West Bromwich Albion will wait until the summer to appoint a replacement after sacking their second manager this season. Alan Pardew was dismissed yesterday as the club effectively accepted that their relegation from the Premier League was now inevitable.

A summer break clause in his contract means that the man appointed on November 29 is expected to leave with compensation of about £500,000 a modest figure in Premier League terms.

After just three wins in the league all season  two of which came under Tony Pulis, Pardew's predecessor” Saturdays 2-1 home defeat by Burnley left Albion bottom of the table and ten points from safety with six games left.

Manchester United pre-season tour confirmed as Mourinho's men face off against MLS and Mexican sides

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane has dismissed any talk of comparisons with last year's Champions League final against Juventus as his side prepared for Tuesday's re-match with the Serie A champions.

The Spanish giants thrashed Juve 4-1 to clinch back-to-back Champions League crowns - becoming the first side in the modern era to do so.

Cristiano Ronaldo's double mixed with Casemiro and Marco Asensio's strikes cancelled out Mario Mandzukic's effort to hand Real the trophy in Cardiff.

Real have not had the best of seasons as they are third in La Liga and finished behind Tottenham in the Champions League group stage, but showed they are still a force to be reckoned with by beating Paris St Germain in the last 16.

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal is no longer in critical condition after being poisoned by a nerve agent, doctors have said.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, have been in the hospital for more than a month after being found unconscious in a bank in Salisbury.

They had been poisoned with a toxic nerve agent called Novichok.

Mrs. Skripal is conscious and talking in the hospital.

"As Yulia herself says, her strength increases day by day and she can wait for the day when she is well enough to leave the hospital," said Dr. Blanshard.

Subsequently, the embassy issued a statement in which it wished the Skripals "to recover soon" and expressed the hope that their recovery "will contribute to the investigation".

It could have included cardiac and pulmonary support, the drug atropine to counteract the effect of nerve agents and sedation to prevent brain seizures.

The incident caused an escalation of diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West, with more than 20 countries that expelled Russian envoys in solidarity with the United Kingdom.

In a statement released to the police on Thursday, Ms. Skripal said she was grateful for the many messages of goodwill she had received and the people of Salisbury who came to her aid.

She said: "I'm sure you appreciate that the whole episode is somewhat disorienting, and I hope you respect my privacy and that of my family during the period of my convalescence."

The United Kingdom's ambassador to the United Nations, Karen Pierce, said that Russia's request for consular access to Ms. Skripal has been transmitted.

The District Institute of Risk Management and Climate Change (Idiger) indicated that Bosa, Kennedy, Fontibon, San Cristobal, Usme, Tunjuelito and Ciudad Bolivar are the most compromised localities for possible floods or landslides. The rains will last until mid-June.

According to the Idiger, up to now they have attended 56 incidents related to the rains

In the previous winter season, from September to December 2017, 256 incidents were attended between mass movements and waterlogging. The entity also indicated that there are 161 affected families, who are already receiving humanitarian aid, and gave the general public recommendations to be prepared in this winter season.

The first and most basic indication is to be careful with the disposition of garbage, to avoid that they are dragged by the waters until culverts, wetlands or channels

the Idiger has also drawn attention to the fall of lightning and thunderstorms, so he recommended disconnecting electronic equipment and avoid places such as terraces, trees, metal towers, tents and outdoor areas, when these phenomena are present.

As a prevention for this rainy season, the District made 163 interventions in different streams and canals of the city.

The WBA Super, IBF and WBO title holder wants to fight the lineal champion but is not prepared to put his own career on hold
 

Anthony Joshua has called on Tyson Fury to stop talking and get back in the ring if he wants to make an all-British heavyweight mega fight with himself.

AJ unified the heavyweight division by outpointing Joseph Parker last month, with Fury dismissing his performance.

Joshua has hit back at Fury, who is still yet to announce a date for his comeback, emphasising his need to focus on his own goals until the lineal heavyweight champion becomes active again.

“After the Klitschko fight, that was a guy I called out to challenge me straight away and I still mention it now," Joshua told Sky Sports. There is no denying Tyson knows how to box. He is a good boxer.

"But until he makes his return to the ring, I cannot sit down and wait patiently at home for Tyson Fury's return. I have a career and goals I want to achieve so I am focusing on what I am doing. When he gets himself together, boxing fans are awaiting his return.

"He has to get himself back in action and worry about what he is doing, rather than sitting at home commentating on my fights.

"He should be getting a bit of motivation and hunger back in the belly to get training and get back in the ring because realistically people don't want to see a commentator. They want to see a fighter fight."

