Premier League clubs will vote on proposals for a return to contact training on Wednesday as the English top-flight seeks to take another step closer to resuming the season next month.
New UK government guidelines issued on Sunday allow for the return of "close contact" training, including tackling, to help players step up their match fitness ahead of a return to competitive action.
"This type of training would start with smaller 'clusters' of 2-3 athletes and eventually progress to larger groups of 4-12 athletes, and ultimately full team training," added the government advice.
Premier League clubs returned to training in small and socially distanced groups last week.
Players and managers are to be consulted in a meeting on Tuesday before the proposals are put to a vote of the 20 clubs.
Results of the latest round of COVID-19 testing, which is taking place on Monday and Tuesday, will also be published on Wednesday.
The small number of positive tests from the first two rounds of ...

Premier League to vote on return of contact training

PTI Automatic

A spat was brewing Monday between Germany's federal government and state governors over plans by some regional leaders to end pandemic-related restrictions despite fresh clusters of cases across the country.
The country has seen a steady decline in the overall number of COVID-19 cases thanks to measures imposed 10 weeks ago to limit personal contacts.
But as restrictions have slowly been lifted there have also been case spikes across Germany linked to slaughterhouses, restaurants, religious services, nursing homes and refugee shelters.
Current general coronavirus rules are due to expire on June 5, and on the weekend, the governor of the state of Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow, said he hopes to lift the remaining statewide lockdown rules on June 6 and tackle outbreaks locally.
In Germany, state governments are responsible for imposing and lifting lockdown restrictions.
All 16 states currently have coronavirus rules, including physical distancing requirements and an obligation to wear masks on 

Germany divided over plans to nix rules despite outbreaks

A German court has ruled that Volkswagen must buy back cars from owners of its diesel cars equipped with software that evaded emissions testing  but consumers must accept the current value of the car based on the mileage they drove since buying it, not the purchase price.
Volkswagen said the decision announced Monday would clear the way for settlement of remaining consumer claims in Germany.
The decision affects some 60,000 individual claims brought by car owners there; around 262,000 others have already been covered by an 830 million euro (USD 904 million) class-action settlement.
"For the majority of the 60,000 pending cases, this ruling provides clarity," the company said in a statement.
"Volkswagen is now seeking to bring these proceedings to a prompt conclusion in agreement with the plaintiffs. We will therefore approach the plaintiffs with the adequate settlement proposals. The aim is to relieve the burden on the judiciary as quickly as possible."
The case that was decided ...

German court ruling clears the way to settle VW diesel cases

Struggling Brussels Airlines will restart commercial flights next month with a significantly downsized summer schedule following a 12-week interruption due to the coronavirus.
The company said in a statement Monday it will restart flying operations on June 15, and plans to reach 59 destinations in 33 countries in Europe, Africa and the US by August.
Hard-hit by the crisis, the Lufthansa subsidiary announced earlier this month it is planning to cut a quarter of its workforce as part of a cost-cutting plan.
The company, which employs 4,000 people, has like many airlines suspended flights as a result of the pandemic.
It said it is losing 1 million euros (USD 1.1 million) a day because of revenue losses, aircraft leasing and maintenance costs, and has asked the government for support.
Brussels Airlines' revised summer plans will consist of 30 per cent of the initially planned summer schedule in Europe and 40 per cent of the long-haul summer program.
The company plans to reach 240 weekly ..

Brussels Airlines to resume flights on downsized summer sked

Traffic returned to a major highway in northeastern Syria for the first time in seven months on Monday, following Russian mediation to reopen parts of the road captured last year by Turkey-backed opposition fighters.
Syrian Kurdish media and a Syrian Kurdish official said several vehicles accompanied by Russian troops began driving in the morning between the northern towns of Ein Issa and Tal Tamr.
The two towns are controlled by government forces and Syrian Kurdish fighters while the area between them is mostly held by Turkey-backed opposition fighters.
Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters captured parts of the highway known as M4 in October, when Ankara invaded northeastern Syria to drive away Syrian Kurdish fighters.
The M4 links Syria's coastal region all the way east to the Iraqi border.
Four convoys will drive on the M4 every day with two leaving from Tal Tamr and two from Ein Issa, according to the Kurdish ANHA news agency.
The report said a convoy will leave from each ...

