Serena Williams will take on sister Venus in the second round of the Italian Open more than two decades after they last met on the red clay of Rome after both advanced in different styles.
Four-time Rome winner Serena, 37, returned after two months out injured easing through 6-4, 6-2 against Swedish qualifier Rebecca Petersen.
But 38-year-old Venus, whose only Rome title came back in 1999, needed over three hours to battle past Belgian Elise Mertens 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4).
Serena has not played since a hard-fought three-set win also over Petersen in the second round at the Miami Open in March before withdrawing with a knee injury.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner -- now ranked 11th -- also withdrew from Indian Wells in March complaining of illness.
Watched by her husband Alexis Ohanian, Williams sealed victory on her second match point against her 64th-ranked opponent after 76 minutes on court.
"I felt good, I wasn't sure how it was going to feel," said Williams.
"It's been a while, I ...

Family affair as Serena, Venus set up Rome rematch

PTI Automatic

Copa America hosts Brazil will stop known violent foreign fans from entering the country for the South American football tournament starting next month, officials said.
Troublesome supporters identified by border control and immigration officers will be turned back, the justice and public security ministry said. The order takes immediate effect.
Facial recognition systems will also be deployed in stadiums to identify hooligans during the competition, the official Brazil Agency said.
Asian champions Qatar are to make their Copa America debut in Brazil as one of two invitees to the tournament alongside Japan, making their second appearance.
Games will be held in five cities: Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Sao Paulo.
The hosts kick-off the Copa America, which they have won eight times, against Bolivia in Sao Paulo on June 14.
The final will be played at Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium on July 7.

Copa America hosts Brazil bars entry to foreign hooligans

South Korean pop star Seungri arrived at court Tuesday to await a decision on whether he should be arrested over charges including prostitution in a snowballing sex scandal.
The 28-year-old singer from popular boy band BIGBANG and his business partner are accused of arranging sex services for potential investors and rich clients at a nightclub owned by the pair.
Dressed in a sharp black suit, Seungri -- real name Lee Seung-hyun -- quickly walked past a mob of reporters at the Seoul Central District Court, tight-lipped as he brushed off questions.
Police investigations have shown that Seungri and his partner procured a dozen prostitutes for a group of Japanese investors in 2015 at their upmarket Burning Sun nightclub, according to Yonhap news agency.
The pair also allegedly embezzled around 530 million won (USD 450,000) from the business and face charges of violating sanitary codes at Burning Sun, where drug peddling was allegedly commonplace and women are said to have been regularly ..

S Korean court to rule on K-pop star Seungri's arrest

Sudan's ruling military council said Tuesday that a brother of ousted president Omar al-Bashir who it previously announced had been detained was actually not in custody.
On April 17, the military council had announced that it had detained two of Bashir's five brothers -- Abdallah Hassan al-Bashir and Al-Abbas Hassan al-Bashir.
"This statement was not accurate," military council spokesman Lieutenant General Shamseddine Kabbashi told reporters early on Tuesday.
He said on April 17 Abdallah had been arrested, and the next day Abbas was seen in an area bordering with a neighbouring country.
"Sudanese authorities have been in contact with this country but it has refused to hand him over to us," he said without naming the country.
"Then news came that he is in Turkey," Kabbashi said without specifying whether he was referring to recent media reports of Abbas being in Turkey.
Bashir himself is being held in Khartoum's Kober prison, according to the council.  On Monday, Sudan's prosecutor ...

