Top-ranked defending champion Novak Djokovic could face Roger Federer in the semi-finals and Rafael Nadal in the final under the US Open draw unveiled Thursday at Flushing Meadows.
Djokovic, who defeated Federer last month in an epic Wimbledon final for his 16th Grand Slam crown, had the 20-time Grand Slam champion and third seed dropped into his half of the draw.
Second seed Nadal, who won his 18th Grand Slam title at this year's French Open, has Austrian fourth seed Dominic Thiem on his side of the bracket.
Djokovic will play his first round match against Spain's 76th-ranked Roberto Carballes Baena.
Federer will open against a qualifier as will Japan's seventh-seeded Kei Nishikori, also in his quarter of the draw.
Nadal's first US Open match will be against Australia's 61st-ranked John Millman, who shocked Federer at the tournament in 2018, while fourth-seeded Thiem's opener will be against Italy's Thomas Fabbiano.

Federer falls into Djokovic's half of US Open draw

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Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi signed energy and security agreements with Russian's Vladimir Putin on Thursday in the first visit by a leader from the southern African state in two decades.
Nyusi's visit came weeks his government signed a peace deal with former rebel movement Renamo and just two months before elections where the Mozambique leader will seek a second term.
Russia has been looking to expand its influence in Africa and oil and gas producer Mozambique already signed a debt swap agreement with Moscow in 2017.
"On the commercial and economic side our relations are still modest," Putin said after signing the accords.
"But we have good prospects."
Bilateral trade between the two countries was USD 115 million (103.7 million euros) in 2018.
The two countries have historic ties stretching back to the 1960s when Soviet Moscow supported a Marxist-inspired Mozambique party fighting against Portuguese colonial rule.
Thursday's agreements include cooperation between the two ...

Mozambique, Russia sign energy, security deals

The United States on Thursday expressed "strong concern and disappointment" after South Korea announced it would end a military intelligence sharing pact with Japan amid a trade and diplomatic dispute.
"The Department of Defense expresses our strong concern and disappointment that the Moon Administration has withheld its renewal of the Republic of Korea's General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan," Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn said in a statement.

US voices 'strong concern' after S Korea scraps Japan intel pact

Google and other tech giants have said they will block an internet security certificate issued by Kazakhstan's authoritarian government over concerns it can intercept people's data.
Smartphone users in the Central Asian nation were last month redirected to a website telling them to download the government's "Qaznet", prompting a backlash online.
The government has insisted the certificate was optional, but one of the country's leading mobile told its users it was "necessary" to install it.
Google said Wednesday it would be blocking the certificate from its Chrome service, the world's most widely used web browser.
"It is not appropriate for this mechanism to be used to intercept traffic on the public internet," Google said.
A spokesman for Apple, which runs the Safari web browser, told AFP that Apple has "taken action to ensure the certificate is not trusted by Safari and our users are protected from this issue."
"Apple believes privacy is a fundamental human right," the spokesman ...

Google, Apple say protecting Kazakhs from government snooping

Sri Lanka will return to Pakistan after a nearly two-year absence for three short-form cricket games later this year, the sports minister said Thursday.
"We are not in a position to send the team to Pakistan to play the two Tests, but we will be in Pakistan for about eight days to play the ODIs or the T20 matches," Harin Fernando told reporters in Colombo.
No dates were announced, but the minister said the games would be scheduled for later this year.
Citing safety fears, Fernando said two Tests could instead be played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where Pakistan has held many of its home series.
International teams have stayed away from Pakistan over security concerns.
In October 2017, Sri Lanka played a T20 match in Lahore for the first time since a terror attack near the same venue in March 2009.
That attack left eight people dead and seven Sri Lanka players and staff injured.

Sri Lanka to return to Pakistan for three short-form matches

The United States on Thursday sharpened its criticism of China's activities in disputed areas of the South China Sea, slamming an "escalation" in efforts to intimidate other claimants" such as Vietnam.
China redeployed a government-owned survey vessel -- with armed escorts -- into the waters off Vietnam earlier this month, the US said.
Hanoi says those waters are part of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The move could reignite a spat between Beijing and Vietnam over rights to the resource-rich waters in the South China Sea. Other countries in Southeast Asia also have claimed parts of the sea.
"The United States is deeply concerned that China is continuing its interference with Vietnam's long-standing oil and gas activities in its EEZ," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.
In a statement, she called the deployment of the survey vessel "an escalation by Beijing in its efforts to intimidate other claimants out of developing resources in the South China Sea."
"This calls ...

