Former Australia captain Michael Clarke has revisited old feuds, describing Shane Watson as part of a group that was "like a tumour" on the team.
     Star batsman Clarke also spoke of his notorious dressing-room bust-up with Simon Katich, who grabbed the then vice-captain's throat during a disagreement about when the team song should be sung after Australia's Test win against South Africa in 2009.
     In a television interview with Channel Nine's 60 Minutes programme aired late Sunday to coincide with the release of his autobiography, Clarke spoke of his stormy relationships.
     He denied labelling all-rounder Watson a "cancer" on the team, a claim made by Mickey Arthur in documents connected to the former coach's legal action against Cricket Australia following the South African's sacking three years ago after a 4-0 defeat in India.
     Watson had been one of four players stood down by Arthur and Clarke for the third Test against India in Mohali in 2013 in the so-called ...

Watson part of Aussie team 'tumour' - Clarke

PTI Automatic

At least 25 inmates died in clashes between two rival factions in a prison in far northern Brazil, local media reported citing police.
	Seven of the dead were beheaded and six burned to death in fighting at a prison in Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, the news site G1 reported, citing local police.
	The bloodshed began when inmates of one wing of the Agricola de Monte Cristo prison broke into another wing yesterday.
	Inmates were armed with knives and wooden clubs, an inmate's wife who was in the prison when the riot broke out told G1.
	Roraima state Secretary of Justice Uziel Castro said that the fight erupted during visiting hours, and some 100 relatives of inmates were briefly held hostage.
	The rioters demanded that a judge come to hear their demands. Instead Special Operations Police stormed the prison, released the hostages and regained control of the site by sundown.
	"All the hostages were released," Castro said, adding that most of them were women.
	The prison, some ..

25 inmates killed in Brazil prison clash

A military chief of Ukraine's pro-Russian rebels, Arseny Pavlov, was killed in a bomb attack in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, local authorities have said, calling it a "declaration of war."
	Russia, which annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, backs a separatist, pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives.
	Pavlov, better known by his nom de guerre 'Motorola', led the Sparta battalion and was a leading rebel commander.
	Alexander Zakharchenko, the "prime minister" of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko "has breached the ceasefire and declared war."
	Pavlov was killed yesterday by a bomb placed in the lift of a building.
	Last night the site was ringed by military trucks, a light armoured vehicle and about 50 armed men.
	A fighter in the Sparta unit said Pavlov's bodyguard also died in the explosion.
	"Either it's an operation staged by the Ukrainian services or it one of us," they said.
	Several ...

Pro-Russian rebel commander killed in Ukraine elevator bombing

Operations to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State group have begun, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced early today on state television.
	"The time of victory has come and operations to liberate Mosul have started," he said in an address broadcast by the Iraqiya channel.
	"Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of Daesh (IS)," he said, addressing residents of the Mosul region.

Operation to retake Mosul has begun: Iraq PM on TV

Police in Greece clashed with protesting migrants outside a camp after a mother and child were allegedly killed by a passing car, local police said.
	Riot police fired stun grenades yesterday at dozens of migrants, who threw stones and set bins on fire before order was restored at the Oreokastro camp near Thessaloniki in northern Greece, a police source told AFP.
	The protest broke out in the evening after the woman, 35, and her son, 10, both Syrian Kurds, were apparently killed in an accident involving a passing car, which was then torched in the protest.
	The car's elderly Greek driver was arrested.
	A boy aged five was also lightly hurt in the unrest, the police said.
	Last month, a seven-year-old girl from Syria was killed by a car in a similar incident outside a refugee camp near the town of Katerini.
	Her mother and sister who was a year older were also hurt at the time.
	There are over 60,000 refugees and migrants trapped in Greece, most of them Syrians fleeing war who are ...

Greek police, migrants clash after fatal accident

Scores at close on the fourth day of
the first Test, a day-nighter, between Pakistan and West Indies at Dubai stadium on Sunday:
	Pakistan, first innings 579-3 declared (Azhar Ali 302 not out, Sami Aslam 90, Babar Azam 69, Asad Shafiq 67)
	West Indies 1st innings (overnight 315-6)
	K. Brathwaite lbw b Shah                  32
	L. Johnson lbw b Shah                     15
	D. Bravo c Ali b Nawaz                    87
	M. Samuels lbw b Sohail                   76
	J. Blackwood c Ahmed b Riaz               37
	R. Chase c Azam b Riaz                     6
	S. Dowrich lbw b Shah                     32
	J. Holder b Shah                          20
	D. Bishoo b Nawaz                         17
	M. Cummins b Shah                          0
	S. Gabriel not out                         6
	Extras: (b9, lb8, nb11, w1)               29
	Total: (all out; 123.5 overs)            357
	Fall of wickets: 1-42 (Johnson), 2-69 (Brathwaite), 3-182 (Samuels), 4-259 (Blackwood), 5-266 (Chase), 6-300 ...

