Swimming great Michael Phelps  revealed that he has battled severe anxiety and depression for  much of his life which drove him to consider suicide after his  success at the 2012 Olympics.
Speaking at a mental health conference in Chicago, the  23-time Olympic gold medal winner talked openly about his long  battle with crippling depression and is encouraging others to  get help like he did.
"After every Olympics I think I fell into a major state  of depression," the 32-year-old Phelps said.
Phelps said he reached rock bottom following the 2012  Olympics in London where he won four gold medals and two  silver. For four days he remained in his room without food or  sleep.
"I didn't want to be in the sport anymore," he said. "I  didn't want to be alive."
When he hit a low point in his depression, Phelps said,  "You do contemplate suicide."
Over the past two years Phelps has opened up about his  struggles. Once again, Phelps said his depression and anxiety  problems have been a staple of .

Phelps opens up about battling anxiety, depression

PTI Automatic

The operator of Fukushima's crippled  nuclear power plant has released fresh images of the wreckage  inside a damaged reactor, showing broken metal parts and  debris that could be melted fuel.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) inserted a special camera  into one of the plant's three melted-down reactors on Friday,  a company spokesman said, as part of its efforts to dismantle  the disaster-hit facility in northeastern Japan.
Images captured by the camera and released late Friday  show rubble spread over the bottom of the unit, including part  of a fuel container and rock-like fragments that could contain  melted nuclear fuel.
Locating fuel debris is a key part of the plant's  decommissioning process, which is expected to take decades.
Due to extremely high radiation levels, TEPCO has  struggled to inspect the reactors which melted down when the  plant was hit by a huge tsunami in March 2011.
However it has recently succeeded in using cameras to  visually monitor inside the units, last ..

Fukushima operator releases fresh images of reactor wreckage

Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed  and four more wounded within 24 hours in the country's war-  torn east, Kiev said today.
"Unfortunately, there are losses among our troops again,"  military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told journalists.
One soldier was killed in shelling near Novoluganske  village, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Donetsk, the main  stronghold of Russian-backed rebels.
He was the first Ukrainian serviceman killed by shelling  in 2018.
During what Kiev said was an "aggravation" of the  situation in the conflict zone over the past 24 hours, two  other soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit an  unidentified explosive device.
According to the army, insurgents attacked Ukrainian  positions seven times, using grenade launchers, machine guns  and mortars of various calibres.
A news agency based in the rebel area said two civilians  were wounded in shelling in Donetsk region.
The war in the former Soviet republic broke out in April  2014 and has claimed more ...

Three Ukrainian troops killed in war-torn east: military

Catalonia's parliamentary speaker  said today she would step down as she is investigated for  sedition and rebellion over her role in the independence  drive, the latest separatist leader to leave their post.
Speaking to reporters in Barcelona, staunchly pro-  independence Carme Forcadell said she would not stay in the  post despite having been offered to do so after regional  elections on December 21 that saw separatist parties retain  their absolute parliamentary majority.
"I think this new political moment requires a new person  who is, above all else, free of legal proceedings," she said.
Forcadell was a key figure among Catalan leaders who  attempted to break away from Spain, a process that culminated  with the regional parliament declaring unilateral independence  on October 27.
But this was short-lived as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy  imposed direct rule on the semi-autonomous region, sacked its  government, dissolved its parliament and called snap  elections.
Forcadell's ...

Catalan parliament speaker latest separatist to step down

Handwritten pages from Albert  Einstein's theory of relativity, letters to his lovers and  other parts of his archive stored in Jerusalem are to be  exhibited for the first time in Taiwan, China and Japan.
Some 75 artifacts will go on display in Taipei beginning  Friday as part of the exhibit "Albert Einstein: Life in Four  Dimensions," Jerusalem's Hebrew University said Thursday.
They will remain on display at the National Chiang Kai-  shek Memorial Hall through April 8 before moving on to China  and Japan.
The Jerusalem university is home to the world's largest  Einstein collection.
The pieces on display will include "his 1921 Nobel Prize,  handwritten pages from the theory of relativity, letters  exchanged with Sigmund Freud, family members and lovers, and  the physicist's own vinyl record collection," the university  said.
A university spokeswoman told AFP that "nearly everything  presented is original except for Einstein's century-old pipe,  which is too fragile to send. We sent .

