Former world number one Rory McIlroy has revealed his fascination with Donald Trump after taking to the fairways with the controversial US President.
     Trump is a keen golfer and McIlroy accepted an offer from the commander-in-chief to join him for a round at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida last weekend.
     Trump's contentious comments and actions have been criticised by some in the world of sport.
     But while Northern Ireland's McIlroy refrained from offering his views on his latest playing partner's political policies, the former British Open, US Open and PGA Championship winner did reveal he was intrigued by Trump's rise to power.
     "I really got into it once Trump ran because I knew him a little bit but at the same time I was intrigued how a successful businessman could transition into running for the highest office in the land," McIlroy told the Guardian on Friday.
     "It is a totally different process from the UK. He obviously came at it from a ...

McIlroy reveals interest in Trump's rise

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Boeing has chosen to open its first European factory in Britain, the US aircraft giant said today, in a boost for UK manufacturing ahead of Brexit.
	The 20 million-pound (USD 25-million, 23 million-euros) facility employing 30 people will be in the city of Sheffield, northern England. Boeing said it would start recruiting staff from next year.
	Boeing Sheffield will supply wing parts for the group's 737 short-haul  and 777 wide-body passenger planes, a statement said.
	Boeing, which employs 2,000 non-manufacturing roles in Britain, added:
	"Our decision to start manufacturing high-value components in the UK is a step-change in our engagement and a further example of Boeing's commitment to grow here, supporting the UK's long-term prosperity," Michael Arthur, president of Boeing Europe, said in the statement.
	The announcement comes after US President Donald Trump has warned US companies that moving production abroad could see them face substantial taxes when goods are ...

Boeing picks UK for first European factory

A Jordanian F-16 warplane crashed in Saudi Arabia today but its pilot survived, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting Shiite Huthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen said.
	"Technical reasons" caused the crash of the US-built aircraft in the Najran district on the Saudi side of the border with Yemen, the coalition said.
	It added that the pilot was in good condition.
	The rebels' Al-Masirah television website claimed that the fighter-bomber had been shot down by "anti-aircraft defences".
	Separately, the United Arab Emirates army command announced the death of one of its soldiers fighting in Yemen as part of the coalition.
	He was the second Emirati soldier in a week to die in Yemen, raising to around 80 the number of troops from the UAE killed in coalition operations against the Huthis and their allies.
	The coalition launched air strikes, training and other military assistance nearly two years ago to support Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
	The rebels are allied with former .

Jordan warplane crashes in Saudi, pilot survives

The German government admitted today it deported fewer than half the Afghans who were due to be repatriated on a charter plane earlier this week, after some went into hiding.
	Fifty Afghans whose asylum requests had been rejected were to have boarded the aircraft for their home country late Wednesday, but "in fact, only 18 got on the flight," said interior ministry spokesman Tobias Plate.
	But he sought to play down the issue, saying that "if one looks at other flights, the numbers are always below that of the planning figure".
	"There are always a few who don't turn up because of different reasons -- health reasons, successful applications for urgent rights protection of which there are three cases here.
	"Others go into hiding or seek asylum in churches," he said, adding that the proportion of no-shows increase when the planned expulsions are known ahead of time.
	"That's why the government has initiated several measures, including for example no longer announcing such flights in ...

Afghan deportation flight left from Germany half empty

A suicide bomber attacked Turkish-backed rebels just outside the Syrian town of Al-Bab today, killing 51 people in a major blow just hours after they hailed its capture from the Islamic State group.
	The bomber blew up a vehicle packed with explosives outside a rebel command centre in the village of Susian, eight kilometres northeast of Al-Bab, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	The blast devastated the twin command posts and also seriously wounded a large number of fighters, the Britain-based monitoring group said.
	It had earlier said that 42 people, mainly rebels, had died, but later clarified to say the majority of those killed were civilians.
	There was no immediate claim for the attack, but rebels blamed it on IS, which had put up fierce resistance in Al-Bab for weeks.
	"(Abu Bakr) al-Baghdadi's dogs could not bear their huge loss, and their suicide bombers have begun to take revenge," said field commander Abu Jaafar of the Mutasem Brigades.
	He said rebel fighters, .

