WORLD NEWS [english and tamil]

Image copyright ANNU PAI Image caption Srinivas Gowda also praised the efforts of his teammates, the two buffalo An Indian buffalo racer who is being compared to Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt has rejected an official offer inviting him to participate in national trials. Srinivas Gowda, 28, broke the record in Kambala, a sport where people sprint 142m through paddy fields with buffalo. He is said to have finished in 13.42 seconds, while Bolt holds the world 100m record of 9.58 seconds. News of his feat spread through local news and social media, prompting an offer from the sports minister. But Mr Gowda told BBC Hindi that he will not be able to go for the national sprint trials. "I have injured my leg and my focus is on Kambala. I am used to running with buffalo in the paddy fields," he said. Mr Gowda ran the race in a village in the southern state of Karnataka earlier this month. But videos of the record-breaking race started to go viral only late last week, sparking...

A firefighter whose expletive-laden rant aimed at Australia's prime minister went viral says he has been sacked. Paul Parker's outburst encapsulated public anger towards Scott Morrison, but the volunteer now claims it got him fired from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) over the outburst. Both the RFS and Mr Morrison have denied his claim.

Image copyright IDF Image caption One of the fake images purportedly used by Hamas hackers Dozens of Israeli soldiers have had their smartphones hacked by the Hamas militant group posing as women seeking attention, Israel's military says. A spokesman said the soldiers were sent fake photos of young females and lured into downloading an app without knowing it could access their handsets. He said there was no "significant breach of information" before the scam was foiled. Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Israel view each other as mortal enemies. It is the third such attempt in recent years by Hamas to infiltrate Israeli soldiers' phones, but was the most sophisticated yet, according to Lt Col Jonathan Conricus. "We see that they're of course learning and upping their game," he said. Col Conricus said the hackers had masqueraded as young women with imperfect Hebrew, claiming to be immigrants or to have visual or hearing impairments, in order to ...

Two planes carrying hundreds of US citizens from a coronavirus-hit cruise ship in Japan have arrived in the US. One plane landed at a US Air Force base in California and the other in Texas. Passengers will be isolated at military facilities for 14 days. There were about 400 Americans on board the Diamond Princess. The ship, with some 3,700 passengers and crew, has been in quarantine since 3 February. Meanwhile, China reported 2,048 new cases on Monday. Of those new cases, 1,933 were from Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak. More than 70,500 people across China have been infected by the virus. In Hubei alone, the official number of cases stands at 58,182, with 1,692 deaths. Most new cases and deaths have been reported in Wuhan, Hubei's largest city. In other developments: In Japan, a public gathering to celebrate the birthday of new Emperor Naruhito later this week has been cancelled, due to concerns over the spread of the virus Also in Japan,  organisers o...