The Senegalese sculptor Ousmane Sow, one of the giants of African art, died today in Dakar aged 81, his family told AFP.
	The artist was best known for his monumental sculptures of Nubian wrestlers inspired by the pictures taken in Sudan by the controversial German photographer Leni Riefenstahl.
	Sow's series of striking bronzes of muscular African men -- "The Maasai", "The Zulus" and "The Fulani" -- were widely exhibited in France and at the prestigious Documenta festival in Germany and the Venice Biennale.
	"The fact that his works were shown all over the world proved that he was a giant of culture. It is a real loss," said Senegal's Culture Minister Mbagnick Ndiaye.
	The former physiotherapist, who was the first African to be admitted to the French Academy of Beaux Arts, only began working seriously when he was 50.
	Yet his 1999 retrospective on the Pont des Arts next to the Louvre in Paris attracted an estimated three million visitors.
	A part of his dramatic installation on the ..

Giant of African art Ousmane Sow dies at 81

PTI Automatic

Russia's space agency said it had lost contact today with an unmanned cargo ship shortly after it blasted off to the International Space Station from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
	"Communication was lost today 383 seconds after the launch of the Soyuz-U carrier rocket with the cargo ship Progress MS-04," space agency Roscosmos said in a statement, adding that its specialists were looking into the problem.
	The ship, which was scheduled to arrive at the ISS on Saturday, was carrying 2.4 tonnes of fuel, food and equipment, Roscosmos said.
	A Progress cargo ship launch failed in April 2015. The failure, which Russia blamed on a problem in a Soyuz rocket, saw the ship disintegrate as it plummeted to Earth.
	The incident forced Russia to put all space travel on hold for nearly three months.
	Last month Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and American astronaut Peggy Whitson launched to the ISS for a six-month mission.

Contact lost with unmanned ISS cargo ship: Russia

UN human rights experts today said "ethnic cleansing" was under way in South Sudan, after a 10-day visit to the world's youngest country where violence has soared since a peace deal collapsed in July.
	"There is already a steady process of ethnic cleansing underway in several areas of South Sudan using starvation, gang rape and the burning of villages; everywhere we went across this country we heard villagers saying they are ready to shed blood to get their land back," said Yasmin Sooka of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.
	"Many told us it's already reached a point of no return.

UN rights team says 'ethnic cleansing' under way in SSudan

Contact lost with unmanned ISS cargo ship: Russian space

A minute's silence for the Chapecoense football players killed in a plane disaster in Colombia will be held before every Champions League and Europa League game next week, UEFA said today.
     "This tragedy has shaken the world of football and we would like to send our support to all of those affected by it," said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin in announcing the gesture.
     Most of the Brazilian club's players and coaching staff were among 71 people killed when a plane carrying them to the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional crashed near Medellin in Colombia earlier this week.

Champions League tribute to Brazil plane-crash players

England manager Gareth Southgate confirmed Wayne Rooney will remain captain today as he faced the media for the first time since his appointment on a permanent basis.
     Rooney, 31, apologised after being pictured looking the worse for wear as he mingled with wedding guests at the England team hotel in the early hours during the most recent international break.
     Southgate had dropped him for a 0-0 World Cup qualifying draw in Slovenia, but recalled him for England's 3-0 win over Scotland, before injury forced the Manchester United forward to withdraw from the squad.
     "Wayne Rooney is the England captain," Southgate told reporters at Wembley.
     "I said that from the beginning of the interim period. What's also clear is that I've only selected him to start in two of the four matches we've had.
     "It is not a case that Wayne expects to play every game. It's important we develop more leaders in that group.
     "When I played for England at Euro 96, there were leaders ...

Southgate confirms Rooney as England captain

New Zealand coach Mike Hesson declined to lay the boot into Australia today after a demoralising Test series defeat to South Africa, insisting their one-day team was a different beast.
     Australia head into the three-game limited-overs Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, starting Sunday in Sydney, on the back of that 2-1 series loss to the Proteas while New Zealand arrive fresh from a 2-0 Test sweep against Pakistan.
     "I think their one-day side is a heck of a lot more settled than their Test side," said Hesson.
     "The one-day side has been incredibly consistent, bar the recent South Africa (one-day 5-0 whitewash) series.
     "They've been very good for a number of years and are ranked number one in the world, so I don't think the unsettled nature of the Test side will lead into the one-day side."
     The New Zealanders could take the world number one ranking from the Aussies with a 3-0 series whitewash, but Hesson insisted that simply retaining the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy would be ...

