose involvement could be crucial.
The discussions came as pro-Moscow separatists tightened the pressure on Kiev by launching some of the war's worst fighting on Wednesday, killing 19 Ukrainian soldiers in assaults near the railway town of Debaltseve.
Fighting has already killed more than 5,000 people, and Washington is now openly talking of arming Ukraine to defend itself from "Russian aggression", raising the prospect of a proxy war in the heart of Europe between Cold War foes.
The summit was held in neighboring Belarus under a Franco-German proposal to try to halt the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande joined Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko and Russia's Vladimir Putin for a longer-than-expected meeting that began early on Wednesday evening and continued well into Thursday morning.
A Ukrainian presidential aide, Valeriy Chaly, had earlier described the four-way talks as "a battle of nerves".
As the talks began, Poroshenko said that without a de-escalation of the conflict and a ceasefire the situation would get "out of control".
The outcome of the talks is expected to influence discussions at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, when sanctions against Moscow will be on the agenda.
FUND BAILOUT
The talks were taking place while an International Monetary Fund mission was negotiating a bailout to save Ukraine from bankruptcy.
Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said on Wednesday he hoped for a deal in the next 48 hours and IMF chief Christine Lagarde said she would make a statement early on Thursday.
Kiev and NATO accuse Russia of supplying separatists with men and weapons. Moscow denies it is involved in fighting for territory Putin calls "New Russia".
If the French and German leaders hoped their peace initiative would be met by conciliatory moves on the ground, the prospect of talks appears to have encouraged the pro-Russian rebels determined to drive home their advantage.
Armored columns of Russian-speaking soldiers with no insignia have been advancing for days around Debaltseve. Last week they captured the small town of Vuhlehirsk next to Debaltseve.
On the Russian side of the border, Moscow announced war games on Tuesday on the eve of the talks.
The United States has been openly discussing arming the Ukrainian government, a move that is opposed by European allies who say it would escalate the conflict while falling far short of giving Kiev the firepower needed to win.
President Barack Obama says he has yet to make up his mind on the question of sending weapons. He spoke by phone to Putin on Tuesday, and the White House said he warned the Russian leader that the costs would rise if Moscow kept aiding the separatists.

(Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic, Alessandra Prentice, Margarita Chornokondatrenko, Gabriela Baczynska, Alexander Winning, Vladimir Soldatkin, Aleksandar Vasovic, Lidia Kelly, Richard Balmforth and Andrei Makhovsky; editing by Giles Elgood)

Canada 'inclined' to extend mandate of forces in Iraq: minister

Canada's Defense Minister Jason Kenney speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa February 4, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Chris Wattie

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is inclined to extend the six-month mandate of its military mission in Iraq, which comprises special forces on the ground as well as fighter bombers, Defence Minister Jason Kenney said on Wednesday.
Kenney said the right-of-center Conservative government had not yet taken a formal decision to keep the forces in Iraq beyond the end of March. But his comments were the clearest indication yet from a cabinet minister that Ottawa was likely to do so.
"Our government believes that Canada has a role in fighting the so-called Islamic State terrorists, stopping their campaign of genocide, and we are inclined to continue with that fight," he told CTV television.
Canada has six fighter bombers taking part in U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State attacks as well as around 70 special forces members in northern Iraq.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday sent Congress a request to authorize military force against the militants over the next three years.
Separately, Kenney told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp that Canada would not be committing ground troops to a combat mission in Iraq.
The Canadian special forces have exchanged fire with Islamic State militants at least three times since deploying to train Iraqi forces and also identify targets for air strikes.
Opposition parties say the clashes show Prime Minister Stephen Harper was not telling the truth when he assured legislators last year that the forces would not be involved in combat.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Tom Brown)

Argentine death part of government official

Day of the mysterious death of an Argentine prosecutor for the criminal charges against President Cristina Fernandez is part of an attempt to overthrow its neoliberal and bring to power a government official said Monday.

Comments Gustavo Lopez, state secretary in the presidency after the death of Alberto Nisman January 18 after accusing President to derail the investigation of an attack on a Jewish community center in 1994.