Suicide bomber kills 51 near Syria town taken from IS

At least seven soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack on military positions in northeast Nigeria, a civilian vigilante and a security source said on today.
	The attack happened in the town of Gajiram, about 80 kilometres by road north of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, on Wednesday afternoon.
	A military source in Maiduguri and a civilian vigilante, Babakura Kolo, both told AFP yesterday that the fighting lasted for about two hours and that three soldiers were killed.
	But Kolo said today that the toll was had risen and that it was "now seven, including one lieutenant, and six rank and file.
	"Yesterday, three bodies of soldiers were found but four more bodies were found during a search."
	The security source said three militants were also killed and troops were combing the area to find other rebel fighters.
	AFP contacted the military for comment but there was no immediate response.
	Fighters loyal to Abu Musab Al-Barnawi were suspected of carrying out the attack, said ...

Boko Haram attack kills seven in Nigeria: security sources

A report expected to criticise Israel's prime minister and the armed forces command over their conduct in the runup to the 2014 Gaza war is to be released next week, officials said today.
	State comptroller Yossef Shapira's report, the result of a two-year inquiry, will be published on Tuesday, a spokesman for his office said.
	Shapira, who is in charge of assessing state policies and use of public funds, opened his investigation soon after the July-August 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group which controls the Gaza Strip.
	A draft released to senior officials reportedly condemns Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon for failing to prepare for the threat posed by Hamas tunnels from Gaza, despite alerts from the intelligence services.
	Hamas and its allies used the tunnels to carry out cross-border attacks on Israeli territory.
	The report also examines "the way in which decisions were made within the (security) cabinet before and at .

Israel to publish long-awaited report on 2014 Gaza war

Two Turkish soldiers were killed today in a suicide attack in the former IS bastion of Al-Bab, the premier said, hours after a suicide bomber attacked Turkish-backed rebels outside the Syrian town.
	"There was a suicide attack which killed two of our soldiers," Binali Yildirim said, indicating they died while checking roads in the town which rebels claimed they had seized from Islamic State militants yesterday.
	However, the Turkish military said they were killed by a mine in a blast which also wounded three other soldiers.
	The soldiers had been checking the area for explosives left behind by IS.
	Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Yildirim said "the most rigorous cleaning operations" were under way in Al-Bab which he said was "full of bombs and hand-made explosives".
	The blast followed an earlier attack that killed 42 people outside a rebel command centre in Susian village some eight kilometres northeast of Al-Bab, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	Al-Bab, which is 25 ...

Two Turkish soldiers killed in Al-Bab attack: PM

The leader of Boko Haram's main faction, Abubakar Shekau, has admitted killing the group's purported spokesman over an apparent plot to oust him, he said in an audio recording.
	In the 50-minute tape of a meeting with the inner circle of his militant Islamist group, Shekau said he killed "Tasiu" -- also known as Abu Zinnira -- who appeared in several video messages.
	"You should hear me: I killed Tasiu, hear me well," he told the gathering in Hausa, which is widely spoken across northeast Nigeria.
	Shekau states the date of the meeting -- December 18 -- and said it had been called to discuss "those elements grumbling over the killing of Tasiu".
	AFP received a copy of the recording earlier this month. The tape appears to have been meant for circulation only within the armed Islamist movement.
	Shekau's claim appears to lend weight to reports of infighting within Boko Haram, whose insurgency has killed at least 20,000 in northeast Nigeria since 2009 and left 2.6 million ...

Boko Haram leader killed spokesman over 'leadership plot'

Myanmar Buddhist nationalists rallied outside the Thai embassy in Yangon today to condemn the Thai government's siege of the controversial Dhammakaya temple as officers search for an elderly monk accused of massive embezzlement.
	The sprawling Bangkok temple, which houses the headquarters of the breakaway Dhammakaya sect, has been flooded this week with thousands of police and soldiers hunting for its 72-year-old former abbot Phra Dhammachayo.
	The elderly monk, who is accused of money-laundering and accepting millions of dollars of embezzled funds, is believed to be hiding inside the temple's labyrinthine complex on the city's outskirts.
	Scenes of security officers scuffling with monks trying to block their search have ricocheted across the web this week raising alarm in neighbouring Myanmar, another devoutly Buddhist country.
	More than a hundred people, including dozens of robe-clad monks, gathered waving Buddhist and national flags and chanting: "May the teachings of the Buddha ..

