Mitchell Starc says pace partner  Josh Hazlewood's unerring line and length will allow his  fellow bowlers to let rip at England's batsmen in the Ashes  Test series.
Starc and Hazlewood form a potent new-ball attack for  Australia in the series, which gets underway here on November  23.
Backing them up is another New South Wales tearaway, Pat  Cummins, who has been singled out by Australian leg-spin great  Shane Warne as the Ashes destroyer with his searing pace.
Hazlewood will be fresh and rested for the series, having  played just one Sheffield Shield game since coming back from a  side strain injury.
Test spearhead Starc may have captured two hat-tricks for  NSW in a recent Shield win over Western Australia, but he  claims Hazlewood will prove to be Australia's spark.
Starc said Hazlewood's nagging line and length would tie  up one end and allow him and Cummins to attack from the other.
"He's a bloody genius with line and length, it allows Pat  and I to be aggressive and that's how 

Hazlewood the key to battering England: Starc

PTI Automatic

Traces of palm oil are still  fouling a remote part of Hong Kong's shoreline three months  after a major spill caused by a ship collision,  environmentalists say.
One thousand tonnes of the solidified oil leaked from a  cargo ship which collided with another vessel near the Pearl  River estuary in early August.
More than 200 tonnes reached Hong Kong's shores, forcing  beaches to close and killing some fish.
Government clean-up crews helped by volunteers staged a  major clean-up.
But a team from WWF Hong Kong last week found remnants of  palm oil mixed with litter on two beaches of the Soko Islands,  the site for a proposed marine park and near the habitat of  the Chinese white dolphin and finless porpoise.
"Its distribution is actually much further than we  thought," said Samantha Lee, manager for ocean conservation at  WWF Hong Kong.
Hong Kong comprises more than 200 islands but there are  increasing concerns about pollution and rubbish blighting  their shores.
Lee urged the ...

Traces of major palm oil spill still linger in Hong Kong

Forty-six suspects -- one third of  them Russian nationals -- went on trial today in connection  with last year's triple suicide bombing of Istanbul's main  airport, an attack that killed 45 people.
They are accused of "attempting to destroy the  constitutional order" and "murder", state-run Anadolu news  agency reported.
They are also charged with "membership of an armed terror  group" and "forming and running a terror group," said the  indictment. The grave offences mean a potential record jail  term -- up to 3,342 years -- if convicted.
Anadolu said 42 of the accused, who had been under  arrest, appeared in court at Silivri, outside Istanbul, in a  hearing due to last four days. The other four suspects remain  at large.
Sixteen of the accused are Russian nationals and the  others are Chechen, Tunisian, Egyptian, Algerian, Syrian and  Turkish.
Those killed in the suicide bombings at Ataturk Airport  on June 28, 2016, included 19 foreigners and it was one of the  worst attacks to ...

Istanbul airport attack suspects on trial over terror

Bangladesh police today rescued four  tiger and lion cubs that they said were being smuggled to  India and arrested two suspects.
Police said they were investigating whether the tiger  cubs were poached from the Sundarbans, the world's largest  mangrove forest, which has a significant population of  endangered Bengal tigers.
But they had no idea where the lion cubs could have come  from.
Police acting on a tip-off found the animals in wodden  boxes in a car in the western city of Jessore, district police  chief Anisur Rahman told AFP.
"We detained two people in this connection. They are  animal smugglers who were delivering the cubs to a man at  Sharsha," Rahman said, referring to a town on the Indian  border.
"We suspect they were being brought here to be smuggled  to India," he said.
Bangladesh brought in new laws in 2010 to protect  wildlife, but poaching remains rampant.
In 2012, the country's elite police rescued three Bengal  tiger cubs after a raid in the capital.
The tiger ...

Bangladesh police rescue tigers, lions from smugglers

Four makeshift bombs exploded  overnight in the main city in Cameroon's restive anglophone  region, but without causing casualties, officials said today.
"Four home-made bombs exploded in Bamenda, one at 9:00 pm  and the three others at 3:00 am," said a source close to the  security services, reached from the capital Yaounde, adding  "the blasts did not cause any casualties. They caused minor  damage in the various places." A security source in Yaounde  confirmed the account.

