Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen has voiced his frustration at playing second fiddle to Manuel Neuer in the German national team.
Ter Stegen, 27, sat on the bench throughout Germany's Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Netherlands and Northern Ireland last weekend, despite repeated assurances from coach Joachim Loew that he would get a chance to prove himself in 2019.
"It's not easy to find an explanation for what I am experiencing," Ter Stegen told reporters at a marketing event in Barcelona on Thursday.
"I am still trying everything, but this trip with Germany was a tough blow for me."
The undisputed number one at Barcelona, Ter Stegen has struggled to usurp Neuer in the German national team.
He has made just one appearance for Germany this year, a 45-minute cameo in a friendly against Serbia last March.
Loew has described Ter Stegen as a "world class goalkeeper", but said Monday that he didn't want to change his goalkeeper after a destabilising 4-2 defeat to the Dutch.
"I ..

'Tough blow' -- Ter Stegen frustrated by reserve role for Germany

PTI Automatic

US internet giant Google has agreed a settlement totalling 965 million euros (USD 1.07 billion) to end a tax dispute in France under an agreement announced in court.
The company will pay a 500-million-euro fine for tax evasion, as well as a further 465 million euros to settle claims with French tax authorities.
In a statement, Google confirmed the settlement and hailed the fact it had put an end to fiscal differences that it had had with France for numerous years.
The settlement on Thursday follows similar out-of-court agreements reached by Google in Italy and Britain in recent years, though the French agreement is much larger than the previous ones.
Google said it now wanted to see a coordinated reform for a clear international taxation framework.
French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet and Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin welcomed the "definitive settling" of all the contentious issues, adding in a statement that it was the result of two years of intense work by the French ...

Google agrees nearly 1 bn euro tax settlement with France

China said Friday that some US agricultural products including pork and soybeans will be exempt from added tariffs, ahead of trade talks between Beijing and Washington scheduled for October.
"The Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council will exclude some agricultural products such as soybeans and pork from the additional tariffs on US goods," China's state news agency Xinhua reported, citing sources.
The announcement is the latest in a series of appeasement measures between the world's two biggest economies, who for the past year have been locked in a bitter trade war resulting in tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in bilateral trade.
It comes after US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would postpone an October 15 tariff increase on Chinese products representing $250 billion in annual imports.
On the same day, China said it would temporarily exempt 16 categories of American products from additional tariffs implemented over the past months.
Trump has 

China to exempt US pork and soybeans from added tariffs: state media

Philippine police have arrested more than 270 Chinese nationals in a raid on a gang wanted over a vast investment fraud that cost victims in China millions of dollars, authorities said Friday.
Agents swooped on an office building in the capital Manila on Wednesday to take four suspects into custody in connection with the 100 million yuan ($14 million) scam, but stumbled upon many more.
"The operation then yielded the incidental arrest of 273 other Chinese nationals who were caught in the act of conducting illegal online operations," immigration authorities said, without elaborating.
Further checking revealed those suspects, who did not have proper papers to be in the Philippines, were also wanted by Chinese authorities over a large-scale investment scam.
A total of 277 people were taken into custody in the operation that Philippine officials carried out in conjunction with Chinese authorities.
The Philippines has seen a spike in the arrival of Chinese tourists and workers since ...

Philippines arrests 270 Chinese citizens in fraud raid

The family of former Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe have agreed to bury him at a monument for national heroes in Harare, the family said on Friday, though the date for the ceremony remained unclear.
Mugabe died in Singapore last week aged 95, leaving Zimbabweans deeply divided over the legacy of a leader once lauded as an anti-colonial guerrilla hero, but whose 37-year iron-fisted rule ended in a coup in 2017.
His family and President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former Mugabe ally who turned against him, had been at odds over where he would be buried after his body returned home on Wednesday from Singapore.
"Yes I can confirm," his nephew Leo Mugabe told reporters when asked whether the family had agreed to a burial at the National Heroes Acre in Harare.
He said the traditional chiefs in Mugabe's homestead had made the decision.
"They have now pronounced their position, so if they have pronounced that the burial will be at the Heroes Acre, that means that we now have to wait for the ...

Mugabe's family agree to burial at 'heroes' monument

An earthquake that struck east of the Philippine capital Manila on Friday set buildings swaying and sent scores into the streets, but there were no immediate reports of damage, authorities said.
The 5.2-magnitude jolt hit offshore near sparsely populated Polillo Island, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from Manila, according to the US Geological Survey.
Buildings in the capital were briefly evacuated and trains halted as crews looked for any damage.
"We have not received any calls for help or reports of emergency incidents related to the quake," Tricia Cervantes, of the rescue office in Manila's Makati district, told AFP.
The shaking was felt strongly at the epicentre, but there were no immediate reports of destruction.
"Everyone rushed out of the buildings. We were terrified," Rezil Golbin, a civilian employee at the police office on Polillo Island told AFP.
"Even the prisoners at the jail cell here were shouting, 'Get us out of here!'" she added.

