New Zealand will be hoping to add to Sri Lanka's poor record at their own Oval ground and level the series in the second and final Test starting Thursday.
Unlike the spinner's paradise at Galle and the batting haven that is the SSC, the Oval -- the only ground in Asia where Don Bradman played -- favours seam bowlers.
Sri Lanka have been often exposed here by quality seam bowlers and one up in the two-match series, they will have New Zealand's Trent Boult and Tim Southee -- and possibly Neil Wagner -- to contend with.
In the last 10 years, Sri Lanka have played seven games at The Oval and lost five, including once to New Zealand. In that game seven years ago, Southee claimed eight wickets while Boult finished with seven.
"We have some fond memories from last time, and we managed to win that," New Zealand wicketkeeper B.J. Watling said at a pre-match media briefing on Wednesday.
"The boys like to talk about their wickets and there's a few stunning catches from memory as well. Having ...

New Zealand look to exploit Sri Lanka's Oval weakness

PTI Automatic

Russian race walker Sergey Bakulin, a former world champion, has been banned  for eight years for doping, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced on Wednesday.
It was a second doping ban for Bakulin, who is 32, and runs until April 2027. That could mean the end of his career, although he can appeal to the Court of Arbitration in Sport.
The decision is based on anomalies in Bakulin's biological passport between April and June last year.
Bakulin was suspended for three years and two months for a similar offence by the Russian Anti-Doping Association (RUSADA) in January 2015.
That ban was strengthend on appeal by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), resulting in Bakulin being stripped of his 2011 50km world title.
After the suspension of Russia from athletics in November 2015 for state-sponsored doping, Bakulin did not have the neutral athlete status that allowed some of his compatriots to compete in international competitions, such as the Rio Games.

Russian race walker Bakulin receives eight-year doping ban

Cubans and beards have gone hand in hand, or cheek by jowl, since the days of Fidel Castro's revolution, but after falling out of favour, facial hair is back - and this time, it's not political.
Cuba's old guard, for the most part, no longer sport iconic beards, but the youngsters do. Clean-shaven President Miguel Diaz-Canel's government only features one hirsute minister, vice-president Ramiro Valdes, 87.
Having a beard these days on the streets of Havana is definitely more a question of style.
"Lately there are a lot of people, especially young guys, who are letting their beards grow - it's a trend," said barber David Gonzalez, 31, as he trimmed a customer's goatee in his city center salon.
In Old Havana's Rue Obispo, Franco Manso, 24, took scissors to his own beard during a lull in business at his craft shop.
"I saw that it suited me, so as it's the fashion, I decided to keep it," he said.
Castro told US television in an interview after the revolution: "My beard means a lot of ...

Cuba falls in love again with the beard - and it's not about Fidel

US tariffs on China will not fix the trade deficit, and neither will weakening the US dollar through interest rate cuts, International Monetary Fund economists said Wednesday.
In unusually blunt language, the IMF warned that US President Donald Trump's policy moves are counterproductive, won't achieve the desired results, and will slow the global economy, IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said in a blog titled "Taming the Currency Hype."
Instead, tariffs "are likely to harm both domestic and global growth by sapping business confidence and investment and disrupting global supply chains, while raising costs for producers and consumers.

IMF warns Trump tariff, currency policy won't work

Venezuelan officials reached out to the US behind President Nicolas Maduro's back solely to discuss his exit from power and free elections, National Security Advisor John Bolton said Wednesday.
Bolton's comment came after Maduro said he had authorised the contacts with high level US officials, casting them as a long-standing initiative that he was aware of and approved.
Countering in a tweet, Bolton said, "The only items discussed by those who are reaching out behind Maduro's back are his departure and free and fair elections."
He noted that US President Donald Trump "has repeatedly stated, to end the pilfering of the Venezuelan people's resources and continued repression, Maduro must go."
Trump told reporters at the White House Tuesday that the US was in discussion with Venezuelan officials "at a very high level." "We are in touch. We're talking to various representatives of Venezuela," Trump said.
Maduro has so far survived mass protests, a failed military uprising and international 

Venezuelan officials discussed Maduro exit behind his back: Bolton

IAG, the parent company of British Airways, hit out Wednesday at the spiralling costs linked to the controversial construction of a third runway at London Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport.
In a submission to Britain's Civil Aviation Authority, IAG accused Heathrow of trying to cover up the real costs and passing on the burden to airlines and, in turn, to passengers.
"Advance costs are spiralling out of control and total expansion costs are being covered up," IAG chief executive Willie Walsh said in a statement.
IAG said the airport had originally put the cost of the expansion - both of the runway and the additional terminal and aircraft stand capacity - at 14 billion pounds.
"However, its latest masterplan says that now only builds the runway. The total cost is 32 billion pounds," the statement said.
"The airport's chief executive thinks expansion is a 'fait accompli' but with judicial, environmental and political hurdles ahead, there's no guarantee," Walsh said.
"Spending 3.3 ...

