Australia, reeling from the late withdrawal of wicket-keeper Brad Haddin, are reportedly set to drop Shane Watson for the second Ashes Test at Lord's on Thursday as they bid to level the five-match series at 1-1.
     Watson was twice out lbw cheaply in all-too familiar fashion as England, against many pre-series predictions, won the first Test in Cardiff by the crushing margin of 169 runs with more than a day to spare last week.
     With his medium-paced bowling barely used by captain Michael Clarke at Sophia Gardens, Australia's Fairfax Media reported Wednesday that the 34-year-old Watson would be dropped at Lord's and replaced by fellow all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, 11 years his junior.
     Watson's lbw double in Cardiff means he has now passed fifty in just two of his past 16 innings.
     "My gut feeling is they'll probably go with Mitchell Marsh," former Australia captain Steve Waugh told Sky Sports before the Fairfax report, subsequently cited by Cricket Australia's own ...

Watson faces axe as Australia seek to level Ashes

PTI Automatic

Australia great Ricky Ponting has given his public support to calls by the MCC world cricket committee for Twenty20 cricket to be included as an Olympic sport.
     Some officials in major cricket nations such as England have long been resistent to the idea of the sport joining the Olympics, fearing the impact it could have on its own home season.
     But others within cricket see the Games as an ideal way to spread the game globally, as emerging nations can receive government funding for Olympic-linked sports.
     Ponting, who serves on the MCC world cricket committee alongside fellow former Test captains Mike Brearley (England), Shaun Pollock (South Africa) and Sourav Ganguly (India), told reporters at Lord's on Tuesday: "It was quite unanimous throughout the members of this committee that we should look to grow the game into an Olympic sport.
     "The opportunity to open up different markets, considering the Olympics is the pinnacle of global sport, to be able to get cricket ...

Ponting has Olympic Twenty20 vision

An Australian woman was deported from the United Arab Emirates after being arrested and fined for "insulting" social media posts, according to a judicial source in Abu Dhabi.
	Jodi Magi, 39, appeared in an Abu Dhabi court and was taken into custody on July 12 before being placed on a flight to Bangkok - her "destination of choice" - yesterday evening, the same source said.
	The trouble began in February, when she posted on her Facebook page a photo of a car illegally parked between two places reserved for disabled drivers near her apartment in Abu Dhabi.
	The picture was accompanied by "insulting, degrading remarks", said the source.
	Following a complaint from the car's owner, a European, Magi admitted having posted the photo online but not the incriminating text, the source added.
	In April, the Australian was sentenced in absentia to pay a fine of 10,000 dirhams (USD 2,720) and deportation.
	She appeared in court with a lawyer and interpreter to appeal against the verdict the ...

Abu Dhabi deports Australian for 'insulting' Facebook post

US Open men's and women's singles champions will receive a record USD 3.3 million in prize money this year, a 10 per cent boost over last year, the US Tennis Association has announced.
	The richest prizes in the sport will be part of a record USD 42.3 million total purse, which jumps 10.5 per cent from 2014. Runner-ups will take home USD 1.6 million each with every player who makes the New York main draws of 128 assured at least USD 39,500.
	Wimbledon champions Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams each won USD 2.9 million last weekend while this year's Australian Open winners each made USD 2.5 million and the French Open champions each took USD 2 million.
	In all, US Open prize money has increased by 67 per cent over the past three years.
	"We continue our commitment to ensure that the US Open offers one of the most lucrative purses in all of sports," USTA president Katrina Adams said yesterday. "As we have stated, total player compensation at the US Open will reach USD 50 million by ...

Tennis: US Open singles champs to get record USD 3.3 million

A car bomb blast claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group killed at least five people in the Iraqi town of Khalis, officials said.
	The blast, which the top provincial official in Khalis said occurred outside a reputed local doctor's house yesterday, also left at least 11 wounded.
	The IS group said in a claim posted on jihadist forums that the explosion targeted members of Hashed al-Shaabi, an umbrella organisation for mostly Shiite militias which has been playing a leading role in the anti-IS fightback.
	Khalis lies around 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of Baghdad in Diyala, a province which the government declared free of IS militants in January.
	The jihadists no longer have fixed positions there but have reverted to their old tactics of planting car bombs, carrying out suicide operations or hit-and-run attacks.

