Pakistan can ill-afford any complacency against a dangerous West Indies side when the two teams meet in the second Test starting in Abu Dhabi from tomorrow.
     Normal service will be resumed with a traditional red ball and daylight play after both teams fought out a tension-packed pink ball day-night Test in Dubai, won by Pakistan by a narrow 56-run margin.
     Pakistan dominated the first three days after scoring 579-3 declared, courtesy of opener Azhar Ali's epic career best 302 not out, and then dismissing West Indies for 357.
     But leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo turned the match upside down with career best figures of 8-49 to wreck Pakistan for a paltry 123 in their second innings, giving West Indies a target of 346 to win.
     Darren Bravo batted out of his skin and when the last session started West Indies needed 114 runs in a possible of 38 overs with Bravo unbeaten on 102 and ready to launch an assault in the final hour.
     It needed a leaping catch by leg-spinner Yasir .

Pakistan wary of dangerous West Indies

PTI Automatic

Former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said he will never forgive Chris Cairns after his ex-teammate set out to destroy his credibility over match-fixing allegations.
     McCullum was the prosecution star witness in Cairns' perjury trial, which ended with the allrounder acquitted of all charges in a London court late last year.
     McCullum said he felt a moral obligation to testify about claims Cairns approached him with a "business proposition" about match-fixing in 2008.
     But the former batsman, who retired earlier this year, said it was his character that came under fire.
     "I felt that I was the one on trial and I found that really hard to deal with," he told Radio New Zealand, saying he blamed his one-time idol Cairns.
     He added: "I'm a very forgiving person. I don't keep a lot of grudges... The last thing I wanted to see was one of my former teammates rotting away in jail and I'm actually pleased he's not.
     "But I can't forgive the other behaviour, the ...

McCullum won't forgive Cairns over fixing saga

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has hoped that a political deal reached in the Democratic Republic of Congo to delay an election until 2018 will help improve human rights and lead to a credible vote.
	The main opposition has rejected the deal signed Tuesday that would keep President Laurent Kabila in power until the election in April 2018.
	Kabila was due to step down at the end of 2016 to make way for the vote this year.
	Ban "takes note" of the accord and "hopes that the implementation of the agreement will contribute to a more conducive climate for the respect of fundamental rights and freedoms essential to political debate and credible elections," the UN statement said yesterday.
	The UN chief urged the government to continue confidence-building measures with the opposition, particularly the release of political prisoners and respect for the right to peaceful assembly.
	Anti-Kabila demonstrations in Kinshasa last month turned violent, killing some 49 people.
	Ban called on ...

UN chief hopes for credible vote in DR Congo

The leaders of France and Germany lashed today at President Vladimir Putin over Moscow's bombardment of Syria's Aleppo and refused to rule out imposing sanctions on Russia.
	"What is happening in Aleppo is a war crime, one of the first demands is that the bombardments by the regime and its (Russian) backers must end," French President Francois Hollande said after a meeting between the three leaders in Berlin.
	German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the air raids on Syria's second city as "inhumane and cruel".
	Both leaders warned that they could not exclude imposing sanctions on Russia, hours ahead of an EU summit where Russia's role in Syria is set to be discussed.
	"Everything that can constitute a threat can be useful," Hollande said at a press conference, while Merkel added that "we cannot remove this option".
	Turning to a planned ceasefire due to begin in Aleppo later this morning, Hollande said that Putin appeared to be ready to extend the truce, set to last for 11 ...

Hollande, Merkel slam Russia over Aleppo, leave door open to

Moscow and Kiev have agreed to end a deadlock on the conflict in eastern Ukraine by the end of November, Ukraine's president said, after a four-way summit in Berlin with the leaders of France and Germany.
	After yesterday's five-hour talks billed as "difficult", focus shifted to the conflict in Syria, with host Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande pressing Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow's involvement in the civil war.
	Ukrainian Petro Poroshenko said the four signatories of the frayed 2014 Minsk peace accords had managed to make tentative progress after months of impasse.
	"Between now and the end of November we have to approve a roadmap. It will be a document on the implementation of all the Minsk accords," he said in a press conference after the Berlin summit, according to Russian news agencies.
	Merkel had said ahead of the talks that the negotiations were aimed at "offering a brutally honest assessment" of progress on implementing the ...

