Two penalties helped Real Madrid  to a healthy 3-0 win in the first leg of their Copa Del Rey  tie with second-tier Numancia on Thursday, while Barcelona  were held to a 1-1 draw as the La Liga giants rested their  stars.
Gareth Bale was one of a handful of Real first-team  regulars on display at the Estadio Los Pajaritos, and was on  hand to slot home the first from the penalty spot ten minutes  before the break after Lucas Vazques was clumsily brought down  in the box by Carlos Gutierrez.
They survived a serious scare in the 76th minute when  Inigo Perez snatched the ball from Marcos Llorente and  launched a 40-yard shot over the head of keeper Kiko Cassila  that thumped the crossbar and came agonisingly close to  crossing the line.
Real sealed the win with another spot kick a minute  from the end, again won by Vasquez but this time slammed home  by substitute Isco, and Baroja Mayoral completed the rout a  minute later with a close range header.
"We had a few problems in the second .

Real spot on while Barcelona held to cup draw

PTI Automatic

Police in Egypt are boosting security  around churches as Coptic Christians prepare to celebrate  Orthodox Christmas today after a year of deadly jihadist  attacks targeting the ancient community.
More than 100 Christians have been killed in the spate of  violence, including a shooting at a church south of Cairo just  last week claimed by the Islamic State group.
Since the military ousted divisive Islamist president  Mohamed Morsi in 2013, security forces have sought to quell  attacks led by the Egypt branch of IS which has increasingly  targeted Christians.
While the jihadists have also taken aim at other  civilians, including more than 300 Muslim worshippers  massacred at a mosque last November, they have focused on the  ancient Coptic community.
"This year we will not stop supporting the state and the  president and play our national role, but we hope officials  will find a way to reduce the attacks," said Bishop Makarios  of the southern Minya province.
In December 2016, an IS ...

Egypt Copts to celebrate Christmas after bloody year

England's maligned tail piled on runs  before the tourists were bowled out for 346 in their first  innings at lunch on the second day of the final Ashes Test  here today.
Newcomer Tom Curran smacked 39 off 65 balls and Stuart  Broad clubbed two sixes in his 31 off 32 balls as England  lashed out late in the extended morning session.
Steve Smith pulled off a stunning one-handed catch to  dismiss Dawid Malan for 62, but the Australians were guilty of  two embarrassing dropped catches to give England a helping  hand.
The Australian skipper made an athletic diving catch to  end the dangerous batsman's innings inside the opening half-  hour's play.
Smith, who had dropped his previous three chances over  the last two Tests, flung out his left-hand at second slip to  make the catch off Mitchell Starc.
Malan, who was dropped by Smith at slip on Thursday's  opening day on 34, was not so fortunate this time to end his  four-hour stay off 180 balls.
Malan, who hit a century in the third Perth ...

Tail wags as England all out for 346 in Sydney Test

Peru's ex-president Alberto Fujimori  was wheeled out of a Lima hospital a free man following a  controversial pardon by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
A frail-looking Fujimori waved to supporters as aides  rolled him out the main entrance of Lima's Centenario Clinic  in a wheelchair, before he was whisked away in a convoy of  vehicles.
He was pardoned days after his son Kenji abstained from  voting on Kuczynski's impeachment, drawing other lawmakers  with him to deny the opposition the votes necessary to remove  the president from office over corruption allegations.

Pardoned Peru ex-president Fujimori released from hospital

Nuclear-armed North Korea today  accepted the South's offer of talks next week, said Seoul's  Unification ministry, which oversees relations with Pyongyang.
The meeting will take place in Panmunjom, the truce  village in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that  divides the peninsula.
Tensions have been high after the North carried out  multiple missile launches in 2017, including a number of  ICBMs, and its sixth atomic test, by far its most powerful to  date.
The tentative rapprochement comes after the North's  leader Kim Jong-Un warned in his New Year speech that he had a  nuclear button on his desk, but at the same time offered Seoul  an olive branch, saying Pyongyang could send a team to next  month's Winter Olympics in the South.
Seoul responded with an offer of talks between the two,  and earlier this week the hotline between them was restored  after being suspended for almost two years.
Late yesterday, the South's president Moon Jae-In and his  US counterpart Donald Trump 

