Australia, New Zealand push on with day-night Tests

SYDNEY: Cricket Australia said Monday it is pushing ahead with plans to stage an historic day-night Test match with New Zealand, possibly as early as the 2015-16 season.

CA chief executive James Sutherland and his New Zealand Cricket counterpart David White met in Melbourne last week during the International Cricket Council (ICC) annual conference to discuss the idea. They are devising plans to stage the match when New Zealand tour Australia in November 2015, with the venue to be determined, CA said.

The ICC gave its approval in 2012 for member countries to work together on staging Test cricket under lights. "We are serious about pushing ahead with the concept of day-night Test cricket," Sutherland said in a statement. "We feel it will only strengthen the position and possibilities for Test cricket in many parts of the world. There are many Test matches played during non-holiday periods when adults are at work and kids are at school and that´s not an ideal way to promote the highest form of the game."

Sutherland also said there was not a major team sport in the world that scheduled the majority of its premium content during the working week. "We´re not talking about playing the Boxing Day or New Year´s Test at night," Sutherland said. "The summer holiday period in Australia really lends itself to Test cricket, but at other times of the year it can be difficult for fans to attend or watch Test matches, be it here or in other parts of the world. That´s really at the heart of the issue. The challenge is to try to make Test cricket more accessible for fans."

White said his organisation was looking forward to contributing to the day-night Test concept, especially in terms of helping develop a new pink ball suitable for Test conditions.

"Australia continue to assess conditions to ensure they are appropriate to stage Test cricket at night, and we fully support that duty of care," White said in the CA statement.

Both governing bodies said they would continue to seek the opinion of players, spectators and broadcasters.

ICC chief executive David Richardson said he supported the idea. "I´m pleased that after the ICC board gave its thumbs-up during the 2012 annual conference and following extensive trials and debates, we are now at a stage when two of our members are contemplating playing the first-ever day-night Test".

Fighters push south towards Iraqi capital

BAGHDAD: Fighters were pushing towards Baghdad Thursday after capturing a town only 90 kilometres (56 miles) to its north, in a lightning three-day offensive the Iraqi government has failed to stop.

Fighters from the Iraq and the Levant seized the town of Dhuluiyah, a municipal councillor, a police colonel and witnesses told by telephone.

The nearby Muatassam area has also fallen to militants, the municipal council member and witnesses said.

ISIL spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani promised that the battle would "rage" on Baghdad and Karbala, the SITE Intelligence Group said Wednesday.

"Do not relent against your enemy... The battle is not yet raging, but it will rage in Baghdad and Karbala," Adnani said, according to a SITE translation of an audio statement.

On Wednesday, the militants were repulsed in heavy fighting when they tried to enter Samarra, to the north, bypassing it and heading to Dhuluiyah.

Army Staff Lieutenant General Sabah al-Fatlawi said soldiers and "elite forces" backed by air strikes defeated a "fierce attack by ISIL members," and that troops were regrouping to counter attack.

ISIL militants have spearheaded a major offensive that began early Tuesday and has since overrun the entire northern province of Nineveh and significant parts of Kirkuk to its southeast and Salaheddin to its south.

Fighters push south towards Iraqi capital

BAGHDAD: Fighters were pushing towards Baghdad Thursday after capturing a town only 90 kilometres (56 miles) to its north, in a lightning three-day offensive the Iraqi government has failed to stop.

Fighters from the Iraq and the Levant seized the town of Dhuluiyah, a municipal councillor, a police colonel and witnesses told by telephone.

The nearby Muatassam area has also fallen to militants, the municipal council member and witnesses said.

ISIL spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani promised that the battle would "rage" on Baghdad and Karbala, the SITE Intelligence Group said Wednesday.

"Do not relent against your enemy... The battle is not yet raging, but it will rage in Baghdad and Karbala," Adnani said, according to a SITE translation of an audio statement.

On Wednesday, the militants were repulsed in heavy fighting when they tried to enter Samarra, to the north, bypassing it and heading to Dhuluiyah.

Army Staff Lieutenant General Sabah al-Fatlawi said soldiers and "elite forces" backed by air strikes defeated a "fierce attack by ISIL members," and that troops were regrouping to counter attack.

ISIL militants have spearheaded a major offensive that began early Tuesday and has since overrun the entire northern province of Nineveh and significant parts of Kirkuk to its southeast and Salaheddin to its south.

 

Lavrov, Kerry agree to push constitutional reform in Ukraine

 

AP U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before the start of their meeting at the Russian Ambassador's Residence to discuss Ukraine, in Paris on Sunday. Mr. Kerry travelled to Paris for a last minute meeting with Mr. Lavrov.

Russia and the United States have agreed to work for a diplomatic solution in the Ukraine crisis through an "inclusive constitutional reform," the two country’s top diplomats said after their meeting in Paris.

Emerging from four-hour talks at the Russian embassy in the French capital late on Sunday Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry summed up the essence of their agreement in remarkably identical statements even though they spoke at separate press encounters.