Einstein archives, letters to lovers set for Asian exhibits

The Philippines said today that some  of the 14 children who died after receiving a controversial  vaccine showed signs of "severe dengue", as investigators  probe the drug whose use was suspended due to health concerns.
More than 830,000 Filipino schoolchildren were injected  with Sanofi's Dengvaxia vaccine last year in the world's first  public dengue immunisation programme.
But the country stopped the sale and distribution of  Dengvaxia last month after Sanofi warned the vaccine could  worsen symptoms for people who had not previously been  infected with the virus.
Philippine authorities are also pursuing criminal and  public health safety investigations into any links between the  drug and the deaths of 14 schoolchildren who died months after  being vaccinated.
"The findings of the forensic pathologists are consistent  with severe dengue or dengue shock syndrome," Health Secretary  Francisco Duque told ABS-CBN television, referring to the  results of autopsies on some of the ...

Philippines says deaths in vaccine row 'consistent with'

Spain last year surpassed the United  States to become the world's second most visited country after  France, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said during a  visit to Italy.
Rajoy, speaking late last night, said 82 million people  visited in 2017, a nine percent increase over the previous  year that came despite terror attacks and the political crisis  in tourism magnet Catalonia.
Tourism earnings rose 12 percent, totaling 87 billion  euros ($104 billion), he said in Rome on the sidelines of a  southern European summit on migration.
In 2016, Spain welcomed 75.3 million visitors, just  behind the United States with 75.6 million, while France --  despite its own terror woes -- easily remained the world  leader with 82.6 million visitors, according to the UN World  Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
International tourism to the United States shrank during  the first five months of Donald Trump's presidency, according  to the US International Trade administration.
Arrivals fell five ...

Spain surpassed US as tourism destination in 2017: Rajoy

Saudi-led coalition air strikes on a  marketplace and house in rebel-held northern Yemen have left  at least 14 people dead, witnesses and a rebel-run news agency  said today.
An eyewitness in the northern province of Saada told AFP  that 12 people had been killed in strikes on the marketplace  on yesterday evening, including women.
The rebel-run news agency Saba gave the same toll and  accused the coalition of using cluster bombs in that attack in  Kataf city.
In the Baqim district of Saada province, two people were  killed in a Saudi-led air strike on a house, another witness  said.
Saba gave the same toll and said that separate strikes on  a house near the Saudi border had left another two people dead  although there was no independent confirmation.
Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition that intervened  in Yemen in March 2015 with the stated aim of rolling back  Huthi rebel gains and restoring the country's internationally  recognised government to power.
More than 9,000 people ..

Air strikes in north Yemen kill at least 14: witnesses, rebels

=UAE Energy Minister and OPEC  president Suheil al-Mazrouei insisted today that oil producers  can balance out supply and demand this year as they stick to a  production cut deal.
"Rebalancing is continuing...all factors are positive and  we are capable of achieving a balance" by end 2018, Mazrouei  told CNBC Arabia television.
The minister, who is OPEC president for 2018, said he  expected "healthy growth in oil demand" this year as strong  economic expansion across the globe continues.
He said that oil stocks have continued to decline, but  insisted that "we still have another 100 million barrels left  that we intend to reduce."
The 14 members of the OPEC cartel and 10 non-members  agreed in December to extend to the end of 2018 an oil cut  agreement that has helped push up crude prices as they recover  from a dramatic slump.
Producers have hailed the cut of 1.8 million barrels per  day as a major boost for crude markets and say implementation  is at 122 percent.
Mazrouei said that .

UAE confident world oil market will balance out in 2018

Israeli authorities have approved  more than 1,100 new settlement homes in the occupied West  Bank, the Peace Now NGO said today, the latest in a raft of  such moves in recent months.
The approvals were given on Wednesday by a defence  ministry committee with authority over settlement  construction.
Some 352 of the homes received final approval, while the  others are at an earlier stage in the process, Hagit Ofran of  Peace Now, which monitors settlement building, told AFP.
A total of 1,122 housing units were advanced, including  seven already existing homes given retroactive approval.
According to Ofran, the majority of the approvals are for  settlements deep in the West Bank that Israel would likely  need to evacuate as part of a two-state solution to the  Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"It's a part of the general trend that the government is  doing, which is to build all over the West Bank, even more in  places that Israel would need to evict, and in this way to  torpedo the ...

Israel approves more than 1,100 new West Bank settlement

South Korea is preparing to shut down  cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, its justice minister  warned today, sending prices of bitcoin and other virtual  units into a tailspin.
A series of measures have failed to curb overheated  virtual currency speculation in the country and Justice  Minister Park Sang-Ki said it would be "devastating if the  bubble bursts".
"The ministry is preparing legislation that basically  bans any transactions based on a virtual currency through the  trading floor," he told journalists.
Authorities had "grave concerns" over the craze and were  "aiming to close virtual currency exchanges" in the country,  he said.
"It has started to resemble gambling and speculation,"  Park added.
The hyper-wired South has emerged as a hotbed for  cryptocurrency trading, accounting for some 20 percent of  global bitcoin transactions -- about 10 times the country's  share of the world economy.
Park's remarks sent bitcoin prices plunging 18 percent on  South Korean ...

