Month: October 2016

Bayern Munich are determined to break their mini winless streak on Wednesday against PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League, with head coach Carlo Ancelotti dismissing any talk of a ‘crisis’.
Bayern have drawn both of their German league games since losing 1-0 at Atletico Madrid three weeks ago and are three games without a win.
The Bundesliga leader’s 2-2 draw at 10-man Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday was branded ‘unacceptable’ by Munich’s chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, even with the team two points clear.
Ancelotti had threatened changes for the Eindhoven match and admitted his team’s attitude in Frankfurt was poor.
But the Italian dismissed any talk of a ‘crisis’ amongst the Bavarian giants, which has been mentioned in the German media.
“I have to be myself and I must be tougher from time to time,” said Ancelotti in Tuesday’s press conference.
“I wasn’t happy in Frankfurt, I made that clear, but I don’t want to punish the players — I just want them to understand.
“It’s too early for the word ‘crisis’, which I am now hearing, we haven’t won our last three games, but we still played well.
“We aren’t magicians and we will have a different attitude against Eindhoven.
“Everyone has trained. I said after the Frankfurt game that the attitude wasn’t good, but we have to change our behaviour, not switch around players.”
Ancelotti has insisted the players sleep in the team hotel ahead of the Eindhoven match.
“I already said before the season that we would gather in a hotel before special games. Tomorrow is a special game,” he said.
But Rummenigge has made it clear that the mini winless series must be broken.
“We don’t need excuses, we have only ourselves to blame,” fumed the Bayern boss.
“The way we played in the first half (in Frankfurt) is not Bayern Munich.
“You can’t turn in a display like that.
“We have to shift up a gear very quickly, or we’ll have problems in the Champions League on Wednesday.”
Germany defender Mats Hummels said they Bayern team has pulled together since the draw in Frankfurt.
“We came together after the game and we are all of the opinion that we as players have to work at this, we have room for improvement,” said Hummels.
“We’re not happy with the way we last played.”
His captain, Philipp Lahm, agrees that Bayern must now bounce back against their Dutch opponents.
“We have to get a grip. The Champions League is up on Wednesday and we absolutely must take three points,” said Lahm.
“If you believe that less than 100 percent will do, you risk losing tackles and control,” added the ex-Germany captain.
Bayern need a win to get their Champions League back on track after defeat in Madrid following their opening 5-0 rout of Russian side Rostov.
Phillip Cocu’s Eindhoven are still looking for a first victory in Group D.
They lost 1-0 to Atletico Madrid in their opening game and drew 2-2 at Rostov three weeks ago when they twice came from behind.
PSV have won only one of 18 matches in Germany against Bundesliga teams with four draws and 13 defeats.
Their solitary victory away to a German club was back in 1977.
Eindhoven are fourth in the Dutch league and their only defeat in their first nine games was at the hands of leaders Feyenoord.
Now Hummels says Bayern need a “good reaction” against the Dutch. “We have an obligation to up the pace,” said the centre back.
“We have to hit the gas from the very first minute and combine our individual quality with attitude and passion.”

A new row erupted Tuesday over Austria’s plans to raze the house where Adolf Hitler was born, with experts saying they opposed the demolition only a day after a decision was announced.
After a lengthy legal battle with the current owner, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said Monday the listed property in the northern town of Braunau would be “torn down” to stop it from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine.
A new building on the site would be used by a charity or the local authorities, he told Austrian media.
Sobotka said the decision was based on recommendations from an expert committee.
But several of the panel’s 13 members denied Tuesday that the commission had backed the push to bulldoze the yellow corner house where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889.
“The demolition option had been explicitly mentioned in the (government’s) proposal and was not approved by us,” said Clemens Jabloner, the ex-president of Austria’s highest administrative court, in a joint statement with historian Oliver Rathkolb.
Instead, the committee had suggested a “profound architectural redesign”.
“A demolition would amount to negating Austria’s Nazi past,” the pair said.
Braunau mayor Johannes Waidbacher, another panel member, also said there had been “no mention of demolition” in the report.
Responding to the criticism, Sobotka on Tuesday insisted the main goal was to destroy any “resemblance” to the current house, “especially its outer appearance”.
Whether this process would an involve an actual demolition could be discussed, he told journalists in Vienna.
The government would put the new building design out to tender, Sobotka added.
A copy of the commission’s report showed the experts had been “against leaving an empty space instead of a building”.
“A complete transformation or removal of the building is in principle suited to erase the place’s ideological connotation and dissolve the emotional ties with Hitler. But… a historical contextualisation remains necessary,” the report read.
Although Hitler only spent the first few weeks of his life at Number 15 Salzburger Vorstadt Street, the address has been a persistent thorn in Austria’s side, drawing Nazi sympathisers from around the world.
Every year on Hitler’s birthday, anti-fascist protesters organise a rally outside the building, next to a memorial stone reading: “For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism, Millions of Dead Warn.”
The dilapidated property in the historic town centre has been empty since 2011 when the government became embroiled in a dispute with owner and local resident Gerlinde Pommer.
Her family has owned the 800-square-metre (8,600-feet) building for more than a century, except for a brief period during the Nazi regime.
In 1972, the Austrian government signed a lease with Pommer and turned the premises into a centre for people with disabilities.
But the arrangement came to an abrupt end five years ago when Pommer refused to grant permission for much-needed renovation works.
The famously elusive owner also rejected a purchase offer made by the increasingly exasperated interior ministry.
In July, the government approved a legislation amendment to seize the house from Pommer who continues to net 4,800 euros (around $5,300) in rent every month.
The expropriation bill, which includes compensation for Pommer, was to be debated in parliament later Tuesday.
Sobotka earlier said it could enter into force by the end of the year.
The issue has also sparked debate among Braunau’s 17,000 residents.
Some want the building to become a refugee centre, others a museum dedicated to Austria’s liberation from Nazi rule.
“Whether the house stays or not changes nothing in our responsible dealings with history,” said district commissioner Georg Wojak on Tuesday.
“Braunau doesn’t deserve to be reduced to Hitler’s dictatorship.”

