Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday that Europe "cannot be trusted", a week after the EU launched a trade mechanism to bypass US sanctions on Tehran.
"These days there's talk of the Europeans and their proposals. My advice is that they shouldn't be trusted, just like the Americans," he said at a meeting with air force officials, his website reported.
"I'm not saying we shouldn't have relations with them. This is about trust," he added.
Britain, France and Germany last week launched a special payment mechanism called INSTEX to help save the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
It would allow Tehran to keep trading with EU companies in spite of US sanctions renewed after Washington quit the accord last year.  Tehran has cautiously welcomed INSTEX as a "first step", but US officials said the new entity would not have any impact on efforts to exert economic pressure on Iran.
Khamenei also accused Europe of hypocrisy over human rights, criticising France's .

Europe not to be trusted: Iran leader

PTI Automatic

Indonesia's Mount Merapi, one of the world's most active volcanoes, has spewed a plume of grey ash into the sky as fiery red molten lava streamed down from its crater.
Authorities did not raise the rumbling volcano's alert status after the eruption on Thursday evening.
But any activity at Merapi raises concern and local residents have previously been ordered to stay outside a five-kilometre (three-mile) no-go zone around the crater near Indonesia's cultural capital Yogyakarta.
Its last major eruption in 2010 killed more than 300 people and forced some 280,000 others to evacuate.
It was Merapi's most powerful eruption since 1930, which killed some 1,300 people, while another explosion in 1994 took about 60 lives.
Across the Southeast Asian archipelago, Mount Karangetang on Sulawesi island also erupted this week with more than a hundred nearby residents ordered to evacuate from the remote site.
Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands and islets -- and nearly 130 active volcanoes.
It sits 

Erupting Indonesian volcano spews ash, lava

Fire swept through a training facility for Brazil's most popular football club Flamengo Friday, killing at least 10 people, news outlets said.
The pre-dawn blaze in Rio de Janeiro hit a building that housed youth-category players aged 14 to 17, TV Globo said. It broadcast aerial footage of the fire, which it said had been brought under control.

Fire in Brazil kills at least 10 in Flamengo youth football facility: reports

Financially troubled Spanish supermarket group Dia said Friday it wanted to cut up to 2,100 jobs as it reported a massive loss.
Dia, the target of a public buyout offer by the Russian oligarch who is already its top shareholder, reported a net loss of 352.5 million euros (USD 399.3 million) for 2018.
The discount supermarket chain, which has had to reduce prices in the face from competitors Lidl and Mercadona, saw net sales fall nearly 11 percent to 7.3 billion euros.
The results were much worse than the expected 4-million-euro loss expected by analysts surveyed by data provider Factset. Dia's shares slumped 2.2 percent in morning trading in Madrid while the overall market was off 0.5 percent overall.
Dia said the job cuts would be negotiated with trade unions.  Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's LetterOne investment fund, which became Dia's top shareholder in 2017 with a 29-percent stake, launched a public share offer to take over the company on Tuesday given its "serious ...

Spanish supermarket Dia to slash jobs

A Thai princess will run for prime minister in March elections in an unprecedented entry by a royal into frontline politics, pitting her against the chief of the ruling junta and redrawing the nation's political landscape.
Princess Ubolratana, 67, the older sister of Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn, was announced as a candidate for the Thai Raksa Chart party steered by the divisive Shinawatra political clan.
The Thai monarchy, a revered institution shielded from criticism by a tough defamation law, has traditionally been seen as above the political fray, although royals have intervened in moments of political crisis.
Ubolratana's nomination has electrified the buildup to a March 24 election which had seemed poised to return the junta and its proxies to power in some form.
Her involvement gives a royal sheen to Thaksin Shinawatra's political machine, which has won every election since 2001. And it also potentially builds a bridge between Thaksin's "Red" shirted supporters and the ...

