Stoke v Southampton preview

Stoke welcome high-flying Southampton to the Britannia Stadium for Wednesday's Capital One Cup fourth-round game.
It’ll be the second time in four days the two sides have faced each other, with the Saints winning 1-0 over the Potters at St Mary’s on Saturday.
Stoke have had an inconsistent start to the season, with three wins, two draws and four defeats leaving them in 12th place in the Premier League - but a win over Ronald Koeman’s side will help ease any concerns among the Britannia faithful.
Mark Hughes’ team have beaten Portsmouth and Sunderland to reach this stage, and will be aiming to progress further in the tournament – which they last won in 1972.
Southampton have had a blistering start to the season and are currently second in the Premier League table after winning six of their opening nine league games.
Having never won the Capital One Cup, the Saints will be looking to defy the odds even further by reaching their first quarter-final in the tournament since 2003.
Team news
Stoke assistant manager Mark Bowen has revealed that defender Robert Huth could be out for a few weeks after picking up a calf injury in training.
Midfielder Glenn Whelan (leg) and striker Peter Odemwingie (ACL) are long-term absentees for the home side.
Southampton will be once again be without youngsters Sam Gallagher (knee) and James Ward-Prowse (ankle) for their trip to Staffordshire, while forward Jay Rodriguez is also still out with an ACL injury.
Fringe players Maya Yoshida, Florin Gardos and Victor Wanyama could be in line for a starting berth, with the trio struggling to break into the starting XI in the league due to the Saints' supreme form of late.

 AFCON jeopardy for Nigeria?

AFCON 2015 (Supplied)

Cape Town - Nigeria face another suspension from FIFA that would not be lifted until May, putting the country out of the running for a place at 2015 African Nations Cup finals.
The Jos High Court ruled last Thursday that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) elections on Sept. 30 that elected Amaju Pinnick president be declared null and void, throwing the country's football back into crisis.
After Nigeria were twice suspended this year for government interference in the NFF, FIFA confirmed in a letter to the NFF in the lead-up to their latest elections that more meddling would bring about an automatic suspension to run at least until FIFA's elective congress in May 2015.
Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Issa Hayatou had a meeting with Nigerian officials in Windhoek, Namibia on Saturday ahead of the final of the African Women's Championships that saw the Super Falcons defeat Cameroon.
Nigerian media reported Hayatou told sports minister Tammy Danagogo that unless the latest court order is reversed, FIFA will act on Monday. As yet, there have been no signs of that.
Justice Ambrose Allagoa ruled last week that the elective congress of the NFF on Sept. 30 should not be recognised as the Jos High Court had put in place 11 days earlier an order that the elections could not be held.
This injunction was brought by two members of the previous NFF executive led by Chris Giwa, which was stripped of its authority after elections that took it to power were deemed invalid by FIFA.
The court order was ignored by the NFF, which went ahead with their September 30 congress and the Pinnick-led executive was put in place.
Justice Allagoa has ruled, however, that the original injunction remains in place and therefore the Sept. 30 congress should not be recognised. 

F1 ready to power up in Austin again

F1 ready to power up in Austin again

F1 seeks to rekindle the feel-good factor after losing both Caterham and Marussia; Just eighteen cars on the grid this weekend in Austin

Daniel Ricciardo has hailed this weekend’s United States GP as the most exciting of the year, as the sport prepares to put its off-track angst behind it following a turbulent month that has seen not one but two teams fall by the wayside.
With Marussia joining Caterham in administration, and the sport still waiting anxiously for news of Jules Bianchi following the Frenchman's horror crash at Suzuka four weeks ago, F1's overdue return to sporting matters will be greeted with considerable relief.
Perhaps it's just as well then that the F1 fraternity won't be short of welcome distractions at a venue which has, in the space of three years since it first joined the calendar, already firmly established itself as one of the most popular events of the year. As Ferrari remarked on their website of a venue which only debuted in 2012, ‘The Circuit of the Americas became an instant hit’.
But it’s not just the teams, acutely aware of the potential gains to be garnered from the vast but relatively-untapped American market, who have readily appreciated F1’s return stateside.
"Austin is one of the best weekends of the year,” enthused Lewis Hamilton, the World Championship leader, in Mercedes pre-race preview. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, the only driver to beat Mercedes to victory this season, was even more effusive.
  Ted Kravitz claims that the biggest worry for Lewis Hamilton in Austin is not his teammate Nico Rosberg but the reliability of his car.
"Hand on heart, this is probably the date on the calendar I look forward to the most. I've loved every minute of being in Austin: when they picked this place for the US Grand Prix, they absolutely nailed it. The city is awesome. I love listening to live music and this is a great place for that, plus Texas feels like real America, and that's something I've really enjoyed just sinking into the last two seasons.
"And then, there's the important bit. The Circuit of the Americas, in my opinion, is the best of the new breed of circuits.”
While none of the drivers, passionate fans of COTA’s sweeping curves, are likely to quibble with Ricciardo’s assessment, there is another ‘important bit’ to the venue which will remain uppermost in the thoughts of the sport’s money-men this weekend. After suffering an interminable five-year absence as punishment for the PR disaster of Indianapolis 2005, Austin represents a critical foothold in a market that recent events suggest the sport needs to break more than ever.
“The U.S. is the biggest consumer market in the world and the largest global market for Mercedes-Benz; thanks to the race in Austin, we can see that the US is playing a bigger role in our sport, too, with greater interest and investment at many levels,” noted Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. “F1 has a passionate fan-base in the USA, which we can see growing all the time: the crowds at the first two races in Austin were absolutely mega, which is very encouraging for the future.”
The 18-car grid will the smallest entered since the 2005 Monaco GP and is expected to trigger a tweak to the qualifying format, with two sets of four cars dropping out in the first two segments.


At the front, it’s set to be business as usual with the Mercedes pair of Hamilton and Nico Rosberg fighting for victory in the next installment of their season-long battle for the drivers’ title.
“Crossing the line on Sunday in Sochi was a really amazing moment. To win the very first Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix and help the team achieve the first Constructors' Championship for Mercedes-Benz with a one-two finish - it couldn't have got much better,” said Hamilton. “When I went to the factories in Brackley and Brixworth the week afterwards, the atmosphere was just awesome. Everybody has worked so hard to achieve this title and they all deserve to savour the moment.
“Of course, we still have three races left to decide the Drivers' Championship - starting in Austin, which is one of the best weekends of the year. A lot of the American side of my family come to the race, plus I won the first ever Formula One Grand Prix at the circuit back in 2012, so it's a special one for me. I really enjoy going there and I'm looking forward to another great race - hopefully ending up with another Stetson hat on the top step of the podium!”

Djokovic already 'number one'

Novak Djokovic (AFP)

