Ferrari chief executive officer Louis Camilleri said Thursday that it was premature to talk about a possible move of six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton to the Italian team.
Camilleri confirmed that Mercedes driver Hamilton has had "conversations" with Ferrari chairman John Elkann, but not with him nor Team Principal Mattia Binotto.
"It is common knowledge that Lewis has had conversations with (Elkann)," Camilleri told reporters at Ferrari headquarters at Maranello.
"(But) that was a little exaggerated. While it was at a social event, they have mutual friends," said Camilleri, adding that "it would be premature to decide anything today."
The 34-year-old Hamilton, who comes to the end of his Mercedes contract next season, will be bidding for a record-equalling seventh world title in 2020.
Meanwhile, Camilleri pointed out that Ferrari have a "long-term agreement" with Charles Leclerc, the 22-year-old driver from Monaco who joined the team in 2015 and is under contract until the 2022 .

Hamilton talks informal, says Ferrari chief

PTI Automatic

Richard Masters has been promoted to the post of full-time chief executive of the English Premier League in a move officials will hope end a saga involving two failed appointments.
Thursday's announcement by the EPL ends the search as Masters, the interim chief executive of English football's lucrative top flight since the long-serving Richard Scudamore stepped down in November last year,takes the job on a permanent basis.
Susanna Dinnage was picked as Scudamore's successor last year but opted to stay in her job with the Discovery media group.
Then David Pemsel, formerly chief executive of the Guardian Media Group, whose flagship title is the Guardian newspaper, was chosen but quit last month before starting following press revelations about his private life.
Bruce Buck, chairman of the Premier League nominations committee, welcomed Masters's appointment by saying: "As interim chief executive, he has faced challenges head-on and has proved himself.
"The clubs believe that this is the .

Masters new permanent Premier League chief executive

Cricket South Africa's embattled board suffered a new blow on Thursday when a second major sponsor said it would only continue its association with the game if leading officials resigned.
Insurance company Momentum said it had outlined terms to CSA for its continued backing of the sport. Momentum's move followed an announcement by Standard Bank last week that it would not renew its sponsorship when its contract expired at the end of the season, claiming controversies surrounding CSA were harming the bank's reputation.
Jeanette Marais, deputy chief executive of Momentum, said the company demanded the resignation of the board, alternatively the resignation of president Chris Nenzani and vice-president Beresford Williams, and an independent financial audit of CSA.
Marais said Momentum had also told CSA it wanted the appointment of a lead independent director "with relevant experience" and the appointment of an independent director with on-field cricket experience, as well as the ...

Second major South African cricket sponsor seeks resignations

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu said on Thursday the Clasico against Real Madrid next week will not be postponed again, amid renewed fears of unrest around the fixture.
Protestors from the Catalan separatist movement, Democratic Tsunami, have called for a "massive" protest outside Camp Nou, where Barcelona are due to play against Real Madrid in La Liga on December 18.
Spain's most prestigious fixture was originally scheduled for October 26 but had to be postponed following a wave of pro-independence demonstrations in the city.
"I can say that the Clasico will be played, it will not be postponed again," Bartomeu said at a Christmas press event in Barcelona.
"It is everyone's responsibility to ensure it goes ahead. We know that we live in a complicated period in Catalonia but that can be compatible with sport.
"Our stadium is a place for free expression, it always has been, and that is why we want to send out a message of normality and calm.
"The club is preparing for the ...

'Clasico will be played', says Barcelona president Bartomeu

Atalanta returned home to a heroes' welcome with 2,000 fans braving bitter cold in the Alps in northern Italy after the Bergamo team reached the Champions League last 16 in their debut campaign despite losing their first three matches.
Coach Gian Piero Gasperini hailed a "victory for Italian football" after joining Serie A rivals Juventus and Napoli in the knockout rounds, with Inter Milan the only absentee after losing 2-1 to Barcelona at the San Siro on Tuesday.
The team greeted fans on board an open-top bus at Bergamo airport in the early hours of Thursday morning, amid fireworks, singing and banners, following what the Italian press hailed a "miracle" comeback.
"Historical Atalanta," headlined Gazzetta dello Sport.
"Dea (Goddess, the team's nickname) are in paradise," wrote Turin daily Tuttosport.
"Gasperini is a Magician," continued Corriere dello Sport on their front page.
Atalanta, a club with a 112-year history, had to wait until their fourth group game to earn their first ...