Dubai, Oct 16 (AFP) Scores at close on the fourth day of

West Indies, set 346 to win by Pakistan, were 95-2 at close on the fourth day of the first day-night Test in Dubai today.
	Darren Bravo (26) and Marlon Samuels (four) were at the crease with West Indies needing another 251 runs while Pakistan need eight wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
	Leg-spinner Devendar Bishoo took a career best 8-49 to dismiss Pakistan for a paltry 123 in their second innings on a day when 16 wickets fell.
	Earlier Yasir Shah took 5-121 to dismiss West Indies for 357 in their first innings, also becoming the second-joint fastest to complete 100 wickets in Test cricket.
	Pakistan, who scored 579-3 declared, took a first innings lead of 222 runs in the pink-ball day-night Test.
	The second Test will be played in Abu Dhabi (October 21-25) and the third in Sharjah (October 30-November 3).

West Indies, set 346 to win, 95-2 at close

Huge models of mythical Islamic steeds were carried aloft amid crowds before being hurled into the sea today, at the peak of a colourful festival in Indonesia.
	Thousands of people flocked to a picturesque stretch of coastline on western Sumatra island for Tabuik, an annual event that attracts hordes of foreign and local tourists.
	The climax of festivities featured two models of a "buraq", a steed from Islamic mythology that transported the Prophet Mohammed, being carried through the streets of the city of Pariaman before being cast into the waters.
	The buraq resembles a horse but has wings and a human head. Atop the steed sits an elaborately decorated coffin studded with umbrellas, with the model towering about 12 metres (40 feet) into the air.
	Tabuik, which runs over about 10 days in Pariaman, started in the 19th century and has Shiite Muslim origins, as it was introduced by Shiites who came to Indonesia from India.
	It takes place around Ashura, which fell last week and is a ...

Mythical Islamic steeds cast into sea in Indonesia festival

Italian police today arrested a man suspected of being an IS sympathiser who was found to have a collection of home-made explosive devices and detonators.
	Italy's interior ministry said the man, whose nationality was not given, was arrested in Castello di Cisterna in Naples after investigators monitoring the internet found a video of an Islamic State (IS) group decapitation on his Facebook page.
	Police discovered weapons including three home-made mortar shells, two electronic devices for setting off explosives at a distance, 146 fuses, various detonators and a remote control, the ministry said in a statement.
	Along with the IS video, the man had posted phrases on the social networking site in support of the Camorra, the notorious Naples-based mafia syndicate.

Italy arrests 'IS sympathiser', seizes mortar shells

The United States and Britain warned today that western allies were considering imposing sanctions against economic targets in Syria and Russia over the siege of Aleppo.
	US Secretary of State John Kerry branded the bombardment of civilians in the city "crimes against humanity" and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson urged Moscow to show mercy.

US, Britain mulling sanctions over Syria siege

President Vladimir Putin today called on the US-led coalition to avoid civilian casualties in the battle to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State jihadist group.
	"We hope that our American partners, and in this case our French partners as well, will act selectively and do everything to minimise -- and even better, to rule out -- civilian casualties," Putin said in a televised news conference on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in India.
	"We of course are not going to fan hysteria over this matter, like our partners in the West do, because we understand that we need to fight terrorism, and that there is no other way apart from active fighting," he added.
	IS seized Mosul along with other areas of Iraq in June 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained significant ground from the jihadists and -- backed by a US-led coalition that includes France -- are preparing for an assault to retake the city.
	Meanwhile in neighbouring Syria, Russian airpower is currently ...