Senegal paid tribute Tuesday to retiring wrestling champion Yakhya “Yekini” Diop, celebrating a quarter-century of mesmerising bouts that saw his sport shift from village amateurs to big-money stars grappling in sold-out stadiums.
Yekini’s exceptionally long career and unbeaten record from 1997 to 2012 made him the face of Senegal’s national sport.
The much-loved 42-year-old star was finally beaten by rival Lac de Guiers 2 on July 24 after a long absence from competition.
“Yekini throws in the loincloth” proclaimed the front page of several Senegalese newspapers on Tuesday, while a more sober take from l’Obs daily read: “The curtain falls on Yekini”.
The most popular form of wrestling in Senegal unusually allows punches to an opponent’s head, and is known for the elaborate rituals undertaken by players in which they are splashed with potions containing animal extracts and perform dances.
In recent years, sponsorship and televised bouts have turned the sport into a multi-million-dollar industry, according to experts.
Yekini, 42, told gathered press on Monday night that his recent defeat — one of two in his entire career — was not the reason for his retirement.
“There would only have been me in the arena,” during his 15-year dominance of the sport if that was every wrestler’s attitude, he joked.
He took his name from 1990s Nigerian football star Rashidi Yekini, known for his powerful attack.
Drawn from the Serer people who have produced champion after champion in Senegalese wrestling, Yakini hails from the coastal Saloum region and was named the best wrestler in 50 years in 2010 by the media.
“I am sure the next champion that the Serers produce will be even stronger than me,” he told journalists on Monday in a tribute to his origins.
“I’ve lived through the changes in the Senegalese arenas: how prize money has gone up, how our status has changed, and the birth of new champions,” he added, calling on today’s young players to take the professionalisation of the sport even further.
Yakini will join the crowds on the other side of the barriers as a wrestling promoter, he said.

Rock pioneer Chuck Berry turned 90 on Tuesday with the surprise announcement that he plans to release his first album in decades.
Berry said he recorded the album — entitled simply “Chuck” — at studios around his native St. Louis and will release it sometime next year.
Considered one of the creators of rock ‘n’ roll, Berry helped define 1950s youth culture and shape the future of music by bringing together rhythm and blues, country guitar and consummate stage showmanship.
His 1958 song “Johnny B. Goode” is one of the most recognizable in popular music and was selected to represent rock music for potential extraterrestrial listeners on the Voyager spacecraft.
“Chuck” will be the first album in 38 years by Berry, who has gradually cut back on live performances as his age advances.
Chuck Berry dedicated the album to his wife of 68 years, Themetta Berry.
“My darlin’, I’m growing old! I’ve worked on this record for a long time. Now I can hang up my shoes!” he said in a statement.
Berry recorded the album with his backup band — which includes his son Charles Berry Jr. on guitar — from his two decades of shows at the Blueberry Club in St. Louis.
The band “fell right into the groove and followed his lead,” the younger Berry said.
“These songs cover the spectrum from hard-driving rockers to soulful thought-provoking time capsules of a life’s work,” he said.
Chuck Berry, who was in the first round of inductees when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened in 1986, will hold events to promote the album that will be announced later, his label said.

A crocodile which broke into a Sri Lankan police station and stayed the night forced constables to abandon their posts until it was captured by wildlife authorities, officers said Tuesday.
Police said the six-foot (two metre) crocodile barged in through a back door of the crime branch at Nochchiyagama station, 190 kilometres (118 miles) north of Colombo.
“Police men and women evacuated the building when the crocodile crashed in. It stayed put till this morning when wildlife officials showed up and took it away,” a police official told AFP. “It did not hurt anyone.”
Another official said locals were accustomed to frequent elephant attacks on villages in the remote area, but a invasive crocodile was a rarity.

France on Tuesday confirmed that the French, Russian and German leaders will hold a “working meeting” on the Syrian crisis in Berlin.
The meeting Wednesday will be aimed at “giving the same message to Vladimir Putin on Syria: a durable ceasefire in Aleppo and humanitarian access so that the devastation of this city can end,” an aide to French President Francois Hollande said.
Hollande, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will turn to the Syrian conflict after a summit on the Ukraine crisis that will include that country’s president, Petro Poroshenko.
The Berlin talks were announced as Moscow said Russian and Syrian air forces have stopped bombing Aleppo ahead of a brief truce, a move the Kremlin said showed “goodwill” as it faces mounting criticism for backing a brutal regime offensive.
Russia had said Monday there would be an eight-hour “humanitarian pause” in the battered city on Thursday, a move welcomed by the United Nations and the European Union which nevertheless said the ceasefire needed to be longer to allow the delivery of aid.
Russia’s role in Syria sparked a furious row between Moscow and Paris last week, prompting Putin to cancel a visit to France that had been set for Wednesday.

