The ICC has given the Melbourne  Cricket Ground pitch a poor rating for last week's drawn Ashes  test, giving Cricket Australia two weeks to respond to the  criticism before determining a sanction.
Players and commentators criticised the lifeless drop-in  pitch used for the Boxing Day test between Australia and  England in Melbourne, and International Cricket Council match  referee Ranjan Madugalle followed up in his official report to  the sport's governing body when he gave it a poor rating.
It was the first Australian test venue to be rated with  such a low rating.
Under existing rules, the ICC sanction can range from an  official warning to a fine. But under regulations set to come  into effect on Thursday, pitches officially rated as poor or  unfit will be given demerit points which could ultimately lead  to suspensions.
The ICC also rated the Indian venue Pune as poor last  year after Australia's victory there over India.
The MCG is one of the sport's most iconic venues,  ...

International Cricket Council confirms MCG poor pitch rating

PTI Automatic

Authorities have recaptured an American  citizen who escaped from an overcrowded and understaffed  prison on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, police said  today.
Christian Beasley, 32, is believed to have escaped during  heavy rain last Monday from the Kerobokan penitentiary in  Bali's provincial capital, Denpasar, by sawing through a  ceiling and then climbing over a 6-meter (20-foot) -high wall  behind the prison.
The head of the prison, Tonny Nainggolan, said earlier  that another American inmate, Paul Anthony Hoffman, 57, who  has been serving a 20-month sentence since July for robbery,  was captured while trying to escape along with Beasley.
Beasley was arrested in August at a post office in Bali's  Kuta tourist area while allegedly trying to pick up a package  containing 5.7 grams of hashish. He stood trial and the  verdict was due last Tuesday, a day after his escape.
Bali police detective Made Pramestia said Beasley had  reached the neighboring tourist island of Lombok by 

American man recaptured after 5-day Indonesia manhunt

A slow-moving storm has left more  than 30 people dead and several others missing mostly due to  landslides and floods and stranded thousands of holiday  travelers in the central Philippines, officials said today.
Sofronio Dacillo Jr., a disaster-response officer, said  26 villagers died and 23 others were missing mostly due to  landslides in different areas in the island province of  Biliran, where the weather has improved after Tropical Storm  Kai-Tak blew over yesterday.
At least seven other people were killed in landslides and  floods in four central areas due to Kai-tak, which weakened  into a tropical depression but moved southwestward and picked  up speed Sunday with sustained winds of 55 kilometers per  hour, according to officials and police.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management  Council said it was trying to confirm the reported deaths  caused by the storm, which forced more than 89,000 people to  flee to emergency shelters. Thousands of Christmas holiday  ...

More than 30 dead in Philippines due to slow-moving storm

Thousands of Islamists have rallied  in two major cities in Pakistan to condemn US President Donald  Trump for declaring Jerusalem Israel's capital.
Supporters of the Jamaat-e-Islami party in Karachi and  advocates of US-wanted Islamist Hafiz Saeed in Lahore  dispersed peacefully after rallying Sunday for the Palestinian  cause.
Protests have persisted in Pakistan since Trump's  announcement angered Muslims across the world.
The chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Sirajul Haq, called on all  Muslim nations to suspend diplomatic ties with the US until it  reconsiders its Jerusalem decision.
Hafiz Saeed said that Muslims the world over should put  aside any differences and unite around the cause of  "liberating" Jerusalem.
Muslim-majority Pakistan has reiterated its support for  the Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as the capital of  their hoped-for state.

Thousands rally in Pakistan against Trump's Jerusalem move

Clad in traditional Chinese, Western  and Sri Lankan costumes, 50 Chinese couples were married at a  mass ceremony in Sri Lanka's capital to mark the 60th  anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries  and to promote the island nation as a tourist destination.
The ceremony in Colombo on Sunday was attended by Sri  Lankan politicians and diplomats from both nations. A number  of Chinese nationals attended as well.
Soon after the couples arrived in decorated cars, the  ceremony began with traditional Sri Lankan drummers and  dancers blowing conch shells as a symbol of auspiciousness and  performing a welcome dance.
The couples exchanged rings and had their fingers tied  together and water poured over them as a sign of unity and  purity.

