Renault drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg were disqualified from the Japanese Grand Prix on Wednesday after their team was punished for breaching regulations over brakes, the governing body FIA announced.
Ricciardo was sixth and Hulkenberg 10th in the race at Suzuka on October 13 but the French team will now lose the nine points accrued by the Australian driver.
"Renault have been disqualified from the results of the Japanese Grand Prix after a protest brought by rivals Racing Point was upheld," said an FIA statement.
"Racing Point's protest regarded an alleged breach of the Sporting and Technical Regulations and the FIA International Sporting Code, relating to a 'pre-set lap distance-dependent brake bias adjustment system'."
Racing Point's Lance Stroll and Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat will now be classified ninth and tenth respectively at the Japanese Grand Prix, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly, and Racing Point's Sergio Perez moving up to sixth, ...

Renault's Ricciardo and Hulkenberg disqualified from Japanese GP

PTI Automatic

If things go his way, Lewis Hamilton can clinch his sixth drivers' world title triumph in the rarefied atmosphere of the Mexican Grand Prix this weekend.
It would be a monumental achievement, nudging him ahead of five-time champion Juan Fangio and making him the second most successful driver in Formula One history behind only Michael Schumacher whose seven titles between 1994 and 2004 remain the pinnacle.
The 34-year-old Englishman, though, holds out little hope of either winning the race at a venue ill-suited to the strengths of his Mercedes car or sealing the title.
"Mexico is generally our worst race of the year because of the way our car is set up and it's going to be a tough one for us," said Hamilton.
History shows that this is one of his least favoured tracks -- he has won just once, in 2016, in four races although he did enough in 2017 and 2018 to secure the world titles in Mexico.
Hamilton, who leads the championship by 64 points with four races, including Mexico still to ...

Downbeat Hamilton doubts title triumph in Mexico

Phillip Island is one of Marc Marquez's favourite places and the already-crowned MotoGP world champion has no intention of easing up this weekend in Australia, where he lays claim to a bizarre record.
The gifted Spaniard, who equalled Australian Mick Doohan's premier class wins tally with his 54th victory in Japan last weekend, is eager to keep his incredible season going.
"It's one of my favourite tracks. I enjoy a lot, riding there, especially the left corners," said Marquez, who will be gunning for his 11th victory of the year, and fifth in a row, on the island south of Melbourne.
"But it's a circuit where many others, and especially Yamaha can be strong," he added.
"Normally we have a lot of competition there and it will be a challenge as always. Our target is of course to try to win, but once the weekend begins, we will see where we are and assess the situation."
He has a chequered history in Australia.
Marquez won at the picturesque circuit in 2015 and 2017 but was dramatically .

Marquez keen to atone for chequered Australia history

Liverpool condemned a "racist" banner depicting Divock Origi that was displayed in the away end before their Champions League clash with Genk in Belgium on Wednesday.
The banner appeared to show Origi's head photoshopped onto a naked body alongside the Champions League trophy. It was removed before the start of the match, which Liverpool won 4-1.
A club statement said: "Liverpool Football Club condemns the offensive banner displayed in our section of the ground, prior to kick-off.
"To be clear, the image used perpetuated a racist stereotype. This is completely unacceptable.
"We acted swiftly to have the banner removed and we are now working with the local authorities and stadium team in Genk to identify those responsible.
"Any subsequent action will be taken in keeping with our sanctions process."
Asked for his reaction after the game, manager Jurgen Klopp replied: "I didn't see it yet but I heard we already gave a statement so I have nothing to add."
Liverpool went on to win the game 

Liverpool condemn fans for 'racist stereotype' Divock Origi banner

Belgium attacker Dries Mertens beat Diego Maradona's tally of 115 goals for Napoli to help his side beat Salzburg 3-2 in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Mertens, 32, who joined the Italian club in 2013, is now just five goals behind Marek Hamsik who has the all-time Napoli goals record of 121.
Napoli's first European victory on the road since December 2016 keeps top of Group E, a point above holders Liverpool who beat bottom side Genk 4-1, with Salzburg in third place on three.
"It's a fantastic evening for us, but we still have to beat Salzburg again in order to qualify," coach Carlo Ancelotti told broadcasters Sky Italia.
"It's a great night for him (Mertens). Napoli are back to winning a Champions League away fixture after three years and we hope to keep that going now," he added.
Salzburg coach Jesse Marsch named Mali teenager Sekou Keita on the bench despite the forward scoring the equaliser at Sturm Graz on Saturday to maintain their unbeaten start to the Austrian league ...

