A ground record crowd of 93,013 watched the World Cup final between Australia and New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.
     That shattered the venue's previous record attendance for a cricket match of 91,112, according to officials.
     The massive final turnout had already surpassed the biggest cricket crowd at the vast stadium, set on the opening day of the 2013 Boxing Day Ashes Test against England.
     Sunday's crowd has also topped the attendance of 87,182 for the 1992 World Cup final at the MCG between Pakistan and England.

Record 93,013 MCG crowd for World Cup final

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The Obama administration has displayed "reprehensible animosity" towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, House Speaker John Boehner says.
	Netanyahu's recent election victory dramatically exacerbated a diplomatic crisis with Washington, bringing his thorny relationship with US President Barack Obama into sharp focus.
	In a bid to ramp up votes, Netanyahu had veered sharply to the right, vowing there would be no Palestinian state on his watch, promising to increase settlement construction and warning that Arab Israeli voters were going "in droves" to the polls, drawing a rebuke from the White House.
	Republican Boehner, who invited Netanyahu to Washington in the lead-up to the Israeli election without consulting the White House, told CNN's "State of the Union" today: "I think the animosity exhibited by our administration toward the prime minister of Israel is reprehensible.
	"And I think that the pressure that they've put on him over the last four or five years has, frankly, 

White House showed 'reprehensible animosity' towards Netanyahu

The captain of a passenger jet that investigators believe was deliberately crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard, shouted at the co-pilot to "open the damn door" as he desperately tried to get back into the locked cockpit, a German newspaper reported today.
	Forensic teams meanwhile announced that they had isolated 78 distinct DNA strands from body parts at the mountain crash site with investigators describing the difficulty of the search as "unprecedented" due to the arduous terrain.
	French officials say the plane's black box voice recorder indicates that Andreas Lubitz, 27, locked the captain out of the cockpit of the Germanwings jet and steered Flight 4U 9525 into a mountainside.
	They believe that the more senior pilot, identified by Germany's Bild newspaper as Patrick S., tried desperately to reopen the door during the Barcelona to Duesseldorf flight's eight-minute descent after he left to use the toilet.
	The mass-circulation paper's Sunday edition reported that .

Alps crash captain shouted 'open the damn door'

At least 38 people were killed today in clashes between rebel forces and tribes near a southern oil region, a security official and tribal sources said.
	The fighting erupted when tribesmen attacked positions held by Huthi rebels near the oil-rich area of Usaylan in Shabwa province, the sources said.
	"The Huthis and their allies (troops loyal to ex-strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh) have lost 30 of their men in fighting that killed eight tribesmen," the security official said.
	Tribal sources confirmed the toll.
	The clashes come as Saudi-led coalition warplanes pound rebel positions across Yemen in a four-day-old campaign to try to prevent the fall of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

38 dead as Yemen tribes, rebels clash near oil region

Saudi-led warplanes bombed Yemen's main international airport and struck a renegade troop base in the capital, as Arab leaders today vowed to pummel Iranian-backed rebels until they surrender.
	The raids on the country's main air gateway came just hours after UN workers were evacuated following deadly fighting that has sent tensions between Tehran and other Middle East powers soaring. India and Pakistan also moved to airlift their citizens from the chaos-wracked country.
	India said it had received permission from the Arab coalition to airlift its stranded citizens and would also send a ship.
	Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi has urged his Arab allies to keep up the bombing until the Huthi Shiite rebels are defeated, branding them Iran's "puppet".
	His Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin said there could be "no negotiations and dialogue" with the rebels "until the legitimate government has control over all Yemeni lands".
	Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said at a regional summit ..

Arab strikes on rebels hit Yemen's main airport

The White House challenged Iranian negotiators today to "live up to their rhetoric" and strike a nuclear deal with world powers before a March 31 deadline expires.
	Iran and six world powers have reached tentative agreement on key parts of a deal sharply curtailing Tehran's nuclear ambitions, Western diplomats said in Lausanne, where negotiators are racing to nail down an accord by midnight Tuesday.
	"We've been negotiating for more than a year and ultimately it's time for the Iranians to send a clear signal to the international community about whether or not they are willing to make the serious commitments required," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told ABC's "This Week."
	The Iranians must "basically live up to their rhetoric, that they are not trying to acquire a nuclear weapon. So if they can make those commitments, they should be able to do that by the end of March," he said.
	Separately, House Speaker John Boehner promised to move "very quickly" to hit Iran with fresh ..

