Portugal's superstar captain Cristiano Ronaldo revealed today he will not play in the Confederations Cup third-place match this weekend as he will finally meet his newborn twin boys.
     Hours after Wednesday's 3-0 defeat to Chile in a penalty shoot-out in Kazan, Ronaldo said he had been given permission to miss the play-off in Moscow, against either Germany or Mexico, to meet his new arrivals.
     Ronaldo, 32, is believed to have fathered the twins with a surrogate mother in the United States and already has a seven-year-old son, Cristiano Ronaldo Jnr, from a previous relationship.
     The Real Madrid forward says he gave his "body and soul" for Portugal in the semi-final, which finished goalless after extra time, "even though my two sons were born".
     "The President of the Portuguese Football Federation and the national coach have an attitude that has touched me and I will not forget," the four-time world player of the year wrote on his official Facebook page.
     "I'm very ..

Ronaldo exits Confed Cup to meet newborn twins

PTI Automatic

Usain Bolt racked up a straightforward 100m victory on the European bow of his farewell season, but likely successor Wayde van Niekerk stole the headlines in Ostrava with a world record in the little-run 300m.
     Bolt struggled with a stiff back and a pedestrian start to beat a weak field. For the briefest of moments, Cuban Yunier Perez thought he might have got the better of the towering Jamaican.
     But Bolt turned on the after-burners to win in a modest 10.06sec, leaving him another outing over 100m at next month's Monaco Diamond League before his swansong at the August 4-13 World Athletics Championships in London.
     "I have always loved coming to Ostrava," Bolt said. "The great fans make this meeting a really unique one."
     Bolt, 30, said his back had been playing up "as always. It's always an issue".
     "My doctor told me over the years that the older I get, the worse it's going to get, so I just have to really try to keep in check which is why I need to go and see ...

Bolt fires to win as Van Niekerk stars

South Africa great Barry Richards believes AB de Villiers should give up the Proteas one-day captaincy if he decides to prolong his international career.
     One of the outstanding batsmen of his generation, the 33 -year-old de Villiers headed home after captaining the Proteas in a 19-run defeat by England in Cardiff on Sunday that saw them beaten 2-1 in a three-match Twenty20 series.
     They previously lost a one-day international series to England by the same scoreline and then suffered a hugely disappointing first-round exit at the Champions Trophy.
     But a Test series against England is the centrepiece of a four-month tour.
     However, it has long been planned that de Villiers would miss the four-Test campaign to take a break from the strain of being one of the world's leading players in all three international formats.
     "The de Villiers thing has escalated," said Richards, arguably the world's leading batsman in the early 1970s, at a press conference staged by Test ...

Richards calls on De Villiers to quit captaincy

Novak Djokovic overcame a spirited challenge from Donald Young, beating the American 6- 2, 7-6 (11/9) today to claim the first of the semi-final places at the Eastbourne pre-Wimbledon event.
     The Serb top seed, competing during the week before Wimbledon for the first time in seven years, saved a pair of set points in the second set before finally putting Young away after a lengthy tie-break.
     The former world number one is rebuilding for Wimbledon after a poor past year by his world-class standards and is pointing toward the grass-court major as an immediate goal.
     Djokovic, who took a wild card into the tournament on the English south coast, is the second-highest-ranked men's player ever to compete at Eastbourne behind then-number two Marcelo Rios in 1998.
     With the rest of the field a round behind after two days of rain interruptions, organisers were playing catch up and praying for better weather.
     Fourth seed and title-holder Steve Johnson finished off his ...

Djokovic battles past Young in Eastbourne quarters

Canada will continue to train Kurdish militia for another two years as part of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq, the defense minister announced today.
	The mission extension is the third in as many years, and Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan left open the possibility of ramping up the offensive, saying the military would "deploy capabilities as needed."
	"The coalition has made significant progress in the fight against Daesh in Mosul," Sajjan said in a statement, using the Arabic name for the IS group.
	"As the situation evolves, coalition allies and partners must remain flexible and adapt to changing threats."
	Implicit in the announcement is a rejection of accusations by opposition parties that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has been waging a secret war in Iraq without parliamentary approval.
	Critics questioned the government's claim that Canada had undertaken a non-combat "advise and assist" role in Iraq after it was revealed earlier this ...

