Rescue workers from Syria's White Helmets group -- the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary -- will not attend this weekend's Academy Awards ceremony because of intensified regime bombing, their leader said today.
	"I am not going because of our workload due to intensified regime strikes on the provinces of Damascus, Daraa and Homs," Raed Saleh told AFP.
	"There are many things that have to be done on the ground, such as managing operations and providing emergency vehicles," he said.
	Saleh and fellow White Helmet member Khaled Khatib had been set to attend tomorrows ceremony in Hollywood, where "The White Helmets" is shortlisted for best short documentary.
	Istanbul-based Khatib, who shot much of the footage, also confirmed that he would not attend the ceremony, despite obtaining an American visa.
	"I won't travel to OSCAR due to intensity of work, our priority is helping our people," he tweeted in English today.
	"I was going to leave on Tuesday, but there was too much work ...

Syria's White Helmets rescuers will not attend Oscars

PTI Automatic

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim urged Turks to approve constitutional changes to boost President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers today, saying it would make Turkey stronger.
	Yildirim spoke at the ruling party's first rally ahead of a key April 16 referendum, when the public will vote on whether to approve the changes creating an executive presidency.
	"For a strong Turkey, lasting stability, our choice is 'yes'. This is our wish, it will come," Yildirim told the gathering in Ankara of party members and supporters from the country's 81 provinces.
	In the boisterous, packed arena, campaign songs floated over the flag-waving crowd with lyrics endorsing a "yes" vote as a tribute to the "July martyrs" killed during last year's failed coup.
	The coup featured heavily in another video screened ahead of his speech, with images of the victims also appearing on banners held by the audience.
	Yildirim, upon arrival, handed out red carnations to supporters.
	In his speech he insisted no one would ..

Boosting Erdogan powers will make 'strong Turkey': PM

A female reporter working for Iraqi Kurdish channel Rudaw was killed today covering the fighting between government forces and the Islamic State group in Mosul, her channel said.
	"Prominent Rudaw war reporter and journalist Shifa Gardi has been killed in Mosul as she covered clashes," Rudaw said on social media.
	"Journalism remains male-dominated -- Shifa Gardi broke those perceptions and stereotypes -- we pay tribute to her courageous journalism," the channel said.
	Rudaw editors told AFP she was killed by an explosive device on a road in west Mosul and said that the cameraman accompanying her was wounded.
	He was transferred to Arbil, the nearby capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region where the channel is headquartered.
	Iraqi forces entered neighbourhoods of the west bank of Mosul yesterday for the first since the start on October 17 of a huge offensive to retake the city from the Islamic State group.

Iraqi Kurdish TV reporter killed in Mosul: channel

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte took his bid for a third term to voters today, mingling with shoppers in a small market town ahead of closely-watched March elections.
	"The VVD makes the best coffee," Rutte sang out, as he gathered people around a food truck handing out hot drinks to talk politics and promote his Liberal party's policies.
	After six years in power at the head of two coalition governments, Rutte is fending off a biting challenge from his far-right rival Geert Wilders in the March 15 elections.
	His party is running neck-and-neck with Wilders's Freedom Party (PVV) in the race for control of the 150-seat lower house of parliament.
	Amid the rise of populist and far-right parties in Europe, the Dutch polls are being seen as a litmus test ahead of other elections this year, notably in France and Germany.
	Dressed casually in jeans and a blue weatherproof jacket against the penetrating cold drizzle, Rutte patiently answered questions from curious shoppers in the tiny ...

PM vows defence of Dutch values on campaign trail

A ceasefire went into force early today in the Libyan capital after two days of fighting between rival gunmen injured nine people and forced residents to cower indoors, the government said.
	The fighting between two rival armed groups in eastern Tripoli erupted on Thursday after one accused the other of kidnapping four of its members, the Tripoli-based news agency LANA reported.
	It said families trapped in the conflict zone of Abu Slim appealed to the authorities to intervene to halt the violence which closed down the city centre.
	The UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) said it had successfully brokered a ceasefire between the two groups, with help from town elders from Tarhuna and Gharian south of Tripoli.
	An agreement has been reached to set up three committees to follow up on the accord, the GNA said in a statement released overnight.
	One committee will be tasked with enforcing the ceasefire, another consisting of health ministry officials will follow up the condition 

