Lil Wayne wears Skylar Diggins’ Notre Dame jersey on stage

Whether it's Jay-Z's trademark Yankees cap, Snoop's collection of Lakers jerseys or Nelly's Cardinals gear, it's certainly not unusual for rappers to wear the attire of their favorite pro or college teams.

Seldom if ever, however, has a rapper donned a women's basketball jersey on stage.

That changed Tuesday night when Lil Wayne walked on stage for his concert at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana, clad in Skylar Diggins' No. 4 Notre Dame jersey. Lil Wayne had previously saluted the Notre Dame sophomore guard on Twitter prior to the women's national title game last week, telling her "Kongrats to @skydigg4, my wife. Now bring it home baby."

Maybe Lil Wayne was so inspired by Notre Dame's run to the title game that he's become an avid Irish hoops fan. More likely he has a not-so-subtle ulterior motive for donning Diggins' jersey.

Either way, the Notre Dame sophomore is taking it in stride. She laughed when informed by one of her Twitter followers that the rapper was wearing her jersey on stage.

"@LilTunechi is hilarious for that one!," she tweeted. "idc wht ANYbody says, thts love...I'm a fan, so I can be happy!"

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Death toll from severe storms rises to 17

BOONE'S CHAPEL, Ala. – Vicious storms and howling winds smacked the Deep South, killing at least seven people in Alabama including three family members whose homes were tossed into nearby woods.
In Alabama's Washington County, about 50 miles north of Mobile, a mother and her two children were among those killed, said state emergency management agency director Art Faulkner. One person was reported dead in Mississippi's Greene County.
Combined with earlier reported fatalities in Arkansas and Oklahoma, the confirmed death toll had risen to 17 by early Saturday — the nation's deadliest storm of the season.
Henley Hollon said Saturday that his 65-year-old brother, Willard Hollon, lived across the street from him in the Boone's Chapel community about 25 miles from Montgomery. Henley Hollon said Willard Hollon and Willard's two adult children, Steve and Cheryl, were killed when the storms roared through.
Henley Hollon said he had been watching the weather forecast on television — and thought the worst was over when the winds started to pick up.
"It got up real fast. The lights went out," he said. "We had to feel our way into the hall. It lasted less than a minute."
He then went outside to check on the limbs down in his yard and walked across the road to check on his brother.
"When I shined the light out there I could see it was all gone," Henley Hollon said. Two mobile homes had been ripped from their foundations, and all that remained Saturday morning were wooden steps and flowerbeds.

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Iran hails Iraq action on former rebels

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran on Saturday hailed action taken by Iraq against an Iranian opposition group based there which saw deadly clashes between Baghdad's forces and the former rebels.

"The presence of any terrorist organisation on Iraqi soil, to use it as a launchpad and to conduct operations against Iraq's neighbours, is not accepted by Iraq's own constitution," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told a press conference broadcast live and translated into English by Press TV.

"Iraqis must not allow activities of such groups and not shelter such terrorist groups. We appreciate the move by the Iraqi government," Salehi said.

He was responding to clashes between the Iraqi security forces and disarmed rebels of the outlawed People's Mujahedeen of Iran who remain based at Camp Ashraf north of Baghdad.

At least three people were killed on Friday when Iraqi troops clashed with stone-throwing crowds at the camp, an Iraqi security official said. The People's Mujahedeen claimed 31 of its members died in a full-scale military assault.

The United States said it was urging Iraqi officials "at the highest levels" to avoid violence and show restraint.

But Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's media adviser, Ali Musawi, told AFP on Friday that Baghdad would no longer tolerate an organisation that had been involved in "terrorist activity and harms relations with neighbours."

Nonetheless Iraq gave a commitment at the United Nations not to forcibly repatriate up to 3,500 opponents of the Iranian government at Camp Ashraf.

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations Hamid al-Bayati told AFP that Baghdad had asked European countries to accept the Ashraf residents but had so far had no success.

The People's Mujahedeen, which describes itself as both left-wing and Islamic, opposed the Shah of Iran and now fights to oust the clerical regime that took power in Tehran in the 1979 revolution.

The group set up Camp Ashraf in the 1980s -- when now executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime was at war with Iran -- as a base to operate against Tehran.

The European Union removed the People's Mujahedeen from its list of terrorist organisations in 2009, but the group remains on a similar US State Department blacklist.

