Lewandowski to join Bayern from arch-rivals Dortmund

Poland forward Robert Lewandowski became the second top Borussia Dortmund player to leave for arch-rivals Bayern Munich in less than a year when he agreed terms on Saturday to join them as a free agent at the end of the season.

In another heart-breaking move for Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp, the Bundesliga leading scorer signed a five-year contract with the current world, European and Bundesliga champions.

The 25-year-old will see out the rest of his contract with Dortmund, which runs until the end of this season, before joining Bayern on July 1, the Bavarian club said in a statement.

"We are satisfied that this transfer has gone through," said Bayern's chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. "Robert Lewandowski is one of the best forwards in the world, and he will strengthen the Bayern squad."

Last April, Mario Goetze, one of the jewels of Dortmund's youth academy, also left for Bayern in a shock 37 million euro ($50.37 million) deal that the supporters have barely digested.

Lewandowski's departure did not create the same shockwaves in Dortmund as it had been expected for a long time but it is still a bitter pill for Klopp and baffling for their fans.

Dortmund have one of the most loyal set of fans in Europe with about 80,000 regularly filling their stadium, including the 25,000 who pack the famous Suedtribune's standing area.

BAYERN DOMINANCE

Lewandowski's move to Munich will add to concerns about Bayern's growing dominance in Germany.

They won the Bundesliga by a massive 25-point margin from Dortmund last season and lead this season's championship by seven points at the halfway mark with an unbeaten record.

The clinical Poland international will have to battle for his place as Bayern tend to field only one striker at most, with Croatia's Mario Mandzukic the favoured choice at present.

While Bayern have continually strengthened their squad in the last few seasons, Dortmund have lost several top players, including Japan's Shinji Kagawa who joined Manchester United.

Like Goetze, Lewandowski was instrumental in helping Dortmund win successive Bundesliga titles in 2011 and 2012.

However, he made it clear in September that he wanted to join Bayern and a move was widely seen in Germany as just a matter of time.

Lewandowski fell out with Dortmund's bosses over his failed attempt to join the treble winners in the close season but later said ties with the club had been mended and accepted the fact he would spend one more season there.

Lewandowski, whose pace and control make him perfect for Dortmund's high-tempo game, has scored 11 league goals so far this term. He was the Bundesliga's third-highest scorer with 22 in 2011/12 and second in the scoring charts with 24 last season.

US Midwest, Northeast brace for Arctic blast, record lows

Many parts of the US Midwest braced for a blast of Arctic air this weekend that could bring some of the coldest temperatures in two decades before advancing to the Northeast, where residents are still digging out from a deadly snowstorm.

Starting Sunday, the deep freeze will be felt in the northern US plains, including North and South Dakota, and through the Great Lakes region and Ohio Valley, according to the National Weather Service.

It will be some of the coldest weather to grip the region in two decades, with blizzard conditions expected in the Central Plains and Great Lakes regions, forecasters said.

"The last really big Arctic outbreak was 1994, said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. "Outbreaks like this don't occur everyday. They aren't unheard of, but they are unusual."

This push of Arctic air could bring record low temperatures in areas from Montana to Michigan, and move to the Northeast where it will arrive by early Tuesday, forecasters said.

Chicago could be about negative 20 (minus 29 Celsius), he said. Pittsburgh could see temperatures about 11 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 24 Celsius) by early Tuesday.

"Incredibly, it may feel as cold as negative 50 to negative 60 (minus 45 to minus 51 Celsius) on Sunday night over sections of the north-central states," including Minnesota and Wisconsin, the National Weather Service said in a statement.

In those conditions, frostbite can set in on exposed skin within five minutes, forecasters warned.

Preparing for the dangerous weather, officials in several states asked residents to use extra precautions when outdoors.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has ordered all public schools in the state closed on Monday to protect children from dangerously cold weather.

Chicago schools will be open Monday despite the cold but officials, in a statement, advised parents to "use their own discretion in deciding whether to send their child to school."

In Pittsburgh, the transition team for Mayor-elect Bill Peduto said his inauguration ceremony on Monday would be moved from the steps of the local government building to an indoor venue because of the weather.

Officials in Kentucky, which could see up to 8 inches of snow and freezing temperatures, were warning people to avoid road travel and stay indoors.

"If you don't need to be out, stay in, stay home," said Buddy Rogers, spokesman for Kentucky Emergency Management. "Take the pets inside and take the livestock inside the barns and make sure your elderly neighbors and friends are looked after."

Schools will remain closed in Nashville, Tennessee, until Wednesday, a day after winter break was supposed to end, local officials said.

The storm comes on the heels of a massive winter weather system that slammed the US Midwest and Northeast just after New Year's Day, causing several deaths, grounding thousands of flights and forcing schools and government offices to close.

MISSED FLIGHTS

A total of 1,266 flights were canceled across the United States and 6,036 flights delayed on Saturday, with Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey among the most affected, according to tracking firm FlightAware.com.

