Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane left star forward Cristiano Ronaldo out of his squad for tomorrow's clash with Deportivo la Coruna with one eye on the Club World Cup in Japan next week.
     Ronaldo has had a week to forget off the pitch as stories concerning his tax affairs have dominated the headlines.
     An international consortium of media organisations claimed last Friday that Ronaldo hid 150 million euros ($160 million) earned from image rights in the British Virgin Islands.
    	Ronaldo, 31, has strongly denied the claims, saying after Wednesday's 2-2 draw with Borussia Dortmund that "he who owes nothing, isn't afraid."
	Madrid midfielder Luka Modric and defenders Fabio Coentrao and Pepe have also been implicated for storing earnings from image rights in tax havens in the "Football Leaks" investigation following a huge data leak involving 18 million documents.
     "I am sure that when people speak about these things, it has an effect, but the most important thing is that it 

Ronaldo rested, Zidane seeks quick fix to tax scandals

PTI Automatic

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced confidence today that South Korea will overcome the political turmoil triggered by the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye.
	A former South Korean foreign minister who was widely believed to be angling to run for the presidency in his home country, Ban said in a statement that he had "taken note" of the vote in the National Assembly to remove Park from office.
	Ban "continues to believe in the maturity and strength of the constitutional institutions of the republic of Korea," said the UN statement.
	"The secretary-general is confident that the people of the republic of Korea will overcome the present difficulties through unity and resilience as well as a strong commitment to democratic institutions and principles," it added.
	The vote leaves South Korea facing political anxiety and paralysis at a time of slowing economic growth, rising unemployment and heightened military tensions with nuclear-armed North Korea.
	Ban, 72, is stepping down on .

UN chief confident S Korea will overcome impeachment scandal

Rotterdam police arrest 'terror suspect' with guns,

The estimated cost of dealing with the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis has doubled to nearly USD 190 billion, the government said today, underlining the challenge Japan faces in overcoming the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
	Tokyo said it expects the total costs - including compensation, decommissioning and decontamination - to reach 21.5 trillion yen (USD 188 billion).
	The figure is nearly double the previous estimate of 11 trillion yen made three years ago.
	Tokyo's confirmation of the surging costs linked to the accident comes after public broadcaster NHK reported similar figures last week.
	The estimates were hammered out by an expert panel that is working out how costs should be divided between the government, Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) and others.
	A massive undersea quake on March 11, 2011, sent a giant tsunami barrelling into Japan's northeastern coast, leaving more than 18,500 people dead or missing, and sending three reactors into ...

Fukushima costs to double to nearly USD 190 bn: government

30 killed in Boko Haram suicide attacks in NE Nigeria:

Hundreds of men may have gone missing after fleeing into government-controlled parts of Aleppo, the UN warned today, saying armed groups were reportedly blocking civilians from leaving the shrinking areas under their control.
	As Syrian government artillery pummelled the rebel territory in Aleppo, the UN rights office said both sides appeared to be operating in "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law", and that civilians were paying the price.
	"While it's very difficult to establish the facts in such a fluid and dangerous situation, we have received very worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas," spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.
	He said the men were between the ages of 30 and 50, and their family members said they had lost contact with them after they fled opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo around a week or 10 days ago.
	"Given the terrible record of arbitrary detention, torture ...

Hundreds missing after fleeing east Aleppo: UN

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos today said the Nobel Peace Prize was a "gift from heaven" and gave a "tremendous push" to reach a new agreement with FARC rebels.
	Speaking at a news conference in Oslo on the eve of the prize ceremony, Santos said the prestigious award "came like a gift from heaven because it gave us a tremendous push" to achieve a new peace deal with FARC after Colombian voters narrowly rejected an initial agreement in an October referendum.

