Foot: Aston Villa inflige à Arsenal (2-1) sa deuxième défaite de la saison

La course au titre en Premier League a été relancée par la défaite du leader Arsenal, sa deuxième seulement cette saison, samedi à Aston Villa (2-1) à l’issue d’un sommet palpitant et indécis jusqu’à l’ultime seconde.Emiliano Buendia a inscrit le but vainqueur dans la dernière action (90e+4) de l’affiche disputée à Villa Park. L’Argentin permet au club de Birmingham (2e, 30 pts) de revenir à trois points des Gunners (33 pts).Manchester City (3e, 28 pts) peut se rapprocher à deux longueurs du leader en cas de victoire samedi après-midi contre Sunderland.Arsenal n’avait perdu qu’une seule fois cette saison, il y plus de trois mois à Liverpool, et restait depuis sur 18 matches sans défaite (3 nuls et 15 victoires), toutes compétitions confondues.La machine des Gunners ralentit puisqu’elle a engrangé 8 points sur 15 possibles dans les cinq derniers matches de championnat.A l’inverse, Aston Villa tourne à plein régime. Cela fait désormais neuf victoires sur ses dix derniers matches de championnat pour l’équipe d’Unai Emery, la treizième en quinze matches toutes compétitions confondues.L’entraîneur espagnol a gagné la bataille contre son ancien club à l’issue d’un sommet de haute intensité, riche en qualité technique et en science tactique, disputé sur un rythme élevé avec de nombreuses occasions de but à la clé.Privé de trois défenseurs centraux (Gabriel, Saliba, Mosquera), Arsenal s’est fait attaquer comme rarement cette saison et David Raya a dû s’employer devant Ollie Watkins (10e, 65e) notamment.Le gardien s’est incliné sur un centre repris en force au second poteau par Cash et passé entre ses jambes (1-0, 36e).Son homologue Emiliano Martinez a aussi eu beaucoup de travail, surtout à cause de Bukayo Saka, dans tous les bons coups: un bon tir (14e), un centre repris par Ben White (42e) et un autre que Trossard, entré à la mi-temps, est venu couper pour égaliser (1-1, 52e).Raya s’est incliné dans les ultimes secondes du match sur un tir de Buendia, un entrant, à l’issue d’une action confuse où la défense d’Arsenal a contré plusieurs fois le ballon, en vain.

Hong Kong: convocation des représentants des médias internationaux

L’agence de sécurité nationale chinoise à Hong Kong a convoqué samedi des représentants des médias internationaux pour une “conférence réglementaire”, accusant certains d’entre eux d’avoir récemment diffusé de fausses informations et diffamé le gouvernement dans leurs reportages sur un incendie meurtrier fin novembre et les législatives prévues dimanche.Des journalistes de plusieurs grands médias opérant dans …

Hong Kong: convocation des représentants des médias internationaux Read More »

Merz appelle l’Autorité palestinienne à des réformes, peu avant sa première visite en Israël

Le chancelier allemand Friedrich Merz a appelé samedi, peu avant d’entamer sa première visite en Israël, le président palestinien Mahmoud Abbas à mettre en oeuvre des “réformes urgemment nécessaires” pour pouvoir “jouer un rôle constructif” dans la bande de Gaza après la guerre.Dans la conversation téléphonique qu’il a eue avec M. Abbas, M. Merz a …

Merz appelle l’Autorité palestinienne à des réformes, peu avant sa première visite en Israël Read More »

Un salon de thé bombardé en Birmanie: 18 personnes tuées, selon des témoins

Dix-huit personnes ont été tuées lors d’une frappe aérienne sur une ville du centre de la Birmanie, ont indiqué samedi quatre habitants à l’AFP. Dix-huit personnes sont mortes et 20 autres ont été blessées lorsque deux bombes ont été larguées sur le canton de Tabayin, dans l’État de Sagaing, vendredi soir, a déclaré un responsable du …

Un salon de thé bombardé en Birmanie: 18 personnes tuées, selon des témoins Read More »