Myanmar Buddhists protest raid on scandal-hit Thai temple

China called on the US to shoulder more responsibility in tackling North Korea's rogue nuclear programme today, slapping down claims by President Donald Trump that Beijing could bring the isolated state to heel.
	North Korea defied the world last week with a missile test and is suspected of orchestrating the stunning assassination a day later of supreme leader Kim Jong-Un's half-brother in Malaysia, provocative acts that followed a nuclear test in September.
	Beijing, often the target of US criticism for not doing enough to rein in its irascible neighbour, hit out at Trump's suggestion in an interview with Reuters on Thursday that China could rein in North Korea "very easily" if it wanted to.
	"The crux of the Korean nuclear issue lies with the differences between the DPRK and the United States," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters Friday at a regular press briefing.
	He urged Washington and Pyongyang to "shoulder their due responsibilities and play their due roles ..

China says US must work together on solution to N. Korea

Britain's main opposition Labour Party defeated UKIP's leader in a Brexit bastion, but in a second by-election suffered a landmark defeat to Prime Minister Theresa May's governing Conservatives today.
	The results saw the Brexit-championing UK Independence Party fail to capitalise on the June referendum vote to leave the European Union.
	But while Labour celebrated fending off UKIP's bid to replace them in their traditional post-industrial heartlands, the historic loss elsewhere of a seat to the Conservatives was a big blow to their prospects in the 2020 general election.
	In yesterday's two parliamentary by-elections, Labour clung on to its Stoke-on-Trent Central seat, in the British city that registered the highest vote for leaving the EU.
	Labour's Gareth Snell took 37 per cent of the vote, beating new UKIP leader Paul Nuttall who garnered 25 percent. In a town where voter apathy runs deep, turnout stood at 38 percent.
	Both parties had ploughed huge resources into the contest in ..

Victory for May as Labour suffers historic defeat

Hundreds of supporters of a hardline Bangladesh Islamist group staged protests today calling for the statue of a Greek goddess installed at the Supreme Court to be destroyed or removed.
	The sculpture of Themis, the blindfolded deity of justice and order, has ruffled feathers in the Muslim-majority nation since it was unveiled late last year on the premises of the country's top court.
	Crowds led by the fundamentalist Hefazat-e-Islam group spilled onto the streets of Dhaka after Friday prayers, demanding the immediate removal of the statue.
	They chanted slogans and wielded placards with slogans such as "Demolish the statue on the court premises and replace it with the Koran".
	The protests come as hardline Islamists try to push a series of changes in school textbooks, which are overwhelmingly secular, to reflect Muslim traditions.
	Conservative Bangladesh has seen increasing tension between hardliners and secularists in recent years, suffering a spate of killings of atheist bloggers, 

Bangladesh Islamists protest court's Greek goddess statue

Two-time major winner Martin Kaymer was hot on the heels of rookie co-leaders Cody Gribble and Wesley Bryan after one round of the US PGA Tour Honda Classic.
     Bryan and Gribble both teed off early at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and produced six-under par 64s that none of the later starters could match.
     But Gribble and Bryan, who is coming off a career-best tie for fourth at Riviera Country Club on Sunday, have no margin for error with Germany's Kaymer and India's Anirban Lahiri just a stroke back, with seven more players on 66.
     Kaymer finished with back-to-back birdies for his 65, chipping in from the green-side rough at 17.
     "It was just one of those shots you want to get within three feet or so," Kaymer said. "It was a bit of a bonus. You try to get away with a par and then chip in for two. I take it. Sometimes it works out the other way and you make a bogey."
     Lahiri drained a 25-foot eagle putt at the 18th to join Kaymer at five-under.
     ..

Kaymer lurks as rookies lead Honda Classic

A Saudi minister held talks with an Iranian delegation about the possibility of Iranian pilgrims rejoining the annual hajj despite ruptured ties between the two countries, state media has reported.
	Shiite-dominated Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia have had no diplomatic ties since early last year.
	The kingdom's minister in charge of pilgrimages, Mohammed Bentin, discussed with the Iranians "arrangements concerning participation of the Iranian faithful in this year's hajj," the official Saudi Press Agency said.
	It did not give more details but said the meeting took place yesterday in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
	SPA said the talks occurred in the context of meetings organised by the pilgrimage ministry with various countries about accommodation and other logistics for the hajj, which will take place around early September.
	For the first time in nearly three decades, Iran's 64,000 pilgrims did not attend last year's hajj after the regional rivals failed to agree on security and .