Car bomb kills at least 5 in Iraq town of Khalis

The British army apologised today for the deaths of three reservists who collapsed while trying out for the elite SAS unit during a heatwave, after a coroner found the force guilty of neglect.
	Edward Maher, 31, and Craig Roberts, 24, were pronounced dead on the Brecon Beacons mountain range in July 2013 after suffering heatstroke during a 16-mile (26-kilometre) march.
	James Dunsby, 31, a veteran of the conflict in Afghanistan, was taken to hospital with a body temperature of 41 degrees Celsius (105.8F) and died from multiple organ failure a fortnight later.
	Following inquests into the deaths -- judicial investigations that seek to establish facts -- coroner Louise Hunt found the soldiers would have survived if the proper regulations on heat illness had been followed.
	She accused special forces commanders of serious mistakes and a "chaotic response" to the men's collapse, and also said the the lack of build-up marches for reservists contributed to the deaths.
	Hunt also criticised .

Britain's elite SAS slammed over training deaths

Mexican authorities seized USD 11.5 million in cash hidden in a truck carrying strawberries at a customs checkpoint near the US border, officials said today.
	The stash was concealed in 306 packages wrapped with black and found Sunday in San Emeterio, Sonora state, after a gamma-ray scanner found "a variation" in the cargo, the defense ministry said in a statement.
	The seizure was conducted by the army and border agents at the customs checkpoint south of the Arizona city of Lukeville. Some 600 bullets of various caliber were also found in the truck.
	The statement did not say whether the truck was coming or going to the United States. The driver was handed over to prosecutors.
	Drug cartels regularly ship weapons and cash from their drug proceeds into Mexico from the United States.

Mexico seizes USD 11.5 mn hidden in strawberry truck

Britain wants to review its travel advisory on Tunisia "as soon as possible", after urging its tourists to leave over fears of another deadly attack, London's ambassador said today.
	After a jihadist murdered 38 tourists -- including 30 Britons -- at a beach resort north of Sousse on June 26, British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke to his Tunisian counterpart Habib Essid.
	Cameron "clearly said that we want to review this advice to travelers as soon as possible", Ambassador Hamish Cowell told privately run Shems FM radio.
	"For that reason, we are working closely with the Tunisian authorities on implementing all the necessary security measures.
	"They have already made a great effort and we are seeing with these authorities what can be done to review this advice," Cowell added.
	On Thursday, the foreign office in London changed its travel advice for Tunisia to advise against all but essential travel.
	It put this decision down to "the evolving security situation since the ...

UK wants to review Tunisia travel warning: envoy

Filmmaker Laura Poitras, whose documentary about fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden won an Oscar, is suing the US government to find out why she was repeatedly detained at immigration checkpoints.
	Poitras is seeking the release of six years of records that document how she was searched, questioned and sometimes held for hours at US and foreign airports on more than 50 occasions between 2006 and 2012.
	"I'm filing this lawsuit because the government uses the US border to bypass the rule of law," she said in a statement issued by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit watchdog group that is representing her.
	"This simply should not be tolerated in a democracy," added Poitras, winner of this year's best documentary feature Oscar for "Citizenfour," which describes Snowden's revelations about mass surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA).
	Poitras said her Freedom of Information Act lawsuit is also meant to benefit herself and others "who have been subjected .

Snowden filmmaker sues US govt over border stops

A fake news report purportedly from Bloomberg about a possible USD 31 billion takeover of Twitter spurred a five percent surge in the social network's shares today before it was denied.
	The report appeared on a 'Bloomberg.Market' web page virtually identical to the powerful financial news agency's real pages at 'Bloomberg.Com', and with links to other real Bloomberg reports.
	The fake report said Twitter "is working closely with bankers after receiving an offer to be bought out for USD 31 billion," citing, as news agencies frequently do in such reports, "people with knowledge of the situation."
	The report came out at about 11:35 am and sent Twitter's shares jumping from USD 36.90 to USD 38.82 in minutes. Fifteen minutes later, though, the shares fell back to near where they started.
	"The story was fake and appeared on a bogus website that was not affiliated with Bloomberg," said Bloomberg spokesman Ty Trippet.
	The agency itself reported that the website domain had been registered .

Fake 'Bloomberg' report spikes Twitter shares

The number of people who died in natural catastrophes worldwide increased sharply in the first six months of this year, according to the world's leading re-insurer Munich Re.
	"The review on the natural catastrophes for the first half of 2015 was characterised by the earthquake in Nepal and by the heatwave that affected India and Pakistan," Munich Re said in a statement.
	"Some 12,000 people fell victim to these two natural catastrophes. In the first half of the year, a total of over 16,000 people died in severe weather events and earthquakes," it said.
	"This means that, by the end of June, the number of people that lost their lives in natural catastrophes was much greater than in the previous year (2,800), but also far lower than the average for the past 30 years (27,000)."
	In economic terms, however, the overall losses and insured losses were below the long-term average values, Munich Re calculated.
	The total losses incurred in the first half of 2015 were USD 35 billion (31.7 ...

