Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg called Tuesday for President Donald Trump's defeat in 2020 as he took a new formal step towards joining the Democratic presidential race.
"Officially filed in Arkansas to be on the ballot for the Democratic primary," tweeted the former New York mayor, four days after doing the same in Alabama. Both states have early deadlines to register for the primaries.
"We must defeat Trump. He has failed us at every turn," the 77-year-old added.

Bloomberg calls for Trump defeat, takes new step toward 2020 run

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Former US president Jimmy Carter was recovering in a Georgia hospital following surgery Tuesday to relieve pressure on his brain after he suffered multiple falls, an aide said.
"There are no complications from the surgery" to ease the pressure caused by a subdural hematoma, the Carter Center said in a statement.
The 95-year-old Nobel laureate was taken to Emory University Hospital on Monday ahead of the surgery, and he "will remain in the hospital as long as advisable for observation," the center added.
Carter spent three days in hospital last month after suffering a pelvic fracture.  That injury came weeks after he injured his head in a fall at home. He recovered quickly to volunteer the next day -- with a black eye and a bandage covering 14 stitches -- at a Habitat for Humanity site.
In office from 1977 to 1981, Carter placed a commitment to human rights and social justice at the core of his presidency.
He enjoyed a strong first two years, which included brokering a peace deal ...

'No complications' from Carter surgery for brain pressure

Hate crimes reported to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation fell slightly in 2018 from the previous year, according to an annual report released by the FBI on Tuesday.
A total of 7,120 hate crimes were reported to the FBI by law enforcement agencies around the country last year, down from 7,175 in 2017, the FBI said.  It said 59.6 percent of the reported hate crimes were motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry bias.
Religious bias accounted for 18.7 percent, sexual orientation 16.7 percent, gender identity 2.2 percent, disability 2.1 percent, and gender 0.7 percent.
The FBI said 5,566 hate crimes were classified as crimes against persons while 2,641 were considered crimes against property such as vandalism or theft.
Of the crimes against persons, 46 percent involved intimidation, 34 percent were for simple assault and 18.4 percent were for aggravated assault.
There were 24 murders and 22 rapes reported as hate crimes. The 24 murders included 11 worshipers at a synagogue in ...

Reported hate crimes down slightly in US in 2018: FBI

FIFA on Tuesday banned three former top South American football officials for life in connection with a corruption scandal that has shaken world football since 2015.
Former Peru Football Federation Manuel Burga and Argentinian officials Eduardo Deluca and Jose Luis Meiszner took secret payments while allocating marketing and media contracts for regional competitions, FIFA said.
The three were suspended from taking part in any footballing activity and fined one million Swiss francs (912,000 euros) each.
The offences took place when the officials were negotiating contracts on behalf of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) and the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) between 2004 and 2015.
The bans are the latest sanctions linked to revelations in 2015 by US prosecutors of a web of corruption involving millions of dollars in bribes concerning marketing and TV rights for South American football tournaments.
Despite the ...

FIFA bans three for life over South American corruption

Roger Federer kept alive his hopes of a seventh ATP Finals crown on Tuesday, beating Italian debutant Matteo Berrettini 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 at London's O2 Arena.
The Swiss third seed put himself under enormous pressure by losing his first match on Sunday in straight sets in Group Bjorn Borg to Dominic Thiem.
The six-time champion was not at his fluent best on Tuesday but ultimately had too much for Berrettini, who won just three games against Novak Djokovic in his opener.
Both players were solid on serve in the first set, with Federer struggling to make inroads against the eighth seed.
The Swiss eventually earned himself the sniff of a chance in the 12th game, winning the first break point of the match but Berrettini snuffed out the danger and held to take it into a tie-break.
Federer upped the level of his game in the shootout, helped by some wayward shots from his opponent plus a Berrettini double-fault and won it comfortably 7-2.
The Swiss, clad in black, broke immediately at the start .

Federer stays alive at ATP Finals with Berrettini win

Formula One appear to have taken on board six-time champion Lewis Hamilton's concerns over the environment and have announced plan to become carbon neutral by 2030.
The goal to eliminate the sport carbon footprint includes not only race cars on the track but the entire F1 circus that accompanies the sport, extending to road and air transport of team employees as well as the transportation of equipment to the tracks all over the world.
F1 says it will "move to ultra-efficient logistics and travel and 100% renewably powered offices, facilities and factories" and offset emissions that cannot be cut, according to the BBC.
F1 are taking immediate steps in their drive to be environment-friendly by beginning carbon-reduction projects with the target of making all events "sustainable" by 2025, including eliminating single-use plastics and ensuring all waste is reused, recycled or composted.
F1 cars are already engineered to be vastly more eco-friendly that street cars. Engines have a thermal .

