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Golf: Teen star Ko seizes lead in Florida
Aircraft set for minute-by-minute tracking
New Zealand win toss, bowl first against Pakistan
3 Chad soldiers, 123 Boko Haram militants killed in Cameroon
14 Shikarpur blast victims blast airlifted to Karachi
English cricket set for new chairman as shake-up continues
Air strike kills IS 'chemical weapons expert': US
Euro falls as Greece rejects bailout talks with troika
Third time no charm: Romney won't run for president
Football: PSG edge Rennes to close gap on Lyon
Football: Australia, South Korea clash for Asian Cup
France opens criminal investigation into AirAsia crash
Kurd allies fighting IS in north Iraq hampered by rivalries
Judge: Funeral home wrongly sold Lee Harvey Oswald's casket
Oil soars on signs US oil companies curtail production

Golf: Teen star Ko seizes lead in Florida

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ORLANDO (AFP) - Teen star Lydia Ko birdied five straight holes on the back nine to take a one-stroke lead after the third round of the season-opening LPGA Tours Coates Golf Championship on Friday.The 17-year-old from New Zealand is a shot ahead of rookie Jang Ha-Na and could become the youngest male or female player ever to reach number one in the world rankings with a victory on Saturday.I have been putting good the last few days. I just have to stay in that mood, Ko said.Ko, who finished 54 holes at 14-under 202, has five career LPGA Tour wins with three of those coming last year.Jang, the second-round leader, posted a one-under 71 at Golden Ocala Golf course in Florida and is alone in second place at 13-under.Choi Na-Yeon, another South Korean, carded a six-under 66 to jump into third place at 12-under-par 204.American Stacy Lewis shot two-under 70 for the second straight round and the world number three is alone in fourth at 10-under 206.Amy Yang equalled Kos 65 and jumped into a share of fifth at nine-under. Yang was joined there by Jessica Korda (69) and Austin Ernst (70).Ko had a strong front nine with four birdies. But she began the back nine with back-to-back bogeys before catching fire and then surging to five straight birdies. She closed with two pars.I was kind of shocked, Ko said of the bogeys. But it got me fired up. I jammed my putter in the bag and said, Youve got to start working again, and I made good birdies on 12 to 16.Ko said she plans to manage her game in Saturdays final round and not think about what others are doing.There are so many great players one to four shots back and you just never know whats going to happen, she said. Im just going to concentrate on my game, just stay really positive, and if somebody else shoots a much better score than I do, I cant really do much about it.Ask about the possibility of becoming the youngest No. 1, Ko said: It would be great and it would be a huge honour to be in that position, but weve still got another long 18 holes to go and you just never know whats going to happen in those holes.Ko said she can always hear her father shouting encouragement from the sidelines and this round was no different.I told my dad, Dad, the only crowd voice I can hear is you saying like, Nice, Lydia.I can always spot it. Its a voice I always hear. And he actually has quite a loud voice just even talking, so hes always verbal out there.When theres like no one and my dad does it, Im like, Oh, there goes my dad.But in a way its good, it kind of gives me a little bit of oomph and its good to have the support.

Aircraft set for minute-by-minute tracking

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MONTREAL (AFP) - All commercial flights worldwide could soon send out an automated signal every minute in times of distress to help rescuers find downed aircraft more easily.The new measures are in response to last years disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in what remains one of historys great aviation mysteries.The aircraft, with 239 people on board, has never been found, nearly a year on. The new tracking rules, prepared by an industry working group, would be phased in by the end of this year, said the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency.The initiative will now be presented to delegates from all 191 ICAO member states at a meeting in Montreal from Monday to Thursday, and a final proposal will be submitted to the ICAO Council within six months for ratification.The measure has unanimous support among ICAO member states, a source said Friday, meaning it is virtually assured to be brought in.Currently, radar can track a plane, however coverage fades when aircraft are out at sea or the plane is flying below a certain altitude.Under the new rules, airlines will be required to track their aircraft using a system that gives their location at 15-minute intervals. If an abnormal event is detected, including a change in direction or deviation from a flight path, the signal rate hastens to every minute.Airlines would be responsible for sharing the data with authorities in cases of emergencies.Its the start of tracking (flights) every minute in emergency situations that is the most effective in the short term, the source said.Following a distress signal, search and rescue teams would be able to zero in on an aircraft within six nautical miles (11 kilometers) of its last known position.The ICAO will also ask airlines to equip their aircraft with ejectable black boxes. These would float and be more easily retrievable in case of a crash over water.They will be mandatory on new aircraft built after 2021, the source told AFP.The ejectable black boxes would be in addition to existing commercial flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders that continually record flight information.

