Iranian billionaire Babak Zanjani has been sentenced to death for corruption, justice officials say.
Babak Zanjani, 42, was arrested in December 2013 after accusations that he withheld billions in oil revenue channeled through his companies. He denies the allegations.
One of Iran’s richest men, Babak Zanjani was convicted of fraud and economic crimes, a judiciary spokesperson said at a press briefing.
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The billionaire was blacklisted by the US and EU for helping Iran evade oil sanctions.
Two others were sentenced to death along with him and all were ordered to repay embezzled funds. The ruling can be appealed.
In a separate development, a cargo of Iranian crude oil arrived at a Spanish refinery in San Roque on March 6, the first delivery to an EU state since sanctions were lifted.
The Monte Toledo offloaded 1 million barrels at the refinery belonging to Spanish oil company Cepsa.
Before the oil embargo imposed by the EU in 2012, one in every five barrels of crude Iran exported was sold to refineries in Europe.
Republican Marco Rubio has won the latest contest in the battle to be the GOP’s presidential candidate, a day after being urged to quit the race.
With more than a quarter of votes counted, Marco Rubio has nearly 75% of the vote in Puerto Rico.
Despite his projected second victory in the state-by-state contest, Marco Rubio still trails Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
On March 5, Donald Trump called for a “one-on-one” battle with Ted Cruz, urging other rivals to quit the race.
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In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are awaiting the outcome of a nominating contest in Maine, and preparing for a Sunday night debate in Flint, Michigan.
Speaking after wins in the Republican Kentucky caucuses and Louisiana primary election on Saturday, Donald Trump told a news conference: “I would love to take on Ted Cruz one on one.”
“Marco Rubio had a very very bad night and personally I call for him to drop out of the race. I think it’s time now that he dropped out of the race. I really think so.”
Meanwhile, Texas Senator Ted Cruz – who won Republican caucuses in Kansas and Maine – said he believed that “as long as the field remains divided, it gives Donald an advantage”.
While the win in Puerto Rico will boost Marco Rubio’s campaign, it sends just 23 delegates to the Republican convention which nominates a presidential candidate. Republican hopefuls need the votes of 1,237 delegates to get the nod for the presidential race proper.
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan has passed away at the age of 94.
She died of congestive heart failure at her Bel Air home, the Reagan library said.
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Nancy Reagan’s 52-year marriage to ex-President Ronald Reagan was once described as the US presidency’s greatest love affair.
From 1981-89 Nancy Reagan was one of the most influential first ladies in US history; initially criticized for an expensive renovation of the White House, but later becoming a much-loved figure.
Nancy Reagan will be buried next to her husband, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, the library said in a statement.
President Barack Obama said Nancy Reagan “redefined the role” of First Lady.
Anti-refugee PM Robert Fico has won Slovakia’s general election but lost his parliamentary majority, almost complete results show.
The leftist-nationalist prime minister will now need to find coalition partners to return for a third term.
Gains by small parties, including an extreme right one, may produce a divided parliament with no clear path to forming a majority government.
Robert Fico, 51, has vowed not to accept “one single Muslim” migrant.
Slovakia takes over the EU’s rotating presidency in July. His hard-line views on migration echo those of Polish, Czech and Hungarian leaders.
In all, nine parties, including the far-right Our Slovakia led by Marian Kotleba, will be represented in parliament. Our Slovakia won more than 8% of the vote.
With about 50% of the vote counted, Robert Fico’s Smer-Social Democracy party is on about 29% support, which would give it 48 seats in the 150-member parliament.
As the leader of the strongest party in Saturday’s poll, Robert Fico is expected to be asked to form a new government.
Robert Fico is known for populist policies such as free train travel for students and pensioners.
He has fiercely opposed EU quotas on migrant resettlement from Greece and Italy, which would see his country take about 2,600 people.
Slovakia received only 260 asylum requests in 2015.
Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch have celebrated their marriage with a service at the “journalists’ church” in London.
