Hundreds of Hong Kong students  protested today as tensions escalate on campuses over  compulsory testing of Mandarin -- the dominant language of  mainland China.
The first language of Hong Kong is Cantonese and  proposals from education chiefs to put more emphasis on  learning Mandarin have tapped into fears about the  "mainlandisation" of the semi-autonomous city's culture and  identity.
Anger has mounted since two students from Baptist  University were suspended this week for confronting and  swearing at staff over the requirement to pass an exam in  Mandarin before being able to graduate.
Their suspension comes as concern grows that academic  freedoms are being squeezed by Beijing, and that freedom of  speech as a whole is under threat.
Protesters from a range of universities gathered Friday  afternoon in a public square at Baptist to support suspended  pair Andrew Chan and Lau Tsz-kei, chanting: "Shame on student  suppression!"
"Never mind if we have been suspended, but what if ..

Students protest in Hong Kong over compulsory Mandarin

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Chinese students spent 200  continuous days in a "lunar lab" in Beijing, state media said  today, as the country prepares for its long-term goal of  putting people on the moon.
Four students crammed into a 160-square-metre cabin  called "Yuegong-1" -- Lunar Palace -- on the campus of Beihang  University, testing the limits of humans' ability to live in a  self-contained space, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The volunteers lived in the sealed lab to simulate a  long-term space mission with no input from the outside world.
The experience tested them to the limit, the module's  chief designer Liu Hong told Xinhua, especially on three  occasions when the lab experienced unexpected blackouts.
The experience "challenged the system as well as the  psychological status of the volunteers, but they withstood the  test," Liu said.
The facility treats human waste with a bio-fermentation  process, and volunteers grew experimental crops and vegetables  with the help of food and waste ...

Chinese volunteers spend 200 days on virtual 'moon base'

China today said it was "strongly  dissatisfied" with the opening of a museum in Tokyo devoted to  disputed islands, as the Japanese foreign minister prepares to  visit Beijing this weekend.
The museum, which opened Thursday and is run by the  Japanese government, displays documents and photographs  defending Japan's claims over two sets of islands that China  and South Korea also see as their own.
Japan has a longstanding dispute with China over  uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. They are  administered by Japan, where they are known as "Senkaku", but  also claimed by China, which calls them "Diaoyu".
Tokyo also claims islands in the Sea of Japan that are  controlled by South Korea. They are known as "Dokdo" in Korean  and "Takeshima" in Japanese.
South Korea immediately demanded the closure of the  museum as it denounced Japan's "unjustifiable claims" to its  "inherent territory".
China said today that the Diaoyu islands have been its  "inherent territory since ancient ...

China scolds Japan over museum for disputed islands

Marin Cilic has experienced the  highs and lows of playing in a Grand Slam final and says he is  primed to be at his physical best for Sunday's Australian Open  decider.
The world number six is the first Croatian man or woman  to appear in the final at Melbourne Park as he guns for his  second major title.
Cilic's career high point so far has been his victory at  the 2014 US Open where, as the 14th seed, he swept Roger  Federer in straight sets on the way to beating Kei Nishikori  in the Flushing Meadows final.
But he was in tears when he gamely played on with a nasty  blister on his left foot in last year's Wimbledon decider  against the Swiss star, describing it as very tough to deal  with.
Another opportunity to win a Grand Slam has quickly  materialised early in 2018, with either defending champion  Federer or South Korean young gun Chung Hyeon waiting for him.
Cilic got there by beating injured top seed Rafael Nadal  in the quarter-finals and rising British star Kyle Edmund in  ..

Cilic stronger for bitter-sweet Slams experience

Scoreboard in the fourth one-day  international between Australia and England in Adelaide on  Friday.
England
J Roy c Smith b Hazlewood 0
J Bairstow c Paine b Hazlewood 0
A Hales b Cummins 3
J Root c Hazlewood b Cummins 0
E Morgan c Paine b Cummins 33
J Buttler c Paine b Hazlewood 0
M Ali c Head b Tye 33
C Woakes c (sub) Maxwell b Tye 78
A Rashid c Paine b Cummins 7
T Curran c Marsh b Tye 35
M Wood not out 2
Extras (b-1, w-4) 5
Total (all out in 44.5 overs) 196
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-4, 3-4, 4-6, 5-8, 6-61, 7-112,  8-120, 9-180.
Bowling: Hazlewood 10-0-39-3 (1w), Cummins 10-2-24-4  (2w), Marsh 5-1-24-0, Tye 7.5-0-33-3, Head 2-0-9-0, Zampa 7-0  -42-0 (1w), Stoinis 3-0-24-0.

