Rarely has the outcome of an election been so uncertain in Tunisia, the cradle and partial success story of the Arab Spring, as some seven million voters head to the polls Sunday to choose from a crowded field.
Key players include media mogul Nabil Karoui, behind bars due to an ongoing money laundering probe, Abdelfattah Mourou, who heads a first-time bid for Islamist-inspired party Ennahdha, and Prime Minister Youssef Chahed.
The premier's popularity has been tarnished by a sluggish economy and a high cost of living, and he has found himself having to vehemently deny accusations that Karoui's detention since late August is politically inspired.
Some 13,000 polling booths opened across Tunisia at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) on Sunday, with two dozen candidates vying for a five-year mandate.
The election follows an intense campaign characterised more by personality clashes than political differences.
It had been brought forward by the death in July of 92-year-old president Beji Caid Essebsi, ...

Tunisia heads to polls for tightly fought presidential contest

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Three-time All-Star Marc Gasol became only the second man to win an NBA crown and the World Cup in the same year after Spain brushed aside Argentina 95-75 here on Sunday.
Spain, who survived double overtime against Australia to reach the final, led throughout in Beijing to win international basketball's biggest prize a second time.
The only previous occasion was in 2006 with the two Gasol brothers, Marc and older sibling Pau, on the team.
Pau did not feature in China because of injury.
The latest triumph was particularly sweet for the 34-year-old centre Gasol, who three months ago also played a key part in the Toronto Raptors' run to the NBA title.
Gasol, who had 14 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, joins Lamar Odom, a double winner in 2010 with the United States and Los Angeles Lakers.
Surprise finalists Argentina had not triumphed since they hosted the inaugural World Cup in 1950.
As a contest, the final was over by the fourth quarter -- although the Argentines did rally ...

Gasol claims rare NBA-World Cup double as Spain beat Argentina

Bent over her hand-crank sewing machine, Hajra Bibi stitches sanitary pads for the women of her mountainous village in northwestern Pakistan, one of many rural areas in the deeply conservative country where periods are still taboo.
"I am responding to a crisis," said the 35-year-old mother, sitting in front of her small, doily-covered work table in the village of Booni, close to the Afghan border.
"Before, Booni's women had no idea what sanitary towels were," she explained. Less than a fifth of women use sanitary pads in Pakistan, local charities estimate.
Traditionally women have used rags and cloth to soak up their menstrual blood, but the stigma around periods and a lack of reproductive education means hygiene standards are poor and many contracted infections.
As with other areas of rural Pakistan, menstruating women were viewed as unclean and limited in what they were able to do.
Bibi was given training to make the disposable sanitary pads, made of cotton, plastic, and cloth, by ..

Myths and menstruation: Overcoming Pakistan's period taboo

Saudi energy giant Aramco is battling to reassure markets after devastating attacks on two oil plants, where a prolonged shutdown risks roiling investor confidence ahead of the state-owned giant's mega stock listing, analysts say.
A wave of drones struck Abqaiq -- the world's largest oil processing facility -- and the Khurais oil field in eastern Saudi Arabia, knocking out nearly half of the kingdom's crude production and exposing the vulnerability of its energy infrastructure.
While Tehran-backed Yemeni rebels claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn strike on Saturday, Washington blamed Iran for what it called an "unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply".
It is a major test for the kingdom's newly appointed energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman -- a half-brother to the crown prince -- as the attacks could dampen investor confidence in Aramco's upcoming two-stage stock market debut.
The attacks have effectively turned off six percent of the global oil supply, raising ..

Saudi Arabia battles market jitters after oil plant attacks

Spaniard Marc Marquez snatched victory on the final lap at the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday to close in on a sixth world title.
The Honda rider, starting on the second row, took a third MotoGP win in Misano ahead of France's Fabio Quartararo, on a Yamaha-SRT, who had the lead for most of the race.
"At the end I just decided to go for it," said Marquez, who had been pipped at the line at the last two races in Silverstone and the Dutch GP.
Five-time world champion Marquez won the 77th Grand Prix of his career in all categories to overtake British legend Mike 'the bike' Hailwood.
The 26-year-old has won 51 MotoGP races, 16 Moto2 and ten Moto3.  Marquez now has a 93-point lead on Italian Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso with six races left this season. Dovizioso finished sixth on Sunday on front of his home crowd.  Pole sitter Maverick Vinales completed the podium for Yahama.
"It was a very tough race," said Quartararo, 20. "It was the first time that I battled like that with Marquez." ...

