Month: November 2016

One-eyed hostage killer Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of Al-Qaeda’s most notorious allies in North Africa, was said Monday to have been slain in a French air strike.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a report in the Wall Street Journal that US intelligence helped France target the veteran jihadist.
The news came as French defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Washington for talks with his US counterpart Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.
But neither top official confirmed the strike, said to have taken place in southern Libya earlier this month.
The Algerian militant, commander of an Al-Qaeda-linked faction of the Al-Murabitoun group, has been reported killed on several previous occasions.
But the official told AFP the latest strike is believed to have finally hit the elusive militant, once known for kidnapping Europeans for multimillion dollar ransoms.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, citing experts and unnamed officials, the strike reflects closer US and French intelligence cooperation.
After November 2015, Islamist attacks on Paris left 130 dead, US President Barack Obama announced promised that closer intelligence cooperation with Paris would begin.
Belmokhtar became one of the world’s most wanted men in 2013 after a spectacular assault on the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria left at least 38 hostages dead.
This year, his group claimed responsibility for an attack on a luxury hotel in Burkina Faso that killed another 20 people, most of them foreigners.
And reports he had arrived in Libya have fuelled concern that jihadists will take advantage of the political turmoil there to establish a base of operations.
Washington put a $5 million bounty on the 44-year-old’s head, dubbing him the leader of the Khaled Abu al-Abbas Brigade, also known as the “Signatories in Blood.”
In May last year, he insisted that Al-Murabitoun remains loyal to Al-Qaeda, despite another of its leaders pledging allegiance the Islamic State group.
Belmokhtar was born on June 1, 1972 in the ancient desert city of Ghardaia, 370 miles (600 kilometers) south of the Algerian capital.
In a rare 2007 interview he said he joined the mujahideen rebels fighting the Soviet forces in Afghanistan in 1991 when he was barely 19 years old.
In Afghanistan, he claimed, he lost an eye to shrapnel and had his first contact with the group that became Al-Qaeda, eventually rising to a senior position.
He returned to Algeria in 1993, a year after the Algiers government sparked civil war by cancelling an election that an Islamist party was poised to win.
He joined the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), and thrived thanks to his intimate knowledge of the remote deserts of southern Algeria, northern Mali and Niger.
In 1998 the “Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat” (GSPC) broke from the GIA and Belmokhtar went with them.
Nine years later, GSPC formally adopted the global ideology of Saudi-born jihadist kingpin Osama bin Laden and renamed itself Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Belmokhtar was best known as a smuggler, known by some as “Mister Marlboro” for trafficking cigarettes.
But in 2013 he emerged as the hardline leader of the “Signatories in Blood,” blamed for attacks across the Sahara and the Sahel in Algeria, Mali, Chad and Niger.
The group is one of several Islamist units roaming the scarcely governed wastelands of the Sahel, smuggling goods and people and attacking Western targets.

With his rugged rebel look and seductive charisma, Fidel Castro was known not only as a giant of 20th century history, but also as quite the ladies’ man.
Rumors of Castro’s sexual prowess abounded in Cuba even before his days as a black-bearded guerrilla leader hiding out in the mountains.
And those tales lasted straight through his nearly five decades in power, even until his death on Friday at age 90.
Some said he had thousands of women. The New York Post put the figure at a stunning 35,000 in a 2008 article, a figure that came from an unnamed former official.
Journalist Ann Louise Bardach wrote in a 2009 book that Castro told her he had fathered “almost a tribe” of children.
But it is difficult to separate truth from legend.
Castro himself rarely talked about his personal life, despite his famous volubility.
“Private life, in my opinion, should not be an instrument for publicity or politics,” he said in 1992.
He reportedly had a taste for blondes, seducing a string of American, German and Italian women in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1959, just after seizing power, Castro had an affair with a young German woman, Marita Lorenz, who says the CIA hired her to assassinate him.
She lost her nerve, flushed her poison pills down the toilet, and ended up spending their rendez-vous at the Habana Hilton making love with him instead, she said in a 1993 interview in Vanity Fair.
Castro had a mysterious power over her from the day she met him as a wide-eyed 19-year-old, she said.
“When Fidel talks to you, he talks to you very close. He looks right in your eye,” Lorenz said, recounting how he immediately swept her off her feet.
“Nothing hit me as hard as this ever — like a ton of bricks. He didn’t let me completely undress. He was the sweetest, tenderest. I guess nobody ever forgets their first lover.”
Historians say Castro had at least seven children by three women.
Rumors of secret affairs and more children abound.
Castro had little patience for the American-style political family.
“Politically speaking as a revolutionary, I refuse to mix my family with politics. In truth the idea of first ladies seems to be ridiculous,” he told US filmmaker Oliver Stone in a 2003 documentary.
In the film, he revealed he was never in fact married to Dalia Soto del Valle, the green-eyed blonde, 15 years his junior, he shared his life with from the 1980s on.
He met the former school teacher in 1961 during a massive literacy campaign launched by his new government, and had five sons with her: Alejandro, Alex, Antonio, Alexis and Angel.
According to Castro, his only marriage was in 1948, to Mirta Diaz-Balart, a philosophy student from a wealthy family.
They had a son together, Fidelito, who is today a 67-year-old nuclear physicist.
The marriage unravelled when Castro was imprisoned after staging a failed attack on the Moncada army barracks in 1953 — the start of his revolutionary career.
Languishing in prison, he learned she had accepted a job at the interior ministry, where her brother was a high-ranking official. Outraged, he divorced her in 1954.
He had meanwhile begun an affair in 1952 with Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, a pretty blonde who was also married.
Together they had a daughter, Alina, in 1956.
She fled Cuba in 1993 and now lives in Miami.
Castro also reportedly had another son, Jorge Angel, from a 1955 affair with Maria Laborde, an activist in his movement.
One of the most influential women in his life was Celia Sanchez, a fellow rebel who was his confidante and personal secretary — and possibly more — until her death of cancer in 1980.
Except Alina, all Castro’s known children still live in Cuba, where they are largely kept out of the media spotlight.

Snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan believes the sport needs a shake-up and the solution could be resolved by an infusion of Chinese cash.
The mercurial 40-year-old quintuple world champion — whose comments are never dull but sometimes spark disciplinary action — said the sport resembles a car boot sale compared to others whose packaging is more slick and worthy of the historic store of Harrods.
O’Sullivan — who was speaking on the sidelines of the UK Championship tournament where he has reached the last 16 — made the remarks after no snooker player featured on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year nominees.
“Maybe if it went to China and you found some billionaires out there who would put the sport on and have million pound prize money you could start looking at snooker as a core sport again,” said O’Sullivan, fondly known as ‘Rocket Ronnie’.
“But you’re competing with Formula One, tennis, golf and the Olympics.
“They give it (snooker) like 10 seconds on BBC Sports Personality — it’s a complete insult to the sport but it’s what they think of it and what they believe it warrants, and that says it all really.”
O’Sullivan, whose charisma and unpredictability make him easily the most watchable and bankable of the present generation of snooker players, said snooker was selling itself too cheaply.
“Snooker is becoming a nothing-type sport — it’s kind of like a car boot sale but with the other sports it’s like shopping at Harrods,” said O’Sullivan.
“They’re putting so much of it out there it’s cheap TV. I think snooker has lost that respect amongst other sports out there.”

Liverpool great Graeme Souness believes Chelsea represent the greatest threat to the Reds’ title hopes this season.
The Merseysiders, who were last crowned champions of England in 1990, before the start of the Premier League, are second in the table, a point behind leaders Chelsea.
Liverpool beat Sunderland 2-0 last weekend but saw star playmaker Philippe Coutinho suffer an ankle injury in the process.
The Brazilian has scored five league goals already this season but former Scotland midfielder Souness said the club had the resources to cope with his absence.
“Of course it’s a blow. But I was (Liverpool) captain there and regarded as one of the better players and I was out for 10 games and they won every single one of them,” said Souness, now a pundit with Sky Sports.
“At the start of the season I would have signed up for finishing in the top four, but now I’m looking for a wee bit more,” explained Souness, who won five league titles and three European Cups during his time at Anfield.
“But we’re not even in December. One year at Liverpool we lost to Manchester City on Boxing Day and were 12th in the league, everyone was writing us off and we still won it.
“So to start picking a winner now is really hard. But of the candidates, Chelsea look scary to me.
“They don’t have to have all of the ball to win games. Liverpool do, Manchester City do, Arsenal do. Chelsea play in a pragmatic way, they are hard to beat.
“They all seem to know what they are doing now and Diego Costa and Eden Hazard are a real threat. But it could change dramatically in the next month.”
Meanwhile Souness, who had a brief spell as Liverpool manager from 1991 to 1992, was impressed by the way boss Jurgen Klopp had settled in at Anfield.
“I think he’s the perfect fit for that club,” said Souness of the German manager.
“He’s a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and he’s at a very emotional football club. I think it’s working beautifully right now.”

The Los Angeles Galaxy on Monday appointed former captain Pete Vagenas to the role of general manager as they continue their search for a head coach to replace the departed Bruce Arena.
Vagenas fills one of the two vacancies created by Arena’s appointment last week as head coach of the United States national team following the sacking of Jurgen Klinsmann.
There is still no word on who is likely to take over the coaching duties from Arena, who was both head coach and general manager for the Major League Soccer powerhouses.
Galaxy President Chris Klein said Vagenas, born and raised in Los Angeles, was the logical choice for promotion to GM.
“In each of his roles with this club ? team captain, Academy Director and VP of Soccer Operations ? he has consistently shown an unparalleled dedication and expertise,” Klein said.
“We will continue to fill our front office with qualified and innovative individuals and we have full confidence that Peter will excel as our General Manager and Vice President of Soccer Operations,” he added.
Vagenas made his debut for the Galaxy in 2000, later going on to captain the side to victories in the MLS Cup and US Open Cup in 2005.
A 13-year playing career in the MLS also included spells with the Seattle Sounders, Vancouver Whitecaps and Chivas USA.

