Pope Francis won a rapturous welcome today as he visited a congested Kenyan slum to convey a message of solidarity with the poor and underprivileged, a highlight of his three-nation Africa tour.
	The 78-year-old pontiff was given a rapturous welcome as he arrived in Kangemi, home to more than 100,000 people who live in shacks without sewerage, including 20,000 who belong to the local Catholic parish.
	People arrived long hours before dawn in the hope of catching a glimpse of the pope, who has made humility and help for the impoverished a hallmark of his tenure.
	Wild singing and ululating broke out as Francis arrived in the Popemobile down the streets, weaving through the sea of tin-roofed homes.
	"It is once in a lifetime," said Edward Mwaniki, who comes from Kangemi, who waited for hour with his wife and three sons. "It is an honour to be here being a Catholic."
	After visiting Kangemi's Catholic church, the pope will meet young people at Kasarani national stadium, where US ...

Pope visits poor and young in Kenya slum on Africa tour

PTI Automatic

New Zealand lost the key wicket of in-form batsman Kane Williamson in a major blow to their hopes of winning the first-ever day-night Test at Adelaide Oval today.
     The Black Caps, needing a win to draw the three-Test series after losing the Brisbane opener, opted to bat after winning the toss in the much-anticipated Test match featuring a pink ball for the first time.
     The Kiwis had largely negotiated the opening hurdle with only the loss of opener Martin Guptill before pace spearhead Mitchell Starc trapped Williamson leg before wicket for 22 nearing the first interval.
     Starc, who has taken over as the leader of the Australian bowling attack after last week's retirement of Mitchell Johnson, hit Williamson's pads with a yorker in front of the stumps with the fourth delivery of his second over in a new spell.
     Williamson, who scored two centuries in his previous four innings in the series, did not challenge the dismissal and left the ground in a significant wicket for ..

Aussies capture key Williamson wicket in day-night Test

Scoreboard after the first session on the opening day of the third Test between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval on Friday:
 New Zealand 1st innings
 M. Guptill      lbw b Hazlewood    1
 T. Latham             batting     50
 K. Williamson   lbw b Starc       22
 R. Taylor             batting      7
 Extras                              0
 Total (2 wickets; 28 overs)        80
 Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-59
 Bowling: Starc 6-2-14-1, Hazlewood 9-0-38-1, Siddle 6-4-12-0, Lyon 7-1-16-0.

Adelaide, Nov 27 (AFP) Scoreboard after the first session on the opening day of the third Test between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval on Friday:

Piercing screaming and shouts of "I'm going to kill you" prompted Australian police to rush to a Sydney home at 2am, only to find an embarrassed man and a large spider.
	New South Wales's police said officers raced to the apartment in the harbourside suburb of Wollstonecraft last Saturday after reports of a violent domestic dispute between a man and a woman.
	Neighbours reported a woman screaming hysterically, a man yelling "I'm going to kill you, you're dead! Die, Die" and sounds of furniture being tossed around.
	"Numerous police cars responded to the address and began banging on the door," Harbourside Local Area Command said on their Facebook page.
	A man aged in his 30s, out of breath and flushed, came to the door and was immediately asked where his wife or girlfriend was.
	"Umm, I don't have one," he answered.
	When police explained they had reports of a domestic and a woman screaming, he replied: "I don't know what you're talking about, I live alone".
	Pressed about the threats .

Aussie police rush to scene of killing, find dead spider

Eight members of a criminal gang that pledged allegiance to Islamic State jihadists were killed in a firefight with the military in the southern Philippines, officials said today.
	The hour-long battle took place yesterday in Palimbang, a remote town in the south -- home to the predominantly Catholic nation's Muslim minority and the scene of decades of conflict.
	The bandits were from Ansar al-Khalifa, a small group that declared its support for Islamic State in a video circulated on the Internet last year, regional military spokesman Major Filemon Tan said.
	The military has said that support for Islamic State -- which controls vast swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq -- in the Philippines was limited to local bandits claiming allegiance to the group.
	But it has said there is no evidence showing that such gangs were receiving support from the jihadists.
	The larger Abu Sayyaf group, a United States-listed terrorist organisation that is holding at least four foreign nationals ...

