Beijing put the finishing touches Monday to a massive military parade to celebrate Communist China's 70th anniversary, but pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong threatened to steal the global media spotlight.
Some 15,000 soldiers will march across Tiananmen Square and the latest military technology will be displayed on Tuesday in a patriotic show of strength to demonstrate the country's emergence as a global superpower.
President Xi Jinping is expected to make a stirring speech ahead of the parade at the Gate of Heavenly Peace, the same spot where Chairman Mao Zedong announced the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949.
After the military march a civilian parade will involve 100,000 civilians and 70 floats, with organisers releasing 70,000 doves and 70,000 balloons before an evening performance and fireworks in Tiananmen.
The capital city was doused in red Chinese flags, flower displays, lanterns and political slogans ahead of the tightly-choreographed ...

China readies for anniversary, Hong Kong for protest

PTI Automatic

Unemployment in the eurozone fell in August to 7.4 per cent, its lowest level since May 2008, according to official data released Monday.
The figure, which brought the number of unemployed in the single currency bloc to 12.17 million, was lower than a forecast by financial data provider Factset, which predicted unchanged unemployment at 7.5 percent.
Unemployment in the eurozone thus fell below the rate just prior to the world financial crisis in 2008 (7.5 per cent) after reaching 12.1 per cent in mid-2013 at the height of the debt crisis.
Germany, the leading economy in the euro area, recorded the lowest level of the 19 euro countries, stable at 3.1 per cent followed by Malta at 3.3 percent and the Netherlands at 3.5 per cent.
The large countries of Southern Europe are still well above the average.
Greece, which put an end to a series of bailouts in 2018, recorded the highest level, at 17 per cent according to June figures, the latest data available.
In Spain, the percentage of ...

Eurozone unemployment falls to 11-year low

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office has denied allegations he made unwanted sexual advances towards two women 20 years ago.
Journalist Charlotte Edwardes wrote in a column for The Sunday Times that Johnson put his hand on her thigh at a dinner party thrown by the magazine he was editing at the time.
"Under the table I feel Johnson's hand on my thigh. He gives it a squeeze," Edwardes wrote.
"His hand is high up my leg and he has enough inner flesh beneath his fingers to make me sit suddenly upright."
She said a woman she spoke with after the dinner who was sitting on Johnson's other side said the same thing happened to her.  Johnson's office issued a brief statement late Sunday stating: "The allegation is untrue." But Edwardes stood firm.
"If the prime minister doesn't recollect the incident then clearly I have a better memory than he does," she tweeted.
The allegation was published just as Johnson's Conservative party gathered for an annual conference focused on Britain's ...

UK PM's office denies Johnson sexual advance allegations

Hong Kong pro-democracy protests on Tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of communist China's founding on Tuesday will be "very, very dangerous", police in the city warned Monday.
"After our analysis, we're expecting the situation tomorrow to be very, very dangerous," Superintendent John Tse told reporters.
"Core rioters are increasing their violence. The depth and breadth of their violence and plans show that they are increasingly resorting to terrorism," he added.

Hong Kong police warn National Day protests will be 'very, very dangerous'

Former Cathay Pacific staff who say they were fired for supporting Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters accused bosses on Monday of carrying out a "Cultural revolution" style political purge.
The Hong Kong-based airline has had a torrid few weeks after Chinese state media and authorities blasted the company because some of its 27,000 employees had taken part in -- or were sympathetic to -- anti-government protesters.
China's aviation regulator barred staff supporting protests from working on flights to the mainland or traveling through its airspace, setting off chaos inside the company as it frantically tried to win back Beijing's favour.
Both the airline's CEO and Chairman made surprise departures as bosses issued repeated warnings to staff not to take part in the protests currently engulfing the financial hub.
In recent weeks staff have described deleting their social media accounts, fearful that colleagues might inform on them while Cathay announced it had sacked multiple staff ...

Sacked Hong Kong Cathay staff decry 'Cultural Revolution' purge

World number one Novak Djokovic might be top seed at the Japan Open starting Monday, but when he took to the ring for a sumo bout in Tokyo, he came up short.
"I felt that I am out of shape (for sumo) a little bit," he told the ATP tour website after trying his hand at the sport on Monday, hours before his first match.
With his teeth gritted and his fingers sinking into the giant arm of his opponent, Djokovic tried and failed to move a wrestler a few inches inside a dohyo, or sumo ring.
"I think with a few more kilos, I'll be ready to compete," he joked.
"Probably three times as much as I have right now would be the right measurement for me to compete."
The ancient sport of sumo is a big draw for foreign visitors to Japan, with new spectators often surprised by the agility of the enormous participants.
"It's quite impressive to see also how flexible they are," Djokovic said.
"I didn't think that they were that flexible considering it's a heavyweight sport, but I see that they are ...

