With Rafael Nadal getting his 2016 off to a winning start by securing the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi on Saturday we take a look at five other sporting spectacles to look forward to over the next seven days.
1. English League Cup semi-finals, Tuesday and Wednesday, midnight kick offs, BeIN Sports
These matches, played over two legs, first pit Stoke City at home to Liverpool on Tuesday, while 2013/14 tournament winners Manchester City travel to Everton on Wednesday. Stoke and Liverpool both suffered Premier League defeats at the weekend, the League Cup presents an excellent opportunity for them to put one foot in the door of the Wembley final in next month’s final.
More Premier League
Listen to our podcast: Who will win the Premier League? Arsenal, Man City or someone else?
Read more: Richard Jolly takes a crack at sorting out where the current top six will finish
2. Cricket, South Africa v England, second Test, until Wednesday, 12.15pm. Ten Cricket
England are in the driving seat in the four-match series after winning the first Test in Durban by 241 runs. The Proteas have won three of the past four Tests between the sides at Cape Town.
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Osman Samiuddin on Kane Williamson’s destiny to be New Zealand’s greatest batsman
Osman Samiuddin talks with Shoaib Akhtar about whether Mohammad Amir deserves another shot
3. Tennis, Qatar Open, until Saturday, BeIN Sports
The build-up to the Australian Open, which starts on January 18, begins this week, and Doha leads the action with Spaniard David Ferrer bidding to retain the title he won 12 months ago when he beat Tomas Berdych in the final in straight sets.
More tennis
Read more: With Mubadala title in hand, there here is no looking back at 2015 for Rafael Nadal
4. Spanish La Liga, Barcelona v Granada, Saturday, 7pm, BeIN Sports
The Spanish, European and Club World Cup champions were held to a 0-0 draw by neighbours Espanyol on Saturday. The attacking trio of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez led Barca to five trophies in 2015, scoring 137 of their Spanish record 180 goals in all competitions, but they drew a blank against Espanyol. The stalemate allowed Atletico Madrid to usurp them at the top of La Liga and Luis Enrique will be looking for his charges to get back to winning ways against relegation strugglers Granada.
European club football half-time talk
No reason for the Barcelona winning machine to stop
5. Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, January 21-24
The sixth tournament on the 2016 European Tour season, but widely accepted as the first main stroke play event on the circuit’s calendar. It marks the beginning of the three-legged Desert Swing, with the Qatar Masters and the Dubai Desert Classic played in the succeeding two weeks. Has the biggest purse of the Middle East trio, at $2.7 million (Dh9.9m).
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
What to watch out for:
Algae, waste coffee grounds and orange peels will be used in the pavilion's walls and gangways
The hulls of three ships will be used for the roof
The hulls will painted to make the largest Italian tricolour in the country’s history
Several pillars more than 20 metres high will support the structure
Roughly 15 tonnes of steel will be used
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
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ENGLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers Pickford (Everton), Pope (Burnley), Henderson (Manchester United)
Defenders Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Chilwell (Chelsea), Coady (Wolves), Dier (Tottenham), Gomez (Liverpool), James (Chelsea), Keane (Everton), Maguire (Manchester United), Maitland-Niles (Arsenal), Mings (Aston Villa), Saka (Arsenal), Trippier (Atletico Madrid), Walker (Manchester City)
Midfielders: Foden (Manchester City), Henderson (Liverpool), Grealish (Aston Villa), Mount (Chelsea), Rice (West Ham), Ward-Prowse (Southampton), Winks (Tottenham)
Forwards: Abraham (Chelsea), Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Kane (Tottenham), Rashford (Manchester United), Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Sterling (Manchester City)
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
