Zinedine Zidane expressed his admiration for Eden Hazard on Friday ahead of an expected move for the Chelsea forward from Real Madrid this summer.
Hazard's contract expires in June 2020 and he is yet to sign a new deal, leaving Chelsea in a difficult position if they want to avoid losing the Belgian for free.
After last year's World Cup, he admitted "it might be time for something different" while in October, he said it would be a "dream" to play for Real Madrid, "the best club in the world".
Asked about Hazard at a press conference before Madrid's La Liga game against Eibar on Saturday, Zidane said: "He is a player I have always rated, as everyone knows.
"He is a player that has played in France, that I have watched a lot and that I know personally. There's nothing new about what I think of him as a player. He's a fantastic player."
Real Madrid have certainly struggled for goals this season.
They have scored 26 fewer than Barcelona in the league and rarely threatened Valencia on ...

Zidane praises 'fantastic' Hazard

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Cristiano Ronaldo could be back in the Juventus line-up in time for their Champions League quarter-final with Ajax, coach Massimiliano Allegri revealed on Friday.
Ronaldo hasn't played for the runaway Serie A leaders since scoring the sensational hat-trick that saw Juve come back from a 2-0 first-leg deficit to knock out Atletico Madrid last month.
He was rested in the subsequent 2-0 league defeat at Genoa and then picked up a thigh injury on international duty with Portugal last week, but Allegri is confident the 34-year-old will be ready for Wednesday's first leg in Amsterdam.
"There are good signals from Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of the match with Ajax," he said to reporters ahead of Saturday's visit of fourth-placed AC Milan.
Ronaldo will however not be ready for Milan, who are battling to qualify for next season's Champions League, after missing recent wins over Empoli and Cagliari, the latter of which was overshadowed by racist abuse directed at young Italy striker Moise ...

'Good signs' for Ronaldo ahead of Ajax, says Juve coach Allegri

The United States has revoked the visa for the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, her office said Friday, over a possible investigation of American soldiers' actions in Afghanistan.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda would continue to pursue her duties for the Hague-based court "without fear or favour" despite the ban, her office said in a statement.  The move against Bensouda, a Gambian national, comes weeks after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced restrictions on ICC staff who probe US or allied personnel.
"What we can confirm is that the US authorities have revoked the prosecutor's visa for entry into the US," the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC said in a statement.
Bensouda's office said that under the Rome statute governing the ICC - which Washington has declined to join since it was set up in 2002 - she had an "independent and impartial mandate".
"The prosecutor and her office will continue to undertake that statutory duty with utmost commitment and ...

US revokes ICC prosecutor's visa over Afghan probe

Canada's foreign minister warned Friday that outside interference in the country's upcoming parliamentary election was "very likely".
"We are very concerned. Our judgement is that interference is very likely and we think there have probably already been efforts by malign foreign actors to disrupt our democracy," Chrystia Freeland said.
Speaking on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in northern France, she added: "What we are seeing in many liberal democracies, the effort is not so much to secure a particular outcome in an election.
"The effort is to make our societies more polarised and make us, as citizens of democracies, more cynical about democracy and that it can work."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party are seeking re-election in national polls due by October.
Foreign interference and cyber defence are on the agenda of the G7 meeting in Dinard, which brings together ministers from the world's Western democracies.
"We know that states like Russia have got a ...

Foreign interference in Canadian election 'very likely', says minister

The Myanmar army said Friday that six Rohingya killed by helicopter gunfire in restive Rakhine state were working with a rebel group, the latest escalation in violence that the UN says "may constitute war crimes".
Ethnic and religious tensions divide western Rakhine state, where the army forced out some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims in 2017 in a brutal crackdown.
UN investigators have called for the prosecution of top generals for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Now the military is waging war against the Arakan Army (AA), which claims to represent ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and has killed 22 members of the army and police since early January.
The conflict has spread across the state, displacing more than 20,000 civilians of various ethnicities, according to UN figures.
The latest skirmish on Wednesday was in Buthidaung township, according to a report from the army chief's website.
"While combatting AA terrorist insurgents ... six Bengali who were together with insurgents ... were ...

Myanmar says six Rohingya killed in attack were 'with insurgents'

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday appointed a panel of experts to probe France's actions in Rwanda during the country's genocide 25 years ago, a subject that has dogged Franco-Rwandan relations since the 1994 massacres.
The commission of eight researchers and historians "will be tasked with consulting all France's archives relating to the genocide... in order to analyse the role and engagement of France during that period," the presidency said in a statement.

