Scoreboard at tea on the fourth day of the first Test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Pallekele on Friday:
     Sri Lanka 1st innings: 117
     Australia 1st innings: 203
     Sri Lanka 2nd innings (Overnight 282 for six)
     K Perera lbw b Starc               4
     K Silva lbw b O'Keefe              7
     D Karunaratne lbw b Starc          0
     K Mendis c Nevill b Starc        176
     A Mathews c Burns b Lyon           9
     D Chandimal lbw b Marsh           42
     D de Silva c Khawaja b Lyon       36
     D Perera not out                  12
     R Herath c Henriques b Hazlewood  35
     L Sandakan b Starc                 9
     N Pradeep not out                 10
     Extras: (B-1, LB-11)              13
     Total: (all out, 93.4 overs)     353
     Fall of wicket: 1-6, 2-6, 3-45, 4-86, 5-203, 6-274, 7-290, 8-314, 9-323.
     Bowling: Starc 19-4-84-4, Hazlewood 18.4-3-59-2, O'Keefe 16.2-3-42-1, Lyon 27-2-108-2, Warner 1-0-10-0, Voges 1.4-0-3-0, Marsh 9-1-33-1, Smith ...

Pallekele, Jul 29 (AFP) Scoreboard at tea on the fourth day of the first Test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Pallekele on Friday:

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Australia lost three early wickets to Sri Lanka's spinners before skipper Steve Smith steadied the ship as the visitors struggled to chase down a formidable target of 268 in a nail-biting first Test.
     Australia were precariously placed at 83 for three, with Smith unbeaten on 26, when bad light forced the umpires to call tea early on the fourth day in Pallekele in a match that has already been badly hit by rain.
     Australia still need another 185 runs for victory to take a lead in the three-match series.
     Rangana Herath struck early with his left-arm spin when the veteran bowled David Warner for one. Offspinner Dilruwan Perera then soon had Usman Khawaja trapped lbw with the score reading 33/2.
     Debutant spinner Lakshan Sandakan, who bagged four wickets in the first innings, cleaned up opener Joe Burns who had looked well set on 29 until he chopped a turning ball onto his stumps.
     Smith then began a battling 54-ball innings, which has so far not seen him score any ...

Sri Lanka corner Australia in tricky chase

Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger today announced his retirement from international duty with immediate effect.
     The 31-year-old Manchester United midfielder, who won his 120th and final cap in Germany's 2-0 defeat to France in the semi-finals of Euro 2016, revealed the news on his official Twitter account.
     He retires from die Mannschaft with his Old Trafford future in the balance having reportedly been told by United's new coach Jose Mourinho that he is one of nine players free to leave the club.
     Schweinsteiger still has two years left to run on his United contract.
     A knee injury in January flared up again in March, restricting him to just a handful of matches before he played at the European championships, netting a goal on his return against Ukraine in Germany's opening pool game.
     The defensive midfielder said now was the right time to retire from the national team ahead of Germany's first qualifier for the 2018 World Cup against Norway on September 9, .

Bastian Schweinsteiger retires from Germany duty

Eight men who kidnapped a Hong Kong fashion heiress and held her in a cave as they negotiated a multi-million-dollar ransom were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison today, a mainland court said.
	Queenie Rosita Law, granddaughter of late textiles tycoon Law Ting-pong, who founded the Bossini clothing chain, was abducted from her house in Hong Kong in April last year.
	The 29-year-old was held in a mountain cave for four days before family members paid a ransom of Hong Kong Dollar 28 million (USD 3.61 million) for her release. Most of the gang fled to mainland China afterwards, where they were captured.
	Six of plaintiffs were found guilty of abduction, while two others were charged with disguising or concealing illegally obtained gains, a Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court spokesman told AFP.
	Ringleader You Dunkui was sentenced to 15 years for kidnapping, with the others being given terms ranging from 13 years to just under two, he said.
	Another gang member, Zheng Xingwang, was .

8 jailed for up to 15 years over kidnap of Hong Kong heiress

Three people including a NATO observer were killed when ammunition exploded at a military depot in northern Ukraine, officials said.
	Two other people were wounded in the blast yesterday that happened as ammunition which had been brought for disposal at the facility in the northern Sumy region was being unloaded.
	"A NATO representative was among those three killed in the explosion," Yuliana Lazarenko, a spokeswoman for Ukraine's military prosecutor, told AFP.
	She added he was a Ukrainian citizen who oversaw ammunition disposal as part of a joint Ukraine-NATO programme.
	Ukraine still hosts vasts stockpiles of surplus and obsolete Soviet-era ammunition and weapons, including landmines and small arms.
	The western military alliance has been funding the safe disposal of the arms caches for several years.

