Cardiff boss Neil Warnock relishing visit of Manchester City
Neil Warnock is looking forward to welcoming ‘the best team in the world’ after seeing his Cardiff side beat Mansfield 4-1 in their FA Cup third round replay to set up a home clash with Manchester City in the next round.
A brace from Junior Hoilett, with further goals from Bruno Ecuele Manga and Anthony Pilkington saw the Bluebirds avoid a potential banana skin pretty comfortably in front of watching City boss Pep Guardiola at a bitterly cold Field Mill.
“They’re probably the best in the world at the moment, it’s great, and I think the fans deserve that as we have put a lot in this season,” said a jubilant Warnock. “It’s a great reward.
“It’s a great game now because we can’t lose whatever the result and it’s a great bonus for us. To be totally honest, if the draw had been different we would probably have been knocked out, but I decided to put out a virtual first team and we got our rewards.”
Warnock revealed he had to have a few words with his team at half-time after Stags striker Danny Rose matched Manga’s effort to send the teams in level at the break.
He continued: “I wasn’t too disappointed at half-time, we were just a little bit lethargic. We had one or two words, I didn’t raise my voice to them.
“I decided to put Hoilett through the middle as I thought we just needed that spark down there. It was a matter of changing a few things and getting the right result, and we did.
“It was hard, we were playing against a team who had lost once in 20-odd games, it doesn’t matter what division they’re in. And the way they play, you’re up against it every minute. You’ve got to play against these teams and compete and I thought in the second half we were super.
“Also, a big thank you to the fans tonight, that’s the coldest I have ever known it watching a game and to come all this way, well, great tribute to them and I hope they all get tickets for the City game.”
Angry Mansfield manager Steve Evans slammed referee Geoff Eltringham’s performance and admitted the result could have been very different if he had shown two-goal Hoilett a red rather than a yellow card for a bad lunge on Alex MacDonald in the first half.
“How they have not had a red card is beyond me,” he raged. “He’s been shocking tonight.
“If that’s not a red, I’m giving the game up. We wish Cardiff well. It’ll be a fantastic day. There won’t be challenges like that against Manchester City. It was a game changer, a cup-tie changer.
“We were by far the best side in the first half and it was harsh on us to only be level. We were dominating the second half until they got the second and then the third goal killed the tie.
“My players have been great, they have played well, and the officials have been rubbish.”
Tips for an easy childbirth
From years ago we heard tales of our mothers who gave birth like the Biblical Hebrew women. We heard tales of how they went into the labour room and came out in a few minutes or that they gave birth at home.
However, things seem to have changed. Childbirth should not be scary so here are ways to bring your little bundle of joy into this world with as little hassle as possible.
1. Work out
I can’t stress this enough. The more you keep fit, the more your body will be prepared for labour. Don’t say that our mothers didn’t engage in exercise. Remember that a good number of them farmed and did other chores late into their pregnancy so it helped.
2. Have a good support system
Bringing a child into this world shouldn’t be a one-woman job. You do the pushing but you need loved ones around you to cheer you up emotionally through pregnancy and when labour kicks in.
3. Read up/ join a support group
Know as much as you can about what is happening to your body. Read and join groups specially for pregnant women near you or online if none is available. Having an instructor will ease your worries and prepare you for labour.
4. Walk
When it finally happens, you might be tempted to stay put because of the increasing pain, but don’t. Walk around to help your cervix dilate, so that gravity can play its part.
5. Don’t wear yourself out
Once your contractions start, don’t wear yourself out by screaming, breathing deeply already or panicking. Stay calm and distract yourself with something else like cooking or a long shower. Why? Usually, labour can last 12 hours, so conserve your attention.
6. Watch what you eat
Eating junk can contribute to your baby’s size, making pushing difficult. Eat right. Drink lots of water and avoid fattening snacks.
Singer Waje lashes out on Nigerians using “curse words” – reason unknown
Nigerian singer Waje has stunned the airspace with her recent rant about Nigerians and the comments they drop on social media. Without pointing to any particular comment or incident, the singer lashed out on Nigerians with ill words.
She took to one of her social media outlets to invoke the law of Karma on Nigerians who consciously or unconsciously say hurtful things to people on social media. But you will agree with me that not only Nigerians do so. However, Waje was very particular about Nigerians. Obviously, she’s been hurt by certain comments but wouldn’t say. She wrote this;
“Nigerians deserve the insults from the rest of the world. We are a deceitful, manipulative, wicked, religious bunch. God help us! I read comments & wonder if we’re humans or fallen angels (demons would be harsh). May the day you want to be celebrated not be the day you’ll be cursed, cause of the seeds you have sown. After all, it’s just a comment abi?”
