French football is in the midst of a culture war over homophobic chanting as Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain prepare for a trip to Metz on Friday shorn of their superstar frontline amid rumours of Neymar's imminent departure for Barcelona.
Prosecutors in Nice revealed on Thursday they had opened an investigation after Nice fans caused the suspension of Wednesday's 2-1 home defeat by Marseille by unleashing a volley of homophobic chants and banners that forced referee Clement Turpin to lead the players off the field, where they remained for over 10 minutes.
Turpin was praised by coaches Andre Villas-Boas and Patrick Vieira and France's equalities minister Marlene Schiappa, but Nice midfielder Wylan Cyprien bemoaned the decision, brought on by new instructions ordering referees to stop matches in the event of anti-gay chants.
On Thursday, France coach Didier Deschamps also questioned the stoppage despite insisting that authorities should be "uncompromising" in their attitude ...

Battles lines drawn in French football's fight against homophobia By Terence

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Polish striker Robert Lewandowski will once again take centre-stage as Bayern Munich look to catch up with their Bundesliga title challengers with a home win over strugglers Mainz on Saturday.
Two days after signing a new contract which will keep him at the club until 2023, the 31-year-old will be eager to add to the six goals he has also scored this season, even as champions Bayern dropped early points in the title race.
His hat-trick against Schalke last week fired Bayern to their first league win of the season, keeping Niko Kovac's side within two points of rivals Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen.
Lewandowski's decision to extend his contract is a massive boost to Bayern as they look to retain the Bundesliga title and reimpose themselves as a major European power.
"He has a lot of responsibility here at Bayern, and he lives up to that," said coach Kovac on Thursday before the announcement of the new contract was made public.
"(The contract extension) is also a ...

Bayern look to Lewandowski in bid to catch title challengers

Fifteen-year-old American sensation Coco Gauff set up an eye-catching US Open showdown with defending champion Naomi Osaka while Rafael Nadal's path to the title eased further Thursday as he received a walkover into the third round.
Reigning Wimbledon champion Simona Halep, meanwhile, crashed out early in New York for a third year running, blowing a match point in a tense three-set loss to 116th-ranked Taylor Townsend.
Gauff, who made a remarkable run to the fourth round at Wimbledon before falling to Halep, defeated Hungarian qualifier Timea Babos 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to become the youngest player in the last 32 at a US Open since Anna Kournikova in 1996.
"It has been amazing. I'm just so happy to get through," Gauff said as chants of her name rang out around Louis Armstrong Stadium.
"I had to dig really deep today. I'm just proud of the way I fought and I'm glad it was all worth it in the end." Asked about her impending clash with world number one Osaka, Gauff said her primary focus was on 

Gauff books date with US Open champ Osaka, Nadal gets walkover

Leading Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong was arrested Friday, his party said, a day ahead of a planned rally in the city that has been banned by the police.
"Our secretary-general @joshuawongcf was just arrested this morning at roughly 7:30," Demosisto tweeted. "He was forcefully pushed into a private minivan on the street in broad daylight. Our lawyers following the case now.

Leading Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong arrested: Party

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that he fears Libya will end up in a "full civil war" unless moves are soon made to end the conflict.
"Unless action is taken in the near term, it is highly likely that the current conflict will escalate into full civil war," Guterres said in the report.
He acknowledged the need for the support of the international community in finding a political solution for the country, where forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to take the capital Tripoli from the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in early April.
"I urge all parties to stop using explosive weapons, including by aerial bombardment or shelling, in populated areas because of their likely indiscriminate effects," the secretary general wrote.
Fighting on the outskirts of Tripoli has left 1,000 people dead and displaced 120,000 since the start of Haftar's offensive.
"A political solution to the Libyan conflict requires the full and united support of .

