ADRIAN LOPEZ'S LATE STRIKE EARNS VILLAREAL A 1-0 ADVANTAGE OVER LIVERPOOL IN EUROPA LEAGUE SEMI FINAL CLASH- REPORT

Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen on the ball in Spain.Photo: PA

A fortnight after an added-time winner put Liverpool into the last four of the Europa League, a similar fate befell them as they lost their semi-final first leg 1-0 in Villarreal.

The match appeared to be heading for a stalemate until substitute Adrian Lopez poked home two minutes into injury time.

It was less dramatic than Dejan Lovren's header against Borussia Dortmund two weeks previously - Jurgen Klopp's side still have the home leg to come - but frustrating nonetheless as they had appeared to have ground out a draw.

Going to the El Madrigal, where the hosts have now won all seven Europa League ties this season and are unbeaten in the competition since matchday one on September 17, was always going to be tough - but the Reds seemed to have done the hard work until a momentary lapse in concentration cost them.

Daniel Sturridge was on the bench again for Liverpool - a pattern repeated over four European matches now - despite his four goals in the last five games. Roberto Firmino was given the role as a nominal centre-forward.

While the Brazil international did a lot of the hard yards, pressing from the front as per his manager's instructions, he could offer neither the pace nor precision Sturridge has.

Klopp had urged his players not to waste that dramatic win over his former side two weeks ago and Joe Allen, on his first European start since November 26 and only his fourth in the competition this season, almost got them off to a flier.

Arriving into the penalty area at speed in the fifth minute he could only direct Adam Lallana's cross straight at Sergio Assenjo when a shot a yard either side of goalkeeper would have produced the breakthrough.

Without the focal point of Divock Origi, who injured ankle ligaments a week ago in the Merseyside derby but fortunately does not require surgery and could make a return before the end of the season, Liverpool were aimless in the final third.

Too often crosses were swung in at no one in particular, giving centre-backs Eric Bailly and Victor Ruiz an easy ride.

As a result Villarreal had the better chances with former Tottenham striker Roberto Soldado off-target with two shots at either end of the half, while Simon Mignolet got down well to parry Tomas Pina's low effort.

Villarreal right-back Mario Gaspar also had efforts snuffed out by Kolo Toure, continuing in central defence with Mamadou Sakho now officially suspended by UEFA for a failed drugs test - and Lovren.

Liverpool's shooting was profligate. Credit: PA

The ineffectual Philippe Coutinho - reportedly being watched by Barcelona scouts - was replaced by winger Jordon Ibe at the break after feeling unwell but within 40 seconds of the restart Cedric Bakambu headed against the post from Jonathan dos Santos' corner.

Firmino, having kept himself onside, responded midway through the half with a shot which Asenjo tipped onto the upright - but that was as close as the visitors came.

Mignolet came to their rescue three minutes from time when Bakambu seized on Ibe's mistake while charging full-back Alberto Moreno ignored the unmarked winger from a quick counter-attack and instead fired into the side-netting.

But in added time substitute Lopez slid home after Denis Suarez had outpaced Toure.

OptaJoe

@OptaJoe

1 - Jurgen Klopp has lost his first European tie in charge of Liverpool (W5 D5). Setback.

WOLE SOYINKA BRANDS BUHARI'S REACTION TO FULANI HERDSMEN'S ATTACKS AS "SHOCKING"

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has criticized President Muhammadu Buhari for his reaction to increasing attacks and killings by herdsmen in several states in the country.

Soyinka in an address to the National Conference on Culture and Tourism on Wednesday said he was shocked by the President’s claim that the attacks would soon be over.

He added that comments made by the President and the government fell short of expectation and did not provide any reassurance for Nigerians.

He said, “When I read a short while ago, the Presidential assurance to this nation that the current homicidal escalation between the cattle prowlers and farming communities would soon be over, I felt mortified.

“He had the solution, he said. Cattle ranches were being set up, and in another 18 months, rustlings, destruction of livelihood and killings from herdsmen would be ‘a thing of the past’. Eighteen months, he assured the nation. I believe his Minister of Agriculture echoed that later, but with a less dispiriting time schema.