Formula One follow Hamilton's eco-friendly policy

Thailand's Alex Albon said Tuesday he is ready to "fight at the front in 2020" for top Formula One team Red Bull after they rewarded him for a series of impressive performances by naming him on a permanent basis as their second driver.
The 23-year-old -- born in England to an English father and Thai mother -- began the season with their junior sister team Toro Rosso but seized his chance when Red Bull offered him the senior drive in the second-half of the campaign by finishing in the top six in all seven races accruing 68 points.
Albon -- who will play second fiddle to the audacious Max Verstappen -- sits in sixth spot overall with 84 points ahead of this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix.
"This year has been an incredible year for me and getting the call up to Red Bull mid-season was already a big step," he said in a statement on the team website.
"So now I will use the learnings from this season and use the experience to improve and fight at the front in 2020."
Albon, who replaced ...

Thailand's Albon looking to "fight at the front" for Red Bull

The EU on Tuesday called for a "rapid and complete de-escalation" after Israel killed a Palestinian militant commander in a strike on his home in Gaza, prompting retaliatory rocket fire.
The strike in Gaza City killed Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu Al-Ata, blamed by Israel for recent rocket fire into its territory, and was followed by "substantial" rocket fire in return.
"The firing of rockets on civilian populations is totally unacceptable and must immediately stop," the EU's diplomatic service said in a statement.
"A rapid and complete de-escalation is now necessary to safeguard the lives and security of Palestinian and Israeli civilians."
Israel's military said around 50 rockets had been fired at its territory and air defences had intercepted around 20 of them.
The strikes and rocket fire raised the possibility of a severe escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
Three wars have been fought between them since 2008, and Gaza has been under a strict Israeli ...

EU urges 'complete de-escalation' after Israel Gaza strike

Bushfires raging across eastern Australia singed Sydney's suburbs on Tuesday, with firefighters scrambling planes and helicopters to douse a built-up neighbourhood with water and red retardant.
Experts have described the conditions as the worst on record, as spring temperatures climbed toward 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and winds topped 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour across a zone which has been plagued by persistent drought.
Although the bushfire season is in its infancy, scientists predict it to be one of Australia's toughest ever, with climate change and unfavourable weather cycles helping created a tinderbox of strong winds, low humidity and high temperatures.
Twin blazes in the north shore suburb of Turramurra -- around 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the centre of Australia's largest city -- tore through a eucalypt forest park and sparked spot fires in homes, before eventually being brought under control.
As night fell, authorities said they were bringing another ...

Raging Australian bushfires hit Sydney suburbs

Iraqi protesters rallied and many schools stayed closed Tuesday as the United Nations stepped up pressure on the government to agree to a raft of reforms.
While security forces again faced off with activists around Baghdad's Tahrir (Liberation) Square, teachers and students went on strike across much of the Shiite-majority south.
The UN has proposed a reform plan that demands an immediate end to the violence that has killed more than 300 people since the start of October, as well as a host of reform measures.
The UN's top Iraq representative, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, met with Iraq's top religious authority on Monday, days after influential neighbour Iran brokered a political deal to keep the ruling system in place.
Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has backed the UN plan but said he feared political forces were not "serious" about enacting the required reforms.
Hennis-Plasschaert was due to attend a special parliamentary session this week in Baghdad, where demonstrators appeared ..

Iraqi protesters rally as UN steps up mediation efforts

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday urged Britain to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, wading into a decades-old dispute between the countries over the ownership of the sculptures.
The ancient friezes, which include depictions of battles between mythical ancient Greeks and centaurs, were taken by British diplomat Lord Elgin in the early 19th century and are now on display at the British Museum in London.
Britain has always refused to return the carvings -- often still known as the Elgin Marbles -- arguing that they were taken with the permission of local Ottoman rulers at the time.
Xi toured the Acropolis Museum, built partly to house the Parthenon Marbles, during a three-day visit to Athens and told his hosts he agreed with them that the sculptures should be returned.
"I assure you of our support, because we also have many Chinese cultural works outside our country that we are trying to recover," Xi said on the last day of his official visit.
Greece has been campaigning for 