4 homemade bombs in anglophone Cameroon, no casualties

The Abu Dhabi National Oil  Company is to float a minority stake in one of its subsidiary  companies for the first time, ADNOC chairman Sultan Al-Jaber  said today.
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is  following in the footsteps of neighbouring Gulf oil kingpin  Saudi Arabia, which plans to float up to five percent of its  national oil company Aramco.
"I am pleased to announce the floating of a minority  stake in the leading fuel distribution company, ADNOC  Distribution," Jaber told the annual ADIPEC oil conference and  exhibition, without saying when this would happen.
He said the initial public offering will be listed on the  Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, the third largest bourse in the  Gulf.
The IPO will be open to both domestic and international  investors, Jaber said.
He did not provide details about the size of the IPO, but  insisted that parent company ADNOC will "remain wholly owned  by the government of Abu Dhabi".
One of the seven emirates comprising ...

UAE oil giant to float stake in fuel station subsidiary

Israel's army said today it had  arrested a senior Islamic Jihad militant as tensions with the  group rose after the army blew up one of its tunnels from  Gaza.
The army arrested overnight the "senior operative" in  Arraba near Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank,  Israel's military said.
A source with Islamic Jihad confirmed that one of its  leaders, Tareq Qadaan, was detained as part of an "arrest  campaign".
There were no immediate details on whether others were  arrested.
Tensions have risen between Israel and Islamic Jihad  after the army blew up a tunnel that stretched from the Gaza  Strip into Israeli territory on October 30.
Such tunnels have been used in the past to carry out  attacks.
The operation resulted in the deaths of at least 12  Palestinian militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday  warned Palestinian militants in Gaza against carrying out  attacks in revenge for the operation.
Islamic Jihad meanwhile ...

Israel arrests top Islamic Jihad militant as tensions rise

Police in hazmat suits entered  the US Consulate General in Hong Kong today after an envelope  containing white powder sparked a security alert at the  complex.
Visa appointments were cancelled and members of the  public queuing to enter were ordered to leave as the consulate  scrambled to react to the incident.
Four police vans and a bomb disposal truck were seen  deployed at the sealed-off main entrance, while uniformed  police officers were seen donning gas masks outside the  building in the busy Central district of the southern Chinese  financial hub.
However, the consulate later said the powder was not  found to be hazardous.
"We can confirm that an envelope containing white powder  was opened inside the Consulate General today," a spokesperson  for the US consulate said.
"The incident has now been resolved. Visa appointments  for the rest of the day remain cancelled," they added.
Police called the incident a "misunderstanding" in a  statement today.
No dangerous ingredients were 

White powder found at US consulate in Hong Kong a

UNESCO's new chief today brushed  aside the United States' decision to walk out of the UN  cultural body, saying the organisation had survived long  periods without Washington before.
Former French culture minister Audrey Azoulay, elected on  Friday to head UNESCO, said the US was "not the beginning and  end" of the agency.
The US and Israel both announced their pullout last  month, accusing UNESCO of "anti-Israel bias".
Azoulay said Washington's decision was not "a complete  surprise, bearing in mind the United States' current position  on multilateralism".
"It's a sovereign decision by a state that I respect, but  which at the same time is not the beginning and end of  UNESCO," she told France Inter radio.
"There have been long periods at UNESCO -- more than 15  years -- without the United States, which ultimately came  back."
She added she did not think quitting was in the US'  interest and said UNESCO would continue "working with American  civil society, American universities and .

New UNESCO chief brushes off US pullout

Vietnam and China agreed today to  back away from conflicts in the South China Sea, in a move  aimed at easing tensions over Beijing's claims to most of the  waterway.
The communist neighbours have long-sparred over the sea  -- to which Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines also have  partial claims  -- through which $5 trillion in shipping trade  passes annually.
China has built artificial islands and airstrips capable  of hosting military installations in the sea, which is  believed to sit atop vast oil and gas deposits.
Hanoi and Beijing agreed Monday to keep the peace in the  sea, the countries said in a joint statement during a state  visit to Hanoi by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
They agreed to "well manage disputes at sea, make no  moves that may complicate or expand disputes, (and) maintain  peace and stability on the East Sea," the Vietnamese version  of the statement said, using Hanoi's term for the sea.
Tensions flared earlier this year when Vietnam suspended  an oil ...

