Sepp Blatter, the former president of FIFA, told AFP on Wednesday that he had opposed awarding the 2020 World Cup to Qatar, but that he has a "clear conscience."
Blatter said he is willing to testify to French prosecutors about the 2010 vote in favour of Qatar.
"If they ask me formally then I think I will go to France because I have a clear conscience," said the 83-year-old who already testified in Switzerland in April, 2017, at the request of the French authorities.
Qatar beat Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States to win the vote. However, the result has been consistently questioned.
A three-year-old French investigation, was recently entrusted to a Paris investigative magistrate charged with looking specifically for "active and passive corruption".
Six months ago, Michael Platini, who was vice-president of FIFA and UEFA president at the time, was questioned about his decision to vote in favour of Qatar.
The investigators are particularly interested in a meeting at the .

Blatter happy to testify in France on Qatar World Cup

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FIFA has not given its backing to reported plans for a closed European super league, its president Gianni Infantino said Wednesday.
"FIFA is not backing any project," Infantino said during a visit to Brussels, refusing to deny however that any talks had taken place on the subject by saying that football's global governing body "discusses everything, with everybody".
Infantino was questioned by reporters after the New York Times reported that Real Madrid president Florentino Perez had spoken to him about creating a breakaway elite international league.
The report said the league could feature two divisions of 20 teams drawn from current national leagues, with the hope of winning a lucrative continental audience.
It would chiefly feature clubs from the leading five European leagues -- England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France -- but the Association of European Leagues has denounced the plan.
European football governing body UEFA has also criticised any plan that would undermine its ...

FIFA chief Infantino denies backing breakaway super league

Dozens of young campaigners and indigenous rights activists were thrown out of United Nations climate talks Wednesday after staging a protest demanding that nations commit to act now to avert catastrophic climate change.
Several sources at the crunch negotiations told AFP that some 200 protestors were "debadged" -- their access permits were confiscated -- after security guards forced them out of the building and prevented them from leaving a car park.
The demonstration saw hundreds of young people perform a cacerolazo -- a type of protest originally from Chile that involves banging on pots and pans -- right outside the plenary room where delegates from around the world were discussing the progress made in talks so far.
Protestors chanted "climate justice now!" and "Shame! Shame! Shame!" for several minutes before security intervened.
There were scuffles between protestors and security guards, before the activists were pushed backwards outside and held there by UN staff.
Journalists ...

Activists kicked out of UN climate talks after protest

China's ambassador to Denmark has pressured the Faroe Islands to hire telecommunications giant Huawei to build a 5G network, the daily Berlingske said Wednesday.
The United States has pressured Europe to exclude Huawei from tenders for 5G networks because it says the company could serve as cover for Chinese espionage.  Huawei and Beijing reject the accusations, and Huawai says it is a private company that is wholly owned by employees.
Berlingske reported that during a meeting with officials on the Faroe Islands, a self-governing territory in the North Atlantic that belongs to Denmark, the Chinese envoy held out a big carrot in the event that Huawei won a 5G contract.
"Ambassador Feng Tie made it clear .... that if the Faroese telecoms operator Foroya Tele agreed to let Huawei build the 5G network, all doors would be open to a free trade agreement between China and the Faroe Islands," the newspaper said.
It described the diplomat as being "very forceful" based on a surreptitious ...

China pressing Faroe Islands to use Huawei 5G system: media

Bangladesh police Wednesday found the body of a Chinese businessman who was murdered and his body dumped in an upscale Dhaka neighbourhood, officials said.
Acting on a tip-off, police and an elite security unit recovered the body of Gao Jianhui buried in a residential backyard outside his home in Banani, local police chief Nure Azam Mia told AFP.
"It is a murder case. He was killed sometime yesterday evening," he said.  Gao, 47, who had been living in the Bangladeshi capital for several years, supplied stone for some key Chinese-financed projects including the country's largest bridge and one of the biggest coal-fired power plants, police said.
"He was formerly in the clothing business and then started supplying stones to the Chinese projects in Bangladesh," Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Sudip Chakraborty told AFP.
"We suspect he was strangulated to death with a pillow or similar object," he said.  There was no immediate comment from the Chinese embassy whose ...