White House tells Iran to 'live up to rhetoric'

Tunisia said today it had killed the leader of the jihadists behind the massacre at its national museum, as foreign leaders joined thousands of Tunisians in a march against extremism.
	Chanting "Tunisia is free! Terrorism out!" the demonstrators marched in a sea of red Tunisian flags to the capital's Bardo Museum, where 21 foreign tourists were killed in the March 18 jihadist shooting rampage.
	"The Tunisian people have proven that they will not give in to terrorism. My thanks go out to all and I tell the Tunisian people: 'Forwards. You are not alone,'" President Beji Caid Essebsi said after joining the march with foreign dignitaries.
	French President Francois Hollande, whose country held a similar march after January's attacks in Paris, was among the figures attending along with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
	"We must all fight against terrorism," Hollande told reporters after the march. "Tunisians wanted this international ...

Jihadist chief killed as thousands march in Tunisia

Forensic teams have isolated 78 distinct DNA strands from body parts at the Germanwings crash site in the French Alps, while investigators continued their grim task in the arduous mountain terrain.
	As well as trying to identify and return bodies to their families, search teams were also hunting for a second "black box" that has yet to be found six days into the search.
	The challenges of working on the steep and remote mountainside have been compounded by the violence of the impact - the plane is said to have crashed into the mountainside at a speed of 700 kilometres (430 miles) per hour, killing all 150 people on board.
	"We haven't found a single body intact," said Patrick Touron, deputy director of the police's criminal research institute.
	He said the difficulty of the recovery mission was "unprecedented".
	"We have slopes of 40 to 60 degrees, falling rocks, and ground that tends to crumble," said Touron. "Some things have to be done by abseiling."
	Search teams on the mountain ..

DNA from 78 Germanwings crash victims found

The head of the UN's Ebola fighting force today warned against complacency as the fight against the disease entered its final lap, hailing Guinea for tightening surveillance.
	Mauritanian Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed's comments came a day after Guinea announced a health emergency in five regions in the south-west and west for 45 days.
	Since the Ebola outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013, more than 24,000 people in nine countries have been infected with the virus, and over 10,000 of them have died. All but a handful of those deaths have occurred in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
	"On behalf of the international community and the United Nations, I hail this brave decision," Ould Cheikh Ahmed said.
	"Guinea has made tremendous efforts," he said. "There have been very positive results but we are now at the most critical moment... The last phase in the fight against Ebola."
	"Our biggest enemy today is complacency," he said.
	The World Health Organization declared in January that the .

UN Ebola head warns against complacency

Saudi-led warplanes bombed Yemen's main international airport and struck a renegade troop base in the capital, as Arab leaders vowed today to pummel Iranian -backed rebels until they surrender.
	The raids on the country's main air gateway came just hours after UN workers were evacuated following deadly fighting that has sent tensions between Tehran and other Middle East powers soaring.
	Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi has urged his Arab allies to keep up the bombing until the Huthi Shiite rebels are defeated, branding them Iran's "puppet".
	Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said at a regional summit in Egypt today the offensive would go on until the rebels "surrender" their weapons and withdraw from areas they seized.
	The Huthis and allied renegade military units have overrun much of the country and prompted Hadi to flee what had been his last remaining refuge in the main southern city Aden for Saudi Arabia.
	Dozens of people have been killed in clashes in Aden in recent ...

Arab air strikes cripple Yemen's main airport

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today congratulated Nigerians for holding "largely peaceful and orderly" elections despite Boko Haram attacks and urged them to continue to maintain a peaceful atmosphere.
	Ban condemned attacks carried out by "Boko Haram and others who have attempted to disrupt" the presidential and parliamentary polls.
	But he said Nigerians had shown resilience by pressing forward and turning out to vote "in the face of unjustifiable violence."
	The UN chief called on all sides to continue to shun violence throughout the ongoing vote and the announcement of the results.
	He said all voting complaints should be resolved through dispute resolution mechanisms.
	"The successful conclusion of the electoral process will mark an important step forward in further consolidating democracy and the rule of law in Nigeria," Ban said in a statement.
	Nigeria was holding a second day of voting after technical glitches hampered polling yesterday.
	Africa's most populous country was 

