At least 65 people were killed in a Taliban-claimed attack on an Afghan intelligence base, security sources said Tuesday, raising the toll substantially from 12 announced previously.
Militants detonated a vehicle packed with explosives at the training facility before gunmen arrived in a car and opened fire.
"We took about 65 bodies out of the rubble yesterday," Mohammad Sardar Bakhyari, deputy head of the provincial council in Wardak province, where the attack occurred on Monday in the latest blow to beleaguered security forces.
A senior security official who spoke on condition of anonymity gave an even higher toll of at least 70 killed.
On Monday provincial officials told AFP just 12 people had been killed in the attack. Figures given by officials to other media ranged from 12 dead to more than 100 killed.
Bakhyari's announcement came after nearly a day of confusion surrounding the toll.
On Monday provincial officials told AFP just 12 people had been killed in the attack. Figures ...

At least 65 killed in Taliban attack on Afghan intel base: sources

PTI Automatic

Around 65 people were killed in a Taliban-claimed attack on an Afghan intelligence base, a local official said Tuesday, raising the toll substantially from 12 announced previously.
"We took about 65 bodies out of the rubble yesterday," Mohammad Sardar Bakhyari, deputy head of the provincial council in Wardak province, where the attack occurred on Monday in the latest blow to beleaguered security forces.
A senior security official who spoke on condition of anonymity gave an even higher toll of at least 70 killed.

Around 65 killed in Taliban attack on Afghan intel base: local official

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa has landed back in Harare, state television said Tuesday, after cutting short a foreign tour over nationwide protests that were met with a brutal security crackdown.
Police and soldiers launched a large-scale operation against suspected protestors, activists and organisers of the strike last week, which was triggered by a sharp rise in fuel prices.
At least 12 people were killed and 78 treated for gunshot injuries, according to the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, which recorded more than 240 incidents of assault and torture.
About 700 people have been arrested.
"I am happy that the country is quiet. Our people should concentrate on their work," Mnangagwa said after landing late on Monday night. "There are channels of communication. We want Zimbabwe developed." The High Court in Harare ruled Monday that government had no powers to order the shutdown of the internet which was imposed as protests swept across the country.
Handing down judgement in a 

Mnangagwa returns to Zimbabwe after protest crackdown

A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumba on Tuesday, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage.
It followed a pair of offshore quakes in the same area earlier Tuesday, including one that was 6.1 magnitude.
The latest one struck about 85 kilometres (53 miles) south of the town of Kahale, according to the United States Geological Survey.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
"This quake doesn't have any tsunami potential," said Indonesian disaster agency spokesman Hary Tirto Djatmiko.
Indonesia is still reeling from a deadly tsunami at the end of December triggered by an erupting volcano in the middle of the Sunda Strait between the Java and Sumatra islands that killed more than 400 people.
The vast Southeast Asian archipelago is extremely vulnerable to disasters because of its position straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.
The tsunami was Indonesia's third 

Strong 6.4-magnitude quake hits off Indonesia

A group of former diplomats and academics have signed an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping calling for the release of two Canadians who have been detained on allegations of espionage.
Former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor were last month arrested in China for activities that "endanger China's security" - a phrase often used by Beijing when alleging espionage.
Their detentions are thought to be in retaliation for Canada's arrest on a US request of Huawei vice president Meng Wanzhou, who is accused of violating Iran sanctions.  The letter said both Kovrig and Spavor worked to improve understanding of China and to promote better relations with the world.
"Kovrig and Spavor's detentions send a message that this kind of constructive work is unwelcome and even risky in China," read the page-long letter, which had 143 signatories from 19 countries.
The list includes six former Canadian ambassadors to China: Fred Bild, Joseph Caron, Earl Drake, David ...

Ex-diplomats, scholars urge China to release Canadians

Eye-watering, throat-scratching air pollution is a major driver of big city blues in China, according to a study that matched social network chatter with fine-particle pollution levels.
"The take-away is simple," lead author Siqi Zheng, an associate professor at MIT and director of the University's China Future City Lab, told AFP. "Higher levels of air pollution lower people's happiness in the world's most populous country."
Dirty air is not the only blight on life in urban China, which is also plagued by soaring housing prices, worries over food safety, and poor public services. But health-wreaking pollution - especially microscopic bits from coal-fired power plants and factories that settle in the lungs - is a long-standing gripe of the country's burgeoning middle class.
More than a million premature deaths every year in China can be chalked up to air pollution, the World Health Organization and other research groups have concluded. A toxic cocktail of small and larger particulate ..