Chinese businessman murdered in Bangladesh

Taliban suicide bombers targeted a key US military base in Afghanistan on Wednesday in a major attack that killed two civilians and wounded more than 70 others, officials said, amid renewed peace talks between the United States and the militants.
The early morning assault began when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-packed vehicle outside a hospital building near Bagram military base in Parwan province, north of the capital Kabul, according to local officials.
Seven more gunmen, some wearing suicide vests are believed to have then entered the building -- which was under construction and not operational -- in order to use it as a launching pad for attacks against the nearby US base, local officials said.
An Afghan interior ministry spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi, said on Twitter that all the attackers inside the hospital compound were killed fighting Afghan and foreign forces.
At least two Afghan civilians, including one woman, were killed while 73 others were wounded in the explosion 

Taliban bombers target key US Afghanistan base as talks resume

Test cricket made its long-awaited return to Pakistan after a deadly attack in 2009, with the home team led by fast bowler Naseem Shah dominating Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
Naseem, who is just 16, grabbed 2-51 on the opening day of the first Test which marked a momentous occasion in Pakistan cricket at Rawalpindi stadium.
Sri Lanka won the toss and batted and closed the day at a precarious 202-5 after bad light stopped play 20.5 overs early.
At close Dhananjaya de Silva was unbeaten on 38 and Niroshan Dickwella not out 11 as Sri Lanka spoiled a good 96-run start given by skipper Dimuth Karunaratne (59) and Oshada Fernando (40).
Pakistan struggled for wickets in the first session as Sri Lanka reached 89-0 at lunch.
Shaheen Shah Afridi trapped Sri Lankan skipper Karunaratne leg-before soon after lunch to trigger a collapse which saw the visitors lose four wickets within just 31 runs in the post lunch session.
Karunaratne hit nine boundaries in his 110-ball knock.  Naseem then had Fernando .

Pakistan dominate Sri Lanka in first home Test for ten years

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who became the voice of conscience for a generation facing the climate change emergency, was announced Wednesday as Time magazine's 2019 Person of the Year.
The 16-year-old first hit the headlines for her solo strike against global warming outside Sweden's parliament last year.
"We can't just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow. That is all we are saying," Thunberg told Time.
The magazine interviewed Thunberg aboard the sailboat that took her from the United States to Europe after a hectic 11-week North American trip to several US cities and Canada.
Thunberg has taken her disarmingly straightforward message -- "listen to the scientists" -- to global decision-makers, accusing them of inaction.
The Swedish activist was in Madrid as the award was announced, at a UN climate forum tasked with saving the world from runaway global warming.
"The politics of climate action are as entrenched and complex as the phenomenon .

Climate activist Greta Thunberg is Time' 2019 person of the year

Rwanda announced Wednesday it was scrapping an 18 percent value added tax on sanitary pads to make them cheaper for girls who are often forced to skip school during their periods.
The country becomes the latest to drop the controversial tax which has increasingly infuriated women around the globe who argue tampons and pads are basic necessities and should not be subject to taxes.
"The Government of Rwanda has added Sanitary Pads to a list of goods that are VAT exempted in a bid to ease their affordability," the ministry of gender and family promotion announced on its website and on Twitter Wednesday.
The move came after fierce lobbying from feminist groups and NGOs urging government to act to reduce the price of sanitary pads in the country.
"This is a step in the right direction but not the ultimate solution. It is a shame that girls have to drop out of school just because of a biological process, so it is a good step what government is trying to do," Annette Mukiga, a feminist ...

Rwanda scraps tax on sanitary pads to aid poor girls

Nearly 30 teams of firefighters were drafted in to tackle a huge blaze raging at an industrial waste disposal plant near Barcelona on Wednesday, sending vast plumes of black smoke into the air.
There were no immediate reports of injuries from the fire which broke out just before dawn on an industrial estate in Montornes del Valles, some 15 kilometres (10 miles) northeast of Barcelona.
"We are working with 28 fire crews to put the fire out," the regional fire service tweeted, saying the blaze had erupted at a firm that recycles solvents and industrial waste, posting dramatic footage of the flames consuming a white building and the road next to it.
The regional civil protection services threw up a security cordon around the area, posting updates on Twitter which initially urged local residents to stay at home with their windows closed, but later said it only applied to the elderly or those with respiratory problems.
Local authorities in the nearby town of Montmelo said although there ...

