West Indies will be bent on revenge while New Zealand are concerned about the crooked arm of a key opposition bowler heading into the first match of the three-Test series starting on Sunday at Sabina Park in Jamaica.
     While much of the local focus on the fixture has centred on local hero Chris Gayle becoming just the ninth Caribbean cricketer to play 100 Tests, the bludgeoning opening batsman's impending landmark has taken a backseat in the minds of the visitors, with coach Mike Hesson raising questions as to the match referee's ability to effectively police the action of Shane Shillingford.
     Suspended from the international game for the second time in his career following two Tests in India last November, the tall off-spinner is set for a return on a pitch that may lack the venom of old but should still have enough bounce to allow both the Dominican and the even more gangling left-armer Sulieman Benn of Barbados to pose significant threats.
     "It's quite hard to see how ...

West Indies want revenge against New Zealand

PTI Automatic

Jihadists took staff and students hostage today at a university campus in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, where security forces have battled anti-government fighters for months, police said.
	The attack is the third major operation by militants in three days, following heavy fighting and suicide bombings in northern Iraq yesterday and a major assault on the city of Samarra on Thursday.
	The militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group infiltrated the university from the nearby Al-Tasha area, killed its guards, and blew up the bridge leading to its main gate, police said.
	A journalist said that security forces have cordoned off the campus.
	The attack came a day after violence, including heavy fighting between militants and security forces and twin suicide bombings targeting a minority group, killed at least 36 people in the northern province of Nineveh.
	And yesterday, militants seized multiple areas of Samarra in a major assault that was only repelled after house-to-house 

Jihadists seize hostages at campus in Iraq's Ramadi

The clock is ticking for countries to lay the foundations of a 2015 deal to tackle dangerous climate change, ministers warned in Bonn.
	A special UN summit in September, followed by a round of talks in Lima in December, must lay the first bricks of a highly complex accord due to be sealed in Paris in December 2015, they said.
	China's top negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, pointed to traumatic memories of the 2009 Copenhagen Summit, the last time countries tried to forge a worldwide deal on curbing Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
	The much-touted event became a near-fiasco when heads of state were confronted with a sprawling, fiercely contested draft agreement at the last minute.
	"We hope we do not see a recurrence of the Copenhagen scenario... (with) a final agreement that is accepted by some parties but not accepted by others," Xie said.
	Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who will chair the December 1-12 meeting, urged colleagues gathered for an interim round of ...

Building blocks missing for 2015 climate pact: ministers

Petro Poroshenko was sworn in as Ukraine's fifth post-Soviet president today, vowing to maintain the unity of his country amid a continuing crisis with Russia.
	Poroshenko, a 48-year-old billionaire who won the presidential election on May 25 with 54.7 percent of the vote, took the oath in the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev.
	"I am assuming the presidency in order to preserve and strengthen Ukraine's unity," Poroshenko said in an address that alternated between Ukrainian and Russian.
	Speaking to an audience that included US Vice President Joseph Biden, he promised the residents of the Donbass region, which is largely in rebel hands, that he would decentralise power and guarantee the free use of the Russian language.
	But he also said that there would be no compromise with Russia on his pro-European stance and the status of the Crimean peninsula.
	"Crimea has been and will remain Ukrainian," he said. "I put that clearly to the Russian leader in Normandy," he added, referring to his ...

Poroshenko sworn in as Ukraine's president, vows unity

Messi, Higuain, Aguero, Maria form one of the most sublime attacking forces but their goals may not be enough to win WC

Argentina 'Fab Four' to light up World Cup

Press Trust of India

Ravers will be able to dance until dawn at Thailand's notorious full moon party on Phangan island as usual after the junta granted a curfew exemption, tourism authorities said.
	The curfew will be lifted for five nights from June 9 to 13, the Tourism Authority of Thailand said on its website.
	Phangan, in the Gulf of Thailand near Koh Samui, draws thousands of backpackers to its hedonistic full moon event, billed as one of the biggest beach parties in the world, where drugs and alcohol are rife.
	Army commander-in-chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha said in a weekly address to the nation Friday that tourists were welcome to visit the junta-ruled nation following a May 22 coup -- but only if they behave themselves.
	"They shouldn't come to Thailand to do anything illegal," he said, criticising foreign films for portraying the kingdom in a sleazy light.
	"They came for drugs and for bad things," he said. "I feel embarrassed. Aren't you embarrassed when they put it in their foreign films?"
	In an ...

