China put a brave face on their worst Olympics for 20 years but they will work hard to make sure they aren't embarrassed again in 2020 -- when the Games are hosted by arch-rivals Japan.
     A third-placed finish on the medals table below the United States and Britain, made for a sobering Games after China triumphantly topped the standings at Beijing 2008 and finished second in 2012.
     "You kidding me? The country which has never finished above China is about to," spluttered the official Xinhua news agency, in a tweet that was later removed.
     As well as their lowest gold medals tally (26) since Atlanta in 1996, when Jiang Zemin was president, China were also left smarting on a couple of occasions.
     Australia rebuffed China's demand for an apology after Mack Horton called swimming rival Sun Yang a "drugs cheat", an incident which prompted a furious response from Chinese media and web-users.
     Later, China complained, but again to no avail, after the United States were ...

You kidding me? China won't make same mistake in Tokyo

PTI Automatic

A mother is under investigation for murder after her four children, including a girl as young as three, were found dead, Japanese media reports and police said today.
	Local media reported the victims were killed by their mother before she tried to take her own life.
	According to police in the southern Japanese prefecture of Fukuoka, a 10-year-old boy, two six-year-old girls, and a three-year-old girl were found dead early today.
	"Their father found them dead and reported it to police," a police spokesman told AFP, without providing further details.
	Police are questioning the children's 41-year-old mother as a suspect in a possible murder-suicide attempt, according to Jiji Press and public broadcaster NHK.
	The mother confessed to police she had killed the children, according to TV Asahi.
	Police reportedly told media that at least one child had a mark indicating strangulation.
	The mother was sent to hospital as her wrist was bleeding, the Asahi Shimbun daily said. She told police 

Mother arrested after 4 children found dead at home

A strong typhoon stuck near Tokyo today, with heavy rain and winds grounding more than 400 flights as officials warned of landslides and flooding.
	Typhoon Mindulle made landfall at about 12:30 pm (0900 IST) in Tateyama city, roughly 80 kilometres southeast of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
	As of noon, the storm was packing gusts up to 180 kilometres per hour and heading north at a speed of 20 kilometres per hour, the agency said.
	There were no immediate reports of casualties or significant damage.
	"In Tokyo... Please exercise caution for landslides, flooding in low lying areas, surging rivers, violent wind and high waves," the weather agency said.
	Downpours across the greater Tokyo region caused rivers to swell, with television footage showing gushing waterways close to overflowing but staying within their banks.
	The storm has caused airlines across the country to cancel a total of 425 flights, mostly to and from Tokyo's Haneda airport, national broadcaster NHK ...

Flights grounded as typhoon hits near Tokyo

Oil prices eased in Asia today, ending a seven-day run, following news that Iraq will boost crude exports, while the dollar strengthened on speculation the Federal Reserve could hike interest rates this year.
	The commodity entered a bull market last week -- after rising more than 20 per cent from recent lows below USD 40 a barrel -- on hopes producers will take action to ease the supply glut.
	But gains were chipped in Asia after Bloomberg News reported that Iraq, OPEC's second-biggest producer, will increase exports by about five percent after an agreement to resume shipments from three oil fields.
	At around 0345 GMT (0815 IST), US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in September was down 54 cents, or 1.11 per cent, to USD 47.98 a barrel. Brent crude fell 73 cents, or 1.43 per cent, to USD 50.15.
	Analysts said a stronger dollar ahead of the Fed's annual symposium from Thursday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, also dented demand as it makes oil more expensive for holders of ...

Oil down in Asia on Iraq export boost, stronger dollar

Two young French volunteers found dead today on an island off the northeast coast of Madagascar were likely murdered, authorities said.
	Local mayor Bessaou Ismak Ado Crophe on the resort island of Sainte Marie told AFP both bodies showed signs of head trauma, with officials suspecting murder.
	"They spent the evening in a nightclub and were found on the beach nearby," he said.
	"I saw the bodies. Both had injuries to the head."
	The victims, a man and a woman in their twenties, were volunteers at Cetamada, a local environmental non-profit organisation working to protect ocean mammals.
	An investigation had been launched.
	Tourism Minister Roland Ratsiraka said he had spoken to the French ambassador to the Indian Ocean island and that the consul would be visiting Sainte Marie on Monday.
	"The government strongly condemns this act and will ensure that the investigation will be transparent," he said.
	Cetamada vice-president Jean-Jacques Ravello, who is also France's honorary consul to .

