The rearranged Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid will be played on December 18 despite opposition from La Liga, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) confirmed on Tuesday.
Spain's most prestigious fixture, which was due to take place at Camp Nou on Saturday, was postponed last week because of violent pro-independence protests in Catalonia.
La Liga had proposed December 4 or 7 and may decide to appeal.
"The decision of the Competition Committee has taken place after analysing in recent days the proposals of both clubs, who were invited to agree a date and decided on December 18," an RFEF statement read.
"It has also analysed a report from the RFEF Competitions Area as well as numerous reports submitted by La Liga, which are not binding.
"At today's meeting, the Committee also analysed the latest reports from both clubs, who maintain their initial proposal to play the match on 18 December."
It means Barcelona, who insisted the original match should have gone ahead this weekend, 

Postponed Clasico to be played on Dec 18: federation

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Harry Kane says Tottenham's 5-0 Champions League mauling of Red Star Belgrade will count for little unless they use it as a catalyst to turn around their miserable Premier League form.
Tuesday's result at home against the Serbian champions revives Mauricio Pochettino's sides hopes of European progress after a humiliating 7-2 defeat by Bayern Munich earlier this month.
Spurs, who reached last season's Champions League final, are second in Group B with four points after three matches, behind leaders Bayern.
Kane, who scored twice against Red Star, said he hoped Tottenham would take the momentum from their win into their match against Premier League leaders Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.
"At home we were expected to win this game so we can't get too carried away with it," he said. "We have to stay focused and take the positives and take them into the Premier League.
"It is exactly what we needed, a great performance, a lot of energy, plenty of goals, a clean sheet -- a perfect ...

Spurs need to back up Red Star win in Premier League, says Kane

An Australian sheep that entered the Guinness World Records after being found with an enormously overgrown fleece has died, its carers announced.
Chris the merino sheep made global headlines after being found wandering alone outside Australia's capital Canberra with masses of wool sagging from its frame in 2015.
A champion shearer was brought in to shave off the fleece, a life-saving intervention for the sheep.
They quickly entered the record books for the largest fleece removed in a single sitting, with the wool weighing in at 41.1 kilograms (91 pounds).
The fleece was donated to the National Museum in Canberra, while Chris was re-homed at a hobby farm in neighbouring New South Wales state.
Little Oak Sanctuary, which cares for dozens of ex-farming animals, announced on social media Tuesday that Chris had died.
"We are heartbroken at the loss of this sweet, wise, friendly soul," it posted on Facebook.
Sanctuary co-founder Kate Luke told the Canberra Times that Chris had died on ...

Chris the sheep, famed for record-breaking fleece, dies

An Italian couple survived a landslide that caused their house to collapse after being woken by their cats, giving them time to escape, media reported Wednesday.
"My wife got up because Simba and Mose, our cats, were making a noise and woke us up," Claudio Piana told the Secolo XIX newspaper, as violent storms lashed northern Italy, killing a taxi driver and forcing dozens of people from their homes.
"She realised they were playing with a piece of plaster which had just fallen off the ceiling. Then we saw cracks opening in the walls," he said.
Piana and his wife Sabrina Pellegrini had gone to bed at home in Campo Ligure on Monday night as fierce rains across the Liguria region saw rivers burst their banks, washed away a bridge and sparked landslides.
Unbeknown to them, one such landslide had damaged the house's foundations, the newspaper said.
The couple rushed out to the car, but found themselves trapped by a sea of mud. They were rescued by firefighters.
"My brother then called and .

Italian couple saved from landslide by their cats

Climate change poses serious challenges to current and future peacebuilding efforts and can amplify conflicts, according to a report on years of devastating violence and drought in Somalia released Wednesday.
Researchers at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) looked at how conflicts and the peacebuilding efforts of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) have been affected by climate change, and found that it "amplifies existing challenges and strengthens radical groups".
"What it shows is that the security landscape is changing with climate change," Florian Krampe, senior researcher at SIPRI's climate change programme, told AFP, adding that many of the findings are applicable to other conflicts.
According to the report, decades of conflict in Somalia -- described as "among the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world" -- have been magnified by a series of severe droughts, which adds pressure to the country's state-building process and ..

