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Reuters

  • The Ashes: Australia on brink of victory as England collapse

    Steve Smith’s patient 143 guided Australia to a formidable total and the bowlers rammed home the advantage in the last session to boost their side’s bid for a consolation win after relinquishing the Ashes by losing the fourth test in Nottingham.

    England’s collapse was not quite as abject as when Australia were bowled out for 60 on the first morning at Trent Bridge but it was quite remarkable on a sun-kissed afternoon in south London.

    Spinner Nathan Lyon bowled England captain Alastair Cook for 22 just before tea to start the rot.

    Adam Lyth’s wretched run continued when, on 19, he spooned an attempted pull off Peter Siddle to Mitchell Starc at mid-on.

    Siddle, recalled in place of the injured Josh Hazlewood, produced a superb delivery to bowl Ian Bell for 10 and Joe Root nicked Mitchell Marsh to keeper Peter Nevill after labouring for 39 balls to make six.

    Jonny Bairstow, on 13, tamely pulled Mitchell Johnson to Lyon at square leg, Jos Buttler was bowled by Lyon for one and Ben Stokes skied Marsh to Nevill for 15.

    Stuart Broad edged Marsh to Adam Voges at slip for a duck before Moeen Ali and Mark Wood each made eight not out to take the hosts to the close without further loss, still 374 runs behind their opponents.

    Australia had resumed in the morning on 287 for three and Smith waited until his 24th delivery to add to his overnight 78 while Voges played more freely.

    The experienced right-hander cut Broad for four to reach his second fifty in a row and had scored 76 when he misjudged a fierce inswinger from Stokes that kept low and was trapped lbw.

    Smith flashed hard at the very next delivery from Steven Finn and keeper Buttler took the catch, but the bowler immediately returned to the crease to check his footmark and replays confirmed that he had overstepped by several inches.

    Finn looked distraught as Smith was recalled but he did claim a wicket when Marsh, on three, edged a lifting delivery to Bell at second slip.

    Smith clipped Moeen for a single to bring up his 11th test century, a patient effort spanning more than five hours at the crease.

    Nevill fell for 18, feathering a catch to Buttler down the leg-side off Moeen and the spinner bowled Johnson for a second-ball duck just before lunch.

    Smith’s long vigil ended when he dragged a ball from Finn on to his stumps and he departed to a standing ovation having hit two sixes and 17 fours.

    Starc struck a six and nine fours in a breezy 58 off 52 balls before he was lbw to Stokes and Siddle was caught by a diving Lyth at gully off Finn to end the innings.

  • Sangakkara fails to convert start, Sri Lanka 140-3

    Playing his 134th and final test, Sangakkara made 32 as he and Kaushal Silva (51) added 74 runs to help Sri Lanka overcome the early loss of opener Dimuth Karunaratne.

    Lahiru Thirimanne was batting on 28 at the close with skipper Angelo Mathews on 19 at the other end with the hosts, who lead the three-match series 1-0, still trailing by 253 runs in the evenly poised test.

    Sangakkara walked out to a guard-of-honour by the Indian team after Umesh Yadav had dismissed Karunaratne with his first delivery at the P Sara Oval.

    The first ball Sangakkara faced was a vicious inswinging yorker from Yadav which the left-hander barely managed to dig out.

    He also got a reprieve on 24 when Ajinkya Rahane failed to take a catch at slip after Sangakkara had attempted a cut shot off Ravichandran Ashwin.

    The Indians soon combined again to dismiss Sangakkara, who got a standing ovation on his way back to the pavilion while his opponents clapped.

    Silva was caught behind off Stuart Binny when on 14 but it turned out to be a no-ball and the opener went to notch up his ninth test fifty before sweeping leg-spinner Amit Mishra to Ashwin at short fine leg.

    Earlier, Wriddhiman Saha (56) capitalised on a charmed life to hit his second successive test fifty as India inched close to the 400-mark before being all out soon after lunch.

    Resuming on 319 for six, the visitors lost Ashwin early but Saha added 46 runs with Mishra (24) to frustrate the hosts.

    Sri Lanka bowled without luck, illustrated best in the second over of the day when Dhammika Prasad’s delivery brushed Saha’s off-stump but could not dislodge the bails.

    Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath claimed the last two Indian wickets to finish with figures of 4-81.

  • Lahore High Court bans Bollywood movie Phantom

    Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba which the United Nations has listed as a terrorist organisation, petitioned the court to ban the Kabir Khan-directed feature film “Phantom” on the basis that it maligns Pakistan and vilifies Saeed and his current organisation, Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

    The Lahore High Court issued a ban on Thursday, Saeed’s lawyer said.

    “The government has been told that the film should not be presented for showing in Pakistan and to take necessary steps in this regard,” lawyer AK Dogar told Reuters.