NATO employee among three killed in Ukraine ammunition blast

A piece of debris found in Tanzania is "highly likely" to be from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Australia's transport minister said today, as he defended the Indian Ocean search efforts.
	The large wing part was brought to Canberra for analysis after it was found by locals on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania last month.
	In a statement, Australia's Transport Minister Darren Chester said "it is highly likely that the latest piece of debris being analysed by the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) is from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370".
	"The experts will continue to analyse this piece to assess what information can be determined from it," he added.
	His comments come a year after a large piece of wing debris was found on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean and positively identified by French officials as originating from the flight, which disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people onboard.
	Australian officials have determined that four other pieces of .

'Highly likely' Tanzania piece from MH370: Australia

The Islamic State jihadist group has executed at least 24 civilians after seizing a village in northern Syria from a Kurdish-Arab alliance, a monitor said today.
	"IS has executed at least 24 civilians in the last 24 hours" after seizing the village of Buyir close to the northern town of Manbij from the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

IS executes 24 civilians after seizing Syria village: monitor

Scoreboard at lunch on the fourth day of the first cricket Test between Sri Lanka and Australia here today:
     Sri Lanka 1st innings: 117
	Australia 1st innings: 203
     Sri Lanka 2nd innings (Overnight 282 for six):
	K Perera lbw b Starc              	    4
	K Silva lbw b O'Keefe             	    7
     D Karunaratne lbw b Starc         	    0
	K Mendis c Nevill b Starc       		  176
	A Mathews c Burns b Lyon          	    9
	D Chandimal lbw b Marsh          		   42
	D de Silva c Khawaja b Lyon      		   36
	D Perera not out                 		   12
	R Herath not out                 		   17
	Extras: (LB-11)                  		   11
	Total: (for 7 wickets in 87.3 overs)    314
	Fall of wicket: 1-6, 2-6, 3-45, 4-86, 5-203, 6-274, 7-290
	Bowling: Starc 16-4-62-3, Hazlewood 16.3-3-54-0, O'Keefe 16.2-3-42-1, Lyon 26-2-98-2, Warner 1-0-10-0, Voges 1.4-0-3-0, Marsh 9-1-33-1, Smith 1-0-1-0.

Pallekele (Sri Lanka), Jul 29 (AFP) Scoreboard at lunch on the fourth day of the first cricket Test between Sri Lanka and Australia here today:

Sri Lanka were 314 for seven against Australia after umpires called an early lunch on a rain-interrupted fourth day of the first cricket Test here today.
     Only 45 deliveries were bowled during the morning session which was late in starting due to rain and bad light.
	Australian pace spearhead Mitchell Starc managed to pick up the prized wicket of Kusal Mendis (176) who helped the hosts stretch their second innings lead to 238.
	The tourists opted for the second new ball in the morning session and Mendis, who notched up his maiden Test ton, played away from his body to a full length delivery to be caught behind.
	It was Starc's third wicket of the innings while Nathan Lyon has two.
	Australia's bowling attack was dealt a blow yesterday when spinner Steve O'Keefe injured his hamstring, ruling him out of the remainder of the Test series.

Sri Lanka 314-7 at lunch in rain-hit Aussie Test

Australian spinner Steve O'Keefe was set to return home after injuring his hamstring during the ongoing opening cricket Test against Sri Lanka here, according to a statement today.
     O'Keefe, who impressed selectors with a 10-wicket haul in Australia's only practice game in Sri Lanka, had to leave the field in the middle of his 17th over of the second innings on day three yesterday.
	"Initial assessment indicates a moderate grade hamstring injury which means it is highly unlikely that he will be available for the remainder of the Test series," Australian physiotherapist David Beakley said in the Cricket Australia statement.
     "Steve will remain with the squad in Kandy until the end of the Test and will undertake imaging on the injury upon his return to Australia," added Beakley.
     Left-arm spinner Jon Holland has been called up to the Australian squad to replace O'Keefe, who picked up three wickets in the match, which looks evenly poised, before getting injured.
     "It is ..

