World News Delight

The head of Malaysia’s civil aviation regulator resigned Tuesday after an official report found failings in air traffic control when Flight MH370 disappeared. In a long-awaited report released on Monday, the official investigation team pointed to numerous lapses by air traffic controllers in both Malaysia and Vietnam. These included failing to initiate “emergency phases” as required after the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board vanished from radar displays. Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director-general of the Department of Civil Aviation, said the report had found that the air traffic control did not comply with standard operating procedures. “Therefore, it is with regret and after much thought and contemplation that I have decided to resign as the chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia effective fourteen (14) days from the date of the resignation notice which I have served today,” he said in a statement. Flight MH370 vanished over four years

(COMBO) This combination of file pictures created on July 30, 2018 shows Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki (L) during a state-visit in Khartoum, on June 11, 2015 and Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo in Djibouti on July 5, 2018. ASHRAF SHAZLY, Yasuyoshi CHIBA, Sumy SADRUNI / AFP Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has hailed the ending of an “epoch of conflict” in the Horn of Africa during a visit by his Somalian counterpart to mend ties after years of animosity. Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s three-day visit to Asmara coincides with a fast-track peace process between Eritrea and Ethiopia — part of the dizzying change in a region burdened by war, proxy conflicts, isolation and iron-fisted rule. At a state banquet on Sunday, Afwerki hailed the historic ties between Somalia and Eritrea and bemoaned the gloomy post-Cold War history of the Horn of Africa. He said the region had been destroyed by “ethnic and clan cleavages” and “external pillage and inte

Former Apartheid security member Joao Rodrigues testifies as a witness during the inquest into the suspected murder of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol in police custody in 1971 at the Pretoria High Court, South Africa. MUJAHID SAFODIEN / AFP A former apartheid-era policeman appeared in court in South Africa on Monday charged with the murder of a liberation activist 47 years after the alleged killing. Joao Rodrigues, who was an officer in the police’s feared security branch, is accused of murdering anti-white rule campaigner Ahmed Timol while he was in custody in 1971. The decision to charge Rodrigues nearly five decades after Timol fell to his death from the 10th-floor of Johannesburg’s police headquarters followed a review of the inquest that initially ruled his death suicide. Timol, 29, was arrested in Johannesburg in October 1971 and died five days later. Officers said at the time he took his own life — a verdict that was endorsed by an inquest in 1972 but finally ove

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace Mugabe South Africa’s High Court on Monday overturned a decision by the government to grant Zimbabwe’s former first lady Grace Mugabe diplomatic immunity after she was accused of whipping a woman with an electric cord. Model Gabriella Engels, the woman behind the assault allegation, last August filed a court application challenging the government’s decision. Grace Mugabe returned to Zimbabwe immediately after South Africa granted her diplomatic immunity, allowing her to evade prosecution for assault and causing a row in South Africa where the opposition Democratic Alliance also challenged the ruling. Mugabe denied assaulting Engels with an electric cable, saying an “intoxicated and unhinged” Engels had attacked her with a knife. South African advocacy group Afriforum, which represented Engels, dismissed the allegations as lies. Former president Robert Mugabe, 94, accompanied by his wife, cast his vote in a Harare township o

Tunisian Airport Tunisian airport employees plan to strike on Wednesday and Thursday, disrupting the reviving tourist trade, unless the government meets demands for improved working conditions, a  labour  union official said on Monday. Tunisia is in the midst of an austerity program agreed with foreign donors such as the International Monetary Funds. Government officials have rejected union demands for pay rises in a bloated public service which the IMF wants to trim. “We decided to go on strike on Aug. 1 and 2 to protest at the government’s non-compliance with previous agreements,” said Mansif ben Ramadan, head of the airport workers union. He said the union wants the government to upgrade working conditions and clear a debt of unpaid fees by state-run Tunisair and other airlines owed to the civil aviation body. Ramadan did not elaborate on the demands but said talks were going on with the government, which had no immediate comment. Tunisia has been praised as the only d

