- FRANCE 24

01/03/2013 - AFP

Liechtensten's Weirather claims Super-G ski win

Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather picked up her first World Cup win of the season in Friday's Super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.The 23-year-old from the tiny European principality was the fastest down the Khandahar course in 1min 19.82sec with Julia ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Syria jihadists take Iraq border post: watchdog

Jihadist fighters of Al-Nusra Front have seized control of a checkpoint on northeast Syria's border with Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.The rebels overran the post at Yaarubiyeh in oil-rich Hassakeh province on Thursday ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Kerry to speak to Turkey PM about Zionism remarks

Secretary of State John Kerry will on Friday express concerns to Turkey's prime minister over his remarks branding Zionism a "crime against humanity," comments that Washington considers offensive and wrong, a US official said."The secretary will ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Toulouse shootings

Jewish organisations in France say they saw a rise in anti-Semitic attacks last year, fuelled in part by extremist gunman Mohamed Merah's attack on a Jewish school in the southwestern city of Toulouse in March 2012.

01/03/2013 - AFP

20,000 run in Jerusalem marathon despite boycott call

About 20,000 runners took part in Jerusalem's third annual marathon on Friday, with 1,000 police deployed to provide security along the route, police said.The Palestine Liberation Organisation had called for a boycott of the marathon, part of which ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Eurozone unemployment hits record, inflation falls

Official data Friday painted a far from encouraging picture for the European economy, with unemployment running at record highs in the eurozone while inflation fell sharply, highlighting the weakness of consumer demand.Separately, a closely followed ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Syria meeting in Rome encouraged 'extremists': Russia

Russia said on Friday that decisions made at a Friends of Syria meeting in Rome this week, which saw the United States pledge direct aid to Syrian rebels, encouraged "extremists" who want to seize power by force."The decisions made in Rome as well ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Turkey's premier under fire for Zionism remarks

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday came under withering criticism from Israel, Washington and the United Nations for comments branding Zionism a "crime against humanity."The storm surrounding the comments is likely to dominate ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Pistorius in talks with assault accuser

Star athlete Oscar Pistorius, charged with murdering his girlfriend, is holding "confidential" talks to resolve a lawsuit against a woman who had accused him of assault, his lawyer said Friday."There are confidential settlement negotiations under ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

In Venezuela, Twitter spreads official line, rumors

Addressing Venezuelans on state television, Vice President Nicolas Maduro pressed his thumb in the air as if typing on a smartphone, mocking the opposition for "saying absurdities" on Twitter.Maduro and other Venezuelan officials have frequently ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

China prisoners paraded on live TV before execution

Four gang members from Southeast Asian countries were executed in China Friday for the murder of 13 sailors on the Mekong river, after being paraded on live state television.Naw Kham, a Myanmar drug gang leader, and three of his accomplices faced ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Egypt opposition heads turn down Kerry meeting

An Egyptian opposition head said he and colleague Mohamed ElBaradei have turned down invitations to meet Secretary of State John Kerry when he visits Cairo because of US pressure.Hamdeen Sabahi, a leader of the National Salvation Front (NSF), said ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Israeli army fire wounds three Gazans: Palestinians

Israeli tank fire wounded three Palestinians near central Gaza's border with the Jewish state on Friday, a Palestinian medical official said."Three farmers, around 20 years of age, were moderately wounded by a tank shell and taken to Shifa hospital ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

New York photographer snaps city's face

New York is famously photogenic, but photographer Brandon Stanton is not interested in the skyscrapers, bridges or famous yellow cabs.

01/03/2013 - AFP

Giggs signs new one-year deal at Man Utd

Ryan Giggs, who is set to make his 1,000th appearance in senior football this weekend, has signed a new one-year contract at Manchester United, the club announced on Friday.The English Premier League leaders said the deal keeps the 39-year-old Wales ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Israel 'to delay settlement starts for Obama trip'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has banned settler housing tenders being issued for the West Bank and east Jerusalem when US President Barack Obama visits this month, a daily said Friday.Netanyahu had told officials the "suspension" did ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Syria regime accused of village 'massacre' near Aleppo

The Syrian opposition has accused government forces of having executed 72 people and burned their bodies in a village near the embattled northern city of Aleppo.President Bashar al-Assad's "terrorist regime executed 72 people after a raid on ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Baghdad beats: Iraqis bid to revive traditional music

Hussein Abdullah clutches his oud, long the symbol of Iraqi music, and sighs. "Iraqis do not care for their musical heritage," he laments.

