Fifa corruption: South America football bosses convicted

Two former top South American football executives have been found guilty of multiple charges at a US trial into corruption in the sport.

Both Jose Maria Marin, the former head of Brazil's Football Confederation (CBF), and Juan Ángel Napout, who led South America's football governing body Conmebol, were convicted on Friday.

The men were arrested in 2015.

The jury in New York are still deciding the verdict in a charge against the former head of Peru's federation.

They will reconvene after Christmas to make a decision in the racketeering charge against Manuel Burga.

His lawyer declined to make a comment on the Reuters news agency.

Marin, who is also a former governor of São Paulo, was found guilty of six of the seven counts against him of money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy.

Napout, who headed the Paraguayan football body as well as the regional one, was found guilty of three charges - one of racketeering conspiracy and two wire fraud charges.

The investigation focuses on corruption around the awarding of media and marketing rights for major sporting competitions, including the Copa America. Prosecutors have said the crimes amount to an estimated $200m (£150m).

Last month, Argentine former football official Jorge Delhon killed himself after being accused of taking $2m (£1.5m) in bribes as part of the trial.

Following Friday's verdicts, football's world governing body Fifa said it "strongly supports and encourages the US authorities' efforts to hold accountable those individuals who abused their positions and corrupted international football for their own personal benefit".

• The Fifa trial reminiscent of a Hollywood drama
• Who are the indicted Fifa officials?

The US investigation into corruption at Fifa was first revealed in May 2015.

Federal prosecutors in New York have indicted more than 40 sports and football executives linked to football in the Americas as part of the inquiry.

In October the former head of Guatemala's federation, Hector Trujillo, became the first person to be sentenced as part of the investigation.

Trujillo was sentenced to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy.

Another official, Costas Takkas, former general secretary of the Cayman Islands Football Association, was sentenced to 15 months in prison by a US judge shortly after.

Source :BBC

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China urges against 'dangerous' light bulb challenge

Chinese doctors are warning shoppers against buying light bulb-shaped sweets for use in a dangerous online challenge, it's reported.

According to Xibu Online, users of social media platforms have been buying toffee apple-like sweets, made of granulated and malt sugar, and posting pictures and videos of themselves trying to fit the entire sweet in their mouths.

The "light bulb sweets" are 6cm in diameter and about 10cm long, and are designed to match the scale of a large household light bulb. According to Shanghai-based website Shine.cn, one online retailer on the popular Taobao website has already sold over 2,700 at 29.8 yuan ($4.50; £3.36) each, and is currently "out of stock due to increased orders with the approach of Christmas".

Doctors have strongly urged people against taking part in the trend, with Dr Xiao Cheng telling Xibu Online that the sweets could "cause choking and even suffocation".

Dr Zhang Jin'an adds that the levels of sugar in the sweet could be harmful for diabetic patients, and that "potential mechanical injury is a major concern."

"Most people are able to open their mouth to about four centimetres wide, while the bulb-shaped candy has a diameter of six centimetres," he tells Shine.cn.

Dangerous food trends

This is not the first time that Chinese doctors have warned users against taking part in a dangerous online trend involving food.

In July 2016, media warned users against taking part in "the rotating corn challenge", a social media challenge that involved mounting a cooked corn on the cob onto the end of a drill and trying to eat it.

Users condemned the trend as "completely unsafe", especially after video circulated showing one man accidentally drill his front teeth out, and another woman have her hair ripped from her scalp.

Source :BBC

Fire in South Korean fitness centre kills 28

Dec 21, 2017-A fire broke out in an eight-storey fitness centre in the scenic South Korean city of Jecheon on Thursday, killing 28 people, most of them as they were taking a sauna, officials said.

The fire started in a car parked on the first floor and spread, one official told Reuters. The fire station said 12 women and three men were known to have been killed. Thirteen bodies were unrecognizable, according to Reuters.

The fire station official said most of the victims were found in the sauna.

Jecheon is southeast of the capital Seoul and is popular with visitors to its mountains and lakes.

Source :thekathmandupost

Police to quiz MP-elect Silwal http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2017-12-22/police-to-quiz-mp-elect-silwal.html

Senior Superintendent of Police Rabindar Dhanuk, chief of Kathmandu Police, said they are reviewing the documents. “We will soon summon all the people related to the case,” said SSP Dhanuk.

The Range on Wednesday registered a complaint against Silwal, who was recently elected a member of the House of Representatives from Lalitpur, following directives from the Supreme Court to take action against those involved in forging the performance evaluation report of former Deputy Inspector General Silwal.

The apex court, in the full text of its decision on a case related to appointment of the Nepal Police chief, has said there were discrepancies between performance evaluation reports presented by the Public Service Commission and petitioner Silwal, and that a thorough investigation and action were required against those involved in document forgery. Silwal has denied any wrongdoing while maintaining that the performance evaluation sheet was downloaded by his lawyer from an online news portal.