Thai junta relaxes curfew for full moon party

The UN Security Council condemned an attempt to assassinate Afghan presidential frontrunner Abdullah Abdullah calling for an orderly transition to a new government.
	Abdullah escaped an assassination attempt yesterday when two blasts hit his campaign motorcade in Kabul, killing at least six people just ahead of next week's hotly contested runoff.
	"The members of the Security Council underlined their support for Afghanistan's democratic processes, and looked forward to the second round of the presidential election and the continued orderly transition to a new administration," they said in a statement.
	They condemned terrorist attacks against civilians and "attempts to disrupt elections by targeting election personnel, candidates or infrastructure."
	"No terrorist act can reverse the path towards Afghan-led peace, democracy and stability in Afghanistan, which is supported by the people and the government of Afghanistan and by the international community," the statement added.
	The ...

Security Council condemns Afghan assassination bid

Harvard University scientists have confirmed that a 19th century French treatise in its libraries is bound in human skin, Harvard University said this week, after a bevvy of scientific testing.
	Arsene Houssaye's "Des destinees de l'ame" (On the destiny of the soul) is part of the antique book collection of the university's Houghton Library, which specialises in rare and antique works.
	Harvard conservators and scientists used several methods to test the origin of the book binding material, using microscopic samples.
	Through these tests, they were able to exclude the possibility that the book cover was made from the skin of a goat, a sheep or another animal.
	"They are 99 per cent confident that the binding is of human origin," said a post on the library's blog, citing senior rare book conservator Alan Puglia.
	The conclusions confirm the veracity of a handwritten note in French found in the book, which said the book was bound "in human skin parchment."
	"By looking carefully, you ...

Harvard confirms antique book is bound in human skin

Zambia is seeking help from the International Monetary Fund, after its currency kwacha lost about a fifth of its value and prices of its key export commodity copper slumped, the Fund has said.
	The "recent steep depreciation of the kwacha is raising inflationary pressures and expansionary fiscal policy has created large budgetary imbalances," said the fund in a statement yesterday, after a visit by a team of its experts to the country.
	"The authorities have requested the IMF team to return in early September to discuss an economic programme that can be supported by a fund arrangement," it said.
	The kwacha slumped 18 percent in the past half year, sending inflation soaring in Africa's second biggest copper producer.
	Combined with a fall in the price of its key export commodity copper, that has made servicing the country's foreign debt more costly for the government.
	Zambia scrapped restrictions on the use of the dollar and other foreign currencies this year as it tried to halt the .

Zambia seeks IMF aid as currency, copper prices plunge

Police clashed with striking subway workers in Sao Paulo while 3,000 people protested government policies, causing traffic chaos six days before Brazil's mega-city hosts the first World Cup game.
	The separate demonstrations yesterday raised fears of more unrest when Brazil and Croatia play the first game in the business hub of 20 million people next Thursday.
	Police fired tear gas and swung batons to beat back picketing strikers inside a metro station after commuters tried to enter it, with torrential rain adding to the traffic misery.
	Across town, police officers estimated 3,000 people blocked the street in front of the Central Bank in a peaceful protest organised by the Force Union against the economic policies of President Dilma Rousseff.
	"Our problem is not with the national team. We will cheer for them. But on October 5 we will send Dilma Rousseff to hell," said union leader Paulo Pereira da Silva, referring to the upcoming presidential election.
	The protests came as ...

Police, strikers clash in Brazil World Cup host city

Russian President Vladimir Putin said today his meetings with Western leaders in France this week were positive and described talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama as "substantial".
	"I think the exchange of views was very positive," Putin said in remarks broadcast by Russian television from France, where he attended ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of D-Day alongside US, British, French and German leaders.
	He added that he spoke on two occasions with Obama, "in a rather substantial manner".
	Putin was also positive about Ukraine president-elect Petro Poroshenko.
	"I cannot but welcome the position of Poroshenko on the necessity to end the bloodletting immediately in the east of Ukraine," he said.
	"I cannot say for sure how that can be implemented in practical terms, but overall it seemed to be to be the right approach," he said.
	"He has a plan, which -- it's probably better to ask him. He explained it quickly to me," he added.
	"Ukraine must demonstrate its good will. .

