The Fiji Times

Johnny Depp jams with Aerosmith as band celebrates 50-year career

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor Johnny Depp and musician Alice Cooper joined Aerosmith on Friday at a gala dinner and performance in Los Angeles to celebrate the band’s 50-year career as one of the best-selling American hard rock bands of all times. Cooper and Depp – who play with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry in rock...

Kenin brings Gauff’s Melbourne run to an end

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – American Sofia Kenin ended teen sensation Coco Gauff’s run at the Australian Open on Sunday with a 6-7(5) 6-3 6-0 victory to reach her first career Grand Slam quarter-final. The 15-year-old Gauff, who had beaten defending champion Naomi Osaka in her previous match and seven-times Grand Slam winner Venus Williams in her...

Golf: China’s Wu takes slender lead into final round in Dubai

(Reuters) – China’s Wu Ashun eagled his opening hole and rode the momentum as he took a one-shot lead after the third round at the Dubai Desert Classic on Saturday. Wu added four birdies and a single bogey on his way to a five-under-par 67 at the Emirates Golf Club as he chases his first...

Marseille lose momentum with Angers draw

PARIS (Reuters) – Olympique de Marseille’s remote chances of challenging Paris St Germain for the Ligue 1 title took a knock on Saturday when they were held to a goalless draw at home by Angers. The result left the Provence side in second place with 42 points from 21 games, seven behind PSG who travel...

England on top with bat and ball as South Africa struggle

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – England proved devastating with both bat and ball on Saturday as they scored 400 runs in their first innings and then reduced sorry South Africa to 88 for six wickets at the close of play on the second day of the fourth test at The Wanderers. A record 10th-wicket partnership saw England...

Coronavirus contagion rate makes it hard to control – studies

LONDON (Reuters) – Each person infected with coronavirus is passing the disease on to between two and three other people on average at current transmission rates, according to two separate scientific analyses of the epidemic. Whether the outbreak will continue to spread at this rate depends on the effectiveness of control measures, the scientists who...

Pompeo accuses radio reporter of ‘shameful’ lying after testy interview

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday accused a National Public Radio reporter of lying to him and violating “the basic rules of journalism and decency” after she said Pompeo repeatedly cursed at her following a testy interview. NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly said on Friday that Pompeo cursed at her...

Migrants stranded in Mexico cling on to hopes of reaching U.S. border

TAPACHULA, Mexico (Reuters) – Guatemalan migrant Wilfredo Gomez said on Saturday he had been asking God to make him “invisible” as Mexican security forces started rounding up and detaining other U.S.-bound Central Americans who had illegally crossed into the country. Mexican security forces started taking a much tougher approach to Central American migrants earlier this...

Dinner download – Tape surfaces of Trump calling for envoy’s firing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Halfway through a dinner at the Trump Hotel, U.S. President Donald Trump can be heard giving the order to remove the U.S ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, according to a video that surfaced on Saturday. The video, obtained by Reuters from Lev Parnas’ attorney Joseph Bondy, begins with Trump posing for photos...

Thousands support Venezuela’s Guaido at Madrid rally

MADRID (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido joined thousands of supporters at a demonstration in Madrid on Saturday after arriving in Spain on the last leg of a European tour. Speaking in a central square packed with supporters holding signs calling for ‘democracy’, Guaido emphasised the importance of international support in unseating Venezuelan president...

Iraqi security forces raid protest camps after Sadr supporters withdraw

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi security forces fired bullets and tear gas on Saturday in raids on protest camps in Baghdad and southern cities, killing four people and wounding dozens more, police and medical sources said. The new push to end the sit-in protests and restore order came hours after populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has...

Israel’s Gantz, Netanyahu rival, says will meet Trump on peace plan

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli centrist party leader Benny Gantz said on Saturday he had accepted an invitation to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday to discuss a peace plan for the Middle East. Gantz is the main domestic political rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also travelling to Washington to...

Philippines lowers volcano danger level

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine volcanologists on Sunday lowered the alert status of a volcano near the Philippine capital to 3 from 4 to indicate a “decreased tendency towards hazardous explosive eruption”. Authorities also narrowed the exclusion zone around the Taal volcano, which sits in the middle of a lake about 70 km (45 miles) from...

Several countries have breached arms embargo agreed at Libya summit – U.N.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Several countries backing rival factions in Libya have violated an arms embargo which they had agreed to uphold a week ago at a summit in Berlin, the United Nations said on Saturday. Last Sunday, foreign powers backing opposing camps fighting over Libya’s capital Tripoli agreed at a summit hosted by Germany and...

Rescuers dig for survivors after Turkey quake kills at least 29

ELAZIG, Turkey (Reuters) – Rescuers searched on Saturday for survivors trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake hit eastern Turkey late on Friday, killing 29 people and injuring more than 1,400. Turkish broadcasters showed footage of rescuers pulling people out from under the debris, some around 21 hours after the quake....

