TORONTO (Reuters) – KEYreit , which owns small retail properties across Canada, on Friday rejected an unsolicited partial takeover bid from Huntingdon Capital Corp , saying the proposal was inadequate, coercive and highly opportunistic. “The partial offer fails to provide unitholders with an appropriate control premium for the units purchased, and provides no premium for units not purchased,” said Donald Biback, who heads the property owner’s board of trustees. Richmond, British Columbia-based Huntingdon, which already owns 5. …
Newspapers around the world run with Pistorius
LONDON (AP) -- Photographs of Oscar Pistorius, some with a gray hood covering his h ead and others with him running in the Olympic Stadium in London, were splashed across newspaper front pages around the world Friday. Jays outfielder Melky Cabrera says he is co-operating with MLB authorities
DUNEDIN, Fla. – Jays outfielder Melky Cabrera says he is co-operating with Major League Baseball and federal authorities on an investigation into a now-closed Florida anti-aging centre linked to banned drugs.
Egypt's hard-line Islamists rally against protests
CAIRO (AP) -- Around 5,000 mostly hard-line Islamists are rallying in Egypt against a recent wave of anti-government protests that have killed around 70 people.
Iran bans pistachio exports to control price hike
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran has ordered a six-month ban on pistachio exports to try to control the price of the nut, which doubled in the past month.
Kenya government sued for police brutality in 2007
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- The Kenyan government is being sued for police brutality in the violence following the 2007 election.
Palestinian rally for hunger striker turns violent
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli soldiers on Friday at a rally held in support of a prisoner observing an intermittent hunger strike to protest his incarceration.
Pistorius statement disputes he committed murder
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) -- A statement from the family of Oscar Pistorius and his management says they dispute the claim that he murdered his girlfriend "in the strongest terms." Telus posts 23 percent jump in profit on wireless strength
TORONTO (Reuters) – Telus Corp , a major Canadian telecom company, posted a 23 percent rise in quarterly profit on Friday, helped by strong growth in it s wireless business. The Vancouver-based company said it had net income of C$291 milllion, or 89 Canadian cents a share, in the three months to the end of December, compared to C$237 million, or 76 cents a share, a year ago. Operating revenue rose 6 percent to C$2.85 billion. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) Exclusive: North Korea tells China of preparations for fresh nuclear test: source
BEIJING (Reuters) – North Korea has told its key ally, China, that it is prepared to stage one or even two more nuclear tests this year in an effort to force the United States into diplomatic talks with Pyongyang, said a source with direct knowledge of the message. Further tests could also be accompanied this year by another rocket launch, said the source who has direct access to the top levels of government in both Beijing and Pyongyang. … After years of toil, book names Bosnian war dead
SARAJEVO/BELGRADE (Reuters) – Mirsad Tokaca calls it the "crowning achievement" of 10 years of painstaking research – thousands of grey pages bearing the names of 95,940 victims of the Bosnian war, where they died and when. Published last month, war crimes researchers say The Bosnian Book of the Dead represents the most comprehensive statistical analysis yet of the bloodshed in Bosnia after federal Yugoslavia fell apart at the close of the 20th century. … Kim Kardashian makes another effort to end marriage to basketball player
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Kim Kardashian’s divorce case returns to court on Friday with an attorney for the reality star urging a speedy end to her marriage to National Basketball Association player Kris Humphries.
Egypt seizes 2 tons of explosives headed to Sinai
EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) -- Egyptian security officials say they have seized two tons of explosives headed to the Sinai Peninsula from Cairo.
