International News

Tight Gas: A new type of energy reserve

2011-05-29T06:22:00.000-07:00

Natural gas is found is such pores of rocks which are linked to each other and reach on earth by the wells of gas present in the rocks. Some reserves of gas are present in the pores of rocks but the passages among them are so narrow that make the passing of gas to the wells almost impossible. Such reserves are called “Tight Gas” However, in the last few years the technology has find out ways that made getting this type of gas possible too.

The Petroleum reservoirs have two important characteristics on the basis of which the reserve of gas or petroleum is found in that rock. Firstly the reservoir rock should contain pores in which gas can be stored. This characteristic is called Porosity. Secondly these pores should be interlinked so that when the gas entered the well from the pours it could reach the earth easily. This characteristic is called Permeability. The measurement of Permeability is Millidarcy and 5 to 10 millidarcy is considered a good permeability that can easily pull the gas out of the well. This is the description of known or customary reservoirs. Now we will talk on the new types of rocks in which the permeability is less to 1 millicarcy. This is a tight gas. Since gas is obstructed among the particles of sand therefore such reservoir is called “Tight Gas Sand”.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

Environmental Friendly Town!

2011-05-08T04:57:00.000-07:00

Every Building Of It Produces Its Own Electricity!

The Highest Environmental Friendly Building

The manifestations of environmental destructions are so clear now that these seasonal changes have put the survival of mankind into danger. Therefore, human wants to acquire the environmental technology soon for its survival. Research is going on in this direction. The most environmental friendly building has been made in New York. This High Technology building is a Skyscraper. This is situated in Bryant Park Tower Manhattan. American government has given it a Lead Platinum Certificate. This means that the designing and technology of this building has been certified environmental friendly as per the government of America’s tough standards. It is the second highest building of Manhattan and the first government certified environmental friendly building. It is also called The Bank of America Tower. This building is decorated with technologies like saving the rain water for afterward usage, recycling of used water, recycling of building material for long term usage, technology of better and minimum usage of energy and such type of glass is used, which not only provides greater benefits from the sunlight but also reduces the affects of sun heat. Modern design, wonderful art of building and all the available technologies have made this building specifically environmental friendly.

The Solar City

A full town can only be made environmental friendly, when the residents are agreed on it. The mind of each and every person is scientific and there found uniformity in their struggles. The residents of Germany have established an example by establishing the Sonnenschiff Solar city, in Freiberg Germany. This town is self-independent in power supply. Modern photo voltaic panels have been installed in every house of it which uses the solar energy. The solar cells installed at the roof of every house benefits in a way that the town now creates four times more electricity than the whole town uses. There are total of 52 houses. The numbers of buildings for other facilities are additional. Residential and commercial buildings are not only self-independent in creating their own electricity but also environmental friendly due to equipment of modern facilities. There is special arrangement of greenery and tress in the town. Every house has been equipped with the technology of using the solar energy in its totality in winter and summer seasons. There is a mechanism on roofs to recycle the standing rain water to plants and toilets.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

Revolutionary discovery

2011-05-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

The genetic secret of Apple and Wheat has been manifested

Among the most important of human problems, rising population is forefront. Along side the environmental and seasonal changes have spread such a disaster that standing harvest started ruining. Diseases started attacking them and resultantly the real danger of food scarcity came forward. Wheat has ever been the most important food for the whole world and it’s also the oldest human food. Just imagine how human can live without wheat in the world.

This is a genetic era. If genetic code of any living organism would be sought, its breeding and growth could be controlled. The Britain scientist have achieved great success in decoding the genetic code of wheat, which would result in a way that the hardest wheat could be prepared which could cope with the environmental and seasonal changes. It would breed more in less space and likewise the rising population needs could be fulfilled.

Wheat is harvested more than any other grain in the world. The scientists have declared that they are publishing the genetic code of wheat on the internet so that the scientists all over the world could be benefited by this research in order to improve its production in their countries. This is a revolutionary discovery and would prove as a milestone in the field of food.

The team of Neil Hall scientist of Liverpool has discovered this code. They say that the benefits of their research would reveal in the next five years.

Genome or genetic map provides the complete DNA details of any living organism. DNA is a combination of complex molecules which provides complete instructions about the structure and activities of any living organism. When Genome of any living organism has been understood, we get extraordinary information about it, for instance, how it came into existence, how its beginning and growth did happens and how does it die etc.

The Wheat entered in the world of genetics a little late. The genetic code of rice was found in 2005, maize in 2009 and of Soya bean in the beginning of last year. The reason for its late entry is that its genetic map is extraordinary bigger and thicker. It is not only bigger than rice and maize but also five times bigger than human genome. For e.g. when one kind of Sugar Wheat was examined, there were 6 copies of the same gene, whereas in majority of living organisms there are 2 copies of the same gene. Now the genetic engineers could easily make such technology by which wheat could be prepared using artificial means.

On the other side, the international team of scientists which included scientists from Italy, France, Newzeland, Belgium and America have discovered the genetic code of Apple. This would help in understanding that which gene is responsible for any characteristic of an apple. It would also be known that which gene is responsible for resistance from diseases and which one is better for growth. Likewise the human control on Apple production and its various characteristics would increase. Besides other information, gene provides information about its general appearance, health, production, color and taste too.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

Michael Jackson – The King of Popular Music

2011-05-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

He passed about 51 years in this world but left behind the amazing tales of familiarity and popularity, regard and disregard and successes which this world will continue to reiterate for unlimited period of time. He was born on 29^th August 1958 and died on 25^th June 2009 in a mysterious way. The every living day of this mysterious artist keeps a unique story. Yes! We are talking about Michael Jackson who started singing in 1964 along with his four brothers. This group was called “Jackson Five”. This childhood period of Michael Jackson is a heart touching tale of hardships. Whenever on any pleasant morning or cool evening, he saw his same age children were playing different games in the parks, tears used to run out from his eyes, but Michael Jackson got tremendous reward of his tear. He reached such horizons of success and popularity, which many singers even can’t dream of. The selling records of Michael Jackson’s audios and videos are still unbeatable. His name is mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Record under more than one title. One of those titles is “The Most Successful Entertainer of All Time”.

Besides 13 Graeme Awards, Michael Jackson received 17 “No. 1 Singles” awards on his single songs. More than 800 million Records of Michael Jackson has been sold, which itself is a record--- and still his albums are selling in different shapes. Besides being singer, composer, producer, dancer, choreographer, actor and businessman, he was also the social worker. He gave 250 million Dollars in his lifetime to his own established welfare organization “Heal the World” Foundation and to other 39 welfare organizations as a donation. More than this amount, he donated after collecting from his welfare programs. He also has the honor of the “Highest Pop Star Donator” to welfare organizations. After 80’s his personality remained victimized of several disputes, rumors and scandals. His changing nose pattern and complexion remained the topic of news, sometimes he got the accusation of bad behavior with children, which could not be proved. This disputed prince of the Music World married in 1994 with the daughter Liza of Elvis Presley and in 1996 with a Nurse named Dabby. He had two children with her. One was the son, whose name he chose “Prince” (which was also the nickname of Michael in his youth). Second one was a girl, whose name was chosen as “Paris”. The third child’s name of Michael Jackson was Michael Jackson II. His nickname is Blanket. He was born in 2002 and his mother is unknown and father is also dubious. However, Michael Jackson said that the child was his own but the mother was rented. After the death of Michael Jackson, his childhood friend Mark Laster opined that “Paris” may be his daughter because her face resembles with that of her own daughter. He claimed that he has given his sperm as a present or donation. During 2003 and 2005 Michael Jackson started using narcotics to much extent and his weight was started deteriorating quickly. He also remained sometime in Bahrain as a guest with an Arab Sheikh. The rumors of his converting into Muslim have also been spread at that time. In 2006, the news of his financial crisis started coming. During that time he returned to America and started living in a rented palace because his own house was closed due to the accusations of not paying of loans and legal proceedings. On 25^th June, 2009 at 22 min past 12 his illness news was received on an emergency number of Fire Department in Los Angles. In three minutes ambulance reached his house. According to the medical staff he was not breathing at that time. At 56 min past 12 doctors officially declared him death. This way the story of life of the King of Popular Music ended. But the guesses about his death, the pull and push of his heredity and accusations on various people in respect of his death is still going on.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

1st May: World Labors Day

2011-05-01T06:19:00.000-07:00

Labors, Harvesters, Farmers are still deprived of their rights

1^st May is the Word Day of Labors and its decision has also been taken by labors themselves and not by UNO, because by that time UNO didn’t exist. On this day labors all over the world celebrate the memories of 1886 Chicago labors who sacrificing their lives get 8 hours timings approved for themselves. On this day, labors all over the world organize seminars, processions; rallies and meetings to express their resolution that they will continue their struggle until the exploitation system has not been eradicated.

The patient and hard struggle of labors, workers, servants and innocents has been going on for centuries. This tussle is going on since the inception of this world. When for the very first time few powerful people after drawing lines on the earth started claiming their possession and made the weaker, innocent and obedient public their servant by aggravation and cruelty. The class difference in the society started prevailing since then. The powerful and cruel people of that time started taking forceful hard work from them and made them their servant. But in 18^th and 19^th century the labor body started strengthening. This was the period when steam engines and factories were entering into the machine era. The laborers were paid very less amount in lieu of their severe hard work.

Before this time in 1789, the France Revolution had taken place. The ideas of Carl Marks were prevailing. Then in 1883, Carl Marks died. At the same time the laborers were also making their parties. By that time there were neither any fix timings for the laborers nor any law. They had to work late till night. There was no compensation in case of accident or death. New industries were establishing in Europe. Science was also advancing. The network of factories and industries was spreading. The labor body was rising and marching towards Union making. The laborers struggled in Britain, made unions and federations. The laborers also struggled before this time but the work done by Chicago laborers will be remembered till eternity.

Exactly 125 years ago from now, such enthusiastic, revolutionary and dedicated political and labor leaders had been born who for the first time called complete strike and presenting their valuable lives turned the labor movement in the new direction and rose the laborers’ head with pride by sacrificing their blood. This incident occurred in the industrial city of Chicago in America near the famous “Hay” market. The laborers of that time raised their voice against the then authorities, industrialists, factory owners, landlords and money holders that challenged them to listen, “You cruel people we are also humans, give us the right of living too, fix our working hours, raise our salaries and give us livelihood.” They were shouting to the laborers of the world to get united; they were united without any difference in cast, creed or color and were asking for their rights and demands. The whole industrial city of Chicago was jammed. The Chimneys of Mills and factories had stopped excreting smoke. This was the first time in the history when the hard workers had raised the mutiny flag by their unity and wrote a new chapter by calling the complete strike. Then on 1^st May 1886 in the morning the anonymous journalist while performing his revolutionary duty had written a writing which has now become the part of the history.

“Oh! Laborers! Your fight has been started. The time will take itself the final decision. Step forward to get your demands accepted, for your duty hours, continue your struggle, the authorities will have to bend, victory will be yours, never lose courage, be united, in this lies your survival, your success, keep fighting till the fulfillment of your demands, “

This writing of the journalist had rose additional emotions and they demanded strongly for 8 hours timings and then for the first time 24 hours had been adjusted like that we will do 8 hours work, we will rest for 8 hours and we will pass 8 hours with our family. The authorities, mill owners, money holders didn’t like this slogan and unity of the laborers and they taking the strict action opened fire on them. They wounded the weaponless, peaceful and weaker laborers,

The white peaceful flag of the laborers becomes red. The shirt of one of the laborer turned red with the blood. Then they made that red blooded flag their own flag in place of white flag and decided that they will not go to work unless their demands were not fulfilled. Red flag will now be our flag and from then onwards the red flag became the flag of laborers.

