Baised towards United: As Howard Webb refute claim

Former referee Howard Webb has finally hit back at claims which dogged his career that he was biased towards Manchester United.

Rival fans constantly called into question Webb's professionalism and Liverpool's Ryan Babel was even fined £10,000 for linking to a picture of him mocked up in a United shirt on Twitter following their FA Cup defeat in 2011.

But Webb, who retired from officiating last week to take up the role of technical director for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, strenuously denies he ever gave United any favour.

'There's no element of truth in it,' Webb said. 'It's not something that affected me or played on my mind at all. It wasn't hurtful. Much of it is tongue-in-cheek, of course.

'What does play on my mind is when I’ve made a mistake, particularly an influential one that has affected the outcome of a game. I’d be dishonest if I said it didn’t bother me.

'One newspaper listed the five games I’d want to forget over the course of my career. Well, there’s more than five. But against the backdrop of more than 500 professional games – I can think of many top professional footballers who have made plenty of mistakes but are still top professional footballers.'

Webb was considered by FIFA and the Premier League as one of the top referees in the world during his career. He officiated in two World Cups and was handed the finals of the 2010 World Cup and Champions League. But that did not stop English fans questioning his integrity throughout his career.

Webb added: 'If our integrity is questioned by people in a serious way, that’s a different matter. The level of integrity we have as a group is really high.'

Webb is known to be a supporter of his hometown club Rotherham United.

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Beauty of the Nail

A chronic nail biter who bit her cuticles until they bled overcame the habit – by growing them to an incredible 14 inches.

Mother-of-four Larue Drummond was 13 when she spotted a woman in the supermarket with long nails.

She said: ‘I plucked up the courage to speak to her and she told me if you look after your nails, they will look after you. From then on I let me nails grow and became obsessed with pampering them.’

And since then, Ms Drummond’s obsession shows no signs of waning, so much so that she’s spent £10,000 maintaining what she calls her ‘babies’, while she calls her longest nail ‘Miss Attitude’.

Unsurprisingly, Ms Drummond attracts attention wherever she goes from other people who are keen to nail the look.

Others are simply curious about how Ms Drummond manages everyday tasks with her 14-inch talons.
She said: ‘People stop me wherever I go and ask about my nails. I'm always happy to talk about them.

‘The most frequently asked question is how do I go to the bathroom. I tell them, “the same way as you do. If you know of another way, let me know.”’ 

But not everyone is comfortable with her unique look.

Ms Drummond said: ‘I've seen people snigger at my nails. Once a woman wouldn't even sit next to me as if I had a disease or something. It really hurt my feelings. But it's who I am so I am not ashamed. If I broke a nail that couldn't be fixed I’d feel bereaved. My nails are my babies.’

Ms Drummond, who has eight grandchildren, insists that her long talons don’t impact on her part-time job as a child-minder.

She said: ‘The children aren’t scared by my nails – they’re fascinated. I know their parents because they’re all family friends but I’m always extra careful not to scratch them.’

Determined not to let anything set her back, Ms Drummond, from New Jersey, US, is keen to grow her nails even longer.

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Khloe Kardashian flashed her toned legs in racy animal print frock

The 30-year-old flashed her toned legs in a racy animal print frock as she filmed scenes for reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians with Kim and their pals Jonathan Cheban and Malika Haqq in The Hamptons.

The reality star showed off her curves in the figure-hugging dress, which nipped in at the waist and sported a thigh-high slit.

Khloe swapped her signature heels for nude flat sandals, and shielded her eyes with mirrored aviator shades.

She wore her highlighted hair loose and wavy and sported rose-tinted lips.

 

Khloe walked alongside her more famous sister Kim, who wore the same outfit she had donned earlier in the day for a Today Show appearance.

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Pope Francis set to face a challenging Asia Visit

Exactly 17 months after his election in Rome as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, Pope Francis is shifting gear and turning his attention to Asia.