Canada prolongs Iraq mission to 2019

Macedonian special prosecutors today charged almost 100 officials with abuse of power, including top leaders from VMRO-DPMNE, until recently the ruling party for almost a decade.
	Prosecutors have since 2015 been investigating allegations of top-level corruption by the then conservative government led by VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski.
	The accusations came from tapes that emerged as part of a major political scandal over revelations that authorities had wiretapped some 20,000 people including politicians and journalists.
	Media reported that top VMRO-DPMNE officials were among those charged Thursday -- including Gruevski, who was prime minister from 2006 until 2016.
	Prosecutors have charged 94 people and seven companies and institutions, special prosecutor Katica Janeva told reporters.
	They are seeking detention for 18, including the leader of a political party, she said without elaborating. Media identified that person as Gruevski.
	"Firm evidence was secured for serious abuse .

Macedonia charges 94 officials with abuse of power

Nigeria today began to export yams to Europe and the United States, as part of moves to diversify its oil-dependent economy and earn much-needed foreign exchange.
	Agriculture minister Audu Ogbeh flagged off the first consignment of the fibrous tuber from the port in the country's economic capital, Lagos.
	"Oil and gas cannot employ millions of people just like agriculture so we must work hard to move from oil to earning foreign exchange from agriculture," he said yesterday.
	Ogbeh told a news conference inspection charges on export produce would be reduced to encourage more overseas sales and greater competition.
	"To make yam competitive, we will work on the packages and the right types of trucks to be used for transportation of the produce," he said.
	According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Nigeria accounts for 61 per cent of the world's total yam output. Ogbeh said not all of it was consumed, causing waste.
	But with food shortages in conflict-hit parts of ...

Nigeria begins yam exports to Europe, US

The Iraqi military today announced the recapture of the iconic Mosul mosque where jihadist chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only public appearance, calling on Muslims to obey him.
	The announcement of the recapture of the mosque -- which the Islamic State group blew up last week as Iraqi forces closed in -- comes three years to the day after the jihadists declared a "caliphate" straddling Iraq and Syria.
	"Counter-Terrorism Service forces control the Nuri mosque and Al-Hadba (minaret)," the Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
	After a senior special forces commander said the mosque had not in fact been retaken, the operations command clarified that it meant Iraqi forces had isolated the area and were "advancing toward the completion of the goals."
	The mosque and its famed Al-Hadba (hunchback) leaning minaret were Mosul landmarks and also held major significance in the history of IS rule in Iraq.
	Iraqiya state TV carried a banner on Thursday announcing the "fall of the ..

Iraq military says it has retaken iconic Mosul mosque

UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson today urged democratic progress in Hong Kong, 20 years after Britain returned the semi-autonomous city to China.
	"The rule of law, an independent judiciary, and a free media have all been central to Hong Kong's success.
	"As we look to the future, Britain hopes that Hong Kong will make more progress towards a fully democratic and accountable system of government," Johnson said in a video message.
	Saturday marks came two decades after China reclaimed Hong Kong, having signed a "one country, two systems" handover deal with Britain which gave it rights unseen on the mainland.
	With activists under arrest and amid tight security, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Hong Kong today for a series of celebrations.
	While some residents will celebrate the anniversary, pro-democracy campaigners have warned that the 1997 agreement is being eroded as Beijing tightens its grip on freedoms in Hong Kong.
	Xi said he wants to ensure the continuation of the "one 

UK foreign minister urges democratic progress in Hong Kong

President Donald Trump today launched a brutal personal attack on MSNBC journalist Mika Brzezinski, after she sharply criticised his administration's dysfunction in a segment on her show.
	"I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore)," Trump wrote, referring to a morning news show featuring Brzezinski and co-host Joe Scarborough.
	"Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!" Trump tweeted.
	The president, an avid cable news watcher, appears to have been responding to sharp comments by Brzezinski during Thursday "Morning Joe" program on the left-leaning MSNBC cable network.
	"Everybody in Washington," Brzezinski said, "in the administration, needs to look at this from... A point of view where they're not lobotomised because you're sitting in there and you're so scared of him, and you think you need to ..