Zimbabwe opposition leader Nelson Chamisa casts his ballot in a polling station during general elections in Harare, on July 30, 2018. Zinyange AUNTONY / AFP Zimbabwe opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said Tuesday that he was “winning resoundingly” in the election count and that his MDC party had resulted from 10,000 polling stations. “Winning resoundingly… We’ve done exceedingly well,” he said on Twitter after the landmark vote on Monday, adding “We are ready to form the next (government).” Counting was under way after a strong turnout in  Zimbabwe ‘s first election since long-ruling leader Robert Mugabe was ousted from power last year. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, ex-president Mugabe’s former right-hand man in the ruling ZANU-PF party, faced off Monday against Chamisa of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) in the historic vote. Officials overseeing the polls, in which a record number of candidates stood, said many polling stations had queues and estimated that average

Egyptian police are investigating the death of a Coptic Christian bishop who was found dead in his monastery northwest of Cairo on Sunday, the Coptic Church said. The body of Bishop Epiphanius “was handed to forensic investigators to determine the cause of the death and whether or not it was a murder”, a security official said on Monday. “The body was found in one of the monastery’s corridors with head injuries”, added the security official, who declined to be named. Bishop Epiphanius, 68, was the abbot of Saint Macarius monastery in Wadi el-Natrun. “In light of mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, the authorities were called and they are now carrying out their investigations,” Coptic Church spokesman Boulos Halim said in a statement late on Sunday. The bishop joined the monastery in 1984 and was elected as its head in 2013. Copts have long complained of discrimination and intermittent sectarian attacks. They make up about 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million

Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe on Monday cast his ballot in the country’s first election since he was ousted by the military in November after ruling for 37 years. Mugabe, 94, made no comment as he walked unaided into the polling station at a primary school in the Highfield district of Harare, accompanied by his wife Grace. Mugabe was forced to resign when ruling ZANU-PF lawmaker threatened to impeach him after military generals launched a brief takeover to install their favoured candidate, Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mugabe, who had not been seen in public since his ousting, made a surprise intervention on the eve of the election, calling for voters to throw the ruling ZANU-PF out of office. During a two-hour press conference at his sprawling mansion in Harare, Mugabe said that he hoped the election would “thrust away the military form of government” and said he might vote for the opposition MDC. President Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former ally in the ZANU-PF party, faces opp

Vote counting began in Mali on Sunday evening after an election to determine whether President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita will win a second term, amid ethnic and jihadist violence that has dramatically worsened since he came to power five years ago. Two dozen other candidates were contesting the presidency in a largely Saharan desert nation that has been fractured by a Tuareg rebellion and Islamist militancy across its north and central zones since the last poll in 2013. Insecurity is such that in some parts of Mali, the vote simply did not happen, and the European Union observer mission urged the government on Saturday to publish a list of places that would be unable to vote, to quell suspicions by candidates of “fictitious polling stations”. Voting was briefly suspended at a polling station in the village of Aguelhok in the northern region of Kidal after militants fired about 10 mortar bombs, said U.N. mission spokesman Olivier Salgado. No one was hurt. The attack was the kind th

Olga Danilovic Serbian teenager Olga Danilovic jumped 82 places in the latest WTA rankings released Monday on the strength of her win Sunday in Moscow. The 17-year-old saw off Russian home hope Anastasia Porapova 7-5, 6-7 (1/7), 6-4 for her maiden title to jump from 194th to 112th behind an unchanged top 10 led by Simona Halep, Carolina Wozniacki and Sloane Stephens. WTA rankings on July 30 1. Simona Halep (ROU) 7571 pts 2. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 6660 3. Sloane Stephens (USA) 5463 4. Angelique Kerber (GER) 5305 5. Elina Svitolina (UKR) 5020 6. Caroline Garcia (FRA) 4680 7. Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP) 4620 8. Petra Kvitová (CZE) 4550 9. Karolína Plíšková (CZE) 4485 10. Julia Görges (GER) 3980 11. Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) 3787 12. Madison Keys (USA) 3596 13. Darya Kasatkina (RUS) 3525 14. Venus Williams (USA) 2801 15. Elise Mertens (BEL) 2705 16. Ashleigh Barty (AUS) 2555 17. Naomi Osaka (JPN) 2350 18. Kiki Bertens (NED) 2231 19. CoCo Vandeweghe (

