Month: October 2016

Cristiano Ronaldo was back among the goals, whilst Yannick Carrasco continued to power Atletico Madrid’s title challenge and Barcelona’s ‘MSN’ suffered a rare off night.
Here, AFP sports looks at five things we learned from week 10 in La Liga.
Ronaldo hits back with hat-trick
It wasn’t one of Ronaldo’s finest 43 career hat-tricks, but after an uncharacteristically slow start to the season and a week of murmuring over whether the 31-year-old was now over the hill, his treble in a 4-1 win at Alaves may have been one of his sweetest.
He celebrated the third and best of his goals after a neat one-two with Marcelo in style, no doubt relieved having also missed a penalty with his first chance to seal his hat-trick.
There was some fortune attached to the first two goals. A dubious handball call presenting Ronaldo with a first penalty, which he did convert, whilst his second looked to be heading wide before a deflection sent the ball flying into the far corner.
Yet, that luck could be just what Ronaldo needed to kickstart his season. It also took him past the remarkable tally of 350 career league goals.
His next target, 100 Champions League goals, could come rapidly into view when Real travel to face Legia Warsaw on Wednesday with Ronaldo just five off a European century.
Carrasco better than Bale?
Whilst Real tied down Gareth Bale to 2022 with reportedly the biggest contract in world football on Sunday, once again cross city rivals Atletico may have got more bang for their buck.
Carrasco’s brilliant double that bookended the scoring in a 4-2 win over Malaga demonstrated his cannon of a shot off both feet and his electric pace.
The Belgian now has seven goals to Bale’s four despite having played nearly 200 fewer minutes this season.
Atletico’s decision to also renew Carrasco till 2022 earlier this month looks a better deal every day.
Camp Nou comes alive
There was little to cheer for the Barca fans on Saturday night as the champions laboured to a 1-0 win over bottom placed Granada, yet coach Luis Enrique was effusive in his praise for those who did.
Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar were all guilty of missing chances as midfielder Rafinha grabbed the only goal.
Barca are the latest La Liga side to introduce a singing section for younger fans to keep the atmosphere up throughout the 90 minutes.
“I want to congratulate the singing section because the spectacle in the Camp Nou has changed completely,” said Enrique.
Three-horse race inevitable
The excellent early season form of Sevilla and Villarreal and struggles suffered by Madrid, Barca and Atletico produced the most wide open La Liga in many a year for the opening two months of the campaign.
Heading into this weekend the top five were separated by just three points.
However, Sevilla’s slip up in a 1-1 draw at Sporting Gijon on Saturday and Villarreal’s first defeat of the season away to Eibar on Sunday leaves the three usual protagonists back in the top three.
Madrid and Barca’s performances still leave plenty to be desired, whilst Atletico made what should have been a routine victory awkward when Stefan Savic was sent-off half an hour from time.
Yet, over 38 games they remain a class above the rest.
Basque charge
Three of the other seven places in the top 10 are filled by three of La Liga’s Basque contingent.
Almost exactly a year since sacking David Moyes, Real Sociedad’s upturn in fortunes saw them move into the top six with victory at Leganes.
Eibar continue to defy the odds despite their tiny budget and even tinier Ipurua stadium.
The traditional Basque powerhouse Athletic Bilbao missed an opportunity, though, in their quest to challenge Villarreal and Sevilla for the fourth Champions League spot with a disappointing a 1-1 draw at home to lowly Osasuna.

Villarreal spurned the chance to move up to third in La Liga as Eibar struck twice in the final 10 minutes to inflict their first league defeat of the season 2-1 on Sunday.
Celta Vigo blew a three-goal lead in a pulsating 3-3 draw at Las Palmas, whilst Athletic Bilbao remain seventh after being held 1-1 at home by Osasuna.
A penalty from Villarreal captain Bruno put the visitors in front at Ipurua just before half-time.
Heroics from goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo then looked set to seal the points for Villarreal, but he was finally beaten by Ivan Ramis’s powerful header 10 minutes from time.
And with Villarreal looking for the winner, they were caught on the counter-attack as Sergi Enrich teed up Pedro Leon to drive home his fourth goal of the season.
Defeat leaves Villarreal in fifth, now five points adrift of leaders Real Madrid.
Athletic failed to make much ground on Villarreal in the fight for European places.
Raul Garcia cancelled out Oriol Riera’s opener for Osasuna before half-time, but a point leaves Athletic in seventh.
The game of the weekend came in the Canary Islands as Las Palmas stormed back from conceding three times in the opening 21 minutes.
Daniel Wass’s fiercely struck free-kick and an Iago Aspas double put Celta on course for a comfortable three points.
However, Pedro Bigas pulled a goal back just after half-time before Celta were reduced to 10 men when Sergi Gomez saw a second yellow card in conceding a penalty.
Jonathan Viera converted from the spot and Kevin-Prince Boateng completed the comeback with 22 minutes remaining.
However, Las Palmas failed turn their numerical advantage into a winner as their winless streak stretched to five games.
Real Betis boss Gustavo Poyet’s future looks uncertain after his side lost 1-0 at home to Espanyol.
Mexican defender Diego Reyes scored the only goal just after the hour mark to hand Quique Sanchez Flores’s men just their second win of the season.
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid were all victorious on Saturday to leave the top three separated by three points.

Niger Delta militants on Sunday claimed an attack on a gas pipeline in protest at upcoming talks between the Nigerian government and leaders from the oil-producing south.
In a statement, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate group said it would not support the talks being held by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and representatives from the Niger Delta to end the oil infrastructure sabotage.
Attacks on pipelines by militant groups have slashed Nigeria’s oil production helping to tip the country into recession as it struggles to adapt to the low price of crude globally.
“…in furtherance of the Operation Hammurabi Code, our Akuma strike team struck and brought down the 32-inch Effurun-Otor delivery line,” the militant group’s spokesman Aldo Agbalaja in a statement.
“This is not ending soon, we shall fulfill our promise of uprooting your entire assets in our land.”
The Effurun-Otor pipeline feeds the Utorogu gas plant that powers Lagos, a megacity of around 20 million people.
The militants dismissed the forthcoming talks in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Tuesday, saying they would “never get our support.”
“Like we said before now, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate is not opposed to a genuine dialogue between the federal government and real representatives of the various nations of our region,” said the statement.
“We are collecting names from the nations in the region, those who will sincerely and equitably represent our various peoples.”
A security source confirmed the attack. “Yes, a pipeline conveying products to the Utorogu gas plant was attacked by some hoodlums,” a Department of State Security official told AFP.
Divisions between rival militant groups will make it hard for the Nigerian government to strike a lasting peace deal.
A 2009 amnesty deal with militants helped end sabotage in the oil-producing southern swamplands, but the violence reignited after Buhari’s cash-strapped government temporarily ended amnesty payments and arrested a prominent ex-militant for corruption.

Egypt on Monday marked with a church service a year since jihadists bombed a Russian airliner carrying holidaymakers from a Red Sea resort, an attack that crippled the Arab country’s economy.
The Islamic State group claimed it brought the plane down on October 31, 2015, saying it had smuggled explosives into the aircraft before its departure from the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
All 224 people on board were killed when the bomb went off minutes after the Metrojet A-321 had taken off for the Russian city of Saint Petersburg.
At a service in a cathedral in the resort on Monday attended by Egyptian officials and Russia’s ambassador, priests read out prayers next to an alter on which flowers had been placed.
In Saint Petersburg, relatives of some of the 244 people killed attended ceremonies to mark the disaster.
Mourners lit candles at a service at the northwestern city’s Holy Trinity Izmailovsky Cathedral and held a minute of silence at 7:14 am (0414 GMT), the exact time when the plane disappeared from the radar.
The central Saint Isaac’s Cathedral also tolled its bells 224 times, while a memorial concert was set to be held in the city later in the day.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, led prayers for the victims in Moscow.
Russia reacted to last year’s disaster by cancelling all flights to Egypt, and Britain also cancelled flights to the resort town, badly affecting a tourism sector already battered by unrest following the country’s 2011 revolution.
On November 17, President Vladimir Putin said Russian investigators had found evidence of a bomb on board, and vowed to punish those responsible.
In February, his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi acknowledged for the first time that “terrorism” caused the crash, although the government has not yet issued an official report on its cause.
Sisi had previously dismissed as “propaganda” the IS claim that it downed the airliner.
On Sunday, Egypt’s aviation minister and Russian ambassador attended a ceremony in Sharm el-Sheikh in memory of those killed in the disaster.
The minister, Sherif Fathy, reiterated the Egyptian government’s condolences to the relatives of victims, expressing “our feelings of sorrow and sadness over the lives we have lost”.
Russian ambassador Serge Kirpichenko said the “sadness is ongoing and will never go away”.
The envoy said he was confident flights from Russia would soon resume.
“We are certain the day and time are approaching, and quickly, for the return of Russian tourism to Egypt,” said Kirpichenko.
“We are working on this day and night.”
The ban on flights had severely impacted Egypt’s struggling economy, denting its tourist revenues at a time it faces a shortage of dollars.
Citizens of Russia and Britain make up about 40 percent of foreign tourists to Egypt.
In February, Prime Minister Ismail Sharif told state television the North African country had already lost up to $1.3 billion since the disaster.
Egypt is still battling the Islamist State group’s Egypt branch in the Sinai Peninsula.
Security services have not announced any arrests relating to the airliner bombing, or publicly disclosed how the bomb was brought on board the plane at Sharm el-Sheikh airport.
In August, the military announced it killed the head of IS in Sinai Abu Doaa al-Ansari.
The group’s large-scale attacks against police and army checkpoints and barracks have become less regular in 2016, but they have kept up a campaign of roadside bombings in Sinai.

Defending champion Lewis Hamilton kept alive his title defence with a controlled victory ahead of championship leader and Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in a stormy Mexican Grand Prix.
The 31-year-old Briton came home comfortably ahead of the German to trim his advantage to 19 points with two races remaining after a fiery finish to the 71-lap race.
This saw four-time champion Sebastian Vettel lose his temper during a tempestuous exchange following a clash with Dutch teenager Max Verstappen of Red Bull.
The conflict was settled by the stewards who swiftly handed the Dutchman a five-second penalty for gaining an advantage when he went off the track at Turn One.
Verstappen, who had finished third, had already taken his place in the pre-podium room with the two Mercedes drivers before the stewards? decision was taken ?- while Vettel fumed and gave vent to a stream of profanities -? but made a hasty retreat when the German came to the room.
However, almost three hours after the race had ended, Vettel was penalised 10 seconds and demoted from third to fifth after officials deemed he had made a dangerous blocking move on Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
That moved Ricciardo up to third and Verstappen to fourth.
But the final fury could not overshadow a near-flawless drive by Hamilton to his second win in succession, his eighth of the season and the 51st of his career.
“It?s my first win in Mexico and for that I am very happy,” said Hamilton. “Nico is doing a great job and I just aim to keep winning. It?s all I can do.”
Hamilton also went off-circuit at Turn One on the opening lap, but without being penalised -? in much the same way that Verstappen was to in the closing laps -? before he settled and drove with his customary elan.
Rosberg said: “It?s been a good day. I haven?t been too fast this weekend so I have to accept second. I got shunted at the start and had a battle with Max Verstappen late on, so second is ok.?
Vettel was still fuming on the podium — although his mood would have got a lot darker later when he was punished.
“He (Verstappen) left the track and didn?t move and so you can understand why I was annoyed.”
Sixth was Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari while Nico Hulkenberg was seventh for Force India.
Valtteri Bottas finished eighth for Williams ahead of his team-mate Felipe Massa and local hero Sergio Perez who claimed the final point in the second Force India.
The Mercedes team?s one-two victory was a record 17th for the season and it was Hamilton?s 30th win from pole position.
Only seven-time champion Michael Schumacher has more on 40.
Hamilton is now level with four-time champion Frenchman Alain Prost on 51 wins.
Rosberg can clinch his maiden drivers? title if he wins the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, a circuit on which Hamilton has never won, on November 13.
On a bright and dry afternoon at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a crowd of around 110,000 generated a raucous atmosphere before the lights went out for the start.
Hamilton, after a sluggish first phase to his launch from his 10th pole position of the season, pulled clear to lead the 900-metres run down to Turn one where he locked up heavily, creating a flat spot on a tyre, and ran off circuit.
Lucky for the Englishman, there were no kerbs as he speared across an asphalt run-off area and an area of grass before rejoining ahead of Rosberg who, in turn, had survived a minor clash with Verstappen?s Red Bull and also rejoined after running off.
That incident required a stewards inquiry which resulted in no action taken.
Verstappen, as so often, was providing much of the entertainment as he hunted down Rosberg.
When the German locked up, on lap 49, the teenager passed him at Turn One with a lunge down the inside, but he was unable to control it and ran wide.
Vettel closed to within 2.5 seconds of Verstappen and then, with four laps remaining, pressurised the young Dutchman into an error at Turn One, where he out-braked himself and ran across the grass
That was the incident which caused the controversy and penalties which followed.

