Eight environmentalists accused of "spying" on Iranian military bases appeared in court Wednesday for a closed-door trial, the official news agency IRNA reported.
"The environmentalists were summoned to the court," Mohammad-Hossein Aghasi, a representative of the accused, told IRNA. Aghasi, however, was not present in court as the state designated its own hand-picked lawyers to represent the defendants, IRNA reported.
"I, as the lawyer of Sam Rajabi, one of those accused in the case, was not invited to the trial," Aghasi was quoted as saying. Aghasi told AFP that he was "puzzled" by the court's decision since "the court should never oppose the lawyer chosen by the accused." Defendants he represents were told that they should change their lawyer, he said.
Four of the environmentalists were accused in October of "corruption on earth" -- a charge that can carry the death sentence in Iran. Another three defendants are accused of espionage and the last has been charged with "conspiracy ...

8 Iran environmentalists accused of 'spying' appear in court

PTI Automatic

The Czech Republic's tax directorate has excluded Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from a tender worth over 20 million euros (USD 22 million), Czech media said Wednesday.
The broadsheet DNES daily said other government institutions were following suit after the country's cyber-security agency warned that Huawei software and hardware posed a threat to state security.
Huawei is facing trouble worldwide, the latest blow being two indictments announced by the US Justice Department on charges of stealing trade secrets, fraud, obstruction of justice and of a top executive accused of violating US sanctions on Iran.
It is also facing trouble in Australia, Britain, New Zealand, Poland and elsewhere, while Germany has advocated caution saying evidence was needed first.
Huawei was the odds-on favourite of a Czech tender to build a tax portal containing sensitive personal data.
The tax directorate tweaked the conditions of the tender following the warning by the Czech National Cyber and Information .

Czechs exclude Huawei from tender amid security concerns

Maria Sharapova's ongoing right shoulder problems led her to pull out of the Saint Petersburg tournament, the organisers said on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old has been struggling back to elite fitness since watching from the sidelines during a 15-month doping ban ended in 2017.
The five-time major winner beat Daria Gavrilova of Australia 6-0, 6-4 in her debut in the tournament, but suffered with her shoulder injury afterwards.
"I have worked hard for months to put it (her shoulder) in order, but to no avail," she said after her match with Gavrilova.
"I still have plenty of work to do."
Sharapova's withdrawal opened the way into the last eight for third-seeded Daria Kasaatkina, who enjoyed an opening round bye.
The former world number one Sharapova failed to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals earlier in January, but claimed she still believes she can increase her tally of five Slam titles.

Shoulder pain forces Sharapova out of St Petersburg

Manchester United's late rally from 2-0 down to snatch a point in a 2-2 draw at home to Burnley on Tuesday was too little, too late for midfielder Paul Pogba.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer missed out on a ninth straight win as caretaker manager despite Pogba's penalty and a stoppage time equaliser from Victor Lindelof as United dropped two points in the race for a top-four finish after falling behind to goals from Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood at Old Trafford.
"We are disappointed with ourselves," said World Cup winner Pogba.
"The way that we played when we conceded the second goal (is how) we should have started," he explained.
"You have to learn from your mistakes and next time I think we need to start the game differently. That's it." A two-goal fightback in the final three minutes plus injury time was reminiscent of the United of old for whom Solskjaer played under Alex Ferguson.
However, after surging back into contention for Champions League qualification, United could fall five points ...

Stay humble, Pogba warns Man Utd after Burnley stumble

Asia's football body promised a "thorough investigation" on Wednesday after the United Arab Emirates' turbulent Asian Cup semi-final loss to arch-rivals Qatar, during which fans hurled shoes and bottles.
Plastic water bottles pelted the turf and several shoes were hurled, an Arab insult, as Qatar celebrated the second goal in Tuesday's 4-0 rout of the tournament hosts in Abu Dhabi.
Akram Afif twice had to delay taking a corner as objects rained down, and Salem Al-Hajri was struck on the head after Qatar's third goal. One plastic bottle struck the crossbar behind Qatari goalkeeper Saad Al-Sheeb.
"The AFC (Asian Football Confederation) is conducting a thorough investigation into events at the (semi-final)," a spokesman told AFP.
"Once the investigation has been completed the AFC will decide on the appropriate steps."
The defeat was deeply embarrassing for the UAE, who are in the midst of a stand-off with Qatar in which several countries have slashed diplomatic and transport links, ...