Brazilian football star Neymar, with his son Davi Lucca, offers an interview to AFP on July 21, 2018 at his charity Neymar Junior Project Institute, in Praia Grande, Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he hosted a five-a-side football tournament. Miguel SCHINCARIOL / AFP Neymar has tackled critics who derided his play-acting at the World Cup, admitting he “overreacts” and blaming his “brat” like behaviour on his inner child. The Brazilian superstar was widely lambasted in Russia for his theatrical reactions to challenges which often left the world’s most expensive footballer wincing and rolling on the ground. “Boot studs on the shins, kick in the spine, stomp on the foot, you may think I overreact, and sometimes I do, but for real? I suffer on the pitch, but you have no idea what I go through outside of it,” he said in comments on a television commercial for a razor blade. The Paris Saint-Germain forward, speaking in Portuguese with English subtitles, continued “You may all think I’ve fa

Iraq’s football team                                                                                                           SAFIN HAMED / AFP Despite having shaved to look younger, Baghdad airport officials knew there was something fishy about Iraq’s under-16 football squad headed Monday for a regional tournament in the Jordanian capital. Several of the 23 players for the West Asia Football Federation (WAFF) tournament starting on Wednesday were found to be overage, said the Iraq Football Association (IFA), which immediately sacked the squad officials. Officials at the airport confiscated nine passports after suspicions were raised over the dates of birth, an Iraqi football source told AFP, on condition of anonymity. He said the players had shaved as instructed by team officials to look younger. “The technical and administrative staff of the under-16s team have been dismissed and action will be taken against those players who falsified their age,” said the IFA, which

Tour de France winner Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas (L) wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey and classification third-placed Great Britain’s Christopher Froome (R) cross the fisnish line of 21st and last stage of the 105th edition of the Tour de France cycling race between Houilles and Paris Champs-Elysees, on July 29, 2018. Philippe LOPEZ / AFP Bradley Wiggins has tipped Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas to retain his title after the Welshman ended teammate Chris Froome’s reign as champion. Two-time Olympic gold medallist Thomas finished nearly two minutes ahead of nearest rival Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) on Sunday to secure his first yellow jersey, with Froome in third. The 32-year-old became the third Briton to win the Tour after Wiggins, who triumphed in 2012, and Team Sky teammate Froome, who had won four of the previous five races. Wiggins expects Thomas’s profile to increase significantly on the back of his victory, saying he “may now be Wales’s biggest sports star

Virgiliu Postolachi of Paris Saint Germain (2R) celebrates after scoring the third goal against Atletico Madrid during the International Champions Cup football match in Singapore on July 30, 2018. Roslan RAHMAN / AFP Virgiliu Postolachi’s injury-time strike handed Thomas Tuchel his first win as Paris Saint-Germain coach after a pulsating 3-2 victory over Atletico Madrid on Monday. Postolachi, 18, curled a stunning shot past Antonio Adan to settle the friendly after Atletico had recovered from 2-0 down, helped by Antoine Bernede’s own goal on 86 minutes. PSG welcomed back Angel Di Maria after World Cup duty and Italy’s Marco Verratti, but it was Christopher Nkunku and Moussa Diaby who put them 2-0 up before Victor Mollejo pulled one back for Atletico. The win was welcome for German newcomer Tuchel, whose under-strength French champions have fallen 3-1 and 5-1 to Bayern Munich and Arsenal in their previous pre-season friendlies. Nkunku’s tap-in on 32 minutes was the highlight

 Norway’s Vibeke Skofterud, second placed in the women’s World Cup 10-kilometer free style cross-country ski race, reacts as she crosses the finish line in Beitostolen, Norway. DANIEL SANNUM LAUTEN / AFP Norwegian cross-country skier Vibeke Skofterud, an Olympic gold medallist and double world champion in the relay, has died in a jet-ski accident at 38, Norwegian authorities said. Skofterud was reported missing on Saturday. Her body was found on Sunday morning on a small island near the town of Arendal. “All the indications are that it was a jet-ski accident,” Sveinung Alsaker of the local police said in a press release. Skofterud won gold in the 4 x 5km relay at the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010. She was also part of the team that won the same event at the 2005 and 2011 World Championships. She retired from skiing in January 2014. “I have lost one of my best friends,” said Therese Johaug, a team-mate in the 2010 and 2011 medal-winning teams, via the Norwegian Ski Federatio