“Neither, however, could be considered a message of solace and reassurance for the ordinary Nigerian farmer and the lengthening cast of victims, much less to an intending tourist to the Forest Retreat of Tinana in the Rivers, the Ikogosi Springs or the Moslem architectural heritage of the ancient city of Kano. In any case, the external tourists have less hazardous options.”

The Nobel laureate, who said the signs were already clear and the rampage of impunity was already manifesting a cultic intensity of alarming proportions almost a year ago, noted that the current violence and killings by the herdsmen would among other things hurt tourism in the country.

Despite the warning signs, he said the government failed to react with his attempt to utilise the Open Forum platform of the Centre for Culture and International Understanding, Oshogbo, to launch a national debate on the topic  – ‘Sacred cows or sacred rights’ almost a year ago also failing to take place.

The plan had been to invite Buhari to give a keynote address at the event.

The failure to react to the warning signs allowed the situation to degenerate beyond arbitrary violence, according to Soyinka.

He said, “It is not merely arbitrary violence that reigns across the nation but total, undisputed impunity. Impunity evolves and becomes integrated in conduct when crime occurs and no legal, logical and moral response is offered. I have yet to hear this government articulate a firm policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres have become the nation’s identification stamp.

“I have not heard an order given that any cattle herders caught with sophisticated firearms be instantly disarmed, arrested, placed on trial, and his cattle confiscated.

“The nation is treated to an eighteen-month optimistic plan which, to make matters worse, smacks of abject appeasement and encouragement of violence on innocents.

“Let me repeat, and of course I only ask to be corrected if wrong: I have yet to encounter a terse, rigorous, soldierly and uncompromising language from this leadership, one that threatens a response to this unconscionable blood-letting that would make even Boko Haram repudiate its founding clerics.”

Soyinka, who said herdsmen were perhaps humanity’s earliest known tourists, said they must be thought about the culture of settlement and “learn to seek accommodation with settled hosts wherever encountered”.

“The leadership of any society cannot stand idly and offer solutions that implicitly deem the massacres of innocents mere incidents on the way to that learning school,” he warned.

“For every crime, there is a punishment, for every violation, there must be restitution. The nomads of the world cannot place themselves above the law of settled humanity.”

CCT TRIAL- SARAKI PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO AMENDED 16 CHARGES

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, on Thursday pleaded not guilty to amended 16 counts preferred against him by the Federal Government before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

The amendment to the original 13 counts added fresh counts including his failure to declare his interest in a foreign credit card account to which he allegedly transferred huge sums of money to while being Governor of Kwara State.

‎Originally, the Federal Government preferred against Saraki,13 counts, including charges of false and anticipatory asset declaration, as well as operation of foreign accounts, which he allegedly committed while being Governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011.

Saraki was re-arraigned before the tribunal on Thursday because of the amendment to the charges which added three fresh counts to the original 13 counts.

There have been two amendments of the original 13 counts which now brings the counts against the Senate President to 16.

The first amendment which brought in additional two counts  was made on April 18, 2016 while the latest made on April 27, 2016, added one fresh count.

The charges dated April 18 were withdrawn on Thursday.

The latest amendment was introduced by the prosecution and  accepted by the tribunal chairman, Danladi Umar, after overruling the defence led by Mr. Paul Usoro (SAN).

Umar ruled on Thursday that contrary to Usoro’s contention, the prosecution, under section 216(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act,  argued that ‎the prosecution was not required to file a motion to give the reasons for the amendment before it could be accepted by the tribunal.

The additional charges are contained in Counts 14 to 16.

‎In Count 14, the prosecution alleged that  Saraki committed another infraction in his asset declaration form  which he made to the Code of Conduct Bureau on June 3, 2011 at the end of his second tenure as Governor of Kwara State.

