AFCON: Klopp Will Be ‘Happy’ If Egypt Go Out In Group Stage

Salah is away with Egypt for the tournament in Ivory Coast while Japan captain Wataru Endo will be involved at the Asian Cup in Qatar, with both players expected to go deep in the respective competitions.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp joked Friday that he is not wishing Mohamed Salah too much luck at the Africa Cup of Nations as he prepares for a crucial spell of games without his top scorer.

Salah is away with Egypt for the tournament in Ivory Coast while Japan captain Wataru Endo will be involved at the Asian Cup in Qatar, with both players expected to go deep in the respective competitions.

That could mean they will not be back until the second week in February but Klopp said he sent them on their way this week without wishing them too much success.

“I said if I wish you good luck it would be a lie,” Klopp said ahead of Liverpool’s FA Cup third-round tie at Arsenal on Sunday.

“From a personal point of view, I would be happy if they go out in the group stage but that’s probably not possible. They can go on and win it.

“So it was ‘Good luck and come back healthy’. We have to deal with it and we will deal with it. I am pretty positive that we will find a way.”

Klopp does not really have a suitable replacement for Salah, who plays on the right side of his attack and has scored 18 goals in all competitions this season.

Midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai was touted as a potential option but he has been ruled out for at least two matches with a hamstring injury sustained in the New Year’s Day win over Newcastle.

But Klopp, whose side are top of the Premier League, is confident Liverpool can fill the hole left by Salah.

“I think we played against West Ham (in last month’s League Cup quarter-final) without Mo on that side and Harvey Elliott played there,” he said.

“We have different offensive options who can all play that wing in a different way. Nobody else can play like Mo, it is not possible — we just have to use the boys with their skills.

“Do we want to play without Mo? No. In the past we didn’t have to do it often but we always found a way.

“But we play Arsenal and you can lose to Arsenal with Mo Salah so it’s possible to lose to them without him.”

Klopp said he was braced for a challenging January, even though there are fewer Premier League games due to a mid-season player break.

Liverpool’s game at the Emirates comes just two weeks after the title-chasing sides drew 1-1 at Anfield in the Premier League and will be followed by the first leg of their League Cup semi-final against Fulham on Wednesday.

“Some teams obviously don’t play that often in January,” he said. “We don’t have that, we have now with the semi-final, we have a proper rhythm.

“I think a re-match against Arsenal would really not be helpful, that’s how it is, because it just doesn’t fit in, would kill the winter break, stuff like this.”

Angry Farmers Block German Minister On Ferry

In total, around 100 farmers descended on the port in their tractors to intercept the minister, with police using pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck expressed concern Friday after farmers angry at government plans to cut tax breaks for agriculture trapped him on a ferry in the northern town of Schluettsiel.

Around 30 protestors prevented Habeck from disembarking the vessel on Thursday as he returned from a winter break on the North Sea island of Hallig Hooge, a police spokesman told AFP.

After negotiations failed to end the farmers’ blockade, Habeck decided to stay on the ferry and travel back to the island.

Order restored, Habeck returned to the mainland at around 1:50 am Friday (0050 GMT), police said.

descended on the port in their tractors to intercept the minister, with police using pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

“I regret that it was not possible to establish talks with the farmers,” Habeck said in a statement.

“What worries me… is that the mood in the country is becoming so inflamed,” he said.

The incident was “shameful and goes against the rules of democratic coexistence”, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said on X, formerly Twitter.

“Blockades of this kind are a no-go,” the head of the German Farmers’ Association (DBV) Joachim Rukwied said in a statement.

Farmers have been up in arms over government plans to withdraw tax breaks for the agricultural sector this year.

Thousands travelled to Berlin to protest the move in December, blocking roads with their tractors and dumping manure on the street.

The display of disaffection precipitated the government to partially walk back the planned subsidy cuts on Thursday.

A discount on vehicle tax for agriculture would remain in place, while a diesel subsidy would be phased out over several years instead of being abolished immediately, the government said.

The agriculture sector however said the move did not go far enough and urged the government to completely reverse the plans, announced after a shock court ruling forced the government to find savings in the budget for 2024

South Africa’s Pistorius Released From Prison

Having served more than half his sentence, the 37-year-old double-amputee was quietly whisked out from the Atteridgeville prison on the outskirts of the capital Pretoria, avoiding the hordes of media gathered outside.

South Africa’s ex-Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was released from jail on parole Friday and “is now at home”, authorities said, almost 11 years after he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a crime that gripped the world.

Having served more than half his sentence, the 37-year-old double-amputee was quietly whisked out from the Atteridgeville prison on the outskirts of the capital Pretoria, avoiding the hordes of media gathered outside.

“He was admitted into the system of Community Corrections and is now at home,” the department of correctional services said in a statement.

Pistorius, known worldwide as “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prosthetics, will not be allowed to speak to the media as a condition of his parole.

Prison authorities had previously warned the press that there would be no opportunity to photograph or speak to him.

