Which Premier League Team will miss Howard Webb the most?

Howard Webb retires as referee after 25 years to become match officials technical director

Many fans shed a tear when Howard Webb retired from refereeing just 10 days before the start of the 2014/15 Premier League season, with many even going as far as saying this will hit Manchester United the most.

Webb has been targeted many a time for being a little “partial” toward the Red Devils. But have they benefited the most from his decisions?

While we don’t want to go into an in-depth analysis of all his decisions, we have some stats which show that Man City have actually benefited the most when Webb was in charge of the game.

City have won more points (in lesser games) than their derby rivals, averaging almost 2.5 points per game. North London side Arsenal are another team who will be sad to see him go as they have enjoyed more than 2 points per game with him in charge. 

Liverpool, however, will be happy to see the back of him as they average less than one point per game when Webb takes the field. 

TOP EPL CLUBS' RECORD WITH HOWARD WEBB AS REFEREE

#	CLUB	MATCHES	W	D	L	GD	POINTS	PTS PER GAME
1	Man City	17	13	2	2	28	41	2.41
2	Man United	20	12	1	7	12	37	1.85
3	Arsenal	15	11	2	2	8	35	2.33
4	Chelsea	16	8	3	5	10	27	1.69
5	Everton	16	6	6	4	5	24	1.50
6	Tottenham	15	7	3	5	-3	24	1.60
7	Liverpool	19	5	2	12	-1	17	0.89

Kardashians sisters launching Hair Line

Kim, Khloé and Kourtney Kardashian's upcoming hair line, Kardashian Beauty, was inspired by their "desire" for healthy hair.

The Kardashian sisters are launching a hair line.

Kim, Khloé and Kourtney are no strangers to having their own brand, with successful clothing line Kardashian Kollection and a cosmetics range.

Now the siblings are expanding their business with products designed to tame tresses. Teaming up with hair-care company Farouk Systems Inc., Kardashian Beauty will include styling products, accessories and tools to use on hair.

All three women have put a lot of thought into the process and hope their finished creations will meet fans' expectations.

“We have been developing Kardashian Beauty carefully with our fans' needs in mind as well as our individual hair-care needs,” Khloé, Kim and Kourtney said in a joint statement. “Our personal desire for healthy, beautiful hair and hands-on product development has allowed us to design products we felt were missing in the market.”

Basim Shami, chief executive officer of Farouk Systems Inc., is also feeling hopeful about the hair line and believes it reflects the siblings' own outlook on beauty.

“The partnership with Kourtney, Kim and Khloé to introduce Kardashian Beauty was a natural fit,” he added. “Our team worked hand-in-hand with the sisters to create a premium product line directly inspired by their iconic styles and individual hair needs.”

Kardashian Beauty is scheduled to be released in the spring.

The reality stars have pulled off an array of hair styles over the years, with middle sister Kim experimenting with blonde for a brief period. Kourtney was often spotted wearing her hair in a top bun while out and about, but recently insisted she is going to leave the 'do behind and experiment more.

“There are certain hairstyles that I'm just over. I used to wear a top bun a lot and just recently, I think it was a couple days ago, I was like, 'I will never wear a high bun, ever again,'" Kourtney stated.

Demba Ba's Besiktas Breakthrough

Beşiktaş JK wrote a new chapter in the history of their club by beating Feyenoord 3-1 on Wednesday – the first time they had knocked a Dutch team out of European competition.

Already leading their UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie 2-1 following an away victory in Rotterdam, Beşiktaş completed their progress to the play-offs with three goals from Demba Ba. The new signing from Chelsea FC, making his debut start, was thereby the first Beşiktaş player to score a European hat-trick.

Ba is already turning out to be a brillant capture for them.

When Beşiktaş opted not to renew the contract of Portuguese striker Hugo Almeida, several candidates were rumoured to be his replacement. Ba's name certainly made people excited but also worried them at the same time, due to failed medicals scuppering previous moves. But Ba completed the transfer and although he did not have a shot as a substitute last week at Feeyenoord, he more than made up for that at the Atatürk Olimpiyat Stadium.