US raps China for 'escalation' in South China Sea

Marcus Harris and Usman Khawaja both fell cheaply before Australia reached 54-2 at tea on Thursday's rain-marred opening day of the third Ashes Test against England at Headingley.
Only 18 overs in an original day's allocation of 90 had been bowled when bad light forced an early tea, with David Warner 26 not out - his first double-figure score in five innings this series -- and Marnus Labuschagne seven not out.
Rain had previously stopped play at 2.45 pm (1345 GMT) after delaying the scheduled start by more than an hour.
And there was further frustration for both England and a crowd who had waited patiently to watch cricket when, after play resumed, only 3.1 more overs were possible before the umpires suspended play for bad light even though the floodlights were on full blast.
After a grinning Warner and Labuschagne sprinted off the field, umpires Chris Gaffaney and Joel Wilson were booed as they returned to the pavilion.
Wilson was later seen having an animated conversation on the ...

Australia's Harris and Khawaja fall amid Ashes showers

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has confirmed the death of Hamza Bin Laden, the son and designated heir of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
"That's my understanding," Esper said in an interview late Wednesday with Fox News, when asked if Hamza bin Laden was dead.
"I don't have the details on that. And if I did I'm not sure how much I could share with you," he added.
US media reported at the beginning of August that bin Laden was killed during the last two years in an operation that involved the United States, citing US intelligence officials.
But President Donald Trump and other senior officials have refused to confirm or deny it publicly.
"I don't want to comment on it," Trump told reporters when asked.
The 15th of Osama bin Laden's 20 children and a son of his third wife, Hamza, thought to be about 30 years old, was "emerging as a leader in the Al-Qaeda franchise," the State Department said in announcing the reward.
Sometimes dubbed the "crown prince of jihad," he had put out ...

Pentagon chief confirms death of Qaeda's Hamza bin Laden

Lithuania on Thursday called on US e-commerce giant Amazon to stop selling Soviet-themed goods online, saying the hammer and sickle symbol offended victims of totalitarian communism.
The Baltic state's independence icon Vytautas Landsbergis published an open letter to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on the eve of the 80th anniversary of a partition deal between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that led to the occupation of the Baltic states.
The 86-year-old told Bezos that his company distributes consumer goods with symbols of "communist tyranny," calling the USSR a collaborator with Hitlerites in "war crimes and genocide".
Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said his diplomats had also asked Amazon to remove merchandise with Soviet symbols.
"It is offensive. Stalinist crimes are not sufficiently well understood. It is a matter of historical justice," he told AFP.
The hammer and sickle symbol appears on shirts, patches and other items found in the Amazon catalogue.
The symbol is 

Lithuania urges Amazon to drop Soviet-themed goods

Some 200 anti-vaccine protesters rallied in Kiev Thursday after authorities threatened to ban unvaccinated children from schools in Ukraine, which is hit by a deadly measles outbreak.
Ukraine has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Europe and has recorded more than 57,000 measles cases since the start of the year, including 18 deaths: an unprecedented number since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
In mid-August, the government threatened to ban unvaccinated children from access to schools.
The Kiev protesters, many of them young parents with children and some from the provinces, insisted they had the right to refuse vaccinations.
"I am for a free choice and against discrimination," said Alla Fedorchuk, a 25-year-old who travelled to the capital from the western city of Lutsk.
Her three-year-old son has not been vaccinated. Fedorchuk said a relative suffered side effects after being vaccinated.
Some protesters carried banners that read "Forced medical ...

Ukraine anti-vaccine protesters insist on rights despite measles outbreak

Slovenia's prime minister on Thursday gave his backing to the construction of a second reactor at the country's sole nuclear power plant despite opposition from activists.
Marjan Sarec said another reactor for the Krsko plant near the border with Croatia was needed for the development of the small EU member state.
However, he said he would still seek the advice of experts, and he also needs the support of his coalition partners or other parties in parliament.
"We need to make all the necessary efforts to start building a second bloc (reactor) since we'll be needing more energy in the future, in particular if we want to be a successfully developing country," the centre-left politician said.
He made his comments after visiting the plant which lies about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of the capital Ljubljana.
The plant, whose 700-megawatt Westinghouse reactor is co-owned by Slovenia and Croatia, was originally due to be switched off in 2023, but Ljubljana and Zagreb decided in 2015 to ..

