Manchester United's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has become the latest Premier League manager to complain about the "unfair" packed programme of fixtures over Christmas and New Year.
United play their final league match of 2019 against Burnley on Saturday, just over 48 hours since competing a 4-1 comeback win over Newcastle.
Those matches form part of a sequence of seven games in 21 days that is hard to square with modern notions of rest and recovery.
But such is the commercial appeal of the traditionally congested programme that change does not appear likely anytime soon, even though Jurgen Klopp, the manager of runaway leaders Liverpool said recently it was a "crime" for teams to have to play on both December 26 and 27.
"I don't think it is fair on the boys at all," said United manager Solskjaer.
"I don't think it is fair to be expected to perform at the best of your level, both mentally and physically, 48 hours after you have played.
"But I think we are in the best position to perform on ..

Solskajer slams festive fixture pile-up

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Tom Hanks was awarded honorary Greek citizenship on Friday, the state Athens News Agency said, adding an official touch to a long love affair with the country.
A document that confirmed the distinction was signed by Greek president Prokopis Pavlopoulos, ANA said.
The 63-year-old actor and filmmaker's wife, producer Rita Wilson, is also of Greek origin on her mother's side.
There is considerable pride in Greece that Hanks, one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, has a summer house on the picturesque island of Antiparos and visits every year.
Hanks has said that he feels "110 percent Greek...I'm more Greek than a Greek is" by being married to Wilson, producer of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Tom Hanks becomes honorary Greek citizen

Russia's defence minister told President Vladimir Putin on Friday the first Avangard hypersonic missiles had been put into service, in a move hailed as a major coup for Moscow.
Analysts say Russia is the first country to put into combat service intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with hypersonic weapons that Putin said can travel 20 times faster than the speed of sound.
"The first missile regiment equipped with latest strategic missiles with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered service at 10 am Moscow time on December 27", Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told a meeting in televised remarks.
He congratulated the military on what he said was a "landmark event for the country and the armed forces." Shoigu reported to Putin when the missiles entered service, a defence ministry official told AFP.
Defence officials have earlier said that the first Avangard regiment was placed in the Orenburg region in the Urals.
"This is the first intercontinental ballistic missile with the ...

Russia says first hypersonic missiles enter service

Joe Denly hit a half-century for England before three wickets in 17 balls swung the balance towards South Africa on the second day of the first Test at SuperSport Park on Friday.
England were 157 for six at tea in reply to South Africa's 284 all out.  Denly survived a shaky start during which he was dropped on nought and took 28 balls to score his first run.
But he survived a South African fast bowling storm and gradually asserted himself to make 50 off 111 balls with nine fours.
Denly shared a fourth wicket stand of 72 with Ben Stokes (35) which got England exactly halfway to the South African total before Denly was caught behind off an inside edge to give all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius his first Test wicket.
Fast bowler Anrich Nortje bowled Jonny Bairstow for one in the next over and then claimed the key wicket of Stokes when he switched to bowling around the wicket and induced a loose drive from the left-hander which presented wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock with his fifth catch of the .

Triple strike hurts England

France's foreign ministry on Friday said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador over the "intolerable" detention of two French academics, expressing "grave concern" that one was now on hunger strike.
The envoy "was reminded of France's demand that Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal are released without delay and that the Iranian authorities show total transparency over their situation," it said in a statement.
"As the President (Emmanuel Macron) and Foreign Minister (Jean-Yves Le Drian) have said on several occasions, their imprisonment is intolerable," it added.
Adelkhah and Marchal, both academics at Sciences Po in Paris, have been held by the Iranian authorities since June. The university said this month that Adelkhah and another detained academic, Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert, had started a hunger strike.
The French statement said the ministry had made clear to the ambassador "our grave concern over the situation of Mrs Fariba Adelkhah, who has stopped taking food".
It also said 

