Jens Nygaard Knudsen, who designed the iconic Lego minifigure with interchangeable legs and torsos, has died while in hospice care from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), his former colleague said Saturday.
The 78-year old former designer passed away on Wednesday at a hospice centre where he had stayed for a week, according to Lego designer Niels Milan Pedersen, a former colleague for Nygaard Knudsen.
"His imagination was so fantastic. If we had a brainstorm it was more like a brain hurricane, because he had so many ideas,"Milan Pedersen told AFP.
Nygaard Knudsen, who died at the Anker Fjord Hospice outside the small town of Hvide Sande on the Danish west coast, was a designer at the Danish toy brick maker from 1968 to 2000.
He worked with developing the now legendary minifigure with movable arms and legs in the 1970s, before it was first released in 1978.
According to Lego, it was decided when the figure was created that it - besides having a yellow face with a neutral happy ...

Creator of LEGO figure dead at 78

PTI Automatic

Egypt's state prosecutor decided to re-arrest and put on trial a doctor for performing a genital mutilation operation on a 12-year-old girl who died, his office said Saturday.
The procedure known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has been banned in Egypt since 2008, but the practice remains rife in the conservative Muslim country with many believing it promotes women's chastity.
In January, Nada Hassan Abdel Maqsood died after undergoing an FGM operation, sparking fury online and in the media.
Her father filed a police complaint leading to the arrest of the doctor, but earlier this month he was released on bail by a court after the physician claimed he had only carried out "cosmetic surgery".  But according to the prosecutor's office, the coroner carried out an autopsy on the girl's body and determined she had died of shock and pain linked to FGM.
The prosecutor ordered the doctor, Abdel Fadeel Reshwan, to stand trial for FGM that led to the death of the 12-year-old girl.  Her ...

Egypt doctor to face trial over deadly genital mutilation

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said he would hold a summit with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany on March 5 to discuss the situation in Syria's last rebel enclave of Idlib.
"We will come together on March 5 and discuss these issues," Erdogan said in a televised speech, following a phone call on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his tele-conference with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Erdogan to hold Syria summit with Russia, France and Germany

Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett said VAR got it badly wrong in Tottenham's 2-1 Premier League defeat at Chelsea on Saturday.
Referee Michael Oliver deemed that Giovani Lo Celso's rash challenge on Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta at Stamford Bridge did not warrant a red card and VAR upheld his decision.
According to BT Sport, officials at the VAR hub in London later admitted the decision was wrong and Hackett took to Twitter to demand those responsible for VAR decisions "update" themselves on the laws of the game.
"Come on David Coote VAR," Hackett said. "That is a red card every day. It's not a difficult decision. Lo Celso should have received a red card.
"Now I want to know who is the person at the centre of the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Board Limited) statement. I suggest that he goes to http://theifab.com and updates himself on LOTG (laws of the game)."
VAR was introduced to the Premier League for the first time this season and fans are growing ...

Ex-ref criticises VAR over Lo Celso decision in Chelsea v Spurs match

Kim Clijsters, the former world No.1 who made her comeback this week in Dubai, had to undergo six doping tests before she could return to the circuit, according to official data.
According to International Tennis Federation (ITF) documents published this week, the Belgian, who announced her comeback last summer, was obliged to take the out-of-competition tests to be able to return in 2020 as a 'reinstated' player.
Three-time US Open winner Clijsters, 36, had been out of the game for seven years before losing her return match 6-2, 7-6 (8-6) to world number 16 Garbine Muguruza, herself a two-time Grand Slam champion and finalist at this year's Australian Open.

Clijsters faced six doping tests before comeback

Mo Farah says he has suffered "financially and emotionally" from his association with disgraced coach Alberto Salazar, who is banned from athletics for four years over doping violations.
The American coach, who is appealing against his sanction at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, led the Nike Oregon Project, which included British distance runner Farah among its stable of athletes between 2011 and 2017.
It was shut down after Salazar's ban, imposed in October by the US Anti-Doping Agency.
Four-time Olympic champion Farah, said in January he would have ended the relationship with Salazar much sooner had he known the coach was facing a ban.
But, speaking to The Times, Farah, who will bid for a third successive 10,000-metres Olympic title in Tokyo this year, has suggested some sponsors have turned their back on him due to headlines highlighting his Salazar links.
He said: "If I wasn't Mo Farah and I saw Mo Farah and I'm seeing these headlines, I'd question... yeah, I'd ask the same ...