In the said Count 14, Saraki was said to have failed to declare his interest in “an American Express Service Card with No: 374588216836009 wherein you (Saraki) transferred huges sums of money in dollars from your Guaranty Trust Bank domiciliary account No441441953210 in Nigeria to the American Express Service, Europe, whilst you Executive Governor of Kwara State.”

SCIENTISTS DEVELOP HUMAN SPERM IN LAB FROM SKIN CELLS

There may be hope for thousands of couples struggling to conceive worldwide after scientists successfully created human sperm from skin cells.

It builds on previous research that used skin cells to create mice sperm in a lab, and the medical feat could eventually lead to a treatment for infertility. 

The researchers said they were working to find a solution for the roughly 15 per cent of couples worldwide who are unable to have children and whose only option is to use donated sperm or eggs. 

Scientists in Spain on Wednesday they had created human sperm from skin cells, a medical feat which could eventually lead to a treatment for infertility. The researchers said they were working to find a solution for the roughly 15 per cent of couples worldwide who are unable to have children. Stock image

'What to do when someone who wants to have a child lacks gametes (eggs or sperm)?' asked Carlos Simon, the scientific director of the Valencian Infertility Institute, Spain's first medical institution fully dedicated to assisted reproduction. 

'This is the problem we want to address: to be able to create gametes in people who do not have them.'

The result of their research, which was carried out with Stanford University in the United States, was published Tuesday in Scientific Reports, the online journal of Nature.

They were inspired by the work of Japan's Shinya Yamanaka and Britain's John Gordon who in 2012 shared a Nobel prize for the discovery that adult cells can be transformed back into embryo-like stem cells.

Simon and his team managed to reprogramme mature skin cells by introducing a cocktail of genes needed to create gametes.

Simon and his team managed to reprogramme mature skin cells by introducing a cocktail of genes needed to create gametes. Within a month the skin cell was transformed to become a germ cell, which can develop into sperm or an egg, but it did not have the ability to fertilise, they found. Stock image

It is a step further than that reached by Chinese researchers who earlier this year announced they had created mice from artificial sperm. Stock image. The creation of sperm in the body is so complex and lengthy that it had been thought impossible to recreate in a dish

MAKING SPERM FROM SCRATCH

Around one in seven couples has trouble conceiving, and although infertility is traditionally considered a female issue, the problem is as likely to lie with the man as the woman.

And while IVF can help some men, many are told that nothing that can be done.

The creation of sperm in the body is so complex and lengthy that it had been thought impossible to recreate in a dish. 

Earlier this year, a team at Nanjing Medical University team not only succeeded in making mouse sperm in the lab – they used it to fertilise eggs, which led to the birth of baby mice.

Importantly, these pups were healthy and went on to have young of their own, the journal Cell Stem Cell reports.

Within a month the skin cell was transformed to become a germ cell, which can develop into sperm or an egg, but it did not have the ability to fertilise, they found.

'This is a sperm but it needs a further maturation phase to become a gamete. This is just the beginning,' Simon said.

Around one in seven couples has trouble conceiving, and although infertility is traditionally considered a female issue, the problem is as likely to lie with the man as the woman.

And while IVF can help some men, many are told that nothing that can be done.

The creation of sperm in the body is so complex and lengthy that it had been thought impossible to recreate in a dish. 

Earlier this year, a team at Nanjing Medical University team not only succeeded in making mouse sperm in the lab – they used it to fertilise eggs, which led to the birth of baby mice.

Importantly, these pups were healthy and went on to have young of their own, the journal Cell Stem Cell reports.

'With the human species we must do much more testing because we are talking about the birth of child,' Simon said.

The researchers also must take into account legal constraints since the technique involves the creation of artificial embryos which right now is only allowed in some countries.

'We are talking about a long process,' Simon said.

HILARIOUS! BUDDHIST MONKS EXCHANGE BLOWS OUTSIDE A TEMPLE IN CHINA

The last place you'd expect there to be a fight is a temple.  

But footage has emerged of three monks in an altercation at a temple in China's Jiangsu province on April 24. 

The head monk at the temple has dismissed all of those involved in the punch up, according toPeople's Daily Online.

