Month: January 2020

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, pictured in July, said all 31 graduating correctional cadets would be fired. An investigation found the salute started in the second or third week of training “as a sign of respect” for an instructor.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced Monday he has approved recommendations to fire all of the correctional officer cadets who participated in an apparent Nazi salute during a class photo.

“As I said from the beginning, I condemn the photo of Basic Training Class 18 in the strongest possible terms,” Justice said in a statement.

“I also said that this act needed to result in real consequences — terminations and dismissals,” he added. “This kind of behavior will not be tolerated on my watch in any agency of State government.”

The photo, which was included in graduation packets, carries the state seal and the official symbol of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It’s captioned “Hail Byrd” in a reference to instructor Karrie Byrd. She was responsible for Class #18 teaching cultural diversity.

Two academy trainers and a cadet were fired after the photo was first released by the state’s Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety on Dec. 5. Thirty-four others were put on unpaid leave.

A third staff member who failed to report the contents of the photograph will also be fired, bringing the total number of staff terminations to three. Additionally, four academy instructors who are known to have seen the picture and failed to report it will also be suspended without pay.

In the image, nearly all members of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Basic Training Class #18 — 31 cadets — are giving what appears to be a Nazi salute. The others are posing with a clenched fist in the air.

The photo, which was included in graduation packets, carries the state seal and the official symbol of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It is captioned “Hail Byrd,” a reference, officials say, to instructor Karrie Byrd, who was responsible for teaching cultural diversity, West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported.

According to the executive summary report drafted by Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Commissioner Betsy Jividen, the hand gesture started in the second or third week of the academy session as a sign of respect for Byrd.

“The investigation disclosed that she encouraged it, reveled in it, and at times reciprocated the gesture,” the documents state.

The picture was apparently taken at the request of Byrd. Multiple cadets allege it was taken several times because not everyone agreed to participate in the gesture. In the end, in an effort to comply with Byrd’s order of the salute, seven people opted to hold up a closed fist.

Byrd told investigators she was unaware of the “historical or racial implications of the gesture.” She insisted it was “simply a greeting,” according to the report. But her statement was contradicted by multiple sources, the report says.

When questioned about the photo by a secretary who expressed concern, Byrd allegedly explained the cadets did it “because I’m a hard-a** like Hitler.”

She added that there was nothing wrong with the photo because “we have people of all colors and backgrounds in the picture and every one of them are participating.”

The secretary and two other instructors separately approached Capt. Annette Daniels-Watts who, according to the investigation, said: “Well, this is going to bite us in the a**.”

While Daniels-Watts admitted she found the picture “horrible,” the captain “never addressed Byrd, had the pictures pulled from the packets, or reported the situation to her supervisor.”

With the exception of Byrd, the names of the cadets and other members of the department have not been released. As Dave Mistich of West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported, Military Affairs and Public Safety secretary Jeff Sandy said they were being withheld after threats to harm those involved began to surface.

The governor’s decision comes just days after a man entered a rabbi’s home in New York on Saturday and stabbed several people who had gathered there to celebrate the seventh night of Hanukkah.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the attack was part of anti-Semitic “hatred exploding” across the country.

Cuomo characterized the violent episode as “an act of domestic terrorism.”

The final report on the West Virginia incident determined that while the gesture captured in the photo was “highly offensive,” it did not reveal any overt motivation or intent that this was a discriminatory act towards any racial, religious, or ethnic group.”

The participants were instead motivated by “poor judgement, ignorance, peer pressure, and fear of reprisal.”

The graduating class of the academy would have gone on to work as correctional officers within the Bureau of Prisons and Jails, in work-release programs with the Bureau of Community Corrections and with young people within Bureau of Juvenile Services, Lawrence Messina, a spokesman for the Division of Correction and Rehabilitation told NPR.

“We have a lot of good people in our Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety. But this incident was completely unacceptable. Now, we must continue to move forward and work diligently to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”​

A civilian who was wounded in suicide car bomb attack is helped by a friend at checkpoint in Mogadishu, Somalia, Saturday.