Molly Cox, who was in New York City for New Year's Eve, said she missed her Friday night flight home to Denver because LaGuardia Airport was "a disaster."

"I was told I wouldn't be able to get a flight out until Sunday," she said. "With all the cancellations, all of the airlines seem to be having this kind of chaos."

Boston was especially hard-hit by the first major storm of 2014, logging about 18 inches of snow on Friday, while some towns north of New England's largest city saw close to 2 feet of accumulation.

But life has begun to return to normal in Boston. The city lifted its snow emergency at 5 pm on Friday.

New York City got about 7 inches and was slammed with overnight air temperatures hovering under the freezing mark. Washington received more than 2 inches of snow in the storm, Philadelphia roughly 5 inches and Hartford 7 inches.

WEATHER-RELATED DEATHS

The weather was a factor in several deaths and hundreds of reported road accidents. A 22-year-old man in Connecticut died on Friday when his car slammed a Department of Transportation truck, state police said. In Ohio, authorities say at least two people were killed on Thursday in weather-related crashes.

In Green Bay, Wisconsin, the temperature plummeted to minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 28 C) on Friday, breaking a record for the date set in 1979, according to the National Weather Service.

With the new frigid air moving in, a National Football League wild card playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at Green Bay's Lambeau Field was expected to rank among the coldest matches on record, local officials said.

Some 40,000 tickets to the game have been sold, according to the Packers team.

Serena overcomes misfiring serve to flatten Sharapova

Serena Williams did not let her misfiring serve stop her from defeating Maria Sharapova 6-2 7-6 (9-7) to reach the final of the Brisbane International on Friday.

The American world number one extended her winning streak over the Russian to 14 matches.

Williams prevailed despite serving poorly throughout, with Sharapova unable to take advantage in a match where there were 10 breaks of serve in total.

The American will now face world number two Victoria Azarenka in Saturday's final after the Belarusian defeated Serbia's Jelena Jankovic 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Manmohan backs Rahul as successor

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ruled out on Friday serving another term after an election due by May and threw his support behind Nehru-Gandhi dynasty scion Rahul Gandhi to lead the country if their party wins the vote.

Singh, a soft-spoken economist, was unusually scathing about opposition leader Narendra Modi, who is ahead of Gandhi in several opinion polls, saying it would be "disastrous" if he were to become prime minister.

The 81-year-old Singh has presided over India for a decade at the head of coalitions led by the Congress party.

As finance minister 22 years ago, he deftly ushered in reforms of a state-shackled economy that helped launch years of rapid growth.

But on Friday, with growth at a decade-low, he conceded that the government had failed to generate employment in manufacturing, to control inflation and combat corruption.

Those problems will make it a difficult election for Gandhi, who has largely failed to win votes for his party when campaigning in state elections, if he is chosen to lead the Congress into the vote.

"In a few months' time, after the general election, I will hand the baton over to a new prime minister," Singh said at a rare news conference, adding a "new generation" would guide the country.

Singh, who was widely expected to step down after the vote, said Gandhi, 43, should be the Congress party's prime ministerial candidate.

"Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials to be nominated as the ... candidate and I hope our party will take that decision at an appropriate time."

The Congress is due to hold a top-level meeting on January 17 and is expected to announce its candidate soon afterwards.

Gandhi used to head the Congress party's youth wing and is the party's vice president. His mother, Sonia Gandhi, is party president.

Whoever gets the nod will face off in the election against Modi, of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who is campaigning on a platform to end the red tape and graft that have bedevilled the Congress-led coalition.

Compared with the relatively untested Gandhi, Modi has years of experience as the chief minister of Gujarat, where he has built a reputation as a business-savvy and investor-friendly administrator.

But he has been unable to fully shake off allegations over anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002 in which at least 1,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims.

Modi denies wrongdoing and a Supreme Court investigation found no evidence to prosecute him.

MAVERICK

On Friday, Singh made a pointed reference to the riots under Modi's watch when dismissing a suggestion that he had been a weak prime minister.

"If by strong prime minister you mean that you preside over the mass massacre of innocent citizens in the streets ... I do not believe that sort of strength this country needs. Least of all in its prime minister," Singh said.

BJP leaders were quick to condemn the comments. Spokeswoman Nirmala Sitharaman said on her Twitter account she was "utterly disappointed" by Singh's remarks and a senior party leader Arun Jaitley said Modi's three election wins to become chief minister of Gujarat proved he had voter support.

Many Congress members, particularly younger legislators, are calling for Gandhi to be made the prime ministerial candidate quickly as they hope that will rejuvenate the party's image and deflect public anger with current leaders.

Gandhi has in recent months tried to style himself as a maverick and make clear he condemns corruption. In September, he denounced an executive order from the government allowing convicted lawmakers to stay in office and stand in elections.

