Maroon 5 are set to headline the Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show in 2019, the music group confirmed.
The band made things official through a video montage of them -- both on stage and off stage -- which was posted on their official Twitter account Sunday.
They captioned the clip: "#SBLIII".
The news that Maroon 5 has been locked by the organisers broke last September but they were unavailable for a comment.
Travis Scott and Big Boi will also be part of the halftime show.
The marquee event for the National Football League (NFL) has been in the eye of storm regarding players kneeling during the playing of national anthem in a peaceful protest against police brutality and racial inequality.
Case in point being quarterback Colin Kaepernick who has not played since 2016 and last year filed a grievance against the league and its owners, accusing them of colluding to keep him off the field.
In October, Amy Schumer urged Maroon 5 to pull out from the Super Bowl in an attempt to support ...

Maroon 5 confirm Super Bowl Halftime 2019 gig

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Navy divers have located the cockpit voice recorder of a Lion Air jet that crashed into the Java Sea in October, Indonesian officials said Monday, in a possible boost to the accident investigation.
Ridwan Djamaluddin, a deputy maritime minister, told reporters that remains of some of the 189 people who died in the crash were also discovered at the seabed location.
"We got confirmation this morning from the National Transportation Safety Committee's chairman," he said.
A spokesman for the Indonesian navy's western fleet, Lt Col Agung Nugroho, said divers using high-tech equipment found the voice recorder beneath 8 meters (26 feet) of seabed mud. The plane crashed in waters 30 meters (98 feet) deep.
The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta on October 29, killing everyone on board.
The cockpit data recorder was recovered within days of the crash and showed that the jet's airspeed indicator had malfunctioned on its last four 

Indonesia finds Lion Air jet's cockpit voice recorder

Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema had to be substituted at half-time of Sunday's Spanish league match at Real Betis after hurting his right hand.
Madrid coach Santiago Solari said Benzema had fractured his hand.
"He was in a lot of pain," Solari said.
Madrid was already without Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos, Marco Asensio, Mariano Diaz and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois due to injury.
Benzema needed to be attended by team doctors when he fell after a brush with a Betis defender in first-half stoppage time. He was replaced by reserve-team player Cristo Gonzalez during the break. Benzema leads Madrid in scoring with 12 goals in all competitions this season.

Madrid striker Karim Benzema injures right hand

There were too many saves for Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea to even remember.
Everyone else was certainly counting: Eleven. The most by any goalkeeper in a Premier League match this season. And they were all in the second half to thwart a Tottenham comeback.
The Spaniard's virtuoso goalkeeping performance protected a 1-0 victory in the Premier League on Sunday after Marcus Rashford's first-half strike, giving United a sixth successive victory in all competitions since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Jose Mourinho.
"I said to David at halftime, 'You might have to make a save here, you have to keep your concentration,'" Solskjaer said.
"He didn't have to keep his concentration because he was never allowed to relax. He is a fantastic goalkeeper. I think he's the best in the world."
Few would dispute that on Sunday as De Gea was masterful with his hands and feet  particularly frustrating efforts by Harry Kane and Dele Alli to equalize.
"I don't even remember some of them," De ...

De Gea's saves help United beat Tottenham in Premier League

Inter Milan cruised into the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia after beating second-tier Benevento 6-2 in a match played behind closed doors following the racist abuse of Senegal defender Kalidou Koulibaly last month.
Inter ran riot in a San Siro left empty on Sunday as part of the punishment the club received for the monkey chants directed at Koulibaly during their 1-0 Boxing Day win over Napoli.
"That wasn't a real match tonight," said Inter coach Luciano Spalletti.
"The protagonists of the game are the fans, who should come and have fun watching the show on the pitch.
"We can't deprive good people of enjoyment because others disturb the match (with their behaviour). We need to reward that type of fan, who needs to take a stand against the chants they don't want to take part in."
Spalletti's side were two up inside seven minutes thanks to a roaring start that saw Mauro Icardi open the scoring from the spot following a foul on Antonio Candreva, who was on hand to crash home after ...