Family and friends of the media mogul and the former supermodel gathered at St Bride’s near Fleet Street a day after their civil ceremony.
The church has a long association with newspapers and writers.
Around 100 guests attended, including the couple’s 10 children from previous relationships.
It is Rupert Murdoch’s fourth marriage and the first for Herry Hall, 59, after her 1992 Bali wedding to Mick Jagger was later deemed legally void.
Australian-born Rupert Murdoch 84, whose News UK company publishes The Times and The Sun newspapers, tweeted he was “the luckiest and happiest man in world”.
St Bride’s says it offers “a spiritual home to all who work in the media” lying in the heart of an area which was once the home of most UK national newspapers.
Rupert Murdoch’s decision to dispense with his Fleet Street newsroom in the late 1980s marked a key stage in the abandonment of the area by the media industry.
Republican Donald Trump has called for a “one-on-one” battle with Ted Cruz, urging other rivals to quit the nomination race.
Ted Cruz also suggested it was time for other hopefuls, like Marco Rubio and John Kasich, to step aside.
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz won two states each in March 5 voting.
Photo Getty Images
In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders took two states – but Hillary Clinton maintained her front-runner status after a big victory in Louisiana.
Speaking after wins in the Republican Kentucky caucuses and Louisiana primary election, Donald Trump told a news conference: “I would love to take on Ted Cruz one on one.”
“Marco Rubio had a very very bad night and personally I call for him to drop out of the race. I think it’s time now that he dropped out of the race. I really think so.”
Meanwhile, Texas Senator Ted Cruz – who won Republican caucuses in Kansas and Maine – said he believed that “as long as the field remains divided, it gives Donald an advantage”.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich have so far made no public comments on the issue.
Ted Cruz now appears to be the only candidate who can stop Donald Trump, analysts say, after a week in which the Republican establishment did everything it could to attack the New York billionaire.
Observers also point out that Ted Cruz and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders – who beat Hillary Clinton in Kansas and Nebraska – both won in states holding caucuses but lost in the Louisiana primary elections, involving far more voters.
They say that the Louisiana race also appears to have exposed Bernie Sanders’ lack of support among African-American voters.
Hillary Clinton said she was thrilled to add to her delegate count.
The former secretary of state said: “No matter who wins this Democratic nomination, I have not the slightest doubt that on our worst day we will be infinitely better than the Republicans on their best day.”
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has visited ex-leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a day after he was questioned over corruption allegations at the state oil company, Petrobras.
Dilma Rousseff appeared with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the balcony of his apartment and waved to hundreds of people who had gathered below.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said his brief arrest on March 4 is part of a campaign to sully his image and that of Dilma Rousseff.
Police are looking into payments and donations made to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s institute.
Some of Brazil’s wealthiest people as well as dozens of politicians from both the governing coalition and the opposition are also being investigated for involvement in the alleged Petrobras corruption scheme.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a left-wing icon, left office in 2011. His Workers’ Party has been hit hard by the long-running scandal.
After his interrogation on March 4, he told reporters he was the victim of a “prejudice as a working-class man”.
Dilma Rousseff turned up at his home on March 5, along with hundreds of people showing support for the former president.
Today’s rally was peaceful in contrast to angry scenes on March 4 when protesters clashed with police outside the building.
“She is going to meet with Lula as a gesture of solidarity and support,” a press officer at the presidential palace told the Associated Press news agency.
Dilma Rousseff later could be seen on the balcony with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his wife Marisa.
The Workers’ Party has held the Brazilian presidency since 2003, both under Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff.
In the latest operations, police enforced 33 search and 11 detention warrants in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Bahia, officials said.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 70, is suspected of receiving about 30 million reais ($8 million) in speaking fees and donations to his charity.
The former president’s home was among the premises targeted, as was the headquarters of the institute in Sao Paulo.
AMC Entertainment is acquiring rival Carmike for $1.1 billion, creating the largest US movie theater chain.
AMC is owned by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda.