Eight IS supporters killed in Philippine clash

Australians were counting the cost of bushfires today, with officials saying a volunteer firefighter died from a suspected heart attack while battling an eastern blaze and a southern inferno razed at least 35 homes.
	The latest death came after two people were killed Wednesday when an "Armageddon-like" blaze swept through parts of South Australia, leaving insurance claims of Aus$61 million (USD 44 million) in its wake.
	The 48-year-old firefighter collapsed and died after he and New South Wales state Rural Fire Service (RFS) colleagues were tackling a blaze near Cessnock, north of Sydney, late Thursday.
	"It's absolutely tragic, someone goes out for the want of nothing -- for free -- to make a difference in their community and haven't been able to make it home," RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters.
	"It's a sobering reminder of the dangers, of the volatile nature that is firefighting and serving and protecting one's community."
	Fires are burning around New South Wales ..

Australia fire death toll at 3 as damage tops USD 44 mn

Sebastian Coe has vowed to guide the IAAF "back to trust" after a series of corruption and doping scandals that has seen global athletics crash into its darkest ever days.
     Speaking after an IAAF Council meeting yesterday, Coe stepped down from his lucrative ambassadorial role for Nike over what some people dubbed as a conflict of interest, notably over the award of the 2021 world championships to Eugene, located in the same Oregan state as the giant US sportswear company.
     "The journey back to trust is not a scientific one, there's is no certainty in this," said Coe.
     "But it does have to start with making sure that we have an organisation that is fit for purpose and can deliver the services that it needs to, and can maintain and rebuild the reputation that clearly has been hit very hard in the last few weeks."
     Coe's alleged conflict of interest to one side, his predecessor Lamine Diack is under French police investigation for allegedly having accepted more than one .

Coe vows to steady rocking ship that is IAAF

Tyson Fury faces the acid test of his boasts that he will end Wladimir Klitschko's four-year reign as undisputed world heavyweight champion when the pair clash in Duesseldorf tomorrow.
     The 27-year-old English challenger is undefeated in his 24 fights with 18 knock-outs as he faces the vastly more experienced champion, 12 years his senior, who holds the WBA, IBF, IBO and WBO belts.
     Fury has much to prove at Duesseldorf's Esprit Arena, having insisted he has spotted 'chinks' in Klitschko's armour and has promised to 'expose' him in the ring.
     "Old guy, young guy. Old champion, new champion. Enough said," was Fury's succinct appraisal.
     Klitschko, 39, suffered the last of his three defeats more than a decade ago and plans to make Fury the 54th knock-out and 65th win of his career.
     As he rightly points out: "Fury has never faced an opponent like me before.
     "First I destroy my opponent mentally, then physically."
     Klitschko made a point of shaking hands with 

'Batman' Fury must prove he's no joker against Klitschko

IAAF president Sebastian Coe bowed to intense pressure and announced that he had stepped down from his paid role as an ambassador for Nike to focus more on cleaning up world track and field's beleaguered governing body.
     "It is clear that perception and reality have become horribly mangled," said Coe after an IAAF Council meeting yesterday.
     "I've stepped down from my ambassadorial role with Nike, which I've had for 38 years. The situation was "not good for IAAF and not good for Nike".
     Coe, unpaid as head of track and field's world governing body, received around 100,000 pounds (142,000 euros) a year for his global ambassadorial role for Oregon-based Nike.
     The Briton, a two-time Olympic gold 1500m medallist, is accused of lobbying disgraced predecessor Lamine Diack to hand Eugene the 2021 world championships.
     Bjorn Eriksson, who led a rival bid by Gothenburg for the 2021 championships, said Coe telephoned him on Wednesday to say it had been wrong to give the ...

IAAF president Coe steps down from Nike role

English cricket will feature a major change to the tradition of the pre-match coin toss to decide which team bats first in 2016, the England and Wales Cricket Board has announced.
     In both tiers of next season's County Championship, the visiting captain will be given the option of bowling first which, if he chooses to take, will see the toss rendered unnecessary.
     A coin will only be spun, as has been cricket's tradition for over a hundred years, if the visiting captain rejects the chance to bowl first.
     The proposal was passed, on the basis of a one-year trial, at an ECB board meeting at Lord's on Thursday and cricket committee head Peter Wright said the move came about partly as a result of concerns about the development of English spinners.
     Rather than home teams now winning the toss and unleashing a seam-heavy attack on a pitch which makes batting hazardous, the away captain will now have the option to intervene.
     "It isn't all about spin," said Wright ...