Macron names experts to probe French action during Rwanda genocide

A visiting Chinese official sought to impress Seoul's powerful mayor with a gift of a hand-drawn portrait on Friday - only to present him with a picture of a controversial rival.
Ma Xingrui, governor of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, had a meeting Friday with Park Won-soon, the South Korean capital's top official and seen as one of the country's strongest prospective presidential contenders.
After talks on economic co-operation between the city and the province, and the much-disputed issue of air pollution - which many South Koreans blame on China - Ma handed over a package.
Park unwrapped it to reveal an image of Lee Jae-myung, governor of the neighbouring province of Gyeonggi, who harbours presidential ambitions of his own.
Park and Lee are both members of the South's ruling party, and both worked as human rights lawyers before entering politics.
Local media have often portrayed them as rivals, but Lee has run into controversy over allegations he forcefully ...

Face off: Chinese official gives Seoul mayor portrait of rival

Two children were killed and eight critically wounded when an unexploded bomb went off at a school in the rebel-held Yemeni capital, the UN children's agency said on Friday.
A child had found the bomb and brought it to Al-Fatah school in the Hamdan district of Sanaa on Wednesday to show friends, UNICEF said in a statement.
The casualties were aged between 12 and 14.
Children often fall victim to unexploded ordnance, failing to fully appreciate the dangers.
"It is highly likely, as we've seen in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, that children will continue to be killed even when there's a lull in violence or the violence comes to an end," said UNICEF's regional chief of communications, Juliette Touma.
The World Health Organisation estimates nearly 10,000 Yemenis have been killed since 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened to prevent the defeat of the government in the face of a rebel offensive.
Human rights groups say the real death toll is several times higher.
The conflict has ..

Yemen schoolchildren killed by unexploded ordnance: UN

Final authorised opinion polls published Friday just days ahead of the Israeli general elections showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heading for a fifth term in office, leading a right-wing coalition.
The polls revealed the rival centrist Blue and White list led by former military chief Benny Gantz was running virtually neck-and-neck with Netanyahu's Likud ahead of Tuesday's vote.
But while most polls saw Gantz's list as scooping slightly more votes than Likud, neither party was predicted to win more than 25 percent of seats in parliament.
And the polls were unanimous in forecasting that Likud would be able to build a viable ruling coalition to beat off Gantz's challenge.
None gave a figure for undecided voters, although the number is reportedly high enough to swing the outcome.
"Past polls have shown that nearly one out of every six-seven voters makes a decision only in the last two days before the elections, and it isn't clear what will be the dynamic of the coming few days," ..

Ahead of election Israeli polls forecast Netanyahu win

Dutch investigators have arrested three former employees of a local company suspected of laundering some $1.2 billion for an energy client in India, prosecutors said Friday.
The Dutch company bought materials and services around the world for the Indian firm which has been involved in laying a gas pipeline on the subcontinent since 2006.
"It is suspected that the Dutch company used to increase the amounts on the invoices for the materials and services supplied," said the public prosecutor's office, which did not name either company.
The company also acted as a so-called "invoice duplicator" meaning the Indian company was able to claim costs twice from gas customers, the statement added.
"The 'profits' earned in this way were subsequently creamed off via the Dutch company," it said.
The gains were then transferred via a complex web of businesses based among others in Dubai, Switzerland and the Caribbean, before eventually ending up at a business owned by the Indian company in ...

Dutch arrest three in $1.2bn India laundering probe

The US envoy tasked with forging a peace deal with the Taliban met with officials in Pakistan on Friday, after telling leaders and various groups in Afghanistan they would be included in future talks.
Zalmay Khalilzad was in Islamabad after spending five days in Afghanistan amid strains between Washington and President Ashraf Ghani's administration, which has complained bitterly of being sidelined in peace talks.
"Intra-Afghan dialogue should be comprehensive and inclusive with representatives from the #Afghan government, women, young people, and civil society," Khalilzad said on Twitter at the start of his five-day visit.
The Taliban has until now refused to meet with the Kabul government, accusing it of being a puppet regime.
The diplomatic spat between Washington and Kabul came to a head last month when Afghanistan's national security advisor Hamdullah Mohib accused Khalilzad of a lack of "transparency", even suggesting the Afghan-born envoy wanted to be "viceroy" of his native ...