France summons Iran ambassador over 'intolerable' detention of academics

On a Baltic Sea island once used by the Nazis for biological weapon research, German scientists are developing virus vaccines that could save lives.
Access to the island of Riems is highly restricted.
Scientists who work there have to have disinfectant showers when entering or exiting and wear body suits.
And dozens of animals, including sheep and cows, have been deliberately infected with viruses as part of the research to monitor the effects of the diseases.
"We really are the Alcatraz of viruses, a kind of prison for viruses," Franz Conraths, deputy head of the island's Friedrich Loeffler Institute, told AFP.
Located south of picturesque Ruegen Island, Riems has become a global centre for the study of pathogens such as rabies, African swine fever and Ebola.
Visitors have to undergo security controls and the laboratories holding the most dangerous viruses as well as the stables with the infected animals are on security level 4 -- the highest in Germany.
"We do everything possible to 

Secrets of Germany's 'Alcatraz' virus island revealed

China on Friday launched one of the world's most powerful rockets in a major step forward for its planned mission to Mars in 2020.
The heavy lift Long March 5 rocket carrying a test satellite payload blasted off from the Wenchang launch site on the southern island of Hainan at 8:45 pm (1245 GMT), a livestream from state broadcaster CCTV showed.
"After more than 2,000 seconds, the Shijian 20 satellite was sent into its predetermined orbit," the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The rocket launch "tests key technologies related to future space missions," Xinhua said.
The successful launch is a key part of China's ambitious plans for a mission to the Red Planet next year and hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022.
"The Long March 5 rocket is tasked with important missions," Wu Yanhua, the deputy head of China's National Space Administration, said in a video released by CCTV last week.
"It will be tasked with a series of key missions including launching China's first Mars ...

China launches powerful rocket in boost for 2020 Mars mission

Tropical Cyclone Sarai barrelled off the coast of Fiji, forcing hundreds of residents to move to higher ground ahead of possible flooding.
The Category Two storm passed off the southwest of the main island of Viti Levu with forecast average winds of 95 kilometres per hour (60 miles per hour) and gusts of 130 kph at the centre of the storm.
The Fiji Meteorological Service warned of "damaging gale force winds" and heavy rain with coastal flooding expected in some areas as the cyclone intensified late Friday.
Around 360 people went to 15 evacuation centres across the country, the National Disaster Management Office said, as flash flood warnings were put in place.
"As we speak, more evacuation centres are expected to be activated as people living in low lying and coastal areas have already started experiencing damaging winds and heavy rain," said agency director Vasiti Soko.
Meanwhile, the plans of thousands of tourists who flock to the South Pacific island nation over the Christmas-New ..

Hundreds flee lowlands as Cyclone Sarai sweeps past Fiji

France's foreign ministry on Friday said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador over the "intolerable" detention of two French academics, expressing "grave concern" that one was now on hunger strike.
The envoy "was reminded of France's demand that Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal are released without delay and that the Iranian authorities show total transparency over their situation," it said in a statement.
Adelkhah and Marchal, both academics at Sciences Po in Paris, have been held by the Iranian authorities since June. The university said this month that Adelkhah and another detained academic, Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert, had started a hunger strike.

France summons Iran envoy over 'intolerable' detention of academics

A party for "sinners" in a southern Greek town was cancelled this week after a poster depicting Jesus Christ with earrings and makeup sparked death threats, organisers said.
The Christmas Eve party in a bar in the port town of Nafplio had invited "sinners of the world" to "celebrate the birthday of the man who brought the message of love and solidarity".
The modified image of an icon of Jesus advertising the event on Facebook had also been stamped with the word 'blasphemy' in red capital letters.
There was an immediate outcry from a local priest, bar organisers said on their Facebook page, which has since been completely removed.
"We have just received a call from the priest who is threatening to post pictures of our fathers dressed in drag outside the church," they said.
The organisers added that they had received calls threatening to "kill and lynch" them.
Even though civil union for same-sex couples was approved by a leftist government in 2015, homosexuality remains a taboo topic ..