Amnesty International on Monday denounced as “shocking” weekend clashes between security forces and royal guards in Uganda which left 62 dead, saying many victims appeared to have been executed.
The bloodshed, which took place in a traditional kingdom in the west, broke out when a joint patrol of police and troops was attacked by the royal guards in the town of Kasese.
The clashes continued into Sunday until police stormed the palace, arresting King Charles Wesley Mumbere of the Rwenzururu kingdom.
Speaking to AFP on Monday, police spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi said the intial death toll of 55 had risen to 62, including 16 police officers and 46 royal guards.
The royal guards are believed to be part of a militia agitating for the creation of an independent republic straddling Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Police said the king had been taken into custody in Kampala, with another spokesman telling NTV television that 139 royal guards had been arrested,
The violence drew a sharp reaction from the London-based rights watchdog, which said emerging evidence suggested some of the victims had been shot after their arrest.
“The full picture of the weekend?s events is yet to emerge, but there appears to be shocking examples of unlawful killings and a complete disregard for human rights during the arrests,” said Abdullahi Halakhe, Amnesty International?s East Africa Researcher.
“In a shocking display of heavy-handedness, many people appear to have been summarily shot dead and their bodies dumped.”
Uganda’s main opposition leader Kizza Besigye shared gruesome images circulating on social media which appeared to show dozens of bodies piled up in front of the palace gates, condemning the “massacre” on Twitter.
Human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo said researchers were still trying to determine exactly what had happened.
“Although we have been unable to determine exactly what happened yesterday, we are concerned about the excessive loss of life,” he said.
He also said Joy Doreen Biira, a local journalist covering the violence, had been arrested on charges of “complicity with terrorism” with police searching her home for photographs.
Brigadier Peter Elwelu of the Ugandan army told NTV that the militia had been carrying out sporadic attacks on the government and civilians since 2014.
“We kept on watching this group, we kept on reaching out to them. Things were not working out and we had to take a decision,” he said.
Elwelu said President Yoweri Museveni had phoned the king on Sunday morning and ordered him to rein in his guards.
“We gave him an hour, it elapsed. So the president again called — gave him two more hours (saying) ‘please, sort this out’,” said Elwelu.
“So we had no option, after that we had to storm the palace and get these terrorists, and that is what we did.”
The king has denied any links to the separatists.
Speaking to AFP on Monday, Interior Minister Jeje Odongo accused him of wanting to start a war.
“From what was recovered from the palace, the weapons used and the people, you clearly see that King Mumbere wanted to wage a war against the government,” he said.
The Rwenzururu kingdom, of the Bakonzo tribe, is a modern one.
It began as a separatist movement of the same name when the Bakonzo — tired of being subjected to the rule of another tribe given preference under British rule — declared its own kingdom in 1962.
The move led to years of bloodshed until a settlement was reached in 1982 in which the movement laid down arms in return for a degree of local autonomy.
Museveni officially recognised the kingdom in 2009.
However, many in the region still feel marginalised by the government and want to create their own state known as the Yiira Republic, uniting the Bakonzo and its sister tribe, the Banande, in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
They share a common language and culture, and are believed to stem from one people known as the Ba-Yira.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Monday expressed support for OPEC’s plans to limit the cartel’s output ahead of a crucial meeting this week.
In a telephone conversation, the two leaders said the cartel’s efforts were “an essential element” for returning stability to global oil prices, a Kremlin statement said.
“The importance of steps taken by OPEC to limit the production of commodities was emphasised as an essential element for stabilising world oil markets,” it said.
During their conversation, the two leaders also “agreed to continue to coordinate their efforts on the world energy markets, including the dialogue on energy between Russia and OPEC,” it added.
The phone call came ahead of a Wednesday meeting of OPEC ministers in Vienna for talks on reducing the cartel’s output by up to a million barrels per day.
The aim is to reduce the mammoth global supply glut and push the market price of oil above $50 a barrel.
Negotiations between the cartel’s 14 member states have been under way for weeks to discuss cuts the production cuts each country would make to ensure the success of the deal.
Such cuts have been repeatedly called for by members such as Venezuela and Nigeria, but the efforts to reach a deal have been undermined by rivalries between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the precarious situation in conflict-hit producers like Iraq and Libya.
OPEC ministers last met in September for an informal meeting in Algiers aimed at curbing production by 32.5-33 million barrels per day and reaching agreement with other non-OPEC members like Russia, which favours moves to strengthen prices that have been depressed since 2014 due to a stubborn supply glut.
Russia, which has been hit hard by low prices and Western sanctions, has said it is ready to freeze output but not to cut it.
And Iran, which has only been free to export oil since last year’s nuclear deal, has said it won’t cut production until it has reached pre-sanctions levels.
Should OPEC succeed in reaching a deal on Wednesday, it would be the first time in eight years that the cartel agrees to reduce its production.
Mixed signals from OPEC ministers caused fresh volatility on oil markets on Monday, after Saudi Arabia appeared to suggest that Riyadh could live with the cartel failing to agree a cut, saying recovering demand would stabilise prices next year anyway.

The latest clashes between rival armed groups in the Central African Republic have left 85 dead, a government official said Monday, in what the UN warns is a worsening situation.
“This figure is confirmed,” said presidential spokesman Albert Mopkem, referring to a toll provided by Adama Dieng, a UN special envoy for the prevention of genocide.
Nearly half the population needs humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations which has appealed for $399 million from donors to cover the country’s aid needs next year.
The latest deaths in the town of Bria, 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Bangui, were amplified by 76 wounded and nearly 11,000 people being displaced in battles between factions of the former “Seleka” Muslim rebel group last week, Dieng said.
The Central African Republic is struggling to emerge from a civil war which erupted in 2013 following the overthrow of former president Francois Bozize, a Christian, by a Seleka coalition.
The government is trying to bring together 14 armed groups under a disarmament deal in the former French colony. But militias have flourished in the power vacuum left by a weak state.
Fighting is taking place between the Popular Front for the Renaissance of the Central African Republic (FPRC) and the Union for Peace in Central Africa (UPC).
The two factions are fighting for control of taxes levied on Fulani herders during the current seasonal migration.
Condemning the latest violence, Dieng’s statement warned of “the risk that it could result in reprisal attacks and rapidly escalate”.

Rescuers saved some 1,400 migrants off the coast of Libya on Monday as Italy announced a record number of people arriving this year after crossing the Mediterranean, authorities said.
“It was a very difficult day but thanks to the work of the units that helped out, all of the migrants were rescued,” a spokesman for the Italian coast guard, which coordinates the operations, told AFP.
The unseaworthy condition of the migrant boats and the sheer number of people packed onto them make the journey dangerous even in summer, but colder months add increased risk of hypothermia and rough seas.
Italian, Irish and charity group ships, along with commercial vessels, helped rescue the migrants from 11 inflatable dinghies and two small boats.
Authorities in Italy said Monday they had recorded a record number of arrivals by sea this year, with one month still to go in 2016.
Over 171,000 migrants have arrived, which beats the previous annual record of 170,100 from 2014. The tally does not include Monday’s rescues.
The vast majority of the migrants landing in Italy come from Africa and begin their sea crossings from Libya, typically paying traffickers several hundred dollars for the journey.
With Italy’s neighbours having tightened their borders, the numbers being housed in reception facilities across the country have risen to an unprecedented total of over 176,000, prompting howls of protest from some local authorities.
Many migrants arrive in Italy with the intention of travelling north, often to try and rejoin relatives, with Germany and Sweden among the popular destinations.
At least 4,690 migrants are confirmed to have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean so far this year, according to counts by the International Organisation for Migration and the UN refugee agency.

Gordon Strachan will remain as Scotland coach despite a poor 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign with Scottish Football Association president Alan McRae declaring he could still get them to the finals.
Strachan — who had a distinguished international career being capped 50 times — looked to be in trouble after the Scots were soundly beaten 3-0 by historic foes England in a qualifier for Russia.
It left the Scots — who haven’t qualified for a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup — eight points adrift of leaders England and four off second-placed Slovenia, who they host next March, after four matches.
However, McRae said following the SFA board’s review of the campaign 59-year-old Strachan retained their confidence despite the poor start and they were the only British Isles side to fail to reach the Euro 2016 finals.
“Gordon is a good experienced coach, a former international player, he has all the credentials, he has won trophies (he guided Celtic to three league titles, a Scottish Cup and two League Cups),” said McRae.
“He has a good group of players, they work as a group.
“We are obviously a bit disappointed to say the least in terms of four points from 12 which, if it had been six or seven we would have all have had at least a half smile on our face.
“But it is mathematically possible and I still think Gordon can take us to the play-offs.
“I am going to be positive. We are moving on. March will be the next home game, a great opportunity to get a win.
“It was always going to be difficult and we have made it more difficult for ourselves but I still think it is possible because we have four games at home.”

A Brazilian opposition party on Monday filed a petition for the impeachment of President Michel Temer, underlining the growing difficulties facing the center-right leader as he tries to introduce austerity reforms.
The impeachment demand filed by the PSOL, a small leftist party, was unlikely to be accepted, so had mostly symbolic significance. The PSOL argues that Temer committed crimes by allegedly interfering in a business dispute to aid a friend in his cabinet.
Temer denies any wrongdoing in the affair.
Another impeachment request is expected from the leftist Workers’ Party soon.
Temer’s allies control both the lower house and Senate in Congress, meaning that even if an impeachment petition were ever put to the vote it would not pass.
However, the development is an embarrassment to Temer who came to power this year after the bitterly fought impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, from the Workers’ Party, for breaking government accounting rules.
The spat also comes as Temer is pushing a 20-year spending freeze as the first plank in reforms he says will help Brazil recover from its worst recession in decades. The Senate is slated to vote on the freeze Tuesday.

South African President Jacob Zuma on Monday faced the biggest challenge to his leadership since taking power in 2009 as the ruling ANC party debated his future and calls grew for him to resign.
Zuma has been hit by a series of corruption scandals and damaging court rulings this year, while the ANC suffered a sharp setback in local polls in August and unemployment has hit a 13-year high.
A weekend meeting of the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee was extended into Monday after a rebellion led by senior government figures.
Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi all called on the president to step down, the News24 news agency reported, citing party sources.
The ruling party gave no official comment after the prolonged national executive meeting but promised a press conference at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) on Tuesday.
The president, who has survived numerous scandals while in office, has been under renewed pressure since a corruption probe earlier this month unearthed fresh allegations of misconduct.
The probe by the country’s top watchdog uncovered evidence of possible criminal activity in Zuma’s relationship with the Guptas, a business family accused of wielding undue political influence.
“He is at his weakest. He is under extreme pressure,” political analyst Daniel Silke told AFP.
“I don’t think the ANC is ready for a very fast departure, but this is an unprecedented show of anti-Zuma support.
“We could see a warning sign to the president that his days are numbered.”
However Zuma, 74, retains strong loyalty among many rank-and-file ANC party members, as well as its lawmakers. He easily survived a vote of no confidence in parliament on November 10.
Neither the ANC nor any of the three ministers reportedly calling for Zuma’s head commented on Monday, as the party meeting at a hotel near Pretoria continued.
Increasing numbers of anti-apartheid veterans, ANC activists, trade unions, civil groups and business leaders have called for the president to resign in recent months.
The ANC, which has ruled since Nelson Mandela won the first post-apartheid elections in 1994, has seen its popularity dive, with local polls in August delivering the party’s worst-ever result.
Zuma’s term in office ends in 2019, but the ANC is due to elect a new party leader at the end of next year and could decide to replace him as head of state.
“There is no doubt that Zuma is fighting for his political life,” analyst Ranjeni Munusamy wrote on the Daily Maverick website.
“He is hanging on while it is clear that large sections of the ANC… no longer want him as president.”
South Africa’s highest court this year found him guilty of violating the constitution after he refused to repay taxpayers’ money used to refurbish his private rural house.
He is also fighting a court order that could reinstate almost 800 corruption charges against him over a multi-billion dollar arms deal in the 1990s.
International credit rating firm Fitch on Friday dropped its outlook for South Africa from stable to negative, pointing to the country’s recent political turmoil.
Zuma has also been engulfed by a power struggle with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Zuma’s loyalists have been at loggerheads with Gordhan, a reformist who is widely respected among international investors.
Mmusi Maimane, leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, told AFP that he expected Zuma to ride out the latest bout of criticism.
“I think it will probably be a deferred decision until next year,” he said.
“The ANC (has) a very difficult decision about who will succeed him and which faction that will come from because it’s a deeply divided organisation.”
When Zuma leaves office, the three leading possible successors are his ex-wife, African Union chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphone par
osa and ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize.
The Business Day newspaper reported that many of Zuma’s supporters rushed back to the ANC meeting after missing proceedings to attend a wedding near Cape Town.

