Former Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe will be given a state funeral on Saturday with a dozen African leaders expected to pay tribute to a man lauded as a colonial-era liberation hero.
Mugabe, who died last week in Singapore aged 95, left Zimbabwe torn over the legacy of his 37-year rule marked by brutal repression and economic crisis.
He died almost two years after former army loyalists forced him out in 2017, following a power struggle over what was widely perceived as his bid to have his wife Grace succeed him.
His body was returned from Singapore on Wednesday to a country divided and still struggling with inflation and the food and fuel shortages caused by decades of economic crisis.
"Despite certain misgivings, within certain quarters about his so-called mistakes... the government's position is clear," Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo told AFP. "The late President Mugabe is an icon."
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and a dozen current and former African leaders are expected ..

African leaders to pay tribute at Mugabe state funeral

PTI Automatic

PayPal is cautious about the future of Facebook-backed cryptocurrency Libra, which is slated to debut with the pioneering digital payments firm as part of its oversight association.
International outcry is mounting over Libra -- with central banks, governments and regulators railing against Facebook's upstart cryptocurrency and questions over how it would be regulated.
The social media giant unveiled plans in June for Libra -- which will roll out in 2020 -- to be backed by a basket of currency assets to avoid the wild swings of Bitcoin and other virtual units.
"It's a non-binding commitment," PayPal investor relations vice president Gabrielle Rabinovitch said Thursday of the California-based company signing on to the Libra Association.
"And obviously, I think there's a lot of work to happen before we get to that point where it becomes something more than just a very exciting idea."
The nonprofit Libra Association, based in Geneva, will oversee the blockchain-based coin, maintaining a .

PayPal cautious about future of Libra cryptocurrency

The Gambian government on Friday said it intended to prosecute former president Yahya Jammeh on allegations of theft and corruption.
Jammeh, who ruled the tiny West African state for 22 years, fled the country in January 2017 after losing presidential elections and initially refusing to step down.
The former president acquired more than 280 private and commercial properties, islands, forest parks, wetland and wildlife reserves during his time in power, according to a commission of inquiry cited by Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou.
Tambadou described it as an "unconscionable land grab".
The commission was established by President Adama Barrow and has been probing assets accumulated by Jammeh, his family and associates during his rule, which ended after a military intervention by other West African states.
"The damage former president Jammeh has caused to government institutions, public resources and state owned enterprises is of such serious nature," that charges should be brought, .

Gambian ex-president to face prosecution for corruption

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said on Friday that they had arrested a senior intelligence officer for allegedly stealing sensitive documents.
Cameron Ortis faces five charges under Canada's criminal code and its Security of Information Act, the federal police agency said in a statement.
"The allegations are that he obtained, stored, processed sensitive information, we believe with the intent to communicate it to people that he shouldn't be communicating it to," prosecutor John MacFarlane told journalists after Ortis appeared in court on Friday.
Canada's Global News reported that Ortis, who was arrested Thursday, was a top advisor to former RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson, and had control over counter-intelligence operations.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is campaigning for a second term in office, told reporters at an election rally "I can assure you that the authorities are taking this extremely seriously," without commenting further.
His opponent Conservative leader ...

Top Canadian police official arrested on spying charges

One's a septuagenarian male politician whose verbal gaffes raise doubts over his fitness for office.
The other is a septuagenarian male politician who makes so many slip-ups that the public has almost stopped taking notice.
Welcome to Joe Biden vs Donald Trump, the prospective 2020 match-up that, if nothing else, guarantees a lot of puzzlement -- and perhaps laughs.
Biden has been making verbal missteps for so many years that he spins them as just another strand to his generally affable, unpolished persona.
But at 76 and at times visibly frail, the veteran Democratic senator and party frontrunner is under ever-harsher scrutiny.
"Falling Apart: Joe Biden Delivers 9 Gaffes, Lies, and Awkward Moments in Third Primary Debate," read Friday's headline on the influential right-wing website Breitbart after the latest face-off between Democratic candidates.
While most agreed Biden had a good night, and avoided serious blunders, Breitbart's attack was far from alone.
Even the pop music website .

