CAIRO (AP) -- Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi speaks publicly of firsthand knowledge of a meeting where opponents allegedly plotted against him.
Chiefs get underway as New Zealand, South Africa join fray
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Waikato Chiefs get their title defence underway this weekend without the departed Sonny Bill Williams and a couple of injured All Blacks as the heavyweights of New Zealand and South Africa finally enter the Super Rugby fray. Australia started the new campaign alone last week to allow for the visit of the British and Irish Lions in an extended mid-season break, leaving players in the other two countries that contest the southern hemisphere competition champing at the bit. …
Royal penguin found stranded on New Zealand beach
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A thirsty and thin royal penguin has been found stranded on a New Zealand beach more than 1,000 miles from its sub-Antarctic home. Police say investigator in Pistorius case faces attempted murder charge
PRETORIA, South Africa – South African police say the lead investigator in the case against Olympian Oscar Pistorius faces attempted murder charges in an October 2011 shooting.
Lewis scores 1st of season, Bernier stops 26 as Los Angeles defeats Calgary 3-1
CALGARY – Trevor Lewis’ first goal of the season was the go-ahead goal Wednesday night as the Los Angeles Kings swept back-to-back games in Alberta with a 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames.
Rugby-Chiefs get underway as New Zealand, South Africa join fray
SYDNEY, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Waikato Chiefs get their title defence underway this weekend without the departed Sonny Bill Williams and a couple of injured All Blacks as the heavyweights of New Zealand and South Africa finally enter the Super Rugby fray. Australia started the new campaign alone last week to allow for the visit of the British and Irish Lions in an extended mid-season break, leaving players in the other two countries that contest the southern hemisphere competition champing at the bit. …
Canada's Milos Raonic knocked out of U.S. National Indoor Championships
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Canada’s Milos Raonic has been eliminated from the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships after an opening-round upset.
Fathers of missing fishermen demand military retrieve capsized boat
WOODS HARBOUR, N.S. – The fathers of two young Nova Scotia fishermen who disappeared when their boat capsized in violent seas issued emotional appeals Wednesday to the Canadian government to retrieve the vessel and, with it, possibly the bodies of their sons.
IGUALA, Mexico (Reuters) – Dozens of people were abducted and murdered by Mexican security forces over the past six years during a gruesome war wit h drug cartels, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday, urging President Enrique Pena Nieto to overhaul the military justice system. The rights group said that since 2007 it has documented 149 cases of people who were never seen again after falling into the hands of security forces, and that the government failed to properly investigate the "disappearances. … 
(Reuters) – Celtic Exploration Ltd said the Canadian government has approved its acquisition by Exxon Mobil Corp , paving the way for the $2.64 billion deal to be closed fou r months after it was first announced. Celtic Exploration said in a statement late on Wednesday that no further regulatory approvals are required as the Minister of Industry approved the transaction under the terms of the Investment Canada Act. In October, Exxon Mobil's Canadian subsidiary, ExxonMobil Canada, agreed to buy Celtic Exploration for C$2.6 billion ($2. … 
AMRITSAR, India (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron has raised the possibility of diverting hundreds of millions of pounds from foreign aid to defense and secu rity. Faced with anger in his ruling Conservative party about further possible defense cuts at a time when he says Britain must spend 0.7 percent of gross domestic product on foreign aid, Cameron told reporters he was interested in exploring ways to use money earmarked for foreign aid for wider security purposes. … 
AMRITSAR, India (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron says a giant diamond his country forced India to hand over in the colonial era that was set in a royal crown will not be returned. Speaking on the third and final day of a visit to India aimed at drumming up trade and investment, Cameron ruled out handing back the 105-carat Koh-i-Noor diamond, now on display in the Tower of London. The diamond had been set in the crown of the current Queen Elizabeth's late mother. … 
BEIJING (AP) -- China's suppliers of shark fin, abalone, pricey liquor and other luxury items have been taking a beating since new leader Xi Jinping ordered officials to cut out lavish living. 
BEIJING (AP) -- For state-backed cyberspies such as a Chinese military unit implicated by a U.S. security firm in a computer crime wave, hacking foreign companies can produce high-value secrets ranging from details on oil fields to advanced manufacturing technology. 
PARIS (AP) -- A straight-talking U.S. businessman and a European socialist government were never likely to become the firmest of fri ends, but a letter from Maurice Taylor, CEO of tire-maker Titan International, blasting the French work-ethic has ruffled France's feathers. 