The group's bases in Iraq have always been a thorn in Tehran-Baghdad relations.

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Libya rebels pushed back, more relief for Misrata , nato

NEAR AJDABIYA, Libya (AFP) - NATO has destroyed key ammunition stockpiles and armoured vehicles in recent airstrikes across Libya, while leader Moamer Kadhafi's loyalists pushed rebels back almost to Ajdabiya.

Rebels had pressed westward halfway to the oil refinery town of Brega, 80 kilometres (50 miles) away before being pushed back toward Ajdabiya on Saturday.

And late Saturday, Kadhafi's government said it shot down two rebel helicopters violating the no-fly zone over Libya.

NATO aircraft struck ammunition stockpiles east of Tripoli that were being used to resupply Kadhafi's forces who were involved in shelling innocent civilians in Misrata, about 215 kilometres (130 miles) east of Tripoli.

Residents fleeing Misrata arrived by boat to the rebellion's eastern stronghold of Benghazi on Saturday.

"There is not a word in the dictionary to describe this. 'Disaster' is not enough," one captain, Ali Spak, whose boat was part of a maritime lifeline between Misrata and Benghazi, told reporters.

NATO said it continued to target forces who fired on civilians despite the loyalists' tactic of shielding themselves or their weapons behind bystanders.

"In addition to hitting their supplies, our aircraft successfully destroyed a significant percentage of the Libyan government’s armoured forces," General Charles Bouchard said in the statement.

"Some of these armoured forces also were involved in the indiscriminate shelling of Misrata," he added.

The mission to protect civilians was being made difficult by the use of women and children as human shields by government troops striking at rebel fighters in the heart of communities, NATO said.

"We have observed horrific examples of regime forces deliberately placing their weapons systems close to civilians, their homes and even their places of worship," said Bouchard.

"Troops have also been observed hiding behind women and children. This type of behaviour violates the principles of international law and will not be tolerated," he added.

Kadhafi's deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaaim, said late Saturday in Tripoli that two rebel helicopters violating the no-fly zone were shot down in the Brega region.

Kaaim hit out at the NATO forces in charge of applying Security Council Resolution 1973 imposing the air exclusion zone over Libya, saying: "NATO on Saturday permitted the rebels to violate this resolution and use combat helicopters."

As diplomatic efforts gathered pace for a truce, a huge blast rocked Ajdabiya, with some residents suggesting it might have been a NATO air strike -- which NATO denied.

Smoke was seen billowing over the key road junction town that had seen heavy exchanges between retreating rebels and advancing Kadhafi loyalists hours before.

Dozens of cars and military vehicles were seen pouring east out of Ajdabiya toward Benghazi, as a helicopter bearing a rebel flag headed west towards the front line despite a no-fly zone.

NATO said its warplanes intercepted a MiG-23 fighter jet flown near Benghazi by a rebel pilot earlier Saturday and forced him to land after he violated the no-fly zone.

Advancing government forces shelled the retreating rebels west of Ajdabiya, an AFP correspondent there heard. At least 10 loud explosions rocked the town's outskirts.

In other developments, the International Committee of the Red Cross said a ship it chartered docked in Misrata with medicines and surgical supplies as well as five ICRC staff.

Earlier this week, the United Nations said a World Food Programme ship carrying food, medicine and doctors arrived late on Thursday at Misrata with 600 tonnes of foodstuffs, enough to feed 40,000 people for a month.

Doctors said last week that 200 people had been killed there since the fighting began.

On the diplomatic front, EU foreign ministers will meet a member of the Transitional National Council next week, despite a lack of consensus in the bloc on how to deal with the opposition group.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton issued the invitation on Tuesday to the meeting in Luxembourg, which will be the first between the Libyan opposition and the European Union as a whole.

And a visiting delegation of African leaders seeking to mediate a ceasefire in Libya will be shown "due respect" by rebels fighting Kadhafi's forces, an official in their stronghold in Benghazi said.

But the insurgents will not accept any deal involving Kadhafi or his family staying in power, spokesman Mustafa Gheriani told reporters.

"We know exactly what we want. If they (the African leaders) think there could be a transitional period with Kadhafi or his sons, they need to go to Misrata where women and children are being violated and tell that to them," he said.