Reports: Russian mediation reopens major highway in NE Syria

Americans prepared to mark a Memorial Day like no other as the coronavirus pandemic upended traditional commemorations, while Greece sought to revive its crucial tourism sector by restoring ferry services to its popular Aegean islands.
U.S. authorities warned beach-goers to heed social-distancing rules to avoid a resurgence of the virus that has infected 5.4 million people worldwide and killed over 345,000, including nearly 100,000 Americans, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and four other remaining areas on Monday, but said that does not mean the end of the outbreak. He said the goal is to balance preventive measures and the economy until vaccines and effective drugs become available.
In New York City, honoring fallen military members will be done with car convoys and small ceremonies this year instead of parades to conform with coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
It's something we're .

US faces a Memorial Day like no other; Greek islands reopen

Nicholas Hoult says when people claim that he has stolen certain mannerisms from his About A Boy co-star Hugh Grant, he take is as a compliment.
Hoult, known for playing Beast in X-Men: First Class, Nux in Mad Max: Fury Road and Harley in The Favourite, had his career breakthrough at the age of 12, when he starred alongside Grant in About a Boy.
The 30-year-old actor said the British star has left a huge impact on him.
"One of my first experiences making a film was with Hugh Grant on About A Boy'. That's certainly something that I don't think I purposefully do, but occasionally people will say that there's things I do particularly within Tony's writing (Tony McNamara, who wrote The Favourite')  there's occasionally moments where people think I take things that Hugh does and stolen them and run with them maybe a little bit.
I don't purposefully do that, but I take it as a compliment when people do say that, Hoult told Collider.
The actor recently had to drop out of the cast of Mission: 

It's a compliment: Nicholas Hoult on people claiming he copies Hugh Grant

President Donald Trump booked back-to-back Memorial Day appearances despite the coronavirus pandemic, at Arlington National Cemetery and at a historic fort in Baltimore. Trump recently called Baltimore a rat and rodent infested mess, and its mayor has suggested Trump stay home.
Presidents typically honor fallen military members by laying a wreath and delivering a speech at the hallowed burial ground in Virginia. But the pandemic, which is expected to claim its 100,000th American this week, has led to changes this year. Trump will only lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
He is expected to speak later at Baltimore's Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. It's where a poem, written after a huge American flag was hoisted to celebrate an important victory over the British during the War of 1812, became The Star-Spangled Banner.
Trump has been steadily ramping up his schedule in an effort to portray the nation as returning to its pre-pandemic ways as it emerges ...

Trump doubles up with Maryland, Virginia Memorial Day events

Libya's coast guard intercepted about 400 Europe-bound migrants off the country's Mediterranean coast over the past two days, and brought them to the capital of Tripoli from where they were taken to a detention centre, the UN migration agency said on Monday.
Safa Msehli, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration said the migrants were taken to the al-Nasser detention center in the town of Zawya, west of Tripoli, she said.
Mselhi said departures from Libya have increased, which is "especially worrying amid a sharp decrease in...search and rescue capacity".
Libya, which descended into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, has emerged as a major transit point for African and Arab migrants fleeing war and poverty to Europe.
Most migrants make the perilous journey in ill-equipped and unsafe rubber boats. The IOM said last month that its estimated death toll among migrants who have tried to cross the Mediterranean ..

UN: Libya coast guard intercepts, detains about 400 migrants

South Koreans will be required to wear masks when using public transportation and taxis nationwide starting Tuesday as health authorities look for more ways to slow the spread of the coronavirus as people increase their public activities.
Health Ministry official Yoon Taeho on Monday said masks also will be enforced on all domestic and international flights from Wednesday.
From June, owners of high-risk facilities such as bars, clubs, gyms, karaoke rooms and concert halls will be required to use smartphone QR codes to register customers so they can be tracked down more easily when infections occur.
South Korea was reporting 500 new cases per day in early March before it largely stabilized its outbreak with aggressive tracking and testing.
But infections have been rising slightly since early May, with more people going out during warmer weather and eased social distancing guidelines, causing concern in a country that has just started to reopen schools.
"Until treatments and vaccines ...