Libya govt secures ceasefire after Tripoli clashes

Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans held rival protests in Seoul today over the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye on the fourth anniversary of her swearing into office.
	Park was impeached by parliament in December over a corruption scandal that has brought millions of people onto the streets in mass protests.
	Around 17,000 riot police were mobilised, setting up barricades with their buses at the centre of the capital to separate Park's supporters from those opposing her.
	Anti-Park protestors, carrying yellow ballons and waving banners, marched in three directions.
	One column proceeded towards the presidential Blue House as another group headed to the Constitutional Court, which has to decide whether to endorse or reject Park's impeachment.
	A third group passed by the headquarters of powerful family-run business groups -- known as chaebols -- including SK, Lotte and Hanwha.
	The de-facto head of South Korea's giant Samsung Group Lee Jae-Yong was arrested last week, a first 

Rival rallies in Seoul over Park impeachment

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe celebrated his 93rd birthday with a lavish party today attended by thousands of loyalists outside the second city of Bulawayo.
	The ruling ZANU-PF party hosted the event for Mugabe, who has held power since 1980 during a reign marked by repression of dissent, vote-rigging and the country's economic collapse.
	Now the world's oldest national leader, his actual birthday on Tuesday has been honoured in a week-long extravaganza with state media filled with tributes and praise.
	The party -- held in a large marquee decorated with portraits of a younger Mugabe -- included a feast and several vast birthday cakes, angering some Zimbabweans as the country endures severe food shortages.
	One of cakes was shaped like Mugabe's official Mercedes Benz limousine.
	Holding the event at a school in Matobo has also riled locals as it is close to where many victims of Mugabe's deadly crackdown on dissidents in the early 1980s are thought to be buried.
	At least 20,000 .

Mugabe feted at lavish 93rd birthday party

UN efforts to launch a new round of Syria peace talks sputtered today as suicide attacks killed dozens of people, raising the death toll from two days of violence to more than 80.
	   The blasts which targeted two security service bases in Homs, Syria's third city, killed a top intelligence chief and close confidant of President Bashar al-Assad, and were claimed by former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 42 people were killed, but the provincial governor put the figure at 30 dead in bloodshed which came just 24 hours after another suicide bombing in the northern town of Al-Bab that killed 51.
	That attack was claimed by Islamic State (IS) group militants.
	In Geneva, Syrian government and opposition negotiators were to continue meetings with United Nations mediator Staffan de Mistura through the weekend although there was little hope for a breakthrough.
	After meeting de Mistura yesterday, regime delegation chief Bashar al-Jaafari ..

Syria talks challenged as suicide blasts kill dozens

Bangladesh garment workers arrested last year over wage strikes are being released, global union IndustriALL said today, adding that international fashion brands have agreed not to boycott a key industry conference in capital Dhaka.
	A strike by tens of thousands of workers in December demanding higher pay was quashed after around two weeks, with 1,600 employees sacked and 34 workers and union leaders arrested.
	Cases alleging such things as burglary, arson, vandalism and extortion were also filed against more than 1,500 others, while authorities dismissed the workers' demands saying that no pay hike would be made before 2019.
	Global fashion companies including H&M and Zara-owner Inditex -- top clients of Bangladesh's USD 30-billion garment industry -- later said they would pull out of a key conference in support of the workers.
	The Dhaka Apparel Summit, scheduled for this weekend, is the signature annual event in the global textile hub with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ...

Bangladesh releases arrested factory workers: union

The tomb of a medieval king whose murder changed the course of Scottish history in a real-life "Game of Thrones" could be unearthed in a new hi-tech project launched today.
	Archaeologists and virtual reality artists want to digitally recreate the court of King James I of Scotland in Perth, around 64 kilometres from Edinburgh, and try to find the king's tomb buried beneath the modern-day city.
	They are also looking for the remains of his queen, Joan Beaufort, and of Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England and wife of James IV of Scotland, who was also buried there a century later.
	The team has been inspired by the discovery of King Richard III of England beneath a car park in Leicester.
	"It's like 'Game of Thrones' and 'Outlander' all rolled into one -- except this story is real," said Paul Wilson, who is leading the digital visualisation project at Glasgow School of Art (GSA).
	James I was assassinated on February 21, 1437, by supporters of a rival claimant to the throne, .