South African President Jacob Zuma and other leaders from a high-level African Union panel have been given NATO permission to meet Kadhafi in Tripoli, and the rebel chiefs in Benghazi on Sunday and Monday, according to the South African foreign ministry.

Italy will decide early next week whether to join in attacking Kadhafi's troops, but is likely to remain in a supporting role, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa told La Repubblica daily.

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Barak says Israel open to Gaza ceasefire with Hamas , israel , plastin

JERUSAELM (Reuters) - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday that Israel was willing to accept a mutual ceasefire with Hamas militants in Gaza after days of deadly violence.

"If they stop firing on our communities, we will stop firing. If they stop firing in general, it will be quiet, it will be good," Barak told Israel Radio.

The death toll since Israel launched its retaliation for an attack on a school bus that critically wounded a teenager on Thursday has climbed to 19 Palestinian militants and civilians.

Gaza militants have fired at least 120 rockets and mortars at southern Israel in that time, the Israeli army said.

Asked if Israel was considering a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip to end Hamas's rule there, Barak said all options were on the table, but that it may not be necessary.

"If it will be necessary, we will act, but when it's not necessary, we don't need to," he said. "Restraint is also a form of strength."

Israel carried out a devastating military offensive into Gaza in late 2008 with the aim of ending cross-border rocket fire.

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Two dead as new tremor hits Japan disaster zone , japan ,earth quiek

SENDAI, Japan (AFP) - A powerful aftershock rocked Japan's tsunami zone, killing at least two and triggering new concerns over nuclear power plants in a region still grappling with an atomic emergency.

Electricity was cut across a huge area of northern Japan, forcing cooling systems at three nuclear plants to switch to emergency power, and as of Friday night, nearly 24 hours later, more than 600,000 households remained without power.

At least one backup supply remained online at all three plants, but the 7.1-magnitude aftershock highlighted the potential risks of nuclear generation in an earthquake zone amid a battle to stabilise reactors at the tsunami-hit Fukushima plant.

Officials at the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said two people had been killed, and reports suggested another two might have died in the tremor.

The quake struck off the coast near Sendai -- one of the most powerful to hit Japan since the country's worst post-war disaster four weeks ago.

Thursday's quake swayed buildings in the capital Tokyo, more than 300 kilometres away from the epicentre, and generated unease even well away from the coast, where a tsunami warning was briefly issued.

In the town of Kitakami, northwest of the epicentre, an AFP reporter witnessed queues forming at convenience stores as people tried to stock up anew on food, water and batteries.

"It was so scary," said Kazuyuki Shiroiwa, who had been to four shops in central Kitakami in a vain effort to find batteries.

"The midnight quake reminded me of the fear I felt a month ago," he said. "I'm fed up with earthquakes. No more quakes, please."

Workers battling to control the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on the northeast coast were ordered to evacuate temporarily but have since returned, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said.

The evacuation order came less than 24 hours after the workers began pumping nitrogen, an inert gas, into reactor No. 1, where engineers were concerned a build-up of hydrogen might react with oxygen to cause an explosion.

Work at the plant was remotely controlled and had continued uninterrupted, the company said.

The loss of external power sources at Fukushima in the March 11 tsunami left reactor cores heating up uncontrollably, resulting in the world's worst nuclear emergency since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

The crippled plant has leaked radiation that has made its way into tap water and farm produce, sparking food export bans covering a large area.

Some highly radioactive water has leaked into the Pacific Ocean and this week TEPCO began dumping 11,500 tonnes of low-level radioactive water from the plant into the sea to free up urgently needed storage space.

The move has angered the Japanese fishing industry and raised concerns in neighbouring countries including China, which on Friday urged Tokyo to ensure the marine environment was protected.

The nuclear agency said Thursday's quake had knocked out some external power sources used for cooling at plants in Onagawa in Miyagi prefecture and at Rokkasho and Higashidori in Aomori prefecture.

But at least one emergency power source remained operational at each, and there was no indication that the loss of regular power was causing a problem.

Operator Tohoku Electric Power said some water overflowed from pools housing spent fuel at the Onagawa plant and spilled onto the floor, but that radiation levels remained normal.

The Onagawa plant was already in cold shut-down, while the Higashidori plant's only reactor was under maintenance and the Rokkasho plant is a reprocessing facility.

