" THE HAGUE Cheap Nike Vapormax , March 18 (Xinhua) -- Dutch soccer club AZ Alkmaar have attracted Billy Beane, general manager of the Major League Baseball club Oakland Athletics, for an official advisor role.
The 52-year-old Beane is going to give AZ advice in the areas of high performance and innovation. In almost two decades as GM of the A's Beane has evaluated players based on a statistical analysis and he achieved surprising results with this method.
With his low budget team he beat the big market clubs on a regular base. Beane even became the subject of Michael Lewis' 2003 book on baseball economics, Moneyball, which was made into a 2011 film starring Brad Pitt as Beane.
""I am truly excited for the opportunity to be part of AZ Alkmaar in an advisory role,"" Beane stated in a press release. ""Despite being a great football club with a storied history, they face many of the challenges we have with the Oakland A's. My love for football and AZ's vision of the future of the club made this an attractive pursuit.""
""We've had a lot of contact with Billy In the last few months,"" reacted AZ's director of soccer Earnest Stewart. ""His knowledge and ideas are impressive. Also Billy's soccer network is excellent. We have already noticed that Billy thinks two steps ahead in the area of innovation. That's what really connects with the ambitions of AZ.""
AZ are currently fourth in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football leagues. They became Dutch champions in 1981 and 2009.
" Nick Kyrgios of Australia bites his necklace after losing a point to Andy Murray of Britain in their men's singles quarter-final match at the Australian Open 2015 tennis tournament in Melbourne January 27, 2015. [PhotoAgencies]
SYDNEY - Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios has split with coach Todd Larkham less than a week out from the United Kingdom Wimbledon grand slam tennis tournament.
Kyrgios made the announcement via a social media post on Tuesday, saying the split with long time coach Todd Larkham was mutually agreed.
"It's never an easy decision to end a coaching relationship and to do so prior to the start of a grand slam is even more difficult, " Kyrgios said on his website. "But I feel that this is the right decision for me at this time."
Local media reported Larkham had coached Kyrgios from the age of 10 until 2013 when Tennis Australia national coach Simon Rea took his place.
Larkham returned to coaching the Australian tennis star after the then 19-year-old Kyrgios defeated tennis world no. 1 Rafael Nadal in four sets at the 2014 Wimbledon tournament
"I am very grateful for everything Todd has taught me and helped me with, especially during the last year," Kyrgios said. " While our working relationship has ended, Todd and I will remain friends as he has been a very important person in my life."
Kyrgios said he would work closely with his teammates and Tennis Australia throughout the Wimbledon grand slam tournament - which starts June 29 - regrouping afterwards to figure the best place for his future.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. Senate report that reveals a brutal torture program of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after the 911 terrorist attacks has drawn heavy criticism at home and abroad.
The CIA repeatedly misled the public, Congress and the White House about its aggressive questioning and torture on detainees after the terrorist attacks in 2001, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee report released Tuesday.
The CIA downplayed the brutality of the interrogations and exaggerated the usefulness of the information it gathered, including its role in setting in motion the U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden, says the report.
The 6,000-page report also found that the "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" program escaped effective scrutiny by outsiders long after its inception in 2002. CIA records showed that then President George W. Bush was never fully briefed by the agency on torturous interrogation techniques until 2006, it says.
The report contains details about waterboarding, sexual threats and other controversial methods to obtain information, and finds those techniques largely ineffective and poorly managed.
Some of the detainees were kept awake for up to 180 hours, or more than seven days, usually in standing or stress positions. Interrogators also placed the interrogations above medical needs, such as treating bullet wounds, the report says. Some detainees were also placed in ice water "baths".
Conditions at CIA detention sites were poor, says the report, and detainees at a detention facility called "COBALT" were kept in complete darkness, and lack of heat at the facility likely contributed to the death of a detainee.
The White House and President Barack Obama backed the decision to release the report, despite warning from lawmakers and some officials inside the administration that it could lead to a backlash against Americans.
Obama said in a written statement that Bush-era CIA interrogation techniques "did significant damage to America's standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners."
"These harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as nation, they did not serve our broader counter-terrorism efforts or our national security interests," Obama said.
Republican Senator John McCain said harsh interrogations did little to make Americans safer, adding it will produce more bad than good intelligence.
Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the report "shocking," saying,"It is impossible to read it without feeling immense outrage that our government engaged in these terrible crimes."
"The government officials who authorized illegal activity need to be held accountable," Romero said.
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