Just five days after the conclusion of  the Australian Open, tennis shifts its attention to the Davis  Cup this weekend.
France are the defending champions and start their  campaign at home to the Netherlands while the United States,  the record 32-time champions, travel to Serbia.
AFP Sports looks at five key aspects of the first round  ties which take place from Friday to Sunday:
- Stars miss out -
==================
The sport's 'big five' are all missing from this week's  first round. Australian Open champion Roger Federer and  injured compatriot Stan Wawrinka, key men in Switzerland's  2014 title success, miss the trip to Kazakhstan.
Also nursing injuries are Novak Djokovic, who sits out  Serbia's home tie with the US while Rafael Nadal and Andy  Murray miss the clash between Spain and Britain.
However, world number three Marin Cilic, the runner-up to  Federer in Melbourne, leads Croatia's challenge at home to  Canada.
Cilic can equal Ivan Ljubicic's record for most Davis Cup  ...

No Federer, Nadal, Djokovic but plenty at stake in Davis Cup

PTI Automatic

Veteran Tim Cahill says he left  Australia to rejoin Millwall to ensure he gets to a fourth  World Cup, and is excited by the appointment of Bert van  Marwijk to lead the national team.
The 38-year-old quit Melbourne City in December after  rarely featuring in the starting line-up since joining the A-  League side in 2016, despite playing a key role in helping  Australia qualify for Russia 2018.
According to Sydney's Daily Telegraph he was so desperate  to again challenge himself at the top level that he paid more  than Aus $500,000 (USD 400,000) to get out of his Melbourne  contract.
"The easy option was to stay at Melbourne City and just  be a passenger, but that's not my style," Cahill, Australia's  most prolific international scorer with 50 goals, told the  newspaper Thursday.
"People questioned my decision -- there aren't many 38-  year-olds who have gone back to the top leagues, especially  after going home to the A-League.
"But I can't teach kids to follow their dreams and ...

Cahill takes tough route to World Cup

Venezuela today set the initial  value of a digital currency it created to overcome a liquidity  crisis at USD 60, but its price will fluctuate based on the  oil market, authorities said.
The Latin American country -- which has the world's  largest proven oil reserves but is facing a crippling economic  crisis -- said a pre-sale for 38.4 million "Petro" units out  of a total 100 million would take place between February 20  and March 19.
The currency's initial price is based on the cost of a  barrel of Venezuelan oil in mid-January, and the currency will  be backed by the country's vast oil reserves.
The Petro's value will then be "subject to change,  depending on fluctuations in the (oil) market," said Hugbel  Roa, the minister of science and technology.
President Nicolas Maduro announced in early December that  Venezuela -- which is under sanctions from the US as well as  the EU -- was creating the digital currency.
"This is going to allow us to move toward new forms of  ...

Venezuela sets initial digital currency value at USD 60

British MPs voted in favour of moving  out of their historic Westminster home, to make way for major  renovation work of the iconic Houses of Parliament.
Lawmakers backed the decision for a "full and timely  decant" of parliament by 234 votes to 185, paving the way for  a multi-billion-pound revamp of the dilapidated complex.
"This debate arguably should have taken place about 40  years ago," said House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom at the  start of the debate yesterday.
"The Palace of Westminster is the seat of our democracy,  an iconic world-famous building and it is in dire need of  repair," she added.
Much of the Palace dates from the mid-1800s, while  Westminster Hall was built in 1099.
The complex is part of the UNESCO Westminster World  Heritage Site and includes the Houses of Parliament and the  clock tower housing Big Ben, which is already undergoing work.
Conditions are considered dire, with a Commons committee  listing fire, sewage inundation and electrical failure among 

British MPs vote to move out of Westminster for repairs

Eleven people died after a fire broke  out at a residence for elderly people with financial  difficulties in northern Japan, police said today.
Television footage showed the three-story building  engulfed in flames and dozens of firefighters battling the  blaze in snowy conditions.
Pictures of the aftermath showed the blackened husk of  the building, whose roof had apparently collapsed due to the  fire.
The victims -- eight men and three women -- were among 16  residents of the facility in Sapporo, Hokkaido, run by a local  organisation.
The other five residents escaped with minor injuries, a  police spokesman told AFP, adding that authorities were  investigating the victims' identities.
Police said they had launched a probe into the cause of  the fire first signalled at 11:42 pm (1442 GMT) yesterday via  an emergency call, the spokesman said.
The facility is aimed at supporting elderly people with  financial difficulties by offering low-cost accommodation and  helping them find work, 

Japan fire kills 11 at home for elderly people

The FBI warned today it has  "grave concerns" over the accuracy of a secret Congressional  memo that could depict the agency as deeply politicized, as  President Donald Trump's top aide signalled the White House  would allow the document's release.
Based on highly classified information, the four-page  memo --  written by Republican lawmaker Devin Nunes, the  chairman of the House Intelligence Committee -- suggests that  the Justice Department and the FBI abused their power in  running surveillance on a member of President Donald Trump's  election campaign in 2016.
The Justice Department and the FBI have actively lobbied  against its release, which has the potential to taint special  counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion  between the Trump campaign and Russians, an investigation that  is edging closer to the president himself.
But White House chief of staff John Kelly said yesterday  that the document could be made public soon, once White House  lawyers have ...

