Month: November 2016

Real Madrid’s lead at the top of La Liga continues to grow as they edged past Sporting Gijon, whilst Barcelona were thoroughly outplayed in a 1-1 draw at Real Sociedad.
Here, AFP Sports looks at five things we learned from week 13 in La Liga.
Barca’s Sociedad curse continues
After years of feeling hard done by on their trips to San Sebastian, Barca finally had luck on their side despite their winless streak at Anoeta stretching to eight games over the past nine years.
Barca boss Luis Enrique described the result as a “miracle” given Sociedad’s dominance against an unrecognisable Catalan outfit.
One moment of magic as Neymar teed up Lionel Messi to salvage the champions, but they will need a huge improvement to cut into Real Madrid’s six-point lead at the top when the two meet in El Clasico next weekend.
Real Madrid routinely winning ugly
Real were also off colour on Saturday but extend their lead gap despite a performance so bad even coach Zinedine Zidane admitted it was one to “forget” as “a bit of everything went wrong.”
A 2-1 win over a Sporting Gijon side now 10 games without a win was secured only thanks to a missed Duje Cop penalty 12 minutes from time.
Yet, in a recurring theme of the season Madrid bagged another three points to go along with performances against Celta Vigo, Athletic Bilbao and Leganes where victory has been secured without a stellar display.
Whether Zinedine Zidane’s men are merely showing the resistence of champions or headed for a fall after a 31-game unbeaten run will be truly tested next weekend.
Old school Atletico
Back-to-back league defeats for the first time in four years and a first ever run of five La Liga games without a clean sheet forced Atletico boss Diego Simeone to go back to basics.
The Argentine’s success over the past five years has been built on rock solid foundations and in attempting to develop a more attacking edge this season some of that solidity has been lost.
For a 2-0 Champions League win over PSV in midweek and Sunday’s 3-0 romp at Osasuna, veteran Tiago was recalled to the midfield, whilst Jose Maria Gimenez renewed his partnership with Diego Godin at the heart of the defence.
Two wins and two clean sheets have Atletico back to what they know best under Simeone.
Wheels come off at Villarreal
Other than Real Madrid, Villarreal were the last team to taste defeat in La Liga this season.
But since a nine-game unbeaten run came to an end at Eibar on October 30, they have lost three of their last four.
Villarreal’s realistic hopes of Champions League football for next season is to beat out high-flying Sevilla to fourth place, but Sunday’s shock 2-0 home defeat by Alaves leaves them already five points adrift of the Europa League holders.
Hapless bottom four salvaging Valencia
Valencia were beaten again, 2=1 at Sevilla, but remain two points above the relegation zone thanks to the incompetence of those below them.
Defeats for Deportivo la Coruna, Sporting Gijon, Osasuna and Granada this weekend means they have won just a combined five of 52 Liga matches this season, the last of which came on October 17.

The two candidates in Austria’s longest ever presidential race clashed Sunday over the European Union, Donald Trump, and migrants as they faced off in a TV duel a week before the runoff.
Greens-backed contender Alexander Van der Bellen accused his far-right rival Norbert Hofer of stirring insecurity by threatening to pull Austria out of the EU.
Hofer of the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe) has said he would call a referendum on EU membership if Turkey joined the 28-member club or if Brussels tried to centralise power further.
“The FPOe has been toying with Austria’s exit for 20 years. Many politicians in Europe are worried that the mere speculation could trigger… an avalanche of right-wing populism,” said 72-year-old Van der Bellen during the live debate broadcast on private channel ATV.
“The most important thing is the solidarity between member states, otherwise we won’t be able to assert ourselves in the face of Russia or the United States.”
But Hofer, 45, dismissed the allegations as media-led “scare-mongering”.
“There won’t be an ‘Oexit’. I’ve repeatedly said that I want a positive development of the EU,” he said.
While Van der Bellen stressed Austria’s important relationship with its largest trade partner Germany, Hofer vowed to seek closer ties with eastern and central European neighbours and, primarily, Russia.
He denounced German Chancellor Angela Merkel for “causing serious damage to Europe” with her open-door policy, which he said has allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants “including terrorists to trek through Austria” since last year.
Hofer also attacked Van der Bellen for criticising the US election win of Donald Trump.
“It is not clever to describe a president as a rabble rouser,” he said.
Van der Bellen hit back saying politicians across Europe felt “anxious” about the arrival of a US president-elect who has been accused of sexist attacks on women and threatening the rights of minorities.
Like Trump as well as other populist groups in Europe, the FPOe has boosted support by stoking concerns about immigration and what it portrays as an out-of-touch elite.
Hofer hopes to become the EU’s first far-right head of state on December 4, after nearly 350 days of campaigning.
In May, he lost by a paper-thin margin to Van der Bellen, but the FPOe got the result overturned due to procedural errors. A re-run set for October was again postponed because of faulty glue on postal vote envelopes.
Opinion polls suggest next Sunday’s race is too close to call.
Hofer said he would not contest the outcome this time.
“It won’t happen again, I can guarantee it. The whole world will be watching us,” said Hofer.
The largely ceremonial role of president still carries considerable cachet, and Hofer’s win would likely be a major boost to the far-right both in Austria and further afield.

Barcelona’s winless streak at Real Sociedad stretched to eight games as the Spanish champions were outplayed in a 1-1 draw on Sunday that leaves them six points adrift of La Liga leaders Real Madrid.
A sumptuous finish from Lionel Messi spared Barca’s blushes after Willian Jose had headed Sociedad into a deserved lead just after half-time.
And Barca were fortunate to escape without a fifth consecutive league defeat in San Sebastian as Carlos Vela hit the woodwork twice and Juanmi’s header was wrongly ruled out for offside.
“It is almost a miracle that we took a point,” Barca boss Luis Enrique told BeIN Sports Spain.
“Real Sociedad were infinitely better than us with and without the ball. They won all the battles.”
A point is enough to move Barca up to second, but they now desperately need to beat Madrid in the first El Clasico of the season at the Camp Nou on Saturday.
Earlier, Atletico Madrid got back to winning ways and moved back into the top four as goals from Diego Godin, Kevin Gameiro and Yannick Carrasco ensured a comfortable 3-0 win at Osasuna.
Barcelona still haven’t won in San Sebastian since 2007, but were grateful for the point as Sociedad failed to cash in on their superiority.
“Playing like this it will be very difficult to win the league,” added Barca defender Gerard Pique.
Xabi Prieto headed a guilt-edged chance wide, whilst Vela also fired off target when well-placed inside the area before the break.
The visitors’ first effort on target came on 50 minutes when Geronimo Rulli turned behind Neymar’s free-kick.
However, Sociedad went in front three minutes later when Pique, who played on in the second-half with a severely strapped ankle, could only slash Jose’s effort into his own net after Marc-Andre ter Stegen had blocked Vela’s initial effort.
Neymar started up front for Barca despite suffering a minor car accident in his Ferrari on Sunday morning.
And the Brazilian finally kickstarted a lame Barca display six minutes later as he burst down the left and crossed for Messi to apply a characteristically clinical finish for his 19th goal in 16 games this season.
Sociedad were cruelly denied 14 minutes from time when a wonderful hit by Vela came back off the underside of the bar and substitute Juanmi’s finish from the rebound was wrongly ruled out for offside.
Asier Illarramendi then cleared off the line from Denis Suarez at the other end before Vela struck the woodwork again with a low effort that clipped the post in a frantic finale.
Atletico had suffered back-to-back La Liga defeats for the first time in four years at the hands of Sociedad and Real Madrid in recent weeks.
However, they never looked in danger after Jan Oblak had saved Roberto Torres’s penalty with the scores still level at 0-0.
Godin nodded home Koke’s corner nine minutes before half-time and almost straight from kick-off Angel Correa released Gameiro to double Atletico’s lead.
Substitute Carrasco rounded off the scoring with his eighth goal of the season in stoppage time.
“It was a very important game for us for the way in which we ended up playing,” said Atletico coach Diego Simeone.
Atletico leapfrog Villarreal, who earlier lost 2-0 at home to Alaves, into fourth and move back to within nine points of Real Madrid.
“Oblak was decisive with the penalty save and after Godin’s goal we felt more comfortable,” added Simeone.
“In the second half we were a lot more organised and had more of a collective effort which allowed us to kill off the game.”
Granada remain winless and rooted to the bottom after a 3-1 defeat at Celta Vigo.

Paris Saint-Germain closed to within a point of leaders Nice in Ligue 1 on Sunday as Edinson Cavani’s brace secured an impressive 2-1 win away to Lyon.
Cavani opened the scoring with a penalty only for Mathieu Valbuena to equalise, but the Uruguayan headed in the winner nine minutes from time for his 18th goal of the season in all competitions.
Nice, who were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Bastia earlier in the day, finish the weekend where they started it, on top of the table, but they are now only a single point better off than in-form Monaco and Paris.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy here but we ended up winning. I think our experience made the difference,” PSG midfielder Blaise Matuidi told Canal Plus.
PSG had Serge Aurier back in the side after he missed the midweek Champions League trip to Arsenal as British authorities barred the Ivorian international from entering the United Kingdom due to a recent conviction for assaulting a police officer.
They went in front at the Parc OL on the half-hour mark as Cavani netted from the penalty spot after Rafael was penalised for kicking Thiago Motta in the area.
Lyon were poor in the first half but coach Bruno Genesio sent on Valbuena and Nabil Fekir at the restart and was rewarded with an equaliser in the 48th minute.
Rafael cut in from the right and curled a shot off the far post, but the ball fell to France midfielder Valbuena, who converted for his first Ligue 1 goal in more than a year.
However, Paris showed great resolve to go on and win the game, substitute Thomas Meunier breaking forward down the right with Aurier and crossing for Cavani to head in at the back post.
The Uruguayan now has 13 league goals this season and 99 goals in total for the club he joined from Napoli in 2013.
An improving PSG are unbeaten in their last 11 games in all competitions and are turning up the pressure on Nice, as are Monaco, who beat Marseille 4-0 on Saturday.
Nice were again missing Mario Balotelli against Bastia due to a calf injury but they went in front at the Allianz Riviera when top scorer Alassane Plea headed in his eighth of the season early on.
However, struggling Bastia — who had not won any of their previous six league outings — equalised on the hour as Enzo Crivelli followed up to score after goalkeeper Yoan Cardinale had come out and saved from Yannick Cahuzac.
Nice still could have taken all three points but Malang Sarr headed against the post from a Jean Michael Seri free-kick and Plea rounded goalkeeper Jean-Louis Leca only to hit the bar with his shot three minutes from the end.
“We didn’t get the breaks that have helped us before when we have not played so well,” admitted Nice coach Lucien Favre.
“We scored quite early on and then, maybe subconsciously, we started to relax.
“All our matches against teams towards the bottom of the table have been difficult.”
Saint-Etienne won 2-1 at Angers earlier in the day to go eighth.
There is more action in France in midweek, with Monaco at Dijon on Tuesday before Nice visit Guingamp and PSG entertain Angers on Wednesday evening.

Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha has swapped his international allegiance from England to the Ivory Coast, where he was born, the Ivorian Football Federation (FIF) said on Sunday.
Zaha, 24, was born in Abidjan but appeared in two friendlies for England under former Three Lions’ boss Roy Hodgson, making his debut against Sweden in November 2012.
The FIF said Zaha had passed on his decision after several weeks of contact with the player and had personally informed FIF president Augustin Sidy Diallo and ‘Elephants’ coach Michel Dussuyer of his switch.
Zaha, who moved to England as a small child, joined the Palace academy aged 12 and had a short spell with Manchester United, has also informed world governing body FIFA of his decision.