Farah says he has 'suffered' from Salazar links

Octogenarian billionaire Warren Buffett said Saturday that his Berkshire Hathaway empire, with holdings in major American financial firms, is ready for his departure as well as that of his longtime partner Charlie Munger, aged 96.
Dubbed the "Oracle of Omaha," Buffett is known for his track record of brilliant investing but also for his folksy and humble persona, as well as his philanthropy.
"Charlie and I long ago entered the urgent zone," Buffett, 89, quipped in his annual letter to shareholders.
"That's not exactly great news for us. But Berkshire shareholders need not worry: Your company is 100 per cent prepared for our departure." Buffett, the world's third-richest man, did not go into detail or name a successor.
At an annual shareholders meeting last May, he gave a clue as to who might follow him, when he said that Gregory Able and Ajit Jain would in the near future join him and Munger on the stage to answer shareholders' questions.
Able, 57, and Jain, 67, had been promoted to ..

Berkshire Hathaway 100% ready for Buffett departure, he says

A partial truce marking a potential turning point in Afghanistan's gruelling war appeared to be holding Saturday, with only isolated attacks threatening to mar a process that drew jubilant civilians across the shattered country onto streets to celebrate.
The Taliban, US and Afghan forces have all agreed to a so-called "reduction in violence", marking only the second lull in fighting since the US-led invasion of 2001.
"It is the first morning that I go out without the fear of being killed by a bomb or suicide bomber. I hope it continues forever," Kabul taxi driver Habib Ullah said, while in other parts of the country people danced in the streets after the truce kicked in at midnight.
However in Balkh province in the north, Taliban fighters attacked a district headquarters near the provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing two Afghan soldiers, a local official told AFP. There were also reports of a separate incident in central Uruzgan province.
General Scott Miller, who leads US and 

Partial truce mostly holds across Afghanistan on first day

A few hundred protesters marched across central London Saturday to call on Britain to reject WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition to the United States at hearings that start next week.
A London court is to meet Monday to assess Washington's request to hand over the media freedoms activist so he can be tried for releasing classified files in 2010 about US campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The 48-year-old Australian is facing 18 counts - 17 of them under the US Espionage Act - that could see him sentenced to prison terms of up to 175 years.
Supporters of Assange's freedom gathered outside the Australian government's representative office and then marched though central London for a rally outside parliament.
Some chanted "journalism is not a crime" and held up banners mocking Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The UK government plays no formal role in the extradition case. Monday's hearing is expected to last a week and then resume for a second session starting on May 18.
Any ...

Londoners rally for Assange ahead of extradition hearing

An Egyptian court on Saturday acquitted two sons of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and six others in a case known in the Egyptian media as stock exchange manipulation.
A judicial official told AFP that the Cairo criminal court decided to acquit Alaa and Gamal Mubarak and the other defendants of any wrongdoing in the case.
Mubarak's sons were arrested in September 2018 for alleged stock market manipulation were released on bail days later.
Among those acquited with them was prominent businessman Hassan Heikal, son of the late writer Mohammed Hassanein Heikal.
Since the 2011 ouster of Hosni Mubarak, a number of legal proceedings have been launched against the three-decade ruler and his relatives.
The "stock exchange manipulation" case as it is known in Egypt dates back to 2012, when Egypt's state prosecutor referred the six suspects to court "for illegally obtaining more than two billion
Egyptian pounds (USD 128.5 million)".  Mubarak's sons were accused of "profiting and ...

Egypt court acquits Mubarak's sons over stock exchange case

A late cameo by Wanindu Hasaranga helped Sri Lanka pull off a thrilling chase to edge out West Indies by one wicket in the first one-day international on Saturday.
Hasaranga, known for his leg-spin bowling, hit an unbeaten 42 after coming in to bat at number eight as Sri Lanka chased down their target of 290 with five balls to spare and lead the three-match series 1-0.
Hasaranga held his nerve after Sri Lanka slipped to 253 for seven following the departure of Thisara Perera for 32 to register his highest ODI score.
He built crucial partnerships including a 38-run stand with Perera and then put on 27 runs with Lakshan Sandakan for the ninth wicket.
With one to get off the last six ball Sandakan was run out but Keemo Paul bowled a no ball.
"Of course, winning is the ultimate thing but we made couple of mistakes that we have to learn from," skipper Dimuth Karunaratne, who top-scored with 52, said after the victory.
"Both me and Avishka Fernando could have converted our fifties into ...