Source : Thekathmandupost

Italian 'ambulances of death' worker arrested

Police on the Italian island of Sicily have arrested an ambulance worker suspected of killing people to earn money from a funeral parlour linked to the mafia.

The man is alleged to have injected air into the veins of at least three terminally ill patients 

as they were transported back to their homes.

He is said to have been paid €300 (£265) for each corpse.

Italian media have dubbed it the "ambulances of death" scandal.

Police arrested the man after a contact, said to be a reformed mafia member, gave details to authorities in the city of Catania and to an investigative TV programme. The ambulance worker is charged with voluntary homicide.

It is alleged that the suspect injected air into the veins of patients - causing them to die of an embolism - as they were being transported back to the small inland town of Biancavilla.

The 42-year-old man is said to have then taken advantage of grieving families by recommending a funeral agency linked to the Sicilian mafia, from which he gained a commission.

Reports suggest the scheme could have been operating since 2012 and there could have been many other victims.

Investigators say they have looked into dozens of deaths in Biancavilla but only 12 have so far been deemed "meaningful" and only three have been presented to an investigating magistrate.

Source :BBC

Oli and co visit Rasuwagadhi fringe point

Dec 20, 2017-CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli joined by his gathering pioneers went to Nepal-China fringe point in Rasuwagadhi on Tuesday.


They examined the course that is required to stretch out from Chinese outskirt to Nepal perhaps after 2020.

Chinese pioneers, amid their gatherings with Nepali pioneers, have guaranteed that Chinese rail will achieve Nepal-China outskirt by 2020 and that they were anxious to grow the rail line past the fringe.

Rasuwagadhi is presently the main course interfacing China's Tibet with Nepal after the northern neighbor chose to close the Kodari course and supplant it with the mountain crossing at Rasuwagadhi following the overwhelming quake of 2015.

Amid the visit, the UML pioneers asked about the likelihood of cross-fringe railroad availability. In spite of the fact that Oli has been thinking about conveying Chinese prepare to Nepal through this outskirt point the framework on the Nepal side is poor.

The previous executive was joined by UML General Secretary Ishwor Pokharel, pioneer Bishnu Paudel, previous Speaker Subas Nembang and Secretary Shankar Pokharel, among others.

In the wake of going to the outskirt point, they went to a program sorted out at Timure Bazaar in Gosainkunda Rural Municipality-2 of Rasuwa.

Tending to the program, Oli said that the Rasuwagadhi outskirt point would be hoisted to worldwide fringe point.

Saying that the arranged railroad venture interfacing Rasuwagadhi-Kathmandu would soon be reached out to Pokhara-Lumbini, Oli declared that the current two-path Galchi-Trishuli-Mailung Rasuwagadhi street would likewise be ventured into a four-path street.

Oli had gone to Beijing in 2016 as the leader and scorched the historic point Transit Agreement with the Chinese government, clearing path for Nepal to utilize the Chinese ports for import and fare.

The concurrence with China will happen soon and Rasuwagadhi would be up reviewed as worldwide fringe point, Oli said.

http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2017-12-20/oli-and-co-visit-rasuwagadhi-fringe point.html


Source :kathmandupost

Brexit: UK plans to soften impact on European banks

The Bank of England is to uncover plans enabling European banks to work in the UK as ordinary post-Brexit.

The BBC has discovered that banks offering discount back - cash and administrations gave to organizations and each other - would work under existing standards.

It implies EU banks working through branches can proceed without making backups - a costly procedure.

Branches offer a simple route for banks to move cash around their worldwide operations.

In any case, they display the hazard that, in case of a money related emergency, stores are immediately repatriated to the outside bank's base camp - leaving clients of the UK stretch out of pocket.

Auxiliaries are compelled to hold their own stun engrossing capital which can't take off all of a sudden - they basically progress toward becoming UK organizations.

Transforming from a branch to an auxiliary could cost billions for a bank like Deutsche Bank, for instance, which utilizes 9,000 individuals in the UK.

Right now, banks based anyplace in the EU can pitch administrations to anyplace else in the EU on account of an instrument known as a monetary administrations international ID.

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More from Simon Jack

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On Monday, EU boss arbitrator Michel Barnier was talking hard on UK-based monetary administrations access to the European single market after Brexit.

"There is no place (for money related administrations). There isn't a solitary exchange understanding that is available to monetary administrations. It doesn't exist. In leaving the single market, they lose the money related administrations international ID," he said.

Which makes one wonder - on the off chance that they are getting down to business - why are we being so pleasant in giving a first class reception?

Miles Celic, leader of the campaigning bunch TheCityUK, said offering congruity to EU banks was a demonstration of generosity, yet it was likewise one of edified self premium.