Accusations Nisman and his death shook Argentina and triggered numerous conspiracy theories.

Some Argentines locking his death on the government, while President Fernandez has suggested that it was part of a plot by rogue intelligence agents suffering to tarnish his name.

In any case, has created one of the largest of the seven years of political crisis Fernandez and may increase the chances of an opposition victory in the presidential election in October.

Lopez wrote in a statement that it was the exact purpose.

"We are facing a coup attempt, which aims to get rid of the president, to end this political project that has been governed since 2003 and restore the neoliberal conservative forces that have prevailed for decades to collect their benefits," writes Lopez, who has previously stated to the press about the case Nisman and other issues facing the government.

Lopez said that the government of Fernandez and her late husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner had met many scary forces during their years in power as "international economic interests who live to bear arms trafficking and money laundering money."

"Now have come to take their revenge. They can not stand the Front for Victory (the ruling coalition) wins another presidential term, and whether they should result in a political death to achieve it, they will do," Lopez wrote.

Prosecutor Nisman investigate the attack that killed 85, 1994, was found dead in his apartment with a shot in the head. It is not known whether he committed suicide or was murdered.

Nisman accused Fernandez of trying to cover for Iranian suspects in the attack, to normalize relations with Tehran and get access to Iranian oil. Iran has denied any involvement in the attack.

Fernandez blasted Nisman ridiculous accusations, while the judge in the case said the bombing of his testimony was "wrong".

"Low mass Nisman, which would not pass the exam the first year of university, was not enough to keep the scandal,Lopez wrote. "Their policy is to keep the scandal, so they died."

Bruised Australian PM Abbott survives leadership challenge

1 of 3. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (C) walks to a government party room meeting surrounded by supporters in Canberra's Parliament House February 9, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/Sean Davey

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott survived a challenge to his leadership on Monday after his ruling Liberal Party voted down a motion to unseat him after weeks of infighting, but the attempted revolt appears likely to weaken his grip on power.
In a secret party room ballot, a vote to declare the positions of party leader and deputy leader vacant was defeated by 61 votes to 39, a party official told reporters.
In a short televised statement following the vote, Abbott insisted the turmoil was over and called for unity within the conservative party and the country.
"The Liberal Party has dealt with the spill motion and now this matter is behind us," Abbott said.
"We think that when you elect a government, when you elect a prime minister, you deserve to keep that government and that prime minister until you have a chance to change your mind."
Still, a consensus appeared to be forming that the large number of votes against Abbott indicated a lack of support so damaging as to potentially render him a lame duck.
"It does suggest to me continuing instability, because 40 percent of your party has just expressed no confidence in you," Rod Tiffen, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Sydney, told Reuters.
"I think that it means leadership speculation will be on the agenda in Australian politics until it's resolved by Abbott's exit, really."
Following the vote, online gambling site Sportingbet.com.au had Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull as the favorite to be prime minister at the next election, with a A$1 bet paying out at A$1.60. Abbott was at odds of A$2.75, while Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was A$6.50, an indication of the damage done.
KNIGHTHOOD FUROR
The motion was brought on Friday by an MP from Western Australia after mounting criticism of Abbott's leadership, culminating in his awarding of an Australian knighthood to Queen Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip.
No member of the government had indicated a direct challenge to Abbott, although most attention had focused on Turnbull, a former party leader toppled by Abbott.
The prime minister has faced a torrent of criticism in recent weeks over policy decisions ranging from his handling of the economy to the knighthood.
Abbott, who had described the call for a leadership vote as a "very chastening experience", vowed ahead of the poll to be more consultative in his approach after several of his so-called "captain's calls" backfired on his administration.
If Abbott had been ousted, Australia would have had its sixth prime minister in eight years.
Opinion polls have consistently shown voters prefer Turnbull to lead the party but his support for a carbon trading scheme, gay marriage and an Australian republic have made him unpopular with the right wing of his party.
Bishop, also deputy leader of Abbott's party, had been touted as either a potential successor to Abbott or party deputy under Turnbull.
Seen as one of the best-performing ministers in Abbott's cabinet, Bishop had said she would vote against the motion but had not ruled out standing if the positions had been declared vacant.
Removing Abbott would have required more than 51 of the 101 members of the federal Liberal Party at the party-room vote.
($1 = 1.2834 Australian dollars)
(Additional reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Dean Yates)