MINSK (Reuters) – Australia got a measure of revenge for losing the Olympic gold to Britain by beating their arch-rivals in the men's team pursuit final at the world track cycling championships on Wednesday. The Australian quartet of Glenn O'Shea, Alexander Edmondson, Michael Hepburn and Alexander Morgan completed the 4,000 meters at the wooden velodrome in the Belarus capital in three minutes 56.751 seconds to clinch the gold medal. However, the result was well short of the world record of 3:51.659, set by the British at the London Games last August. … 
(Reuters) – Citigroup Inc chairman Michael O'Neill is not eager to explore a breakup of the third-largest U.S. bank, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. O'Neill was among a small group of directors who urged Citi to consider the benefits of splitting the bank after the financial crisis. But he has concluded that breaking up Citigroup doesn't make sense now, given economic and regulatory uncertainty, the Journal quoted the people as saying. (Reporting by Aman Shah in Bangalore; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) 
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A Brazilian judge dropped criminal charges against Chevron Corp, Transocean Ltd and 17 of their employees related to a November 2011 offshore oil spill, the companies said on Wednesday. The criminal case, and a civil suit seeking as much as 40 billion reais ($20.4 billion) in damages, have cast a chill over Brazil's oil industry. The criminal suit carried penalties of up to 31 years. The still-open civil case is Brazil's largest-ever environmental lawsuit, even though the amount of oil spilled was much less than other recent spills in Brazil and abroad. … 
AMRITSAR, India (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron has raised the possibility of di verting hundreds of millions of pounds from foreign aid to defence and security. Faced with anger in his ruling Conservative party about further possible defence cuts at a time when he says Britain must spend 0.7 percent of gross domestic product on foreign aid, Cameron told reporters he was interested in exploring ways to use money earmarked for foreign aid for wider security purposes. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – The Financial Services Authority (FSA) will publish its internal review into when it first knew about banks rigging the Libor benchmark within weeks, before the watchdog is scrapped. The watchdog told parliament's Treasury Select Committee in a written submission released to the m edia that the review was being conducted by its internal audit division. The FSA was responding to the committee's report last year on the Libor scandal. … 
QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Rafael Co rrea said his party likely won three-quarters of the seats in Congress in last weekend's election and vowed on Wednesday to "steamroll" through reforms that will make his socialist model irreversible. The 49-year-old economist was re-elected on Sunday with 57 percent of votes, some 34 percentage points more than the runner-up. During his six years in office he has won broad support with high spending on infrastructure and social welfare. … 
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) -- The prosecution case against Oscar Pistorius began to unravel Wednesday with revelations of a series of police blunders and the lead investigator's admission that authorities have no evidence challenging the double-amputee Olympian's claim he killed his girlfriend accidentally. 
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales said Wednesday that he was unable to meet with his friend and ally Hugo Chavez when he came to the military hospital in Caracas where the Venezuelan president is undergoing unspecified cancer treatment. 
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Wednesday he was unable to see his friend, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, when he stopped in Caracas on his way to the United Nations in New York because the socialist leader was still being treated for cancer. Morales, who was in Caracas on Tuesday, said he spoke with Chavez's family and doctor and described the socialist leader's surprise return to Venezuela on Monday – more than two months after undergoing cancer surgery in Cuba – as a "great relief. … 
AMRITSAR, India (Reuters) – David Cameron on Wednesday became the first serving British prime minister to voice regret about one of the bloodiest episodes in colonial India, a massacre of unarmed civilians in the city of Amritsar in 1919. The killings, known in India as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, were described by Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian independence movement, as having shaken the foundations of the British Empire. A group of soldiers opened fire on an unarmed crowd without warning in the northern Indian city after a period of unrest, killing hundreds in cold blood. … 
BAMAKO, Mali (Reuters) – The European Union should complement a mission to train Mali's army, routed by rebels last year, by providing equipment from uniforms to vehicles and communications technology, a French general said on Wednesday. General Francois Lecointre, appo inted to head the EU training mission to Mali (EUTM) that was formally launched this week, said in Bamako equipping the "very impoverished" and disorganized Malian army was as important as training it. … 
TORONTO (Reuters) – Bombardier Inc said on Wednesday that Russia's Ilyushin Financ e Co has signed a $2.56 billion agreement to buy 32 of the Canadian aircraft manufacturer's CS300 jetliners. Ilyushin also has an option for ten more of the 130-seat jets, which would raise the total value of the deal to $3.42 billion, Bombardier said. Bombardier, the world's No. 3 plane maker and largest passenger train maker, will report its fourth-quarter results on Thursday. Ilyushin is a Moscow-based aircraft leasing company. (Reporting By Cameron French; Editing by Gary Hill) 
LIMA (Reuters) – Humble crowds adore her populist gestures. Fans and critics alike call her the co-president. Her husband, a rebellious army officer turned moderate leader, says people who think his wife is too influential are sexist. Peru's first lady, Nadine Heredia, is a potent political force. A telegenic 36-year-old mother of three who started the Nationalist Party along with President Ollanta Humala, she weighs in on a range of policy issues behind the scenes and, in public, often serves as the government's messenger. … 
