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Benitez was handed a vote of confidence by Real Madrid's president on Monday and he must be given the chance to prove himself in the Champions League this season Rafa Benitez  raises his arms aloft to salute the fans. It's May 28, 2016 and  Real Madrid  have just claimed La Undecima at San Siro in Milan. For the Spanish coach, it represents a remarkable triumph and one that seemed highly improbable after Los Blancos were humiliated by Barcelona back in November. The above scenario seems not only unlikely but extremely far-fetched at this point in time. Reeling from the 4-0 loss at home to their fierce rivals on Saturday, Madrid are in turmoil and after president Florentino Perez absolved himself from all blame in a press briefing on Monday, Benitez is walking a tightrope. But Perez promised his coach time and now he must stick to that pledge. Not that he has many alternatives at the moment, but the club chief told the Madrid media he was confident Benitez could turn ar...

Russia’s military has recovered the second pilot from its bomber shot down by Turkey on Tuesday, Russia’s defense ministry has announced. Speaking on television following a briefing from his defense minister, Vladimir Putin confirmed the pilot had been rescued. The defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, earlier told a meeting that the pilot had been found after a twelve-hour search and that he was now back in a Russian airbase in Syria. The plane’s other pilot was killed by rebels after he ejected, according to Russian defense officials. Putin said the deceased pilot will be awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of Russia medal, one of Russia’s highest military honors. Simultaneously, Russia’s defense ministry announced it would be deploying advanced anti-aircraft missile systems to Syria, close to where the incident happened to prevent further attacks of its planes conducting strikes there. The Su-24 jet was brought down by Turkish fighters in the northern mountains of Syria’s Latakia...

The man thought to have been the ringleader of the Paris terror attacks returned to the Bataclan concert hall while police were still there, the city's prosecutor has said. Francois Molins said phone records showed that Abdelhamid Abaaoud went back to the theatre, where 89 people were shot dead on 13 November, as an operation to free hostages was ongoing. Attacks also took place at the Stade de France and a series of bars, restaurants and cafes across the French capital as part of the co-ordinated massacre.  Mr Molins said Abaaoud, the Belgian suspected of being behind the attacks, had been traced to the metro after the attack at the Bataclan but had returned to the area shortly afterwards. He added: "The geolocalisation of Abdelhamid Abaaoud's alleged phone between 22.28pm and 12.28am confirms a presence in the 12th, 11th, and 10th districts, and notably near the Bataclan concert hall. This allows us to think that Abaaoud returns to the crime scenes following t...

Belgium has issued an arrest warrant for a 30-year-old man seen driving a car with fugitive Salah Abdelslam two days before the France terror attacks. Mohamed Abrini was caught on CCTV footage at a petrol station in Ressons on 11 November, Belgium's federal prosecutor said. He was driving a Renault Clio used during the attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people and injured hundreds of others. The 26-year-old Abdeslam, who has been the subject of an international manhunt, was also seen in the car on a motorway leading to the French capital. German police today  carried out a search of rural areas near Hannover following a tip-off from a member of the public that he may be hiding out in the region. Abdeslam is suspected of playing at least a logistical role in the co-ordinated shooting and suicide bombings in the French capital on 13 November. A statement from the federal prosecutor's office said: "Salah Abdeslam was filmed in a gas station in Ressons ... t...

Tensions in the Middle East ratcheted up dangerously Wednesday, a day after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane, with the Turkish President accusing Russia of deceit and Russia announcing it would deploy anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said, according to the ministry's Twitter feed, that the country would deploy S-400 defense missile systems to its Hmeymim airbase near Latakia, Syria, on the Mediterranean coast. The missiles have a range of 250 kilometers, according to the  missilethreat.com website , or 155 miles. The Turkish border, at its closest, is less than 30 miles away. For his part, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned in harsh terms Wednesday what he said was the violation of Turkish airspace a day earlier by Russian warplanes, calling the incident an infringement of his country's sovereignty. He charged Russia with being deceitful and with propping up the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad -- a regime he sai...

Tensions in the Middle East ratcheted up dangerously Wednesday, a day after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane, with the Turkish President accusing Russia of deceit and Russia announcing it would deploy anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said, according to the ministry's Twitter feed, that the country would deploy S-400 defense missile systems to its Hmeymim airbase near Latakia, Syria, on the Mediterranean coast. The missiles have a range of 250 kilometers, according to the  missilethreat.com website , or 155 miles. The Turkish border, at its closest, is less than 30 miles away. For his part, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned in harsh terms Wednesday what he said was the violation of Turkish airspace a day earlier by Russian warplanes, calling the incident an infringement of his country's sovereignty. He charged Russia with being deceitful and with propping up the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad -- a regime he sai...

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/25/africa/africa-pope-francis-trip/index.html# When Pope Francis begins his inaugural papal trip to Africa, he'll bring a message of hope and peace to a rapidly growing Catholic population facing its own challenges. The Pope's visit starts Wednesday in Kenya, followed by stops in Uganda and the Central African Republic -- the latter a lawless conflict zone as Christian and Muslim gangs attack civilians for a second year. His visit, which takes place despite the instability, highlights the Catholic Church's explosive growth in Africa and how crucial the region is to the church's future, experts say. Africa's Catholic population is growing faster than any other in the world, and is expected to skyrocket in the coming years, said Bill O'Keefe, a vice president at Catholic Relief Services , a church-affiliated U.S. humanitarian group that does work in Africa.  The Catholic population there (Africa) has grown by 238% since ...

French authorities working to dismantle the terrorist network behind the Paris attacks say another attack could have been hours away when police closed in on the suspects' hideaway last week. Suspected ringleader  Abdelhamid Abaaoud  and another man were planning a suicide attack on the Paris financial district of La Defense on November 18 or 19, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Tuesday. Both men were killed during a  raid in Saint-Denis, that caused the collapse of an entire floor of an apartment building . .

A U.S. airstrike that mistakenly killed 22 people at a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan last month was, in part, the result of military personnel targeting the hospital compound instead of a suspected nearby site from which Taliban fighters were firing, several administration officials told CNN Tuesday. The October 3 mission had several technical and human errors, said the officials, who would not elaborate. A U.S. military fact-finding investigation into the incident details the mistakes and reveals that the aircraft was supposed to be targeting a  nearby compound suspected of housing Taliban gunmen, not the hospital, they said. Gen. John Campbell, the top NATO and U.S. commander in Afghanistan, will take the unusual step on Wednesday of releasing a brief summary of the investigation's conclusions. The step is unusual because this type of release of information typically does not happen until the military determines if any military personnel will be disciplined or charged w...

The rumours connecting Cristiano Ronaldo with a move away from Real Madrid persist.

Indonesia has raised the security level for all airports in response to recent terror attacks and threats. Airports will have a greater presence of army personnel, police and sniffer dogs after the level was raised from green to yellow on Wednesday. Transport Ministry Aviation Director General, Suprasetyo, told reporters the ministry had information of a "threat to security". "The aviation security increase is due to Paris incident," he said, as reported by Indonesian website Detik.com. It was not clear what threat the official was referring to. However, there was a bomb threat made to a Singapore Airlines flight on Sunday and a Turkish Airlines flight from New York was diverted to Canada. A video was also circulating this week claiming to show Indonesia's most wanted terror leader, Santoso, with black Islamic State flags, threatening Jakarta police. A 10-point memo was sent to all airports with instructions including random vehicle checks, mo...