UN chief fears 'full civil war' in Libya

Britain, France and Germany will hold talks Friday on how to preserve the beleaguered Iran nuclear deal and protect shipping in the Gulf.
Tensions have spiked recently in the strategic shipping lane where Iran has seized Western tankers as Tehran and Washington have locked horns over the 2015 deal.
US President Donald Trump last year unilaterally pulled out of the accord that handed Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its atomic programme.
The move alarmed European powers, which see the deal as the best way to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, and infuriated the Islamic republic.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany -- the three European parties to the deal -- will be joined by EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini for talks on the sidelines of an EU meeting in Helsinki All have repeatedly said they are committed to saving the deal, but efforts to shield Iran's economy from the reimposition of US sanctions have so far borne little fruit.
The G7 summit 

Britain, France, Germany to hold Iran talks

Jean moves deftly through the tangle of roots and branches before waiting for the rainforest to give him a clue.
In the heart of the Dzanga-Sangha wildlife reserve in western Central African Republic, the Pygmy hunter is looking for the tracks of a large female elephant he has been following for the last three hours.
The elephant is not Jean's prey, but rather the opposite.
He is part of a force of local hunters who have trained to become rangers. Their mission: to protect the park's precious animals from ruthless poachers.
Lying on the flanks of the Sangha River, the 4,000-square-kilometre park, created in 1990, is the CAR's last haven for elephants and Central African gorillas.
Luis Arranz of the environment group WWF, which runs the park in partnership with the CAR government, is worried that this precious refuge will also fall one day.
"It won't last," he predicts sadly.
He points to the potential booty for poachers from ivory tusks, giraffe skins, pangolin scales and gorilla ...

Hunters turn gamekeepers to help C Africa's threatened wildlife

The UN Security Council on Thursday voted to renew its long-running peacekeeping mission in Lebanon for a year, warning of a "new conflict" with neighboring Israel.
The draft resolution, written by France and approved unanimously, would allow for the approximately 10,000 members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) -- which was created in March 1978 -- to stay in place.
According to the draft text, the Security Council warned that "violations of the cessation of hostilities could lead to a new conflict that none of the parties or the region can afford." It "condemns all violations of the Blue Line" between Lebanon and Israel, "both by air and ground, and strongly calls upon all parties to respect the cessation of hostilities." The Lebanese army fired on an Israeli drone in the southern part of the country Wednesday.
That incident came just days after Shiite movement Hezbollah blamed an armed drone attack in its south Beirut stronghold on Israel -- an incident that ..

UN renews peacekeeping mission amid Israel-Lebanon tensions

Britain's Brexit negotiators are to meet their EU counterparts twice a week throughout September, London said Thursday, in a bid to strike a new divorce deal.
Britain is due to leave the European Union on October 31 without a withdrawal agreement, unless one can be struck and then approved by parliament.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's predecessor Theresa May struck a deal with Brussels but parliament rejected it three times.
Johnson wants the so-called backstop, its fallback provisions regarding the Irish border, pulled out completely -- the only thing MPs indicated they were willing to support.
"We are ready to work in an energetic and determined way to get a deal done," Johnson said.
"While I have been encouraged with my discussions with EU leaders over recent weeks that there is a willingness to talk about alternatives to the anti-democratic backstop, it is now time for both sides to step up the tempo.
"The increase in meetings and discussions is necessary if we are to have a ...

UK, EU Brexit teams to meet twice-weekly in September

East Timor on Friday marks 20 years since a UN-backed vote ended a bloody, decades-long occupation by Indonesian forces and paved the way for it to become an independent nation.
On August 30, 1999, nearly 80 percent of East Timorese voted to split from neighbouring Indonesia, which invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975, starting a brutal 24-year military occupation.
But joy over independence quickly turned to terror as Indonesian security forces and proxy militias went on a scorched-earth rampage, destroying infrastructure and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to other parts of Indonesia. Around 1,400 people were killed.
On Friday formal events and 20th anniversary celebrations are scheduled with foreign dignitaries including Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is to mark a maritime border treaty that could unlock billions in offshore oil and gas revenue seen as key to the impoverished, half-island nation's future.
The treaty was ratified by Australia's parliament 

East Timor marks 20 years since historic independence vote

The Palestinian foreign ministry said Thursday it would file a complaint at the United Nations against Honduras, after the Central American state recognised the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern part of the city as the capital of their future state.
US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as capital of the Jewish state in December 2017, breaking with decades of international consensus that the city's status should be decided in peace talks.
Both Washington and Israel have since encouraged other countries to take similar steps.
So far only Guatemala and Paraguay have transferred their embassies, and Paraguay later reversed its decision.
On Tuesday, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez announced that his country would open a diplomatic office in Jerusalem.
The mission will be an extension of Honduras' Tel Aviv-based embassy, but Hernandez said Tuesday it was ...

