Eight footballers from top-flight Mexican team Santos Laguna have tested positive for the coronavirus, the club said Wednesday, jeopardising attempts to restart the national league after two months of suspension.
A decision on the possible resumption of the Mexican league, the Liga MX, had been expected by the end of the week, and the tests were carried out with a view to resuming training.
"This particular situation makes resuming the league more complicated," Santos Laguna's owner, Alejandro Irarragorri, told TV sports channel TUDN.
He also hinted that the situation at Santos Laguna could be even worse, because so far only 22 results have come back out of 48 tests on players and coaches.  Liga MX said the players with COVID-19, whose identities have not been revealed, were asymptomatic.
Two other clubs, Guadalajara and Monterrey, are also carrying out screening for the disease. Monterrey said it had not identified any positive cases.
With more than 6,000 fatalities, Mexico has the ..

Eight footballers test positive in Mexico, jeopardising league restart

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The stars of the hit series "Big Little Lies" have reunited to provide meals to the frontline workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.
Actors Reese Witherspoon, Zoe Kravitz, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Shailene Woodley chose five cities -- Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York and Phoenix -- each to help keep the restaurant kitchens afloat and staff employed, reported Variety.
The food produced from these outlets would be provided to the frontline workers.
The donation from the team of the hit HBO show is part of FLF's #CastItOn Challenge, a campaign that gives actors, writers, directors and others in the entertainment industry an opportunity to help raise public awareness and donations for FLF chapters in 55 cities across the country.

COVID-19: 'Big Little Lies' cast sponsors meals for frontliners

Olympics chief Thomas Bach said 2021 was the "last option" for holding the delayed Tokyo Games on Thursday, stressing that postponement cannot go on forever.
Bach told the BBC that he agreed with Japan's stance that the Games will have to be cancelled if the coronavirus pandemic isn't under control by next year.
In March, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed to July 23, 2021 as the coronavirus spread across the globe, killing hundreds of thousands of people and making international sport impossible.
"Quite frankly, I have some understanding for (Japan's position) because you cannot forever employ 3,000, or 5,000, people in an organising committee," the International Olympic Committee president said.
"You cannot every year change the entire sports schedule worldwide for all the major federations.
"You cannot have the athletes being in uncertainty, you cannot have so much overlapping with a future Olympic Games."
The Olympics have never been cancelled outside of the world wars, but ...

2021 'last option' for Tokyo Games, says Olympics chief

A powerful cyclone has battered Bangladesh, killing at least 10 people, devastating coastal villages, inundating many areas and damaging scores of houses, officials said on Thursday.
Cyclone 'Amphan', the strongest to hit the region in nearly two decades, made a landfall on Wednesday evening. It was the most powerful storm since cyclone 'Sidr' killed nearly 3,500 people in 2007.
"From our initial report we can say 10 people were killed in the cyclone, said Ayesha Akhtar, spokeswoman of the health ministry's control room.
Akhtar said officials in the coastlines so far could confirm identities of six of the deceased while a process was underway to assess the medical requirements and other details in the affected area.
Initial reports from the coastlines suggested most of the deaths were caused by accidents like trees falling on people and wall collapse. A Red Crescent volunteer drowned during an evacuation bid.
The body of Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) leader Shah Alam was ...

10 killed as cyclone Amphan batters Bangladesh

The first visit to Kabul by Washington's peace envoy since Afghanistan's squabbling political leadership reached a power-sharing agreement comes amid increased violence blamed mostly on an Islamic State affiliate that has been targeted in stepped-up US bombing.
Zalmay Khalilzad, in a flurry of tweets Thursday, told of his meetings in Doha earlier in the week with Taliban representatives and on Wednesday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and fellow leader Abdullah Abdullah. All were aimed at resuscitating a US-Taliban peace deal signed in February.
Khalilzad called for a reduction in violence by all sides in Afghanistan's protracted conflict that has kept America militarily engaged for 19 years.
He also said too much time has been wasted getting to the second and critical phase of the peace deal, which calls for talks between the Taliban and Afghanistan's political leadership.
Abdullah will head those efforts as part of the deal he signed with Ghani to end their monthslong dispute ...