International aid groups including the Red Cross said Tuesday they were preparing for the possible use of chemical weapons in the battle for the Iraq city of Mosul.
Iraqi forces backed by an international coalition are making gains in their advance on the city, the last major urban centre in Iraq under the Islamic State (IS) group’s control.
There have been warnings the battle to take Mosul will be a long, bloody affair, with the jihadists expected to fight back with hit-and-run tactics, snipers, booby traps and and trenches.
Robert Mardini of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC) Near and Middle East division warned: “We cannot exclude the use… of chemical weapons.”
He told reporters the ICRC was preparing by training healthcare workers and providing equipment to health facilities around Mosul “that would be able to absorb the cases of people contaminated and offer decontamination.”
“As we speak, we have a team in Iraq liaising with the health authorities and working hand-in-hand with health personnel in Iraq in order to develop this response capacity,” he said.
Thomas Lothar Weiss, who heads the International Organization for Migration’s Iraq mission, also voiced fears that chemical weapons might be used in Mosul, pointing to recent reports IS had used them nearby against Kurdish peshmerga forces.
“We also fear, and there has been some evidence that ISIL might be using chemical weapons,” he told the Geneva news conference, via phone link from Baghdad, using another acronym for IS.
He acknowledged that the organisation had “started to procure, within the limits of our very limited funding, … gas masks.”
The start of the assault on Monday has raised deep concerns for hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in Iraq’s second-largest city, with aid groups warning of a massive humanitarian crisis.
The UN fears that up to a million people could be forced from their homes by the fighting, with some 200,000 fleeing during the first weeks of the assault alone.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, said they expected the exodus to begin “any minute now”.
The UN, Red Cross and other aid organisations are racing against the clock to set up camps and get food, water and medical supplies ready for those who flee.
“There are real fears that the offensive to retake Mosul could produce a humanitarian catastrophe, resulting in one of the largest man-made displacement crises in recent years,” warned William Spindler, spokesman for the UN refugee agency.
Mardini urged all sides to “preserve your humanity in the heat of battle” and protect the civilians trapped in the city.
He said the ICRC, which has some 900 staff in Iraq, wanted to maintain dialogue with all parties and to access all areas of detention to ensure prisoners were being treated properly.
He acknowledged that the organisation had so far been unable to create such a relationship with IS, but said it was vital to do so.
“We will do everything we can to establish a dialogue with this group,” he said.

Finally, Ghafla Kenya, one of East Africa’s largest online entertainment websites is set to experience a massive rebranding and rebirth, in a launch ceremony that will take place on Wednesday evening, October 19, 2016.

Started seven years ago, in a bedroom from where it struggled up the ladder with no readership and no clout, Ghafla has now spread her tentacles wide and large network that has readers spread across the entire African continent – and beyond.

Ghafla was the little dream of one ambitious university student named Samuel Majani who saw a vacuum in the provision of local celebrity news and music lyrics online – and then he moved in to fill the void, creating the Ghafla behemoth that today boasts of over millions of monthly readers.

Ghafla founder, Samuel Majani

“I am very proud that Ghafla, which started in a bedroom seven years ago, has now become part of one of the largest African media enterprises. This partnership will give us access to an international audience and ensure that we learn and apply the global expertise that the Ringier team brings with it”, Majani says.

New home

Less than a decade after the site was born, Ghafla has now found a new home in Ringier Digital Media who have partnered with the Kenyan startup and promised to carve it into an even bigger, more balanced, broader and expansive news network that will easily compete with the largest digital platforms from Nigeria to South Africa.

“Working with the Ghafla team, will set standards in the regional media space, offering up-to-date information directly to East Africa’s main media consumption  tool of choice; the mobile phone,” says Tim Kollman, the MD of Ringier Africa.

Initially tailored for the Kenyan audience, with most of the news focusing largely on the Kenyan market and celebrities, the new Ghafla has now moved into deeper waters – casting her net wider and further to encompass not just Kenya but also Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Ethiopia.

Commenting on the exciting Ghafla partnership, Robin Lingg who is the Ringier Africa & Asia CEO said:

“We are excited to welcome Ghafla as partners, seeing potential in the product and its numerous growth opportunities. The inclusion of Ghafla into the Ringier family comes at an exciting time for our publishing company, as we continue to invest in a fast-moving, pioneering, credible and truly pan-African publishing network.”

Media expansion

The new Ghafla, whose brand icon has also changed to feature a ‘Ghafla’ logo with a small ‘g’, will move from disseminating just entertainment and celebrity news to covering broader topics that include politics, sports, science, technology, and lifestyle.

“I could not be happier. I am a huge Ghafla fan. I have been reading Ghafla since 2012. I am basically hooked to you guys. I am also a huge sports fan. I have always said that Ghafla needs to cover sports. I also want to know who is marrying who, who is releasing a new video and also, which team scored against which team and which player was bought. I love the new Ghafla and cannot wait to have my daily dose of everything all under one roof … “, says Martin Kinyua, an avid Ghafla reader and subscriber.

