Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel Thursday vowed to shrug off a "disaster" 2018 and topple arch-rival Lewis Hamilton, with his refreshed team passionate about returning Ferrari to the top.
The German won the opening race of the season in Melbourne last year and backed it up with victory at the next in Bahrain. But Hamilton roared back to sweep 11 of the remaining 19 Grand Prix and the 31-year-old is desperate to turn the tables.
"There is a lot of passion inside this team willing to get out and to express ourselves through winning I think is the best we can do," he said.
"So that's the target. So far the atmosphere is good, the spirit is right within the team and we will try to carry that into the season."
Vettel is a winner and having to settle for second in the drivers and constructors championship last year was tough to take.
He said it was normal for Ferrari fans to consider finishing runner-up a "disaster".
"You know the winner takes it all. Lewis has been in that ...

Vettel fired up to return Ferrari to the top

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Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen is now an elder statesman of Formula One but admits he used to be a party animal and says it made him a better driver.
The Finn, known as "Iceman", has won 21 Grand Prix since his debut in 2001 with Sauber, the team -- now named Alfa Romeo -- he will race for again in Melbourne this week after switching from Ferrari.
Over the years, he gained a reputation for his off-track lifestyle, but the 2007 world champion said finding the right work-life balance had benefited him.
"Obviously it's been a joke often," he told the official F1 podcast 'Beyond The Grid' this week when asked about his party lifestyle.
"But I actually think it's more true than a joke that I've often been driving better (after) doing whatever I want between the races than if I'm just not having fun and drinks and stuff."
He added: "Racing and partying -- for me it was normal."
Now 39, Raikkonen put the theory to the test back in 2013 when after finishing second in the Bahrain Grand ..

Raikkonen says partying made him a better driver

Ethiopian Airlines said Thursday that the black box flight recorders from the Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crashed with 157 people,including four Indians, on board have been flown to Paris for analysis.
"An Ethiopian delegation led by Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has flown the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) to Paris, France for investigation," the airline wrote on Twitter.
Urgency is mounting to determine the causes of Sunday's crash as Boeing finds its entire fleet of the model grounded after it emerged the plane experienced similar difficulties to an Indonesian Lion Air flight in October, which also crashed minutes after takeoff.
Ethiopia said it does not have the equipment to process the data and Germany said it would not analyse the boxes as it was unable to read the software used by Boeing.
US Federal Aviation Administration acting chief Daniel Elwell said the black box flight data recorders had been damaged.
In Kenya, which lost 32 citizens in the ...

Ethiopian Airlines 'has flown' black boxes of crashed Boeing to Paris

A K-pop star has quit after admitting he watched illicit sex videos received from another artist, his agency said Thursday, the third singer to be engulfed in a scandal sweeping South Korea's music industry.
Yong Jun-hyung, 29, who is a member of boy band Highlight -- formerly known as Beast -- said he watched a video of singer Jung Joon-young having sex with women taken without their consent.
Jung, 30, was questioned by police on Thursday after admitting he shared the footage with other men, including mega K-pop star Seungri, who is also embroiled in a sex-for-investment criminal investigation.
Both Seungri -- a member of boy band BIGBANG -- and Jung, announced their retirement from show business earlier this week.
Yong "has watched the footage... and had an inappropriate conversation with (Jung)," the singer's agency Around Us Entertainment said in a statement, adding Yong will leave the band Highlight on Thursday.
South Korea has been battling a growing epidemic of so-called ...

Third K-pop star embroiled in sex video scandal

Germany's Catholic Church was Thursday due to speak about steps and reforms to address its child sex abuse scandal, which mirrors paedophilia revelations in congregations worldwide.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the head of the German Bishops' Conference, was due to give a 1300 GMT press conference at the end of a four-day episcopal conference in the western city of Lingen.
As in Australia, Chile, France, Ireland and the United States, Germany's Catholic Church has had to admit to abuses by predator priests and clergy and their systematic cover-ups over decades.
Germany's Church last September released a study that showed 1,670 clergymen had committed some form of sexual attack against 3,677 minors, mostly boys, between 1946 and 2014.
The authors said the figure was "the tip of the iceberg" as many Church documents had been "destroyed or manipulated".
Last month a Vatican meeting addressed the global issue heaping pressure on the Church, and this week Australian Cardinal George Pell, one of 