Asian football body probes shoe-throwing semi-final

Germany on Wednesday slapped down Britain's hopes of persuading Brussels to rewrite the Brexit deal, with Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman saying re-examining the agreement was "not on the agenda".
"Opening the withdrawal agreement is not on the agenda," said Steffen Seibert, a day after British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would seek to revisit the pact she sealed with the 27 EU leaders at a summit last month.
British MPs late Tuesday voted through an amendment saying they would only support a divorce deal if a controversial "backstop" clause to keep the Irish border open was removed.
The German government has taken note of the British parliament's decision to seek "more clarity" on the border issue, said Seibert.
"It is now up to PM Theresa May to give concrete explanations on this issue to the EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker," added the spokesman.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas earlier Wednesday said it remained unclear .

Reopening Brexit deal 'not on agenda': Merkel spokesman

Top US and Chinese trade officials returned to the bargaining table Wednesday, working to avoid a sharp escalation in the trade war between the world's two largest economies.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is leading Beijing's delegation to the talks, with just a month remaining in a 90-day truce declared in December.
The talks also occur against the backdrop of Washington's sweeping prosecution of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, which has outraged Beijing and infused the negotiations with uncertainty.
Should the talks fail, US import duties on $200 billion in Chinese imports are due to more than double on March 2, something economists say could help knock the wind out of global economy's sails.
The world's two largest economies are battling for nothing less than future dominance in critical high-tech industries, according to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the lead US negotiator.
A little over three years ago, Beijing launched a strategic plan dubbed "Made in China 2025" that .

US, China resume trade talks with a chill in the air

A pair of his father's old tandoor ovens helped Hong Kong restaurateur Asim Hussain achieve a dream -- the world's first Michelin star for a Pakistani restaurant, an accolade he hopes will fire interest in the country's often overlooked cuisine.
Like many of Hong Kong's 85,000 strong South Asian population, Hussein's family trace their lineage in the bustling financial hub back generations, when the city was a British colonial outpost.
His great-grandfather arrived during World War One, overseeing mess halls for British soldiers while his Cantonese speaking father owned restaurants in the eighties and nineties.
Hussein, 33, already had some twenty eateries in his group when he decided to embark on his what he described as his most personal and risky project yet, a restaurant serving dishes from Pakistan's Punjab region, the family's ancestral homeland and where he was packed off to boarding school aged six.
His father, a serial entrepreneur and even once Pakistan's ambassador to South 

Hong Kong gifts Pakistan a culinary star

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani slammed his critics on Wednesday, defending the political achievements of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal and calling the US an "oath-breaker".
"One should not condemn the government or the great Islamic system instead of America -- this is the greatest damage that can be done," he said on state TV.
Hardliners have repeatedly hammered the 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers since the early stages of negotiations, calling it a fool's errand and a deception.
They contend that Iran has gained nothing from the agreement despite complying with its restrictions on the Islamic republic's nuclear programme, intensifying their criticism after Washington withdrew from the treaty last year.
Speaking during an annual ceremony of allegiance to the late founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Rouhani said: "America has not been an oath-breaker only to us, but also to Europe, China, NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)."
President ...

Iran's Rouhani tells critics: blame 'oath-breaker' US

A call by Pakistani religious hardliners for protests fell flat Wednesday as Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman at the centre of a years-long blasphemy row, was expected to leave the country having cleared a last legal hurdle.
The Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), which led days of violent mass demonstrations after Bibi was acquitted of blasphemy last year, announced new protests after the Supreme Court upheld her innocence in a fresh ruling Tuesday.
But its leaders remain in detention after a government crackdown several weeks ago, and police deployed heavily at the junction between the capital Islamabad and neighbouring Rawalpindi which the TLP had designated as a protest site, preventing any huge gathering.
A mere 20 people demonstrated in Lahore while just eight mobilised in Rawalpindi, despite emotive calls from the TLP that its supporters "cannot compromise on the honour of the Prophet".
Bibi, a labourer from central Punjab province, was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 and was on ...

Protests fizzle as Bibi expected to leave Pakistan

Two durian fruits have sold for nearly USD 1,000 each in Indonesia, an eye-watering price that lit up social media and prompted awestruck fans to take selfies with the pungent pair.
Fetching 14 million rupiah (USD 990) each, the spiky fruits were displayed in a clear case on red satin and surrounded by fake flowers at a supermarket in Tasikmalaya, a city in West Java province.
The price tag was about eight times the local monthly minimum wage.
Known as the "king of fruits", durians are popular across Southeast Asia.
Fans rave about their creamy texture but many detractors liken their intense aroma to sewage or sweaty socks.
Unlike the usual oblong variety, which sell for just a few dollars, the round "J-Queen" brand durians are reported to be extremely rare and possess the punchiest of aromas.
"The buyer did not want to be named, but he was a durian lover," supermarket manager Heriawan Teten told AFP Wednesday.
Not all internet users were impressed by the extravagant cost.
"The price .