At last the authorities accepted the demands of the laborers and likewise for the first time the 8 hours timings were accepted. On this occasion seven prominent leaders of laborers including Fisher, Angeel, Peterson and Spies were brought to trial and 4 leaders were sentenced to death. These leaders went from this world but left their work, name and their movement alive for good. Afterwards, laborers got their many demands accepted by their struggle. The revolution came in Russia in 1917. Laborers got their many demands accepted in Europe. Now the timings in Europe are 6 hours. But still in many parts of the world exploitation with the laborers are going on and there is a need of long and hard struggle like Chicago laborers did by the laborers of that exploited areas in order to get their justified demands accepted by the authorities. UNO also need to play its role in such areas of the world.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

Every 10th Atomic Plant is facing a risk of Earthquakes

2011-04-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

Most of countries having Nuclear Reactors do not possess capability dealing with an emergency situation

In Japan, after having the most dreadful earthquake as a result of Tsunami which causes Nuclear crises, have paved way to apprehensions regarding the safety of Atomic Reactors in the world.

According to a recent research many Atomic Reactors in the world are facing the danger of Tsunami or earthquakes and it is doubted that this situation can duplicate itself like Japanese “Foko Shimari Reactor”, which would be more disastrous because the their capability dealing with disasters is far more less than Japan. Be ware that Japan possesses the best capability of dealing with disasters.

According to the research of Maple Craft there are 76 Atomic Plants in Japan, Taiwan, China, South Korea, India, Pakistan and America, located at places which can be affected by Tsunami. In different countries of the world there are 442 Atomic Power Plants, in which every 10^th is facing the danger of earthquake. Be ware that most of these plants are situated in Japan, America, Taiwan, Armenia and Slovenia.

The auditor of Maple Craft Mr. Helen Hoj says that although the Atomic crisis of Japan is the first incident of its type but other countries can face this terrible situation. The Atomic Plants that are situated in the Southern Coastal Line in South Korea, Taiwan, South China, India, Pakistan and America or which are under consideration of installation in these areas are considered sensitive as regard to Tsunami. On the other hand the Atomic facilities of America, Taiwan, Armenia, Iran and Slovenia are likely to be affected by earthquake.

According to the Professor Kath Berahnam of Imperial College London, Japan is the most modern country in regards to technology but they are also facing problem in dealing with the crisis of Atomic Plants. Therefore, apprehension is natural for rather less developed countries for their Atomic Plants situated in dangerous zones. Nuclear safety experts refer to the Russian Atomic Plant situated 30 K.m. away from the Capital of Armenia.

In December, 1988 a powerful earthquake hit in the North West of Armenia, in which 25 thousand people were killed. Next year the Metsamore Atomic Plant had to shut down due the dangers of earthquakes. Although one Plant of this Reactor has been made useless, however, the other is operational. International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) has been monitoring the safety protocols of this Plant for a decade; however, apprehensions are still present.

According to World Nuclear Association the present Nuclear Plant of Metsamore is a source of apprehension for European Union and neighboring country “Turkey” situated just 16 kms away from the plant. Many bodies are raising voices for shutting down this Reactor, but Armenia who depends much on this plant for the supply of Energy says that it will remain operational until the establishment of an alternate.

In the recent years, the IAEC has recognized the dangers of drastic natural calamities; therefore, they established the International Seismic Safety Centre in 2008. They also reviewed their safety measure after the situation occurred in the Japanese Fokoshima Plant in regards to Tsunami and earthquakes. Be ware that last month rising Atomic crisis due to Tsunami has once again made the arguments start regarding Nuclear Safety. As a result several countries including Italy, Switzerland and Germany have stopped the installation of their Atomic Plants.

Another Nuclear expert James Acton says, the real problem is that we cannot assume the disaster caused by natural or human fault, that’s why it is essential to inspect the designs and safety protocols of every nuclear reactor in the world. In his opinion it is necessary to provide the information and technology to rather less developed countries in order to save the world from Atomic radiation. Be ware that IAEA already provides technical aid to the less developed countries in regards to nuclear safety protocol.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

Actress Sienna Miller not satisfied--Even after phone hack apology

2011-04-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

Sienna Miller will sue again The News of the World

The News of the World offers compensation for phone hacking, but Sienna Mill is not satisfied and will sue the paper anyhow.

LONDON — The paper News of the world has offered compensation to Actress Sienna Miller of any justifiable claims and acknowledged eavesdropping the voicemails of public figures. But it has done little effect to stop the scandal which has endangered the goodwill of Britain’s political establishment and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

Many celebrities are suing the paper but the lawyer Mark Thomson of Sienna Miller said that Sienna has not dropped her lawsuit against the paper which she accuses of “outrageous violations of privacy” and is awaiting for more information before taking any further action. The actress further accuses that the stated paper is continuously accessing her phone for the last one year and gathering information about her, her family and her former partner Jude Law.

On the other hand News of the world has been accusing their two scoundrel employees for years and who were also jailed in 2007 for eavesdropping and hacking of voicemails crime of royal staff, which includes Prince William and Prince Harry. News of the world has further regret genuinely their past behavior for incepting voicemails. However, Murdoch, the owner of the paper could not stop the critics. John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister, added that until the hacking of voicemails issue is not resolved the government should stop the Newspaper taking full control of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC.

On the other hand the government has approved plans by Murdoch's News Corp. that if it spin off its Sky News channel as an independent company they are offered to buy the 61 percent of BSkyB it does not already own.

Police found about 3,000 phone numbers after their initial inquiry of phone hacking
Critics of the Newspaper say that there are thousands of people who were victimized by the Newspaper’s rogue reporters but currently paper is facing around 20 lawsuits.

Police has arrested and questioned newspaper’s chief reporter, its former head of news, and forced Andy Coulson, former News of the World editor hired as Prime Minster David Cameron’s communication chief, but not arrested to step down from his job

Four British National Newspapers: The Sun, the News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times are owned by Murdoch’s News International Ltd. The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and the Fox Television are their U.S. media outlets, whereas News International is a subsidiary of Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Cricket World Cup 2011 review

2011-04-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

The highs and the lows of the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Sensational: Kevin O'Brien's innings against England will live long in the memory

What it has proved...
That 50 overs per side on a dry pitch is far and away the best format for a one-day cricket match. The ICC president Sharad Pawar may say this World Cup has been a triumph, and it has been less sterile than the last one in the West Indies, but it has again failed to give the sport’s finest talent the right stage often enough.

There have been far too few interesting matches, the majority of the 49 ending in predictably huge margins, and far too much travelling for all concerned, in far too long a period. But those games - whether high or low-scoring - between evenly matched sides have shown that a 50-over match on a dry pitch can be cricket at its best.

Best run-chase...
Ireland knocking off 328 to beat England - with not only three wickets but five whole balls remaining. What is more, Ireland had been 111 for five off 24.2 overs. Has any one-day international been won from a more hopeless position?

Worst run-chase...
South Africa not even getting close to the 222 they needed to beat New Zealand in the quarter-final and losing by 49 runs.

Bravest innings...
Faced with a baying crowd in Ahmedabad, and calls for his resignation from the Australian captaincy, and handicapped by a left finger that is still a painful mess, Ricky Ponting scored a century.

India v Sri Lanka: as it happened
02 Apr 2011
India win the World Cup
02 Apr 2011
Toss sees final start in controversy
02 Apr 2011
The final reckoning
02 Apr 2011
Final left in balance after Jayawardene ton
02 Apr 2011

Best individual performance...
Against England, Kevin O’Brien hit 24 off 11 balls from James Anderson, 24 off nine balls from Tim Bresnan, and 21 off 11 balls from Graeme Swann. In all, he hit 113 from 63 balls.
The best way for England to improve as a 50-over team Given the blanket ban on 50-over county cricket by the far-sighted England and Wales Cricket Board, select Kevin O’Brien, of Ireland, and Ryan ten Doeschate, of Holland.
Best Asian XI for a match against the best non-Asian XI...
Based largely on performance in this tournament, and on a typical pitch in this tournament: Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dilshan, Sangakkara (wk/capt), Yuvraj, Mathews, Afridi, Harbajan, Zaheer, Malinga and Muralitharan. 12th man: Hafeez.
Best non-Asian XI...
Based largely on performance in this tournament: Watson, Strauss, Trott, Kallis, de Villiers (wkt), ten Doeschate, K O’Brien, Lee, Vettori (capt), Swann and Steyn. 12th man: Peterson.
Best collective performance...
The umpires. The top handful really are excellent and don’t really need the technology of the Decision Review System, except to prove to everyone how good they are.
A worthy cause...
The ICC has done a commendable job in helping to de-stigmatise Aids, but the sight of a red ribbon on the shoulder of international cricketers has become too familiar. It would be just as worthy to highlight the female infanticide that now goes on in south Asia: India’s latest census reveals there are now only 914 females, even though they live longer, to every 1000 males.
Poignant reminder...
The Taj Mahal in Mumbai - the hotel of the cricket world - is fully functioning again, following the terrifying terrorist attack of November 2008. The Windsor across the park from the MCG in Melbourne, and the Hilton overlooking the Savannah in Port-of-Spain, have had their moments but this is still the place.
In addition to the players enjoying respite from fans outside, cricket administrators have been planning how to make sure no active politician ever becomes ICC president again, after Pawar.
The security is so intense traffic has been banned from the street outside, and the Gateway of India is deserted, but that allows the crows to be heard in the trees surrounding the pool. After the violence, again, birdsong.

Hundreds stage pillow fight in central London

2011-04-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

On International Pillow Fight Day, hundreds flocked to Trafalgar Square in central London to bop one another over the head.

Tom Nizio had come equipped for a fight – with starry pyjama trousers on his legs and a pillow in his rucksack.

"I love this kind of fun," said Mr Nizio, 29, from Acton, west London, surveying the gathering crowd in Trafalgar Square yesterday. "I heard about it on Facebook, and just thought, I've got to have some of this."

He released the pillow from his rucksack and set off on his rollerblades. It was about to begin – the novelty addition to the London season, International Pillow Fight Day.

Organised – sort of – in cities around the world, International Pillow Fight Day can best be described as a global gathering of those who have yet to grow out of pillow fights, with a bit of charity fund-raising on the side.

It is the brainchild of Kevin Bracken and Lori Kufner, who, in 2005 while students at Toronto University in Canada, founded the art group Newmindspace.

International Pillow Fight Day started in 2008, but pillow fighting has always been part of Bracken and Kufner's oeuvre. Indeed, judging by their online "how-to" guide, it can change the world.
"This is a building block of our goal to spread free event culture to every corner of the world.
"Imagine that anywhere on the face of the Earth, there may some day be free, fun, massive public events like pillow fights and interactive art installations on every day of the year.
"Imagine that in the future, we will be united by our drive to live free, fun public lives! That is the era we dream of."
None of which seemed to put anyone off. They had come to Trafalgar Square in their hundreds, in fluffy slippers, dressing gowns, skintight jumpsuits, elephant outfits and other liberal interpretations of the pyjama dress code.
Some had no sensible reason to be here.
"There's not much thought gone into it," said Fredrika Drake, 25, a waitress from Camden, north London. "I just thought – awesome! Fun!"
Others may have thought about it too much.
Josie Colgate, 32, a sales adviser, brandished her pillow and glanced slyly at her boyfriend Sam Hobson, 28, from Maidstone, Kent.
"He's my main target. I don't normally get the opportunity."
The klaxon sounded. Trafalgar Square filled with about 200 swinging pillows and innumerable flying feathers.
All this, in front of smiling Police officers – despite an apparent lack of any official permission.
At the Greater London Authority, the landowner of Trafalgar Square, a Mayoral spokeswoman said tersely: "No permission has been given. We are not providing further comment."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, whoever was "organising" Saturday's pillow fight had adopted the "I'm Spartacus" approach to leadership responsibility.
On the section of the International Pillow Fight Day's website inviting each city's organisers to identify who was hosting their event, the Londoners had simply entered: "We all are."
It fitted the philosophy of the movement's founders, which may appeal to anyone trying to cut through red tape to organise a Royal Wedding street party.
"Never ask permission," Bracken and Kufner have written. "It is very unlikely anybody will say yes. The permit culture we citizens witness in city halls around the world is perhaps the single largest barrier to experiencing the full richness of public life in the cities we live in. Public assembly is a human right."
And money from the £5 "whack n' keep" souvenir pillows was going to raise funds for aid to the tsunami-struck areas of Japan.
Similar scenes were being re-enacted yesterday in about 130 locations, from Adelaide, Australia, to Zurich, Switzerland - via Chisinau, Moldova; Caracas, Venezuela; and Seoul, South Korea.
As for Tom the rollerblading builder, he was last seen charging into the melee offering the closest that anyone came to tactical insight.
"I'm just going to go in and hit anyone who comes in my way."
He vanished into in a cloud of feathers, pillows and pyjamas – the fog of pillow combat.