Xi urges Britain to return Parthenon Marbles to Greece

Mauritius's incumbent Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth was sworn in for a five-year term on Tuesday after elections in which his coalition consolidated its grip on parliament.
Jugnauth, 57, took over from his father in 2017 without going through a vote, and the decisive victory of his centre-right Morisian Alliance in the November 7 elections has strengthened his legitimacy.
Jugnauth's swearing-in took place at the residence of President Barlen Vyapoory, an  AFP journalist reported.
He immediately proposed a new cabinet of 23 members which was approved by Vyapoory.
It includes three women, including newcomer Kalpana Koonjoo-Shah who will take over the gender equality ministry.
Jugnauth held the finance portfolio in the previous government, but he is now handing it over to Renganaden Padayach, former deputy governor of the Bank of Mauritius.
The Morisian Alliance claimed 42 of 70 seats in parliament, trouncing the centre-left National Alliance of Navin Ramgoolam, which got 17 seats, and 

Mauritius PM Jugnauth takes oath after election win

Britain's main opposition Labour party said Tuesday it had suffered a "large-scale cyber attack" which undermined some of its campaign efforts for next month's election.
"We have experienced a sophisticated and large-scale cyber attack on Labour digital platforms," the party, led by veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, said in a statement.
"We took swift action and these attempts failed due to our robust security systems. The integrity of all our platforms was maintained and we are confident that no data breach occurred." It said that some campaign activities were slowed but they were restored early Tuesday and were now back to normal.
Labour said it had reported the incident to the National Cyber Security Centre, a part of intelligence agency GCHQ which monitors and works to protect security systems.
The attempted hack came against lingering concern about the potential for outside interference in the general election, with major parties relying increasing on digital messaging.
Corbyn ...

UK Labour suffers 'major cyber attack' ahead of election

The US would like to strengthen military cooperation with China, including repatriating the remains of American soldiers killed in the country during World War II, a senior Pentagon official has said.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who is scheduled to visit Asia next week, will meet with his Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of a meeting in Bangkok, said Randall Schriver, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs.
"Our preference would be a more cooperative relationship with China," Schriver said.  Esper will "ask for increased cooperation on the missing in action, primarily from the Second World War, where we have had off-again, on-again cooperation from the Chinese. And we'd like to see that resume in a more robust level."
The United States fought alongside Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist army in southern China against Japan between 1942 and 1944, in what the US military dubbed the China-Burma-India theater.
Esper also plans to raise ...

US wants to repatriate WWII soldiers' remains from China

Demonstrators in Chile set a university building ablaze and ransacked a church Friday at the close of an otherwise peaceful rally marking three weeks of unprecedented protests against social and economic inequality.
Protesters clashed with police who had set up barricades to protect private Pedro de Valdivia University, and shortly thereafter the wooden roof of its 100-year-old administration building began to burn, witnesses said.
Fire crews had trouble reaching the blaze because of all the demonstrators.
Nearby, hooded protesters looted the church of La Asuncion, which was built in 1876, dragging furniture outside and setting it alight.
Tens of thousands of people had filed earlier into Plaza Italia, which has become ground zero in this spasm of grassroots fury over low wages, high costs for education and health care and a socio-economic system they see as favouring the wealthy.
The unrest has left 20 people dead.
In the third such huge march, they renamed the square "Dignity ...

Protesters in Chile set fire to university, loot church

Arsene Wenger has contradicted a claim by Bayern Munich that they turned him down for the vacant head coach's job and accused the defending German champions of a lack of discretion.
Bayern need a new coach after Niko Kovac was sacked last Sunday with former Germany assistant Hansi Flick appointed interim boss for Wednesday's win over Olympiakos and Saturday's home league game against Dortmund.
On Thursday, Bayern put out a statement claiming Wenger had called club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge to express interest in replacing Kovac, but said the former Arsenal boss had been turned down.
However, Wenger, 70, rejected those version of events and criticised Bayern for leaking "rumours from everywhere".
"My name came out of nowhere," said Wenger in an interview with beIN Sports on Friday.
"On Wednesday, Rummenigge called me, I called back out of courtesy.
"We talked for four or five minutes, maximum, and he reported that they signed Flick (as interim coach) for the next two games.
"He ...