Brother of Sudan's Bashir not in detention: army

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday meets US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the highest-level talks between the rival powers in nearly a year as they see if they can make headway on a raft of disagreements from Venezuela to Iran to arms control.
Pompeo will visit Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi less than two weeks after President Donald Trump voiced optimism about improving relations with Moscow during a more than one-hour telephone conversation with the Russian leader.
The renewed diplomacy followed the long-awaited report in the United States by investigator Robert Mueller which found that Russia interfered in the 2016 election but that the Trump campaign did not collude with Moscow, partially lifting a cloud that had hung over the mogul-turned-president for two years.
Pompeo is the highest-ranking US official to see Putin since July when Trump met him in Helsinki and stunned the US political class by appearing to accept the Russian leader's statement at face value 

US, Russia test tense ties as Pompeo visits Putin

Four Sudanese protesters and an army major were shot dead on Monday in the capital, hours after protest leaders and the ruling generals reached a breakthrough agreement on transitional authorities to run the country.
The latest developments came as the prosecutor general's office said ousted president Omar al-Bashir had been charged over the killings of protesters during anti-regime demonstrations that led to the end of his rule last month.
The major and a protester were killed at a sit-in outside the army headquarters in Khartoum where thousands of protesters remain camped for weeks, demanding that the army generals who took power after ousting Bashir step down.
Three soldiers and several protesters and civilians were also wounded when "unidentified elements" fired shots at the Khartoum sit-in, the ruling military council said.
A doctors' committee linked to the protest movement later said three more protesters had been shot dead, but did not specify if they were actually killed at ..

Five shot dead as Sudan sees breakthrough in civil rule talks

A Sudanese army major and a protester were shot dead Monday at a Khartoum sit-in, hours after protest leaders and the ruling generals reached a breakthrough agreement on transitional authorities to run the country.
The latest developments came as the prosecutor general's office said ousted president Omar al-Bashir had been charged over the killings of protesters during anti-regime demonstrations that led to the end of his rule last month.
The major was killed and three soldiers were wounded along with several protesters and civilians when "unidentified elements" fired shots at the Khartoum sit-in, the ruling military council said, as crowds of protesters remain camped outside the military complex.
A protester too was killed at the sit-in after he was shot in the chest, a doctors' committee linked to the protest movement said.
The umbrella protest movement, the Alliance for Freedom and Change, said the violence was to "disturb the breakthrough in the negotiations", blaming the ...

Sudan army major, protester killed; breakthrough in civil rule talks

The world must double spending on renewable power and slash investment in oil and coal by 2030 to keep the Paris climate treaty temperature targets in play, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday.
For that to happen, however, trend lines on both fronts moved in the wrong direction last year, the agency reported in its 4th annual World Energy Investment overview.
Money going into new upstream oil and gas projects -- exploration, drilling and infrastructure -- rose four per cent in 2018, while investment in new coal sources went up by two per cent, the first increase in that sector since 2012.
At the same time, investment in new renewable power of all kinds dipped by about two per cent.
In total, global energy investment in 2018 -- split across the fuel supply and electric power sectors -- totalled USD 1.85 trillion, about the same as in 2017, the IEA reported.
This two-year plateau following three years of slow decline reflects uncertainty across the industry as to what the 

'Step-change' in energy investment needed to meet climate goals: IEA

US President Donald Trump on Monday entered the swirling debate over a US Congresswoman's comments regarding the Holocaust that Republicans have condemned as anti-Semitic.
The uproar began last week when Rashida Tlaib, a freshman congresswoman in the House of Representatives whose parents are Palestinian immigrants, said in an interview that she finds "a kind of calming feeling" in the fact that Palestinians were involved in creating "a safe haven for Jews".
"There's a kind of a calming feeling, I always tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors -- Palestinians -- who lost their land and some lost their lives," she told Yahoo's "Skullduggery" podcast on Friday.
"All of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time," she said, adding, "I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided ...

Uproar follows US congresswoman's Holocaust remarks

Clashes on the edge of a jihadist bastion in northwestern Syria have killed at least 42 fighters in 24 hours, a monitor said Monday, after regime bombardment on the region devastated health services.
The northwestern region has come under increasing fire by the regime and its ally Russia in recent weeks, despite a months-old buffer zone deal intended to shield it from any government offensive.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, controls most of Idlib province as well as parts of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 16 loyalists and 19 jihadists died from Sunday to Monday in clashes in the area of Jabal al-Akrad in Latakia province, which lies on the bastion's northwestern edge.
Russian and regime aircraft bombarded the area on Monday, while they also hit southern parts of the jihadist stronghold, said the Britain-based war monitor.
Russian air strikes hit a branch of the White Helmets rescue ...

