Alastair Cook said he could no longer give the "100 percent" required as he explained in detail Tuesday why he had resigned as England's Test captain.
     The 32-year-old opening batsman, who wants to continue his England career, announced Monday he was resigning after a national record 59 Tests in charge.
     Cook looked emotionally drained after England's 4-0 series loss in India in December, with the tourists suffering innings defeats in the last two matches.
     That followed a maiden Test defeat by Bangladesh earlier in the tour and Cook said now was the time for him to end a career as full-time England captain that started in 2012.
     "It was an incredibly tough decision to make," Cook told Sky Sports at Lord's in his first interview since resigning.
     "I've loved every minute as England captain, but it's a job you have to commit 100 percent to, and there have been certain times throughout my four or five years in the job when I've been to the well and dug pretty deep.
  

Cook could no longer be '100 percent' captain

PTI Automatic

Faf du Plessis hit his second century of the series as Sri Lanka's struggling cricketers found themselves on the end of another battering in the fourth one-day international against South Africa at Newlands today.
     Du Plessis hit a career-best 185, only three short of the South African record, as South Africa piled up 367 for five.
     Already 3-0 up in what has been a one-sided series, South Africa took full advantage of good batting conditions after winning the toss.
     Du Plessis made his runs off 141 balls and hit 16 fours and three sixes. He was caught at long-on off the first ball of the last over trying to clear the boundary with a hit which would have taken him past Gary Kirsten's long-standing South African best of 188 not out, made against the United Arab Emirates in Rawalpindi during the 1996 World Cup.
     Du Plessis shared century partnerships with Quinton de Kock (55) and captain AB de Villiers (64).
     Sri Lankan hopes flickered briefly when Hashim Amla was ...

Du Plessis dazzles as South Africa post 367-5

A prominent Russian rights advocacy group today warned of a crackdown on internet users as courts impose harsh jail sentences for posts expressing political views.
	"The Russian authorities have begun to see the internet as a theatre of war, both inside (the country) and outside" where the slightest criticism is "seen as like an armed attack," Agora advocacy group said in a report presented in Moscow.
	Agora groups together around 50 lawyers specialising in rights cases who have worked on cases including that of Pussy Riot punk group and radical performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky.
	It said that the state policy on the Russian-language internet -- known as the Runet -- can be summed up with the words "attack," "campaign" and "enemies."
	The Russian government also focuses on an external threat, with the FSB security service saying it foiled 70 million cyberattacks last year, Agora said, querying the high figure.
	The advocacy group condemned "strong censorship" of the internet and ...

Russia wages 'war' on internet by jailing users: rights group

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas today called a new Israeli law legalising dozens of Jewish outposts built on private Palestinian land an "attack against our people".
	Israel has faced broad international criticism over the law its parliament passed yesterday, including from Britain, France, the United Nations and neighbouring Jordan. The United States has not commented.
	Abbas said the law was illegal and was "obviously against the wishes of the international community."
	Speaking alongside Abbas at a press conference in Paris, French President Francois Hollande said: "I want to believe that Israel and its government will reconsider this law."
	The legislation would legalise dozens of wildcat Jewish outposts and thousands of settler homes in the occupied West Bank and prompted a call by the Palestinians for the international community to punish Israel.
	Pro-Palestinian Israeli NGOs said they would ask the Supreme Court to strike down the law.
	Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog 

Abbas calls Israeli settler law an 'attack' on Palestinians

Amnesty International today accused Syria's government of hanging up to 13,000 people at a notorious prison over five years in a "policy of extermination", two weeks before planned peace talks.
	The damning report, titled "Human Slaughterhouse: Mass hanging and extermination at Saydnaya prison" near Damascus, goes into excruciating detail about the gruesome ritual of mass hangings between 2011 and 2015.
	At least once a week, up to 50 prisoners were taken out of their cells for arbitrary trials, beaten, then hanged "in the middle of the night and in total secrecy", the report said.
	"Throughout this process, they remain blindfolded. They do not know when or how they will die until the noose was placed around their necks."
	Most of the victims were civilians believed to be opposed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
	"They kept them (hanging) there for 10 to 15 minutes," a former judge who witnessed the executions said.
	"For the young ones, their weight wouldn't kill them. 

