Yahoo! News: World News

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• South Korea holds security meeting over death of North Korea leader's brother
• Duterte targets Philippine children in bid to widen drug war
• Sold into marriage: how Rohingya girls become child brides in Malaysia
• Nervous NATO allies seek reassurance from Trump's defense chief
• Trump backs Middle East peace, even if not tied to two-state solution
• Evacuees from California dam allowed home even as storms near
• Guatemala buries 2 murdered children found in sacks
• US will not insist on two-state solution in Mideast: White House
• America's Cup champion Oracle Team USA unveils new boat
• Matsuyama still hoping to play Olympic golf at Kasumigaseki
• Knife-wielding attackers kill five in China's Xinjiang: govt
• Indonesians vote in local polls after bitter fight to run Jakarta
• Trump knew Flynn misled WH weeks before ouster: officials
• Trump approves California disaster assistance after storms, flooding
• Colombian president's campaign got no Odebrecht bribes: accused senator
• Mexico says device containing radioactivity stolen
• Qualifier King upsets Tomic in first round of Memphis Open
• Day faces big challenge to stay at No. 1
• Paraguay's Central Bank to count 30 tons of Venezuelan bills
• Top Asian News 12:48 a.m. GMT
• Sri Lankan prime minister says refugees safe to come home
• Polls open in divisive vote for Indonesia capital governor
• Argentina prosecutor seeks approval to investigate president
• US official: Russia deployed missile in violation of treaty
• Venezuela prosecutors raid Odebrecht offices in bribe probe
• Study of footballers' brains highlights dementia concerns
• G20 urged to ditch fossil fuel subsidies by 2020, go green
• 2 live men found tied to bridge in Mexican border city
• Thousands bury two boys kidnapped, murdered in Guatemala
• Royal Caribbean cruise ship departs Florida after day delay
• Hollande demands 'justice' in alleged French police rape
• Exclusive: Australia increases pressure, cash offers for PNG asylum seekers to return home
• Three suspects charged in France over 'terror plot'
• Russian jets pound Syrian city of Deraa after rebel gains
• U.N. names new head of peace-keeping operations
• Trump administration sued over protection for vanishing bumble bee
• South Korea PM calls security meeting over death of North Korean leader's half-brother

South Korea holds security meeting over death of North Korea leader's brother Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:34 PM PST South Korea's prime minister will preside over a national security council meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss the suspected murder of the North Korean leader's estranged half-brother in Malaysia, his office said. Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was found dead in Malaysia, according to Malaysian police on Tuesday. U.S. government sources have told Reuters they believe he had been murdered by North Korean agents.

Duterte targets Philippine children in bid to widen drug war Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:34 AM PST By Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshall MANILA (Reuters) - Before Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs had even begun, allies of the Philippines president were quietly preparing for a wider offensive. On June 30, as Duterte was sworn in, they introduced a bill into the Philippine Congress that could allow children as young as nine to be targeted in a crackdown that has since claimed more than 7,600 lives. The bill proposes to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9 years old to prevent what it calls "the pampering of youthful offenders who commit crimes knowing they can get away with it." "You can ask any policeman or anyone connected with the law enforcement: We produce a generation of criminals," Duterte said in a speech in Manila on December 12.

Sold into marriage: how Rohingya girls become child brides in Malaysia Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:07 PM PST By Rozanna Latiff and Ebrahim Harris KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The slight girl in a turquoise headscarf held back tears as she recalled what happened when she fled to Malaysia from Myanmar's violence-hit Rakhine state. The teenager, who is not being named by Reuters because she is still only 13, is like hundreds of Rohingya girls escaping persecution, violence and apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine, only to be sold into marriage to Rohingya men in neighboring Malaysia, migrant groups and community members said. Separated from her family while escaping to Malaysia, she said she was caught by traffickers and held for weeks in a filthy and brutal jungle camp near the Thai-Malaysian border with dozens of others.

Nervous NATO allies seek reassurance from Trump's defense chief Posted: 14 Feb 2017 03:10 PM PST By Robin Emmott and Phil Stewart BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European allies will tell the United States' new defense secretary on Wednesday that NATO is not the weak alliance U.S. President Donald Trump has accused it of being, at one of the most anticipated NATO meetings in years. At their first face-to-face encounter with Jim Mattis, European defense ministers will also seek reassurances from their U.S. counterpart that Trump is committed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has guaranteed Europe's security for almost 70 years. "Mattis's performance is going to be really important," said Adam Thomson, a former British ambassador to NATO and director of the European Leadership Network think tank in London.

