Roger Federer reached the last-32 of a Grand Slam for the 70th time on Thursday when he defeated British wild card Jay Clarke 6-1, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 in the second round at Wimbledon.
The eight-time Wimbledon champion, who is chasing a 21st major crown, unleashed 46 winners past the battling world number 169.
"I struggled to take care of business a bit from the baseline," said 37-year-old Federer after equalling Jimmy Connors' record of making the Wimbledon third round on 17 occasions.
"Thankfully I played a pretty good breaker, I had some help from him as he gave me a couple of unforced errors.
"The tank is full. I came here with a lot of confidence, the first few matches haven't been very taxing physically.
"This first week has been going well and I know the opponents in terms of ranking will now get better."
Federer will face either Lucas Pouille, the 27th seed, or qualifier Gregoire Barrere for a place in the last 16.

Federer into Slam third round for 70th time at Wimbledon

PTI Automatic

Dutch winger Arjen Robben has announced he is ending his playing career at the age of 35 after a 10-year spell with German giants Bayern Munich.
"It is without a doubt the most difficult decision I have had to make in my career, my heart says yes, my body says no," Robben told the Telegraaf.
His contract at Bayern had expired on June 30.
Robben played 96 international matches for the Netherlands, scoring 37 goals, starring in the team which reached the 2010 World Cup final and finished third four years later.
He won two Premier League titles under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea in 2005 and 2006, before claiming a La Liga winner's medal with Real Madrid.
But Robben, a Groningen youth product, will be best remembered for his time at Bayern. He helped the Bavarians to eight Bundesliga crowns, five German Cups and the 2013 Champions League title, scoring 144 goals in 309 appearances for the club.
There had been speculation Robben would continue playing, with a possible return to England mooted, 

Dutch great Robben announces retirement from football

Hundreds of students from several schools in three Sudanese towns took to the streets Thursday, chanting "civilian rule, civilian rule," witnesses said, the main demand of demonstrators protesting against the ruling generals.
The spontaneous protests by school students in the agricultural towns of Madani, Gadaref and Sinnar came as talks between the protest leaders and generals entered a second day Thursday over the forming of an overall governing body.
"Students from the high school stepped out of their campus and marched towards downtown, chanting 'civilian rule, civilian rule,'" a teacher from the school in the central town of Madani told AFP by telephone.
The students were also chanting "blood for blood, we don't want compensation," a catchcry of the protest movement calling for those guilty of killing demonstrators to face justice.
Similar marches were also staged in Sinnar and Gadaref towns on Thursday, witnesses said.
"No education in this horrible situation," chanted students .

Sudan school students march for 'civilian rule': Witnesses

Several thousand people protested in Malawi's capital Lilongwe Thursday against the re-election of President Peter Mutharika, which they claim was fraudulent.
Police and soldiers were on duty as marchers headed towards parliament for a two-day vigil against the result of the May 21 presidential vote.
"This is the resolute commitment of every Malawian who wants to see justice roll in the offices, in the streets, in the corridors of power," Lazarus Chakwera, defeated presidential candidate for the opposition MCP, told the crowd.
"I join the same Malawians because I am one of the aggrieved." In Blantyre, the financial capital, protesters said they had been attacked and forced to disperse by people wearing T-shirts showing support for the ruling Progressive Democratic Party (DPP).
Gift Trapence of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition which organised the protests, accused DPP "thugs" of inciting violence.
"We are undeterred because we know that this is an attempt to distract us," Trapence .

Fresh protests over disputed elections in Malawi

Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed admitted his team need a miracle to qualify for the World Cup semi-finals as they prepare for their final league game against Bangladesh at Lord's on Friday.
Pakistan require an outlandishly big victory but if Bangladesh bat first, their chances of catching New Zealand will be gone.
"Obviously, we are here to win all the matches," said Sarfaraz, whose team have lost their past four one-day internationals against a fast-improving Bangladesh.
"We will do our best to win the last game as well to end on a high and we will do our best to achieve that but we need to be realistic, but if Allah helps then miracles can happen," he said.
"It's like you score 600, 500, 400 on a pitch then you think you can get the other team out for 50 and then win by a 316-run margin. If you think realistically, then we can only try.
"But the first real thing will be to win the match."
Pakistan's highest total at the tournament is the 348-8 they made in their shock win over ...

