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A deal has been signed to end Joseph Kabila's 15-year rule in the Democratic Republic of Congo - but the president himself has yet to add his signature. Senior ministers backed the deal, which would see Mr Kabila stay on until elections are held by the end of 2017. The country has faced a crisis since Mr Kabila failed to step down earlier in December, when his mandate expired. Elections should have been held in November, and dozens of people have died in protests since then. After the electoral commission cancelled the scheduled vote, citing logistical and financial difficulties in organising them, Mr Kabila formed a 74-member transitional government and said elections would be held in 2018. Representatives of Mr Kabila and his long standing rival Etienne Tshisekedi have been locked in negotiations brokered by Catholic Church leaders since 8 December. Neither man has yet signed the final deal, but representatives of both sides said the two men would put their names to the transitio

NEW YORK –   Officers patrolling New York City's harbor in a police boat have spotted a whale in the East River. The New York Police Department's special operations division posted a  photo  of the unusual tourist on its Twitter account Saturday morning. The whale was seen swimming along the shores of Manhattan's upper East Side, close to Gracie Mansion, where the mayor lives. U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Frank Iannazzo-Simmons says officials from his office haven't seen the whale. But he says based on the photos it appears to be a humpback whale. One such humpback whale was also spotted in the East River last month. Iannazzo-Simmons says the Coast Guard usually notifies mariners when it spots whales in busy waterways to be safe and "let the whale be the whale."

BUENA PARK, Calif. –   Firefighters using ropes and harnesses safely lowered 21 people from an amusement park ride stuck 100 feet in the air for more than six hours at Southern California's Knott's Berry Farm, officials said. The riders, both children and adults, were harnessed to firefighters and hugging them tightly as they were lowered one-by-one from the Sky Cabin Friday night. One girl who appeared to be about 10 years old could be seen smiling as she descended, her turquoise Converse sneakers dangling high above the crowd of onlookers. Firefighters briefly pulled a large, cherry-picker crane up to the ride but decided not to use it and returned to using the ropes. The tourists and fun-seekers on the slow-moving ride are most likely hungry, claustrophobic and badly in need of a bathroom, but Orange County Fire authorities and park officials have both said they are not in danger. "We're visiting from Oregon," rider Gave Javage told KNBC-TV via cellphone. "

ISTANBUL (AP) –   An armed assailant who is believed to have been dressed in a Santa Claus costume opened fire at a nightclub in Istanbul during New Year's celebrations, killing at least 35 people and wounding 40 others, according to Istanbul's governor and Turkey's state-run news agency. Gov. Vasip Sahin said the attacker, armed with a long-barreled weapon, killed a policeman and a civilian outside the club before entering and firing on people partying inside. He did not say who may have carried out the attack. "Unfortunately (he) rained bullets in a very cruel and merciless way on innocent people who were there to celebrate New Year's and have fun," Sahin told reporters. Footage from the scene showed at least six ambulances with flashing lights and civilians being escorted out. NTV said police had cordoned off the area and an operation to capture the assailant was ongoing. The attack occurred shortly after midnight in the club where an estimated 600 people c

BERLIN –   German police say they have arrested a man who shouted "bomb, bomb, bomb" at Berlin's massive open-air New Year's party. Using the hashtag "#nichtlustig" — meaning "not funny" — Berlin police tweeted Saturday that the unnamed man "is now celebrating #Welcome2017 with us." Tens of thousands of people are celebrating the New Year near Berlin's Brandenburg Gate amid tight security. Large concrete blocks have been place around the security cordon to prevent a repeat of the truck attack that killed twelve people in Berlin before Christmas. The suspected attacker, 24-year-old Tunisian, was shot dead in Italy days afterward.

US President-elect Donald Trump has praised Vladimir Putin for not expelling American diplomats, despite a similar move by Washington in response to alleged election interference. Mr Trump tweeted : "Great move on delay - I always knew he was very smart!" Moscow denies any involvement in election-related hacking. But in one of the last moves of the Obama presidency, Washington demanded Russian 35 diplomats leave the country by Sunday afternoon. Mr Putin ruled out an immediate tit-for-tat response. The row follows allegations that Russia directed hacks against the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, releasing embarrassing information through Wikileaks and other outlets to help Mr Trump win the election. Several US agencies including the FBI and the CIA say this is the case, but Mr Trump initially dismissed the claims as "ridiculous". He has since said he will meet US intelligence chiefs to be "updated on the facts of this situation&