JUBA (Reuters) – South Sudan's government has detained scores of opposition figures without issuing arrest warrants or giving them access to lawyers since unrest broke out in a northwestern town in December, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. South Sudan has struggled to establish the rule of law since it split from Sudan in July in 2011 following a long civil war that left the new country awash with weapons. … 
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Keith Anderson, the former chief investment officer for billionaire trader George Soros' money management firm, is raising money for a new macro hedge fund, according to a person familiar with the firm. Anderson left Soros Fund Manag ement in June 2011 when the well-known money manager returned $1 billion in cash to outside investors and converted his firm into a family office that now manages $24 billion of money mostly belonging to Soros and his family. … 
PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) – A live rock band and a charismatic warm-up act set the stage on Wednesday for th e man introduced to Sicilians – whose votes matter more than most in an election in a few days' time – as "Italy's next prime minister". The American-style build-up meant Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of the Democratic Party (PD), struggled to make his rhetoric match the occasion, as he addressed the party faithful in a rally in one of two crucial swing regions. … 
CAIRO (AP) -- Egypt's powerful military is showing signs of growing impatience with the country's Islamist leaders, indirectly criticizing their policies and issuing thinly veiled threats that it might seize power again. 
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A Human Rights Watch report released Wednesday calls Mexico's anti-drug offensive "disastrous" and cites 249 cases of disappearances, most of which show evidence of having been carried out by the military or law enforcement. 
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A Brazilian judge dropped criminal charges against Chevron Corp , Transocean Ltd and 17 of their employees related to a November 2011 o ffshore oil spill, the companies said on Wednesday. The criminal case, and a civil suit seeking as much as 40 billion reais ($20.4 billion) in damages, have cast a chill over Brazil's oil industry. The criminal suit carried penalties of up to 31 years. The civil case still open is Brazil's largest-ever environmental lawsuit. … 
ROME (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel does not want the center-left Democratic Party (PD) to win Italy's national election, outgoing Italian Prime Minister and centrist leader Mario Monti said on Wednesday. "Merkel fears the consolidation of parties from the left, especially in an election year for her, I don't think she has any wish to see the PD arrive in government," Monti said in an interview with Italian news agency Adnkronos. … 
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A body found in a water tank on the roof of a historic Los Angeles hotel has been identified as that of a 21-year-old Canadi an woman who went missing in late January, police said on Wednesday. The body, which was discovered on Tuesday morning in one of four water tanks on top of the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, has been positively identified as that of Elisa Lam by members of her family, Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Lt. Andy Nieman said. "The coroner has confirmed that it is Elisa Lam based on some distinctive markings on her body," Neiman said. … 
VIENNA (AP) -- Western diplomats say Iran has started installing high-tech machines at its main uranium enrichment site that are capable of accelerating activity that can produce reactor fuel and -- with further upgrading -- the core of a nuclear warhead. 
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU member states have approved a European Commission plan to register solar panels from China, EU diplomats said, as the latest step toward duties on the 21 billion eur o ($28.08 billion) import market. The solar panel import market is one of the biggest trade areas the Commission has ever tackled. Politicians have warned the tensions between the EU and China, its second largest trading partner, could erupt into a trade war. On Wednesday, a regular meeting of representatives of EU member states approved the proposal to register panels, the sources said. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – Major powers are ready to make "a substantial and serious offer" to Iran during talks on its disputed nuclear program next week, a Western diplomat said on Wednesday. He declined to give details of the offer – part of attempts to revive efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to long-stalled talks over Iran's nuclear program. "We will take an offer with us which we believe to be a substantial and serious offer," the diplomat said of talks due next week in Almaty, Kazakhstan. "This is an offer which we think has significant new elements in it. … 
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil agreed on Wednesday to negotiate the purchase of Russian anti-aircraft missile batteries on the condition that Russia transfer the technology to Brazilian defense companies without restrictions. The agreement was announced after Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev met with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on a visit to Brazil to advance defense, energy and agricultural deals with a fellow member of the BRICS bloc of emerging nations. … 
(Reuters) – Overseers of government worker pension funds pressed J PMorgan Chase & Co to strip Chief Executive Jamie Dimon of his additional title of chairman after the London Whale fiasco, renewing a proxy battle the bank won only narrowly last year. Pension funds, including that of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said on Wednesday they filed a shareholder resolution that says the bank would be better run if the chairman and CEO jobs were held by different people. … 
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO is considering holding a summit in mid-2013 to mark a milestone in the handover of security responsibilities in Afghanistan to loc al forces, alliance Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday. NATO-led forces are expected to cede the lead role for security in Afghanistan this spring to Afghan soldiers, 12 years after the United States invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban government harboring Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader who masterminded the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities. … 
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Oscar Pistorius applied for firearm licenses for six more guns weeks before the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp inside his house. 