Rs 100cr riding on Sachin’s 100th international century

2011-03-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar during a training session at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. India and Sri......

It’s a Rs 100-crore question. Will Sachin Tendulkar get his 100th international century in the World Cup semi-final clash between India and Pakistan at Mohali on Wednesday? Bookies, who have already accepted bets of Rs60 crore on Tendulkar scoring a century against Pakistan, expect the figure to cross the Rs100-crore mark by Wednesday.

“The craze surrounding Sachin’s 100th international hundred, especially against Pakistan, has given us a good business opportunity,” said a city bookie, requesting anonymity because the betting business is illegal.
He added that despite the odds going against Tendulkar’s ton, most people are placing bets in his favour.
The odds on Tendulkar scoring a century are Rs 4.5 per rupee bet. But bookies are hopeful of Sachin scoring a half-century — the odds are Rs 1.1 per rupee bet. The lower the rate, the higher the chances of that result taking place.
Not just Tendulkar, bookies feel that neither an Indian nor a Pakistani player would be able to score a century on Wednesday. “That’s because both sides are expected to give 100% in fielding and bowling, thereby restricting runs,” the bookie explained.
The bookies also expect Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh to score 50 runs and more.
India are favoured to win the match against Pakistan with the odds of 62 paise for every rupee. Pakistan are far behind with a rate of Rs 1.55.
India are also favourites to lift the World Cup and are quoted at Rs 1.62 per rupee bet. Sri Lanka follow closely with a rate of Rs 1.8.
Bookies also expect a record turnover for the India-Pakistan match. “The match is expected to generate around Rs 6,000 crore,” the bookie said. This would be the highest turnover for a single cricket match. The India-Australia match on March 24 had witnessed a business of Rs 2,000 crore.

Protesters clash with police in Mohali

2011-03-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

Security personnel guarding the PCA stadium ahead of the Cricket World Cup semifinal match between Pakistan and India in Mohali on Monday.

The security apparatus of the PCA stadium, scheduled to host the World Cup semifinal, was tested here today as pharmacists from the state staged a vociferous protest when the Pakistani team was practicing inside the stadium.

The agitating pharmacists, working on contract, were demanding regularisation of their jobs and had gathered here from various parts of Punjab, police sources said.

The Police used tear gas shells and water canons to control the protesters. One media—person, who was caught in the melee, was hurt.

Dozens of OB vans and camera crew are currently stationed outside the stadium. Prime Ministers of both India and Pakistan and a host of VVIPs are scheduled to come here on Wednesday to watch the match between the traditional rivals.

Police said protesters pelted stones at the cops and damaged some private vehicles.

However, the agitators alleged police high handedness, saying they were holding a peaceful protest in support of their demands

F.B.I. Casts Wide Net Under Relaxed Rules for Terror Inquiries, Data Show

2011-03-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

John Ashcroft, an attorney general in the Bush administration, loosened F.B.I. rules after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., has not changed policies on F.B.I. investigation rules that were relaxed by the Bush administration in 2008.

WASHINGTON — Within months after the Bush administration relaxed limits on domestic-intelligence gathering in late 2008, the F.B.I. assessed thousands of people and groups in search of evidence that they might be criminals or terrorists, a newly disclosed Justice Department document shows.

In a vast majority of those cases, F.B.I. agents did not find suspicious information that could justify more intensive investigations. The New York Times obtained the data, which the F.B.I. had tried to keep secret, after filing a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act.
The document, which covers the four months from December 2008 to March 2009, says the F.B.I. initiated 11,667 “assessments” of people and groups. Of those, 8,605 were completed. And based on the information developed in those low-level inquiries, agents opened 427 more intensive investigations, it says.
The statistics shed new light on the F.B.I.’s activities in the post-Sept. 11 era, as the bureau’s focus has shifted from investigating crimes to trying to detect and disrupt potential criminal and terrorist activity.
It is not clear, though, whether any charges resulted from the inquiries. And because the F.B.I. provided no comparable figures for a period before the rules change, it is impossible to determine whether the numbers represent an increase in investigations.
Still, privacy advocates contend that the large number of assessments that turned up no sign of wrongdoing show that the rules adopted by the Bush administration have created too low a threshold for starting an inquiry. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has left those rules in place.
Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that the volume of fruitless assessments showed that the Obama administration should tighten the rules.
“These are investigations against completely innocent people that are now bound up within the F.B.I.’s intelligence system forever,” Mr. German said. “Is that the best way for the F.B.I. to use its resources?”
But Valerie E. Caproni, the bureau’s general counsel, said the numbers showed that agents were running down any hint of a potential problem — including vigilantly checking out potential leads that might have been ignored before the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Recognize that the F.B.I.’s policy — that I think the American people would support — is that any terrorism lead has to be followed up,” Ms. Caproni said. “That means, on a practical level, that things that 10 years ago might just have been ignored now have to be followed up.”
F.B.I. investigations are controlled by guidelines first put in place by Attorney General Edward H. Levi during the Ford administration, after the disclosure that the bureau had engaged in illegal domestic spying for decades. After the Sept. 11 attacks, those rules were loosened by Attorney General John Ashcroft and then again by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey.
Some Democrats and civil liberties groups protested the Mukasey guidelines, contending that the new rules could open the door to racial or religious profiling and to fishing expeditions against Americans.
In 2006, The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency had each month been flooding the bureau with thousands of names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses that its surveillance and data-mining programs had deemed suspicious. But frustrated agents found that virtually all of the tips led to dead ends or innocent Americans.
When the Mukasey guidelines went into effect in December 2008, they allowed the F.B.I. to use a new category of investigation called an “assessment.” It permits an agent, “proactively or based on investigative leads,” to scrutinize a person or a group for signs of a criminal or national security threat, according to the F.B.I. manual.
The manual also says agents need “no particular factual predication” about a target to open an assessment, although the basis “cannot be arbitrary or groundless speculation.” And in selecting subjects for such scrutiny, agents are allowed to use ethnicity, religion or speech protected by the First Amendment as a factor — as long as it is not the only one.
An assessment is less intensive than a more traditional “preliminary” inquiry or a “full” investigation, which requires greater reason to suspect wrongdoing but also allows agents to use more intrusive information-gathering techniques, like wiretapping.
Still, in conducting an assessment, agents are allowed to use other techniques — searching databases, interviewing the subjects or people who know them, sending confidential informers to infiltrate an organization, attending a public meeting like a political rally or a religious service, and following and photographing people in public places.
In March 2009, Russ Feingold, then a Democratic senator from Wisconsin, asked the F.B.I. how many assessments it had initiated under the new guidelines and how many regular investigations had been opened based on information developed by those assessments.
In November 2010, the Justice Department sent a classified letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee answering Mr. Feingold’s question. This month, it provided an uncensored copy of the same answer to The Times as a result of its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
F.B.I. officials said in an interview that the statistics represented a snapshot as of late March 2009, so the 11,667 assessment files were generated over a roughly four-month period. But they said they believed that agents had continued to open assessments at roughly the same pace since then.
Some aspects of the statistics are hazy, officials cautioned.
For example, even before the December 2008 changes, the bureau routinely followed up on low-grade tips and leads under different rules. But that activity was not formally tracked as an “assessment” that could be easily counted and compared.
F.B.I. officials also said about 30 percent of the 11,667 assessments were just vague tips — like a report of a suspicious car that included no license plate number. Such tips are entered into its computer system even if there is no way to follow up on them.
Finally, they said, it is impossible to know precisely how many assessments turned up suspicious facts. A single assessment may have spun off more than one higher investigation, and some agents may have neglected to record when such an investigation started as an assessment.
Ms. Caproni also said that even though the F.B.I. manual says agents can open assessments “proactively,” they still must always have a valid reason — like a tip that is not solid enough to justify a more intensive level of investigation but should still be checked out.
But Mr. German, of the A.C.L.U., said that allowing agents to initiate investigations without a factual basis “seems ripe for abuse.” He added, “What they should be doing is working within stricter guidelines that help them focus on real threats rather than spending time chasing shadows.”

Ponting to quit after World Cup: reports

2011-03-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

Ricky Ponting's World Cup campaign has been filled with much-publicised frustrations.

Besieged Australian captain Ricky Ponting reportedly plans to retire from international cricket at the end of his team's World Cup campaign.

England's MailOnline website claims in an unsourced report that Ponting - Australia's most successful skipper - will resign if his side loses to India in tomorrow night's quarter-final in Ahmedabad.
The website says Ponting wants to end his career captaining an English county side.
The 36-year-old has come under increasing pressure recently after a string of poor performances with the bat and several shows of frustration.
Ponting has managed just 102 runs at 20.40 at the World Cup, less than half his 358-match career average.
He has not scored a one-day international century in more than a year, his most recent coming when he struck 106 against the West Indies in February 2010 at the Gabba.

Axing talk 'gutless'

Meanwhile, Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) chief Paul Marsh has lashed out at talk that Ponting could be axed as captain as "gutless" and "irresponsible".
Marsh was seething at a report in the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday, citing an unnamed Cricket Australia official as saying there was stiff opposition at boardroom level to Ponting staying in the job.
"We need to be looking at the future. It's time for us to make a change," said the official in comments that reverberated around the Australian camp in India.
Marsh was not impressed, particularly with the speculation coming so close to the India quarter-final clash on Thursday.
"Firstly, if a senior official is going to make such inflammatory comments about our national captain, and one of this country's greatest-ever players, how about having the guts to at least put your name to them," he said.
"Secondly, the team is days away from one of its biggest games in recent memory and now they have to deal with the speculation and discussion surrounding these irresponsible comments.
"I've been scratching my head all day trying to work out why someone associated with CA would make these comments two days before a World Cup quarter-final."
Ponting, who has been captain for nine years, was under pressure even before the World Cup, having earned the dubious distinction of becoming the only Australian skipper to fail to win the Ashes three times.
He has done himself no favours in India, taking a reprimand from the International Cricket Council after smashing a dressing-room TV in a fit of fury after being run out during Australia's win over Zimbabwe.
He was also criticised for angrily throwing the ball to the ground after colliding with team-mate Steven Smith during their victory over Canada, and for failing to walk in Saturday's defeat to Pakistan.
But the team has rallied round the star batsman.
"From my point of view he's the best man for the job, and has been our leader for a long time. He's certainly got the full support of all the team. We love having him as our captain," said Michael Hussey.

Defeat the Libyan regime. And then?

2011-03-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

Vehicles belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi explode after an air strike by coalition forces

In 1975, Muammar Gaddafi told the Italian journalist Mirella Bianco: "When the people takes power it becomes its own government; and at that moment it is I who will find myself in opposition." Now, with British and French combat jets targeting the Libyan regime's murderous campaign to regain rebel-held cities, part of that statement appears prophetic: 42 years after Col Gaddafi seized power, dusk appears to be upon a man Anwar Sadat, Egypt's late president, once described as "100 per cent sick and possessed by the devil".

Libya's anaemic military won't be hard to defeat. From the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, though, we have learnt that the real test of an intervention isn't the defeat of the regime it targets: it is what comes next. There is good reason to fear that the people's own government of which Col Gaddafi spoke won't be much better than the dystopia that preceded it.

Power in Libya's rebel-held regions now lies with a disordered mosaic of tribal patriarchs and mid-ranking military officers who have abandoned the regime for more primordial allegiances.

