The giant sinkhole that swallowed parts of a busy street in Fukuoka

The hole continued to expand and by mid morning was around two storeys deep, and filling with water from broken pipes.

Giant sinkhole swallows Japan city street

Press Trust of India

Despite progress, the European Union is still behind the curve in its programme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in industry and transport, a study said today.
	In an assessment coinciding with the UN climate talks in Morocco, the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) gave the EU high marks in some areas.
	Carbon emissions from electricity production fell by 20.9 per cent between 2000 and 2014, and household energy consumption fell by 21.2 percent, relative to living area, from 2000 to 2013.
	"Despite this progress, the EU is currently 'off-track' to achieve its objectives by 2030 and 2050," IDDRI warned.
	The EU as a bloc has pledged to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030, compared with 1990 levels. This is a stepping stone to a planned reduction of 80-95 percent by 2050, again compared with the 1990 benchmark.
	The IDDRI report said headway in curbing EU emissions could be attributed to ...

EU lagging on climate targets: study

PTI Automatic

New York real estate tycoon Robert Durst, whose bizarre life was the focus of an acclaimed HBO series, has appeared in a Los Angeles court and denied killing a friend 16 years ago.
	"I am not guilty. I did not kill Susan Berman," Durst, 73, who was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair and wearing a neck brace, told the judge yesterday.
	The real estate scion is charged with the execution-style killing of Berman in December 2000, a day before she was due to be questioned by police who had reopened an investigation into the 1982 disappearance of Durst's first wife, Kathie Durst, in New York.
	Berman, a Las Vegas mobster's daughter, had acted as a spokeswoman for Durst after he became a suspect in the disappearance of his wife.
	The 55-year-old was shot in the back of the head at her Benedict Canyon home near Los Angeles on December 23.
	According to the charge sheet, two handwriting experts believe Durst is behind an anonymous letter sent to authorities to alert them to a ...

US tycoon Robert Durst pleads not guilty in LA murder

Uncapped all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius has been called into the South African Test squad for the series against Australia as cover for injured strike bowler Dale Steyn.
     Steyn is set to spend at least six months on the sidelines after breaking his shoulder while bowling during the Proteas 177-run win in the first Test in Perth, which finished yesterday.
     Pretorius, who made his one-day debut earlier this year, will join the squad in Hobart for the second Test starting on Saturday, Cricket South Africa said on its website.
     Morne Morkel is seen as the leading contender to replace Steyn in the starting team for Hobart. The third and final Test is in Adelaide.

S. Africa call up Pretorius for injured Steyn

Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega has won a third straight term, with his colourful wife Rosario Murillo as vice president, results have showed, but the opposition and the US condemned the election.
	With 99.8 per cent of ballots counted, the 70-year-old former Marxist rebel had 72.5 per cent of the vote, the country's Supreme Electoral Council said yesterday.
	His nearest competitor, Maximino Rodriguez of the right- leaning Liberal Constitutionalist Party, had just 15 per cent.
	Ortega, who has ruled Nicaragua for 20 of the past 37 years, has been accused of using the courts to limit the power of the opposition.
	His opponents branded the election a "farce" - a criticism echoed by the US, which said the "flawed" process had made free and fair polls impossible.
	"The Nicaraguan government sidelined opposition candidates for president, limited domestic observation at the polls... and took other actions to deny democratic space," State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner ...

Nicaragua's Ortega wins third straight term, with wife

Fourteen-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal will make his return to action at the Mubadala World Tennis Championships exhibition event in Abu Dhabi at the end of December.
     Nadal's 2016 season was plagued by physical problems and he cut his campaign short in October to recover fully to target a return to Grand Slam glory in 2017.
     "Excited to announce my first tournament back will be in Abu Dhabi at the #MubadalaWorldTennisChampionship in December," the Spaniard posted on his Twitter account on Monday.
     Nadal, a three-time winner of the event, will be joined by new world number one Andy Murray, Milos Raonic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, David Goffin and Thomas Berdych in the six-man even from December 29-31.