China executes businessman linked to former security tsar

Liu Han, former chairman of Hanlong Mining, smokes a cigarette during a conference in Mianyang, Sichuan province, in this picture taken March 21, 2008.
Credit: Reuters/Stringer

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities on Monday executed a former mining tycoon connected to the eldest son of retired domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, himself the focus of a high-profile corruption investigation, state media reported.
The High People's Court in the central province of Hubei ordered the execution of Liu Han, the former chairman of unlisted Hanlong Group, who was given the death sentence last May, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The case against Liu was one of the most prominent involving a private businessman since President Xi Jinping took office two years ago and began a campaign against pervasive graft.
Liu, who once ranked as China's 230th richest person, was tried last year, along with 36 others, accused of murder and running what state media called a "mafia-style" gang.
Liu's younger brother, Liu Wei, and three others were also executed, according to Xinhua.
China last year announced a probe into Zhou Yongkang, one of its most influential politicians of the last decade, in a case that has its roots in a power struggle in the ruling Communist Party.
Sources have told Reuters Liu was once a business associate of Zhou's eldest son, Zhou Bin. State media have not explicitly linked Liu's case to Zhou Yongkang, but have said his rise coincided with Zhou's time as Sichuan's party boss.
The party has already gone after several of Zhou's protégées, including Jiang Jiemin, who was the top regulator of state-owned enterprises.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Amid 'challenging' times, Thailand and U.S. start scaled down drills

NAKHON NAYOK, Thailand 

NAKHON NAYOK, Thailand (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday its relationship with longtime ally Thailand was going through a "challenging" period as the two sides began a major military exercise, scaled down over Washington's concerns about the junta leadership.
Cobra Gold, the largest military exercise in the Asia-Pacific, has been held annually in Thailand for more than three decades, but the United States scaled the drill back this year after sanctioning Bangkok for last year's coup.
"We can't deny that this period is a challenging one and has necessitated a modified Cobra Gold as Thailand manages its return to democracy," U.S. charge d'affaires Patrick Murphy said in a speech at the opening ceremony for Cobra Gold at a military academy in Nakhon Nayok, east of Bangkok.
The Thai army took control last May saying it needed to restore order after months of political unrest that killed nearly 30 people. The United States responded by freezing $4.7 million of security-related aid and cancelling some security cooperation.
Comments by a visiting U.S. envoy last month, including that Thailand immediately lift martial law which has been in place since May, further strained ties. Senior Thai ministers responded by telling the U.S. not to meddle in Thailand's political affairs.
Last week Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief, said a general election would take place in 2016 but stopped short of giving a specific date. His military government has said martial law will remain in place indefinitely.
Washington has sent 3,600 troops for this year's exercise, down from 4,300 last year, the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok said in an e-mailed statement.
The exercise comes as Thailand seeks to counterbalance its ties with Washington by cozying up to regional superpower China which says it supports the Thai military government.
Ian Storey, senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore specializing in Asian security issues, said that cancelling the exercise could have had major security implications in the region.
"Cancelling them would have created an opportunity for Beijing to strengthen its strategic ties to Bangkok, and that is clearly something that is not in Washington's interests in the context of U.S.- China competition in Southeast Asia," he said.
Last year's coup was the latest chapter in over a decade of political jostling in Thailand including sometimes violent struggles between the Bangkok-based middle classes and elite, who revile former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his family and see them as a threat to the conservative political status quo, and his mostly rural supporters in the north and northeast.
(This story was refiled to remove extraneous Murphy in para 3)

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

TransAsia pilots face test on dealing with engine failure

Relatives of the victims pray during a Buddhist ritual near the wreckage of TransAsia Airways plane Flight GE235 after it crash landed into a river, in New Taipei City, February 5, 2015.
Credit: Reuters/River Wang