Eastern Libya's Zuwaya and Misratah tribal chieftains, who enjoyed great power before Col Gaddafi took over, sense an opportunity to seize control of oil revenues. In the west, the Warfala, under pressure from the regime since an abortive 1993 rebellion, see a chance to settle scores.

For the most part, this leadership seems to have a moral compass that points in much the same direction as that of the regime. Tarek Saad Husain, a Benghazi-based rebel commander, warned the residents of Col Gaddafi's home town: "Either you join us, or we will finish you."

Gaddafi vows to defeat 'colonial' airstrikes
20 Mar 2011
We might try to kill Gaddafi with air strike, says Liam Fox
21 Mar 2011
Libya: Barack Obama hails Brazil as example
20 Mar 2011
Gaddafi 'still a threat' as coalition unleashes firepower
21 Mar 2011

Libya's tribes, moreover, aren't the only ones flying their flags on the streets. Fighters have established an Islamic emirate in Derna, 775 miles from Tripoli, while jihadists trained in Sudan and Afghanistan are said to be fighting alongside tribal rebels.
To make sense of this exceptionally muddy landscape one needs an understanding of Libya's complex political history. Libya has been described as "anti-state": deriving power not through taxation but rents from oil; through the provision of patronage, rather than real institutions; through terror rather than a functional military. The country's armed forces, for example, were only 91,000 strong at their peak in the 1980s – about a third of the number needed, the expert Anthony Cordesman has estimated, to operate its gargantuan equipment stockpiles.
In 1969, when a group of military officers led by Col Gaddafi overthrew King Idris bin Muhammad as-Senussi, they won neither a nation nor a state – and kept it that way.
Libya's Ottoman rulers had left large swaths of the country ungoverned. Italian colonialism brought together Tripolitania in the west, Cyrenaica in the east, and arid central Fezzan, through a ferocious war that ran from 1922 to 1935, and involved the liberal use of poison gas against tribesmen.
Eastern tribes, who played a key role in the struggle against the Italians, won out in the negotiations that led to Libya's independence. King Idris, their figurehead, received the throne as a Christmas Eve gift in 1951.
King Idris was the grandson of Sayyid Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi, the founder of a religious order inspired by the fundamentalist Wahhabi order of Saudi Arabia. The Senussi commanded great influence in eastern Libya, where they successfully arbitrated between feuding tribes.
The monarchy soon accumulated unprecedented wealth. In 1953, Britain obtained the rights to station troops in Libya for £3.75 million a year; the United States leased an airbase at $4 million a year. The last nine years of King Idris's rule also saw Libya become the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
But the boom led to growing income disparities and a surge of migrants into Tripoli. The city doubled in size between 1960 and 1964, creating joblessness and social tensions on a scale the monarchy simply couldn't handle.
King Idris's regime, the scholar Carole Collins has noted, needed "to perform the functions of a national bourgeoisie – to regenerate and reinvest capital, and to develop infrastructure".
Instead, the monarchy, described by the former American diplomat James Akins as "one of the most corrupt in the world", survived by funnelling funds to its clients among the eastern tribes.
Following the coup, Col Gaddafi continued with the system – though his own Qadhafa tribe and its allies became the principal beneficiaries of the patronage system, instead of their eastern rivals.
In return for their loyalty, tribal leaders received benefits such as key jobs and contracts in projects like the £7.5 billion man-made river that sucks water from underground aquifers to feed Libya's cities and farms.
Gaddafi's manifesto, The Green Book, applauded the tribe as a form of "natural social protection". The state, by contrast, was an "artificial political, economic and sometimes military system which has no link to human values".
Luis Martinez, in his book The Libyan Paradox, pointed to the pre-modern regime-building practices of revolutionary Libya. Khuwaylidi al-Hamidi, the chief of police, married his son, Khalid, to Gaddafi's flamboyant daughter, Aisha Gaddafi, and one of his daughters to the ruler's son, Saadi.
The army became the stage on which tribal tensions were played out – just as they had been before the coup.
In 1993, for example, Abdel Salam Jalloud – Libya's long-standing second-in-command and a trusted lieutenant who had, in 1970, been dispatched to offer China £75 million for a nuclear weapon – attempted to seize power.
Mr Jalloud's Magariha tribe backed him, along with the Warfalla and al-Zintan – much the same coalition that is fighting Col Gaddafi today. Intense fighting was seen in the Bani Walid area, 80 miles south-east of Tripoli. But the air force, packed with recruits from Col Gaddafi's Qadhafa, held fast and the regime won.
Eight plotters were executed in January 1997. Later that year, new laws institutionalised collective punishment of tribes through the denial of entitlements as the punishment for rebellion.
Even as Col Gaddafi moved to suppress tribal tensions, though, a new threat was emerging. In the 1980s, he had encouraged thousands of Libyans to join the jihad in Afghanistan, as part of his desire to emerge as a leader of the Islamic world. But when they returned to Libya, they served a different god.
In 1984, Libyan authorities hanged two students alleged to have been members of Islamist groups on the campus of the al-Fateh university in Tripoli; nine more were executed at Benghazi in 1987.
Fighting between the al-Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and regime forces in Benghazi claimed dozens of lives in 1995. In 1996, there was further fighting around Derna and Benghazi. Britain, according to David Shayler, a former MI5 officer, funded the LIFG, to punish Col Gaddafi's support of terrorists in the west. Even though the LIFG was eventually crushed, and, following the events of 9/11, internationally proscribed, the jihadists had gained political legitimacy. In May 2009, thousands attended the funeral of Ali Mohamed al-Fakheri, a high-ranking al-Qaeda member who died in a Tripoli prison.
Libyan Islamists have, worryingly, been winning battles for the first time this year. Last month, jihadists led by rebel military officer Adnan al-Nawisri seized hundreds of weapons and vehicles from depots in Derna and proclaimed what they are calling the Islamic Emirate of Barqa, the ancient name for western Libya.
Abdelkarim al-Hasadi, who fought with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, appears to have de facto control of the Derna Emirate. Men like al-Hasadi are certain to get what support al-Qaeda can muster. Osama bin Laden's inner circle includes Muhammad Hassan Qayid, known also as Abu Yahya al-Libi, the younger brother of the LIFG leader Abdul Wahhab Qayid Idris.
For decades, the social conditions for an Islamist insurgency did not exist in Libya. In a 1999 interview, LIFG spokesperson Omar Rashed lamented that Libya's people had not "passed beyond the stage of sentiments to the stage of action".
Paradoxically, the neoliberal economic policies ushered in by Shokri Ghanem, the prime minister, and Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the ruler's son, may have helped just that to happen, by weakening the patronage networks on which the regime was built.
Libya's tribal patriarchs may wish only for a redistribution of the spoils of power, not a revolution.
But many young people see the regime's pro-western policies as the root of their problems and want more fundamental changes.
If the Libyan war drags on, warring tribal factions will seek support where they can find it – and the jihadists will be happy to oblige them.
"War is the father of all things," wrote the Greek poet and philosopher Heraclitus, "the king of all: some it has shown as gods, some as men; some it has made slaves, some free." His lesson is simple: we must beware the consequences not just of defeat, but also of victory.

Pakistan halt Aussies winning streak, take top spot

2011-03-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

COLOMBO: Pakistan stopped Australia’s unbeaten 34-match run in the World Cup and secured top spot on their group table, beating the defending champions by four wickets in their final match of the Group A here at the R Premadasa Stadium on Saturday.

Chasing an easy target of 177 runs, Pakistan completed victory with nine overs to spare but they lost six wickets in the process.

Umar Gul took three for 30 to help Pakistan dismiss Australia for 176 -- their lowest World Cup total since 1992 -- before Umar Akmal hit an unbeaten 44 to steer Pakistan to victory in 41 overs, finishing top of the pool with 10 points.

Pakistan, champions in 1992, will play the fourth placed team in Group B, while Australia (nine points) finished third behind Sri Lanka (nine points) on run-rate and will play the second placed team from Group B.

This was Australia's first defeat in the World Cup since losing to Pakistan by 10 runs in Leeds in 1999.

But the champions, led by spearhead Brett Lee (4-28), fought hard and twice raised hopes of an unlikely win.

Pakistan were cruising along on 98-2 before Lee derailed the chase in his first over of his second spell, dismissing Younis Khan (31) and Misbah-ul-Haq for a first-ball duck -- both caught by keeper Brad Haddin.

Mitchell Johnson removed Asad Shafiq (46) while Jason Krejza tempted skipper Shahid Afridi (two) to hole out in the deep, but Umar and Abdul Razzaq (20 not out) saw their team home with a cautious 36-run stand for the seventh wicket.

Razzaq hit two boundaries off spinner Jason Krejza to complete the victory.

Lee had taken two wickets in his first spell, taking a smart catch off his own bowling to dismiss opener Mohammad Hafeez (five) before trapping Kamran Akmal lbw for 23.

Shafiq, who hit five boundaries during his 81-ball knock, added 53 with Younis and 41 with Umar to keep Pakistan on track.

Earlier, Gul and Razzaq (2-8) exposed the untested Australian batting after Ricky Ponting won the toss and decided to bat on a seemingly flat R. Premadasa stadium pitch.

Haddin (42), Michael Clarke (34) and Steve Smith (25) offered some resistance as Pakistan applied relentless pressure to take the last seven Australian wickets for a mere 59 runs after they were 117-3.

Pakistan, who opened the attack with left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman from one end, forced an early breakthrough when Gul bowled opener Shane Watson for nine.

Haddin added 63 for the second wicket with Ponting (19) before Pakistan struck twice, with Hafeez removing the Australian skipper off a miscued cut, caught by wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal.

Left-arm paceman Wahab Riaz then had Haddin caught behind by Kamran in the 24th over. Haddin hit three boundaries and a six during his 80-ball knock.

Pakistan then took four wickets in the space of 30 runs to reduce the Aussies to 147-7 and later Gul removed Krejza and Lee cheaply to wrap the Australian innings for their sixth lowest World Cup total.

Hang Lung Makes $5 Billion China Bet to Dodge Rivals

2011-02-15T20:46:00.000-08:00

Ronnie Chan, chairman of Hang Lung Properties Ltd., is betting $5.1 billion on China’s consumers.
Soon after taking the helm in January 1991 of the Hong Kong developer his late father founded 30 years earlier and against the wishes of a reluctant executive team, Chan began plans to build shopping malls in China, anticipating an economic boom. This year, the opening of its fourth mall in the nation may propel the company’s rents from the mainland above Hong Kong’s.
“I was chairman and they just had to go along,” he said in an interview at his office in the Standard Chartered Building in Hong Kong.
Chan is spending $5.1 billion to build malls and offices in five Chinese cities outside Shanghai to tap demand for luxury goods, a market CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets estimates will be the world’s biggest in a decade. That’s reduced his reliance on apartment projects at home and steered him away from residential developments in China, housing markets with concerns of a bubble.
It’s also pitting Hang Lung’s fortunes against inflation that threatens to push up construction costs and derail luxury spending. China’s central bank raised interest rates last week for the third time since mid-October to cool prices.
He has been “arguably too bullish, though I think he can continue to deliver,” said Hugh Young, Singapore-based managing director of Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd., which owns Hang Lung shares. “He’s successfully engineered a major shift in the company. We’ve followed the company for 20 years through various booms and busts and there’s depth and substance to him.”
Hang Lung shares fell 0.3 percent to HK$31.50 as of 11:34 a.m. in Hong Kong today. They have declined 13 percent this year.

Commercial Landlord

Founded in 1960 by Chan Tseng-hsi and listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange 12 years later, Hang Lung Group Ltd., the parent of Hang Lung Properties, became one of the first developers in the city to invest heavily in commercial properties. Properties built to lease accounted for 83 percent of total assets at the end of June 2010, according to the company’s annual report.
Its focus on becoming a commercial landlord has helped the company avoid going head-to-head with larger, residential- focused competitors on the mainland, such as China Vanke Co. Hang Lung is Hong Kong’s third-biggest developer by market value.
“I’m too short and when I bump into big guys I let them go first and try to find other ways,” said Chan, 61, who stands at about 1.6 meters (5.2 feet). China’s residential property “is a big market, but also one that has so many mega-domestic players with their own vast and extensive systems in place. How can we compete with them?”
Vanke, China’s biggest developer by market value, last year made 48 billion yuan ($7.3 billion) in revenue from residential sales, while China Overseas Land Ltd., a mainland-based developer listed in Hong Kong, took in HK$36 billion ($4.6 billion), more than any other Hong Kong-based builder.