German Catholics meeting to address child sex abuse scandal

An oil slick was heading towards the French coastline on Thursday after an Italian cargo ship sank in the Atlantic carrying 45 containers of "dangerous materials", authorities said.
The sheet of oil, 10 kilometres long and one km wide, could hit parts of the country's southwest region near the port city of Bordeaux this weekend.
"According to our forecasts, fragments could reach some areas of the coast in Nouvelle-Aquitaine by Sunday or Monday owing to bad weather, which also risks making the anti-pollution operation more difficult," environment minister Francois de Rugy said Wednesday.
France will deploy four ships to help battle the oil slick at sea and will prepare for a clean-up operation on land, he added.
The Grande America was en route from Hamburg in Germany to Casablanca in Morocco when a fire broke out late on Sunday.
All 27 people on board were evacuated the following day as the fire worsened, before the ship sank some 300 km west of the town of La Rochelle on Tuesday.
"For 

Oil slick heading to French coast after cargo ship sinks

A senior New Zealand government minister was assaulted in an early-morning street attack Thursday that left him with a black eye and shook up Wellington's normally laid-back political atmosphere.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw was walking to the parliament building known as the Beehive when a man punched him in the face in what his office described as an unprovoked attack.
While Shaw's office played down any political aspect to the assault, Trade Minister David Parker told reporters the attacker "was said to be shouting things out about the United Nations".
Shaw, who is Climate Change Minister and whose party is part of the ruling centre-left coalition, was not seriously injured.
His office said two members of the public helped him and he continued to parliament, attending a meeting before going to hospital for a precautionary check-up.
He suffered a black eye, telling stuff.co.nz "it looks worse than it is".
Police said a 47-year-old man was arrested and would appear in court ...

Assault on minister rattles New Zealand lawmakers

A late winter storm on Wednesday caused widespread flooding and snarled travel in the Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado and Wyoming, forcing evacuations in some areas.
Blizzard conditions and flooding closed numerous roadways in the region. Nearly 1,400 flights were canceled at Denver airport, where all runways were shut down.
Colorado declared a state of emergency and National Guard troops were activated.
National Guard troops in Nebraska were put on alert for possible activation, as emergency officials braced for the storm to intensify overnight there.
"This has the potential to be a very severe weather event," Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts said.
"We're already seeing flooding in a number of communities and evacuations in several communities."
Colorado was walloped by heavy snow and high winds gusting to as much as 90 miles per hour -- leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power, according to the Denver Post.
Schools, businesses and government facilities were closed in Wyoming, ..

Late-winter storm wallops four US states, snarls travel

Argentina and Colombia are poised to co-host the 2020 Copa America after South America's ruling body CONMEBOL once again ruled out a US proposal to host the tournament.
CONMEBOL's ruling council met in Miami on Wednesday to discuss the issue ahead of a FIFA Council meeting in the city on Friday.
"Argentina and Colombia are shaping up as joint venues of the Copa America-2020," CONMEBOL said after rejecting the US offer to host the tournament.
CONMEBOL, which comprises the 10 member federations in South America, said in a statement it had accepted "the nomination of Argentina and Colombia as joint venues for the 2020 edition of the Copa America."
The decision marks the first time in the modern Copa America era that the tournament will be split between two countries.
A tournament co-hosted by Argentina and Colombia also presents logistical hurdles, with the two countries separated by some 4,350 miles (7,000 kilometers).
CONMEBOL noted that the co-hosting was "subject to the presentation .

Argentina, Colombia set to be co-hosts of 2020 Copa America

Sadio Mane scored twice to steer Liverpool into the Champions League quarter-finals after a superb 3-1 win at Bayern Munich dumped out the German giants.
Having missed the goalless first leg at Anfield three weeks ago through suspension, Virgil van Dijk's long pass led to Mane's excellent first-half goal at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday.
"His first goal was ridiculous, the calmness with how he's finished it off," Liverpool midfielder James Milner told BT Sport.
"He's on fire at the minute and let's hope it continues for the rest of the season."
Dutch centre-back Van Dijk then headed last season's runners-up Liverpool into a 2-1 lead from a Milner corner on 69 minutes after Joel Matip's own goal had handed Bayern a first-half equaliser.
Mane made absolutely sure of Liverpool's place in the quarter-final draw by nodding in six minutes from time.
Liverpool's 3-1 aggregate victory means they join Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Manchester United in the quarter-finals, completing a 

Mane double breaks Bayern to send Liverpool through

Lionel Messi came up just short of matching Cristiano Ronaldo's hat-trick a day earlier but still scored twice and set up two more as Barcelona beat Lyon 5-1 to reach the Champions League quarter-finals.
After Ronaldo's treble on Tuesday for Juventus sent Atletico Madrid packing in Turin, Messi delivered his own symphony on Wednesday at the Camp Nou, where Lyon were outplayed save for a very brief period in the second half when they threatened a comeback in this last-16 tie.
"Cristiano yesterday was impressive," Messi said afterwards.
"It was a big surprise because I thought Atletico would be stronger but Cristiano had a magical night."
A 0-0 draw in France in the first leg last month meant Lyon always had a chance to make Barca nervous, but Messi's sumptuously chipped penalty and a simple finish from Philippe Coutinho looked to have finished them off before half-time.
Yet Lucas Tousart's volley left Lyon one goal away from putting Barcelona out, only for Messi to take charge again. ..

