Day: December 17, 2021

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Gunfire shot by celebrating football fans ‘kills 4yo girl’ in Yemen

A four-year-old girl was killed and 36 people were injured when football fans in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a rampaged through the streets to celebrate a win over Saudi Arabia, according to reports.

Footage from the city appears to show wild scenes with large mobs on the roads and loud bangs audible following the penalty shootout victory for the national under-16 side in the West Asian Football championship.

Ecstatic supporters showed their joy across rebel and government-held areas of the war-torn countries, including the capital, which is under the control of the Islamist Houthi rebels.

A hospital medic said they had killed a child with gunfire used during the incident, according to AFP via Barron’s.

“A four-year-old girl was killed and 36 people were injured,” the agency quoted the official as saying, adding that they had spoken on condition of anonymity.

A correspondent for AFP reported that shooting and celebrations went on late and including car horns being honked and fireworks being released.

The youth team secured the win that sparked the scenes in a match in the Saudi city of Dammam.

The internationally-recognized government of Yemen is supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.

Yemen Hans Grundberg, the UN Special envoy for Yemen, offered his congratulations and appeared to back the public response before learning of the tragic consequences.

“Heartwarming to see the unity, joy and celebrations across the country,” he tweeted.

Sharing photos of the celebrations, one viewer told the team: “How much [has] the Yemeni national team [achieved]?

“You guys have made your people happy. And everyone was happy. And you united all the sects and parties from the north of Yemen to the south, despite all the differences.

“The joy is one for all. You were able to unite your people and gather them with one common joy.”

Journalist Ali Al-Sakani reported during the aftermath of the match: “Tonight, every nook and cranny of Yemen is celebrating the [title win] – even in Marib city, despite ongoing war, pain and suffering.”

AFP quoted a UN Development Programme report from last month as saying that 377,000 people will have died by the end of 2021 as a result of the Yemen war.

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McGregor renews Dagestan feud as he insults rival Makhachev

UFC loudmouth Conor McGregor has again taken a shot at one of Dagestan’s most famous fighters, this time hurling an insult at top-ranked lightweight Islam Makhachev after a tense back-and-forth on social media.

McGregor has drawn the ire of several fighters from the region following numerous statements made by the Irishman throughout his fractious feud with undefeated champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, and he appears to have affixed his crosshairs to surging lightweight contender Makhachev as his next target.

Makhachev, the fighter anointed by many as Khabib’s successor in the UFC’s 155lbs frame, is poised to receive his first opportunity at UFC gold should he get past Beneil Dariush in February – with the 21-1 fighter unable to resist taking a shot at ‘The Notorious’ on social media after McGregor tweeted his interest in an upcoming fight with champion Charles Oliveira.

“So what date am I fighting Oliveira?” McGregor tweeted.

“Your fight is on February 30,” came the cheeky response from Makhachev. 


© Twitter / thenotoriousmma

However, Makhachev’s joke wasn’t well received by the angry McGregor, who shot back in a since-deleted tweet. 

“You’re a nobody, inbred,” wrote McGregor before hastily erasing his message – but not before it had been retweeted several hundred times.

McGregor’s insult is the latest in a series of offensive statements he has made towards Dagestani people over of the years. During his feud with Nurmagomedov, he referred to the Russian’s wife as a “towel” as well as making derogatory statements following the death of Khabib’s father, Abdulmanap.

He had also previously referenced “inbreeding” by quoting statistics about births from the region before again deleting the tweet – something which prompted Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, to wade in to the row.

“People of Dagestan are some of the best people in the world,” fumed Abdelaziz in response.

“They are honorable hard workers and have a [lot of] integrity – something you don’t know nothing about.”

“I hate you, bro. When you die, I celebrate,” McGregor responded. “You mad at Google, bro?”

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Conor McGregor (left) has criticized Khabib Nurmagomedov © Stephen R Sylvanie / USA Today Sports via Reuters
Conor McGregor issues stinging verdict on arch-rival Khabib

And in another erased tweet, McGregor simply wrote: “Cousin wife.”