Clashes in northwest Syria kill more than 40 fighters: monitor

President Donald Trump said Monday he expects to meet with the presidents of Russia and China next month at the Group of 20 summit in Japan.
As the trade conflict with China escalates, Trump said of the expected encounter with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, "We'll be meeting at the G20 in Japan. And that will be I think probably very fruitful meeting."
Speaking to reporters at the White House as he met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Trump also said he expected to meet with Russia's Vladimir Putin, though the Kremlin responded immediately saying there was no agreement on a meeting.

Trump says will meet Putin, Xi at G20 summit in Japan

German giant Mercedes-Benz said Monday it wants to stop selling traditional combustion engine cars by 2039 and plans for its new vehicles sold worldwide by that time to be carbon-neutral.
"We aim to have a carbon-neutral new passenger car fleet in 20 years," said Ola Kallenius, current head of Mercedes research, who is to succeed Dieter Zetsche as chairman of the Daimler group next week.
All Mercedes models will be electric or hybrids within two decades, a company spokesman said, but different approaches were possible.
"Our current focus is on battery-electric mobility. But there's also room and need to continue to work on other solutions, for example, the fuel cell or eFuels," Kallenius said in a statement.
"Today, no one knows for sure which drivetrain mix will best serve our customers' needs 20 years from now.
"That's why we encourage policy makers to pave the way for tech neutrality: Let's fix the target, but not the means to achieve it." Daimler says synthetic fuels produced with 

Mercedes want to abandon combustion engines by 2039

A senior Palestinian official has been refused a visa for the United States, she said Monday, amid worsening relations between the two sides.
Hanan Ashrawi, a longtime aide to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, announced on Twitter she had been turned down without being given a justification.
"I'm over 70 & a grandmother; I've been an activist for Palestine since the late 1960's; I've always been an ardent supporter of nonviolent resistance," she said in a tweet.
"I've met (& even negotiated with) every Sec. of State since (George) Shultz, & every President since George H. W. Bush (present administration excluded)." She later told AFP it was the first time she had ever been refused a visa to the United States, where her daughter and grandchildren live.
"I travel there at least three or four times a year," she said.
Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee and former minister, has been involved in Palestinian politics for decades and ...

Senior Palestinian official says refused US visa

Ecuador will hand over to the United States documents and computer hardware which Wikileaks founder and whistleblower Julian Assange left behind at its London embassy, his lawyers said Monday.
Ecuadoran public prosecutors have authorised police next Monday to search the room which the Australian occupied for seven years and seize his personal belongings, they said.
They cited an e-mail from the public prosecutors dated May 8 but AFP was not able to confirm its authenticity.
The belongings, including computers, mobile phones, memory sticks and other electronic devices, will then be sent to the United States as part of Ecuador's response to a request from the US Department of Justice for cooperation into its investigation into Assange, according to the e-mail.
This is an "absolute violation of the right of defence, because they will hand over to the United States all his communications with his lawyers, which are confidential," Assange's lawyer in Madrid, Aitor Martinez, told ...

Ecuador to give US Assange's possessions: lawyers

The wife and children of former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei, who vanished while visiting China in September last year, have been granted political asylum in France, the family's lawyer said on Monday.
Grace Meng, who was given police protection after she alleged an abduction attempt at the start of the year, was granted asylum on May 2 along with the couple's two children, their lawyer Emmanuel Marsigny told AFP.

Wife of Chinese ex-Interpol boss granted asylum in France: lawyer

Bolton will start next season in League One with a 12-point deduction after going into administration, the English Football League confirmed on Monday.
Wanderers, who finished second bottom in the second-tier Championship this season, announced earlier on Monday they had appointed administrators.
"The EFL can confirm that it has been formally notified that administrators have been appointed in respect of Bolton Wanderers Football Club," read an EFL statement.
"As a result, the club is now subject to a 12-point deduction and, in accordance with EFL regulations, the sporting sanction will take effect next season in League One.
"The EFL will now commence discussions with the administrators with the aim of achieving a long-term future for the club." Wanderers filed their notice of intention to appoint administrators last week after a recent winding-up order was adjourned at a court hearing in London.
"The decision was finally made for the appointments which it is hoped will ensure the ...