A spokesman for the Onagawa plant's operator, Tohoku-Electric Power Co, said radiation levels were still "far below the level that would require us to report to authorities".

Hundreds of aftershocks have rocked Japan since the 9.0 magnitude quake last month and the resulting tsunami, which killed more than 12,600 people and left around 15,000 unaccounted for.

March's record quake has exacted a heavy cost on the world's number three economy, and rippled across industries worldwide as parts supplied from Japan run short.

But auto giants Toyota and Nissan said Friday they would restart all domestic assembly plants from around mid-April, joining Honda, which said earlier it would be resuming production.

Also on Friday, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines said they would restart flights next week to and from Sendai Airport, which was closed after being inundated by the tsunami.

Japan said it would ease shipping restrictions on milk and some vegetables from near the Fukushima plant, while New Delhi overturned a blanket ban on importing Japanese produce.

Several countries and territories, including China, Taiwan, Singapore and the United States, have banned shipments of produce from certain Japanese prefectures near the plant, but India had been the first to announce a complete ba

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UAE , detains , democracy , activist , blogger , Dubai
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have detained a blogger and rights activist who says he's gotten death threats for calling for political freedoms in the Gulf nation.

Ahmed Mansour's wife and a colleague say he was detained Friday at his Dubai home.

Mansour told The Associated Press Thursday that he's been getting threats for signing a petition calling for an elected parliament. The Emirates is an alliance of seven sheikdoms where political activity is severely restricted.

Mansour's wife, Nadia, says 10 policemen searched their home, seized two laptops and took him into custody.

Another political activist, Mohammed al-Mansouri, also reported the arrest.

Police and government officials could not be reached for comment.

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12 children , killed , in Brazil , school , shooting
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A gunman roamed the halls of an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and killed 12 children, lining them up against a wall and shooting them in the head at point-blank range as he shouted, "I'm going to kill you all!"

It was the worst school shooting in Brazil — and would have been deadlier if the gunman had not been shot in the legs by a police officer, who said the man then fell down some stairs and shot himself in the head.

Images taken with a cell phone and posted on YouTube showed students fleeing wildly, screaming for help, many with their white and blue school shirts soaked in blood.

Rio de Janeiro state's Secretariat of Health and Civil Defense said in a statement on its website that at least 12 other students were injured, many by gunfire, and taken to hospitals. At least two were in grave condition. Officials earlier reported 18 injured.

The dead included 10 girls and two boys, plus the gunman, according to the Health and Civil Defense department. Those killed were between the ages of 12 and 15. One of the boys died at a hospital about 12 hours after the shooting.

"He came in shooting," said Andreia Machado, recounting what her 13-year-old daughter, Thayane, told her before going into surgery.

Thayane was hit by three bullets and lost feeling in her legs because one hit her spine, said her mother. Crying as she spoke, Machado wondered if her daughter would ever be able to return to school — or walk.

"She's such an active child," she said. "That's the biggest fear I have, her not being able to walk again. But we have to trust in God."

The gunman was identified as 23-year-old Wellington Oliveira, who had once attended the Tasso da Silveira school in a working-class neighborhood in western Rio.

No motive was known, but authorities said the shooter left a rambling and mostly incoherent letter at the scene indicating he wanted to kill himself.

The letter also explained in detail how Oliveira wanted his corpse to be cared for — bathed and wrapped in a white sheet that he left in a bag in the first room where he said he would start shooting. The letter also states that the gunman should not be touched by anyone who is "impure" unless they wear gloves.

"If possible I want to be buried next to my mother. A follower of God must visit my grave at least once. He must pray before my grave and ask God to forgive me for what I have done," read the letter, portions of which were posted on the Globo television network's website.

Edmar Peixoto, the deputy mayor of western Rio, said the letter also stated the gunman was infected with the AIDS virus.

The public school was in the midst of celebrating its 40th anniversary, and students' handmade posters commemorating the day could be seen through school windows.

Rio Police Chief Martha Rocha said that when Oliveira first entered the school he told staff members he was there to give a lecture.

Shortly afterward, he opened fire. Rocha said he was carrying two pistols and an ammunition belt. He fired off at least 30 rounds.

Rio is a city rife with drug-gang violence in its vast slums, but school shootings are rare. The gunman had no criminal history, Rocha told a news conference.

