KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The U.N. mission in Afghanistan says airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition killed 126 civilians last year, a nearly 50 percent drop from the year before. Plekanec, Pacioretty score quick goals as Canadiens shut out Hurricanes 3-0
MONTREAL – Michel Therrien’s lessons about finishing off games appear to be paying off for the Montreal Canadiens.
NY television anchor accused of choking wife, CBS financial news anchor, at their home
DARIEN, Conn. – A New York television news anchor fought with his wife and then choked her at their home and threatened her even after he was arrested, police said.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Office Depot Inc , the No.2 U.S. office supply retailer, is in advanced talks to merge with smaller rival OfficeMax Inc and a deal could come as early as this week, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday. Both companies, which trail industry leader St aples Inc , are under much pressure from investors to boost profitability as well as shareholder value, and a merger would help them to cut costs, close stores and boost their clout with suppliers. … 
BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union imposed trade and economic sanctions on North Korea while condemning "in the strongest terms" the nation's latest nuclear test. 
FEIRA DE SANTANA, Brazil (AP) -- Boisterous protesters backing the Cuban government blocked the Monday screening of a documentary featuring Cuba's best-known dissident, the blogger Yoani Sanchez, who was in attendance after being allowed to leave the communist island for the first time in nearly a decade. 
TOKYO (Reuters) – The yen remained near recent lows on Tuesday, as attention turned to the appointment of a new Bank of Japan governor. Regional share markets held t o tight ranges as the absence of catalysts and a holiday in the U.S. overnight capped demand. The yen, which has dropped 20 percent against the dollar since mid-November, fell further at the start of the week after financial leaders from the G20 promised not to devalue their currencies to boost exports and avoided singling out Japan for any direct criticism. … 
MUMBAI (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron says he wants state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland to speed up restructuring and has refused to rule out giving the government's share in the bank to the public. The government owns 82 percent of RBS after pumping in 45 billion pounds ($70 billion) of capital when the bank neared collapse in 2008. Speaking in India during a trip aimed at drumming up trade and investment, Cameron made it clear he was keen to return the bank to private ownership as soon as possible and wanted it to step up its efforts to overhaul itself. … 
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron says he wants state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland to speed up restructuring and has refused to rule out giving the government's share in the bank to the public. The government owns 82 percent of RBS after pumping i n 45 billion pounds of capital when the bank neared collapse in 2008. Speaking in India during a trip aimed at drumming up trade and investment, Cameron made it clear he was keen to return the bank to private ownership as soon as possible and wanted it to step up its efforts to overhaul itself. … 
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) -- Sri Lanka's navy says it has rescued 32 Myanmar nationals whose wooden vessel began sinking while making a perilous journey to Australia. 
SYDNEY (AP) -- Papua New Guinea police have charged two people with the grisly killing of a woman who was tortured and burned alive in front of hundreds of people, including young children, after being accused of witchcraft. 
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Britain and India are expected to agree to set up a joint task force to fight cyber crime on Tuesday, a move London hopes will help it safeguard the personal banking and mobile phone data of millions of Britons, much of which is stored on Indian servers. The agreement is expected to be sealed at a meeting between Prime Minister David Cameron and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi, one of the highlights of Cameron's three-day trade and investment trip to India. … 
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico's Grupo Gigante on Monday did not rule out a possible acquisition of the 50 percent stake in the Mexican unit of U.S. office-supply store chain Office Depot that it does not already own following a report it was in talks to do so. The Mex ican retailer has been considering options related to its 50 percent holding in Office Depot's local unit since 2008, Grupo Gigante said. Last week U.S. news agency Bloomberg said it was in talks to buy the other half. … 
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Accusations that Israel deliberately tried to curb birth rates among Ethiopian immigr ants have reopened a debate over discrimination against the group -- highlighting the state's uneasy relationship with a community that has yet to fully settle into the Israeli mainstream. 
LONDON (Reuters) – Nestle , the world's biggest food company, removed beef pasta meals from shelves in Italy and Spain on Monday after tests revealed traces of horse DNA above 1 percent, the Financial Times online reported, citing a company sta tement. Swiss-based Nestle, which just last week said products under its labels were not affected by the escalating horsemeat scandal, said it had informed the authorities, the FT reported. Nestle was not immediately available for comment. … 
LIBERIA, Costa Rica (AP) -- On a recent Friday morning at a gleaming new international airport in Costa Rica, hundreds of tourists from New York and Minnesota emerged blinking onto the sun-blasted tarmac. At the other end of the runway, eight Americans zipped into tan flight suits aboard a massive white surveillance plane. 