Trump-Biden matchup promises epic presidential gaffes contest

Former British prime minister David Cameron said Friday he had no regrets about launching the Brexit referendum but accused current PM Boris Johnson of behaving "appallingly" during the pre-vote campaigning.
Cameron, 52, who led the failed Remain campaign for Britain to stay in the European Union, told The Times newspaper that the tortuous Brexit negotiations were "painful to watch" -- and losing office left him "hugely depressed".
Prime minister for six years, Cameron has largely kept his counsel since he left office following the 2016 Brexit referendum.
His long-awaited memoir, "For The Record", is due out on Thursday.
Cameron said current Prime Minister Boris Johnson -- an old schoolfriend -- behaved "appallingly" during as head of the successful Leave campaign ahead of the referendum.
The former premier said a no-deal Brexit would be a bad outcome and that he would have backed the withdrawal agreement rejected by MPs.
Britain is due to leave the EU on October 31.
Cameron told The .

Ex-PM Cameron no regrets on sparking Brexit referendum

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced Friday he is setting up an internal investigation into the bombing of hospitals in Syria which had previously flagged their coordinates to avoid air strikes.
Guterres said in a statement the board would look at "a series of incidents that have occurred in northwest Syria" since the establishment of the so-called "Idlib de-escalation zone" in September last year by Russia and Turkey.
The committee is not a "criminal investigation" but aimed to "establish the facts for the secretary general," his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The board, headed by Nigerian General Chikadibia Obiakor, will start its work on September 30 but no deadline was given for it to submit its findings.
Several dozen medical facilities with links to the UN have been damaged or destroyed by bombs this year. Russian has denied deliberately targeting civilian installations.
Human Rights Watch urged the new board to "work quickly to attribute attacks on medical ...

UN setting up group to investigate Syria hospital bombings

The US Navy said that one of its destroyers had sailed close to the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on Friday, asserting international freedom of navigation rights in the contested waters.
The USS Wayne E Meyer guided-missile destroyer passed through the area of the Paracels east of Vietnam and South of China's Hainan Island without requesting permission from Beijing, or from Hanoi or Taipei, which also claim ownership of the archipelago.
The move could add to the tensions between the US and China, now bogged down in a grinding trade war, as Beijing pushes to expand its military reach globally.
"USS Wayne E Meyer challenged the restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam and also contested China's claim to straight baselines enclosing the Paracel Islands," said Commander Reann Mommsen, spokesperson for the US 7th Fleet based in Japan.
"With these baselines, China has attempted to claim more internal waters, territorial sea, ...

US Navy sails ship close to islands claimed by China

Three more people died as torrential rain and flash floods battered southeastern Spain, raising the death toll to five with the rising waters causing havoc for travellers and forcing 3,500 people from their homes, officials said Friday.
The latest fatality was a man whose body was found in the area of Redovan, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of the city of Alicante, a spokeswoman for the emergency services said, without giving details.
Earlier in the day, a 36-year-old man died in the Andalusia region after his car was swept away in the rushing waters, the local emergency services said.
His empty car had been found earlier in the day.
Also in the morning, a middle-aged man died in the coastal city of Almeria after his car got stuck in a tunnel that flooded within minutes, they said.
City mayor Ramon Fernandez-Pacheco told Cadena Ser radio that police managed to save two other people who were also in the vehicle but were unable to save him.
Two other people, a 61-year-old man ..

Death toll from Spain floods rises to five

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the French far-right National Front, was charged on Friday with "embezzlement of public funds" over allegations he illegally claimed money from the European parliament to pay France-based staff, lawyers told AFP.
Le Pen, who was an MEP from the 1980s up until earlier this year, was investigated over the improper spending of EU funds after the European Parliament lifted his immunity in March.
Judges questioned Le Pen for more than four hours about the jobs of three of his aides, according to his lawyers.
"The investigating judges ask a lot of questions about a case that I consider a political scam," the 91-year-old Le Pen told AFP.
"It was very long," he added.
Le Pen "is very tired of all this," said lawyer Frederic Joachim, condemning  the case as an "incursion of the judiciary into the legislature".
Le Pen had used his parliamentary immunity to prevent anti-corruption investigators from questioning him in June last year about the case.
Le Pen's ...