Mertens beats Maradona's Napoli goal mark to edge Salzburg

Lautaro Martinez and Antonio Candreva scored in either half to boost Inter Milan's Champions League last 16 hopes on Wednesday with a 2-0 win over Group F rivals Borussia Dortmund.
Argentina forward Martinez continued his fine form scoring after 22 minutes in the San Siro, but missed a chance for a second from the penalty spot eight minutes from time.
Candreva sealed the three points a minute from time to move Antonio Conte's side off the bottom of Group F having fallen 2-1 to Barcelona and being held 1-1 by Slavia Prague.
Inter join Dortmund on four points with Barcelona top with seven points from three games.
"We knew we had our backs to the wall after picking up just one point before tonight," said Conte.
"This victory extends our expectation of qualification in a very, very difficult group.
"I'm happy especially for my players. They went to great lengths to earn a place in the Champions League last season and to experience these kinds of matches, with the full stadium and the ...

Inter Milan beat Dortmund to boost Champions League last 16 hopes

Chelsea showed that their young side were ready for the European stage on Wednesday after Michy Batshuayi's late winner fired them to a 1-0 Champions League win at Ajax that puts them square in the fight for the knockout stages.
Substitute Batshuayi struck in the 86th minute to seal a hugely impressive win in Amsterdam that puts Chelsea level on six points with last year's semi-finalists at the top of Group H.
Valencia will have the chance to draw alongside their group rivals with a win at Lille later on Wednesday.
"It's feels huge, which always scares me because there's a lot to do. We're entitled to be excited about the way we played tonight," Lampard told reporters.
"That's the blueprint. No excuses from now to dip from that."
Frank Lampard's side had to ride their luck in the Johan Cruyff Arena, with Quincy Promes' first half tap-in ruled out for the tightest of offsides and Edson Alvarez hitting the post with a diving header near the hour mark.
However, a youthful Chelsea showed .

Batshuayi strikes late to hand Chelsea 'huge' Ajax win

Jurgen Klopp admitted his delight for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as the midfielder made the most of a rare start by scoring twice in Liverpool's 4-1 Champions League win over Genk in Belgium on Wednesday.
The England international, who missed almost all of last season due to injury and has been used sparingly in this campaign, opened the scoring in the second minute at the Luminus Arena.
He then scored the visitors' second, a sumptuous finish also from outside the box, just before the hour.
Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah added further goals for the holders before substitute Stephen Odey pulled one back for Genk.
"Absolutely great moment for him. Ox's performance was exactly like that of the team -- the goals were great but all the rest could have been better, but that's how it is, it's no problem," Klopp said.
His contribution came after another fringe player, Adam Lallana, scored a late equaliser against Manchester United at the weekend.
"The goals were sensational and very important for .

Oxlade-Chamberlain takes plaudits as brace fires Liverpool to Genk victory

Lionel Messi claimed another goal-scoring record as Barcelona edged a spirited Slavia Prague 2-1 on Wednesday to stay top of Champions League Group F.
Messi opened the scoring after three minutes, beating Slavia goalkeeper Ondrej Kolar with a low left-footed shot to become the first player ever to score at least once in 15 consecutive Champions League seasons.
The 32-year-old Argentinian first robbed midfielder Petr Sevcik outside the Slavia box before an exchange with Arthur put him neatly through the static Slavia defence.
Barca earned a second on 57 minutes when Slavia winger Peter Olayinka deflected a Luis Suarez close-range shot from an impossible angle into his own net as the hosts failed to clear Messi's free kick.
Olayinka sealed Barca's sixth straight competitive win but deprived Suarez of a goal that would end his four-year drought in away games in European cup competitions.
Before that, left-back Jan Boril equalised for Slavia five minutes after half-time, capitalising on a 

Messi's historic goal helps Barcelona edge Slavia Prague

President Donald Trump ended sanctions against Turkey on Wednesday, drawing a line under American involvement in "blood-stained" Syria, as Turkish and Russian troops seized territory previously held by US troops and their beleaguered Kurdish allies.
"Let someone else fight over this long blood-stained sand," Trump said in a White House speech that formalized the ceding of power in northern Syria to Ankara and increasingly influential Moscow.
Trump said he was lifting the sanctions because a ceasefire was holding in the area, which Turkey invaded to drive Kurdish military groups from their strongholds.
Trump called the ceasefire, which allowed the Turkish takeover to proceed largely unopposed, a "major breakthrough." Rejecting accusations that he betrayed the Syrian Kurds -- who suffered thousands of casualties fighting alongside US troops against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group -- Trump said they were happy.
The president said the Kurdish commander in the country, Mazloum Abdi, .