Hasaranga stars as Sri Lanka clinch ODI thriller

A British court on Saturday charged a 29-year-old homeless man with causing grievous bodily harm and possessing an illegal knife he used to stab a mosque leader during prayers.
Suspect Daniel Horton stabbed London Central Mosque's muazzin Raafat Maglad during daily prayers on Thursday.
London police quickly ruled out a terror motive.
Maglad was treated at a London hospital and returned to the mosque for Friday's evening service with his arm wrapped in a sling.
"I forgive him. I feel very sorry for him," Maglad told reporters on Friday.
"To me, as a Muslim, I don't need to put any hatred in my heart." Prosecutor Tanyia Dogra said Maglad had suffered a wound to his neck.
She also told the court that the two men knew each other because Horton had come to the Regent's Park area mosque in northwest London several times over the years.
Horton was remanded in custody ahead of another court hearing on March 20.

Homeless man charged in London mosque stabbing

Thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts have launched a coordinated effort to spread alarm about the new coronavirus, disrupting global efforts to combat the epidemic, US officials told AFP.
The disinformation campaign promotes unfounded conspiracy theories that the United States is behind the COVID-19 outbreak, in an apparent bid to damage the US image by seizing on international health concerns, they said.
False personas are being used on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to advance Russian talking points and conspiracies, including suggesting that the CIA is behind the virus that has claimed more than 2,300 lives, mostly in China.
"Russia's intent is to sow discord and undermine US institutions and alliances from within, including through covert and coercive malign influence campaigns," said Philip Reeker, the acting Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia.
"By spreading disinformation about coronavirus, Russian malign actors are once again choosing to threaten .

US says Russia behind huge coronavirus disinformation campaign

South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar was sworn in as first vice president on Saturday, formally rejoining the government in the latest bid to bring peace to a nation ravaged by six years of war.
"I do hereby swear that I shall be faithful and bear diligence to the Republic of South Sudan," Machar said in his oath in front of a room packed with diplomats, the leader of Sudan, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and other regional representatives.
Machar embraced and shook hands with his bitter rival President Salva Kiir, with whom he will be attempting to govern for the third time since the country's independence in 2011.
The pair finally agreed this week -- under strong pressure from the region and abroad -- to go ahead with a unity government which was the cornerstone of a September 2018 peace deal.
Kiir on Friday dissolved his government ahead of the formation of the new government on Saturday.

S Sudan rebel leader Machar sworn in as vice president

The World Health Organisation warned Saturday that African health systems would be ill-equipped to respond to the deadly coronavirus outbreak should cases start to proliferate on the continent.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on African Union member states "to come together to be more aggressive in attacking" the virus, known as COVID-19.
"Our biggest concern continues to be the potential for COVID-19 to spread in countries with weaker health systems," Tedros, speaking by video link from Geneva, said during a meeting of African health ministers at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The outbreak which began in December has already killed more than 2,200 people and infected more than 75,500 in China.
More than 1,150 people have also been infected outside China, although Egypt is the only African country to have recorded a confirmed case.
There have been more than 200 suspected cases in the WHO's AFRO region, which includes most African countries, though nearly all have been ...

WHO sounds alarm over Africa coronavirus preparedness

Finance ministers and central bank governors from G20 nations weighed the potential impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the world economy as they met in Riyadh Saturday for a two-day gathering.
At the meeting in Saudi Arabia, the first Arab nation to hold the G20 presidency, financial leaders from the world's top 20 economies are also seeking consensus on ways to achieve a global taxation system for the digital era.
The gathering comes amid growing alarm over the new coronavirus as Chinese authorities lock down millions of people to prevent the spread of the disease, with major knock-on effects for the global economy.
The virus has now claimed 2,345 lives in China, cutting off transportation and forcing businesses to close their doors.
The impact of the epidemic could see a "V-shaped" trajectory, with a sharp decline in China's GDP followed by a sharp recovery, but the situation could have more dire consequences for other countries as the impacts spill over, said IMF chief ...

