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Discount retailer Dots LLC is preparing for a possible bankruptcy-protection filing by Sunday, as it struggles to stay afloat amid competition from online rivals, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. _0"> Limited-time or "flash" sales on popular websites such as Rue La La and Gilt have eaten into Dots's revenue, which has declined in recent periods, the Journal report said, citing the people. The retailer, which caters to women aged between 25 and 35 years old and has more than 400 stores across 28 states, has enlisted restructuring advisers at PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC.UL and law firm Lowenstein Sandler LLP, according to the WSJ. Glenwillow, Ohio-based Dots is also in talks with asset management firm Salus Capital Partners for debtor-in-possession financing, sources told the business daily. According to the report, Salus provided Dots with about $50 million in financing about six months ago. Dots's bankrup

French state-controlled nuclear group Areva and Spanish wind turbine maker Gamesa are in advanced talks over a joint venture in offshore wind turbines, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday. Both firms would hold a 50 percent stake in the new entity, which would focus on expanding the promising but capital-intensive offshore windfarms business, one of the sources said. Areva and Gamesa declined to comment on the potential deal but both have been tipped in the past to be exploring partnerships in offshore wind. "In offshore you need a strategic partner. Without a deal, Gamesa would have fallen behind," said Intermoney analyst Alvaro Navarro. He added that in Europe, around a third of the new capacity that will be installed over the next years will be offshore. "If you're not positioned on this market, you're missing something," he said. A renewable energy expert who declined to be named said there was sound industrial logic be

Dropbox Inc has secured $250 million from a fund managed by BlackRock Inc and other investors in a new funding round that values the provider of online storage services at almost $10 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter. _0"> The sources declined to be named because the funding round was private. Dropbox, the 6-year-old Silicon Valley startup many expect to go public sometime this year, is taking advantage of flush investors and skyrocketing valuations for fledgling tech companies. The company has undergone tremendous growth amid the meteoric rise of cloud, or Internet, storage, which is expected to continue booming alongside mobile computing. Other companies, including Microsoft Corp and Amazon Inc are expanding into the cloud business. Dropbox's other investors include Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Index Ventures. Dropbox and Blackrock were not immediately available for comment. The Wall Street Journal originally reported t

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has approved the $2.5 billion purchase of regional grocer Harris Teeter Supermarkets Inc ( id="symbol_HTSI.N_0"> HTSI.N ) by Kroger Co ( id="symbol_KR.N KR.N ), deciding the transaction does not violate anti-trust law, the companies said on Friday. _0"> The two supermarket chains said in a statement that they expected the acquisition to be completed before the end of January. The FTC gave its approval without requiring the companies to divest any stores, a law firm that represented Harris Teeter said in a statement. _1"> The FTC was not immediately available for comment. The deal, approved by the boards of both companies in July, will boost Kroger's presence in the U.S. southeast. Competitors there include privately held Publix and discounter Wal-Mart Stores Inc ( id="symbol_WMT.N_2"> WMT.N ), the largest U.S. food retailer. Cincinnati-based Kroger, the largest mainstream U.S. grocer, will also g

Anheuser-Busch InBev SA is in advanced discussions to buy South Korea's Oriental Brewery from private equity owners KKR & Co LP and Affinity Equity Partners for more than $4.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The parties are hammering out final terms of what would be one of Asia's biggest ever private equity transactions with the aim to reach an agreement before the end of January, the people said. The potential purchase by the world's biggest brewer comes amid upbeat prospects for beer consumption in Asia, with the region's $258 billion market growing twice as fast as the rest of the world. Discussions on the sale are continuing but they could still fall apart and there is no guarantee a deal will be struck, the people cautioned, asking not to be named because the matter is not public. If final terms are agreed, a deal could come as early as next week, one person added. AB InBev, KKR and Affinity declined to comment. Oriental Brewery cou

Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska has increased his stake in Strabag SE ( id="symbol_STRV.VI_0"> STRV.VI ), Austria's biggest construction group, to nearly 20 percent by exercising a call option struck in 2010. _0"> A list of directors' dealings on the Financial Market Authority's website showed his Rasperia Trading Ltd investment vehicle paid 19.25 euros per share to get nearly 343,000 more shares from the Haselsteiner family foundation on January 15. The share price closed on Friday at 22.10 euros. Strabag's website showed Rasperia has a 19.4 percent stake. Deripaska has the right to boost his stake to 25 percent by July 2014 via purchases from other core shareholders: the Haselsteiner group, Raiffeisen NOe-Wien bank and insurer Uniqa ( id="symbol_UNIQ.VI_1"> UNIQ.VI ). The company holds 10 percent of its stock in treasury shares, leaving a market free float at 13 percent. (Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Another 5.6 million American children may die prematurely unless smoking rates fall in the United States, according to a report by the U.S. surgeon general which links a range of new illnesses to the habit. Fifty years after the first surgeon general's report declared smoking a hazard to human health, the new study adds conditions ranging from colon cancer to diabetes and arthritis to the tally of tobacco-related diseases. The report, the first in more than a decade, found that smoking has killed more than 20 million Americans prematurely in the last half century. Although adult smoking rates have fallen to the current 18 percent from 43 percent of Americans in 1965, each day, more than 3,200 youths under the age 18 try their first cigarette, according to the report published on Friday. "Enough is enough," acting Surgeon General Dr Boris Lushniak said in a telephone interview. "We need to eliminate the use of cigarettes and create a tobacco-free generation."

Signs of an improving labor market justify further reductions in monthly bond purchases by the Federal Reserve, a senior official at the U.S. central bank said on Friday. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker told journalists that a report showing weak U.S. hiring in December appeared to be "aberrational." "It would take a very significant change in the outlook for me to support not tapering, and I don't think the data we've seen so far are close to that," Lacker said following a speech to risk managers. He said a variety of labor market indicators, including the level of employment and the number of job openings, paint a picture of the sustained improvement in the job market outlook sought by the Fed. "They all line up," Lacker said. The Fed announced last month it was reducing monthly bond purchases to $75 billion from $85 billion. The program has aimed to spur a faster recovery from the 2007-09 recession. Investors expect the central bank

* Freedom industries inc files for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection -- court _0"> filing * Freedom files for protection from creditors with U.S. bankruptcy court in southern district of West Virginia * Freedom says filing follows January 9 incident at chemical storage facility in Charleston, West Virginia

Wall Street stocks declined on Friday as quarterly earnings of Intel and General Electric disappointed, contributing to a decline in a measure of global equity markets, while the dollar hit a seven-week high against the euro. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell as declines in shares of Intel and General Electric more than offset a rally in shares of American Express after it reported strong quarterly earnings. In Europe, shares rose on brisk volumes, extending their new-year rally as expectations of a pick-up in global growth prompted investors to buy mining stocks. The MSCI all-country world index, a measure of global equity markets, fell 0.2 percent. The dollar hit a seven-week high against the euro after a round of mixed U.S. data on balance supported the view that the world's largest economy was steadily gaining steam, keeping the Federal Reserve on track to continue to reduce its stimulus. On Wall Street, Intel and General Electric were among the biggest decliners. Sha

The amount of insured U.S. municipal bonds fell last year to the lowest level since the financial crisis - $12.08 billion - but Thomson Reuters data released on Friday showed the freefall may be over. _0"> Last year's decline in bond insurance of 9 percent was the smallest in a decade, the data showed. Some of the drop was related also to an overall fall in debt sales of 15.1 percent last year. Insured bonds took up a slightly larger share of new debt sales in 2013, representing 3.9 percent of all municipal bond issuance dollars compared to 3.6 percent in 2012. Before the 2008 financial crisis, insured bonds made up about half of all new debt issuance. By buying insurance, municipalities could use the guaranteeing companies' top ratings to push their borrowing costs down. When the companies' ratings were cut on exposure to risky mortgage-related debt, use of municipal bond insurance plummeted. In 2008 the amount of insured debt fell 64 percent. Only one compan

Currency speculators increased bets in favor of the U.S. dollar in the latest week to their largest in more than five months, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday. _0"> The value of the dollar's net long position rose to $22.66 billion in the week ended Jan. 14, from $21.11 billion the previous week. This week's long dollar position was the highest since July 30 last year, despite a much weaker-than-expected U.S. non-farm payrolls report released on Jan. 10. It was the 11th straight long position for the dollar and only goes to show that market participants still expect the Federal Reserve to continue reducing its asset purchases this year, though at a gradual pace. A scale-back in the Fed's bond buying is considered positive for the greenback as it entails reining in the supply of dollars in the market. To be long a currency is a view it will rise, while being short is a bet its value will decline. The Reuters ca

