Beijing urges Washington "not to abuse force" and to seek solutions through dialogue, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a call with his Iranian counterpart on Saturday, state media reported.
"The dangerous US military operation violates the basic norms of international relations and will aggravate regional tensions and turbulence," Wang told Javad Zarif according to Chinese media, referring to the killing in Iraq on Friday of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.

China urges US 'not to abuse force': Foreign Minister

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Dean Elgar and Rassie van der Dussen shared a century partnership as South Africa fought back after the loss of three early wickets on the second day of the second Test against England at Newlands on Saturday.
South Africa were 141 for three at tea in reply to England's first innings total of 269.
Opening batsman Elgar was on 77 not out while Van der Dussen needed some good fortune in making 46 not out.
Veteran opening bowlers Stuart Broad and James Anderson did the damage for England, reducing South Africa to 40 for three, both bowling with excellent control from the Wynberg end of the ground where fast bowlers of both sides have extracted bounce and some sideways movement.
Ten of the 13 wickets to have fallen on the first two days have come from the Wynberg end.
Broad took two for 12 in a hostile opening spell, dismissing new opening batsman Pieter Malan and Zubayr Hamza for five apiece.
Fellow veteran Anderson claimed the wicket of South African captain Faf du Plessis for one.
All .

Elgar, Van der Dussen fight back for South Africa

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has hit back at criticism of his management style from former Red Devils striker Robin Van Persie, saying: "I'm not in medieval times."
The Dutchman felt Solskjaer appeared too upbeat in the aftermath of the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal on New Year's Day that left United five points behind fourth-placed Chelsea in the Premier League.
Van Persie said Solskjaer "seems like a really nice guy" but that the Norwegian needed to be more "mean at times" and "more angry" and added: "You need to have fear as well for your coach."
Solskjaer, who is also having to handle fresh speculation surrounding the future of star midfielder Paul Pogba, said Van Persie was not in a position to judge his methods.
"I don't know Robin and Robin doesn't know me," he said ahead of his side's FA Cup third-round tie away to Wolves.
"He probably doesn't have a right to criticise my management style and I won't change. That's definite. Robin took my number 20 (shirt) and that's 

Solskjaer dismisses Van Persie criticism

Goalkeeper Alexander Nuebel has agreed to join Bayern Munich on a free transfer becoming he latest potential successor to Manuel Neuer, the club announced on Saturday.
The 23-year-old, who has played 17 times for Germany's under-21 team, had refused to extend his contract at Schalke and will join the German champions at the end of the season on a five-year contract.
Neuer, who moved from Schalke in 2011, has been injury prone in recent years but the 33-year-old has started 26 games this season and remains the Bayern captain. He is reportedly about to sign a two-year contract extension.
Nuebel earned a four-match suspension in December after catching Frankfurt's Mijat Gacinovic in the chest with a flying kick after missing the ball.
Nuebel's salary at Bayern will be around 5.5 million euros ($6.14 million) per season, AFP subsidiary SID reported, which is less than the seven million offer from Schalke he turned down in December.

Bayern to sign young Schalke keeper on free transfer

Almost nine years of civil war in Syria has left more than 380,000 people dead including over 115,000 civilians, a war monitor said in a new toll Saturday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources across the country, said they included around 22,000 children and more than 13,000 women.  The conflict flared after unprecedented anti-government protests in the southern city of Daraa on March 15, 2011.
Demonstrations spread across Syria and were brutally suppressed by the regime, triggering a multi-front armed conflict that has drawn in jihadists and foreign powers.  The conflict has displaced or sent into exile around 13 million Syrians, causing billions of dollars-worth of destruction.
The Britain-based Observatory's last casualty toll on the Syrian conflict, issued in March last year, stood at more than 370,000 dead.
The latest toll included more than 128,000 Syrian and non-Syrian pro-regime fighters.
More than half of those were Syrian soldiers, while ...