G20 ministers weigh coronavirus risks at Saudi meeting

Skipper Craig Ervine scored a dogged century as Zimbabwe shared the honours with Bangladesh on the opening day of the one-off Test here on Saturday.
Ervine hit 107 off 227 balls -- his third century in Tests -- as the visitors reached 228-6 at stumps after opting to bat first in what is the 100th international match between two teams.
Off-spinner Nayeem Hasan bowled Ervine, who struck 13 fours, shortly before the stumps before finishing with 4-68, the best return for the home side on the opening day.
Nayeem helped Bangladesh restore balance in the contest with two wickets each in the final two sessions after Zimbabwe made a cautious start.
Pace bowler Abu Jayed struck early to remove opener Kevin Kasuza for two as Nayeem took a catch at gully after first run from the bat in Zimbabwe's innings came in the seventh over.
But other opener Prince Masvaure -- who made 64 off 152 balls with nine fours -- shared a 111-run with Ervine for the second wicket to put Zimbabwe in control.
Nayeem ...

Ervine ton keeps Zimbabwe on par with Bangladesh

Israeli forces shot and killed a suspect in Jerusalem's annexed Old City Saturday after he approached officers posted near one of the gates armed with a knife, police said.
Police did not immediately release further details on the identity of the suspect.
"At approximately 11 am a terrorist approached border police officers at Lion's Gate armed with a knife. He ran towards them," a police statement said.
"Police responded by calling upon the terrorist to stop. He continued to approach them and they responded again by shooting the terrorist to prevent any further danger.
The terrorist was shot and killed."
A woman in the area was "injured lightly by shrapnel" and taken to hospital, the statement added.
On Friday, police reported an attempted stabbing south of Jerusalem.
At the start of month, a Jerusalem car-ramming wounded 14 people, 12 of them Israeli soldiers, and triggered clashes in the West Bank that saw five Palestinians killed.
The attacks come after US President Donald Trump's 

Israeli forces kill suspect armed with knife: police

The West Indies overcame a batting stutter to defeat gallant debutant Thailand by seven wickets at the women's Twenty20 World Cup in Perth on Saturday.
The 2016 champions appeared set for an expected easy victory after restricting Thailand to a modest 78 for nine off their 20 overs.
But the West Indies struggled at 27 for 3 in the chase before captain Stafanie Taylor (26 not out) and Shemaine Campbelle (25 not out) chased down the total with 20 deliveries to spare.
Naruemol Chaiwai's spectacular run out of opener Lee-Ann Kirby for three highlighted Thailand's impressive fielding performance.
Thailand, the lowest ranked team in the tournament, are making their debut at a cricket World Cup -- men's or women's -- after a fairytale run in qualification.
But captain Sornnarin Tippoch's decision to bat in overcast conditions backfired on the famed bouncy WACA pitch.
Wicketkeeper-batswoman Nannapat Koncharoenkai played a lone hand with a determined 33 but lacked support as Thailand's ...

West Indies ease past Thailand in T20 World Cup

Italian police carried out an early-morning anti-doping raid Saturday on the Russian team's hotel at the biathlon world championships, a police spokesperson confirmed to AFP.
Two Russians were targeted, biathlete Alexander Loginov, who won 10 kilometre sprint gold on February 15, and his personal coach Alexander Kasperovich, the head of Russia's biathlon federation Vladimir Drachev told Russian news agencies.
"Today police came to the hotel at 5:50 am... The police visit was on the request of a member of the IBU," Drachev told Interfax news agency, referring to the International Biathlon Union.
Drachev said the search was "linked to the fact that...Kasperovich was using another person's accreditation".
He said he had gone to a police station with Kasperovich.
Loginov served a two-year ban for using the banned blood booster EPO from November 2014 to November 2016.
"This could be a repeat case. They (the police) searched his things for one and half hours and confiscated his devices," ...

Italian police in early morning drugs raid on Russian biathletes' hotel

Botswana has hanged a 29-year old man for murdering his employer, prison services announced, despite mounting calls by rights groups to abolish the death penalty.
Mmika Michael Mpe is the second convict to be executed since President Mokgweetsi Masisi took office in October.
He was sentenced to death in 2018 for the 2014 murder of his employer and his appeal was dismissed last year.
The Botswana Prison Service confirmed the execution in a statement on Friday.
It follows the December hanging of 44-year old bricklayer Mooketsi Kgosibodiba, who was also handed capital punishment for murdering his employer.
Amnesty International called on Masisi to abolish the practice after two other people were hanged in 2018.
It described Botswana as the only southern African country that "consistently executes people" and said the sentence was often carried out without prior notice.
The death penalty has been enforced in Botswana since its independence from Britain in 1966.
Masisi's predecessor Ian ...

AFP

AFP

Page 162 - Afp/pti