Progress over Ukraine war in Berlin summit with Putin

Ground controllers waited anxiously for news today on the status of a tiny European craft which touched down on Mars as part of a daring quest for life on the Red Planet, but may not have survived the impact.
	The paddling pool-sized "Schiaparelli" lander, a trial-run for a Mars rover to follow, was scheduled to land at 1448 GMT yesterday after a scorching, supersonic dash through Mars' thin atmosphere.
	Hours later, the European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed the craft had touched down, but said it was emitting no signal -- evoking the ghost of Europe's first, failed, bid to land on Mars 13 years ago.
	"The lander touched down, that is certain," ESA's Schiaparelli manager Thierry Blancquaert told AFP.
	"Whether it landed intact, whether it hit a rock or a crater or whether it simply cannot communicate, that I don't know," he said from mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.
	Blancquaert said he was "not too optimistic" of receiving a clean bill of health.
	This would be Europe's second .

Anxious wait for news of Mars lander's fate

A ceasefire took effect in war-ravaged Yemen under a United Nations plan, as warring parties face mounting pressure to end more than 18 months of fighting.
	The UN special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, had announced on Monday that the cessation of hostilities would take effect "at 23:59 (local time) on 19 October 2016, for an initial period of 72 hours, subject to renewal".
	It is the sixth attempt to end the bloodshed since a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in March 2015 to support the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after rebels overran much of Yemen.
	Shortly after the truce began, the coalition issued a statement saying it "will abide by the ceasefire", which aims for "distribution of the greatest possible humanitarian and medical assistance" to Yemen's people, especially the besieged city of Taez.
	It said it will continue an air and maritime embargo, to prevent weapons shipments to the rebels, and will maintain airborne reconnaissance.
	The ...

Yemen truce comes into effect under UN plan

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia that seizing the city of Aleppo will not help end the Syrian civil war and may further radicalise opposition forces.
	Speaking as officials from the US, Russia and Syria's neighbours met in Geneva to seek ways to restore a ceasefire in the civil war, Kerry said yesterday that Russia's bombardment of rebel-held areas was a mistake.
	Moscow argues that it is supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad against Al-Qaeda-linked "terrorists" and blames Washington for failing to separate moderate rebels from the hardliners.
	But, speaking in Washington after talks with his South Korean counterpart, Kerry said: "Every bomb that's dropped by Russia and the Assad regime is radicalising more and more people."
	After the collapse last month of a short-lived US and Russian-brokered truce, the Syrian regime launched a major offensive against the rebel-held districts of eastern Aleppo, home to an estimated 250,000 civilians.
	"If Russia and Assad succeed ..

Kerry warns Russia taking Aleppo won't solve anything

A temporary break in fighting in Aleppo will be long enough to safely evacuate 200 wounded from the devastated east of the Syrian city, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has said.
	His comments came yesterday, hours after Russia announced it would extend a promised eight-hour truce in Aleppo today, to 11 hours to allow civilians and rebels to leave the city's rebel-held east.
	"It is  enough (time), if we work quickly, for a medical evacuation" of 200 injured people who need urgent medical attention, de Mistura said in an interview with Swiss RTS television.
	He didn't say whether the pause in fighting would be sufficient to bring in humanitarian aid to the 275,000 people whom the United Nations believes are besieged in the city.
	The truce is due to begin at 8:00 am (0500 GMT).
	De Mistura confirmed that he was willing to travel to the area and accompany fighters from Al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, out of east Aleppo, as he had suggested last week.
	"I cannot give political ...

Planned Aleppo truce enough to rescue injured: UN

The United States said today that it would deploy a missile-defense system to South Korea as soon as possible, despite opposition from China.
	US Secretary Of State John Kerry confirmed that the THAAD system would soon be sent to the peninsula at a meeting with South Korean ministers in Washington.
	Washington sees the US-built Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system as protection against North Korea's pursuit of missile and nuclear technology.
	But China has warned it sees it as a threat to the balance of power in the region, fearing it would make its own nuclear deterrent less credible.
	"The United States will do whatever is necessary to defend ourselves and to honor the security commitment we have made to our allies," Kerry said.
	"And we will deploy as soon as possible a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery to our Korean ally," he added.
	Kerry and US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter were welcoming South Korea's foreign minister, Yun Byung-Se, and defense minister, ...