A quickfire brace from Giovanni Simeone, the son of Atletico Madrid coach Diego, carved the Serie A title race open on Sunday as Genoa claimed a stunning 3-1 win over leaders Juventus.
Juve’s third defeat of a season in which they are hoping to secure a record sixth consecutive ‘scudetto’ left the Turin giants just four points ahead of Roma, 3-2 winners over Pescara thanks to an Edin Dzeko brace, and on-form AC, who beat Empoli 4-1 away on Saturday.
Coach Massimiliano Allegri admitted the defeat was a blow in a game that saw Leonardo Bonucci and Dani Alves added to the club’s lengthy injury list, Alves notably suffering a fractured shin that could rule him out for several months.
“It’s a blow and has brought us back to earth with a bump,” said Allegri of the champions’ third defeat of the campaign.
“I’m angry, but no team is capable of winning all the time.”
Juventus travelled to the Luigi Ferraris Stadium without a number of key players, with forwards Paulo Dybala and Marko Pjaca and defender Andrea Barzagli notably all in the treatment room.
Experienced defender Giorgio Chiellini was only fit enoug for the bench, meaning a start in the back three for Swiss wing-back Stephan Lichtsteiner.
With Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain in the same straits due to a muscle problem, Allegri was forced to play Juan Cuadrado up front alongside Mario Mandzukic.
Genoa sensed an upset, and were 2-0 up by the 13th minute thanks to a fine Simeone double.
“We’re delighted to have beaten the strongest team in Italy, it gives you a special kind of satisfaction,” said Genoa coach Ivan Juric.
“We had a great game and everyone was completely focused. I want us to kick on from this and have more confidence in ourselves.”
For the opener, Lichtsteiner was outfoxed by Diego Laxalt in midfield and the fleet-footed Uruguayan motored away to set up Luca Rigoni for a drive that Gianluigi Buffon did well to parry.
Lucas Ocampos was quick to the rebound and when Buffon stopped the ball again, Simeone pounced to beat the keeper at the second time of asking.
When Simeone was left unmarked on the edge of the box the 21-year-old Argentine ran in to direct a diving header past Buffon from Darko Lazovic’s pinpoint delivery.
A nervous Juve conceded a third before the half-hour when Rigoni’s volley from a chaotic corner was hit past Buffon and into the net by Alex Sandro for an own goal.
Juve avoided a total whitewash when Miralem Pjanic stepped up to curl a superb free-kick past Mattia Perin eight minutes from the end.
Elsewhere Crotone moved off bottom spot thanks to a 1-1 home draw with Sampdoria, thanks also to Palermo’s earlier 1-0 defeat to Lazio that sent the Sicilians to rock bottom.
Lazio are up to third, just five points behind Juve, ahead of next week’s derby with Roma.
Coach Simone Inzaghi said thoughts of a derby win had inspired them on their way to a dominant, 1-0 win provided by Sergej Milinkovic-savic’s 31st minute winner.
“It had an effect on us, for sure,” he said. “Our fans expect a lot from us next week so we went out to prepare.”
Roma raced to a 2-0 lead at the Stadio Olimpico thanks to a Dzeko brace in the space of three minutes that took his league-leading tally to 12, two ahead of Torino’s Andrea Belotti and Inter’s Mauro Icardi.
But a 60th minute strike from Ledian Memushaj reduced arrears and after Diego Perotti hit a 71st minte third from the spot, Pescara set up a tight, nervous finale after Gianluca Caprari struck their second only three minutes later.
On Monday, Napoli will look to close their nine-point gap to Juve when they host Sassuolo, while Inter Milan host Fiorentina.

Federico Delbonis swept aside Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in Sunday’s deciding rubber as Argentina clinched a first Davis Cup title with a stunning fightback in Zagreb.
Juan Martin del Potro, cheered on by Argentine football legend Diego Maradona, staged an incredible comeback from two sets down to beat Marin Cilic in the opening reverse singles to level the tie at 2-2.
Left-hander Delbonis then tamed the big-serving Karlovic as Argentina, runners-up on four previous occasions, became just the 15th country to lift the trophy in 116 years.
“This is one of those dreams that has come true,” said Delbonis.
“I tried to keep focused to do what I had to do, that’s all I could think because if I thought about anything else it would be a disaster.”
Argentina coach Daniel Orsanic added: “The guys were amazing today. Juan Martin won an incredible match and Federico played the match of his life.”
Delbonis was beaten by Cilic in five sets in Friday’s first singles match but blew away the 37-year-old Karlovic, an opponent ranked 21 places above him, in just over two hours.
The world number 41 broke Karlovic — the oldest player to feature in a Davis Cup singles match since 43-year-old Australian Norman Brookes in 1920 — four times to help Argentina banish the memories of losing finals appearances in 1981, 2006, 2008 and 2011.
But much of the credit will go to Del Potro after the Olympic silver medallist, who missed the majority of 2014 and 2015 through injury, outlasted Cilic in an epic five-hour battle of former US Open champions.
“I was positive all the time and did not let my head drop after going two sets down,” said Del Potro.
“This was an emotionally exhausting match and one of the biggest wins of my career.”
Del Potro had defeated Cilic in eight of 10 previous meetings, but Sunday’s clash was the first since 2013 and the Croat was invigorated by an animated Zagreb Arena crowd.
Sixth-ranked Cilic dominated a first set tie-break, winning the first five points to seize control, and then broke Del Potro’s serve twice in succession in the second set to move Croatia within sight of a second title.
But Del Potro, who rallied from behind to overcome Andy Murray in a five-set epic in the semi-final, displayed more remarkable resilience and produced an outrageous ‘tweener’ to begin the third set.
Cilic fought off two early break points but then succumbed to nerves as the finish line approached, falling 0-40 behind on serve at 5-6, and Del Potro pounced at the third opportunity to reignite his country’s hopes.
Del Potro’s blistering forehand piled the pressure on Cilic, and the Argentine sent the match to a fifth set by converting his third set point after his opponent again faltered on serve at 5-4.
Del Potro committed a costly double fault to gift Cilic the advantage at the start of the deciding set, but the world number 38 hit straight back in the following game to level.
The Argentine then conjured up a pair of break points at 4-3 with a miscued forehand from Cilic paving the way for Del Potro to complete a stunning fightback — his first ever from two sets down — in four hours and 53 minutes.
“It?s a very hard defeat to take,” said Cilic.
“I am very disappointed but I have no regrets because I gave all I had and it was just one of those days when it didn?t come off.”

Francois Fillon, the candidate who will represent the French right in next year’s presidential election, is a free-market reformer, devout Catholic and motor sport fan who has promised to transform France.
Fillon, 62, has professed admiration for Britain’s 1980s prime minister Margaret Thatcher and vowed to slash public spending to shrink the French state.
“You have to tear the house down to properly rebuild it,” he has said.
The new flag-bearer of French conservatives came from behind a week ago to establish himself as the new champion of the right.
On Sunday, he confirmed his supremacy, beating fellow former prime minister Alain Juppe, 71, in a US-style primary to win the nomination of the Republicans party and its allies.
“France has never been more right-wing,” Fillon, who was a voice of moderation as premier under Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012 but has since shifted to the right, declared this week.
For too long traditionalists had been stereotyped as “reactionaries nostalgic for a musty France”, he said.
The unflappable father of five who himself admitted in a M6 television interview he had a “boring image” has emerged as the right’s best hope to retake power after five years of Socialist rule.
Polls show him likely to go head-to-head with Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front (FN), in the second round of the election in May.
In the first round of the primary on November 20, Fillon took more than double the votes garnered by Sarkozy, who once dismissed him as a “Mr Nobody”.
Perhaps because of his understated style, Fillon was not taken seriously until his late acceleration in the two-month primary campaign.
An amateur rally driver who was born in Le Mans, home of the world-renowned 24-hour race, he himself had always predicted he would make the final.
After a series of assured performances in TV debates, voters swung in behind him as an alternative to the divisive Sarkozy and to Juppe, seen by many as lacking reformist zeal.
Fillon has pledged radical changes to kickstart the ailing French economy and drive down unemployment stuck at around 10 percent.
He has pledged to scrap the 35-hour week, one of the sacred cows of the French left.
He has also pledged to slash an eye-popping 500,000 jobs from the public sector — reforms criticised by Juppe and other opponents as too brutal.
“I’m tagged with the label of an (economic) liberal in the same way they would daub crosses on the doors of lepers in the Middle Ages,” Fillon has joked.
He argues he is merely “a pragmatist”.
Fillon is a practising Catholic who has been married to his Welsh wife Penelope for more than 30 years and lives in a 12th century manor house near Le Mans.
He voted against gay marriage when it was introduced by Socialist President Francois Hollande and has said he wants to amend the 2013 law to partly repeal gay adoption rights.
His views on abortion — he is personally opposed but says he will not change the law or funding for it — have also been in the spotlight.
“My conscience is my business,” he declared.
Fillon also took a harder line on questions of identity and Islam that dominated the primary after a string of jihadist attacks in France.
He penned a book over the summer called “Defeating Islamic Totalitarianism” and believes “there is a problem linked to Islam” in France after a series of attacks by homegrown jihadists.
“No, France is not a multicultural country. France has a history, a language and a culture which have naturally been enriched from outside,” Fillon said on Thursday.
The self-declared “Gaullist” — a form of nationalism that proposes an independent and strong France — has been in politics for around 40 years.
He formed a bond with Russian President Vladimir Putin when both men overlapped as prime ministers from 2008-2012 and their closeness has led to questions about his foreign policy.
Fillon maintains that France must keep its alliance with the United States but also restore ties with Moscow, which he sees as central to resolving the conflict in Syria.
“The question is: must we continue to provoke the Russians, refusing dialogue with them and pushing them to be more and more violent, aggressive and less and less European?” he said in October.

Cuban dissidents called off a regular protest on Sunday as the communist island prepared for days of tributes to the late revolutionary icon Fidel Castro.
The Ladies in White movement decided to stay home “out of respect” for those who mourn Castro and to avoid being accused of committing any act of “provocation in the streets,” said the group’s leader, Berta Soler.
“We are not happy about the death of a man, a human being. We are happy about the death of dictators,” Soler told AFP as Cuba prepared a week of events to bid farewell to Fidel Castro, who died Friday at age 90.
The Ladies in White group was founded in 2003 after Fidel Castro’s regime imprisoned 75 dissidents. While all have since been granted conditional releases, the group has held a protest almost every week.
Fidel Castro had transferred power to his brother Raul after falling ill in 2006, and Soler predicted that the communist regime would not change.
“It will be the same Cuba with one dictator instead of two. The dictator Fidel Castro died and the dictator Raul Castro remains,” said Soler, 53, a former microbiology technician.
Dissidents were also lying low in Santiago de Cuba, the eastern city where Castro’s ashes will be laid to rest next Sunday.
“We are not happy (about Fidel’s death) and we will stay quiet, even though he is the main person responsible for the misery and lack of political rights in Cuba,” said former prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer.
“We won’t conduct any actions against the regime in the streets in the next days, especially out of caution in the face of the repression we could face,” he said.
Marta Beatriz Roque, one of the 75 people detained in 2003, said Fidel’s passing could prompt Raul Castro to enact more reforms.
“Raul has a freer hand to do things that he couldn’t do before … out of respect for his brother,” Roque said from her home in Havana.
Roque was watching television in her home on Friday night when Raul Castro appeared to announce his brother’s death.
While she was imprisoned by Fidel’s government, she said that due to her Catholic faith, “I am not happy about the death of anybody — even if it was the devil.”