Olcay Şahan, who set up Ba's second goal, said: "Ba has had very good understanding with the team since the first day. He is a very nice person too." Coach Slaven Bilić added that Ba could be getting even better. "We have spoken to him many times. He is not 100% but fit to play."

Ba himself said: "My team-mates are helping me a lot. I have established good bonds with them in such a short time. They are doing their utmost to ease my job and everybody is trying to shorten my adaptation period.

"To be honest, at the end of the game I was a little tired and I felt it. Still, I tried to do my best. Starting from next week, I expect my adaptation to get a major boost."

If Ba keeps up this form, he could join Beşiktaş's cult pantheon with another signing from west London: Les Ferdinand, who spent 1988/89 on loan at the Black Eagles from Queens Park Rangers FC and scored 14 times.

Catch Ba's goals here and the full game highlights.

Are Chelsea going to regret another one of their striker selling?

Xavi retires from International football

Spain midfielder Xavi, one of the most decorated footballers of all time who defined the nation's spectacularly successful 'tiki-taka' possession-based playing style, has retired from internationals at the age of 34.

The Barcelona player represented his country 133 times, a record for an outfield player and only bettered by goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas, and was a key figure in Spain's glittering run when it won the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 European Championships.

Xavi announced his decision during a press conference for his club.

"I have decided to retire from the Spain national team," he said. "I'm grateful for all those years. It has been a fantastic time."

Xavi made his debut as a 20-year-old against the Netherlands in 2000.

He added: "I'm not 20 anymore, but I still have the motivation of a kid."

He played in four World Cups and three European Championships and won 100 of his 133 matches for the Iberian nation, controlling play from a central position, regularly providing assists and also scoring the occasional goal.

His last appearance for Spain was a bitter 5-1 reverse to the Netherlands in their opening Group B match in Brazil in June.

He was dropped by coach Vicente del Bosque for their next game against Chile, which they also lost and were eliminated, and replaced by Atletico Madrid's Koke, whom he has singled out as his natural successor.

He said: "I was going to retire after Euro 2012 but head coach Vicente del Bosque persuaded me to stay on and go to Brazil which was of course a huge disappointment for everyone and myself individually.

"After Euro 2012, it was generally understood I was going to be leaving after Brazil 2014. I hope Del Bosque stays as manager as Spain because I don't think there is a better man for the job.

"I want to thank everyone involved in that team for the way they treated me and the respect and I could not wish for a better time as an international."

Spanish team-mate David Villa also retired after the tournament in Brazil, while other veterans Iker Casillas and Xabi Alonso are still available despite speculation that they too may retire from international football.

Trees saving 850 humans per year: Recent study in the US

Trees are saving more than 850 human lives a year and preventing almost 670,000 incidences of acute respiratory symptoms, says an estimate of air pollution removal by trees in the US by the US Forest Service scientists and collaborators.

While the pollution removal by trees equated to an average air quality improvement of less than 1 percent, the impacts of that improvement were substantial.

Researchers valued the human health effects of the reduced air pollution at nearly $7 billion (Rs.42,000 crore) every year.

"With more than 80 percent of Americans living in urban area, this research underscores how truly essential urban forests are to people across the nation," said Michael Rains, director Northern Research Station, US Forest Service.

The study considered four pollutants for which the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established air quality standards: nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) in aerodynamic diameter.

Health effects related to air pollution include impacts on pulmonary, cardiac, vascular, and neurological systems. In the United States, approximately 130,000 PM2.5-related deaths and 4,700 ozone-related deaths in 2005 were attributed to air pollution.

Tree cover in the United States is estimated at 34.2 percent but varies from 2.6 percent in North Dakota to 88.9 percent in New Hampshire.