The Carmike acquisition comes on the heels of Wanda buying studio Legendary Entertainment, the company behind blockbusters like Jurassic World and The Dark Knight.
Dalian Wanda, the world’s biggest movie theatre operator, took over AMC in 2012 for $2.6 billion.
The rapidly growing company is led by China’s richest man, Wang Jianlin.
Wang Jianlin has been looking to buy a Hollywood studio for several years and was reported to be in talks with DreamWorks Animation in 2015, but a deal was not announced.
AMC Entertainment currently has 387 locations and 5,426 screens while Carmike has 276 theaters with 2,954 screens.
The biggest Turkish newspaper, Zaman, has condemned its takeover by the authorities in a defiant last edition published just before police raided it.
March 5 edition said Turkey’s press had experienced “one of the darkest days in its history”.
Police raided Zaman‘s offices hours after a court ruling placed it under state control, but managers were still able to get the edition to print.
Zaman readers are protesting against the takeover outside the offices.
Unconfirmed reports say police have now dispersed the protest, numbering about 500 people, with tear gas and water cannon.
Zaman is closely linked to the Hizmet movement of influential US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, which Turkey says is a “terrorist” group aiming to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.
Fethullah Gulen was once an ally of Recep Tayyip Erdogan but the two fell out.
Many Hizmet supporters have been arrested.
The government in Ankara has come under increasing international criticism over its treatment of journalists.
Zaman’s latest edition was printed before the government-backed administrators had taken control.
“The Constitution is suspended,” a headline in large font on a black background reads on the front page.
“The Turkish press has experienced one of the darkest days in its history,” the paper adds.
“Turkey’s mass circulation newspaper was seized despite Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s assurance that <<free press is our redline>>.”
The English-language echoed its sister paper with the headline: “Shameful day for free press in Turkey.”
The court ruled on March 4 that Zaman, which has a circulation of some 650,000, should now be run by administrators. No explanation was given.
Police entered the building in Istanbul on March 4, firing tear gas at protesters who had gathered outside.
Hundreds of Zaman supporters defied the police. One held a placard saying: “We will fight for a free press.”
“I believe that free media will continue even if we have to write on the walls,”Zaman‘s editor-in-chief Abdulhamit Bilici said shortly before the raid.
“I don’t think it is possible to silence media in the digital age.”
Abdulhamit Bilici was speaking to the Cihan news agency, which was also affected by the court order.
A North Korean cargo ship has been seized in the Philippines in line with tightened UN sanctions targeting the country’s nuclear program.
Deputy presidential spokesman Manolo Quezon said the Philippines “has to do its part to enforce the sanctions”.
The Jin Teng cargo ship is one of 31 ships operated by North Korean company Ocean Maritime Management, which is subject to an asset freeze and sanctions.
The ship is currently docked in Subic Bay and is unloading palm kernels.
New UN sanctions were imposed after North Korea’s recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
They include mandatory inspections of all cargo going to or from the DPRK.
The Philippines government says it will impound the Jin Teng and eventually deport the crew.
Safety issues were reportedly found during an inspection of the vessel by the Philippine coast guard on March 4.
A second inspection took place on March 5, coastguard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo told AFP news agency.
He said the crew of 21 had been “very cooperative”.
Ocean Maritime Management was blacklisted by the UN Security Council in 2014 after one of its ships was seized in July 2013 near the Panama Canal with Cuban weapons hidden under sugar sacks.
The company was accused in 2015 of renaming and reflagging its vessels to evade asset freezes.
The Jin Teng was sailing under a Sierra Leone flag.
Pyongyang reacted to this week’s sanctions by firing six short-range missiles into the sea.
Kim Jong-Un later ordered that North Korea’s nuclear weapons should be “ready for use” at any time.
Jerry Hall has married media mogul Rupert Murdoch in London ceremony.
Rupert Murdoch, whose News company publishes The Times and The Sun newspapers, and Jerry Hall married in a civil ceremony at Spencer House.
