Burned out vehicles and scattered bullets dot the streets of a central Malian town after radical Islamists retreated following days of French airstrikes. The Malian military announced late Saturday that the government was now controlling Diabaly, marking an important accomplishment for the French-led offensive to oust the extremists from northern and central Mali. Also Sunday, French forces extended their deployment northward up from the central town of Markala, reinforcing their presence in the towns of Niono and Mopti, said Col. Thierry Burkhard, a French military spokesman. Part of courthouse burnt in Egypt clashes
CAIRO (AP) -- A courthouse went up in flames in Egypt's northern Mediterranean city of Alexandria during clashes between protesters and riot police Sunday, according to witnesses. Iraq protester sets himself ablaze in anti-government rally
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – An Iraqi protester set himself on fire on Sunday in the northern city of Mosul in a dramatic turn after more than three weeks of Sunni Muslim rallies that are challenging Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government. Thousands of Sunni demonstrators have rallied since late December against a Shi’ite-led government they say has marginalized their minority sect, raising fears the OPEC country may slide again into widespread sectarian confrontation. …
Analysis: China upturn underscores need to rebalance economy
BEIJING (Reuters) – China's recovery from its longest slowdown in growth since the global financial crisis is being driven by the two forces posing the biggest risks to the economy's increasingly urgent need to rebalance – investment and property. The central government wants to raise consumption's share in the economy as the cornerstone effort to close one of the world's widest gaps between rich and poor and quell the discontent among those Chinese who feel they missed out on the country's blistering expansion of the past three decades. … 
PARIS (Reuters) – French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said on Sunday he hoped his Dutch counterpart Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is expected to become head of the Eurogroup, would promote Europe with as much commitment as Jean-Claude Juncker did over the past eight years. Ahead of a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Monday, Moscovici said that gathering was set to confirm Dijsselbloem as Eurogroup head, where he would be taking over from veteran Juncker of Luxembourg. "I maintain a request that he spell out his vision of what he expects for Europe. … 
VIENNA (AP) -- Austrians voted overwhelmingly Sunday to retain their conscript army, with preliminary results showing around 60 percent r ejecting the proposed shift to a professional force. 
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) -- The death toll from the terrorist siege at a natural gas plant in the Sahara climbed to at least 81 on Sunday as Algerian forces searching the refinery for explosives found dozens more bodies, many so badly disfigured it was un clear whether they were hostages or militants, a security official said. 
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- A bomb exploded at a shopping mall in Athens on Sunday, slightly wounding two security guards and forcing the evacuation of about 200 people. 
RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- The Islamists are back as a force in Algeria. 
ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti launched his campaign for a second term on Sunday with a speech calling for deep-rooted reforms to kick start economic growth, four wee ks ahead of a parliamentary election. "Italy needs radical reforms. Radical reforms for those who are outside protected interest groups, and for young people who cannot find work because others are over-protected," the economist said at the launch of his campaign for the February 24-25 vote. … 
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Israeli panel weighed a request on Sunday to disqualify a candidate of a powerful far-right party fro m running in a January 22 election for alluding in a speech to the possibility of seeing one of Islam's holiest shrines in Jerusalem "blown up." The controversy is over a United States-born parliamentary nominee with the pro-settler Jewish Home party, one of the more serious contenders against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though polls still predict he will win Tuesday's vote. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – The prospect of stronger European manufacturing surveys and decisive monetary easing in Japan this week ought to bolster confidence that the glob al economy can look forward to better days. It is definitely not yet time to break open the champagne. The index derived from polls of purchasing managers across the euro zone, though recovering, is likely to remain well below the 50 threshold that signals expansion. … 
KABUL (Reuters) – Almost a third of all detainees recently transferred to Afghan control have been tortured and Afghanistan's spy agency is operating secret facilities to avoid int ernational scrutiny, a United Nations report released on Sunday said. The findings could complicate the already thorny issue of how to manage the security transition ahead of the withdrawal of NATO-led troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year. Hundreds of detainees are being transferred from NATO to Afghan control as part of that transition. … 
JAIPUR, India (Reuters) – Rahul Gandhi embraced his role as a leading contender for India's next prime minister in a speech on Sunday that spoke of his family's tragic history but yielded few clues about his views on politi cs and the economy. Gandhi is heir to a dynasty that began with India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and is now headed by his mother, Sonia Gandhi, president of the ruling Congress party. His background and relative youth make him the party's main hope for elections due next year in the world's largest democracy. … 
LONDON (AP) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron will deliver a long-awaited speech about his country's future in the 27-nation European Union this week. 
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The head of Syria's opposition coalition has flown to Qatar to secure promises of financial aid for a tr ansitional government in rebel-held areas, sources at negotiations in Istanbul said on Sunday. The talks on agreeing a transitional government had been hit by disagreement over whether a transitional government could survive when the Syrian National Coalition President Moaz Alkhatib left in the middle of deliberations, the sources said. … 
NIONO, Mali (Reuters) – French troops in armored vehicles advanced on Sunday towards a central Malian town abandoned by Islamist rebels after days of air strikes, moving cautiously for fear of guerrilla-style counterattacks by the al Qaeda-linked fighters. Television showed the wreckage of the Islamists' white pick-up trucks, some mounted with heavy machine guns, lying charred and twisted among the mud-brick buildings of the village of Diabaly. … 
BERLIN (Reuters) – The leader of Ansar Dine, an al Qaeda-linked Islamist group in northern Mali, was once a trusted partner of the German government and brokered the release of hostages in 2003, Spiegel magazine said on Sunday. Iyad Ag Ghali, a Tuareg separatist commander, was asked by Berlin to negotiate with Algerian kidnappers in 2003 for the release of 14 tourists seized in the Sahara, including nine Germans, later paying them a ransom of 5 million euros supplied by Germany, Spiegel added. Ag Ghali was "our man", Spiegel quoted a former top German official as saying. … 
VIENNA (Reuters) – Austrians voted to keep military conscription on Sunday, bucking a trend towards replacing conscripts with professional armies in Western Europe that began with the end of the Cold Wa r. The neutral Alpine nation that once stood at the frontier between the Warsaw Pact and NATO voted 60 percent in favor of maintaining the draft, which is seen as binding civil society to the military and instilling a sense of citizenship in young men. … 
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- The opponent was different, the match three rounds earlier. Still, the result gave Novak Djokovic a familiar feeling, and another chance to rip off his shirt in celebration. 
BERLIN (AP) -- An exit poll points to a neck-and-neck race between Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative-led coalition and the center-left opposition in a major state election that is a significant test ahead of a national vote later this year. 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says it will work with the Algerian government to understand how events unfolded in the terrorist attack on a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert. 
TORONTO (Reuters) – Financial results from Canada's biggest companies are likely to disappoint investors in the coming weeks with weak global growth and mixed commodity prices expected to have pummeled the quarterly earnings of oil companies and miners. Energy and materials shares make up about half of the value of the Toro nto Stock Exchange's benchmark S&P/TSX composite index and include such blue chips as Suncor Energy Inc, Teck Resources Ltd and Goldcorp Inc. All three companies are expected to post year-on-year drops in fourth-quarter earnings per share when they report in February. …