English cricket to ditch toss tradition

The IAAF has named American decathlete Ashton Eaton and Ethiopian middle-distance runner Genzebe Dibaba as World Athletes of the Year.
     Eaton broke his own decathlon world record at the world championships in Beijing in August.
     The 27-year-old also won world gold in Moscow in 2013, a year after clinching Olympic gold in London.
     Eaton took the award despite sprint superstar Usain Bolt clinching a fifth treble gold showing in a major championships in Beijing.
     The Jamaican star had performed the same feat at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics in Beijing and London, and world championships in 2009 and 2013 in Berlin and Moscow.
     Dibaba, 24, is the current world record holder in the women's 1500m and holds three further world records indoors.
     Dibaba, the sister of three-time Olympic champion Tirunesh, claimed gold in the 1500m in the Beijing worlds.
     The IAAF normally holds a star-studded season-ending awards gala in Monaco, but that was cancelled this year ...

IAAF names Eaton and Genzebe Dibaba as world athletes of year

France today will mourn the 130 people killed in the November 13 Paris attacks, with President Francois Hollande leading a solemn ceremony in honour of the victims.
	Families of those killed in France's worst-ever terror attack, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, will join some of the wounded at ceremonies at the Invalides, the gilded 17th-century complex in central Paris that houses a military hospital and museum and Napoleon's tomb.
	The tribute will be "national and republican," an official at the Elysee presidential palace said, referring to the French republic's creed of liberty, equality and fraternity.
	"It will take place in sobriety and solemnity, reflected by the beauty of the surroundings."
	Hollande will break from a whirlwind diplomatic bid to build a broad military coalition to defeat IS.
	The marathon has taken him from Paris to Washington to Moscow in just a few days.
	He is expected to make a 20-minute address at the one-hour ceremony, which will be shown live ..

France to mourn Paris attack dead

A man draped in an American flag jumped over the fence of the White House while President Barack Obama was inside with his family celebrating Thanksgiving, US media said.
	He was quickly stopped by Secret Service agents yesterday after breaching a barricade and jumping over the fence on the North Lawn that was recently refitted with 18-centimeter spikes to make it harder to vault over, CNN said.
	Secret Service officers had their guns drawn and were accompanied by K-9 units, according to two CNN photojournalists who saw the incident.
	The intruder was carrying an envelope, wore a blue shirt and white pants, and was cloaked in an American flag, they said.
	CNN said the man was at least the third person to scale a fence and make it on to White House property this year.
	The Secret Service came under fierce scrutiny and its head resigned after a US war veteran climbed over the north fence and made it into the presidential mansion armed with a knife in September 2014.
	He entered the ...

Man jumps White House fence: US reports

Algeria's former counterterrorism chief was sentenced to five years in prison today for destroying documents and disobeying military orders, his lawyer said.
	Abdelkader Ait-Ouarabi, better known as General Hassan, was tried behind closed doors in a military court in second city Oran in the country's first ever prosecution of a high-ranking secret service officer.

Algeria ex-counterterrorism chief sentenced to 5 years in jail

President Vladimir Putin said today that Russia had given prior information to the United States of the flight path of the plane downed by Turkey on the Syrian border.
	"The American side, which leads the coalition that Turkey belongs to, knew about the location and time of our planes' flights, and we were hit exactly there and at that time," Putin said at a joint press conference with French counterpart Francois Hollande in the Kremlin.