Thai princess makes unprecedented move into politics with run for PM

The Maldives government is seeking international help to find millions of dollars allegedly siphoned off by former president Abdulla Yameen who faces embezzlement and money laundering charges, officials said Friday.
Maldivian diplomats said authorities in the Indian Ocean archipelago were in talks with foreign experts as part of a police investigation against the leader who lost power last September.
"Police have now completed their investigations. The Prosecutor General can now formally charge the former president," Aslam Shakir, spokesman for the Maldives embassy in Colombo, told AFP.
He said police investigations had found evidence linking Yameen and his justice minister Azima Shakoor to the theft of state funds and money laundering.
In December, courts in the tourist paradise froze some $6.5 million in accounts allegedly linked to Yameen who suffered a shock defeat to Mohamed Ibrahim Solih in elections in September.
Shakir said millions of dollars could be stashed abroad and talks 

Maldives seeks foreign aid to find cash linked to ousted leader

Fifteen people were killed in China on the night of the Lunar New Year in two family tragedies, after one man started a fire and another went on a knife rampage.
As people celebrated to welcome in the Year of the Pig Monday night, a man surnamed Lu set fire to the home of his brother in the northern province of Shaanxi, killing seven, according to police in the town of Baoji.
The brother, his wife, their fathers and their three children died in the blaze, police said on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.
A few hours after the incident police arrested the suspect, who had just tried to kill himself.
During the same night, a man surnamed Guo, who suspected his wife of adultery, stabbed eight people to death and injured seven in a village in the northwest province of Gansu, according to police in the commune of Baiyin.
The man, aged 49, has been arrested. The identities of the victims have not been released.
Knife attacks are common in China, where the carrying of firearms is strictly ...

15 killed in New Year knife rampage and arson attack in China

An Australian court on Friday delivered a landmark ruling by rejecting plans to build a coal mine on the grounds it would worsen climate change.
Chief Justice Brian Preston said a planned open cut coal mine in a scenic part of New South Wales state would be in "the wrong place at the wrong time".
The ruling by the New South Wales Land and Environment Court was notable for citing not only local impacts of building the proposed Gloucester Resources mine, but also secondary "climate change impacts" of the eventual use of the coal.
"It matters not that this aggregate of the Project's GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions may represent a small fraction of the global total," the justice said.
"Not every natural resource needs to be exploited."
The case was unusual in referring to the 2015 Paris Agreement and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and calling climate scientists to testify.
Will Steffen, a noted climatologist, told the court that Australia's average surface ...

Australian court rejects coal mine on climate grounds

Former national skipper Ricky Ponting was Friday recruited to work alongside coach Justin Langer, focusing mainly on the batsmen, for the looming World Cup in England where Australia will defend their title.
The appointment of the vastly experienced Ponting, who played at five World Cups and won at three, comes a day after bowling coach David Saker quit.
Cricket Australia said his addition as assistant coach would see him focus on working with the ODI batting group, while current batting coach Graeme Hick concentrates on preparing for the Ashes.
Ponting is a close ally of Langer, who said he was thrilled to have his friend and former colleague back in the fold.
"I know he will be a valuable mentor to not just the batting group, but the broader squad as we focus our attention on defending our World Cup title," said Langer.
"Ricky and I have worked together with the Australian men's team in the past, he is an extremely driven coach who is fully invested in the players development and ...

Former captain Ponting appointed Australia assistant coach for World Cup

Hundreds of thousands of cattle weakened from a severe drought are feared to have died in record-breaking floods in northeastern Australia, authorities said Friday, as they stepped up efforts to feed surviving livestock.
Incessant rains over an almost two-week period have flooded swathes of Queensland state, with the full scale of the devastation on drought-hit cattle stations becoming clearer as floodwaters recede.
"We are expecting hundreds of thousands in terms of stock losses," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Sydney.
"This will be heartbreaking to these communities that have been experiencing years of drought, only to see that turn into a torrential inundation which threatens now their very livelihoods in the complete other direction." Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk Friday spoke of seeing a "sea of dead cattle" when she toured one region on Thursday.
"To see the cattle spread across these yards, not moving, it made you feel sick in the stomach," she told .

'Hundreds of thousands' of cattle feared dead after Australia floods

Australian security agencies have begun using sweeping new powers to access encrypted communications even before a promised review meant to address concerns from the likes of Google, Apple and Facebook.
The powers were granted under a new decryption law which was rushed through parliament in December amid fierce debate, and seen as the latest salvo between governments worldwide and tech firms over national security and privacy.
Two months later, the Australian Federal Police have revealed that agents have already used it while investigating drug trafficking and child exploitation.
Australia is widely seen as a global test case for such laws, with possible applications by other governments seeking to counter the growing use of encrypted messaging, notably Australia's partners in the so-called "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance -- the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.
Under the new laws, refusal to grant authorities access to devices is punishable with up to 10 years in ...