Climate change amplifies conflicts, hinders peacebuilding: Somalia report

President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia would aim to double trade with Africa over the next five years, at the opening of a summit aimed at reviving Moscow's ties with the continent.
"We currently export to Africa USD 25 billion worth of food -- which is more than we export in arms, at USD 15 billion. In the next four to five years I think we should be able to double this trade, at least," he told African leaders at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Russia aims to double trade with Africa in 5 years: Putin

Beijing is drawing up a plan to remove Hong Kong's beleaguered Chief Executive Carrie Lam, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, after nearly five months of pro-democracy unrest.
The pro-Beijing leader has faced sustained criticism from protesters in the semi-autonomous city.
So far, the Chinese central government has given its support to her and the Hong Kong police, calling the demonstrators "rioters" and condemning the violence.
But according to the FT report, which quoted unnamed figures briefed on the deliberations, Beijing is drawing up a plan to replace her with an interim chief executive.
However, sources told the newspaper that the plan would be dependent on the situation in the city first stabilising so that the central government is not seen as giving in to violence.
Beijing rejected the report as "a political rumour with ulterior motives".
"The central government firmly supports Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam... to put an end to violence and chaos and restore order 

China plans to replace Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam: FT

British police said 39 dead bodies were found Wednesday in the container of a truck thought to have come from Bulgaria.
"This is a tragic incident where a large number of people have lost their lives," Essex Police said in a statement, saying the fatalities were pronounced dead at the scene in an industrial park in Grays, east of London.

39 dead bodies found in truck container: UK police

SoftBank announced on Wednesday it will pump billions of dollars into struggling office-sharing start-up WeWork, in a deal that will see co-founder Adam Neumann taking a huge payout and exiting the board.
The package, which involves new financing, speeds up already pledged money and includes a new tender offer for existing shareholders, is worth a total of USD 9.5 billion.
Neumann, who has already been forced to step down as chief executive, will exit the board for an "observer" role, but is said to be receiving more than USD 1.5 billion as he departs.
SoftBank Group's Marcelo Claure will take over as executive chairman of the board.  The agreement caps a turbulent period for the once-vaunted start-up, which was valued by some at around USD 47 billion at the start of the year, and represents a significant shot in the arm as the company haemorrhages money.
"SoftBank has decided to double down on the company by providing a significant capital infusion and operational support," SoftBank .

SoftBank confirms multi-billion-dollar WeWork bailout

Pope Francis launched an appeal Wednesday for dialogue and an end to violent protests in Chile which have claimed 15 lives and left 200 injured.
"I hope that by putting an end to violent demonstrations dialogue can be used to to find solutions to the crisis and confront the difficulties that have generated it, for the sake of the entire population," he said during a weekly general audience.

Pope calls for dialogue and end to Chile violence

Russia's anti-doping chief is predicting a lengthy Olympic ban for the national squad, lashing out at Moscow authorities who he says handed over falsified lab data to international investigators.
The accusations are the latest scandal to hit Russian sport after the country was banned from competing in several international competitions over state-sponsored doping.
"Russia's Olympic squad will be prevented from participating fully in the Olympic Games in Tokyo.... I think that this will also happen at the (Winter Olympic) Games in China," the head of Russia's RUSADA agency, Yuri Ganus, told AFP in an exclusive interview.
The best-case scenario in his view is very limited participation "by certain athletes, by invitation", as happened at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
He expects other penalties too, including restrictions on holding international tournaments in Russia, exclusion of Russians from international sports federations and fines.
- State conspiracy? ...

