To argue his case in court against Nigeria's President-elect Bola Tinubu, @PeterObi and his Labour Party, intend to produce documents to prove their claim, including a Verified Complaint for Forfeiture; Stipulations and Compromise Settlement of Claims to the Funds held by Heritage Bank and CitiBank; and Decree of Forfeiture as to Funds held by First Heritage Bank, signed by United States District Judge, John A. Nordberg to affirm proof that @officialABAT was indeed not qualified to contest for Presidency. President-elect to file responses.
Adesanya after the victory: I told you the hunter is now the hunted. I told you this before, thank you. Thank you for all what you've done. Thank you for beating me because beating me, he made me a better fighter, a better person.
In this camp, I didn't Bleep around. If you know me, you know I like a vacation but I didn't Bleep around, I stayed on the grind, I put myself through
ISRAEL ADESANYA KNOCKS ALEX PEREIRA OUT COLD! 🥶
🏆 @Stylebender WITH THE SWEETEST VICTORY OF HIS CAREER! #UFC287
Recall the two met in November with Adesanya looking to maintain his spot atop the middleweight and pound-for-pound rankings. But Pereira had other ideas for his former kickboxing rival. Despite appearing to be down heading into the final round of the fight, Pereira unleashed massive hooks that rocked Adesanya before the referee called off the action for the late TKO to crown a new champion.
In the rematch, it was the PEOPLE'S CHAMPION who triumphed this time.
Chelsea FC has announced that Frank Lampard has been named Caretaker Manager until the end of the season.
The move marks a return to Stamford Bridge for Frank who enjoyed an illustrious playing career with the Blues, winning the Premier League on three occasions and the UEFA Champions League in Munich. He managed the club for 84 games, including guiding us to an FA Cup final.
Co-controlling owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali said:
'We are delighted to welcome Frank back to Stamford Bridge. Frank is a Premier League Hall of Famer and a legend at this club. As we continue our thorough and exhaustive process for a permanent head coach, we want to provide the club and our fans with a clear and stable plan for the remainder of the season. We want to give ourselves every chance of success and Frank has all of the characteristics and qualities we need to drive us to the finish line.
'We have an important game against Wolves on Saturday and then we will turn our attention to our Champions League quarter-final in Madrid next week. We are all going to give Frank our full backing as we aim to get the best possible outcome from all our remaining games.'
Frank Lampard is on the verge of sealing a shock return to Stamford Bridge after being 'offered' the Chelsea manager's job on a temporary basis.
The club opened talks with Lampard on Tuesday with a view to bringing him in until the end of the season while they focus on sourcing Graham Potter's permanent replacement - with Luis Enrique and Julian Nagelsmann the frontrunners.
Lampard, who spent a season-and-a-half in the hotseat before being replaced by Thomas Tuchel in January 2021, is reportedly eager to accept the deal following his reputation-denting departure from Everton earlier this year.
According to The Telegraph, both Ashley Cole and Joe Edwards are likely to follow Lampard through the door, forming part of his backroom staff, just as they did during his initial stint as manager.
The 44-year-old is likely to be in the dugout for Chelsea's trip to Wolves on Saturday. That way, he'll have plenty of time to prepare for the Champions League quarter-final first leg against Real Madrid on April 12.
A grand jury in Manhattan voted Thursday to indict Donald Trump — the first time a former U.S. president has faced criminal charges. The indictment comes in a case centered on a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the closing days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels claimed she slept with the married Trump in 2006, a claim the former president has denied. Trump had classified his reimbursement of the payout as a legal expense.
Trump arrives at courthouse to face historic criminal charges.
Donald Trump turned himself in Tuesday for a historic New York court hearing held amid tight security and a global media frenzy, as the Republican billionaire becomes the first American president in history to face criminal charges.
In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the Alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Since then, 19 more countries have joined the Alliance: Greece and Türkiye (1952); Germany (1955); Spain (1982); Czechia, Hungary and Poland (1999); Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004); Albania and Croatia (2009); Montenegro (2017); North Macedonia (2020); and Finland (2023).
Rooney: Kane Is Like Cristiano Ronaldo, they Have A Kind Of Selfishness, obsession with goals
Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has compared Harry Kane to Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of selfishness.
Kane recently became England’s all-time goal scorer, taking the record from Rooney after netting from the penalty spot against Italy in a UEFA Euro 2024 Qualifying game.
The England captain is also the highest goal scorer in the history of Tottenham Hotspur and Rooney believes that the striker shares one attribute with Ronaldo which is their insatiability for goals.
Rooney said that by the time Kane retires from international football, it would be difficult for anyone to break the goal record he would set.
“The only other person I’ve seen like that is Cristiano Ronaldo and both he and Harry have what you would call a good kind of selfishness, an obsession with goals that is in-built. It is important to their success,” he said, according to the Manchester Evening News.
We can announce that Head Coach Antonio Conte has left the Club by mutual agreement. We achieved Champions League qualification in Antonio’s first season at the Club. We thank Antonio for his contribution and wish him well for the future.
Cristian Stellini will take the team as Acting Head Coach for the remainder of the season, along with Ryan Mason as Assistant Head Coach.
Daniel Levy, Chairman: “We have 10 Premier League games remaining and we have a fight on our hands for a Champions League place. We all need to pull together. Everyone has to step up to ensure the highest possible finish for our Club and amazing, loyal supporters.”
France bans recreational use of twitter, Netflix, candy crush from Govt staff phones
France announced Friday it is banning the “recreational” use of TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and other apps on government employees' phones because of concern about insufficient data security measures.
The move follows similar restrictions on TikTok in democratic countries amid fears about the popular video-sharing app's Chinese connections. But the French decision also encompassed other platforms widely used by government officials, lawmakers and President Emmanuel Macron himself.
The French Minister for Transformation and Public Administration, Stanislas Guerini, said in a statement that ‘’recreational'' apps aren’t secure enough to be used in state administrative services and ’’could present a risk for the protection of data.”
The ban will be monitored by France’s cybersecurity agency. The statement did not specify which apps are banned but noted that the decision came after other governments took measures targeting TikTok.
Guerini's office said in a message to The Associated Press that the ban also will include Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, gaming apps like Candy Crush and dating apps.
Exceptions will be allowed. If an official wants to use a banned app for professional purposes, like public communication, they can request permission to do so.
Case in point: Guerini posted the announcement of the ban on Twitter.
The U.S., Britain, the European Union and others have banned TikTok on government phones. Western governments worry Chinese authorities could force TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance Ltd., to hand over data on international users or push pro-Beijing narratives.
The company's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, pushed back on assertions that TikTok or ByteDance are tools of the Chinese government during questioning by U.S. lawmakers Thursday. The company has been reiterating that 60% of ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors.
A law China implemented in 2017 requires companies to give the government any personal data relevant to the country’s national security. There’s no evidence that TikTok has turned over such data, but fears abound due to the vast amount of user data it collects.
A South African pastor, Siva Moodley, has been buried 579 days after he died because his family was waiting for his resurrection.
The South African News reports that Moodley’s body had been kept at a Johannesburg mortuary since his death on August 15, 2021.
The 53-year-old Moodley proclaimed that he could raise people from the dead. He had died after falling ill.
According to reports, his family and members of the church used to visit the funeral home to pray for his resurrection.
It was reported that the funeral home manager, Martin du Toit, lodged an application with the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court to grant him permission to have Moodley buried or cremated.
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema has reiterated that the country does not support gay and lesbian practice because Zambia is a Christian Nation.
He said that Zambia will remain a Christian nation as declared by the late former Republican President Fredrick Chiluba.
The Head of State speaking when he addressed the clergy in Chingola yesterday said the country will not compromise on being a Christian nation as enshrined in the laws.
“We do not support gay and lesbian practice. As a country, it is enshrined in our laws and no individual can change that. Let us evangelize around that issue as clergy by preaching what we believe in,” he said.
Mr Hichilema also called on the clergy to help spread unity in the country so that development can be accelerated .
He echoed that unity is not negotiable and that is why the clergy should take a leadership role by ensuring that division is denounced in the country.
“The country must be reunited. All of us area one Zambia, one Nation. And we are one Nation , One people. The platform of unity should be accelerated as it is an anchor that will help foster development. Let us not point fingers towards each other based on tribe and ethnicity. That brings confusion, so my call is on the church as well as the Copperbelt to help echo unity in all 10 provinces of the country,” he said.
Mr Hichilema further echoed that his Government was focused on ensuring all issues were tackled to ensure the developmental agenda, but called on all stakeholders to ensure that they played their part.
Women in Berlin can now swim topless in the city’s public pools if they choose to – just as men can.
As well as being hailed as a step forward for gender equality in the German capital, the measure introduced this week is symptomatic of Germany’s love of Freikoerperkultur – literally translated as ‘free body culture’ – which has its roots in the late 19th century.