Trump launches personal attack on 'crazy, low IQ' female

Women and children involved with groups like Islamic State are increasingly returning to their home countries in Europe, with some posing a terror risk, a senior EU official said today.
	The "new trend" of females and juveniles coming back from Middle East war zones means European countries must find special methods of dealing with them, said Michele Coninsx, president of the EU judicial agency Eurojust.
	The issue is a growing concern for European countries as IS is in retreat across Iraq and Syria in the face of US- backed forces.
	"We see that females and young children are coming back to Europe and they need special attention," Coninsx told a European Parliament committee as she released a report on the issue.
	Debate among EU states on the issue was complicated because the fact that an individual returning from IS-held areas is a woman or child does not in itself mean they cannot pose a security risk, Coninsx said.
	"It is not because you are a child or because you are a female ..

Women, children returning from IS warzones: EU

A Russian jury today found all five defendants guilty of organising and carrying out the contract killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov after a trial his allies say failed to unmask the masterminds.
	Former deputy prime minister Nemtsov, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down just yards from the Kremlin as he walked home with his girlfriend late on the evening of February 27, 2015.
	The brazen murder in central Moscow was the most high- profile political killing in Russia since Putin rose to power some 17 years ago.
	The 12-person jury ruled on the third day of deliberations that defendants Zaur Dadayev, Shadid and Anzor Gubashev, Temirlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev -- all ethnic Chechens from Russia's volatile North Caucasus -- carried out the hit as part of an organised gang.
	Dadayev -- a former officer in an interior ministry battalion in Chechnya -- was found guilty of firing the four fatal shots.
	The Gubashev brothers, Eskerkhanov and Bakhayev ..

Jury finds five guilty of Kremlin foe Nemtsov murder

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces today sealed off the last route used by the Islamic State group to flee an offensive on its Syrian bastion Raqa, a monitor said.
	According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, SDF fighters captured the villages of Kasrat Afnan and Kasab on the southern bank of the Euphrates River.
	"They thereby cut the last route IS used to withdraw from Raqa towards territory it controls in the Syrian desert and in Deir Ezzor province," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
	Backed by US-led air strikes, the SDF spent months chipping away at IS territory around Raqa.
	It first broke into the city on June 6, and has since captured two eastern and two western districts while bearing down on the north.
	But their progress on Raqa's southern approach had been much slower.
	With today's advance, "the SDF has been able to completely encircle Raqa," Abdel Rahman said.
	IS overran Raqa in 2014, transforming it into the de facto Syrian capital of its ...

'US-backed force cuts off last IS escape route from Raqa'

The White House envoy to the US-led coalition bombing the Islamic State group, Brett McGurk, met today with local officials in the northern Syrian town of Tabqa.
	IS jihadists were ousted from Tabqa and an adjacent dam on May 10 by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces as part of the group's flagship offensive for Raqa city further east.
	Today, McGurk met with members of the Tabqa Civil Council, which is administering the town's day-to-day affairs.
	McGurk was dressed in a crisp white shirt and was accompanied by deputy commander for the coalition, British Army Major General Rupert Jones, as well as other coalition officials and SDF members.
	The visit came a day after McGurk met with members of the Raqa Civil Council, the body expected to run the northern city after IS's expected fall there.
	The US-backed SDF has ousted IS from around a quarter of Raqa city. For now, the Raqa Civil Council is based in the town of Ain Issa to the north.
	"The discussion centred on relief efforts," .

US envoy to anti-IS coalition visits Syria's Tabqa

A Romanian man was arrested today accused of helping a jihadist cell with links to the Islamic State attackers who carried out the 2015 gun and bomb rampage in Paris.
	The 39-year-old is suspected of carrying out surveillance of a military base in his country to enable "a Salafist and pro-jihadist cell in an EU state" to carry out an attack there, the public prosecutor's office said, in the first arrest of its kind in Romania.
	That cell, according to anti-terror prosecutors, was connected to the group which carried out the attacks in the French capital that left 130 people dead.
	Romania's intelligence service said the man has admitted to being a member of IS.
	Authorities today carried out three searches where the man lived in the southern Arges region.
	He is believed to have become radicalised after spending some years abroad in an unidentified EU country where he allegedly associated with extremist groups, according to Romanian intelligence.