When conservative political survivor Mariano Rajoy takes control of Spain once again this week he will be faced with unprecedented opposition as he grapples with painful economic reforms and resurgent Catalan separatism.
Rajoy’s nomination has been formalised by a royal decree of King Felipe VI after he won a confidence vote in parliament on Saturday — only possible because Spain’s socialists (PSOE) decided to abstain and not vote against him.
The 61-year-old prime minister has been at the helm of a provisional government without full powers for the last 11 months following inconclusive elections in December 2015 in which his Popular Party (PP) lost its absolute majority despite coming first. New elections in June once again failed to hand him an absolute majority.
He is expected to name his new cabinet Thursday after which he will need to submit a budget to parliament for approval after a delay of several months — a difficult task given that he commands the votes of just 137 of Spain’s 350 lawmakers in the lower house.
If Rajoy is able to persuade enough parliamentarians to back — or not oppose — his taxation and spending plans, he will still face the scrutiny of the European Union which will want to know how the country will reduce its structural deficit to below three percent of GDP for 2017.
But it may prove impossible for Rajoy to secure enough parliamentary support while meeting the terms laid down by Brussels.
To slash the deficit Rajoy will be faced with the thankless task of either cutting spending by 5.5 billion euros ($6 billion), angering the left on whose support he may depend to get the budget passed, or hiking taxes, a move that could draw the ire of business and jeopardise investment.
The country has the second highest unemployment rate in the EU — second only to Greece — at 18.9 percent, which coupled with a pensions crisis exacerbated by an ageing population, threaten Spain’s fragile green shoots of growth.
His best hope would be to appeal to parliament’s 32 centrist Ciudadanos members.
Alongside the economy, Rajoy will be forced to grasp the thorny issue of Catalonia, Spain’s wealthy northeastern region where an independence movement has gathered pace since Rajoy first came to power in 2011, according to constitutional law professor Javier Perez Royo.
One columnist has argued in the right-wing daily La Razon that on the pressing, non-economic issues facing Spain — like Catalonia — an “agreement between the PSOE and the PP is necessary”.
Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont has vowed to press ahead with an independence referendum next year if Madrid refuses to negotiate.
“As long as the Catalan question is not resolved, we will have a knotty issue,” said Royo who added that the issue has divided the left so seriously that it has been unable to unite to take power from Rajoy.
Far-left party Podemos has said that it supports a referendum on Catalan independence while the PSOE does not.
“The nationalists are going to be key to governing,” according to sociologist Narcisco Michavila who was formerly an adviser to Rajoy. Nationalist parties, along with the independents, control 30 seats in parliament — enough to block laws in the event of razor-thin margins.
To resolve the Catalan issue, the PSOE has called for reform to the country’s constitution to adopt a more federal system.
But changing the country’s basic law could prove to be an uphill battle — the document has only been tweaked twice since it was adopted in 1978, and alterations require support from two-thirds of lawmakers.
“Given the situation, nothing will happen,” said legal expert Royo.
On these major issues confronting Spain as it emerges from years of economic and political uncertainty, Rajoy will need a reliable opposite-number in the PSOE party to negotiate compromises and secure their support, one bill at a time.
But the party, which has 85 seats in parliament, was thrown into disarray at the start of October when its leader Pedro Sanchez was ousted in a rebellion. He also stood down from parliament, but will be replaced soon.
Rajoy does have one ace up his sleeve however — the power to dissolve parliament.
The PSOE opted to let their arch-rival govern rather than risk an electoral drubbing in the third elections in a year in a country tired of going to the polls.
Several PSOE members, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the party would be willing to avoid an election at all costs to avoid an electoral wipeout.
Rajoy captured the mood when he tweeted following parliament’s vote on Saturday evening: “We have a lot of work to do.”

Nine days before the vote, the 69-year-old former secretary of state hit the campaign trail hard in the battleground state of Florida.
Clinton blazed through brunch at an Irish pub, an African-American Baptist church, a soul food restaurant, an early voting site and a rally at a gay nightclub.
Much of her two-day visit to the Sunshine State focused on encouraging early voting. Clinton says a record 200 million Americans have registered to vote, 20 million of whom have already done so.
But her campaign was jolted when FBI boss James Comey announced Friday that his agents are reviewing a newly discovered trove of emails, resurrecting an issue Clinton had hoped was behind her.
The nominee’s response has been to hit out at Comey’s move as “deeply troubling” and to rally supporters to get out and vote, turning the tables on Trump by branding him as unfit to lead the nation.
“When you’re knocked down, what matters is whether you get up again,” she told a packed LGBT rally at a gay nightclub in Wilton Manors, just outside Fort Lauderdale.
“With Donald, it’s always Donald Trump first and everyone else last. He abuses his power, he games the system and doesn’t care who is left holding the bag,” she added.
Allegations Clinton put the United States at risk by using a private email server while secretary of state were thrust back into the spotlight Friday when Comey revealed a renewed FBI probe into the matter based on a previously unknown trove of emails.
Trump — himself under fire for alleged sexual impropriety and facing misconduct allegations from 12 women — has gleefully seized upon Comey’s move in an attempt to offset his own trailing in most polls.
The Republican campaigned hard Sunday, attending church in Las Vegas, before leading three rallies in Nevada, Colorado and Albuquerque, New Mexico, whipping up his support base against Clinton.
“We all know about Hillary’s mounting legal troubles, that she has brought onto herself with her serial, wilful, purposeful and deliberate criminal conduct,” he told the crowed in New Mexico.
“Hillary Clinton is not the victim, you the American people are the victims of this corrupt system in every single way and folks this is your last chance to save it,” he said to chants of “lock her up.”
The 70-year-old tycoon repeatedly has described her email issue as “the single biggest scandal since Watergate” — the wrongdoing that brought down Republican president Richard Nixon in 1974.
The Clinton campaign has reacted with fury to Comey’s move, demanding that he explain in detail why he had effectively reopened an inquiry declared complete in July.
“It was long on innuendo, short on facts,” Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta told CNN.
The US Senate’s top Democrat told the FBI chief that through “partisan actions, you may have broken the law.”
“As soon as you came into possession of the slightest innuendo related to secretary Clinton, you rushed to publicize it in the most negative light possible,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement.
While the candidate looking to make history as America’s first female president remains the overwhelming favorite, polls are narrowing.
An ABC News/Washington Post survey put the Democratic presidential candidate just one point ahead of her Republican challenger.
In Florida — a must-win state for the tycoon — Trump overcame a one-point deficit in September to enjoy a four-point lead, according to a New York Times Upshot/Siena College Research Institute poll.
According to US media, the probe was renewed after agents seized a laptop used by Clinton’s close aide, Huma Abedin, and her now estranged husband, Anthony Weiner.
The disgraced former congressman who resigned in 2011 after sending explicit online messages is under investigation over allegations he sent sexual overtures to a 15-year-old girl.
The Washington Post wrote late Sunday that it learned from one US official that the total number of emails recovered in the Weiner investigation is close to 650,000 — although not all of them are relevant to the Clinton investigation.
US networks reported Sunday that the FBI had obtained a warrant to search the emails. According to CNN, discovery of the emails occurred weeks ago although the FBI did not reveal the matter until Friday.
Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway lashed out at Clinton.
“She just has to call her friend and confidante Huma Abedin and say tell us what’s in the emails, tell us what’s on the devices that you shared with your pedophile husband,” Conway told Fox News.
Clinton’s campaign has been overshadowed from the start by the scandal, but experts believe the FBI is unlikely to make significant progress before election day and few expect her to face charges.

The Cincinnati Bengals and Washington Redskins battled to a dramatic 27-27 tie at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, the first draw in the 10-year history of the NFL’s International Series of overseas contests.
Washington kicker Dustin Hopkins missed a 34-yard field goal attempt late in overtime to seal the result — the second tie in as many weeks in the NFL after the 6-6 outcome between Seattle and Arizona last Sunday that was the first tie in the league since 2014.
It’s the first time since 1997 that two games have ended in a tie in one season.
“I don’t know how to react. I didn’t think it was possible to tie. I know there was a tie last week in Arizona, but I was like, ‘How the heck did they tie?'” Redskins coach Jay Gruden said. “Now we know.”
Washington drove from their 22-yard line to the Bengals’ 16 and called for Hopkins on third down with 2:13 left in the extra period.
He booted a ball through the uprights that appeared to win it, but Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis had called time out just before the snap.
Hopkins — who had tied it at 27-27 with a 40-yarder with 1:08 left in regulation — had to try again and missed wide left.
“I think there just wasn’t quite the rhythm that I normally see with the snap, the hold and the kick, and he missed it,” said Gruden, who was facing the Bengals for the first time since leaving the team following the 2013 campaign to join the Redskins.
The Bengals then saw their drive end with a fumble near midfield by quarterback Andy Dalton.
Washington’s Kirk Cousins couldn’t make anything of the Redskins’ ensuing possession, however, coming up short on a final Hail Mary pass.
“It definitely feels more like a loss than a win because we moved the ball so well and had so many opportunities to win,” said Cousins, who threw for a career-high 458 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in an entertaining contest that saw the league back in the familiar confines of Wembley after a foray to the rugby bastion of Twickenham last week.
Nor did Dalton take solace in the tie.
“Feels more like a loss than anything,” he said.

France on Sunday charged an Italian restaurateur, a homeless former British special forces soldier and a one-time paparazzi photographer over the kidnapping of a French hotel magnate, a prosecutor said.
Jacqueline Veyrac, 76, the millionaire owner of the Michelin-starred La Reserve restaurant in the French Riviera city of Nice was snatched last Monday as she was getting into her SUV and bundled into a waiting van.
Veyrac, who also owns the five-star Grand Hotel in nearby Cannes, was released two days later after being spotted by a passerby bound and gagged and lashed to the van’s floor.
Nice prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre said that Veyrac’s abductors bound her wrists and ankles and sealed her eyes and mouth with tape. She sustained several injuries in her efforts to break free, he added.
The passerby first noticed that a number plate on the vehicle was a bit loose, revealing another one underneath, before spotting Veyrac inside.
Authorities have charged three other people for their part in the conspiracy, and all six have been remanded in custody.
They all face life imprisonment if convicted.
Separately, a former police officer who now works as a private detective was charged over failing to alert authorities to the group’s plans and subsequently bailed.
Investigators believe the restaurateur, identified only as Giuseppe S, harboured a grudge against Veyrac.
Originally from Turin, he managed La Reserve from 2007 until 2009 when his company went into liquidation, causing him to resent Veyrac.
The kidnapping was a bid to recover money lost during the liquidation by demanding a ransom from those close to Veyrac, investigators said.
The former press photographer, Luc G — also known as “Tintin” — is accused of fitting a tracking device to Veyrac’s car.
And a British citizen, who served in the UK’s special forces and is now homeless in Nice, is accused of providing surveillance for the gang.
The other three people charged with involvement in the case are thought to be gang members who took part directly in the kidnapping of Veyrac, who was abducted by three men in the heart of Nice.
Veyrac, whose husband died five years ago, co-owns the Grand Hotel, as well as La Reserve, with one of her sons.
The Grand Hotel is one of the establishments on the palm-lined Croisette boulevard that roll out the red carpet each May for movie stars attending the Cannes Film Festival.
Veyrac was targeted in another attempted kidnapping three years ago but the motive was never clear.
Investigators are seeking to determine whether the two events are linked.

