French-led troops secure hold on Timbuktu
French-led troops are consolidating their position in the historic Malian city of Timbuktu after seizing it from Islamist extremists.
French military commanders say soldiers are patrolling the streets looking to flush out any remaining militants.
Once Timbuktu is secured, troops are expected to focus on the last rebel stronghold, Kidal.
Meanwhile, an international donors' conference is due to open in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
The African Union, which has just ended a summit in the city, hopes the conference will raise funds for a multinational force to fight the rebels.
The cost of the military operation has been estimated at up to $1bn (£635bn)Also on Tuesday, a conference in Brussels is due to decide on troops for an EU military training mission for Mali. The UK has already said it will contribute to the mission.
Earlier on Monday, about 1,000 French soldiers - including paratroopers - and 200 Malian troops seized Timbuktu airport and entered the city without a shot being fired.
Col Thierry Burkhard, chief military spokesman in Paris, said that although French troops spearheaded the offensive, Malian forces were on the streets of the city.
"There was an operation on Timbuktu last night that allowed us to control access to the town," he said on Monday.
"It's up to Malian forces to retake the town."
As they withdrew into the desert, the Islamist fighters set fire to several buildings including a library containing priceless manuscripts, some dating back to the 13th Century.
The Ahmed Baba institute held about 30,000 manuscripts and includes documents about centuries of life in the city, Mali and neighbouring countries.
The recovery of Timbuktu followed the swift capture by French and Malian forces of Gao on Saturday, another major northern population centre occupied by militant groups.
Islamists took advantage of a coup last year to seize the vast north of Mali and impose strict Sharia law on its inhabitants.
France - the former colonial power in Mali - launched a military operation earlier this month after militants looked to be threatening the south.
Meanwhile, reports from Kidal - home of the head of Ansar Dine, the main militant group in northern Mali - suggest that the group may have already lost control there.The secular Tuareg rebel group MNLA said it had taken charge. The Agence France-Presse news agency quoted a spokesman of an Ansar Dine breakaway faction as saying that it was jointly "ensuring security" with the MNLA.
The BBC's Thomas Fessy in Timbuktu says that once Kidal is taken, the first phase of the French operation will be over.
The second phase will be to track down the militants to their desert hideouts, he adds.
Mali dominated an African Union summit which ended on Monday in Addis Ababa, with the bloc deciding to contribute $50m (£32m) to the multinational force.
An AU official said 60 to 70 donors had been invited to the international donors' conference, which has been organised at short notice.
Our correspondent says there is some unease in Africa that the continent appears unable to pay for its own peacekeeping operations.
Addressing the AU summit, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the Malian government should look beyond the current conflict if it wanted peace in the country.
"I'm urging the Malian authorities to engage in inclusive dialogue, to have a political process going on and to have national reconciliations through dialogue, so that they can have constitutional order restored, they can have a political solution, economic stability insured," he said.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to abdicate for son
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has announced she is abdicating in favour of her son, Prince Willem-Alexander.
In a pre-recorded address broadcast on TV, she said she would formally stand down on 30 April.
The queen, who is approaching her 75th birthday, said she had been thinking about this moment for several years and that now was "the moment to lay down my crown".
Queen Beatrix has been head of state since 1980, when her mother abdicated.
In the short televised statement, the queen said it was time for the throne to be held by "a new generation", adding that her son was ready to be king.
Prince Willem-Alexander, 45, is married to Maxima Zorreguieta, a former investment banker from Argentina, and has three young children.
He is a trained pilot and an expert in water management.
He will become the Netherlands' first king since Willem III, who died in 1890.
Speaking on television immediately after the abdication announcement, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte paid tribute to the queen"Since her coronation... she has applied herself heart and soul for Dutch society," he said.
Abdication 'tradition'
Queen Beatrix is the sixth monarch from the House of Orange-Nassau, which has ruled the Netherlands since the early 19th Century.
Correspondents say she is extremely popular with most Dutch people, but her abdication was widely expected and will not provoke a constitutional crisis.
Under Dutch law, the monarch has few powers and the role is considered ceremonial.
In recent decades it has become the tradition for the monarch to abdicate.
Queen Beatrix's mother Juliana resigned the throne in 1980 on her 70th birthday, and her grandmother Wilhelmina abdicated in 1948 at the age of 68.
Queen Beatrix will be 75 on Thursday.
She has remained active in recent years, but her reign has also seen traumatic events.
In 2009 a would-be attacker killed eight people when he drove his car into crowds watching the queen and other members of the royal family in a national holiday parade.
In March last year her second son, Prince Friso, was struck by an avalanche in Austria and remains in a coma.
Egypt protests continue despite overnight curfew
Protests and violence have continued into the night in Egypt as thousands defied overnight curfews imposed by President Mohammed Morsi.