S Korea planning to close cryptocurrency exchanges, bitcoin

Armed robbers launched a spectacular  raid on the world-famous Ritz hotel in Paris, making off with  an estimated four million euros worth of jewels, the latest in  a string of high-profile heists in the French capital.
The gang of five men armed with hatchets smashed display  windows on the ground floor of the hotel in Paris' luxurious  Place Vendome around 6:30 pm (1730 GMT), making off with the  jewels.
Three of the gang were detained while fleeing the scene  and an AFP journalist said some roads around the hotel were  sealed off by security forces following the incident. Two  people were still being sought by authorities on Thursday  evening.
"We heard a loud noise and lots of racket in the street,"  one hotel employee told AFP. "Passers-by took refuge in the  hotel. We didn't know what was going on until someone told us  there had been a robbery."
Another employee said he saw a motorbike speed along a  road at the back of the hotel after the break-in.
Several luxury brands ...

Armed robbers seize jewels worth '4 million euros' from Paris

Authorities in Shanghai are  investigating hotel giant Marriott after it triggered an  online uproar with a customer questionnaire that listed  Chinese-claimed regions such as Tibet and Hong Kong as  separate countries.
City officials said in a notice dated late Wednesday that  they were probing whether the gaffe in Marriott  International's Mandarin-language questionnaire violated  national cyber-security and advertising laws.
Marriott has issued an apology and amended the online  questionnaire, which asked members of the chain's customer  rewards programme to list their country of residence, giving  Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as possible options.
China claims indisputable sovereignty over all four of  the territories and bristles at any suggestion of  independence.
Anger over Marriott's mistake snowballed after it was  posted on the Communist Youth League's official account on  Weibo, China's popular Twitter-like platform.
Thousands of outraged comments and reposts ensued, .

Shanghai probes Marriott hotels over geography gaffe

A retired Japanese crime boss has  been arrested in Thailand ending more than 14 years on the run  after photos of his 'Yakuza' tattoos and a missing little  finger went viral.
The fugitive, Shigeharu Shirai, 72, was arrested by a  SWAT team yesterday in the sleepy central Thai market town of  Lopburi while he was out shopping.
Japanese authorities have called for his arrest over an  alleged role in the shooting of a rival in Japan in 2003,  after which he fled to Thailand, married a Thai woman and  drifted into a seemingly peaceful retirement.
That was until a Thai local posted some photos of the  diminutive, frail-looking retiree playing a streetside  checkers game with his intricate gang tattoos on full show and  a missing little finger -- yakuza members often slice off the  tip of a finger to atone for an offence.
The photos were shared more than 10,000 times online and  caught the attention of Japanese police, who asked the Thai  authorities to move in.
"The suspect admitted that 

Japanese crime boss held in Thailand after 'yakuza' tatts go

China's premier expects economic  growth of around 6.9 per cent for 2017, as he saw a "better  than expected" outlook for the world's second-largest economy,  state media said today.
The authorities will release official gross domestic  product figures next week but Premier Li Keqiang has given his  own forecast.
"Over the past year, the Chinese economy has been on a  stable and favourable development path, with its overall  circumstances better than expected," Li said in a speech  Wednesday at a diplomatic summit in Cambodia, according to the  official Xinhua news agency.
The Chinese economy grew 6.7 per cent in 2016 -- its  slowest pace for more than a quarter of a century.
But the country experienced a rebound in the first half  of 2017, posting 6.9 per cent growth over that period, as well  as an increase of 6.8 per cent in the third quarter, thanks to  soaring credit and investments in infrastructure.
In an effort to stem winter air pollution, authorities in  recent months have ..

Chinese economy grew 'around 6.9%' in 2017: premier

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane on  Wednesday confirmed that he has signed a contract extension  which will keep him at the European champions until 2020.
"It's signed," said the French star after his side drew  2-2 with Numancia to progress to the quarter-finals of the  Copa del Rey 5-2 on aggregate.
After a dream start at Real, with eight trophies out of a  possible 10, Zidane has endured a tough season with his side  16 points behind Barcelona in the La Liga title race.
And the 45-year-old cautioned: "I'm enjoying what I do  every day, because that's the way it is. I can't imagine  myself as a coach in two, three years, because things are not  like that. I know how it goes, nothing more, even with this  contract it does not change anything."
On Wednesday, Real fielded an almost unrecognisable team  and struggled into the Copa del Rey last-eight.
Zidane could afford to rest his superstars with one eye  on La Liga and the Champions League last 16 with a clash  against Paris ...

