Los Angeles Galaxy forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic set an exceptional challenge for the upcoming Major League Soccer season on Sunday, vowing to rewrite the league record book this year.
The 37-year-old Swedish superstar unveiled new Galaxy jerseys in a flashy entrance, then told a crowd of fans his ambitious plans for the 2019 campaign.
"This season I will bring something to you. I will break every record in the MLS this season," Ibrahimovic said.
Zlatan scored 22 goals and set up 10 others in 27 MLS contests last season, launching him into the new season with great expectations.
The Galaxy, who host their season opener against Chicago on March 2, went 13-12 with nine drawn last season to miss the MLS playoffs by a single point.
Among the more impressive MLS records Zlatan would be trying to shatter are goals in nine consecutive games, an assist in eight consectuve matches and four goals in one half.
Josef Martinez of Atlanta set the one-season MLS goals record with 31 in 34 games played .

Zlatan vows to 'break every record in MLS this season'

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Defenders Aleksandar Kolarov and Federico Fazio both scored in the second half as Roma closed in on the Champions League places with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Bologna on Monday.
Eusebio Di Francesco followed their Champions League last 16, first-leg win over Porto last week by consolidating fifth position and are now just a point behind AC Milan in fourth.
"We couldn't afford to fall behind today. We're happy with the three points, less so with the performance," said Di Francesco.
Champions Juventus are 13 points clear of second-placed Napoli after Cristiano Ronaldo sealed a 3-0 win against Frosinone on Friday.
Napoli lost points after being held to a goalless draw against Torino while Inter Milan are a further seven points behind in third after beating Sampdoria 2-1.
Atalanta and Lazio are three points behind the Romans in sixth after losing to AC Milan (3-1) and Genoa (2-1) respectively at the weekend.
Roma could thank Swedish goalkeeper Robin Olsen for keeping them in the game ...

Kolarov, Fazio score to edge Roma closer to Champions League berths

Under-fire Maurizio Sarri admitted his Chelsea flops played "confused" football as they crashed out of the FA Cup with a tame 2-0 defeat against Manchester United on Monday.
Sarri was subjected to calls for his sacking from angry Chelsea fans during the troubled team's fifth defeat in their last 10 games.
Booed off at the final whistle, the beleaguered Blues manager felt Chelsea deserved better after the FA Cup holders started the fifth round clash on top.
But he conceded they lacked direction and focus in a tepid second half surrender.
"Tonight we were unlucky because we played a very good first half and at the end of the half the score was 2-0," Sarri said.
"We gave them a few opportunities. We played confusing football in the second half. After the first half it wasn't easy to play with that score."
Toothless Chelsea managed only two shots on target all night and the limp second half display suggested the players are hardly doing everything in their power to save Sarri.
Sarri has ..

'We were confused': Sarri frustrated as Chelsea woes mount

Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund dropped more points in the title race on Monday when they were held to a goalless draw at bottom side Nuremberg.
Dortmund are now just three points ahead of second-placed Bayern Munich, the defending champions who won 3-2 at Augsburg on Friday, with their lead slashed from nine points after drawing their last three league games.
"That was definitely too little from us, we have to pick up points again," said forward Mario Goetze.
"They didn't make it easy for us by standing deep, but we must improve."
Even without injured playmaker Marco Reus, plus defenders Lukasz Piszczek and Manuel Akanji, this was another below-par display from the league leaders.
Nuremberg were hammered 7-0 at Dortmund last September, but this was a vastly improved display from the hosts and the draw was celebrated like a win on the home bench.
It was their first game under caretaker coaches Marek Mintal and Boris Schommers after both head coach Michael Knoeller and director of 

Dortmund drop more points at bottom side Nuremberg

Paul Pogba drove Manchester United into the FA Cup quarter-finals and pushed Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri closer to the sack as the troubled holders crashed to a 2-0 defeat on Monday.
Pogba set up United's opening goal for Ander Herrera with a majestic cross and the France star added the second himself as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side produced a commanding display at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea's lacklustre fifth round exit -- their first FA Cup defeat since the 2017 final -- was another painful blow for Sarri, who is facing a fight to save his job following a dismal debut season.
Chelsea suffered their heaviest defeat for 28 years when they were thrashed 6-0 at Manchester City earlier this month, an indignity that came just weeks after a humiliating 4-0 loss at Bournemouth.
Amid claims Sarri has lost the support of his players, the former Napoli boss watched ashen-faced as Chelsea collapsed again for a fifth defeat in their last 10 games.
Sarri was subjected to chants of "you don't know 