Ninefold Increase

Hang Lung shares have risen more than ninefold since Chan took over in 1991, while its assets have grown about 8 times. The company is the third-best performer among Hong Kong’s major developers since Chan became chairman, trailing only Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. and billionaire Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd., the city’s two biggest builders, over the period.
Hang Lung, which means “eternal prosperity” in Chinese, completed Grand Gateway in Shanghai in 1999 and last year opened the Palace 66 in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, its first mall outside of Shanghai. Over the next five years, it plans to add at least 1.5 million square feet of mall or office space a year in cities including Jinan, Wuxi, Dalian and Tianjin.
The average rental at major shopping malls in Shanghai at the end of last year was 46.7 yuan per square meter per day, an 87 percent increase from the same period in 2005, according to Seattle-based property broker Colliers International.

‘New Challenges’

The management of those malls may prove challenging, Morgan Stanley analysts led by Coral Ching wrote in a Jan. 27 report.
The company “lacks a proven track record in running a large property portfolio in China,” the analysts wrote. The new malls over the next three to five years will pose “new challenges for Hang Lung at operation level.”
The group’s rental income from Shanghai, where it now operates two mall-and-office complexes, has increased more than threefold since 2005. The opening in August of the Jinan shopping mall will probably help Hang Lung’s rental income from the mainland surpass Hong Kong’s for the first time, Chan said.
Hang Lung’s rental revenue from Hong Kong was HK$2.61 billion in the 12 months ended June last year, compared with HK$1.93 billion from the developer’s mainland China properties.

Luxury Demand

“Their business model is simple: focusing on the retail segment and riding on mainland China’s burgeoning consumption demand,” said Lee Wee Liat, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Samsung Securities Ltd. “It’s hard not to fall in love with a company whose management and local staff have such a clear conviction and passion on the things they do.”
Samsung Securities has the highest 12-month price target, at HK$49.30, among 22 analysts that track the company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Demand for luxury goods and travel from Greater China will account for 44 percent of the global total by 2020, up from the current 15 percent, as its “burgeoning middle class is adopting previously unattainable high-end lifestyles,” CLSA’s Hong Kong- based analyst Aaron Fischer said in a report on Feb. 2.
Stores in Hang Lung’s 120,000 square meters (1.3 million square feet) Shanghai mall include Burberry and Armani. In Shenyang, tenants include Omega and Cartier. The Jinan mall is 86 percent let, Hang Lung Managing Director Philip Chen said at the company’s Jan. 26 earnings announcement, declining to give tenants’ details.

‘Never Again’

Hang Lung’s decision to avoid residential real estate in the world’s most populous nation as housing prices surged may be paying off. With China’s government trying to cool home prices that climbed for a 19th month in December, analysts including Hong-based Eva Lee at Macquarie Securities Ltd. prefer Hang Lung for its relative immunity to potential house price declines.
China has approved property tax trials in Shanghai and the western city of Chongqing and raised the minimum down payment for second-home purchases.
“We tried one small apartment project and after that I said never again,” Chan said. “The taxes are high and mainland officials are mindful about residential prices because it impacts ordinary people’s livelihood. But would they care about how much I’m charging international banks and high-end fashion brands?”
Investors are betting the answer is no: Hang Lung’s shares have gained as much as 200 percent from the trough during the global credit crisis. They are trading at about 16 times 2010 earnings, the highest among Hong Kong’s 20 biggest developers, and 1.5 times book value, the third highest, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Unsold Apartments
Hang Lung is seeking to buy more sites in China, Chan said, declining to give details. The company in November raised HK$10.9 billion selling shares, bringing its cash and near cash to HK$24.6 billion, according to the earnings on Jan. 26.
The company has about 1,500 unsold apartments in Hong Kong with an estimated value of about HK$20 billion, according to Samsung Securities’ Lee. Chan said Hang Lung will gradually offload the apartments in stock to fund its mainland expansion.
“We expect to see them start to sell more properties in 2011 and early 2012 to lock in the very high margins on their apartments and recycle capital into their mainland developments,” said Andrew Lawrence, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Barclays Capital.
Chan, who has an MBA from the University of Southern California, lived in the U.S. for a decade and running the family’s business in California when his father died in 1986. He took over from his uncle, who held the chairmanship on an interim basis after the elder Chan’s death.

‘Big Picture’

“When I first took over, our management looked at trivial items like how much a chair or a pen cost, but rarely at the big picture,” said Chan, a former director of Enron Corp. “They didn’t even want to go out and meet investors. So when I said we had to go into mainland China, many of them, of course, were apprehensive.”
Today, his transformation of the company is nearly complete: Hang Lung hasn’t bought any land in Hong Kong for at least 10 years. Hong Kong’s home prices have gained more than 55 percent over the past two years, prompting the government to impose measures to curb the surge.
“I won’t say we’re through with Hong Kong cause you can never say never,” said Chan. “But why would we invest here if our projects in mainland China are giving us nearly 30 percent unleveraged return? For me to start buying in Hong Kong again, things will have to get pretty ugly. I’m not sure I want to see that happening.”

Military Offers Assurances to Egypt and Neighbors

2011-02-13T06:19:00.000-08:00

Military Offers Assurances to Egypt and Neighbors

CAIRO — As a new era dawned in Egypt on Saturday, the army leadership sought to reassure Egyptians and the world that it would shepherd a transition to civilian rule and honor international commitments like the peace treaty with Israel.

Exultant and exhausted opposition leaders claimed their role in the country’s future, pressing the army to lift the country’s emergency law and release political prisoners and saying they would present their vision for the government. And they vowed to return to Tahrir Square next week to celebrate a victory and honor those who had died in the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule.
In an announcement broadcast on state television, an army spokesman said Egypt would continue to abide by all its international and regional treaties and the current civilian leadership would manage the country’s affairs until the formation of a new government. But he did not discuss a timetable for any transfer of power, and it was unclear how and when talks with opposition figures would take place.

The army spokesman said the military was “aspiring to guarantee the peaceful transition of power within the framework of a free democratic system that allows an elected civilian power to rule the country, in order to build a free democratic state.”
The impact of Egypt’s uprising rippled across the Arab world as protesters turned out in Algeria, where the police arrested leading organizers, and in Yemen, where pro-government forces beat demonstrators with clubs.
The Palestinian leadership responded by announcing that it planned to hold presidential and parliamentary elections by September. And in Tunisia, which inspired Egypt’s uprising, hundreds demonstrated to cheer Mr. Mubarak’s ouster.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will travel to Jordan and Israel for talks as both countries deal with the reverberations from Egypt’s revolution.

In Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, some members of the broad movement that toppled Mr. Mubarak vowed to continue their protests, saying that all their demands had not yet been met.
A long list included an end to the emergency law that allows detention without charges, the dissolution of the Parliament, seen as illegitimate, and for some of the protesters, the prosecution of Mr. Mubarak. About 50 stood in the square on Saturday morning, as the military removed barricades and concertina wire on the periphery.
But the uprising’s leading organizers, speaking at a news conference in central Cairo, asked protesters to leave the square.
The group, the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, which includes members of the April 6 Youth Movement, the Muslim Brotherhood Youth and young supporters of Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent opposition figure, said that it had not yet talked with the military and that on Sunday it would lay out its road map for a transitional government.
The coalition said that Ahmed Zewail, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, and other respected figures would work as intermediaries between the youth group and the country’s new military chiefs.
“The power of the people changed the regime,” said Gehan Shaaban, a group spokeswoman. “But we shouldn’t trust the army. We should trust ourselves, the people of Egypt.”
Again, there were signs that not all the protesters were willing to give up. During the news conference, a woman yelled: “We should all head to Tahrir and stay there, until we ourselves are sure that everything is going as planned! The government of Ahmed Shafiq has to go!” Mr. Shafiq is the prime minister. The woman’s shouts brought the news conference to a close.
As the protesters and opposition groups prepared an agenda, they sought clues about exactly whom they were negotiating with. On Friday, Vice President Omar Suleiman said that Mr. Mubarak had authorized the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to manage the state’s affairs, marking the transition from civilian to military rule.
Mr. Suleiman, a former general who became Egypt’s foreign intelligence chief, straddled the two worlds. But Hosam Sowilam, a retired general, said Mr. Suleiman no longer played a leadership role. “Omar Suleiman finished his time,” he said. “He’s 74 years old.” Others were not so quick to dismiss Mr. Suleiman, a close ally of Mr. Mubarak who was mentioned as his successor.
In interviews, protest leaders said they assumed that the defense minister, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, 75, who was considered a loyalist of Mr. Mubarak, was now the country’s de facto leader. On Saturday morning, his convoy tried to drive to Tahrir Square, according to a paratrooper stationed there. But he did not leave his car.

The military chiefs worked quickly to exert their influence, calling on citizens to cooperate with the police, after weeks of civil strife, and urging a force stained by accusations of abuse and torture to be mindful of the department’s slogan: “The police in the service of the people.”

Security officials said that the recently appointed interior minister, Mahmoud Wagdy, visited units of the department’s feared security services on Saturday, in the hope of returning police officers to work. The officers vanished from Egypt’s streets on Jan. 29 after violent clashes with protesters, and only small numbers have returned.
Reuters reported that Field Marshal Tantawi met with Mr. Wagdy to discuss the officers’ return.
That security force, including plainclothes officers widely accused of abuse, are loathed by the protesters, who have demanded police reform to end brutality and, in particular, torture in police stations. Prosecutors are weighing charges against the previous interior minister, Habib al-Adly, who seemed to ignore or encourage police abuses. But some analysts have suggested that he is a scapegoat, and that the real problem was a government that relied on harsh tactics.
At the same time, neighborhoods in Cairo and other cities have for weeks been forced to function without the police. The lack of public safety was underscored on Friday, when security officials said hundreds of inmates, freed by armed gangs, escaped from a prison in Cairo.
While the Egyptian military’s commitment to international treaties reassured the United States and Israel, there was no indication whether such a pledge would survive a new government. The protesters in the square made it clear that they would reconsider all of Mr. Mubarak’s foreign alliances, and many frequently referred to the deposed president as an Israeli or American agent.
Hamdy Hassan, a former member of Parliament from the Muslim Brotherhood, said the military had “acknowledged the revolution’s legitimacy,” but added that there were still doubts about its intentions. “We want a guarantee that we do not have another tyrant.”
In Cairo, citizens embraced their new reality with humor, mild arguments and celebrations. The official state press gave a measure of the changes.
“The People Toppled the Government” said the headline in Al Ahram, the flagship state-owned national newspaper and government mouthpiece, borrowing a line from the protest movement. Another article noted that Switzerland had frozen the assets of Mr. Mubarak and his aides.
On state television, which for weeks depicted the protesters as a violent mob of foreigners, an anchor spoke of the “youth revolution.”
Security officials said Saturday that the information minister, Anas el-Fekky, who many of the protesters say should be fired, was placed under house arrest.
In Tahrir Square on Saturday, thousands of volunteers who brought their own brooms or cleaning supplies swept streets and scrubbed graffiti from buildings. On the streets around the square, the celebrations from the night before continued, spurred on by honking drivers.
At night, the party started early, as tens of thousands of Cairo residents and visitors from all over Egypt filled the square, dancing and snapping pictures of their children standing on vigilant tanks.
The president’s departure to his home by the Red Sea in Sharm el Sheik seemed for some to have stripped the country’s political woes of some urgency.
Mr. ElBaradei’s brother, Ali ElBaradei, said Mr. ElBaradei was taking the day off and had not been contacted by the military. “They will call when they call,” he said.
Amr Hamzawy, who has acted as a mediator between the protesters and the government, said that “everyone is taking a break,” though he expressed concern with the vague nature of the army’s most recent statements.
“What is the timeline we are looking at?” he said. “Is it September?” He also said it was unclear whether the army council ruling the country favored amending the Constitution or starting from scratch, which is the preferred solution for many of the protesters.
There was also no clear sign from the military about whether it intended to dissolve Parliament, Mr. Hamzawy said, adding that so far the military’s tone had been “very, very positive.”