FBI challenges White House over explosive Russia case memo

A suicide bomber killed four people  today in an attack on a camp for people displaced by Boko  Haram violence in the northeast Nigeria, emergency services  said.
The bomber scaled the rear fence of an internally  displaced persons (IDP) camp on the outskirts of the city  Maiduguri  and detonated his explosives in the crowd, said  Garba Idris Garga, head of Nigeria's emergency management  agency (NEMA) in the northeast.
"He blew himself up among tents housing the IDPs," Garga  said, adding that 44 people were injured, some critically.
Although no one has claimed responsibility for the  attack, Boko Haram jihadists are believed to be responsible,  Garga said.
Minutes after the first attack, a female suicide bomber  launched another attack but no one died or was injured.
"A female suicide bomber came around shops outside the  camp where people were gathered. Luckily the people became  suspicious of her and quickly dispersed before she detonated  her explosives," Garga said.
The latest ..

Suicide bomber kills four in northeast Nigeria

Microsoft today reported a  hefty loss in the past quarter, as it set aside billions of  dollars for taxes on profits it expects to bring back to the  United States following passage of a major tax overhaul.
The technology giant said its loss for the quarter to  December 31 was USD 6.3 billion -- as it took a charge of USD  13.8 billion to pay its taxes.
Revenue for Microsoft's fiscal second quarter rose 12 per  cent to USD 28.9 billion as it saw gains in business services  and cloud computing.
Once the world's largest technology company, Microsoft  has been rebooting as consumers shift away from Windows-  powered computers to mobile devices.
This has pushed Microsoft to focus on the internet cloud,  artificial intelligence, and services for connected "internet  of things" devices.
"This quarter's results speak to the differentiated value  we are delivering to customers across our productivity  solutions and as the hybrid cloud provider of choice," said  Microsoft CEO Satya ...

Microsoft reports loss due to tax charge

Mexico today auctioned off 19  deep-water oil blocks located in the Gulf of Mexico, the  largest such auction since the government opened the country's  hydrocarbons sector to private industry.
Royal Dutch Shell won nine of the blocks -- four as a  lone bidder, four in a consortium with Qatar Petroleum, and  one in association with the state oil giant Petroleos de  Mexico (Pemex), Mexican officials said.
Pemex won four blocks, two alone and two in consortium  with other companies.
PC Carigali, a unit of Malaysian oil giant Petronas, won  six blocks, two alone and four in alliance with other  companies.
The blocks are all located off the state of Tamaulipas,  on Mexico's northeastern coast.
Ten more blocks remain unclaimed.
The blocks are together estimated to contain the  equivalent of 4.2 billion barrels of oil.
"This has been another successful day for the oil sector  in Mexico," said deputy hydrocarbons secretary Aldo Flores.
Flores said the USD 93 billion expected to be invested ..

Mexico auctions 19 deep-water oil blocks

Facebook today reported  earnings that handily beat expectations, but shares slumped as  it outlined changes expected to curb the amount of time people  spend on the world's biggest social network.
Facebook said that profit in the three months of last  year climbed 20 per cent to USD 4.26 billion as ad revenue and  ranks of members grew.
Revenue in the quarter leapt 47 per cent to nearly USD 13  billion, but expenses also rose as its ranks of employees  growing by the same percentage to finish the year at 25,105  workers.
Facebook said the number of monthly active users hit 2.13  billion in the past quarter, up 14 per cent from a year ago.
Facebook shares fell more than four percent to USD 177.92  in after-market trades that followed release of the earnings  figures.
Analysts have been cautious about Facebook as it revamps  its News Feed as part of an effort to curb misinformation and  refocus on updates from friends and family.
"2017 was a strong year for Facebook, but it was also a  

Facebook shares slip despite jump in earnings

Venezuela today said that UN  Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "went too far" by referring  a century-old border dispute with Guyana to the International  Court of Justice.
Venezuela has been pressing a historic claim to Guyana's  Essequibo region, which encompasses two thirds of the former  British colony, since US oil giant Exxon Mobil discovered oil  in off its coast in 2015.
Guterres sent the case to the ICJ yesterday following a  failed UN-sponsored attempt that was aimed at brokering a  settlement between Venezuela and Guyana by the end of 2017.
"Guterres went too far" by attempting to bypass the  Geneva Agreement, a 1966 border dispute deal that Venezuela  reached with then-colonial power Britain, Foreign Minister  Jorge Arreaza said.
Guyana's foreign ministry said yesterday that it welcomed  Guterres's decision, adding that the ICJ is the "appropriate  forum for the peaceful and definitive settlement of the  controversy."
Guyana maintains that valid land borders were set in .