Berlin’s authorities took action after a female swimmer said she was prevented from attending one of the city’s pools without covering her chest in December 2022. The woman lodged a complaint with the city’s ombudsman’s office at the Senate Department for Justice, Diversity and Anti-Discrimination.
Authorities agreed that the woman had been a victim of discrimination and this week said that all visitors to Berlin’s pools, including women and those who identify as non-binary, are permitted to go topless.
It follows a similar incident at a Berlin water park in the summer of 2021. French woman Gabrielle Lebreton sought financial compensation from the city after security guards ordered her to leave the premise when she refused to cover up her breasts.
She was with her five-year-old son when the incident happened. Speaking to German newspaper Die Zeit at the time about why she believed it was gender discrimination, she said: “For me — and I teach this to my son — no, there is no such difference. For both men and women, the breast is a secondary sexual characteristic but men have the freedom to remove their clothes when it is hot and women do not.”
Berlin’s state government confirmed the move in a press release Thursday. “As a result of a successful discrimination complaint, the Berlin bathing establishments will in future apply their house and bathing regulations in a gender-equitable manner,” the statement reads.
The former Indiana Governor, Pence, (who was Vice President under Trump) is expected to challenge his former boss in the Republican Primaries.
Former Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday harshly criticized former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, widening the rift between the two men as they prepare to battle over the Republican nomination in next year’s election.
“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said during remarks at the annual white-tie Gridiron Dinner attended by politicians and journalists. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
Pence’s remarks were the sharpest condemnation yet from the once-loyal lieutenant who has often shied away from confronting his former boss. Trump has already declared his candidacy. Pence has not, but he’s been laying the groundwork to run.
In the days leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, Trump pressured Pence to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory as he presided over the ceremonial certification of the results. Pence refused, and when rioters stormed the Capitol, some chanted that they wanted to “hang Mike Pence.”
The House committee that investigated the attack said in its final report that “the President of the United States had riled up a mob that hunted his own Vice President.”
With his remarks, Pence solidified his place in a broader debate within the Republican Party over how to view the attack. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, for example, recently provided Tucker Carlson with an archive of security camera footage from Jan. 6, which the Fox News host has used to downplay the day’s events and promote conspiracy theories.
“Make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace,” Pence said in his Gridiron Dinner remarks. “And it mocks decency to portray it any other way.”
Trump, meanwhile, has continued to spread lies about his election loss. He’s even spoken in support of the rioters and said he would consider pardoning them if he was reelected.
Speeches at the Gridiron Dinner are usually humorous affairs, where politicians poke fun at each other, and Pence did plenty of that as well.
He joked that Trump’s ego was so fragile, he wanted his vice president to sing “Wind Beneath My Wings” — one of the lines is “did you ever know that you’re my hero?” — during their weekly lunches.
He took another shot at Trump over classified documents.
“I read that some of those classified documents they found at Mar-a-Lago were actually stuck in the president’s Bible,” Pence said. “Which proves he had absolutely no idea they were there.”
Even before the dinner was over, Pence was facing criticism for his jokes about Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, the first openly gay Cabinet member in U.S. history.
Pence mentioned that, despite travel problems that were plaguing Americans, Buttigieg took “maternity leave” after he and his husband adopted newborn twins.
“Pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets post-partum depression,” Pence said.
Barcelona have been charged with corruption over payments they made to the vice-president of Spanish football’s refereeing committee.
Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who held that role between 1994 and 2018, is also facing charges of corruption in a case brought by the Spanish public prosecutor’s office, as is Josep Maria Bartomeu, Barca president from 2014-2020, and Sandro Rosell, president from 2010-2014.
Enriquez Negreira has denied ever favouring Barcelona in terms of refereeing decisions. Barca have explained they hired an “external consultant” who provided reports “related to professional refereeing” and also deny any wrongdoing. All parties — Barca, Enriquez Negreira, Bartomeu and Rosell — have been approached for comment by The Athletic.
If Barca are found guilty, what might happen? News emerged in mid-February that prosecutors were investigating payments made by Barca to DASNIL 95, a company owned by Enriquez Negreira, between 2001 and 2018.
They began their investigation in May 2022, when tax inspectors alerted them to alleged irregularities in DASNIL’s financial records. On Friday, prosecutors put a figure on the total value of these payments: over €7.3million (£6.4m; $7.8m) was paid by Barca to DASNIL, and a second company owned by Enriquez Negreira, NILSAT.