TAIPEI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Pilots at Taiwan's TransAsia Airways are being tested on how they handle an engine failure and subsequent emergency, days after the fatal crash of one of the airline's ATR 72-600s, an official from the country's aviation regulator said.
Initial data from the flight recorders indicates the plane lost power in one engine just after take-off from Taipei's Songshan airport, Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council (ASC) said on Friday..
The crew then shut down the other engine, which was working, and attempted to restart it shortly before the aircraft crashed into a river killing at least 40 people.
Commercial aircraft can fly with just one working engine, and the authorities have not released any information from the recorders that indicates why the pilots shut down the working engine.
They said on Friday, however, that a combined loss of thrust caused the almost new aircraft to stall soon after take-off. The aircraft then lurched over buildings and banked sharply to the left before crashing upside down in the shallow river.
Officials in Taiwan and industry analysts say evidence presented so far raises questions over whether the crew may have accidentally cut the wrong engine.
"There must have been something wrong with what the crew did," said a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) official, who did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
"It's a very big deal to turn off one engine after take- off. It needs to be double checked by the crew."
It was the second TransAsia ATR crash in seven months, and the fifth involving the airline since 1995, raising questions about safety standards at Taiwan's third largest carrier.
The CAA said the flight tests would only involve TransAsia's 71 ATR pilots, and not those who fly its Airbus aircraft. Pilots from China Airlines and EVA Air, Taiwan's two largest airlines, were not being tested.
The CAA official said the test results would be released on Wednesday.
The move has been questioned by Taiwan's pilots' union, which said crashes happen due to a combination of factors.
"The CAA and the ASC can't just jump to a conclusion like that," said Lee Ping-chung, secretary general of the union. "It could be mechanical, the weather, airline's management of pilots and how tired pilots are."
TransAsia said on Sunday it would cancel 52 flights Monday and Tuesday, in addition to the 90 already canceled following the crash.
Rescuers have recovered 40 bodies, with three still missing. Fifteen people survived.
A fuller preliminary report on the crash will be available in the next 30 days, with a final one expected in the next three to six months.
(This version of the story corrects spelling of TransAsia in the intro and removes extraneous word in penultimate para)

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Perfume for Valentine day

Good things to carry, or to give as gifts for Valentine's day

What is the best perfume for Valentine date day? We help you set the stage forromance with our favorite scents of Valentine's day. (Friends, these make greatgifts also - information nytimes).

• Perfume Thierry Mugler Angel

This best-selling fragrance is an excellent choice if you have a hot date for Valentine's day. Best delicious notes of chocolate, vanilla and caramel will appealto your senses, trying to eat dessert. Honey and fruit flavors complement thefragrance popular, giving a deeply attractive appeal.

• Fragrance for women of Victoria Secret sexy

This best-selling fragrance offers appeal Fri of big-time, keep young things. Veryattractive comes in beautiful with vanilla sexy and juicy fruit, but it deepens withtime into something richer and attractive, with a background of wood andamber notes. This is a fabulous fragrance for hugs and closer.

• Lancome Tresor de Parfum

Tresor is a fragrance very romantic, so it is an ideal choice for Valentine's day.Lush floral and shameless, is an intensely feminine fragrance which attractedmore charms. Use it with confidence on a first date, or for a special dinner withhis long-term love.

• Addict Dior Perfume Christian Dior

If you want to seduce, this vampy fragrance may be your best bet. Its mixture ofsugar and spices fascination is strong from the beginning, and delves into thetime into something mysterious and exotic. See this mixture of cinnamon,vanilla, patchouli, cedar, jasmine and myrrh, and you will be hard to resist.

• Perfume Vera Wang Vera Wang

Looking at a proposal to persuade this Valentine's day? Get a hold of this classicdesign Vera Wang perfume. The designer, known for their wedding dresses,created this floral fragrance romantic for brides wear on their wedding day. Itsfresh and beautiful floral fragrance very well translated Valentine's day also.

• Perfume intimately Beckham women by David and Victoria Beckham

Fresh naughty, as the pair of power that created it, this perfume is a great choicefor dinner of Valentine's day at home with someone special. Floral notesromantic combine with Spicy Orange, cinnamon and myrrh on a base of vanillaand amber hot signal and call.