It remains to be seen exactly who McGregor will compete against when he makes his return from the gruesome leg break he suffered last summer against Dustin Poirier – but with Makhachev or Dariush and Justin Gaethje ahead of him in the queue, it seems that the Irishman’s lust for gold won’t be quenched anytime soon.

Makhachev, though, has repeatedly called for a fight with McGregor over the years – something which SBG Ireland head coach John Kavanagh said he would be interested in McGregor pursuing.

Judging by the nature of their recent Twitter exchange, a matchup between the two would certainly now have a little extra zest attached to it. 

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Ex-NFL star says domestic violence assault on former girlfriend was ‘staged’ (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

Former NFL running back Zac Stacy says that a video which appears to show him violently abusing his ex-girlfriend in front of their infant child was ‘staged’ and was an attempt on her part to extort him.

Stacy, once of the New York Jets, was arrested a month ago in Orlando, Florida after the alleged assault on his former partner and the mother of his child, Stacy Evans. 

Disturbing home security footage of the incident showed Stacy appearing to punch Evans on numerous occasions before throwing her towards a television and then their child’s buggy while she cried out for him to stop the attack.

A subsequent warrant issued for the 30-year-old described how Stacy had thrown Evans to the floor “like a rag doll” before he was arrested and charged with aggravated battery and criminal mischief which could land him in prison for 20 years if convicted.

However, arrest footage obtained by TMZ shows that Stacy told cops that Evans had staged the assault for the benefit of the recording cameras after he had denied her romantic approaches.

“It’s just a case of bitterness, man,” he says in the footage of his arrest. “That’s why she did this – the whole assault thing, she staged it. She set me up.

“The whole thing was staged,” he added. “All she’s trying to do is get money out of me. She got a reaction out of me.”

Warning: video contains graphic content

The former NFL star also told the Orlando Police Department that he had just emerged from treatment for anxiety and depression as well as finding out that Evans had an affair with his financial advisor, but that he had shown up to her residence to offer his support as a parent.

“She knew I was down, she knew I was going through anxiety and depression. She knew I was trying to close this gap that’s between me and my son and she’s just upset that she got caught, and she’s upset I’m not taking care of him like she expected.

“And now she took it this far.”

Stacy, however, admitted that the evidence caught on the security footage was “f*cked up”, adding: “I don’t know what man – how any man could have handled that situation.”

Evans, though, offered a fierce rebuttal of Stacy’s claims in a video statement on Monday and said he was “playing victim” with his claims.

“I don’t know how you can stage getting you ass beat on multiple occasions. You can’t” she said.

“This is what abusers do. They will make you seem like you’re the crazy one and that they’re the victim.

“It really makes me more upset that the cops are consoling him, telling him to breathe. Everything about this makes me uncomfortable.”

She had previously sought a restraining order against Stacy while claiming that he had been violent to her since she became pregnant with their child, with a report from UK tabloid The Sun detailing a series of domestic disturbance calls to police. 

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NFL gunman who killed 6 people had ‘severe brain trauma’, says medic

Former NFL star Phillip Adams, who was responsible for a violent gun rampage which killed six people in April, was suffering from severe brain trauma often linked to a career on the football field, according to a neuropathologist.

Defensive back Adams, who spent six seasons in the NFL with a variety of teams and had no previous criminal record, shot five people to death at a house in Rock Hill, South Carolina as well as fatally injuring a sixth who died several hours later. 

The victims included a well-known local doctor, his wife and their two children aged nine and five, as well as two people who were working on the house where the attacks occurred.

He turned the gun on himself the next day, having barricaded himself inside his home after his mother had been safely removed from the residence. Police later said they attempted to make contact with him via loudspeaker as well as sending a robot into the house in an attempt to persuade him to exit safely.

Adams’ father, Alonzo, later said that his time in football, which also included a collegiate career with the South Carolina State Bulldogs, had “messed him up” and likely played a role in the killings – an assertion backed by a post-mortem study of his brain tissue showing that he was suffering from an “unusually severe” case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a type of brain trauma which is linked to repeated concussions and blows to the head and has been cited in several other fatal incidents involving former NFL players. 

