Two Colombian men are among seven detainees arrested in a U.S. counter drug operation, in which the former chief of the Guinea-Bissau Navy “Bubo” was captured, according to official U.S. documents, which AFP obtained on April 11. The arrests occurred during Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) operations on April 2 and 4 in West Africa and on April 5 in Colombia, based on international arrest warrants and the indictments against the seven detainees, according to a statement issued by the Prosecutor’s Office in New York. In the first operation, Rear Admiral Jose Americo “Bubo” Na Tchuto, former chief of the Guinean Navy, who had been designated as a drug kingpin or “significant foreign narcotics trafficker” by the U.S. government in 2010, was detained in international waters off West Africa on April 2, along with two other people. On April 4, two more Guineans were detained in another DEA operation, and were taken to New York to stand trial, according to the official sources. During a related operation, Rafael Antonio Garavito García and Gustavo Pérez García, both Colombian nationals, were arrested in Colombia on April 5 and are expected to be extradited to the United States. They are suspected of being involved with a Guinean cocaine trafficking ring. These arrests and transfers were possible due to the collaboration of several U.S. counter drug, legal, and diplomatic institutions with the DEA authorities in Lisbon, Portugal, and Bogotá, Colombia. On April 4, Cape Verde agents reported they had collaborated with the United States in said operation, allowing Bubo Na Tchuto to circulate through the West African archipelago on his way to New York. By Dialogo April 15, 2013
The Hammers boss was left irked by referee Neil Swarbrick during Sunday’s 2-1 Barclays Premier League defeat to Arsenal at Upton Park after the Gunners were awarded a penalty and the hosts were denied a late spot-kick. Winston Reid was adjudged to have felled Santi Cazorla in the box, with Swarbrick pointing to the spot as the Spaniard went to ground under the challenge, but – with West Ham chasing a stoppage-time equaliser – Morgan Amalfitano decided to stay on his feet when challenged by Kieran Gibbs. West Ham welcome managerless West Brom to Upton Park on New Year’s Day looking to halt a run of two defeats over the festive period, albeit to Chelsea and Arsenal, with Allardyce having an almost-full squad to select from for the visit of the Baggies. James Tomkins is suspended and Mauro Zarate will play no part as a loan move across London to QPR edges closer. Fellow summer recruit Enner Valencia is likely to be involved. Meanwhile, James Morrison insists there is nowhere for the West Brom players to hide as he bids to impress Tony Pulis. Former Stoke and Crystal Palace manager Pulis will watch from the stands when the Baggies go to Upton Park and is expected to be confirmed as their new head coach before the weekend. Press Association Sport understands he will sign a two-and-half-year deal to replace the sacked Alan Irvine. Pulis will be Albion’s fourth head coach in just over a year and Morrison knows places are not guaranteed. “You’ve got to impress the new head coach to get in the team,” he told the club’s official site. “We’ve got a big squad here, a lot of new players came in at the start of the season who are champing at the bit to play. “So you’ve got to be on top of your game to get in the side. “Rob (Kelly, assistant head coach) is a good guy. Keith (Downing) and Deano (Dean Kiely) are also there who have been here for a number of years and have a good bond with the players. “So everyone is pulling in the right direction and in the right frame of mind. “It’s a fresh start. We’ve got to be putting in 100 per cent and getting a win for the fans, who deserve more.” The Baggies are 16th in the Barclays Premier League, a point above the drop zone, after seven defeats in their last nine games. Press Association With both Chelsea and Sunderland profiting from controversial penalty decisions against the Hammers in recent weeks, Allardyce believes going to ground when caught by the opposition may be the only way to bring a foul to the attention of the officials. “As long as it’s not simulation – as long as you get the right decision from it,” he said when asked if a player needed to fall over to get a foul. “If you’re not touched and you go down because you’re not touched, that’s not the way forward. But if you can’t get what you ordinarily should get, then you’ve got to consider the fact that if you make a meal of it, you make a meal of it because the contact is sufficient enough. “The contact on Amalfitano was sufficient enough to put him off getting the ball cleanly in that position to try to help us score a goal. It impeded him from getting a better contact on the ball. “Like I said, that’s where a penalty should be given and if that’s the case then it would be much better across the board. “As difficult as it is for referees, those are the decisions that they should be capable of giving. All the other infringements are here and there, if you like, but then when it comes to major decisions, it’s how the goal is judged and how the referee is judged. “A very good game from a referee can’t evolve being 99 per cent great and then the one per cent being one major decision he’s got wrong, because then he’s had a bad game – like a goalkeeper can be brilliant and then all of a sudden he drops one ball and it gets put in the net and he’s had it. “Unfortunately the referees are not brave enough to give those penalties because, in the surroundings and the atmosphere in the stadiums, it doesn’t look like one, but their job is to identify if it is or not.” Sam Allardyce would not prevent his players from “making a meal” out of contact if it meant his West Ham side were given the decisions they deserved.