Wall Street stocks fell on Friday as quarterly earnings of Intel and General Electric disappointed, contributing to a decline in a measure of global equity markets, while the dollar hit a seven-week high against the euro. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell, led by losses in Intel and General Electric after disappointing results. But both indexes managed to end the week slightly higher. In Europe, shares rose on brisk volumes, extending their new-year rally as expectations of a pick-up in global growth prompted investors to buy mining stocks. The MSCI all-country world index, a measure of global equity markets, fell 0.13 percent. The dollar hit a seven-week high against the euro after a round of mixed U.S. data on balance supported the view that the world's largest economy was steadily gaining steam, keeping the Federal Reserve on track to continue to reduce its stimulus. On Wall Street, Intel and General Electric were among the biggest decliners. Shares of Intel lost 2.6 perce

The New York judge weighing approval of Bank of America Corp's $8.5 billion settlement with investors in mortgage securities was promoted on Friday, but is expected to rule on the controversial accord before she takes her new job. Justice Barbara Kapnick of the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, who heard nine weeks of testimony about the fairness of one of the biggest settlements stemming from the 2008 financial crisis, was appointed to the state's Appellate Division, an intermediate appeals court, by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Bank of America had agreed in June 2011 to the $8.5 billion settlement to resolve claims over roughly $174 billion of mortgage-backed securities issued by the former Countrywide Financial Corp, which the bank had bought three years earlier. The settlement was intended to resolve much of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank's legal liability from Countrywide. It was backed by 22 institutional investors including BlackRock Inc, MetLife In

Moody's Investors Service upgraded Ireland to investment grade on Friday, handing the government a major post-bailout boost and opening its already sought-after debt to investors prohibited from buying junk-rated paper. It is the latest in a run of good news for Ireland, which became the first euro zone country to complete a bailout, made a storming bond market return last week and has an economy that is picking up steam. Moody's, which was the only rating agency to class Irish government debt as "junk", raised it to Baa3 from Ba1 with a positive outlook, citing the economy's growth potential and restored market access as the main drivers. "They undertook the fiscal consolidation and structural reforms in the (bailout) program with great seriousness. It really was their determination to succeed that helped them to both regain and retain investor confidence," Kristin Lindow, Moody's analyst for Ireland, told Reuters. "It shows that meeting

Wells Fargo & Co and U.S. Bancorp said on Friday they would stop offering customers a type of small, short-term loan that has come under regulatory scrutiny. The so-called deposit advance products are similar to payday loans, in that they are both small, short-term loans and have been criticized by consumer activists for their high fees. These loans are automatically repaid out of future direct deposits into checking accounts. A typical deposit advance loan can carry fees of $1.50 to $2 for every $20 borrowed. In November, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said they would make rules for deposit advance products more stringent. The regulators said they planned to impose additional limits such as requiring a one-month cooling-off period between the time one loan is repaid and another can be extended. "We are encouraging the banks we supervise to develop new and innovative programs to meet

Several large U.S. banks have set aside extra money to pay for potential legal costs in part because of JPMorgan Chase & Co's massive $13 billion settlement with U.S. authorities over bad mortgages, according to two sources familiar with the situation. The size of the JPMorgan settlement, which the government called the largest in U.S. history, led many banks to realize that the cost of resolving some of their own legal problems was likely to be higher than they had initially believed, the sources said. Justice Department officials have said in public statements they want to use the JPMorgan settlement as a template for deals with other banks. Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley all added hundreds of millions of dollars to funds they have set aside to pay for the cost of litigation, including legal fees, fines and settlements. All four banks are facing mortgage-related investigations by federal prosecutors located in different parts of the country

Trucking company YRC Worldwide Inc and the Teamsters union reached a tentative deal for a new labor contract that sets the stage for the struggling company to push ahead with a refinancing plan. YRC shares rose 22 percent in extended trading. The revised proposal would be reviewed at a meeting of local union officials on Jan. 21 and would have to be ratified by union members, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in a statement. The 26,000 YRC members represented by the union had last week voted down a proposal by the company to extend their labor contract. That vote put in jeopardy efforts to refinance the company's debt, more than $1 billion of which will start coming due in February. YRC said on Friday that the tentative agreement, which comes a day after the company restarted talks with the Teamsters, addresses concerns raised by the union and contains a number of revisions to the earlier proposal. "The outcome of this week's discussions is critical t