In China, unhappiness tracks poor air quality

Russia and Japan's leaders meet for talks in Moscow Tuesday over the disputed island chain that has long prevented a peace treaty to end World War II. But recent rhetoric has dampened hopes of a breakthrough.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit marks the 25th time he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met since 2013, a reflection of their efforts to build cooperation despite their disagreement over the Kuril islands.
The Soviet Army seized the four islands, between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean, in the last days of World War II.
Tokyo's refusal to recognise Moscow's sovereignty there has been a barrier to peace for over seven decades.
Despite a flurry of diplomacy since November, when the two leaders agreed to step up peace talks, recent statements from both capitals suggest a compromise is still far off.
Moscow responded furiously to Abe's New Year's message, in which he said Russians living on the islands should be helped to accept that the "sovereignty of ..

Putin, Abe hold summit to break island impasse

Cristiano Ronaldo is returning to Madrid for a court date on Tuesday in which he could be fined 18.8 million euros (USD 21.4 million) for tax fraud as part of a deal reached with the Spanish taxman.
As part of an agreement arranged in June with the former Real Madrid hero's lawyers, prosecutors are also asking that the Portuguese attacker, who last summer left the Spanish capital for Italian champions Juventus, be handed a 23-month jail sentence.
However, Ronaldo would not spend a day in prison as sentences of up to two years are generally not enforced in Spain for first-time offenders in non-violent crimes.
The hearing, due to start at 9:50 am (0850 GMT), is expected to last just a few minutes as the deal is officially presented to the judge.
He in turn will give the final sentence on Tuesday or the coming days, according to a spokesman for the court in northern Madrid.
Ronaldo will not be given special treatment when he arrives and will have to climb up the courthouse steps amid a ..

Ronaldo faces multi-million tax fraud fine in Madrid court

Ghanaian forward Kevin-Prince Boateng has vowed to make the most of his shock arrival at Barcelona, after a loan move for the journeyman from Italian side Sassuolo was sealed.
The leaders of La Liga said in a statement on Monday they had agreed a deal to take Boateng on loan until the end of the season, with an option to make the move permanent in the summer.
"The agreement includes an eight-million-euro (USD 9 million) purchase option," the club said.
The arrival of Boateng, 31, will provide much-needed cover for Luis Suarez up front in Ernesto Valverde's squad following the departure of Munir El Haddadi to Sevilla.
The fiery forward has been a successful stopgap many times before, which Barca boss Ernesto Valverde valued in his decision to bring him in.
"He doesn't seem to need much time to adapt, he knows his stuff and can start playing straight away," Valverde.
"He's comfortable in many positions, as a central striker or playing off another striker, and even deeper too," Valverde .

Boateng to seize his chance after shock Barcelona move

Hosts United Arab Emirates ended Kyrgyzstan's fairytale with a controversial extra-time penalty to reach the Asian Cup quarter-finals as holders Australia and Japan also advanced.
A knee-wobbling, chest-thumping Mathew Ryan saved two spot kicks as the Socceroos beat Uzbekistan's White Wolves in a shootout, while the Blue Samurai bundled out Saudi Arabia  on Monday.
Substitute Ahmed Khalil was UAE's hero on an angst-ridden Abu Dhabi night as he converted another late penalty after a refereeing decision that could charitably be described as "soft".
"I don't want to talk about the referee," growled Kyrgyzstan coach Aleksandr Krestinin.
"We leave the tournament with a lot of regrets -- we deserved more. It's our first Asian Cup but I'm absolutely sure it won't be our last and we will come back stronger."
Kyrgyz substitute Tursunali Rustamov had stunned the Emirates when he snatched a dramatic stoppage-time equaliser at the end of a nail-biting contest that began so poorly for the former ..