Marquez wins San Marino MotoGP to close in on sixth world title

The waters for French fishermen are being stirred up by uncertainty of what will happen if Britain leaves the EU without a deal on October 31 and their boats barred from British waters.
A no-deal Brexit would likely end access for French boats to British waters and, in France, fishing industry players fear this will not just increase tensions with rivals across the Channel but between themselves.
Sophie Leroy, whose Armement Cherbourgeois company operates three fishing vessels off the northwest coast of France, says there have been almost daily checks of their boats by the British authorities.
Earlier this month, her boats were stopped for what she described as an interminable set of checks 21 miles off the English coast.
Her boats were also surrounded by 15 British fishing vessels, she said.
"And they were saying, 'We are going to do the same as what the French did to us last year'."
The "Scallop Wars" in 2018, when French and British fishing vessels clashed over access to scallops ..

Hard Brexit threat looms over French fishing fleet

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government approved a new settlement in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, his office said, just two days ahead of closely fought general elections.
Netanyahu's cabinet agreed to turn the wildcat settlement of Mevoot Yericho in the Jordan Valley into an official settlement, the premier's office said.
All settlements are viewed as illegal under international law, but Israel distinguishes between those it has approved and those it has not.
Sunday's approval follows Netanyahu's pledge last week to annex the Jordan Valley, which amounts to one-third of the West Bank, if he wins Tuesday's elections.
"The government passed the PM's motion to build Mevoot Yericho," a statement from Netanyahu's office said as the weekly cabinet meeting was convened ceremoniously in the Jordan Valley.
Netanyahu has also said he intends to annex settlements in the wider West Bank, but in coordination with US President Donald Trump, whose long-awaited peace plan is ...

Israel approves new settlement 2 days before polls

England closed in on a series-levelling victory in the fifth Test at the Oval on Sunday as Australia slipped to 68-3 at lunch on the fourth day.
Joe Root's side set the tourists an unlikely 399 to win in London after adding just 16 runs to their overnight total.
Paceman Broad pounded in, roared on by a packed crowd, who raised the roof when he demolished Marcus Harris's off-stump in the fifth over, removing the batsman for nine.
In his following over, Broad ended David Warner's miserable series, with the opener edging him to Rory Burns in the slips and departing for 11.
Warner, who returned to international cricket in June after a 12-month ban for ball-tampering, had a good World Cup but has endured a torrid time in the Ashes.
The attacking batsman has scored just 95 runs in 10 innings and has been dismissed by Broad seven times.
Warner's dismissal brought Steve Smith to the wicket and he opened his account with a sweet drive through the covers for four off Jofra Archer.
Smith and ...

England close in on Ashes-levelling win after Broad double

Kenya's Geoffrey Kamworor sliced 17 seconds off the world record at the Copenhagen Half Marathon on Sunday as he won in 58min 01sec.
Kamworor improved on the 58:18 set in Valencia last year by his compatriot Abraham Kiptum.
The 26-year-old Kenyan clearly likes the Danish capital as it was the scene of the first of his three world half-marathon titles.
Kamworor broke away from the pack and raced alone for the final 11 kilometres, defying the heavy rain that fell briefly with 37 minutes on the clock.
He covered the next five kilometres segment in a swift 13:31, reaching 15 kilometres in 41:03, 11 seconds inside sub-58-minute pace.
Although he slowed slightly in the final quarter, he was still well inside world record pace but the clock agonisingly ticked over 58 minutes as he crossed the line.
Birhane Dibaba Adugna of Ethiopia won the women's race in 1:05:57, taking almost two minutes off her lifetime best.

Kenya's Kamworor smashes men's world half marathon record

Thirty-six people are missing after a boat sank in the Congo river on the outskirts of Kinshasa, DR Congo police said on Sunday.
The vessel, which was travelling to the capital, went down overnight in Maluku commune, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the centre of the city.
Seventy-six people survived, police wrote on Twitter.
"The cause of the accident is not yet known," police spokesperson Colonel Pierrot-Rombaut Mwanamputu told AFP.
Lake and river transport is widely used in Democratic Republic of Congo as the highway system is poor, but accidents are common, often caused by overloading and the unsafe state of vessels.
The boat involved was called a "baleiniere" or "whaler" -- a commonly-used flat-bottomed vessel between 15 to 30 metres (50 to 100 feet) long by two to six metres wide.
In the vast majority of accidents, passengers are not equipped with life jackets and many cannot swim.