Venezuela says UN chief 'went too far' in Guyana border

Suspected reprisal attacks between  herdsmen and farmers killed at least 14 people in central  Nigeria, police said today, the latest violence of an  escalating conflict.
Amnesty International said yesterday that 168 people have  been killed in communal violence this year alone, warning it  is "spiralling" out of control and heaping pressure on  President Muhammadu Buhari to act.
In central Nigeria's Nasarawa state, gunmen suspected of  being cattle herders killed at least seven farmers.
Nasarawa police spokesman Idrisu Kennedy said armed men  stormed the farming village of Kadarko in the Keana district  of the state yesterday and opened fire on residents.
"We received report of an attack on (an ethnic) Tiv  neighbourhood in Kadarko by unknown gunmen who opened fire,  killing seven people," he said.
The attack was believed to be a reprisal against Fulani  herders after suspected Tiv gunmen on Sunday killed 73 cows in  the same village and two herders went missing.
Kennedy refused to ..

Herder-farmer violence kills 14 in Nigeria

A Palestinian teenager from the  West Bank arrested by Israel was sent to the Gaza Strip  despite never having been there in her life, an NGO said  today.
Israeli rights group HaMoked said the 14-year-old girl,  named only as Ghada, was arrested in Jerusalem on January 13  without a permit while visiting the Israeli-controlled city.
While she is from a-Ram a few kilometres (miles) north of  Jerusalem, her father is originally from Gaza, the Palestinian  territory about 80 kilometres away that is hermetically sealed  off by Israel.
HaMoked said the girl was told she would be dropped off  at a checkpoint near her home but on her release on January 16  instead was taken to the Erez crossing into Gaza.
Abir Joubran-Dakwar, HaMoked's lawyer dealing with the  case, said they had not yet received a response from Israel  about when she could return.
She said Ghada had never been in Gaza before and did not  know anyone there, though she was now staying with members of  her extended family.
"No 

Israel sends Palestinian girl from West Bank to Gaza

The trial of 19 suspects  believed to be involved in a spectacular USD 50 million  diamond heist at Brussels airport in 2013, opened today in the  Belgian capital.
The February 2013 robbery, one of the world's biggest  diamond thefts, saw a gang of armed men posing as police seize  the gems from a passenger plane in an operation that lasted  barely 10 minutes without a shot being fired.
The hooded men, armed with machine guns, pulled up in  a car on the runway at Brussels' main Zaventem airport where  an armoured vehicle had just unloaded diamonds into a plane  about to take off for Zurich.
The men forced open the hold and removed about 120  boxes of diamonds before making off with the haul of about USD  50 million (worth 37 million euros at the time) in gems, most  of which was never recovered.
More than 30 people were detained in Belgium, France  and Switzerland in massive coordinated police operations.
The arrests included the main suspect, the Frenchman  Marc Bertoldi, who is ...

19 face trial over spectacular Brussels diamond heist

German auto giant Volkswagen  tried to keep secret the results of a diesel emissions test on  monkeys because it showed a worse health impact than expected,  a news report said today.
The firm's suppression of the widely-condemned study  emerged on the same day prosecutors in two German carmaking  strongholds pressed forward with investigations of industry  stalwarts Bosch and Audi over diesel emissions cheating.
Bild daily reported that the exhaust fumes tests on 10  monkeys that have sparked fresh public outrage following VW's  emissions-cheating scandal "were never supposed to come to  light" because the results were "too devastating".
Amid a storm of criticism over the experiment and over  separate tests on German human volunteers commissioned by an  auto industry-financed research institute, VW on Tuesday  suspended its chief lobbyist Thomas Steg and labelled the  testing "unethical and repulsive".
The human and animal tests were commissioned by an  organisation funded by VW, ...