The Dallas Mavericks will slowly ease Dirk Nowitzki back into the fray as the veteran German star recovers from a lingering Achilles problem, a report said Monday.
Nowitzki missed Sunday’s victory over the New Orleans Pelicans after complaining of soreness in his right Achilles despite showing signs of improvement recently.
Mavs coach Rick Carlisle told The Dallas Morning News he would not hesitate to rest Nowitzki as the 38-year-old battles back to fitness after playing only five of 16 games so far this season.
“This is part of the recovery,” Carlisle said. “Getting him better, we’re going to have to take it incrementally. There’s not like there was any big setback.”
Carlisle said he expected Nowitzki’s recovery process would run into December.
“He’s come a long way in a four-plus week period. But it’s an Achilles strain and it’s taking time,” Carlisle said.
“My hope is that it can be complete sometime in December, sooner than later. But we just got to be patient with it. He’s too important to us. If we have to play without him, we’ll play without him.”
Mavs owner Mark Cuban meanwhile said there was “every expectation” that Nowitzki’s injury was “not serious.”
“It’s dramatically better … he just felt it again, so there’s no reason to take a chance. We?re just being cautious,” Cuban said.
Nowitzki has played for the Mavericks ever since joining from DJK Wurzburg in 1998. He was the NBA Finals MVP during the team’s 2011 championship year and is a 13-time NBA All-Star.
The Mavericks are currently languishing at the foot of the Western Conference standings with a dismal 3-13 record.

Andy Murray could round off his sensational year which has seen him finish as men’s tennis world number one and win both Wimbledon and the Olympic title with a historic third BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
The 29-year-old — who won the individual award in both 2013 and 2015 — is one of 16 nominees unveiled on Monday with the great majority reflecting Britain’s record success at the Rio Olympics and Paralympics.
Footballers Jamie Vardy and Gareth Bale and golfer Danny Willett are the exceptions.
Vardy gains the nod because of his goals in Leicester’s astonishing Premier League title victory and Bale for his monumental efforts in landing the Champions League trophy with Real Madrid and then being the driving force behind Wales’s fairytale march to the Euro 2016 semi-finals.
Willett gets on the list for winning the Masters.
Murray will be the hot favourite although the sentimental one and dark horse could be Nick Skelton.
The veteran took showjumping gold riding Big Star — four years after he won team gold in London — at the grand old age of 58, 16 years after a broken neck forced him to retire from the sport.
He also became Britain’s oldest Olympic champion in 108 years — Joshua Millner took shooting gold aged 61 in 1908.
There’ll be plenty of competition for the prestigious award with amongst other strong contenders two-time women’s Olympic gold medalist Nicola Adams and Paralympic legend Sarah Storey.
Storey in Rio became Britain’s most successful female Paralympian — she began her Paralympics career in 1992 in swimming and then switched to cycling for the 2008 edition — taking her gold medal haul to 14.
The winner as well as the award winners in the other categories such as team will be revealed in a gala show in Birmingham on December 18.
Nominees (Public vote decides the winner on December 18)
Nicola Adams – Boxing, Gareth Bale – Football, Alistair Brownlee – Triathlon, Sophie Christiansen – Equestrian, Kadeena Cox – Athletics/Cycling, Mo Farah – Athletics, Jason Kenny – Cycling, Laura Kenny – Cycling, Andy Murray – Tennis, Adam Peaty – Swimming, Kate Richardson-Walsh – Hockey, Nick Skelton – Equestrian, Dame Sarah Storey – Cycling, Jamie Vardy – Football, Max Whitlock – Gymnastics, Danny Willett – Golf.

Tiger Woods delivered a strong indication he is ready for his comeback after a 16-month layoff when out-driving Olympic champion Justin Rose at Nassau’s Albany Club in the Bahamas on Monday.
The 14-time Major winner makes his long awaited return in the Hero World Challenge starting Thursday, where he will play with American Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed.
He teamed up with Rose, who has been a resident on the exclusive Albany estate for two and a half years, former New York Yankees baseball legend Derek Jeter and fellow World Series winner Tino Martinez.
Woods, who has ‘parked’ his luxury yacht ‘Privacy’ close to Rose’s palatial home on the island, was clearly very relaxed in the company of the three and aside from an errant drive down the left side of the 13th he was in play for much of the nine holes in the sunny but windy conditions.
There were no official scores recorded but it’s understood Woods, wearing shorts, shot a comfortable one-over-par 37 for the nine holes that included two bogeys and a birdie.
Highlight of his nine holes was a 350-yard downwind drive at the par-four 15th that was easily 40 yards further than Rose.
Rose is returning after a seven-week injury absence and looked a lot more rusty than Woods who will tee-up in the 18-man $3 million event in his first appearance since sharing 10th in the Wyndham Championship 465 days ago.
“I was really pleased the way I was striking the ball as I hit it pretty well but then the wind today is expected to come from a different direction on Thursday,” said Woods.
“The greens, and how they’ve set them up at the moment, are a little too quick for this wind and with talk of a storm also coming in on Thursday, they should be perfect.”
It was Woods’ second nine holes on the Ernie Els designed course having played the front nine on Saturday and spending Sunday working on the range.
But if his golf and his positive demeanour is any sign then Woods could surprise many come Thursday’s start to the event.
Woods seems to have gained further strength in chatting at length over the nine holes with both Jeter and Martinez, with Jeter competing in the later stages of his own career with a broken ankle he sustained in October 2012.
“That’s one of the things I was talking to Derek and Tino about and that his how long did it take them at the start of each match to get ready to go out and play in each game,” disclosed Woods.
“We all know Derek broke his ankle and in coming back from that he said it used to take him three to four hours just to get prepared for a game.
“I also was discussing that today with ‘Rosey’ (Justin Rose) and he also says he needs to spend upwards of an hour and a half in the gym before he tees-up each day of a tournament given he’s now 36 years of age.
“It’s been the same deal with me and long before I was out injured for this long period.
“We all agreed we missed the times early in our careers when you could just turn up, grab your equipment and just go out and hit a 300-yard drive.
“I can’t do that anymore as I’m at an age where it takes time to prepare as I’ve had like three knee surgeries and also the operations on my back.”

Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who a US official said Monday is likely to have been killed in a French air strike, is the notorious commander of a group allied to Al-Qaeda in North Africa.
One of the world’s most-wanted men, the Algerian jihadist was dubbed “Mr Marlboro” for his past involvement in trans-Saharan cigarette smuggling and is easily recognisable by his scarred face.
His Al-Murabitoun group claimed responsibility for several major attacks in sub-Saharan Africa, including Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, and is also known for kidnapping Europeans for ransom.
France and its allies have been a prime targets for west African jihadists since French forces intervened in Mali in 2013 to root out Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and other extremist groups from the country’s desert north.
Al-Murabitoun was born in 2013 from the fusion of one of those groups, MUJAO, and Belmokhtar’s Al-Qaeda splinter group “Signatories in Blood”.
Earlier that year, Belmokhtar’s group was blamed for the bloody siege of a remote Algerian gas plant in which at least 38 hostages, mainly Westerners, were killed.
The one-eyed Belmokhtar, who reportedly lost his left eye fighting in Afghanistan in the 1990s, has been reported killed several times in counter-terrorism operations.
Each time the death of the man who took up arms alongside the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) during Algeria’s civil war of the 1990s has been denied.
An audio recording attributed to another leading member of Al-Murabitoun pledged allegiance to the Islamic State jihadist group in May 2015.
But Belmokhtar reportedly quickly distanced himself from the declaration, vowing allegiance to IS’s jihadist rival Al-Qaeda in what was seen as a sign of a power struggle. Al-Qaeda confirmed the allegiance in December, 2015.
Al-Murabitoun claimed an attack on the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako in November, 2015, in which 20 people were killed, including 14 foreigners.
AQIM said that attack was a joint operation by its forces and those of Al-Murabitoun.
The group was also behind a January 2016 attack on a hotel and restaurant popular with Westerners in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou in which 30, mostly westerners, were killed.
Reports that Belmokhtar had arrived in Libya fuelled concern that jihadists would take advantage of the political turmoil there to establish a base of operations.
In July 2016 a confidential UN report said Belmokhtar was able to travel throughout Libya with relative ease.
On Monday the US official said he likely had been killed in a strike there this month, with the support of US intelligence.

Montenegro’s parliament on Monday voted in a close ally of longtime leader Milo Djukanovic as the country’s new premier, despite a boycott by opposition parties.
Former spy chief Dusko Markovic replaces Djukanovic, who announced following elections in October that he would step down as premier after more than 25 years at the helm.
Markovic, 58, pledged to complete the small Balkan country’s accession to NATO and speed up the path to EU membership, despite opposition from pro-Russian groups.
The new premier has the support of a narrow majority — 41 MPs in the 81-seat parliament — made up of his Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), a small social democrat party and ethnic minority groups.
Opposition MPs did not attend Monday’s vote, refusing to endorse the election results until an investigation is completed into mysterious events surrounding polling day.
The October vote was marred by the arrest of a group of Serbians accused of planning anti-government attacks in Montenegro, and Djukanovic accused pro-Russian opponents of involvement in an alleged plot to “execute” him.
The Democratic Front, the country’s main opposition bloc, denies this and said the arrests were DPS propaganda.
The Democratic Front openly calls for closer ties with Russia and Serbia and is against membership of either the EU or NATO, calling for a referendum on joining the US-led military alliance.
Other opposition groups have more nuanced positions — some are pro-EU but would also like a referendum on NATO.
Markovic rejected such a referendum and said he wanted parliament to ratify joining the alliance “without delay”.
NATO invited Montenegro to become a member in December, a decision that has upset traditional Slavic ally Russia.
Markovic said his government would also “try to overcome misunderstandings in our relations with historic ally Russia”.
Born in July 1958, Markovic graduated from a Serbian law faculty and, like Djukanovic, began his political life in the Communist party when Montenegro was part of Yugoslavia.
Djukanovic became premier in 1991 and the bond between the two men was cemented five years later when Markovic supported the PM’s decision to break with Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
The decision would lead to Montenegro’s independence a decade later.
Markovic’s allegiance allowed him to climb the ladder of power and hold key ministerial positions and, for 12 years, the post of national intelligence chief, making him a feared man.
Analyst Daliborka Uljarevic, director at the Centre for Civic Education, said the choice of Markovic as premier “leaves open the possibility” of Djukanovic returning to power.
Twice before, in 2006 and 2010, he stepped down from the premiership, but on both occasions he stayed party leader and returned to power two years later.
Djukanovic is still head of the DPS and is expected to remain powerful in the country of 620,000 people.
Analysts have suggested his latest withdrawal was a result of pressure from the West over his grip on power — the DPS has topped all elections in Montenegro since 1991.
Although weakened, it remains largest party in the country and Djukanovic as its leader will be able to “keep a crucial influence on decision making,” Uljarevic said.
Could Markovic escape the tutelage of his patron? He could be a less divisive figure among the opposition and appears better placed to rally the support of smaller alliances hostile to Djukanovic.
“He has the authority… and is the best and only choice to ensure control of the situation and party unity,” said a DPS party source.
Like Djukanovic, the name of the new prime minister was quoted in a cigarette trafficking inquiry. The case, later dropped, related to a tobacco factory in his northern hometown of Mojkovac.
He described the accusations as “simply nonsense”.
“If I had the money I would invest instead in a branch of the economy which is closer to the man I am, who appreciates nature, lakes and rivers,” Markovic said.