Surely the Coco Baby singer sounds hurt. But no one seems to be able to place where her words are coming from. But then, does she really have a point about Nigerians??? Are we really that bad or she’s just blurting hurtful words???
India woman fights family over 'low caste' husband's murder
In March 2016, a 22-year-old man was hacked to death in daylight on a crowded road in southern India for marrying a woman of a higher caste. His wife survived the attack and went on to testify against her parents and campaign against the scourge of caste, as the BBC's Soutik Biswas reports.
On the last day of his life, Shankar and Kausalya woke up around nine in the morning in their village hut. They had been married eight months.
It was Sunday, and they travelled in a public bus to a local market in Udumalpet, some 14km (8.6 miles) away. They wanted to shop for new clothes for Shankar, who had to attend a function at his college the next day.
The sun was beating down hard when they entered a clothes shop. She spotted a pink shirt and thought her husband would look good in it. As they walked out, Shankar spotted a mannequin in the shop window wearing a green shirt.
"I think I like this shirt better," he said.
Casual murder
They walked back in again, exchanged the pink for the green, stepped out of the shop and began crossing a crowded road on their way back to take a bus home. But first, Shankar told Kausalya, he would like to treat her to her favourite chilli snack.
"Another day," Kausalya said.
She had only sixty rupees (94 cents; 68p) in her purse, and they couldn't afford it. So they decided to return home, where Shankar promised to cook her a special meal.
CCTV footage showed the couple walking briskly towards the road. But before they could cross, five men, riding on two bikes, halted behind them. Four of the men sauntered up to the couple and attacked them with long knives. The casualness with which the murderers fell upon them was chilling. They slashed the couple as if they were pruning bushes.
Bleeding profusely, Shankar scrambled to run away. Kausalya limped towards a stationary SUV, when she was felled again by her assailants.
It was all over in 36 seconds. The men returned to their motorcycles and left leisurely as a crowd began to collect. (The police later found six people came on three bikes, two bearing false number plates. Five of them attacked the couple, while one man kept watch.)
An ambulance arrived soon and scooped the couple off the blooded-slicked tarmac. On the way to the hospital, 60km away, the medic inexplicably sat in the front seat. On the metal stretcher, Kausalya, her vision blurring, held the IV drip. Shankar lay still.
"Rest your head on my chest," he rasped. Kausalya moved to his side.
Minutes later, as the ambulance entered the hospital, Shankar stopped breathing.
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Autopsy surgeons found 34 cuts and stab wounds on Shankar's "moderately nourished body". He had died of "shock and haemorrhage due to multiple cuts and stab injuries".
Kausalya spent 20 days in the hospital, her face swathed in bandages, and waiting for 36 stitches to heal and a bone fracture to repair. She told the police from the hospital bed that her parents were responsible for the attack.
"Why did you love him?" one of the attackers kept shouting as he stabbed her. "Why?"
Shankar and Kausalya had broken what writer Arundhati Roy, in her Booker-prize winning novel, The God of Small Things, described as "Love Laws" that "lay down who should be loved … And how … And how much".
Shankar was a Dalit (formerly known as untouchable), and the son of a landless daily wage farm worker, who lived in a single room hut with four family members in Kumaralingam village. Kausalya came from a relatively influential Thevar caste, the daughter of a 38-year-old money lender and taxi operator, who lived in a two-storey house in Palani, a small town.
When she told her parents she wanted to become an air-hostess, they rejected the idea "saying I would have to wear short skirts." After she finished school in 2014, they took her to a family temple to meet men they wanted her to marry. When she refused, they sent her to her a private college to study computer science and engineering.
She hated college. "There were too many restrictions. We could not venture outside the campus. We could not talk to the boys. Male and female students sat separately in the classroom. On the college bus, we sat in different sections. If the security saw us talking to the boys, they would inform our parents. It was very stifling."
'Respectful friends'
But love can happen even in the unlikeliest of places. At the college freshers function, a lanky engineering student walked up to her, introduced himself as Shankar and asked her, "Are you in love with anyone?"
Kausalya says she didn't answer and walked away, feeling embarrassed.