Sarri on the brink as Pogba fires United into FA Cup last eight

Having been rejected as an eight-year-old by Schalke 04, Ilkay Gundogan is relishing returning to Gelsenkirchen with Manchester City in what could potentially be a one-sided Champions League clash.
While Pep Guardiola's high-flying City are top the Premier League table, Schalke, Wednesday's opponents in the last 16, first-leg clash, are just above the Bundesliga's relegation places and struggling to score goals down in 14th place.
Like City's Germany winger Leroy Sane, Gundogan, 28, began his career at Schalke's academy, but despite having been rejected as a child after only one season, there will be no element of revenge come kick-off at the Veltins Arena.
"I have (forgiven them), but it wasn't always so," Gundogan told German magazine Kicker with a grin.
"At the time, due to growth spurts, I had physical problems and couldn't play any sports for half a year, so I dropped out. Three or four years later, Schalke attempted to contact me, but I was a bit resentful.
"I just wanted to ...

Gundogan relishing coming home with Man City after Schalke snub

As their Premier League title rivals Liverpool sunned themselves in Marbella last week, Manchester City were getting muddy in Newport on Saturday to keep alive the prospect of a historic clean sweep of four trophies.
City's focus switches from south Wales to Schalke on Wednesday for the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie before a Wembley final against Chelsea on Sunday for the right to lift the first silverware of the season in the League Cup.
A decade into the club's Abu Dhabi ownership, the importance for City to win the Champions League for the first time would have made it easy for the English champions to prioritise Europe this season.
However, after romping to the league with a record 100 points last year, it is another piece of history that Pep Guardiola's side now crave by outdoing even Manchester United's treble of league, Champions League and FA Cup in 1998/99.
Two weeks on from smashing Chelsea 6-0, City will be heavy favourites to retain the League Cup this ...

Guardiola relishes quadruple quest as City seek to conquer Europe

President Donald Trump's longtime confidant Roger Stone has apologised to the judge presiding over his criminal case for an Instagram post featuring a photo of her with what appears to be the crosshairs of a gun.
Stone and his lawyers filed a notice Monday night saying Stone recognised "the photograph and comment today was improper and should not have been posted." Earlier Monday, Stone posted a photo of US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson with what appeared to be crosshairs near her head.
Stone later said that the picture had been "misinterpreted" and that any suggestion he intended to threaten Jackson was "categorically false." Stone is charged with lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering related to discussions he had during the 2016 election about WikiLeaks. He has denied guilt.

Roger Stone apologizes to judge for Instagram post about her

The ghost of Rome still haunts Lionel Messi and Barcelona as they find themselves in Lyon for the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday.
The Spanish champions won the domestic double last season in Ernesto Valverde's first campaign as coach at the Camp Nou, but that achievement was marred by the nature of their exit from Europe.
After beating Roma 4-1 at home in the first leg of their quarter-final tie, they collapsed in the return in Italy, going out on away goals after a humiliating 3-0 defeat.
This season they have been driven by a desire to put that behind them and end Real Madrid's recent dominance in the competition that has yielded three successive titles.
Impressive in the group stage, now they arrive at Lyon's 59,000-seat Groupama Stadium seeking a first away win in the knockout phase in six attempts since a 2-0 victory at Arsenal in February 2016.
"That shows that it is a hard competition, but challenges are there to be overcome," said Valverde on Monday 

Barcelona wary of weakened Lyon as they look to exorcise ghost of Rome

Massimiliano Allegri told Juventus not to be afraid of Atletico Madrid but for one of these teams their worst fears in this season's Champions League are about to become a reality.
Crashing out in the last 16 would be unthinkable for two clubs that were among the favourites when the draw for the knock-out stages was made in December.
"Those that have ambition are not afraid," Allegri said, after his side were drawn to play Atletico, with the first leg on Wednesday at the Wanda Metropolitano.
"It's like a final, we cannot put a foot wrong," Atletico boss Diego Simeone said.  Juventus and Atletico Madrid have reached 12 European Cup finals between them, with last season's game in Kiev the first in five years in which neither had featured.
Atletico went on to win the Europa League instead, proving themselves too strong for Europe's second-tier competition, while Juventus were dumped out by eventual winners Real Madrid, undone by a controversial Cristiano Ronaldo penalty in the 98th ...