Trump lifts Turkey sanctions, quits 'blood-stained' Syria

Donald Trump has made building a barrier to stop migrants on the US-Mexico border a central plank of his presidency, but on Wednesday came up with a puzzling new twist to the initiative: a wall in Colorado.
The problem? Colorado lies well within the United States, though its large southern neighbour New Mexico does border Mexico.
"You know why we are going to win New Mexico? Because they want safety on their border," Trump said during a speech in Pittsburgh.
"And we are building a wall on the border of New Mexico, and we are building a wall in Colorado," he continued. "We are building a beautiful wall, a big one that really works, that you can't get over, you can't get under." "And we are building a wall in Texas, and we are not building a wall in Kansas, but they get the benefit of the walls that we just mentioned," he added.
Building a wall on the southern border with Mexico was one of the signature promises of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, but Congress has refused to pay for .

Trump vows to build a wall... in Colorado

US actress Rose McGowan filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Harvey Weinstein, his ex-attorneys and a private intelligence agency, alleging they conspired to discredit her when she accused the disgraced movie mogul of rape.
"This case is about a diabolical and illegal effort by one of America's most powerful men and his representatives to silence sexual assault victims," the suit filed in Los Angeles federal court states.
"And it is about the courageous women and journalists who persisted to reveal the truth." McGowan was one of the first women to make public allegations about Weinstein's abuse, triggering his downfall in 2017 and the emergence of the #MeToo movement that brought down many other public figures.
Her lawsuit targets Weinstein, lawyers David Boies and Lisa Bloom and the private intelligence firm Black Cube. The claims include racketeering, invasion of privacy and fraud.
McGowan alleges that when Weinstein learned in 2016 that she planned to write about the alleged rape ..

Rose McGowan sues Weinstein for 'diabolical' effort to silence her

Maria Butina, the red-headed gun advocate from Russian who built a network of high-level Republican contacts before being arrested for spying, is expected to return to her country after her Friday release from a Florida prison.
The only Russian arrested and convicted in the three-year investigation of Moscow's interference in US politics, Butina parlayed ties with the NRA firearms lobby into a network that brought her into contact with President Donald Trump before his 2016 election, as well as with one of his sons.
She said she was on a quest to establish better relations between Russia and the United States, and enrolled in university in Washington while living with a Republican operative.
But she was arrested in July 2018 on allegations she was engaging in espionage, though she had no connection with Russia's established spy agencies.
In December, Butina, 30, entered a plea deal on a charge that she acted as an illegal, unregistered foreign agent, and was sentenced to 18 months in .

Russian 'agent' Maria Butina to be released from US prison

The head of the Kurd-led Syrian Democratic Forces has thanked Moscow for saving his people from the "scourge" of war after Russia struck a deal with Ankara ending its weeks-long Syria offensive.
In a phone call with Russia's defence minister and military chief, Mazlum Abdi "expressed his thanks to President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation for their keenness on defusing the war in our region and sparing civilians its scourge," the SDF said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The Commander-in-Chief also expressed reservations about some points of the agreement, which require further discussions and dialogue," it added.
Under the deal signed in Sochi on Tuesday, Turkey will remain fully deployed in an Arab-majority area that was the main target of its two-week offensive in northern Syria.
It also requires Kurdish forces to pull back to a line 30 kilometres from the border along its entire length (440 kilometres), forcing them to surrender some of their main towns and crushing their ..

SDF chief thanks Russia for saving Syria Kurds from 'scourge' of war

A lawmaker from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's party took a lie detector test on Wednesday after the president called for a group of MPs to be tested over corruption allegations.
Oleksandr Dubinsky, from Zelensky's Servant of the People party, streamed the test live on the internet.
Earlier, Davyd Arakhamia, leader of the parliamentary faction of the president's party, had told reporters "we will go on a lie detector".
All MPs from the president's party who are also members of a special committee that examines draft legislation will be subjected to the test.
According to reports, MPs on the committee have allegedly taken bribes to block an anti-corruption law aimed at regulating the property market. The bill has not yet gone before parliament.
Zelensky on Wednesday called for the ten MPs involved to take the lie detector test.
So far, the lawmakers are not facing any charges but investigators have launched a probe after journalists and bloggers reported a possible crime.
If .

Ukrainian MP takes lie detector test over corruption claims

Saudi Arabia's King Salman appointed a new foreign minister on Wednesday, according to a royal decree issued less than a year after his predecessor took office.
Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, who has been serving as ambassador to Germany, will replace Ibrahim al-Assaf, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) cited the decree as saying.
Assaf will be demoted to minister of state, the SPA reported, having replaced Adel al-Jubeir in December 2018, two months after the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi's Istanbul consulate.
Assaf had been detained in 2017 in an anti-corruption sweep.
Saud will take office as the kingdom continues to deal with the aftermath of Khashoggi's killing, widely seen as the kingdom's worst diplomatic crisis since the September 11 attacks, in which most of the hijackers were identified as Saudi nationals.
The kingdom has also been navigating a spike in tensions with its regional arch-rival Iran, with attacks on Saudi oil facilities last month .