Wenger contradicts Bayern's claim they turned him down

Ashleigh Barty played the "best match of her life" to crush Caroline Garcia 6-0, 6-0 and haul Australia back into contention at the Fed Cup final Saturday after France's Kristina Mladenovic whipped Ajla Tomljanovic.
The world number one, fresh from winning the WTA Finals in China, came on court in Perth under pressure after the nervous Tomljanovic was thrashed 6-1, 6-1.
But in searing 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) heat she kept her cool to embarrass a stunned Garcia in a rare double bagel, with the Frenchwoman having no answers to the Barty armoury in front of 13,000 fans.
It left the tie evenly poised at 1-1 ahead of Sunday's reverse singles and a doubles clash if needed, with Australia targeting an eighth title and first in 45 years, while France are seeking a third, their first since 2003.
"This is remarkable, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect match. I think that's the best tennis match I've ever played in my life," said Barty.
"I felt like I served really well, made a lot of .

Barty produces 'best ever' tennis to level France Fed Cup final

Hong Kong police said Saturday they have arrested three pro-democracy lawmakers over a brawl in parliament, deepening the city's crisis a day after the death of a student sent tensions soaring.
The international finance hub has been upended by five months of huge and increasingly violent pro-democracy protests but Beijing has refused to give in to most of the movement's demands.
With the city bracing for a 24th consecutive weekend of rallies, police brought charges against three key pro-democracy lawmakers while four other lawmakers said they had been ordered to attend a police station later Saturday to be booked.
They face up to a year in jail if convicted.
The charges relate to chaotic scenes that broke out within a legislative committee in May as pro-democracy lawmakers tried to stop a controversial bill being discussed that would allow extraditions to authoritarian mainland China.
At the time, city leader Carrie Lam was fast-tracking the bill through the legislature, a move that ..

Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers arrested as tensions soar

China's consumer prices grew at their fastest rate in almost eight years in October driven by a spike in pork prices caused by an outbreak of African swine fever, according to official figures released Saturday.
The consumer price index (CPI) -- a key gauge of retail inflation -- hit 3.8 per cent last month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, up from 3.0 per cent in September and the highest annual rate since January 2012.
Analysts in a Bloomberg News poll had forecast a rate of 3.4 per cent.  Prices of pork, the staple meat in China, have more than doubled in the past year, according to the NBS.
More than a million pigs have been culled due to the widespread outbreaks since African swine fever appeared in August 2018, according to official statistics, but that is widely considered to be an underestimate.
This, in turn, has also pushed up prices of other meats including beef, chicken, duck and eggs as consumers switch to other protein sources.  The spike has led the ...

Chinese inflation hits highest rate since 2012

Liverpool have lived through many false dawns in the 29 years since last lifting a league title, but the class of 2019/20 have the chance to prove they are the real deal when reigning champions Manchester City visit Anfield on Sunday.
City's relentless hunger to push the bar to new heights under Pep Guardiola has kept Liverpool waiting.
Despite posting the third highest points tally in English top flight history last season with 97, Liverpool lost out by a solitary point as City backed up their 100-point campaign with 98 to retain the title.
Beset by defensive injuries, those standards have slipped slightly at the start of this season, allowing Jurgen Klopp's men to open up a six-point lead ahead of Sunday's battle between the top two.
"Last season we won the Premier League (against) the best contender I ever faced in my career," said Guardiola on Friday.
"Right now Liverpool are the strongest team in the world. Playing at Anfield, we know what it means for them and for all their ...

Weakened Man City offer Liverpool chance to increase Premier League lead

Nic Maddinson on Saturday pulled out of Australia A's clash against Pakistan in Perth on mental health grounds, all-but ruling him out of contention for a berth in the Test squad.
The middle-order batsman's decision comes barely a week after Glenn Maxwell withdrew from Australia's Twenty20 team to deal with similar issues.
Cameron Bancroft will replace Maddinson for the three-day match against Pakistan at Perth Stadium from Monday.
"Nic has made the right decision and we are all behind him," said Australia A coach Graeme Hick.
"It is braver to speak up than to suffer in silence and I applaud Nic for having the courage to put his health first."
His withdrawal almost certainly rules him out of the opening Test against Pakistan in Brisbane later this month, with the Australia A game widely seen as a final chance to impress selectors.
It opens the door to Travis Head or rising star Will Pucovski, who has also struggled with mental health issues in the past, to stake their ...

AFP

AFP

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