Chelsea's Ramires joins Jiangsu Suning in £25m move

The 28-year-old Brazil midfielder agreed a new four-year deal in October but has only started seven Premier League games this season.

Jiangsu finished ninth in China's top tier in 2015 and are managed by former Blues defender Dan Petrescu.

Ramires has helped the Blues win the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League and Europa League.

In total he made 251 appearances for Chelsea, scoring 34 goals, after joining from Benfica for about £17m in 2010.


With BBC Sports

Bello sworn in as Kogi governor

Alhaji Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was Wednesday sworn-in as fourth executive governor of Kogi State.

The oath of office was administered on him at exactly 12noon by the Chief Judge of Kogi State, Justice Nasiru Ajanah, at the Confluence Stadium, Lokoja.

On hand at the inauguration was the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and some members of the National Executive Council of the party.

Others include representative of Senate President. Senator Kabiru Gaya, Governor Tanko Almakura (Nasarawa) and his Benue State counterpart. Samuel Orton.



With The Nation

FG, states, LGs share N387.8bn for December

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, yesterday, in Abuja said N387.8 billion was shared among the federal, states and local governments as revenue for December, 2015.

Adeosun, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, announced this while addressing newsmen on the outcome of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting, according to Vanguard.

She said the shared amount comprised the month’s statutory revenue of N315 billion.

“Also, there is the exchange gain of N4.5 billion which is proposed for distribution. Adeosun also said that the money shared included the N6.3 billion refunded to the federation account by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

“Therefore, the total revenue distributable for the month of December, including VAT of N62 billion, is N387.8 billion,” she said.

It will be recalled that N369.9 billion was shared to the three tiers of government as revenue for the month of November.

This month’s allocation shows an increase of N17.9 billion. Giving the breakdown of revenue among the three tiers of government, Adeosun said the Federal Government received N147.5 billion, representing 52.68 per cent while states got N74.8 billion, representing 26.72 per cent.

The local governments, she said, received N57.7 billion, amounting to 20.60 per cent of the amount distributed. She said N42.05 billion, representing 13 per cent derivation revenue was shared among the oil producing states.

Adeosun also announced that during the month under review, Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas paid a dividend of $150 million which had earlier been distributed to the three tiers of government.

The minister said the country generated N214.6 billion as mineral revenue and N100.3 billion as non-mineral revenue in December.

She said this showed an increase of N16.04 billion and N1.5 billion respectively from what the country generated in the preceding month. The minister also said the balance in the Excess Crude Account was $2.25 billion, indicating that nothing had been removed or added since July 2015.

Adeosun said acts of vandalism on oil pipelines among other factors had continued to negatively impact on oil revenue generation. She said shut-in, shut-down of production for repairs, production shortfall due to technical hitches at different terminals throughout the month impacted negatively on crude oil and gas revenue.

According to her, there was a revenue loss of $143.9 million as a result of reduction in federation export sales and drop in the average price of crude oil from 49.58 dollars in October to 43.4 dollars in November, 2015.”

Johanna Konta & Andy Murray reach Australian Open semi-finals

Britain have two Grand Slam singles semi-finalists for the first time since 1977 after victories for Johanna Konta and Andy Murray at the Australian Open.

Konta continued her remarkable run with a 6-4 6-1 win over China's Zhang Shuai in the quarter-finals and next faces German seventh seed Angelique Kerber.

Fellow Briton Murray saw off Spain's David Ferrer 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-3 to reach his sixth Melbourne semi-final.

The Scot, seeded second, will play Canada's Milos Raonic on Friday.

Raonic, a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2014, beat Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Konta and Murray have matched the achievement of semi-finalist Sue Barker and runner-up John Lloyd, who both reached the last four at the Australian Open 39 years ago.

Murray, 28, won a gruelling quarter-final against eighth seed Ferrer that lasted three hours and 49 minutes.

Konta, ranked 47th, is the first British woman to reach a Grand Slam semi-final since Jo Durie made the US Open last four in 1983.

"I'm just so happy that I'm enjoying what I'm doing," said Konta after her straight-set win over Zhang. "That is me living my dream."

Her achievements so far have guaranteed her prize money of at least £370,000 and are likely to secure her a place in the world's top 30.

"When I was a little girl, I dreamt of winning grand slams and being number one in the world," she added. "That dream stays the same, I think, as long as you're doing the career that you're on."

Konta said she "just wanted to come out and play the best level" she could against Zhang, who was also in uncharted waters.

The British number one saw off the Chinese qualifier, ranked 133rd in the world, in one hour and 22 minutes.

Konta began confidently, breaking twice and serving superbly as she moved 5-2 clear before overcoming some nerves and a resurgent opponent to clinch the set.

After saving a break point that would have made it 5-5 and then converting her sixth set point, the confidence returned and Konta again earned a double-break lead in the second set.

With a semi-final place there for the taking, Konta saw two match points slip by but converted the third thanks to a net cord.

"To be honest, I was taking it a match at a time," said Konta. "She definitely didn't make it easy for me.

"Every time I was ahead, she was constantly there. I'm not proud of the net cord, but I'm happy I was able to fight every point."

A Grand Slam final appearance is now a real possibility, arguably more so after Kerber's surprise win over the in-form Victoria Azarenka.

Kerber and Konta will meet for the first time in Thursday's second semi-final at around 04:30 GMT.

Murray is through to his 18th Grand Slam semi-final, bringing him level with Boris Becker, having dropped just two sets in five matches.

The former Wimbledon and US Open champion was made to work hard by Ferrer, but Murray proved the stronger in the third and fourth sets.

A three-set win looked possible after he took the opener and fought back from 4-1 down in the second to earn two break points at 4-4.

Ferrer, 33, showed his famous battling qualities by digging in and forcing a tie-break, which he would win to draw level, prompting Murray to berate himself and talk to those in his player box.

The Scot was understandably irritated but gathered himself sufficiently to break for a 3-1 lead in the third, at which point the roof was brought across with thunderstorms forecast.

Murray saved a break point on the resumption, but broke once again to take a grip on the contest and moved 2-0 up in the fourth.

Ferrer, 33, refused to yield and hit straight back but Murray made the decisive move in game six after the Spaniard netted a smash and made it to the finish line with two hard-fought service games.

He will now play Raonic, who is pledging to "fight with all my heart" when the two meet on Friday.

With Jamie Murray through to the semi-finals of the men's doubles with Brazilian Bruno Soares, it is the first time two brothers have reached semis in singles and doubles at the Australian Open.

Azarenka might have been seeded seven places lower than Kerber at 14th, but the German still pulled off something of a shock by knocking out the Belarusian.

The 28-year-old raced into an early 4-0 lead and then staged a superb second-set fightback to beat two-time champion Azarenka 6-3 7-5.

The German had lost all six previous matches against Azarenka and saved five set points from 2-5 in the second set.

"I can't actually describe it in words," said Kerber. "I'm so happy I beat her for the first time."

Azarenka, 26, said her footwork and shots weren't good enough and also blamed "too many unforced errors in the key moments".

With BBC Sport

See Photo as Buhari leaves for Kenya