Russia anti-doping boss expects lengthy Olympic ban

At least one man was holed up at a museum in southern France on Wednesday, where threatening messages in Arabic have been written on the building's walls, a police source told AFP.
Officers surrounded the archeology museum in the Mediterranean town of Saint-Raphael, where the man, possibly with an accomplice, broke in overnight and refused to communicate with police.
One of the messages reads "the museum is going to become a hell", the source said, without specifying if the man was armed or if other people were in the building.
In a Twitter message police warned people to avoid the area in the historic centre of the resort town tucked between Cannes and Saint-Tropez.
"The entire neighbourhood is locked down... We've been ordered to stay in the restaurant," Sebastian, an employee at the Duplex restaurant opposite the museum, told the local Nice-Matin newspaper.
The museum, a historic monument, includes a medieval stone church and a vast collection of amphoras and other items from the ..

Man holes up at museum in southern France, threatening messages in Arabic: police

The Kremlin on Wednesday accused Washington of betraying the Kurds by withdrawing its forces from northern Syria and leaving allies alone in the face of a Turkish offensive.
To international surprise, US President Donald Trump announced in early October that American forces would withdraw from Syria, paving the way for Turkey to push into the border area against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia it considers "terrorists".
"The US were the closest allies for the Kurds for several years. In the end the US abandoned the Kurds, effectively betraying them," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.
"They prefer to leave the Kurds at the border and practically force them to fight the Turks," he said.
Turkey paused its offensive into Syria on October 17. On Tuesday evening, it announced that the offensive would be halted following a retreat of Kurdish forces from border zones.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ..

US 'betrayed' Syria's Kurds, says Moscow

A push by Australia and France to create a massive ocean sanctuary in east Antarctica is in doubt as nations meet in Hobart to discuss the plans, with China and Russia opposing.
The proposed East Antarctic marine park would protect one million square kilometres of ocean, but has repeatedly been struck down at meetings of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which began Monday.
China and Russia have been key in blocking the proposal, which was first floated by Australia, France and the European Union in 2010 before being scaled down in 2017 in an attempt to win greater support.
All 26 members of the organisation must consent to the marine park's creation, and the proposal is now back before the CCAMLR as it convenes in Australia's southernmost city, Hobart, for two weeks of meetings on Antarctic conservation.
It has previously established other major ocean Antarctic sanctuaries -- including the world's largest spanning 1.55 million square ..

Doubt over future of Antarctic ocean sanctuary plans

China is seizing on violent protests in Europe and South America to bolster its condemnation of pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong and defend its handling of the unrest.
Recent clashes in Chile and Spain's Catalonia region have added fuel to China's claims that Western governments and media have hypocritically supported Hong Kong's protests even while condemning violence at home.
Chinese state media and officials have been weighing in on the unrest abroad in recent days.
"We see violence today in Hong Kong being reproduced in other places," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told AFP on Monday, citing the clashes in Catalonia and Chile, as well as protests in London.
"In Catalonia they publicly declare that a second Hong Kong will be created in Catalonia and that they are inspired by what's happening (in Hong Kong). I think some people must think about their actions," he said.
China has decried "terrorist-like" actions by a violent minority among protesters in Hong Kong and ...

Unrest in Catalonia fuels China's accusations of Western 'hypocrisy'

At least one man was holed up at a museum in southern France on Wednesday, where threatening messages in Arabic have been written on the building's walls, a police source told AFP.
Officers surrounded the archeology museum in the Mediterranean town of Saint-Raphael, where the man, possibly with an accomplice, broke in overnight and refused to communicate with police.
One of the messages reads "the museum is going to become a hell," the source said.