Syria death toll tops 380,000 in almost nine-year war: monitor

China has started lifting major restrictions on foreign investment in its financial sector, a move long demanded by the United States as the world's two biggest economies are locked in a fierce trade battle.
From the start of 2020, foreign banks can now set up wholly-owned branches in China without a local partner holding the majority stake, the banking regulatory authority, CBIRC, announced on Friday.
In the past, foreign banks were required to have a local Chinese partner and not allowed to hold more than 49 per cent of their respective joint ventures.
The announcement could be seen as a gesture of goodwill by China towards the US as Washington says a preliminary trade agreement between the two sides looks set to be signed this month.
The world's top two economies have been waging a merciless trade war since March 2018, resulting in mutual tariffs being slapped on hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of annual trade.
Beijing has long promised to further open up its economy to ...

China starts lifting restrictions on foreign investment

Thousands of Iraqis chanting "Death to America" on Saturday mourned an Iranian commander and others killed in a US drone attack that sparked fears of a regional proxy war between Washington and Tehran.
The killing of Iran's Major General Qasem Soleimani on Friday was the most dramatic escalation yet in spiralling tensions between Iran and the United States, which pledged to send thousands more troops to the region.
Iraqi political leaders and clerics attended the mass ceremony to honour 62-year-old Soleimani and the other nine victim of the pre-dawn attack on Baghdad international airport, including Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
US President Donald Trump said Friday he had decided to "terminate" Iran's military mastermind to prevent an "imminent" attack on US diplomats and troops.  "We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war," he insisted.
But the strike -- which killed four more Iranian Guards and five members of Iraq's Hashed ...

Fury, tears as thousands mourn Iran commander killed by US

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison faced renewed criticism Saturday, after sharing bushfire themed party campaign ads that opponents condemned as "disgusting" and a respected defence association said was "milking" the crisis.
Facing sustained anger for his handling of the months-long crisis, Morrison sought to get on the front foot Saturday, announcing increased military assistance to beleaguered volunteer firefighters.
In a string of media appearances, he vowed every resource would be provided to help ease a disaster that has killed 23 people and burned swathes of the country, announcing more funding for water-bombing planes and the call up of 3,000 reservists.
But he found himself in fresh scandal late Saturday after tweeting a video heralding his announcements about the military, and his Liberal Party made a similar post linking to the party website.
The non-partisan Australia Defence Association, a public-interest watchdog, said the Liberal Party advert was a "clear breach" .

Australia's Morrison faces fresh fury for bushfire 'campaign ad'

Veteran opening bowlers Stuart Broad and James Anderson struck early blows for England when South Africa started their innings on the second day of the second Test at Newlands on Saturday.
South Africa were 60 for three at lunch in reply to England's first innings total of 269. Opening batsman Dean Elgar was unbeaten on 35 at the break.
Broad took two for 12 in a hostile opening spell, dismissing new opening batsman Pieter Malan and Zubayr Hamza for five apiece.  Anderson claimed the wicket of South African captain Faf du Plessis for one when he
replaced Broad from the Wynberg end with a moderate breeze at his back.
All three batsmen fell to catches in the slips with Broad and Anderson bowling a tight line and getting good bounce from the pitch. Broad was warned for landing in the 'danger area' of the pitch immediately before taking his second wicket.
Rassie van der Dussen's first scoring shot was a four off Anderson when he edged the ball through a gap between second and fourth slip, 

South Africa 60-3 at lunch as Broad, Anderson strike early

Skies turned black and ash rained down as fires raged across southeastern Australia on Saturday, threatening power supplies to major cities and prompting the call-up of 3,000 military reservists.
Temperature records were smashed, and gale-force winds pounded fire-stricken coastal communities in the two most populous states New South Wales and Victoria.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned that worst-case scenario projections were "coming to fruition", although large-scale evacuations meant the human toll was minimised.
Since late September, 23 people have died, more than 1,500 homes have been damaged and an area roughly twice the size of Belgium or Hawaii has burned.
The latest fatalities were in Kangaroo Island -- a tourist haven southwest of Adelaide -- when two people were trapped in a car overrun by flames on Friday.
But strong winds and high temperatures continued to fuel hundreds of fires and cause chaos.
Bushfires took out two substations and transmission lines, ...