To cater for this broader market, the new Ghafla management has also hired highly skilled new talents who come with great knowledge and expertise in news dissemination and analysis.

“I used to cover politics at my former employer. It is fun. I am a huge politics enthusiast and I know Kenyans are extremely keen on politics. I am glad I can cover that for Ghafla as well… It is exciting and thrilling… It is really what I dreamed of, and exactly what i am doing right now…, “ says Dennis Tarus, one of Ghafla’s new writers.

Ghafla also promises to have a stronger focus on breaking news as it plans to have writers on board as it seeks to disseminate breaking news at it happens.

Grand launch

The big launch tomorrow, which is expected to start at 6pm in the evening, will feature a galaxy of some of the biggest and most powerful local celebrities and stars from all facets of entertainment.

Representatives from some of the biggest local brands will be in the house too for a dazzling night of festivities, music, laughter, networking, sumptuous foods, drinks and fine wine.

“I am honored to be invited. I have been a Ghafla fan for the longest time. I have always appreciated the positive coverage that Ghafla has always given me and the role the blog has played in furthering my career. Looking forward to the wonderful evening tomorrow. Na mjue nitawalambaaa…. Nitawamooodaaa wote. Waambie ivo… “, Shaniqwa, one of Kenya’s biggest comedy stars, said.

As for those that love their tipple, as much as yours truly does, Brew Bistro Lounge, one of the most accomplished beer manufacturers in East Africa, will be in the house helping to quench the thirst of all the esteemed guests.

The Wine Shop too will be very much represented for those that love to wash down some spicy chicken wings with some smooth,soothing wine.

It wil certainly be one of the biggest entertainment launch events of the year and DJ Joe Mfalme will be on the decks. We just cannot wait.

Slain rap legend Tupac Shakur and emblematic grunge-era rockers Pearl Jam were nominated Tuesday to enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in a field that includes Depeche Mode and Joan Baez.
Of the 19 acts in running for induction in 2017, Pearl Jam and Tupac were the only ones who were eligible this year for the first time.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which will announce the winners in December, is open to artists who released their first single or album at least 25 years ago.
Tupac, who was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996, remains one of the top artists in the hip-hop canon, winning a global following with his lyrical directness and dramatic flair.
Pearl Jam, still active with a loyal fan base, emerged as one of the biggest forces in the US alternative music boom of the early 1990s, bringing frontman Eddie Vedder’s raw edge to classic rock.
Pearl Jam also made headlines for its activism, with Vedder upfront about his left-leaning politics and the band boycotting ticket giant Ticketmaster over charges passed on to customers.
Nirvana, the fellow Seattle grunge rockers often seen as Pearl Jam’s rivals with an angrier, more anguished sound, were inducted in 2014, which was Nirvana’s first year of eligibility.
Tupac’s nomination came a year after the Hall of Fame added N.W.A., fellow gangsta rappers from the Los Angeles area known for their loaded denunciations of police brutality.
Janet Jackson, the pop superstar and sister of late king of pop Michael Jackson, was in the running for the second straight year.
Other repeat nominees included “queen of funk” Chaka Khan; The Cars, who defined the New Wave sound of classic pop melodies and synthesizers; and Chic, the disco titans led by prolific producer Nile Rodgers who have been nominated a record 11 times without winning.
In addition to Pearl Jam and Tupac, seven acts were nominated for the first time — Baez, Bad Brains, Depeche Mode, Electric Light Orchestra, Jane’s Addiction, Journey and Steppenwolf.
Depeche Mode straddled mainstream and underground audiences in the 1980s with a string of synthpop hits.
Keyboardist and principal songwriter Martin Gore, speaking to AFP last week to announce Depeche Mode’s latest album, said that the English band “helped to make electronic music acceptable.”
Baez is one of the most recognizable US folk singers, an early voice of 1960s counterculture who has steadfastly fought for causes including the environment and non-violence.
She is a close associate of Bob Dylan, another folk icon who was inducted in 1988 and last week was the surprise winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Jane’s Addiction, like Pearl Jam, was a leader of the alternative rock era but the Los Angeles band was much darker, with heavy-edged tracks that referenced serial killers and deviant sex.
Frontman Perry Farrell helped bring alternative culture into the mainstream by creating Lollapalooza, envisioned as a traveling counterculture festival but now held each year in Chicago and internationally.
Bad Brains would be the first act in the Hall of Fame from the hardcore scene, the aggressive and proudly non-commercial punk movement that emerged in the United States in the 1980s.
Washington-based Bad Brains were a rare African American group in punk and eventually shifted to reggae after embracing Rastafarianism.
Bluesy rockers Steppenwolf are most identified with the high-octane 1968 motorcycle theme “Born to Be Wild,” which coined the term “heavy metal.”
Electric Light Orchestra is the most experimental of the new nominees, incorporating symphonic structures and science fiction themes, while Journey is a favorite of US mainstream radio and sports arenas with “Don’t Stop Believin'” and other guitar anthems.
The other repeat nominees are “Centerfold” rockers The J. Geils Band, late soul singer Joe Tex, German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk, left-wing Detroit rockers MC5, British Invasion-era group The Zombies and art rockers Yes.
The Hall of Fame will survey more than 800 music industry experts and add one ballot for fans, who can vote online through December 5.
For the second successive year, the Cleveland-based institution will hold its induction ceremony in New York, with winners to appear at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in April.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Tuesday the demolition of the “Jungle” migrant camp in Calais would take place “within days” after a court rejected a last-ditch bid by charities to block it.
Cazeneuve told parliament that talks with Britain on taking in some of the hundreds of unaccompanied minors living in the camp that want to join relatives across the Channel were “proceeding very smoothly”.
A group of 14 teenagers arrived in Britain on Monday, with dozens more set to follow in the coming days as French authorities prepare to bulldoze the camp in northern France.
Cazeneuve pledged that all remaining migrants at the site, currently occupied by around 5,700 people according to official figures, would be given “dignified” shelter.
Earlier Tuesday, a group of French charities failed in their last-ditch legal bid to save the camp, which has been a magnet for migrants trying to reach Britain by stowing away on trucks heading across the Channel from Calais.
A court in the nearby city of Lille rejected their claim that dismantling the Jungle’s maze of shacks and tents was “an attack on the fundamental rights” of the migrants there, mostly Iraqis, Afghans and Sudanese.
The court ruled that the evacuation was intended to end the “inhumane and degrading” conditions they endured, by moving them to shelters around the country.
Under pressure to relieve pressure on Calais, French President Francois Hollande last month vowed to close down the Jungle by the end of the year.
Several sources have told AFP the operation could start next week.
The camp’s demolition will remove a source of embarrassment for the Socialist government and will be welcomed by truck drivers and the port operator.
Crime has also flourished in the makeshift settlement.
A female interpreter was raped while working with a television journalist in the camp on Monday night, investigators said.
The pair, who were working for France 5, were attacked by three knife-wielding Afghans, one of whom forced the woman — who is also of Afghan origin — into having sex, the prosecutor’s office in nearby Boulogne-sur-Mer said.
A search was under way Tuesday for the suspects.
At another, smaller camp some 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Calais, a migrant died on Tuesday from his injuries a day after a clash erupted between groups from Ethiopia and Sudan, local authorities said.
While the man’s death was the first in the Norrent-Fontes camp, home to some 150 to 200 people, the Jungle has seen similar fatalities in recent months.
Most of the 33 migrant deaths in the Calais region since January 2015 have been caused by road accidents, with many losing their lives as they attempted to climb onto lorries heading towards Britain under cover of night.
The Jungle has been a constant source of tension between France and Britain.
The pace of transfer of child migrants to Britain picked up this week after Paris demanded that London show more solidarity with minors who make the perilous journey to Europe alone, in the hope of joining relatives across the Channel.
But the French government’s relocation plan still faces challenges at home, with residents of several towns and villages chosen to host migrants protesting at their impending arrival.
A shelter in Forges-les-Bains, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of Paris, was torched last month to try to thwart the arrival of a group of Afghans.
Two other centres — one in the southeast of the country and one in the west — have been targeted by gunshots this month.

