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NAZI

Ronaldo eyes Champions League goal record

Cristiano Ronaldo can set a new record for goals scored in a Champions League group stage when already-qualified Real Madrid visit FC Copenhagen on Tuesday.

Ronaldo eyes Champions League goal record
The Portuguese has found the net eight times in just four European appearances this season. Photo: Olivier Morin/AFP

The Portuguese has found the net eight times in just four European appearances this season to equal the record jointly held by Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Filippo Inzaghi, Hernan Crespo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has also scored eight times for Paris Saint-Germain this season.

Ronaldo has missed Madrid's last three games due to a slight muscular injury and suspension respectively, but Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti confirmed that he will return in midweek despite Madrid having already sealed their place in the last 16.

"Cristiano is fine, he is training with the rest of the team and he will play on Tuesday without any problem," said the Italian.

And despite a lot of talk surrounding what he may do at the World Cup next summer, Ronaldo insisted his primary focus is on delivering trophies for Madrid before making his way to Brazil.

"There's still a long way to go to the World Cup and I am focused on my club. I want to win everything and then we'll see about the World Cup," he said. (2014 FIFA World Cup draw)

"We have to enjoy the present, right now we are playing well in the Champions League, La Liga and now the Copa del Rey.

"I hope Madrid can win something important. There is sill a long way to go until the World Cup and anything could happen. My aim is to stay focused on my club and give my best."

Gareth Bale is also expected to return in the Danish capital as he trained alongside Ronaldo on Sunday despite missing Real's 0-0 draw away to third tier Olimpic Xativa in the first-leg of their Copa del Rey tie on Saturday due to the flu.

Copenhagen cannot make the last 16 no matter how results on Tuesday go due to their inferior head-to-head record against Galatasaray and Juventus.

However, Stale Solbakken's men can still make the Europa League with a win or by bettering Galatasaray's result at home to Juve.

And after a group stage in which his side have competed well against opponents with vastly greater resources, Solbakken is hoping for another stellar home performance to ensure European football after Christmas.

"We are still alive and we will hope that we can provide one last, brave effort to go through (to the Europa League)," he told the club's website.

"I have said that I hope for one Christmas present before December 24 and that is a win or maybe a draw at the Parken."

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NAZI

Austrian rapper arrested over neo-Nazi songs

Austrian authorities said Tuesday they have arrested a rapper accused of broadcasting neo-Nazi songs, one of which was used by the man behind a deadly anti-Semitic attack in Germany.

Austrian rapper arrested over neo-Nazi songs
Austrian police officers patrol at the house where Adolf Hitler was born during the anti-Nazi protest in Braunau Am Inn, Austria on April 18, 2015. Photo: JOE KLAMAR / AFP

“The suspect has been arrested on orders of the Vienna prosecutors” and transferred to prison after a search of his home, said an interior ministry statement.

Police seized a mixing desk, hard discs, weapons, a military flag from the Third Reich era and other Nazi objects during their search.

Austrian intelligence officers had been trying for months to unmask the rapper, who went by the pseudonym Mr Bond and had been posting to neo-Nazi forums since 2016.

The suspect, who comes from the southern region of Carinthia, has been detained for allegedly producing and broadcasting Nazi ideas and incitement to hatred.

“The words of his songs glorify National Socialism (Nazism) and are anti-Semitic, racist and xenophobic,” said the interior ministry statement.

One of his tracks was used as the sound track during the October 2019 attack outside a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle.

In posts to online forums based in the United States, the rapper compared the man behind the 2019 Christchurch shootings that killed 51 people at a New Zealand mosque to a saint, and translated his racist manifesto into German.

Last September, an investigation by Austrian daily Der Standard and Germany's public broadcaster ARD said that the musician had been calling on members of neo-Nazi online forums and chat groups to carry out terrorist attacks for several years.

They also reported that his music was used as the soundtrack to the live-streamed attack in Halle, when a man shot dead two people after a failed attempt to storm the synagogue.

During his trial last year for the attack, 28-year-old Stephan Balliet said he had picked the music as a “commentary on the act”. In December, a German court jailed him for life.

“The fight against far-right extremism is our historical responsibility,” Austria's Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said Tuesday.

Promoting Nazi ideology is a criminal offence in Austria, which was the birth place of Adolph Hitler.

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