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has approved the $2.5 billion purchase of regional grocer Harris Teeter Supermarkets Inc by Kroger Co , deciding the transaction does not violate anti-trust law, the companies said on Friday. _0"> The two supermarket chains said in a statement that they expected the acquisition to be completed before the end of January. The FTC gave its approval without requiring the companies to divest any stores, a law firm that represented Harris Teeter said in a statement. The FTC was not immediately available for comment. The deal, approved by the boards of both companies in July, will boost Kroger's presence in the U.S. southeast. Competitors there include privately held Publix and discounter Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the largest U.S. food retailer. Cincinnati-based Kroger, the largest mainstream U.S. grocer, will also get a bigger presence in the mid-Atlantic region, slightly more upscale stores that do a strong business in fresh food and access to

California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency on Friday, a move that will allow the parched state to seek federal aid as it grapples with what could turn out to be the driest year in recorded state history for many areas. The dry year California experienced in 2013 has left fresh water reservoirs with a fraction of their normal reserves and slowed the normally full American River so dramatically that brush and dry riverbed are showing through in areas normally teeming with fish. "We can't make it rain, but we can be much better prepared for the terrible consequences that California's drought now threatens, including dramatically less water for our farms and communities and increased fires in both urban and rural areas," Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. "I've declared this emergency and I'm calling all Californians to conserve water in every way possible," he said, in a move that will allow him to call for conservation measur

Two members of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's administration warned a mayor that her town would not receive Superstorm Sandy relief funds unless she approved a redevelopment plan Christie favored, the mayor of Hoboken said on Saturday. _0"> The claim by Mayor Dawn Zimmer comes as Christie, a Republican seen as a likely presidential candidate in 2016, faces investigations into a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge that was apparently politically motivated. Christie has denied any involvement in the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal and a spokesman was reported as saying Zimmer's claims were false. Zimmer, a Democrat, told MSNBC television that Hoboken had received only a small part of the $127 million requested after Sandy, which flooded much of the New Jersey town in October 2012. She said Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, Christie's community affairs commissioner, delivered messages in May 2013 on behalf of Christie,

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's administration threatened to withhold Superstorm Sandy relief funds from a flooded town unless a redevelopment plan Christie favored was quickly approved, the mayor of Hoboken said on Saturday. The claim by Mayor Dawn Zimmer comes as Christie, a Republican seen as a likely presidential candidate in 2016, faces investigations into a traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge that was apparently politically motivated. Christie has denied any involvement in the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal, and a spokesman dismissed Zimmer's claims, calling them "partisan politics." Zimmer, a Democrat, told MSNBC television Hoboken received only a small part of the $127 million requested after Sandy, which flooded the town on the Hudson River in October 2012. Zimmer said Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, Christie's community affairs commissioner, delivered messages in May 2013 on behalf of Christie, whom she

New investors in German television maker Loewe plan to cut about a quarter of its 550 jobs to try to turn around the company, which filed for insolvency in October after losing out to fierce competition amid falling prices for TV sets. _0"> Loewe said on Thursday its core television business had been bought by a group of investors including a former senior manager at Apple and Bang & Olufsen for an undisclosed price and that they would keep the brand name while liquidating and delisting the company shell. "We will make the Loewe brand available to a broader and younger audience in Europe, Russia and China ," the new owners said in a statement. Loewe, started by brothers Siegmund and David Ludwig Loewe in 1923, first sought protection from creditors in July, after a disastrous strategy to combat the economic downturn by focusing on premium customers backfired. Consumers in Europe, where Loewe generates 97 percent of its sales, shied away from paying prices be

German wind park operator Prokon said it had to stop interest payments and would not for now redeem the millions of euros worth of so-called profit-sharing certificates sold to mainly retail investors, as too many were demanding their money back. "In the current situation we are unable to make repayments or interest payouts," the group's managing director Carsten Rodbertus said in a statement on the group's website on Friday, addressing its 75,000 certificate holders. "Any payments could be and would be claimed back by an administrator in case of insolvency proceedings anyway," he added. The company, which had raised some 1.4 billion euros ($1.9 billion) by selling the profit-participation certificates, said via its website it would not respond to media questions following the statement. The company had won mainly retail investors through TV advertising campaigns on German prime-time television, but last week warned it may have to file for insolvency i