The next day, Shankar went up to her and qualified the unanswered question: "Are you in love with anyone because I think I love you." She slunk away again.
On the third day, when Shankar again walked up to her, she told him to "look for another girl". "People will know if we go out. It will be difficult to know you," she said.
She began warming to him slowly though. Shankar had stopped telling her that he loved her, so "we behaved like "respectful friends". "I also didn't tell him I loved him, but over time it crept up on me".
It was hard-earned love. Since she couldn't step outside her home alone to speak on the phone, they exchanged WhatsApp messages on their college bus rides. Every day, for 18 months, they exchanged texts. They spoke about their hopes and dreams.
"I have two dreams," he texted her one day. "Build a proper house for the family. And love you forever."
In her second year, she signed up for Japanese language classes, so she could stay beyond college hours and take a public bus home. Shankar would wait for her, and they began chatting on the bus.
But one day in July 2015 the bus conductor saw them chatting, found out where Kausalya lived and informed her mother. The same evening, her parents took away her phone, called up Shankar and warned him to stay away from their daughter. They told her that Shankar would "make her pregnant and run away". The next day, they took her out of college.
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She cried all night and woke up next morning in an empty house - her parents had gone out. She looked for her phone, found it, and called Shankar to tell him about the fight with her parents. She asked him whether he planned to make her pregnant and run away.
"If you feel that way, we can run away right now, and get married," Shankar said.
Kausalya packed a bag, left home and went to the local bus stop. The next day, on 12 July 2015, they went to a temple and got married. Then they went to the local police station, reported their inter-caste marriage and sought protection. Dalits and tribes-people bear the brunt of caste brutality in Tamil Nadu: there were more than 1,700 reported crimes against them that year alone.
The next eight months, says Kausalya, were "the freest, happiest time" of her life. She moved to Shankar's hut - which they shared with his father, two brothers and his grandmother - dropped out of college, and began work as a salesgirl, earning a monthly salary of 5,000 rupees.
Her parents and relatives tried hard to separate them: they filed a police complaint saying Shankar had kidnapped their daughter; and a week after her marriage, abducted her and took her to shamans and priests who smeared ash on her face and force-fed her potions, pressuring her to leave her husband. Exhausted, they finally gave up and Shankar took her home. Then her parents offered Shankar a million rupees to leave Kausalya.
A week before the murder, Kausalya says, her parents visited their home and ordered her to come with them. She refused to budge.
'We are not responsible'
"If something happens to you after today, we are not responsible," her father told her, before leaving.
Police found Kausalya's father had hired five men with previous criminal records for 50,000 rupees to kill his daughter and son-in-law in broad daylight "to send out a public message" about what happens when a woman falls in love with a lower-caste man.
There were 120 witnesses to the murder. Kausalya herself opposed the bail of her parents 58 times in the court. "My mother threatened me repeatedly that she would kill me. She told me I was better off dead than married to him," Kausalya told the judge.
In December, Judge Alamelu Natarajan sentenced six men, including Kausalya's father, to death. Her mother was acquitted along with two others. Kausalya is set to appeal against the acquittal, as she believes her mother was equally guilty.
There was a time after Shankar's murder, she said, she would break down frequently, and wanted to take her life. Then she cut her hair short, began learning karate, and reading books on caste. She began meeting anti-caste groups and speaking out against caste crimes. She also learned to play the parai, a drum traditionally played by Dalits.
Today, she has realised Shankar's dream by constructing a four-room house for his family from the compensation she received from the government, and started a tuition centre for poor students in the village. To run the family, she has taken a clerk's job in a government office. At weekends, she travels all over Tamil Nadu, speaking at meetings against caste, honour killings and emphasising the "importance of love".
"Love is like water, it is a natural thing," she says. "Love happens. And women have to revolt against the caste system, if it has to be stopped." Many don't like her campaign and post death threats on her Facebook wall, so she has been given police security.
After Shankar died, doctors handed his phone over to her. It contains many fond memories of their courtship.
"I don't know what to say, but I miss you," Shankar had texted her on a summer evening in 2015.
"Me too," she had replied.
This story is the last of a series about Indian women fighting for equality
Princess Eugenie has described the proposal from her long-term boyfriend Jack Brooksbank as a "perfect moment".
The Queen's granddaughter said it was a "complete surprise" when Mr Brooksbank got down on one knee in front of a volcano as the sun was setting in Nicaragua earlier this month.
The princess told BBC's The One Show that she cried and was "over the moon".
