Monthly Archives:May 2019

He’s protected Russell Crowe, Naomi Campbell and Aerosmith rocker Steve Tyler, and now Cengiz Guven is protecting Australian travellers at Gallipoli.

Mr Guven is the supervisor of site security at Lone Pine, the hilltop battlefield cemetery that will host the second Australian ceremony after the dawn service on Anzac Day.

The 30-year-old security manager from Istanbul has been taking care of things at Lone Pine for the past four years, but in between Anzac Days his work has a superstar flavour.

When Crowe attended the Istanbul premiere of his latest film, The Water Diviner, in 2014, Mr Guven was on personal protection duty.

He kept Tyler safe when the frontman and his band were in town to perform and has been on duty for Campbell, American lifestyle icon Martha Stewart and electro-dance group The Prodigy.

Switching from one-on-one to protecting thousands doesn’t faze Mr Guven, even when the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings has made this year the busiest ever for him and his team from Turkish security firm VipSec.

“It’s normally stressful but we are working here very proudly,” he told AAP as workers carried on with final preparations at Lone Pine.

“We can’t look at this project like a business.”

The civilian security team, which will handle bag and entry checks for 8000 Australians at the Lone Pine service on Anzac Day, is just a part of the enormous security machine that has swung into operation across the Gallipoli peninsula.

Nearly 4000 national and paramilitary police, and at least 1000 Turkish soldiers will be on duty when the memorial sites are locked down over Friday and Saturday.

Following recent terror arrests in Australia and ongoing instability in Syria, there have been questions about security at Gallipoli, but Mr Guven is quietly confident.

“The army is here, we are here. It will be okay,” he said.

The Movistar rider joins Belgians Eddy Merckx and Marcel Kint as well as Italians Davide Rebellin and Moreno Argentin as triple Fleche champions.

“It was really a very hard day, with a lot of crashes and a lot of tension,” Valverde was quoted as saying by Cyclingnews.

“I can’t remember such a tense day for a long time.”

Valverde powered away from the thinned-out pack with about 200 metres left in the Mur de Huy, a 1.3-km ascent at an average gradient of 9.6 percent to beat France’s Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quick Step).

Swiss Michael Albasini was third for Orica Green-EDGE in a crash-marred race that saw 2013 Tour de France champion Chris Froome hit the tarmac 12 kilometres from the finish.

The Team Sky rider, one of the pre-race favourites for this year’s Tour, went back on his bike with bruises on his left thigh and crossed the line 12 minutes and 19 seconds off the pace.

Former world champion Philippe Gilbert, the 2011 winner, abandoned the race after sustaining injuries in a crash 50 kilometres from the finish.

Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali of Italy jumped away from the pack in the penultimate climb, the Cote de Cherave, with about five kilometres to go but his effort was short lived as he was counter attacked by Belgium’s Tim Wellens.

The Lotto-Soudal rider built a 15-second gap but he could not hold off the pack in the final climb, allowing Valverde to retain his title.

The Mur de Huy will serve as finish of the third stage of the Tour de France on July 6.

(Writing by Julien Pretot, editing by Pritha Sarkar; Editing by XXXX)

Rajoub said he hoped Blatter would be able to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lift all restrictions against Palestinian athletes and to treat the PFA as equals.

He added that he would accept nothing less in exchange for dropping his call for a vote proposing Israel’s suspension at next month’s FIFA Congress in Zurich.

“The Israeli government must recognise the presence of (the PFA) that operates according to FIFA laws… A committee must monitor whether Israel is abiding by FIFA laws,” Rajoub said.

Rajoub has accused Israel of hampering his FA’s activities and is frustrated at restrictions he says Israel imposes on the movement of athletes between the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and has raised a number of other issues.

Israel cites security concerns for restrictions it imposes in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited self rule, and along the border with the Hamas Islamist-run Gaza Strip.

But it says it has eased travel for Palestinian athletes between the territories, which requires passage via Israel.