Exclusive: Turkey to Iran gold trade wiped out by new U.S. sanction
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Tighter U.S. sanctions are killing off Turkey's gold-for-gas trade with Iran and have stopped state-owned lender Halkbank from processing other nations' energy payments to the OPEC oil pr oducer, bankers said on Friday. U.S. officials have sought to prevent Turkish gold exports, which indirectly pay Iran for its natural gas, from providing a financial lifeline to Tehran, largely frozen out of the global banking system by Western sanctions over its nuclear program. … Enbridge profit falls on asset-related charge
(Reuters) – Enbridge Inc , Canada's second largest pipeline company, reported an 8 percent fall in quarterly profit as it was hurt by a C$105 million after-tax charge related to certain off-shore assets. The company's earnings attributable to com mon shareholders fell to C$146 million, or 18 Canadian cents per share, in the fourth quarter, from C$159 million, or 21 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 2 percent to C$7.17 billion. (Reporting by Shounak Dasgupta in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon) Mugabe sets March 16 for vote on Zimbabwe constitution
HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugab e has set March 16 as the date for a referendum on a proposed new constitution, a crucial step towards a general election late in the year to end a four-year coalition government. Adoption of a new constitution seems almost certain since both Mugabe's and rival Morgan Tsvangirai's parties have backed it. Once enacted, it will pave way for presidential and parliamentary elections that Tsvangirai said this week were expected in July. … De Beers sees glimmer of hope for hard-pressed diamond market
(Reuters) – A more positive outlook in China and India will help boost diamond sales this year, says De Beers, the world's biggest diamond producer, in a further sign the world economy is on a slow path to recovery. De Beers forecast moderate growth in jewelry demand in 2013, in a turnaround from a 12 percent decline in rough diamond prices last year, which it said was also in line with polished diamond prices. … Peugeot unions agree early exit from French car plant
PARIS (Reuters) – PSA Peugeot Citroen unions agreed to the start of worker transfers from the French carmaker's Aulnay plant, due to close next year, effectively beginning the wind-down of the site ahead of schedule. The Peugeot works council approved the transfers at a meeting on Friday, a company spokesman said. "There is a consensus on these measures between management and the majority of unions. … Insurgency threatens food crisis in Central African Republic: WFP
GENEVA (Reuters) – Insecurity in Central African Republic threatens a severe food crisis this year, the U.N. World Food Programme said on Friday, citing a doubling of prices for staples such as corn after a month-long insurgency. Some 800,000 people live in the central third of CAR, an area still held by the Seleka rebel coalition. Widespread looting had reduced household production as well as stocks of food, seed and animals, and insecurity was preventing farmers from going about their work, it said. Food in CAR comes mainly from subsistence farming and market gardening. … Vodafone adds to Spain corporate job cull with 620 dismissals
MADRID (Reuters) – Mobile phone operator Vodafone said it had reached agreement with labor unions to lay off 620 workers at its recession-hit Spanish unit, adding to a list of job cuts in Spain's hard-hit economy. Many companies in Spain, where the unemployment rate already stands at 26 percent, are laying off staff to cut costs. The ruling centre-right government, in the midst an austerity drive to slash its deficit, has introduced measures to make hiring and firing easier. … 
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya's High Court on Friday cleared the way for Uhuru Kenyatta to run in next month's presidential election, dismissing legal petitions that sought to bar his candidacy on the grounds that he is facing charges at the International Criminal Court. The Kenyan court said it had no jurisdiction to hear the matter and said it could not deny the presidential hopeful's right to contest the poll. … 
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A photograph of two dead chi ldren, who were killed in an Israeli missile strike on Gaza City, won the top World Press Photo prize on Friday for Swedish photographer Paul Hansen of newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The photograph shows a group of men bearing the bodies of two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and her brother Muhammad, 3, as they were taken to the mosque for a burial ceremony. … 
GENEVA (Reuters) – An estimated 40,000 people have fled a town in eastern Syria after three days of heavy fighting, the United Nations food agency said on Friday. The World Food Programme said it had delivered additional ration s to the area in recent days, adding: "A WFP team visited the area and estimated that around 40,000 people have fled al-Shaddadeh to al-Hassakeh city." Rebels seized al-Shaddadeh in Syria's oil-producing east on Thursday after the fighting which killed 30 of their fighters and 100 Syrian troops, a violence monitoring group said. … 
LONDON (Reuters) – British retail sales posted a surprise fall in January as unusually snowy weather hurt food stores in particular, data showed on Friday. The Office for National Statistics said sales volumes including au tomotive fuel fell 0.6 percent on the month and on the year – confounding economists' forecasts for higher sales. The ONS said the main reason behind the falls was bad weather during the month, which led to shutdowns of some smaller grocers and drove the biggest monthly fall in food sales since May 2011. The ONS said retail sales excluding fuel fell 0. … 
SOFIA (Reuters) – Support for Bulgaria's opposition Socialists rose further in February, narrowing the lead of the ruling GERB party following the government's U-turn on the Belene nuclear power project, a Gallup International poll showed on Friday. Backing for the center-right GERB led by Prime Minister Boiko Borisov was 22.6 percent in February, down from 23.8 percent in January, while support for the Socialists, who led the previous government, jumped to 22.1 percent. Support for the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) was 19.7 percent a month ago. … 
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) -- Authorities in Bahrain say they have opened investigations into the deaths of a policeman and a protester during widespread clashes marking the second anniversary of the anti-government uprising in the Gulf nation. 
DUBAI (Reuters) – Bahraini security forces killed a teenager and injured dozens more protesters on Thursday, a n opposition website said, during clashes on the second anniversary of an uprising to demand democratic reforms in the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state. Several hundred demonstrators, mostly youths from largely Shi'ite villages, blocked roads around the capital Manama and hurled stones and fire bombs at police, who responded with birdshot and tear gas, witnesses said. … 
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece is pinning its hopes of boosting revenue from an antiquated tax system beset by massive evasion on Har ry Theoharis, a boyish-looking 42-year-old who describes himself as an "I.T. monkey". With Athens fighting to stave off bankruptcy, the former London-based technology manager for Lehman Brothers is tasked with modernizing what is effectively a 19th century tax bureaucracy and bringing it up to euro zone standards. "I'm not the type of person who will lock himself up in his tower and not talk to anyone," Theoharis told Reuters. …