'A few more kilos': Djokovic comes up short... at sumo

World number one Novak Djokovic, forced out of the US Open with a shoulder injury, suffered a doubles defeat at the Japan Open on Monday, but proved his recovery is on track.
Bruno Soares of Brazil and Mate Pavic of Croatia beat the 32-year-old Serbian star and his countryman Filip Krajinovic 6-2, 4-6, 10-4 to progress to the quarter-finals.
The doubles experts survived Djokovic's powerful serves with crisp volleying as their quick court coverage overwhelmed the Serbian pair's bold shots.
Top seed Djokovic will make his Japan Open singles debut later this week playing Alexei Popyrin, a 20-year-old Australian, at the Ariake Coliseum, a venue for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
His main challengers in the Japan event will be second seed Borna Coric of Croatia and Belgian third seed David Goffin.
Earlier this month, Djokovic was forced to pull out of his US Open fourth-round clash with Stan Wawrinka due to a nagging injury in his left shoulder.
His return means he could play out the season and .

Doubles defeat for Djokovic ahead of Japan Open singles debut

An American man who leaked confidential details of thousands of HIV-positive people in Singapore, most of them foreigners, has been jailed in the United States for two years.
Mikhy Farrera Brochez was convicted by a Kentucky court in June for trying to extort the Singapore government using the stolen data.
The 34-year-old had obtained the data from his partner, a senior Singaporean doctor who also helped Brochez conceal his HIV-positive status to get a work permit for the city-state.
Confidential information including the names and addresses of 14,200 people diagnosed with the virus that causes AIDS was dumped online.
The leak caused anxiety among those with HIV, who have long complained of facing prejudice in socially conservative Singapore.
Brochez was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison on Friday, said a statement from the US Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Kentucky.
"The defendant's conduct was serious and significant, affecting thousands of people across the ...

American man jailed in US over Singapore HIV data leak

- The New Zealand arm of Japanese sports brand Asics has apologised after pornography was broadcast on large television screens above its central Auckland store for several hours, startling Sunday morning shoppers.
Pornography played on the retailer's outdoor screens for up to nine hours -- until staff arrived at the shop around 10am on Sunday and switched them off, the New Zealand Herald reported.
"Some people were shocked, but others just stopped and watched," security guard Dwayne Hinango told the newspaper.
The explicit content was "totally inappropriate and offensive" and "not something you want kids exposed to", said Tanya Lee, who had walked past with her seven-year-old son.
Asics New Zealand said in a Facebook post that an unknown person had gained access to its televisions.
"Some objectionable content was displayed on the screens," the post said.
"We would like to apologise to anyone who may have seen this."
The company said it was working with its software and online ...

NZ sports store apologises over porn played on big screens

Starbucks has emerged as the latest brand to fall foul of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters after a family member of the local restaurant chain that owns the local franchise spoke out against demonstrators.
Multiple branches were covered with graffiti over the weekend as the city convulsed with some of the most intense clashes between hardcore protesters and riot police in weeks.
One cafe in the district of Wanchai was daubed with slogans saying "boycott" as well as insults to the police and Maxim's Caterers, a major Hong Kong restaurant chain that runs Starbucks outlets in the city.
The vandalism illustrates the huge pressures on international brands as Hong Kong is shaken by its worst political unrest in decades.
Beijing is piling pressure on businesses to publicly condemn the protests.
Those that do risk a protester backlash, but staying silent risks financial punishment on the mainland, a far more lucrative market.
The boycott campaign against Maxim's snowballed after Annie Wu, 

Starbucks becomes latest target of Hong Kong protester rage

Communist China's creation seven decades ago irrevocably changed Taiwan, but Beijing's huge celebrations this week will be met with a collective shrug on an island where people increasingly see themselves as distinct from the mainland.
After the People's Republic of China was declared on 1 October 1949, its rival, the Republic of China, set up in Taiwan -- the island Chiang Kai-shek's defeated nationalists fled to and imposed their will upon.
Taiwan remains a sore point to this day among party leaders in Beijing -- viewed as a missing piece of a geographical puzzle that must one day be completed, regardless of what the island's 24 million inhabitants want.
But for younger Taiwanese people such as Doris Cheng, the idea that her homeland is a part of mainland China is anathema.
"Taiwan is a country," the 16-year-old told AFP, while taking a break from practising hip-hop dance moves with friends in Taipei's Liberty Square.
"Taiwan has autonomy, a government, our own people and ...