Doubles from Sergio Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan for Manchester City and by Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud of Arsenal inspired their sides to handsome wins and ensure they are neck and neck, along with Liverpool, at the top of the table.
Here are five things we learned from the English Premier League this weekend:
As the travelling Kop choir sung their hymns in praise of Liverpool’s swaggering 4-2 win at Crystal Palace, boss Jurgen Klopp took their acclaim with a steely expression. Goals from Emre Can, Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino secured Liverpool’s fifth win in six league games and only goal difference is keeping them below leaders Manchester City and second-placed Arsenal. But while Klopp is clearly pleased by Liverpool’s progress since his arrival last season, the German must be concerned by the defensive sloppiness that allowed Palace to make a game of it, with Lovren mistakes in particular twice allowing James McArthur to equalise. Eradicating those kind of errors must be Klopp’s main focus if he is to end Liverpool’s long wait to win a first title since 1990.
Eden Hazard dazzled with his fancy footwork, Diego Costa caused chaos with his lethal finishing and Antonio Conte’s revamped Chelsea defence held firm to round off a highly satisfactory trip to the south coast for Sunday’s 2-0 win over Southampton. After a pair of dispiriting defeats against Arsenal and Liverpool raised concerns about Conte’s suitability for the Chelsea job, the Italian boss has transformed his team’s prospects with his switch to his preferred 3-4-3 formation. The results have been instant and Chelsea have reeled off four successive league victories for the first time since April 2015, keeping four clean sheets in the process. Restoring Chelsea’s morale after the dismal campaign that brought Jose Mourinho’s sacking last season hasn’t been easy for Conte. But Chelsea have exactly double the number of points (22) they had after 10 games last term and a title challenge looks on the cards after Hazard’s cool finish and a brilliant long-range effort from Costa saw off the Saints.
Sergio Aguero had gone six games without scoring prior to Manchester City’s trip to West Bromwich Albion and having been dropped for their recent 4-0 defeat at Barcelona, he found himself the subject of speculation about his future at the club. The Argentina striker had started the season in sublime style, scoring 11 goals in his first six games, and yet manager Pep Guardiola continued to insist he could “do more”. Aguero returned to the starting XI at The Hawthorns and provided an emphatic demonstration of his talent, scoring two clinically taken goals in the first half and setting up a goal for Ilkay Gundogan as City ended a run of six games without victory. Guardiola showered him with praise after the match and confirmed he will start when Barcelona come to the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.
Pre-season predictions that Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 34, would struggle with the pace of the game in England following his move to Manchester United from Paris Saint-Germain appeared to be confounded when he scored four goals in his first four Premier League games. But the former Sweden striker has gone off the boil spectacularly since then, going six league matches without scoring for the first time since December 2007 with Inter Milan. He was particularly wasteful in United’s 0-0 draw with Burnley, squandering a first-half one-on-one with Tom Heaton and somehow contriving to put Paul Pogba’s cross wide from point-blank range in the dying stages. He has taken 42 shots since last scoring in the league, more than any other player has mustered all season. With Marcus Rashford and Wayne Rooney desperate to claim central striking roles, Ibrahimovic needs to rediscover his shooting boots quickly.
Derided in some quarters as an Arsenal flop, Olivier Giroud underlined his value to the Gunners in Saturday’s 4-1 win at Sunderland as the France forward scored his first goals since returning from injury. Giroud isn’t popular among sections of the Arsenal support but in his first Premier League game since September 24 following a toe injury, Giroud scored with his first two touches of the game. Sent on as a 69th-minute substitute, Giroud arrived with Arsenal looking tense after Sunderland’s equaliser, but his muscular presence erased all concerns as he steered home a 71st-minute strike and then headed in from Mesut Ozil’s corner five minutes later to maintain an impressive scoring record against the Wearsiders.

The blaze on October 30, 2015, blamed on fireworks and corruption that allowed the club to carry on opening despite lax fire safety, brought down the corruption-tainted administration of Social Democratic Victor Ponta.
“A year has passed, nothing has changed,” read one banner carried by demonstrators who marched in silence from the city centre to the “Colectiv” nightclub where the tragedy took place.
Some were moved to tears while others lit candles and laid flowers in front of a monument inaugurated on Sunday in memory of the victims. Nearly 200 people were also injured in the fire.
“We hope that things are going to change, otherwise that would mean that there is no hope” for Romania, Eugen Iancu, the father of one young man who died in the blaze, told AFP.
He said he was still shocked by the situation in Romanian hospitals recalling that “most of the young people died because of bacteria” they were exposed to while being treated for their burns.
Another demonstrator, Valentin, 38, was critical of the authorities’ “indifference” and “corruption” and those he said “received money” to authorise the opening of the club despite inadequate safety standards.
President Klaus Iohannis, who laid a wreath of flowers earlier in the day, said he regretted that a year on “we still do not know who is responsible for this terrible accident”.
Three managers at the club, which remains closed, and three people from a firm that installed the fireworks there have been charged with involuntary homicide. Their trial is due to start soon.
A local mayor, a number of civil servants and two firefighters have also been accused of negligence.

Clermont boosted their lead in the French Top 14 on Sunday with a bonus-point 40-16 win at Brive, who suffered their first home loss since December.
Clermont have 32 points, five ahead of Montpellier and Toulon and 10 in front of Bordeaux, who occupy the sixth and final play-off spot.
Argentine fly-half Patricio Fernandez scored two tries for Clermont, book-ending further scores from promising young scrum-half Charly Cassang and Fiji winger Noa Nakaitaci.
Fernandez was also perfect with the boot, hitting four conversions and four penalties for a personal haul of 30 points — a record for a player in one match this season.
“We are happy with the character and performance of the young players. They were under pressure early in the game but they did not let up,” said Clermont coach Franck Azema, whose side were the last team to win at Brive.
“This derby is a battle of the Massif Central. It’s important to win it because it has a special flavour, especially because besides it being a derby, we know that it’s very complicated to come here.”
Earlier, Castres held on to beat Bordeaux-Begles 33-27 in a six-try thriller.
But Bordeaux left without even a losing bonus point — awarded when teams lose by five points or less — after former France fly-half Lionel Beauxis missed with a last-minute penalty attempt.
The visitors had been on the rampage leading up to that attempt with New Zealander centre Jayden Spence missing out on a try when he spilled Beauxis’s up-and-under in the Castres end zone.
In a thrilling start, Castres fly-half Benjamin Urdapilleta kicked two penalties before the hosts were awarded a penalty try on 11 minutes after a deliberate knock-on from Bordeaux’s Fiji wing Metuisela Talebula prevented a certain try.
Despite Talebula also getting a yellow card Bordeaux struck back on 15 minutes when scrum-half Baptiste Serin sold a dummy to lumbering prop Daniel Kotze before scampering over.
“We made it difficult for ourselves after a great start, and Serin’s stroke of genius contributed to that,” said Castres lock Loic Jacquet.
Yet on 20 minutes Castres put together a fluid move that ended with Samoan wing David Smith passing inside for centre Thomas Combezou to score.
Urdapilleta and Ireland fly-half Ian Madigan exchanged penalties before Bordeaux closed out the half with a try from full-back Jean-Marcellin Buttin down the right following quick hands in the backs.
Madigan’s conversion left Castres leading 23-17 at the end of an exhilarating first half.
The second half didn’t live up to the first until replacement Castres scrum-half Antoine Dupont scored a carbon copy of Serin’s earlier try, sending Talebula the wrong way with an outrageous dummy.
Bordeaux wouldn’t lie down and Spence finished off another blistering attack to dot down in the corner.
On Saturday, three-time European champions Toulon gave new coach Mike Ford a winning Top 14 start with a commanding 42-12 victory over struggling Grenoble.
Toulon ran in six tries for the winning bonus point with Mathieu Bastareaud, Mamuka Gorgodze, Jocelino Suta and Axel Muller all crossing.
“It was a good match, a good start, we won with the bonus point, which is very valuable in this competition,” said Ford as Toulon went provisionally top on the night.
Montpellier edged out La Rochelle 12-11 thanks to a dramatic last-minute penalty from Ben Botica.
Defending champions Racing 92 won their first away match of the season, defeating rock-bottom Bayonne 16-3 despite playing without star fly-half Dan Carter, who was injured in the warm-up.
Toulouse also earned their first away win of the season in a 24-20 success at Pau while 2015 champions Stade Francais beat Lyon 25-19.

Arjen Robben and Robert Lewandowski’s perfect harmony sealed Bayern Munich’s win over Augsburg, Leverkusen broke their winless streak and Ingolstadt had the baby blues.
Here are five things we learned from the ninth round of matches in the Bundesliga:
‘Coach, my wife’s giving birth!’
Mainz coach Martin Schmidt sent Karim Onisiwo to hospital just before kick-off in their 2-0 win over Ingolstadt after the striker’s wife went into labour.
Onisiwo’s son Leroy was born during the 90 minutes.
One of the first to congratulate him was Bayern Munich defender David Alaba, who grew up with the Mainz forward in Vienna.
“Karim was supposed to have been in the starting line-up, but he came to me and said ‘coach, my wife’s waters have burst’,” said Schmidt.
“I told him to disappear. At first he didn’t want to, but I said to him, ‘this is something you don’t experience often. Go’.”
Records, but no goals, in derby
Dortmund extended the club’s unbeaten home record run to 26 league games in their goalless draw at home to Schalke 04 in front of 80,179 fans.
The result meant an unwanted record for coach Dortmund Thomas Tuchel, whose side is winless in their last four league games for the first time since he replaced Jurgen Klopp for the 2015/16 season.
There were 35 fouls committed in the derby with eight yellow cards dished out — a record for this season.
The tally pales next to the Bundesliga record of 13 cards (2 straight reds, one yellow-red and 10 yellows) in Dortmund’s 1-1 draw with Bayern in April 2001 when Munich finished with nine men.
Bayern duo’s perfect chemistry
Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben were in perfect tandem during Bayern’s 3-1 win at Augsburg.
Robben, 32, was outstanding as he set up both of Lewandowski’s goals and scored one of his own.
Their chemistry on the pitch was so good that Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge quipped that the pair had ‘a date’ after the final whistle.
Robben carried on the joke: “The restaurant is already reserved.
“If he (Lewandowski) had scored the third goal, it would have perhaps been an evening with an over-night stay thrown in.”
But who would have paid the bill?
“Robert must pay,” grinned Robben as Lewandowski ended his run of five league games without a goal, thanks to his assists.
Freiburg’s Philipp, Germany’s best
Freiburg’s Maximilian Philipp is putting Germany’s top names to shame.
The 22-year-old scored twice in Saturday’s 3-1 win at Werder Bremen and has now netted five goals in nine league games.
He is joint fifth in the table of top-scorers in the Bundesliga, but the top German, ahead of die Mannschaft’s home-based forwards Mario Goetze, Thomas Mueller and Mario Gomez, who have just one league goal between them.
“It’s also a bit of a surprise for me as well,” said Freiburg’s Philipp, who puts his form down to extra fitness work.
“Of course, I know what I can do, but I hadn’t counted on scoring so often,” he added having netted eight second-division goals in the whole of last season to help Freiburg win promotion.
Leverkusen’s merry dance
Bayer Leverkusen’s goal-scorers Admir Mehmedi and Tin Jedvaj were dancing in the stadium corridors after netting in Saturday’s 2-1 comeback win over Wolfsburg — their first victory in five games.
The victory followed the double humiliation of last Saturday’s 3-0 league drubbing by Hoffenheim and Tuesday’s shock German Cup defeat at third-division minnows Sportfreunde Lotte on penalties.
“Inhumanely important,” was Leverkusen’s goalkeeper Bernd Leno description of the win, which relieved the pressure on coach Roger Schmidt.
The team had sworn to be victorious, only for Wolfsburg’s Maximilian Arnold to put Wolfsburg ahead before Mehmedi and Jedvaj scored twice in five second-half minutes.
“We had all sworn to put everything in we had,” revealed midfielder Kevin Kampl.
The result was a much-needed confident booster for Wednesday’s crucial Champions League clash at Tottenham Hotspur.
Spurs’ goalless draw in Germany a fortnight ago means just one point separates the teams in Group E.

