FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke on Friday criticised Brazil’s lack of preparations for the 2014 World Cup as the future hosts still lacked stadia, airports and transportation.
AFC’s Chinese deputy president Zhang Jilong, who is now the acting chief insisted Tuesday that Mohamed bin Hammam is still the president of Asian football.
Tottenham’s France international William Gallas has threatened to take legal action against the French Football Federation (FFF) unless they pay him his 2010 FIFA World Cup bonuses.
Category : Sport
AC Milan vice-captain Gennaro Gettuso got a four match suspension from UEFA on Monday for headbutting Tottenham coach Joe Jordan in last week’s Champions League last 16 first leg match at the San Siro.
Real Madrid’s Portuguese star striker Cristiano Ronaldo targeted by a green laser during the club’s Spanish Cup 1-0 win against Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderon stadium, in the latest in a string of similar incidents.
An AFP photographer at the match said that the laser was pointed at his left eye, as he was about to take a free kick.
It will be a sad Christmas for the families of a nine-year-old and 10 government troops who were all killed in the recent clash between the military and communist rebels in Southern Philippines.
According to the report released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), 10 soldiers and a boy were killed in a firefight between the AFP and New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Barangay (village) Perez, Las Navas town in Northern Samar, Philippines. Continue Reading
Brazilian football legend Pele has criticized Argentinean football legend and former coach Diego Maradona on Saturday by saying that he is a bad example to young people.
The AFP news agency has reported that Pele told the press in Sao Paulo, “He is not a good example for the youth. He had the God-given gift of being able to play football, and that is why he is lucky.
“With everything that has happened in his life, there are still people who give him contracts. If they had more of a conscience, they wouldn’t take him on.
“If he doesn’t change, he won’t have any more work. He was a great player, but is a negative example.”
Pele and Maradona have exchanged heated words in the media previously. Maradona didn’t yet been replied of Pele’s recent criticism.
Last time Maradona commented on his criticism, “Who cares what Pele says? He belongs in a museum.”
Argentina football legend Diego Maradona raised $500,000 in a charity shoot-out on the roof of one of Moscow’s biggest department stores on Wednesday.
An AFP correspondent said, the former Argentine player and manager tried to hit 10 targets with 16-metre kicks on the roof of the upmarket Central Universal Department Store (TsUM). Each target carried a different value of between $25,000 and $300,000.
Maradona succeeded in hitting several of the targets while also missing others but if he had hit all the targets he would have raised one million dollars for cancer-hit children.
Maradona was reported saying by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru: “I really wanted to help Russian children and wanted to hit all the targets.”
Chechen separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev was freed Friday evening from custody after being detained for several hours according to state media reports. The said leader is wanted by Russia due to terrorism charges.
The Prosecutor General’s office had issued an arrest warrant for Zakayev on Wednesday according to Polis police. Zakayev is in Poland for the world Chechen Congress according to Russian state media agency Itas-Tass.
Anna Kyun, Chechen congress’ spokeswoman, said that Poland had not issued any warrant since there was no case present against Zakayev in Poland but still the police would detain him if the said leader would arrive in Warsaw said Kyun.
The prosecutor’s request to arrest Akhmed Zakayev was denied by a judge in Warsaw, Poland according to Itas-Tass. The state media agency also reported that the court press secretary Wojciech Malek said that Zakayev “is at large and may leave the country.”
Malek also said that a prosecutor could appeal the court’s decision of freeing Zakayev. Zakayev told the reporters that he would travel about 60 km north of Warsaw to address the World Chechen Congress in Pultusk.
“I do not intend to conduct an anti-Russian campaign. Poland has chosen to re-establish normal relations with Russia, its great neighbor, but we must also make sure that Russia also becomes a normal state,” Zakayev said according to Russia’s state-run RIA-novosti.
Akhmed Zakayev is said to report to prosecutors in Warsaw to clarify why he is being sought according to a close aide.
Adam Borowski, Zakayev’s Representative, said that the said leader did not want to “hide or cause problems for Poland.”
“He will present himself tomorrow morning (Friday) at 8 am at the prosecutor’s office with friends and a lawyer to ask why he is being sought,” Borowski said.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for Poland’s chief prosecutor, Mateusz Martyniuk, said that the country is said to have an obligation to detain the separatist leader.
“If Mr. Zakayev comes to Poland, even tho he is not wanted by our country, the police still have the obligation to detain him and bring him before public prosecutors and a court that would rule on his eventual extradition,” Martyniuk told AFP new agency.
NATO troops fired on a bus in Afghanistan killing four Afghan civilians and eighteen (18) were wounded Monday morning according to officials. The shooting occurred particularly in Kandahar province. According to Zalmai Ayoubi, a spokesman for Kandahar province, the wounded victims in the bus included women and children. The provincial government in Kandahar province said that among those four who were killed included one woman and one child.
The bus is going to Oruzgan province from Kandahar province when troops with the International Security Assistance Force or ISAF asked the bus driver to stop. The bus driver who was recognized and given his name as Esmate has spoke in the telephone with the AFP. He said that he managed to escape uninjured and he said that he was traveling 70 to 100 metres from a military convoy when the shooting started. He also said that he did not recognize the troops because it was dark outside.
“They opened fire at us and I fell unconscious. The people who were killed were sitting in the seats just behind me,” Esmate, the bus driver said.
The NATO US-led International Security Assistance Force or ISAF was aware of the incident that resulted in civilian casualties and said was looking into what truly happened and did not give any further details. Zemeri Bashary, an interior ministry spokesman confirmed the shooting.
Gul Mohammad, one of the witnesses said that he heard the firing and the bus skid on the road. He said that the moment he arrived at the area, he saw the troops were taking out the wounded and a helicopter were taking the wounded to somewhere.
“The convoy was there. I think the distance was 70 to 80 metres and they opened fire for no reason,” Gul Mohammad said.
Officials said that gunshots and an explosion were heard after the incident happened.
Some witnesses also said that they blocked the main road between the city and western Herat province.
Just last week, the military said that a NATO air strike targeting suspected militants, mistakenly killed four civilians.
General Stanley McChrystal, head of US and NATO troops has introduced tactical changes to reduce the risks to civilians.