MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A gas buildup ignited by an electrical spark or other heat source caused the blast that killed 37 people and wounded dozens of others last week at the state oil company's headquarters, Mexico's attorney general said. Strike over war crimes trial hits Bangladesh
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- The verdict against a top leader of Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party was being read Tuesday as the group enforced a general strike to protest his prosecution and others on charges of crimes against humanity during the nation’s 1971 independence war.
UBS swings to Q4, full-year net loss after Libor fine, revamp
ZURICH (Reuters) – UBS said it swung to a big fourth-quarter and full-year net loss due to a $1.5 billion fine for rigging benchmark interest rates and charges from a restructuring plan to shed 10,000 staff. Switzerland's largest bank said it will still pay shareholders 0.15 Swiss francs ($0.17) for 2012, following a symbolic, 0.10 francs per share for 2011, its first post-crisis dividend. UBS's 1.89 billion franc net loss for the fourth quarter compares with a 2.078 billion franc net loss forecasts by analysts in a Reuters poll. ($1 = 0.9086 Swiss francs) (Reporting By Katharina Bart) Iran arrests official implicated in prison deaths
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran has arrested a senior government official, two years after a parliamentary probe found him responsible for deaths by torture of at least three jailed anti-government protesters.
Former Iran prosecutor Mortazavi arrested: statement
DUBAI (Reuters) – A former Iranian prosecutor at the center of a growing confrontation between two of Iran’s most powerful figures has been arrested, according to a statement posted Tuesday on the Tehran prosecutor’s website. No reason was given for the arrest, but the timing suggested it might be linked to the role of the former judicial official, Saeed Mortazavi, in a dispute between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani. “The Tehran prosecutor announced Monday night that Saeed Mortazavi has been arrested,” read the one-line statement. …
S&P says it expects to be sued by Justice Department over its ratings of mortgage-backed bonds
WASHINGTON – The U.S. government is expected to file civil charges against Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, alleging that it improperly gave high ratings to mortgage debt that later plunged in value and helped fuel the 2008 financial crisis.
Chris Tanev scores in OT as Vancouver Canucks rally past Edmonton Oilers 3-2
EDMONTON – Chris Tanev scored with 19.3 seconds remaining in overtime as the Vancouver Canucks won a season-high third game in a row, coming from behind to defeat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 on Monday.
QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuador's President Rafael Correa on Monday evening said two government supporters were killed and several suffered stab wounds during a campaign rally almost two weeks before a presidential election that the leftist leader is expected to win comfortably. "Crazy person stabs seven AP people while they were waiting for the President. Two have been killed," Correa said in his Twitter account, referring to supporters of the ruling Alianza Pais political movement, AP. The incident occurred ahead of a campaign rally in Quininde, a town in the western Esmeraldas province. … 
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- South Korea's U.N. ambassador said Monday a North Korean nuclear test "seems to be imminent." 
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A deadly blast that killed at least 37 people at Mexican state oil monopoly Pemex's headquarters in Mexico City was caused by a build-up of gas, the government said on Monday. Attorney General Jesus Murillo said no trace of explosives was found at the site of the explosion, the latest in a string of safety lapses to hit the oil monopoly. New President Enrique Pena Nieto is seeking to push through a major overhaul of Pemex. … 
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- New U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his South Korean counterpart have agreed to make sure North Korea is punished if it carries out its threat to conduct a nuclear test. Amid signs that such a test is coming, South Korea's president also speculated that Pyongyang may detonate multiple atomic devices simultaneously. 
TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares slid on Tuesday as investors saw opportunities to cash in from recent strong rallies in the face of weak U.S. da ta and worries that a potential political shake-up could disrupt the eurozone's efforts to resolve its debt crisis. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan tumbled 0.8 percent, dragged lower by a steep 1.8 percent fall in Hong Kong shares . The euro took the brunt of renewed focus on the euro zone problems, having risen 2.3 percent so far this year against the U.S. dollar, up about 5.4 percent against sterling and 1. … 
KIDAL, Mali/PARIS (Reuters) – Tuareg rebels in northern Mali said on Monday they had captured two senior Islamist insurgents fleeing Fre nch air strikes toward the Algerian border and France pressed ahead with its bombing campaign against al Qaeda's Saharan desert camps. Pro-autonomy Tuareg MNLA rebels said one of their patrols seized Mohamed Moussa Ag Mohamed, an Islamist leader who imposed harsh sharia (Islamic law) in the desert town of Timbuktu, and Oumeini Ould Baba Akhmed, thought to be responsible for the kidnapping of a French hostage by al Qaeda splinter group MUJWA. … 
LEICESTER, England (Reuters) – A skeleton with a cleaved skull and a curved spine dug up from under a car park is that of Richard III, archaeologists said on Monday, solving a 500-year-old mystery about the final resting place of the last Engli sh king to die in battle. … 
A new British research station in Antarctica is officially up and running, the British Antarctic Survey announced today (Feb. 4). 
