Lausanne – Michel Platini will quit as the head of European football after a sports tribunal on Monday rejected his final appeal against his ban from football over a suspect US$2.0 million (S$2.73 million) payment he received from FIFA.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), where Platini appealed against his sanction, reduced his suspension from six years to four, saying the penalty initially imposed by FIFA’s ethics committee was “too severe”.
But the court said it was “not convinced” that the US$2.0 million payment Platini received from FIFA in 2011 was legitimate.
FIFA’s tough punishment of the French football legend was “justified in view of the superior functions carried out by Mr. Platini… the absence of any repentance and the impact that this matter has had on FIFA’s reputation”.
The payment was ordered by world football’s disgraced ex-president Sepp Blatter, who was also brought down over the infamous transaction.
The pair are the highest-profile casualties in an unprecedented set of corruption scandals within world football, which has seen dozens of long-serving FIFA executives arrested and charged with corruption.
Platini, once the front-runner to succeed Blatter as the most powerful man in the sport, said in a statement that following the ruling he had no choice but to resign from UEFA.
“As agreed with the national associations, I resign as president of UEFA to pursue my fight before the Swiss courts to prove my probity in this case,” he said.
He called the CAS ruling “a profound injustice”.
UEFA’s executive committee is to meet in Basel on May 18, before the Europa League final, when it will set a date for an election to replace Platini.
In a statement noting the CAS ruling, UEFA said it will not appoint an interim president.
The head of the Dutch football association Michael van Praag, a possible contender to replace Platini, declined to comment on the ruling but called on Europe “to show unity”, the ANP news agency said.
The ruling means Platini will be barred from presiding over the Euro 2016 that opens in his native France on June 10, a tournament which he helped organise until he was provisionally suspended by FIFA in December.
Platini and Blatter have both denied any wrongdoing. They have insisted the US$2.0 million was part of a legitimate oral contract for consulting work performed by Platini.
The CAS ruling noted that Platini had a valid consulting contract with FIFA signed in 1999 – with an agreed salary of 300,000 Swiss francs (S$422,522) per year – which terminated in 2002.
But, the US$2.0 million he received from FIFA in 2011, “was not based on any document established at the time of the contractual relations” and did not match the amount left unpaid at the end of the contract, CAS said.
The ruling from the three-judge panel highlighted that Blatter authorised the payment four months before a FIFA presidential election.
Blatter was running against Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar and there has been speculation that Blatter approved the payment to Platini to secure the Frenchman’s backing in the election.
While the sports tribunal made no judgement on Blatter’s motivation for approving the payment, it dismissed Platini’s claim that the funds were justified back pay for work performed a decade earlier.
The court “was not convinced by the legitimacy of the payment, which was only recognised by Mr. Platini and Mr. Blatter”, the ruling said.
It described Platini’s conduct as “not ethical or loyal”.
Blatter is under criminal investigation in Switzerland over the transaction and other aspects of his management of FIFA.
Platini has given evidence in the probe with the status of someone between a suspect and a witness.
Blatter was replaced as FIFA’s president in February by Gianni Infantino, Platini’s former number two at UEFA, who has vowed to turn the page on an era within world football plagued by scandal and graft.
_0.jpg "20160506_northkoreacongressgallery1_0.jpg")
Pyongyang – North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un was named chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party on Monday at a once in a generation congress seen as a coronation for the young leader.
Thousands of delegates, many in uniform, clapped and cheered enthusiastically as the country’s official head of state, Kim Yong-Nam, announced the post at the first top-level meeting of the party for 36 years.
The speech was the first time foreign journalists allowed into the reclusive country to cover the congress have got a glimpse of the delegate hall, festooned in red and gold banners carrying the party’s logo.
Kim departed from his usual black outfit as he appeared on stage, sporting a tailored Western suit and grey tie along with large, trendy glasses.
The congress, which opened on Friday, has given 33-year-old Kim a podium to secure his status as supreme leader and confirm his legacy “byungjin” doctrine of twin economic and nuclear development.
North Korea has carried out two of its four nuclear tests under Kim’s leadership, most recently in January when it claimed to have tried out a powerful hydrogen bomb – a claim experts have disputed.
There has been growing concern that Pyongyang may be on the verge of conducting a fifth test, with satellite imagery showing activity at the North’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
Delegates to what is technically North Korea’s top decision-making body on Sunday adopted his motion to “boost self-defensive nuclear force, both in quality and quantity”.