Avoid civilian casualties in Mosul battle: Putin tells West

Ground controllers reported a break today in status data from a European-Russian Mars orbiter after it released a tiny lander on a three-day trek to the Red Planet's surface.
	The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) was sending signals home, but "we don't have telemetry at the moment", flight director Michel Denis of the ExoMars mission said via live webcast from mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.
	Ground controllers were "working towards restoring telemetry", according to a tweet from ESA Operations.
	The Schiaparelli test lander's separation from its mothership earlier today, at about one million kilometres from the Red Planet's surface, had "gone perfectly well", said spokeswoman Jocelyne Landeau-Constantin of the European Space Operations Centre.
	"But after that we were supposed to get some indication of the status of the orbiter, its position, its status, and we didn't get this sort of information," she told AFP by telephone from Darmstadt.
	Ground controllers are now looking at other ..

Europe's Mars orbiter not sending status data: ESA

Russian President Vladimir Putin took a jab at France today, saying it was "not so involved" in efforts to end the war in Syria amid a spike in tensions between the two countries.
	The comment comes a week after a heated row broke out over Russia's use of its UN Security Council veto against a French resolution calling for a halt to the bombing of Aleppo.
	The tensions saw Putin cancel a long-planned visit to Paris on October 19, after French President Francois Hollande accused Syrian troops of committing war crimes in Aleppo with Russian support.
	"France is not so deeply involved in the settlement of the Syrian conflict," Putin said at a press conference on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in India.
	"We remember when the (French) Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier approached the coast of Syria - and we had seemingly agreed to work jointly - but a few days later it turned away and headed toward the Suez Canal," Putin said.
	"What does that say?" he added.
	Putin said the French ...

France 'not so involved' in efforts to end Syria war: Putin

Montenegro said it had arrested 20 Serbs for planning to carry out attacks after voting wraps up in the Balkan nation's tense parliamentary elections today.
	The pro-Russian opposition - which opposes plans to anchor Montenegro in NATO - lashed the announcement of the arrests as propaganda, while Serbia sardonically questioned its timing.
	The attacks would have targeted the state and possibly "senior state officials", Montenegro police chief Slavko Stojanovic said in a statement.
	The 20 were arrested last night and a 21st individual is being sought, he said.
	"They are suspected of coming to Montenegro with the intention of carrying out attacks on institutions, the police and the representatives of the organs of state," the statement said.
	"In addition, we do not rule out (that they were planning) attacks against senior state officials."
	Andrija Mandic, head of the Democratic Front, Montenegro's main opposition, immediately condemned the announcement as "gross propaganda."
	In ...

Serbs arrested for Montenegro vote 'attack plans'

A US aid worker kidnapped in Niger two days ago is likely being held by militants from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao), the country's interior minister said today.
	Mohamed Bazoum told AFP that the American, named as Jeffery Woodke, "was probably kidnapped by the Mujao or handed over to the Mujao by those who abducted him".
	He said Niger's forces had followed the kidnappers across the border into Mali to a zone controlled by Mujao.

Niger says US aid worker kidnapped by Mujao jihadists

A group of Iranian lawmakers has written an open letter to the head of the judiciary calling for the release of Narges Mohammadi, an activist sentenced to 10 years in prison.
	Mohammadi, 44, has campaigned against the death penalty and was awarded the City of Paris medal earlier this year for her work on women's rights.
	Arrested in May last year, the mother-of-two was sentenced in April to a total of 16 years in prison on various charges, including "forming and managing an illegal group".
	In the letter published by Iranian media on Sunday, the lawmakers call on Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary, "to apply the clemency and mercy of the Islamic republic" and reunite her with her children.
	They also highlight Mohammadi's medical problems including "muscular paralysis".
	Among the signatories were parliamentary vice president Ali Motahari and several female MPs.
	Mohammadi, who was also spokeswoman for Iran's Centre for Human Rights Defenders, went on hunger strike ..

Iran MPs call for release of death penalty activist

Scores on the fourth day of the first
day-night Test against Pakistan at Dubai stadium on Sunday:
     Pakistan, first innings 579-3 declared
     West Indies 1st innings (overnight 69-1)
     K. Brathwaite lbw b Shah                  32
     L. Johnson lbw b Shah                     15
     D. Bravo c Ali b Nawaz                    87
     M. Samuels lbw b Sohail                   76
     J. Blackwood c Ahmed b Riaz               37
     R. Chase c Azam b Riaz                     6
     S. Dowrich lbw b Shah                     32
     J. Holder b Shah                          20
     D. Bishoo b Nawaz                         17
     M. Cummins b Shah                          0
     S. Gabriel not out                         6
     Extras: (b9, lb8, nb11, w1)               29
     Total: (all out; 123.5 overs)            357
     Fall of wickets: 1-42 (Johnson), 2-69 (Brathwaite), 3-182 (Samuels), 4-259 (Blackwood), 5-266 (Chase), 6-300 (Bravo),
     7-325 (Dowrich), 8-346 (Holder), .

