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UEFA confirms Tottenham v Rennes match is off after Covid outbreak

AFP

European football’s governing body UEFA has confirmed that Tottenham’s Europa Conference League game with Rennes on Thursday is off after a coronavirus outbreak in the Spurs camp.

Tottenham announced on Wednesday that the Group G fixture would not take place after 13 players and members of staff tested positive for Covid-19 at the Premier League club.

French side Rennes, who had flown to London, said Spurs had made a “unilateral decision”.

But UEFA confirmed in a statement on Thursday the game would not go ahead, giving the organisation a headache over the rescheduling of the game.

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“We can confirm that the Tottenham-Rennes match will not take place tonight,” it said. “Further information will follow in due course.”

Rennes have already won Group G, while Tottenham are level on points with third-placed Vitesse Arnhem.

UEFA rules state there is a December 31 deadline for group games to be completed but it is understood there could be some room for manoeuvre as Spurs have a packed domestic schedule before then, while Rennes go on a winter break after December 22.

Tottenham boss Antonio Conte revealed on Wednesday that eight of his players and five members of staff tested positive for coronavirus and the first-team area of its training centre had been closed.

It has been reported that Tottenham are now considering asking for their Premier League match at Brighton on Sunday to be postponed.

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After the Brighton game, Spurs face top-flight fixtures against Leicester on December 16 and Liverpool on December 19.

Last season, Tottenham had matches against Aston Villa and Fulham postponed due to Covid outbreaks within the opposition camps.

“I think that I haven’t got to send a message to anyone because the situation is very clear,” Conte said of the potential for more of his team’s games to be postponed.

The Italian, who became Spurs manager last month, admitted the sudden outbreak had left his squad scared.

“To speak about football today is impossible. The last situation made me very upset,” he said.

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“The situation is serious. There is a big infection. Again at the end of the session, one player (tested) positive, another staff (member) positive. Tomorrow, who (will it be)?”

On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a wave of measures aimed at slowing the spread of the Omicron variant.

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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.