After stating that Russia and the U.S. differed on the causes of the crisis in Ukraine, Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Kerry said they had agreed on the importance of «finding a diplomatic solution» towards four priority goals:

- assure minority and language rights;

- disarm irregulars and provocateurs;

- launch an inclusive constitutional reform;

- hold free and fair elections.

The verbatim identical statements would suggest Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Kerry had put their agreement in writing.

While the constitutional reform came closer to the end of the announced list of priorities, it is clearly by far the most important part of the Russian-American agreement.

However, as often is the case with such agreements, the devil is in the detail.

Moscow and Washington seem to have different views on what should be the end result of the constitutional reform process. Mr. Lavrov stated in no uncertain terms that Ukraine should transform itself from a unitary state into a federation with broad autonomy rights for its regions.

Mr. Kerry, for his part, insisted that it is up to Ukrainians to decide "what kind of definitions work for them."

"It’s not up to us to make any decision or any agreement regarding federalisation," Mr Kerry said.

Mr. Lavrov, while agreeing that "nobody can impose any configuration on Ukrainians," made it clear that federalisation was the only way to prevent Ukraine from splitting along the east-west fault lines.

"The west, east and south profess rather opposite values. In order for Ukraine to function as a single state, all its regions without exception must strike compromise," Mr. Lavrov said.

The new Ukrainian government has angrily rejected federalization, saying it would amount to “complete capitulation of Ukraine, its dismemberment, and the destruction of Ukrainian statehood.”

The U.S. opposes the federal structure for Ukraine for the same reason as Kiev does – the reform would give Russian-speaking eastern and southern regions veto power over a possible decision by the central government to join NATO or the European Union.

It remains to be seen who gets the upper hand in the constitutional reform battle, but Russia has masterly played its hand at the Paris talks. Hours after Mr. Kerry voiced “strong concern” about “very large Russian force” near Ukraine’s borders that is “creating a climate of fear and intimidation” and sternly demanded from Mr Lavrov the “drawdown and redeployment” of the forces, Ukrainian media reported that Russia had begun pulling back its troops from the Ukrainian border.

This enables Mr. Kerry to claim diplomatic success, which could well be the main purpose of the Russian force buildup in the first place.

NATO fears Russian push to Moldova

AP Soldiers in unmarked uniforms walk near Ukrainian marine base in the city of Feodosia, Crimea on Sunday.

NATO has expressed fears of a Russian military push beyond Crimea into eastern Ukraine and further south to Moldova’s breakaway Transdniestria.

U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe said the Russian force massed at the Ukrainian border «is very, very sizable and very, very ready.»

The top NATO commander told an event held by the German Marshall Fund think tank that he was very concerned about the threat to Transdniestria.

There is absolutely sufficient [Russian] force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Transdniestria if the decision was made to do that and that is very worrisome.»

Russia is acting much more like an adversary than a partner,» the U.S. general said.

Transdniestria, a Russian-speaking industrialised region of Moldova, broke away from the former Soviet state in 1990. In 2006 Transdniestria overwhelmingly voted in a referendum to join Russia, but Moscow ignored the vote as it tried to work out a confederation arrangement for Moldova. After Crimea’s referendum on splitting from Ukraine and reuniting with Russia, the Speaker of Transdniestria’s Parliament appealed to his Russian counterpart in the State Duma lower house to provide legislative possibilities for the region’s accession to Russia.

However, Speaker of the Russian Parliament’s upper house said the absorption of Transdniestria or Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia were not on the agenda «at this stage.»

The three self-proclaimed republics «have not asked for joining Russia; it is inadvisable at this stage to talk about this,» Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said in an interview. «One should not portray Russia as a country bent on seizing territories. This question is not on the agenda.»

Russia’s top defence official has also sought to dispel Western fears of a Russian military move into Ukraine.

Russia is complying with all international agreements on troop limits near its border with Ukraine,» said Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov.

Mr Antonov told reporters on on Saturday that eight eight groups of foreign monitors from nine Western nations carried out inspections of Russian troop deployments near Ukrainian borders.

The inspectors «have not established any undeclared military activity that could pose a threat to [Russia’s] neighbouring countries,» he said.

In Crimea, the Russian flag is now flying over 189 Ukrainian military installations, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday, a day after pro-Russian forces stormed and seized the Belbek air force base, Ukraine’s last major military facility in the peninsula. The Ukrainian commander of the airbase was detained after the takeover, but released on Sunday.

In the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk pro-Russian demonstrators again rallied on Sunday in support of their demand for a referendum on greater autonomy from Kiev.

Russia’s closest ally Belarus President Alexander Lukashenka voiced concerns that Crimea had set a «bad precedent,» even as he admitted that the region was now «de facto» a part of Russia.

The statement reflected the unease Belarus and other post-Soviet states feel over Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

At the same time the Belarus leader blamed Ukraine’s new government for provoking Russia.

Why did they ban the Russian language after coming to power and put pressure on Russian-speakers?» he told journalists on Sunday. «They gave a pretext and reason for Russia to intervene.»