Syrian President Bashar Assad says only the Syrian army can protect groups in northern Syria.
In a speech in the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday, he appeared to be referring to US-allied Kurdish groups, which fear a Turkish assault once American troops withdraw from northeastern Syria.
Assad said any foreign troops in Syria will be dealt with as occupation forces.
He did not specifically mention the planned withdrawal of 2,000 American troops from northern Syria but said "no one should bet on protection from the Americans."
He suggested that the Syrian army will return to the area after the American troop pullout.
"Every inch of Syria will be liberated, and any intruder is an enemy," he said.

Assad: Only Syrian army can protect groups in northern Syria

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Armed men who abducted 14 Tunisians in Libya have demanded the release of a man jailed in Tunisia for drug trafficking, in a video released Sunday on social media.
The video, verified by a Tunisian source close to the case, shows the abductees identifying themselves and naming their hometowns while sitting on mattresses.
The last one then says that the people holding them want the release of Libyan Kamal al-Lafi al-Hijaoui, adding that he and the other abductees were "in good health".
The Tunisian source said that Hijaoui was sentenced earlier this month in Tunisia to 20 months in prison for drug trafficking.
The 14 Tunisians were abducted on Thursday in Zawiya, a town just west of the Libyan capital Tripoli, as they were heading to work by bus in an oil refinery.
The bus driver was also kidnapped but then released, a security source in the town said.
According to the Tunisian foreign minstry, the abductees were still in Zawiya and in "good health".
"Negotiations continue," said its ..

Abductors of 14 Tunisians want Libyan prisoner freed

Yuwa, a Jharkhand-based NGO which works for girl empowerment, Sunday won the Laureus Sport for Good award, becoming the third Indian entry to bag the honour.
The NGO, founded by Americans Franz Gastler and Rose Thomson Gastler in 2009, runs a football program in rural Jharkhand covering 450 girls.
The girls are amateurs and, those who have been around for long, have become coaches.
Four girls out of the 450  Hima, Nita, Radha and Konika  will receive the award on behalf of Yuwa at The Laureus World Sports Awards here on Monday.
An Indian sporting feat made its way to the Laureus Awards for the first time in 2004 when the Indian cricket team and its Pakistani counterpart shared the Sport for Good honour for resuming bilateral ties despite tensions between the two countries.
Most recently, Magic Bus from India won the Laureus Sport for Good award in 2014.
On Sunday, none other than legendary coach Arsene Wenger kicked football with the young Indian girls ahead of the announcement.
"They 

Jharkhand-based NGO Yuwa wins Laureus Sport for Good honour

Saudi Arabia's state arms producer and a French government-majority firm signed an agreement Sunday on a joint venture to boost the kingdom's navy, amid calls to halt weapons sales to Riyadh over it role in Yemen.
The memorandum of understanding between Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) and France's Naval Group is aimed at providing the oil-rich Gulf state's navy with "state-of-the-art systems", a statement said.
"Through design, construction, and maintenance activities, the joint venture will contribute significantly to further enhancing the capabilities and readiness of our Royal Saudi Naval Forces," SAMI boss Andreas Schwer said.
A spokeswoman for Naval Group -- which is owned by the French state and French multinational giant Thales -- refused to give any more details.
French lawmakers and rights groups have repeatedly called on France's government to suspend all arms deals to Riyadh because of the war in Yemen, where some 10,000 people have been killed since a Saudi-led ...

Saudi agrees joint venture with French firm to boost navy

Europeans need to do more than talk if they want to preserve a deal meant to keep Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon after the unilateral withdrawal of the United States, Iran's foreign minister said Sunday, slamming Washington as the "biggest source of destabilization" in the Middle East.
Mohammad Javad Zarif told a gathering of world leaders, top defense officials and diplomats that a barter-type system known as INSTEX, which was set up last month by France, Germany and Britain to allow businesses to skirt direct financial transactions with Iran and thereby evade possible U.S. sanctions, is not enough.
"Many around the world, particularly on this continent, speak eloquently about multilateralism, but they also need to walk the walk," Zarif told the Munich Security Conference in an impassioned address.
"INSTEX falls short of the commitments by (European countries) to save the nuclear deal. Europe needs to be willing to get wet if it wants to swim against a dangerous tide of U.S. .