• Armani code perfume women's Armani

Keep things light and fun for Valentine's day with this modern floral fragrance.Orange Blossom PEAR top notes and Ginger evoke a State of spirit girl next door, with background notes of honey and vanilla by adding a dose flirt. This is agreat perfume for day dates, or to carry everywhere that friend that you arewaiting to get closer.

Islamic State says U.S. hostage killed in air strike in Syria

Credit: Reuters/Courtesy Mueller family

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State said on Friday that an American woman hostage it was holding in Syria was killed when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building where she was being held, but Jordan expressed doubt about the Islamist militant group's account of her death.
In Washington, U.S. officials said they could not confirm that the woman, 26-year-old humanitarian worker Kayla Mueller of Prescott, Arizona, had been killed.
Her family said in a statement on Friday they are hopeful she is alive and asked Islamic State to contact them.
Mueller was the last-known American hostage held by Islamic State, which controls wide areas of Syria and Iraq.
The group has beheaded three other Americans, two Britons and two Japanese hostages - most of them aid workers or journalists - in recent months. Mueller was taken hostage while leaving a hospital in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in August 2013.
The group's latest claim, detailed by the SITE monitoring group, came just days after it released a video on Tuesday showing a captured Jordanian pilot, Mouath al-Kasaesbeh, being burned alive in a cage.
Jordan's King Abdullah, who was in Washington discussing how to deal with Islamic State militants when the video was made public, vowed to avenge the pilot's death and ordered a stepped-up military role in the U.S.-led coalition against the group.
Jordan said it had carried out a second straight day of air strikes on Friday on Islamic State positions.
"We are looking into it but our first reaction is that we think it is illogical and we are highly skeptical about it. ... It's part of their criminal propaganda," government spokesman Mohammad Momani said in response to Islamic State's account of what happened to Mueller.
"How could they identify Jordanian war planes from a huge distance in the sky? What would an American woman be doing in a weapons warehouse?" Momani said.
Hours after the release of the video showing the pilot burning to death, Jordanian authorities executed two al Qaeda militants who had been imprisoned on death row, including a woman who had tried to blow herself up in a suicide bombing and whose release had been demanded by Islamic State.
WHITE HOUSE 'DEEPLY CONCERNED'
In a statement released by a family representative, Mueller's parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller of Arizona, asked the Islamic State group to contact the family privately.
"You told us that you treated Kayla as your guest, as your guest her safety and well-being remains your responsibility," they said in a message directed to "those in positions of responsibility for holding Kayla."
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said the United States was "deeply concerned" over the report but had not seen "any evidence that corroborates" the group's account.
Islamic State, in a message monitored by SITE, said Mueller died when the building in which she was being held outside Raqqa, a stronghold of the group, collapsed in a Jordanian air strike on Friday.
"The air assaults were continuous on the same location for more than an hour," Islamic State said, according to SITE.
The group released photos of what it said were the building's wreckage but did not include photos of Mueller.
French journalist Nicolas Henin, a former captive of the group in Syria who gained his freedom last April, said on Twitter: "Kayla Mueller was among the very last of my former cellmates still detained. I was full of hope she could have a way out."
The U.S. military last summer carried out an unsuccessful mission to rescue American hostages held by the group in Syria.
Reuters and other Western news organizations were aware Mueller was being held hostage but did not name her at the request of her family members, who believed the militants would harm her if her case received publicity.
'WHERE IS THE WORLD?'
Mueller, a 2009 Northern Arizona University graduate, had a long record of volunteering abroad and was moved by the plight of civilians in Syria's civil war.
"For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal - something we just accept," Mueller's local newspaper The Daily Courier quoted her in 2013 as saying.
"When Syrians hear I'm an American, they ask, 'Where is the world?' All I can do is cry with them, because I don't know," Mueller said.
She had worked for a Turkish aid organization on the Syrian border and volunteered for schools and aid organizations abroad including in the West Bank, Israel and India.
"The common thread of Kayla's life has been her quiet leadership and strong desire to serve others," according to a statement from her family's representative.
Islamic State previously executed American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto and Goto's friend, Haruna Yukawa.
Among the hostages still thought to be held by the group is British photojournalist John Cantlie.
Jordan is a major U.S. ally in the fight against militant Islamist groups. It is home to U.S. military trainers bolstering defenses at the Syrian and Iraqi borders, and is determined to keep the jihadists in Syria and Iraq from crossing its frontiers.

