SEATTLE (Reuters) – The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is investigating whether tiny fiber-like formations, known as dendrites, inside lithium-ion batteries could have played a role in battery failures on two Boeing Co 787 Dreamliners last month. Dendrites – just one of several possible causes under investigation by the agency – accumulate as a battery is charged and discharged, and can cause short circuits, according to battery experts. … North Korea says it has conducted third nuke test
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea successfully detonated a miniaturized nuclear device at a northeastern test site Tuesday, state media said, defying U.N. Security Council orders to shut down atomic activity or face more sanctions and international isolation. Moody's says downside risks to global economy have abated
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Moody’s Investor Services on Tuesday said downside risks for the global economy had receded in the past three months, though a number of dangers still remained. In its latest Global Macro Risk Scenarios report, the ratings agency also said it expected economic growth to be slow in many countries. “While our central forecasts are little changed, the downside risks have definitely abated over the past three months,” said Colin Ellis, Moody’s Senior Vice President for Macro Financial Analysis. …
Fine dining meets fast food at one Aussie McDonald's
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Would you like a knife and fork with that? In a world first, a McDonald’s franchise in Australia is offering full table service for its dine-in customers, complete with china plates, glassware and metal utensils in place of the more usual paper boxes and plastic. Meals are also brought to the table by waiters and waitresses, and diners can daintily dab their lips with cloth napkins after eating. “It’s very popular,” store manager Michelle Steain told Reuters of the five-week trial service. “Everyone seems to be loving it. …
Ex-US Navy SEAL remembered for dedication to others; nearly 7,000 people at memorial service
ARLINGTON, Texas – As military service members carried the flag-draped coffin out of a football stadium, the sounds of bagpipes echoed and people saluted Chris Kyle, an ex-Navy SEAL sniper who wrote a bestselling book called “America’s Sniper” and dedicated his post-military career to helping other veterans.
North Korea apparently conducts controversial nuclear test following seismic event
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea apparently conducted a widely anticipated nuclear test Tuesday, strongly indicated by an “explosion-like” earthquake that monitoring agencies around the globe said appeared to be unnatural.
Fantino defends Uganda grant decision against religious, anti-gay claims
OTTAWA – International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino is defending the Conservative government’s decision to provide funding to an Ontario evangelical group that has described homosexuality as a perversion and a sin.
South Korea confirms North Korean nuclear test
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea is confirming that North Korea has tested a nuclear device in defiance of U.N. orders to stop building atomic weapons. Egyptians protest on anniversary of Mubarak's fall
CAIRO (AP) -- Security forces sprayed protesters with water hoses and tear gas outside the presidential palace as Egyptians marked the second anniversary of the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak's with angry demonstrations against his elected successor. 
DANDONG, China (AP) -- North Korea's apparent nuclear test Tuesday could bring China's growing frustration with Pyongyang to a head. 
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- It's been lauded as one of the greatest survival stories of all-time. 
TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda has the qualifications to run Japan's central bank, but the prime minister has yet to decide who he will nominate for the post, Economics Minister Akira Amari said on Tue sday. Kuroda, who was a career bureaucrat at the finance ministry and an academic before joining the ADB, is considered a leading candidate to take over at the Bank of Japan next month. Kuroda declined to comment on Monday on whether he is being courted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the position, telling reporters he is happy in his current position. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – British house prices fell faster than expected in January, partly because bad weather discouraged viewings, but prices are likely to pick up later in the year, a survey showed on Tuesday. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) seasonally adjusted house price balance dropped to -4 in January from a slightly downwardly revised -1 in December. The reading fell short of economists' forecasts for -2 but still pointed to broadly stable prices. … 