Sri Lanka unveils cyclone aid plan as rains persist

Disaster-hit Sri Lanka has unveiled a major compensation package to rebuild homes damaged by a deadly cyclone, even as the island prepared on Saturday for further landslides and flooding.The government has confirmed 611 deaths, with another 213 unaccounted for and feared dead, in what President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has called the country’s most challenging natural disaster.The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) issued fresh landslide warnings in several areas of the worst-affected Central Province, with the northeast monsoon gathering over the island and bringing more rain.More than two million people — nearly 10 percent of the population — have been affected by last week’s floods and landslides, the worst this century.Survivors will be offered up to 10 million rupees ($33,000) to buy land in a safer location and build a new house, the finance ministry said in a statement late on Friday.They will also receive livelihood support, including cash to pay for children’s school books, kitchen appliances, bedding and rent if they are not given accommodation by the state.The government did not say how much the bold package would cost, a concern given the country’s recent economic turbulence. A senior official earlier said recovery and reconstruction might cost up to $7 billion.The central bank has ordered commercial banks, both state-owned and private, to reschedule loans of affected people and not to impose penalties on defaulting borrowers.The government is also offering one million rupees in compensation for each person killed or left permanently disabled.The DMC said nearly 75,000 homes were damaged, including close to 5,000 that were completely destroyed by last week’s disasters.Around 150,000 people remain in state-run shelters, down from a peak of 225,000.The air force said it was still using helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft on Saturday to supply communities cut off by landslides in the centre of the country.- IMF request -The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday it was considering Sri Lanka’s request for an additional $200 million, on top of the $347 million tranche the country was already due to receive this month.”The IMF remains closely engaged with the Sri Lankan authorities… and is committed to supporting the country,” the Washington-based lender said.Cyclone Ditwah devastated swathes of Sri Lanka as it was emerging from its severe 2022 economic crisis, following a four-year, $2.9 billion bailout loan agreed with the IMF in early 2023.Dissanayake told parliament on Friday that Sri Lanka’s economy had made a significant recovery, but was not strong enough to withstand the latest shock alone.Despite assistance from the military and volunteers in flooded communities, fresh rains have hampered clean-up operations.Residents evacuated from the landslide-prone central hills have been told not to return immediately, even if their homes were unaffected by the slips.

Venezuela’s Machado vows to make Nobel Peace Prize ceremony

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has vowed to go to Norway to pick up her Nobel Peace Prize, defying a warning from Caracas that she would be a fugitive if she did so.The head of the Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, told AFP on Saturday that Machado — who lives in hiding in her country — promised him she would make the ceremony, which is to take place in Oslo on Wednesday.”I was in contact with Machado last night (Friday) and she confirms that she will be in Oslo for the ceremony,” Kristian Berg Harpviken said.”Given the security situation, we cannot say more about the date or how she will arrive,” he said.He added, on NRK radio, that “nothing is ever 100-percent sure, but this is as certain as it can possibly be”.Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, told AFP last month that Machado, 58, would be considered a “fugitive” if she travelled to Norway to accept the peace prize, which she was awarded on October 10.The December 10 date of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony coincides with the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite who left most of his fortune to be used for prizes for people who have brought “the greatest benefit” to humanity.Opposition activism in Venezuela has been muted since the arrest of some 2,400 people during protests that followed the most recent reelection of President Nicolas Maduro in July 2024.Machado has accused Maduro of stealing the election which she was banned from standing in, a claim backed by much of the international community.Machado, in hiding since August 2024, is a supporter of US President Donald Trump who himself has long coveted the prestigious Nobel peace award. Trump and so far been unsuccessful, despite intense lobbying on his behalf.Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, Trump has insisted that he deserved the Nobel for his role in resolving numerous conflicts.- ‘Decisive support’ -The White House even lashed out at the Norwegian Nobel Committee after it gave the award to Machado, claiming it had placed “politics over peace”.However, Machado swiftly dedicated her award not only to the “suffering people of Venezuela”, but also to the US president who, she said, had lent “decisive support of our cause”.”More than ever we count on President Trump,” she wrote on X.Trump has since became the recipient of a different peace prize: one created by the world football association FIFA and handed to him at the 2026 World Cup draw Friday.A smiling Trump called the award “truly one of the great honours of my life”, and claimed again that “we saved millions and millions of lives”.Machado agrees with Washington’s assessment that Maduro heads a drug cartel, and has welcomed a beefed-up US military presence in the region, which has seen strikes on alleged drug boats.Trump’s administration insists it is effectively at war with alleged “narco-terrorists”. But Maduro has accused Washington of using drug trafficking as a pretext for “imposing regime change” in Caracas.Maduro has rejected a “slave’s peace” for the region, amid mounting fears of US military action against his country.The months-long US military campaign has so far killed at least 87 people dead in more than 20 strikes, including a “double-tap” strike in which two men clinging to the wreckage of their vessel were killed.