Canada's Christine Sinclair became the all-time leading scorer in international soccer history as Canada crushed St. Kitts and Nevis 11-0 at the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in Brownsville, Texas.
Sinclair scored her 185th career goal on Wednesday to surpass American Abby Wambach's previous record for men or women.
"Christine has been amongst the upper echelon of Canadian athletes," said Sinclair's former women's national teammate Carmelina Moscato.
"What she has done to sports for Canadians is given us memories that we'll never ever forget.
"The Olympics stand out, but just her consistency over the years -- a top goal scorer, always comes through for the team."
Sinclair scored two goals on six shots as Canada outshot the tiny island nation with a population of just 50,000 people 31-2.
The now retired Wambach finished her stellar career with 184 goals, a mark she reached in 2015.
Since bursting onto the international scene as a 16-year-old for Canada, Sinclair has been one ..

Canada's Christine Sinclair makes soccer history

PTI Automatic

Jurgen Klopp insisted Liverpool are not motivated by making history after the runaway leaders took another step towards the Premier League title with a 2-0 win at West Ham.
Klopp's side have turned the title race into a procession on Wednesday and they moved 19 points clear at the top with their 23rd victory from 24 league games this season.
Mohamed Salah opened the scoring with a first half penalty at the London Stadium and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain wrapped up Liverpool's 15th successive league win after the interval.
Second placed Manchester City are now so far behind Liverpool that the question is not if but when the Reds clinch their first English league title since 1990.
The Reds have won 31 of their past 32 league fixtures, only dropping points in a 1-1 draw at Manchester United in October.
With 14 games left, Liverpool's incredible run has given historic overtones to their impending title coronation.
But Klopp is only concerned about getting Liverpool over the finish line, with ..

Klopp doesn't care about records as Liverpool close in on title

New signing Christian Eriksen enjoyed a memorable debut as Inter Milan defeated Fiorentina 2-1 to reach the Italian Cup semi-finals.
After three successive draws in Serie A, Antonio Conte's Inter were far from their best on Wednesday but still had enough to set up a last-four clash against Napoli.  The othert semi-final sees Juventus tackle AC Milan.
In a poor first half, Inter edged ahead just before the break when Antonio Candreva scored from close range after a pass from Lautaro Martinez who had made the most of a mix-up between Fiorentina's Federico Ceccherini and goalkeeper Pietro Terracciano.
Martin Caceres headed the visitors level on the hour before Nicolo Barella settled the tie with a blistering volley seven minutes later.
Danish star Eriksen, signed on Tuesday from Tottenham for 22 million euros, was brought on as a substitute for Alexis Sanchez just before Barella's strike.
"We did not intend to use Eriksen so soon, as he only started training with us yesterday, but Matias 

Eriksen enjoys winning debut as Inter reach Italian Cup semi-finals

Real Madrid made it 20 games unbeaten by thrashing Real Zaragoza 4-0 to ease into the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey.
Raphael Varane, Lucas Vazquez, Vinicius Junior and Karim Benzema all scored on Wednesday at La Romareda, where Madrid were again without injured duo Gareth Bale and Eden Hazard, while Benzema only came on as a late substitute.
Benzema will almost certainly start the Madrid derby against Atletico Madrid on Saturday, when Real will be hoping to at least preserve their three-point lead over Barcelona at the top of La Liga.
Unlike Barca, who have made a stuttering start under new coach Quique Setien, and Atletico, who look devoid of ideas under Diego Simeone, Madrid have hit peak form in recent weeks.
After their victory over Real Valladolid on Sunday, Zinedine Zidane said his team's strong run had been been built on its defence and this clean sheet against Zaragoza means they have now conceded only three goals in nine games.
Their stubbornness should stand them in ...

Madrid thrash Zaragoza to make Copa del Rey quarter-finals

Manchester City booked their place in a third successive League Cup final, but made hard work of disposing of Manchester United 3-2 on aggregate after losing the second leg of their semi-final 1-0 at home.
City enjoyed the vast majority of the chances on Wednesday but could not find a way past the inspired David de Gea and went behind to United's first attempt on goal 10 minutes before half-time when Nemanja Matic fired home.
However, United's hopes of completing a miraculous comeback were extinguished when Matic was then sent-off 15 minutes from time and City held on to face Aston Villa at Wembley on March 1.
United had a mountain to climb after losing the first leg 3-1 at home three weeks ago and were without top scorer Marcus Rashford, who played a big part in the Red Devils' victory when they last visited the Etihad in December.
City started like they did in racing into a 3-0 lead within 38 minutes at Old Trafford as they swarmed all over the visitors, who had De Gea to thank for .