Messi proves too much for Lyon as Barcelona reach Champions League quarters

Cyberattacks, terrorism, earthquakes and heatwaves: Tokyo 2020 organisers are hoping for the best but bracing for the worst and making contingency plans for several possible catastrophes during the Games.
Clean, virtually crime-free Tokyo has been spared the terror attacks that have hit many Western cities in recent years, and is considered a relatively safe bet for the Games -- it is often ranked as low-risk by insurance and risk-management firms.
But that security goes out of the window when it comes to hosting the Greatest Show on Earth, says Shiro Kawamoto, counter-terrorism expert and professor of risk management at Nihon University.
"Tokyo's safeness in normal times cannot be taken for granted during the Olympics when the world's attention is on it," Kawamoto told AFP.
So Tokyo is pulling out all the technological stops to bolster safety -- for example, in an Olympic first, introducing a facial recognition system for volunteers.
Organisers are also bracing for a cyberattack ...

Heat, floods, quakes: Tokyo 2020 preparing for any disaster

Lewis Hamilton said he wants "100 percent" to ride a MotoGP bike and is hoping for more time on two wheels to be ready for the challenge.
The British five-time Formula One champion has made no secret of his love for motorbikes and attended MotoGP's season opener in Qatar last weekend as a guest of the Petronas-backed Yamaha team.
"Fierce, insane speeds and unforgiving, this sport is phenomenal," the Mercedes driver tweeted afterwards. "What an experience! How about you guys let me ride next time?"
It followed Hamilton trialling a Yamaha World Superbike at Jerez in December and he told motogp.com that he wants to experience more.
"100 percent I'm going to ride one, I'm building up to it," he said ahead of embarking on his Formula One world championship defence in Melbourne in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.
"I need more days (on a bike) firstly because I've only had two-and-a-half kind of days on the track, but eventually I'd love to try a MotoGP bike. That's the dream.
"I watch it ...

Bike-loving Hamilton sets sights '100 percent' on MotoGP test

The possible expansion of the 2022 World Cup is poised to dominate discussions when FIFA's ruling council meets here on Friday.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to increase the number of teams due to take part in the footballing showpiece from 32 to 48, bringing forward by four years an expansion which has already been set for the 2026 finals.
Details of an internal feasibility study by FIFA which emerged this week gave broad support to expanding the 2022 finals in Qatar.
But while the study found that the increase would deliver a financial windfall for FIFA of between USD 300-USD 400 million, several logistical and political obstacles to expansion remain.
The Qatar World Cup, the first to take place in the Middle East, is due to be held over 28 days in November and December 2022 instead of the usual 32.
Officials have said previously that it is not possible for Qatar to change the number of days of the tournament, meaning games would have to be held in neighbouring states.
If ...

World Cup expansion to dominate FIFA agenda in Miami

Formula One's long-serving and widely respected race director Charlie Whiting died suddenly in Melbourne Thursday, leaving a "huge void in the sport" just days before the opening Grand Prix of the season.
The 66-year-old Briton, who had been at the helm since 1997 and was in charge of everything rules-related in the highly technical sport, suffered a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot.
"It is with immense sadness that I learned of Charlie's sudden passing," FIA president Jean Todt said in a statement.
"I have known Charlie Whiting for many years and he has been a great race director, a central and inimitable figure in Formula One who embodied the ethics and spirit of this fantastic sport," he said.
"Formula 1 has lost a faithful friend and a charismatic ambassador in Charlie," he added.
Whiting, a popular and pivotal figure in the sport, began his F1 career in 1977 working at the Hesketh team, then in the 1980s at Bernie Ecclestone's Brabham, where he was chief mechanic during the ...

Formula One race director dies suddenly on eve of new season

- Former champions Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal edged closer to a blockbuster semi-final showdown at the ATP Indian Wells Masters with brisk fourth-round wins.
World number two Nadal on Wednesday overpowered Serbian qualifier Filip Krajinovic 6-3 6-4 to book his quarter-final berth in one hour and 26 minutes.
Federer, seeking a record sixth title in the California desert, needed just 64 minutes to get past Britain's Kyle Edmund 6-1 6-4.
Nadal said his performance on a windy stadium court wasn't as good as his 6-3, 6-1 third-round win over Argentine Diego Schwartzman.
But he was more than a match for 113th-ranked Krajinovic, breaking him early in each set and saving the only break point he faced.
Nadal, who lifted the Indian Wells trophy in 2007, 2008 and 2013, is in the last eight for the first time in three years after missing last year's edition, skipping both Indian Wells and the Miami Masters with a hip injury.
He next will take on 13th-ranked Russian Karen Khachanov, who beat ..