The wedding will take place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in the autumn.
It will be the second royal wedding at the chapel this year - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are due to marry there in May.
Princess Eugenie said the couple were looking over a lake while the sun was setting before the proposal.
She said: "The lake was so beautiful. The light was just a special light I had never seen. I actually said this is an incredible moment, and then he popped the question, which was really surprising even though we have been together seven years.
"I was over the moon.
"[It was a] complete surprise. But it was the perfect moment, we couldn't be happier."
Mr Brooksbank said: "It was amazing."
The princess met the former manager of Mayfair club Mahiki on a skiing trip.
"We met when I was 20 and Jack was 24 and fell in love," she said. "We have the same passions and drive for life."
Mr Brooksbank said it was "love at first sight".
"I love Eugenie so much and we are just so happy and over the moon for what is to come," he said.
The princess added: "Granny actually knew right at the beginning [of the engagement]. She was very happy as was my grandfather."
Engagement pictures of the couple, taken in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace, were released following the announcement.
In the photographs, Princess Eugenie is wearing a dress by Erdem, shoes by Jimmy Choo and a ring containing a padparadscha sapphire surrounded by diamonds.
Mr Brooksbank said: "I found a ring in a jewellers and then proposed to Eugenie without it and came back and we designed the diamonds around this padparadscha sapphire.
"And what's amazing about it is that it changes colour from every different angle that you look at it, which is what I think of Eugenie.
"That she changes colour and is just so amazing.
What is a padparadscha sapphire?
The padparadscha is a rare pink-orange sapphire and is usually found in Sri Lanka.
The Natural Sapphire company said the gem was named after the colour of a lotus blossom.
Princess Eugenie's ring is similar in shape and design to her mother's engagement ring, which had a red ruby as the central stone.
Twenty-seven-year-old Eugenie is the second daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York, and is eighth in line to the throne.
She will keep her royal title when she marries Mr Brooksbank and will have the option to take his surname.
The princess works in the arts as a director at gallery Hauser and Wirth.
In a series of tweets, Sarah Ferguson congratulated her daughter and her fiancé, calling the announcement "Total joy!".
US shutdown to end as Senate strikes deal
The US government partial shutdown is set to end after Senate Republicans and Democrats voted to approve a temporary funding bill.
Senator Chuck Schumer said Democrats would support the bill if Republicans addressed a programme that shields young immigrants from deportation.
Democrats refused to vote for the bill unless they secured protections for recipients of the Obama-era programme.
Mr Schumer said the three-day shutdown was expected to end in a few hours.
"We will vote today to re-open the government to continue negotiating a global agreement," Mr Schumer said.
He lambasted President Donald Trump for failing to help reach a bipartisan deal, adding that he had not spoken with him since a meeting on Friday before the shutdown began.
"The great deal-making president sat on the sidelines," Mr Schumer said.
The New York senator said he was hopeful about talks on so-called Dreamers, more than 700,000 young immigrants brought to the US as children who were protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) programme.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said his party intended to consider legislation "that would address Daca, border security and related issues, as well as disaster relief".
"We need to move forward and the first step, the very first step, is ending the shutdown," Mr McConnell said.
What happens next?
The Senate voted to advance the bill 81-18. Though the impasse is over, the upper chamber still has to grant final approval of the bill and send it back to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass.
The continuing resolution provides funding to keep the government open temporarily in the hope that Congress can reach a permanent funding agreement before the 8 February deadline.
Who emerges as the victor?
Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington
The shutdown is over, but the immigration and budget battles rage on. Both sides will try to claim victory, with varying degrees of success.
Republicans are thrilled that - unlike past shutdown fights - they emerged relatively unscathed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised an open debate and vote on protections for so-called Dreamers, but in reality that could go by the wayside if, three weeks hence, Democrats force another shutdown.
Democrats, on the other hand, can claim that they took a confrontational stand - at least for a few days - on an issue dear to their base's heart. Whether that's enough to satisfy the progressive hard-liners and grassroots activists is in doubt, however. A key tell is that nearly every 2020 presidential hopeful among their number voted against re-opening. For them, Mr McConnell's guarantees are written in sand.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump was largely sidelined through the process. Democrats, and even some Republicans, complained he was impossible to pin down and unclear about his priorities. Still, a few days out of the spotlight may not have been all bad.