Updated at 1:15 P.M. ET

A vehicle bomb exploded at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, killing at least 79 people Saturday morning, officials said.

Many of the victims were students. The attack is one of the deadliest in Somalia in the past two years. Government spokesman Ismael Mukhtar Omar said that at least 149 others were injured.

The area was “full of people. We can say also the students were the most vulnerable because the schools are open at 7:30 and the time was 7:30 when the explosion happened,” said Dr. Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan, who runs a free ambulance service in Mogadishu.

It happened as Somalis were starting their work week.

Television footage showed a bloodied bus that was reportedly filled with students.

Mogadishu Mayor Omar Muhamoud told reporters that many students were injured, Reuters reported.

An officer told Voice of America it was a truck bomb that exploded at a busy intersection for vehicles leaving and entering Mogadishu.

VOA’s Harun Maruf tweeted video of the scene afterward.

Capt. Mohamed Hussein said the explosion targeted a tax collection center during the morning rush hour, according to The Associated Press.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamist militant group al-Shabab has repeatedly carried out similar attacks.

More than 500 people were killed in bombings in October 2017 in Somalia’s deadliest attack to be blamed on al-Shabab.

NPR’s Eyder Peralta contributed reporting.

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Perhaps the three luckiest piglets in the Year of the Pig, Pink, KT, and Kissed — who outperformed over 1,000 rivals in Qingdao, the capital of East China’s Shandong province – are becoming superstars on the silver screen and have escaped a doomed fate of being slaughtered when are fully grown.

The three newbie animal actors learned performance skills so well after being coached by veteran animal trainers from Hollywood that they shared the role of a heroic piglet, called Little Bell, in the pet-themed film, Adoring.

The stars-studded anthology, consisting of six parallel stories about owners and their pets, is now dominating the pre-sale box office charts on the eve of the new year. The film will open on Dec 31. 

The three piglets, who share the role of Little Bell in the film, will star alongside Hong Kong heartthrob Wallace Chun and Chinese mainland actress Yang Zishan.

Chung stars as a handsome, well-educated and highly-paid fund manager, but who has a secret: He’s raising a piglet, giving it an entire floor in his luxurious house as a cozy home where Little Bell lives like a princess.

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His fiancée, played by Yang, initially reluctant to accept the piglet as a member of the family, forces the man to send it back to the farm. She changes her mind when she learns the brave little piglet scared away a group of thieves.

Chang said in a statement that he and the crew members agreed to raise the three pigs and let them live until their last natural breath, and will not let them die in a slaughterhouse.

“I once had a misunderstanding that pigs are a kind of species that don’t quite like to be clean. But I found I was wrong after getting along with them (Pink, KT, and Kissed),” Chung said.

The other five stories are about two cats and three dogs. A number of other stars are featured in the film, including Wu Lei, Zhang Zifeng, William Chan, Zhong Chuxi and Guo Qilin, son of the famous crosstalk performer Guo Degang.

Travel portal Qyer is promoting popular social media content creators to help inspire travelers to expand their horizons, Xu Lin reports. 

Photographer Chen Yuefei spent about a month on the Greek island of Corfu trying to trace the steps of his favorite British author and naturalist, the late Gerald Durrell, whose books famously recount his childhood adventures there.

Durrell was fond of the island’s wildlife and became a zookeeper later.

However, thanks in part to popularity of other Greek islands as holiday destinations, and Corfu’s distance from those islands, it attracts fewer tourists and remains almost as pristine as it was during Durrell’s formative years.

Chen was eager to see the “strawberry-pink villa” in which Durrell once lived and mentioned in his books. Located on a cliff behind a forest, the villa is a private property that’s not open to visitors.

He learned to operate a motor boat just so he could see the villa from afar, as the locals were reluctant to take him in because of the island’s proximity to disputed territory with Albania.

“The remote island is picturesque, with a varied array of flora and fauna. Visitors there are able to enjoy its tranquillity and good ecology,” says Chen, from Beijing. He believes the best thing about travel is that it allows him to present destinations in an unbiased way through his work.