Saudi minister in talks with Iran team over hajj

More than 130 Turkish diplomats, soldiers and their family members have sought refuge in Germany since last July's failed coup, according to German government.
	"The government is aware of 136 asylum applications filed by diplomatic passport holders from Turkey. They also include family members," said the interior ministry in a written reply to a query from a lawmaker.
	The German government data in documents was seen by AFP today.
	The ministry said however that it did not have data on how many among the applicants are diplomats and how many are soldiers stationed at NATO bases.
	President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has accused US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen of having orchestrated the putsch, and launched a sweeping crackdown against his followers.
	Some 43,000 people in Turkey have been arrested over their suspected links to Gulen's movement, and 100,000 fired or suspended. Many of them are teachers, police, magistrates and journalists.
	The scale of the crackdown .

136 Turks with diplomatic status sought asylum in Germany

The use of the banned nerve agent VX in the killing of the North Korean leader's half-brother in Malaysia was a "blatant violation" of an international treaty, the South said today.
	"We are shocked by the latest revelation by the Malaysian authorities that VX... Was used in the death of Kim Jong-Nam," Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement.
	It called it a "blatant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and other international norms".
	Unlike Pyongyang, Seoul -- which first pointed the finger at the North over Kim's death -- is a signatory to the Convention, which went into force in 1997.
	"The use of any chemical weapons is strictly banned for any reason and in any place," the foreign ministry statement said.
	South Korea's defence ministry said in its 2014 Defence White Paper that the North began producing chemical weapons in the 1980s and estimated that it has about 2,500 to 5,000 tonnes in stock.
	In a 2015 assessment, the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative ...

Use of VX in Kim killing 'blatant violation' of treaty: Seoul

Malaysia warned North Korea's outspoken ambassador today he would be thrown out of the country if he continues to "spew lies" over the investigation into the assassination of Kim Jong-Nam.
	Malaysia Foreign Minister Anifah Aman lashed out at Kang Chol, the envoy of the Stalinist state, who has said "we cannot trust the investigation by the Malaysian police".
	Kang has also claimed the probe is politically motivated and that Malaysia had conspired with South Korea to frame the North.
	But Anifah cautioned Kang he should watch what he says.
	"He must enjoy the confidence of the government of Malaysia," Anifah said.
	"I hope he understands by what I mean by he must enjoy the confidence of the government of Malaysia."
	Anifah added: "The ambassador has been informed of the process involved (in the police investigation) but he continues to be delusional and spew lies and accusations against the government of Malaysia."
	A senior Malaysian government official said Kang had been shown a ...

Malaysia warns N Korea envoy: quit lying or face expulsion

Sri Lanka today arrested 18 people suspected of trying to leave the country illegally for New Zealand, a navy spokesman said.
	A joint team of navy and police officers took the men into custody during a pre-dawn operation outside Colombo as they tried to board a fishing trawler, spokesman Chaminda Walakuluge said.
	Sri Lankans have sought asylum in New Zealand in the past, most of them members of the island's Tamil minority who say they are fleeing persecution at home.
	"The information we have is that they were trying to go to New Zealand," Walakuluge told AFP.
	"We handed the men to the police for further action while we look for the people smugglers involved."
	It was the largest arrest of would-be migrants in Sri Lanka since the navy stopped 54 people from leaving the island in a fishing trawler in May 2014.
	Later that same year, 37 people were arrested outside Sri Lankan waters after being turned back by Australia's coastguard.
	Breaking the immigration law carries a maximum ...

Sri Lanka detains migrants bound for New Zealand

A suicide bomber killed 42 people, most of them rebels, today near the Syrian town of Al-Bab, which they had taken from the Islamic State group, a monitor said in a new toll.
	"The death toll has risen to 42 but it could rise further because there are dozens of wounded, some of them in a critical condition," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

42 dead in attack on rebels outside Syria's Al-Bab: new toll

South African police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to break up clashes between local protesters and migrants in Pretoria today at a march against immigration.
	Shops and homes owned by foreigners have been looted and torched in recent weeks, with some South Africans alleging that the properties were brothels and drug dens.
	Attacks against foreigners have erupted regularly in recent years, fuelled by South Africa's high unemployment and poverty levels.
	Police in Pretoria formed lines to keep apart 500 protesters as tensions rise between some South Africans and migrants from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Pakistan and elsewhere.
	"We are fed up with people bringing drugs to the youth and the crimes that go with it," said a South African marcher who declined to be named.
	As the stand-off continued, Clement Melfort, 26, a migrant from Zimbabwe who had come to see the march told AFP: "We are not afraid of fighting."
	President Jacob Zuma condemned the latest wave of xenophobic ...

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