Every morning, Syrian trucks roll up to a car park near a Turkish border crossing, ready to take a consignment of UN aid back inside the war-torn country.
But so far the cargo cannot reach the area where it is needed most — the besieged rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo where tens of thousands of people are desperately short of food.
The United Nations has been running the operation for the past two and a half years, sending in more than 9,000 trucks to northern Syria through two UN hubs in Turkey.
At one Turkish staging post, just north of the Cilvegozu crossing that lies barely 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Aleppo, the aid is loaded onto empty Syrian trucks, their number plates covered with paper.
Turkish driver Ibrahim said they had a duty to deliver the goods to the many Syrians suffering after five and a half years of brutal civil war.
“Last year, there was snow and ice and we came without any hesitation. We are here warm, and they are in the cold,” he told AFP.
“We made sacrifices, it is risky and dangerous but we do it. They are Muslims, we are also Muslims, we are brothers.”
Ramesh Rajasingham, the UN’s deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, said this is “the safest and quickest way” to reach out to people in northern Syria.
Rajasingham said eastern Aleppo was in a “dire situation,” and that the United Nations was pushing all key players to allow the shipments through.
“In terms of east Aleppo, we just need the green light from the people who control the roads going in because, as you know, the east of Aleppo is besieged.”
He said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ally Russia has given verbal support, and rebel groups have given written confirmation they will provide guarantees of security.
After receiving the final formal confirmation from Russia and the Syrian government, “we will move very rapidly”.
With the Damascus regime pressing on with its blistering offensive, around 250,000 civilians besieged for months in eastern Aleppo have faced serious food and fuel shortages.
No aid has entered the city’s devastated eastern neighbourhoods since government troops surrounded them in July.
And in a major blow Monday, rebels lost all of the northern districts in their strongholds as the army made significant advances in its offensive to recapture the entire city.
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution in July 2014 to allow the crossing of humanitarian assistance after difficulties faced by UN agencies in accessing affected populations in Syria.
UN agencies, in cooperation with international and local charities, provide assistance to Syrians in selected districts in areas accessible from Turkey including Idlib, Hama and Latakia, as well as parts of Aleppo province not affected by the fighting in the city.
UN officials say one million people live in 20 besieged areas in Syria that are militarily encircled with no access for humanitarian assistance, and another four million live in areas with no predictable or regular access.
The aid operation begins well before dawn in Cilvegozu, where Turkish trucks chartered by UN agencies wait to hand over their cargo.
Every vehicle is carefully screened to ensure it does not carry unsolicited items. Turkish customs authorities check the driver’s paperwork and the truck is X-rayed.
“The process starts very early in the day,” Jean-Luc Tonglet, officer-in-charge at the UN Monitoring Mechanism, told AFP. “The screening process is rather thorough.
“It is a process that takes 15 minutes for every single truck. If you have a convoy of 20 trucks it takes 2.5 hours.”
Then starts the loading process.
Manual labourers carry sacks and boxes to Syrian trucks as UN monitors look on, to make sure for example that no people are being smuggled across.
Finally the trucks are on their way, eventually — hopefully — providing some relief to those in need.

Nine-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt dedicated what is set to be his final track season to his fans, with the Jamaican sprint star saying his training regime is now “more relaxed”.
However, the 30-year-old insisted Monday that his will to win was undimmed.
“It?s more relaxed. Me and my coach will discuss, we’re going to change my training regime, different things so it’s not going to be as intense as the seasons before,” Bolt said.
The Jamaican was speaking ahead of the London premiere of “I am Bolt”, a documentary film charting his career in the 18 months leading up to this year’s Rio Olympics.
Bolt, who is set to bring the curtain down on his brilliant career at the 2017 world championships in London, added: “I am giving people the opportunity now to come and see me at my last world championships or maybe in Jamaica, my last run in Jamaica and stuff like that.
“So it’s mainly for the fans this season.”
Nevertheless, he added: “I never want to lose, in any way. Even a simple board game I don?t want to lose so for me the fact that I say it’s for my fans, I still want to go out and compete at my best. But it’s not so much pressure as it is like for the past eight years where I have to consistently win.
“I know I have to win but for me it?s much more simple, less stressful, less pressure so I am just training hard as I always do and go compete at my best as always.”
At Rio, Bolt completed the “triple triple” by winning gold in the 100 metres, 200m and 4x100m relay, as he had done at both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games in Beijing and London.
Bolt said he hoped the documentary would show just how hard he had worked to become one of the greatest sprinters of all time.
“Most people say to me when they see me like: ?Oh you make it look so easy’ but it’s not. So I wanted to make people see what I went through to get where I am at today,” he explained.
Bolt, who has often spoken of his desire to become a professional footballer, said he planned to do some training with top German club Borussia Dortmund.
Both Bolt and Dortmund use kit made by Germany-based sports manufacturing giant Puma, who put the athlete and the club in touch with one another.
?Why not?” said Bolt. “It?s something I have always wanted to try and see if I was any good at, so at the end of the season I will go there (Dortmund) and do a little trial, not a trial but a little training.?

Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci has been ruled out for up to two months, leaving the injury-ravaged Serie A champions without their formidable three-man defence.
Bonucci, a reported target for Premier League giants Chelsea, has suffered several injury knocks this season and on Monday was diagnosed with a hamstring injury after being forced off during a shock 3-1 defeat at Genoa a day earlier.
A statement from Juventus said Bonucci suffered a “a hamstring injury in his left thigh, with his recovery time expected to be around 45/60 days.”
Bonucci is set to undergo further tests that will determine his potential return date more precisely, but his absence is a further significant blow to Massimiliano Allegri’s side as they chase glory at home and Europe.
Juve could be without any of their ‘BBC’ defence – composed of Andrea Barzagli, Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini – when they host high-flying Atalanta in Turin next Saturday.
Barzagli was ruled out for two months two weeks ago after suffering a dislocated shoulder during a hard-fought 2-1 win at Chievo.
On Sunday, Chiellini was fit enough only for the bench as he recovers from a recent knock. He remains a doubt for Saturday.
Juve’s woes deepened further on Sunday when utility midfielder Dani Alves suffered an injury that could sideline the former Barcelona star for three months.
Alves went in for a late challenge at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium and came off worst, suffering “a compound fracture of the shin bone in his left leg,” Juventus revealed.
Testss on Monday “confirmed the diagnosis”, the club said.
“The recovery time will depend on further tests to be carried out in the coming days,” Juve added.
Allegri was forced to deploy an untried back three composed of Bonucci, Mehdi Benatia and Swiss wing-back Stephan Lichtsteiner.
But Genoa hit two quickfire goals through Giovanni Simeone, who scored his second with a diving header after running unhindered past Benatia, and the hosts were 3-0 up before the half-hour when Juve’s Brazilian wingback Alex Sandro directed a Luca Rigoni volley past goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and into his own net.
Bonucci was forced off after 33 minutes and replaced with Daniele Rugani, who will now be expected to step up to the plate.
Juve’s third defeat of the Serie A campaign has left them four points ahead of AC Milan and Roma, with Lazio just one point further adrift in fourth.
The Turin giants have already secured qualification to the last 16 of the Champions League but are aiming to clinch top spot when they host Dinamo Zagreb next week.

Pope Francis will visit Ireland in August 2018 for the World Meeting of Families, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said on Monday after meeting the pontiff in Rome.
Alongside a photo of him and Francis laughing, Kenny wrote on Twitter: “Pope Francis has been an important voice for the young, the poor and disadvantaged — glad he will visit Ireland in 2018.”
The Vatican, which has yet to confirm any papal travel plans even for 2017, did not comment on the news.
A Vatican statement said the two had held “cordial discussions” on a wide range of subjects, including the migrant crisis, “political and institutional” challenges in Europe and youth employment.
Kenny told the Irish Times the meeting had been “completely relaxed and very friendly”.
It was a far cry from the animosity between Ireland and the Holy See in 2011 when Kenny slammed the Vatican for “dysfunction, disconnection and elitism” in its failure to tackle clerical child sex abuse.
That came a week after a report in Ireland accused the Roman Catholic Church of failings in its handling of abuse allegations against 19 clerics in the diocese of Cloyne, southern Ireland.
The Vatican responded by recalling its envoy to Ireland and closing its embassy in Dublin. It was only reopened in 2014.
This time, though, Kenny was full of praise for Francis, who, on a US visit last year pledged “the zealous vigilance of the church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all.”
Kenny said: “I did refer him to his own comments in America when I think he was very clear about members of the clergy who abused children and his statement on that was quite clear and very strong. I agreed with him 100 percent.”
Kenny also said the pair had discussed the possibility of the pope visiting Northern Ireland.
However, some political voices have expressed concern about the pope visiting at a time when Ireland may hold a referendum on whether to legalise abortion, suggesting he could be tempted into commenting on the subject.

British police have received a genetic sample from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for Swedish prosecutors to use in their rape investigation against him, an official said Monday.
British authorities took the sample from Assange in Ecuador’s London embassy where he is taking refuge, the South American country’s chief prosecutor Galo Chiriboga said.
Assange, 45, has been in the embassy since 2012 to avoid being sent to Sweden where he faces the rape allegations, which he denies.
He fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States to answer for the leaking of diplomatic cables by his whistleblowing website, which embarrassed Washington.
An Ecuadoran state attorney questioned Assange at the embassy on November 14 on behalf of a Swedish prosecutor who was also present.
On that occasion, “Mr. Assange presented a document stating that he had already handed over the DNA sample to the British police,” Chiriboga told reporters in the Ecuadoran capital Quito.
“Therefore Sweden will now have to request that DNA sample from the British police.”
He said Ecuadoran prosecutors would send the official transcript of Assange’s evidence from the November 14 hearing to Swedish authorities “in mid-December.”