It is 84-year-old Rupert Murdoch’s fourth marriage and the first for Jerry Hall, 59, after her 1992 Bali wedding to Mick Jagger was later deemed legally void.
Australian-born Rupert Murdoch, who now has US nationality, tweeted he was “the luckiest and happiest man in world”.
Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch will hold a private ceremony of celebration on March 5 at London’s St Bride’s Church, in Fleet Street, which proclaims itself as the “spiritual home of the media”.
They announced their engagement in the births, marriages and deaths section of The Times in January.
Rupert Murdoch, whose family controls 120 newspapers in five countries, split up with his third wife Wendi Deng in 2013.
His relationship with Jerry Hall reportedly began last summer and they are rumored to have got engaged while in Los Angeles earlier this year.
Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall are reported to have been introduced to each other in Australia by one of Murdoch’s sisters and his niece.
A new research has showed that eating peanut products as a baby could cut the risk of allergy.
Last year, a study claimed early exposure to peanut products could cut the risk by 80%.
Now researchers say “long-lasting” allergy protection can be sustained – even when the snacks are later avoided for a year.
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the new study looked at 550 children deemed prone to developing a peanut allergy.
The latest paper builds on the results of the 2015 research, which was also carried out by King’s College London and marked the first time scientists were able to suggest that exposing children to small amounts of peanut snacks could stave off an allergy.
The new study suggests that if a child has consumed peanut snacks within the first 11 months of life, then at the age of five they can afford to stop eating the food entirely for a year, and maintain no allergy.
The researchers used the same children who took part in the 2015 study – half of whom had been given peanut snacks as a baby while the remainder had been fed on a diet of breast milk alone.
The children taking part in the study were considered prone to peanut allergy, because they had already developed eczema as a baby – an early warning sign of allergies.
Ben Carson has officially suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election.
Speaking to conservative activists, Ben Carson, 64, said: “I’m leaving the campaign trail.”
Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, had been a front-runner but his campaign stalled in recent months after he performed badly on foreign affairs and questions about his background story.
He has not said which of the remaining four candidates he plans to endorse in the race for the Republican nomination.
“There are a lot of people who love me, they just won’t vote for me,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington DC.
After receiving a standing ovation from the crowd, Ben Carson said he would still be “heavily involved in trying to save the nation”.
Ben Carson’s announcement was expected after he said earlier this week that he did not see a “political path forward” in his campaign for the nomination.
He had earned only eight delegates before his decision to drop out from the nomination race.
Republicans in four states – Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine – go to the polls on Saturday.
On March 4, Ben Carson was announced as a new chairman of My Faith Votes – a group set up to encourage Christians to vote in elections.
Ben Carson had a poor upbringing in Detroit but made it to Yale before a brilliant medical career.
A knife allegedly found at a former home of OJ Simpson is now being tested by LAPD.
OJ Simpson’s was acquitted in 1995 following a murder trial that captivated the US.
Someone claiming to be a construction worker gave an off-duty police officer the knife some years ago and he kept it, thinking the case was closed.
Police recently recovered the knife and are testing it for DNA and hair samples.
OJ Simpson had been accused of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ronald Goldman in June of 1994.
However, a jury found the former American football star not guilty after a dramatic televised trial.
OJ Simpson cannot be prosecuted again for the same charges under US law.
Police cast some doubt on whether the knife was connected to the OJ Simpson case at a news conference on March 4, saying it could be “bogus”.
“If this story is accurate, you’d think anytime you come into contact with evidence that you should submit it to investigators,” said Captain Andrew Neiman of the LAPD.
“I don’t know why that didn’t happen.”
Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were found stabbed in the head and neck in the yard of Brown’s home.
Authorities asked OJ Simpson to turn himself in after the murders, but he failed show up at the police station.
He was spotted inside a White Ford Bronco hours later, leading to a slow-speed pursuit across Los Angeles’ highways.
The pursuit was broadcast on live television to millions of viewers.
OJ Simpson eventually surrendered after 90 minutes in which crowds gathered to watch along the road and news helicopters flew overhead.