Adelaide, Jan 26 (AFP) Scoreboard in the fourth one-day

Fifth seeds Timea Babos and  Kristina Mladenovic took out the Australian Open women's  doubles title on Friday to be crowned Grand Slam champions for  the first time.
The Hungarian-French pairing battled past second seeded  Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-4 6-3 on Rod  Laver Arena.
"It's an incredible feeling, I was in tears," said an  emotional Babos. "It's amazing to play with you," she added of  Mladenovic.
It was their first Slam title after going close at  Wimbledon in 2014, where they made the final but lost.  Overall, they own three other doubles titles as a team, all  won in 2015 -- at Dubai, Marrakech and Rome.

Babos, Mladenovic win women's doubles title

Australian captain Steve Smith's  decision to bowl paid dividends as England were held to just  196 in the fourth one-day international in Adelaide on Friday.
With the five-match series already in their keeping after  winning the first three games, the tourists did well to reach  a competitive total following a disastrous start which saw  them lose four of their top six batsmen for ducks.
On Australia Day, it was all the home side as the  tourists slumped to eight for five in the early overs. Their  lowest-ever total of 86 looked in danger until all-rounder  Chris Woakes rescued the innings.
It could easily have been six wickets before reaching  double figures as well, with captain Eoin Morgan having two  near-misses as soon as he came to the crease.
In the end, solid resistance from Woakes (78) along with  Morgan and Moeen Ali (33 each) -- and Tom Curran (35) --  enabled England to scramble to a decent total.
Woakes continued his excellent form with the bat in the  series, hitting ...

Woakes saves England from disaster in fourth Australia ODI

Paris Saint-Germain defender Dani  Alves has been handed a three-game ban by the French league  (LFP) following his sending-off against Lyon last weekend.
Alves was shown a straight red card early in the second  half of PSG's 2-1 defeat in Lyon for dissent and the  disciplinary committee of the LFP, meeting on Thursday, banned  him for three games plus a fourth match suspended for now.
The veteran Brazilian will therefore miss this Saturday's  home league meeting with Montpellier, a League Cup semi-final  at Rennes next Tuesday and the trip to Lille on February 3.
PSG are currently eight points clear of Lyon at the top  of the Ligue 1 table.

PSG's Dani Alves gets three-match ban

Former Formula One world champion  Fernando Alonso will fill in another gap on his motor-racing  resume on Saturday when he takes part in the 24 Hours of  Daytona, giving him vital experience for a possible future  crack at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
After trying his luck at last year's Indianapolis 500,  the 36-year-old Spaniard will take a spin around another  iconic US venue at Daytona International Speedway, best known  for hosting NASCAR's prestigious Daytona 500.
Alonso's participation is part of the McLaren driver's  broader quest to complete the "Triple Crown" of motor-racing  -- wins at the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix, the Indy500 and  Le Mans.
Only one other driver -- Graham Hill -- has successfully  achieved that hat-trick. Alonso has two wins in Monaco, and  impressed at the Indy500 on his debut last year.
This weekend he will be racing a prototype Ligier JS P217  for the United Autosports team, which is owned by his F1 boss  Zak Brown.
Team-mates will include Phil Hanson and 

Alonso readies for Daytona, eyes Le Mans

Lionel Messi scored what proved  to be the winner as Barcelona beat Espanyol 2-0 to reach the  Copa del Rey semi-finals on Thursday in a game that saw  Philippe Coutinho make his long-awaited debut.
Luis Suarez scored an early opener in the quarter-final  second leg before Messi's deflected effort gave Barcelona a 2  -1 aggregate advantage as the holders overturned a 1-0 deficit  from last week's first leg.
Messi had missed a penalty in that match as the leaders  of La Liga were beaten for the first time since August, but  they did enough on Thursday to join Sevilla, Valencia and  Leganes in Friday's draw for the last four.
Coutinho was named on the bench for the first time since  his 160 million-euro (USD 192 million) transfer from Liverpool  earlier this month.
The 25-year-old Brazilian was introduced midway through  the second half in place of Andres Iniesta, entering the Camp  Nou pitch to a huge roar from the home crowd.
By that point Ernesto Valverde's men had already turned  ...