Barcelona, as a legal entity, have now been charged with the crime of ‘continued corruption in business’.
The Spanish law relating to this crime was established in 2010. Since 2015, it has included a specific section targeting corruption in sport when it is suspected an attempt has been made to “pre-determine or alter in a deliberate and fraudulent manner the result of a match or competition”.
‘Continued’ corruption means the crime is believed to have taken place over a sustained period rather than being a one-off. This means the potential punishments are bigger, and can include up to four years in prison for individuals, or professional disqualification and fines for groups or enterprises.
In documents presented to a Barcelona court on Friday, prosecutors said: “FC Barcelona reached and maintained a strictly confidential verbal agreement with Enriquez Negreira so that, in his capacity as vice-president of the CTA (Spanish football’s referee’s committee) and in exchange for money, he would carry out actions tending to favour Barcelona in the decision making of referees in the matches played by the club.”
Prosecutors have also charged parties in this case with false administration and falsifying a commercial document, with two former officials from Bartomeu’s time as Barca president also charged: Oscar Grau and Albert Soler. Grau and Soler have also been approached for comment by The Athletic.
The Barcelona-Negreira scandal is only deepening — here's what you need to know
In terms of other sporting punishments, La Liga has already said it cannot investigate because the case relates to events that took place more than three years ago.
“It’s not possible for there to be any sportive punishment from our side,” La Liga president Javier Tebas said when news of the scandal broke in February. “It’s been five years since those payments stopped and these kinds of breaches are time-barred in our rulebook three years after taking place.”
Both the Spanish FA and Spain’s High Council for Sports, a governmental body, have previously told The Athletic they will respect the legal process before considering any action of their own.
UEFA told The Athletic it has no comment to make. Unlike La Liga, European football’s governing body would have the power to bring sporting sanctions as any offence would not be time-barred under its rules.
Barca have said they have launched their own investigation, in which they have involved their compliance department and also an external law firm.
What was Enriquez Negreira paid for? There still remains much doubt over the exact nature of the services Enriquez Negreira provided to Barca.
Speaking to the regional Catalonia branch of Cadena Ser, the media outlet that first broke the news of the scandal in mid-February, Enriquez Negreira said no documentation of his work existed because it was always conducted verbally. He said such work included giving advice on how players should behave with different referees.
Bartomeu, speaking with The Athletic in February, claimed to have only dealt with Enriquez Negreira’s son, Javier, over payments made to DASNIL.
He claimed not to have been aware that Enriquez Negreira himself was “involved in the company” until later on. He said it was Negreira’s son who supplied the “technical reports” on refereeing Barca paid for and that he “completed them with great professionalism”.
Negreira’s son has said the reports he was paid for have been provided to prosecutors.
Bartomeu also said payments were stopped in 2018 “to reduce our expenses”, adding: “The sports department of the club notified me we would part ways with this company and start assuming this job internally.”
However, Ernesto Valverde, the current Athletic Bilbao manager who was in charge at Barca from 2017 to 2020, said he “did not have a clue” about the work DASNIL was paid for. And sources close to Pep Guardiola, who wished to remain anonymous when speaking to The Athletic, said the former Barca boss (2008-2012) did not know anything about reports provided by Enriquez Negreira or his son.
Perhaps the most illuminating comment to have emerged so far is the testimony given by Enriquez Negreira himself to Spain’s tax authorities, reported in Spanish media, in which he said Barcelona had paid him “to make sure no refereeing decisions were made against them, which is to say, for everything to be neutral”.
Links between football clubs and referees are not uncommon in Spain. Carlos Megia Davila, a referee with 219 La Liga games under his belt, has worked, entirely legitimately, for Real Madrid’s Institutional Relations department since retiring in 2009.
Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez, who refereed 262 games in the Spanish top flight, is now part of Getafe’s first-team structure, again working entirely legitimately.
But Enriquez Negreira’s relationship with Barca is the only case where payments were made by a club to an individual still working for the Spanish FA and in a position of real influence.
Speaking on Tuesday, current Barca president Joan Laporta said: “We plan to do a press conference in the future to speak about the case. For now, we want to make clear Barcelona has not bought off referees and it has never been the intention. That’s a categorical no.”
Last week, a separate, individual criminal complaint was filed against Enriquez Negreira and his son by Spanish VAR official Javier Estrada Fernandez. This meant the public prosecutors were forced to close their case and reach a decision on whether or not to bring charges.
Estrada Fernandez’s complaint caused some unrest among the Spanish referees’ group. They were expecting a unified and organised action over the whole investigation and this new complaint has been seen as an individual move without the consent of the rest of the officials.
Who is Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira? Enriquez Negreira, born in Barcelona in September 1945, made his debut as a referee in Spain’s top flight in the 1979-80 season. He became vice-president of the Spanish FA’s technical committee of referees (CTA) in 1994.
Prosecutors on Friday described the CTA as overseeing “the designation of referees for each match of official Spanish competitions”. They said Enriquez Negreira would have been involved in “evaluations” leading to the “promotion and demotion of referees, as well as the proposal of candidates for international referees”.
Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez was a Spanish top-flight referee for 17 years before retiring and his time coincided with Enriquez Negreira’s position as vice president of the referees’ committee.
In February he told The Athletic: “From my personal experience, Negreira was not a person who had a bond with the match officials. I only met him at the camps the FA set up for referees throughout the season. Now all the referees meet once a week. Back in the day, they set up a big congregation before the season, then once every three months to assess our performances.
“Negreira was there, but at most you would see him when you crossed paths in the hotel corridor. He was not at all involved in the daily issues of our professional life.
“He had more of an institutional role. The referee’s committee has always followed a pretty presidential model: there was one main chief who surrounded himself with his closest circle. Negreira was one of those, but he did not engage with referees.
“The only thing we want now is to have some light cast over this dark case. All the referees want to clear everything up and expect a broader investigation. From the 20 La Liga referees from my generation, I have spoken with 18 of them. We all are furious.”
Armed men in military gear attacked a provincial governor in the central Philippines on Saturday, killing him and several other people, according to the police. Hours later, three were arrested in connection with the case.
The motive for the killing, the latest in a series of deadly attacks on political leaders, was not immediately clear. Initial police reports said that the governor, Roel Degamo, had been at home in the town of Pamplona, in the province of Negros Oriental, when the attack took place.
At least five other people present were also killed. They were described as citizens who had been meeting with Mr. Degamo to seek aid from the governor’s welfare program.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., calling for a speedy investigation, vowed that the killers would be caught.
“My government will not rest until we have brought the perpetrators of this dastardly and heinous crime to justice,” Mr. Marcos said in a statement. “I am warning all those involved in this killing: You can run, but you cannot hide.”
Hours later, the police said that three men had been arrested in connection with the crime. They were all aged 40 to 50; two were described as former soldiers. The police also reported seizing a .45-caliber pistol and ammunition.
A police statement issued before the arrests had said that the perpetrators wore camouflage uniforms and bulletproof vests and carried long guns to carry out their “treacherous attack.”
Mr. Degamo, 56, came from a political family and was allied with Mr. Marcos. Mr. Degamo initially lost his election last May but successfully challenged the results. His disqualified rival, Pryde Henry Teves, served as governor briefly but stepped aside for Mr. Degamo.
The vice president, Sara Duterte, expressed her condolences for a “political ally” and “dear friend” in a post on Mr. Degamo’s Facebook page. Her post also alluded to unrest in the province, saying, “Authorities must start looking at the political feud that has gripped Negros Oriental and has taken so many lives, not just of Gov. Degamo.”
Violence related to political rivalries is common in the Philippines, where politicians are known to employ private armies. In last year’s general election, the police said they had identified 150 “private armed groups” and had fanned out across the country in an effort to disband them.
Many of these private armies operate in areas far from the capital, Manila, in places where power is determined by political clans, officials have said.
Last month, in the southern Philippine province of Lanao del Sur, four police officers were killed and three others, including the province’s governor, Mamintal Adiong, were injured in a roadside ambush.
In another attack also last month, gunmen disguised as police officers waylaid a van carrying Rommel Alameda, the vice mayor of Aparri, a town in the north, killing him and five companions.
Zoom Video Communications Inc. slumped in early trading Friday after abruptly terminating the employment of President Greg Tomb, a former Google executive who had only started at the firm in June.
Shares of the video-conferencing software company fell as much as 2% in premarket, putting them on track to extend their decline this week to more than 6%. Tomb will receive severance benefits in accordance with arrangements that are payable upon a “termination without cause,” the company said in a regulatory filing. The move is effective Friday.
A Los Angeles judge on Wednesday sentenced the man convicted of gunning down rapper Nipsey Hussle to 60 years to life in prison.
Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke II handed down the sentence to Eric R. Holder Jr., 33, who was found guilty of the 2019 first-degree murder of the 33-year-old Grammy-nominated hip-hop artist outside the clothing store Hussle founded, the Marathon, in the South Los Angeles neighborhood where both men grew up in very similar circumstances.
After the monthlong trial, jurors in July also convicted Holder of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a firearm for gunfire that hit two other men at the scene who survived.
Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke handed down the sentence Wednesday after hearing from one of Hussle’s friends and listening to a letter from Holder’s father that was read in court. Holder, dressed in orange jail attire, stared straight ahead throughout the proceedings and did not react when the sentence was read.
Holder was not eligible for the death penalty. He was nearly certain to get a sentence that would guarantee he would spend the rest of his life in prison, with only the details of his term in question.
The sentencing has been delayed in part so defense attorney Aaron Jansen could argue to reduce Holder’s conviction to manslaughter or second-degree murder, which Jacke rejected in December.
Hussle, whose legal name is Ermias Asghedom, and Holder had known each other for years growing up as members of the Rollin’ 60s in South LA. Both were aspiring rappers. But Holder never found the same success as Hussle, who would become a local hero and a national celebrity.
Actor Lauren London, who was Hussle’s partner and the mother of his two young children, did not attend any part of the trial, nor did any of his relatives, and none are expected to give victim impact statements, as often happens at such hearings.
Herman “Cowboy” Douglas, a close friend of Hussle who was standing with him when he was killed and testified during the trial, told the court that the killing was a tremendous loss both for him personally and for the South Los Angeles community where Hussle was a business leader and an inspiration.
“Nipsey was my friend, he was like a son, he was like a dad,” Douglas said. “Our community right now, we lost everything, everything we worked for. One man’s mistake, one man’s action, messed up a whole community.”
Douglas told the judge, “I don’t care what you give this guy. It ain’t about the time. I just want to know why. The world wants to know why. Why someone would do that?”
The evidence against Holder was so overwhelming — from eyewitnesses to surveillance cameras from local businesses that captured his arrival, the shooting and his departure — that his attorney conceded during trial that he had shot Hussle.
But Jansen argued to jurors that the heated circumstances of the shooting meant a lesser verdict of voluntary manslaughter was merited.
The jury returned with the first-degree murder verdict after about six hours of deliberations.
Jansen said afterward that he was “deeply disappointed” in the verdict, which they planned to appeal.
He did manage a minor victory for Holder by securing the attempted voluntary manslaughter convictions where prosecutors had sought attempted murder verdicts.
A year after his death, Hussle was mourned at a memorial at the arena then known as Staples Center, and celebrated in a performance at the Grammy Awards that included DJ Khaled and John Legend.
China has claimed US high-altitude balloons have flown over its airspace more than 10 times over the past year.
Beijing has made the claim after Washington accused China of operating a fleet of surveillance balloons around the world.
The development comes a day after US jets shot down a fourth flying object that the Pentagon said flew near sensitive military sites and was a risk to civilian aircraft.
It was downed over Lake Huron in Michigan at 2.42pm local time on Sunday on President Joe Biden's orders.
The row started when a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down by the US off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month.
Ships were deployed in the water to mount the recovery operation.
'US balloons illegally enter airspace'
China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has given no details about the alleged US balloons today.
He did not explain how they had been dealt with, or whether they had government or military links.
He said at a daily briefing: "It is also common for US balloons to illegally enter the airspace of other countries.
[b]"Since last year, US high-altitude balloons have illegally flown over China's airspace more than 10 times without the approval of Chinese authorities."
The US should "first reflect on itself and change course, rather than smear and instigate a confrontation,"[/b] the Chinese spokesman added.
China said the balloon shot down by the US over South Carolina was an unmanned airship made for meteorological research that had been blown off course.
It has accused the US of overreacting by shooting it down and threatened to take unspecified action in response.
'Heightened alert' after latest 'objects'
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelled a visit to Beijing following the sighting of the balloon earlier this month.
Many had hoped the visit would put the brakes on the sharp decline in US-China relations over Taiwan, trade, human rights and threatening Chinese actions in the disputed South China Sea.
The balloon was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals as part of a huge, military-linked aerial surveillance programme that targeted more than 40 countries, the Biden administration declared on Thursday, citing imagery from American U-2 spy planes.
US Air Force general Glen VanHerck admitted he did not know what the last three objects were or how they stayed aloft before being shot down.
However, he told reporters they were not the same as the balloon which started the row.