Vietnam and China agree to back off conflicts in S. China Sea

Donald Trump was all fingers and  thumbs during a carefully choreographed photo op today at a  summit of world leaders, failing to grasp whose hands he was  supposed to be holding and breaking a lineup intended to  showcase unity.
Trump, whose insurgent election victory was built on his  willingness to disrupt political convention, was supposed to  cross his arms and join hands with the men on either side of  him.
But as others clutched the hands of the person to their  left and their right, Trump used both of his hands to clasp  the extended fingers of Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan  Phuc.
The doubling up left summit host Philippine President  Rodrigo Duterte with a spare hand -- and broke the line into  two parts.
The handshake chain is a set piece of gatherings of the  10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who  are meeting with leaders from China, the US, Russia, New  Zealand, Australia, India, Canada, Japan and South Korea.
After an awkward few seconds, ..

Trump breaks the link as handshake photo op goes awry

An Australian publisher has shelved  plans to release a book detailing alleged Chinese interference  in the country over fears of legal attacks by Beijing, the  author said today.
Academic Clive Hamilton said his book "Silent Invasion"  was pulled by publisher Allen and Unwin last week just as it  was about to go to press.
He told AFP that Allen and Unwin had cited "serious...  threats" of possible legal action from Beijing should the  company release the work.
The book, which was to be his ninth with the publishing  house, included the names of individuals and organisations  trying to influence Australian society and politics in China's  interests, Hamilton said.
He described it as "very factual, very deeply  researched".
In an email exchange with Allen and Unwin which Hamilton  shared with AFP, the publisher said there was a "very high  chance" the company could be sued for defamation if the book  was published.
"If pursued with malice, this kind of vexatious legal  action... could .

Australian academic's book pulled over China backlash fears

The death toll of a major earthquake  that hit the Iran-Iraq border overnight rose to 328 dead on  the Iranian side of the border today, the coroner's office  said.
At least another 2,530 were injured in the 7.3-magnitude  quake that hit late yesterday, state television reported the  office as saying.
A previous toll stood at 207 dead and 1,700 wounded.

Iran quake toll rises to 328 dead, over 2,500 injured:official

Donald Trump declared today he had a  "great relationship" with Philippine President Rodrigo  Duterte, a self-proclaimed killer who is waging a drugs war  that rights groups say involves mass murder, as the leaders  joked with each other in Manila.
The US president is in the Philippines with leaders of 18  other nations for two days of summits, the final leg of a  headline-grabbing Asian tour dominated by the North Korean  nuclear crisis.
Allegations of Russian meddling in last year's US  presidential elections have dogged the second half of his 12-  day trip, which has taken him from Japan to South Korea, China  and Vietnam.
Rights groups had called on Trump to end his Asian  journey with a strong statement against Duterte's drugs war,  which has seen police and suspected vigilantes kill thousands  of people.
But Trump and Duterte had a series of encounters last  night and this morning in which they appeared to enjoy each  others' company, leading to warm praise from the US president 

Trump hails 'great relationship' with self-proclaimed killer

A North Korean soldier was shot and  injured while defecting to the South through the Demilitarised  Zone dividing the peninsula, Seoul's Yonhap news agency  reported today.
The soldier crossed to the South side of the Joint  Security Area of the DMZ and was transferred to hospital after  he was shot by another North Korean soldier, Yonhap said  citing Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

N Korean soldier shot while defecting to S. Korea: Yonhap

Police in hazmat suits entered  the US Consulate General in Hong Kong today after an envelope  containing white powder sparked a security alert at the  complex.
Visa appointments were cancelled and members of the  public queing to enter were ordered to leave as the consulate  scrambled to react to the incident.
Uniformed police officers were also seen donning gas  masks outside the building in the busy Central district of the  southern Chinese financial hub.
Four police vans and a bomb disposal truck were seen  deployed at the sealed-off main entrance.
However, the consulate later said the powder was not  found to be hazardous.
"We can confirm that an envelope containing white powder  was opened inside the Consulate General today," a spokesperson  for the US consulate said.
"The incident has now been resolved. Visa appointments  for the rest of the day remain cancelled," the spokesperson  added.
"As always, our highest priority is the safety of our  personnel and visitors.