Death toll in natural catastrophes up in first half of 2015:

Georgia decried today Moscow's "creeping annexation" of its territory after Russian border guards moved border markers further into Tbilisi-controlled area, leaving a portion of an international oil pipeline in territory under Russian control.
	The move left a small portion of the Baku-Supsa pipeline, which transports Caspian oil destined for Western markets, under Russia's effective control.
	"This is yet another aggressive action by Russia against Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Georgian Foreign Ministry spokesman David Kereselidze told AFP.
	"Russia continues its creeping annexation of Georgian territory and threatens peace and security in the entire region. We call on the international community to condemn Russia's illegal actions," he said.
	Kereselidze said that Russian border guards had installed last week border markers, which read 'State Border of South Ossetia,' some 450 metres from Georgia's main east-west highway, leaving a 1.6-kilometre segment of the ...

Georgia accuses Russia of 'land grab' near breakaway region

The deal announced by world powers today reining in Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief will only "embolden" Tehran and trigger an atomic weapons race, House Speaker John Boehner said.
	"Instead of stopping the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, this deal is likely to fuel a nuclear arms race around the world," the Republican Boehner said in a statement, adding that US lawmakers will "review every detail of this agreement very closely."
	Boehner was joined by others in Congress expressing deep skepticism about the agreement, arguing that it gives too much leeway to Iran and does not definitively shut the door on the Islamic Republic developing the bomb.
	Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said President Barack Obama had approached the historic talks from a "flawed perspective: reaching the best deal acceptable to Iran, rather than actually advancing our national goal of ending Iran's nuclear program."
	McConnell said Congress, which has 60 days to ...

Iran deal will fuel nuclear arms race: US House speaker

Iraq's foreign minister today sought "uninterrupted" military support from neighbouring Turkey in its fight against jihadists from the Islamic State group.
	"The presence of Daesh constitutes a threat not only to Iraq but also to countries in the region as well as Turkey," Ibrahim al-Jaafari told a joint news conference in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, using a pejorative name for IS.
	"We expect uninterrupted military support... From brotherly country Turkey. Cooperation will benefit us all," he said.
	Iraq is battling to retake areas of the country overrun by IS militants. Authorities announced a major offensive on Monday to "liberate Anbar", a vast province that is largely under IS control.
	"Daesh must be wiped out," Jaafari said in remarks translated into Turkish.
	"In order to do this, we need arms and training ... There is a need for a well-trained soldiers and police. A hit-and-run war is taking place right now. You are not fighting a regular army. ...

Iraq seeks 'uninterrupted' Turkish military support against IS

Kuwait charged 29 people today over the suicide bombing of a Shiite mosque last month, claimed by the Islamic State group, that killed 26 people and wounded more than 200.
	The attack, carried out by a Saudi, was the worst in Kuwait's history.
	Those charged included seven Kuwaitis, five Saudis, three Pakistanis, 13 stateless people known as bidoons, and another person at large, the prosecution said, cited by the official KUNA news agency.
	Ot them, 24 are detained in Kuwait and the remaining five will be tried in absentia. Among the latter are two Saudi brothers who allegedly transported the explosives to Kuwait and are being held in Saudi Arabia.
	The prosecution charged two of the suspects with premeditated murder and attempted murder.
	Two others were charged with training in the use of explosives, nine with assisting in committing the crime and the rest with knowing of the attack without informing the authorities.
	An IS-affiliated group calling itself Najd Province claimed the ..

Kuwait charges 29 over suicide bombing of Shiite mosque

Three migrants trying to smuggle their way into the Channel Tunnel to reach Britain were burnt by an electric shock, one seriously, local French authorities said today.
	The men from Afghanistan and Pakistan were trying to get onto a train overnight yesterday at the entrance to the tunnel near the northern French port city of Calais when they were hit by an electric discharge, they said.
	The Afghan man was seriously injured, while the two Pakistanis were slightly hurt.
	Intrusions into the undersea tunnel have risen in recent weeks as increasingly desperate migrants seek new tactics to enter Britain.
	Last week, a migrant was found dead in the tunnel, in what police believe was a failed attempt to climb onto the fast-moving shuttle train that takes road vehicles to Britain.
	And late last month, a migrant from Ethiopia died near the tunnel entrance as he also tried to board a train.
	Thousands of migrants are camped out around the port in Calais, in the hope of climbing aboard ...