Amnesty accuses Syria of mass hangings in infamous jail

The EU today firmly maintained that Greece's economy remained on track despite a withering opinion by the IMF that Athens needed major deep debt relief and less austerity to prosper.
	A standoff between the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund has dragged on for months, raising fears of a new debt crisis and sparking fresh talk of Greece tumbling out of the euro.
	The fund and the 19-nation single currency area are battling over how much debt relief Greece needs, and over economic targets required of Athens as part of a third massive bailout, agreed in 2015.
	"We continue to believe that the commitments reached for the programme are both credible and ambitious," said Annika Breidthardt, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, the EU's executive arm which monitors the bailout for the eurozone, along with the IMF and the ESM bailout fund.
	More debt relief is the condition set by the IMF to lend more to Athens, but that demand is staunchly resisted by Germany and other fiscal 

Greece bailout 'credible' despite IMF criticism: EU

Colombia opens peace talks today with its last active rebel group, the ELN, seeking to replicate its historic accord with the FARC guerrillas and deliver "complete peace" after 53 years of war.
	But experts warn the ELN will be a tougher negotiating partner than the FARC, and say no deal is likely before President Juan Manuel Santos -- the man who has staked his presidency on ending the conflict -- leaves office next year.
	Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in October, was nevertheless full of optimism heading into the talks.
	"This conflict is over," he said Thursday.
	"The public phase of negotiations between the Colombian government and the ELN... Will enable us to achieve complete peace."
	The Cold War-era conflict, which has killed more than 260,000 people and left 60,000 missing, is the last major armed conflict in the Americas.
	Colombia, South America's third economy and the world's biggest cocaine producer, has been torn since the 1960s by fighting that has drawn in ...

Colombia seeks 'complete peace' at ELN talks

Egypt today applauded US President Donald Trump's claims that Western media outlets have deliberately not reported on "terrorist" attacks.
	Trump accused the media yesterday of disregarding attacks by radical jihadists, in a provocative statement for which he provided no evidence.
	In Cairo, a statement by foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid "hailed the US administration stance" criticising "the Western media's coverage of some terrorist attacks around the world".
	He said his statement addressed "the White House release of a list of 78 terror attacks (9 of which were in Egypt) which Western media ignored in a clear bias".
	Trump accused the media of downplaying the threat that his administration cites to justify its ban on travellers from seven Muslim majority states.
	Speaking during a visit to US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, Trump listed a string of attacks in the United States, including 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombings, the Orlando gay nightclub massacre and the San 

Egypt says it backs Trump's media criticism

Russia today said it was convening a conference of leading regional powers on Afghanistan and pushed again for talks with the Taliban.
	Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed Moscow would host a meeting in mid-February with representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Iran and India during a press conference with his counterpart from Kabul Salahuddin Rabbani.
	"We are expecting that our partners will be represented at a high level. Most have confirmed their participation," Lavrov said.
	Lavrov reiterated Moscow's stance that "the Taliban must be included in a constructive dialogue" to help find a solution to halt worsening violence in the war-ravaged nation at a time the Islamic State group has expanded its presence.
	Russia's meeting does not include Western powers who have had troops in the country since the American-led invasion in 2001, but Lavrov said Moscow was hoping better ties with US President Donald Trump could jump-start cooperation over Afghanistan.
	Moscow -- ...

Russia calls regional conference on Afghanistan

The EU said today it had failed to agree on long-delayed plans for a public prosecutor's office to combat fraud.
	The 28-nation bloc may now have to settle for a smaller group of countries agreeing on closer cooperation, in another sign of a divided, two-speed Europe.
	Plans for a European prosecutor first emerged in 2009 to combat fraud that costs the bloc nearly 900 million euros a year.
	But they have met resistance from some states who fear a loss of sovereignty as the proposed office would have powers to operate directly in member states.
	The European Council said it "registered the absence of unanimity in support of the proposal for a regulation creating a European Public Prosecutor's office."
	Under EU rules, a group of at least nine member states can now ask for EU leaders to decide at their next summit to find a way to push through the plans.
	"If this does not prove possible, enhanced cooperation can be considered," it added, meaning the group could push ahead with the ...