Nico Rosberg clinched his maiden world title on Sunday, finishing second in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix despite Lewis Hamilton ignoring team orders in his quest to foil the German.
The 31-year-old Rosberg concluded the longest season in the sport’s history with a nail-biting second place under intense pressure after leader and ultimate race winner Hamilton had slowed the field to create a difficult finish.
Hamilton reeled off his 10th win of the season ?- the most by any driver not to win the title -? and the 53rd of his career, but his gamesmanship upset his team and his team-mate in the closing laps.
His final lap was nine seconds slower than the lap that carried him to pole and was clearly designed to push Rosberg into a vulnerable position as Sebastian Vettel closed in in his Ferrari.
Hamilton ignored two instructions from the team to increase his speed at the front, but was unable to create a situation in which Rosberg could be attacked and passed.
Rosberg joined an exclusive club by becoming only the second son of a former champion to take the title, his father Keke having won the championship 34 years ago with the Williams team.
Briton Damon Hill did the same when he won the title with Williams, following his father Graham?s achievements, in 1996.
Rosberg also became Germany?s third champion.
The tension was palpable as the drivers headed for the podium after the race in which Vettel finished third for Ferrari ahead of Dutchman Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
Rosberg celebrated by giving F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone a massive bear hug, lifting the diminutive octogenarian high into the air, as Hamilton stared glumly at the floor.
Rosberg reliving the final tense laps, said: “With the guys (Vettel and Verstappen) coming up behind me the end was not the most enjoyable.
“I’m very proud to have done the same feat as my Dad achieved.”
On the podium Hamilton’s good grace returned and he gave his former teenage go-carting companion a handshake and a hug.
“Big congratulations to Nico, good job man,” said Hamilton.
Of his own attempted spoiling tactics, Hamilton said simply: “We were fighting for the championship, I was in the lead so I control the pace?. That is the rules.”
Briton Jenson Button, the 2009 champion, and Brazilian Felipe Massa made emotional exits after competing in their final races of long and successful careers.
Button was forced into retirement after only 12 laps while Massa placed ninth.
As the sun descended at the end of a hot, dry and dusty day at the Yas Marina circuit, Hamilton made a perfect start from his 61st pole position to lead away from Rosberg.
In a frantic opening lap, Verstappen spun after touching the Force India car of German Nico Hulkenberg, dropping him to 17th as he rejoined and advanced through the pack.
After a series of pit stops and mid-field scraps Hamilton was left in control by lap 34 ahead of Rosberg by 1.3 seconds with Verstappen third and Vettel, setting fastest laps, climbing back to fifth to launch himself in pursuit of the two Red Bulls.
“Ok, Lewis, we really need to pick up the pace,? Hamilton is told by his team. ?Vettel is a threat.? For the defending champion, it was the news he wanted to hear, even if for Mercedes it presented a dilemma.
With 10 laps remaining, it was obvious Hamilton was driving as cautiously as he could to compress the field and create a threat behind Rosberg.
“Ok, Lewis, this is an instruction ? we need 45.1 ? this is for a win, said the team on Hamilton?s radio on lap 46. ?You should just let us race,” he replied.
Mercedes technical team chief Paddy Lowe followed on the radio. ?Lewis, this is Paddy. We need you to pick up the pace to win this race. That?s an instruction.?
“I am actually in the lead right now,” said Hamilton. Lowe?s face on the pit wall fell in despair.
On lap 51, Vettel passed Verstappen for third with a bold move to increase the tension, leaving Hamilton backing Rosberg back towards the charging Ferrari, but he survived to take his title.

Turkish police on Sunday detained a woman accused of being a wanted Kurdish militant at Istanbul’s main airport, state media said.
Sara Aktas was detained at Ataturk International Airport while seeking to travel to Germany, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
It said she is accused of being a key figure in the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), which the authorities regard as the urban wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). She faces up to 15 years in jail on charges of membership of an armed “terror” group, it said.
Turkish authorities have stepped up arrests of activists, journalists and even politicians suspected of links to the PKK in the wake of the July 15 failed coup.
Critics say that the state of emergency implemented in the wake of the coup has gone well beyond seeking to punish the coup plotters themselves.
MPs from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) strongly disputed the official version of events, saying that rather than being a member of the KCK, Aktas is part of the Kurdish Free Women’s Congress (KJA).
HDP MP Dilan Dirayet Tasdemir said on Twitter that rather than trying to escape Turkey, Aktas had been returning from Igdir in the east of the country with her nephew.
Another HDP MP, Besime Konca, rubbished reports that Aktas had been travelling on a fake passport under a false name, saying she had been simply returning to Istanbul from Igdir.
The PKK has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984 that has left tens of thousands dead. Violence renewed in July 2015 after the collapse of a two-and-a-half year ceasefire.
Ten MPs from the HDP, including the two co-leaders, were arrested earlier this month on charges of links to the PKK which they deny.

Pilots at German flag carrier Lufthansa will resume their strike on Tuesday and Wednesday, their union said, as talks over a dispute concerning wages ended without a resolution.
Pilots’ union Cockpit said it was calling on members flying short-haul flights to stay away from work on Tuesday, and those flying both short and long-haul destinations to stage a walkout on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, high-level talks held today at short notice failed to lead to an agreement on the wage contract,” said Joerg Handwerg, board member at Cockpit.
“It is completely incomprehensible that (Lufthansa) has refused to put forward an offer that can at least form the basis of a negotiation,” he added.
Lufthansa was forced to cancel more than 2,700 flights, affecting over 300,000 passengers, after pilots went on strike from Wednesday to Saturday in their 14th walkout since April 2014.
To resolve the long-running dispute, Lufthansa on Friday said it could offer a 2.4-percent pay rise in 2016, going up by another two percent to reach 4.4 percent in 2017.
Pilots would also receive a one-off payment equivalent to nearly two months’ wages.
The airline had previously proposed a 2.5-percent wage hike.
But Friday’s offer was swiftly rejected by Cockpit, which has been demanding a pay rise of an average of 3.66 percent per year, retroactive for the past five years.
The German carrier has been battling a series of walkouts by both the pilots and cabin crew over the past two years, as it seeks to bring down costs to survive competition from budget rivals such as EasyJet and Ryanair.
In July, it ended a long-running dispute with cabin crew through a deal on pay and working conditions, including a no-strike agreement and job guarantees until 2021.
The breakthrough came after cabin staff staged the longest walkout in Lufthansa’s history last November, with a seven-day stoppage that led to 4,700 flight cancellations and grounded over half a million passengers.
The airline said last month that it expects its annual earnings before interest and tax will reach “approximately the previous year’s level” of 1.8 billion euros.

Francois Fillon, set to become the presidential nominee of the French right, is a Thatcher fan who has pledged to slash state spending, restore ties with Russia and defend traditional family values.
Following are five of his top proposals:
Fillon wants to cut 500,000 jobs from the country’s 5.4-million-strong public service, part of a plan to cut state spending by 100 billion euros ($106 billion).
He also wants to increase the minimum retirement age from 62 to 65 years for most people.
To boost competitiveness, he wants to cut corporate tax from 33 percent to 25 percent. He also plans to scrap a wealth tax on top earners.
France’s cherished social security regime will feel the pinch. While treatment for “serious or chronic ailments” would still be reimbursed by the state, smaller ailments would fall under the responsibility of private insurers.
Fillon has vowed to scrap the 35-hour working week, a totem of the French left.
Bosses and private sector workers would be left to negotiate working time directly, within an EU limit of 48 hours a week.
Public servants would work 39 hours a week, paid 37.
Any such reform would be fiercely contested by hardline unions. The head of the militant CGT union, Philippe Martinez, warned a “mobilisation will be on the cards” if the right came to power.
A devout Catholic, Fillon considers France has “a problem linked to Islam”.
He has demanded that “the Islamic religion accept what all the others have accepted in the past… that radicalism and provocation have no place here.”
He rejects multiculturalism, saying migrants — whose number he wants to reduce to a “strict minimum” — must assimilate.
“When you enter someone else’s house you do not take over,” he declared during the last primary debate.
Fillon’s ties with Moscow came under scrutiny in the primary, with his rival Alain Juppe painting him as too close to President Vladimir Putin who praised the man from Le Mans as a “very principled person”.
Fillon believes the European Union and the United States “provoked” Russia by expanding in eastern Europe and has called for an alliance with Putin and President Bashar al-Assad’s regime against the Islamic State group in Syria.
Europe must act as the “balance of power” in the world, he says, calling for greater convergence among eurozone members.
A devout Catholic, Fillon opposed a 2013 gay marriage bill that brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets in protest. Three years later he wants to amend the legislation to partly repeal gay adoption rights.
He wants to lower taxes on middle-class families and opposes calls for single women and lesbians to be given access to fertility treatment.
He personally opposes abortion but has ruled out revising a 41-year-old law allowing terminations.

Alain Juppe conceded defeat and congratulated Francois Fillon on his “large victory” in France’s rightwing presidential primary on Sunday.
Speaking as partial results showed a resounding victory for Fillon, Juppe wished his opponent “good luck” in his campaign to become France’s next leader in elections next year.

Genoa’s Giovanni Simeone said a pre-match talk with his dad, Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone, spurred him on to a brace that laid the foundations for a shock 3-1 win over Serie A champions Juventus.
Simeone, starting in place of injured striker Leonardo Pavoletti, was on hand to get the hosts off the mark after just three minutes when Gianluigi Buffon spilled shots from Luca Rigoni and Lucas Ocampos.
Ten minutes later, Moroccan defender Medhi Benatia allowed Simeone to run in unhindered and direct a diving header past Buffon from Darko Lazovic’s pinpoint delivery.
Juve were down 3-0 by the 29th minute when Alex Sandro’s attempted clearance from Luca Rigoni’s volley saw the ball go over the line and into the roof of the net.
Although Juve grabbed a late consolation through Miralem Pjanic’s 82nd minute free-kick, it was too little, too late as the injury-ravaged champions fell to their third defeat of the season.
Now just four points ahead of AC Milan and with a host of fellow challengers close behind, Juventus coach Massimilano Allegri admitted the “blow” of defeat had “brought us back to earth with a bump”.
Genoa moved up to ninth and although coach Ivan Juric praised his side’s unwavering commitment, he also had the Simeones to thank.
“Before every game I speak to my dad, but not about football — although it’s true he told me I would score against Juve,” said Simeone, who was born in Madrid in 1995 while his famous father was playing for Atletico.
Simeone senior was a tenacious, two-way midfielder who won a league and Cup double with Atletico Madrid in 1996, helped Inter Milan to the UEFA Cup (1998) and Lazio to only their second Serie A title (2000).
He also famously lured David Beckham into a sending-off for a petulant, retaliatory kick after fouling the England star during the 1998 World Cup in France.
Giovanni has been watched with interest since signing for Genoa in the summer following a one-season loan deal with Argentine side Banfield.
Although he differs in that he is an out-and-out striker, the confident streak is the same.
“I knew you’d be interviewing me today for something other than my dad,” added Simeone, who now has four goals in 10 appearances for Ivan Juric’s side.
Juric was keen to play down the individual performances of his players, saying only that Rigoni and Simeone “are doing well”.
And amid suggestions Simeone could soon follow injured Juve star Paulo Dybala into the Argentina national side, he is keeping his feet planted firmly on the ground.
“I’m ready for anything,” he added. “If there’s an opportunity I’ll jump at it, but we’ll see what comes and when.
“For the moment, I’m just happy to be here and learning from other players like Pavoletti, the coach and from everyone.”

Jenson Button and Felipe Massa made emotional exits from Formula One on Sunday when they took part in their final races of long and successful careers.
Briton Button, the 2009 champion, and Massa, who missed out on the 2008 title in dramatic circumstances after winning his home Brazilian Grand Prix, were both given warm farewells by their teams, friends and paddock regulars.
Button was forced into retirement after only 12 laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix won by former McLaren team-mate and compatriot Lewis Hamilton, for Mercedes.
Hamilton’s current Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg finished second to claim his first drivers’ world title.
Massa finished the race in ninth position to score points in his final race for Williams, the team with which Button started his career.
“I am so proud and it is very emotional,” said Massa. “I have enjoyed it all so much and will have wonderful memories of my time.”
Massa drove 250 races for Sauber, Ferrari and Williams.
Button, who came into Formula One aged 20 in 2000, started 305 races and, like Massa, has been much admired for his easy-going personality.
“Our reliability is something we pride ourselves on ?- we don’t have failures. It’s so unusual. It’s unlucky, but to be fair I don’t really care,” he said on Sunday.
“But it doesn’t change any feelings of my career and ending my career. I’m very content with what I’ve achieved. Tonight’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun.”

