Fifa Ballon d'Or: Cristiano Ronaldo crowned world's best ahead Lionel Messi and Manuel Neuer

Cristiano Ronaldo has won his third FIFA Ballon d'Or award and his second in as many years.

The Real Madrid and Portugal forward was awarded FIFA's top individual honour over Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

Ronaldo, 29, took home the award for the third time in his career. He and Messi have been the only players to receive the award since then, with the Argentine earning the honour for four straight years from 2009-2012.

The Portuguese earned 37.66 percent of the votes, while Messi edged Neuer, 15.76 to 15.72 percent, for runner-up.

"I would like to thank all of those who voted for me," Ronaldo said as he accepted the award. "It has been an incredible year. I would like to continue the work that I have done so far. I want to try to improve, to become better as each day goes by.

"I never thought that I would bring this trophy back home on three occasions. I want to become one of the greatest players of all time."

Ronaldo becomes the seventh player in history to successfully defend his Ballon d'Or title after Johan Cruyff, Kevin Keegan, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Michel Platini, Marco van Basten and Messi.

The Portugal international was first voted the world's best in 2008, when he pipped Messi and Fernando Torres to the coveted trophy. He then had to settle for second spot in 2009, 2011 and 2012 before winning the award a second time in 2013, this time ahead of Messi and Franck Ribery.
The former Manchester United star has moved level with Cruyff, Platini and Van Basten on three wins, with only Messi ahead of him on four Ballon d'Or trophies.

Messi, meanwhile, made it to the podium for the seventh time in succession after he was crowned all-time top goalscorer of La Liga and the Champions League in 2014, and amassed 15.76% of the final vote.

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AirAsia QZ8501 'black box' flight recorder is recovered

Indonesian divers have retrieved the flight data recorder of crashed AirAsia Flight QZ8501, say officials.

They believe they have also located the cockpit voice recorder, the second part of the so-called black box, but divers have not yet managed to reach it.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 disappeared in bad weather on 28 December with 162 people on board.

The aircraft, which was flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore, is thought to be deep in the Java Sea.

Dozens of bodies have been recovered but most of the victims are believed to still be inside the fuselage, which has not been found.

Speaking in Jakarta, the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency Bambang Soelistyo told reporters: "I received information from the National Transport Safety Committee chief that at 07:11 (00:11 GMT), we succeeded in bringing up part of the black box that we call the flight data recorder."

He said the device was found under the wreckage of a wing.

Hours later, other officials said the cockpit voice recorder had also been detected but divers had not yet managed to reach it.

The two recorders, usually housed inside the rear part of the plane, are designed to survive a crash and being submerged in water. They contain underwater locator beacons which emit so-called "pings" for at least 30 days.

Indonesia has said publicly that it will handle the analysis of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders here - but it is likely that international teams will also be involved. The unfortunate silver lining of having had so many air disasters over the last decade has meant that Indonesian teams are very well equipped to analyse the data recorders and piece together what happened. Aviation analysts expect a preliminary report within a month, and a more detailed report within a year. 

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Lionel Messi- media reports are lies, am in Barcelona to stay

Barcelona forward Lionel Messi insists he does not want to leave and says reports he demanded coach Luis Enrique should be sacked are "lies".

It was reported the 27-year-old wanted to leave after a row with Enrique.
"I have no intentions of leaving for any team, not Chelsea nor Manchester City," he said, after inspiring a 3-1 victory over Atletico Madrid.
"I'm tired of all the things that people have been saying. I didn't ask the club to fire anyone."
It had been suggested Barcelona's record goalscorer might leave the Catalan club following reports of a training-ground row with Enrique, who took over last summer.
But Messi added: "People make it out as if I run the club and that's not how it is. I don't ask anyone to make decisions.
"Everything that has been said is lies and I want people to know that. Everything that has been said is false.
"People say these things because they want to cause us harm. It hurts because it came from Barca people. We must be united."

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