Up until a few years ago, Jeff Jones was going about his life, minding his own business and enjoying his passion for music.
Then Bernie Sanders burst onto the national political stage, prompting many to do double takes on seeing Jones, who bears a striking resemblance to the Democratic presidential candidate.
"Around 2015, people started asking if anyone told me I looked 'sorta like' Bernie Sanders," Jones, who wears glasses and sports a tuft of white hair like Sanders, told AFP at a recent rally in California for the Vermont senator.
"This happened so often that my youngest daughter Robin suggested I make an 'I am not Bernie' shirt as a gag."
With Sanders riding high in the polls for the presidential nomination, Jones, who lives in Los Angeles, has been making much use of his "I am not Bernie" shirt as he attends rallies for the candidate, gladly posing for pictures with wide-eyed voters.
When asked, Jones, who at 77 is a year younger than his doppelganger, even manages to imitate ...

Bernie Sanders look-alike enjoying the ride

PTI Automatic

Hundreds of Chinese tourists on vacation in Bali are scrambling to avoid going home, fearing both infection from the deadly new coronavirus and Beijing's handling of the epidemic.
Concerns over the rapidly-spreading outbreak prompted Indonesia to shut down all flights to and from China this month, hammering the bottom lines of restaurants, hotels, travel agents and interpreters on the popular resort island.
But with more than 2,800 dead from the COVID-19 illness on the Chinese mainland, and entire cities under lockdown, immigration officials in Bali say nearly a thousand Chinese nationals have applied for emergency visa extensions.
"I'm an international refugee," Steve Li, the manager of a European firm in a major mainland city, told AFP at an upscale mall in the island's capital Denpasar.
"China is like a big prison, all the cities are locked down," he added.
Li says he does not believe Beijing's assurances that the country is getting the epidemic under control.
While he plans to ...

No going back: Bali's Chinese tourists fear virus-hit homeland

He may be languishing in jail but with his books flying off the shelves, Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas has joined an illustrious line of Turkish prison writers.
A former presidential candidate and persistent thorn in the side of Turkey's current leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Demirtas has spent more than three years in jail and faces up to 142 years more if convicted of ties to Kurdish militants, which he denies.
"I am engaged in a major battle of wills because I am a political prisoner and this is motivating me to expose my creativity," Demirtas said in written responses sent to AFP through his lawyers from his cell in western Edirne city.
Despite the possible sentence hanging over him he has found some consolation in his ever-growing number of readers as sales of his books, written in Turkish, reach into the hundreds of thousands.
His first book, Seher (Dawn), was published in 2017 -- a collection of short stories that contain glimpses into daily lives of ordinary people ...

Jailed Kurdish leader becomes literary star behind bars

Washington and the Taliban are set to sign a long-sought deal in Doha on Saturday that would see the two foes agree to the withdrawal of thousands of US troops from Afghanistan in return for insurgent guarantees.
President Donald Trump urged the Afghan people to embrace the chance for a new future, saying the deal held out the possibility of ending the 18-year conflict.
"If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home," he said on the eve of the event.
Trump said he was sending Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to witness the signing of the treaty, and that Defense Secretary Mark Esper would separately issue a joint declaration with the Kabul government.
The agreement is expected to lead to a dialogue between the Kabul government and the Taliban that, if successful, could ultimately see the Afghan war wind down.
But the position of the Afghan government, which has ..

Afghanistan's future in the balance as US, Taliban sign deal

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has refused to rule out postponing international football matches in response to the escalating global threat of the coronavirus.
This weekend's matches in the leading two divisions in Switzerland, where football's global governing body FIFA has its headquarters, were postponed on Friday after the government banned all events involving more than a thousand people.
Meanwhile five Serie A games in Italy will be played behind closed doors, with leagues in Japan and South Korea postponed earlier this week.
"The health of persons is much more important than any football game," said Infantino as he arrived in Belfast on Friday for this weekend's annual general meeting of the rule-making International Football Association Board.
"That's why we have to look at the situation and hope that it (the coronavirus) will decrease rather than increase. At the moment it looks like it is still increasing.
"If games have to be postponed or played without spectators until ..

