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Cristiano Ronaldo mixes up South Africa and Saudi Arabia after Al Nassr move

Football star Cristiano Ronaldo got the name of his new host country wrong while speaking at his first press conference in Saudi Arabia following his multi-million dollar move to Al Nassr.

“It’s not the end of my career to come to South Africa,” he said, in an earnest voice against a backdrop proudly proclaiming “Saudi welcome to Arabia”.

While they can’t have been happy, the Saudi officials at Tuesday’s press conference didn’t seek to correct Ronaldo and it didn’t seem to bother his new Saudi fans, who gave him a thunderous welcome as he appeared in Al Nassr’s yellow and blue kit at his new home ground, Mrsool Park.

As tweeter @NVMakhanye pointed out: “�� You don’t need to know the name of the country to make €200 million �� ... Anyways, welcome to South Africa Ronaldo �� ”

His reported annual salary of $200m (£177m) is believed to make him the world’s highest-paid footballer.

While it was obviously a slip of the tongue, it hasn’t stopped some South African football fans from dreaming of seeing one of the world’s most famous stars playing for their local team.

And the South African tourism authority is still hoping that Ronaldo will show up at the Moses Mabhida stadium, built in the coastal city of Durban for the 2010 World Cup.

South Africa’s Phakaaathi news site described it as a “stunning blooper”, while its football editor Jonty Mark commented: “Saudi Arabia and South Africa may have the same initial at the start of each part of their respective name, but it is still more than a little bizarre that Ronaldo couldn’t pick the right country in his first presser.”

However, most tweeters in the Arab world overlooked his gaffe, with @ alasiri_555 commenting in Arabic: “Nothing wrong with that. Everybody makes mistakes.”

BBC Arabic producer Ahmed Rouaba says the focus of most tweets has been on football, with Al Nassr fans expecting him to win games for them - and lift the club and country.

Al Nassr didn’t seem too bothered, tweeting: “Everyone is happy today �� �� ”

And it also posted a video of Ronaldo arriving in Saudi Arabia, just in case anyone thought he really was in South Africa:

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter As for Ronaldo, he is looking forward to his new life in the oil-rich kingdom.

“In Europe, my work is done. I’ve won everything. I’ve played in the most important clubs in Europe. And now for me is a new challenge,” he said.

China Covid: WHO warns about under-representing Covid deaths

The World Health Organization has warned that China is under-representing the true impact of Covid in the country - in particular deaths.

The removal of most restrictions last month has led to a surge in cases.

But China has stopped publishing daily cases data, and has announced only 22 Covid deaths since December, using its own strict criteria.

“We believe that definition [of a Covid death] is too narrow,” WHO emergencies director Dr Michael Ryan said.

Dr Ryan said China’s figures “underrepresent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, and particularly in terms of deaths”.

China last month changed its criteria for what constitutes a Covid death, meaning only those who die of respiratory illnesses are counted.

This goes against WHO guidance, which encourages countries to count the number of excess deaths - how many more people die than would normally be expected based on death figures before the pandemic hit.

Dr Ryan added that China had increased its engagement with the WHO in recent weeks, and said he looked forward to receiving “more comprehensive data.”

But he also suggested individual health workers could report their own data and experiences.

“We do not discourage doctors and nurses reporting these deaths and these cases,” Dr Ryan said. “We have an open approach to be able to record the actual impact of disease in

Hospitals across China are under pressure amid a fresh wave of Covid infections

society.”

The UK science data company Airfinity estimates more than two million Covid cases a day in China, and 14,700 deaths.

Since China abandoned key parts of its “zero-Covid” strategy almost a month ago, there have been reports of hospitals and crematoriums being overwhelmed.

More than a dozen nations have introduced travel restrictions on travellers from China. Beijing has criticised these as politically motivated and threatened to retaliate.

No new Covid variants have been detected in China, despite the surge in cases. However, the WHO has warned this could be due to a decrease in testing.

The Chinese authorities have announced they are sending medical supplies to rural hospitals before an expected wave of coronavirus infections in the countryside - where vaccination rates are patchy.

Dr Abdi Rahman Mahamud, director of the WHO’s alert and response coordination department, has warned China may see another wave of infections as families gather for China’s Lunar New Year in a few weeks - one of the country’s busiest travel periods.

Taraneh Alidoosti: Iran releases top actress held for supporting protests

Authorities in Iran have released a top actress who was arrested last month after expressing solidarity with antigovernment protesters.

Taraneh Alidoosti was pictured being greeted by friends outside Tehran’s Evin prison, her hair uncovered.

The 38-year-old star was freed on bail after being accused of “posting inflammatory content”.

She had posted a picture on social media without a headscarf and condemned the first execution of a protester.

Many Iranian actors, musicians and other celebrities have publicly backed the protests against the clerical establishment.

They erupted almost four months ago following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”.

Authorities have portrayed the protests as foreign-backed “riots” and responded with lethal force.

So far, at least 516 protesters have been killed, including 70 children, and 19,250 others arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA). It has also reported the deaths of 68 security personnel.

Two protesters were executed last month after being convicted of the vaguely-defined national security charge of “enmity against God”.

Human rights groups condemned their trials as gross miscarriages of justice. They were reportedly tortured into confessing and deprived of access to lawyers of their choosing.

Days before her own arrest on 17 December, Ms Alidoosti had urged people to speak out in response to the execution of the first protester, Mohsen Shekari.

“Every international organisation who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action is a disgrace to humanity,” she wrote on her Instagram account, which had millions of followers before it was disabled.

In November, she had posed with her hair uncovered, holding a sign saying “Woman, life, freedom” - the main slogan of the protest movement.

State media reported that Taraneh Alidoosti had failed to provide “any documents in line with her claims”

Iran’s state news agency, Irna, reported that Ms Alidoosti was arrested for failing to provide “any documents in line with her claims”.

Ms Alidoosti is one of Iran’s most successful actresses. She starred in The Salesman, which won an Academy Award in 2016 for the Best International Feature Film.

She has paused her career to support the families of protesters killed in the crackdown and has previously vowed to remain inside Iran at any price.

Two other Iranian actresses, Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, were arrested in November for supporting the protests. They have also been released on bail.

In a separate development on Wednesday, the Iranian government vowed to give a “decisive response” after the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published a series of cartoons mocking Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a Shia Muslim cleric who has the final say on all state matters.

Charlie Hebdo said it had received more than 300 such cartoons and “thousands of threats” after it launched a competition last month in order to “support the struggle of Iranians who are fighting for their freedom”.

“The insulting and offensive action of a French publication in releasing cartoons

Hospitals across China are under pressure amid a fresh wave of Covid infections

against [Iran’s] religious and political authority will not be left without an effective and decisive response,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Court upheld death sentences handed to two men who were convicted of “corruption on Earth” over the alleged killing of a paramilitary member in Karaj in November.

The court rejected the appeals of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, who have both alleged that they were tortured into making false confessions. Retrials were ordered for three co-defendants sentenced to death in the same case, including Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou.