Lionel Messi has hit back at Barcelona sporting director Eric Abidal after the Frenchman blamed slackness in the dressing room for the departure of recently-fired coach Ernesto Valverde.
In an interview with Spanish daily Sport Abidal said that under Valverde, who was sacked in mid-January, many players had been unhappy, hadn't worked hard enough nor communicated properly.
Now Argentine ace Messi has fired a salvo at across his own ranks just as the club are trying to get him to sign a contract extension.
"Sincerely I don't like doing this kind of thing but everyone has to be made responsible for their actions and what they say," Messi said on Instagram.
"We the players in the dressing room are the first to admit it when we haven't played well. The directors need to take their responsibilities too.
"I believe that if you talk about the players (in this way) you should name names instead of worrying everyone and encouraging rumours that are far from certain."
Earlier Tuesday Abidal had 

Messi demands Abidal name names after dressing room criticism

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Premier League chief executive Richard Masters admits his organisation must try to improve VAR after a season marred by controversy surrounding the review technology.
A recent survey from opinion polling firm YouGov showed more than two-thirds of Premier League fans questioned believe VAR has made the game less enjoyable since it was introduced into the English top-flight.
Players, managers and fans have all complained about the way the system is used, with lengthy review delays and dubious eventual decisions causing widespread frustration.
Masters, who started his permanent role with the Premier League in December, told BBC Sport that VAR would stay in the game, but he hopes it can be improved.
"I don't think VAR has been damaging but I accept it needs improvement," Masters said.
"Scrapping it is not an option -- what we have to do is try and make VAR better." VAR has been brought in to the Premier League to decide on goals, penalties, red cards and offside decisions.
Masters ...

Premier League boss admits VAR needs to improve

Paris Saint-Germain further strengthened their dominance of Ligue 1 with a 2-1 win at Nantes that moved the champions 15 points clear of the domestic rivals.
Goals in either half from Mauro Icardi and Thilo Kehrer were just about enough for Thomas Tuchel's side to stretch their lead over second-placed Marseille ahead of their trip to Saint-Etienne on Wednesday.
PSG extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 20 matches despite a Presnel Kimpembe howler allowing Moses Simon to race through and pull one back in the 68th minute, setting up a nervy finish.
"I'm thrilled with how we played for 70 minutes, I'm very satisfied," said Tuchel to Canal+ on Tuesday.
"We should have scored four times but only scored twice, and then that error ... I think it was a bit too much confidence."
The capital club were dominant for long periods despite the absence of Neymar with a rib complaint, and it was Kylian Mbappe, starting following his touchline spat with Tuchel at the weekend, who created ..

PSG move 15 points clear with tight Nantes win

England captain Harry Kane could return from injury in time for the final two games of the Premier League season, Tottenham Hotspur coach Jose Mourinho said.
Kane is recovering from surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his hamstring suffered during Tottenham's defeat at Southampton on New Year's Day.
Tottenham had previously stated they expect the 26-year-old to return to training some time in April despite reports he could be sidelined for six months.
However when asked if Kane would play again this season, Mourinho told reporters on Tuesday: "The Leicester match (May 9). Maybe we need that match for something. Maybe we need that match for something.
"To be fourth, to be fifth, to be sixth. Maybe we need that match for something and maybe he can help us in this match. I hope.
"There's no pressure, he keeps going, no setback. I just think that's my feeling.
"It's better not to put any kind of expectations, any kind of pressure. Let it go and let's see."
Kane, fighting to get fit for 

Kane could return for Spurs' last two league games: Mourinho

Liverpool's youngest ever team proved coach Jurgen Klopp was right to rest his stars as they reached the FA Cup fifth round with a 1-0 win against third-tier Shrewsbury.
Klopp and his entire first team were all absent for the fourth round replay at Anfield as part of the club's winter break.
The Liverpool manager was criticised for disrespecting the FA Cup, but his youngsters proved up to the task and their mature display was rewarded when Ro-Shaun Williams headed the decisive own goal in the closing stages on Tuesday.
Liverpool will face Chelsea in the last 16 at Stamford Bridge in March as they remain on course for a potential treble of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.
Klopp had turned over the responsibility of leading Liverpool to the club's under-23 coach Neil Critchley, who also took charge when the Reds played an under-strength side for their League Cup quarter-final defeat at Aston Villa earlier this season.
On that occasion, Klopp had a better excuse for his ..