Power supply fears as troops called to battle Australia bushfires

Taiwan's presidential candidates paid tribute Saturday to the island's military chief and other officers who perished in a helicopter crash just days before key elections.
President Tsai Ing-wen cancelled campaigning to visit a radar station that Shen Yi-ming and his entourage were bound for on Thursday when their chopper smashed into mountains near Taipei.
The 62-year-old general was among eight killed in the crash, becoming Taiwan's highest-ranking military official to die on duty, while five people survived.
"I am finishing the mission for chief Shen to visit everyone on his behalf," Tsai told soldiers at the station in the northeastern region of Yilan.
"We are deeply saddened but the best way to honour Shen is to fulfil our duties and protect our country." Investigators have recovered the Black Hawk helicopter's flight data recorder, which is being analysed to help determine the cause of the crash.
Tsai is seeking a second term in the January 11 elections against her main ...

Taiwan election candidates mourn victims of chopper crash

Washington asked Tehran to respond "in proportion" after US forces killed top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed Soleimani, the commander of its Quds Force foreign operations arm, had been killed on Friday in a US air strike near Baghdad airport.
After the attack, the Americans "resorted to diplomatic measures... on Friday morning", Rear-Admiral Ali Fadavi told state television that night.
They "even said that if you want to get revenge, get revenge in proportion to what we did", he said, quoted on the broadcaster's website.
Fadavi did not say how Iran received the message from its arch-enemy, even though Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic relations for four decades.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in separate television interview on Friday night that "Switzerland's envoy transmitted a foolish message from the Americans this morning".
The Swiss ...

Iran: US asked for proportionate response to general's killing

Mexico will build a cemetery in one of the country's most dangerous cities because of a high number of unidentified and unclaimed dead, authorities said Friday.
More than 15,000 people were murdered in Ciudad Juarez between 2008 and 2019, including 1,497 last year, according to official figures.
"It is intended for the victims of the northern area of Chihuahua, precisely because of the large number of unidentified people or those who no one is claiming," Eberth Castanon Torres, coordinator at the local prosecutor's office, told AFP.
The cemetery will cover 50,000 square miles, have a visual identification area, a body preparation area, and six funeral cold rooms for 300 corpses.
Some 2,400 burial niches are reserved for temporarily storing bodies.
Prosecutors hope that the site will allow them to obtain genetic profiles of victims.
Since December 2016 -- when the federal government launched a military offensive against the drug cartels -- around 275,000 assassinations have been ...

Mexico builds cemetery for unidentified victims of violence

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that Washington's European allies had not been "as helpful" as he hoped over the US killing of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in Iraq.
Pompeo called officials worldwide to discuss the attack, which was praised by US President Donald Trump's Republicans and close ally Israel, but elsewhere met with sharp warnings it could inflame regional tensions.
"I spent the last day and a half, two days, talking to partners in the region, sharing with them what we were doing, why we were doing it, seeking their assistance. They've all been fantastic," Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News.
"And then talking to our partners in other places that haven't been quite as good. Frankly, the Europeans haven't been as helpful as I wish that they could be," he said.
US officials said Soleimani, who had been blacklisted by the US, was killed when a drone hit his vehicle near Baghdad's international airport.
Following the assassination, EU foreign ..

Pompeo: Europe not 'helpful' as could be over Soleimani killing

The British government on Saturday advised UK nationals to avoid travelling to Iraq and Iran in face of heightened tensions in the Middle East following the US killing of a top Iranian commander in Baghdad.
"Following the death of Qasem Soleimani and heightened tensions in the region... We now advise British nationals against all travel to Iraq (and) we now advise against all but essential travel to Iran," Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement.
"The first job of any government is to keep British people safe," the statement said.
"Given heightened tensions in the region, (we) now advise people not to travel to Iraq, with the exception of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and to consider carefully whether it's essential to travel to Iran. We will keep this under review." On Friday, the US military killed Soleimani in an air strike outside Baghdad international airport that shocked the Islamic republic and sparked fears of a new war in the Middle East.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard .

London advises Brits to avoid travel to Iraq, Iran

A lawyer for former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said Saturday he felt betrayed by his client's escape from Japan but still understood his act, claiming it resulted from Japan's inhumane justice system.
The international tycoon, who faces multiple charges of financial misconduct that he denies, jumped bail and fled to Lebanon in late December to avoid a Japanese trial.
"First, I was filled with a sense of strong anger. I felt betrayed," Ghosn's lawyer Takashi Takano wrote in his blog, stating that he had not been informed about the plan in advance.
"But anger was turning to something else as I recalled how he was treated by the country's justice system," Takano said.
Ghosn is thought to have taken a private jet from Kansai Airport in western Japan, heading for Istanbul.
It is believed he headed from there to Beirut.
"I can easily imagine that if people with wealth, human networks and ability to take action have the same experience (as Ghosn), they would do the same thing or at least ...

