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Spain crush Tahiti 10-0 and ‘it could’ve been worse’

In a one-sided match at the Confederations Cup, World Cup winner Spain crushed the Pacific islanders from Tahiti 10-0 yesterday (this morning, Singapore time) — a result that was not as bad as some had suggested beforehand. Tahiti coach Eddy Etaeta said he feared Spain might score 15 or 20. Still, the winning margin was the largest in a Confederations Cup match. The previous record margin was six, when Brazil beat Saudi Arabia 8-2 in 1999 and when Brazil beat Australia 6-0 in 1997. Fernando Torres, who missed a penalty late in the match, scored four goals. David Villa added three goals, David Silva two and Juan Mata one. Tahiti was the crowd favourite at the Maracana stadium, with Brazilians wildly cheering the underdogs and jeering Spain. When Spanish midfielder Mata tried to score with a bicycle kick with the score at 4-0, the effort was met with loud booing. The game had the tone of a practice game — or a friendly. Even before it began, the outcome was never in doubt. The spirit was set by Tahiti coach Eddy Etaeta, who put a flower lei, or necklace, around the neck of Spanish coach Vicente del Bosque. “They (Brazilians) are always on the side of the underdog, meaning Tahiti,” Del Bosque said. “I believe the fans respected the show and enjoyed the match.” Etaeta called playing Spain a “Christmas present”. “We lost but we won the hearts of the Brazilian public. So obrigado, obrigados a tudos,” he said after the game, saying “thank you, everyone” in Portuguese. Etaeta said it was frustrating that his team was now better known in Brazil than at home. Del Bosque defended Tahiti’s place in the tournament, despite some criticising the inclusion of the tiny island with only 180,000 residents. “They are the champions of Oceania,” he said. “That’s football. They did what they had to do and they deserved to be here.” Tahitian players also draped trinkets around the neck of the Spanish players just before the start, another gesture of friendship and respect for the Spanish side. Tahiti were 1-0 down after 15 minutes, hardly an illustration of the gulf between the world champions and a team comprising amateurs who hold down day jobs. But Spain led 4-0 by the break. The largest margin of victory in a FIFA match came in 2001, when Australia beat American Samoa 31-0 in Oceania qualifying for the World Cup. In the World Cup, the record is nine, set three times. Hungary beat South Korea 9-0 in 1954, Yugoslavia routed Zaire 9-0 in 1974 and Hungary defeated El Salvador 10-1 in 1982. The biggest rout in football happened in 2002 when Stade Olympique de l’Emyrne scored 149 own-goals in a match against AS Adema in Madagascar in protest of what it claimed was partial refereeing. AS Adema won 149-0. AP

More Tax Trouble For Messi

A Barcelona court has agreed to take up a tax evasion case against Lionel Messi, the world’s best soccer player, and his father, Jorge Horacio, for using shell corporations to hide €4.165 million($5.5 million) from Spanish tax authorities. Messi, who for the first time was said to have “consented,” is expected to testify on September 17, alongside his father. As we had previously reported, FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi, who netted $41.3 million in the year to June and is the world’s tenth-best-paid-athlete, and his father were accused by prosecutor Raquel Amado of hiding his true earnings from Spain’s tax authorities. On Thursday, a Barcelona judge accepted the case, setting a court date for the famous athlete and his father to testify. While the prosecution’s original statements, picked up by Spanish media, noted Jorge Horacio, the athlete’s father, was the architect of the scheme, Thursday’s charges appear to smear the four-time FIFA World Player directly. According to Spanish daily El Pais, Messi “ratified” and “consented” to his father’s allegedly fraudulent scheme once he turned 18. Messi’s lawyer, Angel Juarez, wasn’t immediately available for comment. In a statement released last week when news of the accusations surfaced, Juarez noted he hadn’t received any notices from the prosecution. Beyond hearing of the accusations in the media, and immediately rejecting them, Juarez noted his team had been personally responsible for the star’s tax filings. In a post on his Facebook FB -1.68% page, Messi himself followed suit, noting he had always respected his tax obligations and that his legal team would take care of the situation. According to El Pais, this type of tax fraud could result in one to six years in prison for the guilty parties, and a penalty of up to six times the amount evaded. As I’ve reported previously, while it appears unlikely Messi will end up serving prison time, the situation becomes all the more troubling given the difficult fiscal situation of Spain’s regional governments, with many of them bankrupt and having been bailed out by the central government. Barcelona, which is expected to qualify to the UEFA Champions League, is expected to play the first round of the premier club competition between September 17 and 18.