Nadal to make December return in Abu Dhabi

Former wicketkeeper Brad Haddin and fast bowler Ryan Harris were today drafted into the Australian coaching set-up for the Chappell-Hadlee one-day series against New Zealand early next year.
     The recently-retired pair will join coach Darren Lehmann on the tour with current assistants Graeme Hick and David Saker both heading to India early to prepare for Australia's Test tour there in February-March.
     "It's a fantastic opportunity for us to have ex-players of the calibre of Brad and Ryan on board for this tour and continue their involvement in Australian cricket," Lehmann said.
     "Both these guys have worked hard on their coaching since leaving the game and thoroughly deserve their opportunity.
     "They will bring a great insight to the team and their appointment highlights some of the depth we have in Australia in the coaching pathway system."
     Australia and New Zealand play three one-dayers from January 30-February 5 in Auckland, Napier and Hamilton.

Australia call on Haddin, Harris for ODI help

The US Supreme Court has rejected an 11th-hour move by the Democratic Party in Ohio seeking to prevent Donald Trump supporters from carrying out certain actions that could be considered voter intimidation.
	The legal battle, followed across the country because of its potential implications, had stemmed from Trump's assertions on the campaign trail -- without providing evidence -- that the election was likely to be "rigged" and that his supporters should watch polling sites today.
	Fearing this call would lead to Trump supporters intimidating voters, particularly minorities who are more likely to support Democrat Hillary Clinton, the Ohio Democratic Party filed a lawsuit and initially won their case in federal court on Friday.
	US District Judge James Gwin had issued a ruling barring activities including following, questioning or photographing voters or their vehicles.
	The Trump campaign appealed and won, with the Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Sunday suspending ...

US Democrats lose suit seeking to bar voter intimidation

Israel today reiterated its firm opposition to a French plan to hold an international conference before the end of the year to restart long-stalled peace efforts with the Palestinians.
	France's envoy for the plan, Pierre Vimont, met in the morning with Israeli acting national security adviser Jacob Nagel and diplomatic envoy Yitzhak Molcho before holding talks with the Palestinians.
	The Israeli officials called for "direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority" and said "any other initiative only pushes the region further away from this process," according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
	"It was made clear to the French envoy that Israel will not participate in any international conference convened contrary to its position."
	The statement added that "promoting such a conference will make the possibility of advancing the peace process much less likely since it will allow Abu Mazen (Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas) and the ...

Israel tells France it opposes its peace initiative

Tunisia's national security council today adopted a strategy to fight "terrorism and extremism", two days after the Islamic State group said it had killed a soldier.
	The North African country has experienced a rise in religious extremism since the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
	Its security forces have been battling a jihadist movement responsible for killing dozens of soldiers and police officers as well as civilians including 59 foreign tourists.
	The presidency, in a statement, said the "national strategy to fight against extremism and terrorism" is built around the four main axes of "prevention, protection, judicial proceedings and retaliation".
	It gave no further details about the plan, but said it had been discussed with members of civil society during its preparation and by government ministers and security top brass.
	The national security council is headed by President Beji Caid Essebsi.
	Yesterday IS, which has claimed three major ..

Tunisia adopts strategy to fight 'terrorism'

President Barack Obama urged Americans to make history today by electing the Democrat Hillary Clinton to succeed him in the White House.
	   "I ask you to do for Hillary what you did for me," Obama told a rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the first of three he is holding for Clinton on the eve of the vote.
	   "You have the chance to reject a coarse, divisive, mean-spirited politics that would take us backwards," he said. "The chance to elect our first female president.

'Do for Hillary what you did for me,' Obama urges Americans

An antibody produced by the human body shielded unborn mice against Zika, a study said today, raising hopes for thwarting the virus known to cause brain damage in human foetuses.
	The antibody neutralised all known Zika strains in lab experiments, and "markedly reduced" virus levels in infected pregnant mice and their foetuses.
	"This is the first antiviral that has been shown to work in pregnancy to protect developing foetuses from Zika virus," said study co-author Michael Diamond of the Washington University School of Medicine.
	"This is proof of principle that Zika virus during pregnancy is treatable and that we already have a human antibody that treats it, at least in mice."
	Zika is spread mainly by mosquitoes, but in rare cases via sex.
	In most people it is benign with mild or no symptoms. But in an outbreak that started in 2015, it has been linked to microcephaly in foetuses -- a condition which restricts head growth and causes brain damage.
	More 2,300 babies, mainly in ...