At least 28 people have died in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in a double bombing claimed by so-called Islamic State (IS). The explosions happened one after another in the busy al-Sinak market. More than 50 people were injured. Police said a roadside bomb exploded near a car spare parts shop, then a suicide bomber detonated his device among the crowd that had gathered. Baghdad has seen frequent attacks, often targeting Shia districts. IS released a statement saying two of its militants had carried out the bombings wearing suicide vests. The jihadist group is  under pressure from an Iraqi army offensive further north in Mosul , the last major IS stronghold in the country. Many of the victims in Saturday's attacks worked in spare parts shops in the largely Shia area, witnesses said. "They were gathered near a cart selling breakfast when the explosions went off," local shopkeeper Ibrahim Mohammed Ali told the AFP news agency. In November,  77 people including Shia pilgrims die

Zambia's President Edgar Lungu has called in the air force to help contain an invasion of army worms in maize fields, his spokesman has said. Military planes are flying pesticides to the worst-affected areas so that crops can be sprayed as a matter of urgency, Amos Chanda added. The pests are called army worms because they eat most vegetation in their way and can destroy entire fields. They are devouring crops in six of the southern African state's 10 provinces. "The president is concerned that if the outbreak of the worms is not controlled speedily, the crop yield for 2016/2017 may be negatively affected," Mr Chanda said in a statement. Four years ago, army worms destroyed maize, cassava, sorghum and rice fields. Maize is the staple diet in Zambia. Production rose to 2.87 million tonnes in the 2015/2016 crop season from 2.6 million tonnes the previous season because of good rainfall and early delivery of fertiliser and seed to farmers, Reuters news agency reports.

The UK government is to fund a trial of drone-based deliveries of blood and other medical supplies in Tanzania. The goal is to radically reduce the amount of time it takes to send stock to health clinics in the African nation by road or other means. The scheme involves Zipline, a Silicon Valley start-up that began running a similar service in Rwanda in October. Experts praised that initiative but cautioned that "cargo drones" are still of limited use to humanitarian bodies. The Department for International Development (Dfid) has not said how much money will be invested in the Tanzanian effort or for how long. It also announced plans to fund tests of drones in Nepal to map areas of the country prone to damage from extreme weather, so help prepare for future crises. "This innovative, modern approach ensures we are achieving the best results for the world's poorest people and delivering value for money for British taxpayers," commented the International Development

ANKENY, Iowa –  Authorities say a 22-year-old man has died after a barbell slipped from his grasp and crushed his neck at a gym in central Iowa. The accident occurred Monday morning at Elite Edge Transformation Center in Ankeny, about 10 miles north of Des Moines. A spokesman for the center, Mark Yontz, said Thursday that Kyle Thomson was bench-pressing 315 pounds when the barbell slipped. Ankeny Fire Chief James Clack says the barbell fell on Thomson's neck. Clack says a fire ambulance took Thomson to a Des Moines hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Yontz says there were spotters watching Thomson on the bench. Iowa State University spokeswoman Annette Hacker says Thomson was a student there and lived in Pleasant Hill.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow would not expel any US diplomats, a surprise decision after Washington turfed out Russian diplomats over alleged interference in the US election. “We will not create problems for American diplomats. We will not expel anyone,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin, also inviting children of US diplomats to a holiday party in the Kremlin. Indicating that the ball was in the court of the next US administration, Putin said however that Moscow reserved the right to retaliate after Washington’s decision to expel 35 diplomats, who have 72 hours to leave the country. “According to international practice, Russia has all the grounds for a comparable response,” Putin announced, following a statement by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov which suggested a tit-for-tat response was in the works. “Reserving the right to retaliatory measures, we… will be planning our next steps in restoring US-Russian relations based on the policies pursued b

MELBOURNE, Australia –   Sixty people were injured at an Australian music festival in the crush of a crowd trying to leave a performance, police said Saturday. None of the injuries at the Falls Music and Arts Festival in Victoria state were life-threatening, but 19 people were taken to the hospital with serious injuries, Victoria police said in a statement. The incident began on Friday night when fans were trying to leave a performance by the Australian band DMA's. Several people at the front of the crowd then lost their footing and fell, police said. Paramedics assessed around 60 people hurt in the ensuing crush, Ambulance Victoria state health commander Paul Holman said. Some suffered leg, rib, hip and pelvic fractures, head injuries and possible spinal injuries, while others just had cuts and abrasions. "While the injuries are significant, this could have been quite a tragedy and we are grateful that the outcome was not worse," Holman said in a statement. Festival orga