He later assembled a “dream team” of highly paid lawyers for the case, including Johnnie Cochran and Robert Kardashian.
The trial, which lasted for 10 months, created huge media frenzy. TV networks reaped high ratings from airing trial proceedings and many magazine covers were devoted to it.
When OJ Simpson was found not guilty, Americans were divided on the jury’s decision – mostly along racial lines.
He later lost a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the victims’ families. His property, where the knife was found, was razed in 1998.
In 2007, OJ Simpson was sentenced to a 33-year prison term on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping.
The case recently returned to prominence with the airing of the TV miniseries American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson.
Donald Trump has dropped out of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), opting instead to campaign in Kansas and Florida.
The CPAC organizers said they were “very disappointed”.
The Republican presidential frontrunner was scheduled to speak on March 5 at the gathering of conservative activists in Maryland.
Donald Trump’s fellow Republican presidential candidates are all expected to speak.
“Very disappointed Donald Trump has decided at the last minute to drop out of CPAC – his choice sends a clear message to conservatives,” CPAC tweeted.
Donald Trump’s campaign team said in a statement that he will be holding a rally in Kansas instead, followed by a rally in Orlando.
The statement said Donald Trump looks forward to attending next year, “hopefully as president of the United States”.
The decision could further damage an already-strained relationship with the GOP establishment.
Donald Trump was attacked on March 3 by former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who remains a central figure within the party.
Mitt Romney called Donald Trump a “phony” and a “fraud” and said his controversial policies threatened to make the world less safe.
Later on March 3, Donald Trump came under attack from his nomination rivals at a Republican debate in Detroit. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz criticized the New York businessman for changing his position on various issues.
Donald Trump admitted he had changed his stance on issues but argued that flexibility was a strength.
Republicans in four states – Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine – go to the polls on March 5.
Donald Trump has already won 10 of the 15 states that have voted so far, with his promise to “make America great again”.
The cause of death of Bobbi Kristina Brown was “immersion associated with drug intoxication”, medical records show.
The 22-year-old daughter of Whitney Houston died at a hospice on July 26, six months after she was found unresponsive in a bath.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office in Atlanta released an initial statement ahead of the full post-mortem report – eight months after Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death.
A judge in Atlanta issued an order on March 3 to unseal the report, following requests from the media.
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The medical examiner’s office said it reviewed medical records, investigative files and other documents to determine how Bobbi Kristina Brown died.
The exam concluded cannabis and alcohol were involved in her death, along with medication used for sedation or to treat anxiety, citing the “underlying cause” of death as “immersion associated with drug intoxication”.
The statement said: “Death was clearly not due to natural causes, but the medical examiner has not been able to determine whether death was due to intentional or accidental causes, and has therefore classified the manner of death as undetermined.”
The state reportedly requested the post-mortem documents originally be sealed in September 2015 in order to protect an ongoing investigation into Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death.
Media lawyers argued the sealing order should be lifted because it was made without a public hearing, in violation of the long-standing rules that post-mortem results are public records.
“We would hope that news agencies and the media receiving the report would do so with the discretion and dignity a family who has lost a loved one deserves,” said district attorney Paul Howard, who argued for the sealing of the report last year.
“Our investigation into the death of Bobbi Kristina Brown will continue.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown was the only child of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown.
She was buried in August at the Fairview cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey, next to her mother.
Whitney Houston drowned in a bath in 2012 on the eve of the Grammy Awards ceremony.
Brazil’s ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been arrested as part of a huge fraud inquiry into the state oil company Petrobras.
His house was raided by federal police agents and he was brought in for questioning.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who left office in 2011, has denied allegations of corruption.
The long-running inquiry, known as Operation Car Wash, is probing accusations of corruption and money laundering at Petrobras.
Dozens of Brazilian executives and politicians have been arrested or are under investigation on suspicion of overcharging contracts with Petrobras and using part of the money to pay for bribes and electoral campaigns.
Police said they had evidence that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 70, received illicit benefits from the kickback scheme.