BA owner slams spiralling costs of Heathrow's third runway

The UAE on Wednesday rejected accusations it supported Yemeni separatists in their seizure of interim capital Aden, as the government refused talks with secessionists until they fully withdraw.
"We regret hearing today allegations directed against the UAE regarding developments in Aden, which we categorically reject," the UAE's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Saud Al-Shamsi, wrote on Twitter.
The UAE, a key partner in the Saudi-led military coalition backing the government against northern-based Huthi rebels, "is exerting all efforts to de-escalate the situation in Yemen", he added.
The UAE-trained Security Belt Forces, dominated by pro-independence Southern Transitional Council (STC) fighters, ousted loyalists from the port city earlier this month.
The clashes in the capital of formerly independent South Yemen left around 40 people dead, according to the UN.
Separatist forces withdrew from a number of state institutions under pressure from the Saudi-led ...

UAE rejects support claims for separatist seizure of Yemen's Aden

Shots were fired and several people injured overnight as gangs armed with guns and baseball bats stormed the set of a music video by controversial French rapper Booba, a police source told AFP Wednesday.
The 42-year-old musician, who is one of France's biggest rap stars, has been locked in a high-profile feud with fellow rapper Kaaris which exploded into violence at a Paris airport last year, landing them both in jail for a month.
Around 15 people were involved in the overnight attack which took place around midnight (2200 GMT) in the northeastern Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois, the source said, confirming a report first published by Europe 1 radio.
One of the injured sustained a bullet wound to the thigh but his injuries were not thought to be life-threatening, said the source.  Booba was not there at the time, he said.
The ambush reportedly took place at a disused warehouse where the music video was being made, with the attackers pulling up to the site in cars and firing four ...

Several hurt as gang storms video set of French rapper Booba

The organisation running a charity ship in the Mediterranean voiced hope Wednesday for a safe port for its 356 rescued migrants after another NGO vessel docked in Italy, ending a week-long standoff.
The Ocean Viking operated by French charities SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has been holding its position for 10 days between Malta and Lampedusa, asking for a safe port.
"As maritime law stipulates, we've been asking Italian and Maltese search and rescue coordination centres for a safe port since we made our first rescue on August 9," said Frederic Penard, head of operations for SOS Mediterranee.
"For the time being we've had no reply from Italy and a rather negative one from Malta," he told AFP by phone.
The crew have been at pains not to relate the travails of the Open Arms charity rescue vessel which finally disembarked its 83 migrants on Italy's Lampedusa island overnight Tuesday.
They were allowed to disembark after a local prosecutor ordered the ship seized as ..

Last charity ship seeks port for 356 rescued migrants

In a landmark ruling, a Johannesburg court on Wednesday barred the unjustified display of South Africa's apartheid-era national flag, saying such gestures amounted to "hate speech" and "harassment".
Judge Phineas Mojapelo said in Johannesburg that any gratuitous display of the old flag was "racist and discriminatory".
"It demonstrates a clear intention to be hurtful, to be harmful and incite harm and it in fact promotes and propagates hatred against black people... it constitutes hate speech".
The ruling followed a petition to the court by the Nelson Mandela Foundation Trust after the flag was displayed in October 2017 by white South Africans protesting at the murders of white farmers.
The judge said those who publicly displayed the flag "wish to remind black people of the oppression, humiliation, indignity, demonisation that they moved away from and do not wish to relive."
The former flag was used from 1928 until 1994 by the Union of South Africa, then a British dominion, and by the .