Human antibody shields mouse foetuses against Zika

Software robots generated a significant number of Twitter messages in support of Donald Trump, distorting the Republican presidential nominee's backing on the social network, a study showed today.
	The study by University of Southern California computer scientists found that both Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton had supporting messages from "bots" but that Trump had more bots and produced more tweets.
	"This generates a stream of support that is at staggering odds with respect to the overall negative tone that characterizes the 2016 presidential election campaigns," researchers Alessandro Bessi and Emilio Ferrara wrote in the online journal First Monday's November 7 edition.
	"The fact that bots produce systematically more positive content in support of a candidate can bias the perception of the individuals exposed to it, suggesting that there exists an organic, grassroots support for a given candidate, while in reality it's all artificially generated."
	The researchers analyzed 20 .

Software 'bots' distort Trump support on Twitter: study

A German court today sentenced a far-right local politician to eight months in jail after he was spotted at a swimming pool with a tattoo of a Nazi slogan and a rendering of the Auschwitz death camp.
	A district court in Neuruppin, north of Berlin, found 28-year-old Marcel Zech guilty of public incitement and gave him a harsher punishment on appeal than the six-month suspended sentence he originally received last December.
	Prosecutors at the time complained that the sentence against Zech, a local council member of the neo-Nazi NPD party, was too lenient.
	Explaining his appeal verdict, judge Joern Kalbow said a lesser sentence could have been interpreted as "the state backing down in the face of right-wing radicalism", DPA news agency reported.
	Zech's back tattoo was photographed after he took his shirt off at a public swimming pool last November in Oranienburg in the eastern state of Brandenburg which surrounds the capital.
	It featured the German words "Jedem das Seine" (To Each ..

German politician jailed for Nazi death camp tattoo

Syrian freelance journalist Hadi Abdullah today won one of the world's top press awards for reporting from some of the most perilous zones in his country's five-year-old war.
	Reporters without Borders (RSF) said it was awarding the 29-year-old Syrian the RSF-TV5 Monde prize, the second year running that the honour has gone to a Syrian.
	Abdullah "has unhesitatingly ventured into danger zones, where Western journalists are no longer willing to go, to film and interview civilians," RSF said.
	Abdullah, who was briefly abducted in January by the Al-Nusra Front jihadist group, "has had frequent brushes with death," the press freedom group added.
	His cameraman was killed and Abdullah himself was seriously injured when a bomb exploded in the place where they staying.
	The award will be presented in Strasbourg Tuesday on the sidelines of the World Forum for Democracy, a meeting organised by the Council of Europe. Abdullah will address the meeting via a video message.
	In 2015, the award ...

Young Syrian named journalist of the year by press watchdog

A left-leaning air force general seen as sympathetic to Moscow won Bulgaria's presidential election first round, official results showed today, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
	Rumen Radev, candidate of the opposition Socialists, won 25.7 per cent of the votes in yesterday's election, ahead of Borisov's candidate Tsetska Tsacheva on 22.0 per cent, according to results based on over 95 percent of votes counted.
	Tsacheva's poor performance is an embarrassing setback for the centre-right Borisov, 57, the burly former police chief who has been premier since late 2014.
	Before yesterday's vote, Borisov had pledged to resign and call early elections if parliament speaker Tsacheva failed to beat Radev in the first round.
	But Borisov rolled back on this late Sunday, saying that he would throw in the towel if Tsacheva, 58, doesn't win a run-off next Sunday. Polls suggest it will be a very close contest.
	New elections would mean fresh turmoil in the EU's poorest nation -- the 

Bulgaria opposition stuns PM in presidential poll

Samsung took out advertisements today in major US newspapers to apologise for the Galaxy Note 7 scandal in which fire-prone batteries forced a global recall of the popular smartphones.
	The full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post admitted the company "fell short" on its promise of delivering "breakthrough technologies that enrich people's lives."
	"For this we are truly sorry," the company said.
	It promised a full and open investigation into the Galaxy debacle.
	The huge South Korean manufacturer was forced to recall some 2.5 million of the flagship Note 7s following complaints that its lithium-ion battery exploded while charging -- and at other times.
	The company also had to recall the first replacements it sent out to consumers after they proved just as dangerous.
	"We will re-examine every aspect of the device, including hardware, software, manufacturing and the overall battery structure. We will move as quickly as possible, but will take the .