    In its reply to the petition in court, the Pakistani government “vehemently denied” that there were ever any plans to screen the Indian film.

    Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is banned in Pakistan but tolerated unofficially. Saeed has long abandoned its leadership and is now the head of its charity wing, Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

    India says it has handed over evidence against him to Pakistan which should have detained him. The issue has stood in the way of rebuilding relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

    The United States has also offered $10 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Saeed, who denies any involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

    Saeed lives freely in the city of Lahore in a villa with police stationed outside.

    “Phantom” is described as a political thriller set in aftermath of the Mumbai attacks and features Bollywood stars Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif opposing a villain named “Harif Saeed”.

    Yahya Mujahid, spokesperson for Hafiz Saeed and Jamaat-ud-Daw, applauded Thursday’s court ruling.

    “This film was calling for an attack on Hafiz Saeed, and this was clearly terrorism on the part of India, to release such propaganda. So we think the High Court has given a very good decision on this.”

     

    Saif Ali Khan’s remarks on Phantom’s possible screening in Pakistan

    Earlier, Saif Ali Khan had been quoted as saying that he would like the movie to be released in Pakistan. He was quoted in the Indian media as saying that he was friends with the chief of the Board of Censors in Pakistan but that there must be “pressures” on the board chief as far as this particular film was concerned.

    saif-ali-khan-26-09-2013

  • Israel hits Syria with missiles in rocket attack retaliation

    Israel says the rare salvo had been launched there by an Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group.

    The group, Islamic Jihad, denied the Israeli allegation. It had previously threatened reprisals should one of its activists in Israeli detention, Mohammed Allan, die of a hunger strike. Allan ended the fast on Wednesday after an Israeli court intervened.

    Israeli officials said two rockets struck close to a northern village in the upper Galilee, near the Lebanese border, setting off brush fires but causing no casualties. Air-raid sirens had sent residents to shelters.

    The attack was unusual as that frontier had been largely quiet since the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. By contrast, the Israeli-occupied Golan, about 16 km (10 miles) to the east, has occasionally come under fire from within Syria during the four-year-old civil war there.

    The Israeli military said in a statement the rockets that hit the upper Galilee “were launched from the Syrian Golan Heights … by Islamic Jihad, sponsored by Iran”.

    Israel “holds the Syrian government responsible for attacks emanating from Syria”, the army said, adding it had retaliated against targets in Syria.

    An Israeli military source said the air force and artillery had struck “five or six times” in the Syrian Golan.

    Syrian state TV confirmed Israeli strikes had hit, but said only material damage was done after “several missiles” targeted a transportation center and a public building in the Quneitra area near the Israeli frontier.

    Rebel sources in Syria, however, said the strikes hit some of Damascus’s military facilities on the Golan. A monitor initially reported casualties but did not elaborate.

    Islamic Jihad’s leaders are based in the Syrian capital and most of its followers are in the Gaza Strip, whose dominant faction Hamas has mostly been observing a truce with Israel that ended the war in the Palestinian enclave a year ago.

    Dawoud Shehab, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza, denied the group had fired on Israel from the Syrian Golan.

    “Israel is trying to divert attention from the defeat that it suffered in the face of the determination of the hero prisoner, Mohammed Allan,” Shehab told Reuters.

    Allan had refused food in protest at being detained without trial by Israel. On Wednesday, he called off the 65-day hunger strike after Israel’s top court suspended his arrest warrant.

    The possibility that Allan might die of his fast had drawn Islamic Jihad threats to attack Israel, which in turn deployed Iron Dome rocket interceptors outside Gaza as a precaution.

    Islamic Jihad acknowledges receiving support from Iran, Israel’s arch-foe. Israel has sought to highlight such Iranian backing for regional armed groups as it campaigns against U.S. congressional approval of the July 14 deal curbing Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for international sanctions relief.

    Israel captured the western Golan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it, a move not recognized abroad. While saying it is keeping out of the Syrian civil war and that some of the shooting against its side of the Golan has been stray fire, Israel has usually retaliated against Damascus’s assets over the armistice line.

  • North Korea orders troops on war footing

    Tension on the divided peninsula escalated on Thursday when North Korea fired shells into South Korea to protest against the loudspeaker broadcasts from the Korean border. The South responded with its own artillery barrage.

    Both sides said there were no casualties or damage in their territory.

    The North’s shelling came after it had demanded last weekend that South Korea end the broadcasts or face military action – a relatively rare case of it following up on its frequent threats against the South.

    Its 48-hour ultimatum to halt the broadcasts, delivered in a letter to the South Korean Defence Ministry via a joint military communications channel, was also uncharacteristically specific.

    A South Korean military official said the broadcasts would continue.