"Urging EU banks to keep on operating in the UK will help protect money related strength for the UK and the EU and will help guard London's position as an open worldwide monetary focus," he said
Compelling EU bank offices in the UK to wind up plainly independently promoted backups may well have urged European banks to haul out of London - bit by bit dissolving its pre-distinction as a money related focus.

In any case, then again, London goes about as the discount bank to the EU and access to its ability and capital is exceedingly prized. Some may see this choice as surrendering a trump card that ought to have been kept down for the intense transactions ahead.

Things being what they are, the reason would we say we are permitting the EU access to this important asset while the EU undermines to make obstructions the other way?

Government sources said there are three reasons.

Initially, there are the occupations. A huge number of generously compensated individuals work in the London branches of enormous EU banks. That additionally makes thump on occupations in different callings like bookkeeping and law.

Second, those individuals pay a great deal of expense to the exchequer.

No special requirements

What's more, third, there is another imperative financial point. Administrations sold by the UK branch of a French or German bank to a third nation like the US, for instance, consider UK trades - something the legislature is quick to amplify.

In a discourse back in October, Sam Woods, the leader of the Prudential Regulation Authority (the bit of the Bank of England that directs banks) said the reason the European budgetary markets work so well isn't only due to the "travel permit" that Michel Barnier demands will be denied.

He said he trusted "for a solid, co-agent relationship in which discount banks can keep on operating over the UK and EU27 in branches... We have installed a complex system of supervisory co-operation... There is each motivation to think these will proceed into what's to come"

This opinion echoes what a senior broker disclosed to me a half year prior - "if the controllers were in control, and not the government officials, this would all be dealt with in a fortnight."

They are not in control. Be that as it may, I comprehend the bank has the gift of the legislature in offering this "no new post-Brexit strings connected" access to the world's biggest budgetary focus


Source :BBC

Uber is authoritatively a taxicab firm, says European court

Uber is formally a vehicle organization and not an advanced administration, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.

The ride-hailing firm contended it was a data society benefit - helping individuals to reach each other electronically - and not a taxicab firm.

The case emerged after Uber was advised to obey neighborhood taxi governs in Barcelona.

Uber said the decision would have little effect to the way it worked in Europe, yet specialists say the case could have suggestions for the gig economy.

A Uber representative stated: "This decision won't change things in most EU nations where we as of now work under transportation law.

"Be that as it may, a great many Europeans are still kept from utilizing applications like our own. As our new CEO has stated, it is suitable to control administrations, for example, Uber thus we will proceed with the discourse with urban areas crosswise over Europe. This is the approach we'll take to guarantee everybody can get a dependable ride at the tap of a catch."

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Uber's permit suspended in Sheffield

In its controlling, the ECJ said that an administration whose design was "to associate, by methods for a cell phone application and for compensation, non-proficient drivers utilizing their own particular vehicle with people who wish to make urban excursions" must be delegated "an administration in the field of transport" in EU law.

It included: "As EU law at present stands, it is for the part states to manage the conditions under which such administrations are to be furnished in similarity with the general principles of the settlement on the working of the EU."

The decision comes after Uber was advised a month ago that the interest to recharge its permit in London could take years, as indicated by Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Transport for London considered Uber unfit to run a taxi administration and declined to reestablish its permit in September.

Its permit ran out in October, yet its drivers can keep on working in London while it tries to claim.

Source : BBC

Which are the nations as yet conversing with North Korea?

North Korea is frequently depicted as totally segregated from whatever is left of the world, yet actually it has discretionary connections with right around 50 nations. Which would they say they are, and exactly how close are their ties?

North Korea's outsider status seems to increment by the day.

However underneath its clear seclusion lies an interesting irregularity, its shockingly extensive conciliatory system.

Since North Korea's creation in 1948, it has set up formal strategic relations with more than 160 nations and it keeps up 55 government offices and offices in 48 countries.

A littler yet at the same time critical number of states - 25 in all - have discretionary missions in North Korea, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden, as appeared in mapping of strategic systems by the Lowy Institute

China and Russia, as its then socialist neighbors, were among the soonest to build up discretionary relations after the formation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - as it is formally known.

The US is currently squeezing whatever is left of the world to disjoin its connections with Pyongyang, with its delegate to the UN, Nikki Haley, approaching "all countries to remove all ties".

Among those to make a move are Spain, Kuwait, Peru, Mexico, Italy and Myanmar, otherwise called Burma, which have all removed ministers or representatives in the previous couple of months.

Portugal, Uganda, Singapore, UAE and the Philippines have every suspended connection or cut different ties.

Be that as it may, numerous North Korean missions around the globe - and those it has - will stay open for business.

A few nations even seem, by all accounts, to be venturing up ties, with Pyongyang co-working with various African countries on development activities and holding chats on vitality and farming with others.