New Zealand coach downplays Australia turmoil

President Vladimir Putin said today that Russia's new anti-doping programme will be ready in early 2017 as the country battles to clean up its scandal-tainted image.
     "Every cloud has a silver lining. I am convinced the so-called doping scandal will help us to create the most advanced system to fight this evil," Putin said in his annual state of the nation address.
     Russia has been pressed to reform since a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) inquiry revealed evidence of state-sponsored doping that saw its athletics team and entire Paralympics squad sidelined from the Rio Olympics this year.
     Last month Putin signed a law that introduces prison terms for coaches and medical staff who coerce athletes into using banned performance-enhancing drugs.
     Accusations of state-run doping were contained in a report by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren report commissioned by WADA and released in July just before the Rio Games.
     A new McLaren report on Russian sport is to be ..

Putin says anti-doping system to be ready in early 2017

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur compared "young gun" Babar Azam to Virat Kohli today, saying the 22-year-old reminded him of the India skipper at the same age.
     Batsman Azam has played only three Tests, narrowly missing out on a century in Pakistan's loss to New Zealand in Hamilton this week when he was left unbeaten on 90 as the side was bowled out.
     In his 18 one-dayers, he has scored three centuries, all of which came in consecutive matches against the West Indies earlier this year.
     "He (Azam) is a young gun who will be an exceptional player," Arthur told Perth's 6PR radio ahead of Pakistan's sole warm-up match for their three-Test series against Australia.
     "I'll go so far as to say, at the same age, I reckon he's as good as Virat Kohli, which I know that's high praise but he's right up there."
     Pakistan have resisted the temptation to change and retained the same 16-man squad for Australia that lost the recent series against New Zealand 2-0.
     For South ...

Azam like a young Kohli, says Pakistan coach

Legendary Pakistani paceman Wasim Akram said that Sri Lanka had a promising crop of fast bowlers despite their traditional reliance on spin after holding a coaching session with the islanders today.
     After spending several hours with the national team's main established strike bowlers and promising youngsters, Akram said there was no lack of raw pace but they needed to develop their ability to swing the ball.
     "Most of the bowlers had a pace of 130 to 140 kmph," said Akram who himself bowled at a similar pace in his prime in the 1990s when he was one of the world's leading players in all formats.
     Akram, who is now 50, said slower wickets were a fact of life in South Asia, particularly in Sri Lanka whose most successful bowlers have been spinners, including the record-breaking Muttiah Muralitharan.
     But he said there was no reason why fast bowlers could not thrive on slower tracks as long as they had the right tricks up the sleeve.
     "The idea is to teach them how ..

Akram says Sri Lanka has pace, needs swing

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today that Turkey's military operation in Syria was against "terror" groups, appearing to row back on his comments saying it was targeting President Bashar al-Assad.
	"The operation's target is not against a country or a person but against terrorist organisations only," Erdogan told local neighbourhood chiefs in Ankara.
	"No one should have any doubts or take our statements to mean something else. Even if Turkey is left alone, it will continue its fight against terrorist organisations."
	Turkey launched its unprecedented operation in northern Syria in August, providing tanks and aerial support to opposition fighters as they retake territory from the Islamic State (IS) group.
	Erdogan had on Tuesday said Turkey launched the offensive to "put an end to the rule of the tyrant Assad who carries out state terror, not for anything else".
	The next day, Assad's close ally Moscow which is providing key military support to Damascus, demanded an ...