The European Union and Moldova on Monday reaffirmed close ties which they said would not be affected by the recent election of a pro-Russian president.
Socialist Party leader Igor Dodon won hotly disputed polls last month in an East-West tug of war over the future of the Soviet-era satellite of just 3.5 million people, wedged between Romania and Ukraine.
Flanked by Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip, EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said close relations were “deeply rooted” in trade and cooperation, and Brussels was committed to helping Moldova push through political and economic reforms to benefit all its citizens.
Referring to Dodon’s election, Hahn said: “We can already say today we will respect the final result … and we look forward to cooperating with the new president.”
He stressed that the 28-nation EU expected the government and the new president to continue the reform process and that the bloc would back such efforts.
For his part, Filip said that “the citizens of Moldova have spoken … now we need to get over this electoral period and start working.”
Ties with the European Union were based on an association agreement which “is beneficial for our people. We are committed to its implementation and let there be no doubting that commitment,” Filip told reporters through an interpreter.
He dismissed speculation that Moldova might change course, insisting and said any change of partners was “out of the question.”
Moldova signed the EU association agreement in 2014 and half of its exports now go to the bloc.
Russia bitterly opposed the accord and responded with an embargo targeting Moldova’s crucial agriculture sector.
Dodon’s victory coincided with a similar outcome in EU member Bulgaria, prompting concern Moscow was regaining influence in its Soviet era backyard.

Red Bull chief Christian Horner has accused Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff of naivety for attempting to control the outcome of Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and with it the drivers’ world championship.
He said it was always obvious that outgoing champion Lewis Hamilton would have to “back up” Nico Rosberg in a last ditch bid to foil the German’s title bid.
Horner said he “would not have expected him to anything different”.
Wolff is contemplating taking disciplinary action against Hamilton, winner of 10 races this year for the team but who lost out on the title to Rosberg by five points.
Horner said: “With where they were at, it was just down to those two guys.
“So it was only ever going to be that kind of battle between the two of them.
“Congratulations to Nico? He has driven a great season this year. He is a very worthy world champion, but it was naive to think that there would be any different approach to this race with what is at stake.”
Asked how he felt the race was handled by Mercedes, he added: “We know that Toto likes to control most things in the paddock including other teams’ drivers? so you could not expect any different.
“They are racing for a world championship, the drivers’ world championship. There are only two guys in it and they are both in the same car?
“For Lewis, winning the race was never going to be enough for him and he drove a tactical race. He didn’t do anything dirty.
“He drove a tactical race. He didn’t do anything against the rules and I think it would be unfair to criticise Lewis for the way he drove.
“It was obvious that coming into the weekend that this was his only chance of achieving the result he wanted. It would be unfair to criticise him.”
Hamilton’s gamesmanship was questioned by his employees after he twice rejected team instructions to speed up as Rosberg came under threat from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Wolff said: “It’s very simple: anarchy does not work in any team and in any company. A precedent has been set.
“Undermining a structure in public means you are putting yourself before the team.”

Controversial moves to extend Congolese President Laurent Kabila’s stay in power appeared to advance Sunday as a close ally said elections would not be held until April 2018, 16 months after Kabila was due to leave office.
Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda also warned that the political opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has urged Kabila to step down on December 20 when his term officially ends, could foment violence.
Tshibanda, speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Madagascar, said that Kabila’s government had “consulted election experts” from Congo, the United Nations and elsewhere, and that “it has been decided that the voter registration operation will end on July 31, 2017 and that elections will take place in April 2018”.
“Before that no expert thinks it will be possible” to organise a vote, he said.
Kabila, who has been elected to two presidential terms, is barred from serving again but has never said he plans to step aside.
Earlier this month he cut a power-sharing deal, appointing fringe opposition politician Samy Badibanga as prime minister in a move that effectively extends his term to at least late 2017.
The “Gathering”, a movement of mainstream opposition groups that back politician Etienne Tshisekedi to replace Kabila, have rejected the deal.
In September, during protests organised by the Gathering against the delayed elections, 53 people were killed, according to a UN toll. Congolese authorities have banned further rallies including one last week.
“It is clear that not all political actors are acting responsibly, and that some of them are practising politics of the worst kind”, Tshibanda said.
He said he “cannot exclude that there might be attempts at violence”, and warned that “the Congolese government will act accordingly”.
The question of Kabila’s succession has triggered renewed political crisis in Congo, a vast resource-rich nation riven for decades by rival power struggles.
Kabila came to power after the murder of his father Laurent-Desire Kabila by a bodyguard in 2001 during the Second Congo War, which ended two years later.
Elected in 2006, he went on to win a second five-year term in a 2011 vote decried as rigged by the opposition.
Tshibanda, speaking at a summit of leaders of French-speaking nations, said Kabila was unable to attend.
“The head of state cannot leave the capital when he is in the middle of consultations to form a government,” the foreign minister said.

Gambia showcased Monday its homegrown solution to the problem of fraud and illiteracy at the ballot box: voting with marbles.
At a press conference in the capital, Banjul, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) displayed three metal drums representing the three presidential candidates contesting a December 1 election in this tiny west African state.
Voters enter a private area that is curtained off where they drop a marble into one of the three drums that are painted with the party colours and emblems, and a bell rings confirming a vote has been cast.
“It’s unique and we are very proud of it,” said IEC vice-president Malleh Sallah, explaining how the Gambian Public Works department dreamt up the idea six decades ago.
Electoral officials say the system all but eliminates spoilt ballots and allows illiterate Gambians to vote more easily, while ensuring only one vote is cast per person.
Sawdust or sand is sprinkled on the bottom of the barrel so that no second sound is heard.
On Thursday President Yahya Jammeh is hoping to return for a fifth term in power but is facing an unprecedented surge in support for the opposition.
Adama Barrow, representing a coalition of opposition parties, is posing the greatest challenge to Jammeh’s rule, while Gambian Democratic Congress (GDC) candidate Mama Kandeh is standing as the third candidate.
The country has around 880,000 eligible voters.

Jose Mourinho has been charged with improper conduct by the Football Association (FA) after being sent to the stands during Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with West Ham United on Sunday, it was announced on Monday.
It is the third time this season the 53-year-old Portuguese has been charged by the FA — he was suspended for a game and fined after an altercation with referee Mark Clattenburg and previously received a hefty fine for critical remarks about the appointment of another referee.
Now he faces an almost definite touchline ban after Jon Moss sent him to the stands during the Premier League match at Old Trafford.
Mourinho got his marching orders in the first-half for kicking a bottle of water on the touchline as he was angered by Moss booking Paul Pogba for diving.
“Jose Mourinho has been charged following Manchester United’s game against West Ham United on Sunday,” tweeted the FA.
“It is alleged his behaviour in or around the 27th minute of the game amounts to improper conduct.
“He has until 6pm (1800GMT) on 1 December 2016 to respond to the charge.”
It is not the first time Mourinho has clashed with Moss.
Last season, while in charge of Chelsea, Mourinho had an altercation with the same official in a game at West Ham which resulted in a one-match stadium ban.
Sunday’s draw left United on 20 points after 13 matches — their worst start to a league campaign since the 1989/90 season — some 11 points adrift of his old club Chelsea.

With the French right settled on its candidate for next year’s presidential election, the left was trying to tamp down speculation Monday over whether President Francois Hollande or his prime minister would be its standard-bearer.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls caused a minor sensation at the weekend by saying he could be a candidate for the Socialist presidential nomination, even if Hollande decided to seek re-election.
His remarks injected further uncertainty into the line-up, five months before an election tipped by pollsters to end in a duel between Francois Fillon, a conservative, and far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Former prime minister Fillon has emerged as the one to beat after his resounding victory in the run-off of a right-wing primary on Sunday.
The enthusiasm for the Catholic traditionalist has accentuated the unpopularity of the ruling Socialists, who have yet to pick their champion.
As Hollande prepares to announce whether he will seek a second term, Valls denied rumours he was planning to resign to launch a rival bid.
“At a time when France is facing a terror threat there can be no political confrontation over a primary between the president of the Republic and the prime minister,” his office quoted him as telling Hollande over a two-hour lunch on Monday.
“I’m the head of government. I have a sense of duty to the state,” he insisted.
A Harris Interactive poll showed Valls faring no better than the deeply unpopular Hollande if he ran in his stead, with both men languishing on 9 percent in the first round of the election in April.
The poll published Sunday showed Fillon leading Le Pen with 26 percent to her 24 percent in the first round of voting and going on to crush her in the run-off in May.
“One shuttle is taking off, another is self-destructing. Never have the left and right seemed so far apart as on this Sunday, November 27, 2016,” a columnist in Les Echos business daily wrote.
Fillon, a self-professed Thatcherite, surged from behind in the last days of the primary on a promise to slash public spending, combat radical Islam and uphold traditional French values.
On Sunday, he promised to be the candidate of “all those who in their hearts are proud to be French.”
His nomination appeared to rattle Le Pen’s anti-EU, anti-immigrant National Front, which also campaigns heavily on national identity.
Le Pen on Sunday tore into Fillon’s liberal economic programme, which includes cutting half a million public sector jobs.
“No candidate has ever gone so far in bowing to the ultra-liberal demands of the European Union,” she said.
FN vice president Florian Philippot followed up Monday by branding Fillon the candidate of “rampant globalisation”.
Le Pen is hoping to emulate Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential vote by wooing traditional leftist voters disillusioned with high unemployment and factory closures.
Valls on Sunday said he wanted to “dispel the notion that defeat is inevitable” for the Socialists.
Hinting he could challenge Hollande, he told the Journal du Dimanche paper: “I will take my decision with good conscience.”
Valls first broke ranks with Hollande last month after the publication of an explosive tell-all book in which the president took swipes at judges, the national football team and even his own government’s policies.
Analysts say Fillon may have to tone down some of his more draconian proposals and rhetoric on French identity to appeal to a broader base.
As premier under former president Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012 he was seen as a moderate but he has hardened his tone after a string of jihadist attacks, rejecting the notion that France is a multicultural country.
The action now shifts to the Socialist camp, which will hold its own primary in January. Two of Hollande’s former ministers have already thrown their cap in the ring.
A third, former economy minister Emmanuel Macron, is running as a centrist independent.
Both Macron and firebrand Communist-backed candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon are currently polling higher than Hollande and Valls.

