Sunday, July 31, 2016

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring a bicycle kick on his first Red Devils appearance.

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Ibrahimovic, 34, met Antonio Valencia's cross with a typically athletic volley as United beat Galatasaray 5-2.
The Turkish side bossed the remainder of the half and led thanks to goals from Sinan Gumus and Bruma.
But a much-changed United side turned the match around through Wayne Rooney (two), Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata.
And Swedish striker Ibrahimovic believes the future is bright for the Red Devils, who continue to be linked with a £100m move for Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba.
"There is something big on the go, it's going to be very interesting this year," he said. "Let us say that if Pogba comes too, it's going to be very interesting.
"I'm going to help the team as much as I can and do what I'm good at, creating chances and scoring goals."
Manager Jose Mourinho used 22 players and will leave Gothenburg with as many questions as answers as he ponders his starting XI for next Sunday's Community Shield, which sees his FA Cup winners face Premier League champions Leicester at Wembley.
Ibrahimovic led the line in the first half, with Rooney behind him and Anthony Martial and Henrikh Mkhitaryan either side.
But half-time replacements Marcus Rashford, Ashley Young and Jesse Lingard looked far sharper and led to United's revival after a sleepy first 45 minutes.
Rooney equalised with a clean volley from another Valencia cross before Rashford won a penalty with an individual run from near halfway, and captain Rooney converted.
Valencia then made another goal as Fellaini drifted a header into the corner and Mata - who was sold by Mourinho at Chelsea - collected Michael Carrick's clever ball to slide in.
World Cup winner Bastian Schweinsteiger - one of nine players reportedly told they can leave the club - did not feature.

Manchester United: De Gea, Valencia, Bailly, Blind, Shaw, Schneiderlin, Herrera, Mkhitaryan, Rooney, Martial, Ibrahimovic. Subs: Johnstone, Romero, Darmian, Jones, Rojo, Fellaini, Carrick, Lingard, Mata, Young, Memphis, Rashford.

Fury as Trump mocks Muslim soldier's mother Ghazala Khan

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Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump drew outrage from Republicans and Democrats by mocking a dead Muslim soldier's mother who stood silently as her husband attacked him in a speech.
Mr Trump suggested Ghazala Khan may not have been allowed to speak.
Senior politicians said this was no way to talk about the mother of a hero.
In an impassioned speech at last week's Democratic National Convention, Khizr Khan said Mr Trump had sacrificed "nothing and no-one" for his country.
His son Humayun Khan was killed by a car bomb in 2004 in Iraq at the age of 27.

Mr Trump responded to the criticism in an interview with ABC's This Week.
"If you look at his wife, she was standing there," he said, "She had nothing to say... Maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me."
But former president Bill Clinton, the husband of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, said: "I cannot conceive how he can say that about a Gold Star mother."
Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine said Mr Trump's remarks were inappropriate.
"He was kind of trying to turn that into some kind of ridicule," he said, quoted by AP. "It just demonstrates again kind of a temperamental unfitness. If you don't have any more sense of empathy than that, then I'm not sure you can learn it."
Some Republicans also rounded on their candidate.
Ohio Governor John Kasich, a former rival to Mr Trump for the Republican nomination, tweeted: "There's only one way to talk about Gold Star parents: with honour and respect."
Khizr Khan said in an interview on Saturday that Mr Trump was "devoid of feeling the pain of a mother who has sacrificed her son", the New York Times reported.
Ghazala Khan said on Friday that she did not speak during her husband's speech to the Democratic National Convention because she was still overcome with grief and could not look at her son's photos without crying. source

Saturday, July 30, 2016

France church attack: Kermiche friend 'detained before assault'

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A friend of one of the two men who killed a French priest in Normandy was detained only days before the attack took place, reports say.
The 17-year-old tried to travel to Syria last year with Adel Kermiche, French and Swiss media say.
The unnamed teenager was reportedly arrested in Geneva earlier this month and handed over to French authorities.
Days later, on Tuesday, his friend Kermiche went on to kill Father Jacques Hamel in his church near Rouen.