EU fails to agree on public prosecutor

Angry French youths clashed with police and burned cars in a Paris suburb, police sources said, amid simmering anger over the alleged rape of a local man during his arrest last week.
	A 22-year-old black youth worker named as Theo required major surgery after his arrest on Thursday when he claims a police officer sodomised him with his truncheon.
	One officer has been charged with rape and three others with assault over the incident last night in the tough Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois which has revived past controversies about alleged police brutality.
	For the third night in a row, officers were called to control a group of local youths who burned between five and 10 cars and damaged emergency service vehicles and two local restaurants.
	A total of 26 people were arrested and some police officers fired shots in the air after finding themselves trapped at one point, one of the police sources said.
	The mayor of Aulnay-sous-Bois, Bruno Beschizza, has sought to reassure residents ...

Fresh clashes in Paris suburb after police rape claim

A suicide bomber on foot ripped through a crowd of Afghan Supreme Court employees today, killing at least 20 people and wounding 41 others in the second attack on government institutions in under a month.
	The assailant detonated the device in the parking lot as employees were boarding a bus to go home, leaving bodies and dismembered limbs scattered around the area, with women and children among the casualties.
	No group has so far claimed responsibility for the blast in the snow-laden Afghan capital, but it occurred as the Taliban are ramping up their nationwide insurgency even in the peak winter months when fighting usually abates.
	"My father and I were exiting through the parking lot when a huge blast hit us," said a witness, breaking down in tears. "My father is dead now. How will I live without him?"
	The piercingly loud explosion shook nearby buildings, smashing windows and blasting debris onto the streets.
	Police blocked off the road around the high-profile compound located ..

Suicide bomber kills 20 at Afghanistan's top court

Ivorian troops repeatedly fired into the air today in the barracks town of Adiake, east of the commercial capital Abidjan, residents said, weeks after troops and security forces mutinied.
	"There is shooting all over the place. I closed my shop," Mariame Coulibaly told AFP by telephone.
	An Ivorian defence ministry source said a high-ranking officer was on his way to the town which lies around 100 kilometres from Abidjan.

Shots fired by troops in I.Coast army barracks town

Britain must pay to leave the EU in the same way as friends going to the pub must pay for their round of drinks, the European Commission said today.
	Margaritis Schinas, a spokesman for Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, said the divorce bill is an "essential element" of an orderly Brexit.
	"It is like going to the pub with 27 friends," Schinas told a daily briefing.
	"You order a round of beer but then you cannot leave while the party continues, you still have to pay for the round you ordered."
	Britain's former ambassador to the EU said last week that the EU is set to demand up to 60 billion euros ($64 billion) from Britain to settle outstanding budget commitments.
	EU sources confirmed the figure to AFP. Britain estimates the figure at closer to 20 billion, they added.
	Schinas would not confirm the figure, saying that "technical work was ongoing".
	But he added: "During the time of its membership the UK has taken and probably will take financial commitments. These ...

Pub rules apply for Brexit bill, EU says

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is to face trial on charges of illegally financing his failed 2012 re-election bid, causing more trouble for the country's rightwing Republicans party.
	The prosecution claims Sarkozy spent nearly double the legal limit of 22.5 million euros (USD 24 million) on his lavish campaign, using false billing from a public relations firm called Bygmalion.
	A legal source said today that one of two investigating magistrates in charge of the case, Serge Tournaire, had decided on February 3 that the case should go to trial.
	Sarkozy's lawyer announced plans to appeal the decision.
	Bygmalion charged 15.2 million euros in campaign events to Sarkozy's rightwing party -- which at the time was called the UMP, but has since been renamed the Republicans -- instead of billing the president's campaign.
	The affair came to light in 2014 but investigators have yet to determine who ordered the fraud.
	Sarkozy, who failed in a presidential comeback bid last year, told 