Italy lock Quintin Geldenhuys on Monday announced his retirement from international rugby after a 67-cap career that saw him captain the Azzurri five times.
South Africa-born Geldenhuys, who is on the books at Italian side Zebre, played his 67th and final game for Italy in this weekend’s defeat to Tonga.
But the towering 35-year-old said he plans to make Italy his home.
“I came to Italy in 2005 and I will always be grateful to the country and all of Italian rugby for what they have given me,” said Geldenhuys.
“Our kids were born here, it’s our home and we’ll be staying here in the future.
“Wearing the blue jersey and taking part in two World Cups was not something I imagined I’d be doing when I arrived to play for Viadana, and captaining the country that adopted me was a huge privilege,” added Geldenhuys.
Italy capped their November test series with a 19-17 defeat to Tonga, having ended their 13-match wait to beat South Africa just a week earlier in Florence and started the month with a 68-10 defeat to New Zealand.
Saturday’s defeat in Padua was Geldenhuys’s swansong and Italy coach Conor O’Shea said: “We would have preferred to give Quintin a winning send-off, because his contribution to what is a new chapter for Italy has been immense.
“We will all miss him but I’m sure he will keep going strong for Zebre and help their younger players.
“We want to thank him for everything he’s given to the national side.”
Geldenhuys said he will now focus on helping Zebre, who play in the Pro12 league along with fellow Italians Treviso, and spend more time with his family.
“I want to dedicate these last years of my career to my club and to help Zebre as much as I can,” he added.
“It will also give me more time to spend with my kids, who are growing up.
“But with Conor O’Shea at the helm, a new Italy side is emerging and I want to wish them all the best for the future.
“In the second row there are plenty of up and coming young players ready to jump at the chance. (Marco) Fuser has come on leaps and bounds and will continue to do so, and (Federico) Ruzza at Zebre has the tools to become an amazing athlete.
“It’s time to give them their opportunity.”

Haiti’s interim leader Jocelerme Privert on Monday called for calm before preliminary results from the first round of the Caribbean country’s presidential election are released later in the day.
“Resorting to acts of violence can only spoil the fruits of the beautiful day we had on November 20,” Privert said at the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, referring to the vote held earlier this month.
The election was a key step in restoring constitutional order in Haiti, where former president Michel Martelly’s mandate expired after the results of last year’s first round poll were annulled amid widespread claims of fraud.
Nearly 6.2 million people were eligible to vote in the impoverished nation, parts of which are still struggling to recover from a devastating hurricane.
Of the 27 candidates who ran for president, four have already claimed victory in the first round in statements that have been criticized by the international community.
Leading candidates for president include Jovenel Moise, a wealthy Haitian backed by Martelly, and Jude Celestin, candidate of the opposition LAPEH.
“My compatriots, our country is living through a dramatic moment. It needs a social cooling off, it needs calm, serenity, peace and tranquility,” Privert said.
“My brothers and sisters, I invite you all to use the means of recourse set forth in the electoral decree and constitutional provisions to defend your legitimate rights,” he added.
Haitian law offers candidates the opportunity to challenge the results from the presidential and legislative election in electoral courts.
Final results will then be published December 29, according to the calendar set out by Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council.
Any candidate who wins more than half of the votes cast will be the victor. Otherwise, a runoff is set for January 29.
Haiti’s election was originally held in October 2015 but the results were eventually scrapped amid opposition protests after an independent commission found massive fraud.
The invalidation of the results prevented Martelly, a popular singer elected in May 2011, from transferring power to a successor chosen by popular vote, as required by the constitution.
The legislature chose Senate chief Jocelerme Privert as interim head of state — initially with a three-month mandate — but new polls were delayed amid civil unrest and political infighting.
The first round of the presidential election was scheduled again for October 9 this year but was delayed after Hurricane Matthew pummeled the country a few days before.

The paedophile coach at the centre of an abuse scandal that has rocked English football has been taken to hospital by police responding to a “fear for welfare incident” it was announced Monday.
Barry Bennell has been at the centre of numerous revelations after former Crewe Alexandra player Andy Woodward came forward to reveal he was abused by the convicted child molester in the 1980s.
A statement issued by Thames Valley police on Monday referring to Bennell said: “Police officers attended an address in Knebworth Park, Stevenage (northwest of London) just before 11:00pm (2300 GMT) on Friday, November 25 in connection with a fear for welfare incident.
“A 62-year-old man was located and was taken to hospital in order to receive medical treatment, where he remains.
“At this stage of enquiries, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
The Guardian newspaper, the first to interview Woodward, reported that Bennell had been found unconscious.
Later Monday, Greater Manchester Police said it had launched an investigation into historic sex abuse in youth football.
That took the total of English police force’s looking into such allegations to five, with London’s Metropolitan Police, Hampshire Police, Cheshire Police and Northumbria Police — also making inquiries.
– ‘Co-ordinating investigation’
GMP Assistant Chief Constable Debbie Ford said: “Following recent media coverage, Greater Manchester Police has received a number of calls from people reporting historic sexual abuse whilst they were in the youth football system.
“We have now launched an investigation and our specially trained officers are supporting those who have come forward so far.
“We are co-ordinating our investigation with forces nationally and with Operation Hydrant, the national co-ordination hub for historic child abuse investigations concerning persons of public prominence.”
Bennell, who worked for Crewe, Manchester City and Stoke City, sexually abused young boys across three decades from the 1970s onwards. He was given a four-year sentence for raping a British boy during a football tour of Florida in 1994 and a nine-year sentence for 23 offences against six boys in England in 1998.
He was jailed again in 2015 for abusing a boy at a football camp in Macclesfield, northwest England, in 1980.
Sunday saw England’s governing Football Association react to the recent revelations by announcing it had appointed leading lawyer Kate Gallafent, an expert in child protection, to assist it with an internal review of the allegations.
The FA said the review would find out “what information the FA was aware of at the relevant times around the issues that have been raised in the press, what clubs were aware of, and what action was or should have been taken”.
Gallafent will then make recommendations “to ensure these situations can never be repeated”.
Gordon Taylor, chief executive of England’s Professional Footballers’ Association, said the number of players who had made similar allegations was now over 20, with up to seven clubs concerned.
“From that time, of those who became apprentices and senior players, over 20 players have come forward,” Taylor told BBC Radio 5 Live.
Asked to name the clubs touched by the allegations, Taylor said: “We’d start at Crewe, go to Man City, Stoke, Blackpool, Newcastle, Leeds…
“I’m expecting there will be more. I think we have six or seven clubs.”
Crewe announced on Saturday they had appointed an external lawyer to carry out an independent review into the way they dealt with allegations involving Bennell.

Poland’s prime minister called Monday for a Brexit “compromise” and said Europeans in Britain and Britons in Europe should not be “made to feel like hostages” as she kicked off a landmark trip to London.
Britain’s shock vote in June to leave the European Union sparked fear among the 800,000 Poles living in Britain, particularly following a spate of xenophobic attacks after the referendum.
Prime Minister Beata Szydlo pledged Poland would be a “constructive partner” in potentially fraught divorce negotiations, but said London had to set out a clear vision when formal talks begin by the end of March.
“We need a good compromise which gives both our countries the best possible options for economic and security cooperation,” she wrote in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
“But the initiative for determining British ambitions and expectations as to the future level of cooperation with the EU has to come from London.”
In an article published ahead of talks with Prime Minister Theresa May in Downing Street, Szydlo pressed Britain not to use migrants like her UK-based compatriots as a bargaining chip in the negotiations.
“One thing is certain: millions of UK citizens living across the EU, and millions of EU-27 citizens living in the United Kingdom, should not be made to feel like hostages,” she wrote.
“That means we have to guarantee… their right of residence.”
Szydlo and her defence, interior, finance and foreign ministers attended an inaugural British-Polish summit on Monday, which included a reception for members of the Polish community in Britain.
They discussed a range of issues, including the deployment of 150 British soldiers to northeastern Poland, and Russian action in Ukraine and Syria.
In a joint press conference afterwards, Szydlo said she understood why May could not guarantee the rights of Europeans living in Britain until similar assurances were extended to Britons across the EU.
While stressing that the issue was a priority for Poland after Brexit, she said: “Of course, these guarantees would need to be reciprocal.”
With Poles representing one of the largest minority groups in the UK, Poland has taken a cautious approach to Brexit and last week President Andrzej Duda urged politicians to tone down their rhetoric.
“I propose a glass of cold water to cool emotions, so that in the end it doesn’t turn out that we all lose — both the EU and the UK,” Duda told Bloomberg.
Both May and Szydlo stressed their warm relations during Monday’s summit.
“I firmly believe that if we all approach Brexit in the same constructive and positive manner, then we can secure the right outcome for the United Kingdom and for our European neighbours too,” May said.
Poland’s foreign and interior ministers flew to London in September following the murder of a Polish factory worker in Harlow, northeast of London.
The June 23 referendum on EU membership was followed by a spike in the number of attacks against foreigners and two Polish police officers were deployed in Harlow following their compatriot’s murder.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio del Pino said Monday he was “optimistic” that an OPEC meeting this week in Vienna will reach agreement on oil production cuts to boost prices.
“I am optimistic” ahead of “this very important meeting”, he said, quoted by the Algerian news agency APS, on his arrival in Algiers where he met his counterpart Noureddine Boutarfa.
The two ministers were to travel on to Moscow before Wednesday’s meeting in Vienna on a mission to try to convince non-OPEC oil producer Russia to join in the output cuts.
“The aim is to meet with the Russian authorities and to share our strategy with them,” del Pino said. “OPEC and non-OPEC countries must take action.”
Boutarfa said on a visit to Iran last weekend that OPEC was prepared to cut output by 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) if non-members reduce by 600,000 bpd, Iranian media reported.
President Vladimir Putin said last week Russia was ready to “freeze production”, but stopped short of promising a cut.
Russia, its finances hit by low oil prices and Western sanctions, is pumping some 11 million bpd, a level not seen since Soviet days.
For Venezuela, the collapse in oil prices over the past two years has compounded its economic and political crisis.
In September, the 14-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed at an informal Algiers meeting to cut output.
Details of the deal and on how to distribute the cuts have been left for the formal meeting in Vienna.

Nearly half the population of strife-torn Central African Republic needs humanitarian assistance, the UN said Monday, appealing for $399 million from donors to cover the country’s aid needs next year.
UN humanitarian coordinator for Central Africa, Fabrizio Hochschild, told reporters that decades of chronic poverty, compounded by a long line of conflicts, had created a “humanitarian emergency” in one of the world’s poorest countries.
He and Central African Social Affairs Minister Virginie Baikoua were in Geneva Monday to appeal to donors to loosen their purse strings and provide $399 million (377 million euros) to help 1.6 million people across the country in 2017.
That amount comes on top of the $2.2 billion (2.0 billion euros) pledged by international donors earlier this month in Brussels towards the country’s five-year national recovery and stabilisation plan.
“If we want peace to return, we really need stability,” Baikoua told reporters, insisting that if you want stability, “you cannot forget the humanitarian aid element.”
Hochschild said that nearly half of the country is facing food insecurity, while 40 percent of children under three are chronically malnourished, which can lead to stunting.
“This is a place where one in five children will not live to see their fifth birthday,” he told reporters, calling for “sustained support” for the country.
“We also believe that it is a country that can be turned around and that has taken very important steps in that direction,” he said, referring to the country’s first democratically elected government, which came to power earlier this year.
The government is trying to bring together 14 armed groups under a disarmament deal to consolidate a fragile peace in the former French colony, where militias are flourishing in the power vacuum left by a weak state.
But Baikoua stressed that work to set up a special criminal court aimed at ending the widespread impunity was progressing and was expected to be completed by the first half of 2017.
The Central African Republic is struggling to emerge from a civil war which erupted in 2013 following the overthrow of former president Francois Bozize, a Christian, by Muslim rebels from the Seleka coalition.
The coup led to the formation of “anti-Balaka” vigilante units, drawn from the Christian majority, which began to target Muslims. Both sides committed widespread atrocities.
Militias are still flourishing given the weakness of the state and just last week clashes between rival armed groups left at least 16 people dead and displaced thousands of civilians.
Former colonial power France intervened in 2013 to stop violent Christian-Muslim clashes and formally ended its peacekeeping mission only last month, hailing it a success despite fresh outbreaks of violence.
That leaves mainly the UN’s 12,500-strong MINUSCA peacekeeping mission to protect civilians from armed groups.