Inter into Coppa quarters at San Siro closed after racist chanting

Perth Scorchers opener Michael Klinger was bizarrely given out on the seventh ball of an over in Australia's Twenty20 Big Bash League with umpires failing to realise their mistake.
The veteran's controversial dismissal for two came in their game against the Sydney Sixers on Sunday evening when the umpires lost count of how many balls had been bowled.
It overshadowed the Scorchers' seven-wicket win and a quick-fire unbeaten 87 from Cameron Bancroft as he starts to find form again on his return from a nine-month ban for ball-tampering.
Scorchers coach Adam Voges said the controversy was "not ideal".
"Obviously it's the umpires' jobs to count the number of balls in an over," he said.  Cricket Australia said the incident would be "followed up".
"It appears there was a miscount of balls in the over, and a seventh ball was allowed by the umpires," a spokesperson said on their website.
"As the ball was bowled it is deemed live and consequently the decision stands.
"The incident will be ...

Bizarre seven-ball over dismissal in Big Bash League

Cesc Fabregas got off to a positive start in his debut for struggling Ligue 1 side Monaco after his side gained a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Marseille at a tumultuous Stade Velodrome.
Fabregas, who joined the Principality club from Chelsea on Friday, struck a composed figured in the midfield as Thierry Henry's side recovered from a shaky start to earn a point thanks to Youri Tielemans' leveller six minutes before the break on Sunday.
The World Cup winner almost laid on a winner for Tielemans in added time with a trademark clipped pass but the Belgium international hesitated on the ball and ended up shooting a presentable opportunity to snatch a rare victory well wide.
Fabregas' arrival on the Mediterranean coast on Friday was the third in January after veteran defender Naldo and France under-21 left-back Fode Ballo-Toure, who both acquitted themselves well on Sunday.
The draw was a good result for a team without a fit striker and not enough available players to even fill the ...

Fabregas smooth in debut as Monaco battle to Marseille draw

China's global trade volume rose last year but its surplus fell again as its imports outpaced its exports, official data released Monday showed amid a bruising trade war with the United States.
Total trade reached USD 4.62 trillion, a 12.6 per cent rise from 2017, according to customs data.
But the trade surplus for the world's second largest economy fell 16.2 per cent to USD 351.76 billion, as imports rose 15.8 per cent while exports gained 9.9 per cent.
"China's foreign trade has developed in a steady manner with progress witnessed, reaching a record high in import and export volume," said Li Kuiwen, spokesman for the customs administration.
China's surplus with the US is a hot-button issue with the administration of President Donald Trump, which slapped new import tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods last year.
Customs has not yet released information on US-China bilateral trade, but China's imports of soybeans fell by 7.9 per cent last year to 88 million ...

China's global trade surplus fell in 2018: customs

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says he fears a "massive problem" after Harry Kane limped off the Wembley pitch with an apparent ankle problem following his side's 1-0 defeat to Manchester United.
Kane was hurt after clashing with United defender Phil Jones in the closing seconds of the match as the visitors dug deep to protect their 1-0 lead at Wembley on Sunday.
Pochettino said he would fret over Kane's fitness, with the 25-year-old set to undergo tests in the next few days while he is set to lose Son Heung-min to the Asian Cup.
"Of course if Harry Kane suffers an injury it would be a massive problem for us. That is my worry, that is our worry," Pochettino told Sky Sports.
"It was a bad tackle in the last moment from a Manchester United player. It wasn't an intention, but it was a bad tackle.
"There's swelling now, we need to assess in the next few days. I hope it's not a big issue but he was limping off the pitch."
Pochettino hailed Tottenham's second-half performance as ...

Kane injury could be 'massive problem' for Spurs, says Pochettino

Lionel Messi scored his 400th La Liga goal, a total his coach Ernesto Valverde called "monstrous", as Barcelona terrorised Eibar to reclaim their five-point cushion at the top of the table.
Messi drove the ball into the bottom corner after being teed up by Luis Suarez, who added two goals to his own tally either side of the Argentinian marking another historic record at the Camp Nou on Sunday.
"It's monstrous," said Valverde, after the 3-0 victory. "It's easy to say but you have to score them one after the other, it's a long-term job.
"His numbers are stratospheric, incredible. He is from another galaxy." Victory saw Valverde's side restore their advantage over Atletico Madrid, who had briefly cut the gap to two points after beating Levante earlier in the day.
"There is a lot of time left," Valverde said.
"It is a good cushion but nothing is done yet."
Real Madrid won too, beating Real Betis, to ensure Spain's big three all prevailed in the same round for only the fourth time this ...

