WASHINGTON / AFP Thousands are expected in Washington for a march organizers say is designed to “protect the dream of Dr Martin Luther King Jr ” and to “preserve the legacy of President Barack Obama.” The National Action Network, the group founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton, is sponsoring Saturday’s “We Shall Not Be Moved” march and rally ahead ...

  JOHANNESBURG / AP Gunmen in Syria have abducted a South African freelance photographer who was traveling with aid workers to the border with Turkey, an aid group said on Saturday. Shiraaz Mohamed was kidnapped on Tuesday afternoon on a “relatively safe route” near a medical facility operated by Gift of the Givers, said Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of the South ...

  Bloomberg Japan and Australia agreed to enhance coordination on Asian security issues, including the South China Sea and North Korea, at a meeting of the two countries’ leaders on Saturday, while reaffirming that the US remains the cornerstone of their strategic arrangements. “We confirmed our intention to maintain solid cooperation with the incoming Trump administration,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo ...

  BERLIN / AP German Chancellor Angela Merkel is stressing as she awaits Donald Trump’s inauguration that the world’s problems need solving in cooperation, rather than by each country individually. Asked at a news conference Saturday about protectionist tendencies in the U.S., Merkel said she will seek a dialogue with the new president. “I don’t want to get ahead of that, ...

  MOSUL / AP Iraqi forces have secured less than a quarter of Mosul University as they face stiff resistance from IS fighters in the battle for control of the city, according to senior Iraqi commanders overseeing the advance. Convoys of Iraqi Humvees snaked through the sprawling university compound in eastern Mosul, pausing for artillery and airstrikes to clear snipers perched ...

  VATICAN CITY / AP Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas heads into a meeting on Saturday with Pope Francis as he rallies international support ahead of this weekend’s Paris peace summit. Among other things, Abbas is expected to raise with Francis the Palestinian concern about a possible move of the US embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The Palestinians strongly ...

  The news this week that Yahoo! Inc. will be rechristened ‘Altaba Inc.’ elicited a lot of groans. “Apparently Yahoo renamed itself after an antihistamine,” tweeted New York Times tech reporter Mike Isaac. The name “sounded more like infantile babble than the remnants of a once-promising internet giant,” wrote Fortune’s Lucinda Shen. The reason for the renaming is that Yahoo’s ...

  China followers know that stability is highly rated. Hostile takeovers, like divorces, are never smooth and the few that have made headlines recently sent shock waves through markets in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai. Beijing sent a shush message last month regarding Baoneng Group’s attempt to take control of China Vanke Co., a developer that was until last year ...

  Compared with the alleged Russian hacks of the Democratic National Committee and other US targets, another important cybertheft that has also been tentatively attributed to Russia is getting far less attention. The revelations are much less titillating than those that have made headlines recently — they aren’t even understandable to most people — but they may be part of ...

  Bloomberg Boeing Co. won a $22 billion deal from budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd., notching the planemaker’s largest-ever order from an Indian airline and strengthening its hold in a market dominated by Europe’s Airbus Group SE. The order includes 100 of Boeing’s 737 Max single-aisle jets and renegotiated terms for 55 previously ordered aircraft, SpiceJet said in a statement. The ...