50 Chinese couples marry in Sri Lanka in mass ceremony

Witnesses and health officials say an  airstrike by a Saudi-led coalition has struck a wedding  procession east of Yemen's capital, killing 10 women.
They say today's airstrike targeted the women as they  marched to a village in Maarib province. They said the bride  was among the women, but it was not immediately clear whether  she was wounded.
It's a tradition in rural Yemen for the bride's female  friends and relatives to escort her to the wedding ceremony,  where the groom awaits.
The witnesses and officials spoke on condition of  anonymity because they feared retaliation or were not  authorized to brief the media.
The US-backed coalition has been at war with Iranian-  supported Shiite rebels since 2015. Its airstrikes have hit  civilians on a number of occasions.

Saudi-led coalition airstrike kills 10 women in Yemen

An Afghan official says Taliban  insurgents have attacked checkpoints in the southern Helmand  province, killing 11 police.
Omar Zwak, the spokesman for the provincial governor,  said Afghan forces eventually repelled the attack early Sunday  in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. He said the insurgents  also suffered casualties, without providing figures.
The Taliban, who have a strong and growing presence in  Helmand, claimed the attack. The insurgents launch near-daily  attacks across the country, mainly targeting security forces.

Taliban kill 11 Afghan police in attack on checkpoints

Special counsel Robert Mueller's  investigation into Russian contacts with President Donald  Trump's campaign has gained access to thousands of emails sent  and received by Trump officials before the start of his  administration, according to several people familiar with  Trump's transition organisation.
But the investigators did not directly request the  records from Trump's still-existing transition group, Trump  for America, and instead obtained them from the General  Services Administration, a separate federal agency that stored  the material, according to those familiar with the Trump  transition organisation.
The tens of thousands of emails in question pertain to 13  senior Trump transition officials. Many of the emails that  Mueller's investigators have now include national security  discussions about possible Trump international aims as well as  candid assessments of candidates for top government posts,  said those familiar with the transition.
They spoke to The Associated ...

Special counsel obtains thousands of Trump transition emails

Chileans voters will decide today  whether to swing the world's top copper-producing country to  the right or maintain its centre-left path in a fiercely  contested presidential runoff election.
Polls had predicted that former President Sebastian  Pinera would win the runoff.
But the vote was thrown into uncertainty after the  billionaire businessman obtained a lower-than-expected turnout  in November's first round. He faces journalist and center-left  Sen. Alejandro Guillier, who has been buoyed by support from  Chile's hard left.
Chile has been hit by lower international prices and  demand for copper, which is the backbone of its economy.
The economic slowdown and disenchantment by Chileans who  feel that President Michelle Bachelet wavered on her promises  of profound social changes in labor and education initially  helped Pinera, who ended his 2010-2014 term with a poor  popularity rating.
Polls are banned in the weeks ahead of the election, but  analysts say that the race appears 

Chileans vote in fiercely contested presidential election

Crowds of flower-bearing North  Koreans today streamed passed statues and portraits of their  leaders to pay respects on the sixth anniversary of the death  of Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il.
With somber, recorded music playing in the sub-zero air,  thousands upon thousands of people marched up Pyongyang's  Mansu Hill to bow and place flowers at the feet of two giant  bronze statues of Kim Jong Il and national founder Kim Il  Sung, who is North Korea's "eternal president" and Kim Jong  Un's grandfather.
Kim Jong Il died on December 17, 2011.
Although the sense of national mourning is less intense  than in previous years, North Koreans are expected to avoid  drinking, entertainment and inappropriate displays of  enjoyment on the day before and the day of the anniversary.
At midnight, senior ruling party officials visited a  mausoleum on the outskirts of the city where the elder Kims  lie in state, according to state-run media reports.