The news of the detention of a close friend of Kermiche, who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video, comes at a time when French intelligence services are under close scrutiny.
Reports in Le Parisien and the Tribune de Geneve newspapers said it was not known why the 17-year-old, from northern France, went to Geneva earlier this month.
He had already tried to fly with Kermiche to Syria via Switzerland last year. Both were turned back from Turkey.
In the latest development, Swiss security services picked up the teenager, and another friend, on 20 July and handed them over to French authorities.
A source told AFP news agency that "nothing suggests he was in any way implicated" in the church attack on 26 July.

After trying to leave to Syria, Kermiche was released with a monitoring tag earlier this year, despite prosecutors' call for his continued detention.
Kermiche and the other attacker, Abdel Malik Petitjean, were shot dead by police outside the church in St-Etienne-du-Rouvray.
They had slit the throat of Fr Hamel, 86, and taken hostages during Mass.
 source:BBC.com

‘Significant loss of life’ as hot air balloon carrying at least 16 people catches fire, crashes in Texas

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LOCKHART, Texas — A hot air balloon carrying at least 16 people caught on fire and crashed in Central Texas on Saturday, causing what authorities described as a “significant loss of life.”
Erik Grosof with the National Transportation Safety Board would not provide an exact number of how many people died. The crash happened at about 7:40 a.m. in a pasture near Lockhart, and Lynn Lunsford with the Federal Aviation Administration said earlier that the balloon was carrying at least 16 people.
Authorities have not said where the hot air balloon was based out of or which company was flying it, though Caldwell County Sheriff Daniel C. Law told The Associated Press that it’s the kind of situation where people can walk up and buy a ticket, unlike an airplane, which would have a list of names.

The land near the crash site is mostly farmland, with corn crops and grazing cattle. Cutting through that farmland is a row of massive high-capacity transmission lines about 4 to 5 stories tall. The site of the crash appears to be right below the overhead lines, though authorities haven’t provided further details about what happened.
Margaret Wiley lives about a quarter-mile from the crash site and told The Associated Press that she was letting her dog out Saturday morning when she heard a “pop, pop, pop.”
“I looked around and it was like a fireball going up,” she said, noting that the fireball was located under large power lines and almost high enough to reach the bottom of them.

Wiley, who called 911, said the weather seemed clear and that she frequently sees hot air balloons in the area.
The FAA and NTSB are investigating the situation. Grosof said at a news conference that the NTSB has deemed it a major accident and a full-bore investigation will begin Sunday when more federal officials arrive.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asked in a statement that “all of Texas to join us in praying for those lost.”
Lockhart is about 30 miles south of Austin.

Syria conflict: 'Families leave' besieged Aleppo

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Dozens of families are leaving besieged eastern areas of the city of Aleppo along a humanitarian corridor, Syrian state media says.
The civilians later boarded buses where they were taken to temporary shelters, state news agency Sana said.
Some rebel forces had also surrendered to government forces, the report said.
Russia, an ally of the Syrian government, announced earlier this week that exit corridors would be opened in Aleppo for civilians and rebels.
The move was welcomed cautiously by the UN, the US and some aid agencies.
The US has suggested the plan may be an attempt to force the evacuation of civilians and the surrender of rebel groups in the city.
On Friday, the UN's envoy to Syria appealed to Russia to let the UN manage the corridors.
"This morning dozens of families left via the corridors identified... to allow the exit of citizens besieged by terrorist groups in the eastern neighbourhoods," Sana reported.
"They were welcomed by members of the army and taken by bus to temporary shelters," it added.
The report also said some fighters had handed over their weapons and surrendered to the authorities. The report could not be independently verified.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has offered an amnesty for rebels laying down arms and surrendering within three months.


ref.bbc.com

Friday, July 29, 2016