Man holed up at museum in southern France, threatening messages in Arabic: police

Mechanical and design problems with a Boeing flight control system were key factors in the crash of a Lion Air plane last year, Indonesian investigators told victims' families in a briefing Wednesday on their findings.
All 189 passengers and crew were killed when the Boeing 737 MAX slammed into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta last October.
Indian national Bhavye Suneja, the pilot of the plane, was also killed in the crash.
A few months later, the model was grounded worldwide after an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crashed, killing 157 people aboard.  Preliminary investigations into both accidents implicated the variant's
Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), an automated flight-handling mechanism that pilots were unable to control.
Details of a final report on the Lian Air crash -- expected to be made public this week -- were shown to grieving relatives at a closed-door meeting in the Indonesian capital.
In a slide-show presentation, Indonesia's National .

Boeing flight control system key factor in Lion Air crash: investigators

China has invited a Taliban delegation to attend an "intra-Afghan" conference in Beijing, a spokesman said Wednesday, after a prospective deal between the United States and the insurgents collapsed last month.
Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban political spokesman, said on Twitter that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's co-founder, had met with Chinese diplomats in Doha, where the group has a political office.
"Both sides discussed the upcoming intra-Afghan conference in Beijing and issues related to the solution of Afghan problem," Shaheen wrote.
He later told AFP the conference would take place October 29-30.  It would be separate from talks between the US and the Taliban, which spent the past year negotiating a deal that would have seen the Pentagon pull thousands of troops from Afghanistan in return for various security guarantees.
President Donald Trump scrapped those talks last month amid continued Taliban violence in Afghanistan, including a bombing that killed an American ...

Beijing to host 'intra-Afghan' conference: Taliban

Cricket's global players' representative group has lent its support to Bangladesh players in their unprecedented strike over pay and benefits.
The walk-off began on Monday and includes several members of the national squad, casting doubt on Bangladesh's tour of India due to start in early November.
The Federation of International Cricketers' Associations praised the players "for taking a stand together in order to secure fair conditions," the body's executive chairman Tony Irish said in a statement late Tuesday.
"This has happened despite the challenging environment for players to collectivize in Bangladesh and it is a clear indication of the need for change in the way players are treated in what we regard as an important cricket country."
Announced by national Test and Twenty20 captain Shakib Al Hasan, the strike follows increasing criticism from players that the Bangladesh Cricket Board is not sharing its wealth.
Their demands include a 50 percent pay hike for first-class players, ..

World cricketers' group backs Bangladesh strike

The heir to the Samsung empire returns to court this week for a retrial over a sprawling corruption scandal that could see him return to prison and deprive the world's largest smartphone and chip manufacturer of its top decision-maker.
Lee Jae-yong is vice chairman of Samsung Electronics -- where profits have been falling for months -- and was jailed for five years in 2017 for bribery, embezzlement and other offences in connection with the scandal that brought down South Korean president Park Geun-hye.
The 51-year-old was freed a year later after an appeals court dismissed most of his bribery convictions, but that decision was set aside by the Supreme Court in August, which ordered a retrial.
The new proceedings begin Friday and are likely to last for months.
At the same time, Samsung Electronics is battling challenges from the US-China trade war and tough export restrictions imposed by Tokyo on key supplies amid a dispute with Seoul over wartime history.
While the firm's daily ...

Samsung heir's corruption retrial hangs over phonemaker

In a ceremony at an ancient, ruined temple in northern Iraq, Faiza Fuad joined a growing number of Kurds who are leaving Islam to embrace the faith of their ancestors -- Zoroastrianism.
Years of violence by the Islamic State jihadist group have left many disillusioned with Islam, while a much longer history of state oppression has pushed some in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region to see the millennia-old religion as a way of reasserting their identity.
"After Kurds witnessed the brutality of IS, many started to rethink their faith," said Asrawan Qadrok, the faith's top priest in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.
During Fuad's conversion ritual in Darbandikhan, near the Iranian border, a high priest and his assistants wore white clothes representing purity and recited verses from the Zoroastrian holy book, the Avesta.
They knotted a cord three times around Fuad's waist to symbolise the faith's core values of good words, good thoughts and good deeds.
The newcomer raised her hand and swore 

AFP

AFP

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