Two French volunteers feared murdered off Madagascar

A wet outfield prevented any play on the third day of the first Test between South Africa and New Zealand here today.
     New Zealand remained on 15 for two in reply to South Africa's first innings total of 263.
     Rain, which started falling at lunchtime on Saturday, continued through Saturday and into Sunday morning. Although the sun was shining at the scheduled resumption of play, there were extensive wet, muddy areas on a field which was re-seeded in June and was flooded by a freak storm in July.
     After an inspection by the umpires at midday (1000 GMT), it was announced that underfoot conditions remained treacherous, with water coming up to the surface.
     Following a further inspection two hours later, it was decided conditions would not improve in time for play to get under way.

Wet outfield wipes out day three in Durban

Half-centuries from Aaron Finch and skipper Steve Smith helped Australia pull off a tricky chase to defeat a resilient Sri Lanka by three wickets in the first One-day International here today.
     Australia, who suffered their first series whitewash against the hosts in the three Tests, chased down 228 in 46.5 overs at the R. Premadasa Stadium to lead the five-match ODI series 1-0.
     Pacers James Faulkner and Mitchell Starc, who became the fastest to reach 100 wickets in his 52nd match, also played their part with seven wickets between them after Australia elected to bowl.
     "Nice to be on this side of the result, proud of the way the boys fought back," Smith said.
     "I thought the bowlers did a good job to restrict them to 227, they took the pace off, put them in the right areas and made it difficult," he added.
     Opener Finch, who scored a quickfire 56, gave Australia a brisk start despite the early wicket of David Warner, who was out for eight after a scratchy 17-ball .

Finch, Smith help Aussies overcome tricky chase

Fifteen people suffered minor injuries today when the ceiling of an Oslo concert venue collapsed during a show, police said.
	"15 injured. They're being attended to by medics," Oslo police wrote on Twitter, adding: "No reports of serious injuries."
	Around 1,800 students from the Norwegian Business School were attending a show by American house DJ Steve Aoki at the Sentrum Scene venue when the accident happened.
	"The ceiling fell in and it was total chaos. The fire alarm sounded right away," a student attending the concert, Charlotte Nilsen, told news agency NTB.
	Police evacuated the building immediately and cordoned off the area while fire officials secured the site.

15 injured as Oslo concert venue ceiling collapses

Donald Trump's vow to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants if elected president appeared to be undergoing a shift today as the struggling Republican candidate reaches out to minorities alienated by his harsh rhetoric.
	The New York real estate magnate intends to lay out specifics of his immigration plan over the next few weeks, Trump's new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said.
	Asked on CNN's State of the Union whether they will include a "deportation force" that Trump has previously called for, Conway said, "To be determined."
	Trump met with Hispanic supporters at his Trump Tower headquarters in New York yesterday, when several participants told Spanish-language network Univision that he said his plan will include finding a way to legalise millions of undocumented immigrants.
	Trump acknowledged "that there is a big problem with the 11 million people who are here, and that deporting them is neither possible nor humane," Univision quoted Jacob Monty, a Texas immigration lawyer 

Trump pitches softer line on immigration: 'fair and humane'

Sri Lanka's national carrier has suspended a captain who failed a breathalyser test just before he was due to fly 274 passengers and crew from Frankfurt to Colombo, the airline said today.
	"Upon receiving the results (of the test) SriLankan Airlines took immediate steps to suspend the services of the said captain and took alternative measures to operate the flight to Colombo," the airline said in a statement.
	An airline source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Flight UL554 was held up at Frankfurt airport for more than 15 hours on Friday as staff scrambled to find another captain for the Airbus A330.
	The crew raised the alarm after noticing that the captain was visibly drunk, the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, told AFP.
	The airline said an internal investigation was underway into the incident and it would cooperate with any probe by German authorities.
	The cash-strapped airline is due to stop its flights to Frankfurt from October as it slashes routes to ..