Putin says talks with Western leaders 'positive'

A Ukrainian plane was shot down as fighting continued in the east of the country today, amid signs the government was losing control of parts of its border with Russia.
	A police officer was killed and two others injured in the attack near the separatist stronghold of Slavyansk by pro-Russian rebels who launched a mortar attack on a checkpoint after taking up position in a church, deputy interior minister Serhiy Yarovy said.
	Also near Slavyansk today, separatists shot down an An-26 military transport plane, a spokesman of the Ukrainian army was quoted as telling local media.
	The aircraft was carrying humanitarian aid to the local population, Vladislav Seleznyov said according to Interfax Ukraine agency.
	The military spokesman was not able to account for the fate of the crew, but Interfax Ukraine quoted witnesses as saying they had managed to eject from the plane before it crashed. The size of the crew was not immediately clear.
	As violence continued throughout the nation's vast ...

Police officer killed, plane shot down in Ukraine's east

A man armed with guns and explosives was killed and a police officer wounded in a shootout today at a courthouse in the US state of Georgia, authorities said.
	The latest incident came just one day after a gunman killed one person and injured three others at a university in Washington state and two weeks after an apparently mentally disturbed young man opened fire at a California university and killed six people.
	Officials identified the suspect as Dennis Marx, a gun seller who had been due in the court today on charges of marijuana and gun possession.
	The shooting occurred at 9:57 am (local time) in front of the courthouse, said the local sheriff's office in Forsyth county, north of Atlanta, adding the building was then evacuated.
	Marx "came for the purpose of occupying the courthouse," armed with explosives and a large stash of ammunition, county sheriff Duane Piper told reporters.
	"He had been planning it for a while," Piper added.
	Witnesses said the attacker came in a vehicle 

Suspect dead, policeman wounded in US court shootout

Last month's devastating Balkans floods unearthed two mass graves containing the remains of nine Muslims killed during the Bosnian war of the 1990s, a missing person's organisation said today.
	The remains were exhumed "after water withdrew from two mass graves, which are several hundred metres away from each other," said Lejla Cengic, spokeswoman for the Institute for Missing People.
	Flood water and landslides had revealed part of the graves near the Bosna river between the northern towns of Maglaj and Doboj, she told AFP, and the team then carried out further excavations.
	The victims are believed to be Muslim men from the nearby village of Jablanica, who were killed by Bosnian Serbs in 1992, Cengic said. DNA analysis will be used in a bid to confirm their identities.
	Bosnia's inter-ethnic war between 1992 and 1995 claimed some 100,000 lives. Thousands of missing persons have never been found.
	The discovery of new mass graves has become relatively rare, though one was found in ...

Bosnian floods unearth mass graves

Social media users tore into Barack Obama today after the US president was seen chewing gum during solemn ceremonies to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
	People took to Twitter to denounce Obama's "shameful" and "vulgar" chewing, with one user attacking him as a "lout".
	"Obama do you want a Coke too while chewing gum while the Marseillaise is being played?" said toto_des_bois, referring to the French national anthem.
	"The Queen arrives and you have Obama chewing gum, #DDay70" said diminou, another Twitter user.
	The US leader faced similar attacks on social media after he was seen apparently chewing gum during Nelson Mandela's funeral in December.
	The most powerful man in the world has faced an on-off battle to quit smoking and often chews a nicotine-based gum to drive away the craving.

Twitter chews up Obama after gum gaffe at D-Day

The number of people driven from their homes by fighting in Iraq's Anbar province may have spiralled to 480,000, the UN refugee agency warned today.
	"As of today, the Iraqi government says 434,000 men, women and children have fled their homes since fighting escalated in January this year," said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for refugees.
	"However, the full scale of the displacement from this under-reported conflict is unknown, as the Iraqi authorities have had to suspend registration over the past month because of insecurity. UNHCR believes the current figure is now close to 480,000," he told reporters in Geneva.
	A special UNHCR appeal to help the victims of the crisis was launched in March but has only gathered 12 per cent of the USD 26.4 million needed, he said.
	The crisis began in January with fighting between government forces and rebels in eastern Anbar, and has continued in waves as conflict erupted in different parts of the province.
	Displacement ..