Palestinians to file complaint over Honduras Jerusalem move

Russia on Thursday unveiled a new space suit for a future spaceship, but the design may have to be changed to continue a decades-old tradition: making a stop to pee on the way to the launch.
The Sokol-M prototype suit was demonstrated at an airshow outside Moscow, as a future replacement for suits currently worn during launches to the International Space Station on Soyuz spacecraft.
The Soyuz, in use since the 1960s, is set to be phased out and replaced in the next few years with a new Russian ship called the Federation.
The maker of the suits, aerospace firm Zvezda, says they will be made of "new materials" and adaptable to different body sizes. The current suits must be custom-made for each individual.
But the new design makes it impossible to carry on one particular ritual launched by the first man in space Yury Gagarin, who had to stop and relieve himself on the back wheel of the bus that was taking him to the launch pad in 1961.
The stop has been replicated at every launch from ..

No-fly boys: new Russian space suit clashes with pee ritual

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday announced a deal with a far-right party which agreed to withdraw from elections next month in exchange for a pledge to legalise medicinal cannabis.
Zehut, a libertarian Jewish nationalist party, was also promised a ministerial portfolio in exchange for not putting up candidates for the September 17 legislative elections, its head Moshe Feiglin said.
At a joint press conference, Netanyahu told Feiglin: "I see you as a minister in the next government and I see you as a partner with a common vision."
The veteran Israeli prime minister and Likud party chair is trying to secure right-wing votes for his Likud party ahead of the polls, after he failed to cobble together a coalition following legislative elections in April.
In the last election campaign, Feiglin's party had promised to legalise cannabis -- a stance that won votes beyond the usual right-wing reservoir.
But Zehut still only won 2.7 per cent of votes in those elections, below 

Israeli PM, libertarians hash out weed deal ahead of polls

A 60-day ban on burning in Brazil takes effect Thursday after a global outcry over fires raging in the Amazon and data showing hundreds of new blazes in the rainforest.
The decree issued by President Jair Bolsonaro comes after escalating international pressure over the worst fires in the Amazon in years that have ignited a potentially damaging diplomatic spat between Brazil and Europe.
Thousands of troops and firefighters have been deployed since the weekend to combat the fires, along with two C-130 Hercules and other aircraft that are dumping water over the hardest hit areas in the country's north.
More than 1,600 new fires were ignited between Tuesday and Wednesday, taking this year's total to almost 85,000 -- the highest number since 2010, official data shows.
More than half of them are in the vast Amazon basin.
The new figures comes as UN chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday mooted a meeting of key countries to drum up support to tackle the fires that have also devastated swaths of .

Brazil's burning ban takes effect as Amazon fires rage

The world's largest economy grew a little more slowly in the second quarter than previously thought, with new official data released Thursday showing weaker oil exports and local government spending.
The confirmed slowdown underscored the challenges facing President Donald Trump, who is touting his economic policies as he seeks reelection while prosecuting a grinding trade war with China.
GDP expanded 2.0 per cent in the April-June period, down a notch from the initial 2.1 per cent growth estimate reported last month, and well below President Donald Trump's three per cent target, according to the Commerce Department.
Recession indicators in recent weeks have begun to flash warning signs, and though the American economy is still outpacing the rest of the industrialised world, it has begun to sputter worryingly in some areas.
Consumer spending remains robust and corporate profits rose in the second quarter, after falling at the start of the year, but business investment stalled out, ...

US growth revised down slightly in Q2 amid weak business investment

The ECB's next chief Christine Lagarde signaled Thursday that she would stick with Mario Draghi's controversial expansionary monetary policy that has propped up the eurozone economy amid growing risks to growth.
In a written reply to queries from the European Parliament, Lagarde underlined that inflation has remained stubbornly low in the bloc while growth was stalling.
"It is therefore clear that monetary policy needs to remain highly accommodative for the foreseeable future. The ECB has a broad tool kit at its disposal and must stand ready to act," wrote Lagarde.
"While I do not believe that the ECB has hit the effective lower bound on policy rates, it is clear that low rates have implications for the banking sector and financial stability more generally," she noted.
Over his eight years in office, the ECB's incumbent chief Draghi has brought interest rates to record lows and unleashed billions of euros in quantitative easing to ward off the threat of deflation and drum up ...

