rexnews: Arsenal Transfer News: Mario Götze, Arturo Vidal, ...

rexnews: Arsenal Transfer News: Mario Götze, Arturo Vidal, ...: It has already been a positive summer for Arsenal in the transfer market, with key target Petr Cech arriving from Chelsea to give the club...

Arsenal Transfer News: Mario Götze, Arturo Vidal, Pedro, Ilkay Gundogan Linked In Latest Speculation

It has already been a positive summer for Arsenal in the transfer market, with key target Petr Cech arriving from Chelsea to give the club a top-class goalkeeper with huge Premier League experience. More signings are expected, although there is plenty of speculation as to who is being targeted to aid the Gunners’ attempts to win a first Premier League title in 12 years.

A midfielder has long been thought to be on the agenda, with Arturo Vidal strongly linked with a transfer to north London. That interest would appear to have quietened of late and there was much talk in recent days that the all-action Juventus star was closing in on a move to Real Madrid. Yet Juventus chief executive Beppe Marotta has dismissed those claims.

“Vidal? It's just rumors, Real Madrid have not come forward,” he said, according to the Daily Mirror. “We have a great relationship with them.”

It would seem unlikely that Juventus would be willing to lose the Chile international, given they have just allowed Andrea Pirlo to go to New York City FC, while there continues to be speculation over the future of Paul Pogba. And there must also be doubts about whether Arsenal would be willing to put together a financial package sufficient to convince Juventus to sell and Vidal to move to the Emirates.

Arsenal’s list of midfield targets was widely believed to have at one stage included Borussia Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan. The Germany international had stated at the start of the summer that he would not be extending a contract that had just a year left to run, but that decision was reversed when last week he committed himself to the Bundesliga club for a further year. Yet that fact hasn’t stopped some reportsseizing on quotes from Gundogan about having “Wanted a new challenge” as reason for optimism for Arsenal.

However, the 24-year-old has stated that he will be remaining at Dortmund for the coming season, although he did leave the door open for interest next summer.

“The solution we found now provides security for all parties,” he told German magazine Kicker, per ESPN. “I can concentrate totally on football; the club know they will earn a reasonable fee if I make a move in 2016. That was important to me.”

Arsenal have also been surprisingly linked with another Germany international, in Mario Götze. The man who scored the winning goal in the 2014 World Cup final is floated as being a target for Arsenal, as well as Manchester United, by the Daily Star. The Tabloid’s assertion is based on comments from the 23-year-old’s agent stating that the player has lacked support at Bayern Munich. Götze has certainly struggled to make a real impression since his transfer from Borussia Dortmund two years ago -- before which he was linked strongly with Arsenal. However, the Gunners would be hugely surprising suitors given Arsene Wenger’s wealth of options in the attacking midfield positions -- including Alexis Sánchez, Mesut Özil, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

That strength in depth would also likely preclude a move for Barcelona’s Pedro. The winger’s future is uncertain following a frustrating season watching on as Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar grabbed the headlines, as well as the recent signing of Arda Turan. And, citing stories in Spain, The Independent has reported that Arsenal have contacted Barcelona about the Spanish World Cup winner. He may well be on the market, but he wouldn’t appear to fill any of the priorities Wenger has for strengthening his squad ahead of what promises to be a crucial season for the Gunners.

By Jason Le Miere: From Yahoo page

Buhari Goes From Nigeria’s Change Champion to ‘Baba Go Slow’

by Daniel Magnowski

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari took office a month ago on a wave of hope that he would quickly deal with a deepening economic crisis and an Islamist insurgency in the north. So far, he hasn't met those expectations.

While Africa’s biggest oil producer has been hit by a 40 percent fall in petroleum prices in the past year that has slowed economic growth and weakened the currency, Buhari, 72, has delayed naming a cabinet until September. As the momentum of being the first opposition candidate to win power at the ballot box fades, critics are mocking him as a sluggish elderly man, or “Baba Go Slow.”