This week, he begins the first of three - and perhaps four - long-distance trips to encourage his flock in the continent that presents the Catholic Church with its greatest missionary challenge in the 21st century.
Although only 3% of the world's Catholics live in the planet's most populous continent, more have been baptised in Asia this year than in Europe, according to Vatican statistics.
Pope Francis is spending five days in South Korea, where the number of Catholics has grown at a giddy rate over the past four decades.
Their number has risen from 2% to an astonishing 11% of the population in a country where Buddhism is still strong and most young people profess no religion at all. Korean Catholics tend to be well educated and form a significant part of their country's political elite.
Pope Francis will beatify and pay homage to the memory of a group of Korean martyrs who died for their faith in the 18th Century.

What distinguishes Catholicism in Korea from other Asian cultures is that Koreans did not wait for foreign missionaries to arrive before they began to convert.
They formed their own church after learning of the foreign faith brought to China at the beginning of the 17th Century by the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci.
He introduced Western cartography and mathematics to China and his gilded statue still stands proudly today in the compound of the Catholic cathedral in Beijing.
Pope Francis is the first ever Jesuit to have been elected to the papacy, and he has always regretted that health reasons prevented him fulfilling his ambition to travel to Asia as a missionary after completing his priestly training in Argentina.

After South Korea, he plans to visit Sri Lanka in January, and then to fly on to the Philippines, the only Asian country with a Catholic majority, due to it once having been a Spanish colony. And I understand that a further trip to Japan is on the cards, even though only a minuscule 0.5% of Japanese are members of his church.
In Seoul, the Pope will be meeting several thousand young Catholics from 23 different Asian countries gathered for a Catholic Youth festival.
The numbers will be far, far fewer than the millions who attended his triumphal visit to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day in July 2013, his first foreign trip. But the significance of the South Korean event could transcend that mega-meeting.

North Korea: Reject Christianity and live

An invitation to North Korean Catholics (if indeed any exist today) to send a delegation to Seoul was rebuffed by Pyongyang, but members of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church are expected to turn up in force.

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United Captain: Louis Van Gaal name Wayne Rooney United Captain

Van Gaal made the announcement following United’s final pre-season friendly against Valencia, when Rooney skippered the side to a 2-1 victory courtesy of Marouane Fellaini’s late goal.
The England international, who is also in the running to skipper the national side in the wake of Steven Gerrard’s international retirement, takes over the role from Nemanja Vidic, who departed for Inter Milan in the summer.
Midfielder Darren Fletcher has been named as the club’s vice-captain after Van Gaal handed a number of different players the armband in pre-season.
Rooney told the club’s official website: "It is a huge honour for me – and for my family – to be named captain of this great club. It is a role I will perform with great pride.
“Team spirit has always been very high in our dressing room and I am very grateful to the manager for the faith he has shown in me.
“I look forward to leading the team out on Saturday at our first match of the new season."
Van Gaal added: "For me it's always very important the choice of captain. Wayne has shown a great attitude towards everything he does.
“I have been very impressed by his professionalism and his attitude to training and to my philosophy. He is a great inspiration to the younger members of the team and I believe he will put his heart and soul into his captaincy role.
"Darren Fletcher will become the vice-captain. Darren is a natural leader and will captain the team when Wayne isn't playing.
“Darren is a very experienced player and a very popular member of the dressing room, I know he will work well alongside Wayne."
And Fletcher said: "I am delighted to have been named as vice-captain. It's a very proud moment for me and my family.
“Wayne and I have always worked well together and we will continue to work closely together in our new roles. I would like to thank the manager for putting his trust in me."

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Here comes our helper: As Canada accept to donate Ebola vaccine to WHO

Canada says it will donate up to 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to help battle the disease's outbreak in West Africa.

It comes after the World Health Organization said it was ethical to use untested drugs on Ebola patients.
However, experts say supplies of both the vaccine and the experimental drug Zmapp are limited and it could take months to develop more supplies.
More than 1,000 people have been killed by the current outbreak.
Canada says between 800 and 1,000 doses of the vaccine, which has only been tested on animals, will be donated to the World Health Organization (WHO) for use in West Africa.
However, it will keep a small portion of the vaccine for research, and in case it is needed in Canada.
'Global resource'

