Israel's new opposition leader said Thursday that Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming corruption trial is embarrassing the country and that he believes the only reason the long-time prime minister is still in office is because lawmakers never imagined a scenario in which an indicted premier would not have the decency to step down himself.
In his first English-language interview since assuming the post, Yair Lapid said he was uncomfortable addressing Netanyahu's troubles before a foreign audience. Despite their rivalry, he said he takes no joy in watching a sitting prime minister walking into a courtroom defendant's dock and said he felt bad that it would attract worldwide attention when the trial begins Sunday.
It's almost like I'm saying, I wish they would never notice this  this shouldn't happen, Lapid told The Associated Press.
This is horrible for the spirit of the nation. Together with former military chief Benny Gantz, Lapid led the centrist Blue and White party to a deadlock with ...

Opposition leader says PM embarrassing Israel

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China's ceremonial parliament will consider a bill that could limit opposition activity in Hong Kong, a spokesperson said Thursday, appearing to confirm speculation that China will sidestep the territory's own lawmaking body in enacting legislation to crack down on activity Beijing considers subversive.
Zhang Yesui said the National People's Congress will deliberate a bill on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to safeguard national security.
Such a move has long been under consideration but was hastened by months of anti-government protests last year in the former British colony that was handed over to Chinese rule in 1997. Such legislation was last proposed in 2003 under Article 23 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution, bringing hundreds of thousands of the territory's citizens out in protest.
The proposal was withdrawn by the government but Beijing has increasingly pushed for measures such .

China considers bill limiting Hong Kong opposition activity

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has said that he will sue a senior UN official, who described alleged comments about Muslims attributed to him as "extremely alarming", saying the diplomat's remarks are slander and a blatant lie.
Earlier this week, Under-Secretary-General Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, in a note to the media expressed concern over reports of "increased hate speech and discrimination" against minority communities in India since the adoption of the Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019.
In the letter, Dieng made a reference to the BJP leader, saying statements such as those expressed by Member of Parliament Subramanian Swamy, that all people are not equal, and that Muslims are not in an equal category' as others are extremely alarming."
Swamy hit back at Dieng's assertion, saying in a tweet on May 19 that the UN official "slandered me in a press release in New York saying I had said in an interview to a Pakistani owned TV ...

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy says will sue UN official over alleged comments about Muslims

MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez joked he was worried he may have lost his edge during a two-month break from motorbike racing before his first training session this week.
Spaniard Marquez and his Honda teammate and brother Alex went out training on motocross bikes on Tuesday.
"I was really nervous in the run up saying to myself 'maybe you've lost it', but I soon shook off any fears once we got out on the course, it did me good physically," said Marquez.
In a video released by the Honda team the two brothers take a no-holds-barred rampage around the red dirt El Bosquet de Ponts Motocross track featuring some hair-raising accelerations and breakneck cornering.
The 27-year-old six-time world champion Marquez seemed to take the session in his stride.
"It is clear that the first day on the bike after two months is long, but little by little we are returning to normal," he said.
Younger brother Alex, who joined Marc at Honda in the close season after winning the Moto2 world title said ...

'I thought I might have lost it,' says relieved motorbike champion Marquez

China on Thursday said it will not accept any "unwarranted lawsuit" or demand for compensation from the US over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and warned countermeasures if America passes any legislation or legal cases blaming Beijing for the deadly virus.
Zhang Yesui, spokesperson for China's Parliament - the National People's Congress - in his media briefing ahead of Friday's annual session also sought to deflect allegations that the virus emerged in Wuhan, saying that the recent reports indicated coronavirus occurred earlier in different parts of the world.
Replying to questions about the lawsuit filed in the US to demand compensation as well as attempts by US politicians to bring a legislation blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic, Zhang said the accusation are completely baseless and run counter to the international law and basic norms governing intentional relations.
"We will strongly oppose them and we will watch how the bills proceed and firmly respond with ...