    The North Korean leader would put his troops on a “fully armed state of war” starting from 5 p.m. (0430 EDT) and had declared a “quasi-state of war” in frontline areas, Pyongyang’s official KCNA news agency reported.

    Some North Korean propaganda websites were not accessible on Friday morning.

    Pyongyang’s declaration of a semi-state of war was the first use of such terminology since the North shelled a South Korean island in 2010, the Yonhap News Agency said. Two South Korean marines and two civilians were killed in the incident.

  • Pakistan invites Kashmiri separatist leader for meeting

    India called off peace talks with Pakistan a year ago after its neighbor consulted the separatists before a meeting between their foreign secretaries.

    At the time, India accused Pakistan of interfering in its domestic affairs.Hardline Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani is among the leaders invited to the Pakistan High Commission on Aug. 23, the day talks between the security officials are due to start, Ayaz Akbar, a spokesman for the separatists, said.

    “This is deliberate attempt to irritate India,” said S. Chandrasekharan, director of the South Asia Analysis Group in New Delhi.

    Manzoor Ali Memon, a spokesman for the Pakistani embassy, confirmed the invitation and declined to comment further. Earlier Indian governments had grudgingly tolerated meetings between Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, elected last year, signaled he would not.

    Majority-Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan have fought three wars since becoming separate nations in 1947, two of them over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part. Modi has taken a tougher approach to Pakistan and clashes on the disputed border have intensified.

    Indian and Pakistani troops traded gunfire and mortar rounds along their frontier earlier this week, killing eight people. Hopes for warmer ties rose last month when Modi and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, met on the sidelines of a summit in Russia and agreed that their national security advisers would hold talks.

    A spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.

  • Myanmar extends martial law along Chinese border

    Cross-border incidents in the fighting have strained ties between the neighbours.

    They have also proved problematic for President Thein Sein, who has ambitions to sign a nationwide ceasefire with many of the country’s armed ethnic groups before a general election on Nov 8.

    On Tuesday, a majority of parliament members backed the motion to continue martial law in the Kokang region of Shan state. Martial law gives the military sweeping judicial and administrative powers.

    The measure was needed because of continued instability in the region, said Shwe Mann, the embattled speaker of parliament.

    President Thein Sein declared a three-month state of emergency and imposed martial law in the region on Feb 17 after fighting broke out between the Myanmar military and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).

    Parliament voted to extend martial law for the first time in May. The MNDAA declared a unilateral ceasefire the following month after coming under pressure from Beijing to end the conflict, but clashes have since been reported.

  • Thai authorities focus on suspect seen in CCTV footage at blast site

    The government said the attack during the Monday evening rush hour in the capital’s bustling commercial hub was aimed at destroying the economy. No one has claimed responsibility.

    Jangling nerves in the city on Tuesday, a small explosive was thrown from a bridge towards a river pier, sending a plume of water into the air, but no one was injured.

    The man suspected of the bombing at the Erawan shrine was seen in grainy CCTV footage entering the compound with a backpack on, sitting down against a railing and then slipping out of the bag’s straps.

    Wearing a yellow shirt and with shaggy, dark hair, the young man then stands up and walks out holding a blue plastic bag and what appears to be a mobile phone. The backpack was left by the fence as tourists milled about.

    A man wearing a yellow T-shirt and carrying a backpack is seen walking near the Erawan shrine, where a bomb blast killed 22 people on Monday, in Bangkok, Thailand in this handout still image taken from closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, released by the Thai Police on August 18, 2015. REUTERS
    A man wearing a yellow T-shirt and carrying a backpack is seen walking near the Erawan shrine, where a bomb blast killed 22 people on Monday, in Bangkok, Thailand in this handout still image taken from closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, released by the Thai Police on August 18, 2015. REUTERS

    National police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang said the suspect could be Thai or foreign.

    “That man was carrying a backpack and walked past the scene at the time of the incident. But we need to look at the before and after CCTV footage to see if there is a link,” Somyot told a news conference.

    Police earlier said they had not ruled out any group, including elements opposed to the military government, for the bombing at the shrine, although officials said the attack did not match the tactics of Muslim insurgents in the south.

    Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha also referred to the man as a suspect without giving details. He said there were “still anti-government groups out there”, although he did not elaborate.

    Police were at the blood-splattered site on Tuesday, some wearing white gloves and carrying plastic bags, searching for clues to an attack that could dent tourism and investor confidence.

    The Thai baht fell 0.57 percent to 35.57 baht, its weakest in more than six years, on concern the bombing may scare off visitors. Thai stocks fell as much as 3 percent.

    Police said the death toll was 22, with 123 people wounded.

    “Police are not ruling out anything including (Thai) politics and the conflict of ethnic Uighurs who, before this, Thailand sent back to China,” Somyot said.

    Thailand forcibly returned 109 Uighurs to China last month.