US envoy wraps up Afghan visit, vows inclusivity in talks

EU Council president Donald Tusk will suggest to member states Friday that they offer Britain a flexible 12-month Brexit delay to allow it time to prepare an orderly withdrawal.
"This is Tusk's idea," a senior EU official told AFP, confirming news reports. "It will be be presented to member states today." As things stand, Britain is due to leave the European Union at midnight on April 12 next week. Under the suggested extension, Britain would be able to delay this.
If the House of Commons ratifies the withdrawal agreement that Prime Minister Theresa May has already signed with the EU members, London could leave before the year is up.
But if Britain is still a member when the bloc holds elections to the European Parliament on May 23, it will need to take part in the poll and send another batch of MEPs to Strasbourg.
According to British press reports, May is due to write to member states on Friday to lay out her request for an extension.

Tusk proposes flexible 12-month Brexit delay: EU official

A Japanese probe on Friday launched an explosive device at an asteroid, aiming to blast a crater in the surface and scoop up material that could shed light on how the solar system evolved.
The explosive mission is the riskiest yet attempted by the Japanese space agency's Hayabusa2 probe that aims to reveal more about the origins of life on Earth.
Hayabusa2 successfully released the so-called "small carry-on impactor" - a cone-shaped device capped with a copper bottom - as scheduled, as the probe hovered just 500 metres (1,650 feet) above the asteroid Ryugu.
The impactor was programmed to explode 40 minutes later, propelling the copper bottom towards Ryugu, where it should gouge a crater into the surface of the asteroid that spins 300 million kilometres from Earth.
Hayabusa2 moved smartly away from the area to avoid being damaged by debris from the explosion or colliding with Ryugu while also releasing a camera to capture images of the event.
Images from a different camera at the ...

Japan probe blasts asteroid, seeking clues to life's origins

A dissident writer dubbed the "Chinese Solzhenitsyn" said Friday that his homeland is a "threat for the whole world".
Liao Yiwu, who was jailed for writing a poem called "Massacre" about the Tiananmen Square protests, told AFP that it would be better for mankind if the economic superpower "splits up".
"My dream is that China splits up into 10 or so countries. Because China as it is today is a threat for the whole world," he said as his latest book, "Balls of Opium", was published in France.
The book, which has been banned in China, recounts the stories of dozens of victims of the Tiananmen massacre, when troops killed thousands of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing in 1989.
The massacre, which is also known as the "June Fourth Incident", is a major taboo in China.
Liao, who has been living in exile in Berlin since 2011, said, "Returning to China is not a big concern for me. I would like to go back to my native Sichuan - when it's independent. Then I would be delighted to ...

China is 'threat to world' says dissident writer

A giant forest fire swept across swathes of South Korea Friday, as authorities declared a rare national disaster, deploying 900 fire engines and tens of thousands of personnel to bring it under control.
Apocalyptic images on television and social media showed walls of flame lighting up the night, buildings engulfed in flames, and clouds of smoke billowing across hillsides during the day.
The blaze broke out late Thursday alongside a road in the town of Goseong, in the far northeast of the country and only around 45 kilometres (28 miles) from the border with the nuclear-armed North.
Fanned by strong winds it quickly spread through the mountainous area, incinerating 400 homes and 500 hectares of land, according to the government.  Nearly 4,000 people were evacuated and one person died, authorities said, while 11 were injured.
More than 870 fire engines and some 10,000 emergency personnel were dispatched to fight the blaze, the National Fire Agency said.
The military sent 32 helicopters, 

Seoul declares national disaster as winds fan giant forest fire

Pulane Koboekae looked pensively at the seven nooses suspended over a trap door in Pretoria Central Prison where her brother Richard Motsoahae was hanged by South Africa's apartheid regime in 1964.
Then she pulled out a white tissue and sobbed silently.
"It has opened up old wounds. I'm feeling mixed emotions. I feel sick, but also relieved," said Koboekae, 66, a retired nurse, her lips trembling.
"We've long been waiting for this," she said, on the day in August last year when her brother's remains were finally disinterred, 54 years after he was buried unceremoniously in an unmarked grave.
Motsoahae was an activist for the Pan Africanist Congress, an anti-apartheid movement which split from the African National Congress (ANC) in pursuit of a more radically "Africanist" agenda.
Motsoahae and three others -- the so-called Krugersdorp Four -- were hanged for killing a policeman -- among 135 political prisoners executed by the whites-only apartheid government that ended with the ...