Iran pressures Europe to do more to save the nuclear deal

Iran's state TV is reporting that the country's President Hassan Rouhani has unveiled the first Iranian made semi-heavy submarine.
The Sunday report said the Fateh, "Conqueror" in Persian, is capable of being fitted with cruise missiles.
Since 1992, Iran has developed a homegrown defense industry that produces light and heavy weapons ranging from mortars and torpedoes to tanks and submarines.
The Fateh has subsurface-to-surface missiles with a range of about 2,000 kilometres, capable of reaching Israel and U.S. military bases in the region.

Iran unveils first semi-heavy missile-equipped submarine

Pope Francis gathers bishops from around the world at the Vatican this week for a hotly-awaited summit on tackling the wave of child sex abuse scandals assailing the Catholic Church.
The heads of around 100 bishops' conferences from every continent will convene from Thursday to Sunday for the meeting on the protection of minors, with victims' groups demanding that a concrete action plan on fighting paedophilia be drawn up.
The pope, who asked the bishops to speak to victims of abuse in their respective countries before the Rome convention, has tried to dial down "inflated expectations" for a cure-all.
Several victims were also invited to the Vatican.
"I ask you to pray for this meeting," the pope said Sunday, adding that he wanted the meeting "as an act of strong pastoral responsibility in the face of an urgent challenge of our time."
The conference aims to be an opportunity to improve awareness of the global phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors within the Church, despite many in ...

World bishops head to Vatican for sex abuse summit

A runaway teenager who has divided British opinion after joining the Islamic State group in Syria but now wants to return home, has given birth, her family said on Sunday.
Shamima Begum, whose fate has prompted British soul-searching since she and two friends stirred controversy by fleeing to the terror network in 2015, gave birth to a boy, according to family lawyer Mohammed Akunjee.
"We, the family of Shamima Begum, have been informed that Shamima has given birth to her child," a statement he released on Twitter said.
"We understand that both she and the baby are in good health.
"As yet we have not had direct contact with Shamima, we are hoping to establish communications with her soon so that we can verify the above."
Akunjee told AFP the family had learned about the birth from a translator in an eastern Syria refugee camp where Begum is currently staying.
Begum had previously given birth to two other children, but both died during her time in Syria, she told The Times earlier this 

UK teen who joined IS has given birth in Syria: Family

Diehard jihadists have blocked roads out of the last scrap of their Islamic State group "caliphate" in Syria, US-backed forces fighting them said Sunday, preventing hundreds of civilians from fleeing.
Ahead of a victory declaration expected within days and a subsequent US military pullout, US President Donald Trump called on his European allies to take back hundreds of alleged jihadists captured in Syria.
At a base for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces behind the frontline in eastern Syria, an AFP reporter heard airplanes darting in the sky.
The jihadists declared a "caliphate" across large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, implementing their brutal interpretation of Islam on millions.
But several offensives have expelled them from all of it, except a tiny patch of less than half a kilometre square on the banks of the Euphrates river near the Iraqi border.
Thousands of people have streamed out of the so-called "Baghouz pocket" in recent weeks, but hundreds of ...

In east Syria, IS in last stand to defend dying 'caliphate'

The EU has decided to sanction eight Russian nationals for their responsibility in incidents in the Azov Sea last November, several European sources told AFP.
The Ukraine-Russia conflict flared up when Russian forces seized three Ukrainian vessels and captured two dozen sailors as they tried to pass from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov.
The November confrontation was the first open military incident between Kiev and Moscow since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula and a conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine.
The measure will be submitted on Monday for approval to EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels, the sources confirmed.
These are "targeted and individual sanctions", a diplomat said, with the eight blacklist targets to be banned from entering the EU and their assets frozen.
"There was a unanimous decision to sanction those responsible," another source said.
Legal proceedings will then be launched and the names of those on the blacklist will remain sealed until the 

EU to sanction eight Russians for Azov Sea standoff

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday he was relinquishing the role of foreign minister and handing it to a right-wing rival from within his Likud party, Israel Katz.
The move comes ahead of April 9 elections and follows court challenges arguing Netanyahu -- who is also health and defence minister -- has taken on too many governmental portfolios.
A Likud spokesman said Netanyahu intended to appoint Katz as acting foreign minister without providing further details.
Katz is currently transportation and intelligence minister and it was unclear whether he would give those roles up.
He called the appointment a "moving moment".
"Together with the prime minister we will continue to advance and lead Israel's foreign policy to further achievements," Katz said in a statement.
Katz holds right-wing views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has said conditions are not in place now for a two-state solution.
In 2017, he advocated a plan that critics said would amount to de .

