World Cup 2014: Fifa will not take action over Neymar challenge

Colombia's Juan Zuniga will not face disciplinary action for the challenge that led to Neymar's World Cup exit.

The Brazil striker broke a vertebra in his spine during his side's 2-1 quarter-final win on Friday following a challenge from defender Zuniga, 28.

A Fifa statement said there could be no disciplinary action because the incident was spotted and dealt with by referee Velasco Carballo on the pitch.

"We wish Neymar a prompt and complete recovery," said a Fifa spokesman.

Fifa has also announced it will not overturn the yellow card shown to Brazil captain Thiago Silva during the Colombia game, saying "there is no legal basis entitling it to grant such request".

Brazil face Germany in the World Cup semi-final on Tuesday (kick-off 21:00 BST).

World Cup 2014: Lawro's predictions - semi-finals

BBC Sport's football expert Mark Lawrenson is predicting the outcome of every game at the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

Lawro chose the corre

He picked the correct winner in each of the eight last-16 ties and enjoyed a 50% success record in the group stage, correctly guessing the outcome of 24 of the 48 games.

The only group he failed to get a single correct result in was Group D, which was surprisingly won by Costa Rica as England finished bottom.

Before the tournament, Lawro chose 11 out of the 16 teams that went through to the first knockout stage.

Lawro was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.ct winner in three of the four quarter-finals, wrongly backing Belgium to knock out Argentina, who were his pre-tournament pick to win the final on 13 July.

Current News Barack Obama Got Destroyed At The Supreme Court

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AP

Two years ago, President Barack Obama stood in jubilation, hugging the White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler after finding out the Supreme Court had upheld his signature domestic achievement.
Two years later, amid the most significant challenge to the Affordable Care Act since that moment, Obama didn't have much to cheer about. The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision, split along the normal conservative-liberal judicial lines, found the law's contraception mandate violated certain companies' rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
" We disagree, and the constitutional lawyer in the Oval Office disagrees, with that conclusion from the Supreme Court," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Monday.
There's been little solace for Obama this Supreme Court term. In addition to Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Obama administration and the causes it has supported have experienced a handful of high-profile setbacks before the high court. 
Also on Tuesday, the Supreme Court dealt a blow to public-sector unions, ruling that some employees couldn't be forced to pay dues. Last week, in a unanimous, 9-0 rebuke, the justices ruled Obama had overstepped his constitutional authority when he went around Congress and unilaterally appointed three members to the National Labor Relations Board.
Also last week, the high court unanimously struck down a law that had established 35-foot "buffer zones" at abortion clinics in Massachusetts. And earlier this term, the court dealt the most serious blow to campaign-finance laws since the landmark Citizens United decision in 2010.
Earnest was asked if Obama was concerned or frustrated about the way the term went for the administration.
" I'd hesitate to make a broad assessment like that from this podium," Earnest said.
But other legal experts and the president's political opponents have taken notice. Since January 2012, the Obama administration has suffered at least 13 unanimous defeats in cases it argued (not counting cases in which it filed an amicus brief), according to the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. 
Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, told Business Insider that while 5-4 decisions can be blamed on the conservative-liberal split of the court, unanimous decisions are " indicative of an administration that pushes and breaks through the envelope in its assertion of federal power."
Added a GOP Senate aide in an email to Business Insider: "Recent court decisions say as much about Democrat overreach as they do about anything else, and no data point underscores that more clearly than the dozen unanimous defeats they’ve handed to Obama."
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, the administration's chief constitutional attorney, argued and lost four high-profile cases — the NLRB, Hobby Lobby, campaign-finance, and abortion "buffer zone" decisions.

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REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Speaker of the House John Boehner (L) walks away as U.S. President Barack Obama waves upon his departure from the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon at the Capitol in Washington, March 14, 2014.