New Zealand win toss, bowl first against Pakistan

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WELLINGTON (AFP) - New Zealand won the toss and opted to bowl in the first of two one-day internationals against Pakistan at Wellington Stadium on Saturday.The series offers a final chance for both sides to fine-tune before the World Cup begins on February 14.New Zealand have made four changes to the side that completed a 4-2 series win over Sri Lanka on the same wicket two days ago.Captain Brendon McCullum returns along with Nathan McCullum, Adam Milne and Trent Boult, replacing Kane Williamson, Daniel Vettori, Tim Southee and Mitchell McClenaghan.Pakistan have not played a one-dayer since a tied series against New Zealand before Christmas in the United Arab Emirates, but captain Misbah-ul Haq felt they had acclimatised well in two warm-up games this week against a New Zealand XI.Weve had a chance to get used to the conditions and I think were ready for this game, he said.The Pakistan side includes all-rounder Haris Sohail who claimed he was woken by a ghost in his hotel room when the team were training in Christchurch last weekend.Teams:New Zealand - Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum (capt), Tom Latham, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Adam Milne, Trent Boult.Pakistan - Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul Haq (capt), Haris Sohail, Umar Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed, Shahid Afridi, Bilawal Bhatti, Ehsan Adil, Mohammad Irfan.Toss: New Zealand.Umpires: Chris Gaffaney (NZL), Michael Gough (ENG).TV umpire: Rod Tucker (AUS).Match referee: Javagal Srinath (IND).

3 Chad soldiers, 123 Boko Haram militants killed in Cameroon

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NDJAMENA (AFP) - Three soldiers and 123 Boko Haram militants were killed when the Islamist group attacked a Chadian army contingent in northern Cameroon, the Chadian military said Friday.Twelve soldiers were wounded in the attacks staged by the Islamist group on Thursday and Friday near the border town of Fotokol, according to a military statement read out on national television.Chad sent a convoy of troops and military vehicles into neighbouring Cameroon on January 17 to deal with the growing threat Boko Haram poses in the region.The enemy was repelled by our defensive forces, the general staffs statement said, adding that the troops had routed the Islamists in the second attack.The soldiers were killed by improvised explosive devices, the statement said.A senior Cameroonian security source said the Chadian troops were deployed to the town, which sits opposite a Nigerian town under Boko Haram control and is also close to the border with Chad, on Wednesday.Boko Haram frequently stages attacks on Fotokol from their base in the Nigerian town of Gamboru, which is just 500 metres (yards) away.Chad has called on countries in the region to form a broad coalition in the fight against the Islamist group. The country has already deployed its army along its borders as well as sending the additional contingent to Cameroon. Chads President Idriss Deby has also expressed intentions of taking back the strategic Nigerian town of Baga from Boko Haram, situated on Lake Chad.The African Union called Friday for a regional five-nation force of 7,500 troops to defeat the horrendous rise of Boko Haram. The groups uprising has become a regional crisis, with the four directly affected countries -- Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria -- agreeing along with Benin to boost cooperation to contain the threat and to form a Multinational Joint Task Force.More than 13,000 people have been killed and more than one million made homeless by Boko Haram violence since 2009.