It’s the place in Istanbul where you can meet modern Turkey’s secular founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent, then pose next to Julia Roberts, or maybe, Turkish superstar actress Beren Saat.
At the new branch of the iconic waxworks franchise Madame Tussauds, the brand’s famous mix of global celebrities has a special Turkish flavour.
The attraction, which opened on Monday, is situated in the heart of the European side of the city and hopes to help reverse a trend of declining tourism after a spate of terror attacks this year.
The very street where it is located, Istiklal Avenue, was early in the year hit by a suicide bombing blamed on jihadists and has seen numerous businesses close as visitors stayed away.
On entering the museum the model of Ataturk, Turkey’s national hero who founded the modern secular state out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, is the first figure the visitor meets.
Getting Ataturk right was the number one priority, after a previous model on display at Madame Tussauds in London was accused of bearing little resemblance to Turkey’s revered leader and called a “disgrace to the nation”.
“We think it is the best replica ever made so far,” said Sarper Hilmi Suner, a general manager at Merlin Entertainments, the Britain-based company which runs the attraction.
But there is no model of current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — at least for the moment.
One of Turkey’s most celebrated novelists, Yasar Kemal, who died last year after battling heart problems, is also enshrined in wax.
Wearing his trademark glasses, the white-haired Kemal is seen in his well-known shirt and jacket sitting in an armchair.
“It has taken five months just to catch that pose,” Suner told AFP. “We asked for help from his family, that grey jacket is the original one donated by his family,” he added.
Turkey’s star midfielder Arda Turan of Barcelona is featured with the Turkish national team’s jersey and running in triumph after scoring.
The waxwork of former basketball star Hidayet Turkoglu, the first player born in Turkey to play in the NBA, is exhibited slam-dunking in a red-and-white Turkish national team vest.
Iconic singer Zeki Muren who adored women’s clothes, excessive makeup and is held up as a gay icon, stands in one corner of the museum in a shiny blouse.
Those less knowledgeable of Turkish culture will also find familiar faces like Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts or sports figures including tennis champion Rafael Nadal and sprinter Usain Bolt.
But some prominent Turkish soap opera actors and actresses on display like Kivanc Tatlitug and Beren Saat could attract foreign visitors, as Turkish soap operas take Arab and even Latin American countries by storm.
“We created a mixture that could attract foreign and domestic tourists,” said Aydan Alboga Uslu, marketing manager at Merlin Entertainments.
– Tourism boost for Istiklal-
“Everything is really well done,” said Michelle Petsch, a tourist from Canada who was one of the first visitors on Monday.
“(Jamaican singer) Bob Marley was my favourite. Up close, it is like he is going to open his eyes and talk to you right there,” she added.
Istiklal Avenue’s tourism is poised to get a boost from Madame Tussauds Istanbul following a spate of attacks as well as the July 15 failed coup.
“Turkey is a country of tourism. There could be occasional ups and downs but we trust our Turkey’s stability and that’s why we keep on investing,” said Merlin Entertainments’ Suner.
As well as Madame Tussauds, Merlin runs a host of attractions around the world including Legoland, British theme park Alton Towers and the London Eye.
Istanbul joins a network of two dozen Madame Tussauds museums in the world including London, Berlin, Amsterdam and New York.

Prominent Russian rights activists said Monday that torture is widely used in a northern penal colony, citing fresh allegations after claims from a jailed opposition member serving a sentence there.
Ildar Dadin, who is serving two-and-a-half years in penal colony No 7 in Karelia region, earlier this month in a letter smuggled out to his wife accused guards of beating him.
“Many ex-convicts and relatives of victims confirm the information given by Dadin on regular torture, humiliation and beatings in the Karelia colony,” said rights activist Lev Ponomaryov at a press conference where relatives of other convicts spoke.
“The most common torture technique is stretching, when both legs are stretched out at the same time,” said Larisa Geliskhanova, mother of another prisoner.
She said Dadin’s allegations “are word for word what my son Zelimkhan has lived through.”
“My son had all his ligaments torn,” she added.
Dadin, 34, was sent to the colony after being convicted late last year for repeatedly protesting without permission: the first peaceful protester sentenced to jail time under Russia’s controversial recent legislation.
Dadin said in his letter that guards beat him four times on his second day at the colony, put his head in a toilet bowl in the isolation cell, hung him up in handcuffs and threatened him with death.
Russia’s federal penitentiary service (FSIN) denies wrongdoing. A deputy chief of the service said Monday that Dadin was a “talented imitator” while rights activists who support him “had not a single true and confirmed fact” of torture.
Rights activists, however, say there is corroboration.
“Seven or eight other people confirm what Dadin claims,” anti-torture activist Igor Kalyapin, who visited him this month, told Interfax. “I saw the object from which he was suspended in handcuffs and I saw the wounds left from the handcuffs.”
Another attendee, Zhanetta Gabzayeva, said his son “was hung from his feet and hit with a hammer until he passed out.”
Dadin’s jailing was condemned by international rights groups. Russians have also picketed the penal service headquarters in Moscow to protest the use of torture in the country’s prisons.
Last week a European Parliament resolution called for Dadin’s “immediate and unconditional release” and urged Russia to “carry out a thorough review of its penitentiary system with a view to undertaking a deep reform.”
It also called for targeted sanctions against individuals responsible for mistreating Dadin and other activists.

Asghar Farhadi stepped out into the biting winter Tehran air clutching his Oscar, taken aback by the huge crowd waiting at the airport to crown him Iran’s next national hero.
Cinema in the Islamic republic had been winning critical plaudits for decades but had failed to break into the mainstream until the celebrated auteur brought home the country’s first ever Academy Award in 2012.
“I tried to go surreptitiously, precisely to avoid any kind of scene, and somehow they had managed to glean what day I was arriving and there were crowds at the airport,” Farhadi remembers.
“The numbers were so huge that I began to be concerned about crowd control.”
The best foreign language win for Farhadi’s “A Separation” prompted nationwide celebration as millions of Iranians burned the midnight oil to watch the director, then 40, accepting the award.
It came as huge morale boost to many Iranians whose lives were overshadowed by civil unrest following the Arab Spring in nearby Egypt and Tunisia, the ever-present threat of conflict and crippling economic sanctions.
“It was a period of time when politicians both in Iran and the United States were talking about war,” Farhadi tells AFP on a promotional visit to the US ahead of the awards season.
“I was so happy that they were now speaking about culture. I had this impression that it was the people of the two countries that were in communication rather than the politicians talking.”
The filmmaker once again finds himself as a cultural go-between, representing Iran in Hollywood with his latest film, “The Salesman,” picked by his country as its 2017 entry for the foreign film Oscar.
A taut, visceral morality tale about a married couple thrown into turmoil after the wife is attacked in their home, it picked up two major awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
As with “A Separation,” Farhadi’s new film presents a nuanced Tehran that looks beyond the firebrand mullahs and morality police seen on Western televisions and into the lives of ordinary people.
Farhadi doesn’t feel he has to address American misconceptions about Iranian society, but he recognizes that his work is becoming something of a dialogue between his own people and US popular culture.
“When I sit and down and start writing a script I don’t say to myself this is a film that’s going to be viewed by foreign audiences and, because foreign audiences are going to be seeing it, I should maybe do some extra things,” he says.
“I approach it thinking the audience could be anyone anywhere and I write what my heart dictates.”
Farhadi, now 44, made his first short film at age 13 in a youth cinema club.
A theater studies graduate of the University of Tehran, he went on to read for a masters in stage direction at Tarbiat Modares University and started work immediately, directing television series he himself had written.
In 2002, he wrote and directed his first feature film, “Dancing in the Dust,” before winning acclaim for “Fireworks Wednesday” a vivid portrait of marriage against the backdrop of a Persian New Year.
Psychological drama “About Elly” followed in 2009 before “A Separation” burst into the international public consciousness, winning best film at the 61st Berlinale and going on to pick up prizes at festivals across the world.
As well as winning the best foreign language film Oscar and Golden Globe, it was nominated by the Academy for its screenplay, earning the director a place among the filmmaking elite.
Farhadi’s work has been praised for showing life in all its moral complexity, not judging his characters but inviting audiences to draw their own conclusions.
The theme is not lost on the director on his return to a United States which looks anything but united as it prepares for the elevation of a polarizing reality TV star with a line in inflammatory rhetoric to the White House.
“I was at (Tehran’s) airport and the results weren’t in yet and every single Iranian was either watching monitors or their mobiles following the election,” he says, remembering Donald Trump’s triumph on November 8.
Farhadi says people in Iran were as much in shock as the anti-Trump Americans when the results finally came in.
“This is what the people of America have chosen and because it’s a democracy, we have to respect that,” he say.
“But I can demonstrate my own concern. My hope is that the way this situation progresses will bring the world closer to peace, not to war.”

A day after being released from police custody on bond, the quack doctor who made headlines following his exploits was given a heroic welcome back home.
Ronald Kiprotich Melly shocked the whole nation after it emerged he had fooled the authorities through a series of forgery and bribery and had earned a job as a doctor and even at the time of arrest had been promoted to the rank of medical superintendent.
It would later emerge that Ronald Melly had never even studied medicine at the University of Nairobi but somehow got through the system and rose through ranks.
 
He had performed a number of minor surgeries and handled a number of Caesarian deliveries.
It is for this reason that his home people felt he should be recognized and even supported to become a doctor since he had done a ‘good job’ without training.
The residents now have identified a new role for him in society and now want their hero to vie for the Tinderet MCA seat.
Ronald Melly would not be setting a trend nor would his bid be out of the norm.
Just as soon as she was controversially cleared by the EACC, Anne Waiguru announced her interest in the Kirinyaga County Governor seat.
Former police Inspector General David Kimaiyo despite being hounded out of two public offices has long since expressed his intention to vie for the Elgeyo-Marakwet County seat, another quack doctor Mugo Wairimu is also eyeing a political seat in Kiambu.
Going by such example, it will not be a surprise to see Josephine Kabiru and Ben Gethi announcing their political intentions.
 