Diego Costa’s sublime strike sealed Chelsea’s 2-0 success against Southampton on Sunday as the Blues chalked up a fourth successive Premier League victory.
Costa doubled Chelsea’s lead with a fine finish from 25 yards after Eden Hazard had put Antonio Conte’s side ahead early in the first half at St Mary’s.
Inflicting Southampton’s first home league defeat since February gave Chelsea four league wins in a row for the first time since April 2015, when they were on the verge of lifting the title under Jose Mourinho.
While it is too early to predict another Chelsea charge to the title, the Blues have hit a promising vein of form since Conte switched to his preferred system with a three-man defence.
Their win on the south-coast lifted them above Tottenham into fourth place in the table and within one point of leaders Manchester City.
Southampton remain in mid-table after a first defeat in six league games stalled their recent fine run.
“I’m very happy after this performance. I saw great commitment and great work rate with the ball and without it,” Conte said.
“For the fourth game we keep a clean-sheet. It’s fantastic but it’s early for us to speak about title contenders. We can improve a lot.”
After making a host of changes for the midweek League Cup defeat at West Ham, Conte returned to the line-up that thrashed Manchester United last weekend, which meant captain John Terry was back on the bench.
For the all focus on Terry’s omission, it was the presence of Hazard, who didn’t start against the Hammers, that proved the most significant team change.
Just seconds after kick-off, the Belgium midfielder underlined his threat with a clever run and cut back on the right side of the penalty area that ended with Costa unable to prod past Saints goalkeeper Fraser Forster.
Southampton boss Claude Puel should have been well aware of the need to stifle Hazard after working with the Chelsea star when he was a teenager at French club Lille.
But if Puel had warned his players, they clearly failed to take note because Hazard was barely opposed as he put Chelsea ahead in the sixth minute.
Allowed to advance unchecked onto a Victor Moses pass, Hazard glided into the same area of the penalty box he had threatened from before, and this time he tricked Steven Davis with an astute cutback before drilling a low shot past Forster.
It was the first time Hazard had scored in three consecutive league games for Chelsea, but Southampton recovered their composure and almost grabbed an equaliser when Dusan Tadic’s low free-kick was turned away by Thibaut Courtois.
Hazard remained a menace and brought Forster into action with a low shot from the edge of the area.
That was the signal for Chelsea to turn up the heat and Costa should have scored just before half-time when he fired straight at Forster from Nemanja Matic’s pass.
A sweeping Chelsea move early in the featured eye-catching passes from N’Golo Kante and Marcos Alonso and almost brought an own goal from Saints captain Jose Fonte as he stretched to clear from Costa.
Costa wasn’t to be denied however and the Spain forward doubled Chelsea’s lead in the 55th minute.
Taking a short pass from Hazard 25 yards from goal, Costa set his sights and unleashed a majestic shot that curled past Forster into the far corner for his eighth Chelsea goal this season.
Conte’s team were in complete control now and Costa nearly made it three when he volleyed narrowly wide at the near post before Hazard’s drive drew a smart stop from Forster.
Charlie Austin thought he’d given Southampton a late lifeline when he rifled the ball under Courtois, but his effort was ruled out for offside as Chelsea’s revamped rearguard secured a fourth successive league clean-sheet.

A sublime display by New Zealand fly-half Jimmy Gopperth propelled an out of sorts Wasps to a 31-6 defeat of his former club Newcastle in their English Premiership clash on Sunday.
The 33-year-old former Leinster playmaker scored two tries in his 21 points as Wasps kept the pressure on leaders and champions Saracens — they are a point behind the only side to have beaten them this season after seven matches.
Wasps, though, lost Irish international prop Marty Moore to what looked like a serious neck injury in the first-half.
At the other end of the table, Bristol lost 31-13 to Sale — their seventh defeat in seven Premiership matches on what is turning out to be a humiliating return to the top tier.
Making things worse for the bottom side is they lost former Wales star Gavin Henson to injury, the 34-year-old — who had already missed several matches earlier in the campaign because of a leg injury — going off after just 12 minutes after falling on his shoulder.
The day’s other game saw last season’s Premiership finalists Exeter lose in the last minute to Bath in a low scoring West country derby.
Fiji-born England international wing Semesa Rokoduguni shrugged off two tacklers to touch down with England fly-half George Ford converting to give the visitors a 13-10 victory.
“I think that’s why we love sport, isn’t it?” Bath’s head coach Todd Blackadder told BT Sport after the last minute dramatics.
“We had a lot of belief throughout that game — it just shows the commitment and belief within the team.
“I’m just so pleased for the players — to see them grind it out and go through some real ‘can’t we can we’,” added the 45-year-old former All Black skipper.
His Exeter counterpart Rob Baxter was gracious in defeat.
“It was a tough old finish for us really, but I think great credit to Bath — I think they just edged that resilience battle,” he told BT Sport.
“We’re in an interesting position now — these games are going to have a different connotation for us now.
“Games that go on one decision are always hard to take, but I don’t want to look for excuses, I want to look at ourselves.”
Reigning English and European champions Saracens strengthened their grip on top spot in the Premiership ahead of the end-of-year internationals with a 24-10 win at home to Leicester on Saturday.
Yet despite dominating the match, the north London side failed to secure any bonus points — much to the frustration of coach Mark McCall.
“The half-time score of 17-3 was about right, but when we got to 24-3 we were really sloppy,” said McCall.
“It’s a big lesson for us because we didn’t get the job done that we wanted to. We spent the last 15-20 minutes defending which is not what we wanted to do.”

The billion shilling ministry of health scandal took a new twist after the Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu on Sunday said that the internal auditor may have ‘double counted’ certain budgetary expenses, resulting to questionable figures.
The CS has now called for an independent auditor to be appointed in order to re-look at Sh5bn said to have been misappropriated at Afya House.
Mailu said at a press conference at the ministry’s headquarters.
Already, the ministry and the ethics and anti-corruption commission have constituted special teams to unmask individuals and companies behind the corruption scandal.
 
Cord leader Raila Odinga has linked President Uhuru Kenyatta’s family to the scandal saying one of the companies that benefitted from the transactions is associated with the President’s extended family members.
The company, Sundales International Limited, owned by Kathleen Kihanya, a cousin of President Uhuru Kenyatta, was paid Sh41 million in the transactions.
However, Kihanya has already come out to fight off accusations of irregular dealings with the Ministry of Health and maintained that all transactions were above board.
Another beneficiary of the money in the scandal is owned by the family of Mr Philip Kinisu, the former chairman of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, who resigned in August to avoid scrutiny over its business dealings with NYS.

Novak Djokovic admitted Sunday that Andy Murray’s dramatic last-gasp assault on his world number one ranking has rejuvenated a season which was limping into mediocrity for the 12-time major winner.
Djokovic has suffered a worrying dip in form since winning his first French Open and completing the career Grand Slam in June.
He had a shock early loss at Wimbledon followed by a first round exit at the Olympics and a runners-up spot at the US Open.
But as the 29-year-old prepares to defend the Paris Masters title he has won for the past three years, he insists Murray’s charge for the top has provided the fresh impetus he needs.
“It makes me want to go on court and fight for every point because there is something to win at the end,” Djokovic said Sunday adding he felt “rejuvenated and regenerated”.
If Djokovic reaches next Sunday’s final in Paris, he will retain his world number one ranking.
But if he fails to make the championship match, then Murray will become the number one as long as the British star wins the title.
Djokovic, who has admitted “private issues” contributed to his summer slump, believes Paris is the perfect place to revive his fortunes on his return to the French capital.
“Winning Roland Garros this year gave me a lot of joy but it required a lot of energy. I felt a little exhausted after and I was a little less motivated,” said the Serb, who hasn’t played since a semi-final defeat to Roberto Bautista Agut in the Shanghai Masters.
“I took a little time to think about all these things, to find a new motivation and a new ambition. It’s in place. I feel good. I’m happy to come back here to Paris. I hope to have a good week.”
Djokovic has a bye in the first round at the Paris Masters before facing either Nicolas Almagro or Gilles Muller.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has expressed regret over the intention of African countries to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“Deterring future atrocities, delivering justice for victims, and defending the rules of war across the globe are far too important priorities to risk a retreat from the age of accountability that we have worked so hard to build and solidify,” Moon said.
He noted the concern raised that the Court has convicted only Africans despite evidence of crimes in other parts of the world, and stressed that such challenges are best addressed not by diminishing support for the ICC, but by strengthening it from within.
 
Gambia last week became the third African country this month to pull out from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Gambia’s Information Minister Sheriff Bojang accused the court system of being racist and unfairly targeting Africans for prosecution.
The announcement comes after similar actions by the South African and Burundian governments to pull out from the court.
According to ICC, the withdrawal will only come into effect one year after the official notification.
Namibia and Kenya have also raised the possibility of leaving the ICC, which has often been accused of bias against African leaders.
Kenya’s National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale, has indicated that the House Business Committee will soon meet to deliberate on repealing the International Crimes Act.

A follower of ISIS was responsible for an attack last week on a Kenyan police officer outside a US embassy in Nairobi, the group’s Amaq news agency has said.
The knife-wielding man was shot dead after he attacked a GSU officer manning security at the US embassy.
Amaq said.
Kenya’s police spokesman said at the time the motive was unclear and an investigation was launched. The spokesman could not immediately be reached on Saturday.
 
The US embassy remained closed to the public on October 28 following the incident.
the embassy later said in a statement
The group previously claimed an attack in Kenya in September by three women who were shot dead after they tried to torch a police station in Mombasa.