Tourists try to stop MONKS fighting outside peaceful temple

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Not very zen! Hilarious footage has emerged of monks engaging in a punch up at a temple in China

Punch up at the temple! Eventually onlookers manage to drag them apart but they continue with a war of words

The incident occurred at Ningguo temple in Yangzhou, east China's Jiangsu province. 

In the footage, the men can be seen violently hitting each other while onlookers watch the drama unfold.

One of the monks wearing yellow is even hitting another on the head with a mobile phone. 

They continue to fight, moving around the temple as another monk tries to make them stop. 

Eventually onlookers manage to drag them apart but they continue with a war of words instead. 

According to CCTV News, the monks are all middle-level managers at the location. 

AMBER ROSE RELEASES JAW-DROPPING SHOTS OF HER BOOTYLICIOUS CURVES AS SHE CHOMPS AWAY ON A CIGARETTE

Amber Rose is smoking in her latest Instagram shoot... and she also has a cigarette in her mouth.

The model, 32, flaunted her envy inducing curves in a pair of smoldering fashion pics on Wednesday.

In one, the mother-of-one chomps a fag as she unleashes a busty display, her bulging assets barely contained in a revealing strappy top.

Smoking hot: Cigarette-chomping Amber Rose put on a busty display as she flaunted her wicked curves in sexy Instagram shoot on Wednesday

In the second she switches attention to her equally curvaceous lower half, covering up the top in a skin tight long-sleeve polo neck leotard.

she provocatively pulls up the sides, revealing the orbital trajectory of her famous rear.

'Lick it,' she suggestively captioned the shot, as she flicks her tongue out of a deep crimson shade of lip.

The model also gave a shout out to her make-up artist Priscilla Ono, stylist Sammy K and photographer Solmaz Saberi.

Lick it: In the second she switches attention to her equally curvaceous lower half, covering up the top in a skin tight long-sleeve polo neck leotard

Earlier this week Amber shared a very different photo with her almost 11million followers, of a family day out with ex Wiz Khalifa and their three year-old son Sebastian.

She hashtagged the sweet snap #CoParenting and #DoitforYourBaby.

Meanwhile Amber's historical drama with the Kardashian clan seems truly put to rest after the last awkward barrier came down when Kylie Jenner and Blac Chyna posted a picture together.

24 YEAR OLD MEXICAN POLICE OFFICER SUSPENDED FOR "FLASHING" HER ASSETS GETS A JOB PROPOSITION TO TAKE HER ASSETS ON A TOUR IN GENTLEMEN'S CLUBS

A police officer who became an internet sensation after posing for a topless selfie in her patrol car has agreed to take part in a series of 'sensual shows'.

Nilda Garcia Montoya quit her job after being suspended while an internal investigation was launched when the sexy snap ended up on Facebook earlier this month.

Now the Mexican, who worked in the northern city of Escobedo in Nuevo Leon, has revealed she has accepted a proposal to tour the country's 'gentlemen's clubs' showing off her assets.

Nilda Garcia Montoya quit her job as a police officer after an internal investigation was launched when a sexy snap (left) ended up on Facebook earlier this month - but she has now revealed she has accepted a proposal to tour the country showing off her assets. She is pictured making the announcement at a lap dancing club (right)

She made the announcement in a revealing blue dress at a lap dancing club where she admitted she would be delighted to pose for Playboy if she got the chance.

She will appear under the stage name Polisex, an obvious play on her past as an officer. 

Mrs Montoya, a 24-year-old mother of two daughters aged three months and five, insisted her family supported her radical career move.

She wrote on a new Facebook page today: 'People of Cancun get ready. I'll be with you soon.'

She added: 'I've just given birth to a child so I'm a bit chubby and having difficulties getting rid of my belly but I'm not famous enough to have a perfect body.

'I'm ugly and I admit it but it's better to accept it than hide behind something you're not.' The post also included another selfie of Mrs Montoya in a revealing vest top.