Euphoria in Bergamo as Atalanta pull off Champions League 'miracle'

The Polynesian island of Tahiti has been chosen to host the surfing events at the 2024 Paris Olympics after being selected over beaches in southwest France and Brittany, organisers said on Thursday.
Tahiti lies 15,700 kilometres (9,750 miles) from Paris but was chosen because it offers near-guaranteed surfing waves in the summer months.
The events will take place at Teahupoo, a location that boasts some of the biggest waves on the men's World Cup circuit.
"It's an extremely pleasant surprise and recognition for our history that will restore honour to Polynesia, where surfing began," the president of Tahiti's surfing federation, Lionel Teihotu, told AFP.
According to the 2024 organising committee there was no difference in the cost or environmental impact of the four possible venues.
Tahiti was preferred on "sporting grounds" -- a survey by Meteo France, the French meteorological centre, suggests that Teahupoo offers a greater likelihood of good surfing waves during the summer months, .

Tahiti to host surfing events at 2024 Paris Olympics

Atalanta's achievement in reaching the Champions League last 16 despite a dreadful start is remarkable, especially for a club of their stature, but it has also had another, ominous knock-on effect.
The modest Italians, appearing in the competition for the first time, defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 3-0 on Wednesday to progress at the expense of the Ukrainians, despite taking just one point from their opening four games.
Their joy contrasted with the agony for Ajax 24 hours earlier, as last season's semi-finalists were eliminated following a 1-0 defeat by Valencia.
The Dutch champions will have to console themselves with a crack at the Europa League in the spring, and their exit may accelerate the definitive breaking up of an exciting young team.
"You don't always get what you deserve in football," said Ajax coach Erik ten Hag, bitterly, after that game.
However, football is almost all about money these days, and so we are left with something never seen before -- this is the first time since 

Europe's 'Big Five' take over Champions League to leave the rest trailing

President Donald Trump on Thursday tweeted that the United States is "VERY close" to a trade deal with China, days before new tariffs are due to take effect.
"Getting VERY close to a BIG DEAL with China. They want it, and so do we!" Trump tweeted.
The two largest economies in the world are locked in a wide-ranging trade war but negotiators have been working to reach at least a partial resolution before Washington increases tariffs on Sunday.

Trump tweets 'very close' to China trade deal

Ukrainian police has detained several people suspected of involvement in the 2016 murder of a journalist Pavel Sheremet who died in a car bomb blast, the interior minister announced Thursday.
"This is the result of very hard and persistent work of real professionals and an important step towards fully solving the case," Arsen Avakov wrote on Twitter.
The 44-year-old Sheremet, an acclaimed Belarus-born journalist with pro-European views, died in July 2016 when his car exploded while he was driving to work along one of Kiev's central streets.
Sheremet was a columnist for Ukrainska Pravda, a popular online newspaper whose founder Georgiy Gongadze was beheaded 16 years ago after probing alleged crimes of Ukrainian leaders.
Sheremet was respected for criticising the Kremlin while pointing out Ukraine's mistakes. His murder sent shock waves across Ukraine and is only one in a string of unresolved murders and assaults on members of the media in the country.

Ukraine detains suspects in murder of top journalist

Malaysia's leader-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim was Thursday questioned by police over allegations he sexually assaulted a male former aide, the latest such scandal to hit the veteran politician's career.
Anwar told AFP he was quizzed at national police headquarters over the claims by Muhammed Yusoff Rawther, which he has vehemently denied.
The lawmaker, seen as the likely successor to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, spent almost a decade in jail after being convicted of sodomising a young male aide, allegations that supporters say were aimed at ruining his political career.
Sex between men remains illegal under colonial-era laws in the Muslim-majority country.
Anwar was released from prison and pardoned last year after his alliance stormed to a shock victory against a corruption-plagued coalition that had ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1957.
But political tensions have escalated sharply, with Anwar's nemesis-turned-ally Mahathir refusing to say exactly when he will .

Malaysia's Anwar quizzed over sex assault claims

A fire erupted in a Riyadh prison early Thursday, killing three inmates and injuring 21 others, Saudi state media reported.
The inmates were evacuated and the injured were rushed to hospital after the fire broke out at dawn in Al-Malaz prison, jail authorities said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency said.
Firefighting "specialists with the help of civil defence were able to bring the fire under control and prevent it from spreading," the statement said.
"As a result (of the fire) three deaths occurred and 21 were injured." It did not state the cause of the fire, but said an investigation had been launched.
Accidental fires are common across the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia, sometimes because of lax enforcement of safety regulations.
In September, five people were injured in a fire that broke out at a new high-speed train station in the western city of Jeddah, according to state television, with huge palls of smoke seen rising into the air.
The station serves ..