(Reuters) – Private banking group Edmond de Rothsc hild is establishing a merchant banking business in London which is set to begin operations this spring, the Financial Times reported on Monday. The company is currently in the process of hiring a team of senior advisers for the London operation, the financial daily said on its website, citing people close to the situation. The unit – which was given the nod by the Financial Services Authority last month – would be led by former Hawkpoint Chief Executive Richard Briance and would not directly compete with NM Rothschild, the paper said. … 
BAMAKO, Mali (Reuters) – The United States is likely to eventually resume direct support for Mali's military, but only after full restoration of democracy through elections, the head of a visiting U.S. Congress delegation said on Monday. Senator Christopher Coons, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Africa, was leading the first American congressional visit to the West African nation since France sent a military force there last month to halt an offensive by al Qaeda-allied insurgents. … 
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The owner of magazine Reader's Digest, once the staple of doctors' offices and coffee tables, has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in less than four years, c iting a greater-than-expected decline of the media industry. RDA Holding Co and more than two dozen affiliates filed for a pre-negotiated Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan the company says will allow it to reduce its $534 million debt load by 80 percent, according to documents filed Sunday in U.S. Bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York. Its international operations are not part of the filing. … 
BEIRUT (AP) -- A United Nations commission on Monday said fighters on both sides in Syria's civil war have committed atrocities and should be brought to justice, while European Foreign Ministers extended an arms embargo on the country in hopes it would limit the ability of both sides to wage war. 
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union will hold an international aid conference on Mali in May, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday. France sent military forces to Mali in January after the country appealed to Paris for urgent military support to halt advances by Islamist rebels and defuse the risk of Mali being used as a springboard for attacks in Europe or north Africa. Since the French intervention, Islamist rebels have been pushed back from the main urban centers of northern Mali into the mountains and desert. … 
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia's main political parties failed to agree on forming a non-partisan cabinet to tackle turmoil triggered by the ass assination of an opposition leader, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said on Monday. But he said efforts would continue to form a government supported by most parties in the North African state that spawned the slew of popular uprisings against dictatorship across the Arab world two years ago. … 
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) -- The head of Tunisia's largest political party said Monday that the country's crisis will be solved by a new compromise government of technocrats and politicians. 
PARIS (Reuters) – Saft said on Monday that the decision of Airbus to drop use of its lithium-ion batteries in the A350 jet would have limited f inancial impact on the French battery maker. John Searle, the chief executive of Saft, said the decision announced by Airbus would have no impact on sales this year, and almost none in 2014. "In reality the aerospace market is not what fills the factories of lithium-ion battery makers; each contract is worth a few million euros of sales a year," said Searle. … 
DOMIZ REFUGEE CAMP, Iraq (AP) -- Syrian Kurds who fled their country's civil war have mixed feelings about a future without Bashar Assad: They hope to win a measure of autonomy after the fall of the regime, but fear chaos and the rise of Islamists could instead make their lives worse. 
YEREVAN (Reuters) – Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan easily won a new five-year term on Monday, an exit poll showed, in an election overshadowed by a lack of serious opposition and an attemp t to kill a minor candidate. The opposition Heritage Party complained that many ballots cast for opposition parties had been thrown out, but did not say whether it would challenge what appeared to be a runaway victory for Sarksyan. … 
NICOSIA (Reuters) – The Cypriot politician most in favor of an international bailout was in pole position to win next Sunday's run-off presidential vote as he and his communist-backed rival launched a week of bargaining to woo voters suspicious of a rescue package to stave off bankruptcy. Conservative leader Nicos Anastasiades, who backs a swift deal with the European Union and International Monetary Fund on a bailout to fight the worst recession in four decades, faces off Stavros Malas in a second-round vote on February 24 after neither won a clear victory in the first round on Sunday. … 
QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa vowed on Monday to press ahead with laws to control the media and redistribute land to the poor as he looks to deepen his socialist revolution after a resounding re-election victory. Correa, a pugnacious 49-year-old economist, trounced his nearest rival by more than 30 percentage points on Sunday to win a new four-year term. He has already been in power for six years, winning broad support with ambitious social spending programs. … 
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has a lower approval rating at the start of his term than his predecessor did, a poll showed on Monday, underscoring the challenge he faces to push key economic reforms through a divided Congress. Less than three months into office, 56 percent of Mexicans approve of Pena Nieto as president compared to 29 percent who disapprove of the job he is doing, according to a survey by Buendia y Laredo published by daily El Universal on Monday. … 
CONAKRY (Reuters) – Opposition supporters held protests across Guinea on Monday to demand a free and fair parliamentary election, fearing the first such vote in more than a decade will be cheapened by fraud. The May 12 election is intended to be the last step in Guinea's return to civilian rule following the death of veteran strongman Lansana Conte in 2008 and two years of violent army rule. President Alpha Conde was elected in 2010 and has promised prosperity for Guinea's 10 million people. The West African nation's economy produces only about $1. … 
HARARE (Reuters) – Destitute Zimbabwe plans to borrow from local companies to raise $1 00 million needed to hold a referendum on a new constitution, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Monday. The southern African country will vote in March on whether to adopt a new charter approved by parliament that seeks to curb sweeping presidential powers while strengthening state institutions such as the cabinet, parliament and judiciary. … 