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to see off a rebellion within his ruling Conserva tive party on Tuesday over his government's plans to legalize gay marriage, thanks to support from political rivals. But though parliament is likely to vote to give the draft law its initial approval, more than 100 of Cameron's 303 Conservative lawmakers are expected to vote against it on what they say are moral grounds. … 
TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) -- For eight days after the Islamists set fire to one of the world's most precious collections of ancient manuscripts, the alarm inside the building blared. It was an eerie, repetitive beeping, a cry from the innards of the injured library that echoed around the world. 
LOND ON (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel's main challenger in this year's federal election said on Monday that recession-struck Greece should be given more time to implement its reforms even though this would cost more money. Peer Steinbrueck, a former finance minister, said it was necessary for crisis-stricken states to get their budgets in order and consolidate sovereign debt. But Merkel's center-right government was too focused on consolidation, he said. … 
(Reuters) – It is a question that has lawyers and many others on the U.S. Gulf coast buzzing: Will BP strike a massive deal to settle the remaining claims over the Gulf of Mexico well blowout? BP could be neari ng a settlement of federal claims with the U.S. Department of Justice, but people tracking the case closely say the company and coastal states, especially Louisiana, might still be far apart. So unless the talks with the states quicken or the judge delays the process in the hope a far-reaching deal will happen, the civil trial of the year will get under way on February 25 in New Orleans. … 
CALLAO, Peru (AP) -- The ocean off Peru boasts the world's richest fishing grounds, but Taurino Querevalu is returning to port empty again after a hunt for Peruvian anchovy, cursing his empty nets and an increasingly stingy sea. 
TORONTO (AP) -- Canada started phasing out its penny, the nuisance coins that clutter dressers and cost more than their one-cent value to produce. 
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) -- A military judge at Guantanamo Bay refused Monday to suspend a pretrial hearing for the prisoner accused of orchestrating the attack on the USS Cole, ruling that defense lawyers had offered no evidence su pporting their suspicion that the CIA can eavesdrop on their private conversations with their client. 
(Reuters) – KFC parent Yum Brands Inc on Monday warned that it expects 2013 per-share earnings to shrink rather than grow, as it grapples with a food safety scare that ensnared some of its chicken suppliers in its top market. The compan y, which gets more than half of its overall sales and operating profit from China, reported a 6 percent drop in fourth-quarter sales at established restaurants in China due to "adverse publicity" regarding its poultry supply. As a result, Yum forecast a "mid-single digit" percentage decline in earnings per share for 2013. … 
CAIRO (AP) -- The video outraged Egyptians, showing riot police strip and beat a middle-aged man and drag him across the pavement as they cracked down on protesters. The follow-up was even more startling: In his first comments afterward, the man insisted the police were just trying to help him. 