A Rio de Janeiro police officer has admitted killing Greece's ambassador to Brazil possibly at the behest of the diplomat’s Brazilian wife with whom he was having an affair, Reuters reported Friday, citing a Brazilian TV station. Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, was last seen Monday night, the police said in a statement. A burned body the police believe is the diplomat's was found inside his torched car in Rio. Police and Rio state security officials declined to comment on the Globo report and their investigation. Rio de Janeiro police investigator Giniton Lages told The Associated Press that blood spots believed to be those of the ambassador were found on a sofa inside the home of the wife. Another investigator said the ambassador and his wife fought three days before Christmas. According to the Greek Embassy website in Brazil, Amiridis started his career as diplomat in 1985 in Athens and became Greece's top diplomat in Brazil in 2016. He earlier was Greece's ambassador to Libya

BUENA PARK, Calif. –   Firefighters were slowly lowering 18 people from an amusement park ride stuck 100 feet in the air for more than five hours Friday night at Southern California's Knott's Berry Farm, officials said. The riders, both children and adults, were harnessed to firefighters and hugging them tightly as they were lowered one-by-one from the Sky Cabin. One girl who appeared to be about 10 years old could be seen smiling as she descended, her turquoise Converse sneakers dangling high above the crowd of onlookers.

Niger Interior Minister on Wednesday said dozens of Boko Haram fighters have given themselves up to authorities in southern Niger, days after the Islamist group suffered key losses over the border in Nigeria. Minister Mohamed Bazoum said that 31 young people from Diffa, who were enrolled a few years ago in Boko Haram, decided to surrender. The fighters arrived in the remote desert town of Diffa in groups and were being held by local authorities. “I learned that the first who surrendered were not arrested, and I surrendered. “We expect a pardon from the government so that we can participate in the development of the country and help us get rid of the trauma," a former Boko Haram combatant told newsmen. In June, tens of thousands of people fled Diffa as Boko Haram swept the region. However, five Niger soldiers were killed by the militants near Diffa in September. It was not clear what would become of the ex-Boko Haram fighters, but authorities said there was the possibility of reint

Dr Abbas Tajuddeen, member of House of Representatives, has said more than N5 trillion government projects were abandoned across Nigeria. Tajuddeen, representing Zaria Federal Constituency, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Zaria, that the situation had caused huge losses. He said that the Bill for the amendment to the Public Procurement Act which he sponsored was to address issues of abandoned projects among others. “This is because, today Nigeria has more than N5 trillion worth of abandoned projects and if you trace the history of these projects, you will find out that they are predominantly caused by contractors’ neglect. “We believe that by coming-up with an additional legislation to provide for additional fines and damages against contractors, issues of contracts abandonment will become history in Nigeria,” he said. According to him, he has so far sponsored ten bills, six motions and presented two petitions with a view to effect positive change and improve the lives of citi

'Kanye was leaving 24 Hour Fitness in L.A. Tuesday when a photog asked about his New Year's resolution. It's not so much what he says ... it's more his demeanor. The snapshots of him taken in the last week or so looking out of it appear to be just that ... snapshots, because it seems like Kanye's back.

Lil Wayne, Chris Brown and other big names were booked to perform at several concerts ... that is, if you believe the promoter, but a new lawsuit claims it was all a scam. Roberto Warnert just filed suit against Red Entertainment Group for allegedly promising to get Weezy, Breezy, Enrique Iglesias and will.i.am to perform for several concerts in Dubai a few years ago, only to come up empty handed each time ... while collecting HUGE deposits along the way. Warnert claims he paid Red Entertainment $150k to book Weezy at first in 2011, but then had to scrap that when Red allegedly said they couldn't get him. Warnert then says he paid out similar deposits for Chris, Enrique and Will ... but he says they couldn't deliver on any of 'em. The deposits were allegedly never returned in full, and now Warnert is gunning for $300k he says he's owed. We've reached out to Red Entertainment ... so far, no word back.