Slovenia PM backs building second nuclear reactor

Two rival candidates both claimed victory Thursday in a tense and closely-watched regional election in southern Somalia that the federal government in Mogadishu had vowed not to recognise.
The hard-fought election in Jubaland, a semi-autonomous state bordering Kenya, had been postponed several times as a result of what observers say is a power struggle between Mogadishu, the regional government and their foreign backers.
Jubaland authorities had accused the federal government of trying to expand their power by ousting the incumbent president, Ahmed Madobe, and installing a loyalist in his place.
Tensions over the poll threatened to spill over, with Kenya backing its ally Madobe while Ethiopia was siding with Mogadishu in trying to remove him, Somalia analysts said.
But Madobe, a former warlord, prevailed with 56 of Jubaland's 74 MPs casting ballots to "ensure him the presidency for the next four years", the state's speaker of parliament said Thursday.
"We are ready to sit with anyone .

Incumbent named victor in tense Somali state vote, rival claims win

Wildlife-supporting countries on Thursday backed regulating international trade in giraffes in a bid to offer more protection to the gentle giants, feared to be facing a "silent extinction".
The vote in Geneva by parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) recognises for the first time that international trade is part of the threat facing giraffes.
The decision, which passed with 106 votes in favour to 21 votes opposed and seven abstaining, took place in committee and still needs a stamp of approval by the full CITES conference before it wraps up on August 28.
The African giraffe population as a whole has shrunk by an estimated 40 percent over the past three decades, to just under 100,000 animals, according to the best figures available to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
And yet Thursday's vote, which implies listing all giraffes under CITES Appendix II and thus requiring tracking and regulation of all trade in the species, 

Wildlife meeting backs more protection for giraffes

Sri Lankans involved in gambling firms will be barred from the nation's cricket governing body as officials bid to eradicate match-fixing scandals that have dogged the sport, the government said Thursday.
Sri Lankan cricket has been mired in corruption scandals in recent years, including claims of match fixing ahead of an international Test against England last year.
Sports Minister Harin Fernando said he was introducing regulations to bring the country in line with International Cricket Council (ICC) provisions that ban individuals with connections to gambling firms from being involved in the sport's administration.
"From now on, anyone who is involved in betting or has a close relative involved in betting will not be able to hold office," Fernando told reporters in Colombo.
The changes appear aimed at the former president of Sri Lanka Cricket, Thilanga Sumathipala, whose family owns a gambling business.
Sumathipala, a controversial businessman and politician, is an executive ...

Sri Lankans with betting interests to be barred from cricket body

World and Olympic 3000m steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto is targeting a winning return in his first race in a year in the Paris Diamond League meeting on Saturday.
The return of the Kenyan 2018 Diamond League winner after suffering a leg stress fracture last year is a relief for Kenya ahead of the world championships in Doha, where its stranglehold on global steeplechase titles was under threat for the first time since 1991.
"I am proud to return to racing again after such a long time. The most important thing is that I am fully healed, and my target now is to take back my position at the top of the 3000m steeplechase," Kipruto told AFP on Wednesday before leaving for Paris.
Kenya has won every Olympic gold medal in the men's steeplechase since 1968 and are undefeated at the world championships since 1991.
In Paris, Kipruto is expecting to renew his rivalry with Morocco's Souffiane El Bakkali, who has taken full advantage of the Kenyan's absence to cement his place as the ...

Steeplechaser Kipruto's return a relief for Kenya

"A few" people died and 12 were injured Thursday during a sudden thunderstorm that saw lightning strike a metal cross in the Tatra mountains in southern Poland, rescuers said.
"A dozen people were struck by lightning around Mount Giewont," mountain rescue service chief Jan Krzysztof told reporters.
"There were a few deaths in different parts of the Tatra mountains" he said, without giving an exact toll.
Poland's TVN24 commercial news channel reported that lightning struck the large cross on the Giewont summit near the mountain resort town of Zakopane at a time when many hikers were present.
They had set out to climb Poland's highest mountains when the skies were clear earlier in the day.
Despite the poor weather conditions, rescuers have set out by helicopter to look for the victims.