The meeting also enshrined a policy of not using nuclear weapons unless the country’s sovereignty is threatened by another nuclear power, and of working towards the reunification of the divided Korean peninsula.
“But if the South Korean authorities opt for a war… we will turn out in the just war to mercilessly wipe out the anti-reunification forces,” said a document published by the North’s official KCNA news agency.
Reiterating the North’s long-held argument that its push for a nuclear deterrent was forced by US hostility, the congress said the nuclear weapons programme would move forward “as long as the imperialists persist in their nuclear threat”.
Presenting his report to the congress in a marathon three-hour speech on Saturday, Kim said Pyongyang wanted better relations with previously “hostile” nations and proposed military talks with South Korea to ease tensions on their heavily fortified border.
The government in Seoul dismissed his remarks, including a vow to pursue global denuclearisation, as meaningless propaganda.
“There is absolutely no sincerity in talking about the necessity of military talks… while calling oneself a nuclear weapons state and launching nuclear and missile provocations,” defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun said.
Moon said the party congress had only served to reaffirm North Korea’s intention to develop its nuclear arsenal, and added that Seoul would continue to counter those ambitions with sanctions and pressure.
The South Korean Unification Ministry was equally dismissive, describing Kim’s remarks on improving North-South ties as a “propaganda act with no sincerity.” Kim was not even born when the last party congress was held in 1980 to crown his father, Kim Jong-Il, as the heir apparent to founding leader Kim Il-Sung.
When his own turn came, following the death of Kim Jong-Il in December 2011, the new young leader quickly set about cementing his power base and securing his legitimacy as the inheritor of Kim family’s ruling dynasty.
One of his earliest moves was to adjust his father’s “songun”, or military first policy, to the “byungjin” policy of economic-nuclear development.
The nuclear half of that strategy had dominated the run-up to the party congress, starting with a fourth nuclear test in January that was followed by a long-range rocket launch and a flurry of other missile and weapons tests.
Some observers had predicted that the congress might switch the focus to the economic side of the equation, and Kim did unveil a five-year economic plan – the first of its kind for decades.
But his report to the congress offered few details of the plan’s policies or targets beyond general ambitions to boost production across all economic sectors, with a particular focus on energy production.
SINGAPORE – Officers of the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) found 3,346 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes in a lorry as it tried to enter Singapore via the Woodlands Checkpoint at 5pm on Monday (May 9)
The Malaysia-registered lorry was…
Source link
“That is why the intention really is to involve building owners, because even if you provided a bicycle terminal, the individual will still have to get to their destination,” said Mrs Teo in Parliament on Monday (May 9).
Source link
Manila – Anti-establishment firebrand Rodrigo Duterte took an early lead in the Philippine presidential election vote count on Monday, the nation’s media said, after an incendiary campaign dominated by his profanity-laced threats to kill criminals.
The elections also saw Filipinos choose more than 18,000 other positions, down to the local village councillor level, in another milestone for a nation that has struggled to cement democracy after emerging from dictatorship three decades ago.
Duterte, the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, had hypnotised millions with his vows of brutal but quick solutions to the nation’s twin plagues of crime and poverty, which many believed had worsened despite strong economic growth in recent years.
And his big lead in pre-election surveys appeared to be carried into election day, according to early and unofficial tallies of the vote carried by national media.
Duterte had 1.31 million votes, nearly double his nearest rival, with about eight percent of the total counted, according to CNN Philippines, which was tallying data released by the election commission.
Duterte gave a cautious assessment when asked on CNN Philippines about the early results.
“I ain’t there until I am there,” he said. “If it is my destiny to be there then I accept it.” Senator Grace Poe was in second place with 757,000 votes, with administration candidate Mar Roxas trailing closely in third, CNN Philippines said.
Other major news outlets carried similar results.
Duterte, a pugnacious 71-year-old, surged from outsider to the top of surveys with cuss-filled vows to kill tens of thousands of criminals, threats to establish one-man rule if lawmakers disobeyed him, and promises to embrace communist rebels.
He also boasted repeatedly about his Viagra-fuelled affairs, while promising voters his mistresses would not cost a lot because he kept them in cheap boarding houses and took them to short-stay hotels for sex.
Duterte caused further disgust in international diplomatic circles with a joke that he wanted to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary who was killed in a 1989 Philippine prison riot, and by calling the pope a “son of a whore”.