FIFA warns coronavirus could postpone international matches

Brendan Steele, robbed of a hole in one in heartbreaking style, still emerged with the halfway lead at the Honda Classic, where he fired a three-under par 67 for a one-stroke edge on Friday.
Steele's five birdies at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, included a stunning tee shot at the par-three 15th that circled the cup, dipped down and popped out to leave him inches for birdie.
"I wish it would have gone in, but I was happy to tap in," said Steele, who is chasing a fourth US PGA Tour title.
The American had climbed the leaderboard with a 10-foot birdie putt at the second, a six-footer at the 10th and a 19-foot birdie at 13.
After failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker at 16 he drained another 10-footer for birdie at 17, and even a bogey at 18 -- where his second shot was over the green and in the water -- left him alone atop the leaderboard on five-under 135.
England's Lee Westwood and Luke Donald and American J.T. Poston were a stroke back on 136 and US Open ..

Steele takes slim lead at Honda Classic

Reigning Masters champion Tiger Woods will skip next week's Arnold Palmer Invitational to rest a stiff back and continue preparations for Augusta National, according to multiple reports Friday.
ESPN and Golf Digest reported that the 15-time major winner will not compete at Bay Hill, a course where he has captured eight titles.
"He's not going to play," Woods's agent, Mark Steinberg, told ESPN.
"Back still stiff and just not quite ready." Woods, 44, felt back stiffness at Riviera two weeks ago, saying it was his new normal after multiple back surgeries. He skipped last week's WGC Mexico event.
His next chance to compete will be in two weeks at the Players Championship, a major tuneup for the year's first major tournament next month in Augusta.
"My prep has been just like it usually is," Woods told reporters earlier this week.
"It's what I need to do to get ready for the Masters."
Last year, Woods withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a neck strain, then played in the ...

Tiger to skip Bay Hill with stiff back as Masters looms

Marseille strengthened their grip on second place in Ligue 1 as Dario Benedetto scored a hat-trick in a 3-2 win at lowly Nimes on Friday.
The 29-year-old Argentina international, who joined from Boca Juniors last year, has now scored 11 league goals this season.
Andre Villas-Boas' Marseille now sit 11 points clear of third-placed Rennes and 10 points adrift of runaway leaders Paris Saint-Germain, who host Dijon on Saturday.
"Dario's third goal was the intuition of a real striker," said Villas-Boas.
"He was fundamental, he came to get the ball, held it, guided the team's game, and did what he does best - score goals.
"Eleven goals is very good for a player who is playing his first season in Europe."
Nimes forged ahead in just the fifth minute as they went in search of a fifth win in six Ligue 1 games, when Algerian youngster Zinedine Ferhat reacted quickest to score after Nolan Roux's shot was saved by Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda.
The visitors wasted little time in getting back 

Benedetto hat-trick keeps Marseille clear in second

Leroy Sane ramped up his return from injury as the Manchester City winger played 57 minutes with the club's under-23 side on Friday.
Germany international Sane has not played since suffering a knee ligament injury in the Community Shield against Liverpool in August.
Sane, who was PFA Young Player of the Year in City's 2017-18 Premier League-winning campaign, returned to training last month.
The 24-year-old played his first match since on Friday as City's Elite Development Squad faced Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in Premier League 2.
Sane's return to the pitch is welcome news for City manager Pep Guardiola, who will hope his star can play a role in their bid for a successful end to the season.
"It is always nice to ease back and get a feel for the game," Guardiola had said of Sane before the game.
"It is incredible that first-team players can join in with academy games for recovery. It is good."
Sane, who was a transfer target for Bayern Munich before the injury, showed his relief ..

Man City's Sane steps up return from injury

The leaders of Russia and Turkey held crisis talks Friday after 33 Turkish soldiers died in an air strike in Syria, as Ankara ramped up pressure on Europe by threatening to flood in migrants.
The United States and United Nations urged an end to the Russian-backed Syrian offensive against rebel holdouts, but Turkey appeared intent on easing tensions with Moscow by pinning the blame squarely on President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The flare-up raised fresh concerns for civilians caught up in the escalation of the horrific eight-year civil war, with the UN saying nearly a million people -- half of them children -- have been displaced in the bitter cold by the fighting since December.
Thirty-three Turkish troops were killed late Thursday in the air strike in the northwestern province of Idlib, in the biggest single loss of life by the Turkish military in years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone and looked to scale down tensions, .

