TWEETS

This video grab made on October 10, 2018, from CCTV footage obtained from Turkish news agency DHA shows Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (R) arriving at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor, vanished on October 2 after entering the consulate to obtain official documents ahead of his marriage to his Turkish fiancee.  Demiroren News Agency / AFP. The Dutch finance minister has pulled out of a big investment conference in Saudi Arabia over the “very serious” disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the government said on Thursday. Wopke Hoekstra’s withdrawal from the October 23-25 Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh — dubbed the “Davos in the Desert” — follows that of French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and IMF chief Christine Lagarde. “The disappearance of #Khashoggi is a very serious matter. Saudi Arabia has not yet been able to provide any clarification,” Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said...

The French Open champion pulled out of last month’s China Open after just 31 minutes and withdrew from this week’s Kremlin Cup because of the persistent problem. Halep, 27, said she had hoped to compete at the season finale in Singapore, which starts on Sunday, but that she had taken the “tough” decision to put her health first. “It’s always difficult to withdraw from a big tournament,” said the Romanian, who sustained the injury in Wuhan last month. “My back is not okay. I didn’t practice for the last four weeks. I’m not ready to compete at this level and I’m still sore.” Her withdrawal means that Kiki Bertens from the Netherlands moves into the eighth and final qualifying spot in the WTA Finals. It has been a disappointing end to a spectacular season for Halep, which saw her secure the year-end number one ranking in the WTA standings for the second year running. She spent 40 weeks at number one in 2018, and won three titles from a tour-leading six final appearance...

Arsenal defender, Laurent Koscielny, has confirmed his retirement from international football and taken a swipe at France boss Didier Deschamps in the process. The 33-year-old suffered an achilles injury in the Gunners’ Europa League semi-final against Atletico Madrid at the end of last season and missed the World Cup as a result. Koscielny has now admitted that France winning the tournament caused him a lot of “psychological damage”. “France’s World Cup victory did me a lot more psychological damage than my injury did me. “I think that I have given everything I can for France, I am 33, I have done two Euros, one World Cup. “France has a great generation of great players now. My injury does not change my decision. “For Les Bleus, it is finished,” he told Canal +. Koscielny also hit out at Deschamps for not offering him any support during his injury worries. “He called me once for my birthday in September. “Otherwise, no. Lots of people disappointed me. Not only the...

Manchester United are set to take final decision on defender, Antonio Valencia’s future, at the club. Valencia is set to leave Old Trafford on a free transfer due to a clause in his contract. The Ecuador international’s current contract at United will expire at the end of the season. The Sun reports that United’s board has to make the decision on Valencia’s future by March 1, 2019 or the right-back is free to negotiate his exit. The report claimed that United’s board can trigger an option to extend the 33-year-old stay for another 12 months. Valencia has also called just like Mogba for Mourinho to be sacked.

Tokyo 2020 will be the first Olympics to use facial recognition technology to increase security around all venues, the organisers announced on Tuesday. Games organisers have linked up with popular Japanese telecommunications and information technology giant NEC to develop the first system of this kind to be implemented at an Olympics. The technology, which was demonstrated to the media at an event in the Japanese capital, will use IC chips within identification cards to automatically verify the identity of those entering over 40 venues. More than 300,000 athletes and Games staff will have to submit photographs to a database before the Olympics start in July 2020. "Every time they enter the facility, they have to do a security check," explained Tokyo 2020 ’ s head of security Tsuyoshi Iwashita. "Tokyo’s venues doesn’t always have enough space for the security check or even space to wait for the security check. When the events are happening, w...

(CNN) President Donald Trump plans to depart from this weekend's Group of 7 summit in Canada several hours early, the White House announced Thursday, punctuating an explosion of acrimony between Trump and his foreign counterparts on the eve of the talks. The White House said Trump would depart mid-morning on Saturday, skipping sessions on climate change and the environment. An aide will take his place, the White House said. The announcement came as Trump engaged in a bitter back-and-forth with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over Twitter, both of whom he'll meet face-to-face on Friday. Trump is expecting a  knock-down, drag-out fight with top US allies over trade during his time at the conference, held in remote Quebec.  It's a battle he believes he can win, but which he's unenthusiastic about waging in person, people familiar with his thinking say. Even as late as Thursday afternoon, Trump was questioning why he would attend ...

Photo: NASA / JPL / Malin Space Science Systems NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected background levels of methane in the atmosphere of Mars, and these concentrations seem to go up in the summer and down in the winter, according to new research. Where the methane is coming from is still a mystery, but scientists have some ideas, including that microbes may be the source of the gas. Researchers at NASA and other US universities analyzed five years’ worth of methane measurements Curiosity took at Gale Crater,  where the rover landed in 2012 . Curiosity detected background levels of methane of about 0.4 parts per billion, which is a tiny amount. (In comparison, Earth’s atmosphere has  about 1,800 parts per billion of methane .) Those levels of methane, however, were found to range from 0.2 to about 0.7 parts per billion, with concentrations peaking near the end of the summer in the northern hemisphere,  according to a study published today in  Science . This seasonal cycl...

French drone company Parrot announced the newest device in its lineup today: the Anafi. It’s a compact, foldable device that weighs 320 grams, or 0.7 pounds. It’s a notable change from the company’s last flagship drone, the Bebop 2, which didn’t fold and weighed 500 grams. Parrot says it’s made a multitude of improvements in the two years since the Bebop 2’s launch, including a better connection system and upgraded camera. The Anafi features a 21-megapixel camera on a 180-degree tilt gimbal. It records in 4K HDR at 30 fps or 1080p HDR at 60 fps. Parrot says the cameras can zoom up to three times, but only up to two times while still supporting Full HD quality shots. Within the company’s new app, photographers can choose between taking a 21- or 12-megapixel photo and can adjust their video modes. The Anafi supports hyper-lapse, which will speed footage up to 240 times; slo-mo; and a high frame rate where users can choose to film up to 60 fps. The camera both mechanically and digitally s...