Marches took place in the cities of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez after dark, despite the curfews and a temporary state of emergency.
Dozens of people have been killed in five days of violent protests.
Meanwhile Mr Morsi's call for national dialogue has been rejected by his political opponents.
He had urged opposition leaders to attend a meeting on Sunday evening in an effort to calm the situation, but only Islamists already aligned with the president turned up.
The latest protests in the cities along the Suez canal were sparked by death sentences handed down by a Port Said court on 21 local football fans involved in deadly riots at a football match in the city almost a year ago.
Elsewhere Egyptians more broadly opposed to Mr Morsi's authority have taken to the streets in the wake of the Egyptian revolution's second anniversaryMore deaths on Monday mean that between 50 and 60 people are now believed to have been killed in violent clashes with security forces since Thursday.
Earlier, state news agency Mena reported six deaths in Port Said during daylight hours on Monday, when funerals were held for three people killed on Sunday.
After nightfall, groups attacked police stations, and one man was killed according to medical sources.
Security men and soldiers were also injured, Egyptian authorities said, but troops in tanks and armoured vehicles in Suez and Port Said did not appear to be intervening to uphold the curfew.
'Excessive force'
In Suez, people defied the curfew to march towards the headquarters of the provincial government.
In Cairo, where no curfew has yet been imposed, violence continued on Monday with one man killed by gunfire near Tahrir Square.
Clashes between protesters and police appeared to centre around the Qasr el-Nil bridge that leads onto the square.
State TV said a total of 590 people had been injured in violence across Egypt on Monday alone, with most of them in Port Said.In response to the growing violence on the streets, Egypt's cabinet approved a draft law allowing the army to participate in policing and have the power of arrest. The bill was later passed by the Shura Council, the upper house of parliament.
The text of the bill says the army will "support the police in maintaining order and protecting vital installations until the end of parliamentary elections and whenever the National Defence Council [headed by Mr Morsi] requests it".
Meanwhile the human rights group Amnesty International condemned the use of violence by Egyptian security forces dealing with protests citing "disturbing eyewitness accounts of excessive force... including instances of lethal force".
'Form, not content'
Mr Morsi's call for dialogue appeared to fall on deaf ears, both in the streets and among political opponents.
Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading member of the opposition National Salvation Front, told journalists that before it would attend any national dialogue, the president would have to appoint a national unity government and take steps to amend the disputed constitution.
"The dialogue to which the president invited us is to do with form and not content," Mr ElBaradei said.
"We support any dialogue if it has a clear agenda that can shepherd the nation to the shores of safety."
Former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, speaking at the same news conference, said: "We aspire to a dialogue, but there are no guarantees that this dialogue will be a success... while blood is being spilled."
Mr Morsi invited representatives from 11 political forces - Islamists, liberals and leftists - to come to the presidential palace for talks on Monday evening, but only Islamists attended.
Argo wins top Screen Actors Guild award
Ben Affleck's Iran hostage drama Argo has won the top honour for overall cast performance at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards.
Jennifer Lawrence took the best actress award for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, while Daniel Day-Lewis was named best actor for Lincoln.
Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Hathaway won the supporting actor awards for Lincoln and Les Miserables respectively.
ITV's Downton Abbey also picked up a prize for best TV drama series cast.
Argo beat Les Miserables, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook to win the top award."This has nothing to do with me," said Affleck, who both directed and starred in Argo.
"It has to do with the incredible people who were in this movie."
The prize came a day after Argo won the top honour at the Producers Guild Awards, the winner of whose best film prize often goes on to win best picture at the Oscars.
Affleck's film tells the fact-based story of how US diplomats stranded in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution were spirited out of the country.
As he accepted his award for best actor on Sunday, Day-Lewis remarked that "it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln".
"Somehow it is only so fitting that every now and then an actor tries to bring him back to life again," he went on.
In the television categories Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey were named best comedy actor and actress for 30 Rock, giving Baldwin his seventh consecutive SAG win.
The prize for best ensemble comedy series cast went to Modern Family.
The TV drama acting prizes were given to Bryan Cranston for Breaking Bad and Claire Danes for Homeland.
Julianne Moore's turn as former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin in Game Change earned her the award for best actress in a movie or miniseries, with Kevin Costner receiving the equivalent best actor honour for Hatfields & McCoys.
Veteran actor Dick Van Dyke, star of Mary Poppins and Diagnosis Murder, was presented with the guild's life achievement award.
After waiting on stage for a prolonged standing ovation to end, the 87-year-old said: "That does an old man a lot of good."
Other winners at the Producers Guild Awards on Saturday included Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, which won the animation category, and Searching for Sugar Man, which took the documentary prize.