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique insists he will not reverse his decision to retire from international football after the 2018 World Cup.
Pique announced his intention to leave La Roja after having to demonstrate he did not cut the colours of the Spanish flag off his kit during a 2-0 win in Albania last week.
The absurd incident was the latest in a string of accusations concerning Pique’s commitment to play for Spain due to his outspoken calls for a referendum on Catalan independence.
“The decision is final. Events in Albania brought it forward, I didn’t want to say it at that time, but I came out annoyed by the story that was proven to be false and felt I had to say it.”
Pique was routinely jeered when playing for the national team on home soil in the build-up to Euro 2016 in part for his political views, but also for his role is stoking the fierce rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
However, after winning the World Cup in 2010 and Euro 2012 with Spain, he insisted his decision to retire after the World Cup is not due to the treatment he has received.
“I have taken the decision myself because if we qualify I will have been playing with the national team for 10 years, I will be 31, and the time will be right,” he added on Tuesday.
“It is the best option, to step to one side and give the new generation the chance to occupy the space I have.”
Pique even revealed he nearly retired from football completely after the 2014 World Cup due to a lack of motivation.
“After the 2014 World Cup I didn’t have the desire to keep going,” he continued.
“It was a question of motivation, possibly because I won everything very young.”

Belgium on Tuesday charged four people with involvement in terrorism after 15 early morning raids in the northern cities of Ghent, Antwerp and Deinze, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
“Those persons have been indicted for participation in the activities of a terrorist group,” a statement said.
“Some of them are suspected of recruiting people with a view to departing to Syria and joining Islamic State there,” it added.
The prosecutor said no arms or explosives were found and the raids had no immediate connection with the deadly IS-claimed attacks on the Brussels airport and metro which left 32 people dead in March.
In all, 15 people were taken in for questioning initially, the statement added.
Belgium has been on high terror alert since the March attacks which appear to have been organised and carried out by home-grown jihadist extremists.
Some of them, who grew up in central Brussels and were known to the authorities, also took part in the November Paris attacks, which claimed 130 lives and left hundreds injured.
There has been a series of incidents since March despite a much increased security presence on the streets, the latest early this month when two police offers were stabbed in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels.
Prosecutors charged the suspect in that case with “attempted murder in a terrorist context and participation in the activities of a terrorist group.”
Two months earlier, two policewomen were wounded in the southern city of Charleroi by a machete-wielding man who shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).