Monstrous' Messi scores 400th La Liga goal, sends Barca five points clear

Iran's last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who fled his country 40 years ago under pressure from massive street protests, was the "King of Kings" who came to be damned by his own people.
His exile with his third wife Farah Diba on January 16, 1979 ended not only his 37-year reign but also 2,500 years of monarchy in Iran, replaced by an Islamic system that remains in charge today.
Pahlavi would die from cancer just 18 months later at the age of 60, broken and stateless, having been refused asylum by his former ally, the United States.
Tyrannical, arrogant, extravagant but also modernising, the playboy king started out as a darling of the US which groomed him to act as sentry in the Middle East against the Soviet Union.
The "great leadership of the shah" had made Iran "an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world," US president Jimmy Carter declared just a year before the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Pahlavi enjoyed all the trappings of his royal status, believing his 

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last king of Iran

The White House demanded that the military draft plans for strikes on Iran after attacks in Iraq last year, sparking concern at the Pentagon and State Department, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
The report said the move came after a mortar attack launched by an Iran-linked group on the Baghdad diplomatic quarters home to the US embassy in September. No one was hurt by the shells, which landed in an open lot.
But the White House National Security Council (NSC) sought to develop a forceful American response to the low-scale attack, including options for a strike against the Islamic republic, the Journal reported on Sunday.
It added that the NSC also requested options to respond with strikes in Iraq and Syria.
"It definitely rattled people," a former senior US administration official told the newspaper. "People were shocked. It was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting Iran." Although the Defense Department did develop proposals for a possible strike, the Journal said .

White House sought military strike against Iran

A Canadian man accused of drug smuggling in China faced a new trial Monday after an upper court called for a harsher sentence in a case that could further strain ties between Beijing and Ottawa.
Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who was originally sentenced to 15 years in prison and a 150,000 yuan (USD22,000) forfeiture, could now potentially face the death penalty under China's zero-tolerance drug laws.
His retrial in the northeast city of Dalian comes against the backdrop of the Chinese government's anger over the arrest in Canada of a top executive of telecom giant Huawei last month.
Chinese authorities have since detained two Canadian nationals -- a former diplomat and a business consultant -- on suspicion of endangering national security.
Schellenberg, who was reportedly detained in northeast Liaoning province in 2014, is accused of playing an important role in drug smuggling and of potentially being involved in international organised drug trafficking activities.
He was sentenced to 15 

Canadian risks harsher sentence at China drug retrial

The president of the opposition-controlled but sidelined National Assembly was detained by Venezuelan intelligence agents for around an hour Sunday, but President Nicolas Maduro's government denied any knowledge of the operation.
"We have learned that there was a situation in which a group of officials acting in a unilateral manner conducted an irregular procedure," said Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez.
He added that officers from the SEBIN intelligence service "are being dismissed and subjected to a stricter disciplinary procedure" after having provoked a "media circus."
Following his release, Juan Guaido was met by hundreds of cheering supporters at the political rally he had been heading to when he was intercepted on a highway by armed and hooded men in two Venezuelan intelligence service vehicles, according to his wife.
"So Maduro no longer controls the armed forces because the chain of command was broken," Guaido said.
"Who is commanding the regime now? If they're already 

Caracas denies ordering assembly leader's detention

The wife of ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn has alleged her husband is being held in "harsh" conditions and subjected to round-the-clock interrogations intended to extract a confession.
In a letter to Human Rights Watch, Carole Ghosn urged the group to highlight the case of her husband, who has been in detention in Japan since his shock arrest on November 19 and faces three charges of financial misconduct.
The nine-page letter says the former high-flying executive is held in cell that is lit even at night, and is denied his daily medication.
"For hours each day, the prosecutors interrogate him, browbeat him, lecture him, and berate him, outside the presence of his layers, in an effort to extract a confession," the letter says.
It claims prosecutors have pressed Ghosn to sign documents in Japanese, which he does not understand, providing only an oral translation, and without his lawyer present.
"I urge Human Rights Watch to highlight his case... to press the government to reform its ...

Wife of ex-Nissan chief Ghosn slams 'harsh' Japan detention

A knife-wielding assailant on Sunday stabbed the mayor of the Polish port city of Gdansk in front of hundreds of people at a charity event, police and media said.
Paramedics resuscitated Pawel Adamowicz, 53, at the scene before taking him to hospital.
A doctor working for the regional authorities, Jerzy Karpinski, described the mayor's condition as "very serious".
A video recording of the attack posted on YouTube showed the attacker bursting onto the podium.
After knifing the mayor, he seized the microphone and claimed to have been wrongly jailed by the previous centrist government of the Civic Platform (PO) and tortured.
"That's why Adamowicz dies," the attacker said.
The Civic Platform had supported Adamowicz's re-election in 2018 municipal elections.
Adamowicz later underwent surgery, deputy mayor Piotry Grzelak, was quoted as saying by the PAP news agency.
The attack took place on the podium at a fundraiser for the purchase of medical equipment.
The attacker was quickly ...