14 Shikarpur blast victims blast airlifted to Karachi

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KARACHI (Dunya News) – A Pakistan Army C-130 Hercules plane carrying 14 seriously wounded victims of Shikarpur Imambargah blast landed at the Faisal Airbase in Karachi on Saturday night.At least 16 relatives of the injured people also reached Karachi on the same flight. The injured were shifted to Agha Khan Hospital from airport.Earlier, at least 56 people were killed and 40 others injured in a suicide attack at an Imambargah in Shikarpur district of Sindh, around 470 kilometres (300 miles) north of Karachi. According to police, the explosion took place inside an Imambargah in Lakhi Dar area during Friday prayers.

English cricket set for new chairman as shake-up continues

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LONDON (AP) - The shake-up at the top of English cricket continued on Friday when Colin Graves was nominated for chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board.Graves, who is the chairman of county Yorkshire, is set to be elected unopposed for the biggest job in the English game as no other nominations were received by the governing body from Englands first-class counties. He will replace Giles Clarke, who has had three terms in the position since 2007.The ECB recently hired Tom Harrison as its new chief executive.Since the Ashes whitewash to Australia at the end of 2013 and start of 2014, England has also seen team director Andy Flower and coaches Graham Gooch and Mushtaq Ahmed depart.

Air strike kills IS 'chemical weapons expert': US

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US-led coalition air strike killed a chemical weapons specialist with the Islamic State group in Iraq who once worked for Saddam Hussein, US military officers said Friday.The air raid carried out last Saturday near Mosul took out Abu Malik, whose training provided the terrorist group with expertise to pursue a chemical weapons capability, the military said in a statement.Malik had worked at a chemical weapons production plant under Saddams regime and later forged an affiliation with Al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2005, before joining the extremist IS group, according to Central Command.His death is expected to temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish ISILs ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against innocent people, it said.There has been no sign that the IS group possesses a major chemical weapons arsenal. But there have been allegations the jihadists have employed chlorine gas, which is classified as a choking agent, though not as lethal as nerve agents.The US-led coalition has carried out more than 2,000 air raids against the IS group in Syria and Iraq since August 8, including some bombing runs that targeted senior militants.

Euro falls as Greece rejects bailout talks with troika

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NEW YORK (AFP) - The euro retreated against other major currencies Friday as struggling Greece refused to meet with its international creditors and rejected fresh loans, and the eurozone showed weaker inflation.The finance minister of Greeces new anti-austerity government, Yanis Varoufakis, said that despite warnings Greece would shortly run out of money, his government preferred to do without the instant fresh cash, and instead renegotiate the entire bailout package.This government was elected on the basis of analytically questioning the very logic of the program now being applied, he said, referring to the reforms and budget cuts demanded by Athenss international troika of creditors -- the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.Our first act as government will not be to reject the logic of questioning this program by requesting to extend it, he added.At a strained press conference with Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Varoufakis said Athens was willing to negotiate with its lenders but not with the troika auditors who he said were merely a committee built on rotten foundations.Athens had been promised another 7.2 billion euros in funds from the troika if it completed reforms required by its lenders by February 28.Greece is clearly creating more headaches for the eurozone because if they do not allow the troika into the country, they may not receive the next aid disbursement that they desperately need to avoid default, said Kathy Lien of BK Asset Management.Adding to the gloom over the eurozone was the latest official data showing consumer prices fell by a record 0.6 percent in January, after a drop of 0.2 percent in December, suggesting deflation could be taking hold in the 19-nation currency bloc.The dollar, meanwhile, was little-changed after the Commerce Department reported the US economy grew at a 2.6 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter, slower than the 3.2 percent expected by economists.There were aspects of the report that should keep optimism around the US economy (at least relative to the rest of the world) elevated through early-2015, said Christopher Vecchio, currency analyst at DailyFX.