Illustrator Liu Huan from Shenyang, Liaoning province, draws cute cartoon characters on landscape photos that she takes during her trips, as a way to share her travel experience and the stories of locals she meets.

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LeBron named AP’s top male athlete of last 10 years

He left Cleveland for Miami, finally became a champion, went back to his beloved northeast Ohio, delivered on another title promise, then left for the Los Angeles Lakers and the next challenge. He played in eight straight finals. No NBA player won more games or more MVP awards over the last 10 years than he did. He started a school. He married his high school sweetheart.

“That’s all?” LeBron James asked, feigning disbelief.

No, that’s not all. Those were just some highlights of the last 10 years. There were many more, as the man called “King” spent the last decade reigning over all others－with no signs of slowing down.

James is the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Decade, adding his name to a list that includes Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky and Arnold Palmer. He was a runaway winner in a vote of AP member sports editors and AP beat writers, easily outpacing runner-up Tom Brady of the New England Patriots.

“You add another 10 years of learning and adversity, pitfalls, good, great, bad, and any smart person who wants to grow will learn from all those experiences,” James, who turned 35 on Monday, told AP. “A decade ago, I just turned 25. I’m about to be 35 and I’m just in a better (place) in my life and have a better understanding of what I want to get out of life.”

Usain Bolt of Jamaica was third for dominating the sprints at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, soccer superstar Lionel Messi was fourth and Michael Phelps－the US swimmer who retired as history’s most decorated Olympian with 28 medals, 23 gold－was fifth.

James was revealed as the winner on Sunday, one day after Serena Williams was announced as AP’s Female Athlete of the Decade. During the Lakers’ victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, the night before his 35th birthday, James became the ninth player in NBA history with 9,000 assists, while he remains among the NBA’s scoring leaders.

“When LeBron James is involved,” Denver coach Michael Malone said, “I’m never surprised.”

Including playoffs, no one in the NBA scored more points than James in the last 10 years. He started the decade 124th on the league’s all-time scoring list. He’s now about to pass Kobe Bryant for No 3. No 2 Karl Malone and No 1 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are within reach.

Is Abdul-Jabbar in his sights? Is catching him the new decade’s goal?

“I would be lying if I said I don’t see it,” James said. “Obviously I’m not trying to say, ‘OK, well if I play this amount of time, if I average this’… I’m not doing that because I’ve never done that with my career. I’ve always just kind of let it happen. Whatever happens, happens. But I see it. I do see it.”

His work ethic, even now, makes even those closest to him marvel.

Here’s a typical day this past summer for James, who remains obsessed with working even though fame and fortune found him long ago: He’d wake up at 3 am and be at the Warner Bros. lot by 3:45－where a weight room and court, built just for him, were waiting. He’d be lifting by 4 am, getting shots up by 5:30 and be ready to start another day of shooting the remake of Space Jam that he has been planning for years by 7 am.

“That’s who he is,” said Mike Mancias, one of the longest-tenured and most-trusted members of James’ inner circle, tasked for more than 15 years with keeping James fit. “He does whatever it takes when it comes to fulfilling his commitments to everything－especially his game and his craft.”

From Zinedine Zidane’s Champions League treble to Alex Ferguson’s retirement, Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi to Brazil vs Germany…

• Neymar, Sanchez, Torres & the worst transfers of the decade

• Messi, Ronaldo & the world team of the decade

• What Real Madrid need in the January transfer window

• Messi in, Ronaldo out – European team of the season so far

• Man City must reboot in 2020 or risk falling behind

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The legendary former Gunners manager thinks that the Reds have “accumulated the belief” to maintain their unbeaten run through to May

Liverpool are “on course” to match Arsenal’s 2003-04 invincibles squad, according to Arsene Wenger, who believes Jurgen Klopp’s men no longer have a “fear of losing”.

The Reds have raced into a 13 point lead at the top of the Premier League over the first half of the 2019-20 campaign, winning all but one of their 19 fixtures.

