Sin categoría

Real Madrid hopeful on Benzema recovery ahead of first leg against PSG

AFP

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said on Friday he is optimistic Karim Benzema can recover in time to play against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League Last 16 first leg match on Tuesday.

Benzema’s absence would be a huge blow to Real Madrid, given the Frenchman has scored 27 goals in 33 games for them so far this season.

He has missed Madrid’s last two matches with a hamstring injury and will also sit out Saturday’s visit to Villarreal in La Liga.

Ancelotti said the 34-year-old is still training alone and is expected to resume work with the team on either Sunday or Monday, ahead of the crunch first leg in Paris.

20260224_estafa_mh_728x90

“What we have are good feelings,” said Ancelotti in a press conference on Friday.

“He continues to work individually.

“We have to wait for him to start training with the team and he will do that on Sunday or Monday, then we will make the decision.

“So far I can’t say anything but the feelings of everyone — his, mine and those of the doctors — are good.”

Ancelotti said he would not push Benzema back before he is ready.

20260224_estafa_mh_728x90

“Risk does not exist. If we think that Karim can play, he will play safely. If there is even a minimal risk, he will not play,” Ancelotti said.

Madrid sit six points clear of Sevilla at the top of La Liga but this weekend face a resurgent Villarreal side, whose six wins in their last eight league games have propelled them back into contention for the top four.

Ancelotti said Ferland Mendy will not be available but should be back in time to play against PSG.

He added that Gareth Bale, who has not featured for Madrid since August, has impressed in training.

“My personal relationship with Bale is very good,” Ancelotti said.

20260224_estafa_mh_728x90

“Recently he has struggled a bit to be at his best physically but in the last few days I’ve seen a player training with intensity. From what I have seen, he is ready to play.”

Sin categoría

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.

20260224_estafa_mh_728x90

Sin categoría

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.”

Sin categoría

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.