Defence at Senate trial says ousting Trump would be ‘massive interference’ in election

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawyers for U.S. President Donald Trump told his Senate impeachment trial on Saturday that Democrats’ efforts to remove the president from office would set a “very, very dangerous” precedent in an election year. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, the head of the defence team, told senators they would be denying voters their...

Xi says China faces ‘grave situation’ as virus death toll hits 42

BEIJING (Reuters) – President Xi Jinping said China was facing a “grave situation” as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak jumped to 42, overshadowing celebrations of the Lunar New Year that began on Saturday. China also announced further transport restrictions. With more than 1,400 people infected worldwide, most of them in China, Hong Kong...

K-pop band BTS’s microphones fetch $83,200 at auction

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Seven microphones used on tour by South Korean pop band BTS have sold for $83,200 (£63,298.84) at a pre-Grammy Awards auction for charity, more than eight times the expected starting price, Julien’s Auctions said on Friday. The autographed microphones were the first ever items to be sold at auction from BTS,...

Grammy organizers deny claims award nominations are rigged

(Reuters) – The organizers of the Grammy Awards on Thursday denied allegations that nominations for the highest prizes in the music industry are rigged, calling the claims “categorically false and misleading.” Allegations that the Grammy nominations process is tainted by conflicts of interest were made in a complaint filed earlier this week by the former...

African style makes debut at Paris Haute Couture week

PARIS (Reuters) – Cameroonian designer Imane Ayissi blended European style with African flair for a catwalk collection that marked the first time a designer from sub-Saharan Africa had joined the Paris haute couture fashion week. “It’s an honour”, Ayissi, 51, told Reuters backstage before the show, referring to the decision, after many years of knocking...

Actress Rosie Perez backs up Sciorra account in Weinstein rape trial

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actress Rosie Perez took the stand in the rape trial of Harvey Weinstein on Friday to bolster the account of friend and fellow actress Annabella Sciorra, who said she was raped by the former Hollywood producer in the early 1990s. Perez, whose film credits include Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,”...

Athletics body to tighten rules after Nike’s Vaporfly helps records tumble: sources

LONDON (Reuters) – Athletics’ ruling body will tighten regulations governing shoe technology, two sources familiar with the matter said, after Nike’s popular Vaporfly brand helped re-write running records and sparked debate about whether it was “technological doping.” World Athletics expects to announce the findings of a review into technology used in road and track shoes...

Highlights: Day six at the Australian Open

1440 SWIATEK ADVANCES WITH UPSET WIN OVER VEKIC Unseeded Polish teenager Iga Swiatek knocked out 19th seed Donna Vekic 7-5 6-3 to reach the fourth round and match her best performance at a Grand Slam having reached the last 16 at Roland Garros last year. Pavlyuchenkova beats Pliskova as seeds tumble Kerber reaches fourth round...

Haggis is growing in popularity, and not just in Scotland

LONDON (Reuters) – Carried high by the cook on a silver platter behind a kilted piper at formal dinners, the haggis is the essential dish for anyone celebrating the birthday of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, on Saturday. Now the spicy meat is more popular than ever, with exports up 136% over the past decade...

U.S. senator presses for declassified report on Jamal Khashoggi’s slaying

(Reuters) – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said on Friday he will move to compel America’s intelligence chief to release information about the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi if the administration does not produce a report on the killing before the end of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. Wyden was invoking the...

Good Friday Agreement architect Seamus Mallon dies at 83

BELFAST (Reuters) – Former Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon, one of the architects of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, died on Friday aged 83, drawing tributes from across a political divide he helped to bridge. Mallon was a major political figure in Northern Ireland during the three decades of violence between Catholic...

Salvadoran general admits army carried out infamous 1981 massacre

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – A retired Salvadoran general on Friday acknowledged for the first time that the armed forces were responsible for a notorious 1981 massacre of more than 1,000 people during the country’s civil war. Juan Rafael Bustillo, a former commander of the Air Force, told a court the elite Atlacatl Battalion carried out...

Bodies of U.S. firefighters retrieved from crash site in Australia

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The bodies of three U.S. firefighters who died in a plane crash earlier this week in Australia’s remote bushland while battling a fierce wildfire have been recovered, the police said on Saturday. “I can confirm that the bodies have been recovered,” a New South Wales Police spokesperson told Reuters in an e-mail....

Powerful earthquake jolts eastern Turkey, killing 18

ELAZIG, Turkey (Reuters) – A powerful earthquake struck eastern Turkey on Friday, killing at least 18 people and collapsing buildings in affected towns near the centre of the tremor, which was strong enough to be felt in several neighbouring countries. The magnitude 6.8 quake shook Elazig province, about 550 km (340 miles) east of the...

World

27th January

Pain and Glory wins big at Spain’s Goya awards