36 people missing after boat sinks in Congo river: DRC police

Hong Kong riot police fired tear gas and water cannons at hardcore pro-democracy protesters hurling rocks and petrol bombs on Sunday, tipping the violence-plagued city back into chaos after a brief lull in clashes.
Tens of thousands of people defied authorities to march through the streets of the city in an unsanctioned rally on Sunday, the latest expression of a popular revolt that has raged for the last 99 days.
But the rally descended into violence when small groups of hardcore activists -- known within the movement as the "braves" -- tried to attack the city's main government complex.
Police fired repeated volleys of tear gas and deployed water cannon trucks after Molotov cocktails and rocks were thrown over security barriers surrounding the complex, which has become a frequent flashpoint in the ongoing protests.
The clashes ended a relative lull in recent days in the intensity of skirmishes between police and protesters.
The once-stable international hub has been convulsed by ...

Hong Kong returns to violence with tear gas and molotovs

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has sent high-ranking emissaries on a mission to reassure African countries after a wave of xenophobic attacks, the presidency said on Sunday.
At least 12 people have been killed in the surge of mob violence targeting foreign-owned businesses and homes, mainly in and around Johannesburg since the start of the month.
Hundreds of economic migrants from neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique have fled to shelters and Nigeria has flown 600 of its citizens back home after they were targeted in the violence.
The mission, led by former minister Jeff Radeba, left South Africa on Saturday and will visit Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, DR Congo and Zambia, the presidency said.
Ramaphosa was jeered at on Saturday during his speech at Zimbabwe ex-leader Robert Mugabe's funeral in Harare before he apologised for the attacks, which have been prompted by unemployment and poverty.
"I stand before you as a fellow African to express my regret and ...

S Africa dispatches emissaries to calm xenophobia fears

The Afghan Taliban rescinded a months-long ban on the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) working in areas under their control Sunday and restored security guarantees for those working for the organisation.
The militants and the ICRC "consented to following the old agreement on top of new promises in humanitarian aid leading to the Islamic Emirate granting ICRC permission of resuming their activities," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement.
Taliban fighters were instructed to "pave the way for ICRC activities and be mindful of security to this committee's workers and equipment," it added.
"We welcome the acknowledgment of our humanitarian principles and renewal of security guarantees to enable us (to) work in #Afghanistan in favour of people affected by the armed conflict," Schaerer Juan-Pedro, head of ICRC in Kabul said on Twitter.
In April the insurgents banned both the ICRC and World Health Organization (WHO) from carrying out relief activities in areas .

Afghan Taliban rescind ban on Red Cross

Saudi shares dropped three per cent at the start of trading Sunday, the first session after drone attacks on two major oil facilities knocked out more than half the kingdom's production.
The Arab world's largest capital market shed some 200 points in the first few minutes after the opening bell, before regaining some of the losses.
The key energy sector plunged 4.7 per cent, while the telecom and banking sectors each slid three per cent.

Saudi stocks dip 3 per cent in first session after oil attack

Only three Australian batsmen are certain to start the summer Test series against Pakistan, according to former skipper Ricky Ponting, with David Warner among them.
Ponting, who has been a sounding board for coach Justin Langer in recent months, unsurprisingly nominated the in-form Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne as the other two.
That leaves holes to fill and Australia's greatest run scorer said he would like to see young prospect Will Pucovski, who has battled mental health issues, given a debut in the first Test at the Gabba on November 12.
"Warner's going to be a lock," Ponting told cricket.com.au, despite the opener having a miserable Ashes tour where he has struggled to get into double digits.
"I don't care if he gets another duck in the second innings of this Test match (at the Oval), he's going to be a lock for the Australian summer. Marnus is an absolute lock. Smith's a lock.
"(There are) still question marks around the guys in the middle, (Matthew) Wade and (Travis) ...

Ponting eyes batting shake-up for Australia summer Tests

Australia captain Tim Paine admitted he was having "a mare" after twice failing to review umpiring decisions in the fifth Ashes Test even though the challenges would have brought wickets.
England, seeking to level the series at 2-2, are firmly in control of the final Test with two days to go, 382 runs ahead with two second-innings wickets left.
Australia toiled in the field at the Oval on the third day of the match on Saturday and were not helped by Paine's misjudgements.
Joe Denly, who went on to score 94, should have been out lbw to Mitchell Marsh when he was on 54 but Australia opted not to review the not-out decision.
Later on the skipper, who is the team's wicketkeeper, failed to review a not-out decision against Jos Buttler after an appeal for lbw, with replays showing Nathan Lyon's delivery would have hit the stumps.
Buttler, then on 19, went on to score 47.
"I'm getting it wrong," said a tetchy Paine.
"I don't know what else to say. We're having a mare (nightmare). We've got ..

