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Here are the 2017/2018 Premier League fixtures for Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United. Arsenal Fixtures AUGUST 2017 12/08/2017 15:00 Arsenal v Leicester City 19/08/2017 15:00 Stoke City v Arsenal 26/08/2017 15:00 Liverpool v Arsenal SEPTEMBER 2017 09/09/2017 15:00 Arsenal v Bournemouth 16/09/2017 15:00 Chelsea v Arsenal 23/09/2017 15:00 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion 30/09/2017 15:00 Arsenal v Brighton and Hove Albion OCTOBER 2017 14/10/2017 15:00 Watford v Arsenal 21/10/2017 15:00 Everton v Arsenal 28/10/2017 15:00 Arsenal v Swansea City NOVEMBER 2017 04/11/2017 15:00 Manchester City v Arsenal 18/11/2017 15:00 Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur 25/11/2017 15:00 Burnley v Arsenal 28/11/2017 19:45 Arsenal v Huddersfield Town DECEMBER 2017 02/12/2017 15:00 Arsenal v Manchester United 09/12/2017 15:00 Southampton v Arsenal 12/12/2017 19:45 West Ham United v...

Papiss Cisse was in tears at the memorial to former team-mate Cheick Tiote Papiss Cisse led the tributes at a memorial for former Newcastle United team-mate Cheick Tiote in China. Tiote, 30, died after collapsing during training for Chinese second-tier side Beijing Enterprises on 5 June. Friends, family and former team-mates attended the memorial and his coffin was draped with an Ivory Coast flag. "I lived some extraordinary moments with this man and today he is gone," said Senegal striker Cisse, who spent four years at Newcastle. "He was like a brother. We shared a lot in life. His family was my family," added the Shandong Lueng player, who was in tears at the service. In his seven years at Newcastle, Ivory Coast international Tiote made over 150 appearances, including three last season. He joined Beijing Enterprises in February.

Senate President Bukola Saraki (left); Speaker House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; Special Adviser to the President, Assembly Matters, (Senate), Ita Enang; Special Adviser to the President, Assembly Matters,(House of Representatives), Sulaiman Kawu; Acting President Yemi Osinbajo; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma and Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari at the signing of the 2017 Appropriation Bill at the State House, Abuja …yesterday. • Saraki, Dogara, others witness ceremony • Experts lament delay, 2018 proposals ready in Oct Acting President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday signed the N7.44 trillion budget for 2017, ending months of speculations over the status of the document. The ceremony took place at the Presidential Villa, Abuja with both members of the Executive and the National Assembly in attendance. Specifically, Osinbajo was joined at the ceremony by Senate President Bukola Saraki; House of Representatives Speaker Ya...

Atletico Madrid’s French forward Antoine Griezmann celebrates a goal during the UEFA Champions League semifinal second leg football match Club Atletico de Madrid vs Real Madrid CF at the Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid. Antoine Griezmann has agreed to extend his contract at Atletico Madrid by a further year, until 2022, the Spanish club confirmed on June 13, 2017. French star Antoine Griezmann has extended his contract with Atletico Madrid by a year, the Spanish club announced on Tuesday. Griezmann’s contract now runs until June 30, 2022, and ends rumours linking him with a move away from Atletico. “The first thing that I want to do is apologise to the people who misunderstood my statements,” the 26-year-old said. “Maybe I expressed myself badly or someone wanted to make news where there wasn’t any, but since I came, I have given my all for my club, my teammates and my coaching st...

Credit ratings agency Moody’s on Tuesday said it had downgraded a slew of top South African banks, insurers and local authorities prompted by fears over the country’s worsening financial position. It slashed the creditworthiness of the five largest banks — FirstRand, Standard, Nedbank, Investec and Absa — to just one notch above junk status, all with a negative outlook. “The primary driver for today’s rating downgrades is the challenging operating environment in South Africa, characterized by a pronounced economic slowdown, and weakening institutional strength,” Moody’s said in a statement. Insurers Old Mutual, MMI Group, Guardrisk and Standard Insurance were all downgraded one notch to either Baa2 or Baa3 — the lowest investment-grade level. “Recent political developments suggest a weakening of the country’s institutional strength which casts doubt over the strength and sustai...

Abdulwaheed Odusile The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos State Council, has condemned Monday’s invasion of the Apapa, Lagos premises of The Sun Newspapers by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). A statement by the Chairman of the Council, Mr Deji Elumoye, described the seal-up of the newspaper house as “barbaric’’. The union wondered why the EFCC would ransack the premises of the media outfit without any search warrant and subject innocent workers to undue stress. According to the statement, the EFCC by the invasion had infringed on the fundamental human rights of the workers whose movement in and out of the company premises was curtailed by security operatives for over an hour “This is a great violation of the freedom of movement and association of the affected citizens, as entrenched in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, as amended. “The Council, therefor...