China says it will not accept US lawsuit on COVID-19; warns countermeasures

Top women golfers will keep their status on the LPGA Tour for 2021, commissioner Mike Whan says, because the coronavirus-halted 2020 campaign has not delivered the season they earned.
Whan says the abbreviated season, shuttered in February after four events and tentatively scheduled to return in late July, will be considered official.
While this year's winners can move up on the priority list, 2020 rookies will still be considered newcomers in 2021.
"We will have official wins, players can shuffle into a winner category, they can play their way into (December's season-ending) Tournament of Champions in Orlando, but we feel players were not given the season that they earned in '19 for '20," Whan said.
"They might have some version of a '20 season. But they don't have a full season to perform under the categories they earned coming into the year." Global travel issues could impact LPGA players and disrupt a schedule still hopeful of playing events in Europe in August, in Asia in October 

LPGA boss says players will keep status for 2021 season

The English Football League (EFL) reiterated on Thursday that promotion and relegation should be kept in place even if the season is ended prematurely by the coronavirus crisis.
Clubs agreed to end the League Two campaign last week because of the pandemic and proposed no team should be relegated to the fifth-tier National League.
But the EFL, which oversees the three divisions below the Premier League, said relegation remained in its draft framework on how the 2019/20 season should be concluded, meaning bottom side Stevenage would go down from League Two.
The regulations state each league will be decided on a points-per-game basis if they cannot be completed.
A simple majority of clubs (51 percent) would need to vote to end the season in each division.
If the plans for League Two are approved, Crewe, Swindon and Plymouth would be automatically promoted.
"The principle of relegation across all three divisions is integral to the integrity of the pyramid, from the Premier League down to .

English lower leagues call for relegation and promotion to stay

Hertha Berlin will look to build on their winning return to Bundesliga action last weekend following the coronavirus suspension and avenge November's derby defeat by city rivals Union when the pair meet on Friday in the German capital.
Union, the side from the east of Berlin, pulled off a famous 1-0 win over their west Berlin rivals when the teams met for the first time in the top division this season.
The return match at Hertha's Olympic Stadium home would in normal times have been a 74,000 sellout.
"We all remember the match at the Alten Foersterei. It was a black, black, day. Now we've got the chance to put it behind us just a bit," said Hertha's general manager Michael Preetz.
"The conditions are very different, therefore it's a different sort of derby," added Hertha coach Bruno Labbadia, who started with a win in his first match last Saturday.
The Bundesliga became the first major European league to resume last weekend following the two-month shutdown, with draconian hygiene ...

Hertha out for Union revenge in Berlin derby

England's Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes on Thursday became the first cricketers to return to individual training after the coronavirus hiatus, giving a glimpse into the post-lockdown world.
The duo hit the ground running at Trent Bridge (Nottingham) and Edgbaston (Birmingham) respectively.
Broad, one of the country's top wicket-takers, is among the 18 pacers selected by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for individual sessions at seven different grounds.
England's best all-rounder after Ben Stokes, Woakes disclosed he has also gone back to training at Edgbaston, according to Sky Sports.
Things were different from the usual in the times of coronavirus and with his live updates, Broad took his fans through the process as he went to Trent Bridge for his individual session.
The pacer posted an Instagram post in which he showed himself taking his temperature with a digital thermometer at home before uploading the result to an app.
Then, he sanitised his training kit and drove off ..

Broad, Woakes among first cricketers to return to training

Cricket South Africa may put in place a "bio-bubble" model to protect players and stakeholders from coronavirus when India tour the country in August, a time when the pandemic is expected to be at its peak.
In the bio-bubble or bio-secure model, a venue should have the capacity to house around 350 people  including players, broadcasters, media and other staff  either on site or very close by.
The venue should have a 171-room hotel in the ground and another with 176 rooms adjacent.
CSA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shuaib Manjra said the model is being suggested when India arrive to play three T20s.
"We probably will see the peak (of Covid-19 in South Africa) in August or September in different parts of the country, so we have just got to keep looking at the models and see what happens in August," Manjra said in a Zoom media conference on Thursday morning with the CSA management.
"Probably the three T20 games with India, if it does take place, is an ideal opportunity to create this bubble, 

India's tour could be used to test bio-bubble model to counter Covid-19: CSA

Iran is slowly pulling out of Syria in response to Israeli strikes, as well as growing domestic discontent linked to the economy and its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the Israeli military said Thursday.
Israel and Iran have for years been engaged in a shadow war that has recently been playing out in Syria, where Israel says Iran has been boosting its military presence along the frontier. Amid the chaos of the Syrian civil war, Israel has carried out repeated strikes aimed at pushing back Iranian forces and preventing the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group that is also fighting in Syria.
The Israeli military described the withdrawal as a backward movement from various locations to other locations that are further away and in reduced numbers. It said the movement was not massive, not overwhelming," but that it was also undeniable. The military shared its findings in a briefing with reporters and said they were based on classified ..

