Central Italy was struck by a powerful, 6.2-magnitude earthquake in the early hours today, leaving at least three people dead and devastating dozens of mountain villages.
	Numerous buildings had collapsed in communities close to the epicentre of the quake near the town of Norcia in the region of Umbria, witnesses told Italian media, with an increase in the death toll highly likely.
	The tremors were sufficiently strong to wake residents of central Rome, some 150 km away.
	The first two confirmed victims were an elderly couple whose home collapsed in Pescara del Tronto in the Marche region, east of the epicentre, according to national broadcaster Rai.
	Another person died and a family of four including two young children were trapped, feared dead, in their collapsed house in Accumoli, a village close to the epicentre, according to its mayor.
	"We have a tragedy here," Stefano Petrucci told Rai. "For the moment one death is confirmed but there are another four people under the rubble ...

At least three dead as Italy hit by powerful quake

PTI Automatic

Olympic marathon silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa failed to return to Ethiopia Monday night despite assurances he would not be punished for his Rio protest over political repression in his country.
	   An AFP journalist at the airport in Addis Ababa said Lilesa was not onboard the plane that landed on Monday night carrying Ethiopia's Olympics team.
	   Ethiopian sports officials congratulated team members but made no mention of Lilesa's silver medal achievement -- one of only eight medals won by Ethiopia -- and refused to answer any questions about the athlete.
	   On Sunday, Lilesa, who came second to Kenyan favourite Eliud Kipchoge in Rio, crossed his arms as he finished the marathon in a symbolic protest against the repressive Ethiopian regime.
	   The 26-year-old repeated the gesture during the race's medal ceremony, telling reporters later that he was afraid to go back to his homeland.
	   Reports have suggested that the runner may seek political asylum in the United States, but a .

Olympics protest runner fails to return to Ethiopia

The Olympic flag arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday as Japan's capital gears up to host the 2020 Games, with officials promising smooth sailing after Rio's sometimes shaky 2016 instalment.
	   After stepping off a plane from the Brazilian host city, Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike carried the flag at a ceremony at the city's Haneda airport.
	   "I strongly feel a heavy responsiblity" for the next Olympics, Koike told the crowd.
	   "I'm very happy that we're able to bring the flag back after more than 50 years."
	   Tokyo last hosted the summer Olympics in 1964, underscoring Japan's post-war coming out party as it grew into a global economic powerhouse.
	   A kimono-clad Koike on Sunday received the flag at the closing ceremony in Rio where thousands of fans and athletes donned ponchos on a wet and windy night for a colourful festival of Brazilian culture and music with bursts of fireworks.
	   Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a comical cameo as Nintendo video game character Super Mario .

Olympic flag arrives in Tokyo for 2020 Games

Bayern Munich will chase a fifth straight Bundesliga title when the new season starts on Friday, with new coach Carlo Ancelotti attempting to continue the dominance forged by predecessors Pep Guardiola and Jupp Heynckes.
	   The Bayern hierarchy are expecting the 57-year-old Ancelotti to keep the Bavarian giants, who kick off the new season at home to Werder Bremen on Friday, at the pinnacle of German football.
	   Guardiola quit for Manchester City at the end of last season, after sealing a third consecutive league title and the German Cup.
	   Heynckes had signed off by delivering Bayern's first major treble in 2013 when they lifted the Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup titles.
	   But Ancelotti has already won some silverware after just two competitive games.
	   Bayern's 2-0 victory at Borussia Dortmund ten days ago gave them the German Super Cup title, ending a run of three successive defeats in the season-opener under Guardiola.
	   Like Heynckes before him, Italian ...

Father-figure Ancelotti out to keep Bayern on top

Daniel Sturridge scored twice as Liverpool strolled into the League Cup third round with a 5-0 win at Burton Albion on Tuesday, while Chelsea edged third-tier Bristol Rovers 3-2.
	   Divock Origi, Roberto Firmino and Sturridge all scored as Liverpool, last season's beaten finalists, crushed Championship side Burton, who are managed by ex-Liverpool midfielder Nigel Clough.
	   Michy Batshuayi marked his full Chelsea debut with a brace against Bristol Rovers, while Victor Moses was also on target as manager Antonio Conte enjoyed a third straight competitive win.
	   Premier League sides Crystal Palace, Everton, Hull City, Swansea City and Stoke City also went through, Peter Crouch scoring a hat-trick for Stoke in a 4-0 win at Stevenage.
	   But Watford and West Bromwich Albion were both taken to extra time by third-tier opposition, the former drawing 1-1 at home to Gillingham, the latter held 2-2 at Northampton Town.
	   Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp handed a debut to Cameroonian ...