Injured O'Keefe to return home from Sri Lanka

Indonesia today executed four drug convicts by firing squad, but temporarily spared 10 others including an Indian, drawing swift condemnation as Jakarta pushes on with its tough campaign of capital punishment.
	Ten expected to have faced the firing squad, including nationals from Pakistan, India and Zimbabwe as well as Indonesians, were not put to death but officials said they would be executed at a later stage.
	Authorities did not give a reason for the reprieve, but the prison island where they were expected to be executed in outdoor clearings was hit by a major storm as the other sentences were carried out.
	The executions, which saw an Indonesian and three Nigerians face the firing squad, were the first in the country since April last year when authorities put to death eight drug convicts, including two Australians.
	President Joko Widodo has defended dramatically ramping up the use of capital punishment, saying that Indonesia is fighting a war on drugs and traffickers must be ...

Indonesia executes foreign convicts despite protests

Usain Bolt will launch an audacious bid for three Olympic sprint gold medals for an unprecendented third time as the perfect antidote to a year of turmoil in his drug-tainted sport.
	Track and field has been dragged through the ringer since Sebastian Coe took over as president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in Beijing last August on a "zero-tolerance" anti-doping mandate.
	Widespread corruption at the heart of the IAAF, involving Coe's disgraced predecessor Lamine Diack, was linked to shocking levels of institutionalised doping in Russia, one of track and field's powerhouses.
	In November, the IAAF issued a blanket ban of Russia's track and field team over that state-sponsored doping, ruling that only US-based long jumper Darya Klishina was eligible to compete at the Rio Games, which start on August 5.
	The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected a wider appeal by 67 track and field athletes including treble Olympic gold-chasing pole vault ...

Bolt eyes triple triple as athletics emerges from darkest hour

Rio's top security official has vowed to review security for the Olympic torch after rioting protesters blocked the relay ceremony and apparently extinguished the flame.
	The violent clashes late Wednesday in Angra dos Reis, a coastal resort south of Rio, cast a shadow over final preparations for South America's first Olympics, which start August 5.
     In another worry for organisers, Rio metro employees threatened yesterday to go on strike on the eve of the Games if they do not get a 9.83 per cent salary raise, raising the possibility of transport chaos for some 500,000 tourists expected to attend.
	Rio de Janeiro state security secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame said that policing during the torch relay -- which will have visited more than 300 Brazilian cities by the time of the opening ceremony in Rio's Maracana stadium -- needs improving.
	"There has never been a problem," he was quoted as saying by G1 news site. "Yesterday there was one. This needs to be reevaluated and we will be 

Brazil reviews Olympic torch security after riot

Sixteen of 17 Russian wrestlers were cleared to compete in the Rio Olympics by international governing body United World Wrestling (UWW).
	Freestyle wrestler Viktor Lebedev, a former two-time world champion in the 55kg class, was the only athlete excluded following a positive doping test a decade ago.
	Lebedev, 28, won gold in the 2015 European Games in the 57kg class, and had been due to compete in that event in Rio.
	"All Russian wrestlers currently qualified for Rio 2016 have all been tested in 2016 by WADA-accredited laboratories outside of Moscow," UWW said in a statement yesterday.
	"None of the wrestlers entered in the Olympic Games -- or who qualified a place for their NOC -- was included in the McLaren report.
	"Per regulations set by the IOC, Viktor Lebedev was not cleared for consideration due to a positive doping test at the 2006 Junior World Championships.
	"Mr Lebedev's qualification spot has been replaced by the nation of the next best-ranked wrestler from his ...

16 of 17 Russian wrestlers cleared for Rio

The US military has confirmed 14 new deaths resulting from the bombing campaign against the Islamic State group, bringing the total official toll to 55 killed.
	The announcement from the US Central Command (Centcom) -- yesterday which oversees US military operations in the Middle East -- followed an internal investigation into six US airstrikes between July 28, 2015 and April 29, 2016.
	"In each of the cases released today, the assessment determined that although all precautions were taken and the strikes complied with laws of armed conflict, civilian casualties unfortunately did occur," said Centcom in a statement.
	Critics of the US-led air strikes have accused the coalition of underestimating the number of resulting civilian deaths.
	The updated toll comes after the coalition announced Wednesday a formal investigation to determine whether its July 19 air strikes near Manbij in Syria claimed civilian lives.
	The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 56 ...