UN chief says Nigeria vote largely peaceful

Fragments of pottery used by Egyptians to make beer and dating back 5,000 years have been discovered on a building site in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said today.
	Excavation director Diego Barkan said 17 pits were found that had been used to store produce in the Early Bronze Age, from 3500 to 3000 BC.
	"Among the hundreds of pottery sherds that characterise the local culture, a number of fragments of large ceramic basins were discovered that were made in an Egyptian tradition and were used to prepare beer," he said in a statement.
	The excavation is the first to offer evidence of an "Egyptian occupation" in the centre of Tel Aviv 5,000 years ago.
	"This is also the northernmost evidence we have of an Egyptian presence in the early Bronze Age," he said.
	According to the antiquities authority "beer was the Egyptian national drink and was a staple along with bread."
	It said beer was consumed by the entire population of Egypt, regardless of age, gender or status.
	"It ..

Ancient Egyptian beer making vessels discovered in Israel

Iran and six world powers have reached provisional agreement on key parts of a deal sharply curtailing Tehran's nuclear programme, Western diplomats in talks in Switzerland said today.
	One of these diplomats said Iran had "more or less" agreed to slash the number of its centrifuge machines by more than two-thirds and to ship abroad most of its stockpile of nuclear material.
	As negotiators in Lausanne raced to nail down by midnight Tuesday the outlines of a deal, due to be finalised on June 30, the diplomats cautioned however that things may change.
	Iranian diplomats however denied that any tentative agreement on these points has been struck, saying that any reports of specific number of centrifuges and exporting its stockpiles were "journalistic speculation".
	"The fact is that we will conserve a substantial number of centrifuges, that no site will be closed, in particular Fordo. These are the basis of the talks," the Iranian diplomat said.
	A senior member of the Iranian ...

Provisional agreement on key elements of Iran deal: diplomats

Yemen's foreign minister today ruled out any dialogue with Huthi rebels until President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government retakes full control of the country.
	Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin said there could be "no negotiations and dialogue until the legitimate government has control over all Yemeni lands".
	"Any party that wants to talk about dialogue has to first give up weapons seized from bases and return them to the state," he told Egyptian state television in an interview.
	Hadi had told an Arab League summit yesterday that the Saudi-led intervention against the Huthis should continue until the rebels surrender and their leaders face justice.
	The Huthis and allied renegade military units have overrun much of the country, prompting Hadi to flee what had been his last remaining refuge in the main southern city Aden for Saudi Arabia.

Yemen FM rules out Huthi talks until surrender

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today denounced as "dangerous" a nuclear accord that world powers are negotiating with Iran, saying it goes beyond what his government had feared.
	"The dangerous accord which is being negotiated in Lausanne (Switzerland) confirms our concerns and even worse," Netanyahu said in remarks at a meeting of his cabinet broadcast on public radio.
	Netanyahu denounced the "Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis which is dangerous for all of humanity and which must be stopped," making a reference to the Swiss city where the talks are taking place.
	The premier warned that Iran could be in a position to "conquer" the Middle East through what he called the "axis" of control it has over the capitals of Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.
	The Israeli leader also said that his country had "strong, bipartisan support" from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the United States.
	Netanyahu angered the White House when he addressed a joint session of the Congress to warn ...

'Dangerous accord' with Iran worse than Israel feared: PM

Ten people were killed and two others were missing after a landslide triggered by heavy rain hit Indonesia's main island of Java, an official said today.
	The landslide took place in Tegal Panjang village in Sukabumi district in west Java late yesterday after a particularly heavy downpour, according to national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
	"Ten bodies were found... And we are still looking for two others missing," he said in an update, revising up the earlier death toll of six and four missing.
	He said the landslide had taken place suddenly during a heavy rain, causing a cliff to collapse and hit the village.
	Eleven houses were also buried under the debris.
	Landslides triggered by heavy rains and floods are common in tropical Indonesia during the rainy season.
	The national disaster agency estimates around half the country's 250 million population lives in areas prone to landslides.
	The vast Indonesian archipelago is one of the most natural disaster-prone ...