Pistorius killed Steenkamp, a model who was 29 years old at the time, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 2013, firing four times through the bathroom door of his ultra-secure Pretoria house.

The shooting came a year after Pistorius made history by being the first double-amputee to race at Olympic level when he appeared at the London 2012 games.

He was found guilty of murder and given a 13-year jail sentence in 2017 after a lengthy trial and several appeals.

He had pleaded not guilty and denied killing Steenkamp in a rage, saying he mistook her for a burglar.

 Therapy Required 

 

A South African Police Service (SAPS) vehicle is seen outside Oscar Pistorius’ uncle’s house in Waterkloof, a suburb of Pretoria, on January 5, 2024. 

 

The morning ahead of his release, Steenkamp’s mother June issued a statement saying that while she accepted the decision of the justice system and conditions of his parole, “the pain is still raw and real”.

“There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back, and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back,” she said.

“We, who remain behind, are the ones serving a life sentence.”

Offenders in South Africa are automatically eligible for parole consideration after serving half their sentence.

Pistorius lost a first bid in Marches when the board found he had not completed the minimum detention period required to be let out.

The Constitutional Court in October ruled that was a mistake, paving the way for a November hearing that approved his release.

As part of his parole, until the end of his sentence in 2029, Pistorius must undergo therapy for anger and gender-based violence issues.

He will also be banned from consuming alcohol and other substances, required to complete community service and also be home at certain hours of the day.

The conditions “send out a clear message that gender based violence is taken seriously” by the country’s justice system, June Steenkamp said Friday.

Suspected Boko Haram Insurgents Kill Pastor, Five Others In Yobe State

The assailants attacked the community early Friday and also set houses and cars ablaze during the assault.

Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have killed Pastor Luka Levong of the Church of Christ In Nations (COCIN) in Kwari, Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe state. The attackers also killed five others. 

Some residents who evacuated the corpses to the Specialist Hospital Geidam told Channels Television that the attackers invaded the community around 2: 00 am on Friday and shot the pastor and his church treasurer Maina Abdullahi.

According to them, the other victims were also killed in their separate houses one after the other before the arrival of the security men, while many houses including one church and vehicles were also set ablaze.

Both the military and the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) are yet to comment on the incident as of now and efforts to speak with them have proved abortive.

Geidam is located 177 kilometers away from Damaturu, the state capital, and is about 40 kilometres away from Nigeria/Niger Republic border.

The incident is coming days after Boko Haram insurgents attacked a community in neighbouring Yobe State, killing 12 persons and injuring two others.

That attack took place in the Gartamawa community of Chibok Local Government Area which is 125 kilometers from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

“The terrorists stormed the community of Gatamarwa around 5 pm on Monday during the New Year celebration heavily armed with AK-47 rifles, came on motorcycles and Hilux vans, and opened fire on mourners returning from Gatamarwa.

“They later attacked another Tsiha community near Shikarkir and killed three people and abducted a young lady burning houses and looting their foodstuffs,” a source told Channels Television.

At least 40,000 people have been killed and more than two million others displaced since the hardline group launched a rebellion in 2009.

The insurgency has spread into neighbouring Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, prompting a regional military force to be set up to fight the militants.

Japan Quake Death Toll Rises To 94 With 222 Missing

Two elderly women were pulled from the rubble on Thursday, but hopes of finding other survivors after the 7.5 magnitude quake on New Year's Day were fading with rain, snow and falling temperatures forecast in the coming days.

Hampered by bad weather and damaged roads, Japanese rescuers searched Friday for 222 people still missing four days after a devastating earthquake as the death toll approached 100.

Two elderly women were pulled from the rubble on Thursday, but hopes of finding other survivors after the 7.5 magnitude quake on New Year’s Day were fading with rain, snow and falling temperatures forecast in the coming days.

Thousands of rescuers from all over Japan have been battling aftershocks and roads littered with gaping holes and blocked by frequent landslides in the central Ishikawa region to reach hundreds of people in stranded communities.

On Thursday afternoon, 72 hours after the quake, the two older women were miraculously pulled alive from the remains of their homes in Wajima, one of them thanks to a sniffer dog.

The port city of Wajima on the Noto Peninsula was one of the worst hit, with a pungent smell of soot still in the air and faint columns of smoke visible from a huge fire that destroyed hundreds of structures on the first day.

“I was relaxing on New Year’s Day when the quake happened. My relatives were all there and we were having fun,” Hiroyuki Hamatani, 53, told AFP amid the burnt-out cars, wrecked buildings and fallen telegraph poles.

“The house itself is standing but it’s far from livable now… I don’t have the space in my mind to think about the future,” he told AFP.

Authorities said on Friday afternoon that 222 people were unaccounted for, down from an earlier count of 242, including 121 in Wajima and 82 in Suzu.

The death toll was raised to 94 from 92, with 464 people injured. The dead included a junior high school boy visiting his family, reports said.

Around 30,000 households were without electricity in the Ishikawa region, and 89,800 homes there and in two neighbouring regions had no water.

Hundreds of people were in government shelters.