The women ululated as residents waved white flags Sunday in celebration of Iraqi forces who drove Islamic State group jihadists from their eastern Mosul neighbourhood of Al-Khadraa.
“We are raising white flags to show the army that we’re peaceful,” said shopkeeper Abu Mohammad, a man in his 70s, as he stood outside his store.
Iraqi forces launched a major offensive on October 17 to retake Mosul, which is the country’s second city and where jihadist supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a caliphate in 2014.
On Saturday, they drove IS jihadists out of Al-Khadraa after days of fierce fighting.
Abu Mohammad said residents greeted the army with flowers to show their appreciation, and immediately he reopened his shop.
“We are now done” with the jihadists, he said.
But intermittent gunfire and explosions could still be heard in the distance and Iraqi forces say they are still hunting down diehard jihadists who may be hiding in the area.
“There are residents who are cooperating with us,” said Lieutenant Nasser al-Ruqabi from the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS).
He said CTS started working with them Sunday to identify would-be jihadist holdouts and to determine which roads could have been mined by the IS fighters.
But Abu Mohammad is adamant that the situation in Al-Khadraa is under control and that he will not have to flee his home as tens of thousands of Iraqis in the region have in recent weeks.
“We will not leave,” he insisted.
A CTS commander, Thaer al-Kenani, said his unit had encouraged residents to hunker down in their homes and raise the white flags for their protection.
“But despite that, the jihadists went inside their homes and inside mosques and used them as hideouts from where they opened fire at us,” said Kanani.
With the presence of Iraqi forces in Al-Khadraa, residents have been trying to pick up the pieces of their lives.
Many can be seen cleaning their homes or just walking down the streets, preciously carrying their white flags like a protection shield as if to reassure themselves that everything is back to normal.
Children cooped up for days indoors are also out on the streets and run after a military convoy flashing ‘V for victory’ signs.
In a house bustling with people, a group of women are crowded in a room talking about their new found freedom after years of living under the brutal rule of the jihadists.
Some like Rima are even planning for the future.
“Yesterday, at 1:00 pm we got rid of them and we were liberated,” said Rima who is in her 20s.
“Now I would like to go back to university to continue my studies in Arabic literature,” she said.
Her mother, Umm Ahmad Hamdani, interrupts her.
“This is not our house. We live in the building next door, but Daesh (IS) kicked us out, now we are seven families living here,” she said.
“We buried our dead in public gardens. Before yesterday we buried three and yesterday two,” she added.
Across the street from the house, black plumes of smoke billow into the sky and beyond that a group of residents are walking by, clasping white flags.
Umm Akram Juwadiya said she raised a white flag on top of her house two days ago, when the fighting between Iraqi forces and the jihadists intensified.
Since the army entered Al-Khadraa, it has summoned many young men for questioning, including her four sons.
For two-and-a-half-years, Umm Akram and many other mothers endured abuse from the jihadists.
“They used to come almost daily to question my four boys, and now they are being interrogated by the army. I am worried,” she said.
But her concern melted and she broke out in tears when she saw the two sons of her neighbour return home after being summoned for questioning by the army.
Umm Akram then rushed outside as a military convoy carrying Lieutenant General Abdul Ghani al-Asadi, a top CTS commander, drove past her house.
“May God make you victorious. Long live Iraq, long live Iraq,” she shouts at the soldiers.
Asadi says the residents of Al-Khadraa played a key role in securing the “victory”.
“They provided us with information and they helped us. And they also followed the instructions we gave them,” he told AFP.
An AFP correspondent on Sunday saw security forces arresting a number of young men.
“They are members of the intelligence unit, and they are arresting people who collaborated with Daesh,” Kenani said.

Charlie Austin scored after just 41 seconds to secure Southampton’s 1-0 victory over Everton on Sunday and ensure Ronald Koeman experienced a painful return to his former club.
Everton manager Koeman left Southampton during the close season after two seasons at St Mary’s, during which he guided the south coast club to their best Premier League finishes of seventh and sixth.
But the manner of the Dutchman’s departure meant he was given a frosty reception by the home supporters.
Austin’s early header -? the striker’s ninth goal of the season — added to Koeman’s growing concerns about the form of his side, who have now won just one of their last eight Premier League games.
Southampton could have registered a more convincing win, but victory at least meant they could put the disappointment of Thursday’s Europa League defeat by Sparta Prague behind them.
They climbed to 10th, while Everton remain seventh.
Koeman could hardly have imagined his reintroduction to the south coast would have gone quite so badly, with his side falling behind inside the opening minute.
The visitors had barely had a kick when Cedric’s cross flew over visiting skipper Phil Jagielka before bouncing into the path of Josh Sims via the chest of Everton right-back Seamus Coleman.
Sims, a 19-year-old winger, was making his Southampton debut, but showed impressive composure to lift the ball back across the face of goal for Austin to head home from close range.
Koeman has yet to win over Everton’s supporters after his new side’s impressive start to the season began to falter.
Everton’s performance during the opening half was never likely to convince those doubting the new manager’s conviction that a significant turnaround is about to happen any time soon.
It did not help Koeman that having criticised Jagielka recently for conceding three penalties, the veteran England centre-back played an unwanted part in Southampton’s goal.
But Jagielka was not alone in appearing shaky as Southampton threatened to wrap the game up inside the opening 25 minutes.
Had Sims shown the same composure he had done in the first minute, he might have directed a free header past Maarten Stekelenburg instead of steering his effort straight at the home goalkeeper.
Nathan Redmond and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg were both guilty of sending shots over the bar when they should have found the target.
Koeman is attempting to introduce a higher tempo game to a group of players who had lost direction under previous manager Roberto Martinez.
But they struggled to impose themselves on Southampton before Idrissa Gueye shot wastefully over from 12 yards after being picked out by Coleman’s clever pull-back.
They would have reached half-time on level terms if Gareth Barry had kept a far-post header down from Leighton Baines’s free-kick.
The boos that greeted the half-time whistle from the visiting supporters spoke volumes about the difficulties Koeman and his players are currently enduring.
They returned for the restart several minutes before their hosts, but there were few signs of a fresh urgency to their play as Southampton quickly assumed control of the second period.
Hojbjerg grazed the woodwork in the 49th minute when he should have pulled the ball back for Austin, while the striker’s header was later pushed away by the diving Stekelenberg.
In between, Romelu Lukaku miscued a direct free-kick, underlining Everton’s lack of threat in front of goal.
It took the continued excellence of Stekelenburg to prevent Southampton adding to their tally.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was sent off as his side lost more ground in the Premier League title race by drawing 1-1 with West Ham United on Sunday.
After Diafra Sakho’s second-minute opener was cancelled out by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mourinho was sent to the stands for kicking a water bottle in protest at Paul Pogba’s booking for diving.
It was United’s fourth successive home draw in the league — a first since 1980 — and left them 11 points below leaders Chelsea in sixth place.
United assistant manager Rui Faria, filling in for Mourinho, told BBC Sport: “We all believe the results will appear.
“The referee explained it to Jose and there is nothing more to say. I think it was frustration from Jose after the yellow card for Pogba.
“It should be a foul for us, but the referee understood it in another way.”
Elsewhere, Alexis Sanchez scored twice as Arsenal kept pace within the leading pack by winning 3-1 at home to Bournemouth.
Mourinho made six changes to his starting XI at Old Trafford, but his bench created the biggest stir as formerly exiled midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger made an unexpected return to the match-day squad.
West Ham needed just 90 seconds to go ahead as Dimitri Payet’s free-kick from the right was headed in by Sakho.
In the 21st minute, Pogba’s deep cross was nodded in by Ibrahimovic, who has now scored seven league goals this season.
Moments later referee Jonathan Moss booked Pogba for diving after the France midfielder took evasive action as Mark Noble moved in to tackle him.
Mourinho reacted by furiously kicking a plastic bottle and was duly sent to the stands for the second time this season.
Wayne Rooney, whose next goal will equal Bobby Charlton’s 249-goal club scoring record, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan came on for United in the second half.
Jesse Lingard saw a goal chalked off for offside after Mkhitaryan had hit the post, while United were indebted to goalkeeper David de Gea for a crucial late save to deny Ashley Fletcher.
United will hope their luck changes when West Ham return to Old Trafford in the League Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Arsenal ended a run of three straight draws in all competitions with victory over Bournemouth at the Emirates Stadium.
With England midfielder Jack Wilshere watching from the stands due to the terms of his loan from Arsenal to Bournemouth, the home side took a 12th-minute lead courtesy of a horror moment from Simon Cook.
In seeking to play the ball back to goalkeeper Adam Federici from the right, he undercooked his pass horribly, giving Sanchez the time to pick his spot and put Arsenal ahead.
Bournemouth equalised in the 23rd minute when Callum Wilson netted from the penalty spot after Nacho Monreal was harshly adjudged to have fouled him.
But Arsenal equalised in the 53rd minute when Theo Walcott headed in Monreal’s masterful cross and Sanchez made the game safe in stoppage time by tapping in substitute Olivier Giroud’s cross.
“I felt we started well, but when they equalised we were nervous and that’s where having three consecutive draws played a little bit on our minds,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, whose team trail Chelsea by three points.
Right-back Mathieu Debuchy, making his first Arsenal start for 370 days, was forced off by a hamstring injury in the first half and Wenger expressed fear the problem was “severe”.
Everton manager Ronald Koeman made an unhappy return to former club Southampton as his current side fell 1-0 to his previous employers.
Charlie Austin scored the game’s only goal after just 41 seconds, heading in from close range after 19-year-old debutant Josh Sims helped on Cedric’s cross.
Stoke City climbed to 11th in the table with a 1-0 win at Watford.
A 29th-minute own goal from Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes settled the game, with Charlie Adam’s header hitting the post and bouncing into the net off the unfortunate Brazilian.

Vedad Ibisevic scored both goals before being sent off in Hertha Berlin’s 2-1 comeback win over Mainz to lift his side to third in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Both teams finished with ten men for the final quarter of an hour as Ibisevic was sent off for receiving his second yellow card.
His dismissal came after Mainz’s defensive midfielder Jean-Philippe Gbamin was also sent for an early shower, also for a second booking.
“We stayed calm despite conceding the early goal, got ourselves level and then created the winner, so we deserved the win,” said Hertha coach Pal Dardai.
Aaron Seydel had given Mainz the lead after 25 minutes at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, but Hertha responded when Salomon Kalou spotted Ibisevic unmarked and the Bosnia forward fired home Berlin’s equaliser on 36 minutes.
Gbamin was sent off on 62 minutes and his dismissal changed the course of the game.
Kalou and Ibisevic combined again for Hertha’s second.
Ivory Coast international Kalou headed back across goal on 67 minutes for his forward partner Ibisevic to fire home before he was sent off seven minutes later.
Hertha climb to third behind leaders RB Leipzig and second-placed Bayern Munich.
Earlier, Schalke 04 continued their rise as striker Eric Choupo-Moting atoned for a penalty miss by netting in their 3-1 comeback win against Darmstadt.
Having been bottom of the table after losing their first five games — the worst start to a season in the club’s history — the result left Schalke eighth and unbeaten in their last 11 games in all competitions.
“It’s the first time we have turned things around after going behind and we haven’t lost for a while now,” Choupo-Moting told Sky.
Markus Weinzierl’s side will face a stern test of their renewed form when they visit Bundesliga leaders Leipzig, who won 4-1 at Freiburg on Friday to stay three points clear of Bayern, next weekend.
Cameroon’s Choupo-Moting showed his class by redeeming himself for a missed first-half penalty.
After setting up Schalke’s equaliser in the opening period, the 27-year-old made it 2-1 midway through the second half before Alessandro Schoepf grabbed their third on 90 minutes.
Darmstadt took the lead at Schalke’s Veltins Arena when midfielder Marcel Heller poached the opening goal with just six minutes gone.
But Schalke roared back with the equaliser when Darmstadt lost the ball on the edge of their own area and Choupo-Moting fired in a cross which Bosnia defender Sead Kolasinac headed home from close range on 26 minutes.
The hosts should have doubled their tally barely a minute later when Germany international Leon Goretzka was fouled in the area, but Choupo-Moting failed with his penalty attempt.
He fired his spot-kick at the feet of the diving Darmstadt goalkeeper Michael Esser and the ball rebounded to safety.
“I thought he’d dive to the side, so I hit the ball down the middle, but it didn’t work the way I wanted it to,” Choupo-Moting explained.
“That sort of thing does stay on your mind, but it helps if you score afterwards.”
The Cameroon forward then showed lightning reactions to slip his marker when attacking midfielder Max Meyer fired in a cross and Choupo-Moting tapped his shot past Esser on 60 minutes.
It was his third league goal of the season and he could have added another when he fired wide of the post with 14 minutes left.
Austria’s Schoepf added Schalke’s third with some good finishing after a chip over the Darmstadt defence from Ukraine international Yevhen Konoplyanka just before the final whistle.