Liverpool youngsters beat Shrewsbury to reach FA Cup fifth round

Former Slam Dunk Contest champion Dwight Howard, NBA All-Stars Damian Lillard and Trae Young and Toronto's Pascal Siakam are highlight entrants into the All-Star Saturday Night festivities announced by the league.
The 35th Slam Dunk event, 34th 3-Point Contest and 17th NBA Skills Challenge will top festivities on February 15 in Chicago on the eve of the 69th NBA All-Star Game.
Eight-time All-Star Howard, who returns to the contest after 11 years, won the 2008 NBA Slam Dunk crown with a series of innovative dunks that included donning a Superman cape for one slam jam spectacle.
The 34-year-old Los Angeles Lakers center, who helped the US team capture 2008 Olympic gold at Beijing, will compete against Milwaukee's Pat Connaughton and former dunk contest runners-up Aaron Gordon of Orlando from 2016 and Derrick Jones Jr. of Miami from 2017.
The last time the Slam Dunk event took place in Chicago was in 1988, when hometown star Michael Jordan won his second title in a row in a dazzling ...

Howard returns to Slam Dunk event at NBA All-Star Game

Dark Horse Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor, has taken an early lead in Iowa Caucus of the Democratic party presidential primaries, while former vice president Joe Biden was trailing at the fourth position.
Senator Bernie Sanders, 78, more than double the age of young Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend in Indiana, was a close second as results started trickling in a day after the Iowa Caucuses were held.
To the surprise of many, former vice president Joe Biden, 77, was trailing at the fourth position, getting just 15.6 percent of the total votes counted.
He was behind Buttigieg (26.9 per cent), Sanders (25.1 percent) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (18.3 percent) when over 60 per cents of the votes were counted.
Iowa awards 49 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Wisconsin in July which will elect its nominee for the November 2020 presidential elections. Of these, 41 delegates are pledged delegates allocated on the basis of percentage of votes each candidate get in the ..

Dark horse Buttigieg takes early lead in Democratic Iowa Caucus, Joe Biden at 4th

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bowl first against India in the first ODI of the three-match series here on Wednesday.
Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw will make their ODI debuts for India while Kedar Jadhav has been preferred over Manish Pandey.
Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi have been drafted into the playing eleven for New Zealand.
New Zealand lost the T20 series 5-0 against India.
Teams:
New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain), Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls, Tom Blundell, Ross Taylor, Jimmy Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Hamish Bennett.
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah.

NZ win toss, invite India to bat

The death toll in China's coronavirus outbreak rose to 490 on Tuesday with the number of confirmed cases mounting to 24324, Chinese health officials announced on Wednesday.
By the end of Tuesday, a total of 490 people had died of the disease and 24,324 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection had been reported in 31 provincial-level regions, China's National Health Commission reported.
It said 65 deaths were reported on Tuesday, all from Hubei province and its capital Wuhan.
Also 3,887 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection were reported on Tuesday, it said.
Also on Tuesday, 431 patients became seriously ill, while 262 were discharged from hospital after recovery.
The commission added that 3,219 patients remained in severe condition and 23,260 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.
A total of 892 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery, it said.
Over 2.52 lakh who were in close contacts with patients had been traced with over 1.85 ...

China coronavirus toll soars to 490, total confirmed cases over 24000

At least 10 passengers on a cruise ship that Japan quarantined tested positive for the new coronavirus, public broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media reported on Wednesday, citing the health ministry.
Japan has quarantined the vessel carrying 3,711 people and was testing those onboard for the virus after a former passenger was diagnosed with the illness in Hong Kong.

At least 10 on Japan cruise ship have new coronavirus: NHK

The number of confirmed deaths from China's coronavirus outbreak rose to at least 490, after authorities in Hubei province reported 65 new fatalities Wednesday.
In its daily update, figures from the health commission in Hubei, which has been hit hardest by the virus, also showed a jump in confirmed infections with 3,156 new cases.