Archaeologists hunt for long-lost tomb of Scottish king

A suicide assault on two security service bases in Syria's third city of Homs today killed 42 people, including a top intelligence chief, overshadowing peace talks in Geneva.
	Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front claimed the spectacular attack which targeted and killed Gen Hassan Daabul, a close confidant of President Bashar al-Assad.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 42 people were killed when the bombers targeted the headquarters of state security and military intelligence in the heavily guarded Ghouta and Mahatta neighbourhoods.
	Provincial governor Talal Barazi said 30 people were killed and 24 wounded.
	State television confirmed Daabul's death, saying that the general had been specifically targeted by one of the suicide bombers.
	The bombers engaged in prolonged gun battles with intelligence officers before blowing themselves up.
	Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said they lasted two hours.
	Fateh al-Sham said five of its militants took part in ...

Dozens dead in suicide attack in Syria's Homs

Ex-Philippine leader Benigno Aquino joined thousands of people on the streets of Manila today as protests broke out against President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal war on drugs.
	Demonstrators amassed near the national police headquarters, with some warning the Duterte crackdown foreshadowed a repeat of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship, which was toppled in a bloodless "People Power" revolution 31 years ago.
	"We are taking the matter seriously. We are warning our people about the threat of rising fascism," protest leader Bonifacio Ilagan told AFP after leading more than 1,000 protesters at a morning rally.
	Ilagan, a playwright who was tortured over two years in a police prison under Marcos' martial rule in the 1970s, cited the "culture of impunity" arising from Duterte's crackdown.
	Duterte, 71, won the presidential election last year after promising during the campaign to eradicate drugs in society by killing tens of thousands of people.
	He launched the crackdown after taking office ..

Thousands protest in Manila as Duterte jails top critic

Bloody clashes erupted today between Azerbaijani forces and Armenian separatists over the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region, claiming the lives of several Azerbaijani servicemen, Baku and rebel officials said.
	Ex-Soviet Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a protracted conflict over the disputed region, and frequent exchanges of fire nearly spiralled into all-out war last year.
	Azerbaijan's defence ministry said "Armenian forces attempted an intrusion into Azerbaijani territory along the Karabakh frontline" in the early hours of Saturday.
	"Fierce clashes erupted at the frontline's Khojavend-Fizuli sector," the ministry said in a statement, adding that Azerbaijani military "suffered losses in manpower as they courageously repelled the enemy's attack."
	"The enemy continues shelling Azerbaijani positions from heavy artillery," it said.
	Armenia's defence ministry, for its part, accused Baku of attacking Karabakh army positions along the south-eastern and eastern sectors of the ...

Deadly clashes erupt along Nagorny Karabakh frontline

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir was in Baghdad for talks today, the first such visit by a chief diplomat from the kingdom in years, Iraqi officials said.
	He met his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a foreign ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
	Another government official said it was the first visit to Baghdad by a Saudi foreign minister since 2003, marking a key step in efforts to mend frosty bilateral relations.
	"This visit is to reestablish relations in a more stable way than previously," a senior government official said. "It's the first visit of its kind."
	Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who has been at the helm since 2014, has supported efforts to improve strained ties.
	Thamer al-Sabhan, whose credentials were received in January 2016, became the first Saudi ambassador to Iraq in a quarter century, after relations were cut following ex-president Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.
	But he left the same year after Baghdad demanded he be ...

Saudi FM in landmark visit to Iraq: officials

A record-setting innings by AB de Villiers set South Africa up for a resounding 159-run win in the third one-day international against New Zealand in Wellington on Saturday to go 2-1 up in the series.
     It was an emphatic response by the world's top-ranked ODI side after losing to New Zealand in the second match on Wednesday.
     De Villiers' innings of 85, during which he became the fastest player to 9,000 ODI runs, lifted his side to 271 for eight and outstanding bowling effort by Dwaine Pretorious and Andile Phehulkwayo ensured New Zealand never threatened.
     Pretorious took three for five off 32 deliveries and Phehulkwayo finished with two for 12 off 30 balls.
     South Africa were keen to bat first when they won the toss and while they too had their jitters de Villiers had support from Quinton de Kock (68) to give their innings some respectability.
     New Zealand's reply started disastrously with both openers gone inside three overs with the out-of-form Tom Latham out ..

De Villiers' record sets up thumping win over New Zealand

Planned talks in New York between North Korea and former US officials were canceled following the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's half brother, US media reported today.
	The unofficial meeting which was to have taken place next week fell through when the State Department refused to issue visas for diplomats coming from Pyongyang, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed sources who knew of the decision.
	It would have been the first meeting between the two countries to have taken place inside the United States in more than five years.
	The meeting was organized by Donald Zagoria, a senior official at the non-profit National Committee on American Foreign Policy, who according to the Wall Street Journal has been involved in previous back-channel talks with North Korea.
	Both newspapers said the North Korean delegation was to have been led by Choe Son Hui, head of the US affairs department at the foreign ministry in Pyongyang.
	Washington was to have been ...