All that stands in their way is the EACC which has proved to be gullible in the past and with a few court documents and a little noise they will get their clearance.
From there the script leads to a number of harambees in the desired electorate, then do a couple of rounds and donations in churches as they get cleansed.
A trip to village elders would helped and by then they will have enough traction to have leading media houses seeking to host them and reveal ‘the real Ben Gethi’ as well as  ‘the real Josephine Kabura’.
After that, it will be politics as usual and they just need to get an electorate in their backyard and run against an aspirant lacking their endless deep pockets.
For Kabura the perfect seat would be as Kirinyaga’s women representative.
Her deep pockets will make her the first Mrs. Moneybags and place her with close proximity with Anne Waiguru.
Then she can watch as her former friend turned betrayer fail to clinch the seat as she storms her way to parliament to fight the rights of women, especially those downtrodden because they are in profession like ’hair dressing’.
Ben Gethi can afford to start as an MCA and any ward in Nairobi with a slum and a high population of young Kikuyu men would suffice.
All he has to do is convince them he is just one of them who got a lucky shot to tap at the coffers of the rich.
He will promise to bring the piece home which he will share via handouts and getting himself an army ready to rot and harass on his behalf.
Then the two will fill the public with their rags to riches like stories and will become our heroes.
As PLO Lumumba aptly captured, the only claim to fame for Kenyan politicians is a failed institution or a piece of grabbed land somewhere. Such is our fate

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi attempted Monday to calm fears of a financial meltdown after an upcoming referendum on which he has staked his political future.
The centre-left premier, who has suggested he will step down if voters reject proposals to reform Italy’s parliamentary system, said “there will still be a government, whether it it technical, political, super technical or super political”.
He added: “We will do everything that has to be done to ensure Italy is ready to face its challenges.”
Renzi was speaking as he presented his 2017 budget plans to the media after winning backing for them last week from the Chamber of Deputies.
The budget includes plans to loosen the fiscal strings to finance tax cuts, increased health and education spending and measures to help smaller companies and the country’s earthquake-hit areas.
As such, it has put Renzi on a new collision course with the European Commission – but that long-running dispute may have to be managed by someone else if Sunday’s constitutional reform referendum vote goes against him and he opts to step aside, as he has repeatedly suggested he will.
“I am not someone to cling on to my armchair,” he said Monday in a question-and-answer session on one of his social media pages.
Last week Renzi appeared to categorically rule out running a government of technocrats in the event of a No triumph in the referendum, on proposals to reduce the powers and size of the second parliamentary chamber, the Senate.
Such an administration is seen as more likely than fresh elections because a No vote will mean a recent reform of the electoral system, which is linked to the streamlining of parliament, will have to be amended before a nationwide vote can take place.
With opinion polls placing the No camp ahead – albeit with many voters still undecided – fears have mounted that Renzi’s departure could trigger a financial crisis that would place Italy’s heavily-indebted banks in peril.
Pier Carlo Padoan, the finance minister, attempted to play down those fears on Monday. “Obviously markets do not like uncertainty but Italy’s fundamentals are strong,” he said.
Markets were spooked Monday after influential British daily the Financial Times reported that eight Italian banks could go under in the event of a No vote triggering a financial crisis.
Padoan insisted the report contained nothing new. “Perhaps it was because it is Monday and there was not much to report,” he added.

England back Elliot Daly was given a three-week ban Monday after being sent off for what officials deemed a “reckless” tackle on Argentina’s Leonardo Senatore at Twickenham.
Saturday’s match, which England eventually won 27-14 despite being down to 14 men for the bulk of the contest, was just five minutes old when Daly was shown a red card by French referee Pascal Gauzere for taking out Senatore when the Pumas No 8 was in mid-air.
Daly, best known as a centre but playing on the wing when he was sent off, will miss England’s final international of 2016, against Australia at Twickenham this coming Saturday, and English club Wasps’ European Champions Cup double-header against Irish side Connacht.
The 24-year-old Daly told a disciplinary hearing on Monday that he deserved a red card and the three-strong panel took that into account as a mitigating factor when halving what would have been a six-week suspension into a three-week ban.
“The disciplinary committee found that Mr Daly had acted recklessly and that the offending merited a mid-range entry point based on World Rugby’s scale of seriousness, which carries a six-week playing suspension,” said an Autumn International Disciplinary statement.
“The disciplinary committee further found that there were no aggravating factors and that there were a number of mitigating factors (including Mr Daly’s acknowledgement of wrongdoing, expression of remorse to the injured player and his good conduct at the hearing) such that his playing suspension be reduced by three weeks.
“Mr Daly is therefore suspended from playing rugby for a total of three weeks, up to and including Sunday 18 December 2016.”
Daly was just the fifth England player in history to be shown a red card in a Test match and the first since flanker Lewis Moody against Samoa in 2005.

A Chinese state-owned construction company will build the Qatar 2022 World Cup final stadium in a joint venture, Qatar’s World Cup organisers said Monday.
The China Railway Construction Corporation Limited and Qatari contractor HBK Contracting Co. W.L.L. have won the bidding process to build the stadium designed by award-winning British architect Norman Foster’s firm, Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy said.
The venue, which will host the 2022 World Cup final, will be built at Lusail City 20km (12 miles) north of Doha, the committee said.
“We are delighted to award the main contract for Lusail Stadium to HBK and CRCC as a joint venture,” the committee’s secretary general Hassan Al Thawadi said.
“Lusail Stadium will be the centre-piece of our tournament in 2022, and post tournament will become an integral part of the community in Lusail City in the legacy phase,” he added.
Foster and Partners have drawn up the design for the circular 80,000 seater super-stadium, and the builders are expected to swiftly begin work on the plot while the design for the stadium is due to be revealed in early 2017.
“We are building a venue which will become an internationally-recognisable landmark, as the host venue for the opening and final matches of the 2022 FIFA World Cup,” said Mubarak Al-Khulaifi, the committee’s project director for the stadium.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says he has no plans to make wholesale changes for Tuesday’s EFL Cup quarter-final against second-tier Leeds United at Anfield.
Klopp’s men are second in the Premier League and in the last round the German boss made 11 changes for the win over Tottenham Hotspur in the last round of the EFL Cup.
Liverpool will definitely be without Brazilian playmaker Philippe Coutinho, who is struggling with a calf problem sustained in Saturday’s 2-0 league win at home to Sunderland, while midfielder Adam Lallana will also miss the Leeds match because of a groin injury.
Daniel Sturridge has yet to return to training following a calf injury, while striker Danny Ings has already been ruled out for the season with knee ligament damage.
Nevertheless, the only change Klopp was prepared to announce Monday was that Simon Mignolet would replace first-choice number one Loris Karius in goal.
Just how long Coutinho will be sidelined remains uncertain and Klopp said Monday: “The best thing would be for him not to be out, but it is not really likely. We have to wait for the scan and then we will know.
“When you are in the rhythm it is different but we are not in this rhythm. You need to listen to the players and figure out if they are ready or not.”
Leeds, who rivalled Liverpool as one of England’s pre-eminent clubs in the early 1970s, are fifth in the Championship and pushing for promotion back to the Premier League.
“It is not allowed to take any risks. It is about having a line-up which can stand the intensity of the game because Leeds are in a really good moment,” said Klopp.
“They are a football-playing side and they will force us into a lot of things so we need to work hard in these games so the players need to be fit for this.
“We don’t want to rest somebody who doesn’t need a rest. It is possible we make a few changes; it is possible we will play nearly the same team.
“For sure, if nothing happens, Simon (Mignolet) will play,” Klopp added.

About 1.4 billion jobs and three-quarters of all crops depend on pollinators, researchers said Monday warning of a dire threat to human welfare if the falls in bee and butterfly numbers are not halted.
“World food supplies and jobs are at risk unless urgent action is taken to stop global declines of pollinators,” said a statement from the University of Reading, whose researchers took part in the global review.
Animal pollination directly affects about three-quarters of important crop types, including most fruits, seeds and nuts and high-value products such as coffee, cocoa and oilseed rape.
Pollinators added some $235-577 billion (222-545 billion euros) to crop output per year, said the team.
“Agriculture employs 1.4 billion people, approximately one-third of the world’s economically active labour force,” said the review published in the journal Nature.
“This is particularly important to the world’s poorest rural communities, 70 percent of whom rely on agriculture as the main source of income and employment.”
Most pollinators are insects such as bees, butterflies, moths, wasps and beetles, but others include birds, bats and lizards while some crops are pollinated by wind.
The team said crops which depend on animal pollinators are crucial for balanced human diets, providing micronutrients such as vitamins A and C, calcium, fluoride and folic acid.
“Pollinator losses could therefore result in a substantial rise in the global rate of preventable diseases,” the researchers wrote.
“This could result in about 1.4 million additional deaths per year and approximately 29 million lost years of healthy life,” the researchers wrote.
Wild plants are also at risk — more than 90 percent of tropical flowering plant species rely on animal pollination, said the team.
Almost one in five vertebrate pollinators, mostly birds and bats, are threatened with extinction.
And among bees — the most numerous pollinators by far — about nine percent were catalogued as threatened, with a similar percentage for butterflies.
The true number for bees may be much higher, given the lack of data on many species, said the report.
There are some 20,000 species of bees responsible for fertilising more than 90 percent of the world’s 107 major crops.
Bee populations have been hit in Europe, North America and elsewhere by a mysterious phenomenon called “colony collapse disorder”, which has been blamed on mites, a virus or fungus, pesticides, or a combination of factors.
The authors of the review called for measures to protect pollinators against farming’s worst side-effects.
These could include using natural pest predators instead of pesticides, planting strips of flowers between crops, rotating crops to include flowering plants, and restoring native wild flower habitats to house pollinator communities.
Manmade infrastructure such as power lines, railway banks and even motorways could be adapted to provide flowering and nesting spots for pollinators, the team wrote.

Kenya is one of the most visited destinations in the world, sadly though, more visited by foreigners who travel miles and miles to come and see our beautiful country than local visitors who go sight-seeing.
In every 10 people you meet today, ask who’s been to Giraffe Center or closer to the CBD, the National Archives.
But we are quick to spend bundles and bundles of cash on drinking and travelling to Coast when Christmas hits us.
This time round, why not go somewhere else other than Coast or Nakuru? This weekend than finishing your salary in Westy, why not go to a tourist location and experience the thrill that brings these Jungus all the way out here.
Lord Egerton Castle was built in the 1938 it was completed in 1954, 14km from Nakuru. By Lord Egerton who built it for his fiancée, ungrateful her, just came to the castle like two hours frowned upon it, left and never returned. I think after search ungratefulness: Lord Egerton might have sworn off women all together.
Rolf’s place is nothing of romantic and relaxing. Located on the side of a cliff on Lang’ata road, the Place is only accessible by a roped bridge; below the rope is a deep gorge. You have an option of sleeping there or just a day visit. It’s impeccable, you to visit.
The Chalbi Desert is a small desert in northern Kenya, near the border with Ethiopia. Marsabit is the closest major city.
The desert is roughly 100,000 sq km of virtually flat sandy desert, to the east of Lake Turkana, happens to be the world’s biggest desert lake, the hottest and most arid region in Kenya. is a pan totally surrounded by volcanoes and ancient lava flows
Located in Kitengela, the has couple of activities that you and your loved ones can indulge in.
There’s the actual riding of the Ostriches (not for the faint-hearted),  swimming, dining: dine by Mbuni Choma Ranch , there’s a bar you can indulge in your favorite poison at while catching latest new sot match.