Rodgers agrees to 'framework' of new deal at Liverpool

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has said that he has agreed to the 'framework' of a new deal to extend his contract at the club after the Premier League season ends.

Rodgers said that he has obviously been in discussions with the club and there is the framework of a deal in place, but he added that he always maintained that the deal would be signed at the end of the season.

According to the BBC, Rodgers said that he does not want anything to detract him from what has been a great season for Liverpool.

Rodgers' new contract reportedly rewards him for transforming Liverpool into Manchester City's closest rivals for the Premier League title after finishing seventh last season.

Liverpool currently trail City by two points in the Premier League table after they let slip a 3-0 lead at Crystal Palace on Monday to draw 3-3, the report added.

Rodgers' squad might still win the championship if they beat Newcastle United in their final Premier League clash and City loses to West Ham United in their title decider, the report further added.

Sharapova ousts Radwanska to meet Simona Halep in Madrid Open final

Russian ace Maria Sharapova has secured her place in the final of the Madrid Open for the second consecutive year and will face Romanian Simona Halep following their respective semi-final victories on Saturday.

The four-time Grand Slam champion has slowly begun to hit form in recent weeks on her return to clay conditions after a difficult start to the year.

According to Sport24, Sharapova stormed through the opening set against Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska for the loss of just 11 points and rounded off the match with a 6-1, 6-4 win in little over an hour.

The report mentioned that Halep ground out a hard-fought 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-2 victory within two-and-a-half hours over fifth seed Petra Kvitova from Czech Republic.

Rassoul Backs Abdullah for Afghan President After Coming Third

Zalmai Rassoul endorsed Abdullah Abdullah for the Afghan presidency after coming third in the preliminary results from the first round of the election.

The support comes following an agreement to build “national unity” and work together on the peace process, stability and economic development ofAfghanistan, Rassoul told reporters today in Kabul.

Abdullah, a former foreign minister, finished first with 45 percent of the votes, short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff, according to the April 5 poll results announced on April 26. Former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai came second with 32 percent, while Rassoul ranked third with less than 12 percent.

The endorsement comes after another presidential hopeful Gul Agha Sherzai, who served as governor in the Kandahar and Nangarhar provinces, backed Abdullah on May 3 in the second round of polls expected in early June.

“The endorsements would probably provide good news for Abdullah’s team,” Jawid Kohistani, a Kabul-based security and political analyst, said in a phone interview. “Both Rassoul and Sherzai are Pashtuns and can help Abdullah obtain votes from areas where Pashtun ethnicity is in majority.”

Rassoul obtained 53 percent of his votes from Kandahar, where most of the people are Pashtuns, while Ahmadzai secured 15 percent and Abdullah 11 percent in the province, according to the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan. Abdullah got most of his votes from areas where Tajiks and Hazaras are in the majority. Ahmadzai’s supporters were mostly Uzbeks and some Pashtuns.

Pashtuns account for 42 percent of Afghanistan’s 32 million people, while Tajiks make up 27 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook. Uzbeks and Hazaras each account for 9 percent, with other groups comprising the rest.

Iran won’t accept ‘nuclear apartheid’ - Rouhani

Tehran will never accept “nuclear apartheid” and its nuclear technology “is not up to negotiations,” Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said prior a new round of talks with the world powers.

"We have nothing to put on the table and offer to them but transparency. That's it. Our nuclear technology is not up for negotiation," Rouhani, referring to the West, said Sunday on state television. "Iran will not retreat one step in the field of nuclear technology... we will not accept nuclear apartheid."

Iran insists its program is aimed at boosting energy supplies and improving cancer treatment. Israel and Western countries led by the US however accuse Tehran of pursuing to build a nuclear warhead.

President Rouhani, who is viewed in the world as a more moderate leader than his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, faces pressure from hardline critics at home. On the other hand, the likes of the USA and Israel are skeptical that the Iranian President is looking to only develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

"We want to tell the world they cannot belittle the Iranian nation; they have to respect it," Rouhani stated.

However, he is looking to try and improve the country’s image abroad. "If one engages in a technological endeavor but is not doing good legal and political work, then the enemy might come up with a fictional excuse to cause trouble for you," he said.

The Islamic Republic's leaders normally use the term ‘the enemy’ to refer to the United States and Israel.

"If you don't have good public relations and are not able to communicate well, then you might find other evil-minded people misleading world public opinion," Rouhani said.

A monthly update by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in April said that Iran has cut its most sensitive stockpile of nuclear material by 75 percent, following a landmark deal agreed with the P5+1 group, which includes the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany last year.

The report by the IAEA shows that the Iranians have diluted half of their higher-grade enriched uranium reserve to a fissile content, from which they are less able to make fuel for a nuclear bomb. This has been refined to a 20 percent fissile purity into oxide for nuclear fuel, which is below the 90 percent purity needed for weapons-grade material.

The country has suffered heavily from US led sanctions, which has hit its oil dependent economy. However these have been eased over the last month, with Iran showing signs that it is cooperating with the IAEA. Tehran is gaining more access to blocked overseas funds. Japan has made two payments totaling US$1 billion, and South Korea has also made a payment for Iranian crude oil.