Polish mayor stabbed at Gdansk fundraiser

A winter storm that contributed to at least five deaths in the Midwest pummeled the mid-Atlantic region for a second day Sunday, bringing with it an icy mix that knocked out power, cancelled flights and contributed to hundreds of car accidents.
Virginia State Police said the driver of a military surplus vehicle was killed late Saturday after he lost control on Interstate 81 because of slick road conditions.
Police said Ronald W. Harris, 73, of Gainesville, Georgia, died after his vehicle was struck by two tractor-trailers. The two tractor-trailer drivers were taken to a hospital for injuries that were not considered life-threatening. The state medical examiner was expected to determine later whether Harris' death was storm-related.
Virginia State Police said they responded to more than 230 traffic crashes and helped more than 100 disabled vehicles in Virginia from midnight to noon Sunday.
The storm knocked out power for nearly 200,000 people in Virginia and North Carolina on Sunday, ..

Wintry mix of snow, freezing rain pummels mid-Atlantic

The new head of Venezuela's increasingly defiant congress was pulled from his vehicle and briefly detained by police Sunday, a day after the US backed him assuming the presidency as a way out of the country's deepening crisis.
The confusing incident, which drew swift international condemnation, is bound to ramp up tensions between the opposition and government following President Nicolas Maduro's swearing in for a controversial second term this month.
A video circulating on social media purports to show the moment in which Juan Guaido is intercepted on his way to an anti-government town hall meeting in the port city of La Guaira.
In the video shot on a cellphone by a motorist stuck in traffic, several men in ski masks and carrying assault weapons are seen struggling to shut the door on someone being pushed into an SUV before racing down a highway.
While it was not possible to identify Guaido in the 33-second video, his wife, Fabiana Rosales, said on Twitter that he had been detained ..

Venezuelan congress leader briefly detained amid standoff

Former communist militant Cesare Battisti was handed over to Italian authorities by Bolivian officials in Santa Cruz on Sunday and put on a plane headed for Rome.
"The plane carrying Cesare Battisti has just taken off headed for Italy. I am proud and moved!" Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted.
Battisti, an Italian convicted of four murders in absentia, had been on the run for almost four decades before he was captured by police in Santa Cruz late Saturday following an Interpol operation.

Fugitive Battisti handed to Italy, flies out of Bolivia

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday spelled out the questions underpinning his "great national debate", a public consultation aiming to quell "yellow vest" anger after nearly two months of sometimes violent protests.
Macron made his appeal in a "letter to the French" released on Sunday, following the ninth consecutive Saturday of nationwide "yellow vest" rallies which saw an uptick in turnout.
The protests have become the biggest crisis of Macron's presidency and he hopes that returning to the more participative democracy he promised in his 2017 grassroots campaign will satisfy the protesters' demands for a greater say in the running of the country, amid accusations that he is too aloof and his policies favour the wealthy.
Macron said the debates are "neither an election nor a referendum" and would revolve around 35 questions on issues such as taxation, democracy, the environment and immigration.
"I intend to transform anger into solutions," he said in the letter, which had ...

Macron unveils 'great national debate' to calm protests

Researchers say a pack of wild canines found frolicking near the beaches of the Texas Gulf Coast carries a substantial amount of red wolf genes, a surprising discovery because the animal was declared extinct in the wild nearly 40 years ago.
The finding has led wildlife biologists and others to develop a new understanding that the red wolf DNA is remarkably resilient after decades of human hunting, loss of habitat and other factors had led the animal to near decimation.
"Overall, it's incredibly rare to rediscover animals in a region where they were thought to be extinct and it's even more exciting to show that a piece of an endangered genome has been preserved in the wild," said Elizabeth Heppenheimer, a Princeton University biologist involved in the research on the pack found on Galveston Island in Texas. The work of the Princeton team was published in the scientific journal Genes.
The genetic analysis found that the Galveston canines appear to be a hybrid of red wolf and coyote, but 

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