Netanyahu hands Israel foreign minister role to right-wing rival

A rights group in Libya says an armed group has kidnapped 14 Tunisian workers near the capital, Tripoli.
The National Commission for Human Rights in Libya said late Saturday that the Tunisians were abducted on their way to work at an oil refinery in the western city of Zawiya.
It said the armed group, which it did not name, demanded the release of a Libyan man, also unnamed, detained in Tunisia on drug-related charges.
Tunisia's Foreign Ministry says the workers were kidnapped on Thursday.
In 2015, an armed militia stormed the Tunisian consulate in Tripoli and took 10 staff members hostage.
Libya slid into chaos after its 2011 uprising that toppled long-time ruler Moammar Gadhafi. The country is currently governed by militia-backed rival authorities in Tripoli and the east.

Rights group: 14 Tunisian workers kidnapped in Libya

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Sunday that Israel was "looking for war", in an apparent reference to recent strikes against Iranian targets in Syria.
"Certainly some people are looking for war," Zarif said during a question and answer session at the Munich Security Conference, adding "Israel" when pressed to say who.
Israel carried out a series of air strikes last month against what it said were facilities belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force in Syria.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria in the past few years against Iranian and Hezbollah targets.
Iran is a major supporter of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.
"We are in Syria on the invitation of the Syrian government for the sole purpose of fighting terrorism," Zarif said.

Iran's Zarif says Israel 'looking for war'

The release of "Fast And Furious 9" has once again been pushed back.
The film, which was earlier set to hit the theatres on April 10, 2020, will now open on May 22, 2020, reported Variety.
This is the second time the film has been delayed as it was originally scheduled to open on April 19, 2019.
In its new slot, "Fast and Furious 9" will face off against Warner Bros/Legendary's "Godzilla vs Kong" and Paramount's "The Spongebob Movie".
Universal Pictures, the studio behind the hit franchise, has not disclosed the reason for bumping back the date of release.
The eighth installment of the franchise, "The Fate of the Furious", released in April last year and earned over USD 1.2 billion at the global box office.
Meanwhile, the franchise's spin-off "Hobbs & Shaw", starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, is set to release in August this year.

'Fast and Furious' fans have to wait longer for next film

Pakistan on Sunday said that Jaish-e-Mohammad, which claimed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack, was banned in 2002 and Islamabad was fulfilling its obligations on sanctions as per the law.
At least 40 CRPF personnel were killed and five injured on Thursday in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) suicide bomber rammed a vehicle with explosives into their bus.
Pakistan-based terror group JeM claimed responsibility for the attack on the CRPF convoy.
In a major diplomatic offensive against Islamabad after the attack, India has highlighted Pakistan's role in using terrorism as an instrument of state policy.
India has slammed Pakistan for stating that it had no role in the Pulwama attack carried out by Pakistan-based terror group JeM, saying Islamabad could not claim that it was unaware of the presence of terror groups on its soil as the links of such outfits to the country were there for everyone to see.
Ministry of External ...

Pak claims to fulfilling sanctions obligations against JeM

British Prime Minister Theresa May has urged her Conservative Party MPs to shed their "personal preferences" over Brexit and united in the national interest ahead of a fresh round of talks with the European Union on the divorce deal next week.
Britain is set to exit the 28-member bloc on March 29, but May is struggling to persuade parliament to back a divorce deal.
In her letter to all 317 Conservative MPs over the weekend, May urged her party to sacrifice "personal preferences" as she attempts to get an agreement on the terms of the UK's departure from the EU through Parliament.
She warned the Tories, who remain deeply divided over the contours of Brexit, that leaving the EU without a deal on the March 29 deadline "would cause disruption to our economy and to people's daily lives, damaging jobs both at home and across the EU".
"Instead, our party can do what it has done so often in the past; Move beyond what divides us and come together behind what unites us; Sacrifice if necessary ..