Another late penalty rescues UAE at Asian Cup as Ryan saves Aussies

Marcus Rashford was in danger of seeing his dream of becoming Manchester United's star striker turn to dust but the England forward is flourishing again after escaping Jose Mourinho's shackles.
Three years after exploding onto the Premier League scene, Rashford marked his 150th United appearance on Saturday with a memorable goal that underlined his vast potential.
Smoothly turning away from Brighton's Pascal Gross, Rashford curled a fine shot into the top corner as United sealed a seventh successive win since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over as interim manager.
Solskjaer's arrival in December to replace the sacked Mourinho has proved a catalyst for United's surge, and Rashford has been at the heart of their success.
Rashford has scored five times in six league matches following the Norwegian's appointment, earning comparisons from his manager with former United stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.
"Definitely he can be absolutely top-class. He is only 21 but the maturity he is ...

Rashford comes in from the cold at Man United

Russia will discover Tuesday whether they are to face fresh sanctions over December's missed deadline to allow WADA investigators access to the Moscow laboratory at the epicentre of the state-sponsored doping scandal.
The World Anti-Doping Agency meets via conference call at 1300 GMT to discuss recommendations on the compliance of the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA).
This is the latest chapter in an affair that surfaced with Richard McLaren's July 2016 report detailing doping in Russia from 2011 to 2015 involving more than 1,000 athletes across more than 30 sports.
The Canadian lawyer's damning revelations led to Russia's athletics team being barred from the 2016 Rio Olympics and Russian competitors exiled from the 2018 Winter Olympics.
WADA had conditionally lifted a ban on RUSADA in September, with one of the conditions being the granting of access to thousands of samples at the tainted Moscow lab by the end of 2018.
But when a WADA team arrived last month, Russian authorities ..

Russia waits on WADA missed doping deadline verdict

England are solid favourites although history is on the side of the underdog West Indies ahead of the first Test of the three-match series starting Wednesday at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown.
Riding a wave of five consecutive victories - eight in nine matches going back to the last English summer - which includes series wins over top-ranked India and an historic sweep in Sri Lanka, the tourists appear supremely confident of overturning the disappointments of their last two Caribbean campaigns.
England have only won one Test series in the West Indies in the past 50 years, a 3-0 triumph in 2004, and failed to live up to expectations in 2009, when they lost 1-0, and again in 2015 when a five-wicket triumph inside three days by the unfancied hosts at the same Kensington Oval venue resulted in a shared series.
While the weight of expectation will be on the visitors' shoulders, West Indies face a daunting task to halt a run of four consecutive defeats, all within three days, on a disastrous 

England begin crucial year with tour to unfancied Windies

Serena Williams is emotionally and physically ready to win another Grand Slam, unlike during her famous meltdown in the final of the US Open last year, according to coach Patrick Mouratoglou.
The 37-year-old American stormed past top seed Simona Halep to reach the quarter-finals at the Australian Open on Monday, with the Romanian saying it felt like being "hit by a train".
Long-time coach Mouratoglou said Williams was in a different space to the one she occupied at Flushing Meadows, when she controversially lost the decider to Naomi Osaka during her comeback from having a baby.
In that match, Williams lost the plot, receiving a code violation for coaching, a penalty point for racquet abuse and a game penalty for calling the umpire a "liar" and a "thief".
Mouratoglou admitted "I don't think she was ready" to win a final back then.
"There is a big difference between reaching a final and winning it," he added.  But four months on from that chapter of her life that Williams now refuses to 

Steely Serena in 'different space', ready for record Slam win - coach

Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty but Italian league leaders Juventus eased past bottom club Chievo 3-0 to pull nine points clear on top of Serie A  as AC Milan returned to the Champions League berths with a 2-0 win in Genoa.
Portuguese superstar Ronaldo had sealed Juventus's first title of the season -- a record eighth Italian Super Cup trophy against AC Milan last Wednesday in Saudi Arabia.
But the 33-year-old was off-form in the first league game after a three-week winter break and on the eve of his return to Madrid where he will appear in court for tax fraud charges dating back to his time with Real Madrid.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner missed numerous chances with Chievo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino denying Ronaldo, who has scored 14 times in the league, a first goal from the spot this season.
But Juventus were never worried by Chievo with Douglas Costa and Emre Can scoring in the first half and Daniele Rugani heading in a third six minutes from time.
"I don't think it's the 

Ronaldo misses penalty but Juventus ease past Chievo

In-form wicketkeeper Matthew Wade has blasted Cricket Australia after he was overlooked for a recall to the Test side to face Sri Lanka, saying he and other players were unclear about the criteria for national selection.
Wade, who whacked an unbeaten 84 from 49 balls for the Twenty20 Big Bash League's Hobart Hurricanes on Monday night, has scored over 1,000 runs across all formats this summer.
The 31-year-old has also been the leading run scorer in the domestic Sheffield Shield with Tasmania.
Despite his performances, selectors opted to add Kurtis Patterson to the squad for the first Test starting Thursday, with national selector Trevor Hohns hailing his back-to-back centuries for a Cricket Australia XI in Hobart last week.
"I get told one thing, then I see the comments in the paper the next day about Kurtis piling runs on and getting picked," Wade said after the BBL game, cricket.com.au reported.
"I'm not sure what's going on. It's just a little bit frustrating that on one hand you ..