About 400 people were inside the school when the shooting began about 8:30 a.m. local time (7:30 a.m. EDT, 1130 GMT). The school serves grades one through eight.

"What happened in Rio is without a doubt the worst incident of its kind to have taken place in Brazil," said Guaracy Mingardi, a crime and public safety expert at the University of Sao Paulo.

Jade Ramos, a student at the school, said the gunman repeatedly yelled "I'm going to kill you all!"

"He had already killed a lot of children in the first floor and in the yard," she told the Globo television network. "He kept telling the kids to face the wall and was shooting at their heads. The children kept begging, 'No, please!' There was a lot of blood, children agonizing on the stairs."

Ramos said she escaped by running into a classroom, where a teacher then locked the door and barricaded it with tables.

Police were alerted to the shooting when two young boys, at least one with a gunshot wound, ran up to two officers on patrol about two blocks away. The officers sprinted to the school and at least one quickly located the gunman on the second floor and traded shots with him.

"He saw me and aimed a gun at me," said officer Marcio Alves. "I shot him in the legs, he fell down the stairs and then shot himself in the head."

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said life at the four-story, pastel yellow and green school was turned into a "hellish nightmare."

"This day would have been so much worse if it weren't for the hero policeman," Paes told reporters at the school.

Authorities closed the school temporarily while they investigate, but Paes said it would reopen.

Rio Gov. Sergio Cabral called the shooter a "psychopath" and said there were no indications anyone else was involved in the shooting, but that the investigation would continue.

"We have to investigate where he got the weapons and where he learned to use them," the governor said.

Terrified parents rushed to the school in the Realengo neighborhood. Television images showed them crying and screaming for information about their children.

Zilda Nunes, 67, lives across the street from the school and said three of her grandchildren were inside when the shooting began.

She screamed for help when she heard the gunfire, but didn't enter the building. As students fled, she offered them sugar water to help calm them down, she said.

"There were so many children shot, so much blood," Nunes said. "People were asking for help, but what could I do?"

Three helicopters were landing and taking off from a football field next to the school, ferrying the wounded to hospitals.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, attending an event in the capital, Brasilia, lamented the deaths of "defenseless children."

"I ask for one minute of silence for these children who were taken so early from their life," she said, her voice cracking and eyes welling with tears. "It's not in the nature of our nation to have these types of crimes."

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Saudi , activists , press , release of reformers , on YouTube

RIYADH (Reuters) - A group of Saudi activists has launched a 10-minute YouTube video protesting against the imprisonment without charge of some Saudi intellectuals which has attracted over 9,000 hits in less than 24 hours.

The video, "Saudis Missing," was posted late on Friday and shows interviews with a lawyer and family members of some of the prisoners who had called for reform in the absolute monarchy. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R99d7SVgyQU)

Saudi Arabia does not tolerate any form of dissent. It has no elected parliament or political parties and political life is dominated by the ruling Al Saud family.

"I hope and call for their release without any conditions and for them to receive apologies for what is happening to them," lawyer Bassim Alim said on the video, calling the detained activists "prisoners of opinion."

"The way they were arrested, interrogated and imprisoned, is all in violation of the most basic regulations and this means that there is no basis for a trial or charges."

Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki told Reuters over the phone that there were no "prisoners of opinion" among those detained with security forces.

"The issue referred to (in the video) is being looked at by the judiciary and the defense lawyer is handling the case for those involved," he said without giving details.

The video shows family members of some reformers who were arrested in 2007 during a meeting in Jeddah and are still being held without trial.

Activists say that thousands are held in Saudi prisons without charge or access to lawyers despite a Saudi law that limits detention without trial to six months.

"This documentary is very painful," said Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, president of the Human Rights First Society.

"We deplore and condemn the fact that these people are still behind bars and demand that the Saudi government release them unconditionally or subject them to a fair and transparent trial with full access to legal counsel."

Saudi authorities arrested a university professor a day after he called for the release of jailed relatives and other prisoners, the Human Rights First Society said late last month.

Dozens of Saudi men gathered outside the Interior Ministry in the capital Riyadh on March 20 to demand the release of jailed relatives.

The U.S. State Department complained on Friday of a long list of human rights abuses in ally and top oil producer Saudi Arabia, including arbitrary arrests and incommunicado detentions, denial of fair and public trials and lack of due process.

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