Greek 'sinners' party scrapped after threats

China on Friday launched one of the world's most powerful rockets in a crucial step for its planned mission to Mars in 2020.
The heavy lift Long March 5 rocket blasted off from the Wenchang launch site on the southern island of Hainan at 8:45pm (1245 GMT), a livestreamed feed from CCTV state television showed.

China launches powerful Long March 5 space rocket

Iraqis were divided Friday by their president's threat to resign rather than accept a pro-Iran coalition's candidate for premier, with some saying it was unconstitutional but others praising his civic-mindedness.
Barham Saleh has resisted recent attempts by a pro-Iran coalition to put forward nominees for prime minister that included a resigned minister and a controversial governor.
On Thursday, Saleh said he was "ready to resign" rather than accept a candidate already rejected by the protest movement that brought down the previous government.
Some 460 people have been killed and 25,000 injured since the unprecedented demonstrations broke out in October demanding deep reform that shows no sign of abating.
With the country plunged into crisis, some were hoping that the weekly sermon of influential Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani would offer a way forward.
The 89-year-old is Iraq's top Shiite cleric and his opinion has long been decisive in the country's politics. But he remained silent on .

Treason or civic-minded? Iraqis split on president's threat to quit

The boss of a hardline French trade union on Friday vowed to press on with a strike that has crippled transport in Paris for the past three weeks and is now the longest-lasting such action since the 1980s.
The strike against pension reforms championed by President Emmanuel Macron began on December 5 and has cast a long shadow over celebrations in France for Christmas and the New Year.
Now on day 23, the union stoppage is longer than the notorious 22-day strike of the winter of 1995 under late president Jacques Chirac against welfare cutbacks which forced the then government into a U-turn.
The longest transport strike in France lasted for 28 days, also over Christmas, in 1986 and early 1987.
"It's a strong movement and still supported by public opinion," said Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the CGT union as he visited picketing workers at a bus depot.
He lashed out at Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who has said he wants no confrontation with the strikers, accusing him of not .

Union boss defiant on France's longest strike in decades

The Philippines banned two US senators and threatened to introduce visa restrictions for Americans entering the country, the president's spokesman said Friday, if Washington pushes ahead with sanctions against Filipino officials involved in jailing a leading opposition leader.
Senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy were banned from entering the country after introducing a provision in the 2020 US budget that would prevent officials involved in the incarceration of Senator Leila de Lima from entering the US, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
De Lima, one of the highest-profile critics of Duterte's controversial war on drugs, has been imprisoned since February 2017 over a drug charge -- but has claimed innocence, and accused him of persecuting political opponents.
"If they will enforce this provision in the US budget, then we will be compelled to require all Americans entering into this country to secure a visa before they can be allowed entry," Panelo said on ...

Philippines bans US senators, mulls visa for Americans

Pyrotechnic-mad Germany loves to see in the New Year with a bang but concerns about climate change have prompted several major retailers to take fireworks off the shelves this year, local media said Friday.
"The fireworks last for an hour, but we want to protect animals and have clean air 365 days a year," said Uli Budnik, who runs several REWE supermarkets in the Dortmund area that have stopped selling fireworks.
One of the country's main DIY chains, Hornbach, last month announced it was too late to stop this year's order but that it would ban pyrotechnics from 2020.
Rival chain Bauhaus said it would be rethinking its fireworks offerings next year "in view of the environment", while franchise owners of a string of Edeka supermarkets have already removed them from their stores.
Environmentalists have cheered the trend, which would have once been unthinkable in a country where revellers famously fire off huge amounts of pyrotechnics from their lawns and balconies every New Year's ...