Angelina Jolie Loses Aunt to Breast Cancer

On Sunday, Debbie Martin, Angelina Jolie’s aunt, died at the age of 61 at San Diego. Martin was the younger sister of Jolie’s mother and died due to the same type of breast cancer that killed Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, at the age of 56 in 2007. Both women suffered from the same defective BRCA1 gene that Jolie has been diagnosed with. Jolie had a double mastectomy done in February after it was confirmed that she was carrying the BRCA1 gene and had an 87 percent chance of developing breast cancer. She also has a chance of developing ovarian cancer, but the risk percentage is lesser than that for the cancer affecting the breasts. Ron Martin, the husband of Debbie told E! News, “Angelina has been in touch throughout the week and her brother Jamie has been with us, giving his support day by day.” Referring to the double mastectomy that Jolie underwent, Mr. Martin said, “Had we known, we certainly would have done exactly what Angelina did.” Angelina Jolie, the 37-year-old actress told the New York Times on 14th May that she had undergone removal of her breasts in a complex operation. At the time she explained to the media, “I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could.” According to her doctors, her chances of developing breast cancer have now dropped to 5 percent from 87 percent. While the BRCA1 gene is present in every human being, it mutates into the defective form in about one in a thousand people. Anyone who has a defective BRCA1 gene has a 50-80 percent chance of developing breast cancer. Angelina has also announced that later in her life she is also going to have her ovaries removed to decrease chances of developing ovarian cancer. She said that she started with her breasts because that operation was much more complex.

Samsung to Unveil New Galaxy and ATIV Devices on June 20

Samsung has just announced an event called the "Samsung Premiere 2013," held on June 20, 2013 in London. Absolutely no details were given about the event except three cryptic, black and white images (below) and two words: "Galaxy and ATIV." This suggests that the company plans to launch new Galaxy (meaning: Android) devices, as well as Windows devices which fall under Samsung's ATIV brand. The event will start at 2PM ET on June 20, and will be livestreamed at Samsung's YouTube channel.

Falling tree kills 31, injures 16 in Imo

Thirty-one persons, including two sisters, were killed when a tree at the Ukwu Uko evening market at Umuejinwaoke Umudagu village, Mbieri, Mbaitolu Local Government Area of Imo State, fell on them. 16 other victims sustained varying degrees of injury during the incident, which was caused by a rainstorm on Thursday night. A resident of the community,said that the tree fell on the affected persons about 8:00 pm. He said the tree also destroyed the village hall. “The big tree fell suddenly, killing 31 people on the spot and injuring 16 others. Those injured were taken to the hospital. “The victims include two sisters, who were selling tomatoes. Honestly, this is the saddest event in the history of our community,” he said. The traditional ruler of the community, Eze Godwin Duru, lamented that such a tragic incident had never occurred in the community. “I do not know what to say. God, what can we call this? My people were destroyed within a twinkle of an eye, what a pity,” he said. The Police Public Relations Officer in the state,declined comment on the incident after several efforts to get the command’s reaction to the issue.

