World briefs

ARGENTINA A journalist credited with being the first to report the gunshot death of federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman has left Argentina because of fear for his safety. Damian Pachter of the English-language Buenos Aires Herald left the country Saturday, the local journalism group Foro de Periodismo Argentino said. The group said Pachter reported on Friday he was followed by unknown people and felt his safety was at risk.

INDIA Barack Obama presides over a grand display of Indian military hardware, marching bands, and elaborately dressed camels, becoming the first American leader to be honored as chief guest at India’s annual Republic Day festivities. The parade was the centerpiece of Obama’s three-day visit to India, which is aimed at strengthening a relationship between the world’s largest democracies that has at times been fraught with tension and suspicion. More on p12

MALAYSIA  Malaysia Airlines officials were struggling to restore the embattled carrier’s website after it was hacked by a group proclaiming support for the Islamic State group. The airline’s site was changed, at first with a message saying “404 – Plane Not Found” and that it was “Hacked by Cyber Caliphate,” with a photo of one of the airline’s Airbus A380 superjumbo jets. The browser tab for the website said “ISIS will prevail.” More on p13

MALAYSIA Southeast Asia’s biggest budget carrier AirAsia is scrapping fuel surcharges on tickets following the decline in global oil prices. AirAsia said the move also applies to flights under its long-haul arm AirAsia X.

YEMEN Barack Obama defends his counterterrorism strategy in tumultuous Yemen, saying efforts to root out a dangerous al-Qaida affiliate there would not be affected by the political vacuum in the country. The U.S. campaign against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is heavily dependent on using drone strikes to take out terror targets. Obama has held up that approach as a model for the military mission against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, which relies on airstrikes instead of U.S. ground troops.

SYRIA Kurdish fighters backed by intense U.S.-led airstrikes pushed the Islamic State group almost entirely out of the Syrian town of Kobani yesterday, marking a major loss for extremists whose hopes for easy victory dissolved into a bloody, costly siege that seems close to ending in defeat.

UKRAINE’s president says intercepted radio and telephone conversations prove that Russia-backed separatists were responsible for firing the rockets that pounded the southeastern city of Mariupol and killed at least 30 people. The attack on Mariupol, a strategically situated port city that had been relatively quiet for months, alarmed the West and looked likely further to aggravate relations with Russia.

USA Miss Colombia Paulina Vega has been crowned Miss Universe, beating out first runner-up Miss USA Nia Sanchez and contestants from more than 80 other countries.