US to deploy missile defense to South Korea 'soon'

Several workers were injured in a fire at a Saudi Aramco crude oil facility near Riyadh today, without affecting operations, the Gulf oil giant said.
	"Aramco regrets to report that several workers were injured as a result of a fire at a crude oil facility in Alwsea and all are being treated," it said in a post on its Twitter account.
	"The fire is under control. Company's operations are not impacted," it added.
	Aramco did not immediately give an exact number of those hurt but Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh said 17 people were hospitalised, with three needing treatment in intensive care.
	In September, a fire ripped through Aramco's Gulf coast Ras Tanura oil terminal injuring eight workers.
	The company is at the heart of Saudi Arabia's wide-ranging Vision 2030 plan to wean the economy of the world's biggest petroleum exporter off oil.
	The kingdom plans to float five per cent of Saudi Aramco on the stock market. The proceeds would help form what will become the world's biggest state ...

Workers injured in Saudi Aramco oil facility blaze

The bodies of five migrants were recovered in the central Mediterranean today during rescue operations that saved 300 others, the Italian coastguard said.
	The migrants were on board two inflatable dinghies and three small boats, the coastguard said in a statement.
	The dinghies were helped by a charity boat and an Irish naval vessel, which rescued 118 people and found five dead bodies.
	Some 145,000 migrants have been picked up and brought to Italy since the start of 2016.
	According to the UN, at least 3,626 people have died during the perilous crossings or are lost at sea.

Five dead migrants recovered in Mediterranean, 300 rescued

Uncertainty in advance of next month's US election is weighing on some business sectors in the country, the Federal Reserve's Beige Book survey said today.
	The survey which collects the views of economists, business contacts and others in the 12 Federal Reserve districts, said most regions in the world's largest economy continued to expand at a "modest or moderate pace."
	Labor market conditions remained "tight," with "modest" employment and wage gains, according to the survey, which is prepared in advance of a November 1-2 monetary policy meeting. The strength of the US dollar also held back exports of manufactured goods, it said.
	The report noted improving conditions in the St. Louis, Kansas City and Dallas districts while economic activity in the New York region was unchanged.
	"Outlooks were mostly optimistic, although contacts in a few districts expressed concern about economic uncertainty surrounding the upcoming presidential elections," according to the report.
	Reporting ...

Polls uncertainty weighs on parts of US economy:Fed Beige Book

Nine people including six soldiers were killed when a military helicopter crashed in eastern Uzbekistan, state media said today.
	The crash involving a defence ministry Mi-171 chopper took place yesterday in ex-Soviet Uzbekistan's Fergana region, the state-owned Uzreport website reported citing the defence ministry.
	"As a result of the accident 3 crew members and 6 members of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Uzbekistan on board were killed," the website said.
	The report added that a special state commission had been set up by the defence ministry to investigate the crash.
	Authoritarian Uzbekistan is in the middle of a political transition following the death of long-reigning autocrat Islam Karimov, who was buried last month aged 78 after a reported stroke.
	Acting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who served as prime minister under Karimov for 13 years, is widely tipped to win a December 4 presidential election.
	The country of over 30 million shares a border with Afghanistan and ...

9 killed in Uzbekistan chopper crash: report

Jihadist leaders are fleeing Mosul, a top US general in the coalition battling the Islamic State group said today as Iraqi forces closed in on the northern city.
	Mosul was where IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his "caliphate" two years ago but is now the group's last major stronghold in Iraq.
	Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who announced the launch of a broad offensive to retake the city on Monday, visited the front line today.
	In the biggest Iraqi military operation in years, forces have retaken dozens of villages, mostly south and east of Mosul, and are planning multiple assaults for Thursday.
	"We are telling Daesh (IS) that their leaders are abandoning them. We've seen a movement out of Mosul," said Major General Gary Volesky, who heads the anti-IS coalition's land component.
	He told reporters in a video briefing that the many foreigners among the 3,000 to 4,500 IS fighters would likely end up forming the core of the holdout jihadist force.
	Volesky noted that ..

IS leaders 'abandon' Mosul as Iraq forces close in

Mission controllers anxiously awaited confirmation today that a tiny European craft had landed on Mars as part of an ambitious quest with Russia to find evidence of life on the Red Planet.
	The paddling pool-sized "Schiaparelli" lander was due to have ended its seven-month, 496-million-kilometre trek from Earth with a dangerous dash for the surface through the Martian atmosphere.
	A faint signal picked up by telescopes in India was lost around the scheduled landing time of 1448 GMT, mission scientists said -- though this did not necessarily mean trouble.
	The signal was never part of the official tracking of Schiaparelli -- Europe's first attempt to place a lander on Mars since the British-built Beagle 2 was lost without trace 13 years ago after separating from its mothership.
	"It is true that the data we have collected so far is not absolutely nominal for Schiaparelli, but that doesn't mean anything for the time being," said spacecraft operations manager Andrea Accomazzo of the ...