US military confirms 14 new civilian deaths in Iraq, Syria

Corsican lawmakers have called on the French state to close down radical mosques on the Mediterranean island, hours after an underground separatist movement issued a threat against Islamic extremists.
	The regional parliament yesterday adopted a resolution urging Paris to ensure the immediate closure in Corsica "of prayer or meeting places that act as centres of radicalisation or where hateful speeches are made, creating an atmosphere that is favourable to violence".
	The resolution was adopted with a landslide, with MPs from the nationalist, left and right parties voting for, and only three Communists abstaining.
	Passed at the peak of the tourist season, the text also calls for tighter security measures in areas frequented by holidaymakers.
	The resolution was passed after a splinter group of the nationalist Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC) in a statement warned Islamists that any attack on the island would trigger "a determined response, without any qualms".
	"What the ...

Corsican MPs urge France to shut radical mosques

Transgender identity should no longer be classified as a mental disorder in a World Health Organization list of diseases, according to a study presented in Mexico.
	Violence and social rejection are the cause of mental distress and impairment among transgender people, not their gender identity, according to the research published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry.
	"If it's not a disease now, then it never was. This should be clear," Eduardo Madrigal, president of the Mexican Association of Psychiatry, said yesterday at a news conference.
	The field study was conducted between April and August 2014 among 250 transgender adults who were receiving health care services at the Condesa Specialized Clinic in Mexico City.
	The group went through an interview which found that 83 percent had experience distress over their gender identity during adolescence.
	It is the first in a series of similar studies that will be conducted in Brazil, France, India, Lebanon and South Africa.
	The results 

Transgender identity is not mental disorder: study

Shiite rebels and their allies formed a 10-member "supreme council" to run Yemen, in what the government described as a blow to the already stalled UN-brokered peace talks.
	The Shiite Huthi rebels and the General People's Congress of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have agreed to "form a supreme political council of 10 members", according to a statement carried by a rebel-run news agency.
	It did not name the council's members.
	"The aim is to unify efforts to confront the aggression by Saudi Arabia and its allies," the statement said in reference to the Riyadh-led Arab coalition that launched a military campaign against the rebels in March last year in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
	The job of the council will be to "manage state affairs politically, militarily, economically, administratively, socially and in security".
	Yemen's Foreign Minister Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi said the new move represents a "new coup" and blamed the rebels for "missing an opportunity for ..

Rebels form 'supreme council' to run war-torn Yemen

Google parent Alphabet said today its second quarter profit jumped 43 per cent from last year to USD 4.9 billion, in results that lifted shares of the Internet giant.
	Revenue jumped 21 per cent to USD 21.5 billion, the California tech giant said, reporting results stronger than most analyst forecasts.

Alphabet/Google profit jumps 43 per cent to USD 4.9 bn

Racial tension and inequality across society are preventing the United States from meeting its "ideals", a UN expert said following his first-ever visit to the country.
	The United Nations Special Rapporteur on peaceful assembly and association, Maina Kiai, also voiced serious concern on overly aggressive policing which he said has at times stifled the right to legitimate protest.
	He also levelled tough criticism at a foreign workers visa programme, claiming it gave far too much power to employers over their workers and comparing it to a system in the Middle East widely viewed as oppressive.
	"Racism and the exclusion, persecution and marginalisation that come with it, affect the enabling environment for the exercise of association and assembly rights," Kiai said in a statement after a 17-day US tour which included stops in Washington, New York, Baltimore and several southern cities.
	Echoing previous UN criticism, he blasted America's "so-called 'War on Drugs'", which he argued ...

US struggling to meet its 'ideals': UN rights expert

The UN's aid chief warned today that humanitarian corridors proposed by Russia to help Syrians leave Aleppo must be used voluntarily and that protection be guaranteed.
	Russia, which is backing the Syrian regime in the five-year war, announced plans to set up four corridors for civilians and fighters to leave Aleppo, which has been under heavy assault for weeks.
	The proposal however raised concerns that the corridors could be used to flush out Aleppo before a final push by the Syrian regime forces to take the city.
	"No one can be forced to flee, by any specific route or to any particular location," said Stephen O'Brien, the under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs.
	"Protection must be guaranteed for all according to the principles of neutrality and impartiality," he said in a statement.
	The Syrian opposition condemned Russia's proposal, saying the exit corridors would be used to empty the city.
	"If the corridors could be used to allow aid into Aleppo, then that would be ..

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