Three dead in Riyadh prison fire

A strong odour of faeces disrupted a key vote in Georgian parliament Thursday after opposition MPs splattered the plenary chamber with an unidentified substance.
Georgia's parliament speaker Archil Talakvadze, in televised remarks, accused the opposition of making a "chemical attack on the legislature", adding that the plenary session had been interrupted as a result.
Forensic experts in medical masks took samples of the air in the plenary hall, footage on national television showed. The session resumed afterwards, boycotted by the opposition.
Georgian parliament was Thursday set to vote for the appointment of 14 Supreme Court judges whom the opposition had denounced as "stooges" of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Over the past few weeks opposition supporters have staged a series of mass rallies in Tbilisi after the ruling party voted down an electoral reform bill in mid-November.
In power since 2012, Georgian Dream has seen its popularity plummet amid widespread discontent over ...

Foul smell interrupts Georgia parliament session

Thousands of Hong Kongers formed long lines to attend a memorial service on Thursday for a student whose death led to some of the most violent clashes in six months of democracy protests.
Alex Chow, 22, died last month from head injuries sustained during a fall inside a multi-storey carpark where police and protesters were clashing.
Although the precise chain of events leading to his fatal accident is unclear and disputed, protesters have made alleged police brutality one of their movement's rallying cries.
Chow's death was followed three days later by police shooting an unarmed 21-year-old protester in the abdomen sparking days of political unrest that culminated in pitched battles on university campuses.
The last three weeks have seen a rare lull in the violence and vandalism after pro-democracy parties won a landslide in local council elections.
Huge crowds marched last Sunday for a rally that ended without a single tear gas canister being fired.
But Beijing and city leader Carrie .

Thousands attend service for Hong Kong student who died during clashes

A married Indian couple living in Moenchengladbach were sentenced by a German court on Thursday after admitting to spying on Sikh and Kashmiri communities for the Indian secret service.
The couple, who are identified only by their first name and initials according to German law, admitted to having passed on information to intelligence services in a trial which began last month.
Manmohan S was handed a suspended prison sentence of 18 months for acting as a foreign intelligence agent, while his wife Kanwal Jit K was fined 180 days' wages for aiding him.
According to a court statement, S was recruited by the Indian foreign intelligence agency Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) at the beginning of 2015, and asked to spy on the Kashmiri opposition movement.
India and Pakistan have disputed Kashmir since they became independent and split in 1947, with the nuclear rivals fighting two out of three wars over the mountainous region.
An insurgency against Indian rule has been waged since ...

Indian couple sentenced for spying on Germany's Sikhs

Emerging Australian batsman Marnus Labuschagne on Thursday posted his third successive Test century to frustrate a resilient New Zealand attack on the opening day of the first Test in Perth.
After Australia won a potentially pivotal toss in scorching heat and elected to bat in the first ever day-night Test in Perth, the home team was 248 for four at stumps after facing some challenging bowling from the disciplined Kiwi bowlers.
Having toiled without much success in 40C heat, the Kiwis fought back late in the day by removing Steve Smith (43) and Matthew Wade (12).
However, Labuschagne was the rock of the Australian innings and was unbeaten on 110, with Travis Head on 20.
Batting was hard work for most of the Australian top order in the high temperatures, but Labuschagne further added to his rapidly growing status with a chanceless century.
The leading runscorer in Test cricket this year, the 25-year-old passed the 1,000 run mark in the five-day format en route to triple figures.
Called 

Labuschagne ton stalls Kiwis in day-night Test

The EU on Thursday proposed a move to strengthen its power to hit back in global trade rows, looking for defensive alternatives after the US crippled the WTO.
The new measures would hand Brussels powers to unilaterally decide countermeasures against other countries, a power that traditionally sits with the World Trade Organization in Geneva.
Sometimes referred to as the supreme court of global trade, the WTO has since Wednesday been unable to issue rulings, victim of a campaign by President Donald Trump accusing it of anti-US bias.
The Trump administration has for two years blocked appointments to the WTO's appellate body, and work there finally broke down on Wednesday, when just one sitting member remained.
"Whilst we seek to reform the WTO and re-establish a well-functioning WTO system, we cannot afford being defenceless if there is no possibility to get a satisfactory solution within the WTO," EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan said.
"Today's proposals will let us defend our ...