Theresa May urges her MPs to unite over Brexit

Actor Sandra Oh says the upcoming season two of her hit BBC show, "Killing Eve", will be "much darker" for her character.
The season two of the spy thriller, which pits British intelligence agent Eve Polastri (Oh) against a dangerous and unhinged assassin named Villanelle (Jodie Comer), will premiere on April 7.
In an interview with Extra TV, Oh, who recently won a Golden Globe award for the show, said, "It's so much darker for Eve's character. It just goes really, really dark, and the pressure is intense. The line just keeps on moving, and Eve just steps over that line."
Comer said the season two will be "much more of what people loved about the first series".
"We are still going on a journey with these characters. But they're all in different places and the relationships between them have changed with the events of series one, so we're all having to move in a new direction, which is exciting," she added.
In the show's sophomore run, Oh and Comer will be joined Henry Lloyd-Hughes, ...

'Killing Eve' season two is 'much darker' for Eve: Sandra Oh

Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri bogeyed two of his last three holes in the second round to miss the cut at the Genesis Open tournament here.
Lahiri ended with rounds of 77-73 and was rather low on the leaderboard at nine-over as the cut fell at even par.
Coming back after a three-week break during which he became a first-time father, Lahiri returned for Honda Classic, hoping to find his rhythm back.
Meanwhile, Justin Thomas, who is seeking the 10th win of his PGA TOUR career, was at 13 under and has a one-shot lead over playing partner Adam Scott, with Patrick Rodgers and J B Holmes another shot back.
Tiger Woods, who was just one shot above the cut line after the second round, has sprung into action and a tie for 14th with a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie start off the 10th tee in the third round.
"I've got some work to do," said Woods, who hoped to get up-and-down to save par at the 17th once play resumes.
It will be a longer-than-usual day for all 76 players who made the cut. No one has ..

Lahiri misses cut, Woods starts superbly in third round

New Zealand's Ryan Fox produced a dominant performance in the final round and defeated Spain's Adrian Otaegui 3-2 to lift the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth trophy golf tournament here on Sunday.
Scott Vincent, the first golfer from Zimbabwe to play on the Asian Tour, had to settle for fourth place after he lost to Ireland's Paul Dunne at the first knockout hole at the Lake Karrinyup Country Club.
Fox, who received a bye into the last 16, had to make three trips to the knockout hole to first beat Thailand's Jazz Janewattananond before claiming 1-up triumphs over Norwegian Kristoffer Reitan and Ireland's Paul Dunne in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.
The 32-year-old was three-up against Otaegui in the final's first three holes and his victory was confirmed when they both parred the fourth hole.
It was a case of so near yet so far again for Vincent. After defeating Australia's Wade Ormsby 3-2 in their opening match, the Zimbabwean beat Yuta Ikeda 2-0.
Vincent had a ...

Ryan Fox wins the World Super 6 Perth Trophy Golf

Drinking during adolescence can significantly increase the risk of alcohol addiction in later life, a study has found.
Researchers from Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) in the US examined relationships between early age of first intoxication (less than 15 years), drinking in different contexts such as one's own home, at friends' homes, or outdoor settings, and problems that arise in those contexts.
Early onset drinking, drinking and intoxication at an early age among adolescents, has been identified as a primary risk for later heavy drinking, alcohol problems, and alcohol dependence among youth and young adults.
To prevent or delay early onset drinking, we must know more about the modifiable circumstances that enable these behaviours, researchers said.
Scientists looked at data from 405 adolescent drinkers (15-18 years old) in 2013 and 2014.
They focused upon measures of age of first intoxication, frequencies of drinking at restaurants, bars/nightclubs, outdoor ...

Drinking during teens up alcohol abuse risk in later life

Actor Liam Hemsworth, who first met his wife Miley Cyrus on the sets of their 2010 film "The Last Song", has revealed that he was not the first choice of the producers for the male lead part.
The 29-year-old actor recently appeared on Sunday Today, where he recalled that another actor was supposed to play the male lead in the teen romance drama but things did not work out with him.
"That was the first job I got (in the US), and it was literally right at the end of my three-month visa. They cast another kid, and it didn't work out with him.
"My agent calls me, whispering, he's like, 'Alright you've got to go to Disney right now. It's not working out with the other guy. You've got to go in and read with Miley again'. I come in and everyone starts clapping like, We should have gone with you first!'" Hemsworth said.
The film marked a major turning point in the actor's career and personal life. He got married to Cyrus at their home in Franklin, Tennessee, in December last year.
"It's sort .

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