114-year-old now world's oldest person

2011-02-05T20:55:00.000-08:00

The world's oldest person, Besse Cooper, sits in her room at a nursing home near Atlanta,

At 114 years old and counting, Besse Cooper says it's "rather great" to be the oldest person in the world.
She makes her 75-year-old son proud.
"We were delighted when she got to 100. We thought that was a great achievement," said Sid Cooper. "We never imagined she'd live to be the oldest person in the world."
Cooper, who is 114 years and 5 months old, assumed the mantle of the oldest living person after the death Monday of Eunice G. Sanborn of Texas, according to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group. The group certifies super centenarians - people who are 110 or older.
Cooper wears a string of pearls double-looped around her neck and spends her days sitting and sleeping. She now lives in a nursing home outside Atlanta. Her wheelchair has bright pink armrests embroidered with "Ms. Besse, 2010 114."
She was born in Tennessee on Aug. 26, 1896, during the second term of President Grover Cleveland.
One of eight children, she was a tomboy and loved tagging along with her two older brothers, climbing trees and splashing in rivers. She carried that active lifestyle and love of outdoors into adulthood. That, plus good genes, is probably the secret to her longevity, her son said.
But Cooper has her own idea: "I mind my own business and I don't eat junk food," she said at her 113th birthday celebration, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reported.
Cooper lived on her own until she was 105 and stubbornly resisted leaving her house, Sid Cooper said. Her health has declined steeply in the last year or so, and she can't hear or see well, he said. Speaking seems to require effort.
She moved to Georgia to be a school teacher during World War I, her son said.
She married in the early 1920s and taught fourth through seventh grades in a two-room schoolhouse until her first child was born. Although she stopped teaching then, she was an avid reader until her eyes got too bad last year. She always insisted that her children get an education.
Married for about 40 years, Cooper has outlived her husband by nearly half a century. They had four children, about a dozen grandchildren, numerous great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandchild, Sid Cooper said.

An Iron Ore Rush Above the Arctic Circle

2011-01-29T21:25:00.000-08:00

With steel demand growing and iron ore fields in Brazil and Australia locked up by mining's Big Three, Canada is the next resource battleground

Baffin Island in Canada's frigid Nunavut territory is about as far off the grid as most people can imagine. Subzero temperatures, ice-blocked sea lanes, and a lack of conventional infrastructure make this spot more than 300 miles above the Arctic Circle among the planet's most inhospitable places to do business. That hasn't stopped international mining companies from fighting over the remote turf. The attraction: huge iron ore deposits underneath a barren landscape—a reminder of just how far global mining companies will go to secure new reserves.
After oil, almost nothing is as central to the operation of a modern economy as steel. Everything from appliances to automobiles to skyscrapers depend on the stuff. That has made iron ore, steel's main component, a hot commodity amid the current global resources boom, especially for fast-growing emerging economies.
The price of iron ore has more than doubled in the past two years amid surging Chinese steel production. Most ore exports come from Brazil and Australia, where the world's three biggest mining companies, Brazil's Vale (VALE) and Australia's Rio Tinto Group (RTP) and BHP Billiton (BHP), dominate. That's left other mining companies, steel producers, and big users such as China to fight over the few remaining big iron fields, including desolate Baffin Island.
Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal (MT), the world's largest steelmaker, and Nunavut Iron Ore Acquisition, a company backed by Houston-based private equity firm Energy & Minerals Group, on Jan. 14 struck a C$590 million ($593 million) deal to jointly acquire Baffinland Iron Mines, whose Mary River project on the island may become the first iron-ore mine inside the Arctic Circle. The estimated cost of building the project, including an 87-mile railroad and a port that can be reached only by custom-built cargo ships able to navigate frozen seas, is more than $4 billion.
Other companies don't want to be left behind. Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF) in mid-January agreed to pay C$4.9 billion, including net debt, for Montreal-based Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines to lock up iron ore assets in northern Quebec. And Liu Yikang, chief of the Expert Group for Overseas Resources Projects at China's Ministry of Land and Resources told Bloomberg News in mid-January that a Chinese company was involved in the bidding for Baffinland, though he declined to name it.
"There's nowhere else to go," explains Benjamin J. Cox, the founder of Portland (Ore.)-based research company Oren and chief executive officer of Canadian iron-ore mine developer Roche Bay. "There's no rock left unturned in Australia, and anything that's nice in Africa already is controlled."
Baffinland has so far spent almost $500 million evaluating Mary River. To get ore to the coast, Baffinland CEO Richard D. McCloskey says four rivers must be crossed. The company has resorted to using temporary bridges made from shipping containers welded together so rock samples can be moved by truck. Workers also must contend with temperatures that sometimes dip below -50C (-58F). At such temperatures, "steel starts breaking, fuel starts freezing," McCloskey says.
To guarantee deliveries, Mary River will need ice-breaking, bulk-commodity-carrying ships with three times the normal engine power, says Tim Keane, Arctic operations manager for Montreal-based shipper Fednav. Such vessels have never been built and, according to Keane, may cost up to twice the price of conventional vessels. "Ordinary ships don't have the horsepower required to muscle their way through those conditions," he explains.
Mary River has an estimated 365 million tons of reserves in its first deposit (eight others have been discovered so far), based on ore being transported by rail. Production could surpass 18 million tons a year on that basis. That would cause Canadian ore output, which the U.S. Geological Survey pegged at 27 million tons in 2009, to soar. Even so, it would be dwarfed by Brazil's 380 million tons and Australia's 370 million tons of annual production.
Asian steelmakers are already involved in Canadian iron ore. Tata Steel, India's biggest producer, has a joint venture with Canada's New Millennium Capital to mine in the provinces of Quebec, Newfoundland, and Labrador. China's Wuhan Iron and Steel, the world's fifth-biggest steelmaker, owns 19 percent of Consolidated Thompson and has agreed with Adriana Resources of Vancouver to develop the Lac Otelnuk iron-ore project in Quebec.
"There's a feeling in China that the Big Three have taken advantage of China in the past and that's something they want to avoid in the future," says Adriana CEO Allen J. Palmiere, referring to the dominance of Vale, Rio, and BHP.
ArcelorMittal, meanwhile, is reducing its reliance on third-party suppliers by raising its mining capacity. The company said in September it planned to spend $4 billion to increase output to 100 million tons by 2015.
Even before ArcelorMittal's initial bid in November, Baffinland had already attracted other steelmakers' attention. Germany's ThyssenKrupp and Voestalpine reached accords to buy some future output from the Baffin Island field, and Mitsubishi agreed to buy up to 1 million tons a year to sell in Japan and Taiwan. Notes Gordon A. McCreary, chairman of Toronto-based explorer Asia Now Resources and a former CEO of Baffinland: "Huge things are going on in the North."
The bottom line: The world's appetite for iron ore, used in steelmaking, has sparked interest in mining reserves in Canada's desolate Arctic Circle region.

LATEST NEWS : Obama talks to Mubarak, urges speed-up of promised reforms

2011-01-28T19:01:00.000-08:00

President Barack Obama has stated that he urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that he must carry out the reforms he pledged to carry out for the Egyptian people.

In an astonishing speech on state television in Egypt earlier, Mubarak said he would dissolve his cabinet and establish a new government tomorrow – but he gave no indication at all that he would step down.
“Going forward this moment of volatility has to be turned into a moment of promise,” Obama said.
Apparently, Obama and Mubarak spoke by phone for about half-an-hour after the Egyptian president’s speech.
Obama said he was “very clear” that Egyptian security officers must refrain from violence in their dealings with protestors. But he also urged the protesters themselves must be peaceful.

“Ultimately the future of Egypt will be determined by the Egyptian people,” Obama said. “Governments have an obligation to respond to their citizens.”
Earlier, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs suggested the U,S. government would “review” the $1.3-billion of aid Egypt would receive, subject to how Mubarak’s soldiers and police treat the populace.
“The United States will continue to stand up for the rights of the Egyptian people,” Obama said.
Anti-government demonstrations have swept across Egypt despite a 6 am-7 pm curfew imposed by the state and a vow by President Hosni Mubarak to get tough with protesters demanding his ouster.
Following midday prayers, tens of thousands of Egyptians fanned out across streets in Cairo, Suez and Alexandria and other cities, resulting in some cases in violent clashes with policemen. Security forces have reportedly fired rubber bullets and teargas at protesters.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog and an opposition leader in Egypt, returned to his native homeland yesterday, but was placed under house arrest at his home on the outskirts of Cairo.
Upon arrival in Egypt yesterday, ElBaradei told reporters "it is a critical time in the life of Egypt. I wish we didn't have to go into the streets to impress upon the regime that they have to change."

Germans have no sense of humor. Right?

2011-01-24T21:47:00.000-08:00

Andrew Bulkeley performs stand-up comedy in Berlin under the stage name Drew Portnoy

One American tests that hypothesis with his Berlin stand-up routine.

BERLIN, Germany — It’s a well-worn cliche that Germans have no sense of humor. Is it true?
Judge for yourself by watching this randomly chosen skit from the popular German comedy show "Mensch Markus."
A man reclines at his summer house with a friend, intent on a lazy afternoon of barbecuing. It emerges that he’s mixed everything up: He’s put the beer on the barbecue and his sausages in the cooler. He’s stuffed broccoli in his VCR and a videotape in the microwave. The punchline, if you can call it that, is that he’s put his bags in the house and his wife in the trunk.
And that’s a joke on a top-rated sketch comedy show.
Andrew Bulkeley is an American financial journalist who moonlights as a stand-up comedian in Berlin under the stage name Drew Portnoy. While it’s unfair to generalize that Germans are humorless, most observers, Bulkeley included, say the comedy industry is adolescent at best.

That is particularly true of stand-up comedy, which doesn’t have a strong tradition in Germany. But with stand-up slowly gaining popularity, notably in the capital, Berlin, outsiders like Bulkeley face the question: how does one make Germans laugh?
“Germany is such an intellectual country, they think they can only laugh at deep things like politics,” 40-year-old Bulkeley said. “At the other end, they can laugh watching a guy fall down the stairs because it’s slapstick and they love that.
“But they can’t laugh at the human condition, which is what stand-up is really about. The absurdity of life for example — they’re still uncomfortable with that. They might be able to say, ‘Sure that’s funny.’ But they don’t see the point in it.”
Bulkeley, who has lived in the country 12 years and has a German wife and children, performs his routine in German. He tells stories about himself as an outsider, uses irony and self-deprecation and reflects on the absurdities of life — all the classic ingredients of stand-up.
For example, Bulkeley plays on the German language and how it produces hilarious and sometimes unsettling effects when translated directly into English. When his wife had their first child, he was introduced to words such as mutterkuchen (mother-cake), which is German for placenta and muttermund (mother-mouth) which means cervix.
“I had to learn all these cringeworthy new words. It’s a very exacting language and Germans are such a serious people that they don’t always see the other side of the word. If you make them stop and think about them, they find it funny,” he said.
The recipe has worked. Bulkeley has reached the final of a stand-up competition at the Quatsch Comedy Club in Berlin — one of the city's top stand-up venues.
Yet those familiar ingredients are actually quite rare among German comedians. Another one who does use them is Oliver Polak, who is — as far as anyone can determine — Germany’s only Jewish stand-up comedian.
After 10 years of acting in sitcoms, including a remake of “I Dream of Jeannie” called “Bernd’s Witch” (“They really weren’t very funny,” he said), Polak started his new career four years ago.
He’s now one of the nation’s better-known comics, with a best-selling book, “I’m allowed to do that — I’m a Jew.”
Most comedy in Germany is bland and unambitious, said Polak, who grew up in the city of Papenburg, west of Hamburg. Most of it revolves around on-stage caricatures, such as a woman pretending to be a crude “Ossi,” a German from the former East Germany, which to many western Germans is a label on par with “white trash” or “redneck.”
“They put on wigs and tell stories that you can tell in the first 10 seconds aren’t true,” Polak said. “It is totally different from classic American stand-up comedy. Germany comedy doesn’t aim high or try to be very original. It’s always jokes about Starbucks and Ikea.
“Some of them have to talk backstage and ask, ‘Are you doing your Ikea number tonight? Can I do mine?’
“There are these cliches about Germans not having a sense of humor.” He paused. “I couldn’t really say with a good conscience that that is totally wrong.”
Polak’s influences are strictly American: comedians such as Larry David, Sarah Silverman, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray and Steve Martin.
He has a theory about why Germany doesn’t really do comedy.
“In America, you have a tradition of speech. In the churches, the universities, … when people try to teach you, they make an effort to make it funny and interesting," Polak explaind. "You don’t have that tradition in Germany. It’s more a culture of writing and reading.”
If comedy is meant to provoke and perhaps be cathartic, Polak is, of course, in a unique position as a Jew in Germany. Inevitably, the question arises as to how Germans handle jokes from a Jewish comedian about the Holocaust. (A quick example: “I got the train here today. It’s a family tradition.”)
“There’s always a reaction, but there are so many different reactions.” Polak said. “I don’t make jokes about the Holocaust, I mirror how people in Germany handle the Holocaust, which is often ridiculous.
“That’s the job of a comedian. It’s about going places that no one else can go.”
Bulkeley has also tried World War II jokes. They didn’t work, though not for the reasons he expected.
“It’s not that they were offended, they just didn’t find them funny because they’d heard them all before," he said. "They’ve been telling each other those jokes since they were 14.”