Turkey-Russia tensions soar after deadly Syria strike

The World Anti-Doping Agency has cancelled its annual symposium and related athlete session in Switzerland over concerns about the coronavirus epidemic.
In a statement issued on Friday, Montreal-based WADA said it took the decision based on the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health's announcement banning large-scale gatherings of more than 1,000 people in Switzerland until March 15.
The symposium and athlete meeting had been scheduled for March 17-19 at the SwissTech Convention Center in Lausanne.
"WADA is disappointed to announce the cancellation of its Annual Symposium, which has become the annual event for anti-doping practitioners," WADA president Witold Banka said.
"It was a difficult decision as the event attracts almost 1,000 participants from around the world every year.
"However, it was necessary to ensure the health and safety of the Agency's staff and stakeholder community. The Agency commits to ensuring that most of the elements of the Symposium program are delivered via ..

WADA cancels symposium over coronavirus concerns

US health officials on Friday reported a third case of the new coronavirus transmitted to a person who did not travel overseas or come in contact with anyone known to be ill, indicating the disease was spreading in the country.
Authorities said the new case concerned a person living in the western state of Oregon. The adult patient, who has been hospitalised, was known to have had contact with people at an elementary school.
Oregon Health Authority director Patrick Allen told reporters that the case is considered "presumptive" pending confirmation of the test results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We've been expecting this and we're prepared for it," he said.
Officials said the elementary school will be shut down until March 4 as it undergoes a deep clean and as health officials talk to employees and parents.
Two other "community spread" cases have been reported in neighboring California this week.
Both cases involve older people in the northern part of the ...

US reports third case of novel coronavirus of unknown origin

Australian champion swimmer Mack Horton insisted Saturday his bitter feud with Sun Yang was never personal and always about ensuring the sport was clean after the Chinese star was banned for eight years.
The Olympic 400m gold medallist famously snubbed his rival for a photo-call and refused to shake his hand after a medal ceremony at last year's world championships in South Korea, reigniting a row from the 2016 Rio Olympics where Horton labelled Sun a "drug cheat".
His actions appeared vindicated when Sun was found guilty by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Friday of refusing to give a doping sample and banned for eight years.
It was a crushing blow for the triple Olympic gold medal winner, who is idolised in China and vowed to appeal, calling the verdict "unfair".
While Horton's stance won widespread support within the swimming community, it provoked a furious reaction in China with his Instagram account trolled, some even posting death threats.
"I think regardless of the .

Horton says bitter feud with Sun never personal after drug ban

Calls for football to introduce a 'daylight' offside rule in a bid to provide greater clarity have been backed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
This season's English Premier League has witnessed several controversies revolving around offside and in particular how a number of goals have been ruled out by the barest of margins following a check by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
Arsene Wenger, FIFA's chief of global development, said last week the law should be changed so that a player is onside if any part of their body that can score a goal is behind or level with the relevant defender.
Infantino backed the former Arsenal manager's position by saying: "I'm certainly in favour of discussing a new way of looking at the offside rule, to see if it can help, because I think the issue is more an issue of understanding.
"Some of (the decisions) are very, very close and it's difficult for the people who are watching to see whether it's offside, so we have to look at whether we can make .

Infantino backs plan for 'daylight' offside change

Valterri Bottas took his Mercedes to the top of the time charts once again on the final day of pre-season Formula One testing but teammate and world champion Lewis Hamilton warned performances were "not perfect".
Two weeks out from the season-opener in Melbourne, Bottas, runner-up to Hamilton in the world championship in 2019, clocked a best run of 1min 16.196sec off a total of 79 laps.
The Finn also finished the two sessions of winter testing with the fastest overall time of 1:15.732, the only driver to dip below the 1min 16sec mark.  Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Renault's Daniel Ricciardo filled out the top three on Friday with Hamilton in fifth.
"On the whole, these tests were good but not perfect," admitted Hamilton, who this season eyes equalling the record of seven world titles held by German legend Michael Schumacher.
"We have had a lot of problems that we are trying to solve," he added in reference to the need for the team and clients Williams having to change power units ...