    Hundreds, possibly thousands, of members of the Turkic-speaking and largely Muslim minority have fled unrest in China’s western Xinjiang region, where hundreds of people have been killed, prompting a crackdown by Chinese authorities. Many Uighurs have travelled through Southeast Asia to Turkey.

    CHINESE CALL

    The blast comes at a sensitive time for Thailand, which has been riven for a decade by a sometimes violent struggle for power between political factions in Bangkok.

    An interim parliament hand-picked by a junta that seized power in a 2014 coup is due to vote on a draft constitution next month.

    Critics say the draft is undemocratic and intended to help the military secure power and limit the influence of elected politicians.

    The Erawan shrine, on a busy corner near top hotels, shopping centres, offices and a hospital, is a major attraction, especially for visitors from East Asia, including China.

    Four Chinese, including two people from Hong Kong, were among the dead, China’s Xinhua news agency said. A British resident of Hong Kong, two Malaysians, a Singaporean, an Indonesian and a Filipino were also killed, officials said.

    Scores of people were wounded, including many Asian tourists. China urged Thailand to thoroughly investigate the blast and punish the perpetrators.

    Tourism is one of the few bright spots in an economy that is still struggling, more than a year after the military seized power.

    It accounts for about 10 percent of the economy and the government had been banking on record arrivals this year following a sharp fall in 2014 because of protests and the coup.

    Occasional small blasts over recent years have been blamed on one side of the domestic political divide or the other. In February, two pipe bombs exploded outside a shopping mall in the same area as the Monday blast but caused little damage.

    Thai forces are also fighting a low-level Muslim insurgency in the predominantly Buddhist country’s south, but the separatists have rarely launched attacks outside their heartland.

  • Athletic Bilbao hold off Barcelona to claim Spanish Super Cup

    Bilbao, who only field players of Basque origin, last secured a major trophy when they won Spain’s traditional season opener in 1984 and Friday’s 4-0 drubbing of the Spanish and European champions in the first leg at the San Mames left Barcelona with too much to do at the Nou Camp.

    After waves of sustained pressure, Lionel Messi gave the home side a 1-0 second-leg lead shortly before halftime when he chested down a clever Luis Suarez layoff and clipped a close-range volley into the net.

    Barca’s hopes suffered a blow 10 minutes into the second half when centre back Gerard Pique was shown a straight red card after he strode angrily over to the side of the pitch and shouted in the referee’s assistant’s face to protest a decision.

    The incident seemed to give Barca renewed energy and Pedro and Ivan Rakitic immediately had chances to make it 2-0 before Suarez fired wildly over when through on the left.

    However, the home defence left a gaping hole at the back 16 minutes from time and Aritz Aduriz, who netted a hat-trick in the first leg, was able to score at the second attempt past Claudio Bravo sending the travelling fans inside the giant arena into raptures.

    Not even a late red card for substitute Kike Sola could tarnish Bilbao’s joy as they ended Barca’s hopes of repeating their 2009 feat when they won all six competitions they contested: the Champions League, La Liga, the King’s Cup, the European Super Cup, the Spanish Super Cup and the Club World Cup.

    “If you wrote the script it’s impossible it would turn out like this,” an emotional Aduriz said in an interview with Spanish television.

    “For us, for what it means to win a title for Bilbao, it’s the greatest thing that could happen and against Barca as well,” he added.

    “We have to compete against the rest of the world and it’s an incredible thing.”

    Barca need to recover quickly for Sunday’s trip to face Bilbao again in their opening La Liga match of the campaign, when they begin their bid for a sixth title in eight years.

  • Bangladesh arrests 3 Islamists over killings of secular bloggers

    Touhidur Rahman, 58, and two active members of outlawed Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team were arrested in Dhaka on Monday night, said Maksudul Alam, a spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force.

    “Rahman is a Bangladeshi origin British citizen and we suspect he is the main planner of the killings of U.S. blogger Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das,” he told Reuters.

    In February, machete-wielding assailants killed a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin and critic of religious militancy, Avijit Roy, and seriously injured his wife and fellow blogger, Rafida Bonya Ahmed.

    Another secular blogger, Ananta Bijoy Das, was hacked to death on May 12.

    Militants have targeted secularist writers in Bangladesh in recent years, while the government has tried to crack down on hardline Islamist groups seeking to make the South Asian nation of 160 million people a sharia-based state.

    Last week, police arrested two members of Ansarullah Bangla Team for alleged involvement in the killing of blogger Niloy Chatterjee on Aug. 7, the fourth such killing of an online critic of religious extremism in less than six months, spurring calls by human rights groups for a swift and thorough investigation.

    On March 30, Washiqur Rahman, another secular blogger who aired his outrage over Roy’s death on social media, was killed in a similar fashion.