VW hid 'devastating' result from diesel exhaust tests on

Israeli Prime Minister  Benjamin Netanyahu met German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel  today, publicly correcting him over Israel's stance on a two-  state solution to its conflict with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu had snubbed Gabriel in April when the  visiting diplomat declined to call off meetings with rights  groups critical of Israel's government.
In statements after Wednesday's meeting, the two were  cordial, but Netanyahu interrupted Gabriel when he talked  about a two-state solution to the conflict.
Gabriel said he was "very thankful to hear that, of  course, also the government of Israel wants to have two  states" with secure Israeli borders.
Netanyahu, who heads what is seen as the most right-  wing government in Israel's history, interjected to reiterate  his position that his country would have to maintain security  control in the Palestinian territories under any peace  arrangement.
"No, that we will control security west of the Jordan  (river)... that is I think the first 

Israel PM corrects German minister on two-state support

President Vladimir Putin has ordered  the government to organise a sports competition for Russian  athletes banned from the upcoming Winter Games in Pyeongchang  over a doping scandal, his spokesman said today.
Putin "reminded the cabinet of the decision to organise a  competition for those of our athletes who had not been allowed  to take part in the Olympic Games," Russian news agencies  quoted Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
He added that winning athletes would receive compensation  equal to what Moscow normally awards Olympic medallists.
The International Olympic Committee banned Russia from  next month's event in South Korea after a report on a vast  Moscow-backed doping scheme in previous Games.
Olympic officials have cleared 169 Russian athletes for  competition in Pyeongchang.
They will compete under a neutral flag as "Olympic  Athletes from Russia."
Peskov spoke to reporters after Putin earlier Wednesday  met with Russian athletes set to join Pyeongchang Games and  

Russia to create sports competition for banned Oly athletes

The US today put the head of  Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismail Haniya, on its  terror blacklist and slapped sanctions on him -- a move sure  to raise tensions, after Washington recognized Jerusalem as  Israel's capital.
"Haniya has close links with Hamas' military wing and has  been a proponent of armed struggle, including against  civilians," the State Department said in a statement.
"He has reportedly been involved in terrorist attacks  against Israeli citizens. Hamas has been responsible for an  estimated 17 American lives killed in terrorist attacks."
Haniya is now on the US Treasury sanctions blacklist,  which freezes any US-based assets he may have and bans any US  person or company from doing business with him.

US puts Hamas chief Haniya on terror blacklist

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joined  Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund for a club record fee of 56  million (63.7 million euros, 79.2 million euros) today, in the  biggest deal so far on transfer deadline day.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger -- who last August kept the  football world on tenterhooks as he held out selling Alexis  Sanchez to Manchester City because he failed to secure Thomas  Lemar from Monaco -- did not wait until the last minute to  land the Gabon striker.
Wenger persuaded the Arsenal board to pay more for the  28-year-old than the 46.5 million they shelled out for  Frenchman ALexandre Lacazette last August.
Dortmund have eyed up a six-month loan move for Belgian  international Michy Batshuayi from champions Chelsea, who have  stipulated there will be no option to buy at the end of that  period.
"Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has joined us from Borussia  Dortmund on a long-term contract for a club-record fee," the  statement from Arsenal said.
The club described him as "one of the .

Arsenal get their man Aubameyang, Mahrez in City's sights

A man believed to be the British  military's top agent in the Irish Republican Army (IRA)  codenamed "Stakeknife" has been arrested for suspected murders  and kidnappings, British media reported today.
The man has been named in media reports as 72-year-old  Freddie Scappaticci and the Belfast Telegraph said his arrest  would make his former paramilitary comrades and British  intelligence agents "distinctly uneasy".
Scappaticci has vehemently denied being Stakeknife.
Officers leading the probe into the activities of  Stakeknife during the conflict in Northern Ireland told AFP on  Wednesday that the man's arrest was their first in the  investigation.
The investigation will look at "murders, attempted  murders or unlawful imprisonments attributed to the  Provisional IRA" and examine any evidence of crimes being  carried out by British security agents.
Three decades of largely sectarian conflict in  Northern Ireland in which some 3,500 people were killed ended  with the Good Friday ...

Suspected IRA double agent 'Stakeknife' arrested: reports

Sri Lanka is to set up special  courts to investigate charges of corruption amounting to  billions of dollars under former president Mahinda Rajapaksa,  the government said today.
The move, designed to accelerate the process of trying  such cases, follows criticism over the slow pace of justice  under the government elected three years ago.
President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in 2015  promising to stamp out corruption and punish members of the  former administration accused of stealing vast sums from Sri  Lanka's coffers during Rajapaksa's decade in power.
"There will be special three-judge high courts set up  exclusively to hear bribery and corruption cases which are  currently clogging the lower courts," the government said in a  statement.
Sirisena has said as many as half of all public  procurement contracts under the Rajapaksa administration were  corrupt and the new government has renegotiated several  multi-billion dollar projects.
Rajapaksa's chief aide Lalith ...

AFP

AFP

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