Brazilian star Neymar shrugged off a minor road accident that damaged his Ferrari Spider to start Barcelona’s clash with Real Sociedad in La Liga on Sunday.
The 24-year-old striker hit trouble driving to the Barcelona training ground in rain before the team flew to the northern city of San Sebastian for the match.
Catalan television TV3 showed images of a dent on the left front of the sports car, which was parked on the side of a road.
“He had a car accident but was not injured and was able to continue his trip,” a source close to the club told AFP.
Neymar took his place in an unchanged Barcelona team alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.
Earlier this week Spanish prosecutors asked for a two-year jail term and a 10 million euro ($10.6 million) fine on charges of corruption during his transfer from Brazilian club Santos to Barcelona.
However, Neymar will have to be on his best behaviour against Real Sociedad as a yellow card would see him miss next weekend’s Clasico against Real Madrid through suspension.

Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro staged an incredible comeback to down Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-7 (4/7), 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 and send Sunday’s Davis Cup final to a deciding rubber.
Cilic won Friday’s opening singles against Federico Delbonis and paired up with Ivan Dodig to give Croatia a 2-1 lead in Saturday’s doubles, but Del Potro’s stunning recovery kept alive Argentine dreams of a first title.
Del Potro had defeated Cilic in 8 of 10 previous meetings, but Sunday’s clash was the first since 2013 and the Croat was invigorated by an animated Zagreb Arena crowd including Argentine football legend Diego Maradona.
Sixth-ranked Cilic dominated a first set tie-break, winning the first five points to seize control, and then broke Del Potro’s serve twice in succession in the second set to move Croatia within sight of a second title.
But Del Potro, who rallied from behind to overcome Andy Murray in a five-set epic in the semi-final, displayed more remarkable resilience and produced an outrageous ‘tweener’ to begin the third set.
Cilic fought off two early break points but then succumbed to nerves as the finish line approached, falling 0-40 behind on serve at 5-6, and Del Potro pounced at the third opportunity to reignite his country’s hopes.
Del Potro’s blistering forehand piled the pressure on Cilic, and the Argentine sent the match to a fifth set by converting his third set point after his opponent again faltered on serve at 5-4.
Del Potro committed a costly double fault to gift Cilic the advantage at the start of the deciding set, but the world number 38 hit straight back in the following game to level.
The Argentine then conjured up a pair of break points at 4-3 with a miscued forehand from Cilic paving the way for Del Potro to complete a stunning fightback — his first ever from two sets down — in four hours and 53 minutes.
Ivo Karlovic, 37, is scheduled to play 41st-ranked Delbonis with the title on the line as Croatia look to emulate their 2005 triumph while Argentina bid for a maiden crown at the fifth attempt.

Beyond his native Caribbean island, Fidel Castro’s revolutionary fire set alight much of Latin America, helping drive numerous leftist allies to power in a tide that is now turning.
“Cuba was a model, a beacon for the left in Latin America,” said Gaspard Estrada, head of the Latin America Observatory at the Sciences Po politics institute in Paris.
Over the decades, Cuba became a mecca for Latin American leftist dissidents. Thousands of men trained at the Punta Cero military camp near Havana and took up arms against the US-backed right-wing regimes that prevailed in the region.
Here are some of Castro’s most prominent friends and admirers across the continent over the years.
Venezuela’s late socialist leader Hugo Chavez possibly came closest to matching Castro’s revolutionary fervor and charisma in recent times.
Castro had backed guerrillas in Venezuela in the early 1960s, as in various other countries.
But it was not until 1998 that Chavez was elected, ushering in what he called “21st-century socialism” strongly influenced by the Cuban revolution.
Often appearing in public with his friend Fidel, Chavez became the Latin American left’s provocateur-in-chief with respect to the United States.
Chavez died in 2014 and his protege Nicolas Maduro was elected to replace him. Maduro is now facing pressure to quit over a grave economic crisis.
Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva became Cuba’s second most prominent ally after Chavez.
A working class union leader, Lula came to power in 2003 and presided over a boom in Latin America’s biggest country, winning international plaudits.
But Brazil plunged into recession in 2015 under Lula’s successor Dilma Rousseff. She was impeached this year, when conservatives came to power.
Castro allies dominated politics in Argentina from 2003 under Nestor Kirchner and his wife Cristina, who succeeded him in 2007.
Reacting after Castro’s death, Cristina Kirchner called her friend Castro and Cuba “an example of dignity and sovereignty.”
She became one of the most outspoken anti-US figures in the so-called “pink tide” of leftist governments that swept Latin America from the late 1990s.
She left office a year ago, replaced by conservative Mauricio Macri in another shift to the right.
Bolivia’s president Evo Morales is a confessed admirer of Castro, whom he has called “wise grandfather.”
A former farmer and unionist, Morales became the first indigenous person to become Bolivia’s president in 2006.
He hailed Castro after his death as “the master of revolutionaries.”
“He guided us to raise our voices against those who tried to impose policies of domination to rob us of our natural resources,” Morales said in a speech.
Morales lost a referendum in February on whether he should be allowed to stand for a fourth term in office.
Castro backed the 1979 Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, a staunch ally of its guerrilla leader, Daniel Ortega.
Unlike some leaders in the “pink tide,” Ortega is hanging on. He won re-election this month to a third consecutive term. His opponents say the poll was rigged.
Castro also helped the rebel groups that formed the Farabundo Marti front in nearby El Salvador in the 1980s. One of its former commanders, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, is currently president.
Castro “is mourned in Cuba, across Latin America and in other places because of what he symbolized for the independence of his country and national pride, as a fighter for self-determination,” said Geoff Thale of the Office on Latin America, a Washington-based NGO.

Sudan’s ruling party on Sunday criticised opposition groups over their strike call, as many public transport buses stayed off Khartoum streets and shops remained shut in a mixed response to the call.
The three-day strike call was to protest a government decision to hike fuel prices by about 30 percent that has led to a sharp rise in the cost of other goods, including medicines.
Several key squares and roads in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman were deserted on Sunday morning, the start of the working week in the Muslim country, as many public transport buses remained off the streets, AFP correspondents reported.
Schools in Khartoum were open but many parents preferred to keep their children at home fearing clashes between protesters and security forces.
“My son’s school urged parents to send only grown up boys. My five-year-old son is at home,” Mohamed Khalid, a resident of south Khartoum, told AFP.
The capital’s squares were free of the normal traffic jams, while many shops, cafes and restaurants in downtown Khartoum and Omdurman remained shut.
“There are not many people on the roads, which has impacted my business since I opened in the morning,” said Ahmad Saleh, an owner of a grocery shop in downtown Omdurman.
Restaurant owners said they had told their workers to prepare less food, anticipating a drop in business.
“There is at least a 40-percent drop in business. My usual customers are other shopkeepers and many of them have closed their shops today,” said Ibrahim Mohamed, who runs a restaurant in north Khartoum.
“Some of my workers have also not reported to work today.”
However, state employees turned up for work, transported by government buses to their offices.
President Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party criticised the opposition for calling the strike.
“The opposition has no understanding of issues concerning citizens,” deputy party head Ibrahim Mahmoud said in a statement.
“They don’t know what’s happening at the national level. They are only trying to disturb public security.”
The authorities are determined to avoid any repetition of 2013 unrest that was sparked by a similar round of fuel subsidy cuts.
It was suppressed only by a deadly crackdown by security forces that drew international condemnation.
Rights groups say that crackdown left about 200 people dead, while the government put the death toll at less than 100.
Khartoum has been forced to progressively reduce fuel subsidies since 2011 when South Sudan seceded and took with it nearly three-quarters of the formerly united country’s oil reserves.
The latest fuel price hike coupled with a sharp fall in the Sudanese pound has triggered sporadic protests.
Groups of protesters have staged rallies in Khartoum but they have been swiftly dispersed by anti-riot police.
“Before the price rise we needed 30 pounds ($ 4.60) to buy our daily vegetables,” said Fatima Ibrahim, a resident of Khartoum.
“Now we need 100 to 150 pounds to buy the same amount of items. What will people do??
Prices of medicines have shot up on the back of a sliding pound on the black market.
The Sudanese pound has dropped by more than 60 percent against the dollar in the past six months.
“The fall in the currency has definitely affected the prices of medicines, especially those imported by private companies,” Health Minister Bahar Idris Abu Garda told AFP.
The authorities are working to ensure that medicines are available at reasonable prices, he said, as the country on Sunday received the first batch of medicines from the UN Development Programme under a $60-million deal.

Nigerian militants on Sunday blew up a state-run pipeline in the restive oil producing south, in the latest act of sabotage aimed against the strategic sector, a local official said.
“The pipeline popularly known as the Abura line was bombed at about 7:30 am on Sunday morning,” Ughelli south council chairman Paul Etaiga told AFP. The pipeline is owned by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) in Delta State.
Etaiga said he and security agents had visited the scene of the blast to assess the extent of damage.
Local resident Emekpor Emurotu said “we heard the blast this morning followed by a huge ball of fire from the pipeline.”
Police said fire-fighters had put out the blaze.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but militant group, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate, has consistently carried out attacks on oil pipelines belonging to the NPDC in the area.
Since the start of the year, several activist groups have intensified bombings of Nigeria’s key oil and gas facilities, hurting government revenues at a time of a global fall in crude prices.
Oil-rich Nigeria depends on the oil sector for 70 percent of government revenue and 90 percent of foreign exchange.
The oil rebels have defied a government truce to halt the attacks.