Third time no charm: Romney won't run for president

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Friday he will not run for the White House again in 2016, ending weeks of intense speculation that he would mount a third campaign.After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, Ive decided it is best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity to become our next nominee, Romney said during a conference call with supporters.I believe that one of our next generation of Republican leaders, one who may not be as well-known as I am today, one who has not yet taken their message across the country, one who is just getting started, may well emerge as being better able to defeat the Democrat nominee.The announcement essentially ends Romneys three-week public flirtation with a another run, after he came up short as the Republican nominee in 2012 and lost the nomination to Senator John McCain in 2008.On January 9, he told donors he remained interested in the White House. He subsequently gave two speeches laying out his vision for themes to embrace should Republicans want to regain the White House after eight years of President Barack Obama.Romney, 67, said Friday it was unlikely that circumstances would change his mind about running.Accordingly, Im not... taking donations; Im not hiring a campaign team, he said.And yet Romney may have left the door open. He expressed confidence he would have had enough funding to mount a campaign and noted he was well ahead in a recent Republican poll.With his foreign policy focus and call for battling income inequality, I would have the best chance of beating the eventual Democrat nominee, Romney said.Kevin Madden, a Romney 2012 spokesman, said he was very surprised by Romney bowing out.Every single indication we got suggested another presidential run, Madden told CNN.Potential candidate Jeb Bush, perhaps the person with the most to gain from Romneys departure because the two operate within the Republican establishment, was quick to praise his would-be rival as a patriot and party leader.Though Im sure todays decision was not easy, I know that Mitt Romney will never stop advocating for renewing Americas promise, Bush, a former Florida governor and the son and brother of two presidents, said in a statement.Bush announced in December that he was actively exploring a presidential run.Romney and Bush were destined early for a campaign clash, battling for crucial donor support and political endorsements, and hiring top campaign staff. The pair met in Utah last week.Politics is a zero sum game, (and) the winner is Jeb Bush, Quinnipiac University Poll assistant director Peter Brown told AFP of Romneys announcement.Bush just lost his major competitor to be the center-right candidate in the Republican Party.Romney, a wealthy businessman and former governor of Massachusetts, said in recent speeches that the party needed to make poverty alleviation a key campaign plank.He amassed a fortune as a venture capitalist, and Obamas 2012 team successfully painted him as an out-of-touch millionaire.Romney joked about his own financial comfort Wednesday, saying money was no motivator for a presidential run.As you no doubt heard, Im already rich, he quipped.But when Obama took a swipe at Romney in an address to Democratic lawmakers Thursday, mocking him for suddenly (being) deeply concerned about poverty, Romney responded.Mr Obama, wonder why my concern about poverty? The record number of poor in your term, and your record of failure to remedy, the Republican tweeted.A day later, the White House praised Romney for tremendous loyalty to his country, and as a party veteran could draw more attention and focus on policies that actually benefit middle-class families.Romneys 2012 campaign suffered when a tape surfaced of him saying 47 percent of Americans would never vote for him because they were dependent on government benefits.He also struggled to counter the image that was stuck on him in those primary battles and beyond -- that of a policy flip-flopper with questionable concern for Americas struggling middle class.Romney would have faced a crowded political horse race for 2016, with a dozen Republicans poised to launch presidential campaigns.One is Senator Rand Paul, who emitted the equivalent of a political sigh of relief on Twitter after Romneys withdrawal.I hope to work together with Mitt to grow our party and lead our country forward, Paul said.