Trump backs Middle East peace, even if not tied to two-state solution Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:12 PM PST U.S. President Donald Trump supports the goal of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, even if it doesn't involve the two-state solution, a senior White House official said on Tuesday. Speaking a day before Trump holds a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the official said peace was the ultimate goal. "Whether that comes in the form of a two–state solution if that's what the parties want, or something else," the official said.

Evacuees from California dam allowed home even as storms near Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:32 PM PST By Deborah M. Todd OROVILLE, Calif. (Reuters) - Californians who were ordered to evacuate due to a threat from the tallest dam in the United States can now return home after state crews working around the clock reinforced a drainage channel that was weakened by heavy rain. Officials had ordered 188,000 people living down river from the Oroville Dam to evacuate on Sunday and reduced that to an evacuation warning on Tuesday, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said. Both the primary and backup drainage channels of the dam, known as spillways, were damaged by a buildup of water that resulted from an extraordinarily wet winter in Northern California that followed years of severe drought.

Guatemala buries 2 murdered children found in sacks Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:30 PM PST GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Grieving relatives buried two Guatemalan boys whose bodies were found stuffed in sacks over the weekend, a crime that shocked the violence-weary country.

US will not insist on two-state solution in Mideast: White House Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:27 PM PST The White House signaled a sharp break with decades of support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House. A senior White House official said the United States would no longer seek to dictate the terms of any eventual peace settlement, but would support what the two sides agree to together. President Trump will host Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday, and is expected to express his desire to help broker a solution to the conflict.

America's Cup champion Oracle Team USA unveils new boat Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:27 PM PST Two-time defending champion Oracle Team USA has unveiled the 50-foot catamaran it will sail in the 35th America's Cup in Bermuda.

Matsuyama still hoping to play Olympic golf at Kasumigaseki Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:27 PM PST Japan's world number five Hideki Matsuyama is hoping a sexism row won't spell the end of Kasumigaseki Country Club as a venue for the 2020 Olympic golf competition. Matsuyama didn't wade into the thorny debate sparked when Tokyo's female governor, Yuriko Koike, said she felt "uncomfortable" with the idea that women couldn't become full members of the club -- a fact that has also sparked concerns from the International Olympic Committee. Amid calls to move the Olympic tournament, Matsuyama merely said he hoped that wouldn't prove necessary.

Knife-wielding attackers kill five in China's Xinjiang: govt Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:19 PM PST Three knife-wielding attackers have killed five people and injured another five in China's far western region of Xinjiang before police killed the "thugs", a regional government said, in the latest bout of violence on China's border with Central Asia. The attack took place on Tuesday evening in Pishan county in the restive southern part of Xinjiang, the government of Hotan prefecture said in a short statement on its website early on Wednesday. "At present, social order is normal at the site, society is stable, and investigation work is under way," it said, without giving further details about the attackers or their motive.

Indonesians vote in local polls after bitter fight to run Jakarta Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:18 PM PST By Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Kanupriya Kapoor JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesians began voting on Wednesday in local elections across the sprawling archipelago, after a bitterly fought campaign to win the prize of governing the capital, Jakarta, that has inflamed religious tensions in the Muslim-majority nation. Polls opened first in Papua province in the east, before voting kicked off in Jakarta several hours later. The biggest focus is on Jakarta, where the job of governor can be a springboard to the presidency.

Trump knew Flynn misled WH weeks before ouster: officials Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:16 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Just six days into his presidency, Donald Trump was informed his national security adviser had misled his vice president about contacts with Russia. Trump kept his No. 2 in the dark and waited nearly three weeks before ousting the aide, Michael Flynn, citing a slow but steady erosion of trust, White House officials said Tuesday.

Trump approves California disaster assistance after storms, flooding Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:11 PM PST Parts of California damaged by recent storms, including the areas around the damaged Oroville Dam, will receive federal disaster assistance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Tuesday. Federal aid will be sent to three counties near Lake Oroville, where the tallest earthen dam in the United States suffered damage last week and over the weekend, prompting the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people. Funds will also be sent to other parts of California inundated with rains over the past month.