'What's going on?': In-form Wade blasts CA over Test snub

Facebook-owned mobile messaging platform WhatsApp has announced it was restricting how many times any given message can be forwarded in an effort to boost privacy and security.
In July, WhatsApp rolled out safeguards in India that included limiting the number of users to whom a message can be forwarded. It also ran newspaper ads to raise awareness about fake news.
That decision followed threats by the Indian government to take action after crazed mobs butchered more than 20 people accused of child kidnapping and other crimes in viral, widely-circulated WhatsApp messages.
WhatsApp said its latest move to extend the restrictions to all users came after a six-month review of user feedback.
"The forward limit significantly reduced forwarded messages around the world," read a company statement on Monday about a test run of the forwarding limit.
"Starting today, all users on the latest versions of WhatsApp can now forward to only five chats at once, which will help keep WhatsApp focused on .

WhatsApp limits message forwarding to fight 'fake news'

A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian coast early Tuesday, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage.
The quake hit at a depth of 31 kilometres (19 miles) off Sumba island, some 150 kilometres west southwest of the city of Waingapu, according to the United States Geological Survey.
It was followed by a weaker quake in the same area with an initial reading of 5.2 magnitude, according to Indonesia's disaster agency.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
Indonesia is still reeling from a deadly tsunami at the end of December triggered by an erupting volcano in the middle of the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra islands that killed more than 400 people.
The vast Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most disaster-hit nations on Earth due to its position straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.
The tsunami was Indonesia's third major natural disaster in six months, ...

Strong 6.1-magnitude quake hits off Indonesia

A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli soldiers south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said Tuesday.
"A Palestinian was killed after the (Israeli) occupation forces opened fire on him," the ministry said, without elaborating on the details.
The statement came shortly after the Israeli army said its soldiers had "neutralised" a knife-wielding assailant in the same area.
The Israeli army said the first results of an investigation showed the assailant had arrived in a car from Nablus and tried to stab a soldier who was manning a checkpoint.
"Another soldier responded by firing at the terrorist and neutralising him," it said in a statement, adding that no soldiers were injured in the attack.
The West Bank was hit by a bout of unrest in December as tensions eased in the Gaza Strip. They later also eased in the West Bank.

Palestinian killed by Israeli soldiers in West Bank: ministry

Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Maciej Lang met in Tehran with his Iranian counterpart in an effort to solve a dispute over a conference his country is to host.
Lang described as "constructive" his talks with Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi over the jointly organised conference with the United States on peace and security in the Middle East.
"We spoke about a wide range of issues, including misunderstandings about the Warsaw conference, and I presented our point of view on this issue. We had a long discussion and I hope that I did it in a clear way," Lang told AFP in an interview.
"For Poland this conference is not against any country," he said.  The summit had first been announced on January 11 by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said that it "includes an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilising influence" in the region.
The Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement the reasons provided by the Polish government for co-organising the ...

Polish deputy FM in Tehran over conference row

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will visit Qatar, state media in the Gulf state said, in what would be his first trip abroad since widespread protests began against his rule.
Bashir would arrive in Doha on Tuesday and meet the country's ruler, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the following day, according to the Qatar News Agency.
"Brotherly relations between the two countries will be discussed," at the two leaders' meeting as well as issues of mutual interest, said the QNA.  No further details were given.
Anti-government protests against Bahir's iron-fisted rule began on December 19 after his government's decision to triple the price of bread.  The demonstrations have spread to several cities and officials say 26 people have died so far in the protests, while rights group Amnesty International has put the death toll at more than 40.
They are the biggest challenge yet to the authority of Bashir, who swept to power in 1989 in an Islamist-backed coup.
Sudan is facing an economic ..

AFP

AFP

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