India's electorate is increasingly dissatisfied with the traditional subsidies and handouts that have helped Congress win previous elections and is looking for an end to corruption, a strong economy and a firm hand on inflation.

The anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has just trounced Congress in Delhi elections and come in a close second to the BJP, barely a year since it was created, proving that graft is firmly on the agenda.

On Friday, Singh endeavoured to salvage the image of his leadership and government, touting welfare measures and saying it was "for historians to judge" his record.

"I have every reason to believe that when history is written of this period, we will come out unscathed," he said.

The news conference was only the fifth Singh has held as prime minister, according to his office, a statistic that does nothing to temper criticism that he is ineffective and out of touch.

"It makes no difference now what the prime minister says," said Prem Shankar Jha, a political analyst. "As far as this election is concerned, the Congress is doomed."

Snapchat hackers post phone numbers of 4.6 million users online

Hackers broke into Snapchat, the hugely popular mobile app, accessing the phone numbers and usernames of 4.6 million users and publishing them online, tech news website TechCrunch has announced. The numbers were partially masked when they were briefly published on SnapchatDB.info, and the unidentified hackers told TechCrunch they had done this "to convince the messaging app to beef up its security."

Snapchat, which allows people to send smartphone photos or video snippets timed to self-destruct 10 seconds or less after being opened, has become hugely popular among teenagers who are easing away from Facebook.

But Australian firm Gibson Security warned last week that glitches in the application could be exploited by hackers.

"Our motivation behind the release was to raise the public awareness around the issue," the hackers said in a statement, published on TechCrunch late Wednesday.

"It is understandable that tech startups have limited resources but security and privacy should not be a secondary goal. Security matters as much as user experience does.

"You wouldn't want to eat at a restaurant that spends millions on decoration, but barely anything on cleanliness."

Created by students at Stanford University in 2011, Snapchat reportedly rejected a $3 billion takeover offer from Facebook last year.

All passengers rescued from icebound Antarctic ship

This image taken by expedition doctor Andrew Peacock of www.footloosefotography.com on Thursday shows a helicopter from the nearby Chinese icebreaker Xue Long picking up the first batch of passengers from the stranded Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy as rescue operations take place after over a week of being trapped in the ice off Antarctica.

All 52 passengers were airlifted on Thursday from a Russian research vessel icebound in Antarctica and are safe on board an Australian supply ship, rescuers said.
‘Aurora Australis has advised AMSA that the 52 passengers from the Akademik Shokalskiy are now on board,’ the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.
Passengers were flown to the Australian ship in groups of 12 by a helicopter from a Chinese icebreaker.
The Akademik Shokalsky has been stuck in ice since December 24 100 nautical miles east of the French base Dumont d’Urville, with several icebreaking attempts failing to reach it.
After a number of false starts a helicopter evacuation of the research vessel’s passengers began Thursday evening, with official confirmation that it was underway reaching AMSA at 6:15pm Australian time (0715 GMT).
The Australian agency, which is coordinating the rescue mission, reported all passengers were safely on board the Aurora Australis — an Australian government supply ship — at 10:15pm, some four hours later.
Passengers were airlifted from a makeshift landing pad on the ice beside the Russian ship to an ice floe near the Australis.
Expedition leader Chris Turney expressed relief that the wait was finally over.
‘We’ve made it to the Aurora Australis safe and sound. A huge thanks to the Chinese and the (government’s) Australian Antarctic Division for all their hard work,’ Turney tweeted.

Blatter angered by 'preposterous' simulation

Fifa president Sepp Blatter is fed up with "preposterous" simulation and "extravagant" diving by players and has said it is up to referees to solve the problem.

"This kind of thing is treated with scorn in other sporting disciplines but it has become a normal and accepted part of football nowadays," Blatter wrote in the latest edition of Fifa Weekly, which will be published on Friday.

"Even though simulation is incredibly unfair and looks preposterous when viewed in a replay, some people regard it as smart or in the worst case as a harmless misdemeanour.

"This includes the winning of controversial penalties by extravagant diving in the box," added Blatter.

"I find this deeply irritating, especially when the (supposedly) half-dead player comes back to life as soon as they have left the pitch. The touchline appears to have acquired powers of revival which even leading medical specialists cannot explain."

"The ball is in the referees' court," he added. "The instructions are now clear on this matter: if a player is lying on the floor, the opposing team are not required to put the ball into touch."

Blatter said players should be made to wait before returning to the pitch if the referee believed they had feigned injury.

"The referee should only intervene if he believes a serious injury has occurred. When a ‘stricken' player seeks to return to the field of play immediately after being taken off, the referee can make the player wait until the numerical disadvantage has had an effect on the game.

"In practical terms this amounts to a time penalty - and it could cause play-actors to rethink.

"Cutting out this kind of cheating is also a matter of respect towards opponents and fans, and ultimately one of self-respect as a professional and role model."