Taiwan shrugs as communist China hails 70th anniversary

Car behemoth Volkswagen will face a German court Monday, as hundreds of thousands of owners of manipulated diesel cars demand compensation four years after the country's largest post-war industrial scandal erupted.
The first hearing in what is likely to be a grinding, years-long trial opens at 10 am in Brunswick, around 30 kilometres from VW headquarters in the northern city of Wolfsburg.
Around 450,000 people have joined a first-of-its-kind grouped proceeding, introduced by lawmakers after the "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal broke in 2015.
Consumer rights group VZBV, representing the plaintiffs, says the German carmaker deliberately harmed buyers by installing motor control software that allowed vehicles to pollute far more on the road than under lab conditions.
The trial is Germany's largest so far in the tentacular diesel scandal, which last week saw VW chief executive Herbert Diess charged with market manipulation over his role.
In the mass lawsuit, the most important of ..

Volkswagen faces first mammoth diesel lawsuit on home turf

Welsh international Aaron Ramsey scored on his first start for Juventus as the former Arsenal man's Turin gamble looks to be paying off as he flourishes in the Italian league.
Ramsey moved to the Serie A champions this season on a lucrative free transfer reported to be worth 503,000 euros per week ($515,000).
The 28-year-old has impressed in his first three league games for the eight-time reigning Serie A champions having recovered from a hamstring injury picked up with Arsenal.
He found the net on his debut against Verona on September 21, and impressed in the following two league wins over Brescia and SPAL.
"Three wins out of three in Serie A this week. Onto the Champions League Tuesday," Ramsey wrote on social media.
Juventus will host Bayer Leverkusen in their Group D clash in Turin, having being held 2-2 at Atletico Madrid in their opener.
Ramsey had come on as a late substitute against Atletico with the Italians conceding a goal just two minutes later.
"I've waited a long time ...

Ramsey gamble paying off at Juventus

Hampered by injuries and poor form, Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli faces an uncertain future while his club are battling to recover from their own troubling period.
In a clear indication of the malaise gripping Alli, the England international is far from certain to feature when Tottenham host Bayern Munich in a crucial Champions League clash on Tuesday.
That would have been unthinkable just two years ago when Alli was regarded as one of Europe's rising stars.
Since then, the 23-year-old has been stuck in a steady decline that raises questions about his long-term future in north London.
After appearing in four of Tottenham's five pre-season games, Alli was absent for the final friendly against Inter Milan due to the latest in a long line of hamstring issues.
Having missed games against Aston Villa, Manchester City and Newcastle, Alli was introduced on the hour for the 2-2 draw at Arsenal on September 1.
But that remains Alli's lone Premier League action this term, with his two other ...

Alli faces uncertain future as Spurs splutter

Bayern Munich captain Manuel Neuer heads into Tuesday's Champions League clash with Tottenham Hotspur aiming for a display that settles the debate about whether he should remain Germany's first-choice goalkeeper ahead of Barcelona's Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
The showdown in London will be key in deciding who will win Group B, with Bayern currently top after beating Red Star Belgrade 3-0 in their opener a fortnight ago and Spurs needing a home victory to get back on track after throwing away a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw at Olympiakos.
Neuer will want to use the high-profile clash to prove his form after a shaky display on Saturday, in which he was twice beaten -- including once from long-range effort -- at bottom club Paderborn.
Neuer could do little about the first goal, but was at fault when Paderborn defender Jamilu Collins scored from 30 metres out to make it 3-2 and give Bayern a nervy final 10 minutes before they eventually won and topped the Bundesliga for the first time this ...

Neuer out to settle Germany's keeper debate against Spurs

Ripped-up paving stones lay scattered around the graffiti-scarred streets of Hong Kong  after one of the most violent days in a summer of rage, as protesters ready for fresh clashes on Tuesday's 70th anniversary of communist China's founding.
The protest-wracked financial hub witnessed its fiercest political violence in weeks on Sunday as riot police spent hours in running battles with protesters, the streets blanketed in tear gas and smoke from burning barricades.
Millions have hit the streets during nearly four months of pro-democracy protests while hardcore activists have repeatedly clashed with police in the biggest challenge to China's rule since the city's handover from Britain in 1997.
Tensions have soared the last few days.
Beijing is preparing for huge, tightly-choreographed festivities from Tuesday to mark the founding of the People's Republic of China, including a massive military parade that will showcase the country's emergence as a global superpower.
Yet the ongoing ...