Europe awaits news of Mars lander's fate

A pause in Russian and Syrian strikes on Aleppo was holding for a second day today, ahead of a brief unilateral ceasefire aimed at allowing civilians and rebels to quit the devastated city.
	Moscow announced it would extend an eight-hour truce planned for tomorrow to 11 hours and said Syrian and Russian warplanes were giving Aleppo a wide berth.
	At a meeting in Berlin, French President Francois Hollande said he would work with Germany to persuade Russia to adopt a long-lasting truce around Syria's second city.
	Despite the Russian initiative, EU leaders at a summit tomorrow are expected to condemn Moscow over attacks on civilians in Aleppo, according to a draft statement obtained by AFP.
	Russia's ceasefire plan has stirred scepticism in the West and the United Nations said it would be insufficient to allow humanitarian aid to reach encircled Aleppo inhabitants.
	Moscow is backing President Bashar al-Assad's regime in its war with a wide range of rebel groups, including with air ...

Pause in Aleppo bombing holds into second day

Millions of people in the Philippines were on high alert today as one of the strongest typhoons ever hit the disaster-battered country with authorities warning of giant storm surges and destructive winds.
	Super Typhoon Haima hit the northern province of Cagayan at about 11 pm (1500 GMT) today, bringing strong winds and heavy rains almost on a par with catastrophic Super Typhoon Haiyan which claimed more than 7,350 lives in 2013.
	"We only pray we be spared the destruction such as the previous times, which brought agony and suffering," President Rodrigo Duterte said in Beijing, where he is currently on a four-day visit.
	"But we are ready. Everything has been deployed."
	Haima has a weather band of 800 kilometres putting more than 10 million people across the northern parts of the Philippines' main island of Luzon within its reach, according to the government's disaster risk management agency.
	The storm struck the Philippines with sustained winds of 225 kilometres an hour and gusts ..

Millions on alert as super typhoon hits Philippines

A new research centre opened its doors today at Britain's Cambridge University to look at the implications -- good and bad -- of artificial intelligence.
	The centre will delve into AI applications ranging from increasingly "smart" smartphones to robot surgeons and "Terminator" style military droids.
	Professor Stephen Hawking, who was due to speak at the centre's launch later today, said: "The rise of powerful AI will be either the best or the worst thing ever to happen to humanity.
	"We do not yet know which. The research done by this centre will be crucial to the future of our civilisation and of our species," he said.
	Making sure AI is used to benefit humanity is the express aim of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), funded by a 10 million pound (11.2 million-euro, USD 12.3-million) grant from the Leverhulme Trust.
	A collaboration between the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, and Berkeley, California, the CFI will see researchers 

British artificial intelligence hub opens

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said it was "time to say goodbye" to the US during a visit to China today, as the combative leader reconfigures his country's diplomatic alliances.
	Duterte is in China for a four-day trip that is expected to confirm his tilt away from Washington and towards Beijing's sphere of influence.
	During a speech addressing the Filipino community in Beijing, the firebrand president said the Philippines had gained little from its long alliance with the US, its former colonial ruler.
	"Your stay in my country was for your own benefit. So time to say goodbye, my friend," he said, as if addressing the US.
	"I will not go to America anymore. I will just be insulted there," he added, before once again referring to US President Barack Obama as a "son of a whore".
	Duterte, who took office in late June, said he was fed up with the Philippines' foreign policy being dictated by a Western agenda.
	"What kept us from China was not our own making. I will charter a new .

Philippines' Duterte says 'goodbye' to US ties in Beijing

EU leaders plan to "strongly condemn" Russia at their summit tomorrow for its alleged attacks on civilians in Syria's Aleppo, urge an end to fighting and call for a revived political process.
	A draft of their planned statement obtained by AFP omits the threat of sanctions, despite such calls from the United States and Britain, but it sharpens the tone against Russia.
	"The European Council strongly condemns the attacks by the Syrian regime and its allies, notably Russia, on civilians in Aleppo," according to the draft.
	It asks them to urgently allow "unhindered humanitarian access to Aleppo" and to other parts of Syria while calling "for an immediate cessation of hostilities and for resumption of a credible political process under UN auspices."
	The draft warns that "those responsible for breaches of international humanitarian law and human rights law must be held accountable."
	In it the 28 leaders also ask EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the European Commission, the 

AFP

AFP

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