EU flexes trade muscles after US hobbles WTO

A reformed prisoner who fought London Bridge assailant Usman Khan with a fire extinguisher said Thursday he was ready to die because he believed the attacker wore a live suicide belt.
Khan killed two people and wounded three while on conditional release from prison in the November 29 knife attack.
He was shot dead by police while wearing what proved to be a fake explosives vest on the iconic bridge in the heart of the UK capital.
Khan had been serving a 16-year prison sentence for an Al-Qaeda-inspired plot to attack central London and was freed after being deemed to no longer be a risk to the public.
He was prevented from causing more harm by Londoners who jumped on him before the police arrived, tackling him to the ground and hitting him with whatever was at hand.
John Crilly, 48, who served eight years in prison for murder in a botched burglary, was attending a class for reformed convicts at the time of the attack, which came in the heat of Britain's general election campaign.
He ...

London attack hero says was ready to die to save lives

Israel's southernmost city has decided to ban disposable cups and bags from its beaches to protect the Red Sea from the "threat" of plastic, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.
The amendment to Eilat's municipal code, which was approved late on Wednesday, makes the resort Israel's first to adopt such regulations.
Beachgoers will be forbidden from bringing disposable items onto the beach, whether made of plastic, aluminium, cardboard or paper.
Such items will not be sold at kiosks or restaurants by the shore.
Whether cutlery, cups, bags, wrappings or drinking straws, "disposable items break down into particles of various sizes on land and in the sea, harming terrestrial and aquatic animals" and constituting an eyesore, the text accompanying the new bylaw said.
In the absence of national legislation on the issue, Israel's beach resorts have taken the initiative, with the Mediterranean coastal city of Herzliya preparing similar regulations.
"Eilat has unique natural resources," mayor Meir ...

In first for Israel, resort bans disposables on beaches

Broadcaster Sky has lost the rights to the Champions League in Germany, a competition it has screened for the last 20 years, to rivals DAZN and Amazon, it was confirmed Thursday.
Sky was unable to match their rivals' bids for the three years from the 2021-22 season.
"After around 20 years of partnership with UEFA, we were unable to agree on a continuation of the cooperation in the tender procedure that has just been concluded," Sky CEO Carsten Schmidt told German daily Bild.
Schimdt said they have a "clear and responsible economic vision of sports broadcasting rights" and were "not prepared to go beyond the already high value at which we evaluate these rights".
According to Bild, streaming platform DAZN has won the rights to air live Champions League matches from 2021-22, including the final, which it will share with state broadcaster ZDF.
Amazon will have the right to broadcast one match on a Tuesday in each round.
The US e-commerce giant entered the sports streaming market in 2017 ..

Sky loses Champions League rights in Germany to DAZN, Amazon

Firefighters have pulled two more bodies from a college building in Ukraine's southern port of Odessa that burned in a spectacular fire last week, authorities said Thursday, bringing the number of dead to 16.
Prosecutors have arrested the director of the college on charges of professional negligence and placed her under house arrest.
The bodies of the last two people missing following the fire were found late on Wednesday, the emergency services said in a statement.
Firefighters spent eight days combing through the debris of the six-storey building, which caught fire last Wednesday.
Another 30 people were injured in the blaze, with eight still in hospital as of Thursday.
The College of Economics, Law, and the Hotel and Restaurant Business is in central Odessa and has some 400 graduates per year.

Toll rises to 16 as more bodies found from Ukraine college fire

Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing criminal charges and a new general election, will resign from all other ministerial positions he holds but remain premier, his lawyers said Thursday.
The announcement to the supreme court came the same morning as parliament dissolved itself and set a date for a new election, the third within a year.
The court had received a petition from the Movement for Quality of Government in Israel (MQG) demanding that Netanyahu, who is also minister of agriculture, diaspora, health and welfare, step down from all his positions in light of his indictments.
Attorney general Avichai Mandelblit last month charged Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three different corruption cases.
Israeli law stipulates that ministers facing criminal charges resign, but has no such provision for prime ministers.
Following the petition, Mandelblit said that while Netanyahu could not be forced to resign as premier, the issue of his ...

AFP

AFP

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