Liverpool cruise, Chelsea squeeze in League Cup

A new group of critically endangered primates has been spotted in Vietnam, raising hopes the rare creatures may not be wiped out in the next decade as scientists had feared.
	The Delacour's langur, black and white with a full face of whiskers, is indigenous to Vietnam, but their numbers have dwindled in recent years because of poaching and mining activity in the country's northern forests.
	A team of scientists from Fauna and Flora International spotted a group of about 40 of the primates, mostly juveniles and infants, bringing their total population to less than 250.
	"It's great news for this particular species because had we not found this new population, they were in grave danger of being wiped out within a decade," spokeswoman for FFI in Vietnam, Akofa Wallace, told AFP yesterday.
	"The fact that they are breeding is brilliant news," she added.
	FFI did not say where scientists spotted the langurs, whose habitat is threatened by mining activity in the area, including charcoal ...

Rare endangered primate spotted in Vietnam

It is a voyage explorers only dreamed of not so long ago.
	But thanks to climate change, a luxury cruise ship has undertaken a pioneering journey that will see it sail through the once impassable Northwest Passage during a month-long trip that is drawing much excitement but also criticism from environmentalists.
	The Crystal Serenity, which set off from Seward, Alaska on August 16 with nearly 1,000 passengers, is scheduled to dock in New York on September 17.
	The ship made its last Alaska port call on Sunday, stopping in the remote town of Nome before heading farther north, accompanied by the RRS Ernest Shackleton, a British supply and icebreaking vessel.
	The voyage marks the first time a passenger ship this size sails the storied Northwest Passage where warmer temperatures and melting ice are opening the Arctic -- one of the most pristine places on Earth -- for business.
	Passengers on board the USD 350 million vessel paid between USD 22,000 and USD 120,000 for the journey, which ..

Giant cruise ship heads to Arctic on pioneering journey

Strong 6.2 quake hits central Italy: USGS. (AFP)

A large car bomb blew up outside a hotel in Thailand's insurgency-plagued southern region, killing one and wounding more than 30 people, some of them critically, police said.
	The bomb struck shortly before midnight outside a hotel on the outskirts of Pattani, one of three Muslim majority southern provinces that have been battered by a 12-year insurgency.
	"So far there is one killed and more than 30 injured," Major General Thanongsak Wangsupa, Pattani provincial police commander, said.

One dead, dozens wounded in Thai deep south car bomb: police

One dead, dozens wounded in Thai deep south car bomb:

Iraq's ambassador to Portugal has been summoned to Baghdad after the envoy's twin sons were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a 15-year-old boy, the foreign ministry has said.
	The incident happened last week in Ponte de Sor, central Portugal, following a brawl between locals and pupils at a nearby flight school where one of the twins is enrolled, according to Portuguese media yesterday.
	A source close to the investigation said the 17-year-old sons of the Iraqi ambassador in Lisbon, Saad Mohamed Ridha, were arrested but then released because they had diplomatic immunity.
	Portugal's Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said his country may request that Iraq remove the diplomatic immunity so that the pair can be prosecuted.
	The 15-year-old boy suffered a fractured skull and other extensive injuries and has been placed in a medically-induced coma, local media said.
	The Iraqi twin brothers, Haider and Ridha Ali, were interviewed on the Portuguese television channel SIC, with the ...

Iraq summons its envoy to Portugal over teenager assault

North Korea test-fired a submarine- launched ballistic missile off its eastern coast today, South Korea's news agency reported.
	According to Yonhap, the reported test came amid escalating cross-border tensions, with the North threatening retaliation over the start of South Korea-US military exercises condemned by Pyongyang as a rehearsal for a nuclear attack and invasion.

N Korea test fires sub-launched missile: Yonhap

N Korea test fires submarine-launched missile: Yonhap.

A Muslim mob in northern Nigeria has killed eight people after torching the house of a man who tried to save a Christian student accused of blasphemy, police said today.
	"Eight people were killed in the house by the mob over the alleged blasphemy," Zamfara state police spokesman Shehu Mohammed told AFP of the incident, which happened on Monday.
	He said the mob of Muslim students in the town of Talata Mafara were enraged over alleged derogatory comments by their Christian schoolmate, who they attacked.
	He said the victim was rescued by a passerby, a Muslim who rushed him to the police station for safety.
	The mob then burned down the house of the rescuer with eight people inside.
	"The man who rescued the student and his wife were not among the dead," the police spokesman said.

Muslim mob kills eight in northern Nigeria: police

Egyptian authorities said today they are asking foreign countries to unfreeze the assets of a close associate of former president Hosni Mubarak after he paid back three quarters of his wealth.
	Egypt asked Spain, Switzerland and Hong Kong to unblock tycoon Hussein Salem's foreign-held assets after he handed over 75 percent of his and his family's wealth in exchange for dropping corruption cases against him.
	Salem, once a close associate of Mubarak, fled to Spain after the January 2011 uprising that overthrew Mubarak. He has already been sentenced to 15 years in prison in another corruption trial.
	The decision by a committee tasked with retrieving illicit funds and assets followed Egypt's retrieval of Salem's assets and funds totalling 5.3 billion pounds (USD 600 million, 530 million euros), the Egyptian prosecutor general said in a statement today.
	The decision also called on Interpol to remove Salem's name from its "Red Notice" list and to lift travel bans on him and his ...