A middle-school teacher who took to Facebook to venta her frustration with the perceived bad behavior of students and parents has struck a nerve with her now-viral post.
I have had responses from people literally all over the world, Julie Marburger, who teaches in Cedar Creek, Texas, said in an interview that aired today on Good Morning America.

Marburger wrote a lengthy post on Facebook last month after an incident with a parent left her, she said, unable emotionally to continue for the day 

PHOTO: Julie Marburger, 45, wrote a now-viral Facebook post about her frustrations with being a teacher (ABC News)

More
I have already made the decision to leave teaching at the end of this year, and today, I don't know if I will make it even that long, she wrote. Parents have become far too disrespectful, and their children are even worse.

She continued, Administration always seems to err on the side of keeping the parent happy, which leaves me with no way to do the job I was hired to do ... teach kids.

Marburger also shared seven photos that she said depict the disregard students have for the school and personal property. The photos show books astray, papers left on the floor and a book that appears to be torn apart.

We've had pictures drawn into books, books that I personally bought for myself, that students have drawn inappropriate pictures in, or inappropriate words in, she said. Sometimes I have students even coming and getting things off of my desk, just taking things that don't belong to them.

Marburger, 45, said the incident that compelled her to write the post included a mother who she believed was disrespectful to her in front of her class.

I had a student who I had an issue with and decided to call his mom while at school and she was disrespectful and rude to me on the phone in front of her son, she said. And I actually had the class right there with me too and they could hear what she was saying and it was quite embarrassing.

Marburgers post has been shared more than 400,000 times and drawn dozens of comments.

She also wrote on Facebook about expecting to hear from parents after sending out report cards, while not hearing from them during the weeks and weeks of assignments leading up to the progress reports.

"People absolutely HAVE to stop coddling and enabling their children. It's a problem that's going to spread through our society like wildfire," she wrote. "It's not fair to society, and more importantly, is not fair to the children to teach them this is okay. It will not serve them towards a successful and happy life."

Marburger said the attention paid to her Facebook post surprised her, but the reaction from parents, teachers and administrators at her school has been positive.

I was worried after this kind of blew up all over Facebook that people would be offended by it, and what I found is that I'm getting more support now, she said.

Marburger told  she is still weighing her options when it comes to her future in teaching.

Marburger's Facebook post went viral as teachers in several states are calling for more support in the classroom and increases in pay.

Classes remain canceled today in Oklahoma's biggest school districts, for instance, as teachers walk out for a seventh day, according to The Associated Press

 

If it seems as if there has been an avalanche of recent headlines revealing insights into the travails of our ancient ancestors, you'd be right.

From the fate of the people who built Stonehenge to the surprising physical appearance of Cheddar Man, a 10,000-year-old Briton, the deluge of information has been overwhelming.

But this step change in the understanding of our past has been building for years now. It's been driven by new techniques and technological advancements in the study of ancient DNA - genetic information retrieved from the skeletal remains of our long-dead kin.

At the forefront of this revolution is David Reich of Harvard Medical School in Boston Massachusetts. I met Prof Reich recently at the BBC while he was in the UK to talk about his book Who We Are and How We Got Here, which draws together the most recent scientific results in this field of study.

The Harvard professor, who is 43, was recently highlighted by the journal Nature as one of 10 people who mattered in all of science for his role in transforming the field of ancient DNA from "niche pursuit to industrial process".

 

 

Reich was raised in Washington DC, by parents who were distinguished in their own fields. His mother Tova is a novelist and his father Walter is a professor of psychiatry who also served as the first director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

"In my family, there was a premium and a strong belief placed on creativity - doing something new and interesting and edgy. Science was seen as the highest thing someone could do," he says. "I had lots of interests, but the things I was most interested in were history and science." 

 

 
Bogota finds boa constrictor in central park

Environmental authorities in Colombia’s capital Bogota have found a five-foot boa constrictor in a park in the center of the city of seven million, they said Sunday.

The snake was found in the Simon Bolivar park on Sunday just minutes before it gave birth to a baby snake.

Because boa constrictors can have as many as 30 babies at once, environmental officials conducted a search to verify if the mother snake had left more offspring in the popular park.

The authorities said they believe that the snake was abandoned in the park by a resident or an illegal wildlife trader.

Wild animals like boa constrictors are not allowed as pets.

The mother and baby boa constrictors were taken to an animal care center for testing and is expected to be returned to nature.