Buhari has acknowledged the crisis, saying last month that his government is facing severe financial strain, with a Treasury that’s “virtually empty,” and his party is calling for patience. Yet his lack of urgency in tackling economic woes could leave Nigeria badly adrift, said John Ashbourne, an economist at Capital Economics in London.

“Every week that Nigeria goes without a cabinet increases the chance that it will face a dangerous shock -- whether a revenue collapse or a currency crisis,” Ashbourne said by phone Tuesday. “Leaving the federation without a finance minister would be a questionable choice at the best of times; doing so during a period of economic instability is difficult to explain.”

Investor Displeasure

Nigeria’s currency, twice devalued in the past year in an attempt to cope with lower oil income, has weakened 7.7 percent against the dollar this year on the interbank market. The International Monetary Fund estimates that growth will slow to 4.8 percent this year from 6.1 percent in 2014. The naira was trading at 198.85 against the U.S. dollar at 2.38 p.m. in Lagos.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange Index hit its 2015 peak of 35,728.12 on April 2, the day after Buhari was declared the election winner. Since then it has fallen 8 percent.

The cabinet delay won’t please investors, said Alan Cameron, an economist at Exotix Partners LLP. They’re expecting tighter fiscal policy, a currency devaluation and a greater focus on tax collection after the drop in oil prices, he said.

“There was initially some hope that Buhari would be able to tackle these changes more quickly and with more credibility, but the time line has now been pushed back,” Cameron said by phone from London. “It’s going to be a difficult pill to swallow for foreign investors.”

Inertia Concern

The central bank has banned importers from using the foreign-exchange market to buy certain goods as it seeks to stabilize the naira and hold on to external reserves, which are down 16 percent this year to $29 billion.

“Even what little could have been achieved so far, such as the nomination of ministers, has not been addressed, and there is a sense of inertia,” Folarin Gbadebo-Smith, managing director of the Center for Public Policy Alternatives, a Lagos-based research group, said by phone Wednesday.

Buhari’s own party, the All Progressives Congress, has recognized the growing public disenchantment and pleaded for patience.

“Nigerians are right to demand even a faster pace. Nigerians are right to ask that a government be quickly put in place,” party spokesman Lai Mohammed told reporters at a June 30 press conference in Lagos, the commercial capital. “All we ask for is a little more patience, a little more understanding.”

Government Change

Buhari is facing a unique situation because his victory over the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan, ended 16 years of rule by the Peoples Democratic Party, his spokesman Femi Adesina said.

“This is not a normal changeover, it is from one government to another,” he said.

Buhari, who previously governed Nigeria as military ruler in the 1980s, has moved more quickly in the fight against the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, which has waged a violent six-year campaign in the north.

He ordered the army to move its headquarters from Abuja, the capital, to the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the scene of some of the worst fighting, and has traveled to neighboring countries such as Chad and Niger to discuss cross-border military cooperation.

It’s the “one area in which the Buhari administration has hit the ground running,” Mohammed said.

Yet, while troops from Nigeria and Chad have largely dislodged Boko Haram from its self-declared caliphate in the northeast this year, the insurgents have stepped up hit-and-run attacks.

Corruption Fight

Buhari will also have to deal with shortcomings in his own army, which Amnesty International said last month should be investigated for war crimes, including unlawful killings.

In a step toward meeting his campaign promise to attack corruption that has crippled Nigeria for decades, Buhari disbanded the board of the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. The National Economic Council on Monday set up a four-member panel to probe its accounts.

Even some opposition lawmakers say Buhari needs more time.

“His approach may be different, but I am patient, I will give him some time,” Ben Murray-Bruce, a PDP senator, said in a June 29 interview in Abuja.

Where Buhari has come up short is communicating a sense of engagement to the public, said Gbadebo-Smith.

“He doesn’t say anything about anything,” he said. “The public would be satisfied with signals that say we are doing something about this, we are on top of this.”