Rising Germany star Niklas Suele sealed Hoffenheim’s 1-0 win over Hertha Berlin which put them third in the Bundesliga and set up a mouth-watering clash against leaders Bayern Munich next week.
Suele’s 31st-minute header on Sunday gave unbeaten Hoffenheim their fifth win in nine games.
“It was a cool feeling to score, more so as it was an important goal, which meant we could celebrate with the fans,” said Suele.
“We have got an exceptional squad with a great atmosphere and if we keep playing like this, it’ll be a super season.”
The win leaves Hoffenheim four points behind Carlo Ancelotti’s Bayern, who they play in Munich next Saturday.
The tie at Munich’s Allianz Arena will pit two teams unbeaten against each other after Bayern’s 3-1 win at Augsburg on Saturday.
Having battled relegation last season, this is the highest Hoffenheim have been in the German league table for two years.
The turnaround in their fortunes is mainly down to the hard work of their 29-year-old coach Julian Nagelsmann, the youngest coach in the Bundesliga’s history.
“We were clearly superior, apart from the ten minutes after the half-time, I am very satisfied,” said Nagelsmann as Hertha’s Vedad Ibisevic went close on several occasions immediately after the break.
“We’re take everything at the moment, but we’re not talking about the table, only about our performances,” he added with a view to the Bayern showdown.
Hertha were punished for a poor second half, while Hoffenheim should have added a late second, but Croatia striker Andrej Kramaric fired straight at Hertha’s Norway goalkeeper Rune Jarstein two minutes from time.
Suele, 21, grabbed the winner when the giant centre-back got on the end of Kerem Demirbay’s curling free-kick.
With an eye on the 2018 World Cup, the strapping centre-back is in the plans of Germany’s head coach Joachim Loew.
Suele, who won a silver medal when Germany lost the Olympic final to Brazil in the Rio, made his senior international debut in September’s 2-0 friendly win over Finland, Bastian Schweinsteiger’s 121st and final appearance.
Sunday’s defeat cost Hertha third place and was only their second loss having also been beaten by Bayern in Munich this season.
Hertha coach Pal Dardai took off Ibisevic, the club’s top scorer so far this campaign with six league goals, for the final 10 minutes, for Tunisia striker Sami Allagui, who made his 100th Bundesliga appearance.
Apart from Bayern in first place, there is an unusual look to the top four with RB Leipzig, who won 2-0 at Darmstadt on Saturday, still second and unbeaten with six wins and three draws in their debut Bundesliga season.
Later on Sunday, Cologne went fourth with a 3-0 win at home to ten-man Hamburg, who stay bottom of the table, as Anthony Modeste netted a hat-trick.
France’s Modeste, the league’s top scorer with 11 goals in nine games, was credited with the opening goal, despite getting barely a touch on Simon Zoller’s pass-cum-shot on 61 minutes.
It came three minutes after Hamburg had USA international Bobby Wood sent off when the striker elbowed Dominique Heintz in the stomach and the Cologne defender dropped to the turf.
Modeste added a second goal when he headed home a cross on 82 minutes and wrapped up the treble in superb style when he latched onto Marcel Risse’s long ball and his shot beat Hamburg goalkeeper Rene Adler on 86 minutes.
Modeste’s hat-trick made up for his failed first-half penalty attempt which clattered off the post.

Police in El Salvador arrested the country’s ex-president Elias Antonio Saca and six other suspects including three serving government officials on Sunday for alleged embezzlement and money laundering, authorities said.
Saca, 51, and six other former officials from his government were detained in the early morning “on charges of various crimes,” it said on Twitter.
Saca was a member of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) while he was president of El Salvador from 2004 to 2009.
He was expelled from ARENA at the end of 2009 after the party blamed him for its defeat in presidential and legislative elections that year.
Saca is accused of embezzlement, money laundering and links to illegal groups, the prosecutors’ office said.
It give no further details of the accusations for the time being.
A self-made businessman, Saca was a well-known journalist before becoming president.
He was seen as a strong ally of the United States during his time in power.
The other suspects arrested include former public waterworks official Cesar Funes, 46, and ex-presidential communications chief Julio Rank, 65.
Police said those two were detained along with Saca in an exclusive restaurant.
Salvadoran media reported that the three were there to celebrate the wedding of one of Saca’s sons.
Official sources said the suspects were in custody in the premises of the anti-drugs squad in the capital San Salvador.
El Salvador is a Central American country of six million people, bordered by Guatemala and Honduras.
It is stricken by poverty and violent crime involving drug gangs.
The other three detained suspects are Pablo Gomez, Francisco Rodriguez Artega and Jorge Alberto Harrera.
They worked in Saca’s government and are currently financial officials in the government of leftist President Salvador Sanchez.
The suspects could face sentences of up to 15 years in jail for embezzlement and money laundering, according to El Salvador’s penal code.
Saca was already facing charges dating to early this year, when he was accused of embezzling some four million dollars.
His leftist successor as president, Mauricio Funes, faces similar charges. He obtained political asylum in Nicaragua in September, after saying he feared for his life in El Salvador.
Political analyst Juan Ramon Medrano said the corruption investigations were likely partly due to pressure from the United States.
Washington has demanded action on corruption in return for financial aid to boost development and fight crime in El Salvador and its two poor neighbors.
“It is good that pressure from the United States is succeeding in cleaning up suspected corruption in the country,” Medrano told AFP.
“But pressure should also be applied to those who evade taxes and have drowned the country fiscally.”

Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon called for improvements despite a 2-1 win over title rivals Napoli that left the Serie A champions four points clear of an increasingly ambitious chasing pack.
A second-half winner from ex-Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain sent Juve four points clear of Roma, with Napoli now seven points off the pace after AC Milan and Lazio won on Sunday to move into third and fourth places respectively.
Although Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri paid tribute to his squad for “interpreting the game well”, Buffon said it’s not enough.
One of the world’s most decorated goalkeepers, former World Cup winner Buffon has yet to win a Champions League title and at 38, time is running out.
Juve host Lyon in the Champions League on Wednesday looking to secure their place in the last 16 — a win would see the Italians seven points clear of the Ligue 1 side with two games remaining.
But if the Italian giants are to beat the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Barcelona to the top prize in European club football, Buffon said a step up in “quality” is required.
“It was a great win for us against a strong side that we all respect. Napoli made us suffer,” said Buffon.
“But we have to improve certain aspects of our game, and we’re still struggling to put the instructions of the coach into practice on the pitch.
“Morale is high. But, I have to say again: if we want to enjoy a good run this season, especially in Europe, the quality of our game has to improve.”
Napoli face Besiktas away on Tuesday looking to relaunch their Champions League campaign after a shock 3-2 defeat to the Turks at the San Paolo two weeks ago left them in danger of losing top spot in the group.
And in Serie A, Maurizio Sarri’s men have even bigger problems.
After selling Higuain to Juve for an Italian transfer record fee of 90m euros, Napoli are still without a proper centre-forward after the Argentine’s replacement, Arkaduisz Milik, was sidelined with a knee injury.
“We lost one of the best forwards in the world and the club made the decision to buy young players,” Sarri lamented after Saturday’s defeat.
Roma, runners-up twice in succession in 2014 and 2015, are now seen as Juve’s principal rivals, although dropping points against supposedly inferior opposition — as they did in a scoreless stalemate at Empoli on Sunday — will prove costly.
Roma striker Edin Dzeko remains top of the league scoring charts on 10 goals, but the Bosnian was among the players who hit a blank at the Castellani stadium, where home ‘keeper Lukasz Skorupski performed heroics.
Roma sit second at four points behind Juventus, but midfielder Daniele De Rossi said getting past Empoli’s astute defence was not easy.
“It would be a mistake for any side to come here and think they can simply score by shooting once they get into the area,” De Rossi told Sky Sport. “Empoli defend very well.”
Napoli’s defeat gave AC Milan and Lazio an extra incentive and both seized the day to jump up the table to sit third and fourth respectively.
Giacomo Bonaventura’s 49th minute free kick broke the deadlock at the San Siro although Milan endured a nervous finish to put the smile back on coach Vincenzo Montella’s face following a 3-0 midweek defeat at Genoa.
“That was a great victory, but a very difficult match. We knew it would be like that,” Montella told Sky Sport.
“Credit to Pescara, they created a lot of problems for us.”
At the Stadio Olimpico, Senad Lulic opened the scoring after Keita Balde’s cross came off goalkeeper Andrea Consigli and back off the Bosnian midfielder before landing in the net.
Ciro Immobile smashed a volley past Consigli off a Sassuolo leg to double their lead five minutes later, and Frenchman Gregoire Defrel hit a consolation goal just before the hour for Sassuolo.
Inter Milan, meanwhile, remain below mid-table, 13 points behind Juventus, after Fabio Quagliarella’s first-half strike secured a 1-0 win for Sampdoria in Genoa.

Germany’s European Commissioner Guenther Oettinger on Sunday defended his use of the term “slitty eyes” for Chinese people which triggered outrage after they were revealed in a leaked recording of a speech to business leaders.
Oettinger — the commissioner for digital economy who was last week named to the more powerful post of budget commissioner — also made disparaging remarks about women and gay marriage.
In the comments, secretly filmed at a Hamburg event earlier this month, he mocked a delegation of Chinese ministers, “their hair combed from left to right with shoe polish”.
Anonymous YouTube user “Sebas Travelling”, who uploaded the clip on Friday, said Oettinger had used the words “slitty eyes” and “chiselers” to refer to Chinese people.
“That was a somewhat sloppy expression that was not meant in any way disrespectfully towards China,” Oettinger told Die Welt newspaper on Saturday.
The comments were made during a speech focusing on EU relations with China, the world’s second largest economy.
“Nine men, one party. No democracy, no female quota, and no women — which follows logically,” he said, referring to the delegation which had recently visited the Commission.
Oettinger insisted to Die Welt that his comments were taken out of context and that he had “received a lot of positive reaction” to the speech.
In his comments to the Hamburg forum, he also took aim at the political agendas of domestic German politicians, including more generous pensions and child benefits, a controversial road toll for foreign vehicles, and “soon to come, compulsory gay marriage”.
“I have nothing against same-sex marriage,” he said on SWR public radio on Sunday.
“But while we’re all talking and arguing about that, there is no time for other, critical questions, which would keep Germany and Europe ahead in a dynamic world.”
In the secretly-recorded speech, he said Germany and other EU nations were allowing Chinese firms to buy up European companies and their valuable know-how and intellectual property, while China did not allow Europeans to invest there as freely.
“The same rules should go for China and for Europe. We should open our markets to one another to the same extent,” he told Die Welt.
The comments come at an embarrassing time as they emerged just after European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker announced Friday he had tapped Oettinger to take over the budget portfolio from Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva.
Juncker and German Chancellor Angela Merkel should “impose an adequate punishment in the face of this behaviour unworthy of a member of the European Commission”, French activist group SOS Racisme said in a statement Sunday.
“Someone who openly spreads racist and homophobic opinions has disqualified themselves for top political positions,” Katarina Barley, secretary-general of Germany’s centre-left Social Democratic Party, told Spiegel Online on Saturday.

Tanzania’s President John Pombe Magufuli arrives in the country on Monday for a two-day visit.
This will be Magufuli’s first to Kenya since he was sworn into office in October last year.
The leader who is known for his radical austerity measures will be accorded full state honours including a 21-gun salute and a military Guard of Honour.
President Uhuru Kenyatta will host Magufuli amid recent strained relations between the two East African neighbours.
Magufuli was conspicuously absent during the recent Tokyo International Conference on African Development held in Nairobi which attracted heads of state and government from across the continent.
 
The pipeline deal from Uganda that went sour for Kenya has also caused simmering tensions between the two nations after President Yoweri Museveni opted for the Tanzania route as opposed to the Lamu one.
This was seen by many as a blow for Kenya’s oil ambitions in eastern Africa and the country was left to go it alone in its plans to build a pipeline from Lokichar in its oil-rich Turkana region to Lamu, where it is building a port, close to the border with Somalia.
However, Magufuli’s visit aims at mending ties with Kenya as the two presidents are set to hold a series of bi-lateral talks on matters dealing in trade, immigration and education among others.
“The President’s visit offers us a chance to renew and deepen our partnership in a number of fields. The two Heads of Government will discuss a wide range of issues of mutual interest at the bilateral and regional level” said statehouse spokesman Manoah Esipisu.
He added, “Our focus will be on the areas in which there already has been consultations, and where we can expect concrete results to be announced”.
The Tanzanian leader has only travelled to Uganda and Rwanda since coming to power last October.
Last month, Uhuru sent a donation of 4,000 iron sheets, 400 blankets and 100 mattresses, airlifted by the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to assist Tanzanians following a devastating earthquake in Bukoba District. in North Western Tanzania.