Historians will debate Fidel Castro’s legacy for years, but the remote Spanish village of Lancara is proud to be the birthplace of the late Cuban president’s father.
“One person might call him a dictator, another a revolutionary, but he is an icon and a symbol of a moment in history, and his origins are in Lancara, so we are very happy,” said Manuel Fernandez, as he sat in a bar in the village in Galicia, a poor farming and fishing region in northwestern Spain.
He recalled catching a glimpse of Castro, who died Friday at the age of 90, from afar when he visited Lancara in 1992 after attending a summit in Madrid.
“You don’t believe it until he appears in a Mercedes surrounded by his entourage,” said Fernandez, a 60-year-old retired teacher.
The Socialist mayor of Lancara at the time named Castro an “adopted son” of the village, which is home to around 2,700.
The village, made up of houses scattered on hills, has been swarming with reporters since the announcement of Castro’s death.
“Everyone has their own opinion but everyone here is proud that Fidel is a descendant of Lancara,” said Carlos Lopez Sierra, 69, who runs a rural hotel near the one-room stone house where Castro’s father Angel Castro was born.
Sierra recalls seeing tears in the revolutionary icon’s eyes when he visited the modest home.
“He entered alone and left drying tears,” said Sierra as he sat in the living room of the hostel, which is decorated with photos of famous visitors, including one of Castro.
If it were not for a commemorative plaque, nothing about the stone house indicates it still belongs to the family of the titan of the 20th century who ruled Cuba from 1959 until 2006.
“In this house, in 1875, Angel Castro Argiz was born, a Galician who immigrated to Cuba where he planted trees that still bloom,” reads the plaque on the facade of the building.
Lancara town hall would like the Castro family to donate house to the municipality so it can be turned it into a museum.
During his visit to Lancara Castro said his father emigrated from Spain in search of a better life but he “always” wanted to return to village, according to newspaper reports at the time.
Sierra was part of a group of Lancara officials and local residents who visited Cuba in 2001. He said they were welcomed as “heads of state”, and Castro picked them up from their hotel in person.
“He even acted as a cook because he said in Cuba lobster was prepared very dry, so he cooked it himself. He was with us as if he was a longtime family member, he was caring, warm,” Sierra said, smiling at the memory of the trip.
Sierra accompanied local officials on Saturday as they visited a retirement home in Lancara to inform one of Castro’s cousins of his death.
Manuela Argiz, 103, received the news quietly, said Lancara mayor Dario Pineiro.
“May God forgive him,” were one of the few words she said, he added.
Manuela, seated in her wheelchair with a red blanket covering her knees, observed a minute of silence on Sunday outside the Castro home along with the mayor and local residents and laid white roses outside the buildings.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was sent to the stands for angrily kicking a water bottle during his side’s Premier League home game with West Ham United on Sunday.
With the score 1-1, Mourinho took his displeasure out on a plastic bottle standing beside his technical area after Paul Pogba was booked for diving by referee Jonathan Moss.
It is the second time Mourinho has been sent to the stands during a game this season, following his dismissal at half-time of United’s recent 0-0 draw at home to Burnley.
The Portuguese, 53, received a one-match touchline ban as punishment.
He received a fine earlier this month after discussing Anthony Taylor’s suitability to referee his side’s league game at Liverpool.
Mourinho had a run-in with Moss during the final weeks of his tenure as Chelsea manager last season.
Mourinho confronted Moss at half-time after being sent to the stands during a 2-1 loss at West Ham and was hit with a one-game stadium ban by the Football Association.

Arsene Wenger is sweating on the fitness of Olivier Giroud and Mathieu Debuchy after the France stars suffered injuries in Arsenal’s 3-1 Premier League win against Bournemouth on Sunday.
Debuchy limped off after just 16 minutes of his first appearance for Arsenal since November 2015 and Giroud sustained a hamstring problem.
Gunners boss Wenger revealed the injury-plagued Debuchy fears he has a serious injury and the right-back is set to go for scans next week to determine the extent of the problem.
“Debuchy thinks it is a severe one, but don’t go too far yet. I have to speak to the medical people,” Wenger said.
“We have to let it breathe. Usually he would have an MRI in a couple of days.
“Debuchy had many setbacks so I imagined something could happen to him when I picked the squad.”
Giroud will also be assessed to see how bad the damage is following the striker’s substitute appearance, but Wenger played down concerns over Theo Walcott, who came off following a strong second-half tackle.
“Walcott was just a kick. The only worry we have is Giroud,” Wenger said.
“He looked to touch his hamstring. We have to see how deep the damage is. He told me on his first movement he felt a twinge.”

Lewis Hamilton is the first Formula One driver to win 10 races in a season and fail to secure the world title — and he will not be celebrating.
“You can’t win them all,” the 31-year-old Briton said as he conceded the title to Nico Rosberg on the podium despite winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. “I did everything I could these last four races.”
Hamilton shrugged off team orders to speed up in a final bid to hinder Rosberg. But the trickery did not work and in the end, he said: “A big congratulations to Nico his first world championship.”
Defeat in the title race, in which German Rosberg got nine race wins, means Hamilton will have to wait to become only the fifth driver with four or more world titles — Alain Prost and Sebastian Vetel won four, Juan-Manuel Fangio five and Michael Schumacher seven.
That means Hamilton is brilliant but not quite a Formula One legend.
And that is hard for a personality who Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff has called a “rock star racing driver”.
Wolff said Mercedes would go away and “look at the team” in a bid to douse the rivalry for 2017.
But Hamilton will be pressing for season-long reliability after losing precious points to breakdowns and his own tactical errors in the first half of 2016.
And as he is one of the best-known and most popular global sporting figures, everyone will be watching to see how he reacts.
Hamilton, his friends and family, notably his father Anthony, have confidence that the boy from a once-broken home and a mixed-race family on a Stevenage public housing estate will bounce back.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who aged 86 has seen every champion crowned since the world title began in 1950, has said Hamilton is needed by Formula One.
“As a driver, he (Hamilton) is absolutely outstanding,” Ecclestone told reporters this year. ?He is as good as there?s ever been and, apart from the talent, he?s a good guy. He gets out on the street and he supports and promotes Formula One.
“He is box office, 100 per cent. It doesn?t matter what comes out of Lewis?s mouth. It?s good even if it?s silly. He?s great for the sport.”
Hamilton’s playboy partygoing, his affinity with musicians and his love red of carpet appearances has cut him apart from the Formula One pack.
Though he can exasperate his team, Mercedes understand him and his individuality.
“F1 is part of the entertainment business and Lewis is a rock-star driver, but this is his life. He is authentic in that – he?s not just trying to project a picture for the entertainment bit,” Wolff said this year.
“But everybody has to be how he is: one of our drivers is a bit more cosmopolitan, because this is what suits him and the other one likes to keep it more quiet and be with his family,” the team leader added of the Hamilton-Rosberg rivalry.
Hamilton is still motor sport?s first great digital-age champion and he has exploited it all in a way similar to Portuguese football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
Both share common threads ? humble roots, a paternal career-developing figure, a weakness for ‘bling’ and finally a partnership with a great brand in their chosen sport — with Hamilton it has been Ron Dennis at McLaren and Mercedes.
Despite the rivalry, Hamilton has matured in 2016 after years of occasional outbursts, impulsive behaviour and sometimes reckless decisions that have led to clashes with authority.
The Briton is now more recognised as a senior representative of the drivers.
His media image has matured, too, as he has taken control and reconstructed his personal brand appeal.
Hamilton does a lot of charity work, especially with children. He is an ambassador for UNICEF and has close ties with Harlem Children?s Zone and London?s Great Ormond Street Hospital, and Education Africa.
His relationship with American pop singer Nicole Scherzinger is over and Hamilton’s relationship with his father has suffered during this ?growing up? in the spotlight. Once his manager, Anthony Lewis was released from those responsibilities by his son ? as hard-headed a decision as choosing to leave Dennis?s McLaren in 2013.

Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua has told Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka to issue an official apology for linking him to the kidnapping of Deputy Governor Bernard Kiala’s daughter.
Mutua said he will sue Musyoka for defamation should the Wiper Party leader fail to issue him the appology.
On November 11, Kiala reported that his 16-year-old daughter had been kidnapped, saying her abductors demanded that he drop his gubernatorial bid.
Her daughter, at her boyfriend’s house in Mwiki Kasarani.

Kiala, later on went on his social media platform and announced the return of his daughter thanking security officers for their efforts in ensuring the safe return of his daughter.
According to Nairobi County Commander, Japheth Koome, Nduku was traced to her boyfriend’s house and the two were picked and taken to the Nairobi Police Headquarters for interrogation.
Musyoka in a live show, claimed that Kiala’s daughter had been kidnapped by wiper political enemies in a bid to force Benard Kiala to drop out of the Machakos gubernatorial seat which the deputy governor is vying for under the Wiper party.
Mutua vowed to take legal action against Musyoka if he fails to admit that he did wrong by accusing him falsely.
said Mutua.

The singer however featured Tanzanian star, Barakah The Prince, who helped the Kenyan singer bring something new to the table. The new project has been receiving a lot of airplay and judging from the YouTube comments, this song was well received by fans.
 
During a recent interview, Otile Brown, revealed that this project was shot at a fancy mansion located in Limuru and this collaboration was made possible by Sauti Sol’s publicists Anyiko Owoko.
According to Otile, the renowned publicist reached out to Barakah the prince who agreed to work with Otile brown who can now confidently say his music is going places.
 
Though he spent a hefty amount for this new project, is not a disappointment and for a minute one can confuse it with video done in South Africa. Anyway checkout the new song below:
 

After enduring two years of tyranny under the Islamic State group and surviving the war that liberated them, displaced civilians in northern Iraq face a new enemy: the cold.
With the fighting raging inside Mosul where hundreds of thousands of civilians still live, an early winter and sub-zero temperatures have brought an added challenge.
“At night we have to keep our heads under the blanket and curl into a ball to stay warm,” said Alya Zannun, a 56-year-old woman living in a tent in Khazir camp, southeast of Mosul.
“We are dying from the cold, our hands are getting dry and are covered in fungi,” she said, washing a few dishes with ice-cold water.
Warda Maraebi, a 71-year-old woman helping her with the dishes, said: “We can’t even stretch our fingers because of the cold, how are the children going to handle this?”
More than 70,000 people have been displaced in the Mosul area since Iraqi forces launched a major offensive to retake the IS bastion on October 17.
Despite the fact that larger numbers were initially expected, aid organisations have been racing against time to build enough camps and provide basic assistance.
Fatima Omar, 38, fled her home east of Mosul earlier this month with her six children.
“At night, the tent was shaking, it felt like the wind was going to blow it away,” she said. “If the weather gets any worse, the tent will just collapse.”
Some of the displaced now housed in the camps dotting the Mosul region were battling temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) just a few weeks ago.
Northern Iraq gets cold weather in the winter however and even snowfall in some areas, including regions of the Kurdish region housing many of the country’s more than three million displaced.
Fatima was given a heater but the device was still in its box inside her tent because she had no kerosene to make it work.
“Yes they gave us a heater but it’s never been used. No fuel, no electricity. What are we supposed to do with it?” she said.
She said her youngest child was suffering from diarrhoea and also expressed concern about the health of her 71-year-old cousin Mariam Safar.
On the other side of the wire mesh ringing the sprawling camp, vendors selling food to the displaced people above the fence are now also offering clothes.
Bushra Talal, whose husband was killed by the jihadists in their Mosul neighbourhood of Al-Samah two years ago, broke into tears when she spoke about the conditions in the camp.
She said her daughters, aged 13, 10 and eight called at night complaining about the cold.
“We are suffering from the cold, my daughters are getting sick… The water is so cold I can’t let them have a bath,” said the woman, wearing a black abaya and yellow head scarf.
“I went to the person in charge of the camp and asked him to let us leave. I don’t want my children to die of exposure,” said the young woman.
The United Nations said it started delivering winter assistance to 4.6 million displaced Iraqis and Syrians but it said its plan was only partially funded.
The UN’s refugee agency said it was specifically targeting 1.2 million displaced Iraqis, including many of those affected by the Mosul offensive.
UNHCR spokeswoman Caroline Gluck said a distribution took place last week in its Hasansham camp, which neighbours the government-built Khazir camp where Bushra Talal lives.
The organisation handed out “warm blankets, heaters, insulating kits, including floor mats and an additional insulating layer for the tent, and plastic sheets to help get them through the harsh winter months,” she said.
Different camps get different quality aid and, with winter barely started, many displaced families are suffering already.
“When the rain comes, I will die,” said Mariam Safar.