Two of the rulings handed down over the past week — the NLRB decision and the Hobby Lobby decision — get to the core of the argument Republicans will push this election season. Since Obama announced his intention to make 2014 a "year of action" full of executive actions, Republicans have decried it as an abuse of power. House Speaker John Boehner intends to sue Obama over his prevalent use of executive actions.
That perceived overstep fits in with the Hobby Lobby decision, which Republicans argued was about "religious liberty."
" The decision affirms that Americans, contrary to what the Obama administration attempted to impose, have a right to live and work in accordance to their conscience and can’t be forced to surrender their religious freedom once they open a business," Sen. Ted Cruz said in a statement.  
"This ruling is a repudiation of the Obama administration’s untenable position that people with sincerely held religious beliefs should be forced to comply with an unconstitutional mandate while a parade of waivers, exemptions, and delays are granted for purely commercial and political interests."
The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin predicted the two decisions, described as "narrow" by many legal experts, will be anything but — since they open the door to future legal challenges. Toobin considers it part of a classic "two-step" feature of the Chief Justice John Roberts court — hand down a "narrow" ruling now, and make sweeping decisions later. 
Both of the decisions — from the public-sector unions case (Harris v. Quinn) and the Hobby Lobby case — are examples of rulings that could lead to further, more sweeping rewrites of laws. One needs only to glance at the scathing dissent of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from the Hobby Lobby decision to see the angst of many liberals and Democrats after this term.
Ginsburg said the court established a new precedent in the Hobby Lobby case — one that "invites for-profit entities to seek religion-based exemptions from regulations they deem offensive to their faith."
"The court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield," she wrote.

EXPOSED: SEE WHO IS PROVIDING BOKO HARAM WITH MONEY AND WEAPONS

After many speculations on where the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, are getting the weapons they frequently use to unleash terror in the north-eastern states of Nigeria and Abuja, their main sources have been unveiled.
According to US network TV NBC, most of the Islamic terror group’s weapons are either stolen from Nigerian military stocks or purchased on the thriving Central African arms black market, say the experts, including current and former U.S. officials.
While many have often wondered where the insurgents source their weaponry from, given both the sophistication and the sheer number, ThisDay reports that the group blamed for last month’s kidnapping of nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls routinely raids police stations and military bases in search of weapons
It was also gathered that in some cases, Boko Haram sympathizers in the Nigerian military abet the theft.

“There are hints that sympathizers in the Nigerian army will deliberately leave doors of armouries unlocked for Boko Haram,” said John Campbell, U.S. ambassador to Nigeria from 2004 to 2007.

It could also be recalled that a top military officer was indicted several years ago in Kaduna, for supplying the weapons of the Nigerian army to Niger Delta militants, led by, now jailed, Henry Okah.
The terror group has been conducting its campaign of terror in the northern states of Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon on the cheap, making mayhem with a makeshift collection of small arms, automatic weapons, rifles, rocket- propelled grenades and mortars, experts on the turbulent region say.
The report also stated that apart from weapons, the rebels frequently seize non-lethal equipment that helps them carry out their terror attacks, quoting one U.S. official.

Apart from benefiting from sympathizers in the Nigerian military, the Islamic terror group is said to be able to purchase small arms and occasionally some larger weaponry in nearby conflict zones, “probably Libya, probably Chad.
These arms are believed to be acquired through “shady, black market” arrangements across barely marked borders, as the official put it.
The porousness of the Nigerian borders was also said to be encouraging the proliferation of the country with illegal arms, according to Michael Leiter, a former director of the National Counter Terrorism Center and now an NBC News analyst.

“The collapse of Libya has further flooded the market,” said Leiter. “Whether these came from Chad, Nigeria, or Libya is almost irrelevant, as such arms are widely available.”

Arms trade expert William M. Hartung agrees. “It’s one conflict after another,” he said. “Because of the nature of the conflict … the concentration of conflicts … the black market in Central Africa is more vibrant than other places.”
Campbell, the former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, says the array of small and automatic weapons, grenades, mortars, mines and perhaps car bombs “is all Boko Haram’s soldiers need to carry out their brand of terrorism.”
It could be recalled that officials in Cameroon on Tuesday showed a cache of weapons they said was seized near the Nigerian border last month following a rescue of some other kidnapped victims.
A Cameroon defense ministry spokesman, showing off a variety of weaponry including Russian-made AK-47s, said the cache represents what they are up against on a daily basis in trying to combat Boko Haram.

PRESS RELEASE: Troops Bust Terrorists

PRESS RELEASE: Troops Bust Terrorists'
Intelligence Network…Arrest A Key Actor
In Chibok Abduction
A terrorists’ intelligence cell headed by a
businessman who participated actively in
the abduction of School Girls in Chibok
has been busted by troops. The man,
Babuji Ya’ari who is also a member of
the Youth Vigilante Group popularly
known as Civilian JTF which he uses as
cover while remaining an active terrorist,
also spearheaded the murder of the
Emir of Gwoza. His main role in the
group is to spy and gather information
for the terrorists group.
Babuji has been coordinating several
deadly attacks in Maiduguri since 2011,
including the daring attacks on Customs
and military locations as well as the
planting of IEDs in several locations in
the town.