China virus death toll rises to 490: govt

Air China is seeking to reduce flights to the United States and offer unusual legs between US cities because of a drop-off in travel and new restrictions on people entering the US from China due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The state-owned Chinese airline wants to start flying a Beijing-Los Angeles-San Francisco route and the same cities in reverse order. It also wants to fly a Beijing-New York-Washington route and the reverse.
The route to and from the US West Coast would start Feb. 11 and run four times a week. The East Coast route would launch the next day and fly three times a week.
The airline filed the emergency request to fly the routes for at least 180 days.
Significantly, Air China is not seeking authority to carry passengers just between Los Angeles and San Francisco or between New York's Kennedy Airport and Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C.
Air China said it was not seeking to sell tickets for travel from one U.S. city to another. When a foreign airline does that, it .

Air China seeks to pare US routes due to virus outbreak

In a change of course, Brazil will send two planes to evacuate its citizens stranded in Wuhan, China by the deadly new coronavirus outbreak, the government said Tuesday.
President Jair Bolsonaro had said last week that "diplomatic, budgetary and legal obstacles" prevented his government from evacuating the roughly 40 Brazilians stuck in the city at the heart of the outbreak.
Even as the United States, France, Germany, Japan and other countries repatriated their citizens, the far-right leader insisted Brazil would first have to pass a law providing for those involved to be quarantined, among other measures.
But his government has now decided to bring them home, after all: it will dispatch two presidential planes Wednesday to fetch them, the defense and foreign ministers told a news conference.
The evacuees are expected to return Saturday, and will be placed in quarantine for 18 days at a military base about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Brasilia, said Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo .

Brazil to evacuate citizens stuck in Wuhan

Iconic American department store chain Macy's will shutter 125 stores and slash 2,000 jobs over the next three years as part of a plan to shore up its financial position, the company announced Tuesday.
Like other retailers, Macy's has struggled with the decline of the once-dominant American shopping mall, as well as competition from online behemoth Amazon.
The department store said it expects the "Polaris" strategy to generate annual gross savings of approximately $1.5 billion once it is fully implemented by the end of 2022, with savings of approximately $600 million this year.
"We are confident in our Polaris strategy, and we have the resources required to return Macy's, Inc. to sustainable, profitable growth," Macy's CEO and chairman Jeff Gennette said in a statement.
"We will focus our resources on the healthy parts of our business, directly address the unhealthy parts of the business and explore new revenue streams." The company will close approximately 125 of its "least ...

Macy's closing 125 stores, cutting 2,000 jobs

Hyundai Motors is suspending production in South Korea, a sign that the economic fallout from China's viral outbreak is spreading.
For other companies bracing for losses from coronavirus, the damage has so far been delayed, thanks to a stroke of timing: The outbreak hit just when Chinese factories and many businesses were closed anyway to let workers travel home for the week-long Lunar New Year holiday .
But the respite won't last.
If much of industrial China remains on lockdown for the next few weeks, a very real possibility, Western retailers, auto companies and manufacturers that depend on Chinese imports will start to run out of the goods they depend on.
In order to meet deadlines for summer goods, retail experts say that Chinese factories would need to start ramping up production by March 15. If Chinese factories were instead to remain idle through May 1, it would likely cripple retailers' crucial back-to-school and fall seasons.
"There's complete uncertainty,'' said Steve ...

Hyundai halts Korea output as China outbreak fallout spreads

The UN Security Council on Tuesday discussed the International Court of Justice's order that Myanmar must do all it can to prevent genocide against the Rohingya Muslims, but failed to agree on a statement.
Myanmar's ally China as well as Vietnam, which is part of the regional Association of Southeast Nations along with Myanmar, objected, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.
Instead, the European Union members of the council urged Myanmar in a joint statement to reporters afterward to comply with the measures ordered by the U.N.'s top court, stressing that they are "compulsory under international law."
France, Germany, Belgium and Estonia along with former council member Poland also urged Myanmar "to take credible action to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations."
"Myanmar must address the root causes of its conflicts, in Rakhine State, but also in Kachin and Shan States, the EU members said. "Accountability of ...