His institute said in a statement the “violence” against the former president was “arbitrary, illegal and unjustifiable”, as he had been co-operating with the investigations.
Officials said some 33 search warrants and 11 detention warrants were being carried out by 200 federal police agents in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Bahia.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s house in Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo, was raided early on Friday. The headquarters of his institute in Sao Paulo was also targeted, as were his wife, Marisa, and sons, reports said.
One of the lines of inquiry is that construction companies targeted by the operation could have favored Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the development of a ranch and a luxury beachfront apartment.
Raids in the cities where these properties are located have also been carried out.
“Ex-president Lula, besides being party leader, was the one ultimately responsible for the decision on who would be the directors at Petrobras and was one of the main beneficiaries of these crimes,” a police statement quoted by Reuters news agency said.
“There is evidence that the crimes enriched him and financed electoral campaigns and the treasury of his political group.”
Supporters and opponents of the former president clashed in front of his house following the raids.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, from the Workers’ Party, served two terms as president and was succeeded in office by his political protégé, Dilma Rousseff.
He led Brazil during a time of rapid economic growth and is credited for lifting millions of people out of poverty.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva still is a well-liked figure and has been considered as a potential candidate in presidential elections in 2018. However, his popularity has been hit by recent allegations that he either had knowledge or involvement in the wrongdoings.
On March 3, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s institute said the former president had never committed any illegal acts before, during or after his presidential term.
The corruption scandal threatens the government of Dilma Rousseff, who has faced repeated impeachment calls, analysts say.
Dilma Rousseff has denied having any knowledge of wrongdoings.
Donald Trump has come under fire again at the latest Republican debate, after a day in which the GOP’s veteran politicians urged voters to desert him.
The front-runner in the Republican race was on the defensive in Detroit as Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz piled in.
Donald Trump admitted he had changed his stance on issues but said flexibility was a strength.
Senior Republicans say Donald Trump is a liability who would lose the election.
The debate hosted by Fox News began with Donald Trump being asked about an attack earlier in the day by Mitt Romney, the 2012 nominee, who accused the businessman of bullying, greed and misogyny.
Donald Trump dismissed Mitt Romney as a “failed candidate”, but he immediately found himself on the defensive from Marco Rubio.
The Florida senator said he was “not going to turn over the conservative movement to someone who thinks the nuclear triad is a rock band from the 1980s”.
In one of the most bizarre moments, Donald Trump defended the size of his hands and then quipped about another part of his anatomy.
There were plenty of personal insults from Donald Trump, who labeled the Florida senator “little Rubio” and the senator from Texas as “liar Ted”.
Donald Trump was forced to explain a civil lawsuit involving the collapse of Trump University.
He said he would win the case but Marco Rubio said he was trying to “con people into giving him their vote, just like he conned people into giving him their money”.
Donald Trump was also challenged by the Fox News panel for changing his stance on Syrian refugees, the war in Afghanistan and President George W. Bush.
He replied: “I have a very strong core. But I’ve never seen a successful person who wasn’t flexible, who didn’t have a certain degree of flexibility.”
Hours earlier, Mitt Romney led growing calls by leading Republicans against a Donald Trump nomination.
Calling him a “phony” and a “fraud”, the former Republican presidential candidate said Donald Trump’s policies – like the deportation of undocumented migrants and banning Muslims from entering the US – would make the world less safe.
Others like Paul Ryan, John McCain and a host of national security committee members have also attacked Donald Trump since he cemented his front-runner status earlier in the week on Super Tuesday.
Republicans in four states – Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine – go to the polls on March 5 and Donald Trump is hoping to get a step closer to earning his party’s nomination.
Donald Trump, a billionaire with no experience of political office, has won 10 of the 15 states that have voted so far, with his promise to “make America great again”.
His supporters value his perceived authenticity and business acumen, and say he is the strong leader the country needs.
With the effective departure of Ben Carson this week, the field of Republican candidates – once 17-strong – has now been narrowed to four.