01/03/2013 - AFP

Cardinals look to conclave after pope's resignation

Catholic cardinals from around the world began preparing for a conclave to elect a new pope on Friday, a day after Benedict XVI became the first pontiff to resign in 700 years telling the world he would be a "pilgrim" on life's last journey.Letters ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

US mortgage giant Freddie Mac swings to $11 bn profit

US mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac has posted an $11 billion annual profit for 2012, compared to a loss of $5.3 billion a year earlier.The government-controlled company, bailed out during the 2008 financial crisis, also reported $4.5 billion in ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Lewis guns for golf No. 1 as she leads HSBC Women's

America's Stacy Lewis took a step forward in her quest to replace Tseng Yani as women's world number one as she shot a red-hot six-under-par 66 to seize control of the HSBC Women's Champions on Friday.The world number four started the day two back ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Shark fin-hungry China drives 'chaotic' fishing in Indonesia

Dozens of weary Indonesian fishermen sail into a busy port on the resort island of Bali celebrating their lucrative and controversial haul that is destined to end up at Chinese banquets.The fishermen show off about 100 shark fins, already sliced off ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

German villagers bury 'Big Bad Wolf' fears

Thirteen years after wolves returned to an east German village, its residents have not only overcome age-old fears to live peacefully alongside the predator but even come to enjoy the benefits of its presence.Nestled in the forested Saxony ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Orban ally named as head of Hungary's central bank

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday named a close ally, current Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy, as the new head of the country's central bank.Matolcsy is seen as something of an economic maverick behind many of the government's more ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Bangladesh clashes over war crimes verdicts kill 52

Fresh clashes erupted Friday in Bangladesh, bringing the number of people killed to 52 in violence triggered by convictions for Islamist leaders over war crimes committed during the 1971 independence war.A rickshawpuller was killed after hundreds of ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Poachers kill 13 rare rhinos in India

Poachers in northeast India have slaughtered 13 endangered one-horned rhinos in the last two months, officials said on Friday as another death added to worries about a recent surge in killings.The attacks have taken place around the Kaziranga ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

S.Africa suspends police linked to custody death

South Africa's police commissioner on Friday announced the suspension of eight police officers accused of dragging a taxi driver behind their car and killing him.Commissioner Riah Phiyega said that the eight officers had been suspended and disarmed ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Japan riled by WHO's Fukushima cancer warning

Japan on Friday insisted warnings by the World Health Organisation of a rise in the risk of cancer for people in Fukushima were overblown, saying the agency was unnecessarily stoking fears.The UN's health agency said the 2011 nuclear disaster had ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Three dead as Malaysia ends Sabah stand-off

Two Malaysian police officers and a Sabah resident were killed and 10 people arrested Friday as security forces ended a stand-off with Filipino gunmen in Sabah, the Philippine government said.The police were in a van that was fired on by the gunmen, ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

US housing bust a memory, but recovery incomplete

When US homebuilder Pulte announced earnings last month, it boasted higher profits and a surge in new orders as fresh evidence of an improved American housing market.But perhaps the most striking aspect of the report was Pulte's bet on the future.

01/03/2013 - AFP

Give needles, condoms to inmates to curb HIV: experts

Giving inmates drug substitution treatment, needles and condoms are key ways to help curb addiction and HIV infection in European jails, experts say, calling on authorities to change their approach to prison health care."We support opioid ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Lloyds bank slashes 2012 net loss, awards bonus to boss

Britain's bailed-out Lloyds bank said Friday that net losses almost halved to £1.427 billion in 2012, when it was hit by vast insurance mis-selling claims, and awarded its boss a large performance bonus.The loss after taxation, equivalent to $2.165 ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Ferrer, Nadal reach Acapulco semi-finals

Rafael Nadal's injury comeback gathered pace as the 11-time Grand Slam champion reached the semi-finals of the Mexican Open and inched closer to a possible title showdown with fellow Spaniard David Ferrer.Nadal, playing his third tournament in four ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Car bombs in Iraq kill five

Two car bombs exploded in a sheep market south of Baghdad on Friday, killing five people and wounding dozens of others, officials said.Brigadier General Abdul Jalil al-Assadi, the police chief of Diwaniyah province, said the bombs went off about ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

New pope faces old problem of divided China Church

Chinese Catholics pack Beijing's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for Sunday Mass, praying and singing hymns beneath stained glass windows much like their brethren around the world.The spirituality on display, however, masks a complicated ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

WHO says polio fight critical despite attacks

The head of the World Health Organization's polio drive said Friday it was crucial to push on with the fight to eradicate the disease despite a rising death toll among vaccination workers.A Pakistani policeman was shot dead earlier this week while ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

Kim Dotcom suffers legal setback

A New Zealand court on Friday overturned an order that US authorities must disclose all of the evidence they have against Kim Dotcom if they want to extradite him for alleged online piracy.A court made the ruling last year after Dotcom's legal team ...

01/03/2013 - AFP

‘Darth Vader’ demands free land from Ukrainian government