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- Rio de Janeiro's samba schools are vying for the title of the year's best in an over-the-top, all-night-long parade at the city's iconic Sambadrome. 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. senator leading a drive to persuade President Barack Obama to disregard Beijing's concerns and sell new F-16 fighters to Taiwan faulted the island for what he said was a failure to push hard enough for the planes. "When it comes to Taiwan's military capabilities, there seems to be a puzzling sense of complacency in Taipei," said Senator John Cornyn. Cornyn, a Texas Republican, is responsible for rounding up his party's votes in the Senate. He has sought to force the Obama administration to sell Taiwan the 66 F-16C/D models it has sought in the past. … 
(Reuters) – The Group of Seven nations are considering a statement this week reaffirming their commitment to "market-determined" exchange rates in response to heating rhetoric about a currency war, G20 officials said on Monday. The language, which could be subject to change, implies that the major powers would not indulge in unilateral currency devaluation and reads very similarly to the last statement issued by the G7 on currencies in 2011. "It focuses on a commitment to market-determined exchange rates and (governments) not using policies to drive currencies," one official said. … 
MONROVIA/CONAKRY (Reuters) – The head of Guinea's arm ed forces, a staunch ally of President Alpha Conde, was killed on Monday when the aircraft carrying him and five other top Guinean military officials crashed close to the Liberian capital Monrovia. General Souleymane Kelefa Diallo, who was on a security mission to Liberia, was appointed by Conde after the latter won elections in 2010 in the world's top bauxite producer. Diallo was charged with reforming the restive army in the West African state after two years of military rule. … 
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – As the United States push es for an end to the U.N. arms embargo on Somalia, U.N. monitors are warning that Islamist militants in the Horn of Africa nation are receiving weapons from distribution networks linked to Yemen and Iran, diplomats told Reuters. The U.N. Security Council's sanctions monitoring team's concerns about Iranian and Yemeni links to arms supplies for al Shabaab militants come as Yemen is asking Tehran to stop backing armed groups on Yemeni soil. Last month the Yemeni coast guard and the U.S. … 
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Venezuela's latest currency devaluation will hurt a range of U.S. and European companies that sell to consumers in the country, as state-imposed price controls make it more difficult for those companies to prote ct their profits. On Friday Venezuela devalued the bolivar by 32 percent, its fifth such move in a decade. For U.S. companies that do substantial business in the country, such as Colgate-Palmolive Co , Avon Products Inc , Procter & Gamble Co and Kimberly-Clark Corp , that means their earnings in bolivars are now worth less when converted back to dollars. … 
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- Shock, sadness and declarations of faith met Pope Benedict XVI's announcement Monday that he would retire Feb. 28. It also sparked reflection about what kind of pontiff should replace him. Here's a look at reaction from around the world: 
ADEN, Yemen (AP) -- Security officials say two people were killed and dozens wounded in clashes between Islamists and separatists in southern Yemen, as tens of thousands protested in the capital to mark the second anniversary of the nation's uprising. 
CAIRO (Reuters) – Protesters demanding the departure of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi clashed with police outside his palace on Monday on the second anniversary of the overthrow of veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Dozens of youths threw rocks at the Ettihadiya palace after a peaceful march by thousands of demonstrators who accused Mursi's conservative Muslim Brotherhood of hijacking Egypt's democratic revolution and seeking to monopolize power. … 
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The United States began its withdrawal from Afghanistan in earnest, officials said Monday, sending the first of what will be tens of thousands of containers home through a once-blocked land route through Pakistan. 
LONDON (AP) -- When he became pope at age 78, Benedict XVI was already the oldest pontiff elected in nearly 300 years. He's now 85, and in recent years he has slowed down significantly, cutting back his foreign travel and limiting his audiences. 
LONDON (AP) -- Bookmakers have been quick to offer odds on candidates to replace Pope Benedict XVI, with cardinals from Ghana, Niger ia and Canada among the early favorites. 
CAIRO (AP) -- Masked men briefly blocked trains at a central Cairo subway station Monday as Egyptians commemorated the second anniversary of autocrat Hosni Mubarak's ouster with angry protests directed at his elected successor. 
PARIS (AP) -- French President Francois Hollande says his goal is to free all of Mali of "terrorists." 