A Chinese auto parts maker and a Hong Kong businessman will square off in an auction for Fisker Automotive, the defunct maker of a plug-in hybrid sports car, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge ruled on Friday. The Feb. 12 auction will pit the U.S. unit of China's Wanxiang Group against Hybrid Tech Holdings, a company affiliated with investor Richard Li of Hong Kong. Hybrid has said its initial bid would be worth $55 million. Fisker's committee of unsecured creditors has said it hopes to find other potential buyers by the Feb. 7 bid deadline. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross of Wilmington, Delaware, said at a Friday hearing that attendance at the auction would be limited to the bidders, Fisker and a representative of the unsecured creditors committee. The auction will take place at the law offices of Kirkland & Ellis in New York. Li's legal team is pursuing an appeal of Gross's order last week that will require bids to include some cash. Li had planned to buy Fiske

* Freedom industries inc files for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection -- court _0"> filing * Freedom files for protection from creditors with U.S. bankruptcy court in southern district of West Virginia * Freedom says filing follows January 9 incident at chemical storage facility in Charleston, West Virginia

Discount retailer Dots LLC is preparing for a possible bankruptcy-protection filing by Sunday, as it struggles to stay afloat amid competition from online rivals, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. _0"> Limited-time or "flash" sales on popular websites such as Rue La La and Gilt have eaten into Dots's revenue, which has declined in recent periods, the Journal report said, citing the people. The retailer, which caters to women aged between 25 and 35 years old and has more than 400 stores across 28 states, has enlisted restructuring advisers at PricewaterhouseCoopers and law firm Lowenstein Sandler LLP, according to the WSJ. Glenwillow, Ohio-based Dots is also in talks with asset management firm Salus Capital Partners for debtor-in-possession financing, sources told the business daily. According to the report, Salus provided Dots with about $50 million in financing about six months ago. Dots's bankruptcy fi

Discount retailer Dots LLC is preparing for a possible bankruptcy-protection filing by Sunday, as it struggles to stay afloat amid competition from online rivals, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. _0"> Limited-time or "flash" sales on popular websites such as Rue La La and Gilt have eaten into Dots's revenue, which has declined in recent periods, the Journal report said, citing the people. The retailer, which caters to women aged between 25 and 35 years old and has more than 400 stores across 28 states, has enlisted restructuring advisers at PricewaterhouseCoopers and law firm Lowenstein Sandler LLP, according to the WSJ. (). Glenwillow, Ohio-based Dots is also in talks with asset management firm Salus Capital Partners for debtor-in-possession financing, sources told the business daily. According to the report, Salus provided Dots with about $50 million in financing about six months ago. Dots's bankruptc

Seven suspected militants were killed by security forces in a shootout on Saturday near Makhachkala in Dagestan, Russian news agencies reported, a day after a grenade and bomb attack outside a restaurant in the regional capital injured several people. _0"> A spokesman for Russia's Anti-Terrorist Committee told ITAR-TASS agency those killed were suspected of carrying out Friday's attack in the mostly Muslim Dagestan region. Interfax news agency, citing the Investigative Committee department for Dagestan, said one woman was among the suspects killed when police stormed a house where they were hiding. The Dagestan region has been plagued by bombings and shootings that target state and police officials as part of a campaign by militants to create an Islamist state there. Regional capital Makhachkala is about 620 km (385 miles) east of the Black Sea resort of Sochi, the site of next month's Winter Olympic Games, which President Vladimir Putin has made his top prior

Former aide to Margaret Thatcher and ex-treasurer of Britain's Conservative Party, Alistair McAlpine, who was wrongly accused of child abuse in a BBC report that led to a major crisis at the broadcaster, has died aged 71, his family said on Saturday. _0"> Prime Minister David Cameron led tributes to McAlpine, who, as a key fundraiser, helped secure Thatcher's three election triumphs that made her Britain's longest-serving leader in the 20th century. "My thoughts are with Lord McAlpine's family - he was a dedicated supporter of Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative party," Cameron said on Twitter. McAlpine largely disappeared from public view after Thatcher's fall from power in 1990 until a 2012 BBC report accused an unnamed "leading Conservative politician from the Thatcher years" of sexually abusing boys in the 1970s and 1980s. McAlpine was widely named on the Internet as the subject of the report, which the BBC later admitted was