The debate, sponsored by Fox News, was the first time Donald Trump had faced his rivals since winning seven states on Super Tuesday.
It also brought him face to face with presenter Megyn Kelly, whom he dismissed as a “bimbo” after they clashed in the first primary debate.
This time Donald Trump was all smiles and he complimented her looks when he took her first question.
In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton has 10 states, five more than rival Bernie Sanders.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will take to the debate stage in Flint, Michigan, on March 6.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has announced that his country’s nuclear weapons should be ready for use “at any time”, state media report.
Kim Jong-un told military leaders North Korea would revise its military posture to be ready to launch pre-emptive strikes, the KCNA said.
However, despite its rhetoric it remains unclear how advanced North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is.
The UN has imposed some of its toughest ever sanctions on North Korea following its nuclear test and missile launch.
In response on March 3, North Korea fired six short-range projectiles into the sea.
According to the KCNA, Kim Jong-un was speaking at a military exercise on March 3, which is thought to be when the projectiles were fired.
Kim Jong-un said North Korea “must always be ready to fire our nuclear warheads at any time” because enemies were threatening the North’s survival.
“At an extreme time when the Americans… are urging war and disaster on other countries and people, the only way to defend our sovereignty and right to live is to bolster our nuclear capability,” he was quoted as saying.
Analysts still doubt whether North Korea has the ability to make a nuclear bomb small enough to put on a feasible missile, but Kim Jong-un’s announcement brought a swift response from the US.
“We urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions that aggravate tensions and instead focus on fulfilling its international obligations and commitments,” Pentagon spokesman Commander Bill Urban said.
The US and South Korea began talks on March 4 on the possible deployment of a US missile defense shield in the South.
Initial talks will focus on the costs, effectiveness and environmental impact of installing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, among other issues, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Princess Cristina of Spain has testified for the first time at her trial for alleged tax fraud, answering only the questions posed by her own lawyer.
The 50-year-old sister of King Felipe told the court in Mallorca that she had never asked her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, how he ran a property company they jointly owned.
Inaki Urdangarin is accused of using his royal connections to generate business income they used for private spending.
Both deny any wrongdoing. Fifteen other defendants are also on trial.
Princess Cristina could face a maximum of eight years in jail if found guilty.
She denies knowledge of the alleged embezzlement scam that also involves her husband and 16 other defendants.
Asked by her lawyer during the 20-minute appearance why she never talked with her husband about what the company did, Infanta Cristina said they “weren’t issues that interested me”.
“At that time my children were very small and we were very busy. He was in charge of the family expenses. I didn’t get involved in that,” she added.
The case was launched in 2010 and has become highly symbolic of perceived corruption among Spain’s elites, including the royal family.
In 2015, King Felipe stripped his sister and her husband Inaki Urdangarin of their titles, the Duke and Duchess of Palma de Mallorca.
Princess Cristina now lives in Switzerland, but remains the sixth in line to the Spanish throne and is the first member of the royal family to go on trial.
Her lawyers argued that as public prosecutors had refused to press charges against her, the counts should be dismissed.
However, the three judges agreed to continue with the prosecution using the evidence filed by the anti-corruption group Manos Limpias (Clean Hands).
The charges relate to the real estate company Aizoon that Princess Cristina owned with Inaki Urdangarin, a former Olympic handball medalist.
Princess Cristina is accused of making personal use of Aizoon funds for paying for clothes and dance lessons for the couple’s children, as well as work on the couple’s Barcelona mansion, which reduced the company’s taxable profits.
Inaki Urdangarin is alleged to have used the non-profit Noos Institute sports foundation he ran as a vehicle to win falsely inflated contracts from regional government bodies, before channeling the money to personal accounts via tax havens.
Noos is alleged to have received more than €6m ($6.5 million) of public money, most of it from the Balearic Islands and Valencia regional governments.
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Egyptian student Emadeldin Elsayed is facing deportation from the US after a Facebook post saying that the world would thank him if he killed Donald Trump.