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Ever since 'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius's girlfriend was shot dead in his Pretoria home last week, South African papers have printed lurid details of the killing which, if true, pose major challenges to the Paralympic star's defense team, experts say. Initial reports of the shooting in the early hours of Thursday suggested Pistorius, 26, a double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, may have mistaken law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder. … 
SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria's government sacked Finance Minister Simeon Djankov on Monday, dumping the man who has kept a tight rein on spending in the EU's poorest member amid nationwide protests over electricity prices. Djankov's dismissal comes as rightist Prime Minister Boiko Borisov is seeking a second term in a July election and raises questions over whether the government will loosen the purse-strings as it tries to shore up support. … 
MADRID (Reuters) – Striking union workers clashed with police at Madrid's Barajas airport on Monday on the first day of a week-long strike over more than 3,800 pending job cuts at Spain's flagship airline Iberia. More than 80 Iberia flights were canceled as workers at the carrier began a series of five-day walkouts that are expected to cost the airline and struggling national economy millions of euros in lost business. Hundreds of workers flooded into Terminal 4 at Barajas – the biggest airport in Spain – to noisily protest, chanting and whistling, with one group staging a sit-in. … 
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – China took over management on Monday of Pakistan's Gwadar port, en route to key Hormuz Straits oil shipping lanes, in a move which has prompted nerves in India about its fe llow Asian giant's growing strategic clout. China financed more than 80 percent of the $248 million development cost of the port on the Arabian Sea, as part of a plan to open up an energy and trade corridor from the Gulf, across Pakistan to western China. When complete, the port could be used by the Chinese Navy, analysts say, and Indian Defence Minister A.K. … 
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A Belgian court denied parole to child killer Marc Dutroux on Monday, ruling he could not be freed with a security tag on his ankle as there was no prospect of him fitting back into society. Dutroux, 56, was sentenced in 2004 to life in prison for kidnapping and raping six girls and killing four of them in the 1990s. In prison since his 1996 arrest, he became eligible this year to request early release with an electronic ankle band. … 
TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) -- A delegation of U.S. lawmakers met with military officials in Mali's capital on Monday, and urged caution as the French-led military intervention to wrest back control of the country's north from the al-Qaida fighters entered its fifth week. 
YEREVAN (Reuters) – Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan was on course to secure a new five-year term wi th about 58 percent of the votes cast in a presidential election on Monday, an exit poll showed. The exit poll by the Baltic Surveys/The Gallup Organization, reported by Armenian television after voting ended, put Sarksyan's nearest rival, U.S.-born Raffi Hovannisian, on 32 percent. (Reporting By Hasmik Mkrtchyan, Writing by Thomas Grove, Editing by Timothy Heritage) 
LONDON (AP) -- A British couple's round-the-world cycling odyssey ended in tragedy when both of them were killed in a road accident in Thailand. 
MADRID (Reuters) – Striking union workers clashed with police at Madrid's Barajas airport on Monday on the first day of a week-long strike over more than 3,800 pending job cuts at Spain's flagship airline Iberia. Hundreds of workers demonstrated outside Barajas, Iberia's hub, and inside the airport's Terminal 4 where they carried out a sit-in and chanted and whistled. Outside the terminal police beat some strikers with truncheons. At least two protesters were arrested. … 
RECIFE, Brazil (Reuters) – Cuba's best-known dissident, blogger Yoani San chez, was greeted on Monday by a small group of protesters calling her a CIA agent upon arriving in Brazil, the first stop on a whirlwind tour that will take her to a dozen countries. A smiling Sanchez brushed off the student demonstrators who sympathize with Cuba's communist government, saying she wished Cubans had the same freedom to protest back home. Sanchez's arrival in Brazil kicked off her first trip abroad since the Cuban government finally granted her a passport after more than 20 refusals in the past five years. … 
BRUSSELS (AP) -- Less than a year after it triggered international condemnation by seizing power in a coup, the Malian military will start receiving advice from European experts on how to maintain control of its vast territory. 
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- South Africa's prosecutors will begin explaining Tuesday why they accuse Olympian Oscar Pistorius of committing murder in the Valentine's Day shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. 
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The euro's exchange rate is not a policy target for the European Central Bank but it does pose a "downside risk" to inflation that t he ECB will have to assess, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Monday. The euro hit a 15-month high against the dollar earlier this month, complicating the ECB's policy-making tasks by weighing on growth and feeding expectations that it may have to take fresh policy action, which some ECB members oppose. … 
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Oscar Pistorius' longtime coach says he's still in shock following the "heart-breaking events" of Reeva Steenkamp's shooting death, which he calls an accident. 
LONDON (Reuters) – The discovery of horsemeat in products sold as beef has shocked many British consumers into buying less meat, a survey showed on Monday. The furore, which erupted in Ireland last month and then spread quickly ac ross Europe, has led to ready meals being pulled from supermarket shelves and damaged people's confidence in the food on their plate. It raised concerns over food labelling and the complex supply chain across the European Union, putting pressure on governments to explain lapses in quality control. … 
BRUSSELS (AP) -- European Union foreign ministers have announced that they are keeping current sanctions against Syria in place for three months, rejecting any attempt to ease the arms embargo so military aid could be funneled to rebels fighting President Bashar Assad.