Five Polish fans and two police officers were injured after clashes before Tuesday’s Champions League game between Real Madrid and Legia Warsaw in the Spanish capital.
The clashes started as fans arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu before kick-off for the Group F game classed as a high-risk fixture by the Spanish authorities.
Some fans hurled objects, including glass bottles and flares, at police, threatening journalists who recorded the skirmishes which lasted half an hour before order was restored.
“There were no arrests,” Spanish police said.
Spanish authorities had been expecting around 3,500 Legia fans to make the trip to the Santiago Bernabeu with 2,000 security personnel employed to police them.
Earlier three Polish football fans were arrested hours before kick-off.
The three detainees, aged 31, 33 and 34, attacked waitresses in a bar in the La Latina district of Madrid, stealing the mobile phone of one woman and attempting to rob cash from the till, a police spokesperson confirmed to AFP.
When police arrived at the scene, they were also confronted by the three fans.
The return match between the sides in two weeks’ time will be played behind closed doors after Legia were sanctioned by UEFA for racist behaviour and fighting among the home fans in Legia’s 6-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund last month.
Legia were also fined 80,000 euros ($90,000) for the incidents.

As Iraqi forces close in on Mosul, trapped civilians report thick smoke enveloping the city’s empty streets as their jihadist rulers attempt to shield themselves from intensifying US-led coalition air strikes.
After more than two years of Islamic State group rule, there is hope but also fear of what lies ahead.
Mosul, a large city split by the Tigris river, is where IS declared its “caliphate” two years ago but is now the jihadists’ last major stronghold in Iraq.
Abu Saif, a 47-year-old former company manager contacted by AFP, said the streets felt eery as fighters and civilians alike stayed indoors.
“The atmosphere in Mosul is strange, the sky is constantly black with smoke from tyres Daesh (IS) lit everywhere,” he said on Tuesday.
“There is also the black smoke from the burning oil in the trenches Daesh dug around the city to hide their members’ movements.
“The streets are empty, the people have been staying at home since the strikes started yesterday,” said Abu Saif, a resident of the eastern half of Mosul.
He said he could hear air strikes and explosions coming from Bartalla, a Christian town just east of Mosul on which Kurdish and federal forces are advancing.
“It seems a lot of Daesh members have already left this side of the city and crossed to the other bank of the river,” Abu Saif said.
Military sources have predicted that east Mosul could be significantly easier to retake than the western half, which is considered the jihadists’ real bastion in the city.
“They still have a lot of snipers perched in high places around here though and we know they have lots of car bombs ready and have planted roadside bombs everywhere,” he said.
Abu Saif, who is now jobless and managed to smuggle his family out of the city earlier this year, said the people around him were torn between the prospect of being freed from the jihadists’ yoke soon and the fear that they will not survive the impending battle.
“There is this happiness inside us besieged people of Mosul, because we feel that we are about to be rescued,” he said.
“But we are scared that Daesh can still carry out acts of revenge against the population.”
As the noose has tightened around Mosul in recent months, IS fighters have executed countless people, including their own, over accusations of spying or collaborating with government forces.
Abu Saif said two people were executed near Al-Zuhoor school as recently as Sunday.
“There is also the fear of all these bombs falling from the sky. People have moved back into the old shelters that were used during the war with Iran in the 80s,” he said.
“Many are also living in their basements, especially in the old part of the city where houses have cellars.”
Abu Saif said that some families were moving in together to share a single home, in an attempt to feel safer and make better use of dwindling food and electricity supplies.
“People are also locking up their belongings, fearing that Daesh could steal them as they flee and also that riots and looting could break out after the liberation,” the father of three said.
Iraqi forces have some way to go before reaching the city proper and senior commanders have warned that the Mosul battle could last weeks or more.

Macedonia on Tuesday officially called for a snap parliamentary election on December 11 to try to end a seething political crisis, after the vote was delayed twice this year.
All four main parties have confirmed they will take part in the election that had been initially planned for April and rescheduled for June before being delayed again over opposition claims that conditions had not been met for a free and fair vote.
The Balkan state has been in deep crisis since February 2015, when leader of the main opposition Social Democrats Zoran Zaev began releasing tapes that appeared to reveal official and widespread wiretapping, including of journalists and politicians.
The tapes also appeared to have uncovered corruption among high-ranking officials, including former conservative prime minister Nikola Gruevski.
He was accused of accepting a 20-million-euro ($22-million) bribe from Chinese firms to grant them motorway construction concessions.
After a string of demonstrations, the European Union stepped in to mediate a deal, urging early elections and an independent probe into the corruption allegations revealed by tapes.
The polls could pull Macedonia out of political crisis provided that “the campaign is fair and elections credible,” EU delegation chief Samuel Zbogar said.
Zbogar said a new government should strive for the urgent, honest and comprehensive implementation of reforms in order to pull Macedonia out of its crisis.
Political leaders had already agreed in August on the December 11 date but the election was officially called on Tuesday by parliamentary speaker Trajko Veljanoski.
Gruevski stepped down in January to make way for the election after 10 years in power.
Macedonia has been a candidate for EU membership since 2005 but has yet to open accession talks.
Regular polls were due in 2018.