Australia using new decryption powers even before planned review

Iran's main political parties are on rocky ground as the Islamic Republic marks its 40th birthday, with reformists in disarray and conservatives seeking a new identity.
Even though key reformist leaders have been forcibly sidelined, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former reformist vice-president in the 1990s, still believes gradual change is the only option for his country.
Since mass protests against alleged election-rigging in 2009, his former boss, ex-president Mohammad Khatami, is barred from appearing in the media, and presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have been under house arrest for the last eight years.
There are also few signs of a new generation emerging to succeed them, not least because Iran's influential Guardian Council has the power to reject any election candidates it deems unqualified, Abtahi told AFP.
"The candidates that can pass the Guardian Council's vetting are low-level," he said. "You can't expect much from them." The reformists instead ...

Tough times for Iran's political parties as revolution turns 40

Facebook on Thursday announced it had restructured its team devoted to products or features designed to increase the social network's appeal to younger generations.
Nascent projects such as a "LOL" platform for funny memes were taken off the board at the "youth team," which shifted focus to more promising products such as a Messenger Kids app launched more than a year ago, according to the leading social network.
"The Youth team has restructured in order to match top business priorities, including increasing our investment in Messenger Kids," Facebook said in response to an AFP inquiry.
Facebook in December 2017 introduced a version of its Messenger application designed to let young children connect with others under parental supervision. No in-app purchases are allowed.
The social media giant said at the time that it created the app, available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru and Thailand, because many children were going online without safeguards.
"We found that there was .

Facebook restructures kids team in quest for youth

The toll from a dam collapse at a mine in southeast Brazil's Minas Gerais state has risen to 157 deaths after nearly two weeks of searches, with 182 missing, authorities said Thurday.
Those listed as missing are presumed dead, but not yet located under the layers of muddy mining waste released when the tailings dam broke apart in the town of Brumadinho on January 25.
In recent days, rescue teams have battled rains which limited their ability to fly helicopters over the area.
Virtually all the dead and missing were workers at the iron ore mine, buried under an avalanche of sludgy mining waste when the dam collapsed above the facility's cafeteria and main administrative area.

Toll in Brazil dam disaster rises to 157 dead, 182 missing

A Thai princess will run for prime minister in upcoming elections, in a stunning twist that pits the high-profile royal against the chief of the ruling junta who had hoped to maintain his grip on politics.
Princess Ubolratana, the older sister of Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn, emerged as a candidate for the Thai Raksa Chart party steered by the divisive Shinawatra political clan.
"The board agrees that the name of Princess Ubolratana, an educated and skilled person, is the most suitable choice," Thai Raksa Chart party leader Preechapol Pongpanich told reporters.
The party falls under the tutelage of Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire self-exiled former premier, who stands at the heart of Thailand's bitter decade-long political schism -- loathed by the army and Bangkok elite, yet adored by the rural poor.
The announcement means a royal-fronted party tied to the Shinawatras will directly take on the military party, whose own candidate was also announced Friday as junta leader Prayut ...

Thai princess to run for PM -- against junta chief

He was born in Argentina, made his name in France but lost his life over the English Channel on his way to play for a Welsh club.
On Thursday, it was confirmed that a body recovered by British investigators from the submerged wreckage of a plane that went down in the Channel was that of footballer Emiliano Sala.
The 28-year-old had agreed to leave Nantes in France for Cardiff in the Premier League for a reported 17 million euros last month.
"For me it feels special," the 1.87m-tall Argentine forward had said of his new career.
An imposing physical presence but also adept with his feet, Sala was leaving Ligue 1 having scored 12 goals this season.
- Little known back home -
==========================
That tally also matched his statistics for each of the last two campaigns, and only a certain Lionel Messi has scored more goals this season among Argentine players in the big five European leagues.
Despite that, Sala never played for his country and remained little known back in his ...

