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The largest lottery jackpot in history will be split at least three ways say officials – but there is still no word on who the lucky winners are.
Just three tickets, sold in the states of Kansas, Illinois and Maryland, had the right numbers entitling holders to a share of the $640 million prize.
But they could have been bought by syndicates rather than individuals.
The size of the jackpot prompted Americans from coast to coast to queue for hours for a chance to change their lives forever – even if mathematicians put that chance at 176 million to one!
More about: Gambling, Game, USA

There is growing anger among villagers near a US military base in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province after an American soldier went on a shooting spree killing at least 16 civilians including nine children.
The gunman reportedly entered three houses killing 11 people in one, setting fire to their bodies before leaving.
US officials said the soldier is now in custody.
The incident is bound to inflame Afghan anger -already seething after the recent Koran burning episode at a NATO base. President Barack Obama immediately called his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai promising a swift inquiry.
NATO’s Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed concern that the shooting would weaken the Afghan people’s trust in NATO forces: “The Afghans understand that they need our efforts in order to create a better future. But it is clear that the burning of Korans and this type of attack on civilians undermine the faith they have in us and it’s important that we restore it as quickly as possible.”
There are conflicting reports over the number of gunmen involved – the US claims it was one individual who went on a rampage while witnesses say several US soldiers were present.
More about: Afghanistan, American army, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Barack Obama, Hamid Karzai, Victims

The Greek finance minister has hailed the bond swap deal that has enabled his country to avoid imminent bankrupcty.
The government says well over 80 percent of private creditors have backed a plan that leaves the path clear for a new international bailout worth 130 billion euros from the EU, ECB and IMF.
It aims to use the law to force unwilling investors to participate.
In parliament the Finance MinisterEvangelos Venizelos said it was a historic day for the people and the national economy. The deal had an extremely high degree of success and exceeded all expectations, he said.
“The Greek people will understand that the debt swap deal is the best and most efficient method to solve the economy’s problems.”
In order to cut the national debt drastically, private investors are accepting huge losses in exchange for new bonds. Greece now looks ready to receive the first batch of bailout funds.
???It is more than expected and I think it is aresounding success. It is very important, notthe transaction ???per se??�, but the fact that this is the beginning of the restoration of confidence in the economy,??? said financial analyst Michalis Massourakis.
On the streets, some are angry at what they see as one rule for the government, another for ordinary people.
???They chase people for owing 100 euros to a bank, yet those who owe billions are exempt? Aren??�t they ashamed of themselves? I spit on them,??? said one man.
???It??�s good for them. What about for us? Nothing! Everyone’s left to fend for himself. In a while people will be on the streets.??? said another.
The unemployment rate – a record 21 per cent in December – is twice the eurozone average; more than half of young people are out of work.
Austerity measures ordered by international creditors have fuelled many people??�s anger.
More about: Eurogroup, Financial Crisis, Greece, Greek debt, Greek economy

Investigators in Turkey are trying to find out what caused a fired near Istanbul the killed up to 14 people. The victims were workers at a construction site of a suspermarket in an eastern suburb of Istanbul. They died when fire swept through their dormitory tent as they slept.
A second tent also caught fire but it is not thought anyone was sleeping there.
The mayor of the district said initial investigations suggested the blaze was started by an electric heater or a short circuit. Istanbul is currently experiencing a bout of wintry weather.
More about: Fire, Istanbul, Turkey, Turkey, Victims

Royal Dutch Shell is pioneering shale gas development in China.
In the first deal of its kind, the oil major has signed a production sharing contract with China National Petroleum Corporation.
Beijing plans to dramatically boost its shale gas output and said it is looking for foreign firms for product sharing contracts with Chinese companies or to provide engineering services.
“China has huge shale gas potential and we are committed to making a contribution in bringing that potential into reality,” Shell CEO Peter Voser said in the statement.
China has yet to start commercial shale production, though it is widely believed to hold the world’s largest shale resources.
More about: China, Gas, Shell

Arabs from Gulf states have told Russia that its failure to take a tough line on Syria has directly led to ongoing killing in the country.
Qatar along with Saudi Arabia has led efforts to isolate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and pushed for the recognition of the exiled Syrian national council as Syria’s legitimate representative.
Russia maintains that not all the blame for violence should be put on Assad, but a series of points were agreed, and all were in favour of measures to put an end to the violence, ???regardless of the source.???
Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov said:???We consider it very important to support the mission of Kofi Annan that has begun in Damascus, and we hope that this mission will lead to a start of dialogue.
Russia and China vetoed a UN security council resolution based on an Arab peace plan. However both countries did back another security council resolution which expressed “deep disappointment” at Syria’s failure to allow the UN humanitarian aid chief to visit.
More about: Arab League, Diplomatic mission, Russia, Syria