Paris - Novak Djokovic already feels 'number one' after becoming a father last week and says his battle with Roger Federer for the year-end top global ranking is no more than a luxury problem.
The 27-year-old Serb comes to the Paris Masters, which began on Monday, as defending champion but his lead at the top of the ATP rankings has been slashed to less than 500 points as the charging Federer looks to snatch another impressive milestone in an already glorious career.
With 2,500 points on offer at the year-ending tournaments in the French capital, closely followed by the World Tour Finals in London, both players have it all to play for.
However, the mild-mannered Djokovic says becoming a father has been the best moments of his life and while tennis is still a priority, it is now, not the only thing that counts.
"Honestly, the way I feel right now, I feel like I'm already number one with becoming a father last week," Djokovic said on Monday, referring to his wife Jelena giving birth to a baby boy Stefan.
"For me, this is the most important moment in my life. At this stage, for the tennis, of course Roger is playing some great tennis, and he showed that before the US Open and then, of course, winning Shanghai and played a great match against me in the semi-finals and now winning Basel," he added ahead of his opening match against German threat Philipp Kohlschreiber on Tuesday.
"So he's coming close in the rankings, and I'm sure that he's going to be very motivated to fight for number one, it's pretty much open.
"Of course it is, for both of us, the goal of number one, to finish the year as number one of the world. Of course it's a big objective. He has the Davis Cup final, but I'm sure that he would like to be number one as well."
Federer, fresh from his sixth win in Basel on Sunday and 82nd career ATP victory, is the form player on the Tour but a host of pretenders entertain their own hopes of lifting the title in Paris with an intriguing subplot set to develop as to who will book the final tickets to London.
Six players are chasing the final places in the round-robin season-ending finale at the O2 Arena, which begins on November 9.
Djokovic, Federer, Stan Wawrinka and Maric Cilic, as US Open champion, are assured of their spots while world number three Rafael Nadal is out for the season with appendicitis.
If Federer is the man to beat, and Djokovic world number one, Andy Murray, currently fifth in the Race to London, is again knocking on the top three door after a thrilling season-ending run.
The two-time Grand Slam winner saved five match points for the second time in less than a month on Sunday to defeat Spaniard Tommy Robredo and win the Valencia Open, his third title of the year.
Murray now needs to reach the quarter-finals at Bercy to guarantee a seventh straight appearance in the English capital.
"The other guys behind me will need to play extremely well in Paris to knock me out, so I've done everything I could," Murray said.
"I just kept fighting as hard as I could and it's going to stand me in good stead for the end of this year," added Murray.
"I knew I had to win matches at the start of the tournament to get there and I've won some important ones. I've given myself a good opportunity and a good chance.
Japan's Kei Nishikori, Czech Republic number one Thomas Berdych and David Ferrer of Spain hold the remaining places for the eight-man line-up in London, but Canadian Milos Raonic and big-serving Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov can still gatecrash the party.
The odds are stacked against them with Raonic needing to win his first Masters title to guarantee qualification while Dimitrov must at least reach the semi-finals to have a chance. 

Zambian President, Michael Sata Dies At 77

Michael Sata died at the King Edward VII hospital in London where he was undergoing treatment for an unspecified ailment

play

The President of Zambia, Michael Sata (pictured) is dead

 (AFP/Getty Images)

The President of Zambia, Michael Sata is dead.

Sata died on Tuesday, October 28, at the King Edward VII hospital in London where he was undergoing treatment for an unspecified ailment.

The 77-year-old ruler  took office in 2011 and was nicknamed"King Cobra" for his fiery tongue and larger-than-life personality.

A source told Reuters:

"It is true. We lost the President. The acting president will make a statement soon."

Sata’s passing was announced on the country's national radio and reported by the government-owned Zambia Daily Mail but an official cause of death has not been revealed.

Cabinet secretary Roland Msiska confirmed the death on state television saying:

"As you are aware the president was receiving medical attention in London."

"The head of state passed on in October 28. President Sata's demise is deeply regreted. The nation will be kept informed on burial arrangements."

Concerns had been raised over Sata's death since he disappeared from the public eye and even missed a United Nations meeting in September. He had been receiving treatment in the UK since October 19.

can you wait to be beaten to this level

hello if you are told to either be beaten like this and earn much money if yes click here and no click here

Photos Kwankwaso Declares Presidential Ambition

Kwankwaso made a formal announcement today at a rally in Abuja and is expected to contest on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC)

• Published: 28.10.2014
• 'Jola Sotubo

• Print
• eMail

• search

Image1 / 2

• 

  Kwankwaso Declares Presidential Ambition  The Nation 
• 

  Kwankwaso Declares Presidential Ambition  The Nation 
• play
  

  Heartbreaking Photos Of Ebola As Death Toll Rises To 4,033

Kano State Governor, Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso has declared his intention to run for the office of president in the 2015 elections.

Kwankwaso made a formal announcement today at a rally in Abuja and is expected to contest on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC)

He will go head to head with former military ruler, Muhammadu Buhari and ex-Vice President, Atiku Abubakar at the party’s primaries to win the sole ticket
.