Colombian president's campaign got no Odebrecht bribes: accused senator Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:05 PM PST A former Colombian congressman detained on accusations he received millions in bribes from Brazilian engineering firm Odebrecht SA [ODBES.UL] denied on Tuesday that a $1 million portion of the money was given to President Juan Manuel Santos' 2014 campaign. Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said last week that part of $4.6 million allegedly paid to ex-Liberal Party Senator Otto Bula Bula by Odebrecht was sent to Santos' campaign management. Bula's testimony will likely end the commission's investigation into the campaign, which secured a second four-year term for Santos, judicial sources said.

Mexico says device containing radioactivity stolen Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:02 PM PST MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican authorities say a measuring device containing radioactive material has been stolen in north-central Mexico.

Qualifier King upsets Tomic in first round of Memphis Open Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:02 PM PST MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Darian King, a qualifier from Barbados, knocked off No. 5 seed Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday in the first round of the Memphis Open.

Day faces big challenge to stay at No. 1 Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:55 PM PST LOS ANGELES (AP) — One of Jason Day's goals at the start of the year was to stay at No. 1 for the entire calendar year. The year is not even two months old, and already he is facing his first big challenge.

Paraguay's Central Bank to count 30 tons of Venezuelan bills Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:53 PM PST ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — Central Bank employees will count about 30 tons of Venezuelan currency seized in a private house in Paraguay, while officials try to figure out why the vast quantity of 50- and 100-bolivar bills was brought into the country.

Top Asian News 12:48 a.m. GMT Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:48 PM PST CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Sri Lanka's prime minister says that Sri Lankan asylum seekers held on Pacific island camps who could potentially settle in the United States are free to return home without fear of persecution. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made the comments on Wednesday during a visit to Australia in which he discussed bilateral cooperation on combating people smuggling. No Sri Lankan asylum seeker has reached Australia by boat since 2013. But Sri Lankans, Iranians and Afghans are the largest national groups among more than 2,000 asylum seekers who are kept at Australia's expense on the Pacific islands nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Sri Lankan prime minister says refugees safe to come home Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:48 PM PST CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Sri Lanka's prime minister says that Sri Lankan asylum seekers held on Pacific island camps who could potentially settle in the United States are free to return home without fear of persecution.

Polls open in divisive vote for Indonesia capital governor Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:32 PM PST JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Voting began in the election for governor of the Indonesian capital after a months-long campaign in which the monumental problems facing Jakarta took a backseat to religious intolerance and racial bigotry.

Argentina prosecutor seeks approval to investigate president Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:31 PM PST BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine prosecutor is seeking judicial permission to investigate President Mauricio Macri and two other high level officials over last year's settlement of a debt owed to the government by a company owned by the president's father.

US official: Russia deployed missile in violation of treaty Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:31 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia has deployed a cruise missile in violation of a Cold War-era arms control treaty, a Trump administration official said Tuesday, a development that complicates the outlook for U.S.-Russia relations amid turmoil on the White House national security team.

Venezuela prosecutors raid Odebrecht offices in bribe probe Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:26 PM PST Venezuelan authorities raided the Caracas offices of Odebrecht on Tuesday, as prosecutors deepened a probe into the Brazilian construction firm that has admitted paying some $98 million in bribes to obtain government contracts in Venezuela. "The investigation is aimed at clarifying the situation and determining if the projects for which this company was contracted were completed," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. Odebrecht and affiliated petrochemical company Braskem in December pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to violating American foreign bribery laws by paying off officials to help secure lucrative construction contracts in 12 countries.

Study of footballers' brains highlights dementia concerns Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:26 PM PST LONDON (AP) — The degenerative damage potentially caused by repeated blows to the head in soccer has been highlighted by a rare study of brains of a small number of retired players who developed dementia.

G20 urged to ditch fossil fuel subsidies by 2020, go green Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:13 PM PST Investors and insurers with more than $2.8 trillion in assets under management on Wednesday called on the Group of 20 economies to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2020 despite U.S. doubts about climate change. G20 nations should work "to accelerate green investment and reduce climate risk", they wrote on the eve of a two-day meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Germany to prepare a summit in Hamburg in July. The summit should set a clear timeline "for the full and equitable phase-out by all G20 members of all fossil fuel subsidies by 2020," the 16 signatories wrote.

2 live men found tied to bridge in Mexican border city Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:12 PM PST CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — In a rare occurrence, two men found beaten and tied to a bridge in the Mexican border city of Reynosa turned out to be alive.