South African court restricts display of apartheid-era flag

Denmark was left stunned Wednesday by Donald Trump's decision to postpone a state visit after the government told the US president its autonomous territory Greenland was not for sale.
The Danish Royal House expressed "surprise" at Trump's cancellation while commentators accused Trump of acting like a "colonial overlord".
"Based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time," Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
"The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct."
His comments came two days after Frederiksen had rejected the president's proposal to possibly buy Greenland as "absurd".
The decision confirms just how interested he was in purchasing Greenland, an idea initially dismissed as a joke by some, but which the White House later insisted had a serious purpose because ..

Denmark stunned as Trump scraps visit over Greenland snub

British supermarkets are starting to go "nude".
Bowing to pressure from environmentally conscious consumers, big brand shops have begun taking steps to strip their shelves of plastic wrapping over concerns about saving the oceans from waste.
"Nude zones" and "Food in the Nude" campaigns are already being rolled out in places such as New Zealand and South Africa, where many fresh fruits and vegetables are grown within relatively easy reach.
Now retailers in Britain -- where even bunches of bananas are often sealed in plastic to keep them fresh and undamaged during long-distance shipping -- are gradually following suit.
"I've just done my first-ever plastic-free shop," said May Stirling, who travelled 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the village of Ramsbury to Oxford for the university city's "unpackaging" event at the local Waitrose supermarket.
"It's so liberating," the 49-year-old mother said, carrying her own containers for the loose products.
The Oxford branch of the upmarket chain ...

Going 'nude': UK supermarkets test plastic-free zones

Canada does not intend to repatriate the Muslim convert dubbed "Jihadi Jack," who is being held in northern Syria after joining the Islamic State group, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has confirmed.
Jack Letts, 24, who was a dual UK-Canadian national, was captured by Kurdish forces in Syria in 2017 and is languishing in jail there. Goodale's statement comes a day after Britain stripped Letts of his citizenship, placing his fate in Canada's hands.
"We have no obligation to facilitate his travel from his present circumstances, and we have no intention of facilitating that travel," Goodale said in an interview with the CBC on Tuesday.
Goodale had tweeted the same sentiment Monday before officially confirming it in the televised interview.
"This individual and others have made the calculated decision to leave the comfortable confines of Canadian democracy, to travel halfway around the world to associate themselves with the most evil and violent terrorism in several generations," ...

Minister confirms Canada will not repatriate 'Jihadi Jack'

Eighty-three migrants who disembarked on Italy's Lampedusa island were again in limbo on Wednesday as a European deal to redistribute them failed to materialise and Madrid said it could hit the Spanish charity with a hefty fine for rescuing them.
The prospect of a fine comes after a protracted standoff between the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms and Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini finally came to an end.
The boat had spent six days anchored off Lampedusa before a local prosecutor ordered the migrants be allowed to land amid a probe of Salvini for forbidding their entry to port.
Many of them had spent 19 days on board the ship after being picked up while in difficulty trying to make the perilous journey from Libya to Europe in small boats.
As they walked down the gang plank one by one to the island's shore overnight, some could be seen limping or in bandages.  Salvini, whose Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned in protest at the
League leader's bid to bring the ...

Migrants in limbo again after landing in Italy

Bucharest could exclude Chinese giant Huawei from its future 5G network, according to a joint statement signed by the Romanian and US presidents and published on Wednesday.
The document signed by Romania's Klaus Iohannis and his American counterpart Donald Trump says the two leaders "seek to avoid the security risks that accompany Chinese investment in 5G telecommunications networks".
It was signed during a trip made by Iohannis to Washington on Tuesday.
Iohannis recently expressed "concerns" regarding Huawei's possible participation in the country's 5G network, adding the Supreme Council of National Defence (CSAT) would discuss it.
The Romanian and American delegations also signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday establishing the conditions that service providers will have to fulfil to be part of the network.
These include the obligation not to be under the control of a third country's government, according to Romanian news website G4Media.
Bucharest adopted the "5G strategy .

Romania mulls excluding Huawei from its 5G network

US Department of State number two John Sullivan is expected to be nominated as the new ambassador to Russia, a sensitive position given Donald Trump's mixed relations with Moscow.
"He's somebody that's being put up and respected very much," Trump told reporters when asked if Sullivan -- the deputy secretary of state -- was under consideration to replace former ambassador Jon Huntsman, who left the position earlier this month.
"I know (Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo likes him very much," Trump said of Sullivan's boss.
Trump added that Sullivan "could very well be" the nominee, but the president has yet to announce his official choice, who would need to be confirmed by the Senate.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Trump intends to nominate Sullivan, 59, who has served as deputy secretary of state since May 2017 and temporarily headed the department for a month in the spring of 2018 after Rex Tillerson's dismissal.
The affable but reserved lawyer has also worked in the ...