Sarkozy to be tried over 2012 campaign financing

At least 19 people were killed and 41 wounded today in a suicide blast at Afghanistan's Supreme Court in Kabul, officials said, the latest attack to rock the war-torn capital.
	A suicide bomber on foot detonated as employees were boarding a bus to go home in the parking lot of the court compound, located on the road leading from the international airport to the US embassy, interior ministry spokesman Najibullah Danish told AFP.
	The casualty figures came from health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh, who added that women and children were among the wounded.
	Police had blocked off the road around the compound as panicked relatives of court employees began to gather, and ambulances and fire trucks arrived on the scene.
	The blast comes after twin Taliban explosions tore through employees exiting a parliament annexe in Kabul last month, killing at least 30 people and wounding 80 others.
	The carnage underscores growing insecurity in Afghanistan, where US-backed forces are struggling to ..

19 killed in suicide blast at Afghan Supreme Court: officials

Air strikes on Syria's former al-Qaeda affiliate in the country's northwest today killed 26 people, including civilians, a monitoring group said.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights  told AFP at least 10 air strikes battered the headquarters of Fateh al-Sham Front and the surrounding neighbourhood in Idlib city at dawn today.
	"Ten civilians, mostly women, are among the dead," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
	"The toll could rise because some people are trapped under the rubble and unaccounted for," he added.
	Abdel Rahman said the raids were likely carried out by Russian warplanes -- allied with Syria's government -- or by a US-backed air coalition.
	Fateh al-Sham has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks in Idlib province, the only remaining opposition-held province in war-ravaged Syria.
	Bombing raids against the group have escalated, including one US strike in January that killed more than 100 fighters at a training camp in Idlib province.
	The US-led ...

Air strikes on Syrian ex-Qaeda branch kill 26: monitor

At least 12 people were killed today in a suicide attack at the Supreme Court in the Afghan capital of Kabul, officials said.
	A suicide bomber on foot targeted employees in the court parking lot, Najibullah Danish, spokesman for the interior ministry, told AFP.
	"Twelve people... Were killed and 12 wounded," he said.

12 killed in suicide blast at Afghan Supreme Court: officials

At least 12 killed in suicide blast at Afghan Supreme

Saudi police arrested an apparently "mentally disturbed" man who tried to set himself on fire at Islam's holiest site, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, a police spokesman said today.
	The man, in his 40s and a Saudi citizen, "poured petrol on himself and tried to set it alight," Grand Mosque police spokesman Major Sameh al-Salami said.
	"His behaviour gives the impression that he is mentally disturbed."
	The incident happened last night right next to the Kaaba, the cubic stone structure at the heart of the mosque towards which Muslims pray.
	Pilgrims and police escorted the man away before he could light the petrol, footage posted on social media showed.
	Witnesses told Saudi media that the man also tried to set fire to the kiswah, the black and gold silk curtain that covers the Kaaba.
	One witness told the Sabq news website that the man had been uttering "takfiri" slogans, referring to extremist Islamist groups blamed for numerous attacks worldwide.
	The huge flow of pilgrims into the ...

Saudi attempts self-immolation at Islam's holiest site

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that "defending" his country in a time of war was more important than any international tribunal that may be brought against his government later.
	His comments to Belgian media came as rights watchdog Amnesty International accused the regime of hanging 13,000 at an infamous prison near Damascus.
	According to an English-language transcript of the interviews published by Syrian state news agency SANA yesterday, Assad accused UN institutions of acting unfairly towards his country.
	"We all know that the United Nations institutions are not unbiased, they are biased because of the American influence and the French and British, mainly," he said.
	"They are only politicised to implement the agenda of those countries," he added.
	Syria's conflict first broke out in March 2011 with widespread protests that descended into violence.
	Asked whether he was concerned about a potential court case brought against the regime at the UN's highest court in The .

AFP

AFP

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