Anti-apartheid activists laid to rest in peace, 50 years on

A deadly disease affecting amphibians has descended into a global pandemic that has already wiped out 90 species, a prominent US biologist warned Thursday at the World Organisation for Animal Health Aquatic Conference in Santiago, Chile.
Chytridiomycosis is caused by a fungus -- Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis -- that attacks the skin of frogs, toads and other amphibians.
As the creatures use their skin to breathe and regulate their bodies' water levels, the damage caused by the disease eventually leads to heart failure and death.
Jonathan Kolby, co-author of a study published in March on the fungus' devastating effects, lamented what he described as "the first global wild disease issue." "It's over 60 countries right now, and that's part of the problem," he said.
Over the past five years, the highly contagious disease has already caused nearly 90 species to disappear, with over 500 impacted.
The rapid global spread of the fungus is due to a lack of animal trade rules and airport ...

Scientists warn of pandemic endangering amphibians

Facebook will block election advertising from outside Australia ahead of polls next month, in the wake of growing criticism of the social media giant's role in the spread of disinformation.
The restrictions -- already rolled out for polls in other countries such as Thailand and Indonesia -- will come into force when the government announces the election date in the coming days.
"We're temporarily not allowing electoral ads purchased from outside Australia ahead of the election in May," Facebook's Australia and New Zealand policy director Mia Garlick said in a statement.
"The restriction... will apply to ads we determine to be coming from foreign entities that are of an electoral nature, meaning they contain references to politicians, parties or election suppression.
"We also won't allow foreign ads that include political slogans and party logos."
Facebook said it has introduced restrictions on foreign electoral ads in countries including Nigeria, Ukraine, Thailand, Indonesia, and ...

Facebook to block foreign ads for Australia election

Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn will remain in custody until at least April 14, a Japanese court ruled on Friday, as prosecutors quiz him over fresh allegations of financial misconduct.
The Tokyo District Court said in a statement it had accepted a request from prosecutors to detain the 65-year-old auto tycoon for a further 10-day period that can subsequently be extended once more.
The "full term of the detention is 14th" of April, the court said.
Authorities are looking into new allegations that Ghosn transferred some $15 million in Nissan funds between late 2015 and mid-2018 to a dealership in Oman.
They suspect around $5 million of these funds were siphoned off for Ghosn's use, including for the purchase of a luxury yacht and financing personal investments.
Prosecutors say Ghosn "betrayed" his duty not to cause losses to Nissan "in order to benefit himself." Ghosn denies the allegations and says he is also innocent of the three formal charges he faces: two charges of deferring his .

Japan court extends Ghosn detention until April 14

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday he was open to allowing the return of orphaned children of an Australian jihadist in a Syrian refugee camp following their desperate plea for help.
Morrison said his government was working with the Red Cross so the children could leave the Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria and Australian officials could assess them.
"Where they might be in a position to return to Australia, we will cooperate with that process," Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
"Where there are Australians who are caught up in this situation, particularly as innocent children, we will do what I think Australians would expect us to do on their behalf." The PM added that he would not put "any Australian life at risk to extract people from these conflict zones", a stance he has taken in recent weeks despite pleas from their grandmother Karen Nettleton.
Morrison's comments came as Hoda Sharrouf -- the 16-year-old daughter of Australian Islamic State fighter Khaled Sharrouf -- ..

Australia open to return of IS fighter's orphaned children

Manchester City are strong favourites to take another step towards an unprecedented quadruple of trophies in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final against Brighton at Wembley.
A potential 13 more games lie between Pep Guardiola's men and a clean sweep of FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League to add to the League Cup they lifted in February.
However, with another seven matches to come before the end of April, Guardiola faces a headache in a familiar problem position.
Oleksandr Zinchenko suffered a hamstring injury in Wednesday's routine 2-0 win over Cardiff that restored City to the top of the Premier League.
The Ukrainian has deputised ably at left-back, despite being a midfielder by trade prior to Guardiola's arrival, while $68 million World Cup winner Benjamin Mendy has been sidelined for much of the past two seasons due to knee injuries.
Guardiola's patience with Mendy has worn thin and was tested again this week when the defender was filmed in a nightclub at 3.30am last Saturday ...

AFP

AFP

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