“We are doing our best to conduct rescue operations at the isolated villages… However, the reality is that the isolation has not been resolved to the extent that we would like,” regional governor Hiroshi Hase said Friday.

In the town of Anamizu, Sang and his four fellow Vietnamese compatriots have no heating or water in their damaged house. The toilet was full of bricks.

“We were cooking when it happened. We all dashed out of the house,” the 32-year-old told AFP.

“We had no internet connection on the day of the earthquake, but it resumed yesterday. We were able to contact family in Vietnam,” he said.

“What we need now is something to eat and drink.”

The Suzu area was also devastated, with fishing boats sunk or lifted like toys onto the shore by tsunami waves that also reportedly swept one person away.

Noriaki Yachi, 79, fought back tears after his wife was pulled from the rubble there and confirmed dead, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.

“My life with her was a happy one,” Yachi said.

Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year and most cause no damage, with strict building codes in place for more than four decades.

Earthquakes have hit the Noto region with intensifying strength and frequency over the past five years.

The country is haunted by a massive 9.0 magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.

It also swamped the Fukushima atomic plant, causing one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.

Germany Drops Planned Subsidy Cuts After Farmers Protest

Contrary to the initial plans, a discount on the vehicle tax for agricultural machinery would be maintained, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.

The German government on Thursday dropped part of its plans to cut agricultural subsidies in the face of massive protests from farmers.

Contrary to the initial plans, a discount on the vehicle tax for agricultural machinery would be maintained, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.

Meanwhile, tax breaks on fuel used by the same vehicles would not be scrapped completely but reduced progressively, Hebestreit said.

The move was agreed in light of new information on the state of the government’s finances and “in order to avoid the sometimes considerable bureaucratic effort for the companies affected”, he said.

An end to the subsidies was initially announced in December after a shock court ruling upended the government’s spending plans.

The move almost immediately prompted significant protests by farmers, who descended on central Berlin in their thousands.

The protestors blocked one of the main roads in the heart of the capital with tractors and dumped manure on the street.

The partial reinstatement of the tax breaks was “insufficient”, said Joachim Rukwied, the head of the German Farmers’ Association (DBV).

“Our position remains unchanged: both proposed cuts must be abandoned,” Rukwied said.

Germany’s highest court decided in November that the government had broken a constitutional debt rule when it transferred 60 billion euros ($66 billion) earmarked for pandemic support to a climate fund.

After adopting an emergency budget for 2023, Social Democrat Scholz and his junior coalition partners, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, hashed out a new financial plan for 2024.

The government hoped to pass the revised budget through the lower house of the German parliament in January, Hebestreit said. Until it is passed, a provisional budget applies.

Hiring Peseiro One Of Nigerian Football’s Greatest Mistakes, Says Gara-Gombe

A former Chairman of the Gombe Football Association Ahmed Gara-Gombe does not believe in the capabilities of Super Eagles Head Coach Jose Peseiro, describing his appointment as the greatest mistake in Nigeria's football history. 

A former Chairman of the Gombe Football Association Ahmed Gara-Gombe does not believe in the capabilities of Super Eagles Head Coach Jose Peseiro, describing his appointment as one of the greatest mistakes in Nigerian football. 

“Since the time of Clemens Westerhof, we never had a transition, a championship without confusion, without uncertainty, turning Nigerians into prayer warriors, praying for somebody to lose before we win; even from the qualification to where we are, I do not have confidence in the system,” he said on Thursday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily. 

“In the first place, hiring Peseiro for the Super Eagles was one of the greatest mistakes we have ever made in the history of our football,” he said.

Peseiro has been heavily criticised for the Super Eagles’ poor showings in recent times and for lacking a playing style.

Nigeria began the 2026 World Cup qualification on a shaky note, drawing their first two games against lowly Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

While there were calls for his sack ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) stuck with the Portuguese.

But Gara-Gombe maintains that since the arrival of the former Venezuela coach, the Super Eagles have not improved.

“Being with them [the team], what was the outcome? There was never a time this guy managed this team from the sidelines that we were confident,” he said on the show.

“You and I know. Those days you can sit down and count a team, 11 players for the national team that you can say, ‘Yes, these are good to go’.

“You can sit down and say as soon as we line up before any team in Africa, ‘Yes, Nigeria will overrun them with ease’. You can sit down and say, ‘Okay, this is the tactics that the Super Eagles are playing.

“But today, no. Anybody who does that is just doing that for pleasure but not a reality, a reality.”

‘Intervention of God’

super-eagles-

With three titles already, the Super Eagles gaffer is optimistic Nigeria can rule Africa again when the AFCON starts in Cote d’Ivoire in about two weeks.

However, Gara-Gombe has ruled out the Super Eagles from winning the competition. That can only take a miracle to happen, he said.

“The reality of the situation is that the Super Eagles are not just ready for this championship. Let us go and keep on trying our cut and paste strategy, our wobble and fumble strategy,” the football chief said.

“Let’s go ahead with that. If anything happens, then it’s the intervention of God, not because we are ready or we are prepared for that.”