(Additional reporting by Alistair Bell, Susan Heavey in Washington and Fiona Ortiz in Chicago; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Tom Brown, Sandra Maler and Paul Tait

Afghan families flee persecution in Pakistan after school attack: IOM

KABUL (Reuters) - Thousands of Afghan families are fleeing Pakistan to escape harassment after a deadly Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar in December, the head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Afghanistan said on Saturday.
More than 22,000 undocumented Afghans flocked across the border at Torkham in January, more than twice the figure for the whole of 2014, said Richard Danzinger, the IOM's mission chief in Afghanistan.
Almost 1,500 others were deported in the same month, double the number of deportees in December.
"It all started with the attack on the school in Peshawar," Danzinger told Reuters. "When something horrible happens, people start taking it out on foreigners."
Taliban militants attacked a school in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar in December, killing more than 130 children and prompting Pakistan to step up operations against insurgent hideouts along the border with Afghanistan.
Cooperation between Afghan and Pakistani security forces has also improved since the attack and led to the arrest of suspects in Afghanistan, where officials believe it was planned by the Pakistani Taliban.
Afghans living in Pakistan, however, face a backlash and are reporting incidents of harassment, such as raids on their homes and police coercion, according to the IOM and other officials.
Most of the Afghan families had settled in Pakistan decades earlier, Danzinger said, and had nowhere to go once they returned.
"Their lives are in Pakistan," he said, adding it was unclear how long they would remain in Afghanistan.
The flow of undocumented returnees has increased steadily in January, rising from around 350 in the first week to around 1,400 in the final week of the month.
"It is very difficult to predict at the moment," Danzinger said of the upward trend. "We've not seen it slow down, let's put it that way."
The unexpected arrival of thousands has put pressure on Afghanistan's limited resources and only the most vulnerable are being given assistance.
About 10 percent of those arriving so far have access to assistance and the IOM had been forced to pull some of its resources away from the western border with Iran to cope, Danzinger said.
The IOM says it needs another $1.6 million in funds for 2015 to cope.

Niger forces kill 109 Boko Haram militants in battle: state TV

NIAMEY Fri Feb 6, 2015 6:27pm EST

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's forces killed 109 fighters from the Islamist militant group Boko Haram on Friday as they repulsed attacks on the southeastern town of Bosso, near the Nigerian border, Niger state television said.
Four soldiers from Niger were killed in the fighting against Boko Haram, whose insurgency is spreading from Nigeria to neighboring states.

(Reporting by Abdoulaye Massalaki; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Troops kill eight in highway battles in northern Mexico

MEXICO CITY Wed Feb 4, 2015 10:22pm EST

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican federal troops killed eight alleged gang members on Wednesday in battles along a highway near the U.S. border in the northern state of Tamaulipas, a region plagued by a bloody dispute between drug cartels.
The gunmen were killed in separate battles after they hijacked buses and used them to block a highway between the cities of Matamoros and Reynosa, opposite the Texas border towns of Brownsville and McAllen, a federal and state police task force said.
An explosive device was also found and deactivated in front of the mayor's office in Matamoros, the task force added.
Residents rely on reports from social media to learn about frequent gun battles, which can rage for hours.
Local media, which have been repeatedly attacked by the gangs, refrain from reporting the violence.
The U.S. consulate in Matamoros issued a statement on Wednesday warning American citizens of the spike in violence, which it said had been attributed to a battle between Matamoros and Reynosa factions of the Gulf Cartel.
The consulate said staff had been advised to restrict travel in the city, noting that there had been a surge in violence and an increase in reports of large convoys of armed drug gang members driving through Matamoros.
"While daytime convoys of armed Transnational Criminal Organization members are not necessarily unusual for Matamoros, the amount of violence that has resulted from gun battles between these rival factions is cause for increased vigilance," the consulate said in a statement on its website.
Besides trafficking illegal drugs, the gangs also kidnap and extort money from Central American immigrants seeking to enter the United States illegally. In 2010 and 2011 the Zetas were linked to massacres of migrants fleeing poverty and violence in their own countries.
Tamaulipas state led the country in kidnappings in 2014, with 264 cases compared with 211 in 2013. Homicides rose to 628 in 2014 compared with 555 in the previous year, according to federal data.