Fashola Advocates Concrete Action Against Electoral Fraud

Governor Fashola, who spoke at the Public Presentation of a book titled “The Enforcement of Electoral Laws and Case Law of 2007 Election Petition Judgments”, written by eminent Law teacher, Professor Itse Sagay, at the Protea Hotel, Ikeja, said unless concrete steps were taken to show that such electoral fraud would no longer be tolerated, what happened in 2007 would repeat itself in 2015. Governor Fashola, who noted with regrets that in cases where people were named as having committed electoral irregularities that amounted to fraud, no sanctions were meted out to them, declared, “We must begin to take those very simple steps to show that we will no longer tolerate this kind of impunity in our society. And it is not about protests; it is about taking those simple and firm actions”. “And many of the people who were found by our courts to have been involved in these irregularities are still holding honorary degrees, are still holding chieftaincy titles. These are the building blocks by which society corrects impunity. We must begin to act to take back those titles because they have desecrated them; they are no longer worthy of them, even if we don’t take them to court”, Governor Fashola said. According to the Governor, “The responsibility for action against electoral fraudsters is not for the attorneys- general alone, it is for all of us, it is everybody’s responsibility; our professors in the Ivory Towers and our spiritual leaders must be more circumspect”. Citing an example with the Head of the Royal Bank of Scotland from whom the Queen of England withdrew a title given to him over an allegation of financial impropriety, Governor Fashola noted, “He had not yet been charged to court; even if he was charged to court, he had not been found guilty. I think we can learn one or two lessons from that kind of society. So for me these are the questions we should ask; what went wrong, what took place? Then we can use very simple blocks of societal norms to begin to right those wrongs”. Commenting on the book, Governor Fashola said it was done to place on record what transpired during the 2007 General Elections as well as the various judgments against those accused of electoral irregularities adding, “That is why we sought Professor Osagie’s assistance to put the materials out there about what went wrong in those cases”. “Right now, it will not be a case of witch hunting if we have a Supreme Court judgment and judgment of our Appellant Court showing that there were irregularities, irregularities that amounted in some cases to fraud, and people were named as having been involved in perpetrating those irregularities. I think we would, in a sense, have served a dish to our attorneys-general in the various states”, the Governor said. Governor Fashola, who described the 2007 General Elections as “an unwelcome barometre of impunity in our society and in our electoral history” declared, “Now, in three years time we are going to approach this same process; is anything going to change? It hasn’t changed since our first elections and I have not heard since the first elections that anybody has been charged to court let alone convicted for any electoral fraud in more than 50 years of our electoral history”. “There is the intellectual side which Professor Sagay has dealt with, he has done his part. But will that culture of impunity change if we do nothing? I fear it will not. That is why I am happy that at least two Attorneys-General are here with us and I know that they meet and in all of the states where these cases took place I hope that something will be done”, the Governor said. Governor Fashola explained that It would not matter whether or not a conviction is secured in any of the cases adding “It might just be sufficient that we put people to inquiry that we will ask questions because those judgments affirmed certain Acts of INEC. It also nullified certain Acts and nullified the elections. But how have we gone on?” “Even in cases and instances where the election of a supposedly victorious elected governor has been nullified, we carry on as if nothing is wrong. We refer to them as former governors”, the Governor said pointing out that if no actions were taken to correct such anomalies, the nation’s democracy would be in danger. Noting that national focus has largely been on economic rather than political issues, Governor Fashola declared, “But you probably will not have one without the other. That is why some people have been sensible enough to discuss the subject of political economy because without appropriate political stability, no economy will thrive. As long as the politics is functioning, the economy will function. “As important as the political system and its optimal process is, we do not pay much attention to it, we don’t ask questions. Elections hold once in four years. After that we carry on as if nothing went wrong but we know inside us that something went wrong. In football fans are as responsible as the umpires for the smooth running of a match. They can be punished if anything goes wrong from their side during a match. If an organization that is responsible for entertainment can take such serious actions, why should we not be serious with our electoral process?”, the Governor asked Describing the eminent Jurists and Academics who attended the occasion as “Giants of the Law”, Governor Fashola declared, “These are the Giants on whose shoulders we stand; Giants of the Law as they are. It is by standing on their shoulders that we attempt to see very far”. In his address at the occasion, Hon. Justice Pius Olayiwola Aderemi (rtd) described the book as “the handiwork of an excellent man” adding, “I have gone through the book which contains well researched judgments of our courts, particularly judgments of the Supreme Court of Nigeria from 2007 on election matters. I am not an academician but I make bold to submit in my humble view that the research into and arrangement of the materials in the book are indeed excellent”. The Author, in his remarks, said the project which resulted in the writing of the book “arose out of the initiative of His Excellency, the Governor of Lagos State”, who, according to him, “wanted a detailed review and analysis of election petitions and judgments under the 2006 Electoral Act and the conduct of institutions and officials who played a role in the 2007 elections”. Noting that Lagos has seen tremendous physical and infrastructural transformation since 1999 and particularly in the last six years, Professor Sagay declared, “What is most significant in Governor Fashola’s work is not the physical aspect that we can see and touch. It is the unseen, yet most profound aspect – vision, commitment, focus, sacrifice, service to the people, not self-service, transparency, accountability, humility in governance, integrity, honour, and respect for the governed”.