Huge fire rips through industrial waste plant near Barcelona

The United States was accused Wednesday of using crunch UN talks to avoid compensating poorer nations hit by climate change, despite its decision to leave the process to limit global warming.
Delegates and observers at the COP25 negotiations in Madrid told AFP that Washington was pushing for a change in the rules of the UN climate convention that could let history's largest emitter largely off the hook when it comes to so-called "loss and damage" funding for developing nations.
Under the bedrock UN climate treaty, adopted in 1992, rich nations agreed to shoulder more responsibility for curbing global warming, and to help developing countries prepare for unavoidable future impacts -- the twin pillars of "mitigation" and "adaptation".
But there was no provision for helping countries already reeling in a climate-addled world, such as Mozambique -- recently hit by devastating cyclones -- and small island states literally disappearing under the waves.
A new mechanism was established in ...

US accused of seeking climate funding waiver at UN talks

Britain's general election campaign, which ends on Wednesday night, has turned the spotlight on the closed world of the ultra-rich.
The main opposition Labour party has repeatedly attacked tax avoidance and evasion, and promised to renationalise key industries, including mail delivery, energy and the railways.
Billionaire mobile phone magnate John Caudwell on Monday warned Labour tax hikes for the top five percent of earners and business tax would stifle investment.
But the ruling Conservatives, who are promising across-the-board tax cuts, have been more accommodating, proposing few changes that would alter Britain's status as an attractive destination for the elite.
The Sunday Times in May said there were 151 billionaires in Britain. The 1,000 richest families and individuals have a record combined wealth of ?771.3 billion ($1.01 trillion, 916 billion euros).
Those with the biggest fortunes come from across the world, including Russia and Asia.
The Indian-origin Gopichand and ...

Ultra-rich attract interest in UK election campaign

The UN has been unable to confirm Iranian involvement in a dramatic attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, secretary-general Antonio Guterres said.
Drones and cruise missiles were used in the September bombardment, which knocked out half of the kingdom's crude production and fueled a record surge in prices.  Saudi officials, the United States and several European countries accused Iran of responsibility for the attack, which Tehran has denied.
UN investigators had been given access to debris of the weapons used in the attack, Guterres said in a six-monthly report to the Security Council on Iran's nuclear program, seen by AFP on Tuesday.
But the investigation was not able to "independently corroborate that the cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles used in these attacks are of Iranian origin," the report said.
An investigation into the attack is continuing and will be submitted to the Security Council when finished, Guterres said.

UN says cannot confirm Iran behind Saudi oil attack

Israeli lawmakers gave initial approval on Wednesday to a bill that would dissolve parliament and set the third general election in a year for the beginning of March.
The bill, which passed the preliminary vote 50-0, comes ahead of a midnight (2200 GMT) deadline to form a new coalition, and would set the date for polls as March 2 next year.
It faces two more plenary votes before being passed.

Israel lawmakers gives initial approval to third election bill

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday accused wealthier nations of inventing ways to avoid slashing their greenhouse gas emissions, branding their climate action "misleading" at a summit in Madrid.
The UN climate forum tasked with saving the world from runaway global warming has become an "opportunity for countries to negociate loopholes and to avoid raising their ambition" to act on climate, the 16-year-old told delegates.
"Countries are finding clever ways around having to take real action." Nations are gathered in Spain's capital to finalise the rulebook of the 2015 landmark Paris climate accord, which aims to limit global temperature rises to "well below" two degrees Celsius and to a safer cap of 1.5C if possible.
A number of sticking points remain even as the two-week marathon negotiations enter the final days.
Nations are at odds over how the fight against climate change should be funded and how carbon trading schemes should be regulated.
In addition, there has been ...

Climate pledges 'misleading', Greta tells UN meet

Malaysia's leader-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim will be questioned by police over allegations he sexually assaulted a male former aide, officials said Wednesday, the latest such scandal to tarnish his career.
Anwar has vehemently denied the claims by his former research assistant Muhammed Yusoff Rawther, who says he was assaulted last year.
The 72-year-old Anwar, seen as the likely successor to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, spent almost a decade in jail after being convicted of sodomising a young male aide, allegations that supporters say were aimed at ruining his political career.
Sex between men remains illegal under colonial-era laws in the Muslim-majority country.
He was released from prison and pardoned last year after his alliance stormed to a shock victory against a corruption-plagued coalition that had ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1957.
But political tensions have escalated sharply, with Anwar's nemesis-turned-ally Mahathir refusing to say exactly when he 