'It's like a final' - Atletico meet Juve in a clash of high stakes

New Zealand is in talks to minimise the security risks posed by using Huawei equipment in 5G infrastructure, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Tuesday - raising the prospect of compromise on an issue straining Wellington-Beijing relations.
New Zealand's intelligence agency last November barred the country's biggest telco Spark from using Huawei equipment in its planned 5G network, citing "significant security risks".
Beijing expressed "deep concern" over the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) action against the Chinese telecoms giant, saying firms should compete on a level playing field.
It was part of a wave of bans on Huawei in a growing number of countries over fears the company's equipment could act as an espionage backdoor for China, which Beijing labels "groundless".
Ardern said talks were under way between GCSB and Spark to see if the fears about Huawei's involvement could be addressed.
"There has been no final decision... it is now currently with Spark to ...

New Zealand holding talks on Huawei security fears: PM

W E B Griffin, the prolific and best-selling author of military novels, has died at age 89.
Griffin, whose real name was William E. Butterworth III, died Feb. 12. His death was confirmed Monday by his publisher, Putnam, which did not immediately provide additional details.
Himself a military veteran who enlisted in the Army when he was just shy of 17 and later served in the Korean War, he wrote more than 200 books under W E B Griffin and various other names and sold millions of copies.
His many popular series included "Badge of Honor," ''Clandestine Operations" and "Presidential Agent." More than 20 novels, including the upcoming "The Attack," were written with his son, William E Butterworth IV.
Under his own name, he helped write several sequels in the 1970s to the Richard Hooker novel "M(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H," the basis for the hit movie and television show about a U.S. medical unit in Korea.
A Newark, New Jersey native, Griffin started using other names on for his books 

W E B Griffin, prolific military novelist, dead at age 89

New York is joining California and 14 other states in a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration.
Attorney General Letitia James said in the lawsuit Monday that diverting funding from military construction and other programs to pay for a wall on the US-Mexico border threatens New York's public safety and security infrastructure.
All the states involved in the lawsuit have Democratic attorneys general.
Trump declared an emergency on Friday so he can shift billions of dollars to the border wall after Congress wouldn't approve the amount he wanted.
Trump, a Republican, considers a wall a national security necessity. The lawsuit alleges he's manufacturing a crisis and that his declaration is an "unconstitutional and unlawful scheme." New York is home to Fort Drum and the US Military Academy.

Sixteen states sue Trump over border wall emergency

California's attorney general says at least a dozen states will join a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's emergency declaration to fund a wall on the US-Mexico border.
Xavier Becerra told MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" he planned to file California's lawsuit on Monday. He didn't specify which other states would join, but officials in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada announced that they would challenge Trump.
Becerra says there is no emergency at the border and Trump doesn't have the authority to make the declaration.
Trump declared a national emergency to fulfill his promise of completing the wall.
The move allows the president to bypass Congress to use money from the Pentagon and other budgets.
California has repeatedly challenged Trump in court. Becerra has filed at least 45 lawsuits against the administration.

California will sue Trump over emergency wall declaration

US President Donald Trump urged Venezuela's military Monday to accept opposition leader Juan Guaido's amnesty offer, or stand to "lose everything," as a crisis deepened over President Nicolas Maduro's refusal to let in desperately needed humanitarian aid.
Bringing in humanitarian aid is crucial to the viability of Guaido, who has denounced Maduro's reelection last year as fraudulent and in January declared himself interim president, a move recognized by some 50 countries.
He has given the Maduro government until Saturday to let the shipments into the country, which is in the grip of a humanitarian crisis due to shortages of food and medicine exacerbated by hyperinflation.
Addressing supporters and Venezuelan expatriates in Miami on Sunday, Trump declared he had a message for officials helping keep Maduro in place.
"The eyes of the entire world are upon you today, every day and every day in the future," he said.
"You cannot hide from the choice that now confronts you. You can choose to 

Trump tells Venezuela military to back Guaido or 'lose everything'

Authorities say four people, including children, have been fatally shot at a property in western Michigan.
WOOD-TV reports Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young says authorities responded Monday to a property near Cedar Springs, a community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Grand Rapids.
She says someone discovered the bodies and called 911.
LaJoye-Young didn't say how many of the victims are children. She called the scene "a horrific thing to be called to" and said "my heart goes out to the families involved here and the community." LaJoye-Young said authorities don't believe there is a shooter at large.