Man City hold off Man Utd to reach League Cup final

Pep Guardiola called on Manchester City to learn the lessons of a 1-0 home defeat to Manchester United despite progressing to a third successive League Cup final 3-2 on aggregate.
The holders enjoyed the vast majority of the chances but could not find a way past the inspired David de Gea and went behind to United's first attempt on goal 10 minutes before half-time when Nemanja Matic fired home.
United's hopes of completing a miraculous comeback were extinguished when Matic was then sent-off 15 minutes from time and City held on to face Aston Villa at Wembley on March 1.
"In 180 minutes we were better than United," said Guardiola.
"We created chances to score a lot of goals and didn't convert. We need to learn to be more clinical."
City started like they did in racing into a 3-0 lead within 38 minutes of the first leg at Old Trafford as they swarmed all over the visitors, who had De Gea to thank for keeping them in the tie.
"I can't really comprehend how we lost this game," said City ..

'Sloppy' Man City must learn despite reaching League Cup final

Rich nations are funnelling cash through government-backed financial institutions to provide $30 billion to fossil fuel projects each year that "run counter to the Paris Agreement", a new analysis showed Thursday.
The export credit agencies (ECAs) of G20 countries currently provide more than 10 times more state-backed finance to oil, gas and coal projects abroad than they do to renewable energy schemes, the analysis said.
Under the Paris Agreement, emissions from these projects do not count as part of donor nations' carbon footprint.
ECAs are public entities that provide government-backed loans and insurance to overseas businesses.
Market monitor Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth America showed that G20 financing for coal delivered via ECAs under the Paris radar had increased as a percentage of energy project financing since the 2015 Paris treaty.
That translates to $7.1 billion annually in the years since the signing of the landmark accord that enjoins nations to ...

G20 funds fossil fuels $30 bn a year under the radar: analysis

Liverpool moved an incredible 19 points clear at the top of the Premier League as Mohamed Salah and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain secured a 2-0 win at West Ham.
Jurgen Klopp's side have turned the title race into a procession and the runaway leaders saw off struggling West Ham on Wednesday to make it a remarkable 23 victories from 24 league games this season.
Salah opened the scoring with a first half penalty at the London Stadium and Oxlade-Chamberlain wrapped up Liverpool's 15th successive league win after the interval.
Second placed Manchester City are now so far behind Liverpool that the question is not if but when the Reds clinch their first English league title since 1990.
The Reds have won 31 of their past 32 league fixtures, only dropping points in a 1-1 draw at Manchester United in October.
With 14 games left, Liverpool's incredible run has given historic overtones to their impending title coronation.
The European and World champions are now 41 games unbeaten in the league -- just .

Liverpool sink West Ham to go 19 points clear

Britain's economy, lifted by the country's post-election political stability, risks fresh turbulence as Prime Minister Boris Johnson seeks tricky Brexit trade deals amid global threats that include the coronavirus.
Recent positive British economic data offset weaker figures at the end of 2019, but this is not expected to have a lasting impact despite government promises of major infrastructure spending.
On the eve of Brexit, there is a strong possibility that the Bank of England will later Thursday announce its first interest rate cut in more than three years, as economic headwinds gather on the horizon.
"There's still a huge amount of uncertainty over Brexit ahead of the deadline at the end of this year," OANDA analyst Craig Erlam told AFP.
After Friday, Britain faces an 11-month Brexit period that expires on December 31, by which time Johnson will try to strike new trade deals with the EU and other countries around the world.
Erlam said despite data pointing to a slight uplift for ..

UK economy seeks to balance Brexit with global strains

A Los Angeles jury has ordered Apple and Broadcom to pay USD 1.1 billion to a university in California for infringing on four Wi-Fi technology patents.
Apple was ordered to pay USD 837 million and Broadcom must pay USD 270 million to the California Institute of Technology, in what is thought to be one of the largest patent verdicts ever.
The court pronounced the verdict on Wednesday.
Caltech, as the university located near Los Angeles is known, had sued both tech giants in 2016, alleging that Apple products including iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches used Broadcom components that infringed on Caltech patents related to wireless data transmissions.
Both Apple and Broadcom indicated they planned to appeal the verdict.
"Caltech appreciates the jury's thoughtful attention throughout the trial," the university said in a statement to AFP. "We are pleased the jury found that Apple and Broadcom infringed Caltech patents.
"As a nonprofit institution of higher education, Caltech is committed to .