Federer, Nadal, steam into Indian Wells quarter-finals

As clouds of acrid, black smoke belched above the flames engulfing an artisanal oil field in central Myanmar, prospectors from nearby hillsides arrived in droves, hoping for riches from a fresh line of black gold.
"The fire's a really good sign -- it means there's lots of oil here," Khin Maung Htay tells AFP as he scouted around the site just hours after the blaze was extinguished.
"There were 600 barrels of oil a day coming out." The fields near Minhla, north of Yangon, are Myanmar's equivalent of the American Wild West, where informal oil entrepreneurs scramble from site to site in the hope of striking lucky.
It is a hard way to make a living.
A forest of temporary "derricks", three legged pyramids made from metal or bamboo stretching 30 feet or more into the air, covers the hillsides.  A pulley at the top of each well supports a drill that can plunge more than a kilometre into the ground.
Each is manned by a team working round-the-clock, often caked in black, viscous grime as they .

Myanmar's black gold lures plucky oil drillers

A Vietnamese woman charged with assassinating the North Korean leader's half-brother lost her bid for immediate release Thursday as Malaysian authorities refused to drop a murder charge, days after her Indonesian co-accused was freed.
"In reference to the representation submitted on March 11 to the honourable attorney-general, we got an order to proceed with the case," lead prosecutor Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad told the High Court in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur.
Doan Thi Huong, 30, has been on trial for a year and a half over the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport that shocked the world.
She sobbed in the dock as the news was announced, and tearfully told reporters: "I am not angry that Siti has been freed. Only God knows that we did not commit the murder.
"I want my family to pray for me."
The Indonesian woman accused alongside her -- Siti Aisyah -- was unexpectedly released Monday after prosecutors withdrew the murder charge against her. They did not offer ..

Vietnam woman in N Korea murder case has release bid rejected

Over 100 schools in Malaysia have been closed after the dumping of toxic waste into a river caused hundreds of people to fall ill, including many children, authorities said.
A lorry is believed to have dumped the waste in southern Johor state last week, sending hazardous fumes across a wide area and causing those affected to display symptoms of poisoning such as nausea and vomiting.
Over 500 people, many of them school pupils, have received medical treatment after inhaling the fumes, with over 160 admitted to hospital, according to official news agency Bernama.
It was unclear what type of poisonous gas had been emitted near the industrial town of Pasir Gudang.
Education Minister Maszlee Malik initially ordered the closure of 43 schools in the area Wednesday, but later announced that figure had more than doubled.
"The ministry of education has decided to close all 111 schools in the Pasir Gudang area immediately," he said in a statement.
"The education ministry is requesting that all ..

Over 100 Malaysian schools shut after toxic waste dump

Turkey's stalling economy threatens to haunt President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP in local elections this month as voters stung by living costs turn against a party that built its ballot box success on the country's prosperity.
With inflation in double digits, the Turkish currency weaker and the economy in recession, analysts say Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) faces a major challenge to convince voters to stick with them in the March 31 ballot.
After Erdogan came to power in 2003 as premier, he was credited with helping steer the country to an economic boom that followed the 2001 financial crisis and made Turkey the new darling of emerging market investors.
That outlook has changed: Turkish GDP per capita fell to USD 9,632 in 2018 from USD 10,597 in 2017 and the economy is now in recession -- its first since 2009.
"The AKP is reaching the limits of its economic model. Living standards are not growing," said Berk Esen, assistant professor of international ...

Economy woes threaten to haunt Erdogan's AKP in Turkey elections

The United States has voiced disappointment at the failure of Muslim nations to jointly take a stand against China's treatment of its Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province.
"We are, I can say, disappointed about the lack of response from members of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation), and the lack of outspoken concern," said US Ambassador Kelley Currie, who heads the State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice.
Currie was speaking to reporters ahead of a US-sponsored event at UN headquarters in Geneva focused on allegations of mass-internment of Uighurs in China's restive Xinjiang province.
While she applauded Turkey for its recent strong criticism of China's treatment of its Muslim minorities, she said Washington had hoped the IOC would have collectively condemned the situation in Xinjiang as it has done regarding rights abuses against Muslims in Myanmar and Syria.
A statement from OIC foreign ministers earlier this month failed to reflect ...

AFP

AFP

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