Philippine capital jolted by quake

The death toll from torrential rain and floods in southeastern Spain rose to three on Friday after a man drowned when his car became trapped in a tunnel, local authorities said.
The latest tragedy occurred in the city of Almeria when the tunnel was "flooded by a huge amount of water in a few minutes," Almeria city hall said in a tweet.
A policeman managed to rescue two of the three people in the vehicle, but "one occupant remained inside the car", Almeria mayor Ramon Fernandez-Pacheco told news radio Cadena Ser.
The victim was a middle-aged man, local emergency services said in a statement.
"A hard and difficult night. Several locations remain on alert for torrential rains. We sadly regret a third fatality in Almeria," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a tweet.
A 61-year-old man and his 51-year-old sister died on Thursday when their vehicle was swept away as fast-moving waters swamped a road in Caudete, a municipality around 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of the port city of ..

Death toll from Spain floods rises to three

New Zealand unveiled new legislation Friday aimed at ensuring only "fit and proper" people can own guns in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks that killed 51 Muslim worshippers.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had immediately banned military style semi-automatic rifles after the shootings in March but said further restrictions were needed to target the black market.
"Owning a firearm is a privilege not a right," she told reporters in Christchurch on Friday.
"That means we need to do all we can to ensure that only honest, law-abiding citizens are able to obtain firearms licences and use firearms." Under the new legislation, a registry will be set up that is designed to track ownership of every legally owned firearm in the country.
The measure also increases the jail term for supplying firearms to an unlicensed person from three months to two years, as well as tightening gun importation and sales.
Police will determine if someone is "fit and proper" to hold a licence, with power ..

New Zealand tightens gun laws again after mosque massacre

Pope Francis is to visit Thailand and Japan, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki, from November 19 to 26, the Vatican announced on Friday.
The pontiff will travel to Thailand from November 20-23 and then Japan to November 26, the Vatican said in a statement.
The pope's Japan leg, the first papal visit since John Paul II nearly 40 years ago, will also take him to Tokyo.
The pope in January voiced his intention to visit Japan, home to some 450,000 Roman Catholics.
Around 510,000 Protestants live in the largely Shinto Buddhist country, according to Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Francis had wanted to work as a missionary there in his youth but abandoned the plan after a lung operation.
The pope has made two trips to Asia since his election five years ago, visiting the Philippines and Sri Lanka in 2014, followed by Myanmar and Bangladesh last year.
In 2018, Francis issued a harrowing photograph taken in 1945 showing a young Japanese boy carrying his dead brother.
The child, carried on .

Pope to visit Japan and Thailand in November: Vatican

Filmmaking legend Francis Ford Coppola is not impressed with Boris Johnson's love for his bloody 1972 gangster classic "The Godfather".
The Brexit-backing UK prime minister told The Daily Mail newspaper during his successful leadership challenge in July that his favourite piece of filmmaking was the "multiple retribution scene in 'The Godfather'." The comment turned into a social media meme after Johnson expelled 21 of his own MPs -- including Winston
Churchill's grandson Nicholas Soames -- from the ruling party for straying from his hardline Brexit stance.
Coppola, who wants Britain to stay in the EU, told London's Financial News that Brexit looked like it was heading for a disaster more reminiscent of the 1979 war film "Apocalypse Now".
"The Godfather seems to be the favourite film of modern history's most brutal figures, including Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gadhafi and others," he told Friday's edition of the news site by email.
"I love the United Kingdom and its many contributions to 

Coppola gets into 'Godfather' spat with UK's Johnson

One of Japan's top doctors has slammed the decision to hold the Olympics at the height of Tokyo's baking summer, warning that heatstroke will be the "biggest risk" during the Games.
In an interview with AFP, Kimiyuki Nagashima, executive board member of the Japan Medical Association, also sounded the alarm that the Olympics will stretch the country's doctors at a time when local families are most at risk from the heat.
And it's not just the heat: Nagashima cautioned against the risk of communicable diseases as people fly in from around the world and gather en masse. Measles is thought to be a particular risk as many Japanese are not adequately vaccinated as children.
"My personal opinion as an individual is that sporting events should be held in a comfortable environment. I don't think it is agreeable to hold it at an inappropriate period at an inappropriate location due to business and economic concerns," he said.
The sweaty Tokyo summer is "generally speaking not a suitable place" ..