Liverpool also still have a game in hand on their main rivals Leicester and Manchester City, with a home fixture against Sheffield United up next on Thursday.

The Merseyside outfit earned a tenth successive victory by beating Wolves 1-0 on Sunday, extending their unbeaten run in the top flight to 36 matches in the process.

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At the moment, it seems like no one will stop Liverpool from securing a first league title in 30 years, but Wenger is convinced they could also end up joining his most successful Arsenal side in the record books.

When asked whether Liverpool are capable of going through the whole season without suffering defeat, the Frenchman told beIN SPORTS: “They were close last year and they are still on course to do it.

“But I think what Liverpool is expecting at the moment is just to win the Premier League and that is the first target for such a football city.

“To stay for 30 years without winning the Premier League…nobody would have predicted that.

“That is their main target and I think they are on a good run and on a good course to achieving that this season because their main opponent is quite far away already.”

Wenger thinks Liverpool have developed the same fearless streak that Arsenal had sixteen years ago, based around playing “intelligent football” week in, week out.

“You look at the number of goals they score and the number of goals they concede. They are very good,” he added. “They play intelligent football, their players make intelligent decisions on the pitch.

“My experience when you play the whole season unbeaten is that they accumulated the belief that if they just continue to play they will win the game.

“That is very difficult to get in the team because you need a special run to do that and to get the fear of losing out of the team. It’s something that is very important and they have that at the moment.”

Thierry Henry echoed Wenger’s sentiments prior to Liverpool’s 4-0 Boxing Day win at Leicester, stating: “I think that team can stay unbeaten, and it will be who’s going to beat them first, because I think they will win the league.”

After their latest Premier League outing, Klopp will start preparing his players for a Merseyside derby against Everton in the third round of the FA Cup on January 5.

The official was dismissed in 2018 after making a joke he regrets and admits ‘reads shamefully’

Former Premier League referee Bobby Madley has revealed he was sacked for sending a video in which he mocked a disabled person.

Madley left his role in August 2018 and refereeing body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) said at the time he had “decided to relocate due to a change in his personal circumstances”.

However, the 34-year-old explained in a blog post on Tuesday – titled ‘Time to move on’ – that he had been “dismissed with immediate effect for gross misconduct on grounds of discrimination”.

Madley wrote that he sent a video to a friend, which was later passed to his employers, in which he captioned a clip of a person with a walking impairment: “F*ck me, I have a chance of winning the parents race this year.”

The official said he had been “fat shamed” in the media and described as “Blobby Bobby”, so he had intended the message as a private joke.

“Out of context, I accept this reads shamefully. I accept that,” Madley wrote. “However, my intention was that the joke was aimed at myself.”

He added: “I regret taking the video, I regret sending that video, and while it was a dark humoured joke, it was just that: a joke.

“It was not intended to shame anyone, it was not intended to be seen by anyone other than the person I sent it to privately in a text message on my own personal phone.”

Madley, whose late father was disabled, said he was “stunned” over his dismissal by PGMOL for a “badly misjudged joke”.

He wrote: “I started refereeing at 16, my career was over at 32. I had my dream job, a well paid and incredibly enjoyable job that I loved every single minute of.

“The footballs and medals are now all I have to remember those years of dedication and hard work.”

Madley officiated his first Premier League game in April 2013 and was forced to send off three players in a fiery introduction to the competition. 

Across four seasons, he was no stranger to a contentious call and was criticised for his refereeing across the 2017-18 season. 

Since being sacked from the Premier League, Madley has gone on to officiate six-a-side football and was in charge for the format’s 2019 World Cup final. 

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The Gunners host the Red Devils on New Year’s Day looking to end a run of four straight home defeats in all competitions

Mikel Arteta says Arsenal must learn lessons from Chelsea’s winning goal on Sunday as they prepare to face one of the Premier League’s most dangerous counter-attacking sides in Manchester United.

After a disciplined performance that looked like it would bring Arteta his first win as head coach, Arsenal were sunk by two goals in the final seven minutes against their London rivals on Sunday.