State Dept number two expected to be next US ambassador to Russia

An Iranian tanker that has sparked a diplomatic row pitting Tehran against Washington and London is too big to dock in Greece, the country's junior finance minister said Wednesday.
"This is a very large crude carrier, it is over 130,000 tonnes... It cannot access any Greek dock," junior foreign minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis told Ant1 TV.
Varvitsiotis said the Greek government had "faced pressure" by US authorities over the vessel but insisted that Athens "has sent a clear message that we would not wish to facilitate the transport of this oil to Syria under any circumstances."
Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, seized the tanker on July 4 on suspicion it was transporting oil to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions, triggering a sharp deterioration in relations between Tehran and London. Iran has repeatedly denied any violations.
Varvitsiotis said Athens was not in contact with Tehran over the tanker, which was originally called Grace 1 but has been renamed the Adrian ...

Iran tanker too big to dock at Greek port: minister

Sudan was taking further steps in its transition towards civilian rule on Wednesday with the swearing in of a new sovereign council and the appointment of a prime minister.
The body replaces the Transitional Military Council (TMC) that took charge after months of deadly street protests brought down longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir in April.
The first steps of the transition after the mass celebrations that marked the August 17 adoption of a transitional constitution proved difficult however.
The names of the joint civilian-military sovereign council's 11 members were eventually announced late Tuesday after differences within the opposition camp held up the process for two days.
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who already headed the TMC, was sworn in as the chairman of the new sovereign council shortly after 11:00 am (0900 GMT), state news agency SUNA reported.
He will be Sudan's head of state for the first 21 months of the 39-month transition period, until a civilian takes over for the ..

Sudan sovereign council chairman sworn in

England will make a break from tradition by staging the opening Test of their 2020 home season at the Oval.
The England and Wales Cricket Board releases the international fixtures for next season on Wednesday, with a packed programme featuring visits by the West Indies, Australia, Pakistan and Ireland.
The Oval, the south London headquarters of Surrey, usually hosts the last Test of an English season but in 2020 it will launch the programme instead.
After the Oval, England will face the West Indies in Tests at Edgbaston and Lord's.  England will also play three Tests against Pakistan, at Lord's, Old Trafford and Trent Bridge.
Both the West Indies and Pakistan series will count towards the World Test Championship table.
In one-day cricket World Cup-winners England will face Australia and Ireland in three-match series, with the last game against the latter ending the England calendar at the Oval on September 15.
Meanwhile England's preparations for next year's Twenty20 World Cup will ...

England start 2020 season with Windies Test at The Oval

England batsman Jason Roy has passed a concussion test after being hit in the nets ahead of the third Ashes Test against Australia at Headingley.
The 29-year-old opener was struck by a throw-down from ex-England international Marcus Trescothick, working with the team in a temporary coaching capacity, during practice on Tuesday.
World Cup winner Roy was assessed after taking the blow and was able to continue batting.
But he also required a follow-up check on the eve of the match on Wednesday to determine any delayed symptoms.
The Surrey right-hander will be assessed again before the third Test starts on Thursday.
Australia's star batsman Steve Smith has already been ruled out of the match with concussion suffered when he was hit by a Jofra Archer bouncer in the drawn second Test at Lord's.
Ashes holders Australia lead the five-match series 1-0.

England's Roy set to play in third Test after passing concussion test

The death toll from a fuel truck explosion in Tanzania on August 10 hit 100 on Wednesday after several victims perished from severe burns.
Aminiel Aligaesha, a spokesman for the National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, told reporters "two people died on Tuesday during the day, and another on Tuesday night", bringing the total number of dead to 100.
Officials had put the tally at 95 on Sunday, and another two people were announced dead on Monday.
At least 30 of the victims died in the days after the accident, in which a fireball engulfed a crowd thronging to collect petrol from an overturned tanker near Morogoro, 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Dar es Salaam.
Officials said the explosion was triggered when a man tried to take the truck's battery, creating sparks that ignited the fuel.
A doctor at the hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that most of those who survived the initial blast had suffered burns on over 80 percent of their body.
"We are doing our best, but most 

AFP

AFP

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