North Korea marks 6th anniversary of Kim Jong Il's death

A group of at least 120 children in  Venezuela who were expecting to fly to Peru to reunite with  relatives have been grounded in Caracas after officials say  they presented fraudulent travel documents.
Venezuelan chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab said  yesterday the children were returned to family members  following the incident on Friday in Venezuela's capital.
A leader with the Venezuelan Union in Peru who helped  organise the trip to Lima said the group met all the legal  requirements and that the children have become pawns in an  ongoing political dispute.
Oscar Perez said the children were travelling to Lima to  reunite with parents now living and working in Peru.
Many of the children's parents waited for hours at Lima's  airport on Friday evening anxiously expecting their children  to arrive.

Children in Venezuela stopped from flying to Peru

Hilda Hernandez, sister of  President Juan Orlando Hernandez, and five other people were  killed in a helicopter crash today on a mountain near the  Honduran capital.
Hernandez, 51, was an agronomy engineer who served as  communications minister under her brother and as minister of  social development during the previous administration of  then-President Porfirio Lobo.
The military helicopter carrying Hernandez, four members  of her security detail and a pilot took off from Tegucigalpa's  international airport in the morning bound for her residence  in Comayagua, about 60 kilometers from the capital.
Soon afterward, the air force reported that the aircraft  had gone missing. The wreckage was later discovered in the  mountains outside Tegucigalpa with no survivors.
President Hernandez changed his Twitter profile picture  to a black ribbon of mourning.
Reynaldo Sanchez, the head of the president's National  Party, said in a statement: "Be with God, Hilda Hernandez, a  tireless fighter ..

Helicopter crash kills Honduran president's sister, 5 others

Officials in Chile say heavy rains  fueled a landslide that swept over a village in the country's  south, killing at least three people and leaving another 15  missing.
Deputy Secretary of the Interior Madmud Aleuy says the  three confirmed dead in Villa Santa Lucia in the Los Lagos  region of southern Chile are two women and an unidentified  tourist. Fifteen others are missing.
Rains caused a river to overflow and the side of a hill  to collapse yesterday, burying 20 of the 200 houses in the  village located 1,272 kilometers south of the capital,  Santiago.
President Michel Bachelet said on her Twitter account  that emergency services are working in the area "to care for  those affected." Some of the injured were evacuated by  helicopter to medical centers.

Landslide in southern Chile leaves 3 dead, 15 missing

Syrian government forces have entered  small parts of the northwestern rebel-held province of Idlib  in one of their deepest incursions into the area where  President Bashar Assad's government almost has no presence.
Syrian government forces have been on the offensive  toward Idlib from the central province of Hama for weeks. They  broke through recently before being pushed back by insurgents.
The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media  said Syrian troops captured today the village of Tal al-  Khanazeer on the southeastern edge of Idlib.
The opposition's Britain-based Syrian Observatory for  Human Rights said Tal al-Khanazeer was captured after intense  fighting and airstrikes.
The al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee that  controls large parts of Idlib issued a religious edict Friday  calling for general mobilisation to "deter the savage attack  of the criminal" government.

Syrian troops march into rebel-held province of Idlib

President Donald Trump has called  the wife of John McCain as the Arizona senator is hospitalised  for cancer treatments.
The White House said Trump called Cindy McCain yesterday  to send his best wishes and check on her and her husband.
John McCain was admitted this week to Walter Reed Medical  Center due to side effects from his cancer treatment.
The Republican was diagnosed earlier this year with  glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
McCain has frequently been a thorn in Trump's side and  cast the deciding vote that scuttled Republican efforts to  overturn the Affordable Care Act earlier this year.
McCain's office has said he should be able to return to  the Senate soon to vote on the GOP tax cut package.

Trump calls wife of hospitalised Sen John McCain

Egypt reopened today  an ancient library which holds thousands of centuries-old  religious and historical manuscripts at the famed St Catherine  Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in South Sinai.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by Egyptian and  western officials.
It comes after three years of restoration work on the  eastern side of the library that houses the world's second  largest collection of early codices and manuscripts,  outnumbered only by the Vatican Library, according to Monk  Damyanos, the monastery's archbishop.
"The library is now open to the public and scholars,"  said Tony Kazamias, an adviser to the archbishop, adding that  restoration work is still underway without specifying a  completion date.
The ancient library holds around 3,300 manuscripts of  mainly Christian texts in Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Georgian, and  Slavonic among other languages. It also contains thousands of  books and scrolls dating to the 4th century.
At least 160 of the manuscripts ...