N Korea accepts South's offer of talks next week: Seoul

Tokyo's world-famous Tsukiji fish  market held its last pre-dawn New Year's auction today before  closing down for relocation, with the highest bidder paying  more than USD 320,000 for a giant tuna.
After more than 80 years in operation, the world's  biggest fish market, a popular tourist attraction in an area  packed with restaurants and shops, will move to Toyosu, a  former gas plant a bit further east, on October 11.
The market, which opened in 1935, is best known for its  pre-dawn daily auctions of tuna, caught from all corners of  the ocean, for use by everyone from top Michelin-star sushi  chefs to ordinary grocery stores.
Before dawn, buyers in rubber boots inspected the quality  of the giant fresh and frozen tunas by examining the neatly  cut tail end with flashlights and rubbing slices between their  fingers.
At 5:30 am, auctioneers rang handbells to signal the  start of the auction and buyers began a flurry of bidding with  hand signals for their preferred tunas.
The highest 

Japan's historic Tsukiji market holds final auction

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis  has said that the decision to delay joint military exercises  with South Korea until after the Winter Olympics was made for  practical reasons, rather than as a political gesture.
"For us, it's a practical matter," Mattis told reporters,  noting that the Olympics are South Korea's biggest event in  terms of international tourism.
"We have at times changed the timelines on these (drills)  for any number of reasons, so for us, this is the normal give  and take that we have," he added.
He added that the drills would be conducted sometime  after the Paralympics, which end on March 18.
After a year that saw tensions on the Korean peninsula  spike to their worst levels in years, 2018 has begun on a  tentatively warmer note with Seoul responding positively to  North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's New Year speech.
On Wednesday, the two Koreas restored a cross-border  hotline that had been shut down since 2016.
They also agreed to hold high-level talks next week ..

Suspension of S.Korea drills practical, not political: Mattis

The United States has imposed  sanctions on five Iranian companies it alleges are working on  part of the Islamic republic's illegal ballistic missile  program.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin linked the measure to  recent anti-government protests, arguing that Iran ought to  spend more on public welfare rather than banned weapons.
"These sanctions target key entities involved in Iran's  ballistic missile program, which the Iranian regime  prioritises over the economic well-being of the Iranian  people," Mnuchin said.
"As the Iranian people suffer, their government and the  IRGC fund foreign militants, terrorist groups, and human  rights abuses," he added.
"The United States will continue to decisively counter  the Iranian regime's malign activity, including additional  sanctions targeting human rights abuses.
"We will not hesitate to call out the regime's economic  mismanagement, and diversion of significant resources to fund  threatening missile systems at the expense of its ...

US imposes sanctions on Iranian missile firms

Hundreds  of Palestinians protested in the Gaza Strip against  electricity cuts and worsening economic conditions in the  coastal enclave.
The demonstrators rallying in the Jabaliya refugee camp  vented their anger against both the Palestinian Authority of  president Mahmud Abbas and the Islamist movement Hamas, which  runs Gaza.
"Our demands are fair. We want them to provide us with  the minimum for a decent life," said Mohamed Nofal, one of the  protesters.
"Life is really difficult in Gaza nowadays. No food, no  water, no security, no border crossings, no education and no  health," he told AFP. Gaza's two million residents have been  subjected to a decade-long blockade by Israel, which says it  imposes the tight controls to prevent Hamas attacks on its  territory.
The electricity cuts are a result of a dispute between  the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
The PA announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to  restore payments for electricity in Gaza, six months after  halting ...

Hundreds of Gazans protest electricity cuts

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi  Chuxing said today it had bought Brazil's 99 Taxis, opening  another front in the Beijing-based company's global battle  with Uber.
Didi, which claims to be the world's leading mobile  transportation platform with more than 450 million users, had  become a strategic investor in 99 Taxis last January.
It now will acquire the company outright along with its  14 million registered users in Brazil as it pushes into the  growing Latin American car-share market.
"Globalisation is a top strategic priority for Didi,"  founder and CEO Cheng Wei said in a statement announcing the  purchase, adding that the company would continue to seek  "diversified international operations and partnerships."
Didi said it has now entered into partnerships with seven  "major international players" serving more than 1,000 cities  worldwide, including Southeast Asia's Grab, India's Ola, US-  based Lyft, and Europe's Taxify.
Didi and Uber have been waging a global turf war since  ..