Homeland also won the award for best television drama series, while Modern Family was named best comedy series for a third consecutive year.
Ashton Kutcher receives mixed reviews for Steve Jobs biopic
Actor Ashton Kutcher has received mixed reviews for his portrayal of Steve Jobs in a biopic of the Apple founder, which premiered at the close of this year's Sundance Film Festival.
Jobs looks at Apple's origins in the 1970s, following its founder up to the launch of the first iPod in 2001.
The closing night awards ceremony saw wins for the dramatic movie Fruitvale and the documentary Blood Brother.
Both US titles picked up audience awards and grand jury prizes.
Jobs, released in US cinemas in April, covers the rise of the successful innovator and stars Josh Gad as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
The not always flattering drama shows Jobs withholding stock options from some of the company's original employees and denying child support to the mother of his eldest child.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, critic Sebastian Doggart said that while the story is "heroic", the "episodic [and] superficial" script "makes an almighty mess of it".
"Where the film completely falls down," Doggart continues, "is in director Joshua Michael Stern's disastrous decision to cast Ashton Kutcher in the central role.
"The poverty of his skills as a serious actor is on full display. His diction is incoherent. He clumsily signposts every emotion he thinks his character should feel."
Indiewire found Kutcher's performance to be "committed" and "certainly his most impressive turn in years, which conveys the character's focused, manipulative intentions in each calculated look".
However, reviewer Eric Cohn felt the film as a whole "plays it too safe".
"The movie is constantly at war with attempts to provide an honest portrayal, almost as if its subject were reaching beyond the grave to steer any negativity back in the direction of a hagiography."
Kutcher, 34, has said he considers Jobs his most personal film to date.
Attending the film's world premiere on Friday, he said playing Steve Jobs on screen was "honestly one of the most terrifying things I've ever tried to do in my life"Hollywood Reporter reviewer Justin Lowe commended Kutcher's performance, saying he "faithfully recreates some of his character's physical mannerisms" and managed a "fair imitation of Jobs' speaking style".
He described the film as "passably entertaining" but said it failed to "break any stylistic ground".
Variety critic Justin Chang concurred, saying the film "more or less embodies the sort of bland, go-with-the-flow creative thinking Jobs himself would have scorned".
He described Kutcher's performance as "carefully judged," but said "the illusion never fully seizes hold" despite "an impressive attempt at vocal mimicry".Award winners
Fruitvale is based on the true story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old who was shot and killed in a public transit station in Oakland, California in 2009.
Starring Octavia Spencer, who won the best supporting actress Oscar last year for her role in civil rights drama The Help, it was written and directed by first-time filmmaker Ryan Coogler.
"This project was about humanity, about human beings and how we treat each other; how we treat the people that we love the most, and how we treat the people that we don't know," said Coogler, 26.
Best documentary winner Blood Brother follows a young American, Rocky Braat, as he moves to India to work with orphans infected with HIV.
"This means so much to so many kids," said its director Steve Hoover of his film's awards.
Other winners on Saturday included Pussy Riot: a Punk Prayer, a film about Russia's feminist protest group, and The Summit, about the worst ever climbing disaster on K2.
Both films were part-funded by Storyville, BBC Four's international documentary strand.
--BBC
Royal hoax radio show cancelled
The Australian radio show that made the hoax call to the hospital treating the Duchess of Cambridge in December has been cancelled.
2Day FM's Hot 30 programme had been taken off air following the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who was found hanged after forwarding the call.
The broadcaster said a new show, hosted by a different DJ, would fill the slot.
Michael Christian and Mel Greig, the DJs who made the call, were still employed by the station, it added.
The pair have been on leave since the incident and a music-based show without a host DJ has been broadcast in their show's place.
"We look forward to Mel and MC returning to work when the time is right, in roles that make full use of their talents," said Rhys Holleran of Southern Cross Austereo, owner of 2Day FM.
"We will discuss future roles with them when they are ready,"
The duchess was being treated at King Edward VII's Hospital for an extreme form of morning sickness when Christian and Greig made their prank call pretending to be members of the Royal Family.
Mrs Saldanha answered the call and put them through to another nurse who gave an update on the duchess's condition.
Mrs Saldanha was found hanged three days later.
Last month the Australian media watchdog launched a formal inquiry to examine whether any broadcasting rules had been breached.
2Day FM also pledged to give at least 500,000 Australian dollars (£330,600) from its advertising profits to the family of Mrs Saldanha.
US Senators Unveil Plan for Immigration Reform
0
0
1
388
2215
Tripple M FM
18
5
2598
14.0
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
JA
X-NONE
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has unveiled a plan for immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for those currently in the country illegally.