Nobel prize was incentive in Colombia peace: Santos

Apple has struck a partnership with the world's largest wind turbine maker, the American company said, marking the tech giant's largest clean energy project to date.
	It bought a 30 per cent stake in subsidiaries of China- based Goldwind to run four projects that will produce 285 megawatts of power.
	The projects are located in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and Yunnan provinces, Goldwind said in a statement to the Shenzhen stock exchange.
	Apple is striving to improve the environmental impact of its supply chain, which is responsible for more than 70 per cent of its total carbon footprint, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
	CEO Tim Cook had previously announced Apple would boost the efficiency of its manufacturing partners in China by building solar projects and other sources of clean energy.
	"We should help our supply chain become greener and more sustainable. So, instead of giving them fish, we want to teach them how to fish," Apple's vice president of environment, policy and ...

Apple invests in China wind farms

Some 400 African migrants forced their way into the tiny Spanish enclave of Ceuta today, authorities said, the biggest group in a decade to storm the walled city bordering Morocco in search of asylum.
	The group scaled two entry points in the six-metre-high barrier that surrounds the enclave, a local government spokesman said.
	Footage posted online by the El Faro de Ceuta newspaper showed dozens of migrants, including men without shoes and shirts, letting off joyous cries of "Spain!" as they crossed into Ceuta.
	The Red Cross said it had treated 103 people for minor injuries sustained during the assault, and that 25 had been taken to hospital.
	About 20 per cent of the group who rushed the gates had not been located by authorities as of midday today, Spain's Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said.
	Ceuta along with Melilla, another Spanish territory in North Africa, have the European Union's only land borders with Africa.
	They are favoured entry points for African migrants ...

400 migrants storm border at Spain's Ceuta

Opposition challenger Nana Akufo-Addo has a clear lead in Ghana's hotly contested presidential election, local media reported today, although official results have yet to be published.
	Akufo-Addo has won more than 54 per cent of the vote in the race against incumbent President John Mahama, according to local radio stations PeaceFM radio and CitiFM.
	Huge crowds of jubilant Akufo-Addo supporters were celebrating at the home of the 72-year-old New Patriotic Party (NPP) leader who had already claimed victory yesterday.
	Mahama, who is seeking a second term in office, pledged to respect the results of an election being seen as a test of stability of Africa's most secure democracy.
	"I want to assure the nation that we will respect the outcome of the elections, positive or negative," the charismatic 58-year-old said at his Accra residence.
	He called for calm and patience over the slow pace of the count after Wednesday's presidential and parliamentary vote in the resource-rich west ...

Ghana challenger leads presidential vote: media

A Saudi soldier was killed in a landmine blast near the kingdom's border with Yemen, the interior ministry said today.
	The explosion struck a Border Guards water tanker at 6:00 PM (2030 IST) yesterday in Saudi Arabia's southern Jazan region, the ministry said.
	It said Huthi rebels from Yemen were responsible for the blast.
	The border guard was the latest of at least 110 Saudi soldiers and civilians to die in the country's south since the kingdom launched a coalition to battle Yemeni insurgents in March 2015.
	Most Saudi casualties have been from retaliatory cross- border rocket attacks or combat. But there have also been previous deadly mine blasts in Jazan.
	In Yemen itself, more than 7,000 people have been killed, mostly civilians, since March last year according to the United Nations.

Mine kills Saudi soldier near Yemen border

The Israeli army acknowledged today that a "declassified map" it released earlier this week showing alleged armed deployment by Hezbollah across southern Lebanon was merely an illustration.
	The army said that the map, which Israeli media said was circulated to foreign diplomats as evidence of its Lebanese foe's hostile intentions, was not based on any new intelligence.
	The admission came after the data it contained was picked apart by online activist Judge Dan.
	Asked by AFP if the map was an illustration or based on specific information, the army said it was "an illustration of Hezbollah's intentional abuse of the civilians of Lebanon."
	The army released the map on Tuesday with symbols showing alleged Hezbollah rocket launchers, infantry positions and tunnels in almost every village in south Lebanon.
	An accompanying Tweet accused the Shiite militant group of "hiding behind Lebanon's civilians, adding: "This is a war crime."
	A UN ceasefire resolution that ended a devastating 2006 