Thousands bury two boys kidnapped, murdered in Guatemala Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:10 PM PST Two indigenous children murdered by unidentified kidnappers were buried on Tuesday west of Guatemala's capital, in a funeral attended by thousands of people. The children, aged 10 and 11, were grabbed on Friday by abductors in a black vehicle, as they were walking from their homes to school in their village of Cerro Alto, according to several witnesses. "He was always early to get to school for class, because he wanted to become a priest," sobbed Maria Cotzajay, the mother of one of the murdered boys, in a speech at the school.

Royal Caribbean cruise ship departs Florida after day delay Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:04 PM PST PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A Royal Caribbean cruise ship set sail from Florida on Tuesday, a day later than scheduled because of problems with life jackets.

Hollande demands 'justice' in alleged French police rape Posted: 14 Feb 2017 03:55 PM PST French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday called for "justice" over the alleged rape of a black youth with a police baton, an incident that has sparked 10 nights of rioting and more than 200 arrests. "Justice must be served," Hollande said during a visit to Aubervilliers, located in the tough Seine-Saint-Denis region northeast of Paris where a 22-year-old youth worker, identified only as Theo, was assaulted on February 2. The injuries sustained by Theo during a stop-and-search operation in the suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois have sparked clashes with police and arson attacks across the impoverished, ethnically-mixed housing estates that ring the French capital.

Exclusive: Australia increases pressure, cash offers for PNG asylum seekers to return home Posted: 14 Feb 2017 03:52 PM PST By Colin Packham and Aaron Bunch SYDNEY (Reuters) - Officials at an Australian immigration center in Papua New Guinea are increasing pressure on asylum seekers to return to their home countries voluntarily, including offering large sums of money, amid fears a deal for the United States to take refugees has fallen through. About a dozen Bangladeshi and Nepalese asylum seekers on Manus Island told Reuters they are being repeatedly called to meet with Australian officials and pressured to take amounts of up to $25,000 to return to those countries, or face deportation. The men, who have been ruled ineligible for refugee status by Papua New Guinea, said officials are also acting with urgency on deportation notices filed weeks or months ago.

Three suspects charged in France over 'terror plot' Posted: 14 Feb 2017 03:51 PM PST Two men and a 16-year-old girl were charged in southern France on Tuesday on suspicion of planning a terror attack that the authorities believe was imminent, judicial sources said. Sauret and his partner were also charged with making and possessing explosives in an organised group. Police swooped on Friday after the teenager pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video on social media and she and Sauret, both converts to Islam, bought acetone and hydrogen peroxide -- precursors of an unstable, homemade explosive called TATP.

Russian jets pound Syrian city of Deraa after rebel gains Posted: 14 Feb 2017 03:49 PM PST By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Russian jets pounded rebel-held areas of the Syrian city of Deraa on Tuesday for a second day in the first such intensive bombing campaign since Moscow's major intervention in Syria more than a year ago, rebels and witnesses said. Rebel groups on Sunday stormed the heavily-garrisoned Manshiya district in a battle dubbed "Death rather than Humiliation" saying the campaign sought to obstruct any army attempts to capture a strategic border crossing with Jordan. The army's control of the rebel held crossing and swatches of territory in the southern strip of the city would sever the rebel link between the eastern and west parts of the city.

U.N. names new head of peace-keeping operations Posted: 14 Feb 2017 03:42 PM PST United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres named a new head of U.N. peacekeeping operations and retained three senior U.N. officials as part of his campaign to reform the world body's peace and security programs. "I have announced that reforming the secretariat peace and security strategy, functioning and architecture would be a key priority," Guterres, who took office in December, said in a statement. "This important work will require both expertise and experience from principals and all staff members." The secretary-general said the personnel moves were made in anticipation of an internal review of peace and security operations that will be completed in June and then shared with U.N. member states.

Trump administration sued over protection for vanishing bumble bee Posted: 14 Feb 2017 03:39 PM PST An environmental group sued U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday for delaying a rule that would designate the rusty patched bumble bee as an endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a branch of the Interior Department, in September proposed bringing the bee under federal safeguards. The rule formalizing the listing of the vanishing pollinator, once widely found in the upper Midwest and Northeastern United States, was published in the Federal Register on Jan. 11 and was to take effect last Friday.

South Korea PM calls security meeting over death of North Korean leader's half-brother Posted: 14 Feb 2017 03:38 PM PST South Korea's prime minister will preside over a national security council meeting on Wednesday to discuss the death of the North Korean leader's estranged half-brother in Malaysia, an official at the prime minister's office said. Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was found dead in Malaysia, according to Malaysia's police. U.S. and South Korean government sources have told Reuters he had been murdered, without giving further details.

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