3 migrants suffer burns as they try to enter Channel Tunnel

Two journalists, including an Australian editor, went on trial in Thailand today over a report they published implicating the navy in human trafficking, as the United Nations urged the junta-ruled nation to drop the case.
	The trial comes after the region's grim people-smuggling trade was dramatically highlighted in May when thousands of migrants were abandoned at sea and in foetid jungle camps by traffickers following a Thai crackdown, a crisis that eventually forced Southeast Asian governments to respond.
	The charges against Alan Morison and his Thai colleague Chutima Sidasathian, of the Phuketwan news website, relate to a July 2013 article quoting an investigation by the Reuters news agency which said some Thai navy members were involved in trafficking Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar.
	The pair could face up to two years in jail for criminal defamation and five years for breaching the Computer Crimes Act if they are found guilty.
	The trial at Phuket Provincial Court began with a 

Thai defamation trial opens for journalists

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras today battled to hold his ruling Syriza party together as opposition mounted to a shocking new bailout deal that requires Athens to push through draconian reforms within two days.
	With around 30 hardline Syriza lawmakers threatening to oppose the latest tough reforms demanded by Greece's international creditors, Tsipras faced the unenviable task of turning to pro-austerity opposition parties to push the deal through parliament by tomorrow.
	In the agreement struck yesterday with the eurozone to prevent Greece crashing out of the euro, the Greek parliament must pass sweeping changes to labour laws, pensions, VAT and taxes.
	Only then will the 18 other eurozone leaders start negotiations over what Greece is to get in return: a three-year bailout worth up to 86 billion euros (USD 96 billion), its third rescue programme in five years.
	With much of the party up in arms, Tsipras loyalists were hard at work to convince a sceptical party that the tough ...

Greece PM rallies political support for tough bailout terms

Strong fists for defending ourselves and opposable thumbs for work as fine as threading a needle -- hand specialisation is widely believed to have given humans a major evolutionary advantage.
	Scientists in the United States and Spain today said the human hand may be more primitive than that of our closest living cousin, the chimpanzee.
	In fact, human hands are likely more similar to those of the last common ancestor we and chimps shared millions of years ago.
	"These findings indicate that the structure of the modern human hand is largely primitive in nature, rather than the result of selective pressures in the context of stone tool-making," said a press summary from the journal Nature Communications, which published the study.
	In fact, it is the hands of chimps and orangutans that changed most since they split off to form new branches of the hominid family tree -- developing longer fingers, compared to the thumb, for swinging on tree branches.
	The human hand has a longer thumb ...

Human hand more primitive than chimp's: study

The hip-hop star MIA has gone to an Indian temple and the Ivory Coast to direct her first videos, as she announced a new album on the theme of a world without borders.
	The outspoken artist yesterday released a video of two songs including the new track "Swords," which begins with the clanking of swords before MIA's signature heavy beats kick in.
	The video shows a spirited dance among girls wielding swords and sticks, as well as a performer who smashes plantains lodged under the chin of a supine woman.
	"Swords" is full of Hindu imagery including temple scenes and aflame Sanskrit script for the holy mantra "Om."
	MIA, who was born in London to Sri Lankan Tamil parents, did not specify where in India she filmed but the video shows riverside ghats reminiscent of the sacred city of Varanasi.
	The song also references the high-tech southern city of Bangalore, as MIA raps, "Highly explosive, ready and raw / Everything banging like we're in Bangalore."
	The video, released on the new Apple 

MIA heads to Indian temple, Ivory Coast for video

An unmanned NASA spacecraft will see what Pluto's surface really looks like for the first time today, beaming images back to Earth as it speeds by the dwarf planet after a near decade-long journey.
	New Horizons is about the size of a baby grand piano and has been described as the fastest spaceship ever built. It is currently moving at a speed of 49,570 kilometers per hour.
	NASA is gearing to receive the information from the far-flung space explorer that will reveal specifics of Pluto previously only subject to speculation.
	The closest approach is set for 7:49 AM (1719 IST). NASA television coverage begins at 7:30 AM.
	"Spacecraft is 47,000 miles from Pluto & taking a stereo mosaic at 1 mile per pixel (resolution)," NASA's New Horizons team tweeted this morning.
	But it will be hours before scientists hear back from the spacecraft - the first to visit an unexplored planet since the NASA Voyager missions launched in the 1970s - because New Horizons will be busy snapping pictures ...

AFP

AFP

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