Top doctor sounds alarm over heatstroke at Tokyo 2020

Britain's parliamentary speaker has warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson not to disobey the law by refusing to ask for a Brexit delay and vowed to thwart any attempt to circumvent legislation.
Parliament passed a law earlier this month aimed at preventing a no-deal Brexit, but Johnson is adamant Britain will still leave the EU on schedule on October 31 with or without a withdrawal agreement.
The speaker of Britain's House of Commons John Bercow said disobeying the law "would be the most terrible example to set to the rest of society", according to Britain's Press Association news agency.
In a speech in London on Thursday, Bercow warned if the government comes close to doing so, parliament "would want to cut off such a possibility and do so forcefully".
"If that demands additional procedural creativity in order to come to pass, it is a racing certainty that this will happen, and that neither the limitations of the existing rule book nor the ticking of the clock will stop it doing ...

UK parliament speaker vows to thwart PM over Brexit law

Hundreds of people held a mass prayer for rain in a smoke-filled Indonesian city on Friday, desperately hoping that downpours will extinguish forest fires and wash away the toxic haze covering wide swathes of the country.
Illegal fires to clear land for farming are raging on Indonesia's Sumatra and Borneo islands with firefighters battling round the clock through charred forests, and water-bombing helicopters deployed to douse the flames.
Dense smoke has blanketed Pekanbaru, a provincial capital on Sumatra, leaving the sky dark even at midday and forcing the closure of local schools.
Around 1,000 of the city's residents - many dressed in white Muslim robes with rudimentary face masks - held a prayer Friday in an open field as a thick, acrid fog drifted around them.
"I'm praying so that the rain will come immediately and this smog will be gone soon," said retired 57-year-old civil servant Rahmad, who goes by one name.
"It's been really bad for the past month -- I can't breathe if I ...

Indonesians choked by forest fire haze pray for rain

One of Hong Kong's most prestigious sporting tournaments on Friday became the latest victim of the huge protests convulsing the city as a growing roster of events and entertainment acts pull out of the financial hub.
Organisers of the WTA Hong Kong Open women's tennis tournament said they were postponing next month's competition because of the "present situation" after months of sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.
"After extensive discussions with our key stakeholders, we conclude that a smooth running of the tournament can be better assured at a later time," the Hong Kong Tennis Association said in a statement.
Hong Kong's protests were triggered by alarm over a controversial bill, since scrapped, to allow extraditions to mainland China.
Millions of people have taken part in demonstrations over the last three months which have morphed into calls for democracy and complaints against the erosion of freedoms under Beijing's rule.
Street battles between riot police and small groups 

Event cancellations mount in protest-wracked Hong Kong

Climate activists planned to fly toy drones around London's Heathrow Airport on Friday in a controversial effort to shut down Europe's busiest travel hub over the weekend.
The campaign by Heathrow Pause -- an offshoot of the Extinction Rebellion group backed by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg -- had been set to kick off shortly before the international airport opened at 04:30 am (0330 GMT).
But it had to rearrange plans at the last moment after the police arrested five of its leading members on Thursday "on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance".
The first flights from Asia arrived at Heathrow on schedule.
"Like-minded citizens just know that what we are doing is not a criminal act," group member Sylvia Dell told AFP as she prepared to fly her own drone in the coming days.
The retired mother-of-four said she was stirred to action by a United Nations report warning governments in October they had 12 years left to stop the earth from warming to dangerous levels.
"We're the 

Climate campaigners plan Heathrow drone shutdown

Colombian authorities seized 1,400 animal parts intended for witchcraft rituals and amulets from shops in the capital Bogota, officials said on Thursday.
During the raid, authorities found 442 snake rattles, 128 mammal teeth, 23 tapir hooves, a cat skull, toucan heads, 12 necklaces made of monkey appendages, deer hooves, the tails and shells of armadillos, feathers from parrots and macaws, as well as skins from ocelots, pumas, boa constrictors, anacondas and primates.
The parts found for sale in Bogota's central La Candelaria neighborhood came from animals captured in the Amazon or other regions of Colombia -- the world's second most-biodiverse country, after Brazil.
"These objects were mainly used for rituals and worship by people who procured them illegally," Bogota's under-secretary of environment Oscar Lopez told media on Thursday.
He added that authorities also seized seeds that had been collected from natural forests without permission.
The animal parts were sold in stores ...