The 23-year-old pilot student has not been charged with a crime but authorities are trying to remove him from the US, his attorney, Hani Bushra, said.
Emadeldin Elsayed is being held in a jail in Orange, California.
An immigration court hearing will determine whether he will be deported.
“It seems like the government was not able to get a criminal charge to stick on him, so they used the immigration process to have him leave the country,” Hani Bushra said.
“The rhetoric is particularly high in this election, and I just feel he got caught up in the middle,” he added.
Secret Service agents interviewed Emadeldin Elsayed in early February after he posted a photo of Donald Trump on Facebook and wrote he was willing to serve a life sentence for killing the billionaire, and the world would thank him, Hani Bushra said.
Emadeldin Elsayed said he wrote the message because he was angered by Donald Trump’s comments about Muslims. He said he immediately regretted it and he never intended to harm anyone.
Donald Trump, who is leading the race for the Republican nomination for the presidency, has promised a crackdown on immigration. He has vowed to build a wall along the entire Mexican border and called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US.
The agents returned eight days later and told him federal prosecutors had declined to charge him but said his visa to attend flight school had been revoked. He was then arrested by immigration authorities.
Emadeldin Elsayed said the agent who interviewed him mentioned last year’s shooting rampage by a Muslim husband-and-wife couple in San Bernardino and the 9/11 terror attacks, which were carried out by Muslims who undertook flight training in the US.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that Emadeldin Elsayed was arrested because he violated “the terms of his admission to the United States”.
The state department, secret service and representatives for Donald Trump all declined to comment, according to the Associated Press.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has dismissed Oscar Pistorius’ appeal against his conviction for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Following this ruling, Oscar Pistorius will be sentenced in April.
Oscar Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013 after firing four times through a locked toilet door.
A manslaughter verdict was overturned in December and a murder verdict introduced in its place.
Photo Getty Images
South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said the Constitutional Court found “no prospect of success” in Oscar Pistorius’ appeal.
The case will now go back to Judge Thokozile Masipa – who cleared the athlete of murder in the original case – for sentencing on April 18.
Prosecutors are believed to be targeting a sentence of at least 15 years in jail for Oscar Pistorius.
The double-amputee athlete is currently under house arrest after spending one year of his original five-year sentence in jail.
In December, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the lower court under Judge Thokozile Masipa had not applied correctly the rule of dolus eventualis – whether Oscar Pistorius knew that a death would be a likely result of his actions.
Justice Eric Leach said that having armed himself with a high-caliber weapon, Oscar Pistorius must have foreseen that whoever was behind the door might die, especially given his firearms training.
Oscar Pistorius has always maintained he believed he was shooting at an intruder.
Brazil’s economy shrank by 3.8% in 2015, according to the national statistics agency IBGE.
The world’s seventh-largest economy has fallen sharply in recent months due partly to low commodity prices and sluggish global growth.
Political paralysis has hampered Brazil’s efforts to tackle its economic problems, including a budget deficit that has reached 10.8% of GDP.
President Dilma Rousseff is trying to head off the opposition’s efforts to impeach her over alleged accounting irregularities, which means she cannot afford to alienate supporters in her Workers’ Party by cutting spending or raising taxes.
Investigations are also continuing into a high-level bribery and corruption scandal involving major construction projects.
Dilma Rousseff’s predecessor as president, fellow Workers’ Party politician Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is one of the people under investigation.
Brazil’s economic performance in 2015 vies with that of Russia as the worst in a major economy for 2015. Official figures for Russia’s 2015 GDP have not yet been released.
It was also Brazil’s worst set of figures since 1990.
Analysts say Brazil is now caught in a classic case of stagflation – a combination of high inflation and a recession.
On March 2, policymakers at Brazil’s central bank voted to keep the benchmark Selic interest rate at its current level of 14.25%.
High interest rates have traditionally been used in Brazil as a policy tool to keep inflation in check. However, inflation has surged in any case, now standing at 11%, while high rates are hurting businesses.