Israel army says Hezbollah map was just 'illustration'

A British journalist working for The Times of London newspaper was detained by Kenyan security at Nairobi airport today and was held without explanation or charge.
	Jerome Starkey, 35, was locked in a cell overnight after arriving in Kenya from the UK late yesterday.
	"Just been arrested at the airport on orders of security services," Starkey tweeted early on Friday morning, posting a photograph of an untidy room with metal bunk beds inside the airport terminal.
	Officers told Starkey a "security block" had been placed on his passport but were unable to provide any further information.
	An award-winning journalist, Starkey has lived in Kenya since 2012 when he was appointed Africa correspondent for The Times after years working in Afghanistan.
	Starkey has reported extensively on terrorism, security, miscarriages of justice, conservation and drugs trafficking while based in East Africa.
	He has been questioned by immigration, detectives and anti-terrorism police but after more than 15 

British journalist detained without charge in Kenya

Half of Sri Lanka's public procurement contracts are tainted by bribery and corruption, President Maithripala Sirisena said today, nearly two years after he came to power promising to tackle government graft.
	The president, who has ordered investigations into alleged widespread corruption under his predecessor, said he could not name names because those exposed would "go on strike from tomorrow".
	"I regret to say that organised bribery and corruption is still taking place in government institutions," he told a public meeting of police and anti-corruption activists in Colombo.
	"We say call tenders to prevent corruption, but in reality we know that the tender procedures are also corrupt. It happens in over 50 per cent of the time."
	Sirisena said one government institution had threatened to go on strike to protest against the installation of a CCTV system designed to discourage money changing hands illegally.
	"Such is the level of resistance and I am told that officers who refuse to 

Half Sri Lanka's contracts are corrupt: president

Hillary Clinton has issued a stern warning against the proliferation of fake news, branding it an epidemic with "real world consequences" that must be addressed in order to protect the nation's democracy.
	   The Democrat Clinton lost last month's presidential election to Republican Donald Trump in a shock upset, with several Trump critics arguing that the prominence of fake articles shared on Facebook and other social media may have affected the outcome.
	   The phenomenon nearly turned deadly this week when a rifle-wielding man entered a pizza restaurant in Washington saying he wanted to investigate a fake news story that wrongly stated the Comet Ping Pong restaurant was a center for child abduction linked to Clinton and a top advisor.
	   "It's now clear that so-called fake news can have real world consequences," Clinton told current and former US lawmakers on Capitol Hill where she attended a ceremony for outgoing Democratic Senate minority leader Harry Reid.
	   "This isn't about 

Clinton warns of danger of fake news 'epidemic'

Russia's telecom operator today said that it had blocked a series of cyber attacks on the country's leading banks this week, the latest to target the country's financial sector.
	Rostelecom said in a statement that it "successfully thwarted DDoS (distributed denial of service) on the five biggest banks and financial organisations in Russia" on December 5.
	"The most sustained attack lasted more than two hours," it said.
	Russia's FSB security service last week said it had uncovered plans by foreign intelligence services to carry out massive cyber attacks targeting the country's financial system from December 5.
	State-controlled Russian bank VTB said Monday that its websites had been hit by a cyber attack but insisted its systems were still working "as normal".
	The FSB did not say which countries' secret services were involved in the latest plot against Russian banks but alleged the attacks would use servers and "command centres" located in the Netherlands belonging to Ukrainian ...