Egypt reopens ancient library in Sinai after renovations

A Nigerian military official  says four abducted Chinese nationals have been rescued after a  gun battle with sea pirates.
Army spokesman Maj. Ojo Adelegan says the four  expatriates were kidnapped yesterday while travelling from  Lagos to Ondo state in the south.
He says the military received a distress call and  captured one of the kidnappers. He says some of the Chinese  nationals were wounded and all are receiving treatment.
The military declines to give names or other details.
China's embassy has not yet commented.
Kidnapping for ransom is common in Nigeria but generally  involves no fatalities. Hostages are returned unharmed once  money exchanges hands, though a German construction worker was  killed in southwestern Nigeria in 2015.

Nigeria military rescues 4 Chinese nationals from pirates

The Australian government today won  a crucial by-election that restores its tenuous grip on power  that was threatened by a constitutional ban on dual citizens  sitting in Parliament.
The conservative Liberal Party candidate John Alexander  regained his Sydney electorate, defeating Kristina Keneally,  the Las Vegas-born candidate for the center-left Labor Party  who was once leader of the New South Wales state government.
Alexander had been forced to quit over a constitutional  ban of dual citizens sitting in Parliament. The former  champion tennis player was able to re-contest the electorate  he had held since 2010 because he renounced the citizenship he  inherited from his British-born father.
The by-election returns Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's  government to the single-seat majority it held in October when  the High Court created a constitutional crisis by ruling that  five lawmakers were ineligible to sit in Parliament.
They included Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who 

Australian government restores grip on power in by-election

Military authorities say  Nigerian soldiers have arrested more than 400 people  associated with the Boko Haram extremist group hiding on the  islands of Lake Chad, including fighters, wives and children.
Col. Onyema Nwachukwu says the two-week operation netted  the largest number of arrests of Boko Haram fighters in recent  months in northeast Nigeria.
It included air and ground offensives targeting  insurgents' locations.
Nwachukwu says the military arrested 167 Boko Haram  fighters, 67 women and 173 children who were family members of  the insurgents.
The women and children will be handed over to authorities  of displacement camps after investigations.
Nwachukwu says another 57 insurgents were arrested during  a separate operation in another part of the troubled region.  Boko Haram has been blamed for more than 20,000 deaths during  its eight-year insurgency.

Nigeria troops arrest 400-plus Boko Haram fighters, families

President Donald Trump's  administration is blocking two pregnant teens in the country  illegally and being held in federal custody from obtaining  abortions, the American Civil Liberties Union has said, a  repeat of the situation that led to a high-profile court fight  earlier this year.
Both girls arrived in the country as unaccompanied minors  and are being held in federal shelters, the ACLU said  yesterday, though it didn't say where.
The ACLU earlier this year represented a pregnant teen in  the same circumstances in Texas, helping her obtain an  abortion following a lawsuit.
Yesterday, the ACLU filed court papers updating the  lawsuit filed in that earlier case to include the two  additional teens, saying the facts of their cases are similar.
The ACLU is asking a federal judge to order the  government not to interfere with or obstruct the girls' access  to abortions.
"Both minors have asked their respective doctors and  their shelters for an abortion, but to date," the ...

Lawsuit: 2 immigrant teens in US custody can't get abortions

It began with sweets and pocket  money when he was 10 years old special attention from the  religious cleric who ran the Pakistani madrassa, or Islamic  school, the boy attended.
And it escalated to rape and months of sexual abuse, the  now 28-year-old young man says.
"I feel rage now when I think after he raped me he took a  bath and right away he left to lead the prayers," the man, an  economist who lives in Islamabad, told The Associated Press.
"After that I came to know from three or four of my  classmates that the mufti used to do the same with them."
Speaking English, at times searching for the right words  and at others apologising for the explicitness of his  conversation, he described the cleric's advances: how he took  him to another mosque that was not associated with the  madrassa the boy attended and then raped him.
He said he suppressed memories of the abuse for years,  but after reading an AP report last month revealing widespread  abuse by clerics in Pakistan's ...

AP

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