Ghosn lawyer feels betrayal, sympathy over tycoon's Japan escape

US-led forces helping Iraqi troops fight jihadists have scaled back operations, a US defence official told AFP Saturday, a day after a US strike killed top Iranian and Iraqi commanders.
"We will conduct limited anti-Islamic State group operations with our security partners where it mutually supports our force protection efforts," the official said.
"We have increased security and defensive measures at Iraqi bases that host coalition troops," the official added.

Coalition scales back Iraq operations for security reasons: US

Iraq's prime minister attended a mourning procession in Baghdad on Saturday for Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, killed in a US strike the previous day.
Adel Abdel Mahdi joined Muhandis associate Hadi al-Ameri, Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim, former premier Nuri al-Maliki and other pro-Iran figures in a large crowd.
The coffins were first brought to a revered Shiite shrine in Baghdad's Kadhimiya district, where thousands of mourners chanted "Death to America." The crowds then accompanied them south to a point near the Green Zone, home to government offices and foreign embassies, including America's.
The dignitaries then accompanied the coffins into the Green Zone for an official ceremony.
Soleimani and Mohandis were killed along with eight others in a precision drone strike early Friday as they drove away from Baghdad international airport in two vehicles.
Soleimani was the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations .

Iraq PM attends mourning for commanders killed in US strike

The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations described the killing of one of his country's top generals as an act of war, US media reported late Friday.
The death of Quds Force commander Major General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad was the most dramatic escalation yet in spiraling tensions between Iran and the United States, despite President Donald Trump's insistence he did not want war.
But, speaking to CNN late Friday night, Iranian ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said: "In fact was an act of war on the part of the United States and against Iranian people."
"Last night they (the US) started a military war by assassinating by an act of terror against one of our top generals. So what else can be expected of Iran to do? We cannot just remain silent. We have to act and we will act," he said.
"We can't just close our eyes to what happened last night. Definitely there will be revenge, a harsh revenge." "The response for a military action is a military action. By whom, by when, where? that is 

Iranian ambassador to UN says Soleimani death an 'act of war': US media

Seven whales were successfully herded back to sea after they survived a mass stranding at a New Zealand beach on Saturday, conservation officials said.
About 1,000 locals and holidaymakers had spent several hours comforting the beached whales on the Coromandel Peninsula in the North Island.
They were refloated during the afternoon high tide and shepherded to deeper waters by several boats.
"Seven surviving (short-finned) pilot whales have been shepherded out of Matarangi Harbour. Our staff are burying four dead whales," the department of conservation tweeted.
The marine conservation group Project Jonah had earlier appealed for trained medics to go to Mararangi to assist with the rescue.
"While the locals are doing a great job, if you are a trained medic on holiday in the region, your help would be greatly appreciated," Project Jonah said on its Facebook page.
Short-finned pilot whales are closely related to the long-finned pilot whales that are regularly involved in mass strandings in 

Seven stranded whales refloated in New Zealand

French duo Gael Monfils and Benoit Paire said having active player Gilles Simon as team captain gave them the winning edge in the ATP Cup against Chile on Saturday.
Paire opened with a tough 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-3 win over Nicolas Jarry in Brisbane before Monfils triumphed 6-3, 7-5 over Cristian Garin.
The Chileans salvaged some pride after combining to beat Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the doubles 7-5, 6-2.
France is captained by world number 55 Simon, and both Paire and Monfils credited the 35-year-old with helping them overcome their opponents.
"He was top 10, so he's still playing. He has a lot of things to say about the opponent, about my game, so it's good," Paire said.
Simon reached a career-high world ranking of six in 2009 but is not playing the ATP Cup because of the depth of French men's tennis.
Six of his countrymen are currently ranked higher than him in singles, while Mahut is ranked third in doubles and Roger-Vasselin 16th.
Monfils said he talked with Simon .

AFP

AFP

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