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Bale wants World Cup to round off 100-cap journey with Wales

AFP

Gareth Bale said he wants to round off “an incredible journey” by taking Wales to a first World Cup since 1958 as he prepares to win his 100th cap against Belarus on Saturday.

The Real Madrid forward became the then youngest player to appear for his country in May 2006 when making his debut in a friendly against Trinidad and Tobago aged just 16.

More than 15 years on, Bale will become the second Welshman after Chris Gunter to reach a century of caps after recovering from a hamstring tear that has kept him out for the past two months.

“It has been an incredible journey and one that started very young,” said the 32-year-old, the country’s record scorer with 36 goals.

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“To get 100 caps will personally be an incredible achievement and one you never think about when you start out.

“We have been through the lows when I first joined to grow Welsh football, to try to put it on the right path and inspire the generations coming through. We have done a great job and hopefully there is more to come.”

A four-time Champions League winner at Madrid, Bale has also led his country to two European Championships, including a run to the semi-finals in 2016.

But he admitted playing at a World Cup remains a glaring omission on his sparkling CV.

“The World Cup is something at the top of everyone’s list,” he said. “It is the next thing we want to do — the thing we haven’t done before.

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“As much as I will enjoy hopefully getting the 100th cap, the most important thing is the game and not the occasion.”

Wales are guaranteed a World Cup qualifying playoff spot in March due to their Nations League success.

But they could make life easier for themselves with positive results at home to Belarus and Belgium, whom they play on Tuesday, in their final two qualifiers.

Four points would be enough to secure second place in Group E and home advantage in their playoff semi-final.

Two wins would even secure automatic qualification in the unlikely event Belgium lose at home to Estonia.

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FBI Most Wanted Fugitive Arrested in Mexico and Deported to U.S.

Authorities in Mexico announced Thursday that Samuel Ramírez Jr., a U.S. citizen accused of murdering two women and listed among the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, was arrested in the northern state of Sinaloa.

Ramírez Jr., 33, was detained Tuesday in Culiacán just 1 hour and 13 minutes after being added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Ten Most Wanted list, the agency said in a statement.

The suspect, who was born in California, has already been deported to the U.S. state of Washington, where he faces charges related to the fatal shooting of two women at a bar in Federal Way in May 2023.

A court issued an arrest warrant for Ramírez in November last year, and the FBI initially offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to his capture, later increasing the amount to up to $1 million.

“To protect individuals’ privacy and ensure continued cooperation from the public, the FBI does not confirm the identity of those who provide information,” the agency said in its statement.

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UN experts warn Nicaragua runs vast transnational network to monitor exiled dissidents

Nicaragua maintains an “extensive” transnational network to monitor and intimidate opposition figures living in exile, affecting “hundreds of thousands” of people, the United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua warned on Tuesday.

In a statement, the experts said their report “details an extensive transnational architecture of surveillance and intelligence used to monitor, intimidate and attack the hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans living abroad.”

The report, which will be presented on March 16 to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, states that the structure maintained by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo includes the army, the police, migration authorities and diplomatic missions.

According to the statement, “the government has arbitrarily stripped 452 Nicaraguans of their nationality, left thousands more exiled in a situation of de facto statelessness, and prevented many from returning to Nicaragua.”

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Trump: ‘We Think It’s True’ Amid Claims Iran’s Supreme Leader Was Killed

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he believes multiple reports claiming the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the U.S. and Israeli offensive against the Islamic Republic are likely true, though he stopped short of confirming the news.

“We have a feeling that the information is correct,” he said, according to NBC News. “I don’t want to say anything definitive until I see it, but we think that’s the case. And many of their leaders have disappeared,” he added.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were “many indications” that Khamenei had died in an attack on his residential compound.