Wahbi Khazri Tunisia midfielder gets Cup nod despite sprain

The 25-year-old Sunderland player picked up the knock during a 1-0 friendly loss Sunday against Egypt.

 

Tunisian international midfielder Wahbi Khazri has been given the green light for the Africa Cup of Nations despite an ankle sprain, team doctors said Monday.

The 25-year-old Sunderland player picked up the knock during a 1-0 friendly loss Sunday against Egypt in Cairo and was stretchered off with his head in his hands.

"It's not a serious injury. It's a benign ankle sprain, he will be in the team" in Gabon, said team doctor Souheil Chemli on the Tunisian football federation's website.

Tunisia kick off their Cup of Nations campaign on Sunday against Senegal with Henryk Kasperczak's side also taking on Zimbabwe and Algeria in Group B.

Tunisia are making an unparallelled 13th consecutive appearance in the tournament, but have only won it once, when they hosted in 2004.

Kasperczak took them to second place 21 years ago during a previous spell in charge.

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In Egypt Govt detains Jazeera reporter over 'fake news'

It was the latest move against the Qatar-based broadcaster which Egypt accuses of supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt has ordered the detention for 15 days of an Al-Jazeera journalist accused of incitement and fabricating news, a prosecution official said on Sunday.

It was the latest move against the Qatar-based broadcaster which Egypt accuses of supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

Egyptian Mahmoud Hussein, 51, flew to Cairo on Tuesday for a family holiday but was stopped and interrogated at the airport for several hours before being released.

On Friday, police raided his Cairo home and arrested him. He was questioned again on Saturday and Sunday, when prosecutors decided to hold him for 15 days.

The prosecution official said Hussein would be held "pending an investigation into accusations that he incited against the state and broadcast fake news and documentaries".

The interior ministry confirmed the accusations in a statement posted on its Facebook page.

It said Hussein was implicated in an Al-Jazeera "plot" aimed at "fomenting discord and inciting against state institutions... and broadcasting false news as well as fabricated news reports and documentaries".

In November, Al-Jazeera broadcast a documentary called "The Soldiers" in which former conscripts spoke about compulsory military service in Egypt, drawing criticism from the media.

Al-Jazeera Managing Director Yasser Abu Hilalah denounced Hussein's arrest in remarks broadcast by the news channel.

"Mahmoud Hussein was on a visit to his country and was not working for Al-Jazeera at the time," he said, adding that the arrest "will not stop Al-Jazeera from its professional role".

"We will continue to cover Egypt and we don't succumb to pressure," he said.

Egypt provoked international condemnation in 2013 when it arrested three Al-Jazeera journalists, including a Canadian and an Australian, and sentenced them to jail on similar accusations.

They were later released.

Their arrest, months after the military overthrew Morsi who had been backed by Qatar, coincided with a massive crackdown on his supporters and the Muslim Brotherhood being blacklisted.

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Jammeh Gambia's President accuses regional bloc of declaring war

The Gambia's top court said last month it was adjourning until January 10 a case filed by Jammeh to annul the vote results.

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has accused the West African regional bloc ECOWAS of declaring war after demanding that he stand down following his defeat at the ballot box.

Regional leaders warned last month that the 15-member ECOWAS would "take all necessary action to enforce the results" of the December 1 poll.

Jammeh retorted in a New Year's speech on Saturday night that the ECOWAS summit decision was "totally illegal" as it violated the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states.

"It is in effect a declaration of war and an insult to our constitution. It is therefore absolutely unacceptable," said Jammeh.

"Let me make very clear that we are ready to defend the country against any aggression and there will be no compromise on this."

Opposition leader Adama Barrow was declared the winner of the ballot in the former British colony and Jammeh -- in power for 22 years -- initially conceded defeat.

But he reversed his decision a week later, condemning "unacceptable errors" by election authorities and calling for a new election.

The Gambia's top court said last month it was adjourning until January 10 a case filed by Jammeh to annul the vote results.

Jammeh's stance has stoked international concerns about the future of the small west African country, with the UN joining African leaders in calling for him to allow Barrow to take the oath of office as scheduled on January 19.

But the 51-year-old strongman has remained defiant.

"Given the unjustifiable and unprecedented anomalies... what we are simply and rightfully asking for is to return to the polls and allow the Gambians to elect who they want to be their president in free and fair elections," he said Saturday.

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Ukraine's leader speaks to 'fake' Kyrgyz president

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa said her office was now investigating the "planned provocation".

Ukrainian president spoke to what he thought was his Kyrgyz counterpart by phone this week -- only to discover that the person on the other end was someone else entirely.

Details of the exchange between Petro Poroshenko and a man thought at the time to be Kyrgyzstan's Almazbek Atambayev appeared on the Ukrainian president's official website on Wednesday.

But any mention of the encounter had vanished by Thursday as it became clear that the person to whom Poroshenko spoke was not Atambayev at all.

The Central Asian republic was the first to break the bad news to Kiev.

"It is possible somebody duped the Ukrainian leader," a representative of Atambayev's press service told AFP on Thursday.

Atambayev's office declined to speculate about who might have imitated the president.

But Russian media suggested that the confusion could have been the work of a Moscow prankster named Alexei "Lexus" Stolyarov who has staged similar stunts in the past.

It was unclear who placed the call.

Red-faced Ukraine blamed the confusion on a conspiracy aimed at sinking its efforts to push a measure through the United Nations condemning Russia's 2014 annexation of its Crimea peninsula.

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa said her office was now investigating the "planned provocation".

"We are looking into all the details of what happened," Betsa told AFP.

"But it is already clear that these actions were aimed at undermining an initiative being forwarded by Ukraine at the United Nations concerning Crimea."

Russian officials have yet to comment on the embarrassment of their arch rival.

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