Malaysian police to quiz Anwar over sex assault claims

At least one person was killed and dozens wounded when a bomb exploded close to the largest US military base in Afghanistan Wednesday, damaging homes and a hospital under construction near Bagram Airfield, officials said.
The attack -- which has not yet been claimed -- comes as Washington resumed talks with the Taliban on Saturday, three months after President Donald Trump abruptly halted diplomatic efforts that could end America's longest war.
"The explosion happened in front of the gate of the Korean hospital which is almost adjacent to Bagram airfield," Parwan governor spokeswoman Wahida Shahkar said, referring to the US airbase located north of Kabul, in Parwan province.
The hospital was not in operation at the time, but Bagram district governor Abdul Shukoor Qudoosi said at least one woman had been killed and 60 civilians wounded when the blast damaged nearby homes.
Qudoosi described the blast as a "powerful" suicide car bomb, though that had not been confirmed by other ...

Blast damages hospital near biggest US base in Afghanistan

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday denied "genocidal intent" as she defended Myanmar's military operation against Rohingya Muslims in the UN's top court.
Addressing judges in The Hague, Myanmar's civilian leader admitted that the army may have used "disproportionate force" but said that did not prove it was trying to wipe out the minority group.
The African state of The Gambia has taken Myanmar to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over a bloody 2017 military crackdown in which thousands of people were killed and around 740,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.
Once hailed internationally for her defiance of Myanmar's junta, Suu Kyi was this time on the side of the southeast Asian nation's military when she took the stand.
"Regrettably The Gambia has placed before the court a misleading and incomplete picture of the situation in Rakhine state," Suu Kyi, wearing traditional Burmese dress and flowers in her hair, told the court.
She argued that the army was 

Myanmar's Suu Kyi denies 'genocidal intent' in Rohingya case

Pakistan's all-pace attack snared four key Sri Lankan wickets on Wednesday to buoy the crowd as Test cricket made its long-awaited return after a deadly attack in 2009.
Shaheen Shah Afridi trapped Sri Lankan skipper Dimuth Karunaratne leg-before for 59 soon after lunch to trigger a collapse which saw the visitors lose four wickets within just 31 runs in Rawalpindi.
That saw Sri Lanka slump to 137-4 at tea after being well set at 89 without loss at lunch. Angelo Mathews was unbeaten on 14 and with him Dhananjaya de Silva not out on three.
Karunaratne hit nine boundaries in his 110-ball knock and set the platform after Sri Lanka won the toss and batted.
Once the opening stand of 96 was broken, 16-year-old pacer Naseem Shah had Oshada Fernando caught in the slip for 40, laced with six boundaries and a six.
It was Naseem's first Test wicket after he came away empty-handed from his debut in Brisbane against Australia last month.
Usman Shinwari also claimed his first wicket when Kusal ...

Pakistan grab wickets as Test cricket returns after attack

Two French academics detained in Iran for six months have lost a bid to be released on bail and their case will now go before the Revolutionary Court, Iranian media reported.
Roland Marchal, a researcher at Sciences Po in Paris, was arrested in June together with Fariba Adelkhah, an academic at the same university. They are accused of espionage.
French President Emmanuel Macron had called on Tuesday for Iran to release the pair without delay, saying "their imprisonment is intolerable".
His appeal came on international human rights day and followed a prisoner swap at the weekend between Iran and its arch-enemy the United States.
Iran's semi-official news agency ISNA said on Tuesday that a judge had decided to release the French academics on bail, as they had been entitled to it after six months in detention.
But this was opposed by the prosecution, and as a result the case was referred to Iran's Revolutionary Court to settle the dispute, ISNA said, citing their lawyer Saeed ...

French pair held in Iran to face Revolutionary Court: report

A Turkish court rejected a request Wednesday to release a US consular staffer jailed since 2017 on espionage charges as he told the judge no credible evidence had been submitted against him.
The case of Metin Topuz, a Turkish citizen and liaison for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, has added to growing tensions between Ankara and Washington.
Topuz has been in jail since his arrest in October 2017, accused of ties to US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says ordered an attempted coup the year before.
His next court appearance was set for March 10.
"The charges are based on unrealistic allegations and contradictory testimonies of so-called witnesses," Topuz told the Istanbul court.
"Not one single piece of evidence has been presented to the court that would convince a rational person that I tried to destroy the Turkish republic," he added, referring to claims made by the prosecution.
The trial has been delayed as prosecutors try to locate a witness who Topuz's ...

AFP

AFP

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