Iraq fighting forces half million from home: UNHCR

Four Nigerian newspapers said soldiers stopped and seized copies of its editions today over security concerns, with one likening the raids to censorship during the country's military rule.
	The military confirmed the searches, but officers denied that the moves were designed to muzzle critics, even though at least two of the newspapers had published damning articles about the army in recent days.
	Four dailies -- The Nation, the Daily Trust, the Leadership and Punch -- all said they were affected, while The Nation said soldiers stormed one of its circulation offices.
	"One of the military men told us that they were acting on (an) order from above as there were allegations that newspaper circulation vehicles were being used to smuggle arms and ammunition," one of The Nation's distribution managers said.
	The early morning raids did not appear to target specific editions and the copies seized were destined for all parts of the country, the newspapers said online.
	Defence spokesman ...

Nigeria's military targets newspapers over security fears

Dutch police confirmed today that a body found in the undercarriage of a passenger jet at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport was that of a missing Norwegian teen.
	Airport workers found the lifeless body yesterday shortly after the plane flown by national carrier KLM landed on a flight from Sandefjord, an airport near the town of Larvik in Norway.
	"After investigation it was confirmed that the body was that of a 17-year-old boy from Norway," the royal Dutch gendarmerie said in a statement.
	"The body is being handed back to the family," added the gendarmerie, which is responsible for border security including at airports.
	Gendarmes said yesterday the victim died of a lack of oxygen and that no crime was suspected.
	In Norway the mother of the teen, who had been missing since Wednesday, told local media he suffered from a form of autism.
	He had gone missing once before, in September 2012, but was found unharmed 12 hours later.
	"We did not expect he'd disappear (again) because he was ...

Dead stowaway on plane was Norwegian teen: police

Sudanese troops today captured a rebel position in South Kordofan, the military said, as the United Nations voiced concern for civilians caught in fighting between the two sides.
	"At noon today our armed forces liberated Al-Atmur region, which is a military base... Where the rebels stocked heavy weapons, including cannons and multiple rocket launchers," army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad told AFP.
	Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) rebels used the base to launch mortar attacks on South Kordofan's state capital Kadugli, 45 kilometres away, he said.
	The rebels were not immediately available for comment.
	Ethnic minority rebels in South Kordofan have been fighting government forces for three years in a largely-hidden war which the United Nations says has affected more than one million people.
	In its weekly bulletin, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said civilians continue to bear the brunt of the fighting in South Kordofan "with ...

Sudan army says South Kordofan rebel base seized

Chinese President Xi Jinping today promised to impose strict limits on population growth in the country's largest cities, state media reported, as authorities seek to push migration towards smaller urban centres.
	Decades of rapid urbanisation in China have seen the proportion of its urban population swell to more than 50 per cent, creating massive conurbations such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
	Authorities will "strictly control the size of the population in especially large cities", Xi said at a meeting of a Communist Party policy group, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
	Migration in China has for decades been limited by the country's "hukou," household registration system, which denies countryside residents equal access to health, education and housing benefits when they move to cities.
	But Xi said urban registration restrictions would be "fully liberalised" in towns and small cities, while relaxing restrictions in middle-sized cities.
	The report did not provide a 

China president vows to limit growth of largest cities

President Barack Obama's top foreign policy advisor Susan Rice today said Washington was providing "lethal and non-lethal" support to select members of the Syrian opposition, offering more detail than usual on US assistance.
	Top Obama administration officials typically decline to say exactly what equipment, arms or ammunition the United States is providing to moderate Syrian opposition forces.
	But President Barack Obama said in a major foreign policy speech last week that the United States would "ramp up" support for rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
	National Security Advisor Susan Rice said in an interview with CNN while she was traveling with Obama to D-Day 70th anniversary celebrations in Normandy that she was heartbroken about the carnage in Syria's civil war.
	"That's why the United States has ramped up its support for the moderate vetted opposition, providing lethal and non-lethal support where we can to support both the civilian opposition and the military ...

AFP

AFP

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