Strife-torn Hong Kong braces for China anniversary day violence

Real Madrid's revolution was supposed to be built around their attack but resilience has been the base for the recovery ahead of their Champions League group game at home to Club Brugge on Tuesday.
At the end of last season, as Zinedine Zidane's dreary run-in came to a close and paved the way for what many expected to be a spectacular summer, polls were published by Madrid's newspapers asking fans which of the world's deadliest strikers they hoped would arrive at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah, Sergio Aguero, Mauro Icardi and Robert Lewandowski were some of the names offered up and, in the end, Luka Jovic arrived, the Serbian who has struggled for starts so far and is yet to score a goal.
Eden Hazard is tasked too with helping fill the void left by Cristiano Ronaldo, even if the Belgian's own opening in Madrid has also been underwhelming, stalled by injury and now seemingly a period of adjustment.
"We would like him to score because it will release him," said Zidane .

Defence is king as Madrid go back to basics ahead of Brugge test

Cameron Champ birdied the 72nd hole to capture an emotional triumph Sunday at the US PGA Safeway Open, a victory the 24-year-old American dedicated to his cancer-stricken grandfather.
"If I win no more tournaments or 10 more tournaments, this will be the greatest win of my golfing career for sure," a tearful Champ said after sinking the four-foot birdie putt that gave him a one-stroke triumph.
Champ began Sunday's final round at Silverado with a three-stroke lead, saw it erased when Canada's Adam Hadwin birdied the last three holes to match him on 16-under, then responded with two strong shots and a chip to four feet at the par-5 18th before his winning putt.
"That was the first time I didn't feel nervous all day," said Champ, who didn't hit a fairway off the tee until the 12th hole.
Champ fired a final-round three-under par 69 to finish 72 holes on 17-under 271 at Napa, California -- barely an hour's drive from the Sacramento area where he grew up and learned to golf thanks in part ..

Tearful Champ dedicates PGA win to cancer-hit grandpa

Sevilla avoided a third consecutive defeat in La Liga and stopped high-flying Real Sociedad from going top after coming from behind to beat them 3-2 on Sunday.
After Real Madrid's stalemate against Atletico on Saturday, the Basque outfit could have leapfrogged both to claim first place in Spain but came up short in a pulsating contest at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
It looked good for the visitors when Mikel Oyarzabal gave them a fourth-minute lead but Nolito equalised for Sevilla with a sumptuous half-volley before Lucas Ocampos and Franco Vazquez completed the comeback in the second half.
Portu still set up a nervy finish when he added a second for Real Sociedad in the 87th minute but Sevilla held on for a much-needed win, after consecutive losses to Real Madrid and Eibar this week.
After signing 12 new players in the summer, Sevilla have gelled impressively quickly and they now sit sixth, just two points off the top.
Their credentials for keeping pace with the leaders will be tested .

Sevilla edge out Real Sociedad in five-goal thriller

Napoli got back to winning ways with a 2-1 victory against Brescia on Sunday as Franck Ribery sealed a 3-1 win for Fiorentina against ten-man AC Milan that pushed the northerners down to 16th in the Serie A table with a third consecutive defeat.
All the Italian teams in European action this week warmed up with wins with Napoli seeing off promoted Brescia despite Mario Balotelli scoring his first goal for the newcomers.
First-half goals from Dries Mertens and Kostas Manolas ensured Napoli took all three points after their midweek loss to Cagliari, to boost their confidence ahead of a Champions League trip to Belgian club Genk.
Carlo Ancelotti's side stay fourth with 12 points from six games, six behind league leaders Inter Milan who beat Sampdoria 3-1 on Saturday, before they play Barcelona in Europe.
"Suffering is natural in these games if you don't kill it off with 3-0 and then concede a goal, it all opens up again," Ancelotti told DAZN.
"But all in all I'm satisfied.
"We played an ..

Napoli back winning as Ribery's Fiorentina punish AC Milan

Marseille's inconsistent start to life under Andre Villas-Boas continued on Sunday with a home 1-1 draw with Rennes that left the former European champions off the pace outside Ligue 1's top four.
Duje Caleta-Car's header seven minutes after the break earned Marseille a point at the Stade Velodrome after Mbaye Niang had finished off a sweeping attack to give the away side a deserved 19th-minute lead.
The hosts had goalkeeper Steve Mandanda to thank five minutes from the end when he pulled off a magnificent double save from Adrien Hunou to make sure Marseille's disgruntled fans didn't unleash the same whistles at the final whistle as they did at half-time.
Villas Boas' side are fifth in the league on 13 points after winning just three of their opening eight matches and drawing their last two, following a goalless draw at bottom club Dijon in midweek.
However they too had a chance to snatch the points seconds before Mandanda's heroics when the visitors' goalkeeper Edouard Mendy pushed ..

AFP

AFP

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