Zidane pens new Real Madrid deal until 2020

Neymar scored a second-half penalty  as four-time defending champions Paris Saint-Germain toiled  before overcoming 10-man Amiens 2-0 to reach the semi-finals  of the French League Cup on Wednesday.
PSG were again without leading scorer Edinson Cavani, who  also missed Sunday's French Cup rout of Rennes after returning  late from his Christmas and New Year break in Uruguay.
Amiens' hopes of springing an upset were heavily  undermined by the dismissal of goalkeeper Regis Gurtner on 34  minutes for a foul on Kylian Mbappe after charging out of his  area.
And Neymar eventually made the visitors' numerical  advantage count by winning and converting a spot-kick eight  minutes into the second half at the Stade de la Licorne.
Mbappe, earlier denied by a fingertip save from Jean-  Christophe Bouet, was then thwarted by a combination of the  substitute keeper and the crossbar before firing another  effort narrowly wide.
Marquinhos also struck the woodwork after connecting with  a cross from ...

Neymar strikes as PSG reach League Cup semis

Allrounder Ben Stokes was included  in England's 16-man cricket squad for their Test tour of New  Zealand Thursday, while Lancashire batsman Liam Livingstone  got his first call up.
Seamer Mark Wood returns after struggling with injury,  and Ashes underperformers Mooen Ali, James Vince and Mark  Stoneman were all retained.
But Gary Ballance, Jake Ball and Tom Curran, who were all  part of the Australia Test squad, miss out.
England play two Tests in New Zealand starting in  Auckland on March 22 after being thrashed 4-0 by Australia in  the Ashes series that ended in Sydney this week.
In the chastening campaign, Australia record four  comprehensive wins -- including two innings victories and a  10-wicket triumph.
Stokes missed the entire series in Australia after being  banned from international duties while police investigate his  alleged role in a fight outside a nightclub in Bristol three  months ago.
He kept his hand in by playing for Canterbury, his New  Zealand birth province, ...

Stokes, Livingstone in England cricket squad for NZ Tests

Real Madrid fielded an almost  unrecognisable team and struggled into the Copa del Rey  quarter-finals on Wednesday after a 2-2 draw against second  division Numancia.
Already 3-0 ahead from the first leg, coach Zinedine  Zidane could afford to rest his superstars with one eye on La  Liga, where they are 16 points behind Barcelona, and the  Champions League last 16 with a clash against Paris Saint-  Germain next month.
However, they were far from convincing at the Bernabeu.
Lucas Vazquez scored both of Real's goals on Wednesday  after the 11th and 59th minutes.
But on both occasions, their modest visitors fought back  thanks to a brace from Guillermo on the stroke of half-time  and then after 82 minutes.
Numancia ended the game with 10 men after captain Dani  Calvo was red-carded in the dying moments. Leganes, a modest  club from the Madrid suburbs, reached the quarter-finals of  the Copa del Rey for the first time in their 89-year  existence.
Despite losing 2-1 at Villarreal, who are 

Second string Real struggle into Copa del Rey quarter-finals

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger  believes the introduction of a Video Assistant Referee system  in English football is a welcome move after the technology was  used in his side's League Cup semi-final against Chelsea on  Wednesday.
Wenger's side faced Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the  second match in England to have access to the VAR technology.
It was in effect on Monday for the first time in an  English club match, when Brighton beat Crystal Palace in the  FA Cup third round, but it wasn't called on then.
On Wednesday, referee Martin Atkinson consulted with  video ref Neil Swarbrick, who sat in the Premier League's  control room in west London, on two penalty appeals -- one for  each team -- but no decisions were overturned.
"There was only two opportunities for them to intervene.  The second was a bit strange, the ball went out for the corner  and then they went back to the penalty," Wenger said.
"If the referee is not sure we could stop the game  straight away."
Arsenal striker ...

Wenger welcomes VAR despite penalty issue

Chelsea wasted a chance to take  control of their League Cup semi-final against Arsenal as the  misfiring Blues were forced to settle for a 0-0 draw in  Wednesday's first leg.
Antonio Conte's side dominated possession for long  periods at Stamford Bridge -- where the Video Assistant  Referee system (VAR) was in operation -- but lacked the killer  instinct required to take a step towards the final.
They had 21 shots to just eight from Arsenal, yet the tie  remains on a knife-edge heading into the second leg at the  Emirates Stadium on January 24.
"We are not so clinical despite creating chances. If you  want to win you have to score," Conte said.
"We didn't concede a goal, but we know we play away at  Arsenal and we must be ready to fight if we are to play the  final."
While it was a frustrating evening for Chelsea as they  chase a first League Cup final berth since 2015, the stalemate  was a welcome tonic for their London rivals.
Arsenal, who also drew both Premier League encounters  .

AFP

AFP

Page 1027 - Afp