German fireworks sales fizzle on climate anxiety

Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told supporters Friday he would win a March general election after scoring a landslide victory in the leadership primary of his right-wing Likud party.
Israel's longest-serving premier, who faces a corruption indictment as well as a third general election in 12 months, was expected to beat rival Gideon Saar in the leadership primary.
But the convincing margin of victory -- by 72.5 to 27.5 percent -- strengthens his position in the party he has dominated for 20 years.  Netanyahu, 70, called it a "huge win" and pledged to emerge victorious in the March 2 general election.
"Now is the time to unite and bring a tremendous victory for the Likud and the right in the election," Netanyahu told a press conference.
"Most of the people support the right and support me to lead the government." In what appeared to be a general election campaign speech, Netanyahu did not mention the defeated Saar once.
He thanked US President Donald Trump, a close 

Israel's Netanyahu sweeps party primary in re-election boost

A Turkish court on Friday issued jail terms to six journalists from an opposition newspaper accused of links to the group blamed by the government for the 2016 failed coup, a lawyer told AFP.
The court in Istanbul sentenced journalists from the Sozcu daily including columnist Emin Colasan and editor-in-chief Metin Yilmaz to prison terms ranging from two years and one month to three years and six months on terrorism charges, their lawyer Celal Ulgen said.
The nationalist Sozcu is on occasion vehemently anti-government and its angry front pages are regarded with suspicion even by some liberal Turks critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It is the second opposition daily to be targeted after Cumhuriyet newspaper.
"This is an empty case," Colasan was quoted by the paper as telling the court. "There is no evidence or witness against us." Sozcu condemned the verdict as a "black stain", saying those convicted were only carrying out their work as journalists.
The court also sentenced the 

Turkey court gives jail terms to opposition journalists

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the country's first Avangard hypersonic missiles have been put into service, an official statement said.
"The first missile regiment equipped with latest strategic missiles with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered service at 10 am Moscow time on December 27," the defence ministry said, according to Russian news agencies.

Russia says first Avangard hypersonic missiles enter service

Twelve people died when a plane carrying 100 passengers and crew crashed shortly after takeoff from Kazakhstan's largest city on Friday and slammed into a house, but many on board survived.
A video released by the Central Asian country's emergencies committee showed the 23-year-old plane operated by budget carrier Bek Air torn into pieces with its nose crushed into a collapsed house, as rescue crews worked to pull people from the wreckage.
The aircraft disappeared from the radar minutes after it took off from Almaty airport at 7.05 am (01:05 GMT) on its way to the capital Nur-Sultan with 95 passengers and five crew members, the airport authority said in a statement.
It hit a concrete barrier and then slammed into a two-storey building near the city's boundary northeast of the airport.
Kazakhstan responded to the crash by grounding the Fokker model, which makes up the whole of the Bek Air fleet, and launched an investigation.
The country's emergencies committee released a list of 12 ...

12 killed as plane crashes in Kazakhstan but many survive

Iran, China and Russia started four days of joint naval drills in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman on Friday, the commander of Iran's flotilla announced.
The exercise comes at a time of heightened tensions since the United States withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in May last year.
"The message of this exercise is peace, friendship and lasting security through cooperation and unity ... and its effect will be to show that Iran cannot be isolated," Rear Admiral Gholamreza Tahani said on state television.
Tahani added that the drills included rescuing ships on fire or vessels under attack by pirates and shooting exercises, with both Iran's navy and its Revolutionary Guards participating.
State television showed what it said was a Russian warship arriving at Chabahar port in southern Iran and said the Chinese will join shortly, calling the three countries "the new triangle of power in the sea".
"The aim of this drill is to bolster security of international maritime .

Iran, China, Russia start joint naval drills

Jihadists aligned to the Islamic State group have released a video claiming to show the execution of 11 Christians in restive northeast Nigeria.
The footage posted online late Thursday by IS-linked propaganda arm Amaq showed 11 blindfolded men being shot and stabbed by jihadists from the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) at an undisclosed location.
"This is a message to Christians all over the world," said a masked man in the one-minute video.
He claimed the killings were in reprisal for the death of IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his spokesman.
IS leader Baghdadi committed suicide in October to avoid capture during a US special forces raid on his hideout in the province of Idlib in northwest Syria.
In recent months, ISWAP has intensified its attacks on Christians, security personnel and aid staff, setting up roadblocks on highways and conducting searches.
The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the "increasing practice by armed groups to set up checkpoints targeting ...

AFP

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