Several killed in lightning storm in Poland

French leader Emmanuel Macron backed the idea of a month of further talks to find a solution to Brexit while ruling out major compromises as he met British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for talks on Thursday.
Like German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday, Macron supported allowing another 30 days to find a solution to the vexed issue of the Irish border which has bedevilled negotiations since 2017.
"We need to try to have a useful month," Macron said alongside Johnson who insisted that solutions were "readily available" to prevent checkpoints returning in divided Ireland.
But Macron, who admitted he had a reputation as the "hardest in the gang" on Brexit, has rejected Johnson's calls to scrap a key arrangement for Ireland negotiated between the EU and former British premier Theresa May.
At stake is the so-called "backstop", which is a provision guaranteeing that border checks will not return between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland which is part of Britain.
Johnson considers .

Macron backs month of Brexit talks as Johnson visits

England fast bowler Jofra Archer dismissed recalled Australia opener Marcus Harris on the first day of the third Test at Headingley on Thursday before rain intervened again in the Ashes.
Only four overs were possible before lunch but that was enough time for Australia to be reduced to 12-1 after England captain Joe Root had won the toss under gloomy skies in conditions that promised to assist his pace bowlers.
No sooner had Root called correctly on his Yorkshire home ground, however, then rain delayed the scheduled start by over an hour.
When play eventually got underway, conditions remained difficult for the batsmen.  Australia had dropped opener Cameron Bancroft, who had made just 44 runs in four innings, and brought in Harris to partner David Warner at the top of the order after England had enjoyed the better of a rain-affected draw in the second Test at Lord's.
Both left-handed batsmen struggled against England's new-ball attack of Stuart Broad and Archer.
The experienced Warner ..

Archer dismisses Australia's Harris in third Ashes Test before rain stops play

Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne helped Sri Lanka to 85 for two at stumps on a rain-hit day one of the second Test against New Zealand in Colombo on Thursday.
Only 36.3 overs were possible after rain washed out the first session and bad light ended play for the day with Karunaratne unbeaten on 49.
Karunaratne, fresh from a match-winning century in the first Test in Galle last week last week, hit six boundaries during his 100-ball stay in overcast conditions.
Former captain Angelo Mathews was giving Karunaratne company in the middle to remain unbeaten on nought after facing 14 deliveries.
New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme, who made the XI in place of Mitchell Santner, said the match was "evenly poised".
"There's a bit of more bounce on this track than what we encountered in Galle and that's nice," he said after play ended.
"If we can get a couple of early wickets tomorrow morning that will be nice."
Karunaratne batted with positive intent despite losing opening partner Lahiru ...

Karunaratne helps Sri Lanka to 85-2 on rain-hit first day

Spain's former king Juan Carlos I, who retired from public life in June, will undergo heart surgery on Saturday, the royal palace said.
Doctors detected the need for the operation during an annual check up in June and the operation was scheduled for the end of August, a spokesman for the royal palace told AFP.
"It does not seem like it is a serious case," the spokesman said, adding the 81-year-old had "led a normal life" since he was told he needed surgery.
The royal palace did not specify what medical condition would be treated. The operation will be carried out at a private hospital at a Madrid suburb.
Juan Carlos, who helped smooth Spain's transition to democracy in the 1970s after the Francisco Franco dictatorship, abdicated in favour of his son Felipe in 2014.
Despite having retired from public life, he has continued to be spotted in public at bullfights in Madrid and at a sailing competition in Finland.
He underwent a knee operation last year and has had multiple hip operations.

Spain's former king Juan Carlos to undergo heart surgery

Kosovo MPs voted on Thursday to dissolve parliament and trigger early elections, a move that could shake up the political scene at a time when negotiations with former foe Serbia are deadlocked.
The vote comes after outgoing premier Ramush Haradinaj, a former commander of ethnic Albanian rebels who battled Serbia in the late 1990s, stepped down in July to face a summons from a special court in The Hague that is investigating crimes from that era.
Since his resignation, parties have agitated for a snap poll, with some already involved in unofficial campaigning and talking about possible alliances.
After 89 lawmakers in the 120-member assembly voted in favour of the motion, Haradinaj hailed it as proof of Kosovo's "political maturity" and "stable democracy".
He also stressed that the dialogue with Serbia "is one of the important topics".
"I think we should discuss this topic after the elections," he told reporters.
President Hashim Thaci, who is now required to call an election within ..

AFP

AFP

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