Barcelona through to Cup semis as Coutinho makes debut

Tiger Woods  launched his latest return to the US PGA Tour with an even par  72 in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open here  Thursday.
On the South Course at Torrey Pines, scene of his 14th  and most recent championship at the 2008 US Open, Woods had  three birdies and three bogeys and was seven shots behind  first-round leader Tony Finau.
Woods, 42, is playing is first US PGA Tour tournament  since missing the cut at Torrey Pines last year, when his bid  to come back from more than a year on the sideline foundered.
After back fusion surgery in April Woods says he's  playing without pain, but not surprisingly showed some rust on  a course where he has won eight times.
He'll try to gain ground on Friday, when he tackles the  North Course, traditionally the more forgiving of the two  layouts used in the first two rounds of the tournament.

Woods launches comeback with even par round at Torrey Pines

The Winter Olympics will offer only a  brief respite from tensions over North Korea's nuclear  ambitions, the South's unification minister warned today,  urging Pyongyang to seize the opportunity to talk to  Washington.
Seoul and the US have only agreed to put off major joint  military exercises until after the end of the Paralympics on  March 25, pointed out Cho Myoung-Gyon, who is in charge of the  South's relations with its neighbour.
The Foal Eagle and Key Resolve drills always infuriate  Pyongyang, which condemns them as rehearsals for invasion and  often responds with its own provocations.
"When the military exercises start, North Korea is likely  to react angrily and will probably launch provocative acts,  prompting a new layer of sanctions," Cho said.
A return to the "vicious cycle" of the last two years,  with North Korean missile launches or atomic blasts leading to  new international sanctions, followed by new tests, was a  "realistic guess", he told a forum in ...

S Korea urges North to talk before military drills restart

Threading beads onto a  fishing line to make a sparkling ornament, Lamia Rahim is one  of dozens of Iraqi women displaced by violence who have turned  to handicrafts to support their families.
"It has been some time since we were displaced and my  husband can't find work," the mother-of-four told AFP.
"It was down to me to take care of the family."
Rahim, 41, is part of a local initiative set up to help  families who fled jihadists and settled in a school in the  city of Samarra, 100 kilometres north of Baghdad.
In classrooms that have been turned into workshops, women  in headscarves work away busily to make some vital income for  their loved ones.
"A hundred and twenty-five women have been trained in  crafts, including making bead miniatures," said local radio  presenter Iman Ahmad, 51, who set up the project a year ago.
The crafts the women make have already sold at some local  fairs and exhibitions and supporters regularly stop by to  bring some assistance.
Ahmad says each month ..

Displaced Iraqi women turn to handicrafts for survival

Tens of thousands of people  marched across Australia today in an "Invasion Day" protest  calling for a rethink of the national day they say is  offensive to indigenous people.
The annual January 26 Australia Day holiday commemorates  the arrival of the first British settlers in 1788, but for  many Australians it marks the beginning of colonial oppression  of Aboriginal people.
"Australia is a diverse culture now, and we need to be  inclusive to everyone, so change the date (of the national  day)," Melbourne protestor Rachel Muir told AFP.
More than 10,000 people joined a march in Melbourne where  protestors chanted "always was, always will be Aboriginal  land", and holding banners stating "You are on stolen land".
Thousands more people rallied in major cities across the  country.
"Australia has to come to terms with our indigenous  peoples," protestor Greg Hunt told AFP.
"To celebrate Australia Day on the day that Europeans  invaded Australia is an affront and very, very ...

Thousands protest 'Invasion Day' on Australia's national day

US President Donald Trump has  apologised for the first time for retweeting a British far-  right group's videos apparently showing Islamist violence, in  an ITV interview aired in Britain today.
"If you're telling me they're horrible racist people, I  would certainly apologise if you'd like me to do that," he  told Good Morning Britain's Piers Morgan during the interview,  conducted in Davos yesterday.

Trump apologises for retweeting far-right British group

A huge fire tore through a South  Korean hospital today killing at least 41 people, reports  said, in the country's worst blaze for over a decade.
More than 80 others were hurt in the blaze, which comes  just weeks before thousands of athletes and foreign visitors  are expected in the country for the Winter Olympics.
Videos posted on social media showed a patient hanging on  to a rope dangling from a helicopter above the hospital in  Miryang, in the far south, and another crawling out of a  window to climb down a ladder.
The six-storey structure housed a nursing home as well as  the hospital.
The death toll rose rapidly throughout the morning, as  those initially pulled from the blaze succumbed to their  injuries.
By lunchtime, it had hit 41, according to the Yonhap news  agency, citing firefighters at the site.
"Two nurses said they had seen fire suddenly erupting in  the emergency room," said fire chief Choi Man-Woo.
All the patients had been brought out, he said, adding  that ...