Lagarde signals plan to stick to Draghi's ECB expansionary path

Bangladesh on Thursday accused Myanmar of lacking the "will" to repatriate the Rohingya, as the spat between the countries grew over the recent failed attempt to return the stateless minority to their homes.
Nearly a million Rohingya live in squalid camps in southeast Bangladesh, 740,000 of whom fled a 2017 military offensive against the Muslim minority in Myanmar.
A fresh push to repatriate the refugees to Myanmar fell flat last week, with no-one turning up to return across the border to conflict-scarred Rakhine state.
Briefing foreign diplomats in the capital Dhaka, Bangladesh's foreign minister AK Abdul Momen questioned Naypyidaw's resolve in taking back the Rohingya.
He said that Myanmar had failed to "effectively dismantle" the internally displaced person (IDP) camps in Rakhine and resettle people to their original homes.
The lack of action was a "clear manifestation of lack of will on the part of Myanmar to repatriate and integrate these persecuted people", the foreign ministry .

Bangladesh says Myanmar lacks 'will' to repatriate Rohingya

A Vietnamese refugee who played the same lottery numbers since resettling in Canada 36 years ago won a USD 45.1 million jackpot, but kept it secret for 10 months.
Bon Truong, 55, finally claimed his prize on Wednesday in Edmonton, Alberta.
"I started to think about what this win would mean for my family," he told a press conference.
"I realized it's going to change a lot of things and I wanted to make sure we were all ready and prepared for those changes."
So he signed his name and phone number on the ticket and put it in a safe.
Truong told reporters he now planned to use his winnings to pay off his mortgage, take a family vacation and then continue working as a gardener.
He also quipped that did not intend to reveal his newfound fortune to his children because he wanted them to still work hard.
"Coming here with nothing, nothing, after the Vietnam war, he worked," his niece Mina Truong said.
"That's all they did, work, save money to buy a house ... have a better life for their ...

Canadian wins jackpot, but kept it a secret for 10 months

Formula One announced a record 22-race season next year with Vietnam joining the championship and the Dutch Grand Prix making its return to delight Max Verstappen and his fans at the iconic Zandvoort circuit.
But Red Bull's gifted young Dutch driver won't have the chance to repeat last month's success at Hockenheim with the German Grand Prix dropped from F1's draft calendar released on Thursday.
Germany's four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel described the loss of his home race as "a great pity".
"Perhaps next year or the years that follow we'll realise that F1 should be in Germany," the Ferrari driver told AFP at Spa-Francorchamps ahead of Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.
"F1 can't allow itself to lose races where motor racing has a long history like in Great Britain, Italy or Germany."
The 2020 season retains its traditional opener in Melbourne on March 15, with the chequered flag falling again in Abu Dhabi on November 29.
Vietnam becomes the 34th country to stage an F1 grand prix ..

Vietnam joins F1 calendar in record 22-race 2020 season

The Israeli army on Thursday accused Iran of collaborating with Lebanon's Hezbollah to assemble precision-guided missiles that could cause "massive" human casualties in Israel.
Tehran and the Shiite movement plan to convert "stupid rockets into precision-guided missiles", Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists in a conference call.
He said Iran had tried between 2013 and 2015 to transport precision-guided missiles to Hezbollah through war-torn Syria, where both back the Damascus regime.
But that strategy failed due to "Israeli operations", said the army, without elaborating.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria against what it says are Iranian and Hezbollah targets.
Conricus said that in 2016, "Iran and Hezbollah changed their strategy... (to one of converting) existing rockets into precision-guided" projectiles.
He accused Tehran of planning to smuggle in the required components.
Conricus estimated that Hezbollah currently has some 130,000 rockets, ..

Israel says Iran seeking to build precision missiles in Lebanon

Iraq has condemned comments by Bahrain's top diplomat describing alleged Israeli strikes on the powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force as "self-defence."
A string of Hashed al-Shaabi bases across Iraq have been hit by explosions and drone sightings over the past five weeks that the force has blamed on Israel and the US.
Earlier this week, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa accused Iran of "declaring war on us" through allied armed groups, including the Hashed al-Shaabi in Iraq.
"Whoever strikes them and destroys their stacks of equipment cannot be blamed. This is self-defence," he wrote on Twitter.
The comments prompted a sharp response from the Iraqi foreign ministry in an online statement late Wednesday.
"The foreign ministry rejects and condemns the Bahraini foreign minister's tweet about the recent attacks on Arab territories and the Popular Mobilisation Forces (Hashed) by Zionist enemy under the pretext of self-defence," it wrote.
It was the first time ...

AFP

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