4 people, including children, dead in Michigan shooting

A climate scientist who popularized the term "global warming" has died.
Wallace Smith Broecker was 87.
Columbia University said the longtime professor and researcher died Monday at a New York City hospital. A spokesman for the university's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory said Broecker had been ailing in recent months.
Broecker brought "global warming" into common use with a 1975 paper that correctly predicted rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would lead to pronounced warming.
Broecker was also first to recognize what he called the Ocean Conveyor Belt, a global system of ocean currents circulating water and nutrients.
Broecker was born in Chicago in 1931 and grew up in suburban Oak Park.
He joined Columbia's faculty in 1959 and was known in science circles as the "Grandfather of Climate Science.

Scientist who popularized term "global warming" dies

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's top adviser has resigned while denying allegations he pressured Canada's former attorney general to avoid prosecuting a major Canadian engineering firm.
Principal Secretary Gerald Butts has been Trudeau's closet adviser and best friend since university. Butts issued a statement Monday denying that he or anybody else in Trudeau's office pressured Jody Wilson-Raybould.
He said he's leaving in order to defend himself without distracting from the prime minister's work.
The Globe and Mail newspaper reported this month that Trudeau or his staff pressured Wilson-Raybould to try to avoid a criminal prosecution of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin over allegations of corruption involving government contracts in Libya.
Critics say that would be improper political meddling in a legal case.
Wilson-Raybould resigned from the cabinet last week but gave no reasons.

Trudeau's top adviser resigns but denies wrongdoing

A double bomb attack in Syria's jihadist-held city of Idlib on Monday killed 24 people, including four children, a war monitor said.
The first blast was caused by a bomb planted under a car in the main city of the Idlib region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
A motorcycle bomb detonated after ambulances arrived at the scene of the first explosion, the Britain-based monitoring group said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which the Observatory said also wounded at least 51, updating an earlier casualty toll.  Idlib, the last major part of Syria still outside the control of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, is held by an alliance led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
HTS took administrative control of the whole of the region last month, after overpowering smaller Turkey-backed factions.
The Islamic State group also has sleeper cells in the area.  A local office of the "Salvation Government", an administrative body ...

Twin bombing kills 24 in Syria's Idlib: monitor

The sailor pictured kissing a woman in Times Square as people celebrated the end of World War II has died at age 95, his daughter told the Providence Journal.
George Mendonsa had a seizure Sunday after falling at an assisted living facility in Middleton, Rhode Island, his daughter Sharon Molleur said.
In the famous image, one of four taken by Alfred Eisenstadt for Life magazine, Mendonsa is seen ecstatically bending over and kissing a woman in a white nurse's uniform.
The picture was published by Life as "V-J Day in Times Square." Mendonsa, who served in the Pacific during World War II, was on home leave when the picture was taken.
He had long claimed to be the sailor in the picture, but it wasn't confirmed until recently with the use of facial recognition technology.
Greta Zimmer Friedman, the woman in the picture, died in 2016 at age 92.
Eisenstadt did not get the names of the kissing strangers.
He later described watching the sailor running along the street, and grabbing any girl ..

"Kissing sailor" in iconic NY picture dies age 95

Japanese car giant Honda is expected to announce that it will close its plant in south west England in 2022, putting 3,500 jobs at risk, according to media reports on Monday.
The carmaker is due to announce the closure of its Swindon plant on Tuesday, according to Sky News, but still retain its European headquarters in nearby Bracknell.
Other carmakers including Nissan and Ford have also warned that jobs could be lost at British plants as it prepares to leave the European Union, but local MP Justin Tomlinson said the Honda decision was not down to Brexit.
"I have already spoken to... Honda. They are clear this is based on global trends and not Brexit as all European market production will consolidate in Japan in 2021," he tweeted.
The company is not expected to announce any job losses until 2021, he added.
The carmaker said in a statement that "we are not able to make any comments regarding the speculation.
"We take our responsibilities to our people very seriously and will always ...

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