Erdogan says Syria operation against 'terror groups' only

Construction of the world's first full-size replica of the Titanic has begun in China, state media reported today, where it is expected to enjoy smoother sailing as a lakeside tourist draw than its namesake.
	The 269-metre long, 28-metre wide ship will be docked permanently on a reservoir in a rural area of Sichuan province, the official Xinhua news agency cited a senior executive of the shipbuilder as saying.
	It will feature an interior reproducing some of the grandeur of the original including a ballroom, theatre, swimming pool and first-class cabins, with the addition of wifi, said Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group's deputy general manager Wang Weiling.
	The supposedly unsinkable ocean liner, which struck an iceberg and went down in the north Atlantic in 1912, killing more than 1,500 people, is a subject of immense fascination for many in China.
	Interest became particularly intense after the 1997 movie starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, which was hugely popular in ...

China theme park to raise the Titanic, with wi-fi

Ukraine today unleashed a barrage of missile tests near Russian-annexed Crimea in a show of strength and defiance bound to irritate Moscow.
	The two-day military drills near the Black Sea peninsula are a first for the former Soviet republic and it was not immediately clear what sparked them.
	They come after Moscow last week arrested an alleged spy for the Ukrainian military in Crimea and accused Kiev of abducting two Russian servicemen from the region.
	Kiev says Russia illegally annexed Crimea in March 2014, a month after Ukraine's Russian-backed president was ousted.
	It also accuses Moscow of backing a 31-month pro-Russian insurgency in Ukraine's industrial east in a conflict that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives.
	A Ukrainian military spokesman told the 112.Ua Ukraine news site that Kiev was not violating  international laws.
	"The launches have started. Everything is going according to plan. There has been no response from Russia but the Ukrainian military is ready for anything," 

Ukraine launches missile drills near Russia-annexed Crimea

One of the most wanted fugitive bosses of the notorious Calabrian mafia was arrested today in what the government hailed as a "beautiful" victory for Italy's fight against organised crime.
	Marcello Pesce, the leader of one of the most powerful clans in the 'Ndrangheta syndicate that controls much of Europe's cocaine trade, was arrested in a flat in his home town of Rosarno in Calabria in Italy's deep south.
	Nicknamed "The Dancer", Pesce, 52, was described by prosectuor Gaetano Paci as an intelligent, educated man. Books found in his residence included works by French writers Marcel Proust and Jean-Paul Sartre.
	"Today is a beautiful day for Italy: Marcello Pesce, one of the most dangerous mafia figures still at large was brought to justice," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano posted on Twitter.
	Authorities accuse Pesce of being the ruthless head of a family-based clan that controls drug trafficking through the port of Gioia Tauro and also being behind the exploitation of migrant ...

Italian mafia boss nabbed with compromising stash ... Of books

The birthplace of the father of South Korea's scandal-hit President Park Geun-Hye was damaged in an arson attack today, police said, with the suspect allegedly calling on the leader to quit.
	Park is under huge pressure to resign over an influence-peddling scandal that has drawn more than a million people onto the streets in protest and sent her approval ratings to record lows.
	The suspected arson attack damaged the memorial hall of the house where former military dictator Park Chung-Hee was born in the southern city of Gumi, police said.
	A 48-year-old man was arrested nearby for suspected arson.
	"The president should have resigned or killed herself. I set the fire because she did neither," the suspect was quoted as saying by the police, according to Yonhap news agency.
	Police were investigating whether he had written a message in the visitors' book Thursday which read "Kill yourself, Park Geun-Hye. Stop soiling your father's name", Yonhap added.
	Park said this week she would let 

Birthplace of S Korea president's father 'hit by arson'

The British government voiced disappointment today after a UN panel rejected its request to review a ruling that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is being arbitrarily detained.
	"Julian Assange is not, and has never been, arbitrarily detained in the UK," junior foreign minister Alan Duncan said in a statement.
	"We completely reject the opinion of the UN Working Group and are very disappointed that they will not review their deeply flawed and incorrect position," he said, adding that Assange's presence at the Ecuadoran embassy was "entirely self-inflicted".
	Having initially issued its opinion in favour of Assange in February, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said it was not changing course as the British request "did not meet the threshold of a review... And (was) thus not admissible".
	Assange, 45, has been at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012, having taken refuge to avoid being sent to Sweden where he faces a rape allegation that he denies.
	He fears Sweden would ..

