A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday.
Nothing 'accidental' about this movie, feels Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
The two Koreas have agreed to pursue a bid to co-host the 2032 Olympic Games, they said in a joint statement on Wednesday following a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Earlier, Trump also praised the US-Japan military alliance and thanked the US troops for keeping all safe and boosted the country's military ability.
John Duerden, football correspondent of the Pyongyang-based Korean Herald, who is covering the World Cup in South Africa, writes an exclusive for rediff.com on the fortunes and future of the North Korean team.
'The problem is that you invariably have no time to make complicated mathematical calculations when you face the goalkeeper of the opposing team. In any case, footballers are not intellectuals or scientists.'
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his North Korean teammates as the national anthem echoed around Ellis Park, proud striker Jong Tae-se let the tears flow as it dawned on him his World Cup dreams had come true.
'Pyongyang's strategy seems to be a cry to be treated as equal with the US and Beijing and this aspiration is premised on equipping itself with weapons as devastating as theirs,' says Rajaram Panda.
The seized North Korean ship was inspected for the second time on Monday, for any trace of nuclear material after it reached Kakinada port in Andhra Pradesh. During its preliminary probe, a team of nuclear scientists from Kalapakkam ruled out prima facie any existence of any "CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nuclear) traces" in the ship.
"President Clinton has safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee," said Matt McKenna, spokesman for Bill Clinton. Clinton apologised to Kim Jong-Il for the behaviour of the two women journalists after which they were released, North Korea media reported.
Former US President Bill Clinton is in North Korean capital Pyongyang to negotiate the release of two American television journalists who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labour for illegally entering North Korea.
The White House has maintained that this is "not the time to talk" to North Korea, which has been carrying out ballistic missile test.
The US also blasted China and Russia for not joining hands with the international community in their efforts to combat the North Korean threat.
The decision to speak to the political convention in pre-recorded remarks from Jerusalem breaks with the longstanding precedent of sitting secretaries of state avoiding partisan politics and appears to violate guidance on political activities that Pompeo himself emphasised in a cable to diplomats just last month.
France's Winter Olympics team will not travel to the 2018 Games in South Korea if its security cannot be guaranteed, France's sports minister said on Thursday, the first major doubts by a participating nation about growing North Korean tensions.
'The coming two months could unfold unpredictable results or unpredictable consequences or both at the same time,' says Rajaram Panda.
This flight of capital began in early August due to risk-aversion created first by rising geopolitical tensions due to North Korean aggression and second by the US Fed's decision to shrink its balance sheet
North Korea considers Assad's Syria an ally, so it views Donald Trump's decision to strike Syria as a message to Pyongyang as well.
North Korea were held to a 1-1 draw by 10-man Turkmenistan in their opening group game of the AFC Challenge Cup in Colombo on Wednesday.
The country's sixth nuclear test sparked a powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake which was detected in the northeast of the country where North Korea's test site Punggye-ri is located.
Amidst reports that North Korea has invited top American diplomats to Pyongyang for a bilateral dialogue, the United States has asserted that there is no such plan for its officials to travel to the country. The Barack Obama administration also reiterated its condition for having any bilateral dialogue with North Korea within the framework of six-party talks.
Meanwhile, the test drew strong criticism from North Korea's neighbours and the West which warned of a robust response to its "grave provocations".
'In the run-up to the summit, Trump had indicated that he might strike a nuclear deal in the course of a single meeting or over several days, but as it transpired, Trump departed Singapore soon after the meeting.' 'This raises questions if his aspirations for an ambitious outcome had been scaled back,' says Rajaram Panda.
The Obama administration has said that North Korea should give up its ambition of becoming a nuclear power before returning to the denuclearisation talks.
The detention of a North Korean ship that had dropped anchor without permission in Indian waters was a "very positive" sign on part of New Delhi, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has said.
Will the unpredictable North Korean leader provoke conflict on the Korean peninsula?
Donald Trump has met Kim Jong Un, shaking the North Korean leader's hand and posing for the cameras at a historic summit in Singapore. Trump arrived at the Capella hotel on Sentosa island looking slightly pensive, fiddling with his jacket buttons; Kim appeared relaxed. The pair greeted each other at a luxury hotel on the island, just off the Singaporean coast, before heading in for talks about denuclearisation.
The IOC said in a statement that the North and South have agreed to march under a single flag at the opening ceremony and would field a united team in the women's ice hockey.
'If I had not been elected President of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea,' Trump said.
The move of the Vinson strike group is in response to recent North Korean provocations.
China's Chen Ruolin and Liu Huixia claimed gold in the women's synchronized 10 metre platform diving event at the Rio Games on Tuesday, with Malaysia and Canada respectively taking the silver and bronze medals as the venue's pool turned a bright green hue.
Is the military junta in Myanmar trying to acquire a military nuclear capability with North Korean assistance? Or is North Korea trying to shift some of its nuclear facilities to Myanmar to protect them from a possible attack by the US?
Australian newspaper defies criticism, reprints Serena Williams cartoon
North Korean shooting double medalist Kim Jong-su has tested positive for a banned substance and been excluded from the Beijing Olympic Games and stripped of his medals, the International Olympic Committee said on Friday. A female Vietnamese artistic gymnast, who finished out of the medals, has also tested positive for a banned substance, an IOC spokeswoman told reporters.
Six races, six world records and six gold medals: there really is no stopping Michael Phelps at these Games.
Triumphalism, premature declaration of victory meant no one checked if India had enough vaccines, oxygen, remdesivir, bringing us back to a crisis where we need foreign aid after four decades, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
"My visit has cleared the air and created a positive atmosphere for future relationship with the IAEA," ElBaradei told a crowded press conference.
North Korea will place all the plutonium it has produced under IAEA safeguards.
However, the WH Press Secretary says that the right circumstances for a meeting between the two leaders does not exist right now.
Title favourites DPR Korea and Myanmar scored hard-earned victories in their second Group B matches to advance to the semi-finals of the AFC Challenge Cup football tournament in Hyderabad on Saturday. While Myanmar scored two late goals to break Sri Lankan resistance for a 3-1 victory, the North Koreans did all the attack but could score only a solitary goal in a rain-socked match at the Gachibowli Stadium.
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