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has called on the Federal Government to extend its ‘whistleblowing’ policy to the power sector to curb energy theft. Fashola made the appeal in Enugu at the 16th Power sector monthly meeting, sponsored by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company. He said that available statistics revealed huge energy theft by Nigerians, adding that the problem had become a big challenge for not just the power distribution companies, but consumers as well. According to him, if nothing is done, those who pay for energy consumption will continue to bear the overall cost. The minister said that statistics revealed that only six million households consumed energy in the country, adding “if this is correct, it means that some people steal energy in the country, while only a few pay. “The statistics cannot be correct and it is therefore necessary to extend whistleblowing to the power sector in order to exp...

Rescue personel work at the scene after a seven-storey building collapsed overnight, on June 13, 2017 in the Nairobi suburb of Embakasi. Several people were missing on June 13 after a seven-storey building collapsed overnight in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, rescue officials said. Residents were evacuated to safety when the building developed cracks and then collapsed, police said. At least four people were missing after the collapse of a seven-storey building in the Kenyan capital Nairobi overnight, the Red Cross said on Tuesday. The incident occurred in a very poor neighbourhood near Nairobi’s international airport southeast of the capital, Red Cross spokeswoman Noellah Musundi told AFP. “The information is still scanty (about) the exact number of missing people, but at this stage, a mother and her three children are missing,” she said. Police and local residents said the authorities had been alerted on Monday evening after cracks appeared in the build...

Real Madrid’s Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo takes part in a training session at The Principality Stadium in Cardiff on the eve of the UEFA Champions League final football match between Juventus and Real Madrid.<br />State prosecutors have filed a complaint on June 13, 2017 against the Portuguese star, who they accuse of taking advantage of a corporate structure to defraud the Spanish Treasury of 14.7 million euros. Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo was on Tuesday accused of a 14.7 million euro tax evasion through offshore companies, the public prosecutor’s office in Madrid announced. The Portuguese footballer was accused of “four crimes against the public treasury between 2011-14… which involves tax fraud of 14,768,897 euros ($16.5m, £12.9m)”, the office said in a statement. “The accused took advantage of a company structure created in 2010 to hide income generated in Spain from his image rights from tax authorities, which is a ‘voluntary’ and ...

Spain’s Rafael Nadal. Rafael Nadal goes for a 10th French Open title on Sunday when he faces Stan Wawrinka in the final at Roland Garros. AFP Sport looks back at the Spaniard’s nine finals in Paris: 2005: bt Mariano Puerta (ARG) 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 — At just 19, Nadal became the youngest winner of a Grand Slam title since Michael Chang won at Roland Garros in 1989 at 17. He was the first man since Mats Wilander in 1982 to win the French Open on his debut. Puerta was to later fail a drugs test and handed an eight-year ban, eventually reduced to two years. 2006: bt Roger Federer (SUI) 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 — Nadal became the first man to beat Federer in a Slam final, ending the Swiss star’s hopes of holding all four majors at the same time. It was Nadal’s 60th win in a row on clay. 2007: bt Roger Federer (SUI) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 — The 21-year-old Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to wi...

  Traders work on the trading floor of ETX Capital in London on June 9, 2017, as markets open the day after Britain held a general election, in which the ruling Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority. With Brexit talks due to begin in just over a week, Britain’s shock election results may soften the government’s strategy — if there is even a government formed to negotiate in Brussels by then. The pound fell sharply amid fears the Conservative leader will be unable to form a government and could even be forced out of office after a troubled campaign overshadowed by two terror attacks The pound plunged two percent Friday as Prime Minister Theresa May lost her majority in Britain’s general election, fuelling political uncertainty just days before the start of Brexit talks. May had called the snap vote in a bid to boost her party’s hold over Westminster and give her a stronger hand in talks with EU leaders over the country’s detachment from the bloc. ...

Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko celebrates with her trophy after winning her final tennis match against Romania’s Simona Halep at the Roland Garros 2017 French Open on June 10, 2017 in Paris. Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko stunned third seed Simona Halep 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday to win her maiden Grand Slam title and become the lowest-ranked champion in French Open history. Ostapenko, 20, is the first unseeded player to lift the Roland Garros title in the Open era and the first Latvian major champion in history. She is the youngest French Open winner since Iva Majoli in 1997 and the first player to win a debut tour-level title at a Slam since Gustavo Kuerten in Paris that same year. For Halep, bidding to join compatriots Ilie Nastase and Virginia Ruzici as major winners, it was a second final defeat in four years at Roland Garros. The 25-year-old would have replaced Angelique Kerber as world number one with victory, but Halep was overpowered as Ostapenko blasted 54 ...