The 24-year-old, pictured in uniform before she quit her job, revealed a colleague had taken the snap during a dare and it was on a phone that was stolen last July

Local media reported several men's magazines and local businessmen had shown an interest in giving her a modelling contract after her topless stunt.

She admitted at the time it was an 'immoral act' and claimed on Facebook before quitting her job: 'I feel outrage at the damage that photo has caused because it mainly hurt my family including my two daughters, my husband, my parents and my siblings.

'I recognise I was at fault and beg forgiveness for this terrible situation. We're all human and we all make mistakes.'

She admitted this week the first thing she did when she saw the photograph had been released was cry.

She revealed a colleague had taken the snap during a dare and it was on a phone that was stolen last July.

The former police officer has not made clear how daring her show will be although it is understood she has stipulated in her contract she won't be baring all. Above, Escobedo in Nuevo Leon, where Mrs Montoya used to work 

She claimed a mystery man began to call her a week and a half before it was published saying he had 'compromising' photos of her. He allegedly tried to blackmail her into a date, which she refused.

Nilda's new representative, Mario Rodriguez, also pulls the career strings of Mexican actress Lyn May, who worked as a go-go dancer before making her name working at a cabaret show in a Mexico City theatre.

Fans vowed to support Nilda in her new venture.

Oscar Castellanos said: 'I love you. I will be in the front row when you come to my city.'

The former police officer has not made clear how daring her show will be although it is understood she has stipulated in her contract she won't be baring all.

Jesus Gudiel wrote on her Facebook page: 'With your new job you'll earn more in a night than you used to earn in a fortnight.'  

IRANIAN WOMAN SENTENCED TO 100 LASHES FOR HAVING EXTRA MARITAL AFFAIR

A jailed wife has been sentenced to 100 lashes in Iran for having an extra-marital affair.

The woman, known only as ST, was subjected to a public flogging in the city of Golpayegan, south of the capital Tehran in Isfahan Province.

There are reports that she was already in jail after receiving a 15-year sentence over the murder of her husband. 

The woman, known only as ST, was subjected to a public flogging in the city of Golpayegan, south of the capital Tehran in Isfahan Province (file picture)

IB Times, citing Serat News, said the she carried out the crime with the man who she was having an affair with in 2012.

He was sentenced to death while she was jailed and has now received 100 lashes, the website reports.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran called the flogging a 'misogynist measure' and labelled the country's government's actions 'extremely disturbing and abhorrent'.

Public floggings are not uncommon in Iran.

Last year, two Iranian poets were jailed for their work and sentenced to 99 lashes each for shaking hands with members of the opposite sex in a harsh new crackdown on writers and artists.

Fatemeh Ekhtesari, a practicing obstetrician, and Mehdi Mousavi, a trained doctor who taught literature and poetry, were arrested in 2013, months after President Hassan Rouhani took office.

Ekhtesari received an 11-and-a-half-year prison sentence, while Mousavi got nine years on charges ranging from propaganda against the state to 'insulting sanctities'.

They were also ordered to undergo 99 whippings each, according to PEN America. 

FAKE POLICE OFFICER NABBED WITH BAGS OF INDIAN HEMP IN ONDO

A self-acclaimed Superintendent of Police, George Oliseh, has been arrested by the Ogun State Police Command.

Oliseh, 64 was arrested with 10 bags of weed suspected to be cannabis, alongside one Isaac Ishicheli, who claimed to be his brother-in-law.

The state Commissioner of Police, CP, Abdulmajid Ali, while parading the suspects along with 37 suspected armed robbers, cultists, murderers, and a fraudster, on Wednesday at the command’s headquarters at Eleweran, Abeokuta, said the suspects would be made to face the consequences of their actions.

The CP said Oliseh, who wore police uniform and had an identity card which bore the rank, was arrested on Sunday at Sagamu area of the state, in his attempt to bring the bags of hemp from Owo, Ondo State, in his Toyota Camry car with number plate, RSH 101 RE.

Oliseh said it was poverty and frustration that forced him into the illicit business.