Bottas puts Mercedes on top but Hamilton says still 'not perfect'

California health officials on Friday confirmed a second suspected US case of the new coronavirus transmitted to a person who did not travel overseas or come in contact with anyone known to be ill, prompting fears of a possible outbreak in the country.
"This new case indicates that there is evidence of community transmission but the extent is still not clear," said Sara Cody, director of public health for Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley where tech giants like Apple and Google are based.
"What we know now is that the virus is here, present at some level, but we still don't know to what degree," she added.
The patient in the second case of community spread of COVID-19, as the virus is called, is an adult woman with chronic health issues. She is being treated at a local hospital.
Cody said the woman's doctor had reached out to health officials on Wednesday evening, concerned she may have contracted the virus.  Authorities have identified dozens of people the woman had ...

California confirms second US coronavirus case of unknown origin

The White House won a key victory for presidential power Friday when an appeals court rejected a lawsuit over President Donald Trump blocking his former legal advisor from honoring a Congressional subpoena.
The Washington appeals court ruled two-to-one that the US judicial branch has no power to decide whether Trump could prevent former White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying in an investigation of the president by the House Judiciary Committee.
McGahn had been called last year to testify in the impeachment investigation of Trump, particularly on allegations that Trump illegally obstructed the Russia political interference probe.
But McGahn refused to appear on Trump's instruction, with the White House citing Trump's executive privileges.
The issue provoked a rare constitutional showdown in which the judiciary was asked to rule on the power struggle between the two other branches of government -- the executive and legislative.
The House Judiciary Committee sued McGahn in the ...

Trump wins key court case on snub of Congressional subpoenas

China's manufacturing activity fell to its lowest level on record in February as official data on Saturday confirmed the massive damage the deadly coronavirus epidemic has caused to the world's second-largest economy.
The announcement comes as the epidemic has rapidly spread to a growing number of countries, pushing stock markets to their lowest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis over fears that the coronavirus could wreak havoc on the world economy.
Analysts have warned that China's economic growth will likely take a major hit in the first quarter, and Saturday's data was the first glimpse at the damage the virus has caused to industries across the country.
The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), a key gauge of activity in China's factories, was at 35.7 points in February, well below the 50-point mark that separates growth and contraction every month.
This was down from 50 points in January and the worst level since China began recording the figure in 2005.
It was also well .

Virus hammers China's February economic activity: data

South Korea confirmed 594 more coronavirus cases on Saturday, the biggest increase to date for the country and taking the national total to 2,931 infections with three additional deaths.
More than 90 per cent of the new cases were in Daegu, the centre of the country's outbreak, and its neighbouring North Gyeongsang province, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.
Three women in the Daegu area died of the illness, taking the national toll to 16, the statement added. One of the victims was aged in her 90s.
The national total is expected to rise further with screening of more than 210,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive entity often accused of being a cult that is linked to around half of the country's cases.
The streets of Daegu -- South Korea's fourth-largest city with a population of 2.5 million -- have been largely deserted for days, apart from long queues at the few shops with masks for sale.
Authorities have urged the ...

S Korea reports 594 more coronavirus cases, total 2,931

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned top party officials of the "serious consequences" of failing to prevent an outbreak of the new coronavirus in the country, state media reported Saturday.
The impoverished nation, with a weak and ill-equipped healthcare system, has closed its borders to prevent the spread of the disease into its territory.
Kim told a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea that the fight against the virus was a "crucial state affair for the defence of the people" that required maximum discipline, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"In case the infectious disease spreading beyond control finds its way into our country, it will entail serious consequences," KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
Two senior officials -- party vice-chairmen Ri Man Gon and Pak Thae Dok -- were sacked, and a party unit disbanded for corruption, the report said, indicating that they might have been involved in graft linked with the anti-epidemic measures.
"No special .

Kim warns of 'serious consequences' if virus reaches North Korea

US President Donald Trump announced Republican lawmaker John Ratcliffe as his intelligence chief Friday, sparking fresh controversy over a crucial position that has lacked a permanent office holder for months.
The 53-year-old Trump loyalist was nominated as director of national intelligence after Dan Coats stepped down in July last year, but withdrew from consideration after strong criticism of his credentials from Democrats and a tepid response from key Republicans.
Trump instead named counterterrorism expert Joseph McGuire as acting director, overseeing the 17 agencies of the intelligence community including the CIA and National Security Agency.
But he forced McGuire out on February 20 after a senior intelligence official told Congress in a closed briefing that the Russians were again supporting Trump's bid for re-election.
The revolving door continued to spin as Trump appointed another loyalist, Richard Grenell, two weeks ago. But the former ambassador to Germany had no relevant ...

AFP

AFP

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