Jean-Marie Le Pen charged over EU funding scandal: lawyer

Algerians returned to the streets Friday, protesting proposed presidential elections after parliament passed bills that could pave the way for the announcement of a vote to take place in December.
Demonstrations that started in February led to the resignation of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April, after 20 years at the helm.
But the movement has continued, with protestors taking to the streets for a 30th consecutive week Friday.
Demonstrators are demanding key regime figures step down and an overhaul of political institutions before any polls, arguing any election under the current framework will only reinforce the status quo.
"Those close to Bouteflika are still in power and an election in these conditions is simply a masquerade", said engineer Lyes Mesbah, 48.
The army, which has de facto taken the reins of the country, has been calling for speedy elections to replace Bouteflika, with army chief General Ahmed Gaid Salah repeatedly insisting that polls be held before ...

Algerians take to the streets to oppose presidential poll

Venezuela is "ready" to defend itself, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Friday, after Washington invoked a regional defence pact that might justify such a move.
"We are ready to protect ourselves, we are ready to react," Arreaza told a news conference after meeting in Geneva with UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet.
"We will let no one trample sacred Venezuelan soil, we will respond and hope that never happens," the minister said.
On Wednesday, the US invoked a regional defence pact with 10 other countries and Venezuela's opposition in response to "bellicose" moves by President Nicolas Maduro's regime.
A request to invoke the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) came from the Venezuelan opposition, according to a statement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that was retweeted by President Donald Trump.
"Recent bellicose moves by the Venezuelan military to deploy along the border with Colombia as well as the presence of illegal armed groups and terrorist ...

Venezuela 'ready' to defend itself after US invokes defence pact: foreign minister

Eddie Money, the prolific American rocker known for a string of hits in the 1970s and 1980s like "Take Me Home Tonight," has died, entertainment outlet Variety said Friday, citing his family.
He was 70.
Money -- whose smashes included "Two Tickets to Paradise" and "Baby Hold On" -- had been in poor health in recent years and revealed in August that he was battling stage four esophageal cancer.
"The Money Family regrets to announce that Eddie passed away peacefully early this morning," the statement said.
"It is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye to our loving husband and father. We cannot imagine our world without him.
"We are grateful that he will live on forever through his music."
Born Edward Joseph Mahoney in Brooklyn on March 21, 1949, the singer-songwriter became a regular at clubs in California's Bay Area, and found success with humorous music videos in the early days of MTV.
In recent years, a reality TV show about Money and his family, which aired on the AXS TV cable and ..

US rocker Eddie Money dies at 70

The United States and Brazil, the two major critics of the Paris climate accord, said Friday they would promote private-sector development in the Amazon, where fires have alarmed environmentalists.
Meeting in Washington, the top diplomats of the Western Hemisphere's two most populous countries vowed to build on cooperation between their right-wing presidents, Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo again hit back at European-led criticism over the handling of major fires in the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest which plays a crucial role in soaking up carbon emissions behind climate change.
"We want to be together in the effort to create development for the Amazon region, which we are convinced is the only way to really protect the forest," Araujo said as he met Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
"We need productive initiatives that create jobs, that create revenue for the people in the Amazon, and that's where our partnership with the United ...

US, Brazil press private sector in Amazon

Jofra Archer took six wickets as England bowled Australia out for 225 to gain the upper hand on the second day of the fifth Ashes Test on Friday despite another Steve Smith masterclass.
Joe Root's team are desperate to level the series at 2-2 to end their historic World Cup-winning season on a high but have been consistently dogged by the peerless Smith.
The former Australian skipper has now amassed 751 runs in just six innings -- more than double the tally of the next highest runscorer on either side.
But he was forced to settle for his lowest score of the series -- 80 -- when Chris Woakes trapped him lbw in the evening session, leaving the sun-drenched Oval crowd dumbfounded.
Despite a late flurry of runs, Australia had to settle for a first-innings deficit of 69, with paceman Archer finishing with figures of 6-62.
Smith came to the crease with Australia in trouble at 14-2 in reply to England's first-innings total of 294 after Archer had removed openers David Warner and Marcus ...

Archer claims six wickets as England take charge of Ashes finale

The United States said Thursday that Iran had shown itself to be untrustworthy after a tanker apparently delivered oil to Syria in defiance of promises.
"I think the importance here to our friends around the world in the international community is to note that once again you have been lied to and misled by the Iranian regime," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told reporters.
An Iranian vessel, originally called the Grace 1 and renamed the Adrian Darya 1, was held for six weeks by the British overseas territory of Gibraltar until authorities received promises it was not heading to Syria, Iran's main Arab ally.
The European Union maintains an embargo on Syria in response to President Bashar al-Assad's bloody crackdown on dissents and rebels.
Britain said Tuesday that Iran breached assurances and that the ship transferred oil to Syria, summoning the Iranian ambassador to protest.
"The Iranian regime broke its word and appears intent on fueling the Assad regime's brutality ...