Brazilian Midfielder Anderson.                     Image: Twitter/Adana Demirspor Brazilian midfielder Anderson, who spent almost a decade at Manchester United, has joined Turkish First League side Adana Demirspor on a three-year deal, the club announced on Monday. Anderson, who notched up 181 appearances for United between 2007-2015, was welcomed at the club in the south of Turkey by its chairman Murat Sancak, it said in a statement. The First League is the second flight of Turkish football after the Super League and Adana Demirspor will be hoping Anderson helps the club to win promotion after 12th place last season. The player, 30, won four Premier League titles and also the Champions League in 2007-2008 with Manchester United. After his time at Old Trafford, Anderson had a stint with Brazilian side Internacional and then played on loan with Coritiba. AFP

Atletico Madrid’s new French midfielder Thomas Lemar (C) poses with his new jersey along with Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo (L) and the club’s sports director Andrea Berta during his official presentation at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid on July 30, 2018. JAVIER SORIANO / AFP France midfielder Thomas Lemar wants to lift the Champions League trophy in his debut season at Atletico Madrid with the Spanish club set to host next year’s final. “I’m going to give everything possible to go the furthest and win this Champions League,” Lemar said Monday as he was unveiled by Atletico following his arrival from Monaco. The 22-year-old, who was part of the France squad that won the World Cup, joined Atletico in a deal worth 72 million euros ($84 million) after three seasons at Monaco. Lemar said the presence of international team-mates Antoine Griezmann and Lucas Hernandez at the Wanda Metropolitano had played a key role in his decision to move to Atletico. “Antoi

Olga Danilovic Olga Danilovic clinched her first WTA title on Sunday with a 7-5, 6-7 (1/7), 6-4 win over Russia’s Anastasia Potapova in a battle of 17-year-olds in the Moscow final. Serbian Danilovic, the world number 187, is the first lucky loser to win a WTA tournament having initially lost in the final round of qualifying. At 17 years and seven months, she is the youngest champion since Ana Konjuh of Croatia won the Nottingham event in 2015, and becomes the first player born in the 2000s to win a WTA trophy. It was the first final featuring two players under the age of 18 since Nicole Vaidisova, 16, beat Tatiana Golovin, 17, to win the Japan Open in 2005. AFP

Tour de France winner Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas (L) wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey and classification third-placed Great Britain’s Christopher Froome (R) cross the fisnish line of 21st and last stage of the 105th edition of the Tour de France cycling race between Houilles and Paris Champs-Elysees, on July 29, 2018. Philippe LOPEZ / AFP   Britain’s Geraint Thomas sealed his maiden Tour de France victory on Sunday after the 21st and final stage won by Norway’s Alexander Kristoff. Thomas, of Team Sky, finished the race in Paris with a near two-minute lead on Dutch rival Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) to secure his first yellow jersey. The 32-year-old Welshman, the third Briton to win the race after Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins, secured Team Sky’s sixth victory in the race from the past seven editions. AFP

Mercedes’ British driver Lewis Hamilton reacts ahead of the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix race at the Hungaroring circuit in Mogyorod near Budapest, Hungary, on July 29, 2018. Andrej ISAKOVIC / AFP Lewis Hamilton strengthened his push for a fifth world title by increasing his championship lead to 24 points on Sunday as he claimed a convincing victory for Mercedes in the Hungarian Grand Prix. The defending world champion came home 17.123 seconds ahead of title rival and fellow four-time champion Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari after the German had survived a collision with Valtteri Bottas, in the second Mercedes. That came on lap 65, of the 70, when Vettel finally passed Bottas, the Finn’s right front wing touching his rear left tyre under braking, wrecking Mercedes’ hopes of a one-two finish. Kimi Raikkonen finished third, his fifth podium finish in a row, in the second Ferrari ahead of Daniel Ricciardo who surged from 12th on the grid to fourth for Red Bull ahead of Bottas, wh

Manager Jose Mourinho of Manchester United looks on during the International Champions Cup 2018 match against AC Milan at StubHub Center on July 25, 2018 in Carson, California. Decolongon/Getty Images/AFP Jose Mourinho has hit out at Manchester United’s transfer window inactivity after watching his under-strength squad crash to a 4-1 defeat against Liverpool in the latest stop of their pre-season US tour. Mourinho said he expected to bring in only one new player before the new Premier League season kicks off despite submitting a list of five transfer targets to club bosses earlier this year. United’s failure to bolster their resources and the absence of several key first-team players following the World Cup has forced Mourinho to field several untested youngsters during the US tour. On Saturday, United were torn apart by Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool at Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the Red Devils’ penultimate game before facing Real Madrid in Miami on Tuesday. They face a further frien