‘Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned’ wrote Shakespeare the sage. As it is with most things he has written, he was right.

The new heartbreak in town is that of power teen couple Sean Andrew and Elodie Zone. Kibaki’s grandson and one of the most popular YouTube stars in Kenya had been hailed as a power couple among their age mates given their privileged backgrounds and their influence on Instagram as well as fancy hobbies. While we have been treated to major celebrities heartbreaks, they have mostly been silent affairs  free of the exchange you expect in normal relationships. Think of Betty Kyallo and Dennis Okari, or even Timmy Dat and Kush Tracy, maybe it was because those involved are mature or just perhaps, young love reads like a soap opera script.

When Sean Andrew fired the first shot telling the lady off, it was about 6 weeks ago,

Somehow they must have cooled off things and he back-tracked his comments and as any other man blamed it on a moment of madness.

Then, he was off waxing lyrical about his love.

However, the peace was short-lived and soon the daggers were drawn as the young lovers all turned philosophers on matters of the heart. First, Elodie gave her opinions,

Andrew was back with a reply.

Elodie went into further meditation and came up with a letter to herself

“Dear 6 year old me, 
Never be afraid to let go of pain that you are blinded to see by love. You’re young and talented and you’ve got so much coming your way. In the years to come you will be loved and you will be hated, however you will also feel hatred and even more of love- but be careful. You will soon come to learn just how much of passionate lover you are. Do not be alarmed though, because you will soon come to learn just how different you can be as well. You couldn’t hurt a fly, but you can easily bruise yourself if one doesn’t care for you as you do them. Do not let anyone break your heart because pieces of real art cannot be recreated. 
So dear 6 year old me,
You’re mad! …but I’ll tell you something, all the best people are.”

From here she decided to go full out declaring what many had already filled themselves in, her public endnin of the relationship and her new direction.

Sean Andrew ever the thinker came back with a scathing reply to her idea of empire building that had all their mutual friends accepting it had to burn. Here is his comeback

Elodie was not to be outdone as the exchange quickly degenerated to a rage and hate filled ex lovers spat. She plainly told him he was never part of the gang

This did hurt Sean and he came back more like a mourning RnB singer crooning

And then the rage bust out and he decided to remind his girlfriend her level

Having been quiet so far, Elodie Zone decided to have the last word and this is what she said before taking the post down again.

So at least the beef is over for now but as with many young love instances there are several rounds left.

An Iranian-American businessman, his 80-year-old father and four others have each been given 10 years in prison for espionage, Tehran’s prosecutor said Tuesday.
“Baquer and Siamak Namazi, Farhad Abd-Saleh, Kamran Ghaderi, Nezar Zaka and Alireza Omidvar have been sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage and collaboration with the American government,” said prosecutor-general Abbas Jafari Dolat-Abadi, according to the Fars news agency.
Siamak Namazi, a well-connected business consultant who has supported reformist politicians in Iran, was arrested as he arrived in Tehran a year ago.
His father, Baquer, was detained in February when he came to Iran to seek his son’s release.
He is a former UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) employee and served as a governor of the Iranian province of Khuzestan before the Islamic revolution of 1979.
UNICEF issued a statement last month saying it was “deeply concerned about his health and well-being”.
Zaka is a Lebanese-American who was arrested in November 2015 and accused on state television of “numerous deep links to the US military intelligence community”.
The hardline Kayhan newspaper has described Omidvar as an “associate” of Namazi.
Conservative media have criticised Siamak Namazi’s links to the National Iranian American Council, a Washington-based NGO created by Iranian nationals aimed at boosting ties between the two countries.
At the time of his arrest last year, he was working for Crescent Petroleum, an energy firm based in the United Arab Emirates, which is involved in an ongoing legal dispute with Iran over a failed gas deal, and is seeking billions of dollars in compensation.
Video footage of Namazi’s arrest was published by Mizan, which is linked to the judiciary, earlier this week.
It was presented with dramatic music alongside images of his US passport and shots of Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian who spent two years in prison on espionage charges.
Mizan published a long article in February, criticising the Namazi family’s efforts to “influence internal events in Iran” through its financial contributions to NGOs.
It also criticised their role in promoting ties between Iranian and Western businesses during the rule of reformist president Mohammad Khatami.
Rezaian was released in January at the same time as a nuclear accord with world powers came into force, lifting sanctions on Iran.
Washington helped to airlift $400 million worth of Swiss francs and euros to Iran shortly afterwards — part of the money owed by the US because it cancelled defence sales at the time of the revolution.
The White House has denied accusations from hardline critics that this amounted to a hostage ransom for Rezaian and four others released at the same time.