Queen Latifah joins the growing number of crime victims ... her car stolen by thieves who had a penchant for punch. The incident went down days before Xmas in Atlanta. Latifah's security guard took her 2015 Mercedes S63 to a gas station. As he stood by the tank and gassed up the whip, a BMW pulled up and the next thing he knew someone jumped inside, started the ignition and took off. Latifah, who was not in the car, was especially worried about a contract that was inside a Tumi bag that was tucked away in the truck. Cops sent out an APB and they actually found the Mercedes in an apartment complex. There was only slight damage to the car, but the thieves left behind lemonade and fruit punch bottles inside the car. As for the Tumi bag ... it had been ransacked but the bad guys didn't take the contract. Cops are looking at surveillance video, which could help them nab the thieves.

The World Health Organisation has endorsed the final results of the clinical trial of an Ebola prototype vaccine. The global body in a statement in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday noted that the final trial results confirmed that the Ebola vaccine provided high protection against the disease. The vaccine called rvsv-ZEBOV, according to results published in The Lancet , was studied in a trial involving 11,841 people in Guinea in 2015. WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation, and the study’s lead author, Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, stated that  among the 5,837 people who received the vaccine, no Ebola cases were recorded 10 days or more after vaccination, while there were 23 cases  about 10 days among those who did not receive the vaccine. The trial was led by WHO, together with Guinea’s Ministry of Health, Medecins sans Frontieres and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, in collaboration with other international partners. Kieny said, “While these compelling re

Argentina’s former Manchester United and Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has signed for Shanghai Shenhua in the latest big-money Chinese deal, the club said Thursday. The acquisition of the 32-year-old from Buenos Aires side Boca Juniors will “greatly enhance” the team’s front line, Shenhua said on a verified social media account. “The club looks forward to Tevez helping Greenland Shenhua attack cities and strike stockades in Asian and domestic matches and contribute to more exciting games for fans,” it said, calling him “the most outstanding striker in Argentina’s history”. It did not put a value on the transaction, but Argentine media previously reported Tevez would make $84 million over two years under the contract — 20 times his previous earnings. In a statement Boca thanked Tevez, who was on his second spell with the club, scoring 25 goals in 56 matches, including a double in a 4-2 Clasico victory over their bitter rivals River Plate earlier this month Boca wished him good lu

The Nigeria Army said it had arrested about 1,240 suspected Boko Haram terrorists during a mop-up operation by troops in Sambisa Forest. The Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor, disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the activities of the Operation Rescue Final at the Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri. Irabor said 413 of the suspects were adults; 323 were female adults; 251 male children, while 253 were female children. He stated, “We are interrogating them to know whether they are Boko Haram members, because there is no way somebody that is not a member would live inside the Sambisa Forest. “We are still on the trail of the terrorists and I want to assure you that all escape routes have been blocked. “Within this period, also, about 30 fleeing suspected Boko Haram members have surrendered to the Niger Multinational Troops on the shores of the Lake Chad and we learnt that they were taken to Difa in Niger Republic. “The suspects include 24 males and six fema

Africa’s richest man and President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has lost 32 per cent of his wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires’ Index. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Dangote lost $4.9bn or one-third of his wealth as the combined effect of falling oil prices and the June devaluation of the naira pushed him to No. 112 on the billionaires’ list with $10.4bn. Dangote was the world’s 46th-richest person in June. Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Al Saud fell by $4.9bn, a 20 per cent drop, the report added. Alwaleed had said in November that all of his stakes in public companies, including Citigroup Incorporated, were potentially for sale, reversing a longstanding policy that some of his most-prized shareholdings were “forever.” Wealth creation in China turned negative for the first time since the inception of the Bloomberg index five years ago, with the country’s richest losing $11bn in 2016 amid a slump in the Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index and a seven pe

Boko Haram fighters, fleeing an attack on their base last week might have used some of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped on April 14, 2014, as human shields to prevent being fired upon by fighter jets during the attack on Sambisa Forest. The Theatre Commander of the military campaign, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor, on Wednesday, showed journalists aerial footage he said was filmed during attack on Sambisa Forest that showed the terrorists moving with women and children. “The haggard fighters were just using them as a shield,” Irabor said at a news conference in Maiduguri. Irabor added, “That is why we did not engage them from the air. We had always believed and hoped that going into the Sambisa Forest would afford us the opportunity to get the remaining Chibok girls. What we can’t tell is whether those women we can see were the Chibok girls.” The terrorists had kidnapped more than 200 girls from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, 2014. Pre