Apple, Broadcom ordered to pay USD 1.1 bn for patent infringement

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has proposed civil and criminal penalties for those who knowingly spread false information about when and how to vote in US elections.
The proposal is part of a broader plan to combat disinformation, in which she also accuses major tech companies of contributing to its spread in their drive for profits, and calls for them to take action to combat it.
The 2016 presidential election that brought Donald Trump to office was plagued by rampant disinformation, including well-documented efforts by Russia to influence the vote, and there are fears that such efforts will be replicated this year.
"In both the 2016 and 2018 elections, online disinformation sought to depress voter turnout by telling people they could vote via text, giving people the wrong date for election day, and more," Warren said in her plan on Wednesday.
"I will push for new laws that impose tough civil and criminal penalties for knowingly disseminating this kind of ...

Warren proposes criminalizing disinformation about voting in US

Canada has chartered a plane to bring home as many as 160 of its nationals from China because of the coronavirus epidemic, officials have said.
Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told reporters it could take several days to obtain permission to land in or near Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic.
"There are 160 Canadians (in China) who have asked for consular assistance," Champagne said on Wednesday.
"We have secured a plane to repatriate Canadians who wish to come back," he said. "Now the next step is to work on the diplomatic front and the logistics with our Chinese counterparts. We are engaging in discussion as we speak."
Canada's relations with China are at a low point because of its arrest of a Huawei executive on a US warrant in December 2018, and Beijing's detention of two Canadians in apparent retaliation.
On Tuesday, the first three Canadian confirmed or presumed cases were announced -- a Toronto man and his wife who recently returned from Wuhan, and a British ...

Canada to bring home up to 160 from China over coronavirus

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will visit the UN within two weeks to address the Security Council on his rejection of the new US Mideast plan, his ambassador to the body has said.
At that time a draft resolution will be submitted to the council, Riyad Mansour told reporters on Wednesday, without specifying a date for the visit.
He said Abbas would take part in an Arab League meeting on Saturday and an African Union summit in February.
Before coming to the UN the president might also meet with European Union officials, Mansour said.
The diplomat expressed hope that by then agreement would have been reached on a draft resolution.
Palestinians have rejected the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan unveiled Tuesday by President Donald Trump.
Among other concessions to Israel, it would give the Jewish state control over Jerusalem as its "undivided" capital and let Israel annex the settlements it has built on Palestinian land in the West Bank.

Palestinian president to visit UN in next two weeks

The daughter of a Chinese tourist who is seriously ill in a Paris hospital has become the fifth person in France to be confirmed with the coronavirus, officials have said.
Her 80-year-old father was the fourth confirmed case in France of the new coronavirus that has killed more than 100 people since it emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December.
"A fifth case has been detected," Health Minister Agnes Buzyn told a news briefing on Wednesday.
"It's the daughter of the Chinese tourist who was hospitalised recently in intensive care in a serious condition," Buzyn added.
The woman in her thirties, "whose condition has worsened, who needs oxygen," has also been placed in intensive care, Buzyn said.
The minister said a first plane was due to fly Wednesday evening to Wuhan, the epicentre in China, to repatriate 200 French people stranded there.

Five people in France confirmed to have coronavirus

Recounting the hellish conditions of eight years spent on death row on blasphemy charges but also the pain of exile, Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi has broken her silence to give her first personal insight into an ordeal that caused international outrage.
Bibi was sentenced to death on blasphemy charges by a Pakistani court in 2010 but then dramatically acquitted in 2018. She now lives in Canada at an undisclosed location.
French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet, who has co-written a book about her, was once based in the country where she led a support campaign for her.
She is the only reporter to have met Bibi during her stay in Canada.  In the book "Enfin libre!" ("Finally Free") - published in French on Wednesday with an English version due out in September - Bibi recounts her arrest, the conditions of prison, the relief of her release but also the difficulty of adjusting to a new life.
"You already know my story through the media," she said in the book.  "But you are far from ...