Pakistan need World Cup miracle, admits Sarfaraz

Ex-Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has returned to Juventus on a one-year contract after a season spent at Paris Saint-Germain.
The 41-year-old, who will be number two to Polish 'keeper Wojciech Szczesny, previously spent 17 season with the Turin club, winning nine Serie A titles and playing three Champions League finals.
"Welcome home, Gigi!" Juve said in a statement.
"It was 19 May 2018. That was the day when there were tears in everyone's eyes: when Gigi said goodbye to Juventus, its fans and vice-versa. It was the bidding of a farewell to someone who was more than just a captain, but a legend and a symbol of the club.
"Probably each of us hoped, and in the end, knew that the yarn that united us for so many years was not destined to break. And that was the case."
The veteran goalkeeper, who won the World Cup in 2006 and is Italy's most-capped player with 176 appearances, joined PSG last summer and played 25 times in all competitions, winning the Ligue 1 title and the curtain ...

Italy legend Buffon returns to Juventus

Australia may have already booked their place in the semi-finals of the World Cup ahead of Saturday's round-robin finale against South Africa but the match still matters to coach Justin Langer.
Victory over the Proteas at Old Trafford would ensure the defending champions remain top of the standings.
That would mean they stayed in Manchester for a semi-final on Tuesday which would almost certainly be against New Zealand -- a team Australia have already defeated during this tournament and the side they beat in the 2015 final.
Langer wants to maintain the feel-good factor in his squad, who have lost just one game out of eight, to India, who are challenging them for top spot in the 10-team group phase.
"It's about maintaining the momentum of winning," Australia coach Langer said at Old Trafford on Thursday.
"That's really important for us.
"For this game, some people said it was a dead rubber. There's nothing dead about it."
Saturday's match is set to be the first occasion David Warner ...

Australia's Langer says 'nothing dead' about South Africa World Cup match

The Netherlands' most notorious gangster was jailed for life on Thursday for ordering the murders of five people, including his best friend who was an accomplice in the famed 1980s kidnapping of a Heineken beer tycoon.
Willem Holleeder, 61, nicknamed "The Nose" because of his most prominent facial feature, was convicted after his own sisters gave testimony against him despite threats to their own safety.
"His life went from bad to worse, determined by greed, lust for power and violence", said judges at a high-security court in Amsterdam dubbed "De Bunker" as they passed sentence.
Holleeder became a minor celebrity following the abduction of beer heir Freddy Heineken in 1983. The ganglord appeared on television and was even known as the "huggable criminal" for posing for selfies with fans on Amsterdam's beer terraces.
But the public image masked the brutal reality of a gangland enforcer who ruthlessly wiped out anyone who threatened his position as king of the Amsterdam underworld -- ..

Dutch crime boss 'the Nose' gets life for five murders

More than 80 migrants have gone missing and only four were rescued after their boat capsized off Tunisia on its way from Libya to Italy, Tunisia's coast guard said Thursday.
The Red Crescent and the navy told AFP that three Malians and an Ivorian were rescued off Zarzis in southern Tunisia on Wednesday by the coast guard who had been alerted by local fishermen.
The Ivorian, however, died in hospital and one of the Malians has also been hospitalised in intensive care.
Those rescued had told Tunisian officials that 86 people were on board their inflatable boat when it left from the Libyan town of Zuwara, west of Tripoli, on its way to cross the Mediterranean to Italy.
"About 80 migrants are feared dead. More updates are needed in order to confirm what happened and the actual number of missing," Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration, tweeted.
Libya, which has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising that killed veteran dictator Moamer ...

Migrant boat with 86 on board sinks off Tunisia, 4 rescued

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Rome Thursday for a lightning visit including talks with the pope and Italy's populist government, which has called for an easing of sanctions despite Moscow's ongoing crisis with the West.
Rome's historic centre is on security lockdown for the visit with 50 streets blocked to traffic and Italian media reporting that mobile phone signals could be scrambled.
Putin landed around an hour late at Fiumicino airport and his convoy drove into Rome and the Vatican City where he met the pope for closed-door talks.
Putin has arrived late for all three of their encounters, the last of which was in 2015 when the pope urged all parties to the conflict in Ukraine to make a "sincere effort" for peace.
Thursday's meeting comes a day before the pope receives leaders of Ukraine's Greek Catholic Church.
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are mostly Russian Orthdodox, while those they fight are Orthodox and Greek Catholic.
Francis first met Putin in ...