He said he had to take care of 23 children and five wives, adding that he was a policeman before his dismissal from the force.

According to him, he was dismissed following his struggle with partial stroke on the left hand and leg.

“It was late Inspector Umukoro, an Urhobo man from Delta, who introduced the drug business to me, and I embraced it. I was a former corporal in the police. I joined the force in 2002, but I was dismissed in 2009, so I became a commercial driver plying Idanre and Akure.

“It was frustration and poverty that forced me into the business, because I have to take care of 23 children and five wives, though two had left,” the father of 23 said.

CCT TRIAL- JUSTICE UMAR REFUSES APPLICATION TO RECUSE SELF FROM TRYING SARAKI

The Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, on Thursday dismissed the application of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki seeking the tribunal Chairman, Danladi Umar to disqualify himself from the ongoing trial.

Saraki who is standing trial before the tribunal for false asset declaration had through his lawyer, Rapheal Oluyede filed the motion seeking the disqualification of the tribunal Chairman due to corruption charges against him.

Oluyede had yesterday argued that the same Economic and Financial crimes Commission, EFCC, that investigated Umar of corruption to the tune of N10m is still the same institution prosecuting his client, Saraki, thereby creating a likelihood of bias.

But EFCC’s counsel, Rotimi Jacobs urged the tribunal to dismiss the application, saying the motion was aimed at tarnishing the image of the tribunal Chairman.

Jacobs stressed that the anti-graft agency has already cleared Umar of corruption charges.

Umar had adjourned the matter till today for ruling on the application.

At the resumed hearing today, Umar said the application was that of jurisdiction, insisting that he reserved the powers to preside over the matter.

Umar stated that the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, has no powers to investigate a case, only security agencies.

“AGF has no power to investigate a case but can only prosecute after the security agencies have concluded their investigations,” Umar said.

He held that the letter of March 1, 2015 from the EFCC cleared him of all corruption charges.

Umar said the application is lacking in merit and is “hereby dismissed in its entirety.”

ALLEGED $15 BN DIEZANI SCAM- FIDELITY BANK CONFIRMS ARREST OF MD, NNAMDI OKONKWO (FULL STATEMENT)

Following reports on Thursday that the Managing Director of a leading Nigerian commercial bank has been detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for allegedly helping former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke to launder $115 million cash, Fidelity Bank has come out to own up.

Fidelity Bank MD, Nnamdi Okonkwo, was taken into EFCC custody three days ago for receiving huge cash and helping to distribute it to beneficiaries two days to the last general elections.

Okonkwo was picked up for failing to report the matter to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, as required by the law.

Reports say Diezani summoned the bank chief to her Abuja home and told him to prepare to receive foreign currency running into billions of Naira from four companies and to convert it to Naira and pay to designated beneficiaries on her behalf.

A day after the instruction from her, four companies stormed the bank with various amounts of cash and were promptly received by the bank.

A breakdown of the funds given by the EFCC shows that Actus Integrated paid in $17,884, Northern Base Gas Company, $60m; Midwestern Oil and Gas, $9.5m; and Laitan Adesanya, $1.35million.

Diezani on her part, allegedly lodged $26 million cash into the same account same day.

It was learnt that shortly after paying in the cash, Diezani’s son, Ugonna, approached the detained MD and furnished him with the list of beneficiaries of the cash as instructed by his mother.

Okonkwo was said to have complained that he would not have enough time to cash in Naira to effect the immediate distribution of the money as instructed by the then minister, she asked him to use every available cash to pay the beneficiaries and use the Dollar as collateral.

Reacting Thursday afternoon via a statement signed by its management, Fidelity Bank Plc said its “attention has been drawn to reports in the media on investigations into transactions undertaken by the Bank in the normal course of business in 2015.”

“The transactions are now the subject matter of investigations by the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“We can confirm that the transactions were duly reported as required by the regulators and the Bank is cooperating fully with the authorities on the investigation.

“We assure our numerous stakeholders, including our customers that we are working assiduously towards a quick resolution of the issues.

“Thank you.

“Management.”