US envoy working to resuscitate flagging Afghan peace deal

Australian actor Ruby Rose's surprise exit from The CW series "Batwoman" reportedly stemmed from her unhappiness over long working hours for the show.
Rose announced on Wednesday that she has decided to leave the show after just one season, which wrapped airing on the network last week.
Multiple sources told TVLine that she exited the show because she didn't like spending long hours for the lead role and it led to friction on the set.
Therefore, the actor as well as the network and studio, Warner Bros Television, decided to part ways.
"It wasn't 100 per cent her decision. It was a breakup. She wasn't happy working on the show, and did that make her fun to work with? No. So everyone decided it would be in the best interests of the show, and for all concerned, if they parted ways. It just wasn't a good fit," one source told the outlet.
Rose was cast as the titular DC superhero in 2018 and she made her debut The CW's annual DC crossover event of its shows --"The Flash","Arrow","Legends ..

Ruby Rose didn't like long working hours for 'Batwoman': report

Australia opener David Warner's participation in the Big Bash League (BBL) would depend on how the international calender pans out on resumption as he does not want "a cluttered mindset", playing different formats close to each other.
Warner reflected on how in 2013-14, playing Twenty20 tournament without much gap between the Test cricket adversely impacted his performance.
"All my decisions are based around how much playing and touring I'm doing in the summer," Warner told cricket.com.au about his Big Bash options.
"When I last played a game, my mindset in the next two Tests was cluttered between playing and not playing shots."
Warner had hit centuries in the first and third Ashes Tests of that whitewash summer before scoring 50 from 31 balls for the Sydney Thunder in a one-off appearance. In the final two Tests of the summer, he did not pass 25.
"I know that's how I play but I've reined it in a lot over the last few years and don't want to be putting myself into a situation again ...

International calender will influence decision on playing BBL: Warner

The Philippines has emerged as a global hot spot for online child sexual exploitation, and coronavirus lockdowns that restrict millions to their homes may be worsening the abuses, a U.S. official said Thursday.
A new study released by the Washington-based International Justice Mission on Thursday said Philippine cases of online child sexual exploitation have increased sharply in recent years with parents conniving to have their own children victimized for the money. The nongovernmental group has helped track down and prosecute offenders in the Philippines.
The global shutdown with the COVID-19 pandemic seems to only be increasing these phenomena, U.S. State Department official John Richmond, who oversees U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking, said in an online launch of the study.
In most cases the traffickers are actually parents or close family members of the kids they are exploiting, Richmond said.
And so lockdown orders mean that children are being locked down with their ...

Study: Philippines a global hot spot for online child abuse

Singapore on Thursday reported 448 new coronavirus cases, most of them foreign workers living in dormitories, taking the total number of positive cases in the city-state to 29,812.
Thirteen of the new COVID-19 cases are either Singaporeans or permanent residents, said the Health Ministry.
The vast majority of the new cases are foreign workers living in dormitories, the Ministry said in its preliminary daily update.
"Of these, seven cases were picked up from our active surveillance and screening of nursing home residents and pre-school staff, and four are part of a family cluster linked to a dormitory. Epidemiological investigations are ongoing for the other two cases," the Channel News Asia reported quoting the ministry.
On Wednesday, the Ministry said COVID-19 cases among work permit holders living outside dormitories have been added to the daily count of community cases. These cases were previously listed under a separate category.
A large number of work permit holders were placed ..

Singapore reports 448 new coronavirus cases, total cases rise to 29,812

Actor Diane Kruger has been roped in to narrate the upcoming Audible original, "The End of My Heart" from young adult fiction author Gayle Forman.
The "Inglourious Basterds" star is collaborating with Forman on the fictional, audio-only tale, reported Variety.
"The End of My Heart" follows an inter-generational mother-daughter relationship and a secret that, if exposed, could threaten to change their bond forever.
The audible original is set to be released on June 25.
Forman is best known for her novel "If I Stay", which was published in 2009 , topped the New York Times best sellers list of Young Adult Fiction and was made into a film of the same name with Chloe Grace Moretz.