 
 

 

Reporter

Yahoo News April 8, 2018

Donald Trump, Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Image, Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, Halil el-Abdullah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

More

President Trump blamed Russia and Iran for backing Syrian dictator Bashar Assad after reports of further suffering for Syrian civilians at the hands of their own government — calling out Vladimir Putin specifically.

Trump delivered his critique of the Russian leader during a Sunday-morning tweetstorm that covered a variety of topics and struck out at more common targets of Trump’s anger, such as the U.S. news media and former President Barack Obama.

According to Syrian medical groups, Assad’s government launched a chemical attack against civilians in the rebel-held town of Douma in eastern Ghouta late Saturday — killing dozens. The Syrian government denies the reports and claims the rebels are fabricating news.

In response, Trump coined a new nickname for the Syrian president, “Animal Assad,� and said Putin has a “big price to pay,� despite his well-known reluctance to criticize the Russian president.

Shakira in trouble with Spain’s tax authority

by Frank Cardona 2018

A report in Barcelona’s El Periodico newspaper says Colombian pop star Shakira paid 20 million euros ($24.4 million) in back taxes while Spain’s tax authority is investigating possible fraud.

The pop star is being investigated for tax fraud stemming from her decision to file as a primary resident of the Bahamas and not Barcelona.

Spanish tax law requires citizens who spend more than half of a year (183 days) in the country to pay taxes on global income. If less than 183 days, only taxes from income earned inside the country are required.

Shakira’s defense responded to reports by saying she spent most of her time away from Spain in the years under scrutiny (2011-2014) and most of her income came from abroad. She claims she did not willfully hide her income to authorities.

She does not agree with criteria that forced her to pay the $20 million in back taxes for 2011 but plans to later challenge the decision made by inspectors.

Sources close to the investigation told El Periodico they have enough evidence to prove her primary residence was Barcelona. If convicted the pop star could be fined tens of millions of Euros.

The pop star’s name appeared last year in the “Paradise Papers,” which leaked files showed she declared the Bahamas as her fiscal residence.

The Paradise Papers are part of recent leaks that revealed the offshore financial dealings of politicians, corporations, and celebrities who allegedly use tax havens to avoid paying higher taxes in their respective countries of residence.

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos was also named in the Paradise Papers which contained the names of more than 120,000 people and companies.

Shakira is married to FC Barcelona football player Gerar Pique. Prosecutors are reportedly using photos of the celebrity couple and testimony from her employees as proof as for her residence in Barcelona during the years in question.

 

 
After clutching defeat from the jaws of victory during the match against Paraguay for the World Cup qualifier, Colombia’s national team faces on Tuesday their final match to reach Russia 2018 World Cup.

After Arsenal’s stopper David Ospina conceded two goals to Paraguay and a subsequent 2-1 victory over Colombia in Barranquilla’s Metropolitano stadium, José Pekerman has one last chance against Peru to turn a disappointing series of events to favor the Selección Colombia.

On Tuesday, as the curtain either rises or falls on the hopes for Colombia’s national team to reach Russia, Argentine coach Pekerman must count on his star-strikers Radamel Falcao, James Rodríguez and Juan Cuadrado to secure Colombia’s place among football’s finest. Colombia currently ranks fourth with 26 points.

During last Tuesday’s match against Paraguay, Monaco striker Falcao’s stunning 78-minute goal could have secured Colombia a second place ranking, but a goal by Paraguay’s Oscar Cardozo quickly changed the game in favor of the visitors, and then a second blunder by Ospina cost this country three key points.

Chile’s World Cup fate will also be decided on Tuesday and final match day for Russia 2018. Even though the team is well-positioned in third, they must win or draw against Brazil. But a loss by Chile to the Selecao, could result in a fifth-place play-off against New Zealand.

With all eyes on Colombia, Pekerman’s tricolors are down to the wire. A loss in Lima is a “nyet” to Russia. So, good luck, nuestra Selección!.

 

A US bloke accused of cyberstalking and harassing his former housemates has been hit with two dozen more criminal charges.

Matthew Lin, a computer programmer from Newton, Massachusetts, faces seven counts of cyberstalking, five counts of distributing child pornography, nine counts of making hoax bomb threats, three counts of computer fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

When last we heard of Lin, it was following his October 2017 arrest by police who had managed to track him down with the help of his VPN provider. At the time, Lin faced just one charge of cyberstalking.

On Monday, things got much worse for Lin as the Feds laid out a litany [PDF] of charges and provided the nauseating details of what they say was his years-long campaign of harassment against two women he had shared a house with from 2015 to 2017.