Dubai, Oct 16 (AFP) Scores on the fourth day of the first

Tea scores on the fourth day of the
first day-night Test between Pakistan and West Indies at Dubai stadium on Sunday:
     Pakistan, first innings 579-3 declared
     West Indies 1st innings (overnight 315-6)
     K. Brathwaite lbw b Shah                  32
     L. Johnson lbw b Shah                     15
     D. Bravo c Ali b Nawaz                    87
     M. Samuels lbw b Sohail                   76
     J. Blackwood c Ahmed b Riaz               37
     R. Chase c Azam b Riaz                     6
     S. Dowrich lbw b Shah                     32
     J. Holder b Shah                          20
     D. Bishoo b Nawaz                         17
     M. Cummins b Shah                          0
     S. Gabriel not out                         6
     Extras: (b9, lb8, nb11, w1)               29
     Total: (all out; 123.5 overs)            357
     Fall of wickets: 1-42 (Johnson), 2-69 (Brathwaite), 3-182 (Samuels), 4-259 (Blackwood), 5-266 (Chase), 6-300 (Bravo), 7-325 (Dowrich), .

Dubai, Oct 16 (AFP) Tea scores on the fourth day of the

Leg-spinner Yasir Shah became the second joint-fastest bowler to take 100 wickets in all Test cricket before West Indies hit back with two early blows in the first day-night match in Dubai on Sunday.
     The 30-year-old dismissed West Indian tail-ender Miguel Cummins to complete 100 wickets in his 17th Test match -- the fastest Pakistani to the milestone -- on the fourth day of the second-ever day-night Test.
     Shah's 5-121 helped Pakistan dismiss West Indies for 357 after they resumed the day on 315-6, losing four of the three wickets to Shah's guile on Dubai stadium pitch which was taking good turn.
     Pakistan, who scored 579-3 declared in their first innings, did not enforce the follow-on despite taking a 222-run lead and 23 more of the follow-on target of 380.
     At tea Pakistan had lost two quick wickets and were 20-2 with Sami Aslam batting on 12 after Asad Shafiq was trapped leg-before by spinner Devendra Bishoo for five.
     That leaves Pakistan with an overall lead .

West Indies hit back after Pakistan's lead

Afghan authorities today burned around five tonnes of  heroin, hashish, drug-making chemicals and alcohol in a show of their commitment to curbing drug trafficking.
	Piles of drugs as well as some 100 bottles of alcohol were set alight outside the western city of Herat, seen as of the three main transit routes for narcotics out of Afghanistan.
	"This demonstrates our commitment against drug trafficking. We are determined to prevent drug trafficking by all means possible," Herat police chief Ayoub Ansari told reporters.
	One tonne of heroin, sold gram by gram, is worth 40 million euros (USD 44 million) when it reaches European markets, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
	There are conflicting accounts of how Afghanistan's war on drugs is going.
	Officials stress their efforts in the fight against opium production and trafficking but the country last year produced more than 80 per cent of the world's opium.
	In addition to channelling hundreds of million of ...

Afghanistan burns five tonnes of drugs,alcohol in single blaze

A European lander is to separate from its mothership today for a million-kilometre descent to Mars, testing vital technology ahead of a mission to explore the Red Planet for signs of life.
	The high-stakes operation comes nearly 13 years after European ambitions were dealt a blow when its first scout to Mars disappeared on landing.
	A 600-kilogramme, paddling pool-sized lander called Schiaparelli is to separate from an unmanned craft called the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) after a seven-month, 496-million- kilometre trek from Earth.
	Separation is scheduled for 1442 GMT (2012 IST), with the landing due to take place on Wednesday, according to the ESA website.
	The operation is a testbed for the second chapter of the so-called ExoMars mission, a joint exploration with Russia.
	The second part will begin in 2020 with the launch of a rover designed to move around and drill into Mars in search of extra-terrestrial life -- past or present.
	Today's separation manoeuvres will be followed closely 

AFP

AFP

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