"In terms of impacts on human health, trees in urban areas are substantially more important than rural trees due to their proximity to people," Dave Nowak from US Forest Service noted.

Amazing creatures: Miniature Horse

We all love ponies, but have you people heard of miniature Horses. I guess you have already heard and read about them. But I just cant wonder less, how cute and wonderful these creatures are.

Miniature horses are found in many nations, particularly in Europe and the Americas. The designation of miniature horse is determined by the height of the animal, which, depending on the particular breed registry involved, is usually less than 34–38 inches (86–97 cm) as measured at the last hairs of the mane, which are found at the withers. While miniature horses are the size of a very small pony, many retain horse characteristics and are considered "horses" by their respective registries. They have various colors and coat patterns.

Miniature horses are friendly and interact well with people. For this reason they are often kept as family pets, though they still retain natural horse behavior, including a natural fight or flight instinct, and must be treated like an equine, even if they primarily serve as a companion animal. They are also trained as service animals, akin to assistance dogs for people with disabilities. Miniature horses are also trained for driving, equine agility and other competitive horse show type events.

Dwarfism is a concern within the miniature horse world. Dwarf horses, while often setting world records for size, are not considered to have desirable traits, generally have incorrect conformation, and may have significant health and soundness issues. Therefore, many miniature horse registries try to avoid accepting minis affected by dwarfism for breeding stock registration.

The oldest living horse on record was a miniature horse affected by dwarfism named Angel who lived with the Horse Protection Society of North Carolina and lived to be over 50.

You wont believe this, the current record holder for the world's smallest horse is also a horse affected by dwarfism, Thumbelina, who is fully mature but stands 17 inches (43 cm) tall and weighs 60 pounds (27 kg). Though she has received considerable publicity, her owners have publicly stated that she will not be bred. In 2010 a 6 pounds (2.7 kg) miniature horse foal named Einstein challenged Thumbelina for the title of the World's Smallest Horse in part based upon the idea that there should be a separate world record category for the smallest non-dwarf horse.

How adorable do you find these loving creatures, please leave your comments below.

Finally some signs of peace: Gaza unconditional cease-fire announced

After weeks of fighting and hundreds of deaths, some semblance of peace may be coming to the Middle East — at least temporarily.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced Thursday that an unconditional humanitarian cease-fire was reached. It began at 8 a.m. Friday in Gaza (10 p.m. Thursday PT). It will last 72 hours — or three days — “unless extended,” the United Nations and United States said in a joint statement.

“During this time, the forces on the ground will remain in place,” the statement said.

Hamas accepted the cease-fire, a spokesman for the militant fundamentalist Islamic organization texted Thursday.

Moments after the announcement, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said it came “after careful deliberations with all the parties.”

The cease-fire is meant to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza caught up in the violence, some of whom have seen their neighborhoods hit hard and loved ones killed, hurt or displaced. The aid will include things like bringing in food, caring for the injured and burying the dead.

As all this is going on, Israeli and Palestinian officials should be meeting in Cairo to try to reach “a durable cease-fire,” the U.N. and U.S. statement said. “The parties will be able to raise issues of concern in these negotiations.”

Will they be able to reach a breakthrough?

The past doesn’t suggest such is likely, at least anything that will lead to a solution to issues that Israelis and Palestinians have been grappling with for decades. And the animosity between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza, runs especially deep, with both sides accusing each other of putting each others civilians at risk.

The latest round of violence, which started earlier this summer, has been particularly bad. At least 1,432 people have been killed in Gaza during the current conflict, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. That’s more than the 1,417 Palestinians that the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said died in the 22 days of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, which spanned 2008 and 2009.

Those killed in the ongoing hostilities — which are tied to the Israeli military’s Operation Protective Edge — include 327 children and 166 women, the Gaza health ministry reports.

The bloodshed prompted the United Nations’ top human rights official to warn earlier that war crimes may have been committed, accusing Israel of “deliberate defiance of obligations (to) international law.”

