The football future of Manchester United midfielder Angel Di Maria became more unclear after it emerged the Argentine international had failed to join up with the club’s US tour as scheduled.
Di Maria, who has been linked to a move to French champions Paris Saint-Germain, had been due to arrive in California on Saturday to join United’s pre-season training camp.
But United manager Louis van Gaal told reporters, after his side’s 3-1 friendly victory over Barcelona at the Levi’s Stadium that Di Maria had failed to board a flight to San Francisco.
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“I have heard that he’s not on the plane so I cannot say anything,” Van Gaal said.
“I have heard that he was not on the plane,” he reiterated.
Di Maria had been excused from the first part of United’s tour after playing in the Copa America along with United teammate Marcos Rojo.
Rojo had also failed to join up with the United squad, but Van Gaal ascribed the defender’s no-show to a passport issue.
“I heard Marcos Rojo was not on the plane, he had passport issues,” Van Gaal said.
“But Di Maria I do not know.”
Shortly afterwards, PSG manager Laurent Blanc said in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the French champions lost on penalties to Chelsea, that transfer talks were well under way.
“It’s a very long, drawn-out affair,” Blanc said. “Two big clubs are having talks. Let’s just wait for the moment and we will see the outcome very shortly.
“For the moment, he (Di Maria) is down to play for Manchester against PSG on Wednesday. For the moment, that is. I repeat that rumour has it that this player has every possibility to join Paris Saint Germain, but … at this moment in time nothing is official.”
A report on the website of Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper shortly before kick-off on Saturday said Van Gaal had informed United’s players that Di Maria was set to join PSG.
Di Maria joined United last year in a £59.7 million (Dh340m) transfer from Real Madrid but failed to settle during a difficult first season with the Premier League club.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
How Voiss turns words to speech
The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen
The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser
This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen
A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB
The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free
Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards
Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser
Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages
At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness
More than 90 per cent live in developing countries
The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device
Bundesliga fixtures
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
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Scoreline
Real Madrid 1
Ronaldo (53')
Atletico Madrid 1
Griezmann (57')
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Starring: Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto
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RESULTS
Lightweight (female)
Sara El Bakkali bt Anisha Kadka
Bantamweight
Mohammed Adil Al Debi bt Moaz Abdelgawad
Welterweight
Amir Boureslan bt Mahmoud Zanouny
Featherweight
Mohammed Al Katheeri bt Abrorbek Madaminbekov
Super featherweight
Ibrahem Bilal bt Emad Arafa
Middleweight
Ahmed Abdolaziz bt Imad Essassi
Bantamweight (female)
Ilham Bourakkadi bt Milena Martinou
Welterweight
Mohamed Mardi bt Noureddine El Agouti
Middleweight
Nabil Ouach bt Ymad Atrous
Welterweight
Nouredine Samir bt Marlon Ribeiro
Super welterweight
Brad Stanton bt Mohamed El Boukhari
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Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
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