Emiliano Sala - the unorthodox Argentine striker made in France

A body recovered by British investigators from the submerged wreckage of a plane that went down in the Channel has been identified as that of footballer Emiliano Sala, police said.
The Argentine striker's body was first spotted by rescuers with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) on Sunday close to where the plane went missing near the British island of Guernsey.
It was recovered on Wednesday and brought to the Isle of Portland in southern England on board the Geo Ocean III offshore supply ship on Thursday for formal identification by coroners, who investigate violent deaths in Britain.
"The body brought to Portland Port today has been formally identified... as that of professional footballer Emiliano Sala," police in Dorset, the county where the body was taken, said on Twitter.
"The families of Mr Sala and pilot David Ibbotson have been updated. Our thoughts remain with them all," police said.
Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which recovered the body, said that bad .

Body in Channel wreckage identified as footballer Sala

Valencia staged another late Cup comeback as Kevin Gameiro's injury-time strike snatched a 2-2 draw with Real Betis in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final at the Benito Villamarin.
Betis, playing in the last four for the first time since lifting the trophy in 2005, grabbed the lead in the semi-final, first leg when Loren nodded home after a short corner routine on the stroke of half-time on Thursday.
The Seville outfit looked to be closing in on a home final against either Barcelona or Real Madrid when 37-year-old former Spain winger Joaquin scored directly from a corner, but Denis Cheryshev pulled one back for Valencia with 20 minutes to play.
Visitors Valencia, having scored twice in injury time to edge out Getafe in the quarters, levelled in the 92nd minute as substitute Gameiro diverted in Rodrigo's low cross.
The two teams will meet again at the Mestalla on February 28.

Valencia late show snatches Copa draw at Betis

Felipe Caicedo scored from the spot as Lazio moved fourth and into the Champions League places with a 1-0 win over struggling Empoli in Serie A.
Ecuadorian international Caicedo forced a penalty just before the break and converted from the spot for his second goal in as many games on Thursday, as Lazio warm-up for their Europa League tie against Sevilla and a Coppa Italia semi-final against AC Milan.
The Roman side had lost ground after back-to-back defeats to Juventus and Napoli but after last week's win over Frosinone have now 38 points from 23 games, overtaking AC Milan who drop two points behind in fifth before they play Cagliari on Sunday.
Eusebio Di Francesco's Roma head for Chievo on Friday looking to build momentum before their Champions League clash against Porto.
Behind runaway leaders Juventus, who have 60 points from 22 games, and second-placed Napoli, nine points behind, the remaining two tickets for the Champions League and the Europa League berths remain up for grabs ...

Caicedo fires resurgent Lazio back into Champions League places

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Thursday accused the publisher of the National Enquirer of "blackmail" after it threatened to publish intimate photographs sent by the billionaire to his mistress if he did not cease an investigation into the newspaper's alleged links with Saudi Arabia.
It comes after the tabloid last month reported Bezos was in a relationship with former news anchor and entertainment reporter Lauren Sanchez -- having accessed private text messages.
In a post on blogging platform Medium Thursday, Bezos said Enquirer publisher American Media Inc (AMI), led by David Pecker, approached him with a threat to publish the photos if he did not halt an investigation into the motives behind that leak.
He added the publication demanded he and security consultant Gavin de Becker, who is leading the probe, publicaly state they had "no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI's coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces."
De Becker mentioned in a recent Daily ...

Bezos accuses Enquirer of 'blackmail' over intimate photos

Australian security agencies have begun using sweeping new powers to access encrypted communications, even before a promised review to address concerns from the likes of Google, Apple and Facebook.
The powers were granted under a new decryption law which was rushed through parliament in December amid fierce debate, and was seen as the latest salvo between governments and tech firms over national security and privacy.
Two months later, the Australian Federal Police have revealed that agents have already used it while investigating drug trafficking and child exploitation.  Under the fresh rules, refusal to grant authorities access to devices is punishable with up to 10 years in prison, and police told a parliamentary inquiry they had used that threat to compel two suspects to hand over their passwords.
Citing secrecy provisions in the law, police declined to say if they had used the new law to force device makers or telecommunications firms -- including global giants like Apple -- to ...

AFP

AFP

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