US says tanker spotted in Syria shows Iran deceitful

Ryan Burl scored 57 off 32 balls as Zimbabwe posted 144-5 in 18 overs against Bangladesh in the first Twenty20 international of the tri-series tournament in Dhaka on Friday.
Burl hit five fours and four sixes in his maiden T20I fifty, and smashed 30 runs in one over off Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan.
Bangladesh had won the toss and opted to bowl first in a game reduced to 18 overs each after a delayed start.
Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Mohammad Saifuddin and Mosaddek Hossain claimed one wicket each for Bangladesh.
Afghanistan are the third team in the tournament.

Burl guides Zimbabwe to 144-5 in Bangladesh T20

World number two Karolina Pliskova will play unseeded Ajla Tomljanovic in the semi-finals of the WTA Zhengzhou Open in China after winning two matches on the bounce on Friday.
Bad weather forced organisers to squeeze in second-round and quarter-final matches, meaning a tight turnaround for the top seed and her rivals.
But the Czech was unperturbed, first defeating Polona Hercog 6-3, 7-5, then beating Sofia Kenin of the United States 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in the quarter-finals.
"To play two matches in a day is never easy, but in the first one I was lucky enough to not go to a third set, just finished quickly and saved some power for the next one," Pliskova, 27, said.
"I think I played good tennis in both matches. I was serving well today, a lot of aces, which always helps, and there's a lot of positive things for tomorrow."
Also into the last four in central China is Petra Martic from Croatia after she battled past Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
Martic will play unseeded Frenchwoman 

Pliskova doubles up to reach Zhengzhou semi-finals

French player Tatiana Golovin said on Friday she will return to competitive tennis despite having retired 11 years ago, a day after Kim Clijsters announced her shock comeback.
The 31-year-old Golovin, a former world number 12 and a US Open quarter-finalist in 2006, was forced to retire aged 20 due to lower back inflammation.
"The idea has been taking shape for a year and since this summer I've been really serious about it," she told French television channel BeIN Sports, where she works as a pundit.
"The goal was to be ready early next year, but things are going fast and now I plan to resume perhaps by mid-October."
Golovin, who was born in Russia and spent years training in Florida, won both of her two WTA titles in 2007.
Former world number one and four-time Grand Slam champion Clijsters, 36, will return to the WTA Tour next season seven years after retiring for a second time.

Golovin in tennis comeback after 11-year absence

Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette will be sidelined until October after failing to shake off a persistent ankle injury.
Lacazette had been playing with pain from the problem for several weeks and the France international has now been told to rest in the hope it will allow time for the problem to heal.
"After assessments to an ongoing ankle issue, we have advised that Alex will need to rest and strengthen his ankle to regain full fitness," an Arsenal statement said on Friday.
"Alex has been playing through this injury for several weeks. He is likely to be back in action in October."
Lacazette has scored two goals in three appearances this season, including one in the 2-2 draw with north London rivals Tottenham in his last game before the international break.
The 28-year-old was replaced in the 67th minute of that match and won't be back in a Gunners shirt for several weeks.
His absence will be a big blow for Arsenal manager Unai Emery during a hectic period that includes Premier ...

Arsenal's Lacazette ruled out until October

Mercedes-Benz has extended its contract with British Formula One outfit Williams until the end of 2025, the two firms announced on Friday.
Williams, who finished bottom of the championship last season after some of Force-India's points were voided, announced poor financial results for the first quarter of 2019 on Tuesday with a drop of almost 24 percent in turnover compared to the same period last year.
"The financial results of Formula One reflect principally our last position in the constructors' championship last year and the reduction of bonuses linked to it," Williams chief executive Mike O'Driscoll said.
"There was also a global reduction in revenues linked to partnerships in relation to the first quarter of 2018."
The original deal was set to finish at the end of the current campaign.
Williams are bottom of the constructors' standings this term with their only point coming thanks to Robert Kubica's 10th-placed finish at the British Grand Prix.
The next race of the season takes .

AFP

AFP

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