Cameron Meyer claims race leader's jersey at Tour Down Under

2011-01-23T03:29:00.000-08:00

Leader of the pack: Cameron Meyer celebrates crossing the line first

Meyer, a world track cycling champion, worked hard to get into the only successful breakaway of the 124-kilometre fourth stage from Norwood to Strathalbyn in the Adelaide Hills.

His efforts eventually paid off as crosswinds and a lack of collaboration in the chasing pack conspired to allow the break a clear run to the finish.

At the end of the stage Meyer beat Belgian Thomas De Gendt, of Vacansoleil, in a sprint, with Dutchman Laurens Ten Dam in third just ahead of former Australian champion Matt Wilson, also of Garmin-Cervelo.

With the chasing pack arriving 24 seconds later, Meyer took the ochre jersey from overnight leader and compatriot Matthew Goss, who rides for HTC-Columbia. Ten Dam is now second overall, 10secs adrift, with Goss in third at 12.

Australia's Robbie McEwen (RadioShack) is still in contention for overall victory on Sunday in fourth at 15, with Germany's Andre Greipel (Omega-Pharma), the defending and two-time champion, fifth at 16.

Lance Armstrong, who will end his road racing career in Adelaide on Sunday, finished 41sec down on the stage to sit 81st overall at 3:56 behind Meyer.
The fifth and penultimate stage on Saturday is expected to be decisive, with the peloton racing twice over the short but steep Willunga Hill, whose summit is 19 km from the finish in Willunga.
The race finishes with a 90 km street race in Adelaide.

Hard-hitting Marsh rescues Australia

2011-01-23T02:33:00.000-08:00

Shaun Marsh shared a 88-run partnership with Doug Bollinger to rescue the Australian innings.

Shaun Marsh put his hand up as a World Cup replacement for the injured Michael Hussey with a brilliant century that pulled Australia from the doldrums in the second one-day international against England at Bellerive Oval.

Marsh strode to the crease with his side struggling at 4 for 33 before belting 110 from 114 balls to help Australia salvage a respectable total of 230 from 48.2 overs.
The Western Australian showed no signs of his recent back injury as he smashed eight fours and two sixes, one of which took him past three figures as he cracked his second 50 off just 37 balls.
With the Australian top batting order failing after being sent in to bat by England captain Andrew Strauss, it was up to Marsh and Cameron White to rebuild the innings with a vital 100-run stand.
But when White was dismissed for 45, Australia's bid to post a competitive target seemed to be flattened as Steve Smith (0), Nathan Hauritz (2) and Brett Lee (0) all followed in quick succession.
Marsh finally found a trusty partner in Doug Bollinger, who not only provided some much-needed company for the in-form left-hander but ended up contributing a handy run-a-ball 30, including three boundaries.
The unlikely pair put on 88 runs in a frenetic 11 overs, setting a new Australian record for the ninth wicket before both falling to Chris Tremlett in successive deliveries to end the innings.
Tremlett finished with figures of 3 for 22 and led what was another disciplined performance by England's pace attack.
New ball partner Ajmal Shahzad also picked up 3 for 43 from his full compliment of overs, bowling Shane Watson (5), Brad Haddin (5) and Smith all with inside edges.
Captain Michael Clarke (10) added to his summer of woe with yet another loose shot outside off stump, proving he did not take on some frank advice offered to him by a teenager at a media conference during the week.
David Hussey followed in similar style for 8 as Australia lost three of its top five batsman in the opening 13 overs on pitch which promised plenty of runs.

Natalie Portman flashes engagement ring while paying emotional tribute to fiance Benjamin Millepied

2011-01-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

Natalie Portman wore Vionnet black and white dress with gold detailing - and a large diamond ring - at the Palm Springs Film Festival Gala on Saturday.

Natalie Portman kept her burgeoning baby bump under wraps over the weekend, but the expecting actress couldn't hide the glare from her stunning new engagement ring.

While being honored at the Palm Springs Film Festival Gala on Saturday, the "Black Swan" actress was glowing as she showed off her round diamond ring from fiancé Benjamin Millepied.

Portman, 29, and Millepied, 33, who met last year while working on the Golden Globe Award-nominated film, announced in December that they were expecting and engaged.

As she accepted the Desert Palm Achievement Award on stage, a teary-eyed Portman gushed about the dancer-choreographer who, she said, "partnered me in the movie and who now partners me in life."

Millepied had a small role in the buzzed-about film and told the June issue of Details that he "really, really got into it."

"You're standing up next to those actors, like Natalie, and you're like, 'F---,'" he recalled. "I was blown away - especially by Natalie, who was amazing to watch."

Amir questioned by ICC anti-corruption tribunal

2011-01-10T18:31:00.000-08:00

Suspended Pakistan pacer Muhammad Amir was questioned and cross-examined on the fourth day of the International Cricket Council [ Images ] anti-corruption tribunal hearing in Doha on Sunday.
According to reports, the 18-year-old Amir was questioned by one of the ICC [ Images ] lawyers and also by the lawyers for the two other suspended Pakistani players, Salman Butt [ Images ] and Muhammad Asif.
Amir's questioning is likely to continue on Monday after which it would be the turn of Asif.
Butt's questioning ended on Sunday and he has come in for lot of grilling from not only the ICC lawyers but also from the legal representatives of Amir and Asif," one source aware of the hearing developments said.
"Yes it was a tough cross-examination for Salman Butt since yesterday," the source said.
Indications are that both Amir and Asif have adopted the stance at the hearing that they followed their captain's orders in the fourth Test against England [ Images ] at Lords when cross examined by the ICC lawyers about the video evidence of them pre-planned no-balls.
The suspended trio is facing charges of having violated the ICC anti-corruption and security unit clauses and indulging in spot-fixing.
Butt is under the greatest pressure in the hearing as he was the captain of the Pakistan Test team in England when the spot-fixing scandal broke out after Mazhar Majeed, his agent-cum-alleged bookmaker was caught on camera by the News of the World tabloid claiming he could orchestrate spot-fixing within the Pakistan side.
Sources in the Pakistan cricket Board said that the greatest concern was for Amir who is a prodigious talent to come about in Pakistan cricket.
"The feeling is that even if Amir gets a two-year ban it would be mean he would be available for Pakistan at the relatively young age of 20 as his sentence should start from the time the ICC provisionally suspended the trio on September 2 last year," another source said.

Record floods swamp Australia's northeast

2011-01-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

GLADSTONE, Australia (Reuters) – Large parts of Australia's coastal northeast disappeared under floodwaters on Sunday in a spreading disaster that has brought some of the highest floods on record and forced thousands from their homes.
Queensland State Treasurer Andrew Fraser described the floods as a "disaster of biblical proportions" and said the ultimate cost would exceed A$1 billion (1.02 billion).
As forecasters predicted months of more rain, hundreds of residents in the town of Rockhampton, 600 km (370 miles) north of the Queensland state capital Brisbane, fled homes amid rising waters which are expected to reach over 30 feet deep in coming days.
Local Mayor Brad Carter said the town was "like an island." Across the state, the floods have affected around 200,000 people and inundated thousands of properties.
"You can look down a street for a kilometer and see nothing but water," Carter told Reuters by telephone from Rockhampton, a town of 77,000 people. "You see people in boats moving their material in and out of houses."
One person was confirmed dead in the floods on Sunday, while an intense search was under way for a second missing.
Floodwaters were receding in some areas, leaving a mammoth cleanup job, but other areas were still collecting runoff from the Christmas deluge brought by the La Nina weather pattern.
"It is the Fitzroy River flowing through down to Rockhampton that is still rising and expected to get quite near to record levels," Gordon Banks, a senior forecaster in Brisbane with Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, told Reuters.
"Those floods in the south of Queensland are hitting records. We have not seen water that high in recorded history here."
Across the state, thousands have been forced to camp out with friends or in makeshift emergency shelters over the New Year period in a disaster which has hit coal mining and agriculture particularly hard.
Mayor Carter said Rockhampton's airport was closed, road and rail links to the town were mostly cut off, water was lapping at the floorboards of some homes and police had sent reinforcements to prevent any looting.
Rockhampton sits near the mouth of the giant Fitzroy River system, one of Australia's largest, carrying the water from last week's rains down to the coast. Officials said its level had reached 8.85 meters on Sunday.
"I am at the side of the river bank at the moment. It is flowing extremely fast," council official Tony Cullen told Reuters.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said flood waters in the town could reach nine meters (30 feet) on Monday and peak at 9.4 meters on Wednesday, a level similar to floods that hit in 1991 and 1954.
Although the rain has largely eased off, flood warnings remain current for many rivers in the state, some communities are expected to be isolated for up to two weeks and eventually further rain is expected.
Police said on Sunday 22 communities were still flooded or isolated. Where floodwaters have started to recede, there are fears of disease and accidents, in what one senior emergency official said would be "a heartbreaking return to homes."
Bureau of Meteorology hydrologist Jeff Perkins said floodwaters would also flow on down to western New South Wales. Normally the tropical wet season would only be beginning around now, meaning more headaches to come for farmers, miners and the general community.
"We have got a couple of months more and a good chance of further rainfall," Perkins told Reuters.

Afridi, Waqar to appear as witnesses at ICC hearing

2011-01-02T08:43:00.000-08:00

Pakistan One-day captain Shahid Afridi [ Images ] and head coach Waqar Younis [ Images ] have been summoned as witnesses by the International Cricket Council [ Images ] (ICC [ Images ]) anti-corruption tribunal, which will consider spot-fixing allegations against three Pakistan players.

Suspended Test captain Salman Butt [ Images ] and pace bowlers Mohammad Asif [ Images ] and Mohammad Amir are due to appear before the three-member tribunal in Doha from January 6-11.
The trio were suspended by the ICC in September while touring England [ Images ] with the national team after a report in the News of the World newspaper alleging they had taken bribes to arrange for no-balls to be delivered in the fourth Test.
The Pakistan Cricket Board said in a statement that the ICC had asked for Waqar and Afridi to attend the hearing. It said the pair would attend either in person or through a teleconference.
Afridi is returning home after a Twenty20 [ Images ] series in New Zealand [ Images ] but Waqar will be helping the team prepare for the first Test.