Rajoub said he would await word from Blatter after he meets Netanyahu on May 7 before deciding how to proceed.

An official at the Israeli Prime Minister’s office could not confirm that a meeting between Netanyahu and Blatter had been arranged.

“We will accept no compromise that will not secure the recognition of the PFA and it’s right to administer the game, develop it and spread it in accordance with FIFA laws,” Rajoub added.

On Monday, Israeli football officials met UEFA president Michel Platini in Switzerland to enlist support against the Palestinian proposal. Israel play in Europe but the Palestinians are members of the Asian confederation.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Writing by Ori Lewis; editing by Ken ferris)

The former France international and Manchester United striker has developed Axis Stars, a platform with a double function — to assist athletes in looking into contracts and insurance policies, while acting as matchmaker to pair them with agents and companies.

“The goal is to make the world of sport more transparent,” Saha, who won 20 caps for France, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“It’s a tool that worked in banking, in investment, it should work in sport.”

The platform, which also offers contacts with luxury product suppliers, enables professional athletes to recommend agents and companies, just like TripAdvisor allows customers to rate and recommend hotels.

“Often (as a professional athlete) when you sign a contract, you have surprises, and often those are bad surprises,” said Saha.

“The young athletes need good people to help them make the right choices and decisions.”

Axis Stars, whose members are only professional sportspeople, also helps athletes to better, and more quickly, understand the contracts they are about to sign.

“It means that players can feel less under pressure when they are asked to sign a contract within a couple of days,” said Saha who works as a mentor on the platform along with athletes such as Chelsea striker Didier Drogba and French tennis ace Gael Monfils.

Saha would like to develop the model, but feels sporting authorities should get more involved.

“It’s nice that they (governing bodies) are saying it’s a great tool and that they want a transparent sport, but now it is time to act,” he said.

“Everyone believes the platform is great but they don’t make the efforts to help us model it and improve it, as and when required.

“They must help us change the atmosphere; even more so now after FIFA’s recent announcement around the reform of regulations related to agents,” Saha said, explaining that players will now be more exposed to potential crooks.

Under FIFA reforms, agents are now known as “intermediaries”, who are not licensed with FIFA but just need to register with their national FA.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)

The Northern Territory government is ignoring pastoralists in favour of miners, the NT Cattlemen’s Association says.

Mines and Energy Minister Dave Tollner on Wednesday said accessing land for oil and gas exploration is an “overwhelming problem”.

Mr Tollner said legislation would be a last resort to entrench mandatory access agreements between miners and pastoralists and it would add red tape for a mining industry already struggling with plummeting commodity prices.

“We’re not interested in seeing fights between miners and pastoralists. We think everyone can cohabit and get on,” he said.

But the NT Cattlemen’s Association (NTCA) accused the minister of ignoring its concerns, and said 20 years of voluntary agreements proved they do not adequately protect pastoral operations from miners.

“A pat on the back and a `she’ll be right, mate’ approach is not going to cut it,” CEO Tracey Hayes told AAP.

“(The minister is) not listening, he doesn’t fully understand the dynamic at play … and is potentially putting at risk a sustainable future for both industries.”

Ms Hayes pointed to the Mt McMinn property east of Mataranka, which has a voluntary agreement with a petroleum company for exploration on its land, but not with Sherwin Iron, also sited on the property lease.

“There’s a company that holds very little regard for the pastoralists and the activity they undertake, there’s been conflict pretty much from day one,” she said.

“And then you have a petroleum company that has engaged with respect and transparency and has entered into an agreement with the landholder and conducted themselves in a manner that is absolutely best practice; that’s the type of setting we want for our industry into the future.”

Ms Hayes said the NTCA supported the right of the oil and gas sector to co-exist with landholders in the NT but their relationship requires respect and equity, and giving pastoralists a say in the future of their land.

“You’ve got an industry that has been there for a very long time in the business of food production, they underpin the rural and regional communities, they have been there long before the resources sector and will be there long after,” she said.