After a four-set comeback victory on Friday and a heartbreaking five-set loss Sunday, the University of Wisconsin volleyball team solidified its reputation as one of the Big Ten’s most unpredictable teams.The erratic Badgers (16-9, 4-8 Big Ten) were just two points shy of mounting a stunning comeback win against the Northwestern Wildcats (15-8. 4-8) after they lost the first set by a whopping 14 points.Wisconsin beat Northwestern in late September in Evanston, marking the team’s first conference win of the season.Head coach Pete Waite said in the Big Ten, any team can win or lose on any given day depending on that team’s consistency.“It’s definitely disappointing to take that loss today,” Waite said. “We rode a roller coaster of level of play. We were really good at times and just off at other times.”While Wisconsin’s overall attack percentage was a respectable .191 for a tough league match, the team’s actual efficiency spanned the gamut throughout the match. UW put up a meager -.062 percentage in the first set with eight errors, a set in which Northwestern sustained distinct offensive runs of five, four and seven points.However, the Badgers returned the favor against Northwestern in a dominating third set, finishing with a .344 hitting percentage in a convincing 25-9 win.Waite said the players need to have a stronger sense of urgency for the duration of the match to sustain more consistent play.“It’s up to the players,” Waite said. “They know they’re very capable of playing really good ball. They’ve got to go after things with an eagerness and confidence of wanting to be great and hating to feel like this.”UW found itself in an eight-point hole early in the second set, self-imploding with unusual miscommunication errors and mishits on defense. The team created an 11-4 run midset and completed the comeback with senior middle blocker Alexis Mitchell powering three kills in the last five points of the set.After creating promising momentum in the fifth set, Wisconsin lost its grip on a two-point lead late in the set with Northwestern winning six of the final eight points of the match.Mitchell, who led the Badgers with 19 kills in the match, said nerves and little sense of resiliency factored into the team’s struggles late in the final set.“[In] the fifth set, things can change really quickly,” Mitchell said. “I think that we maybe got a little bit tense when we were at that point, and some bad things happened, but we just have to do a better job of bouncing back right away, because it does go really fast … the momentum swing can change with just one play.”Early struggles start with Fighting Illini Wisconsin had another rocky first set against the Illinois Fighting Illini (10-12, 4-8 Big Ten) Friday night. After taking a commanding 10-3 lead, UW collapsed as Illinois spurred a 14-4 run en route to a first set victory.The Badgers took the preceding three sets, with junior outside hitter Julie Mikaelsen racking up career-highs with 19 kills and eight blocks in the match.Mikaelsen praised sophomore setter Courtney Thomas for her accurate passing and helping her find critical gaps in the Illinois defense.“Courtney did a really good job setting me really fast balls,” Mikaelsen said. “The blockers on Illinois had problems getting out … so I had a big seam every single time.”Wisconsin managed strong starts in all four sets, which has not been the case for this team in recent matches. The Badgers jumped out to an 11-5 lead in the second set and a 9-5 advantage in the fourth.Waite said the team played well in the beginning of sets largely due to hurry-up drills in practice.“[During] the last couple of days, we ran a drill that was just more of a fast-paced time drill that I think they got something out of,” Waite said. “They realized you don’t have time to think, you don’t have time to walk around; you just have to hustle … I think it paid off.”Although Wisconsin committed its fair share of errors with 31, compared to Illinois’s 20, it did not surrender its lead in either the second or the fourth set.Waite said a goal of the team this season has been to let go of errors players have made in previous points.“That’s what we’ve been working on, is to come back, forget those errors and stabilize,” Waite said.