 
The current outbreak has infected people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.
Dr Gregory Taylor, deputy head of Canada's Public Health Agency, said he saw the vaccines as a "global resource".
He said he had been advised that it would make sense for health care workers to be given the vaccine, given their increased risk of contracting the disease.
Even if Canada releases most of its existing doses, experts warn it could take four to six months to make a quantity large enough to have any real impact at preventing the illness.
On Tuesday, the WHO said that in light of scale of the outbreak and high number of deaths, it was "ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects, as potential treatment or prevention."
Last week the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak was a global health emergency.
'Drug supply exhausted'
Liberia says it is getting an experimental drug, Zmapp, after requests to the US government.
However, the WHO said there were only 12 doses.
Zmapp maker Mapp Biopharmaceutical said on Tuesday: "The available supply of ZMapp has been exhausted. We have complied with every request for ZMapp that had the necessary legal/regulatory authorisation.
"Drug has been provided at no cost in all cases."
Zmapp has been used on two US aid workers who have shown signs of improvement, although it is not certain what role the medication played in this.
A Roman Catholic priest, infected with Ebola in Liberia, who died after returning home to Spain is also thought to have been given the drug.
Ebola's initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas such as eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure. Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

-bbc

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Former Barcelona boss 'Tata Martino' hired as Argentina coach

Former Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino has been named the new Argentina boss by the Argentinian Football Association.
A statement on the AFA website said Martino, 51, will be formally introduced as Alejandro Sabella's successor at a press conference in Ezieza, Buenos Aires on Thursday.

Sabella's contract expired after the World Cup in Brazil, where Argentina were beaten 1-0 by Germany in the final.
It will be Martino's second spell as a national team coach after a lengthy stint as Paraguay boss from 2006 to 2011, highlighted by a run to the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup and an appearance in the 2011 Copa America final.
The Rosario-born coach has a lengthy CV as a club coach in South America, having taken charge of eight clubs, but he is best known internationally for his time at Barcelona, even though he failed to deliver the sort of success his immediate predecessors had made routine.

Martino left Barca after the final day of last season, when they were beaten to the title by Atletico Madrid after a 1-1 draw beaten the two sides at the Nou Camp. The Spanish Super Cup was his only trophy in a single season with the club.

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Cristiano Ronaldo: Madrid win, a well-deserved one

Cristiano Ronaldo had a night to savour in Cardiff after he scored both goals to secure UEFA Super Cup glory for Real Madrid -- and then received his man-of-the-match award from Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ronaldo's former boss at Manchester United said the Madrid star had "made it easy" for him at Cardiff City Stadium in terms of deciding the game's outstanding individual. 
Ronaldo struck in each half against Sevilla to ensure a successful Wales homecoming for his teammate Gareth Bale as the star-studded Spanish giants won 2-0 and thrilled a capacity 33,500 crowd with their all-singing, all-dancing game.
Bale, who joined Madrid from Tottenham in a world record 100 million-euro deal last summer, also stamped his class on proceedings, delivering a precision cross from which Ronaldo scored his opener.
"It was my first official match this season, and I felt good," Ronaldo said. "I managed to score and that gave me confidence, and I am going to continue to work to improve my level.
"We realised it would be a complex game tonight, but we played well and created opportunities. We played with intensity, and we were justified winners, which is why we are taking the cup back home."
Ronaldo also paid tribute to Real's star summer signings Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez, who both enjoyed impressive run-outs.
"As I said, these are two crucial players for us. They helped the team win. We are happy to welcome them," he added. "Kroos and Rodriguez are integrating themselves well -- they are fantastic players.
"This was a trophy I wanted because I hadn't won it in my career. I was nervous to see how I would feel on the pitch, but I am happy because I scored twice."
Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti paraded his awe-inspiring wealth of playing talent, with new arrivals Rodriguez and Kroos joining Bale and Ronaldo in a team captained by goalkeeper Iker Casillas.
Although the Spanish domestic season does not start for almost another fortnight, Madrid already look in ominous form, suggesting they will not only challenge for another European crown but also seriously threaten Atletico Madrid's reign as La Liga champions.
Ancelotti said: "The team played very well, especially bearing in mind we didn't have much time to prepare. The game worked out pretty well.
"I think we might be starting a very important cycle. We have a squad of extraordinary quality -- I am fortunate to be able to coach an outstanding group of players.
"It's hard to improve this team. We have an outstanding set of players, and it is important to use the squad to its full capacity. To be competitive in all competitions we need to rotate players."

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