Mario Balotelli starred once again as clinical Nice opened up a six-point gap at the top of Ligue 1 with a 4-1 thrashing of Nantes on Sunday.
The maverick forward, back in form after nightmare spells at Liverpool and AC Milan, scored his sixth league goal of the season and was involved in two others as Nice took their unbeaten run since the start of the season to 11 matches.
Wylan Cyprien scored a brace and Alassane Plea also netted while Emiliano Sala replied for the visitors at the Allianz Riviera, as Nice played with panache and incision.
“We deserved to win but we had some difficult moments, particularly early on,” said Nice coach Lucien Favre.
“Nantes had two good chances and if they had scored at that time, things might have been different.”
Favre made light of Nice’s six-point championship lead over Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain, adding of Balotelli: “He had a full week of rest (after injury).
“But I say and repeat: there is still much work for him to do. Today he did some extra defensive work, which is positive.”
The league leaders were slow out of the blocks but soon began to take control of proceedings, with Balotelli, 26, at the heart of it as they opened the scoring.
The Italy star ran on to Younes Belhanda’s chip over the top and although he was stopped in his tracks by desperate last-gasp defending, the ball broke to Cyprien to slot into the empty net on nine minutes.
Nice were piling on the pressure and the Nantes backline cracked again as Balotelli ran onto a long ball from Jean Seri and calmly took a touch before placing the ball past Remy Riou and into the bottom corner.
Nantes weren’t completely out of contention and Yacine Bammou should have done better than fire over from Lucas Lima’s cross 10 minutes before half-time.
Nice kept coming, though, and Ricardo Pereira’s goal-bound shot was blocked by defender Diego Carlos.
But the hosts shot themselves in the foot at the start of the second period as Mathieu Bodmer tried to dribble the ball out of defence on the edge of his box.
He was robbed by Sala, who stroked a sumptuous shot into the top corner on 47 minutes.
Suddenly Nice were reeling and struggling to hold on against a rejuvenated Nantes, with Sala and Mariusz Stepinski spurning good chances.
But the tide turned again on the hour mark as Plea rose ahead to head home Seri’s corner.
Minutes later a sublime flick from Balotelli sent Pereira scampering towards goal and he pulled the ball back for Cyprien to drill home.
Second-placed Monaco lost ground in the title race with a 1-1 draw at Saint-Etienne on Saturday.
Kamil Glik put Monaco ahead after five minutes but the hosts pulled level just 13 minutes later through Loic Perrin.
Champions Paris Saint-Germain are behind Monaco only on goal difference after winning 1-0 at Lille on Friday night thanks to a goal from Uruguay forward Edinson Cavani.
Rudi Garcia is still looking for his first league win as Marseille coach after his side drew 0-0 with Bordeaux at the Stade Velodrome in his first home game.
Marseille remain mired in mid-table in 10th.

Iceland was gearing up Sunday for tough horsetrading over its next government after the anti-establishment Pirate Party and its allies gained ground against the ruling centre-right in a vote triggered by the Panama Papers scandal.
Prime Minister Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson announced his resignation after his centrist Progressive Party — which had been governing in a coalition with the conservative Independence Party — suffered a drubbing in Saturday’s vote.
Final figures from the election, called after Johannsson’s predecessor was forced out over revelations in the Panama Papers of a hidden offshore account worth millions, pointed to a deadlocked outcome.
The Independence and Progressive parties together won 29 seats in the 63-member parliament or Althingi, down nine from the outgoing assembly.
The Pirates and its three centre-left allies won 27 seats, reaping gains from a wave of popular anger with the establishment parties but falling short of a majority.
Johannsson, an unpopular figure over his perceived closeness to business, said he will remain in office until a new government is formed in the volcanic island nation.
President Gudni Johannesson is set to task Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson of the Independence Party, which won 21 seats, with trying to form a new government.
Pirate Party co-founder Birgitta Jonsdottir said she was “thrilled” after the movement created by anarchists, hackers and activists picked up 10 seats, more than tripling its representation.
“We will carry on no matter what’s going to happen in the next few days,” she told a news conference, saying her party is “open to compromise”.
The Left-Green Movement also picked up 10 seats, the Social Democrats three, and the centrist Bright Future Movement four.
The centrist Regeneration Party, which won seven seats, could determine the fate of coalition talks but negotiations with the Independence Party could be tough.
The two parties fell out over holding a referendum on resuming the nation’s EU membership talks which were stalled by the incumbent government.
“We have not been negative towards other parties or how governments should be formed,” Regeneration leader Benedikt Johannesson told AFP.
The election was triggered after the Panama Papers revealed in April that 600 Icelanders including bankers, business leaders and cabinet ministers, including the then premier, had holdings stashed away in offshore accounts.
The episode revived the seething public anger that erupted during the 2008 financial crisis, which wrecked Iceland’s banking industry and plunged the country into recession, prompting it to seek a humiliating IMF bailout.
“The Independence Party is being rewarded for its role in corruption,” one Pirate Party cofounder, Smari McCarthy, told RUV.
The Pirate Party has a five-point programme that includes holding a referendum on EU membership, constitutional change to make leaders more accountable, greater protection of natural resources and the closure of tax loopholes for large corporations.
“We are a platform for young people, for progressive people who shape and reshape our society,” Jonsdottir told AFP.
“Like Robin Hood because Robin Hood was a pirate, we want to take the power from the powerful to give it to the people.”
Gretar Eytorsson, professor of political science at the University of Akureyri, said the Pirates did not gain a majority because not enough young people voted despite a near 80 percent overall turnout.
“What was suspected happened. The young voters did not show up,” he told AFP.
“That was most likely the biggest reason for their loss… compared with the polls. But let’s not forget that they are a much bigger party now.”
Iceland, a volcanic island with a population of just over 330,000, has returned to prosperity since its 2008 financial meltdown.
Gross domestic product growth is expected to be above four percent this year thanks to tourism revenues and a recovering financial system.

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim said his team’s historic Test win against England Sunday was the beginning of a new era with the country now blessed with talent like teen sensation Mehedi Hasan.
Bangladeshi bowlers, led by 19-year-old Mehedi, took all ten England wickets in a single session in the second Test as Rahim’s team beat Alastair Cook’s men by 108 runs and square the series.
The victory saw celebrations erupt at Dhaka’s Sher-e-Bangla Stadium and across the country as Bangladeshis revelled in one of the proudest moments in their sporting history.
Chasing a target of 273, England seemed to be cruising when Cook and Ben Duckett guided them to 100 without loss at tea.
But Mehedi, playing only his second Test and who celebrated his 19th birth just this week, triggered a dramatic collapse as England crumbled to 164 all out to suffer their first-ever defeat by Bangladesh in 10 Tests.
Bangladesh secured Test status in 2000 and the win was only their eighth in 95 Tests — and the first against a full-strength side from a major country.
“It is a very big achievement in Bangladesh?s Test cricket history. It came against a very good England side but there will be a time when we will win a series 2-0 against any big team,” Rahim said.
“This is a start,” he told reporters after the match.
He paid tribute to the youngsters in the side, especially Mehedi who had a record match haul of 12 wickets and a series tally of 19.
“It feels great the younger players are also contributing. We have a number of performers in the team, which is always great for a captain.
“We knew the type of player he was,” Rahim said about Mehedi.
“We wanted him to play against England rather than Afghanistan so that they don’t know anything about him. It is all his credit that he did so well,” he said.
“There’s a lot to learn from him, and I know he has the calibre to do well in the future,” the 29-year-old added.
Mehedi, who twice led Bangladesh’s under-19 cricket team prior to the call in the senior side, took the final wicket of Steven Finn to finish with 6-77 in the innings and 12 for 159 in the match.
It was his country’s best-ever bowling figure in Tests, overtaking Enamul Haque Jr?s 12-200 against Zimbabwe in 2005.
The skipper also praised opening batsman Tamim Iqbal who scored the series’ highest total of 267 runs including a century in the first innings of the second Test.
“Tamim was outstanding, especially in the first innings in Chittagong. I think that 78 was greater than his double-century. He utilised his good form, which is a really good sign.” Rahim said.
The wicket-keeper batsman said Bangladesh prepared spinning wickets and the pitches worked according to the hosts’ plan.
“From the time we knew England were coming, we planned to make wickets that last three to four days. The sort of wicket that would help our spinners and trouble the English batsmen.
“We played well in Chittagong but I was surprised that it lasted five days. Here our bowlers executed our plans and the batsmen did well too, which made this win possible,” he said.

All teachers are expected to remain out of schools during the examination season starting from November 1st to November 30th 2016.
According to Cabinet Secretaries Dr. Fred Matiang’i, Major Gen. (Rtd.) Joseph Nkaissery and Mr. Joe Mucheru, only teachers expected to remain in school are those involved in the administration of practical subjects and boarding facilities.
The government says these are part of its strategies aimed at ensuring clean and credible examinations in 2016.
 “We are determined to stamp out cases of irregularities associated with the poor management of our national examinations in the past so that the results obtained from the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) are valid and credible,” the joint statement by the cabinet secretaries read in part.
 
Major Gen. (Rtd.) Joseph Nkaissery said the government was determined to restore the integrity of the country’s national examination system to ensure, among other things, that Kenyans get quality education and credible examinations results to be able to compete globally. 
 Mr. Joe Mucheru said the Government integrated ICT to minimize examinations malpractices that characterized last year’s national examination, noting that CCTV have been put in strategic sites to help detect whatever mischief that unscrupulous people may want to do.
The examination-cheating trend shows that 2015 had the highest cases of 2,709 compared to 1,702 reported in 2014.
Some 1,576 cases were reported in 2013 while only 732 candidates cheated in examinations in 2012.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls issued an appeal on Sunday to overcome the legacy of slavery, dismissing claims for financial compensation while acknowledging the “horror” of the slave trade.
Valls was visiting Franklin House, a former slave hub in the Ghanaian capital Accra, on Sunday on the second leg of a three-country tour of West Africa.
“We cannot repair slavery but we can prepare the future” he said in an article published by the French daily Le Monde and the English magazine The Africa Report.
Valls rejected the idea of compensation, instead advocating for strengthened trade relations between Africa and Europe.
“It is not so much about living for the idea of reparation… as about looking to tomorrow, about strengthening the ties between our two continents on either side of the Mediterranean,” he said.
“The slave trade was a disaster on a large scale. That reality must be remembered, taught and hammered home,” he said, “the many atrocities, rapes and murders. It was a crime against humanity.”
But Valls argued against calls for reparations, rejecting the idea that Africa’s history is solely defined by slavery.
“Memory should not divide. It should, on the contrary, close fractures and bring people together, if only we do not give in to the awfulness of competing memories, hierarchies and comparing the suffering of some with the misfortune of others.
“I also know that the history of Africa is so much more than the history of slavery, to which it is too often reduced,” he said, adding: “I know that Africa has the strength to free itself from that past.”
French President Francois Hollande on a May 2015 trip to the Caribbean spoke of the debt France owed to Haiti, but his office later said he was referring to a “moral debt” rather than financial compensation.
France abolished slavery in all its colonies in 1848 but only recognised slavery as a crime against humanity since 2001.
Valls, who arrived in Ghana on Saturday from Togo, heads later Sunday to the Ivory Coast.