Among the more disgusting of the alleged activities was Lin hacking the personal diary of his 24 year-old housemate and then sharing the more personal contents with her friends and family, including personal photographs and video clips as well as her medical and mental health history. Lin is said to have used this information to send spoofed text messages harassing the woman and, on multiple occasions, ordering her to kill herself.

The stolen videos and pictures were then allegedly combined with other images Lin collected of different women and used to create a "collage" that was sent to the victim's family members, friends, employers, schools, and businesses she frequented.

Lin also placed personal ads in the woman's name inviting strangers to participate in forced sex fantasy roleplaying and used anonymous email addresses and text messages to send the woman's mother and co-workers child abuse images. He would use similar tactics to harass a second woman living in the house.

On top of the cyberstalking and child pornography distribution, Lin stands accused of accessing the women's bank accounts and tax records and making a number of hoax bomb and school shooting threats in both women's names.

Authorities say Lin was able to mask the horrific activities by using anonymized mail and text services, as well as masking his connection through the use of Tor and the PureVPN service. It was the latter biz that the FBI used to catch Lin, contacting PureVPN and getting the service to trace connections he used to specific IP addresses.

Originally facing three to five years on just the cyberstalking charge, Lin now finds himself confronted with potentially facing decades behind bars thanks to the 24 new felony counts. 

Four of the new destinations that comply with tourism quality standards are located in the iconic coffee region. The town of Jerico, Antioquia and Mongui Boyaca were also deemed equipped for tourism.

The certification seeks make sure that tourism is regulated to “generate wealth, productivity and opportunities for all, while environmentally, economically and socially sound,” according to Trade Minister Maria Lorena Gutierrez.

New destinations
SANTA ROSA DE CABAL, RISARALDA.

JERICO, ANTIOQUIA
 

  MONGUI, BOYACA

  FILANDIA, QUINDIO

  PIJAO, QUINDIO

  SALENTO.QUINDIO
 

 

With the eight properties that this Thursday delivered the ANT are 60 that this year has formalized for the construction of infrastructure in the department of Caquetá: "These properties are used for the development of road infrastructure, health posts, aqueducts, sports fields and , as in this case, schools where the children of the peasants are educated, "said Miguel Samper Strouss, general director of the ANT.

It is expected that with the titling of these eight educational institutions, benefit about 383 families.

According to the ANT are already more than 1'400,000 hectares that this entity has legalized, which will, they say, that the agreement agreed in the Havana agreements in half of the estimated time.

Peasant children deserve an education equal to or better than that received by children in the cities, and with the titles that we give, we open the doors so that this education has the best conditions every day with the greatest investment of the municipal administrations. Thing that without a title they can not do ", assured Samper.

the tranquility experienced by the inhabitants of this rural reserve zone, after the demobilization of the Farc, has made visible and urgent the covering of these needs that really contribute to peace, a key factor: education.

The headquarters of the Guayabal Rural Educational Institution that benefited from the formal delivery of deeds were the following locations: La Libertad, San Luis del Oso, El Roble, La Holanda, Las Damas, Buenos Aires and El Pabo.

https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/paz/gobierno-titula-terrenos-de-escuelas-en-san-vicente-del-caguan-una-deuda-historica-con-la-educacion-articulo-748514 

Colombia received 14 nominations in the 11 categories of the World Travel Awards 2018 (WTA) considered the 'Oscar' of the tourism industry that recognize excellence in the sector.

The winners will be revealed in the city of Guayaquil (Ecuador) on September 15, and among the categories in which the country is the favorite to keep the awards is' Best adventure destination ',' Best green destination ',' Best culinary destination 'and' Best cultural destination '.

On the other hand, San Andrés, Eje Cafetero, Amazonas and Bogotá are the destinations of the national territory that stand out with great nominations in which they compete with other places of first level in the region, in categories like 'Best business destination', ' South America's leading destination 'and' Best destination for executive meetings'.

Even the island with the sea of ​​seven colors repeats nomination in 'Best beach destination', category in which it won the first place in the 2015 edition of these awards.

Among the local companies that won nominations is On Vacation with six nominations, two of them in 'Best Boutique Hotel', with the Hacienda Cafetera On Vacation hotels, in Circasia, Quindío and Acantilado de Tierra in San Andrés, which has a double nomination next to 'Best hotel suite', a category in which the Amazon Hotel located in the Amazon also competes.

The latter is also among the candidates to win the award for 'Best Ecological Hotel', a category in which the Hotel Karlaká, located in the Coffee Region, is also available.

Voting is now open to choose the winners of the contest. Colombians can vote for national destinations in the link:
www.worldtravelawards.com/nominees/2018/south-america. Bogota Colprensa.