Football: PSG edge Rennes to close gap on Lyon

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PARIS (AFP) - Ezequiel Lavezzi scored the only goal as champions Paris Saint-Germain edged Rennes 1-0 on Friday to maintain their undefeated Ligue 1 home record and cut the gap on leaders Lyon to just one point.The win was PSGs sixth consecutive home win in all competitions while stretching their Ligue 1 record at the Parc des Princes to eight wins and three draws.However, Lyon, who face PSG in 10 days time, can restore their four-point lead with victory at Monaco on Sunday.Lavezzi grabbed the decisive goal after 29 minutes after a neat interchange of passes down the left between Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was involved twice, Adrien Rabiot and Javier Pastore.Argentine star Lavezzi, who has been linked with a move to Liverpool before the transfer window shuts on Monday, was then on hand to tuck the ball past Benoit Costil in the Rennes goal for his third goal of the season.Rennes may have gone into Fridays game having not won a game in Ligue 1 since December 3 but they had defeated PSG 2-1 on their last visit to the capital in May.They showed they would not be intimidated by the champions and came close to an equaliser moments later.Pastore played a poorly-weighted back pass which was intercepted by Abdoulaye Doucoure.The midfielder was clean through but his tame shot was well saved by an alert Salvatore Sirigu in the PSG goal.Five minutes after the interval, it was the turn of Costil to keep his team in the hunt.Brazilian defender Marquinhos found Edinson Cavani with a neat pass which dissected the Rennes backline but the Uruguayan striker was denied his 17th Ligue 1 goal of the season by a fine diving save from Costil.Cavani missed another close-range opportunity before he was hauled off by manager Laurent Blanc.At the other end, Sirigu kept PSGs advantage intact with a save from Christian Bruls after Lavezzi had given the ball away.

Football: Australia, South Korea clash for Asian Cup

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SYDNEY (AFP) - Hosts Australia take on South Korea in the Asian Cup final on Saturday in a blockbuster clash between two of the regions heavyweight teams.The match pits the tournaments most prolific attack against its meanest defence, with Australia looking to breach a Korean rearguard which has yet to concede a goal.South Korea beat Australia 1-0 in the group stage but the result will count for little when they meet in front of 80,000 fans at 8:00 pm (0900 GMT) in Sydney.Tens of thousands of Korean fans are expected at a sold-out Stadium Australia as the Taeguk Warriors look to end a title drought which stretches back to 1960.Television shows have been rescheduled and the match will be broadcast live on two free-to-air channels as Asian Cup fever grows in South Korea.The build-up in Australia, not traditionally a footballing nation, has been more measured and was disrupted by reports of opposition to the countrys membership of the Asian confederation.But a home win could be hugely significant for the sport as football looks to challenge Australias more established rugby codes, Australian rules and cricket.Australia have 12 goals through 10 different scorers and coach Ange Postecoglou said the Socceroos would not change their attacking philosophy for the final.It will be up to them to try to stop us scoring goals -- well just do what weve been doing, said Postecoglou. Its proven successful so far and well continue to do that. There wont be any secrets about how we go about it tomorrow, he added. Well take the game to our opponents and put pressure on them as we have in every game.South Korea won the first two Asian Cups in 1956 and 1960, when it was a round-robin event, but have yet to claim a third title despite reaching finals in 1972, 1980 and 1988.As 2002 World Cup semi-finalists, South Koreas frustrations at Asian level are a curious anomaly but Uli Stielikes side have already exceeded the modest expectations their fans had before the tournament.Their performance at last years World Cup was considered so humiliating that the players were pelted with toffee, a traditional Korean insult, when they arrived home from Brazil.But Stielike, tasked with rebuilding the side, has quickly moulded a formidable unit which has weathered severe disruptions through injury and illness.We have a lot of young players, and its the first time they will be in a big final, a big event like this with 80,000 people so I dont know what the reaction will be, said the German.If we can play with calm and with conviction then we will have every possibility of winning the game -- but this will be the main point, how strong our mentality is.