Europe faces a new influx of Islamic State jihadists if Iraqi forces retake the group’s stronghold Mosul, officials and analysts warned Tuesday, adding to fears on a continent battered by a string of Islamist attacks.
Thousands of Europeans have left for Iraq and Syria over the last two years to wage jihad, but after the IS suffered a string of territorial defeats this year in both countries, some of its fighters have begun returning to the continent.
As Iraqi forces press their offensive in Mosul, the “caliphate” declared two years ago by the IS, experts urged Europe to prepare itself for more battle-hardened jihadists ready to launch attacks back home.
“The retaking of the IS’ northern Iraq stronghold, Mosul, may lead to the return to Europe of violent IS fighters,” the EU’s commissioner for security Julian King told German daily Die Welt.
King thought it was unlikely that there would be a mass exodus of IS fighters from Mosul to Europe but he stressed that even a handful of jihadists returning would pose a “serious threat that we must prepare ourselves for”.
Around 2,500 European fighters are still in the conflict zones, said King.
The IS may become less appealing to potential recruits if its Iraqi stronghold were to crumble, but fighters left without a “home” would pose dangers for the West, said Raffaello Pantucci, Director of International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute.
“Rudderless but without a sense of revolutionary purpose, they will present a menace to security officials around the world for years to come,” he wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
The IS group “has shown a capacity to send fighters back hidden among the refugees coming to Europe. If it is threatened in Iraq and Syria it may step up the number of those ‘returnees’ to establish networks or even launch attacks,” he warned.
The IS is “entering a new phase,” said Chris Phillips, managing director of counter-terrorism consultancy Ippso, adding that as the group loses its “caliphate”, “it would force them into more guerrilla or terrorist actions”.
With the retaking of Mosul, “I think we will see a growth of terrorist attacks across North Africa and the West,” he said, adding that fighters could take cover in the routes used by refugees to slip in.
A French security source said anti-IS coalition forces must do everything to trap the jihadists in Mosul, and prevent them from seeking refuge elsewhere.
The threat posed by returnees is wider than Europe and extends also to Russia as well as North African and South-East Asian nations, experts said.
A French security source noted that although around 400 French nationals are still in the war zones, “that significant contingent should be taken in perspective compared to the Chechens for instance.”
Thousands of Tunisians have also fought for the IS, making them the biggest group by nationality.
France is particularly jittery about potential Islamist returnees, as it has been hit by several terror attacks, including the November 13 assault in Paris in which jihadists coming back to Europe from Syria claimed 130 lives.
More than 10 officers are needed to monitor each returnee around the clock — resources that overstretched European security agencies simply do not have, security sources said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault also pointed to the “very difficult work of deradicalisation” to set back on the right track children who had been taken by their jihadist parents to Syria or Iraq, but who return radicalised.
In Germany, which took in around 900,000 asylum seekers last year along, skepticism is running high over the newcomers particularly after two attacks in July committed by refugees in the name of the IS group.
The country’s head of the domestic spy agency, Hans-Georg Maassen, has raised the spectre of another problem — that of the radicalisation of newcomers to Germany.
Some 340 cases have already been recorded of Islamists posing as aid workers to gain access to asylum seekers in shelters, he said, but noted that the actual number could be far bigger.

A new row erupted Tuesday over Austria’s plans to demolish the house where Adolf Hitler was born, with experts saying they opposed its destruction only a day after a decision was announced.
After a lengthy legal battle with the current owner, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said Monday the listed property in the northern town of Braunau would be “torn down” to stop it from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine.
A new building on the site would be used by a charity or the local authorities, he told Austrian media.
Sobotka said the decision was based on recommendations from an expert committee.
But several of the 13-member panel denied Tuesday that the commission had backed the push to bulldoze the yellow corner house where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889.
“The demolition option had been explicitly mentioned in the (government’s) proposal and was not approved by us,” said Clemens Jabloner, the ex-president of Austria’s highest administrative court, in a joint statement with historian Oliver Rathkolb.
Instead, the committee had suggested a “profound architectural redesign”.
“A demolition would amount to negating Austria’s Nazi past,” the pair said.
Responding to the criticism, Sobotka on Tuesday insisted the main goal was to destroy any “resemblance” to the current house, “especially its outer appearance”.
Whether this process would an involve an actual demolition could be discussed, he told journalists in Vienna.
A copy of the commission’s report showed the experts had been “against leaving an empty space instead of a building”.
“A complete transformation or removal of the building is in principle suited to erase the place’s ideological connotation and dissolve the emotional ties with Hitler. But… a historical contextualisation remains necessary,” the report read.
Although Hitler only spent the first few weeks of his life at Number 15 Salzburger Vorstadt Street, the address has been a thorn in Austria’s side for decades, drawing Nazi sympathisers from around the world.
Every year on Hitler’s birthday, anti-fascist protesters organise a rally outside the building, next to a memorial stone reading: “For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism, Millions of Dead Warn.”
The dilapidated property in the historic town centre has been empty since 2011 when the government became embroiled in a dispute with owner and local resident Gerlinde Pommer.
Her family has owned the 800-square-metre (8,600-feet) building for more than a century, except for a brief period during the Nazi regime.
In 1972, the Austrian government signed a lease with Pommer and turned the premises into a centre for people with disabilities.
But the arrangement came to an abrupt end five years ago when Pommer refused to grant permission for much-needed renovation works.
The famously elusive owner also rejected a purchase offer made by the increasingly exasperated interior ministry.
In July, the government approved a legislation amendment to seize the house from Pommer who continues to net 4,800 euros (around $5,300) in rent every month.
The expropriation bill, which includes compensation for Pommer, was to be debated in parliament later Tuesday.
Sobotka earlier said it could enter into force by the end of the year.