Putin meets pope, 'welcoming' populist govt during Italy trip

French MPs on Thursday backed a bill giving online platforms just 24 hours to remove hate speech or face hefty fines, the latest initiative in Europe to tackle online racism, anti-Semitism, sexism and homophobia.
Members of the lower house of parliament voted by 31 in favour to six against adopting the bill tabled by President Emmanuel Macron's party, which is modelled on a similar German law.

French MPs back bill giving online platforms 24 hours to remove hate speech

Talks between Sudan's ruling generals and protest leaders, held after weeks of standoff following a deadly crackdown on protesters, enter a second day Thursday with the key issue of forming a new governing body still unresolved.
Sudan has been rocked by a political crisis since the army ousted longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir in April on the back of widespread protests, with the ruling generals resisting demonstrators' demands to hand power to a civilian administration.
The generals had previously agreed over a broad civilian structure, but talks between the two sides collapsed in May following a disagreement over who should lead an overall new governing body -- a civilian or a soldier.
Tensions further surged between the generals and protest leaders after a deadly pre-dawn raid on a longstanding protest camp in Khartoum on June 3 killed dozens of demonstrators and wounded hundreds.
Talks finally resumed Wednesday after intense mediation by Ethiopian and African Union envoys, who have ...

Sudan talks enter day two as key issue still unresolved

Seven nurseries in Myanmar's capital remained closed Thursday as police charged a suspect for allegedly raping a two-year-old, a case that has horrified a country where experts say assaults on children are widespread.
The father of the girl spoke to local media about the investigation last week.
He described how his daughter had returned home from her nursery in Naypyidaw in May with injuries that doctors told him were the result of rape.
The government this week temporarily closed the school and several others in the capital.
"Fifteen private schools were shut on Monday but eight have re-opened," the Department of Social Welfare's Tin Zaw Moe told AFP.
A judge announced Thursday that a suspect has been arrested and charged with rape.
But an online campaign fuelled by rumours over the assault has gained traction for weeks.
Outraged netizens changed their Facebook profile photos to call for "Justice for Victoria", a pseudonym given to the girl.
The drive spread to newspaper front pages 

Myanmar shuts nurseries, makes arrest in toddler rape case

New cases of African swine fever have declined and pork production is returning to normal, Chinese officials said Thursday, after millions of pigs were culled because of the deadly disease.
The virus -- fatal to wild boar and pigs but harmless to humans -- has cut a swathe through Mongolia, Vietnam, North Korea and China.
The world's top pork producer and consumer has seen prices and imports continue to rise since the August outbreak spread across the country.
Around 1.16 million pigs have been killed over the past 10 months, according to official Beijing statistics, but the true figure is widely considered to be much higher.
However, China has recorded only 44 new incidences of African swine fever over the past seven months compared with 99 cases from August to December last year, according to Yu Kangzhen, vice minister of agriculture and rural affairs.
"Pork production is slowly recovering, but there are challenges to containing the virus," he told reporters at a press briefing.
But 

China says pork production recovering as swine fever cases decline

England's Jos Buttler said he felt a sense of relief as well as excitement after the tournament hosts booked their place in the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Back-to-back defeats by Sri Lanka and reigning champions Australia, which followed an earlier group-stage loss to Pakistan, threatened to scupper England's bid to win a first World Cup title.
But they responded in style with a 31-run win over India followed by Wednesday's 119-run thrashing of New Zealand in Chester-le-Street that saw them into the last four from the 10-team group phase.
"It feels great. We're excited and have a bit of relief as well," said Buttler after England reached their first World Cup semi-final since 1992.
"It's obviously been two tough games to finish to qualify, and we showed great character to come through with two very good performances."
England have spent much of the past two years as the world's top-ranked side in One-Day Internationals and Buttler said: "We are just very excited to be in a ...

Buttler's relief as England prepare for World Cup semi-finals

Australia's Bernard Tomic was stripped of his entire 45,000 pound Wimbledon prize money Thursday for tanking his first round match which was over in just 58 minutes, officials announced.
The controversial Tomic, who has been accused of not trying previously in his career, lost 6-2 6-1 6-4 to France's Jo-Wifried Tsonga on Tuesday.
"It is the opinion of the referee that the performance of Bernard Tomic in his first round match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga did not meet the required professional standards," said a statement by the All England Club.
"Therefore he has been fined the maximum amount of 45,000 pound which will be deducted from prize money."
The best-of-five-sets match against Tsonga was the shortest at the tournament and the second quickest overall after Elise Mertens' 48-minute win over Fiona Ferro in the best-of-three women's event.
"I think I played as best as I could. It's just I played terrible," said the world number 96 Tomic, who was a top 20 player in 2011 when he ...