Sri Lanka airline suspends drunk pilot

Israel targeted Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip by air and with tank fire today after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave crashed into the Israeli city of Sderot.
	Police said the rocket hit "between two buildings on a road" in Sderot, which is less than four kilometres from Gaza, causing no casualties.
	Army spokesman Peter Lerner said Israeli forces retaliated by hitting targets of the Palestinian Islamist movement in northern Gaza.
	"In response to the rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, the IAF (Israeli air force) and tanks targeted two Hamas posts in the northern Gaza Strip," Lerner said in a statement.
	Palestinian health and security sources said two people were lightly wounded by the Israeli fire.
	"One of them is a 20-year-old (young man) who was hit by shrapnel in the face," said Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
	Security sources in the territory said several targets in northen Gaza were struck by Israeli fire, 

Israel hits Hamas targets in Gaza after rocket attack

First innings scoreboard in the
opening one-day international between Sri Lanka and Australia at Colombo's R Premadasa Stadium on Sunday:
	   Sri Lanka
	   K Perera b Starc                  1
	   T Dilshan c Smith b Henriques    22
	   K Mendis c Head b Faulkner       67
	   D Chandimal not out              80
	   A Mathews c Head b Faulkner       0
	   D de Silva c Bailey b Starc       2
	   T Siriwardana c Finch b Starc    19
	   T Perera c Wade b Faulkner       21
	   D Perera c Hazlewood b Faulkner  10
	   A Aponso not out                  2
	   Extras: (b-1, w-2)                3
	   Total: (For 8 wickets, 50 overs)  227
	   Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-45, 3-124, 4-124, 5-132, 6-173, 7-209, 8-224
	   Bowling: Starc 10-1-32-3, Hazlewood 10-0-56-0, Faulkner 10-0-38-4, Henriques 9-0-48-1, Zampa 7-0-34-0, Head 4-0-18-0.

Colombo, Aug 21 (AFP) First innings scoreboard in the

Australian pacemen James Faulkner and Mitchell Starc restricted Sri Lanka to 227 for eight despite half-centuries from Kusal Mendis and Dinesh Chandimal in the first ODI on Sunday.
     Faulkner and Starc, who became the fastest to reach 100 wickets in his 52nd match, shared seven wickets between them to validate skipper Steve Smith's decision to bowl first at Colombo's R. Premadasa Stadium.
     Starc, who took three wickets, struck with the fourth ball of the innings to have opener Kusal Perera trudging back to the pavilion for one.
     Veteran batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kusal Mendis, who scored 67, then came together for a 42-run second-wicket partnership to bring some stability to the innings.
     Mendis was dropped on 14 off left-arm paceman James Faulkner when Aaron Finch spilt a catch at midwicket after appearing to lose sight of the ball against the sun.
     Dilshan was less lucky when his trademark "Dilscoop" -- a cheeky shot played behind the wicket -- went awry. ...

Aussies restrict Sri Lanka to 227-8 in 1st ODI

Two Egyptian policemen were killed and five other people wounded as gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint north of Cairo today, officials said.
	The interior ministry, on its Facebook page, said three gunmen in a car without license plates fired at the checkpoint in Sadat City, an industrial zone 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the capital.
	Two civilians were among the five wounded, the health ministry said.
	It was not immediatly clear if the attack was carried out for criminal motives or by jihadists, who have mounted a string of deadly operations against security forces since the military ousted Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
	Hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed in the attacks, mostly in the restive Sinai Peninsula.

2 Egypt police killed in checkpoint attack

Germany will introduce its first civil defence strategy since the end of the Cold War, calling on the population to stockpile enough food and water for several days, according to a report today.
	The plan, which makes civilian backing of troops a priority while boosting the resilience of buildings and increasing capacity in the healthcare system, is due to be adopted by the government Wednesday, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) daily.
	Contacted by AFP, an interior ministry spokesman confirmed that the cabinet was due to adopt a civil defence strategy but declined details about the concept or comment on the newspaper report.
	The strategy noted that "an attack on German territory requiring conventional defence is unlikely," but said the country should be "sufficiently prepared in case of an existence-threatening development in the future that cannot be ruled out," according to the 69-page strategy quoted by the FAZ.
	"The population will be encouraged to stockpile 

Germany to chart first civil defence plan since Cold War:

A British man has been named a suspect, along with an Australian woman, in the murder of an Indonesian policeman on the resort island of Bali, police said today.
	Forensic teams have identified the blood of the slain policeman in a hotel room occupied by the suspects, Sara Connor and David Taylor, police added.
	Connor, a mother from New South Wales, was named a suspect yesterday.
	Traffic police officer Wayan Sudarsa's body was found with wounds to the head and neck early Wednesday on Kuta beach, a popular tourist hangout in the south of the island.
	Denpasar police chief Hadi Purnomo said forensic tests had matched blood found in the pair's hotel room with the victim, as well as samples taken from the crime scene.
	"There is evidence we have found that allows investigators to declare him a suspect," said Purnomo of Taylor.
	Police had also gathered shards of glass from a bottle found at the crime scene they believe may have been used in Sudarsa's murder, Purnomo added.
	Police ...