SAN JUAN IXHUATEPEC, Mexico ( Reuters) – As Mexico waits for news of what caused a deadly blast at the headquarters of state oil giant Pemex last week, survivors of the worst explosion in the company's history three decades ago still wonder what exactly happened then and what became of their friends. On November 19, 1984, a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) plant blew up in this town on the northern edge of Mexico City, consuming hundreds of people in a firestorm so powerful the sky could be seen glowing red at the other end of the capital. … 
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada and the European Union will not be able to conclude a long-delayed free-trade deal at ministerial talks set for Ottawa this week, a source close to the negotiations told Reuters on Monday. Talks on an agreement started in 2009 and were supposed to have wrapped up by the end of 2011, a date that was later pushed back to the end of 2012. Industry sources say the two sides still have differences over areas such as agricultural exports, intellectual property and public procurement. … 
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged regional countries on Monday to work for unity in Iraq, which has seen weeks of protests against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, warning that any disturbance there would affect the whole Middle East. "If a fire breaks out it will burn everyone," Ahmadinejad, speaking through a translator, said in an interview with Al Mayadeen television. "I said with all honesty, those who are interfering will be subject to harm". A suicide bomber attacked a government-backed militia in Iraq on Monday, killing at least 22 people. … 
ATHENS (Reuters) – A Greek prosecutor ordered an investigation on Monday into whether four suspected bank robbers wer e beaten in custody, after police published mug shots that were altered to make their injuries appear less severe. Rights groups and critics have long accused Greek police of detaining immigrants and other prisoners in shocking conditions. Photos published in the Greek media of the men, who were aged between 20 and 25 and arrested on Friday, showed them bruised and bleeding while being escorted by police. But mug shots released by the police over the weekend had injuries … 
BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria's defense minister signaled Monday that his country won't hit back at Israel over an airstrike inside Syria, claiming the Israeli raid was actually in retaliation for his regime's offensive against rebels he called "tools" of the Jewish state. 
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Monday rejected Apple Inc's request to fast-track its bid for a sales ban on several Samsung Electronics Co Ltd phones, ruling the iPhone maker could not argue its case to the full appeals court right away. A lower court judge had rejected Apple's bid for a permanent injunction following a blockbuster trial last year. In its ruling on Monday, the Federal U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. … 
(Reuters) – Federal and state prosecutors intend to bring civil charges against Standard & Poor's for wrongdoing in its rating of mortgage bonds prior to the 2008 financial crisis, The Wall Street Journal said on M onday, citing people familiar with the matter. Allegations against the McGraw-Hill Cos unit will center on the model used to rate the bonds and will be made in lawsuits to be filed as soon as this week, the newspaper said, citing the people. A move by U.S. … 
ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti spoke of the importance of women's rights on Monday, while his election rival Silvio Be rlusconi sought to have his latest hearing in a trial for underage prostitution postponed. Berlusconi's "Bunga Bunga" sex scandal was one of the factors that cut short his last spell as prime minister in late 2011 at the height of the euro zone debt crisis. … 
TORONTO (Reuters) – Royal Bank of Canada gave Chief Executive Gordon Nixon a 25 percent raise, paying him C$12.6 million ($12.61 million) in 2012, a year in which the company posted a record net profit. Nixon's pay includes a base salary of C$1.5 million, a cash bonus of C$2.85 million, stock options of C$1.65 million and C$6.6 million in deferred share units. The bank, Canada's largest, said his pay was 12 percent above the bank's original target level due to RBC's strong performance on the year. RBC earned a record C$7.5 billion in 2012, up 17 percent from the previous year. … 
JERUSALEM (AP) -- A new study weighed in on one of the hot-button subplots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Monday, saying schoolbooks of both sides largely present one-sided narratives but rarely resort to demonization. 
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Talks between Dell Inc and a consortium led by its founder and chief executive Michael Dell to take the world's No.3 PC maker private were still on track on Monday, with negotiations focusing on a price of between $13.50 and $13.75 per share, a person familiar with the matter said. Talks are in their final stages and an outcome is expected soon, the person said, cautioning that no final agreement had been reached and negotiations could still break down. … 
HAVANA (Reuters) – Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is getting "much better" as he recovers from cancer surgery alm ost two months ago in Havana, Communist Party newspaper Granma reported on Monday. Castro, 86, spoke to reporters as he voted on Sunday in Cuba's parliamentary elections in one of his increasingly rare public appearances. He said he gets daily reports on the condition of Chavez, who is Cuba's top socialist ally and benefactor. "He is much better, recovering. … 
NEW YORK (AP) -- A U.S. congressman says the FBI is playing a significant role in the investigation into the death of a New York City woman found dead in Istanbul while on a solo vacation. 
UNITED NATIONS (Reuter s) – The U.N. Security Council is united on North Korea's nuclear arms program and will undoubtedly approve tough measures against Pyongyang if it carries out a new atomic test as expected, South Korean U.N. Ambassador Kim Sook said on Monday. "The North Korean nuclear test seems to be imminent," Kim, who is president of the Security Council this month, told reporters. "Obviously there are very busy activities going on at the (North Korean) nuclear test site, and everybody's watching." "Everybody is unified and they are firm and resolute," he said. …