Stinkin' sky-high: Indonesian durians fetch USD 1,000 apiece

The death toll from the sinking of two migrant boats off the coast of Djibouti has risen to 31, the UN migration agency said on Wednesday, with scores still feared missing.
Two vessels carrying migrants departed from Godaria on the Horn of Africa nation's northeast coast on Tuesday morning, but sank in heavy seas 30 minutes into the journey, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
The IOM's chief of mission in Djibouti Lalini Veerassamy told AFP the death toll had hit 31 on Wednesday.
"This tragic event demonstrates the risks that vulnerable migrants face as they innocently search for better lives," she said in a statement issued by IOM.
Sixteen people were recovered alive following the sinking, with one survivor telling Djiboutian authorities there were 130 people on his boat.
The number of passengers on the second vessel remains unclear, as do the nationalities of those onboard.
Located across the Bab el-Mandeb strait from Yemen and next to volatile Somalia .

Death toll hits 31 after migrant boats sink off Djibouti

Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba said Wednesday that net profit increased 37 per cent in the latest quarter as growth in cloud computing and other business lines helped offset a slowing expansion in core online retail.
The company's net profit grew to 33.0 billion yuan (USD 4.9 billion) in the October-December third quarter, compared to 24.1 billion yuan over the same period in 2017.
Alibaba dominates China's emerging consumer culture and its corporate results were widely anticipated for any signs of whether a worsening Chinese economic slowdown and the US-China trade tussle was curbing the country's appetite for shopping.
Revenue growth slowed to 41 per cent in the quarter, with sales in its core e-commerce business coming in at 40 per cent.
While most companies would envy such earnings, that was the slowest increase in more than two years for a company accustomed to blistering rates in excess of 50 or even 60 per cent.
A consensus of analysts polled by Bloomberg had forecast ...

Alibaba profit up 37% but revenue growth eases

Tens of millions of people in the United States are bracing for a potentially life-threatening deep arctic chill forecast to hit swaths of the country on Wednesday.
Companies have told their workers to stay home, schools are closed and hundreds of flights have been canceled.
The US Postal Service -- known for its commitment to bringing the mail whatever the weather -- has even reportedly suspended deliveries in Iowa due to the severe cold.
Temperatures in almost a dozen states stretching more than 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) from the Dakotas to Ohio were forecast to be the coldest in a generation, if not on record.
"One of the coldest arctic air mass intrusions in recent memory is surging south into the Upper Midwest before spreading across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country," the National Weather Service said.
"Expect frigid temperatures, bitterly cold and life-threatening wind chills, likely leading to widespread record lows and low maximum temperatures from the Upper .

Dangerous arctic chill sweeps over US Midwest

A property magnate turned fugitive spy was jailed for the third time in Vietnam on Wednesday after a court convicted him of corruption over murky land deals that cost the state millions of dollars.
Phan Van Anh Vu was convicted as Vietnam's communist government widens a corruption crackdown that has already seen dozens of former high-flying officials, executives and businessmen put behind bars.
The 15-year prison sentence is Vu's third since the property magnate who moonlighted as an intelligence agent was arrested in Singapore and returned to Vietnam last year to face several corruption-related charges.
He was convicted over improper land sales in Danang and Ho Chi Minh City that generated losses for the state worth almost USD 50 million, according to state-controlled VNExpress.
"The sentence is too harsh. The court did not consider several factors that could have reduced the sentence," Vu's lawyer Nguyen Huu The Trach told AFP, adding he would appeal.
Vu was sentenced alongside two .

Former Vietnam spy handed third jail sentence

Neymar will miss both legs of Paris Saint-Germain's upcoming Champions League last-16 tie against Manchester United after the French club confirmed on Tuesday that the world's most expensive player would be out for 10 weeks with a metatarsal injury.
However, Neymar will not undergo an operation, with PSG saying the Brazilian had instead agreed on "a conservative treatment" that could see him return in time for the Champions League quarter-finals in April should they qualify.
"After detailed analysis by specialists, a consensus was reached of a conservative treatment of Neymar's injury to the fifth right metatarsal," the French champions said.
"Informed of this recommendation, Paris Saint-Germain's Brazilian international striker agreed with this protocol. As a result, Neymar is expected to return to the field within 10 weeks." Neymar suffered the injury in PSG's French Cup win against
Strasbourg last week, and his coach Thomas Tuchel had already all but ruled the 222-million-euro ...