Briton named suspect with Australian in Bali murder

At least 50 people were killed in a southeastern Turkish city close to Syria when a suspected suicide bomber linked to Islamic State jihadists attacked a wedding thronged with guests, officials said today.
	Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the IS extremist group was the "likely perpetrator" of the bomb attack, the deadliest in 2016, in Gaziantep late yesterday that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds.
	The remains of a suicide vest were found at the scene, the chief prosecutor's office said in a statement today, broadcaster CNN-Turk reported.
	The explosion was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.
	Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 50 people had been killed, raising a previous toll of 30. He had previously said 94 were wounded in what he described as an "abhorrent terror bomb attack on a wedding".
	Erdogan ...

'IS bomber' kills at least 50 at Turkey wedding

Tokyo protested to Beijing today after Chinese coast guard ships sailed into territorial waters surrounding disputed islands in the East China Sea, Japan said.
	Four Chinese vessels entered the waters surrounding islets, called the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, around 10.00 AM local time, according to Japan Coast Guard.
	They left the territorial waters within an hour, the coast guard said.
	The two countries are locked in a long-running dispute over the uninhabited islets.
	Tokyo has lodged at least 32 protests through diplomatic channels since August 5 over what it says have been about 30 intrusions by Chinese vessels in the territorial waters.
	The director general of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau, Kenji Kanasugi, issued a protest today to the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, saying that the ships' "incursion" violated Japan's sovereignty, the ministry said in a statement.
	"Despite Japan's repeated strong protests, the Chinese side has ...

Japan protests as China ships sail near disputed isles

At least 10 people were killed today in two explosions in a town in central Somalia, police said.
	The Shabaab militant group claimed responsibilty for the blasts in the town of Galkayo, some 700 kilometers (440 miles) northeast of Mogadishu.
	"There were two car bomb blasts which targeted the local government headquarters. More than 10 people have been killed," said police officer Mohamed Abdiqani.
	Local resident Hassan Abdukadir said he counted a dozen bodies, some burned beyond recognition.
	"It was horrible. The first blast was caused by a truck loaded with explosives, and the second was a minibus," he said.
	Shabaab said it carried out the attack, in a message distributed via the Telegram messaging service, claiming "at least 30 people, including military personnel and apostates were killed."
	The Shabaab carries out regular attacks against government, military and civilian targets using suicide car bombers and gunmen.
	In March, Shabaab militants attacked a hotel in Galkayo ...

More than 10 dead in twin blasts in Somalia town: official

Two Chinese nationals will go on trial this week for their alleged roles in a deadly bombing at a Bangkok shrine one year ago, an attack whose motive remains clouded in mystery following a murky and at times surreal investigation.
	The trial, which starts on Tuesday, is being held at a military court in Bangkok and is expected to last more than a year.
	The bombing was the worst assault of its kind in Thailand's recent history.
	But one year later more than a dozen key suspects named during the investigation remain at large, while analysts say Thai authorities have yet to offer a convincing motive.
	The small but powerful bomb packed with ball bearings killed 20 people and wounded more than 100 when it ripped through Erawan shrine in the heart of Bangkok's shopping district on August 17, 2015.
	The Hindu shrine is popular among ethnic Chinese visitors, who made up a majority of the dead with five from Malaysia, five from China and two from Hong Kong.
	Two members of China's Muslim ...

Bangkok bomb trial looms without masterminds in dock

South Korea warned today of possible assassination attempts and other provocations from North Korea in response to recent high-profile defections.
	"It is highly likely that North Korea will make various attempts to prevent further defections and unrest among its people," an official at Seoul's unification ministry said, citing possible attempts to assassinate human rights activists and defectors in the South.

AFP

AFP

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