'Finally free!': Asia Bibi on Pakistan prison, life in exile

Britain's departure from the European Union was set in law Wednesday, amid emotional scenes, as the bloc's parliament voted to ratify the divorce papers.
After half a century of sometimes awkward membership and three years of tense withdrawal talks, the UK will leave the EU at midnight Brussels time (2300 GMT) on Friday.
MEPs voted by 621 votes to 49 to pass the withdrawal agreement, which sees Britain leave the EU institutions but remain under most EU rules during a transition until the end of the year.
Following the vote, MEPs burst into a chorus of "Auld Lang Syne", a traditional Scottish song of farewell.
The transition will see Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government try to negotiate an ambitious free trade agreement with his 27 former partners remaining in the bloc.
"Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depth of love," EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told the chamber, quoting British author George Eliot.
"We will always love you and we will never be ...

Euro MPs set seal on Brexit in emotional vote

The World Health Organization on Wednesday warned all governments to "take action" over the SARS-like virus spreading from China that has killed 132 people and infected around 6,000 others.
The WHO called an urgent meeting for Thursday over whether the viral epidemic should be declared a global health emergency -- a designation that can increase international coordination.
Airlines have begun suspending flights to and from China following cases of onward transmission outside the country.
And some countries have begun airlifting their nationals trapped in Wuhan, the quarantined Chinese city of 11 million people at the centre of the epidemic.
A US charter flight from Wuhan with about 210 Americans on board, including consulate staff, was met at a California military base on Wednesday by emergency vehicles with flashing lights and personnel in white biological hazard suits.
The evacuees will be monitored for symptoms and sent to local hospitals if they are found to be ill, the US defense 

WHO warns world to 'take action' over China virus

Scottish lawmakers on Wednesday voted to keep the European Union flag flying outside the devolved parliament in Edinburgh after Brexit.
The group that manages parliament had planned to lower the flag at 11.00 pm (2300 GMT) on Friday, when Britain officially leaves the EU.
But members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) voted by 63 to 54 to overturn the decision after heated debate.
Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh had warned ministers that flags "should not become a political issue" and that they "reflect our relationships in law".
Scotland voted by 62 percent to 38 percent to remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum but Britain as a whole voted out, and will leave on Friday.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who leads the pro-EU Scottish National Party, had urged for the EU flag to keep flying, angering opposition parties.
The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats insisted that the "non-political" ruling of the Parliamentary Corporate Body should have stood.
The motion passed 

Scotland votes to keep EU flag flying

Israel's army said Wednesday it was deploying reinforcements in the occupied West Bank and near the Gaza border, amid Palestinian anger over US President Donald Trump's peace plan.
"Following the ongoing situation assessment, it has been decided to reinforce the Judea and Samaria and Gaza Divisions with additional combat troops," the army said in a statement, using the biblical terms for the West Bank.
It did not give more details on the redeployments.
Small protests took place in multiple places in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, a day after Trump announced his long-delayed peace plan.
Three Palestinians were shot during clashes in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Trump's plan angered Palestinians by proposing Israel retain control over Jerusalem as its "undivided capital" and giving the Jewish state the green light to annex settlements in the West Bank.
Further demonstrations are expected in the coming days.
Israeli forces are not inside the Gaza ..

Israel army says boosting presence in West Bank, near Gaza

Residents jumped from a high-rise residential building in west Los Angeles on Wednesday as a fire engulfed the structure, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
Officials said the blaze broke out shortly after 8:30 am on the sixth floor of the 25-story Barrington Plaza on West Wilshire Boulevard with an undetermined number of people trapped inside.
"Persons ... have reportedly jumped from that or nearby floors," said Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Television footage showed heavy flames and smoke billowing from one floor and a helicopter hoisting some of the residents from the rooftop to safety.
One man hanging from a window was rescued by firefighters on a firetruck ladder.  Several people jumped onto air bags that were deployed under the building.
A little over an hour after the blaze broke out, firefighters appeared to have extinguished the flames and some could be seen on balconies.
Officials said at least five people were treated for unspecified injuries.

Residents jump from Los Angeles high-rise following blaze

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday pardoned an Israeli-US woman sentenced by a Russian court to seven-and-a-half years in jail for drug trafficking, the Kremlin said.
The pardon came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected later Wednesday in Moscow where he is due to meet Putin.
Naama Issachar, 26, was arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport in April 2019 as she travelled from India to Israel. Russian authorities said they found nine grammes (three ounces) of cannabis in her checked luggage.
"Guided by the principles of humanity, I pardon Naama Issachar," said the decree cited by the Kremlin.
Issachar made a written request for a pardon, her lawyers said in a statement quoted by Russian press agencies on Sunday.
Issachar's mother Yaffa met Putin when he was on an official visit to Israel last week.
Following the meeting, the mother told media that Putin had "promised" he would send her daughter back home.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ...

AFP

AFP

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