Relegated Bolton appoint administrators in bid for league survival

A Venezuelan air force general has called on his country's armed forces to rise up against President Nicolas Maduro, who remains in power with military support despite a sweeping economic crisis.
"It's time to rise up, it's time to fight ... it's time that the armed forces became aware," General Ramon Rangel said in a video appeal issued Sunday on social media.
Rangel -- who appeared in civilian clothes and whose location is unknown -- is the latest of several military figures to call on Venezuela's military to abandon Maduro.
Another Air Force general, Francisco Yanez, pledged his allegiance to opposition leader Juan Guaido on February 2.
Rangel did not however specifically call on the military to switch their allegiance to Guaido, who is recognized as interim president by much of the international community.
The 35-year-old National Assembly speaker, who organized a failed uprising on April 30, has repeatedly called on the armed forces to abandon Maduro.
A source close to ...

Venezuelan general calls for military uprising against Maduro

At least three people were killed and another 20 wounded in a series of blasts in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Monday, an official said.
Nangarhar provincial spokesman Attaullah Khogyani said three blasts rocked the city centre, and had taken place near an armoured police vehicle.
"The nature of explosions is not clear, but it could be IEDs," Khogyani said, using the acronym for improvised explosive devices.
"So far we can confirm three people have been killed and 20 wounded."
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the area around Jalalabad is home to fighters from both the Taliban and the Islamic State group's Afghan affiliate.
On March 6, at least 16 people were killed in a suicide attack on a construction company in Jalalabad, which is near the Pakistan border.
Violence in Afghanistan has continued apace even during the holy month of Ramadan, and despite government calls for a ceasefire.

At least three dead as blasts rock eastern Afghan city

Scientists in the United States have detected the highest levels of planet-warming carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere since records began, sounding new alarm over the relentless rise of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, which has tracked atmospheric CO2 levels since the late 1950s, on Saturday morning detected 415.26 parts per million (ppm).
It was also the first time on record that the observatory measured a daily baseline above 415 ppm.
The last time Earth's atmosphere contained this much CO2 was more than three million years ago, when global sea levels were several metres higher and parts of Antarctica were blanketed in forest.
"It shows that we are not on track with protecting the climate at all. The number keeps rising and it's getting higher year after year," Wolfgang Lucht, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), told AFP.
"This number needs to stabilise."
But far from stabilising, levels of CO2 -- one of a trinity ..

415.26 parts per million: CO2 levels hit historic high

Sudan's protest leaders said Monday that agreement has been reached with the country's military rulers on the makeup of a new "sovereign council" to run the country.
"At today's meeting we agreed on the structure of the sovereign council which will include military and civilian representatives," Taha Osman, a spokesman for the protest movement, told AFP.
Asked to elaborate, he said: "Tomorrow's discussions will revolve around the composition of the council.

Accord on Sudan's new ruling body: Protest movement

Israeli police said Monday they have arrested a man suspected of poisoning nearly half the already-threatened vulture population in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
A resident of the Bedouin village of Tuba Zangariya in northern Israel was detained on Sunday and remanded in custody by a court in Tiberias, police said in a statement.  Police did not mention any apparent motive, but posted a picture of a cow carcass the suspect had allegedly dosed with poison.
Local media said such poisonings in the past had been caused by farmers putting out poisoned bait to stop predators attacking their herds.
Eight out of around 20 griffon vultures left in the Golan were found dead Friday, Israel's Nature and Parks Authority head told AFP, in what he described as "a mortal blow to the birds of prey population".
A fox and two jackals were also found dead and two sick vultures were taken to a wildlife clinic for treatment, the organisation's director Shaul Goldstein said.
The vulture population on ..

AFP

AFP

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