One of the eight senators, Charles Schumer, described it as a tough but fair plan for citizenship. At a Washington news conference Monday, the New York Democrat said President Barack Obama is pleased with the compromise.
Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida, said lawmakers have an obligation to address the situation of the 11 million people in the country illegally while being fair to those seeking citizenship though legal channels.
The senators say the U.S. immigration system is "broken." They released their proposal ahead of President Obama's Tuesday speech urging action on immigration reform.
Under the plan, illegal immigrants would register with the government, pass a background check, pay fines and back taxes, and complete other steps to earn a probationary status that would allow them to legally live and work in the United States. They would then be placed at the back of the line for those seeking a so-called green card as a permanent legal resident.
The plan includes exceptions for those who entered the country as children, as well as for agricultural workers who the senators say play an important role in maintaining the nation's food supply.
The new plan also includes increased immigration enforcement.
There is also a provision to create an effective system for employers to verify that workers are legal. Another system would be set up to ensure those who enter the country on short-term visas leave when their approved time is up.
In addition to senators Schumer and Rubio, the others who worked on the proposal are Democrats Dick Durbin, Robert Menendez and Michael Bennet, and Republicans John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Jeff Flake. They represent some of the states most affected by illegal migration, including Arizona, Florida, South Carolina and New York.
Their proposal says the 11 million undocumented immigrants came "almost exclusively for jobs."
The plan would allow employers to hire lower-skilled workers for positions that Americans are unavailable or unwilling to take. It would also give permanent resident status to those who earn a doctorate or master's degree in science, engineering or math from a U.S. university, in a bid to retain more "future innovators and entrepreneurs."
The senators also want to reduce backlogs in family and employment visas, saying those efforts would help future immigrants see a legal path as the only route to entering the United States.
Chris Brown being investigated
Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown is under investigation for an alleged assault in a West Hollywood parking lot, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said early today.
Deputies responding to a report of six men fighting Sunday night found the scene clear, but were told by witnesses there had been a brief fight over a parking space.
"The altercation allegedly led to Chris Brown punching the victim," the department said in a statement released early Monday morning.
The "victim" wasn't identified, but the celebrity website TMZ, which first reported the fight outside the Westlake Recording Studio, said it also involved Frank Ocean, one of the top nominees at the Grammy Awards next month.
In a Twitter posting later, Ocean said he "got jumped by (Brown) and a couple guys" and suffered a finger cut.
It wasn't Brown’s first problem in the run-up to the Grammys. His attack on singer Rihanna on the eve of the 2009 awards event overshadowed the show.
Last June, he was injured in a brawl with members of hip-hop star Drake's entourage at a New York nightclub.
No arrests were made. Brown was gone by the time deputies arrived but the department said the investigation is ongoing and Brown would be contacted later. (AP)
Brazil Arrests 4 After Deadly Nightclub Blaze
0
0
1
206
1176
Tripple M FM
9
2
1380
14.0
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
JA
X-NONE
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
Police in Brazil have arrested four people in connection with a nightclub fire that killed 231 people early Sunday.
Two club owners and two members of the band that was playing when the blaze broke out are in police custody.
The fire quickly swept through the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, in the far south of the country, trapping people who fled to the only unlocked exit. Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation or were trampled. More than 100 people were injured.
The club was filled with university students. Survivors say a band member shot fireworks toward the ceiling, triggering the blaze that engulfed the building.
Family members have begun the grim task of burying their loved ones.
As the country mourns, Brazil canceled an event scheduled for Monday in the capital, Brasilia, marking the 500-day countdown to its hosting of the 2014 World Cup.
The disaster comes at a time Brazil is trying to show the rest of the world it is prepared to host next year's World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff cut short a visit to Chile early Sunday to return home.
Santa Maria is a major university city with a population of about 250,000, located near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.
The fire is among the deadliest in a nightclub. A blaze in China in 2000 killed 309 people and one in Argentina in 2004 killed 194.
Bahamians vote in referendum
Bahamians voted in a referendum Monday on whether or not to legalise web-shop gambling and a national lottery following a campaign that mirrors a general election in the country.
The ruling Progressive Liberal party (PLP) of Prime Minister Perry Christie is urging voters to give his administration the nod to introduce the measure which it said would provide employment and significant revenue to The Bahamas.
But the main opposition Free National Movement (FNM) wants voters to vote “No” accusing the government of having its priorities wrong.
National Security Minister Dr Bernard J. Nottage, the latest government minister to back the initiative, said that the result of the poll will be determined by a simple majority of the number of “Yes” versus the number of “No” votes for each question.
“As there are no candidates, there will be no election agents in this referendum. Instead, the regulations empower the Minister to appoint a maximum of three Local Observers per polling station with a view to ensuring the fairness of the process,” he said. (CMC)