Australia having a 'mare' with Ashes DRS calls

Celine Boutier and Georgia Hall were the European heroines on Saturday as Europe desperately clung on to the hope of regaining the Solheim Cup at Gleneagles.
After a punishing series of fourballs in blustery, cold weather, the Americans emerged as 2.5-1.5 winners to leave the score tied at 8-8 going into Sunday's final 12 singles.
As holders, the US team needs to win six of the matches to claim the trophy for the third year in a row.
With all four matches going to the final two holes, fortunes swung to and fro.
At one stage, the visitors were ahead in every match.
But Boutier, the French rookie, and Hall, the 2018 Women's British Open Champion, staged a magnificent comeback against Ally McDonald and Angel Yin to claim a vital full point.
Four down after seven holes and still three down with five to play, Hall and Boutier won the next four on the trot to take a one hole lead and they added another at the 18th for a two hole victory.
Boutier produced three stunning highlights -- she ...

Boutier and Hall fightback sets up Solheim Cup cliffhanger

Former British prime minister David Cameron launched a blistering attack on the UK's current leader Boris Johnson in extracts of his memoirs published Sunday, accusing him of only backing Brexit to further his own career.
He said Johnson, who took office in July, believed that campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union during the 2016 referendum would make him the "darling" of their Conservative party.
Damningly, he also said that Johnson privately believed there should be a second referendum to confirm the terms of Brexit -- something the premier has strongly resisted since.
In extracts published in the Sunday Times newspaper, Cameron -- who led the failed "Remain" campaign to stay in the EU -- also accused his "Leave" rivals of lying to the public.
He wrote that Johnson and one of his top ministers Michael Gove -- a former close friend of Cameron's -- "became ambassadors for the expert-trashing, truth-twisting age of populism" during the campaign.
Cameron, 52, has largely ..

Ex-PM Cameron slams Johnson over Brexit

Karim Benzema scored twice for Real Madrid in a 3-2 win against Levante with Eden Hazard making his La Liga debut while later Barcelona breezed to a 5-2 win against Valencia with more magic from 16-year-old Ansu Fati.
Benzema's goals came just six minutes apart in the first half at a wet Santiago Bernabeu, before Casemiro put Real 3-0 up.
However Levante, who had won their previous two outings, made a fight of it in the second half as they pulled goals back through Borja Mayoral and Gonzalo Melero.
"The second half was more difficult for us, but the overall feeling was positive," said coach Zinedine Zidane, whose team had drawn their previous two games.
"We have got the three points and we were incredible in the first half, the way we played, the goals, the commitment. We just need to stay focused for the full 90 minutes."
Hazard also came off the bench for the final half-hour to make his first La Liga appearance after a thigh injury had interrupted the start of his Real career ...

Benzema brilliance inspires Real, Fati lights up Barca

Manchester City succumbed to a first Premier League defeat since January in stunning fashion to newly-promoted Norwich 3-2, as Liverpool opened up a five-point lead at the top of the table by beating Newcastle 3-1.
Tottenham and Chelsea bounced back to form with comprehensive wins over Crystal Palace and Wolves respectively, while Manchester United held out for a much-needed three points with a 1-0 victory over Leicester.
However, Liverpool were the big winners of the day as the gaps left in City's defence by the injured Aymeric Laporte were exposed at Carrow Road.
"Of course it is special day for us and for the club," said Norwich boss Daniel Farke.
"We had to be special in our plan for City because they are the best team in the world and we had setbacks too with our injuries, but we deserved the win today. We were exceptional."
Kenny McLean showed up the champions' struggles to defend set-pieces with a towering header to open the scoring and Teemu Pukki then squared for Todd ...

Man City stunned by Norwich as Liverpool stretch Premier League lead

Inter Milan reclaimed top spot in Serie A after a 1-0 win over 10-man Udinese on Saturday as Juventus lost three players to injury in a painful goalless draw at Fiorentina to complicate preparations for next week's Champions League opener.
Stefano Sensi's diving header was enough to seal a maximum nine points for Antonio Conte's Inter ahead of their European opener against Slavia Prague in the San Siro next Tuesday.
But as Maurizio Sarri made his debut on the Juventus bench after recovering from pneumonia, the Italian champions showed signs of weakness four days before their trip to Atletico Madrid.
Juventus are trailing two points behind Inter Milan after three games and could be overtaken by city rivals Torino who host promoted Lecce on Monday.
Napoli meanwhile warmed up for European holders Liverpool on Tuesday with a Dries Mertens double sealing a 2-0 win over crisis club Sampdoria, to move up to fourth in the table.
"We wouldn't have deserved to win this game," said Sarri as ...

AFP

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