The killings have bred fierce mistrust between local and foreign forces even as the rate of such incidents has dropped in recent years. An Afghan commando Saturday killed two American soldiers and wounded two others during a joint operation in eastern Nangarhar province, a stronghold of Islamic State militants, an official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the insider attack in the volatile district of Achin, saying it was carried out by an infiltrator. “Today around noon an Afghan commando opened fire on US troops in Achin district, killing two American soldiers,” provincial spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told AFP. “The (Afghan) soldier was also killed in the return fire.” NATO forces in Kabul declined to immediately comment on the killings. “We are aware of an incident in eastern Afghanistan,” the US-led military coalition said in a brief statement. “We will release more information when appropriate.” So-called “green-on-blue” attacks — when A...

US President Donald Trump (C-L) and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. Saudi Arabia and its allies Saturday welcomed an accusation by President Donald Trump that Qatar was bankrolling extremism but ignored a separate US call for them to ease their economic blockade. Trump’s comments came as Washington joins intensifying international efforts to heal the worsening rift between the key Western Gulf allies, which has escalated into the region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years. Qatar denies the allegations and has sent its top diplomat on a tour of European capitals in a bid to drum up support. But its neighbours seized on Trump’s remarks as vindication of their position and of the crippling sanctions they imposed on Monday. The United Arab Emirates welcomed “President Trump’s leadership in challenging Qatar’s troubling support for extremism”. “The next step is for Qatar to acknowledge these concerns and commit to reexamine its regional policies...

n Iraqi man prints a flag of Kurdistan, in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on June 8, 2017. Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region will hold a historic referendum on statehood in September, despite opposition to independence from Baghdad and possibly beyond. A Iran voiced its opposition on Saturday to an announcement by Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region that it will organise a vote on independence later this year. “Iran’s principal position is to support the territorial integrity of Iraq,” foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said. “The Kurdistan region is part of the Iraqi republic and unilateral decisions outside the national and legal framework, especially the Iraqi constitution… can only lead to new problems.” Iraqi Kurdish leaders announced on Wednesday that they will organise an independence referendum on September 25, not only in their three-province autono...

Bishop Uzuokwu. Bishop Martins Uzoukwu of the Catholic Diocese of Minna, on Saturday lauded the Federal Government’s decision to promptly release funds for its whistle-blower policy. Uzoukwu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna that financial gratification to those who offered information that led to the recovery of stolen funds would encourage Nigerians to embrace the programme. He said that the gesture would also add value to the ongoing fight against corruption in the country. “Nigerians should complement the effort of the Federal Government by coming out with the required intelligence information that can lead to the recovery of stolen public funds,” Uzoukwu said. The cleric called on Nigerians to fully embrace the whistle-blower policy to expose corrupt public officers who looted the nation’s treasury. “Nigerians should see the fight against corruption as a national sacrifice. “God will reward any person or group of people who offer info...

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. President Robert Mugabe has fired Zimbabwe’s top prosecutor, who now faces a misconduct trial, state media reported Saturday, the latest twist in a dispute dating back more than a year. “Suspended prosecutor general Mr Johannes Tomana was yesterday (Friday) fired for misconduct and incompetence after a tribunal set by President Mugabe to probe him recommended dismissal,” The Herald newspaper reported. Tomana faced charges of “criminal abuse of office” and was awaiting trial, the paper added, without giving further details. He was suspended in February 2016 after dropping charges against two men accused of plotting to bomb a dairy plant that belonged to the president’s wife, Grace Mugabe. A year earlier he was convicted of abuse of power after initially refusing to prosecute a legislator with Mugabe’s ZANU PF Party accused of raping a minor. Tomana, once seen as a Mugabe loyalist, was threatened with 30 days in jail f...

Shoemakers in Ariaria Market, Aba, have expressed concern that invitation of a Chinese investor may stifle local entrepreneurs. The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN), reports that the Abia Government in April 2017, announced that it had secured a loan of $1.5 billion for a Chinese entrepreneur to set up a shoe industry in Aba. Some shoemakers in separate interviews with NAN on Saturday in Aba, said the arrangement would not work in their favour, as they lacked the capacity to compete with the well established shoe manufacturing company. Mr Ikedi Ohaeto, one of the local entrepreneurs, said it was not proper for Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu who is championing made-in-Aba products to shop for an investor from abroad. He stressed that what the governor ought to do, is to empower local entrepreneurs to acquire machines. “If the Chinese arrives with his machines and coupled with cheap labour, how can we compete with him producing with bare hands? “I am not too sure that Aba shoem...

NSCDC The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Niger Command, on Saturday, warned residents against unlawful assembly. Mr Phillip Ayuba, the NSCDC Commandant in the state, gave this warning while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna. Ayuba said that organisers of any assembly meeting must seek permission from security agencies to provide security before and during the meeting. He explained that any person or group of people, who flouted this order would be arrested and prosecuted accordingly. The commandant warned that the command would not tolerate any act capable of undermining the peaceful coexistence of residents in the state. Ayuba disclosed that the command and other security agencies had already taken concrete working measures that would address or tackle any form of security threats or breaches in the state. “We have put in place sensitive security measures that will enable residents do their legitimate business w...