US axes N Korea talks after Kim murder: report

Suicide attacks on two security service bases in the heart of Syria's government-held third city of Homs killed 42 people on Saturday, overshadowing peace talks in Geneva, state television and a monitor said.
	"There were at least six attackers and several of them blew themselves up near the headquarters of state security and military intelligence," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
	He said a senior intelligence officer was among the dead in the twin attacks in the heavily guarded Ghouta and Mahatta neighbourhoods.
	Security forces locked down the city centre.
	Homs has been under the full control of the government since May 2014 when rebels withdrew from the centre under a UN-brokered truce deal.
	But it has seen repeated bombings since then. Twin attacks killed 64 people early last year.
	State television paid tribute to the "martyrs" in the latest bombings.
	There was no immediate claim for the bombings but they bore the hallmarks of the ...

Suicide attacks on bases in Syria's Homs kill 42

Controlled bowling by New Zealand took the gloss off a record-setting performance by AB de Villiers as South Africa were restricted to 271 in the third one-day international in Wellington on Saturday.
     De Villiers won the toss and was keen to bat first on a hard track under clear skies at Westpac Stadium. He played his part with a rapid 85 off 80 balls in which he became the fastest batsman to amass 9,000 ODI runs.
     He reached the milestone in his 205th innings, outperforming the previous record of 228 held by India's Sourav Ganguly.
     But apart from Quinton de Kock, who posted his fifth consecutive half century, 36 from Faf de Plessis and 35 from Wayne Parnell, no other South African batsman was able to seriously better a controlled New Zealand bowling effort.
     De Kock gave South Africa the flying start they hoped for when de Villiers opted to bat first. He was 34 off 33 deliveries when Hashim Amla fell and went on to score 68 off 70 including six fours and two sixes.
 

De Villiers' record despite tight New Zealand bowling

Completed scoreboard in the
third one-day international between New Zealand and South Africa in Wellington on Saturday.
	   South Africa
	   Q de Kock c Neesham b de Grandhomme 68
	   H Amla c Williamson b Southee 7
	   F du Plessis c Southee b de Grandhomme 36
	   A de Villiers c Neeshm b Boult 85
	   J Duminy run out (Southee) 16
	   D Miller c Broom b Santner 3
	   D Pretorius b Ferguson 11
	   W Parnell run out (Santner) 35
	   A Phehlukwayo not out 1
	   Extras (lb-2, wd-7) 9
	   Total:(8 wickets; 50 overs) 271
	   Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2-114, 3-115, 4-157, 5-164, 6-180, 7-264, 8-271
	   Bowling: Southee 10-0-66-1 (2w), Boult 10-0-47-1, Ferguson 10-0-71-1 (3w), de Grandhomme 10-0-40-2 (2w), Santner 10-0-45-1
	   New Zealand
	   D Brownlie c de Kock b Rabada 2
	   T Latham c Duminy b Parnell 0
	   K Williamson b  Phehlukwayo 23
	   R Taylor lbw Pretorius 18
	   N Broom c Amla b  Phehlukwayo 0
	   J Neesham c&b Parnell 13
	   M Santner b Pretorius 1
	   C De Grandhomme not out ...

Wellington, Feb 25 (AFP) Completed scoreboard in the

A son of boxing legend Muhammad Ali was held for questioning for two hours at a Florida airport upon returning from Jamaica because of his Arabic-sounding name, US media reported.
	Muhammad Ali Jr, 44, who was born in Philadelphia and has a US passport, was traveling with his mother Khalilah Camacho-Ali, the late sports icon's second wife, friend and lawyer Chris Mancini told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
	Mancini told the newspaper that both were held for questioning on the Fort Lauderdale International Airport on February 7 because of their Arabic-sounding names.
	Camacho-Ali however was released after she showed US Customs agents a photo of herself with her ex-husband.
	Ali Jr however had no such photo -- and according to Mancini was held for nearly two hours and repeatedly asked "Where did you get your name from?" and "Are you Muslim?"
	When he said that he - like his father - was a Muslim, the agents asked further probing questions.
	"To the Ali family, it's crystal clear that .

Son of boxer Muhammad Ali detained at Florida airport

Twin suicide attacks on security service bases in the heart of Syria's government-held third city of Homs killed 14 people today, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	"The attacks hit the headquarters of state security and military intelligence in two central districts," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

AFP

AFP

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