Ross Barkley’s excellent goal sealed an impressive 2-0 win for Everton over West Ham in their Premier League clash on Sunday ending a four-match winless run in the league.
For Barkley, who had been dropped both from the England squad and the Everton starting line-up this season as his form dipped, it was his first goal since the opening day of the season against Spurs.
Belgian international Romelu Lukaku, who set up 22-year-old Barkley for his goal, had opened the scoring for the hosts with his 50th for the club.
It also maintained his extraordinary record against the Hammers as it was his ninth goal in as many Premier League matches against them since he moved to Everton.
Everton stay sixth, just five points off the top trio of Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool. West Ham stay firmly in the bottom half of the table, three points above the relegation places.
Everton manager Ronald Koeman said he was pleased with Barkley’s performance but added he needed to be more aware on the pitch of what was required of him.
“It was a total team performance today,” the Dutchman told Sky Sports.
“Ross Barkley had more impact in the last part of our attacking, not only in scoring but he was dangerous throughout.
“That’s what the team needs. He can be very good, but it is all about knowing what you need to do. Sometimes I have to shout too much, he needs to run more.”
Koeman’s West Ham counterpart Slaven Bilic, who numbered Everton among his clubs as a player, said the hosts had been more clinical.
“They were more lethal, or more mature or more cruel — when they were offered something by us, they took it straight away, which we didn’t do when we created or they made mistakes,” said the Croatian.
“Credit to them, and we knew they have a good side.”
West Ham should have gone one-up in the 12th minute as a deft pass by Dimitri Payet slipped Pedro Obiang free in the box but he completely miscued his shot as it ballooned over the bar.
The hosts produced some sparkling attacking football after the early West Ham forays into their own half none more so than when Costa Rican Bryan Oviedo nipped in to win a ball that the West Ham defence should have dealt with.
He looked up and found Barkley free in the box but his goalbound effort was brilliantly turned away by goalkeeper Adrian.
Gueye, though, showed less alertness in defence as he had to resort to tugging at Obaing’s shirt bringing him to the ground and earning himself a booking which rules him out of next weekend’s clash with Chelsea.
The hosts took the lead five minutes into the second-half as Winston Reid’s poor clearance was played back into the Hammers box.
Yet again the extra hunger of the Everton players played a decisive role as Yannick Bolasie charged into the area and got to the ball ahead of Reid after Adrian had saved Seamus Coleman’s shot — his perfectly delivered cross was headed into the empty net by Lukaku.
Robles then produced a spectacular diving save to deny Mark Noble as West Ham turned on the pressure searching for the equaliser.
That was as good as it got for West Ham as Barkley’s magic produced the decisive second goal 15 minutes from time.
The England international gained possession looked up and saw Lukaku breaking free down the right and found him with a perfect long pass.
The Belgian dallied long enough for Barkley to make up the ground and then produced the perfect cross for the midfielder to beat Adrian with a half volley, celebrating by beating his chest and tugging at his shirt in answer to his critics.

If you aim to be an entrepreneur with hopes of building your business and earning a seven-figure check, you need to be able to ask yourself some fact checking questions from time to time.
Every entrepreneur must ask themselves certain fundamental questions if they want to be successful at running their business. Those questions should get weekly, monthly, or quarterly answers.
By reviewing the work you do and the resulting accomplishments, you can better prepare for what you want to do next and what life throws at you next.
Here are three important questions you must ask yourself, from time to time, as an entrepreneur:
Do not get caught up in the monotony of doing the same thing every other day. Go out and do the things that you enjoy and love.
Instead of getting emotional or dwelling on the disappointments you’ve had to deal with, figure out those moments and discover what you can do better the following month.
Keeping track of what you have put into your business will help you on your path to success. Review your goals and accomplishments and never forget that it is about quality, not quantity.

Red-hot Marin Cilic heads to Paris determined to hang on to his qualifying spot for the ATP year-end finals after defeating Kei Nishikori to lift the Swiss Indoors title.
The Croatian, 28, triumphed 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) on Sunday over his higher-ranked opponent in a repeat of the 2014 US Open final, where he also defeated Asia’s best player.
Cilic, ranked 12th in the world, currently holds the last of the qualifying spots for the World Tour Finals in London but will face a battle this week at Paris Bercy in the final event of the regular season to keep the place.
Eight players will take part in the prestigious London showpiece on November 13-20.
“Paris will be deciding everything, I want to finish the regular season in a good way and hope to refresh myself in the next couple of days to be ready again,” Cilic said, after earning his 16th career title from 27 finals.
“I now have the first 500 series title in my career. I’m adding it to all my other trophies. It shows me that I’m in a good way, I’m playing very well.
“I had pressure all week fighting to qualify for London. But it was a great week for me, I played some good tennis.
“I feel great, it was a tough week, there was a lot at stake. I came up with some great tennis despite the pressure.”
His Basel success was the second title of the season for Cilic after winning his first Masters 1000 title in August in Cincinnati, beating Andy Murray.
“Today I started the match with good energy and motivation, a few balls can decide a lot. I was quite focused in the critical moments,” Cilic said. “My game was really high and level was quite big today.”
World number five Nishikori, who already knows that he is on his way to London for the third straight year, refused to make excuses.
“I didn’t feel I was in there all the time. If I could have won the second set, maybe something would have changed,” he said.
“In the end, I didn’t feel comfortable and didn’t feel the balls well today.
“It was a combination of his good tennis and the fact that I was not at 100 percent.
“In the second set it was close, I had a couple of set points but couldn’t convert.”
Cilic ended with a modest six aces, producing his last one at just the right moment to earn a pair of match points.
He put a forehand long on the first but claimed the match — and the title — when Nishikori hit a double fault on the second.
The Japanese, who will also be in Paris, was playing his fifth final of the season — but can boast only the Memphis title from February.

For ladies, this is a simple list of positions that can help you during those days that you do want to have sex but you would love to.
Or if you’re generally a lazy person, these positions should help you

Not only is it the most popular sex position, it is also the most convenient. For the lady, she is there to enjoy it.
 
Just like cuddling. Lay side by side with each other, with the lady in front and the guy behind her. This way, he can hold your breasts or put his hand on your clit for more sensation.

Close to the spoon, a modified version of the spoon. Assume the spoon position, then crawl up in fetal position, the guy assumes the same position behind you. This position allows the girl be relaxed and not do a thing but enjoy it.
This is a modification from the Missionary, the slight difference here is that your legs are on his shoulders. So, this isn’t as convenient like the others but still the same.

Quite similar to right angle, these won’t your legs so bad, the guy would be holding them rather than putting them on his shoulders, and it’s very convenient.

It’s the doggy style, but the lady is sleeping on her belly with the ass up. As easy as it sounds, it also very good for the G-spot. There you have it, a lazy position that allows your G-spot to be impacted.

Let the guy sit facing his front directly on the chair, you straddle him, his hands should be on your hips, then bounce up and done. A little bit of effort is required here but it’s still a lazy position either ways.
When next you’re feeling down, try these positions.

Syrian state media said Sunday that rebels had fired shells containing toxic gas into government-held parts of Aleppo, leaving dozens of people including civilians in need of treatment.
State news agency SANA reported that 35 people were suffering from “suffocation” after shells carrying “toxic gases” hit the frontline district of Dahiyet al-Assad and regime-held Hamdaniyeh in Aleppo.
It said people were suffering from shortness of breath, muscle spasms and numbness, but were receiving treatment.
The head of Aleppo University Hospital, Ibrahim Hadid, told state television that “36 people, including civilians and combatants, were wounded after inhaling toxic chlorine gas released by terrorists.”
The allegation came on the third day of a rebel offensive to break a three-month siege of the opposition-held east of Aleppo.
Rebel groups have pledged to push from newly captured positions in the Dahiyet al-Assad district towards Hamdaniyeh.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group told AFP there were “cases of suffocation among regime forces in Hamdaniyeh and Dahiyet al-Assad.”
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman could not specify the cause.
Chlorine use as a weapon is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013 under pressure from its ally Russia.
It then agreed to get rid of its chemical stockpile and refrain from making any use of toxic substances in warfare.
But earlier this month, a joint United Nations-Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) panel concluded that government forces carried out three chlorine gas attacks on villages in 2014 and 2015.

An Afghan woman immortalised on a National Geographic magazine cover is to be freed on bail days after being arrested in Pakistan for fraud, a government minister said Sunday.
The haunting image of Sharbat Gula, taken in a Pakistan refugee camp by photographer Steve McCurry in the 1980s, became the most famous cover image in the magazine’s history.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Gula on Wednesday for living in the country on fraudulent identity papers following a two-year investigation on her and her husband, who has absconded.
“I think I will have to review this case because she is a woman and we should see it from a humanitarian angle,” Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a press conference Sunday.
“But if we withdraw charges against her, deport her or give her a temporary visa to leave Pakistan, then we will have to take back cases against the officials who issued her fake ID card, they are real culprits and I do not want to let them off the hook in any manner,” he said.
“As a first step the FIA should arrange her bail as soon as possible so that she should get of jail,” Khan added.
Investigators, who have uncovered thousands of fraud cases over the last decade, launched a probe into her application shortly after she procured the identity card.
Officials say she applied for a Pakistani identity card in Peshawar in April 2014, using the name Sharbat Bibi.
The photo attached to her application featured the same piercing green eyes seen in McCurry’s famous image, only older.
Officials say the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) has so far re-verified 91 million ID cards and detected 60,675 fraudulent cards.
Her arrest highlights the desperate measures many Afghans are willing to take to avoid returning to their war-torn homeland as Pakistan cracks down on undocumented foreigners.
Pakistan has for decades provided safe haven for millions of Afghans who fled their country after the Soviet invasion of 1979.
The country hosts 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees, according to UNHCR, making it the third-largest refugee hosting nation in the world.
The agency also estimates a further one million unregistered refugees are in the country.

Sudan becomes the latest country to back Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, Amina Mohamed’s bid as Chairperson of the AU Commission.
The backing comes after President Uhuru Kenyatta’s visit to Khartoum as he continues to lobby other African countries and support Kenya’s choice for the commission’s top job.
Last week, CS Mohamed’s candidacy receieved a major boost after the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) members endorsed her bid.
The endorsement came after Deputy President William Ruto attended the 19th Comesa Heads of State and Government Summit in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Ruto used the summit to lobby the other Comesa countries to support the candidature of CS Amina.
During the summit, the member countries made it clear that they believed that her long experience of diplomacy, her proven experience working with multilateral organisations, and her successful stint as Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs all made her the best candidate to advance Africa’s Agenda.
The aim for Kenya is to get at least two-thirds majority in the first round.
CS Mohamed will square it off with Agapito Mba Mokuy of Equatorial Guinea, Abdoulaye Bathily of Senegal and Botswana’s Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi for the powerful continental position.
Born in 1961, Ms Amina has had an illustrious career, having worked as a Deputy Executive Director at the United Nations before joining the Kenyan cabinet in 2013.
She has also previously served as Chairwoman of the International Organization for Migration and the World Trade Organisation’s General Council.

Andy Murray continued his march towards the world number one slot and ramped up the pressure on Novak Djokovic by winning the Vienna Open on Sunday.
The 29-year-old Scot swept past Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) in the final to earn his seventh title of the year.
The Olympic and Wimbledon champion can take over the world number one ranking from Djokovic if he wins next week’s Paris Masters and the Serb fails to reach the final.
He can also take over top spot if he reaches the final and Djokovic loses before the semis in the French capital.
Murray took his recent run to 15 straight victories, in which he has picked up the China Open and Shanghai Masters titles as well.
He now has 42 career titles and a second in Vienna, after also winning in 2014.
“I think I played my best tennis of the tournament today,” said Murray, who praised Tsonga’s fighting spirit in the second set.
“Jo fought well and started playing a lot better. He was more aggressive and taking some more chances and making the shots.”
Murray broke early in each set before his only blip allowed the Frenchman and sixth seed to break back and level at 4-4 in the second set.
It was a 14th defeat in 16 meetings with Murray for Tsonga, whose run to the final did at least keep alive his slim hopes of reaching the season-ending World Tour Finals in London.
Tsonga said he would be happy to see Murray take the world number spot in Paris next week — on one condition.
“Next week you have a chance maybe to be the number one. I hope it’s going to be the case, except if I play against you in the final!”