China ride-hailer Didi buys Brazil's 99 in new challenge to

The Trump administration today  announced a plan to allow oil drilling in virtually all US  coastal waters, drawing immediate criticism from  environmentalists and some Republicans.
Officials with the US Interior Department said the  proposal calls for 47 lease sales over five years, a radical  increase from the level allowed under President Barack Obama.
Republican Governor Rick Scott of Florida was among the  early critics of the plan that is part of President Donald  Trump's energy dominance focus, saying oil drilling threatened  Florida's natural resources.

Trump administration to open most US waters to offshore oil

A suicide attacker blew himself up  near a crowd of police and protesters in Kabul today, killing  at least 11 people and wounding 25 others, officials said, in  the latest deadly violence to bring carnage to the Afghan  capital.
"A suicide attacker has detonated himself... close to a  number of police who were trying to provide security for an  ongoing protest," deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat  Rahimi told AFP.
Health ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh told AFP that 11  bodies had been taken to hospitals around the city along with  25 wounded.
Majroh added that the toll could rise.
A security source who spoke to AFP on the condition of  anonymity said 20 people had been killed and 20 wounded in the  attack, but that higher toll could not be immediately  confirmed.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the  attack which happened during a protest following the death of  a shopkeeper during a police operation targeting alcohol and  bootleggers, an unnamed official ...

11 killed, 25 wounded in Kabul suicide attack

A passenger train  smashed into a truck at a level crossing in South Africa  today, killing at least 18 people, injuring 254 and throwing  several carriages off the rails.
Flames ripped through the twisted wreckage and choking  black smoke rose into the air as desperate passengers  clambered out of the train travelling from Port Elizabeth to  Johannesburg to escape the inferno.
Tiaan Esterhuizen, who was travelling on the train as he  returned from holiday, attempted to rescue three women who  were trapped in a burning passenger wagon.
"I saw around 12 cars on their side and one was already  burning. We heard some women screaming when we came closer' so  a few of us climbed over the cars," he told the Times LIVE  news site.
"Two of the women were sort of on top of each other.  Another was further back. Her legs were trapped. One of the  women was shouting that there was a baby inside also.
"We searched but could not find the child... I am quite  sure those women burned to ...

18 dead, 254 injured as SAfrica train slams into truck

A suicide attacker blew himself up  near a crowd of police and protesters in Kabul on Thursday,  causing many casualties, officials said, in the latest  violence to hit the Afghan capital.
"A suicide attacker has detonated himself... close to a  number of police who were trying to provide security for an  ongoing protest," deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat  Rahimi told AFP.

Suicide blast rocks Kabul, many casualties: officials

The Nigerian army said today it  rescued one of the kidnapped Chibok girls amid a wave of  deadly Boko Haram kidnappings and bombings rocking the  country's northeast.
The army said troops found Salomi Pugo in the remote  Pulka region of Borno state near the Cameroon border, without  giving further details.
The abduction of more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls in 2014  by Boko Haram brought global attention to the Islamist  insurgency sweeping through northeast Nigeria.
"Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole deployed in Pulka today  rescued one of the Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram  terrorists earlier in 2014," Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu said in  a statement.
"Currently the girl, who was intercepted in the company  of another young girl, Jamila Adams, about 14 years old with a  child, are in the safe custody of troops and receiving medical  attention."
News of the rescue comes after weeks of relentless  attacks by Boko Haram in the northeast, including the  abduction of 30 loggers and a ...

Nigerian army says it rescued another Chibok girl

Thirty-seven people died overnight  when torrential rain and mudslides swept though shanty homes  in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the  authorities said today.
The provincial minister for health and social affairs,  Dominique Weloli, said many of the dead, which included "two  or three drowned children," had lived in Ngaliema, a poor  hillside community that was particularly hit.
"There has been not only flooding but also landslips, and  several houses have collapsed," Weloli said.
Flooding is a major peril for residents of Kinshasa, a  chaotic city with a population of around 10 million people,  most of whom are extremely poor.
Many homes are flimsy and built on hillsides where lack  of drainage makes them vulnerable to mudslides and flash  floods.