(Reporting by Anahi Rama and Lizbeth Diaz. Editing by Andre Grenon and Ken Wills)

One killed in attack on KFC restaurant north of Cairo: report

CAIRO Thu Feb 5, 2015 2:53am EST

CAIRO (Reuters) - One person was killed in an attack on a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in a town north of Cairo early on Thursday, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported.

A fire broke out at the restaurant in a town in the province of Menoufia, 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital, after assailants on a motorcycle threw flammable materials and then opened fire, it said. One person was wounded.

Frequent small-scale attacks, often on security forces, have hurt Egypt's efforts to project an image of stability after four years of turmoil triggered by the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. Egypt hosts an investment conference next month in the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, in the southern Sinai Peninsula.

In the main Sinai city of El-Arish, gunmen in a car opened fire on policemen guarding a hotel used by police officers, killing one and wounding another, security officials said.

Last week, Islamic State's Egypt affiliate claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula that killed at least 30 people.

Islamist militants based in Sinai have stepped up attacks on police and soldiers since the army toppled president Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July of 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

Hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed.

Egypt has launched a fierce crackdown against Islamists, conducting counterinsurgency operations in Sinai against militants who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State and systematically repressing Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

The Brotherhood, which says it is committed to peaceful activism, has accused the military of staging a coup and rolling back freedoms won in the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

(Reporting By Ali Abdelaty; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Michael Georgy and Dominic Evans)

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Gunmen storm Libya's al-Mabrook oilfield: NOC

TRIPOLI Wed Feb 4, 2015 3:03am EST

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Gunmen have stormed the al-Mabrook oilfield in central Libya, a spokesman for state-run National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Wednesday.
"Unknown gunmen stormed the Mabrook oilfield last night,"
NOC spokesman Mohamed El Harari said, without providing details.
The oilfield is run by NOC and France's Total and was closed when the Es Sider oil port shut down in December due to clashes.
(Reporting by Uld Laessing; editing by Jason Neely)

China rebukes Norway for expelling scholar: state media

BEIJING Tue Feb 3, 2015 9:28pm EST

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has rebuked Norway for "violating the rights" of a Chinese scholar who was expelled from the country, state media said, in the latest friction that could strain ties already tense over a Nobel Peace Prize for a Chinese dissident.
Norwegian police had ordered the Chinese doctorate student working at the University of Agder to leave Norway before Jan. 23, state news agency Xinhua said late on Tuesday.
Ma Qiang, a political counselor at the Chinese embassy in Norway, raised the issue with Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Xinhua said.
He was quoted as saying that China was highly concerned about the issue and believed the action by Norwegian police against the student, who had been working on a wind-power project at the university for two years, was "totally baseless and unreasonable".
Xinhua cited Norwegian broadcasting company NRK as saying that Norwegian authorities made the decision out of fear the student's expertise could be used "for military purposes in other countries".
"It is an infringement of the scholar's rights, which has a damaging effect on Norway's reputation and image in the international academic world and a negative impact on bilateral ties between China and Norway," Ma was quoted as saying.
Norway's diplomatic relations with China have been frozen since 2010 when the Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to dissident Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year jail sentence in China on subversion charges.
China canceled meetings with Norwegian officials and denied visas to visiting dignitaries, even though Norway's government says it has no influence over the Nobel Committee.
Last year, China said it approved of a decision by Norway's prime minister and foreign minister not to meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama - another Nobel laureate - when he visited Norway.
(This story was refiled to fix typographic error in quote in paragraph 6)
(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Robert Birsel)

Jordan hangs two Iraqi militants in response to pilot's death

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN Wed Feb 4, 2015 2:26am EST

1 of 6. Jordanian security forces leave Swaqa prison near Amman, following the execution of two Iraqi prisoners, February 4, 2015.