France opens criminal investigation into AirAsia crash

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PARIS (AFP) - France has opened a formal criminal investigation into the crash of an AirAsia plane in the Java Sea last month while a French co-pilot was at the controls, a judicial source said FridayA judge will investigate possible manslaughter in connection with the crash that killed all 162 people on board.Flight QZ8501 went down in stormy weather on December 28 in the Java Sea during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. Only 72 bodies have so far been recovered.On Thursday, Indonesias National Transportation Safety Committee, which has been analysing the planes black boxes, said that prior to the crash, the aircraft had climbed fast in an area packed with huge storm clouds, and the stall alarms started going off.They also revealed that the Airbus A320-200s less experienced French co-pilot, Remi Plesel, was flying the plane before it went down, rather than Captain Iriyanto, a former fighter pilot who had around 20,000 hours of flying time.Plesels family in France separately filed charges against AirAsia Indonesia for endangering the life of others as the airline did not have permission to carry out the flight between Surabaya and Singapore on the day of the crash.Remi Plesels family are delighted at this criminal investigation which, we hope, will reveal the truth, said their lawyer Eddy Arneton.It will allow us to finally ask the right questions.

Kurd allies fighting IS in north Iraq hampered by rivalries

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SINJAR, Iraq: (AP) - Kurdish forces in recent weeks have retaken parts of the strategic Iraqi town of Sinjar, whose Yazidi population was driven out in a humanitarian disaster last year that triggered U.S. intervention. But sniping among Kurdish factions makes the hold on the town seem shaky and is threatening the wider fight against Islamic state militants.Overlooking the strategic northern Iraq town of Sinjar, peshmerga fighters representing the recognized authorities of Iraqi Kurdistan fume against what they see as the recklessness of their supposed allies in militias drawn from neighboring Syria and Turkey.Within the bomb-scarred warrens of the town below, foot soldiers in those militias complain that the much more heavily armed peshmerga have done too little during the fight against Islamic State fighters holed up within easy range of a snipers bullet.The immediate issue is ownership of Sinjar, the town that once was home to many of Iraqs Yazidi religious minority. Tens of thousands fled to the nearby mountains, creating a humanitarian disaster, when IS militants seized the town in August and unleashed a wave of terror involving killings, imposed conversions and forced marriage.But there is a wider concern as well: The Kurds, in their various forces, have provided the most effective ground resistance to date against the jihadis who have taken large swaths of Iraq and Syria and so the outside world has a stake in their ability to continue that struggle.Since December, the peshmerga and their Kurdish comrades in arms have regained the mountains in this area thanks in part to increased weapons supplies and airstrikes from coalition warplanes.But the fight has bogged down around Sinjar itself, inflaming intra-Kurdish tensions just as their fight was gaining momentum.Todays divisions reflect decades of conflict between peshmerga supporters of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), headed by Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, and the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) of Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey. The two groups were opponents in 1990s civil warfare, which ended in an accord that allowed PKK fighters to remain on the KDPs Iraqi turf. The U.S. State Department regards the PKK as a terrorist organization because of its history of violence in Turkey.The commander of peshmerga forces around Sinjar, Brig. Gen. Salam Warti, described the PKK and other militias as loose cannons unwilling to stick to an agreed strategic plan. He said they rushed into Sinjar too quickly last week, when the Kurdish regional government announced that its forces had wrested nearly a third of the town from IS forces. That boast proved short-lived as peshmerga troops retreated to the hills, and other Kurdish soldiers took refuge in the urban outskirts.We had planned to take the surrounding areas first and then take the town, Warti told the Associated Press. But they (allied militias) decided to show off and take a section of the town, and now were paying for it with many casualties. Militarily, it was a bad move.Warti said allied fighters decision to maintain positions within the town was making it more difficult for coalition aircraft to distinguish friend from foe.But a journey through Sinjar itself reveals another perspective on the fight. This town of ancient, narrow streets lined with modest stone homes many damaged or destroyed from weeks of guerrilla fighting now houses rival tiny barracks of IS fighters in the center and the peshmergas allies on the outskirts. The factions include the Turkey-based Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), the Syria-based Peoples Protection Units better known as the YPG, and Yazidi-led forces billing themselves as the Sinjar Resistance. The militias say they often arm themselves by taking weapons from slain enemies.One PKK fighter, 35-year-old Shakho Shakh, invited a visitor to peek through narrow holes in a wall of sandbags in a forward observation post. Beyond, a pile of concrete rubble marked what Shakh called the front line for IS fighters. He said PKK forces had held that position last week, when it was still a building.A suicide bomber destroyed the house and killed one of us, he said.The PKK and other anti-IS forces in this part of Old Sinjar transport soldiers between a rear headquarters and front-line posts using a home-armored Nissan Patrol that, weighed down with extra metal plating, struggles to navigate the towns rain-soaked dirt roads. Fighters here say they have grown tired of waiting for the peshmerga to reinforce them, and accuse them of breaking promises.Peshmerga said: We will come on the 5th (of January), then 10th, and 20th, and we will liberate Sinjar. And it never happened, said Marwan Shingali, a town native from the Sinjar Resistance. You go to the front line. You will only find our comrades fighting.On a peshmerga-held hill overlooking the town, some express confusion about exactly who their allies are.We cant identify them. We just call all of them PKK, said Shalaw Hassan Abdullah, 26, a peshmerga soldier. They all look the same. I dont know who is who.From Abdullahs position behind a wall of sandbags, fighters fired occasional rounds at suspected IS positions in the town below Thursday. Contrary to the primitive weaponry used by fighters with the other Kurdish factions, the peshmerga front line is equipped with heavy machine guns and mortars. The night before featured intense fighting capped by airstrikes.As Abdullah spoke, another peshmerga fighter behind him fired a rocket that passed overhead, bound for the town. Men grabbed their binoculars to see the strike, but it overshot the target.Pull it back a little or youll hit Mosul, joked one fighter, referring to the Islamic State-held city 125 kilometers (75 miles) to the east. A second rocket salvo soon produced plumes of smoke rising from the town center.Kurds drawn from Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran all seek the establishment of an independent Kurdistan against the desires of all four existing nations. The semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq is the closest the Kurds have come to reaching their goal.But the PKK and YPG remain suspicious of Barzanis intentions, particularly because of his peshmerga forces efforts in recent years to dig defensive trenches all along the Iraqi borders with Syria and Turkey.Allied fighters express a determination not to allow the peshmerga to exert sole control once the Islamic State is forced out of Sinjar.We will not accept any one group raising its flag in Sinjar. It is for all Kurds, said PKK fighter Farhad Ali, a hairdresser from northeast Syria who joined the anti-IS fight in August.But atop the hill, Abdullah described the other fighters as outsiders with no credible claim.They are new here, he said.