UN takes no action on order against Myanmar on Rohingyas

A man broke into a Florida nursing home and suffocated a 95-year-old patient whose girlfriend he'd had a relationship with, police said.
William Hawkins, 47, is charged with first-degree murder for the Jan. 5 slaying of Robert Morell, who was suffocated with a pillow as he slept by an intruder at the Tiffany Hall Nursing & Rehab Center in Port St. Lucie. He was being held Tuesday at the St. Lucie County Jail without bond.
According to a redacted police arrest report, Hawkins quickly became the prime suspect because he was on Morell's visitor list and matched the description of the man employees saw fleeing the room after being spotted on top of Morell shortly after midnight. One employee then picked Hawkins out of a photo lineup.
Detectives learned that Morell's 57-year-old girlfriend of 15 years had called the nursing home hours before the slaying, telling employees to not let Hawkins into the home because she feared he would hurt Morell.
Morell had been placed into the home in ...

Man charged with breaking into nursing home, killing patient

Abu Dhabi's long-troubled Etihad Airways said Tuesday it would sell 38 aircraft to an investment firm and a leasing company in a deal valued at USD 1 billion, the latest cost-cutting measure by the United Arab Emirates' national carrier.
Etihad said it would sell 38 aircraft  22 Airbus A330s and 16 Boeing 777-300ERs  in the deal with investment firm KKR and leasing firm Altavair AirFinance. KKR said the Boeing 777-300ERs will be leased back to Etihad upon purchase in early 2020," while the Airbus A330s will go to international clients.
Etihad described the move as being in line with the third year of its transformation program.
The deal offers us flexibility while ensuring we stand by our sustainability targets and maintain a fleet of the most fuel-efficient, technologically advanced aircraft, the airline said in a statement.
Etihad's website lists itself as having a fleet of 102 aircraft. It no longer lists its A330s among its fleet, having said it would begin phasing those aircraft .

Abu Dhabi's long-troubled Etihad sells 38 planes for USD 1B

Last month was the warmest January on record globally, while in Europe temperatures were a balmy three degrees Celsius above the average January from 1981 to 2010, the European Union's climate monitoring system reported Tuesday.
Across a band of countries stretching from Norway to Russia, temperatures were an unprecedented 6C above the same 30-year benchmark, Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported in a statement.
New temperature highs -- monthly, yearly, decadal -- have become commonplace due to the impact of climate change, caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels, scientists say.
The five last years have been the hottest on record, as was the ten-year period 2010-2019.
2019 -- the second warmest year -- was only 0.04C below 2016, when temperatures were boosted by a powerful El Nino, a periodic natural weather phenomenon over the Pacific Ocean.
The global record last month was 0.03C above the preceding warmest January, also in 2016.
For Europe, last month was "about ...

January 2020 warmest on record: EU climate service

Quinton de Kock marked his first game as South Africa's one-day captain with a century and a seven-wicket win over world champion England on Tuesday.
Temba Bavuma was out for 98 after a 173-run partnership with de Kock but despite missing out on a hundred he also made a statement after he was contentiously dropped from South Africa's test team in the recent series against England.
England won that test series 3-1 but didn't have the same success in its first ODI since the dramatic win over New Zealand in a Super Over in the Cricket World Cup final last July.
South Africa put England in to bat at Newlands in Cape Town and had the visitors in real strife at 131-6. England eventually posted 258-8 in its 50 overs. South Africa was 259-3 with two overs and two balls to spare.
Joe Denly, one of just four players remaining from last month's test series triumph, made 87 to lift England out of trouble.
He was helped by Chris Woakes, another man who played that test series, who made 40 off 42 ..

New skipper de Kock makes century as SAfrica beats England

The United States on Tuesday threw its support behind NATO ally Turkey over its reprisals against the Syrian army following regime shelling.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the mortar attack on Turkish posts in Syria's Idlib province "a grave escalation" and said US officials "fully support Turkey's justified self-defense actions in response.

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