Colombian authorities seize animal parts sold for rituals

At the back of her tiny shop, Hong Kong baker Naomi Suen pulls out a fresh tray of mooncakes -- each one sporting popular slogans from recent pro-democracy protests.
The cakes are a contemporary political twist on a gift traditionally given during the annual mid-autumn festival at a time when Hong Kong is convulsing with unprecedented unrest.
Bakeries at this time of year are packed with boxes of the dense pastries, commonly filled with a heavy sweet concoction of lotus seed and egg yolks.
The tops often have intricate Chinese character designs detailing the brand or the filling inside.
But Suen's mooncakes have different kinds of messages printed on them such as "Hong Kong People", "No withdrawal, no dispersal" and "Be Water".
All are chants heard on Hong Kong's streets in the last three months, as huge crowds come out to protest eroding freedoms after two decades of rule by Beijing.
The last phrase -- "Be Water" -- is a reference to local kung fu legend Bruce Lee's philosophy of ...

Hong Kong festival mooncakes get a protest makeover

Tokyo 2020 organisers blasted volunteers with fake snow on Friday as they trial ever more extreme ways to beat the heat ahead of the Games.
But instead of light fluffy snowflakes, the crowd, consisting mainly of Tokyo 2020 staff, was pelted with fairly coarse shards of shaved ice at the canoeing test event.
And ironically, after several weeks of almost unbroken heat and humidity, Friday saw temperatures in the Japanese capital drop sharply -- no doubt a relief to millions of Tokyo commuters and players training for the forthcoming Rugby World Cup.
"We are trying everything possible to ease heat risks," said Taka Okamura, from the 2020 organising committee.
"This is not meant to cool the entire atmosphere but have spectators feel refreshed when the flakes of ice touch them," added Okamura, who acknowledged that the system needed some refinement.
One problem became immediately apparent after the volunteers were doused in 300 kilograms (650 pounds) of snow in a matter of minutes: the ...

Cold comfort: Tokyo 2020 tests fake snow to beat the heat

The WTA Hong Kong Open women's tennis tournament has been postponed, organisers said on Friday, citing the "present situation" after months of sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.
"In light of the present situation, Hong Kong Tennis Association and the WTA are announcing a postponement of the 2019 Hong Kong Tennis Open," a Hong Kong Tennis Association statement said.
"After extensive discussions with our key stakeholders, we conclude that a smooth running of the tournament can be better assured at a later time," it added.
The Hong Kong Open, which was scheduled for October 5-13, has previously attracted a number of top players including Venus Williams, Angelique Kerber and Caroline Wozniacki, the 2016 champion.
It is played at Victoria Park, one of the main gathering points for the mass protests that erupted more than three months ago over the erosion of freedoms under Beijing's rule.
Millions have taken part in the demonstrations, which were initially triggered by a bill, since .

WTA Hong Kong tennis postponed following protests

Liverpool's sizzling start to the Premier League season has left their title rivals breathless and the red-hot leaders are expected to maintain their perfect record against Newcastle on Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp's side have seized the early initiative in the Premier League with four successive wins to open up a two-point lead over second placed Manchester City.
The European champions' relentless tempo has overwhelmed Norwich, Southampton, Arsenal and Burnley, sending a message that they are determined to make amends for narrowly failing to pip City to the trophy last season.
Arsenal's Dani Ceballos is new to English football after joining on loan from Real Madrid and the Spain midfielder admitted to being gob-smacked at the intensity Liverpool displayed in their 3-1 victory against the Gunners in August.
"I had never seen anything like it. I've not seen up until now a team that plays better, that presses better. That game had quite an impact on me," Ceballos told the Daily Mail.
"They ...

Liverpool leave title rivals breathless

World champion Marc Marquez will be out for revenge after being pipped to victory in the last two races this season as he looks to match Italian star Valentino Rossi's record of three wins at the San Marino MotoGP on Sunday.
Former seven-time world MotoGP champion Rossi's most recent victory at Misano, near Rimini on Italy's Adriatic coast, was in 2014.
"Racing here in front of my fans is fantastic because it really is my Grand Prix," said 40-year-old Rossi.
"My house is only ten kilometres from the track, I grew up in Misano and the first time I raced was on this circuit." Rossi even rode down the 14km motorway from his
"Motor Ranch" academy at Tavullia to the circuit this week riding his Yahama.
"It was a childhood dream come true because it was the road that we rode by scooter when we were young," said Rossi.
"But I only drove at 170 km/h," he quipped, taking care to clarify that the road was closed to traffic and that "I had a helmet!".
Runaway championship leader Marquez has won .

AFP

AFP

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