Saudi replaces foreign minister less than a year after appointment

A state prosecutor has pressed charges against former Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati over alleged corruption, state media said Wednesday, amid unprecedented anti-graft protests.
Mikati, 63, along with his brother, his son and a Lebanese bank have been accused of "illicit enrichment", the National News Agency reported.
The former prime minister, who was last in power in 2014, denied the allegations, saying they carried a "message" and that he was "surprised" by the timing.
He said the charges were punishment for not supporting the election of President Michel Aoun in 2016 and for calling on the government to resign in the face of mass protests that broke out last week.
Bank Audi, which was accused of cooperating with Mikati, also emphatically denied the allegations in a statement carried by the NNA, denying "any activity related to illicit enrichment".
Mikati added that he would be willing to lift banking secrecy on his accounts, a measure Aoun has suggested for high-ranking ...

Prosecutor presses charges against Lebanon ex-PM: state media

Thousands of Chileans flooded the streets of Santiago and other cities Wednesday on day one of a general strike, upping the pressure on President Sebastien Pinera after days of social unrest that have left at least 18 dead.
Students, professors and state workers walked off the job at the urging of the country's largest union, ignoring a package of measures announced by Pinera aimed at quelling the violence.
"THE STRIKE IS ON! We say it loud and clear: enough of the increases and abuses," said the Workers' United Center of Chile (CUT), which organized the two-day action with about 20 other groups.
In the capital Santiago, police used water cannons to dispel protesters.
"Chile has awakened," read the sign of one protester.
The country, usually one of the most stable in Latin America, has experienced its worst violence in decades since protests against a now-scrapped hike in metro fares escalated dramatically on Friday.
Demonstrators have decried social and economic woes, including a ...

Chileans go on strike as protest death toll hits 18

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg opened the door Wednesday to scaling back plans for its digital coin Libra if it cannot win approval as a new currency for global exchanges.
Zuckerberg made the comments as he faced a torrent of criticism at a congressional hearing over the planned cryptocurrency it is seeking to roll out next year.
"We clearly have not locked down exactly how this is going to work yet," Zuckerberg told a hearing of the House Financial Service Committee.
"The goal of Libra is to build a global payment system rather than a currency."
This could result in digital payment systems using individual currencies, which would be less ambitious than a new coin linked to a basket of major currencies.
"I personally am much more focused on being able to help innovate and build a global payment system than I am in any specific makeup of what a currency or reserve might look like," he said.
"There is already some discussion about whether it might make sense to build the kind .

Facebook's Zuckerberg open to scaling back Libra plan

Boeing on Wednesday reported a sharp drop in third-quarter earnings due to the 737 MAX grounding but said it still expects regulatory approval this year to return the plane to service.
The company booked an additional USD 900 million in costs due to the MAX as it reported much lower profits than analysts expected.
The top-selling MAX has been grounded since mid-March following two deadly crashes.
However, shares advanced after Boeing reiterated its timetable for MAX regulatory approval and said it expects to fully restore MAX production levels by late 2020.
"Our top priority remains the safe return to service of the 737 MAX and we're making steady progress," said Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg.
Net income was USD 1.2 billion, down 50.6 percent from the year-ago period.  Revenues tumbled 20.5 per cent to USD 20 billion, reflecting a hit from halted deliveries of the MAX.
The aviation giant, which has been in crisis mode following two MAX crashes that killed 346 people, said it "has .

Boeing confirms 737 MAX timetable as profits tumble

The boycotting Bangladeshi players made new demands on Wednesday including a share of the board's revenue as a crisis surrounding cricket in the country deepened.
Supreme Court lawyer Mustafizur Rahman Khan read out a list of 13 demands on behalf of the Bangladeshi cricketers at a news conference, which also included a "feasible" wage for female players.
"Arrangements will have to be made where professional cricketers are given a fair share of the revenue generated by BCB (Bangladesh Cricket Board), which, after all, is made possible through the toil and performance of professional cricketers," said Rahman, citing the example of Australia.
Bangladesh national and first-class players on Monday announced a strike calling for better pay and benefits, casting doubt on the country's tour of India due to start in early November.
National Test and Twenty20 captain Shakib Al Hasan, also one of the world's finest all-rounders, led the revolt, with all the star players joining the unprecedented 

AFP

AFP

Page 337 - Afp