The American public will probably forget this long-weekend shutdown before too long. The next fight, lo
Man 'wanted to kill Muslims in van attack
A man accused of driving a van into a crowd of people near a London mosque wanted to kill as many Muslims as he could, Woolwich Crown Court has heard.
Darren Osborne, 48, is accused of ploughing into a crowd of worshippers in Finsbury Park, killing Makram Ali, 51, and injuring nine others last year.
The court heard he became "obsessed" with Muslims and the Rochdale grooming scandal after watching a BBC TV drama.
Mr Osborne, from Cardiff, denies charges of murder and attempted murder.
Opening the trial, prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said Mr Osborne had driven a Luton box van from Cardiff to London on 18 June.
He then deliberately targeted crowds in Finsbury Park at about 00:15 BST on 19 June, he added.
The area was busy with worshippers attending Ramadan prayers at the time, Mr Rees told the court.
Mr Osborne was seeking "to kill someone merely because of their religion," he added.
'Obsessed' with Muslims
Mr Osborne's partner, Sarah Andrews, said he had become "obsessed" with Muslims in the weeks leading up to the incident, having watched the BBC drama Three Girls about the Rochdale grooming scandal.
"He seemed brainwashed and totally obsessed with the subject," she said in a statement, read out in court.
Ms Andrews - who had been in a relationship with Mr Osborne for about 20 years and had four children with him - said he became a "ticking time-bomb" before the alleged attack, Mr Rees added.
She described Mr Osborne as a "loner and a functioning alcoholic" with an "unpredictable temperament", he said.
During the weekend prior to the attack, the defendant was heard "preaching racial hatred" in a pub, Mr Rees said.
He allegedly told a soldier in the pub: "I'm going to kill all the Muslims, Muslims are all terrorists. Your families are all going to be Muslim. I'm going to take it into my own hands."
Devices seized from Mr Osborne's home showed internet searches for Britain First and the English Defence League, the court heard.
Police also found a video - believed to be fake - showing Muslims celebrating following the Paris terror attack.
Ms Andrews told police Mr Osborne had been reading posts by form EDL leader Tommy Robinson on Twitter.
Note in van
A handwritten note, found in the van used in the attack, complained about terrorists on the streets and the Rotherham child exploitation scandal, Mr Rees told the jury.
The note allegedly referred to Muslim people as "feral" and called Muslim men "rapists" who were "preying on our children", the jury heard.
One part read: "Don't people get it, this is happening up and down our Green and pleasant land.
"Ferrel [feral] inbred raping muslim men hunting in packs preying on our children, this will be coming to a town near you soon, it most probably has, get back to the desert, you raping inbred bastards & climb back on ya camels."
The note ended: "Well Folkes gotta go busy day today. Remember peaceful vigils only & please dont look back in anger, God Save the Queen."
It also branded Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn a "terrorist sympathiser" and attacked London Mayor Sadiq Khan and singer Lily Allen, the prosecutor added.
Mr Rees said: "The underlying theme seems to be that the defendant felt that insufficient was being said or done to counter terrorism and the grooming gangs comprising predominantly Muslim males.
"Against that background, the defendant decided to take matters into his own hands."
Prosecutors believe Mr Osborne had been planning to target an Al Quds Day march in London, organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, on 18 June.
Mr Osborne is believed to have asked a black cab driver for directions to Grosvenor Square, the destination of the marchers, the court heard.
Mr Rees added: "We are not able to say quite how close the defendant came to the marchers or Grosvenor Square, although it seems likely the defendant was prevented from carrying out an attack because of the road closures that were put in place."
Instead, he said Mr Osborne travelled to Forest Hill, south London, at around 20:00, and asked a man where the nearest mosque was.
He was told there was none in the area and travelled north, stopping to ask a motorist the directions to Finsbury Park.
The driver allowed the defendant to follow him and he arrived in the Finsbury Park area at just before 23:30, Mr Rees added.
'Definitely alive'
Mr Rees told the court the alleged attack was "particularly horrific" because the group had gathered in the street to help Mr Ali, who had collapsed minutes earlier.
Several of those who went to help Mr Ali said he was "definitely alive" and conscious in the moments before being struck.
Mr Osborne planned to make "a public statement by killing Muslims", knowing that his handwritten note would be recovered, Mr Rees added.
Although Mr Osborne was not charged with a terrorist offence, Mr Rees said "the note and the comments he made after his detention establish that this act of extreme violence was, indeed, an act of terrorism"