Samsung apologises for Galaxy Note phones in US ads

Scoreboard at stumps on the second
day of the second Test between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka on Monday:
     Sri Lanka first innings
     D. Karunaratne c Williams b Masakadza 26
     K. Silva lbw b Mpofu 37
     K. Perera c Mumba b Masakadza 4
     K. Mendis c Moor b Tiripano 26
     U. Tharanga c Masakadza b Cremer 79
     D. De Silva c & b Cremer 127
     A. Gunaratne st Moor b Williams 116
     D. Perera lbw b Cremer 34
     R. Herath c Moor b Tiripano 27
     S. Lakmal b Tiripano 0
     L. Kumara not out 7
     Extras (9b, 8lb, 2w, 2nb) 21
     Total (all out, 144.4 overs) 504
     Fall of wickets: 1-62 (Karunaratne), 2-66 (K. Perera), 3-84 (Silva), 4-112 (Mendis), 5-255 (Tharanga), 6-342 (de Silva), 7-396 (D. Perera), 8-471 (Herath), 9-471 (Lakmal), 10-504 (Gunaratne)
     Bowling: Mumba 23-4-80-0, Tiripano 32-4-91-3, Mpofu 23-4-92-1, Masakadza 13-4-34-2, Cremer 40-1-136-3, Williams 8.4-1-31-1, Waller 5-0-23-0
     Zimbabwe first innings
     T. Mawoyo lbw b Herath 3
     B. ...

Harare, Nov 7 (AFP) Scoreboard at stumps on the second

An unbroken century stand between Brian Chari and Craig Ervine gave Zimbabwe a solid start after Asela Gunaratne's maiden Test hundred had carried Sri Lanka to 504 on the second day of the second Test at Harare Sports Club on Monday.
     Playing just his second Test, Gunaratne scored 116 to marshal the tail to good effect and frustrate the Zimbabwean bowlers, before his dismissal brought the end of the Sri Lankan innings on the stroke of tea.
     When Rangana Herath opened the bowling and grabbed the wickets of Tino Mawoyo and Hamilton Masakadza to reduce Zimbabwe to 17 for two, the hosts looked to be embarking on one of their trademark batting collapses.
     But Chari and Ervine added 109 for the third wicket without being parted, taking Zimbabwe to stumps on 126 for two with both batsmen closing the day on 60 not out.
     "We would have liked to have a few more wickets down but hopefully we can grab a few early on tomorrow," said Sri Lanka coach Graham Ford.
     "We've seen ...

Solid Zimbabwe strike back

A closed-door military court in Kazakhstan today sentenced a wealthy businessmen accused of plotting to topple the Central Asian country's authoritarian government  to 21 years in prison, a court representative said.
	Tokhtar Tuleshov, best known for owning a brewery in Shymkent, a city in the south of the ex-Soviet state had been charged with attempting to overthrow the government, though the court representative would only confirm to AFP the sentence and refused to say what precisely he was convicted of.
	Kazakhstan's national security committee in June implicated Tuleshov in the organisation of protests against a controversial land reform that had rocked the government over the two previous months.
	Thousands participated in the countrywide demonstrations against amendments that would have changed the maximum length of leases on land for foreigners from 10 to 25 years.
	President Nursultan Nazarbayev, 76, subsequently halted the reforms until 2021.
	New York-based Human Rights ...

Kazakh magnate sentenced to 21 years in jail

South Africa's sports minister branded Sunette Viljoen, the country's Olympic javelin silver medallist, as "the most arrogant and thankless person... I've ever met" in an angry spat today over cash bonuses.
	Fikile Mbalula and Viljoen exchanged insults on Twitter in the latest flare-up of a controversy in which the minister has been accused of breaking a promise to pay 70,000 rand (USD 5,200) to silver medal winners at the Rio Games.
	Sunette Viljoen "is the most arrogant and thankless person... I've ever met", Mbalula said in a series of tweets. "What was due to her was payed.
	"(She) declared for all to kno(w) she doesn't want the money... Now she needs the money I must jump."
	Viljoen earlier tweeted direct messages from Mbalula in which he wrote: "You said you don't need it. So I stick with your wishes."
	The athlete replied on Twitter by saying she had "never, ever uttered these words. This is how you are treated for winning an Olympic medal. What a disgrace".
	The two have a ...

AFP

AFP

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