Steve Bruce remains unbeaten as Aston Villa manager but his side were unable to get the better of one of his former clubs Birmingham City as their Championship match ended 1-1 on Sunday.
Bruce, who played for Birmingham and had a six year stint as manager before upping sticks in 2007, has so far guided Villa to two draws and a win since replacing Roberto di Matteo, who was sacked after a poor start to their second tier campaign.
Villa took the lead through an excellent header by Gary Gardner, in the first derby between the two sides since 2011, but his goal in the first-half was cancelled out by David Davis’ effort with less than 20 minutes remaining.
Brice offered former fans’ favourite Gabriel Agbonlahor a chance at redeeming himself — after his off the field antics alienated him from the supporters and the club in their relegation battle last season — and sent him on late in the second-half.
The draw sees Birmingham move above Sheffield Wednesday into seventh spot, 10 points adrift of leaders Newcastle, whilst Villa are four points above the relegation zone having played 15 matches.
Newcastle chalked up a sixth successive victory as the Championship leaders cemented their position with a 2-1 win at Preston on Saturday.
Second placed Brighton are three points behind Newcastle after they hammered promotion rivals Norwich 5-0.
The Seagulls are unbeaten in nine league games thanks to Glenn Murray’s hat-trick and further goals from Lewis Dunk and Anthony Knockaert.
Huddersfield, who led the table for several weeks, are third after a dismal 5-0 defeat at Fulham.
The Terriers have now lost three of their last four games and are three points adrift of Brighton.

A bed first made famous by Vincent van Gogh’s 1888 painting “The Bedroom”, may today still be lurking in a home or attic in a small Dutch town, an art historian claimed on Sunday.
Britain-based Van Gogh expert Martin Bailey said the bed on which Van Gogh slept while living in the scenic southern French city of Arles may have ended up in a home in Boxmeer in The Netherlands after World War II.
Bailey based his belief on his discovery of a letter written in 1937 by Van Gogh’s cousin, Vincent Willem, in which he said he still possessed the bed of his famous uncle, who committed suicide in 1890.
“This was a key letter that showed that the bed had survived and had been taken to The Netherlands,” Bailey told Dutch public broadcaster NOS.
“This was a real surprise for me. That was (also) not known to Van Gogh scholars,” said Bailey, who started off on an intriguing search to trace historic pieces of furniture.
Bailey contacted Johan van Gogh, the elderly son of Van Gogh’s cousin “and he actually, to my astonishment remembered the bed”.
Johan van Gogh, 94, said the bed stood in his father’s house in Laren until 1945, when it was sent to Boxmeer, around 120 kilometres (75 miles) to the south, as part of a donation to help Dutch who lost their possessions during the war.
Aided by a colleague, Bailey then found a picture of the actual truck used to cart the donated furniture from Laren to Boxmeer.
“That was the last bit of the puzzle. There is no question that the bed ended up in Boxmeer,” Bailey said.
“Of course, the intriguing question is: where is it now?” he said, admitting the bed may have inadvertently been thrown away over the years.
Van Gogh painted three versions of “The Bedroom”.
The 1888 version hangs in Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, while two later versions painted in 1889, are on display at the Art Institute of Chicago and Paris’ Musee d’Orsay.
The Van Gogh Museum in response to Bailey’s claims told the NOS on Sunday it “would be interesting if the bed is actually found.”
“We’ll closely follow the investigations,” the museum said.

Italy’s most powerful earthquake in 36 years, which shook the centre of the nation and was felt in Rome on Sunday, was the latest in a long string of major tremors.
It measured 6.6 on the so-called moment magnitude scale, according to US geologists, while Italian monitors estimated it at 6.5. No fatalities have been registered.
Here are the country’s biggest quakes in the past 30 years:
On August 24, 2016, a 6.0-6.2 magnitude quake hits mountain villages in a remote area straddling the regions of Umbria, Marche and Lazio. The small mountain town of Amatrice bears the brunt of the earthquake that kills 297 people and injures hundreds more.
On October 26, two more earthquakes shake central Italy — one a 5.5 magnitude tremor, the other 6.1 two hours later. Several people are lightly injured.
In late May 2012, two violent shocks 10 days apart leave 25 people dead and 14,000 others homeless in the northern Emilia Romagna region.
On April 6, 2009, an earthquake rattles central Italy leaving more than 300 people dead, around 65,000 homeless and toppling priceless churches and monuments. L’Aquila, capital of the mountainous region of Abruzzo, bears the brunt of the disaster.
On October 31, 2002, 30 people die — most of them children — and 61 are injured when the village of San Giuliano di Puglia in the central region of Molise is hit by a violent earthquake.
Twenty-seven children and their teacher are crushed inside their school in the tiny mediaeval village.
Two earthquakes shake Umbria in central Italy and Marche in the east within the space of a week, on September 26 and October 3. Twelve people are killed, more than 110 injured and 38,000 left homeless. The quakes damage several historic buildings, including the basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.
On December 13 an earthquake hits Sicily, killing 17 and injuring 200.
On May 5 the same year, four people are killed in a quake in the southern region of Basilicate.
On November 23, 1980, a strong earthquake in the southern Campania and Basilicate regions killed more than 2,900.
On January 13, 1915, a huge earthquake struck the town of Avezzano in Abruzzo, killing 30,000.
On December 28, 1908, in Reggio di Calabria and neighbouring Sicily, a massive quake killed around 95,000.

Jermain Defoe believes beleaguered English Premier League tailenders Sunderland can turn things around if they stick together.
The 34-year-old former England international striker — who criticised manager David Moyes earlier this month saying the perennial strugglers had gone backwards since he came in for Sam Allardyce — said it is vital the team looks forward and doesn’t dwell on their latest failure.
The ‘Black Cats’ slumped to a 4-1 home defeat to Arsenal on Saturday which sees them sharing Manchester City’s (1995-96) unwanted Premier League record of no victories and just two points from the opening 10 games of the season.
They next face Bournemouth, who are 10 points better off than them, and Defoe said the season was still young enough for the team to turn things round.
“That’s the good thing about football, it’s always the next game. Even when you are playing well, the next game comes around so quickly and you can just look forward to it,” said Defoe.
“That’s the mentality we have got to have, just ‘Okay, forget about today, the next game…’, and I’m sure the manager is thinking the same. We prepare for the next game.
“There’s a lot of football to be played, there’s a long way to go. You have got to be strong, you have got to stick together, be strong and turn it around.”
Sunderland get a respite from their league woes after the Bournemouth game as there is an international break.

French international Olivier Giroud rubbished talk of Arsenal winning the Premier League title despite an excellent run of form saying Sunday it is far too early to make such predictions.
The 30-year-old striker had been a peripheral figure this season, after suffering a toe injury, but his double after coming off the bench inspired the Gunners to an ultimately convincing 4-1 win over hapless Sunderland on Saturday.
Victory extended Arsenal’s unbeaten run in all competitions to 14 games and fuelled talk of them winning their first league title since 2004.
Victory kept them level on points with Manchester City and Liverpool at the top of the table after 10 matches, although City lead by virtue of a slightly better goal difference.
“We’ve only played a quarter of the league,” Giroud told the Arsenal website.
“It’s still the beginning of the league and I’m not the man who will speak too much because we are first.
“We enjoy this position, obviously we want to finish first and win the league, but we know there is a long time to go. We’re in a good moment and we need to keep it up and be consistent.”
Giroud, who was part of the France side that went all the way to the Euro 16 final which they hosted only to lose to Portugal 1-0 in extra-time, said he hoped to maintain his form now he had returned from injury.
The Frenchman, who has been at Arsenal since his goals helped unfashionable Montpellier win the Ligue 1 title in 2012, took just four minutes after beng sent on during the second-half by Arsene Wenger to open his account.
“If I could do that in every single game, I would be the most happy man,” said Giroud.
“I’ve been lucky — I had great assists from my team-mates, so I always try to finish the job well.
“It’s a big time for me because I’m coming back from a tough injury and I’m very happy to get back on the pitch. It’s nice for myself and the team.
“To score is always important for a striker.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that neither he or his department had been contacted by the FBI over its renewed investigation into his predecessor Hillary Clinton’s emails.
“No, I haven’t been notified of anything, no, I haven’t been requested of anything, no, I’m not aware of the department being requested,” he said during a visit to Tipperary in southern Ireland.
Kerry said it would be up to the US Department of Justice and the FBI to respond to further questions about the probe, which has rocked the race for the White House in its final stretch.
“By the way, obviously as an American citizen — not to mention as a former nominee of the party — there’s a lot I’d love to say about what has been going on. But I can’t and I’m just going to remain out of this,” he said.
Throughout her campaign, Clinton has been battling allegations she put US secrets at risk by using a private server based in her home for all email correspondence while she was secretary of state.
It was thought that an FBI enquiry was ended in July but director James Comey announced on Friday, less than a fortnight before polling day on November 8, that his agents were investigating a newly discovered trove of emails.
Kerry was in Ireland to accept the Tipperary International Peace Award for his efforts to end conflicts around the world, and met with Irish Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan.
At a joint press conference, he said was engaged “on a daily basis” with trying to end the humanitarian “disaster” in the war-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo.
Kerry also expressed his commitment to negotiations over the ambitious Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade deal between the United States and the EU.
“We are still in negotiations on this and depending on who is elected president of the United States, I don’t see those negotiations ending,” Kerry said.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has condemned the deal as a job-killer and Clinton has said she would not pursue it if it was found to undermine the jobs of American workers.
Kerry is due in London on Monday to collect two other awards, including the Chatham House diplomatic prize jointly awarded with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for their part in the Iranian nuclear deal.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in an interview Sunday that he hoped to secure a new deal with FARC rebels by Christmas, warning that any further delay could make the peace process “explode”.
The government signed a historic agreement last month with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia’s biggest rebel group, but in a shock move, voters rejected the deal in a referendum on October 2.
“All the negotiators and I have met almost every organisation and we are now digesting more than 500 proposals -? and talking with the FARC -? to have a new agreement, agreed and approved, by Christmas. That is my goal,” Santos told Britain’s Observer newspaper.
“This uncertainty is very risky, because anything could happen that could really make the process explode. So I am working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with my team to get another agreement,” he added.
Since the referendum, Santos has held marathon talks with political figures including former president Alvaro Uribe — who led opposition to the agreement — as well as religious leaders and victims of the armed conflict.
Santos, who won the Nobel peace prize this year for his efforts, said he was happy to meet Uribe “any time” but said “he has been stalling, not allowing the teams to get into real negotiations”.
“I am ready, I am eager, because I know that if we sit down we can agree on many of the things that concern him,” the president said.
Uribe had criticised the deal for granting “total impunity” for rebel crimes.
Santos said: “Some of the proposals are viable and we think the FARC should accept them, but others are simply not viable.
“For example the ones that say there is no armed conflict in Colombia, and that there is no war in Colombia and that there are no victims in Colombia and therefore the transitional justice cannot apply.”
The interview comes ahead of a state visit by Santos to Britain on Tuesday, the first ever by a Colombian president, where he will meet with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Theresa May.
On Thursday, he will travel to Belfast to meet key figures in Northern Ireland’s peace process, the Foreign Office said.