Monday, 13 March 2017
Sunday, 5 March 2017
Bonucci saves Juve blushes in rare league draw
Juventus' Italian defender Leonardo Bonucci (L) celebrates with Juventus' forward from Argentina Gonzalo Higuain (C) and Juventus' forward from Argentina Paulo Dybala after scoring during the Italian Serie A football match Udinese vs Juventus at the Dacia Arena Stadium in Udine on March 5, 2017.<br />MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP
Leonardo Bonucci’s second-half leveller saved Juventus’s blushes a day after Roma virtually conceded the title as the champions were held to their first Serie A draw in over a year at Udinese.
Juventus, aiming for a record sixth consecutive scudetto, were given a push in the right direction on Saturday when Roma’s 2-1 home defeat to Napoli gave the Turin giants the chance to pull 10 points clear.
But in a cagey performance at the Dacia Stadium, filled to the brim for the visit of the 32-times Italian champions, Juve failed to capitalise, settling for their first draw of the campaign and their first in Serie A since drawing with Bologna in February 2016.
Massimiliano Allegri’s men remain top of the pile but are now eight points ahead of Roma, with Napoli third at 10 points off the pace.
“Before I say anything I have to compliment Udinese, who played a very solid game. At times they had two, three and even four players coming at our ball carriers,” said Allegri.
“We knew how difficult a game this would be after so many victories. It’s been over a year since we’ve drawn.
“We made a lot of mistakes, especially in the first 20 minutes. On the plus side we gained a point on Roma but the championship is not over. Roma can still collect a lot of points.”
Juventus were denied early penalty claims when Dani Alves, after pouncing on Gonzalo Higuain’s smart delivery down the right, fired in a cross that appeared to come off the arm of Samir.
Referee Antonio Damato was unimpressed, and Juve suffered another blow minutes later when Duvan Zapata powered down the left, holding off Bonucci, to fire under the body of Gianluigi Buffon as the ‘keeper came out to block at his near post.
But the home fans’ hopes of seeing Udinese hold on for a famous win were dashed on the hour.
Juventus won a free kick and when Paulo Dybala fired an inviting delivery towards the back post, Bonucci got between Silvan Widmar and Stipe Perica to head past Orestis Karnezis.
Earlier, surprise packages Atalanta stubbornly held on to fourth spot but missed out on the chance to close the gap on Napoli after seeing goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu perform heroics in a scoreless draw with Fiorentina in Bergamo.
That result was welcomed by rivals who are also hunting a place in Europe next season, and Inter Milan capitalised in style with a classy 5-1 win at Cagliari that saw two-goal Ivan Perisic inspire the Nerazzurri.
Inter moved up to fifth, one point ahead of city rivals AC Milan following their 3-1 win over Chievo on Saturday, although the Nerazzurri will be back down to sixth if Lazio draw or beat Bologna in Sunday’s late game.
A week after being stunned 3-1 by Roma at the San Siro, Inter coach Stefano Pioli said: “I’ve been really pleased with how the lads have reacted after the defeat to Roma.
“We looked at the footage to learn from those mistakes. Today we controlled the game, although we have to know when to speed things up and when to slow them down.”
Elsewhere, Italy striker Andrea Belotti hit a hat-trick to take his tally for the season to a league-leading 22 goals in a 3-1 home win over Palermo.
Relegation candidates Palermo saw Andrea Rispoli beat England’s Joe Hart from distance on the half hour.
But Belotti struck three times in the space of eight second-half minutes to hand Torino a 10th win of the campaign.
He now has a three-goal lead in the scoring charts on Roma’s Edin Dzeko and Higuain, both on 19, with Napoli’s Dries Mertens on 18 and Icardi on 17. Belotti said: “It would be amazing to win the top scorer’s award.”
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2mHPGAG
Tuesday, 21 February 2017
Reps decry N60m grass-cutting proposal (Read full details)
House of Representatives
The House of Representatives on Tuesday decried the N60 million provided by the Presidential Committee on North-East Initiative (PCNI) in the 2017 Budget for weeding in communities ravaged by insurgency.
The amount is for contracts to “cut shrubs, grasses and trees” along Maiduguri-Bama road.
The house’s Committee on Internally Displaced Persons picked out the figure when the PCNI appeared before it to defend its N45 billion budget for humanitarian assistance, rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced villagers.
Chairman of the committee, Rep. Sani Zoro and other members expressed displeasure over the provision.
“You cannot travel this same way, awarding contracts on grasses again; it is not acceptable. Why can’t you assign this duty to the military to do it for you?
“They can use their personnel to clear the grasses and you can drop this idea of awarding contracts with N60 million.
“Your duty, from what we understand, is to provide succour for the displaced persons.
“These people are traumatised and they need urgent basic amenities as they return home. Rehabilitation has to do with their survival as human beings first,’’ Zoro said.
He challenged the PCNI to furnish the committee with its mandate, saying “You have N184 million for screening programme for humanitarian activities, what does that mean?
“There is N150 million on advocacy and early warning system and N165 million for conflict management.
“You are going to deliver security equipment for N200 million. What type of security equipment? Then another N2.5 billion for security outfits.
“Are you telling us that part of your role is to fund the operations of the military in the North-East? The military has its own budget already.
“Why are you not talking about food, shelter, medical care and schools for these IDPs?’’
A member of the committee, Rep. Adamu Kamale (PDP-Adamawa) said that the N45 billion budgeted for the North-East was inadequate, but decried the provision of N8.4 billion out of the money for military operations.
Kamale argued that there was no justification for the proposal for the military in the budget.
“PCNI is not a military agency. This N8.4 billion should be converted to rehabilitation of burnt houses and schools.
“I am an IDP, so I know where it pains. N5 billion out of the money can rehabilitate up to 50 per cent of the houses.
“Again, you are just duplicating so many things in this budget. Our people back home will not forgive us if we pass this budget like this,” he said.
Another member, Rep. Istifanus-Dung Gyang (PDP-Plateau) informed the committee that the Federal Government’s total commitment to the North-East in 2017 was “over N800 billion.”
Gyang explained that the money was domiciled in the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government for the purpose of developing the region.
“So, your role as PCNI is recovery. You come in after the military have completed their own role and they have their budget”, he said.
However, the Vice-Chairman of the PCNI, Mr Tijjani Tumsah, explained that the budget was planned after due consultation with the military.
He said that rehabilitation was the key responsibility of the PCNI as it could not be achieved if security aspect was left out.
Tumsah said that the government would not take the risk of returning the IDPs to their villages without adequate security cover.
“The IDPs are in camps in locations where they are safe; so, returning them home means that there is security for them.
“Security remains a major issue in rehabilitation. There are mines everywhere. The military will have to go in there to remove them”, he added.
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