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Showing posts from February 27, 2018

World markets dive as Trump sparks trade, North Korea worries

Global stocks sank Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with talks that are aimed at averting a trade war with China. Equities were also dented by poor eurozone economic data, and as Trump cast doubt on a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Trump (is) continuing to drive uncertainty over global trade,” said analyst Joshua Mahony at trading firm IG. “European markets are following their Asian counterparts lower, as a pessimistic tone from Trump is compounded by downbeat economic data,” he added. Markets had surged Monday after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said they had agreed to pull back from imposing threatened tariffs on billions of dollars of goods, and continue talks on a variety of trade issues. However, Trump has declared that he was “not satisfied” with the status of the talks, fuelling worries that the world’s top two economies could still slug out an economically pain...

Goalkeeping legend Buffon ready to play again for Italy.

Italy goalkeeping legend Gianluigi Buffon confirmed on Tuesday he is ready to come out of international retirement if he is called up for friendlies against England and Argentina. Buffon called time on his international career after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup in Russia, losing a two-legged play-off to Sweden to miss the tournament for the first time in 60 years. But Italy interim national coach Luigi Di Biagio said on Monday he was ready to recall Buffon for friendlies against Argentina and England in Manchester and London on March 23 and 27. “I had thought about going on holiday for a few days with my family, but when the national team needs you, you must be present and not desert them,” Buffon told Italian programme Tiki Taka. The 40-year-old Juventus goalkeeper has represented the Azzurri for 20 years, winning the 2006 World Cup title, and earning a record 175 caps in a brilliant career. He had been bidding for a record sixth World Cup appearance. ...

Outrage as Johnson compares post-Brexit Irish border to London.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson drew ridicule Tuesday for suggesting that problems with the Irish border after Brexit could be managed in a similar way to travel across London boroughs. The leading eurosceptic highlighted technological innovations used in the capital to calculate a traffic charge to explain why the government’s plans to leave the EU’s customs union and single market need not lead to border checks in Ireland. “There’s no border between Camden and Westminster,” he told BBC radio, referring to two local authority areas in London. “But when I was mayor of London we anaesthetically and invisibly took hundreds of millions of pounds (dollars, euros) from the accounts of people travelling between those two boroughs without any need for border checks whatever.” Questioned about his analogy between travelling across one city and the cross-border trade between two countries, Ireland and Northern Ireland, he insisted it was “a very relevant comparison”....

Kim Jong Nam believed life in danger before hit, court told.

The half-brother of North Korea’s leader expressed fears for his life months before he was assassinated in Malaysia in a Cold War-style hit, a court heard Tuesday. The chilling new detail emerged at the trial of two women, Siti Aisyah from Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam, who are accused of murdering Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13 last year. Defence lawyers have argued that the women were recruited to take part in what they thought were prank TV shows but were instead tricked into becoming inadvertent assassins, in an elaborate plot by a group of North Korean agents. The women, in their 20s, have denied carrying out the murder of Kim Jong Un’s estranged half-brother by smearing a nerve agent on his face as he waited for a flight to Macau. They face death by hanging if found guilty. The High Court in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, heard Tuesday that someone whom Kim knew in Malaysia, called Tomie Yoshio, would send his p...

Boko Haram school kidnapping: an attack well-planned.

Boko Haram’s abduction of more than 100 schoolgirls in Dapchi, northeastern Nigeria, shows the Islamist group still has the ability and means to stage major attacks. Since the raid last Monday, questions have been asked about how heavily armed fighters were able to storm the town in Yobe state without encountering any resistance, then disappear. Nigeria’s military claims to have the region locked down, as part of a counter-insurgency effort against the group whose nearly nine-year campaign of terror has killed at least 20,000 people. But witnesses in Dapchi and analysts told AFP that it was a “well-planned attack” that specifically targeted the state-run boarding school. Residents in the dusty town near the border with Niger described seeing a convoy of at least 10 to 15 vehicles just as most people were at the mosque for evening prayers. Civilians were not harmed and the armed men instead asked for directions to the girls school. Hundreds of students at the Gove...

'Ederson in world's top three goalkeepers' - Man City star among global elite, says Nuno Gomes.

The Brazil international has made an impressive impact in English football, with his game being taken to new heights following a £35 million transfer Manchester City’s Ederson is “already one of the top three goalkeepers in the world”, according to Nuno Gomes. With Pep Guardiola once again in the market for a ball-playing option between the sticks in the summer of 2017,  £35 million was invested in a highly-rated talent at Benfica . Ederson was immediately promoted to the No.1 spot by City, but required little adjustment period as he has impressed from the off for the runaway Premier League leaders. RELATED WHY DOES PEP GUARDIOLA WEAR A YELLOW RIBBON? THE MEANING BEHIND MAN CITY BOSS' GESTURE WHAT NEXT FOR MAN CITY CAPTAIN VINCENT KOMPANY? MAN CITY JUST GETTING STARTED, WARNS DE BRUYNE FERNANDINHO OUT OF MAN CITY'S TRIP TO ARSENAL Still only 24 years of age, there is the promise of even more to come from a man who is already being placed alongside the li...

Giroud reveals Arsenal regret he intends to resolve at Chelsea.

The France international remains determined to get his hands on the Premier League title having crossed London without a winners' medal to his name Olivier Giroud admits to having left Arsenal with “unfinished business” and is determined to right his Premier League wrongs with Chelsea. The France international brought a five-and-a-half-year stint with the Gunners to a close during the January transfer window. A deadline day switch saw him cross London, with Chelsea acquiring a proven performer who had plundered more than 100 goals for their local rivals. RELATED DISAPPOINTING TO LEAVE ARSENAL BUT CHELSEA MOVE 'MADE SENSE' - GIROUD GIROUD EXPLAINS CHELSEA CHOICE AND HOW AUBAMEYANG FORCED ARSENAL EXIT GIROUD HAS FOUND HIS 'PERFECT CLUB' AFTER TRADING ARSENAL FOR CHELSEA ROMA WANTED GIROUD AS DZEKO REPLACEMENT, CONFIRMS SPORTING DIRECTOR MONCHI Giroud was, however, to leave Emirates Stadium with just three FA Cup winners’ medals to show for his ...