Romania arrests IS suspect over 'military base plot'

A Chinese aircraft carrier is steaming towards Hong Kong for celebrations marking 20 years since Britain gave back the former colony, in a clear display of China's military might.
	China's national defence ministry said Thursday that the Liaoning was part of a flotilla on a "routine training mission" and would make a port of call in Hong Kong.
	The Liaoning, a secondhand Soviet ship built nearly 30 years ago and commissioned in 2012, will arrive at a time when fears are growing that Beijing is tightening its grip over the semi-autonomous city.
	President Xi Jinping arrived on Thursday amid tight security in the normally throbbing city where officials are anxious to ensure nothing taints his high-profile visit or the festivities.
	The Liaoning will participate in activities marking the 20th anniversary of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) entering the city, defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian told reporters.
	The PLA has a garrison in central Hong Kong and is responsible for ...

China sends aircraft carrier to Hong Kong for anniversary

Japan's foreign minister said he will hold two days of talks with the EU trade commissioner in Tokyo tomorrow, as the two sides look to ink a long-awaited agreement.
	The comments from Fumio Kishida Thursday come after four years of talks aimed at hammering out a free-trade agreement, with negotiators working toward signing a deal at a G20 meeting in Hamburg next week.
	Clinching a deal would be a victory for free-trade advocates after US president Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership this year, dealing a possibly fatal blow to the mooted 12-nation deal.
	EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan will visit the Japanese capital from Friday, Kishida said.
	"I'd like to hold final discussions with Malmstrom for a broad agreement" on the Japan-EU trade deal, he told reporters.
	"I think they're going to be very tough and difficult negotiations," Kishida added.
	"It's not yet decided when we'll reach a conclusion .

Japan, EU to hold two-days of talks on trade deal: Japan FM

The EU must boost its defences against cyberattacks, which have fallen behind the modern world's reliance on the internet and mobile devices, the bloc's security chief warned today.
	Brussels will give 10.8 million euros (USD 12 million) to 14 EU countries to boost their cyber response teams following this week's massive global cyberattack, Security Commissioner Julian King said.
	"We're living through an attack right now. That attack, the recent WannaCry attack and other recent attacks serve graphically to illustrate that the cyber threats we face are growing very seriously" King told reporters.
	"Our current dependence on the internet and connected devices and technology is at the moment currently greater than our ability to protect ourselves, and we need to do something about that," King said.
	The latest series of cyberattacks began in Ukraine on Tuesday, hitting government and corporate computer systems across the world as the so-called Petya virus spread to western Europe and ...

EU urges more action on cyberattacks

Nearly 100 police officers were targeted today in Rio de Janeiro in a huge sweep against allegedly dirty cops working to help drug traffickers.
	A probe that began in February 2016, "resulted today in an operation to serve 185 arrest warrants, including 95 against military police," the Rio state security office said in a statement.
	In Brazil, regular patrol officers are known as military police.
	The sweep was carried out with "the unconditional" support of the military police internal affairs department and a special organised crime unit, the statement read.
	Brazilian media reported that scores of drug traffickers were the other targets of the operation.
	According to G1 news site, the police officers are accused of taking as much as one million reais (USD 300,000) a month in bribes from drug gangs in return for protection and even loan of police weaponry.
	Security officials were to give a press conference later in Rio de Janeiro.

Nearly 100 Rio police targeted in corruption crackdown

The defence minister of Qatar is to visit its ally Turkey tomorrow, state media reported, as Ankara resists pressure to shutter a military base in the emirate's unresolved row with Gulf neighbours.
	Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah will meet with Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik at the defence ministry in Ankara, the state-run news agency Anadolu said today.
	Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain announced on June 5 the suspension of political, economic and diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing the emirate of support for extremist groups.
	Doha denies the claims and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said there is no basis to the allegations and offered Qatar Turkey's support.
	Turkey has provided food and other aid via hundreds of planes and a cargo ship, although Ankara's attempts to mediate between the sides have so far come to nothing.
	Crucially, Ankara is also setting up a military base on the emirate that is set to give Turkey a new foothold in the ...

Qatar's defence minister to visit Turkey amid base controversy

Europe is firmly committed to upholding the Paris climate accord, France's President Emmanuel Macron said today, voicing hopes that sceptics like US President Donald Trump can be persuaded to change their minds.
	Western European leaders meeting in Berlin ahead of next week's G20 summit "reaffirmed their very strong commitment to the Paris accord," said Macron. "I hope that the others can be brought back to their senses," he said.

AFP

AFP

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