"We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason," he said - also refusing to rule out any explanation when asked if they could be extra-terrestrial.
Part of the reason for the repeated shootdowns is a "heightened alert" following the alleged Chinese spy balloon, General VanHerck said.
The United States has placed economic restrictions on six Chinese entities it said are linked to Beijing's aerospace programmes as part of its response to the incident.
The US House of Representatives also voted unanimously to condemn China for a "brazen violation" of US sovereignty and efforts to "deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns".
China defends use of laser in new incident
Wang Wenbin repeated China's dismissal of the US claims, saying: "The frequent firing of advanced missiles by the US to shoot down the objects is an over-reaction of over-exertion."
Meanwhile, on Monday the Philippines accused a Chinese coastguard ship of targeting a Filipino vessel with a military-grade laser and temporarily blinding some of its crew in the South China Sea, calling it a "blatant" violation of Manila's sovereign rights.
China said the Philippines coastguard ship had trespassed into Chinese waters without permission on 6 February and that China responded "professionally and with restraint".
China claims virtually all of the strategic waterway and has been steadily building up its maritime forces and island outposts.
Qatari investors are set to make an offer for Manchester United Plc in the coming days, people familiar with matter said, in a move that would cement the country’s desire to become a major player in global sports.
The Qatari consortium is preparing to submit an initial bid for the English Premier League football club by the end of the week, the people said. Officials at sovereign wealth fund the Qatar Investment Authority are helping with preparations for a bid alongside local family offices, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
New York bank Raine Group is advising Manchester United’s owners, the US-based Glazer family.
Manchester United has been the subject of increasing takeover speculation since the summer, when Bloomberg News reported the Glazer family was open to selling a stake. So far, only British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has officially declared his interest and is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. on a potential offer.
Bloomberg News reported in January that state-backed Qatari investors were weighing an investment in Manchester United.
Qatar Sports Investments, a separate entity to QIA, already owns French super-club Paris Saint-Germain FC. Regulations from European football’s governing body, UEFA, state that teams with the same majority owner can’t both compete in the region’s major tournaments, including the showpiece Champions League. QSI chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi is also a member of the UEFA Executive Committee that adopts its regulations.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the ruling emir of Qatar, is a Manchester United fan and unlikely to want to let slip the chance to own what is widely regarded as one of the world’s biggest sports brands.
Deliberations are ongoing and no final decisions have been taken about which Qatari entities will ultimately provide capital for the Manchester United bid, the people said. A spokesperson for QIA declined to comment, while a representative for QSI wasn’t immediately available for comment.
Adam Sommerfeld, a sport investment specialist at Certus Capital, has estimated that any offer for Manchester United would need to exceed £4 billion ($4.8 billion) to be successful. That would make it one of the largest ever deals involving a sporting franchise.
Qatar spent more than $200 billion during the past decade redeveloping the country’s infrastructure to host the FIFA World Cup. Alongside building new stadiums and entire municipalities, it also bought sports assets. As well as the takeover of PSG, QSI has a stake Portuguese football club SC Braga.
Police said Wednesday they had seized enough cocaine to supply New Zealand for 30 years, after snaring a massive bundle of drugs floating in the Pacific Ocean.
New Zealand police commissioner Andrew Coster told reporters the haul -- containing 81 bales of cocaine -- weighed 3.2 tonnes and had a street value of around $316 million.
"This is the largest find of illicit drugs by New Zealand's agencies by some margin," he said.
Officials believe the drugs were dropped at a "floating transit point" in the Pacific Ocean, where they would have been picked up and taken to Australia.
A police photo showed the massive haul was bound by netting and covered in yellow floats. Some of the bales had a Batman symbol on them, and the packages of cocaine inside are labelled with what appeared to be a four-leaf clover print.
"We believe it was destined for Australia, where it would have been enough to service the market for one year," Coster said.
"It is more than New Zealand would use in 30 years."
A naval boat intercepted the bundle, which was drifting hundreds of kilometres northwest of New Zealand, thanks in part to intelligence from the "Five Eyes" alliance.
The decades-old intelligence-sharing network comprises the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
Coster described the bust as a "huge result" for police in both New Zealand and Australia.
"There is no doubt this discovery lands a major financial blow right from the South American producers through to the distributors of this product," he added.
Officials said it was too early to say where the drugs came from.
Manchester City have been charged by the Premier League with more than 100 alleged breaches of financial regulations after a four-year investigation.