The UN envoy for Yemen has announced a new bid for peace talks between the government and rebels, after the latest ceasefire failed to end the 20-month conflict.
The peace efforts by Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed came as dozens were reported killed in fighting at the weekend.
Envoy Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he was heading to Riyadh and Kuwait “to prepare for a new round” of talks, as he left Muscat late Saturday after discussions with representatives of Yemen’s Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies.
Riyadh has been the base of Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi since the rebels forced him to flee his country in March 2015 and prompted Saudi Arabia to lead an Arab coalition in a military campaign against the insurgents.
The UN envoy was to meet Hadi “within two days” in the southern Yemeni city of Aden to receive the government’s response to his peace proposals, Foreign Minister Abdel Malek al-Mekhlafi told AFP.
Hadi flew to Aden on Saturday for a surprise visit to the port city which is serving as Yemen’s temporary capital since coalition-backed loyalists recaptured it from the rebels.
Ould Cheikh Ahmed, quoted by Oman’s official ONA news agency, said he found “a lot of seriousness” in talks with representatives of the Huthis and their allies from the party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The envoy also said he had been in contact with US Secretary of State John Kerry who “sees a historic chance to achieve peace in Yemen”.
A previous round of peace talks held in Kuwait collapsed in August.
A 48-hour ceasefire declared by the coalition ended last Monday with little success in reducing violence in the war-torn country.
Both parties traded blame for the numerous violations of the ceasefire that came into effect after Kerry intervened.
It was the latest international attempt to end a conflict which the United Nations says has killed more than 7,000 people and wounded nearly 37,000 since March last year.
The Huthis overran the capital Sanaa and other parts of the impoverished country in September 2014.
A Yemeni official said Sunday 12 civilians were killed when a coalition air strike hit two makeshift wooden houses sheltering displaced families in the western province of Hodeida.
The official said the raid late on Saturday had apparently targeted the two houses “mistakenly”, adding that a rebel position 300 metres (yards) away was untouched.
The coalition has been strongly criticised over the high number of civilians killed in its air strikes.
In northwest Yemen, the sources said, 40 soldiers and 22 rebels have been killed since Friday in heavy clashes for control of a road linking the Red Sea port city of Midi and nearby Haradh.
Elsewhere, two women were killed in rebel bombing of the southwestern city of Taez, military officials said.
Clashes raged on the outskirts of the flashpoint city, killing four rebels and three government soldiers late on Saturday, they said.

Ford-Kenya party have endorsed its leader Moses Wetang’ula to be the party’s and Cord coalition flag bearer during its National General Council meeting.
Wetang’ula said that he will not let Cord down if he is given the coalition’s ticket.
At the same time, Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka said he will back Wetang’ula should he win the coalition’s ticket.
A had earlier this month called for a meeting to remove Wetang’ula as party leader.
The group led by National Organising Secretary Peter Munyae, cited grievances ranging from poor leadership, party mismanagement and governance issues as the main causes for their move.
 
Wetang’ula dismissed talk that the coalition was taking too long in naming its candidate, saying that “timing in strategy is everything.”
Wetang’ula said.
he said.
He asked his supporters to reach out to ODM and Wiper members and ask them to back his bid.
Wetang’ula said
He lashed out at the ruling Jubilee administration for telling Cord that they had no right to ask them to fight corruption.
He said that Cord will condemn graft in every county.
Cord principal Raila Odinga was absent and was represented by ODM Secretary-General Agnes Zani, who said Cord will remain united.

New York’s cityscape reverberates with pounding jackhammers and blaring car horns, but it’s the cacophonous subway that perhaps best epitomizes the bustling metropolis.
A chorus of voices sans instrumental accompaniment will soon bring the transit system’s rhythms to Broadway, the first time the famous theater district will host an a cappella show.
“In Transit” brings a rather unconventional touch to the Broadway stage: in a world known for its lively orchestras and consistent vibrato, the musical strips back the traditional extravagance to showcase the human voice.
“They sing, they dance, they act and they are the band,” said Kathleen Marshall, the acclaimed director and choreographer of the musical, which is currently in previews and will premiere December 11.
A quartet of songwriters scored the show, including its co-creator Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who co-wrote songs for the animated hit movie “Frozen” — including “Let it Go,” for which she and her husband won an Academy Award.
“A cappella is this incredible metaphor, because you have to be tuning in to the other people and you have to be listening,” she told the magazine Entertainment Weekly. “When we jump onto the subway we’re one place and we’re going someplace else.
“Really life is all about being between stations. That’s what we’re really trying to say with this piece.”
More than 20 years ago “Avenue X” was the first musical to feature a cappella, but it was staged Off-Broadway — a circuit typified by smaller venues, more experimental content and different financial stakes.
More recently the two “Pitch Perfect” films and the television series “Glee,” which ran from 2009-2015, have helped bring the a cappella style back to the forefront.
More than a thousand a cappella groups boast a presence at universities across the US, and many participate in annual regional and national competitions.
Bringing the genre to Broadway seemed a natural next step.
“In Transit,” which has been in the works since 1999 — and had a stint Off-Broadway in 2010 — details the intertwined lives of 11 New Yorkers navigating the city’s chaotic streets and tunnels.
“It’s about people finding themselves or trying to get to that place in life where they say: ‘Yes, I’m here, I made it somewhere,'” said James Snyder, who plays Nate, a young man who has lost his job in finance.
“I think that’s something relatable whether you live in a small town or in a big city like New York.”
The actors had to modify their vocals to pull off the show’s harmonies, working under the direction of a cappella guru Deke Sharon.
“This type of singing is different from a regular Broadway sound,” said David Abeles, who plays the character Dave.
He explained that the performers sing in a straight tone to blend their voices, thereby evoking more instrumental sounds.
“Sometimes Deke would have us miming the instrument that we’re supposed to be playing,” he said. “This actually helps because you visualize the sound.”
The vocal orchestration of “In Transit” replicates the shouts of harried passengers, the whooshing sound the subway makes as it approaches and the low rumbling of the trains shuttling across the labyrinthian underbelly and elevated platforms of the city.
In a musical focused on commuting, Abeles said the core message is about savoring the journey.
“There’s a really touching story here about people’s interactions,” he said.
“About lives in New York, about living in the moment — rather than at the destination you’re going for.”

Lewis Hamilton and freshly crowned world champion Nico Rosberg may be excellent drivers but they can’t stop crashing into each other as tensions surface in their complex co-habitation at Mercedes.
The Hamilton/Rosberg soap opera, this season played out over a record 21 episodes from Australia to Sunday’s tense climax in Abu Dhabi, makes for riveting viewing.
The fast-moving Anglo-German production has added much-needed spice to a sport dominated by one all-conquering team and in danger of a visit from the Monopolies Commission.
The two childhood chums who forged a bond as teenage teammates on the go-carting circuit have much in common.
Both 31 years old they share a base – a shiny spotless gadget-laden garage – and a close knit family unit of Mercedes mechanics.
They wear identical clothes at their workplace, and tread virtually identical paths through life, wheel after wheel after wheel.
They drive the same make of car – a case of ‘his’ and ‘his’ – and keep the same work hours, often within ten thousandths of a second.
And like most couples, they have the odd tiff.
The only difference with a conventional relationship is these spats are conducted behind the wheel of a 375 kmh (233mph) F1 car with tens of millions of people watching.
Formula One is no stranger to producing intense rivalries.
In the mid 1970s James Hunt and Niki Lauda pushed each other to the limits.
And Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost’s personal feud in 1989-90 erupted into warfare on the racetrack.
The origins of Hamilton and Rosberg’s rivalry stems from when the Briton moved from McLaren to join Rosberg at Mercedes in 2013.
Flashpoints in 2014 came at Monaco when Rosberg ran off the track in final qualifying, and Belgium, where the pair collided leaving Hamilton with a puncture.
Tension and acrimony fuelled by their contrasting characters and will to win kept their pressure cooker rivalry bubbling nicely throughout 2015.
Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff warned the squabbling duo that if they “crossed the line” they risked the sack.
Wolff had to tread a fine line, trying to keep a rivalry that was pushing them to produce their best on the track from descending into chaos.
Rosberg noted: “I hope that Toto always comes back to the conclusion that it’s actually good the way it is.
“I can see a couple of extra grey hairs that have arrived. Maybe those are courtesy of us…”
Wolff’s services as a marriage guidance counsellor were needed at the United States Grand Prix in Austin.
Hamilton took the win and the title but Rosberg, incensed by Hamilton’s aggressive tactics to the first turn, petulantly tossed his cap at his teammate waiting to climb the podium.
Hamilton made light of Rosberg’s ‘capgate’ tantrum.
“The cap thing? That was pretty funny,” he said.
“Toto Wolff feels that he needs to perhaps sit with Nico to see where his head is at, because we don’t want tension in the team.”
This season, which began with Mercedes taking the unusual step of swopping the drivers’ mechanics, has again produced fireworks.
In Spain they collided and took each other out on the first lap.
In Austria they come together on the last lap as Rosberg turned into a corner late with Hamilton taking the win. And the pair banged wheels again at the start in Montreal, leaving Rosberg “pissed off”.
And so to Abu Dhabi, where Hamilton deployed cagey gamesmanship to slow the pace in front to back up the field in the ultimately vain hope that Rosberg in second would fall prey to the cars behind .
Rosberg foiled his teammate’s Machiavellian plot to finally claim his maiden title.
F1 fans must now wait until Melbourne in March for the opening episode in Hamilton v Rosberg IV which promises to be every bit as combustible and compelling as previous seasons.

An Irish father and daughter team taking part in a cross-Africa rally escaped unhurt after crashlanding their 1930s biplane on the way to Kenya’s capital, where participants staged an airshow Sunday, organisers said.
“Team Eagle in a Boeing Stearman have suffered total engine failure and made a forced landing. We are happy to say and terribly relieved that both crew are uninjured, but the aircraft is irreparably damaged,” the Vintage Air Rally said on its Facebook page of the incident which took place on Saturday.
About a dozen planes from the 1920s and 1930s are taking part in the 13,000-kilometre (8,000-mile) journey from the Greek island of Crete to Cape Town — an extraordinary bid in aircraft with no autopilot, automation or protection from the elements.
The teams became the first group of aircraft to land at Egypt’s Giza pyramids in 80 years and were detained for two days in rough conditions in Ethiopia after a mix-up with their flight permits.
However they finally made it to Kenya where they flew their vintage planes on Sunday above Nairobi’s famed National Park, where lions, zebra and giraffe roam in the shadow of the city.
The adventure-filled rally has also seen maverick 72-year-old British pilot Maurice Kirk go missing twice. After being released from Ethiopia he landed up in conflict-torn South Sudan instead of Kenya.
“Locals found him and called a Brit in Juba they recently worked for. He contacted the British embassy in Juba,” organisers said on their Facebook page Saturday.

Arsenal closed the gap on Premier League leaders Chelsea as Alexis Sanchez bragged a brace in a 3-1 win over Bournemouth on Sunday.
Arsene Wenger’s side are within three points of top spot after Chile forward Sanchez struck in each half at the Emirates Stadium to take his goal tally for the season to 10.
Sanchez gave Arsenal an early lead before Callum Wilson equalised with a penalty before the interval.
Theo Walcott headed Arsenal back in front just 24 hours after the birth of his second child and Sanchez wrapped up the points.
After drawing three of their last four league games to fall six points behind Chelsea, this was a timely victory for fourth-placed Arsenal, who are now unbeaten in their last 19 matches in all competitions and firmly in the title race.
Even Wenger conceded Arsenal had lost their momentum of late and, in a bid to revitalise his team, the boss made seven changes from the midweek draw against Paris Saint-Germain.
France striker Olivier Giroud dropped to the bench and there was a recall for right-back Mathieu Debuchy, who last played for Arsenal in November 2015.
On-loan Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere was ineligible to play for Bournemouth against his parent club, but his absence didn’t stop the visitors sticking to manager Eddie Howe’s philosophy of playing out from the back.
It proved a fatal indulgence in the 12th minute.
Bournemouth goalkeeper Adam Federici rolled the ball out to Steve Cook on the left and instead of knocking it long under pressure, the defender tried a back-pass that was intercepted by Sanchez, who gleefully slotted into the empty net.
Wilshere, watching from the stands, buried his head in his coat as injured Arsenal team-mate Danny Welbeck turned to indulge in some banter with his friend.
Sanchez caused more chaos in the Bournemouth defence moments later with a surging run that ended with contact from Nathan Ake, but no foul was given by referee Mike Jones as Arsenal appealed for a penalty.
If that was frustrating for Arsenal, there was worse to come at the hands of Jones in the 23rd minute when he gave Bournemouth a debatable penalty for Nacho Monreal’s collision with Wilson, who picked himself up to slot home his club’s first ever goal against the Gunners.
Just before Bournemouth’s leveller, Debuchy’s return had come to a premature end when he limped off with the latest in a long line of injuries.
His departure seemed to destabilise Arsenal’s back four and Bournemouth should have taken advantage when Ake headed a free-kick towards the unmarked Adam Smith, who could only direct his header well over.
Arsenal are usually the ones bewitching their opponents with slick passing, but they were getting a taste of their own medicine from Bournemouth as another flowing move gave Brad Smith space for a shot that Petr Cech saved at his near post.
Sanchez tried to restore order just before half-time with a thunderous shot that cannoned back off the crossbar.
That warning shot foreshadowed a more dynamic period for Arsenal after half-time and they regained the lead in the 53rd minute.
Mesut Ozil’s cross was deflected on by Ake to Monreal, who scooped a cross back towards Walcott and the Arsenal winger nodded home from close-range before marking the birth of son Arlo with a ‘rock the baby’ celebration.
Having been embroiled in penalty controversy in the first half, Jones made another dubious call when he denied Bournemouth a spot-kick after Monreal blocked Simon Francis’s pass with his arm.
Bournemouth were finishing strongly and it took a fine save from Cech to deny Benik Afobe, but Sanchez eased Arsenal’s nerves in the 90th minute when he tapped in from Giroud’s cross.