Britain disappointed at UN panel decision on Assange

Moscow and Damascus were not behind an air strike in northern Syria that killed four Turkish soldiers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today.
	"Neither Russia nor Syria, its air force, had anything to do with this," Lavrov told a news conference in the southern Turkish resort of Alanya, alongside his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.
	Turkey earlier blamed the Syrian regime for the November 24 strike, which came on the first anniversary of the shooting down of a Russian military warplane by the Turkish air force.
	The 2015 incident sparked an unprecedented crisis in relations between Turkey and Russia, who remain on opposite sides of the Syrian conflict.
	Ankara backs rebels fighting for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while Moscow is an Assad ally providing military support to the regime in Damascus.
	Turkey has embarked on an ambitious military operation inside Syria since August, supporting opposition fighters who have so far retaken Jarabulus, Al Rai 

Lavrov denies Russia, Syria role in Turkish deaths

Child rape cases in Myanmar have surged by 40 percent this year, state media said, highlighting a growing problem for the country still grappling with a dark past of rights abuses.
	Poverty and weak laws mean Myanmar's children are highly vulnerable to abuse, with many of them sold into to labour or forcibly recruited to fight in the country's borderlands.
	Behind closed doors rights activists say many more are at risk of exploitation either as domestic helpers for wealthy families or within their own communities.
	At the end of October, 380 child molestation cases had been reported across the country -- 150 more than the same period in 2015 and accounting for half of all reported rapes nationwide.
	But experts fear the numbers could be only the tip of the iceberg as a culture of silence and victim blaming means abuse often goes undocumented.
	"Most most of the time it is carried out by family members, neighbours, relatives or someone close to the victims' families," said police major 

Myanmar child rape cases surge 40 per cent: state media

Five Nobel prize winners called today for urgent international action to protect world heritage sites from the destruction wrought by extremist groups and conflicts.
	In an appeal launched on the eve of an international conference in Abu Dhabi, the laureates pointed to the irreparable damage that has been done to some of the world's most treasured ancient sites in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Mali.
	"Part of our history has been lost forever, with the goal of fanaticism being to undermine our hope for the future," they said.
	The signatories included Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Liberian President Helen Johnson Sirleaf and former UN chief Kofi Annan.
	They also included Nobel literature laureates Orhan Pamuk of Turkey and Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru.
	As examples they cited the demolition by the Islamic State group over the past two years of the temples and tower tombs of the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria and the priceless collection of the Mosul Museum in ...

Nobel laureates urge action to protect heritage sites

A group of Australian schoolchildren working on a shoestring budget have recreated the HIV drug whose price was controversially jacked up 5,000 per cent by a former hedge fund manager.
	US drug company chief Martin Shkreli became a global figure of hate after buying the rights to Daraprim and then raising the price in the United States from USD 13.50 a tablet to USD 750.
	Youngsters at a Sydney school decided to draw attention to the scandal and went to work creating pyrimethamine, the active ingredient for Daraprim, an anti-parasitic used to treat people with low immune systems such as those with HIV, chemotherapy patients and pregnant women.
	Student James Wood said he and his friends had started off with just USD 20 of the drug, and in one reaction had produced thousands of dollars' worth.
	"So we really just hope this makes a point about the nature of the pharmaceutical industry," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
	University of Sydney research chemist Alice Williamson helped the 

Aussie schoolboys recreate price-gouged HIV medicine

China officially established a new national steelmaking leader -- the world's second-largest manufacturer -- today by merging two giant mills, as Beijing pushes consolidation in the industry to combat overcapacity.
	Shanghai-based Baosteel Group and Wuhan Iron and Steel Group, in the central province of Hubei, were combined to create China Baowu Steel Group, second only to Paris-listed ArcelorMittal.
	Its birth was marked with a ceremony in Shanghai attended by top national government and company officials.
	The combined new entity will have total assets of 730 billion yuan (USD 105.9 billion) and 228,000 employees, a Baowu statement said.
	The two firms' combined steel topped 60 million tonnes last year, according to data from the World Steel Association, exceeding that of previous national leader Hesteel.
	Baosteel, which had been China's No. 2 steelmaker, has issued new stock to existing shareholders of Wuhan Iron and Steel to absorb the company.
	The new group's focus will be to ..

AFP

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