The Premier League announced on its website that the club have been charged with breaching regulations over nine seasons. It is believed that if the charges are proved it could lead to a range of sanctions including a points deduction or even expulsion from the league.
A convicted murderer linked to the ‘Ndrangheta has been arrested in France with strong support from the INTERPOL Cooperation Against ‘Ndrangheta (I-CAN) Project.
Edgardo Greco, 63, had been on the run for 16 years after escaping temporary police custody in Italy. A dangerous fugitive, he is wanted to serve a life sentence for the murders of Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo, and accused of the attempted murder of Emiliano Mosciaro, all part of a ‘mafia war’ between the Pino Sena and Perna Pranno gangs that marked the early 1990s.
The fugitive was arrested in Saint-Etienne, France, after investigative efforts by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Catanzaro, led by Nicola Gratteri, and carried out by the Arma dei Carabinieri’s Operative Department-Investigative Nucleus in Cosenza.
In this respect, INTERPOL’s I-CAN Project facilitated coordination and collaboration with the French authorities, carrying out surveillance of the suspect’s location, enabling his swift arrest by France’s BNRF (Brigade Nationale de Recherche des Fugitifs). Italian police investigators in Cosenza subsequently confirmed the subject’s identity.
Italy’s Minister of Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, applauded the arrest, saying that it demonstrated the country’s commitment to fighting all forms of organized crime and locating dangerous fugitives.
“No matter how hard fugitives try to slip into a quiet life abroad, they cannot evade justice forever. Dedicated officers around the world will always ensure that justice is served." Jürgen Stock, INTERPOL Secretary General “The I-CAN Project, underpinned by the global connectivity INTERPOL provides, will continue to ensure that police have the actionable intelligence they need so that fugitives around the world cannot rest easy,” concluded Mr Stock.
Greco was working in a pizza restaurant in Saint Etienne, France.
The operational team involved officers from Italy and France, as well as the I-CAN Project.
Funded by the Italian Department of Public Security, I-CAN raises global awareness and understanding about the ‘Ndrangheta and their modus operandi, sharing police information to dismantle their networks and operations.
Arresting individuals linked to the ‘Ndrangheta is a core goal of I-CAN, which has already helped arrest dozens of fugitives worldwide since its launch in 2020.
Originating in the Italian region of Calabria, the ‘Ndrangheta is considered Italy’s most extensive and powerful mafia group, which operates on every continent and has strong ties to the trade in cocaine bound for Europe from South America.
Allegations that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson with a missile strike are “a lie,” Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. Johnson’s accusations have emerged in a new BBC documentary about the crisis in Ukraine.
Recalling a telephone call with Putin on February 2, 2022, just under three weeks before tensions over Ukraine escalated into full military action, Johnson claimed the Russian leader “threatened me at one point.”
“He said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that… jolly,” the former PM told the British broadcaster.
“There were no missile threats,” Peskov told reporters on Monday. “When he explained challenges to the security of the Russian Federation, President Putin remarked that if Ukraine joins NATO, the potential deployment of NATO or American missiles at our borders would mean that any missile could reach Moscow in mere minutes.”
The Russian official wondered if Johnson had lied deliberately or “simply didn’t understand what President Putin was talking about.” If the latter is true, people should be concerned for Johnson, Peskov added.
Putin has publicly voiced Russian concerns over NATO infrastructure in Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe for decades. Russia began military operations against Ukraine after failing to get security guarantees from Washington, which would have rolled back the deployment of NATO assets in Eastern Europe and suspended its expansion in the region. The US dismissed Moscow’s concerns and claimed that Ukraine was free to seek membership as a sovereign nation.
Peskov meanwhile strongly rejected Johnson's claims, arguing that it was either a conscious ploy, or a simple mistake committed due to miscommunication.
'What Mr. Johnson said is not true, more precisely, it is a lie. And moreover, I will say that this is either a conscious lie - in which case the question is, why did he choose to present it this way? Or was it an unconscious lie, and, in fact, he did not understand what President Putin was talking to him about?' Peskov reasoned.
'I know what was discussed during this conversation, and once again I officially repeat: this is a lie. There were no threats of missile strikes,' he added.
'Speaking about the challenges for Russia's security, President Putin noted that if Ukraine joins NATO, the potential deployment of American missiles at our borders will mean that any missile will reach Moscow in a matter of minutes.'
Politics › Kennedy Wendera, VOA Journalist Give More Details On Tinubu's US Drug Case by HonNL(op): 1:57pm On Apr 11, 2023