Credit: Reuters/Muhammad Hamed

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan hanged two Iraqi jihadists on Wednesday including a female militant in response to an Islamic State video appearing to show a captured Jordanian pilot being burnt alive by the hardline group.

Islamic State had demanded the release of the woman, Sajida al-Rishawi, in exchange for a Japanese hostage who was later killed. Sentenced to death in 2005 for her a role in a suicide bomb attack in Amman, Rishawi was executed at dawn, a security source and state television said.

Jordan, which is part of the U.S.-led alliance against Islamic State, has promised an "earth-shaking response" to the killing of its pilot, Muath al-Kasaesbeh, who was captured in December when his F-16 crashed over northeastern Syria.

Authorities also executed a senior al Qaeda prisoner, an Iraqi man who was sentenced to death in 2008.

The fate of Kasaesbeh, a member of a large tribe that forms the backbone of support for the country's Hashemite monarchy, has gripped Jordan for weeks and some Jordanians have criticized King Abdullah for embroiling them in the U.S.-led war that they say will provoke a militant backlash.

The Jordanian army has vowed to avenge his death, and some analysts believe it could escalate its involvement in the campaign against Islamic State, which has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria, Jordan's neighbors to the north and east.

The prisoners were executed in Swaqa prison, a large facility 70 km (45 miles) south of the capital, Amman, just before dawn, a security source who was familiar with the case said.

"They were both calm and showed no emotions and just prayed," the source added without elaborating.

Rishawi, in her mid-forties, was sentenced to death for her role in the 2005 suicide attack at a luxury hotel in Amman. She was meant to die in the attack - the worst in Jordan's history - but her suicide bomb belt did not go off.

Scores of Jordanians, infuriated by Kasaesbeh's killing, gathered at midnight in a main square in Amman calling for revenge and her quick execution.

Holding placards showing images of the pilot, several youths chanted "Death, Death to Daesh," using a pejorative Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Jordan said on Tuesday the pilot had been killed a month ago. The government had been picking up intelligence for weeks that the pilot was killed some time ago, a source close to the government said.

Disclosing that information appeared to be an attempt to counter domestic criticism that the government could have done more to strike a deal with Islamic State to save him.

In Karak, Kasaesbeh's hometown in southern Jordan, dozens of protesters had attacked a government building late on Tuesday, blaming the authorities for failing to do enough to save him.

Tribal elders calmed the crowd down.

The second executed militant was Ziyad Karboli, an Iraqi al Qaeda operative, convicted for killing a Jordanian, said the security source, who declined to be identified.

U.S. ALLY

Jordan is a major U.S. ally in the fight against hardline Islamist groups and hosted U.S. troops during operations that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It is home to hundreds of U.S. military trainers bolstering defenses in the Syrian and Iraqi borders.

Jordanian state television broadcast archive footage of military maneuvers with patriotic music, with a picture of Kasaesbeh in his army uniform in the corner of the screen.

King Abdullah cut short a visit to the United States to return home following word of Kasaesbeh's death. In a televised statement, he said the pilot's killing was an act of "cowardly terror" by a deviant group that had no relation to Islam.

He urged Jordanians to unite and said the militants were "criminals" who had distorted the Islamic faith.

Jordan is determined to keep the jihadists in Syria away from its border. It has tightened security on its frontier since Syria descended into civil war in 2011 has helped to keep Islamic State out of southern Syria.

U.S. officials said on Tuesday the killing of Kasaesbeh would likely harden Jordan's position as a member of the coalition against Islamic State.

The executed woman came from Iraq's Anbar province bordering Jordan. Her tribal Iraqi relatives were close aides of the slain Jordanian leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, from whose group Islamic State emerged.

Islamic State had demanded her release in exchange for the life of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. However, Goto was later beheaded by the group, with images of his death released in a video last Saturday.

Jordan had insisted that they would only release the woman as part of a deal to free the pilot.

Several politicians have called on the government to pull out of the coalition. The authorities said his death would not weaken resolve to fight militant Islamist groups.

The Jordanian pilot is the first from the coalition known to have been captured and killed by Islamic State.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

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