Announcing the findings of a study in Adams’ case, neuropathologist Ann McKee, who serves as director of Boston University CTE Center, said that Adams has significant damage to his frontal lobe. 

She added that the damage to Adams’ brain was similar to that of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez, who was convicted of murder in 2015 and killed himself in 2017.

CTE has been repeatedly linked to unusual behavioral and mood changes in its sufferers.

“We have seen this behavior [in other examples],” said McKee. “We have even seen homicidal behavior in other individuals diagnosed with CTE.

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Late NFL star Phillip Adams will have his brain examined for CTE © Kirby Lee / USA Today Sports via Reuters | © Sam Wolfe / Reuters
Brain of dead NFL gunman Phillip Adams to be examined for CTE by experts trying to uncover truth behind horrific US murder spree

“It’s difficult to say that it alone resulted in these behaviors because usually it’s a complicated issue with many other factors.

“But certainly we have seen this behavior and it is, in fact, not what I would consider unusual in this disease.”

Adams, she said, was experiencing stage 2 CTE, with stage 4 being the the most severe diagnosis of the disease, a determination which was made after his family donated his brain for study in the wake of his murder-suicide. CTE can only be diagnosed after death.

Adams’ sister, Lauren, had also told USA Today that the 32-year-old’s mental health and overall wellbeing had deteriorated significantly in the period before his death.

“His mental health degraded fast and [became] terribly bad,” Lauren Adams said shortly after the shootings. “There was unusual behavior. I’m not going to get into all that.

“We definitely did notice signs of mental illness that were extremely concerning, that was not like we had ever seen. He wasn’t a monster. He was struggling with his mental health.” 

Four years ago, the Boston University CTE Center stated that 110 of 111 studies into deceased NFL players showed that they were suffering from the degenerative brain disorder.

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Putin condemns ‘attempts to politicize sports’ during call with Chinese leader Xi

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, that China “knows how to do it” ahead of what he expects to be a Winter Olympics “held at the highest level” in Beijing,

The Games, which run in February, have become embroiled in an international row after the Biden administration confirmed last week that the US will be conducting a diplomatic boycott of the showpiece.

Other nations including Britain and Canada have since followed suit because of their concerns over purported human rights abuses in China, including the alleged forced labor and sterilization of Uyghurs in the north of the country.

That has led to warnings by China of repercussions over the boycotts. Now Putin, who has accepted an invitation from Xi to attend the Games which will allow him to avoid a ban imposed as the result of a World Anti-Doping Agency ruling on Russia, has said he expects the event to succeed.

“I have no doubt that the upcoming Winter Olympic Games will be held at the highest level,” Putin said during a video meeting with Xi, who called the Russian leader an “old friend”.

“China knows how to do it. [This includes] the rejection of any attempts to politicize sports and the Olympic movement.”

French leader Emmanuel Macron has described the impact of diplomatic boycotts as “questionable”, and Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Monday: “Politicizing sporting events like the Winter Olympics does not seem useful to me.”


©  Sputnik / Mikhail Metzel via Reuters

Putin and Xi clearly agree with those views. “I hope that next February we will finally be able to meet in person in Beijing,” Putin told Xi, describing him as a “friend” and “distinguished”.

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The US has announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics © Thomas Peter / Reuters
Russian Olympic Committee responds to US boycott of Beijing Winter Games

“As agreed, we will hold negotiations with you, then we will participate in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games.”

Putin said he was grateful for an invitation to attend the opening ceremony that he initially revealed he intended to accept while speaking at a business summit at the end of November.

He also noted a close sporting link between the countries and called their overall relations “a true model of interstate cooperation for the 21st century”.

“The close co-ordination between Russia and China on the international arena – the responsible joint approach to solving urgent global issues – has become a stabilizing factor in international affairs,” he said.

The talks came a week after Putin spoke to US president Biden about the current situation between Russia and Ukraine. A Kremlin spokesman said Putin intends to discuss the topic with Xi as “allies”.