White powder found at US consulate in Hong Kong

An eight-year-old girl has died  after crashing her junior dragster during her first official  test run in the West Australia capital of Perth, police said  today.
Anita Board was trying to qualify for a junior racing  license in her purple dragster "Pony Power" on Saturday when  she hit a cement barrier at the end of the run, local media  reported.
She had just turned eight on Thursday, reaching the  minimum age to get the license and race her 210cc dragster.
Police said she was taken to hospital in critical  condition and died yesterday.
"Tragically, the eight-year-old girl involved in a crash  at the Kwinana Motorplex... has died as a result of the  injuries she sustained," the police statement said.
Police said they were investigating the cause of the  accident.
Anita came from a drag-racing family and their Facebook  page has several pictures of her in racing gear alongside  different dragsters.
Her father, Ian, posted a message overnight on the page  saying "my heart (is) in a ..

Junior drag driver, 8, killed in Australia race crash

Workers at Japan's crippled Fukushima  Daiichi nuclear power plant have installed a device to remove  nuclear fuel from a meltdown-hit reactor nearly seven years  after the crisis was sparked by a tsunami, a spokesman said  today.
The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO),  said it started putting a crane on the roof of unit No 3  yesterday to extract a total of 566 rods from its fuel pool.
It will be the first removal of fuel rods from one of the  three reactors that melted down when the tsunami struck the  plant in March 2011.
TEPCO has already removed fuel rods from unit No. 4 whose  reactor core was empty when the tsunami crashed ashore.
It plans to start removing rods from the fuel pool of  unit No. 3 "sometime around the middle of the next fiscal  year" starting in April 2018, TEPCO spokesman Atsushi Sugiyama  said.
It has yet to start removing any fuel from the reactor  cores of the three meltdown-hit units, as the complicated  decommissioning process is expected to 

Fuel removal device at meltdown-hit Fukushima reactor in Japan

At least 170 people  were killed and more than 1,000 injured when a 7.3-magnitude  earthquake shook the mountainous Iran-Iraq border triggering  landslides that hindered rescue efforts, officials said today.
Footage posted on Twitter showed panicked people fleeing  a building in Sulaimaniyah, northern Iraq, as windows  shattered at the moment the quake struck late yesterday, while  images from the nearby town of Darbandikhan showed major walls  and concrete structures had collapsed.
"There are 164 dead and more than 1,686 injured," Behnam  Saidi, the deputy head of the Iranian government's crisis unit  set up to handle the response to the quake, told state  television.
Six others were reported dead on the Iraq side of the  border.
We are in the process of setting up three emergency  relief camps," said Mojtaba Nikkerdar, the deputy governor of  Iran's Kermanshah province.
The quake hit 30 kilometres southwest of Halabja in Iraqi  Kurdistan at around 9.20 pm, when many people would ...

At least 170 killed as strong quake rocks Iran-Iraq border

A fire destroyed a 2,000-year-old  mural and much of the vestiges of an archaeological site in  northern Peru, the director of the Tumbas Reales de Sipan  Museum said.
"I have received the lamentable and tragic news of a fire  that has destroyed the archaeological monument of Ventarron,"  museum head Walter Alva said in a statement yesterday.
The temple of Ventarron dates back 4,500 years and is  considered the oldest discovered in the Americas.
The fire devastated the ancient mural as well as pottery  vessels and records of the Ventarron Archaeological Comoplex  in Pomalca, in the Lambayeque region, television images  showed.
Workers from the Pomalca agribusiness company triggered  the blaze when they ignited a sugarcane field.
"We are losing an exceptional monument unique to its  generation," said Alva, who discovered the site in 2007. "I  hope there is an investigation and responsibility  established."
"I can only express my outrage and sadness for this  irreparable ...

Peru fire ravages ancient archaeological site

Donald Trump shook hands today with  a smiling Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, a man who  boasts about personally killing people and who is waging a  drug war that rights groups say involves mass murder.
The US leader is in Manila with leaders of 18 other  nations for two days of summits, the final leg of a headline-  grabbing Asian tour dominated by the North Korean nuclear  crisis.
Allegations of Russian meddling in last year's US  presidential elections have also hounded the second half of  his 12-day trip, which took him from Japan to South Korea,  China and Vietnam.
Rights groups have called on Trump to end his Asian  journey with a strong statement against Duterte's drugs war,  which has seen police and suspected vigilantes kill thousands  of people.
But brief encounters between them in the lead-up to  official talks scheduled for late this morning appeared to  support Duterte's confidence that Trump was not concerned with  the killings.
Trump shook hands with Duterte, ...

AFP

AFP

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