LONDON (Reuters) – Journalists at the British Broadcasting Corporation are planning to go on a one-day nationwide strike next week over job cuts, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said on Monday. NUJ members at the BBC will walk out on February 18 and stage a work-to-rule from Frida y, unless the broadcaster stops compulsory redundancies and redeploys those at risk elsewhere in the corporation, the union said in a statement. The redundancies form part of a five-year programme to cut 2,000 jobs at the publicly funded broadcaster. … 
PARIS (Reuters) – The gravity of the French auto industry's crisis will be underlined this week by weak results at PSA P eugeot Citroen and Renault , boosting pressure on both for tougher cost-cutting moves. France's mass-market car brands are suffering more than most from Europe's deep car sales slump, punished by their exposure to austerity-hit southern markets. "After the catastrophe of 2012, the companies will all make caution the order of the day," said Societe Generale auto analyst Philippe Barrier. … 
MONROVIA/CONAKRY (Reuters) – The head of Guinea' ;s armed forces, a staunch ally of President Alpha Conde, was killed on Monday when the aircraft carrying him and five other top Guinean military officials crashed close to the Liberian capital Monrovia. General Souleymane Kelefa Diallo, who was on a security mission to Liberia, was appointed by Conde after the latter won elections in 2010 in the world's top bauxite producer. Diallo was charged with reforming the restive army in the West African state after two years of military rule. … 
DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co will show the redesign of its Cadillac CTS luxu ry mid-sized sedan meant to more fully compete with BMW at the New York auto show next month, officials said on Monday. The new CTS, which will go on sale in the fall as a 2014 model, will more clearly differentiate the car from its smaller sibling, the ATS, which last month won North American Car of the Year, Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell said. The current version of the CTS was introduced in late 2007 and helped upend Cadillac's image as a brand for older consumers. However, sales of the car fell 14. … 
AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Rebels have captured Syria's biggest hydro-electric dam and battled army tank units near the center of Dam ascus, activists said as the opposition renewed an offer on Monday to negotiate the departure of President Bashar al-Assad. On the Turkish border, nine people were killed when a car arriving from rebel-held territory in northwestern Syria blew up at the Reyhanli frontier crossing; Turkish officials said it was unclear whether the blast was a suicide attack or an accident. … 
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – - Pope Benedict was cheered by conservatives for trying to reaffirm traditional Catholic identity but liberals accused him of turning back the clock on reforms and hurting d ialogue with Muslims, Jews and other Christians. The 85-year-old German-born pontiff announced on Monday he would step down at the end of the month because of the effects of old age meant he was unable to complete his ministry. It was a decision that stunned Church officials and Catholics around the world, but one that he had hinted at in the past. … 
CAIRO (AP) -- Egyptian witnesses say masked men blocked trains at a central Cairo subway station, standing on tracks and getting into fistfights with some waiting passengers who tried to stop them. 
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Yum Brands Inc , owner of fast-food brand KFC, plans to open between 60 and 70 restaurants this year in Russia and other former Soviet countries and is looking for new franchise partners to help drive growth. Yum an d its franchisees already have 216 restaurants in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the group makes more than half of its overall sales in China, where it has nearly 5,300 restaurants, mostly KFCs. Its key global rival is McDonald's Corp . … 
MILAN (Reuters) – Silvio Berlusconi's trial on charges of paying for sex with a minor will be postponed until after this month's election due to his campaign comm itments, Italian judges ruled on Monday. The next hearing in the trial will now be held on March 4, a week after the February 24-25 elections. Milan judges upheld an argument from Berlusconi's legal team that his political campaign constituted a legitimate impediment to his attendance. … 
ISTANBUL (AP) -- Turkish media say a car bomb has exploded near a crossing point along Syria's border, killing at least five people. 
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Benedict XVI always cast himself as the reluctant pope, a shy bookworm who preferred solitary walks in the Alps to the public glare and the majesty of Vatican pageantry. And on Monday, the Vatican announced that the leader of the world's billion Roman Catholics was s tepping down -- the first pontiff to do so since 1415. 
(Reuters) – Canada's main stock index looked set to open higher on Monday, tracking its U.S. counterpart, as encouraging global economic data last week offset worries about political tensions in the euro zone. TOP STOR IES * Cameco reported sharply lower quarterly profit on Friday after taking a C$168 million write-down on an Australian exploration project, and said the current quarter would likely produce weaker earnings as well. … 
FISHKHABOUR, Iraq (Reuters) – Kurds on either side of the river Tigris that runs between Syria and Iraq are linked by kinship, a history of oppression and now by fuel lines and boats ferrying food and medical aid across the waters that divide them . The lifeline thrown by Iraqi Kurdistan to its neighbor extends the influence of Masoud Barzani, the autonomous region's President, over Kurds in Syria as civil war threatens to dismember the country. …