Egypt requests Mubarak-era tycoon foreign assets unfrozen

Rights groups said today that the executions by the Iraqi state of 36 men over a 2014 massacre claimed by the Islamic State group were failing to deliver justice and security.
	Iraq on Sunday hanged 36 men found guilty of involvement in the killing of up to 1,700 military recruits who were captured by IS and allied militants from Camp Speicher, near the city of Tikrit.
	The executions came after trials that rights watchdogs and the United Nations said failed to meet most basic standards.
	"When such a high-profile trial as this is mired with due process violations, what faith can anyone, on any side, have in Iraq's justice system," asked Human Rights Watch in a statement.
	HRW pointed out that among the 36 who were hanged were 24 men who had an earlier death sentence in the same case overturned over procedural errors.
	The group of defendants was then expanded and death sentences handed down again in February 2016 after a one-day hearing.
	Amnesty International also criticised the ...

Rights groups condemn executions over Iraq massacre

The United States has begun using attack helicopters to target the Islamic State group in the jihadists' Libyan former stronghold of Sirte, a defense official said today.
	American jets have since the start of August been helping fighters loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA) retake the coastal city of Sirte, conducting dozens of strikes on IS fighting positions and equipment.
	Lieutenant Commander Anthony Falvo, a spokesman for the US military's Africa Command, said Marine Corps AH-1W SuperCobra attack helicopters had in recent days joined the operation.
	"The Cobras provide additional precision air strike capability," Stuttgart-based Falvo told AFP in a phone interview.
	"It gives us a little bit more flexibility."
	SuperCobra gunships are based on the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship in the Mediterranean.
	Harrier jets are also being launched from the ship to conduct strikes on Sirte.
	As of yesterday, the United States had conducted 77 air strikes in the ...

US deploys attack helicopters to strike IS in Libya

A judge has allowed a new DNA test on a prison inmate who claims he is Prince's son and the rightful heir to the pop legend's vast estate.
	Carlin Q. Williams, a little-known 39-year-old rapper whose mother says she had sex with Prince in a Kansas City hotel, had requested a second genetic test, a court document showed.
	In an order signed last week but made public today, a judge in the suburbs of Prince's hometown Minneapolis, Minnesota, asked Williams to undergo the new test by September 14.
	Judge Kevin Eide gave Williams' lawyer until August 31 to choose a place to conduct the test, with the court to select one if not.
	The order gives credence to media reports that Williams failed in an earlier test to prove that Prince was his father. The court has not released the findings.
	Williams is serving a sentence in a high-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado for gun possession in a stolen car.
	Williams, who has been in trouble with the law since his youth, raps under the ...

Inmate who says he's Prince's son to get new DNA test

Regime forces and Kurdish fighters agreed today to a truce in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh after a week of clashes, a Kurdish official and Syrian state media said.
	The agreement included "a ceasefire and the withdrawal of all armed forces from the city," according to a statement distributed to journalists by a Kurdish official.
	It said the Kurds and regime would also exchange any detainees or wounded, and reopen roads blocked off during fighting.
	The official told AFP that the powerful Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and Syrian forces would withdraw from Hasakeh, while the police forces of both the Kurds and the government would remain.
	He added that the deal was brokered "under the auspices of Russian military officials."
	Syrian state television confirmed the truce agreement.
	A journalist working for AFP in Hasakeh said the city was quiet today afternoon, with several stores reopening in the centre.
	Kurdish, regime, and Russian officials met yesterday in the 

Syria regime, Kurds agree truce in Hasakeh

Final scores in the drawn first Test
between South Africa and New Zealand today after rain prevented play:
     South Africa first innings, 263 (H Amla 53; N Wagner 3-47, T Boult 3-52)
     New Zealand first innings (overnight: 15-2)
     M Guptill lbw b Steyn                   7
     T Latham c Amla b Steyn                 4
     K Williamson not out                    2
     R Taylor not out                        2
     Extras                                   0
     Total(2 wkts, 12 overs)                 15
     Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-12
     Bowling: Steyn 6-4-3-2, Philander 6-1-12-0.

Durban, Aug 23 (AFP) Final scores in the drawn first Test

The first Test between South Africa and New Zealand at Durban ended in a draw today after poor conditions prevented play, setting up a series-deciding final match beginning at the weekend.
     No play took place after rain fell during the lunch break on the second day on Saturday, when New Zealand were on 15 for two in reply to South Africa's first innings total of 263.
     Rain fell throughout the rest of Saturday and into early Sunday morning and further play was ruled out on days three, four and five because of a wet, soft outfield which the umpires decided would be dangerous for players.
     By Monday, the weather had cleared and there was no further rain but the outfield conditions did not improve sufficiently for play to resume.
     The series now hinges on the second and final Test starting at Centurion on Saturday.
     Cricket South Africa chief executive Haroon Lorgat in part blamed unseasonal rain and a re-laid outfield for the loss of play at the Kingsmead ground.
     

AFP

AFP

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