Russia says thwarted fresh cyber attacks on major banks

Japan will launch a cargo ship today bound for the International Space Station, carrying a 'space junk' collector that was made with the help of a fishnet company.
	The vessel, dubbed "Kounotori" (stork in Japanese), is to blast off from the southern island of Tanegashima around 10:30 pm local time attached to an H-IIB rocket.
	Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are experimenting with a tether to pull junk out of orbit around Earth, clearing up tonnes of space clutter including cast-off equipment from old satellites and pieces of rocket.
	More than 50 years of human space exploration since the Soviet-launched Sputnik satellite in 1957 has produced this hazardous belt of orbiting debris.
	There are estimated to be more than 100 million pieces in orbit, posing a growing threat to future space exploration, scientists say.
	Researchers are using a so-called electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium.
	The idea is that one end of ...

Japan launching 'space junk' collector

Pakistan's main bourse is to sell a 40 per cent stake next week, a company official said today, citing Chinese and British consortia as among the prospective buyers.
	At least 17 entities have expressed an interest in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), whose benchmark stock index was one of the best performing indices worldwide in 2016, gaining 38 per cent so far.
	The PSX is currently owned by more than 300 Pakistani brokers.
	"We are opening bidding for the 40 per cent share of the PSX on December 15," Shahzad Chamdia, chief of a PSX divestment committee, told AFP.
	Analysts estimate the deal will be worth around USD 225 million, but the committee declined to comment.
	"We have the reference share price being evaluated by a third party and will reveal it only on the bidding day," Chamdia said.
	Sources at the PSX said a consortium consisting of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shenzen Stock Exchange and a Chinese fund is bidding, as well as another consortium of UK financial ...

Pakistan bourse to sell 40 per cent stake

Opener David Warner smashed his second straight hundred and Mitchell Starc bowled lethal reverse swing to spearhead Australia to a third big win over New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy here today.
     The Australian vice-captain was run out on the last ball of the innings for 156 off 128 balls -- more than half of his team's 264 for eight total -- with 13 fours and four sixes.
	It follows Warner's 119 off 115 balls against the Black Caps in Canberra on Tuesday.
	Starc then led Australia to a series clean sweep helping to skittle New Zealand for 147 off 36.1 overs to reclaim the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.
	Starc bowled Henry Nicholls and Colin Munro with unplayable yorkers and then trapped Mitchell Santner leg before wicket with reverse swing to finish with three for 34.
	Warner was named man of the match and man of the series after raising his 11th ODI century and seventh for the year.
	Only Indian great Sachin Tendulkar, with nine in 1998, has hit more ODI centuries in a ...

Australia beat New Zealand by 117 runs

Complete scoreboard in the third
Chappell-Hadlee Trophy one-day international between Australia and New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground here today.
     Australia
	D. Warner     run out (Boult)           156
	A. Finch      c Nicholls  b Boult         3
	S. Smith      c Nicholls b Boult          0
	G. Bailey     c Santner b De Grandhomme  23
	M. Marsh      b De Grandhomme             0
	T. Head       b Santner                  37
	M. Wade       c De Grandhomme b Santner  14
	J. Faulkner   c Guptill b Boult          13
	M. Starc      not out                     0
	Extras: (LB-5, W-11, NB-2)                18
     Total: (8 wickets, 50 overs)             264
     Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-11, 3-73, 4-73, 5-178, 6-226, 7-262, 8-264
     Bowling: Southee 10-2-45-0, Boult 10-1-49-3, Ferguson 8-0-50-0, Santner 9-0-43-2, De Grandhomme 10-0-50-2, Williamson 1-0-3-0, Munro 2-0-19-0
     New Zealand
	M. Guptill    c Bailey b Head            34
	T. Latham     c Faulkner b Cummins       ...

Melbourne, Dec 9 (AFP) Complete scoreboard in the third

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today that Syria's Aleppo will continue to come under bombardment as long as there are still rebels in the city.
	"After a humanitarian pause, (the strikes) have resumed and will continue for as long as the bandits are still in Aleppo," Lavrov told journalists on the sidelines of the OSCE foreign ministers' meeting in Hamburg.

AFP

AFP

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