Israeli military says Iran is slowly pulling out of Syria

Students from India choosing the UK as a higher education destination made up the biggest chunk of migrants to Britain last year, with their figures registering a whopping 136 per cent increase over the previous year, according to latest immigration statistics released here on Thursday.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data revealed that 49,844 Indian students were granted study visas for the UK until the year ending March 2020, which marked the largest number of grants to Indian students since the year ending September 2011.
The only other category ahead of Indian students remains those from China, up 18 per cent compared with the year ending March 2019 to 118,530.
For the year ending December 2019, non-EU migration was at the highest level we have seen, driven by a rise in students from China and India, while the number of people arriving from EU (European Union) countries for work has steadily fallen, said Jay Lindop, Director of the Centre for International Migration, ...

Indians drive UK's overseas student population growth

The head of a European health advisory body on infections on Thursday warned of a second wave of coronavirus cases, as countries across the continent ease tough lockdown measures.
Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said it was not a question of if there will be a renewed surge but "when and how big".
She told Britain's Guardian newspaper that immunity statistics from around Europe were not encouraging and "85 percent to 90 percent" of people were still susceptible to COVID-19.
"The virus is around us, circulating much more than January or February," she was quoted as saying in an interview.  "I don't want to draw a doomsday picture but I think we have to be realistic. That it's not the time now to completely relax." Europe has seen more than 170,000 deaths in the global pandemic, according to an AFP tally to 1230 GMT Thursday. Most have been in Britain, Italy, Spain and France.
But stay-at-home restrictions put in place to cut the spread .

European health boss warns of virus second wave

A speeding truck loaded with iron bars overturned Thursday in heavy rain after its driver apparently lost control, killing 13 passengers in northern Bangladesh, police said.
The truck was travelling from Dhaka and the dead were day laborers who were riding in the back, local police chief Masudur Rahman said. The driver and his assistant fled after the accident, which occurred in Polashbari in Gaibandha district, he said.
Many people choose cheap rides in the back of trucks to their hometowns ahead of the major Islamic festival of Eid-al Fitr next week.  Gaibandha is 189 kilometers north of Dhaka.
Road accidents in Bangladesh are common because of lax enforcement of traffic laws, bad road conditions and speeding. Up to 7,000 people die annually.

13 workers die in Bangladesh road accident

The lives of about 36,000 people could have been saved if the US had begun imposing social distancing measures just a week earlier than it did in March to control the spread of the coronavirus, new estimates from Columbia University show.
Counterfactual simulations indicate that, had these same control measures been implemented just 1-2 weeks earlier, a substantial number of cases and deaths could have been averted, the University said in an analysis by Sen Pei, Sasikiran Kandula and Jeffrey Shaman.
A report in The New York Times, citing the analysis said that if the US had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact on March 1, two weeks earlier than when most people started staying indoors, about 83 per cent of the people who died so far from the virus could have been saved.
Under this scenario, about 54,000 fewer people would have died by early May.
The enormous cost of waiting to take action reflects the unforgiving dynamics of the outbreak that swept through American ...

US could have avoided 36,000 deaths if social distancing had been imposed a week earlier: Research

The Trump administration notified international partners on Thursday that it is pulling out of a treaty that permits 30-plus nations to conduct unarmed, observation flights over each other's territory  overflights set up decades ago to promote trust and avert conflict.
The administration says it wants out of the Open Skies Treaty because Russia is violating the pact, and imagery collected during the flights can be obtained quickly at less cost from US or commercial satellites. Exiting the treaty, however, is expected to strain relations with Moscow and upset European allies and some members of Congress.
President Dwight Eisenhower first proposed that the United States and the former Soviet Union allow aerial reconnaissance flights over each other's territory in July 1955. At first, Moscow rejected the idea, but President George H.W. Bush revived it in May 1989, and the treaty entered into force in January 2002. Currently, 34 nations have signed it; Kyrgyzstan has signed but not ...