NEWS Afghanistan embarrass India's Gen Next by 28 runs in Singapore

In the context of the ACC Emerging Teams Cup currently being played in Singapore, Afghanistan's 28-run win over the India Under-23 team was insignificant. The Indians still topped the group to move into the semi-final, where they will take on United Arab Emirates on Friday. But for Afghanistan, despite the fact that the result didn't help them from exiting the event, the victory was perhaps their most important.
For the first time in their short cricketing history, Afghanistan had recorded a win over a Test-playing nation, albeit an age-group side of it, in any format.
The fact that Afghanistan was allowed to enter their main side for the tournament while the Indians obeyed the age restriction was a footnote in fine print that in no way took away the shine from this emerging Asian cricketing nation.
The hero of the day for the Afghanistan was their skipper Mohammad Nabi, who scored 25 runs with the bat and finished with figures of 3/32 in a low scoring game. Batting first, Afghanistan scored 184 with Samiullah Shenwari scoring 43 off 44 balls. In reply, the Indians succumbed to Nabi's off-spin. India were 156/9 at the end of 50 overs.
At the end of group games; India, Pakistan and Afghanistan all finished with four points. But Afghanistan's poor run rate got them eliminated.
Assessing potential
Speaking to The Indian Express after the win, Nabi said, "For us it is a big win, beating India can only be a moral booster." Though, there were no international players in the Indian side, Nabi and his men were in awe of their young rivals. With most of the India under-23 players playing in the Indian Premier League, the Afghanistan players had seen them on television and thus were keen to match their skills against them.

Sport News Fernando Alonso sets pace in weather-affected first practiceFerrari's Fernando Alonso lapped fastest in a weather-affected Belgian Grand Prix first practice session on Friday as Formula One drivers shrugged off the long August break and got back up to speed. The Spaniard, third in the championship after 10 of 19 races, lapped the longest circuit on the calendar with a best time of one minute 55.198 seconds in a familiar Spa mixture of wet and dry conditions. The two Force Indias of Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil were second and third on the timesheets, with the top three all setting their comparatively slow times in the final half hour of an incident-free session. Morning rain, and occasional drizzle interspersed with cloud and sunshine, dampened part of the fast and flowing Ardennes forest circuit while a dry line emerged through the middle sector. The McLarens of Briton Jenson Button and Mexican Sergio Perez showed encouraging signs of progress, despite the team backing away from earlier assertions that they could challenge for a victory this weekend. Perez was fourth fastest while Button, last year's winner from pole, ended up 14th. Red Bull's championship leader Sebastian Vettel, who has a 38 point lead over Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen, was sixth fastest behind fellow-German Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes. Vettel, who returned from the break with his hair dyed bright blond, had the odd spin on the slippery surface without drama. Raikkonen, who cried off sick on from media engagements on Thursday after weeks of speculation about his future and talk of moves to Red Bull or Ferrari, and Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean propped up the timesheets. Finland's Heikki Kovalainen, dropped by Caterham at the end of last year, made an appearance for the team in place of regular race driver Charles Pic and was 16th quickest.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso lapped fastest in a weather-affected Belgian Grand Prix first practice session on Friday as Formula One drivers shrugged off the long August break and got back up to speed.
The Spaniard, third in the championship after 10 of 19 races, lapped the longest circuit on the calendar with a best time of one minute 55.198 seconds in a familiar Spa mixture of wet and dry conditions.
The two Force Indias of Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil were second and third on the timesheets, with the top three all setting their comparatively slow times in the final half hour of an incident-free session.
Morning rain, and occasional drizzle interspersed with cloud and sunshine, dampened part of the fast and flowing Ardennes forest circuit while a dry line emerged through the middle sector.
The McLarens of Briton Jenson Button and Mexican Sergio Perez showed encouraging signs of progress, despite the team backing away from earlier assertions that they could challenge for a victory this weekend.
Perez was fourth fastest while Button, last year's winner from pole, ended up 14th.
Red Bull's championship leader Sebastian Vettel, who has a 38 point lead over Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen, was sixth fastest behind fellow-German Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes.
Vettel, who returned from the break with his hair dyed bright blond, had the odd spin on the slippery surface without drama.
Raikkonen, who cried off sick on from media engagements on Thursday after weeks of speculation about his future and talk of moves to Red Bull or Ferrari, and Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean propped up the timesheets.
Finland's Heikki Kovalainen, dropped by Caterham at the end of last year, made an appearance for the team in place of regular race driver Charles Pic and was 16th quickest.