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian prosecutors have concluded that seven former directors of Fortis s hould face trial for allegedly misleading investors during the Belgian-Dutch bank's purchase of part of Dutch lender ABN AMRO and before its 2008 collapse. A dossier has been passed to a panel of judges who will determine whether to order a trial, Brussels prosecutors said on Wednesday. They did not name the former Fortis directors. Ageas, the legal successor to Fortis, said it was pleased that the prosecutors were not seeking to bring it to trial as well. … 
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Horsemeat labeled as beef has been found in Romania in products set to be sold locally, an agriculture ministry official said on Wednesday. A scandal which has triggered recalls of ready-made meals and damaged confidence in Europe's vas t and complex food industry, erupted last month when tests carried out in Ireland revealed that some beef products also contained horsemeat. An investigation has identified a French meat-processing firm as the likely culprit in the row that has implicated traders and abattoirs from Cyprus to Romania. … 
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya's chief justice said on Wednesday he and other judges had been threatened by a criminal gang who warned them against trying to stop a candidate accused of bankrolling tribal violence running for the presidency next month. Uhuru Kenyatta, a former finance minister and the son of the country's founding president, is one of four Kenyans accused at the International Criminal Court of orchestrating violence that killed 1,200 people after the last vote in 2007. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – The Bank of England is more likely than not to fire up its dormant printing presses and inject another wave of cash into the economy before the year is out, a Reuters poll found. Accord ing to the snap poll of 50 economists, taken after minutes from the Monetary Policy Committee's February meeting showed three of the nine members voted for more purchases this month, there is a median 51 percent chance it will happen. The mean likelihood of an increase was slightly higher, at 55 percent. … 
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) -- The investigating officer in the Oscar Pistorius murder case made an error in his court testimony Wednesday when he identified a substance found in the athlete's bedroom as testosterone, the national prosecutor said. 
JERUSALEM (AP) -- An influential Republican senator has called Jerusalem the capital of Israel, taking a stand on an explosive issue between Israel and the Palestinians. 
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- There are several key points where testimony conflicts between the prosecution and the defense in the Oscar Pistorius case. 
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- An air raid on a suburb of the Syrian capital killed at least 20 people and two mortars exploded next to a soccer stadium in the heart of Damascus killing one player as violence moved closer to the heart of President Bashar Assad's seat of power. 
HAVANA (Reuters) – A U.S. congressional delegation left Cuba on Wednesday after meetings with President Raul Castro and other top officials, but no sign the countries had resolved their latest dispute: the fate of imprisoned U.S. contractor Alan Gross. Delegation members and their staff said they were encouraged by the relaxed tone of their meetings and indications the Cuban side wanted the dialogue to continue. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont canceled a news conference scheduled for Wednesday morning before taking a stroll with his wife in downtown Havana then leaving for Haiti. … 
PARIS (AP) -- It's crunch time in Mali for the French military. 
RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- Tunisia now has no prime minister and is facing its worst crisis since it kicked off the Arab Spring. Here's a look at t he turmoil rocking this Mediterranean country of 10 million that many still think has the best chance of becoming a true democracy in the Arab world. 
YEREVAN (Reuters) – About 5,000 flag-waving protesters rallied on Wednesday against Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan's re-election, saying his victory was tainted by fraud. Supporters of Sarksyan's secon d-placed rival Raffi Hovannisian filled Freedom Square in the center of the capital Yerevan to condemn what they said were uncounted ballots and other violations. "Are you ready to stay here long?" Hovannisian asked the crowd. "Are you ready to stay here until victory? I'm ready. …