Trump says US pulling out of Open Skies surveillance treaty

Sri Lankan government has decided to stop its proposed project to build what was to be the island's biggest international cricket stadium following a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
"It has been decided to suspend the proposed new international cricket stadium project in Homagama," Prime Minister's office said in a release after the meeting attended by former cricketers.
It said Rajapaksa had also instructed to direct funds to develop school cricket and local stadiums.
Rajapaksa met with the former senior cricketers following a public outcry against the construction.
There was no immediate reaction from the governing body, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to the Prime Minister's decision.
The SLC wanted to build a new stadium nearer to Colombo was needed to host two ICC World Cup events which are scheduled to be held in the years 2023 to 2031.
The SLC had done inspection of a site at Homagama, a Colombo eastern suburb where they wanted to build a 40,000 seat capacity ...

Sri Lanka abandons project to build a new cricket stadium

Stuart Broad revealed some of the demands being placed on England cricketers after confirming he was in the first batch to return to individual training on Thursday.
The Nottinghamshire paceman was back at Trent Bridge after being chosen as one of the bowlers selected for personal sessions.
The players are seeking to build up their match fitness ahead of a rescheduled Test series at home to the West Indies in July, which is set to take place behind closed doors due to the coronavirus.
Broad, a 33-year-old veteran of 138 Tests, detailed his training day via his Instagram account, posting a picture of himself taking his temperature with a digital thermometer at home before uploading the result via an app.
When he arrived at Trent Bridge, Broad was given a designated car-parking space and directed straight onto the pitch -- as part of the safety protocols players are not allowed to change in the dressing room and must arrive in their training kit.
He then bowled on his own, with only a ..

England's Broad gives glimpse into post-lockdown training

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has warned his players that "personal agendas" will not be tolerated as he seeks a change of culture at Old Trafford.
Solskjaer has overseen a huge turnover in his squad since taking charge in 2018.  Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez were high-profile departures to Inter Milan, while Chris Smalling, Matteo Darmian, Antonio Valencia, Ander Herrera, Ashley Young and Marcos Rojo also left in a mix of permanent and loan deals during that period.
Solskjaer is much happier with the current makeup of his squad having recruited a number of young talents in Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Daniel James and Bruno Fernandes.
But the Norwegian said he would have no qualms about getting rid of another negative influence, even if it meant unbalancing his squad.
"Personality is so important. We're a team in a team environment," Solskjaer said in an interview with fanzine United We Stand.
"You want players to have a bit of ego and edge but they have to ..

Solskjaer warns 'personal agendas' will not be tolerated

N'Golo Kante has been allowed to stay away from Chelsea's return to training due to his coronavirus fears.
The French World Cup winner joined up with Frank Lampard's squad on Tuesday as Chelsea resumed training following the Premier League's decision to allow socially distanced sessions.
But the 29-year-old missed Wednesday's small group practice with the blessing of Chelsea manager Frank Lampard, who is reported to have allowed him to train at home on compassionate leave.
Kante, who tested negative for the virus during this week's first batch of checks, is said to be unconvinced it is safe to train with his teammates while the pandemic is yet to be subdued in Britain.
Black and ethnic minorities are at greater risk of serious illness if they contract the virus, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Midfielder Kante is understood to have mostly remained indoors with one of his brothers since the suspension of the Premier League season on March 13.
The former Leicester star .

Kante stays away from Chelsea training over virus fears

China said on Thursday that its relationship with Pakistan stood the test of the changing international landscape and remained "firm as a rock" as the all-weather allies celebrated the 69th year of the establishment of their diplomatic relations.
Pakistan recognised China in 1951, a year after India established diplomatic ties with Beijing. India became the first non-Communist country in Asia in 1950 to establish diplomatic relations with China.
Though a late entrant, Pakistan, an Islamic republic, has emerged as Communist China's closest ally and the two countries in recent years firmed up their all-weather alliance with USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the biggest overseas investment by Beijing.
"Today marks the 69th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between China and Pakistan. I offer congratulations, Foreign Ministry spokesman told a media briefing here on Thursday.
"We are all-weather strategic cooperative partners. In the past 69 years, this relationship 

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