Ten dead, two missing, in Indonesian landslide

A court in China's mainly Muslim Xinjiang region has sentenced a man to six years in prison for "provoking trouble" and growing a beard, a practise discouraged by local authorities, a newspaper reported today.
	The court in the desert oasis city of Kashgar sentenced the 38-year-old Uighur to six years, while his wife was given a two-year sentence, according to the China Youth Daily.
	The man "had started growing his beard in 2010" while his wife "wore a veil hiding her face and a burqa", the paper said.
	The couple were found guilty of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", a vague accusation regularly used in the Chinese judicial system.
	For more than a year the authorities in Xinjiang have been campaigning against men growing beards -- a practice officials associate with extremist ideas.
	A campaign dubbed "Project Beauty" also encourages women to leave their heads bare and abandon wearing the veil, a relatively widespread practice among the Uighurs -- the main Muslim ethnic ...

Chinese court jails Uighur for 6 years for growing beard

Turkish authorities detained two former policemen following their extradition from Romania on suspicion of bugging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, state media said today.
	Sedat Zavar, a former police chief, and Ilker Usta, were detained at Istanbul airport late yesterday after their arrival on a flight from Bucharest, the Anatolia news agency reported.
	They face up to 36 years in jail on charges of "forming a crime syndicate", "violating privacy" and "illegally obtaining personal information," Anatolia said.
	They are expected to appear in court on May 4.
	The detentions are a part of an intensifying crackdown against followers of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Erdogan of setting up a "parallel state" seeking to oust him from power and concocting a corruption scandal that rocked the government in late 2013.
	The authorities accuse police of bugging Erdogan and other top officials at the behest of Gulen, whose extradition is being sought by Turkey.
	Since becoming ...

Turkey detains two policemen in Erdogan spying case

Malaysian Grand Prix organisers announced a three-year contract extension on Sunday that will take the race into its 20th edition in 2018.
	Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the new deal after Sepang circuit officials spent much of the weekend negotiating with F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone.
	Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas was also confirmed as the title sponsor of the race for the period of the new contract.
	The continuation of the race, which started in 1999, is good news for the financially onerous sport after the German Grand Prix was axed earlier this month.
	It follows a thrilling race on Sunday when four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel held off the dominant Mercedes cars to claim his first win since joining Ferrari.
	Sepang circuit chief Razlan Razali earlier told AFP that Malaysia's government, which funds the race, regards it as an important promotional tool to lure foreign tourists.

Malaysian GP extended to 2018

Sebastian Vettel stunned Mercedes' world champion Lewis Hamilton on Sunday with an audacious Malaysian Grand Prix victory which set the Formula One season alight.
	The Ferrari man took advantage of an early safety car as he hit the front and held off Hamilton and Nico Rosberg after pitting only twice, compared to three for the Mercedes pair.
	The four-time world champion now has 40 career wins but it is his first with Ferrari, and breaks a dry spell stretching back to his last race with Red Bull in 2013.
	Few of his wins can have been as satisfying. He shattered assumptions of Mercedes' unassailable superiority in 2015, after they dominated the season-opener in Australia.
	"Fantastico, fantastico!" he screamed down the radio in Italian. "Yes boys, can you hear me? Thank you, thank you. Forza Ferrari!"
	Further back, there were also celebrations for Max Verstappen as the 17-year-old finished seventh, becoming the youngest points-scorer in Formula One history.
	Hamilton got away ...

Vettel stuns Mercedes in Malaysia

Taiwanese demonstrators threw eggs and slippers to protest against China's launch of a controversial new flight route today, accusing the government of failing to stand up to Beijing.
	Thirty-odd members from the radical anti-China opposition party Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) attempted to push their way through a police line that guarded the entrance of a shrine where President Ma Ying-jeou was visiting.
	After chanting slogans like "Ma Ying-jeou betraying, humiliating country" and a series of tussles with police, several of the demonstrators broke through the line but were blocked from going further.
	"People of Taiwan by no means accept M503," a protest leader said, referring to the new route near the middle of the Taiwan Strait which separates the island from mainland China.
	"Ma is a coward. He dares not say 'No' to China."
	Holding protest signs, the crowd angrily pelted eggs and slippers at Ma's motorcade, but the projectiles fell short.
	No one was injured or arrested in the .

AFP

AFP

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