Widespread outrage after ISIS bulldozes ancient Iraq city of Nimrud
Condemnation poured in Friday of the ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) group's bulldozing of the ancient city of Nimrud, the extremists' latest attack on Iraqi cultural treasures that the UN termed a "war crime".
After rampaging through Mosul's museum with sledgehammers and torching its library last month, ISIS "bulldozed" the nearby ruins of Nimrud Thursday, the tourism and antiquities ministry said.
Antiquities officials said ISIS militants had moved trucks last week to the site overlooking the Tigris River, 30 kilometres southeast of their main hub of Mosul.
Read more here
Pakistan to name schools after victims of Peshawar massacre
Pakistan is renaming dozens of government-run schools after the the students killed by Taleban militants in a massacre at an army-run academy in the northwestern city of Peshawar in December, an official said Friday.
The school attack by six gunmen believed linked to the Pakistani Taleban killed 153 people, with most of the victims students, is seen as having hardened Pakistan's resolve to fight extremist militants along its lawless border with Afghanistan.
A total of 107 schools in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region will bear the name of the slain Peshawar students, said the local education minister, Atif Khan.
Read more here
Probe 'Dawn' enters orbit of dwarf planet Ceres after 7.5 year voyage: NASA
A US space probe slipped into orbit around Ceres, a miniature planet beyond Mars believed to be left over from the formation of the solar system, NASA said on Friday.
Launched in 2007, the Dawn spacecraft made a 14-month tour of the asteroid Vesta before steering itself toward Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Dawn shifted its path to allow itself to be captured by Ceres' gravity at 8.39 pm Singapore time (1239 GMT), becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a dwarf planet.
Read more here
US labour market flexes muscles in February, unemployment falls to 6 1/2 year low
US employment accelerated in February and the jobless rate fell to a more than 6-1/2 year low of 5.5 per cent, signs that could encourage the Federal Reserve to consider hiking interest rates in June.
Nonfarm payrolls rose 295,000 last month after rising 239,000 in January, the Labour Department said on Friday. The decline in the unemployment rate from 5.7 per cent in January took it to its lowest level since May 2008.
The data suggested the U.S job market continued to strengthen, although the drop in the jobless rate largely reflected people leaving the labour force. Average hourly earnings rose by three cents last month.
Read more here
Harrison Ford expected to make full recovery after crash-landing plane Indiana Jones-style
Actor Harrison Ford had to be pulled from his vintage World War Two aircraft after his crash landing at a Los Angeles golf course because the plane was leaking fuel, a surgeon who came to Ford's aid said in a television interview aired on Friday.
Ford's 1942 single-engine plane took off on Thursday from Santa Monica Airport, and a short time later he reported engine failure to air traffic controllers and turned around in an attempt to return. He clipped a tree and crash landed short of the runway at nearby Penmar Golf Course.
The 72-year-old actor, who starred in some of the biggest films of the 1980s including the Indiana Jones saga which featured scenes similar to his safe plane crash landing, is expected to make a full recovery from injuries that his publicist said are not life threatening.
Read more here