Huge hospital blaze kills 41 in South Korea: official media

The death toll from a hospital blaze  in the South Korean city of Miryang jumped to 41, Yonhap news  said today, in the country's worst fire disaster in more than  a decade.
More than 70 were also injured in the fire, which erupted  this morning on the first floor of a six-storey building  housing a hospital and a nursing home, firefighters said.

S Korea hospital fire death toll jumps to 41: official media

Venezuela's top court has delayed  the process to re-enroll political parties by six months -- a  move that will exclude the main opposition coalition from the  upcoming presidential election.
"The National Electoral Council is ordered to exclude the  'DEMOCRATIC UNION ROUNDTABLE' (MUD) in the convened process of  renewal," said a ruling of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice  (TSJ) yesterday, which authorises the country's electoral  authority to reschedule party re-registration for six months.
The move comes days after the ruling Constituent Assembly  -- an all-powerful body loyal to President Nicolas Maduro --  said the country's presidential vote will take place before  April 30, pulling forward a poll normally held in December.
The National Electoral Council -- which the opposition  holds is pro-Maduro -- had scheduled renewals of the MUD and  the main parties that comprise it to occur over the weekend.
The parties had withdrawn from last December's municipal  elections after ...

Top Venezuela court excludes opposition from presidential vote

At least 33 people were killed in a  blaze at a hospital in South Korea today, firefighters said,  with more than 70 injured.
It is the second devastating blaze in just a month in the  advanced country, Asia's fourth-largest economy.
Videos posted on social media showed a patient hanging on  to a rope dangling from a helicopter above the hospital in  Miryang, and another crawling out of a window to climb down a  ladder.
The six-storey structure housed a nursing home as well as  the hospital, and the National Fire Agency said 33 people had  been killed, with 13 critically injured.
Another 61 suffered light injuries, a spokesman said,  adding the death toll could rise further.
"Two nurses said they had seen fire suddenly erupting in  the emergency room," said fire chief Choi Man-Woo, but the  cause of the blaze was not immediately known.
All the patients had been brought out, he said, adding  that evacuating 15 patients from the intensive care unit on  the third floor took longer as ...

33 dead in South Korea hospital blaze: firefighters

Two commercial satellites have been  successfully placed in orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket,  Arianespace said today, despite mission control briefly losing  contact with the craft.
"Both satellites were confirmed separated, acquired and  they are on orbit," Arianespace said in an updated statement  after the lift-off from the Kourou Space Centre in French  Guiana.
The European space workhorse blasted off carrying  satellites for Luxembourg's SES and the United Arab Emirate's  Yahsat in the first launch of the year for Arianespace.
Around an hour after the launch, CEO Stephane Israel  announced that controllers had "lost contact" with the craft  in what he described as an "anomaly".
In their updated statement the company said a tracking  station in Brazil was unable to track the craft shortly after  ignition of the rocket's upper stage.
"This lack of telemetry lasted throughout the rest of  powered flight," the statement said. But both satellites were  later "communicating with their ...

Ariane 5 satellites in orbit despite earlier 'lost contact'

Arianespace's mission control has  "lost contact" with an Ariane 5 rocket carrying two commercial  satellites after its lift-off from French Guiana, CEO Stephane  Israel announced today.
The European space workhorse blasted off from the Kourou  Space Centre and was planning to put satellites into orbit for  Luxembourg's SES and the United Arab Emirate's Yahsat.
It was the first launch of 2018 for Arianespace, a  French-headquartered multinational launch service provider  that includes Europe's Galileo navigation project among its  key clients.
Israel apologised to customers for what he described as  an "anomaly". When contacted by AFP, Arianespace promised  further updates.
Since it was founded in 1980, Arianespace has put more  than 550 satellites into orbit.
In September the company aborted the launch of an Ariane  5 rocket carrying two commercial satellites in the final  countdown as the main engine was being ignited.
An Ariane 5 lift-off was also aborted at main engine  ignition ..

AFP

AFP

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