Tomic stripped of 45,000 pound Wimbledon prize money for tanking

Ashleigh Barty's bid to become the first woman since Serena Williams in 2015 to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year stayed on track with a 6-1 6-3 second round victory over Belgium's Alison van Uytvanck on Thursday.
The 23-year-old Australian world number one will play either British wild card Harriet Dart or Brazilian qualifier Beatriz Haddad Maia for a place in the last 16.
"I had to make a lot of returns first and foremost and then try and nullify her variety a little bit," she said.
Barty, who if she achieves the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double will be only the eighth woman to do so, said she would switch off from tennis for the moment.
"I'm sure there's some cricket on or something," she said in reference to the ongoing World Cup in England where Australia have made the semi-finals.
Barty seized the initiative from the outset on Thursday breaking Van Uytvanck, who had eliminated 2017 champion Garbine Muguruza in the second round of last year's tournament, twice in ..

Barty cruises, fireworks anticipated for Kyrgios and Nadal clash

The EU's new president-elect Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday made her first trip to Brussels since being nominated, as senior officials sought to shore up support for her appointment in the European Parliament.
Current German defence minister von der Leyen met Jean-Claude Juncker, the man she is to replace as European Commission president, for talks a day after pledging to present her "vision for the next five years for Europe" within a fortnight.
She must win the approval of the highly fragmented European Parliament, where there have been grumblings about the deal to appoint her, which was cooked up by EU national leaders over three days of tortuous summit wrangling.
Juncker and von der Leyen -- the first woman to be named to the head of the EU's executive arm -- embraced warmly for the cameras as they met at commission headquarters in Brussels, but neither made any comment.
Juncker, whose five-year term has been marked by Brexit and the migrant crisis -- two of the biggest ...

New EU chief makes first trip to Brussels

A supertanker suspected of carrying crude oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions was detained in Gibraltar on Thursday, the territory's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said.
The Grace 1 vessel was halted in the early hours of Thursday by Gibraltar police and customs agencies, aided by a detachment of British Royal Marines.
"We have reason to believe that the 'Grace 1' was carrying its shipment of crude oil to the Banyas Refinery in Syria," Picardo said in a statement.
"That refinery is the property of an entity that is subject to European Union sanctions against Syria." The Grace 1 is a Panamanian-flagged tanker, according to the shipping trade publication Lloyd's List.
"We have detained the vessel and its cargo," Picardo said.
European Union sanctions against Syria have been in force since late 2011.
The 28-member bloc has imposed sanctions on 277 Syrian officials including government ministers over their role in the "violent repression" of civilians.
It has frozen the assets of ...

Gibraltar detains supertanker suspected of delivering oil to Syria: official

The village of Ginostra on Stromboli began sweeping away layers of ash on Thursday, the day after a dramatic volcanic eruption on the tiny Italian island killed a hiker.
Emergency workers brushed and scooped volcanic cinders from streets and the tiny harbour in the village at the foot of the still smoking volcano.
A veil of ash lay atop restaurant terrace tables and parts of the coastline.
Canadair water-bombing planes battled to put out fires started by two massive explosions which on Wednesday sent plumes of smoke two kilometres (over a mile) into the sky.
"We've dropped 320 water loads and we're continuing," said forestry official Giovanni Giacoppo.
People were urged not to swim in the sea on Thursday because of the risk of mini-tsunamis similar to those that previous eruptions have caused.
Vulcanologists and locals told Italian media that the volcano was unlikely to erupt again in the near future.
Around 1,000 tourists on Wednesday fled the island aboard ferries to the nearby ...

Stromboli clears up ash after deadly volcano eruption

Taiwan's parliament has voted to tighten a law governing links with China, effectively barring many of its former top ministers and retired generals from attending Chinese government ceremonies.
Ties between China and Taiwan are frosty, with the mainland cutting off communications with the island's government after the election of Beijing-sceptic President Tsai Ing-wen three years ago.
"We should sternly forbid any actions (from our retired military generals) such as saluting the Chinese flag, singing the Chinese anthem or any actions which could damage Taiwan's national interest and dignity," the island's premier Su Tseng-chang said in a statement on social media.
The amended law -- passed on Wednesday -- prohibits former generals, the heads and their deputies of certain ministries like defence and foreign affairs from attending events hosted by or affiliated with the Chinese government.
Violators risk losing their monthly pension or a maximum fine of TW$10 million ...

AFP

AFP

Page 510 - Afp