37 dead in floods in DR Congo capital

The Dow shot above 25,000 points  for the first time today as strong US private-sector hiring  data extended a stocks rally in the wake of enactment of US  tax reform.
About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial  Average stood at 25,051.47, up 0.5 per cent and adding to  gains after hitting the landmark within minutes of the opening  bell.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 2,724.19,  while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4 per  cent to 7,084.71. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also added to  Wednesday's records.
US stocks have opened 2018 in full-throttle bull market  mode, bidding stocks up to a succession of records following  the December passage of a massive tax cut signed into law by  President Donald Trump.
Adding to the optimism about tax reform has been better-  than expected economic data. On Thursday, payroll firm ADP  reported that private firms added 250,000 jobs, well above the  190,000 that had been expected by analysts.
The data ...

Dow hits 25,000 points for 1st time on US hiring data

At least 28 civilians have been  killed by bombardment in the besieged Syrian opposition  stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, most of them in  Russian air raids, a monitor said.
Nineteen were killed in Russian strikes in the town of  Misraba yesterday, while the remainder died the same day in  regime strikes and shelling in other areas, the Syrian  Observatory for Human Rights said.
Seven children and 11 women were among those killed,  according to the head of the Britain-based war monitor, Rami  Abdel Rahman.
Victims were taken to a hospital in Douma, where an AFP  correspondent saw rescuers bringing in mostly women and  children.
Medical staff tried to revive an infant who had been  pulled from the rubble, but without success. A young girl  among the wounded received stitches for a serious injury to  her face.
A medical source at the hospital told AFP: "Among the  wounded were two women in their 20s. One of them lost both  eyes and the other lost one eye."
Eastern Ghouta, ..

28 civilians killed in Syria, most in Russian air strikes:

Somalia's prime minister, Hassan  Ali Khaire, fired three key ministers today after weeks of  political conflict with opposition and clan leaders.
Foreign Minister Yusuf Garad Omar, Trade Mminister Khadra  Ahmed Duale and Interior Minister Abdi Farah Said all lost  their jobs.
No reason was given for the reshuffle, but it came amid  criticism the government had failed to consult clan elders on  their decisions.
They were replaced with men from their respective clans,  on which much of Somalia's political loyalties are based.
Ahmed Ise Awad was named as new foreign minister, Abdi  Mohamed Sabriye as the interior minster and Mohamed Abdi Hayr  as trade minister.
The government faces regular attacks from Al-Qaeda-  affiliated al-Shabaab militants.
The Shabaab has been fighting to overthrow successive  internationally backed governments since 2007, and frequently  deploys car and truck bombs.
In October, both the defence minister and army chief  resigned and were replaced.
The police and .

Somalia fires top ministers in reshuffle

At least 10 people perished after a  fire tore through a shoe factory in Russia today, with seven  Chinese labourers among the fatalities, officials said.
The blaze at the small plant in the village of  Chernorechenskiy, some 50 kilometres south of Siberian city  Novosibirsk, broke out at around 9 am (0200 GMT), news  agencies reported.
Thick black smoke caused by the burning of synthetic  materials could be seen around the factory, where around 30  people worked.
"As a result of the fire, the cause of which is being  ascertained, 10 people died. According to preliminary data,  there were no Russian citizens among them," a  local  government told the official TASS news agency.
The Chinese consulate in Ekaterinburg told the agency  seven Chinese citizens had been killed and one injured.
Other reports said Kyrgyz or Tajik nationals were among  the dead.
Millions of labourers from the former Soviet republics in  Central Asia come to Russia each year to earn much-needed cash  given the ...

10 dead in Siberian factory fire

China will send a special envoy to  Seoul to discuss the situation on the Korean peninsula ahead  of proposed talks between North and South Korea, the foreign  ministry said today.
China's Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou will visit  Friday and Saturday to "exchange views" with Lee Do-Hoon,  Seoul's envoy on Korean peninsula peace talks, a ministry  spokesman said.
Their meeting comes as South Korea prepares for its  proposed high-level talks with North Korea next Tuesday to  discuss "matters of mutual interest" including the North's  participation in next month's Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
North Korea has rattled the international community in  recent months with multiple missile launches and its sixth and  most powerful nuclear test -- purportedly of a hydrogen bomb.
It has shrugged off a raft of new sanctions and  heightened rhetoric from Washington as it drives forward with  its weapons programme, which it says is for defence against US  aggression.
But the new year has begun .

AFP

AFP

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