The winner, scored by Tammy Abraham, came following a rapid break from the visitors which left Arsenal’s defence completely exposed.

It was the type of goal Arsenal have conceded far too often this season and it’s a weakness Arteta knows United will look to exploit with the pace of Daniel James and Marcus Rashford when they visit Emirates Stadium on New Year’s Day.

“The second goal that we conceded was in a transition where we had a bad structure and organisation when defending big spaces with equal numbers,” said Arsenal’s head coach.

“We made one half-bad decision and these things are similar, with space they [United] can punish you for sure.”

Despite the defeat against Chelsea, Arsenal’s performance during the London derby received plenty of plaudits from both fans and pundits.

A breathtaking opening 30 minutes saw them lead through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s header and up to Bernd Leno’s howler seven minutes from time, they never really looked like conceding despite the visitors dominating possession after the interval.

Arteta’s players were understandably devastated to leave the match empty-handed and the Spaniard admits he is concerned the manner of defeat could have done further damage to already low confidence levels.

“That’s my worry now,” he said. “I hope that the result doesn’t affect them too much. They were all physically blown and disappointed in how the game ended because they didn’t feel that they deserved that, but we have to move on.

“We have another game and it’s a big one as well. They have to respond and this is the challenge now.”

Arsenal go into the United match sitting 12th in the Premier League, 11 points off the top four and just six above the relegation zone.

They have won just one of their last 15 games in all competitions and have lost four on the spin at home for the first time since 1959.

Injury problems at the back are not helping the situation, with Calum Chambers suffering a serious knee injury against Chelsea, joining Hector Bellerin, Kieran Tierney and Sead Kolasinac on the sidelines.

Rob Holding and Sokratis could return to bolster the back four, however, as could Granit Xhaka, Dani Ceballos and Gabriel Martinelli – who all missed out on Sunday.

“Every game for us is a must-win,” admitted Arteta. “Against any opponent we have to win. We are Arsenal and these are the demands.

“The level of pressure is different when you look up the table or down. At the moment I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the table, but to our performance and the result relating to the performance that we can put on the pitch.

“I was very pleased and grateful with how the fans responded to the team throughout 90 minutes [against Chelsea].

“They generated an atmosphere and a connection between the fans and team that probably for a long time hasn’t been seen, but now we have to give them more and we have to convince them that this is the way we want to play. Hopefully they will be right behind us.”

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The International Football Association Board have confirmed that there will be no change in the sport’s rules for the foreseeable future

The Premier League is using the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system incorrectly by utilising it in an attempt to pinpoint close offside calls which take lengthy stoppages out of the game, according to football’s law-makers.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) have confirmed that there will be no changes in the sport’s regulation and rules for the foreseeable future following another weekend that was marked by controversial calls in the English top-flight.

Five goals were ruled out across 10 games staged in the final round of 2019, with Crystal Palace, Brighton, Wolves, Norwich City and Sheffield United all finding themselves on the wrong end of those decisions.

Players, managers and fans were left fuming, with widespread cries for changes, but the IFAB have instead stated that they will contact competitions reliant on VAR in order to reissue a reminder of guidelines, likely after their next general meeting in February.

The organisation further suggested that the Premier League’s approach to the system in regards to marginal offsides – with several scores chalked off for toes and fingernails being deemed over the advantage line – is in contrast to VAR’s intention.

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“Clear and obvious still remains – it’s an important principle. There should not be a lot of time spent to find something marginal,” Lukas Brud, the general secretary of IFAB, told the Press Association.

“If something is not clear on the first sight, then it’s not obvious and it shouldn’t be considered. Looking at one camera angle is one thing but looking at 15, trying to find something that was potentially not even there, this was not the idea of the VAR principle. It should be clear and obvious.”

The reminder is likely to leave many confused as to why the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body responsible for overseeing the implementation of VAR in the top-flight, have failed to utilise the system correctly, particularly in response to the number of replays that are typically viewed for tight calls.

VAR was approved for the Premier League in November 2018 and has been enabled since the start of the season.