Following the report by the IAEA in April, the US has moved to release $450 million of frozen Iranian funds.

Europe declares Queen Conchita the Eurovision Song Contest winner

The 2014 Eurovision Song Contest has been won by Austria and Conchita Wurst. Her entry ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ stormed to victory picking up a multitude of ‘douze points’ from across the continent.

Austria won the Eurovision Song Contest with 290 points, a winning margin of 52 over second placed Netherlands with 238 and Sweden were third. The United Kingdom finished in a disappointing 17th place but scored 40 points. A big improvement on recent years.

It is a resounding victory for the Drag Queen, now crowned Queen Conchita of Eurovision if not of Europe. In three minutes, Conchita Wurst became the most famous Austrian musician since Mozart.

Despite calls from Russia and Ukraine for her entry to be blocked, even Russia gave her five points and Ukraine send eight points to Conchita.

Conchita Wurst delivered Austria’s second Eurovision Song Contest victory, the first since 1966. She was overcome with emotion before composing herself to give a victory speech of hope and love.

Abdusatar edhi says he is fine 11 may 2014.....fake news running on social media about his illness.

Karachi

Renowned social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi urged the people on Saturday not to pay any heed to the fake news running on social media about his illness.

He expressed these views during a media briefing held at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT). Director SIUT Dr Adib Rizvi, Faisal Edhi and Dr Tahir Aziz were also percent on the occasion.

Edhi requested the public not to pay any heed to such rumors, saying that spreading such misinformation was unethical. “I am fine and living a normal life and there is no authenticity in fake news on social media about my serious illness,” he said, adding, “I visit SIUT twice a week for my normal routine treatment of dialysis and am not admitted at the SIUT ICU or elsewhere.”

I see our daughters in Nigeria girls, says Michelle Obama

WASHINGTON  - US first lady Michelle Obama took the rare step of delivering President Barack Obama’s weekly radio address to express outrage over the kidnapping of some 200 girls by Boko Haram extremists in Nigeria last month, and paid tributes to Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai’s ‘courageous’ struggle for girls’ education.

The first lady, delivering her first solo White House weekly address, said the abduction triggered a personal reaction from her and USPresident Barack Obama. ‘In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters,’ Michelle Obama said in a video released on Saturday. ‘We see their hopes, their dreams and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now.’
The first lady said in her remarks, broadcast the day before Mother’s Day, that 65 million girls around the world are not in school. She tied the kidnappings by the Boko Haram extremists to separate efforts to keep young women in other parts of the world out of school, including the shooting of Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan by the Taliban.
‘The courage and hope embodied by Malala and girls like her around the world should serve as a call to action,’ Mrs Obama said. ‘Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I are outraged and heartbroken over the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls from their school dormitory in the middle of the night. ’This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education - grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls.’
 President Obama, she said, has directed the USgovernment to do everything possible to support the Nigerian government’s efforts to find these girls and bring them home.  ’In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters. We see their hopes, their dreams – and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now.’ Many of them may have been hesitant to send their daughters off to school, fearing that harm might come their way, she said. 
‘But they took that risk because they believed in their daughters’ promise and wanted to give them every opportunity to succeed. The girls themselves also knew full well the dangers they might encounter. Their school had recently been closed due to terrorist threats but these girls still insisted on returning to take their exams, Mrs. Obama noted.  They were so determined to move to the next level of their education so determined to one day build careers of their own and make their families and communities proud.’And what happened in Nigeria was not an isolated incident it’s a story we see every day as girls around the world risk their lives to pursue their ambitions. ’It’s the story of girls like Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan.  
‘Malala spoke out for girls’ education in her community and as a result, she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while on a school bus with her classmates. ’But fortunately Malala survived and when I met her last year, I could feel her passion and determination as she told me that girls’ education is still her life’s mission.  ’As Malala said in her address to the United Nations, she said ‘The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.’
Moreover, the UN Security Council expressed outrage at the abduction of hundreds of Nigerian school girls in two attacks by Islamist militants, demanding their immediate release and threatening to take action.
Boko Haram kidnapped more than 250 girls from a secondary school in Chibok in remote northeastern Nigeria on April 14 and has threatened to sell them into slavery, while eight girls were taken from another village earlier this week.

‘The members of the Security Council expressed their intention to actively follow the situation of the abducted girls and to consider appropriate measures against Boko Haram,’ the 15-member council, which includes Nigeria, said in a statement.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said the UN Security Council should act quickly to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist group. ‘We’re working with Nigeria in the U.N. Security Council to secure urgently needed U.N. sanctions on Boko Haram,’ Power posted on Twitter. ‘Must hold its murderous leaders to account.’
Boko Haram’s five-year-old insurgency is aimed at reviving a medieval Islamic caliphate in modern Nigeria, whose 170 million people are split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims, and it is becoming by far the biggest security threat to Africa’s top oil producer. The Security Council statement ‘demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all abducted girls still in captivity and further expressed their deep concern at statements made by the alleged leader of Boko Haram threatening to sell these girls as slaves.’
It also condemned the latest big Islamist attack in Nigeria, the killing of 125 people on Monday when gunmen rampaged through a town in the northeast near the Cameroon border.