South Korea to require masks on transit, flights

South Korea plans to send 370,000 face masks to tens of thousands of South Koreans adopted in the West to help them weather the coronavirus.
The Foreign Ministry said its diplomatic missions will work with dozens of international adoption groups to distribute the masks in 14 countries.
South Korea has been a major source of babies for adoption in the West since the end of 1950-53 Korean War.
According to official figures, there are around 167,000 adopted South Koreans living abroad, but experts say the actual number is closer to 200,000.

South Korea plans to send 370,000 masks to adoptees abroad

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says his government will compile a fresh stimulus package worth about 100 trillion yen ($930 billion) to provide financial support for companies hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Abe unveiled the new stimulus at a news conference Monday as he declared an end to a coronavirus state of emergency across the nation, as he removed the measure in five remaining prefectures including Tokyo.
Abe said a Cabinet approval of funding for the additional stimulus package is expected later this week.
The package would bring the amount of spending to more than 200 trillion yen ($1.9 trillion), he said. The government earlier compiled a 117 trillion yen stimulus package.
Japan, with about 16,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and about 850 deaths, has so far avoided a large outbreak like those experienced in the U.S. and the Europe despite its softer restrictions.
But the world's third-largest economy is fallen into a recession, and public discontent over Abe's handling of .

Japan's government to bail out businesses

The UK government has set up a new inquiry into any security implications surrounding Huawei's involvement in the country's 5G networks as a result of the US sanctions against the Chinese tech giant, it emerged on Monday.
The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is in charge of Britain's cyber security, is taking the lead on examining additional risks to Huawei products that may arise from the latest US sanctions.
The security and resilience of our networks is of paramount importance, an NCSC spokesperson said.
Following the US announcement of additional sanctions against Huawei, the NCSC is looking carefully at any impact they could have to the UK's networks, the spokesperson said.
The US government had unveiled a plan earlier this month to block global chip supplies to Huawei, the latest move amid growing US-China tensions in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The sanctions restrict Huawei from using US technology and software to design its semiconductors.
The US in .

UK sets up new inquiry into Huawei security risk

Tom Brady delivered the shot of the match that made it easy to forget the rest of his swings. Tiger Woods didn't miss a fairway and earned a small measure of revenge against Phil Mickelson.
The PGA Tour is set to return in just over two weeks, and it has a tough act to follow.
In the second and final charity match that brought live golf to TV, this exhibition was as entertaining as the real thing.
Woods lagged a long birdie putt close enough that his partner, Peyton Manning, didn't have to putt.
That secured a 1-up victory over Mickelson and Brady in The Match: Champions for Charity.
The goal was to raise $10 million or more for COVID-19 relief funds, and online donations sent money climbing toward about twice that much.
This made-for-TV exhibition would have been worth pay-per-view, the model Woods and Mickelson used for a $9 million winner-take-all match in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving weekend in 2018 that Mickelson won in a playoff under lights.
It felt forced, lacked banter and ...

Woods, Manning win a TV charity match as good as real thing

/ -- The market leader in mobile app security AppSealing has announced the introduction of a new feature to its suite of security services. Now, it protects hybrid apps as well. It's new and existing clients, which include industry bigwigs in the fields of fintech, gaming, OTT, ecommerce, etc., can add an AppSealing security layer between the native shell and the web app to secure their hybrid apps and protect their network infrastructure and their users' devices and data.
Following DevOps logic, hybrid apps are essentially web applications wrapped in a native shell of a mobile operating system. Their popularity rests on the promise of reduced development time and cost. Developers focus on delivering updated apps to clients in the shortest possible time and, hence, do not bother enough about its security features or are not equipped to address security concerns. It makes hybrid apps vulnerable to security attacks. Noticing this gap, AppSealing now offers its cutting-edge technology to 

AppSealing and NAVER Launches the Foremost Solution to Secure Hybrid Apps

Atletico Madrid winger Angel Correa on Monday said that a return to football "is what we all need" ahead of a possible La Liga restart in mid-June.
League president Javier Tebas on Sunday said he hopes the Spanish season can resume with the Seville derby on June 11, after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said La Liga could return from June 8.
"With this crazy period that we are all living in, knowing that we will soon be playing again, resuming La Liga is an immense joy," Correa told the Atletico website after training on Monday.
"I think this is what we all need, for football to resume, and thank God, it will happen very quickly." Spanish sides are currently training in small groups, but should be able to return to full training on June 1.
Atletico sit sixth in the La Liga table with 11 games of the season remaining, although only one point adrift of Real Sociedad, who occupy the fourth and final Champions League spot.
"The whole team has been working at home, and now we are noticing ...

