Efforts under way to confirm Qaeda boss death in Mali

BAMAKO: Algeria was seeking Saturday to confirm the reported killing of Al-Qaeda's top commander in northern Mali, where French and African troops attempted to flush out Islamist fighters from desert and mountain hideouts.Chad's president announced on Friday that his troops had killed Abou Zeid days earlier, in what would be one of the worst blows to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in...

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Tennis: Federer beaten by Berdych again

DUBAI: Roger Federer's defence of the Dubai Open title came to a dramatic end in the semi-finals after he failed to convert three match points against Tomas Berdych, the man who also upset him in the US Open.The world number six from the Czech Republic thrillingly turned the match around after a neck-and-neck second set tie-break, going on to win 3-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4 against the five-time...

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Amid US budget battle, another likely missed deadline

WASHINGTON: Leaders of a divided Congress acknowledged their failure to avert across-the-board spending cuts set to begin Friday, with lawmakers and the White House trading blame for the doomsday scenario that may lie ahead.The only related actions of substance Thursday appeared to be votes on competing Senate bills, one sponsored by Democrats and the other by Republicans, to replace the...

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US army forced to release WikiLeaks case documents

FORT MEADE, Maryland: The US Army published dozens of documents online Wednesday in the case of WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning, after media outlets and other groups had criticized a lack of transparency.The move came in response to multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to the case against Manning, who stands accused of passing a trove of secret files to Julian...

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Oscars host says "no way" doing it again

LOS ANGELES: Oscars host Seth MacFarlane said Tuesday there is "no way" he will do the show again, after his performance was widely criticized as offensive and dull.The "Family Guy" creator insisted it was fun to have hosted the 85th Academy Awards on Sunday, despite media and online critics panning the show, notably for jokes about actresses' breasts and Jews in Hollywood.The choice of...

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US special forces told to leave key Afghan province

KABUL: Afghanistan's president has ordered US special forces to leave a strategic province as he seeks tighter control over Afghan militia, exacerbating tensions before the 2014 withdrawal of NATO troops.Hamid Karzai on Sunday gave American special forces two weeks to pull out of Wardak, a hotbed of Taliban activity on the doorstep of Kabul, accusing Afghans they work with of torture and...

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Calls mount for US action against Chinese hack attacks

WASHINGTON: Calls mounted Sunday for stiffer US action against Beijing for cyber spying and massive theft of US industrial secrets, allegedly by the Chinese military.Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said it was "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that the Chinese military was behind a growing wave of hacking attacks on US businesses and institutions."They use their...

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Fighting rages in northern Mali after suicide bombs

BAMAKO: Tuareg militias battled Arab rebels in northern Mali Saturday, while French jets, US drones and Chad's elite desert forces were also in action in a major push to stamp out resistance from pockets of Islamist fighters.After recapturing the north's cities from the Al Qaeda groups that had controlled them since April 2012, the six-week-old French-led offensive took the fight to the...

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Slovenian government slapped with no-confidence motion

LJUBLJANA: Slovenia's main opposition party Positive Slovenia (PS) filed Friday a no-confidence vote motion against the government, likely spelling an end for Prime Minister Janez Jansa's troubled administration."We have decided to bring this agony to an end," the head of PS's parliamentary group Jani Moderndorfer said after filing the motion in parliament.The centre-left party suggested...

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Massive winter storm blankets central US

CHICAGO: A massive winter storm blanketed much of the central United States Thursday and looked set to keep dumping heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain for days as it makes its way slowly towards the east coast.The National Weather service reported that as much as 38 centimetres of snow had fallen in parts of Colorado and New Mexico by Thursday morning and warned that many areas would...

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EU nears national budget oversight

BRUSSELS: The EU moved closer Wednesday to centralised oversight on national budgets, negotiators said, an increasingly sensitive topic as Brussels readies to issue new economic forecasts with France in the firing line over puny growth and a probable deficit overshoot.Long-contested tweaks to a package of laws designed to harmonise economic governance especially across the eurozone met...

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Pistorius says "no intention" to kill girlfriend

PRETORIA: South African Olympic hero Oscar Pistorius on Tuesday tearfully denied the premeditated murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, telling a court he shot at her through a locked bathroom door believing she was an intruder."I am absolutely mortified by the events and the devastating loss of my beloved Reeva," Pistorius said in an affidavit at a court hearing in the capital...

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Shadow of corruption scandal looms over Spanish royal family

MADRID: Spanish King Juan Carlos' son-in-law will be questioned Saturday by a judge investigating a corruption case as press reports make new revelations that cast a growing shadow on the entire royal family.Inaki Urdangarin and former partner Diego Torres are suspected of siphoning off millions of euros paid by regional governments to the Noos Institute, a charitable organisation which...

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Tennis: Azarenka beats Serena to retain Qatar title

DOHA: Victoria Azarenka avenged the loss of her world number one ranking to Serena Williams by beating the American for only the second time in 13 attempts to successfully defend her Qatar Open title on Sunday.The Belarusian's 7-6 (8/6), 2-6, 6-3 win over the legendary American also completed back-to-back title defences, as last month she also defended the Australian Open title in Melbourne."I...

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Slain Pistorius girlfriend leaves haunting TV message

JOHANNESBURG: A celebrity television show on Saturday aired haunting footage of Oscar Pistorius' slain girlfriend speaking about the need to leave a positive mark on life, words laden with unintended poignancy two days after her shocking death."Not just your journey in life, but the way that you go out and make your exit is so important, you have either made an impact in a positive way...

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US mulls calls to restore N. Korea to terror list

WASHINGTON: The United States has not decided whether to put North Korea back on a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, but its status is regularly reviewed, a top US official said Friday.The comments came as the US House of Representatives Friday overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning North Korea's nuclear test earlier this week, and urging the administration to apply all...

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Olympics: Hands off wrestling, say Greeks

ATHENS: Greece threw its weight behind the campaign to keep wrestling, a sport which has survived from the ancient Olympics, on the Games programme on Thursday.Greek Sports Undersecretary Giannis Ioannidis called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) not to remove the sport from the 2020 programme.In a letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge, Ioannidis said he expressed the feelings...

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Bahrainis protest on eve of revolt anniversary

MANAMA: Thousands of Bahraini Shiites took to the streets Wednesday on the eve of the second anniversary of their crushed uprising, as a national dialogue aimed at ending a political stalemate resumed.Following a call by opposition groups, demonstrators marched in 12 villages and chanted anti-regime slogans, witnesses said, amid calls for a general strike and nationwide protests on Thursday...

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Fears of 'catastrophic' violence in tense Mali

GAO, Mali: Mali risks descending into "catastrophic" violence, the UN rights chief warned on Tuesday, as tensions swept the country after a string of attacks by Islamist rebels on French-led forces.After four days of suicide bombings and guerrilla fighting in the northern city of Gao, fears of fresh attacks were high following a call from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) - which...

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NKorea withdraws from nuclear test site: report

SEOUL: North Korea has pulled manpower and equipment out of its nuclear test site, a report said Monday, which cited the move as a possible sign of an imminent blast.South Korea's Yonhap news agency said that Seoul has been keeping close watch on the underground Punggye-ri nuclear test site, as no movement of manpower and equipment has been observed there since Friday.The agency quoted...

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