She was among the best dressed females who graced the event that attracted most Tanzanian social media celebrity. The  lass was however not present for no reason, she managed to bag the that definitely fit her perfectly.
 
She has become one of the most popular female celebrities in Africa after Diamond Platnumz worked with her in his Salome hit song that was dropped a few months ago.
Again, she is rumoured to be romantically involved with the Tanzanian artist and if there is any truth to these stories then I bet this is the main reason Diamond Platnumz has been keeping her close.
In a recent interview Diamond Platnumz was asked whether the lass lost his child after a miscarriage, however the artist chose not to respond.
 
 
Anyway, Hamisa Mobetto was not the only celebrity who walked away with an award at the event as the likes Gigy Money and many others were given awards for being active on social media.
Checkout Hamisa’s stunning photos below:
 

Brightly-painted wards and colourful furnishings are matched by state-of-the-art equipment and pioneering operating theatres at a new children’s hospital in Johannesburg honouring Nelson Mandela.
After he led the struggle to dismantle apartheid, one of Mandela’s most cherished dreams was to build the first specialist paediatric hospital in southern Africa.
To mark the third anniversary of his death on December 5, and more than 10 years after he conceived the idea, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital admits its first patients on December 2.
His dream materialised after a successful battle for funds despite the global economic downturn and the difficulties of inspiring donors without Mandela’s charm and iconic presence.
“It’s a miracle, or just short of a miracle. The children’s hospital was a dream — nothing but a dream and an idea,” Sibongile Mkhabela, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, told AFP on a tour of one of the new wards.
Mandela, who was South Africa’s first post-apartheid president from 1994 – 1999, officially started the project in July 2009 at the site of an old cricket ground.
Much of the fund-raising took place as Mandela became increasingly frail and unable to lobby for donations.
“We needed $100 million (95 million euros), we had not a penny,” said Mkhabela.
“It was very difficult to do it without him… extremely difficult, but people were ready to hear us, they could relate to the vision.
“There are a number of ways that you can remember Mr Mandela, he was a statesman. You could build a statue… but at his core, he loved children.”
The 200-bed healthcare facility had to compete for funding with emergency humanitarian crises in Syria and elsewhere.
“South Africa was not seen as a big area of need,” Mkhabela said.
Construction finally began in 2014 as donations came in from philanthropists and businesses including the Bill Gates Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Islamic Relief Worldwide and South African businessman Eric Samson.
Some children even emptied their piggy banks, while ordinary South Africans donated through a popular text message appeal.
The hospital logo of animated faces was designed by children, as was the wallpaper in the wards and along the corridors.
The three-floor critical-care facility will provide cancer care, kidney and lung treatment, as well as heart, chest and brain surgery and a range of other urgent medical needs.
It will be staffed by 450 paediatric nurses who have been undergoing training over the past five years and 150 specialist doctors, including some from Canada’s Hospital for Sick Children and John Hopkins Medicine International in the US.
Built on a plot of land covering 34,000 square metres (370,000 square feet) in the grounds of the University of the Witwatersrand, the hospital will offer free services to those from poorer backgrounds and only charge those who can afford it.
It is equipped with a wide array of advanced equipment, including ultra-sensitive scanners that can detect the “minutest” details and make “diagnoses that general equipment might not pick up”, said Joe Seoloane, the hospital’s project leader.
“It’s a children’s hospital and must specialise in conditions that are unique to children.
“We are proud and excited that ultimately, come December 2, we can officially say ‘Africa: here is a hospital for those conditions that you thought you need to go to Europe for’.”
The hospital will also offer video broadcasting so that doctors in outlying areas across southern Africa can learn from live operations.
It will be Africa’s fifth children’s hospital: there are two in Egypt, one in Kenya and a Red Cross hospital in Cape Town, all of which were built several decades ago.
The hospital will have a radio station streaming music into the wards to entertain the children and will also offer on-site accommodation for parents.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has said that the will not be derailed by the propaganda spread by the opposition.
Citing flagship projects implemented across the country since 2013, President Kenyatta said the Government’s development record speaks for itself.
President Kenyatta said.
the president said.
 
President Kenyatta was speaking on at Kasarani Sports Complex in Nairobi during the Joyful Women Organization’s (JoyWo) thanks giving ceremony and annual general meeting.
The Head of State said the Government is focused on ensuring that the lives of all Kenyans are lifted, emphasizing the need for national unity and shunning divisive politics propagated by the opposition.
President Kenyatta said.
He also asked the opposition to stop tarnishing the good work the Jubilee Government is doing for the country and instead give credit where it is due.
During the occasion, President Kenyatta also launched the JoyWo’s 2017 – 2021 Strategic plan.
Deputy President William Ruto urged women to take advantage of the 30 per cent Government procurement allocation to boost their businesses.
the Deputy President said.
On the fight against corruption, the Deputy President said the Government will not relent in its effort to eradicate the vice.
the Deputy President said.

The Turkish authorities on Sunday freed a reporter for the BBC’s Turkish language service in the southeast of the country after holding her for a day without explanation, the broadcaster said.
Hatice Kamer was detained on Saturday while reporting on a mine disaster in the Kurdish-dominated Siirt region of the southeast that left 11 miners dead and five missing, BBC Turkce (BBC Turkish) said in a statement on its website.
It said she had been held overnight at the Siirt police headquarters and was in a good condition. BBC Turkce added that there was still no explanation over why Kamer had been detained.
Kamer is a board member for the association of journalists in southeast Turkey. As well as BBC Turkce, she works for German broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).
BBC Turkce said that she had been looking to talk to relatives of the miners at the copper mine, which collapsed late on November 17. Rescue efforts are still continuing at the mine.
Dozens of journalists have been detained in Turkey under the state of emergency in the wake of the July 15 failed coup.
Critics say the scope of the crackdown goes far beyond measures against the suspected coup plotters and is targeting any critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to the Platform for Independent Journalism website, there are now 145 journalists behind bars in Turkey, which is ranked 151st of 180 countries in the 2016 World Press Freedom index published by Reporters Without Borders.
Several of the journalists under arrest are from the Kurdish-majority southeast where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is waging a deadly insurgency against the military.

Bastian Schweinsteiger made a surprise return to the Manchester United bench for Sunday’s Premier League home game against West Ham United, having previously been frozen out by manager Jose Mourinho.
The 32-year-old former Germany captain has not played a minute since Mourinho was appointed manager in pre-season.
The Bayern Munich great was omitted from United’s Europa League squad and was also written off as an asset in the club’s financial results for the year ending June 30, 2016.
But he returned to first-team training at the end of October and was named among the substitutes for West Ham’s visit in the absence of Michael Carrick, who is reported to have a muscle strain.
“I’m trying to keep myself fit for the situation in which I am needed,” Schweinsteiger said earlier this month.
“Hopefully I will be given a chance. I look forward to training every day and being able to train with the team. I don’t know if I will get a chance, but I hope so.”
Despite his exile, Schweinsteiger has continued to attend United’s matches, regularly posting pictures of himself at Old Trafford on social media.
Schweinsteiger, a key figure in Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning team, joined United from Bayern in 2015 when Louis van Gaal was manager.

In the run-up to The Gambia’s presidential vote, the political opposition is experiencing both a surge in support and a wave of arrests that attest to the high cost of dissent in the west African state.
President Yahya Jammeh seized power in a 1994 coup and has targeted opponents and several of his own ministers, while surviving multiple attempts to remove him from power.
In the months prior to the December 1 vote, a former minister, an ex-ruling party MP and two journalists with the state broadcaster are among those who have been detained, often without a clear reason.
Jainaba Bah said she still doesn’t know why her husband, former junior foreign affairs minister Mamadou Sajo Jallow, has been in custody since early September and denied access to a lawyer.
“My personal view is that he has been arrested because I have declared my support for the UDP (opposition party),” she told AFP by phone on Saturday from Sweden.
Her husband, a longtime ambassador to the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was taken away by the security services on September 2 after his house was burgled and official documents taken.
But his family has been told he cannot be released until he produces a passport and collects signatures from various officials, tough conditions to meet while he is behind bars and his wife has fled to Sweden.
“I can’t sleep,” Bah said, describing the “whole range of things that might be possible from the stories I have heard about,” referring to alleged abuses committed in The Gambia’s notorious prisons.
Allegations of torture and rape, especially in Banjul’s Mile Two prison, are common.
Isatou Touray, a leading women’s rights campaigner and a member of the opposition coalition that is fielding a single candidate against Jammeh this election, says such arrests have become familiar.
“This has been the norm in the Jammeh regime. You can never predict whether a minister is going to be there for three months or even three days,” she said at a rally in a village outside the capital.
“He is the alpha and omega of everything,” she added.
Calls to the interior ministry by AFP about Jallow’s case went unanswered on Sunday.
Those who opt to leave the government are also at risk, especially deputies who have joined the Gambia Democratic Congress, a grouping of mostly former ruling party officials.
Tina Faal, formerly of the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), was detained for three weeks in August despite already being on bail over a separate theft case. No reason was given for her re-arrest.
“They told us that they have documents they want to hand over to her. But they did not disclose their identities to us,” a family source told AFP at the time of the men that descended on her home.
Meanwhile most of the top officials from the leading opposition United Democratic Party remain in jail, serving three-year sentences for holding protests.
They were arrested while calling for political reform on April 14 or at a subsequent demonstration over the death of UDP official Solo Sandeng in custody.
Touray, the women’s rights campaigner, believes this has galvanised huge street rallies observed across the country, unprecedented in a nation where political expression is discouraged.
“The people can no longer tolerate the human rights abuses and all the difficulties that they are facing,” Touray said.
For young Gambians, the wave of arrests has only pushed some closer to a confrontation with the authorities.
“Our leader Ousainou Darboe was picked up just metres away,” said one young man openly wearing a T-shirt of the opposition coalition near a mosque in Banjul.
“I am standing here, so many people will be worried about me. They will be worried I will be picked up but I don’t care about that anymore.”
President Jammeh told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to “go to hell” when he demanded an enquiry into deaths in custody in April, and has also described dying while being detained or during an interrogation as “really common”.
Beyond the political sphere, journalists are also routinely arrested, with several detained during the sensitive weeks ahead of the election.
Momodou Sabally, the director-general of Gambia’s state television and radio broadcaster, and his colleague Bakary Fatty were taken away earlier in November.
Sabally and Fatty broadcast images of the opposition when Jammeh’s wife was due to appear, according to Human Rights Watch.
This week Sabally was charged with “economic crime”, negligence of official duty, abuse of office and spreading false information.
The final charge, denounced as overly vague by rights activists, is often used against journalists.
Rights group Amnesty International has called for Sabally’s release, adding that “all those detained for simply expressing their opinions should be freed without condition.”