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay referred to the shelling of homes, schools, hospitals and U.N. “premises,” while insisting, “We cannot allow this impunity, we cannot allow this lack of accountability to go on.”

“None of this appears, to me, to be accidental,” Pillay said.

The scale of the violence, as well as the international condemnation of it, could drive both sides to peace. But even if it does, some Palestinians — like Samy Bahraqe, who is in a U.N. camp after her home was destroyed — aren’t looking forward to the future.

“Life is meaningless,” Bahraqe said. “… What dreams in life can we have now that everything is ruined?”

More Israeli troops

The Israeli military said Thursday that it is calling up 16,000 additional reservists, bolstering its forces for its fight against Hamas in Gaza after a request for more ammunition from the United States.

The addition brings the total number of reservists Israel has called up since the beginning of the operation against Hamas to 86,000, a military spokeswoman said.

After more than three weeks of fighting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel would complete its goal of destroying Hamas’ network of tunnels with or without a cease-fire. Netanyahu said this is just the first phase of the demilitarization of Gaza.

While U.S. officials have called on Israel to do more to protect civilians, the United States has agreed to Israel’s request to resupply it with several types of ammunition, a U.S. defense official stated on condition of anonymity. It’s not an emergency sale, the official said. The items being bought include tank rounds and illumination rounds, the Pentagon said.

Shells land near U.N. school

As has happened day after day after day, Hamas continued to launch rockets Thursday — many of which Israel intercepted, though some did land.

One rocket hit inside a neighborhood in Qiryat Gat, which is about 20 miles from Gaza on the Israeli side of the border. One man was seriously injured and a car caught on fire, Israeli spokesman Mikey Rosenfeld said.

The man suffered from shrapnel injuries and has been taken to the hospital.

Another rocket hit in an open field.

Fifty-six Israeli soldiers have died, according to the military, and three civilians have been killed in Israel since the conflict began. Many more citizens have been forced to take shelter, as rockets rained overhead.

Still, the level of death and destruction doesn’t compare with what’s happening in Gaza, where health workers are struggling to deal with the relentless stream of dead and wounded.

“The hospitals in Gaza yesterday had a very difficult time. All the hospital morgues were flooding with dead bodies, and the injured were laying on hospital floors because of the lack of hospital beds,” said Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health..

Gaza’s health ministry said that Thursday’s toll included 11 people — among them three children — killed by a strike on a house in the Nurisat camp in central Gaza. Another 46 were injured.

Meanwhile, a number of shells fell Thursday next to a U.N. school housing displaced residents — a day after another school-turned-shelter was hit by artillery killing more than a dozen people.

“The school itself was not targeted, it was nearby the school,” Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said about the Thursday incident.

No one was killed inside the school — the Beit Lahiya School for Girls, he said. Eight people were slightly injured.

Calls for civilian protection

The violence between Israel’s military and Palestinian militants is playing out against a backdrop of failed humanitarian cease-fire attempts, with militants firing rockets from Gaza into Israel and Israelis responding with airstrikes.

A large part of the criticism has been leveled at Israel and its airstrikes, which have bombarded Gaza.

Chile, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador have pulled their ambassadors out of Tel Aviv to protest the Israeli offensive.

Israel, in turn, has accused Hamas of hiding weapons, including rockets, in schools and launching attacks from near shelters.

‘This is a disaster’

The incessant attacks and counterattacks are taking a terrible toll on Gazans.

More than 219,000 Palestinians are packed into 86 shelters across Gaza, the U.N. said. That equals about 12% of all of Gaza’s population.

Clean water is inaccessible for most. And some 3,600 people have lost their homes.

“We cannot supply electricity” for hospitals, sewage treatment or domestic use, said Fathi al-Sheikh Khalil, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Natural Resources Authority in Gaza. “This is a disaster.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it sent 43 trucks carrying 750 tons of food, medicine and supplies to Gaza on Wednesday. It also said it has sent fuel.