Judge: Funeral home wrongly sold Lee Harvey Oswald's casket

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FORT WORTH, Texas: (AP) - A judge says the original casket in which Lee Harvey Oswald was buried belongs to Oswalds brother, not the funeral home that auctioned it off for more than $87,000.Oswalds brother, Robert, had sued Baumgardner Funeral Home after it sold the pine coffin for $87,468 in 2010.A judge on Friday ordered the funeral home to pay the same amount of money in damages to Robert Oswald, saying its conduct was malicious and wanton.Lee Harvey Oswald, accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy, was fatally shot during a jail transfer two days after Kennedys death. His body was exhumed in 1981, but the casket was too damaged for reburial.The lawsuit says Oswalds family thought the casket had been thrown away but was actually kept in storage.

Oil soars on signs US oil companies curtail production

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NEW YORK: (AP) - The price of oil is up 7 percent on indications that production in the U.S. has slowed following the big drop in prices since last June.U.S. oil surged $3.18 to $47.71 a barrel.Baker Hughes reported that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S fell by 94 in the past week to 1,223. Thats down 199 from this time last year.The price of oil plummeted about 60 percent since June as global supplies grew faster than demand. OPEC has declined to cut back on its production, putting pressure on U.S. companies to curtail drilling as oil prices fall to a level that makes some production unprofitable.Futures prices for wholesale gasoline and heating oil also rose sharply, up more than 5 percent.