An Iranian diplomat was killed in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Saturday when he resisted gunmen who were trying to kidnap him near the ambassador's residence, the Iranian Foreign Ministry and Yemeni security sources said. _0"> Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham told Fars News Agency the diplomat was seriously injured when he resisted his attackers and was taken to a Sanaa hospital, where he died. "We are seriously following up the dimensions of this terrorist action with the relevant Yemeni government officials," Afkham said. Security sources in Yemen told Reuters the diplomat was travelling in a car belonging to the Iranian embassy, but the ambassador was not in the car at the time of the attack. The gunmen fled, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility, they said. Kidnapping of foreigners in Yemen is common, often carried out by disgruntled tribesmen seeking to press the government to free jailed relatives or to improve public

Hungary will hold a parliamentary election on April 6, President Janos Ader announced in a statement on Saturday. _0"> Ader said it was in Hungary's interest to have a new parliament and government as soon as possible. "It is a rightful expectation of Hungary's citizens that the election campaign should not be longer than necessary and justified," he added. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling center-right Fidesz party has a strong lead in opinion surveys over the leftist opposition. (Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

A judge concluded the investigation into one of Haiti's most notorious political assassinations on Friday, accusing nine people - including several close associates of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide - of having a hand in the killing of radio journalist Jean Dominique. Mirlande Libérus, a former senator from Aristide's political party, was indicted as the organizer of the double murder in April 2000 of Dominique, owner of Radio Haiti Inter, and a security guard, according to a summary of the judge's report made public by an Appeals Court panel on Friday. The two victims were shot by unidentified gunmen as Dominique was driving into the radio station's offices in Port-au-Prince, according to the judges. Evidence in the case indicated that Libérus had been given the directive by Aristide to silence the popular journalist and human rights activist, the report said, citing witnesses who testified before Judge Yvikel Dabrésil. The judge did not indict Aristide

Police fired tear gas on Saturday to disperse hundreds of protesters in Istanbul's central Taksim Square demonstrating mainly against a government bill that would increase controls over the Internet. _0"> A Reuters reporter saw protesters escaping into side streets after police used water cannon and tear gas. Shops rolled down their shutters. Smaller demonstrations also took place in the coastal city of Izmir and in the capital Ankara, where about 300 protesters chanted slogans opposing the government and the internet bill. The bill would give the courts the power to rule on removing material from the internet that "violates individual rights", an article that opponents say is murky and could lead to the arbitrary closure of websites. It also says that people will be able to apply to the state Telecommunications Directorate (TIB) as well as the courts to block material that "violates the secrecy of private life". (Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley an

South Sudanese government forces said they seized the flashpoint town of Bor back from rebels on Saturday and Uganda's army claimed credit for the operation, highlighting the depth of its involvement in the conflict. A rebel spokesman in Addis Ababa, where talks aimed at securing a ceasefire have been grinding on, told Reuters his fighters had made a "tactical withdrawal" from Bor, which has been heavily fought over since the conflict erupted in mid-December. The United Nations says thousands of people have been killed and more than half a million driven from their homes in the fighting in the world's newest nation. It has pitted troops loyal to President Salva Kiir against rebels backing Riek Machar, who was sacked as vice president in July. "The SPLA has defeated more than 15,000 forces of Riek Machar," Philip Aguer, spokesman for the government SPLA forces, told reporters in the capital Juba. "The SPLA has frustrated Riek Machar's plan to

Turkey has extended a purge of official bodies to the banking and telecoms regulators and state TV, firing dozens of executives in moves that appear to broaden Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's backlash against a corruption investigation. The authorities have already reassigned thousands of police officers and about 20 prosecutors, and fired some state television officials in response to the corruption investigation, the biggest challenge to Erdogan's 11-year rule. Investigators are believed to have been looking into allegations of corruption and bribery involving trade in gold with Iran and big real estate projects, although full details of their charges have not been made public. The combative prime minister says the investigations, which began a month ago with arrests of high profile figures including the sons of three of his cabinet ministers, are part of an attempted "judicial coup". His opponents say they fear a purge of official bodies will destroy the in