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Miracle Baby!!! Mother, baby survive Colombia plane crash

A mother and her infant son who disappeared in a plane crash in the dense jungle of western Colombia have been found alive and well five days later in what authorities have described as a “miracle”.

Nelly Murillo, 18, and her son Yudier Moreno, not yet one year old, were found on Wednesday close to the site where the Cessna 303 crashed on Saturday in thick vegetation near Quibdo in the province of Choco.

“It’s a miracle. It is a very wild area and it was a catastrophic accident,” Colonel Hector Carrascal, the commander of the Colombian air force in Antioquia, told AFP news agency.

“His mother’s spirit must have given him strength to survive.”

Murillo and her baby were taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital with minor injuries, said Carrascal, adding that he was stunned they were alive.

“The lady has wounds and minor burns and apparently the child is unharmed,” the Colombian air force said in a statement.

The plane’s pilot, Captain Carlos Mario Ceballos, died in the crash and rescuers found his body in the aircraft.

They discovered the doors of the plane ajar and suspected that survivors may have clambered out.

A 14-person search-and-rescue team scoured the dense forest before finding the mother and child.

The plane was travelling between Nuqui and Quibdo in western Colombia when it crashed.

-----June 25, 2015 : Aljazeera.com

Advice From Xavi To Neymar--

The iconic midfielder offered advice to his ex-club mate, instructing him to think about how he behaves on the pitch, but hailed him as a hard working and humble player

Former Barcelona captain Xavi believes former team-mate Neymar must think about how he acts on the pitch, insisting that what is acceptable in Brazil does not go down well in Europe.

The midfielder was referring to an altercation Neymar found himself involved in during the final minutes of the Catalans' 3-1 Copa del Rey final win over Athletic Bilbao, when the Basque players had taken offence at a piece of extravagent skill he attempted.

And Xavi used the example to question the 23-year-old's mentality, stating the young Brazilian had to cut out the elements of his game that simply were not tolerated in the European arena.

"He needs to seriously think about how he should act. Maybe that sort of thing is accepted in Brazil, but it's a thorny issue in Spain," Xavi told Sport . 

"He should reflect about it because he's an extraordinary, hard-working and humble lad, but he has that Brazilian attitude, according to which such things are part of the show, while here they're seen as a lack of respect."

Neymar has not only been accused of unsporting behaviour during his stint in Spain by opponents but team-mates as well, with Xavi himself caught on video berating the forward while Barcelona celebrated winning their treble with an open top bus parade on Sunday.

"He was trying to take my shoes off and they were pushing me when I was standing on the edge of the bus. I told them to stop messing around and to focus on the fans, since the parade is for them," he added.

"It's alright to have three or four beers, but the parade is for the supporters, to thank them, and you can't just be in your own world."

A Letter From a White South African to White America

Dear friend,

It has been an eerie thing for me these past few years: sort of a déjà vu experience to watch the news and read about Ferguson, Eric Garner, Baltimore riots, McKinney and, most recently, the horrific shooting in Charleston. I've been watching #blacklivesmatter trend on Twitter: grief and outrage and opinions from every corner. And, as someone who grew up in Apartheid South Africa, this all feels eerily familiar. I listen to people talk and think I remember, and I recognize that.

America did away with legislated racism a few decades before South Africa did (I remember reading many of the early U.S. cases in my constitutional law classes in SA), but institutional racism is still alive and well, and people are hurting.

I recognize the fear, the blaming, the use of "they" and "them" in people's language. I remember hearing the voices of brave voices in the black community appealing to people to listen, to learn, to please, please acknowledge that there are hurts I don't see or understand. I remember the talk of white privilege, and feeling unjustly accused by the term. I remember grappling with what it meant to be regarded as an oppressor, even though I was too young to have done any wrong myself.