The French presidential election is the first to be held in the country since the arrival of a president of mixed race in the White House, in the US. Barack Obama’s victory, well-received in France, shone a spotlight on how under-represented France’s visible minorities are in politics.
Could the main parties field a candidate of mixed race, or one who is black, Arab or Asian? Could France one day have a black or mixed race president like Barack Obama?
When Obama got into office, 80 percent of the French said they would vote for him. They wished him well, and still do.
A Parisian woman interviewed at random by euronews said: “I think it’s good that someone of mixed race was elected in the US. It really shows a change of mentality.”
Another Parisian said: “I was very pleased, and I think he’ll be re-elected this time around.”
But when our journalist asked: “Do you think it would be possible in France?”
He answered: “In France it’s different. Opinion polls show the most popular people are blacks and Arabs, but [someone like the tennis player] Yannick Noah will never be elected president.”
And another woman said: “If there was a black, and Asian or an Indian person that wouldn’t bother me, but if there isn’t, there isn’t; it’s just that no one wants to stand.”
Patrick Loz??s has tried, but he did not get the backing required. In France to become a candidate to run for president you need 500 mayors to sponsor you. Only one non-white person has done that: Christine Taubira, in 2002, MP for French Guiana, with the small PRG centre-left party. Even after Obama, none of the big parties have had candidates from the visible minorities.
Christine Taubira told euronews: “The big parties don’t much care about the subject, and it’s also because the people who might run tend to be satisfied with militant activism or getting on to city councils, but they don’t set out for conquest, for power. First they need to seize party leadership to pursue ambitions of supreme power.”
Patrick Loz??s said: “There is a political elite in Paris that’s completely closed to the diversity of French society. But I think we also have to see that there’s no place for people from rural France either, or for women, and there isn’t a place for people who have an accent.”
Christine Taubira added: “I believe the effect of Barack Obama’s election was very temporary. It had what I call a Tartuffe hypocrisy effect. There was this dazzling enthusiasm, especially among the political classes, and then nothing! That’s to say: there were no plans or even any thinking about it, to ask ourselves what place there should be for these French people.”
Amirouche La??di also blames the media, he says, for showing France as one colour only. He is a deputy mayor of the Paris region town of Suresnes and chairman of the Averroes Club, which promotes diversity in the media.
Amirouche La??di said: “Diversity today should be represented as widespread, day-to-day, and above all, by the numbers. If it is under-represented on television, politics, which just tags along, with very little courage, will not represent this diversity on electoral lists.”
France has millions of citizens who are described as visible minorities, mostly living in former colonies that are called “overseas territories” today. They are descended from its history of colonial conquest, slavery and the immigration policies of the last century.
Sociologist Eric Keslassy says their under-representation in the Assembl?�e Nationale (France’s lower chamber of parliament) should worry people.
Eric Keslassy explained why he thinks that: “Fewer than one percent of members of parliament are from the visible minorities, so there’s a flagrant discrepancy with social reality in the chamber that’s said to be nationally representative. It’s extremely worrying for democratic vitality, if nothing else. The French absolutely have to realise that a French person can be something other than white. Once we’ve realised that, they have to admit there are some prejudices that must be fought, so that equal rights are respected.”
Quite close to the Assembl?�e Nationale there is an exhibition about stereotypes, at the Quai Branly Museum. It is called ‘The Invention of the Savage’ and shows how people from all the far corners of the globe were put on show at fairs, in circuses and zoos.
One of the experts who put the exhibition together is historian Pascal Blanchard, who said: “This exhibition allows us to understand where the views we have today come from, to comprehend that a culture was built up over the years, and that in a mixed race society like we have today there are lots of stereotypes about other people; and to see that the lack of representation in certain public spaces is no accident – it’s the product of history.”
Euronews reporter Mich??le Bouchet, after talking to people of all walks of life, concluded: “Visible minorities, diversity, the offspring of immigration – these are terms used by politicians and the media to describe French people who aren’t white – terms that are vague, cold and seem to conceal discomfort.”
Patrick Loz??s, who failed in his attempt to even run for president, has an opinion on that: “I think our guilty conscience makes us avoid some words and beat around the bush.”
While historian Pascal Blanchard believes: “Words hide what is difficult to say. It’s okay to talk about race in the US, but in France if you say the word you’re out in the cold, no matter how you say it, even if it’s scientific. The majority always has trouble relating to the minority.”
Amirouche La??di thinks France has a long way to go: “The Americans dare to talk about things, and they dare to write them down in numbers. But we’re not there yet.”
Hurtful words are familiar to Cuong Pham Phu. He is French, of Vietnamese origins, loves France, is on the town council of Lognes in the Paris region and is trying to become an MP. He is helping fellow citizens of Asian origin to break a long political silence.
Cuong Pham Phu outlined the problems he has encountered: “I told the wife of a former socialist MP how much I love my country, and she told me, ‘Cuong, your country is where you come from; it’s not France, it’s Vietnam’.”
The depth of this gulf in perception was demonstrated, by the Interior Minister in 2009, widely thought to be talking about French people of Arab origins, when he said: “One is all right. It’s when there are lots of them you get problems.”
The famous perfume-maker Jean-Paul Guerlain was charged with making racial insults after he said: “I worked like a nigger, though I don’t know if niggers have ever worked that hard.”
The Quai Branly exhibition invites each of us to think about how we relate to others, whatever differences there may be – of size, or sexual orientation, or religious conviction, or skin colour, or anything else.
More about: Electoral campaign, france 2012, French politics, Immigration, Minorities Do you think?�Nicolas Sarkozy?�handled the Toulouse siege crisis well?
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UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has visited Baba Amr in Homs describing it as devastated by the recent shelling and almost devoid of people.
After her short tour she added that security was obviously an issue and that her team had heard gunfire while they were there. She said it seemed like the city had been completely closed down.
The aim of her visit was to press the Syrian government to allow the distribution of humanitarian aid. In the next few days she will be followed by UN and Arab League special envoy, Kofi Annan who is seeking a diplomatic breakthrough to stop the violence.
Meanwhile the crackdown continues with the Syrian National Council reporting that 42 tanks and over 130 armoured vehicles transporting soldiers were headed towards the town of Saraqeb.
Elsewhere there have been more deaths reported by activists in Homs province, and in Alep, Idlib and Deraa.
In response the US has voted for more economic action against Syria and the UN Security Council is drafting a new resolution to sanction the country, but it has been watered down since the first attempt in the hope of obtaining approval from China and Russia.
More about: Bashar al-Assad, Bombardment, Syria, Syrian army, Victims