US knew flight path of plane downed by Turkey: Putin

Prince Charles warned today that if international leaders fail to clinch a deal on climate change at talks in Paris next week, it would leave mankind facing a "perfect storm".
	"This meeting falls at a very important, indeed critical moment for the future of mankind and our planet," he said in a speech at the Commonwealth summit in Malta.
	"Countless concerned people around the world" are banking on global leaders to come up with an ambitious long-term goal for the rapid reduction of carbon emissions, he said, as Commonwealth leaders began to arrive on the rain-lashed Mediterranean island.
	"We face an unprecedented set of interlocking challenges, all of which are creeping up on us in the shape of perfect storm," he added, from unsustainable population growth to migration, rapid globalisation, and social economic and energy insecurity.
	The Commonwealth family of 53 nations is gathering in Malta for three days of talks from Friday with a focus on reaching agreements that will open ...

Prince Charles warns of 'perfect storm' should climate talks

A court in Istanbul today charged two journalists from the opposition Cumhuriyet daily with spying for publishing an article which claimed that Turkey's secret services had sent arms to Islamist rebels in Syria, Turkish media reported.
	Editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, the paper's Ankara bureau chief, stand accused of spying and "divulging state secrets", the reports said. Both men were taken into custody.

Turkey 'charges two editors' over claims Ankara supplied arms

France's defence minister urged British MPs today to vote in favour of the country joining air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria in the wake of the Paris attacks.
	In an unusual public appeal for British military action by a foreign defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian called for Britain's help to "win this war".
	"It is France's hope that British forces will soon be working side by side with their French counterparts to take this fight to the very heart of ISIS, defeating it and making our countries and peoples safer," he wrote in the Guardian newspaper, using an alternative acronym for IS.
	British Prime Minister David Cameron presented his case for Britain joining air strikes on Syria to MPs in the House of Commons earlier Thursday and is expected to call a vote on the issue next week.
	While the numbers are tight and the leader of the main opposition Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, is personally opposed, MPs are expected to approve the move.
	France is currently engaged in a .

France urges UK to join fight against IS in Syria

Spain's National Court said today it had sentenced a Moroccan man to more than a year in jail for posting a video online in which he "glorified Osama bin Laden" and praised "ideas of a terrorist nature."
	In a statement, judges at the court said Imad el Mouahhid, a 30-year-old from Tangier, "publicised a video by downloading it to YouTube, made in whole or in part by himself and titled: 'This is what the Imam of all Imams Osama taught me, may Allah accept it'."
	The video, nearly 49 minutes long, shows speeches by Al-Qaeda mastermind Bin Laden calling on people to wage jihad and by other jihadist leaders, as well as images of training camps belonging to the extremist group, they added.
	The court found El Mouahhid guilty of "glorifying terrorism.

Man jailed in Spain for video 'glorifying terrorism'

A Venezuelan opposition leader was shot dead during an election rally, political leaders said today, raising tensions ahead of a legislative vote that could weaken the major oil producer's socialist government.
	An attacker shot Luis Manuel Diaz on Wednesday evening at an event also attended by Lilian Tintori, the wife of a jailed opposition leader and a high-profile critic of President Nicolas Maduro, the official said.
	"As the rally with Lilian finished, we heard shooting... We saw Luis fall to the ground bleeding," a regional leader of the Justice First opposition party, Abrahan Fernandez, told AFP.
	Another political ally of the victim, the chairman of the Democratic Action party Henry Ramos Allup, said on Twitter that Diaz was shot at short range near the stage where he had made an appearance.
	He said Tintori took refuge with security guards in a nearby shop.
	Polls have indicated Maduro's government could lose its majority in the national assembly in the December 6 vote, ...

Venezuela opposition figure shot dead at rally

Russia vowed today to cooperate in the fight against terrorism as French President Francois Hollande began the last leg of a diplomatic bid to step up efforts to crush the Islamic State group.
	Sitting down to talks with Hollande at the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed to the November 13 assaults in Paris which 130 people were killed, and the IS-claimed  bombing of a Russian jetliner over Egypt on October 31, with the loss of all 224 people onboard.
	These "make us unite our efforts against the common evil," Putin said. "We are ready for this cooperation."
	Hollande, pitching a message he had taken to other major capitals with varying degrees of success, said, "We have to form this large coalition together to strike against terrorism."
	Moscow was the last stage of a whirlwind campaign by Hollande to intensify efforts to crush IS in Iraq and Syria.
	He notably gained the support of Britain, whose prime minister, David Cameron, set out his case today for air strikes ...

AFP

AFP

Page 1911 - Afp