I know there are many differences between America and South Africa's histories: they are complex narratives, woven in blood and ink. I do not write this as an expert analyst, or as a political pundit -- but as one confessing there is so much I don't know and understand. But, I offer the little I've learned living in a country which shed tears and blood over race, and now living in another doing the same:

That, even though I was raised as a "liberal" white person, I was still a beneficiary of privilege. I still had more opportunities than people with more melanin in their skin, just because of being born white. I had not yet learned that we are all blind to our own privileges until we hear the stories of those who have lived without. Just as we don't know what a privilege it is to be able-bodied until we, or someone close to us, loses significant body function, we don't know what white privilege is until we, or someone close to us, experiences significant discrimination on the basis of their skin color. For example, I didn't know until recently that even the color of band aids reflected privilege: the "norm" is a skin-tone suited for caucasians, not people of color.

That, just because I wasn't a hate-mongering "racist" and even though I had friends of other races (I was one of the few who went to a private, multiracial school in the 80s), didn't mean I knew what it was like to be black. I had not yet learned to listen to people's stories.

That, even though my mom did much to try and teach us not to use racial slurs (for example, black men are not "boys"), there were still other presumptions and prejudices and blind spots I carried because of the culture I was born into.

That, even though I believed in a gospel where "there is no male and female, slave nor free, but we are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28), that there was still a significant need for reconciliation and restoration within the church. The denomination of which I was a part (REACH-SA) held a number of meetings in the mid-nineties, seeking to discuss this very thing: what needed to be done so that predominantly "white" churches" and predominantly "black churches" within the same denomination could have healed and whole relationships with each other. At first, I scoffed at the need for such talks (Why do we need that? Haven't we all been forgiven by Jesus and so we just forgive each other and move on?), to later on a deep and dawning realization that just offering to have that conversation showed a humility, and offered an olive branch, which had been sorely lacking. As it turned out, we needed to say I'm sorry, even thought I hadn't realized there was an offense.

To you, beloved Americans, I offer this humble suggestion: please learn something from South Africa's history in the current crisis. Read Alan Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country. Read Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom. Consider Desmond Tutu's words and example. Read Michael Cassidy. Read about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Listen to what happened (and how the church responded) when a group of terrorists walked into St. James Church and massacred the worshippers there in 1993. South Africa is not a shining example in many respects, but there are still so many lessons we can learn from each other.

Listen to the stories of the white families around you who are adopting black children, and are learning in their own families about how their darker skinned children are treated differently to their white ones (like Jen Hatmaker, Karen Yates, and Kristen Howerton. Listen to the words of writers like Austin Channing, and Osheta Moore, who are seeking to be peacemakers (not trouble causers) by telling the stories we need to hear about race. Acknowledge that if you are white, you have no idea what it's like to be not-white.

Can I also gently say that you are not going to hear the stories that will move you towards grace and better understanding if you are exclusively watching FOX news. (Or reading Matt Walsh.) South Africa would never have been able to move forward if we all just kept listening to the people we had always listened to. We need to read and listen outside of our little circles. It was really only when I had finished law school and was at seminary, side by side with South Africans from every race group, and people were sharing their testimonies of growing up that the penny really began to drop for me. I'm still trying to listen. It's hard. God knows, I want to be a better listener than I've been.

I'm a long time fan of Jodi Picoult's novels: I love the way she weaves together stories about deeply divisive ethical issues, and places characters in her story who represent various viewpoints on those issues. What amazes me about her writing is how, as each chapter skips to a different character, their views make sense to me when told from within their perspective. Her writing has made me realize that everyone says and does things in accordance with their viewpoint, and that differences of opinion are often less about who has the facts, and all about where a person is coming from in viewing the facts.

I'm in my late 30s, and still learning how much my opinions have been shaped by my being white and growing up in the predominantly white communities and schools I did. Watching South Africa go through its painful transition to democracy was the beginning of a lesson in needing to listen well (and silently) to other's stories. The difference between a freedom fighter and terrorist is really just a matter of perspective, isn't it?

I write this with tears, prayer, and hopes that we can do better. Listen better. Love better.

Things are not okay the way they are.

This post first appeared here. Follow Bronwyn on Facebook.