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http://ift.tt/2r5fUeH Spain's Rafael Nadal. PHOTO: GREG WOOD / AFP Rafael Nadal goes for a 10th French Open title on Sunday when he faces Stan Wawrinka in the final at Roland Garros. AFP Sport looks back at the Spaniard’s nine finals in Paris: 2005: bt Mariano Puerta (ARG) 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 — At just 19, Nadal became the youngest winner of a Grand Slam title since Michael Chang won at Roland Garros in 1989 at 17. He was the first man since Mats Wilander in 1982 to win the French Open on his debut. Puerta was to later fail a drugs test and handed an eight-year ban, eventually reduced to two years. 2006: bt Roger Federer (SUI) 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 — Nadal became the first man to beat Federer in a Slam final, ending the Swiss star’s hopes of holding all four majors at the same time. It was Nadal’s 60th win in a row on clay. 2007: bt Roger Federer (SUI) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 — The 21-year-old Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win three successive titles...

http://ift.tt/2q7vmKN Argentina's Lionel Messi gestures during their Russia 2018 World Cup qualifier football match against Uruguay in Mendoza, Argentina, on September 1, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / ANDRES LARROVERE New manager Jorge Sampaoli says he is looking to superstar Lionel Messi to revive Argentina’s World Cup fortunes starting with Friday’s friendly with Brazil in Melbourne. Sampaoli has been installed to kick-start the two-time world champions’ ailing South American campaign where they lag outside the automatic qualifying positions in fifth spot with four games left. Argentina will square off with Brazil before a capacity 100,000 crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground ahead of their crucial next qualifier in Uruguay on August 31. Sampaoli, who is Argentina’s third coach during the current World Cup campaign after Gerardo Martino and Edgardo Bauza, said he valued Messi’s commitment to get his country to next year’s World Cup finals in Russia. “I’m very thankful that th...

http://ift.tt/2qPYree Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates after winning his tennis match against Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut at the Roland Garros 2017 French Open on June 4, 2017 in Paris. FRANCOIS XAVIER MARIT / AFP Nine-time champion Rafael Nadal surged into the French Open quarter-finals for a record-equalling 11th time on Sunday, while Caroline Wozniacki reached the last eight after ousting 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova. Nadal continued his ruthless form at Roland Garros by dispatching Spanish 17th seed Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 to match Roger Federer’s mark of last-eight appearances in Paris. The 14-time major winner is yet to drop a set, conceding just six games in the last two rounds as he strives to become the first man to win 10 titles at a single Grand Slam. “I’m happy because Roberto is a very good player. It’s very important for me to be in the quarter-finals one more time,” said Nadal, who turned 31 on Saturday. Defending champion Novak Djo...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has, arraigned the duo of Buhari Fannami and Ba-Kura Abdullahi on two separate one count charge before a Federal High Court sitting in Maiduguri, Borno State for allegedly giving false information to the agency under the whistle blowing policy. Trial judge in the matter is Justice M. T Salihu. Fannami had misled the EFCC with the information about illegally acquired money purportedly buried at the residence of one Ba’a Lawan but the information turned out to be false after the execution of a search warrant. The charge reads, “That you, Buhari Fannami on or about May 17, 2017 at Maiduguri, Borno State, within the jurisdiction of this court, did make statement to Officers of the EFCC under the Whistle Blowing policy to the effect that large sums of money being the proceeds of crime were buried in the residence Ba’a Lawan at Pompomari Layout along Pompomari Bypass, Maiduguri which information/statement you knew to...

http://ift.tt/2rmgGEN A picture taken on April 26, 2017 shows a sign board for the Cross River National Park situated where the Cross River Super Highway will be running, in Calabar.  AFP PHOTO / STEFAN HEUNIS When bulldozers rolled into their forest at the start of last year, the Ekuri community in south south Nigeria protested: “Indigenes say no!” They didn’t want a superhighway that would wipe their ancestral lands in the Cross River National Park off the map. Under pressure, the earthmovers left to do their work elsewhere. But community spokesman Martin Egot said: “They destroyed all the crops, the source of our wealth: cassava, cocoa, plantain… .” The 800-billion-naira ($2.6-billion, 2.3-billion-euro) highway project, launched in 2015, is huge. It envisages six lanes, 260 kilometres (162.5 miles) long linking the regional capital Calabar and a new deep water port with Benue state to the north. ‘Ecological disaster’ At nearly 4,000 square kilometres (1,500 square ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Tuesday put the uncertainty concerning the absence of Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) on Lagos roads to rest once and for all, stating categorically that he has asked them to stay off the roads permanently. Governor Ambode, who said this at the commissioning of Pedestrian Bridges, Laybys and Slip Road at Ojodu Berger, also urged the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to limit its operations to the fringes and highways and stay clear from the main streets of the State. He said the decisions were in line with his administration’s resolve to ensure free flow of traffic across the State, noting that their activities were contributing to traffic congestion on Lagos roads. The Governor said, “Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let me use this opportunity to reiterate that Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) have been asked to stay off our roads permanently. “We also advice the Federal Road Safety Corps to stay on the frin...

http://ift.tt/2pyyjnz Hull City fans react at the close of the English Premier League football match between Crystal Palace and Hull City at Selhurst Park in south London on May 14, 2017. PHOTO: OLLY GREENWOOD / AFP Hull City crashed out of the Premier League on Sunday as Crystal Palace secured their own survival with a 4-0 thrashing of their relegation rivals at Selhurst Park. Marco Silva’s side knew only a victory would give them a realistic chance of staying up, but goals from Wilfried Zaha, Christian Benteke, Luka Milivojevic and Patrick van Aanholt consigned them to the drop. Third-bottom Hull, winners just once in their last six matches, return to the Championship just 12 months after their promotion via the play-offs. They paid the price for a chaotic campaign marred by poor signings and boardroom turmoil. The Tigers will join already relegated Sunderland and Middlesbrough in the second tier next season. Palace had needed a point to stay up and their dominant displ...

http://ift.tt/2pFhqmg Pakistani volunteers move an injured blast victim to a hospital in Quetta on May 12, 2017, following a powerful explosion in Mastung district. A "huge" explosion in Pakistan's restive southwestern Balochistan province that apparently targeted a top senator's convoy killed at least 17 people and wounded many others, officials told AFP. / AFP PHOTO / BANARAS KHAN A “huge” explosion in Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province that apparently targeted a top senator’s convoy killed at least 17 people and wounded more than 30 others, officials told AFP Friday. The blast in Mastung district, roughly an hour east of provincial capital Quetta, struck a vehicle carrying the deputy chairman of Pakistan’s upper house Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, he told reporters. “I am alive, Allah has saved my life, it was a sudden blast, broken pieces of the windscreen hit me, I am injured but safe. The driver and other people sitting next to me were b...