Diane Kruger to narrate Audible original 'The End of My Heart'

Japan's top government spokesman on Thursday said the country is considering attending the Group of Seven summit meeting, if the US reschedules the cancelled gathering.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was responding to a question about President Donald Trump's tweet Wednesday that he is considering rescheduling the cancelled G-7 meeting with world leaders in the US, because it would be a "great sign to all" of things returning to normal during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump had scheduled the G-7 summit for June 10-12 at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.
The summit was cancelled in March because of the pandemic, and Trump said the leaders would confer by video conference.
Suga on Thursday said he interpreted Trump's tweet as an expression of the President's intention to normalize the global economy quickly.
He said his understanding is that details such as the dates and format of the meeting are still being studied by the US as host nation.
Suga said Tokyo and ..

Japan weighs attending G-7 if rescheduled in US

Two medium intensity earthquakes hit Nepal on Thursday in a span of six hours, the National Seismological Centre said.
However, there was no report of any loss of life or damage to property due to the tremors.
The first jolt measuring a magnitude of 3 on the Richter scale hit Darchula district in far-west Nepal at 2.45 am.
Another quake of 3.4 magnitude struck Bhaktapur district, 15 km east of Kathmandu, at 8.14 am. The epicentre of the quake was located at Anantalingeshwor area in the district.
Slight tremor was also felt in and around Kathmandu city.

Twin quakes strike Nepal in a span of 6 hours

The US has backed India amidst a flare-up of border tensions with China with a top diplomat describing Beijing's aggression as "not always rhetorical" and accusing it of continuing with its "provocative and disturbing behaviour" to try to shift the status quo.
Alice G Wells, the senior US diplomat for South and Central Asia, said China's border tensions with India and Beijing's increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea have some correlation.
"The flare-ups on the border, I think, are a reminder that Chinese aggression is not always just rhetorical. And so whether it's on the South China Sea or whether it's along the border with India we continue to see provocations and disturbing behaviour by China that raises questions about how China seeks to use its growing power," Wells, the outgoing head of the South and Central Asia bureau in the US State Department, told reporters in a conference call on Wednesday.
There's a method here to Chinese operations, and it is that ...

China continues with its 'provocative and disturbing behaviour': US official

Blumhouse has roped in Mexican director Issa Lopez to write and direct its upcoming horror project, "Our Lady of Tears".
The filmmaker is best known for helming 2017's Spanish-language horror fantasy "Tigers Are Not Afraid".
According to Variety, the new movie is based on the article "The Haunting of Girlstown" by Daniel Hernandez that was recently published on Vox and in Epic magazine.
The article focuses on a mass hysteria epidemic with supernatural roots, that in 2007 spread through Villa de las Ninas, an all girls, Catholic boarding school in the outskirts of Mexico City.
The school recruited and isolated socially neglected girls coming from families living in extreme poverty and in remote areas of Mexico.
"Our Lady of Tears" will be produced by Blumhouse in association with Epic Media.

Issa Lopez to direct Blumhouse's new horror 'Our Lady of Tears'

"Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker is celebrating 23 years of her wedding with husband, actor Matthew Broderick.
The 55-year-old actor, who married the "Godzilla" star in 1997, took to Instagram on Wednesday to mark the milestone moment.
"May 19th, 2020. 23 years. We've come a long way baby," she wrote alongside a black-and-white photograph of theirs from an awards event.
Parker and Broderick, 58, share three children son James, 17, and twin daughters, Marion and Tabitha, 10, who were born via surrogacy.
According to Entertainment Tonight, the couple was set to star in the Broadway revival of "Plaza Suite", which has been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sarah Jessica Parker marks 23rd wedding anniversary with Matthew Broderick

The World Health Organisation, which has come under repeated fire from US President Donald Trump, says the science is still unclear on an old malaria drug he's taking to try to defend against the novel coronavirus.
It says it recommends the drug's use for COVID-19 only in controlled clinical trials for now.
Dr Michael Ryan, the WHO's emergencies chief, notes the drug hydroxychloroquine  which Trump said Monday that he's taking  is just one of many possible therapies being now tested internationally to see if they are effective against the novel coronavirus.
His comments late Wednesday suggested WHO remains unbowed by Trump's repeated criticism over its response to the coronavirus pandemic  including most recently his threat to end all funding for the UN health agency from its biggest donor, the United States, if it doesn't reform.
Ryan nonetheless emphasized countries can make their own choices.
Every sovereign nation, particularly those with effective regulatory authorities, is in a .