0Shares0000Dembele was the star as Lyon downed PSG on Sunday © AFP / JEFF PACHOUDPARIS, France, Feb 4 – Moussa Dembele scored and won a penalty as Lyon stunned Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 on Sunday to end the runaway leaders’ hopes of an unbeaten Ligue 1 campaign.Angel Di Maria fired PSG into a seventh-minute lead, but Dembele equalised and Nabil Fekir scored the winner from the spot three minutes after half-time. “I don’t know if the defeat was deserved. In the first half it was deserved, but after half-time, we still dominated,” said PSG forward Kylian Mbappe.The reigning champions remain 10 points clear of second-placed Lille at the top of the table despite the defeat, with two games in hand, while Lyon strengthened their grip on third spot, three points further back.“We did what we had planned, namely high pressing, quick transitions, and to cause them problems every time we had the ball,” said Lyon coach Bruno Genesio. “I don’t think they’re used to that in Ligue 1.”All eyes will now turn to the Champions League for PSG, with only a French Cup tie at third-tier Villefranche and a home game against Bordeaux to come before the last-16, first-leg clash with Manchester United at Old Trafford on February 12.Man United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his assistant Mike Phelan were both in attendance at the Groupama Stadium on Sunday, just hours after their side’s 1-0 Premier League win at Leicester.The pair would have learned plenty from watching Lyon regularly slice through the PSG defence against seemingly little resistance, while Mbappe shouldered the majority of the attacking responsibility in the absence of the injured Neymar.“I’m not worried about the Champions League,” insisted Mbappe. “We must take it match by match and wait for the Champions League.”On paper, this looked the toughest test remaining for PSG in their bid to go through the league season unbeaten, having won on just two of their previous 13 Ligue 1 visits to Lyon, losing seven.But Thomas Tuchel’s men almost forged ahead inside the first two minutes, as Kylian Mbappe raced clear only to shoot tamely at Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes.The away side did not have to wait long to strike, though, as Houssem Aouar carelessly gifted possession to Julian Draxler, who strode forward and teed up Di Maria to slot in his 10th goal of the season.– Lyon dominate –Mbappe cut a frustrated figure as he was denied multiple times by Lopes © AFP / ROMAIN LAFABREGUEBut Lyon, on a six-match unbeaten run in the league themselves, quickly improved and twice wasted clear-cut chances to level, as PSG ‘keeper Alphonse Areola denied Bertrand Traore from point-blank range before Dembele nodded wide.Areola had to be alert again, springing to his right to tip away a vicious long-range drive from Nabil Fekir, before producing a wonderful double stop from Traore and Memphis Depay.However, just seconds after another excellent save to deny Fekir, Areola was totally at fault for Lyon’s 33rd-minute equaliser.The 25-year-old misjudged Leo Dubois’ cross, allowing Dembele the simplest of tasks to head into the net.PSG almost snatched a half-time lead against the run of play, but Lyon centre-back Jason Denayer made an incredible diving header to keep out Draxler’s close-range shot.Lyon, who face Barcelona in the Champions League knockout stage, continued to dominate after the restart, and were awarded a spot-kick when Dembele was brought down by Thiago Silva, with Fekir doing the rest.That provoked PSG into life, and Lopes made two brilliant saves from Mbappe in the space of just 20 seconds.Mbappe was PSG’s best hope of salvaging their unbeaten record, but he saw Lopes divert away a low drive, before former Celtic striker Dembele wasted a golden opportunity to wrap up the points as he was again foiled by Areola.But Lyon held on anyhow, ending their opponents’ 21-game unbeaten run in the French top flight.0Shares0000(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)