KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani youth leader Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi has a plan to counter the relentless message of violence spewed forth by radical Islamic groups in his country -- and he is stealing a gimmick from the hard-liners’ own playbook to do it.
After deadly fire, fears for Carnival in Brazil
SAO PAULO (AP) -- Just over a week since a nightclub fire killed nearly 240 revelers in southern Brazil, Carnival festivities hit full stride Friday, raising questions about the safety of those who will pack party spaces across the nation. China, Japan engage in new invective over disputed isles
BEIJING (Reuters) – China and Japan engaged on Friday in a fresh round of invective over military movements near a disputed group of uninhabited islands, fuelling tensions that for months have bedevilled relations between the two major Asian powers. China’s defence ministry rejected a Japanese allegation that a naval vessel had aimed a weapons-targeting radar at a Japanese military ship in the East China Sea, its first comment on the week-old incident. It said Japan’s intrusive tracking of Chinese vessels was the “root cause” of the renewed tension. …
'Being Mandela:' Granddaughters dish on show
NEW YORK (AP) -- The newest reality television show is in some ways like any other: mother and daughters, sibling rivalry, family gossip and talk of Big Grandpa, who is very strict but loves it when his great-grandchildren are around making a racket. But that's where the twist comes in: Big Grandpa is Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid legend. What's it like being a Mandela? Icon's granddaughters reveal their lives in reality TV show
NEW YORK, N.Y. – The newest reality television show is in some ways like any other: mother and daughters, sibling rivalry, family gossip and talk of Big Grandpa, who is very strict but loves it when his great-grandchildren are around making a racket.
YEONCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) – As North Korea prepares a third nuclear test, South Korean soldiers on the world's most heavily armed border now have orders to shoot back immediately if they come under attack, a move that risks escalating any small-scale conflict. Stung by criticism three years ago of the time it took South Korean artillery to respond to a burst of shelling from the North, Seoul's Defence Ministry has relaxed rules that required officials at its command centre to sanction a response. … 
SYDNEY (AP) -- A strong aftershock rattled the Solomon Islands on Friday, hampering relief efforts to tsunami-ravaged villages and forcing the South Pacific nation's prime minister to forgo a visit to the stricken area where nine deaths have been confirmed. 
CAIRO (AP) -- One hardline Muslim cleric on an Egyptian TV station justified sexual assaults on women protesters. Others issued religious edicts saying opposition leaders must be killed. Television screeds by ultraconservative sheiks are raising fears of assassinations here a day after a top anti-Islamist politician was gunned down in Tunisia. 
(Reuters) – Calling them "tax cheats" and their lawsuit a "travesty," a U.S. appeals court threw out an effort by some American customers of UBS AG to recover damages over bank services tha t resulted in their having evaded U.S. taxes. The decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago may provide closure to some litigation tied to UBS' 2009 admission that it helped several thousand wealthy Americans evade taxes. The Swiss bank also paid a $780 million fine in settling with the U.S. Department of Justice. … 
KABUL (Reuters) – A figure equal to twice the Afghan government's domestic revenue – $3.9 billion – was gouged from the country by public sector corruption last year, a U.N. report said on Thursday. This a mount is also roughly equal to the annual aid pledged to Afghanistan until 2015 by the international community at last year's Tokyo Conference. The report, by the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), will lead to concerns about the mismanagement of those donor funds by Afghan officials in a country which has been consistently ranked as one of the world's most corrupt. … 
CAIRO (AP) -- Iran's president says his country wants closer relations with Egypt. 
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- The Palestinians on Thursday responded coolly to a White House announcement that President Barack Obama will not bring any bold new peace initiatives to the region next month, saying there is no hope for rev iving serious negotiations unless the U.S. leader is personally involved. 
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- American proposals for direct talks with Iran are pointless while Washington is "holding a gun" to the country through s anctions, Iran's supreme leader said Thursday, quashing a possible breakthrough in contacts with the West over the nuclear standoff. 
LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) – French car maker PSA Peugeot Citroen is set to announce a multi-billion euro writedown on its non-performing assets, two people familiar w ith the situation said. Peugeot has net tangible assets worth 14 billion euros ($18.75 billion), according to Thomson Reuters data, and is expected to write down a significant part of it on Thursday, the people said. Peugeot declined to comment. Traders said the company had called a surprise conference call for analysts on Thursday night. … 
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on T hursday with Yair Lapid, the surprise runner-up in an election last month, to try to draw him into a broad government that could bridge Israel's religious divide. In the January 22 ballot, centrist candidate Lapid's rallying cry, "equal sharing of the burden", touched a nerve among voters angered by military exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox students and state stipends for large, religious families. … 
SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin fired a top Russian Olympic official on Thursday after publicly ridiculing him on a visit to half-finished sports complexes planned for a winter Olympics dogged by reports of corruption and construction delays. The humiliation of Akhmed Bilalov, 42, stamped President Putin's authority over the 2014 Sochi Games and underlined the importance he attaches to a global event he hopes will show how far Russia has come since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. … 
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank will monitor the impact of a strengthening euro on the currency bloc's economy but said it was not a policy target and showed growing confide nce in the region. After the ECB left its main interest rate at 0.75 percent on Thursday, ECB chief Mario Draghi said the exchange rate was near to its long-term average but went further than many analysts had expected. "The appreciation is, in a sense, a sign of return of confidence in the euro," Draghi told a news conference. … 
KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepal's Maoist party on Thursday set out for the first time the conditions under which its prime minister would resign, an offer it said was aimed at ending a political deadlock with opposition parties that has paralyzed one of the world's poorest countries. But hours after the offer was made, leaders from two major opposition parties said they saw it as a ploy for the government to remain in power, rather than being a serious attempt to break the political impasse. … 
SOCHI, Russia (AP) -- A year before the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics begin, President Vladimir Putin has demanded that a senior member of the Russian Olympic Committee be fired. 
CAIRO (Reuters) – Leaders of Muslim nations declared support on Thursday for the unity and territorial integrity of Mali and condemned terrorism in the west African state but said nothing of French military intervention to drive out Islamist fighters. A resolution adopted at a two-day summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation backed the deployment of an international military mission in Mali under African leadership and called for a roadmap for presidential and parliamentary elections. … 
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) -- Nineteen alleged members of a Congolese rebel group -- including one U.S. citizen -- sought outside help in their effort to overthrow Congolese President Joseph Kabila, offering mining rights in their resource-rich country in exchange for weapons and training, a prosecutor said Thursday. 
MOSCOW (AP) -- Lawyers for three members of the f eminist punk group Pussy Riot have contested their convictions in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. 
HONG KONG (AP) -- For many of the richest people in Hong Kong, one of Asia's wealthiest cities, home is a mansion with an expansive view from the heights of Victoria Peak. For some of the poorest, like Leung Cho-yin, home is a metal cage. 
Lawless and seven other Greenpeace activists were each ordered Thursday to pay 651 New Zealand dollars ($547) costs to a port company and complete 120 hours of community service after earlier pleading … 
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's Defense Ministry said two Russian fighter jets briefly intruded Thursday into Japanese airspace as the country was holding rallies demanding that Moscow return a group of disputed islands. 
BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian troops and rebels clashed again Thursday in the capital Damascus, a day after what activists described as the heaviest fighting in months in President Bashar Assad's seat of power. 
(Reuters) – Canada's main stock index looked set to open flat to lower on Thursday, as investors await comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on the region's growth outlook. TOP STORIES * Mario Draghi faces a grilling over the European Central Bank's sensitivity to a s harp rise in the euro and his connection to an Italian banking scandal after a policy meeting at which policymakers left interest rates unchanged. * The Bank of England made no change to its amount of stimulus for the economy at a policy meeting though it voted to reinvest 6. …