Neymar to miss Man Utd tie after being ruled out for 10 weeks

The 2010 World Cup had Paul the Octopus, the NFL has play-call predictor extraordinaire Tony Romo, and this year's Asian Cup has Barcelona great, and now soothsayer, Xavi Hernandez.
The Spanish World Cup winner has proved remarkably skilled off the pitch as well as on it, with a series of stunning predictions about what would happen in the tournament.
He has an almost 100 percent record, including picking Qatar and Japan as surprise finalists.
Before that he correctly predicted seven of the last eight quarter-finalists and three of the four semi-finalists.
The only predictions he has got wrong so far is tipping Syria to get to the last eight -- Vietnam did instead -- and Australia to make the semi-finals, but they lost to the United Arab Emirates.
But apart from that, Xavi has proved remarkably prescient.
He was ridiculed online after he went on Doha-based TV station Al Kass in December and publicly announced his predictions for the tournament.
Many accused the Doha-based star of home 

Soothsayer Xavi has last laugh with Asian Cup predictions

Sri Lanka's preparations for the final Test against Australia suffered further setbacks Wednesday when coach Chandika Hathurusingha was stripped of his team selection responsibilities and their batting coach returned home for personal reasons.
Hathurusingha was officially removed from the on-tour selection panel, governing body Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said, although it is understood he still has a say on player decisions.
"The majority decision of the manager, captain and members of the selection committee shall prevail on any selection made," SLC said in a statement, without giving details about why the change was made.
It added that batting coach Jon Lewis was "on leave to attend a family matter", with Avishka Gunawardena flying to Australia to replace him.
The news came as injured bowlers Lahiru Kumara and Dushmantha Chameera returned home after picking up injuries in the first Test in Brisbane.
Uncapped right arm fast bowler Chamika Karunaratne was picked to replace Kumara.  Sri ..

Sri Lanka suffer more setbacks ahead of Australia Test

Pep Guardiola insists it is far too early to write off Manchester City's chances of defending their Premier League title, but the champions' fourth defeat in nine league games has emboldened Liverpool's hopes of ending a 29-year wait to win the title.
Win at home to Leicester at Anfield on Wednesday and Jurgen Klopp's men will have a seven-point lead over City with just 14 games left to negotiate.
Moreover, there is every chance that lead could be extended in the coming week as City host Arsenal and Chelsea either side of a trip to the other side of Liverpool to face Everton in a testing eight-day stretch starting on Sunday.
"Next week will be tough with Arsenal, Everton and Chelsea," said Guardiola after a shock 2-1 defeat at Newcastle on Tuesday.
"If we want to go up as a club we have to accept that challenge. There are a lot of titles and points to play for."
Unlike Liverpool, who bowed out at the first hurdle of both domestic cups with Klopp fielding weakened teams, Guardiola ...

Long-awaited title Liverpool's to lose after latest Man City slip

The Brexit deal sealed by British PM Theresa May and the EU is the "best and only solution" for an orderly withdrawal, German foreign minister Heiko Maas said Wednesday, stressing the bloc won't leave Ireland isolated.
"Our position is clear: the withdrawal agreement is the best and only solution for an orderly exit," he told the Funke media group, after British MPs voted for May to renegotiate the deal.
MPs late Tuesday voted through an amendment saying they would only support a divorce deal if its controversial "backstop" clause to keep the Irish border open was removed.
Maas said it remained unclear what the British government wants amended.
"It must now quickly say what it wants because time is short," said Maas.
He stressed however that Germany and the EU stood firmly behind Ireland on the issue.
"We won't allow Ireland to be isolated on this question," he said.
Brexit hardliners from May's Conservative party think the backstop -- created to keep the border open with Ireland -- ..

EU Brexit deal is 'best and only solution': German foreign minister

Millions of Chinese have begun the annual exodus for the Lunar New Year, the world's largest annual human migration, leaving major cities to return to their hometowns for the holiday.
The most important holiday in the Chinese calendar places great emphasis on family reunions, and travellers must get home by Monday to usher in the Year of the Pig the following day.
At Beijing Railway Station early on Wednesday, thousands were milling around in the cold, wrapped up in thick coats and wheeling their luggage.
They included a group of children with brightly coloured bags emblazoned with cartoon characters, a stark contrast to the dark, wintry morning.
Readying for a 32-hour journey from Beijing to Huaihua in Hunan province, central China, passengers kept themselves entertained on mobile phones while sipping tea from flasks.
Many who bought standing-only tickets were perched on their luggage along the aisle, or on tiny foldable stools sold on the Beijing platform. Others dozed in their ...

AFP

AFP

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