La Liga return 'what we all need', says Atletico's Correa

Hollywood star Cameron Diaz wants to focus on her daughter Raddix and will be selective about her professional endeavours.
According to Entertainment Tonight, the actor is enjoying her time away from the spotlight with her family.
"Cameron is enjoying her time away from the action, and spending it with her husband and baby Raddix. Cameron worked consistently for almost 20 years and needed a break.
"Cameron loves being a mother and that is her main focus now. Cameron plans to be selective in any projects she considers for the future, but for now it's all about family," a source told the publication.
The 47-year-old actor's last movie role was as Miss Agatha Hannigan in the 2015 film "Annie" , in which she starred alongside Jamie Foxx and Rose Byrne.
Diaz announced in January that she and husband Benji Madden have become parents to baby girl.
The actor had decided to retire from acting two years ago. However in a recent interview with her former makeup artist Gucci Westman for Harper's .

Cameron Diaz to be selective' about work, wants to focus on her baby

More than 200 football clubs have teamed up with Roma in a social media campaign to help the search for missing children around the world, the Serie A outfit said on Monday.
In a statement, Roma said that some of the game's biggest clubs, including Barcelona, Real Madrid and European champions Liverpool, will publish on Twitter a video featuring missing children on Monday, which is International Missing Children's Day.
The initiative "aims to take advantage of the incredible reach of football clubs on Twitter to raise awareness about 101 children currently separated from their loved ones", the statement added.
Roma published a list of the clubs that had signed up, with 14 other Italian sides and a host of others from leagues around the world taking part in an initiative which stems from a campaign the 'Giallorossi' started last summer.
The Serie A outfit has been working with a series of missing persons organisations, publishing with every transfer announcement on their Twitter ...

Over 200 clubs join Roma in missing children campaign

Some hotels and restaurants will be allowed to reopen from Tuesday in Colombo, one of the hotspots for the coronavirus in Sri Lanka, as the country is set to ease the nationwide lockdown by limiting the curfew hours among other relaxations.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Saturday said that Sri Lanka will ease the coronavirus lockdown restrictions from May 26, including limiting the curfew hours from 10.00 pm to 4.00 am.
Sri Lanka has been under a 24-hour curfew since March 20 to combat the deadly viral infection. However, there has been intermittent lifting of the curfew in selected areas which were not seen as dangerous for the spread of the deadly virus.
Colombo and Gampaha districts were identified as coronavirus hot-spots and placed under round-the-clock curfew since March 20.
The government tourist board-approved restaurants in Colombo have been given permission to operate under strict health guidelines, Ruwan Wijemuni, Chief Medical Officer of the Colombo Municipal Council said 

COVID-19: Colombo to reopen some hotels, restaurants from Tuesday

Polish President Andrzej Duda on Monday appointed a judge backed by the right-wing ruling party to be the new head of the Supreme Court, marking apparent victory in years of government efforts to take control of the court.
The new head, Malgorzata Manowska, 55, is also head of the state school for judges and prosecutors. She is under disciplinary investigation for keeping the school job after being appointed to the Supreme Court in 2018.
She also served as deputy justice minister in 2007, when the Law and Justice party was previously in power.
The previous court head, Malgorzata Gersdorf, who had resisted government pressure and efforts to make her leave early, retired last month after completing her term.
The government's moves to take controls of the Supreme Court have led the European Union to threaten sanctions on the government.

Poland's president appoints new head of embattled top court

The furore surrounding top Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings' perceived breach of the coronavirus stay-at-home lockdown rules by travelling 260 miles to his parents' home refused to die down on Monday.
The Opposition branded British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's defence of Cummings as an "insult" to all the sacrifices made by the British public during the pandemic, with a growing number of parliamentarians within Johnson's own Conservative Party calling for his Chief Strategy Adviser to be sacked.
"This was a test of the Prime Minister and he has failed it. It is an insult to sacrifices made by the British people that Boris Johnson has chosen to take no action against Dominic Cummings," said Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition Labour Party.
His Indian-origin shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, added: "The Prime Minister confirms it's one rule for his friends and another rule for the rest of us. All that sacrifice, stress and pain. What an insult."
Acting Liberal Democrats 

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