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A former Premier League footballer has been jailed for 20 years for bribery, Chinese state media has reported.Li Tie, who played in midfield for Everton more than 30 times between 2002 and 2006, went on to manage the China national team between January 2020 and December 2021. It is alleged the 47-year-old received bribes of more than 50 million yuan (£5.4m).He was found guilty of "leveraging his positions" as head coach of the national football and national selection teams by a court in the city of Xianning.Li Tie was also charged with taking bribes between 2015 and 2019 while working for local football clubs. He pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption in March following an investigation which began in November 2022.Read more from Sky News:Economy in shock decline during OctoberRoyal Mail...

Russia has established "direct contact" with Syria's Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) rebel group, according to state media outlet Interfax.It reported that deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov told journalists that Russia was aiming to maintain its military bases inside Syria. Mr Bogdanov said contact with HTS was "proceeding in constructive fashion" and that Moscow hoped the group would fulfil its pledges to maintain order and ensure the safety of diplomats and other foreigners within Syria.Follow the latest updates on Syria"The bases are still there, where they were on Syrian territory," he said. "No other decisions have been made for the moment. "They were there at the Syrians' request with the aim of fighting terrorists from the Islamic State."I am proceeding on the basis of the notion ...

The head of NATO just told allies they must return to a "war mindset" and "turbo-charge" defence spending to counter growing threats in what is surely the most consequential speech by an alliance chief since the Cold War.The big question is whether national governments and their publics across Europe - including here in the UK - are listening. Sir Keir Starmer appears for now to favour peacetime priorities over preparing for war.His newly announced set of milestones includes voter-friendly goals such as raising living standards, reducing hospital waiting lists and building more homes, despite his own military chiefs increasingly sounding the alarm bell about the parlous state of defence.It is a very real example of how deciding to allocate - or not - billions of extra pounds to buy weapons...