WHO: Drug Trump taking to fight COVID-19 best left to tests

There are no daily public displays of gratitude for Russian doctors and nurses during the coronavirus crisis like there are in the West.
Instead of applause, they face mistrust, low pay and even open hostility.
Residents near the National Medical Research Center for Endocrinology, a Moscow hospital now treating virus patients, complained when they saw medical workers walking out of the building in full protective gear, fearing the workers would spread contagion.
Maybe once the disease knocks on the door of every family, then the attitude to medics will change, said Dr. Alexander Gadzyra, a surgeon who works exhausting shifts.
The outbreak has put enormous pressure on Russia's medical community.
While state media hails some of them as heroes, doctors and nurses interviewed by The Associated Press say they are fighting both the virus and a system that fails to support them.
They have decried shortages of protective equipment, and many say they have been threatened with dismissal or even 

'We're expendable': Russian doctors face hostility, mistrust

Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o has turned narrator for Discovery's new documentary series Serengeti, directed by John Downer.
The new series tells the story of a group of different animals living in the astonishing African region, and how they not only navigate their need to survive but manage raising children and finding love, according to IndieWire.
Downer has been filming animals for 35 years and the new documentary gave him the chance to explore a wide cross-section of life.
"There's nowhere else on Earth where you get such a concentration of incredible animals, from baboons to cheetahs and lions, the director said.
When producer Simon Fuller pitched the project to Downer, the director said his goal was to make it dramatic, giving narrative life to what these animals were experiencing.
Nyong'o, who narrates the U.S. version of Serengeti, said it presented her with a new way of looking at an area she knew only a bit better than most.
Having grown up in Kenya and gone on safari, ...

Lupita Nyong'o turns narrator for Discovery's new documentary series Serengeti'

It was clear he was in charge when he entered the wedding hall-turned-slave pen in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where dozens of Yazidi women and girls huddled on the floor, newly abducted by Islamic State militants.
He beat them at the slightest sign of resistance. At one point, he dragged a girl away, picking her for himself, a Yazidi woman  who was 14 when the incident occurred in 2014  recounted to The Associated Press.
This was Hajji Abdullah, a religious judge and a key architect of the IS slave system.
He later became deputy to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Many believe he is the late al-Baghdadi's successor, identified by the pseudonym Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. The U.S has a $5 million bounty on his head.
Investigators with the Commission for International Justice and Accountability are amassing evidence, hoping to prosecute IS figures for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide  including Hajji Abdullah.
Bill Wiley, executive director and founder of CIJA, said 

Building a genocide case for IS crimes against Yazidis

The life-altering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to result in lasting physical and mental health consequences for many people worldwide, particularly those from vulnerable populations, according to a study.
Researchers from the Yale School of Public Health studied low-income women from New Orleans, US, who were surveyed the year prior to, and at intervals after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
The women reported a range of traumatic experiences during Katrina, many of which are similar to those now occurring during the coronavirus pandemic, including bereavement, lack of access to medical care and scarcity of medications, they said.
The study, published in the journal PNAS, showed that at one, four and 12 years after the hurricane, the exposures most strongly associated with post-traumatic stress, psychological distress, general health and physical health symptoms were those most common to the current pandemic.
"This pandemic is likely to have profound short- and ...

COVID-19 pandemic may cause long-term health problems: Study

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson still finds it "difficult to make sense" of the heartbreaking World Cup final loss to England last year and hasn't yet figured if the epic match should count among the highs or lows of his career.
New Zealand got a raw deal in last year's World Cup final when England were adjudged the winners on the basis of their superior boundary count after the epic game and also the ensuing Super Over ended in a tie.
Williamson said he is still trying to comprehend what happened in the closing moments of that spectacular final.
"To determine whether it was a high or a low takes a bit of time. And I'm still trying to work out what it was really ... sometimes it is difficult to make sense of it. You need to accept, which is that it is a part and parcel of life," said Williamson on a 'Cricbuzz' show.
"We didn't get the fruits but upon reflection, it was a pretty spectacular game to be a part of but a really difficult game to understand and get around because you ...

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