Departing President Benigno Aquino, whose mother led the democracy movement that ousted Ferdinand Marcos three decades ago, had warned repeatedly the nation was at risk of succumbing to another dictatorship.
“I need your help to stop the return of terror in our land. I cannot do it alone,” Aquino said in an appeal to voters in a final rally on Saturday in Manila for his preferred successor and fellow Liberal Party stalwart, Mar Roxas.
In his final rally on Saturday, Duterte repeated to tens of thousands of cheering fans his plans to end crime within six months of starting his presidency.
“Forget the laws on human rights,” said Duterte, who has been accused of running vigilante death squads in Davao.
“If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because as the mayor, I’d kill you.” Duterte went into polling day with an 11-percentage-point lead over his rivals.
Roxas, who promised to continue the slow reform process seen under Aquino, was tied for second place with Poe.
Aquino, who is limited by the constitution to a single term of six years, had overseen average annual economic growth of six percent and won international plaudits for trying to tackle corruption.
However his critics said he had done little to change an economic model that favours an extraordinarily small number of families that control nearly all key industries, and has led to one of Asia’s biggest rich-poor divides.
Roxas belongs to one of those families, with his grandfather serving as the Philippines’ first president after the nation achieved independence from the United States post-World War II.
Poe, the adopted daughter of movie stars, had seen her popularity slide after critics pointed to her taking US citizenship then later giving it up.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, the early favourite, fell to fourth place in surveys under the weight of a barrage of corruption allegations. The early unofficial tally of Monday’s vote also placed him fourth.
In an intriguing sub-plot, Marcos’s son and namesake was equal favourite to be elected vice president, which would cement a remarkable political comeback for his family.
The Philippines has an infamous culture of political violence, and at least 10 people were killed on election day. Fifteen people had been killed in pre-election shootings and bombings, according to police.
But authorities described Monday’s violence as isolated incidents and that the overall conduct of the elections was peaceful.
In a post on Facebook today, Chatri Sityodtong, Founder and Chairman of ONE Championship, announced that both Angela Lee and Mei Yamaguchi would receive bonuses for their ONE Women’s Atomweight World Championship clash.
The bout was the main event of ONE: Ascent to Power at the Singapore Indoor Stadium this past Friday, and is widely-regarded one of the best bouts in ONE Championship history, being a fantastic five-round back-and-forth encounter.
Sityodtong’s post read: “Due to her extraordinary display of martial arts skill and warrior spirit in the main event of ONE Championship: Ascent to Power, ONE Atomweight World Champion Angela Lee has been awarded a ONE Warrior Bonus of US$50,000. Mei Yamaguchi has also been awarded her fight win bonus for her valiant effort. Without a doubt, these two phenomenal martial artists put on one of the greatest WMMA world title fights in history. RESPECT!!! I am almost certain these two will meet again in the future.”
ONE Warrior Bonuses aren’t often handed out in the Asian promotion’s blockbuster events, as they are only awarded to fighters who have turned in one-of-a-kind performances. This marks only the second time the organisation has given one out since the award was announced. Lee’s title-winning effort was certainly worthy, as she showed composure, skill, and willpower far beyond her 19 years of age.
Lee constantly attacked with submissions and strikes throughout the 25-minute battle, showcasing the range of weapons at her disposal. She even survived a Yamaguchi knockdown and rallied from the brink of defeat, ultimately winning a unanimous decision to become the first female MMA world champion in Asian history.
Yamaguchi also drew praise for her standout showing, as she showed the world composure and skill honed by years of experience against some of the best women’s fighters in the world. She defended every single one of Lee’s many submission attempts, and even came close to ending the fight with assaults of her own on several occasions.
For a match billed as the biggest female fight in Asian history, these two combatants truly delivered, and were duly rewarded.
While Workers’ Party MPs said a change to the Government Proceedings Act would make it unnecessarily prohibitive for individuals to enter litigation against the Government, Senior Minister of State for Law Indranee Rajah reiterated that it is not the Government’s intention to intimidate anyone.
Source link
Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin says the reimbursement will also apply to eligible self-employed fathers for their loss of income. The Child Development Co-savings (Amendment) Bill was passed in Parliament on Monday.
Source link
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) says the potential duty and Goods and Services Tax (GST) of the contraband cigarettes amounted to S$259,650 and S$26,140, respectively.
Source link