Politics in Iraq Casts Doubt on a U.S. Presence After 2011

2010-12-19T01:36:00.000-08:00

Sgt. Leonard Cortze, from left, Ala Hassan of the Iraqi Army and Rahim Ahmed, a Kurdish security officer, at a Diyala checkpoint

BAGHDAD — The protracted political turmoil that saw the resurgence of a fiercely anti-American political bloc here is casting new doubt on establishing any enduring American military role in Iraq after the last of nearly 50,000 troops are scheduled to withdraw in the next 12 months, military and administration officials say.
Given Iraq’s military shortcomings, especially in air power, intelligence coordination and logistics, American and Iraqi officials had long expected that some American military presence, even if only in an advisory role, would continue beyond 2011. That is the deadline for a troop withdrawal negotiated under President George W. Bush more than three years ago and adhered to, so far, by President Obama.
Even as contingency planning for any lasting American mission has quietly continued in Baghdad and at the Pentagon, however, the shifting political landscape in both countries has made it increasingly possible that the 2011 withdrawal could truly be total, the officials said. Both Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq and Mr. Obama, struggling to retain the support of their political bases, have repeated their public vows to adhere to the deadline.
The military and administration officials emphasized in interviews that the White House had made no final decision on whether any troops might remain beyond the scheduled withdrawal — and that it would not even consider one unless asked by Mr. Maliki’s government.
The question is so politically delicate — here and in Washington — that officials would speak only on condition of anonymity. Further, they say the topic has not been broached in detail even in recent private meetings between senior Iraqi and American officials, including one in Baghdad last week between Mr. Maliki and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen.
“Maliki can’t start asking right now for a large, extended American footprint,” a senior administration official said. “First of all, there is no Maliki government. And second, it would introduce a hugely controversial issue just when he doesn’t need it.”
It could remain so for many more months, even after Mr. Maliki completes his cabinet of ministers and submits it to the new Parliament, now scheduled to happen within a week. That has raised anxieties among American officials and military commanders presiding over what the Obama administration calls a “responsible drawdown” to end the American war here.
They are already planning a steady reduction of troops and bases, which will begin in earnest by spring and is to reach zero by this time next year. Those plans have been complicated by the uncertainty over what troops will replace them — or whether any will at all.
“They’re going to have to sort their way through that,” Maj. Gen. Terry A. Wolff, the departing commander of American forces in central Iraq, said in an interview, referring to administration officials. “At this point, I just don’t know. I don’t know how that’s going to look in 2012.”
After parliamentary elections in March led to a protracted period of deadlock and deal-making, Mr. Maliki now leads an unwieldy coalition with parties pursuing conflicting agendas, including lawmakers allied with Moktada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric in exile whose fighters actively battled against American and Iraqi forces until they were routed in 2008.
Their new partnership, which propelled Mr. Maliki’s nomination to a second term, will make it politically risky for him to now reverse himself. Even Ayad Allawi, the leader of a multisectarian bloc who has long been supportive of the Americans, said in an interview last week that there was not yet any consensus among Iraqi leaders to request an extension of the American military presence.
A growing confidence in Iraq’s security forces, coupled with national pride, has also become a factor. Mr. Maliki and others have adamantly ruled out the need for foreign troops to help the country protect itself.
That may reflect a degree of political posturing, but officials in both militaries point to the maturing capabilities of Iraq’s army and federal police, which now conduct day-to-day security without a great deal of direct American involvement.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari, said in an interview that the American military role in Iraq “must take another shape,” providing training and weaponry, but not necessarily American boots on the ground.
“We are different than Afghanistan,” the general said, noting the comparative maturity of Iraq’s government ministries, including those overseeing security.
Among Iraqis, the question of the American military presence is deeply conflicted, and often nuanced. Many loathe what they view as a foreign occupying force, even as some consider the Americans a reassuring bulwark against insurgent attacks and simmering ethnic disputes.
Along the internal border between Iraq’s Kurds and Arabs, for example, American soldiers continue to operate checkpoints jointly with troops from both sides, defusing potential clashes.
Assad Ismail, a local council president in Sadiya, a village along the disputed territories northeast of Baghdad, said that only the Americans were able to settle a recent dispute that flared when Iraqi soldiers trying to restrict the movement of insurgents closed off local farmers’ access to their date palms, tomatoes and peanuts.
“Thank God, the American Army was with us,” Mr. Ismail said. “We want them to stay for 5 or 10 years.”
The administration has already drawn up plans for an extensive expansion of the American Embassy and its operations, bolstered by thousands of security contractors. The embassy in Baghdad, two satellite offices in Mosul and Kirkuk, and two consulates in Erbil and Baghdad are scheduled to take over most of more than 1,000 tasks now carried out by the American military.

Contact

2010-11-06T22:58:00.001-07:00

mzirfanblogs@gmail.com

Need for setting up the International Center for Combating Terrorism

2010-10-31T01:26:00.000-07:00

RIYADH: The US admires the Kingdom’s role in discovering the suspicious packages found in flights from Yemen to United States and further states that it clearly depicts country’s willingness working against terrorism along with all the other nations.

Mustafa Al-‘Ani, head of the Anti-Terrorism Department at Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, said that we are clearly and strongly extend our hands of co-operation with other nations in preventing and disclosing terrorists plot around the globe. Al-‘Ani also emphasizes on setting up the International Center for Combating Terrorism. He said King Abdullah first proposed the center at the International Counter-Terrorism Conference held in Riyadh in 2005.

While speaking to Okaz/Saudi Gazette, Al-’Ani said that setting up an international center would save time and effort by instant exchange of information as it happened on Friday when two aircraft packages were discovered which were destined for the US from East Midlands Airport, UK and Dubai Airport.

The White House observed gratitude on Kingdom’s help in providing timely information regarding threat originated from Yemen as stated by John Brennan, Assistant to US President Barack Obama and Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.

Al-’Ani further disclosed that the PETN explosive material in the packages was the same that was found last year from so-called “Christmas Bomber” Omar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who tried failed attempt to bring down the airliner departed from Yemen. Later on Al-Qaida accepted responsibility for it.

PETN explosive has also been used in other Al-Qaeda-linked plans, such as “shoe bomber” Richard Reid’s 2001 attempted attack and, according to Saudi officials, Abdullah Asiri’s failed assassination attempt on Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs, in Jeddah on Aug. 2009.

The Ministry of Interior official further stated that in the last seven years over 220 Al-Qaida attacks has been presented by the alertness of Saudi Intelligence.

– Okaz/Saudi Gazette

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

ICC resumes hearing for Pakistan cricketers

2010-10-30T23:39:00.000-07:00

AP, Oct 31, 2010, 11.14am IST

DUBAI: The ICC has resumed hearing of Pakistani Cricketers Mohammad Aamer and Salman Butt against alleged in betting.

It is likely to lift ban on Pakistani Cricketers’ Salman Butt and Mohammad Aamer by the ICC on Sunday hearing and they may join the Pakistani Squad against current South Africa series in U.A.E.

The Pakistani team has already suffered by their suspension and has lost all its matches in the absence of Butt, Aamer and Mohammad Asif

The suspension was put on alleged taking money for bowling no-balls at pre- set times against England Test.

Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

PCB stopped Amir, Asif and Butt using National Cricket Academy

2010-10-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Amir and Salman Butt have been stopped by PCB from using National Cricket Academy for training.

The PCB has sent letters to the above three for not using the National Cricket Academy in Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium until the resolution of Spot-fixing scandal put by ICC.

Amir and Asif have not used the facilities, but Salman Butt has admitted that he had done so while speaking to reporters last week from the NCA situated next to the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore.

ICC has not commented directly on the PCB issuing letters to the players but strictly asked to submit report to the ICC in 30 days about the integrity of the players.

PCB will also implement domestic anti-corruption code along with implementation of education program for players and detection of corrupt elements in the game.

Whereas Amir, Asif and Butt have lodged appeals against ICC suspension and its hearing will be held on 30^th and 31^st October in Qatar.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

Alberto Contador disputes drugs test

2010-10-02T20:48:00.001-07:00

The Tour de France winner Alberto Contador test for the clenbuterol comes out to be positive but this positive result is being disputed as Spaniard blames contaminated meat for this positive result. David Miller, the anti-doping campaigner has said that Spaniard should be considered innocent until proven otherwise. Greg LeMond, another anti-doping campaigner has said that I was shocked at the positive result of the Clenbuterol test and emphasis that the test is not transparent.

International Cycling Union (UCI) and Spanish Cycling Federation will decide whether the amount of tiny substance found in the Urine of Contador’s is enough to prove the crime. Contador’s has given an argument that the substance found might have come from a contaminated meat which one of his friends delivered him during the tour. The UCI should also consider the Contador’s argument in order to get black and white picture. However, the things do not look good as the Chinese racer Li Fuyu case in ongoing and British hurdler Callum Priestley was banned recently for using clenbuterol.

Unfortunately, two other Spaniards Ezequiel Mosquera and David Garcia Dapena had tested positive on the same day for hydroxyl starch, which expands blood volume in order to evade blood tests which reveals red-cells manipulation. Previously in 2009 Vuelta winner, Alejandro Valverde is banned for involvement in Operación Puerto blood-doping ring. Roberto Heras, the winner in 2005 was also banned for using erythropoietin (EPO).

This is a bitter truth that only Carlos Sastre, victor in 2008 of the last 15 Tours de France, has avoided suspicion over drugs. The manager of the French team Bbox, Jean René Bernaudeau has expressed his grief and despair over the continuous ongoing drug scandals’ of his cyclists.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

Ahmadinejad says Iran is ready for justifiable and respectful talks

2010-09-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Iran would reconsider ending their uranium enhancement in case world powerful bodies send them nuclear fuel for their medical research reactor. While addressing the house full of conference in New York he said that Iran is ready to resume their talks with six world powers to discuss Nuclear program. He further said that October would be suitable time for negotiations.

Iran’s President said that we had no interest in enriching Uranium to 90% purity levels required for developing nuclear weapons but forced to enrich uranium to lower levels of 3.5% to 20% purity when world powers refused to supply nuclear fuel required for producing medical isotopes for patients in Tehran and this percentage is too low for producing weapons which requires 90 % purity is required . However, U.S. officials have expressed their concern over Iran’s ability enriching uranium to higher levels required for producing nuclear weapons. Iran strictly denies U.S. claim that Iran is seeking to build a nuclear weapon. He emphasizes on respectful talks.

He further said that U.S. is politicizing the issue and showing reservations having no basis. Even then we are ready for justifiable and respectful talks. He said that Iranian leader may meet the five permanent members of Security Council and specific date for talks could be set in case European Union foreign chief contact Iran. He said that world powers. should give up their policy of ruling world with carrot and stick. Even such words are insulting to nations. He added that Iran won’t give in to pressure and they are at fault if they think that they can trample the rights of Iranian nation through oppression in postponing the talks.

He continued that U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are overreaction to the September 11 attacks and they have no right to occupy the whole Middle East and obliterate the whole village just because one terrorist is hiding there. Ahmadinejad said that the world commission should investigate the Sep 11 incident rather we just keep on believing what U.S. government tells us. He said it should come to light by fact-finding mission that who is Al-Qaida?, Where does it exist and who is backing and supporting them.

U.S. diplomats walkedout during Ahmadinejad's speech to the U.N. General Assembly Thursday afternoon and all the 27 delegations from European Nations followed the American diplomats. U.S. diplomat said president Barak Obama responded to Ahmadinejad's remarks while giving interview to BBC Persian service on Friday that “Well, it was offensive, It was hateful.”

Iran is under series of U.N. Security Council sanctions as punishment for its failure satisfying the U.N. for producing higher level uranium.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

PCB chairman alleged English Players deliberately lost the third one-day international against Pakistan.

2010-09-20T20:15:00.000-07:00

English Cricketers set an example to continue series even after allegations made by PCB chairman that English players deliberately lost the third one-day international against Pakistan. However, they said they would consider legal action against PCB Chairman and further demanded Pakistan team and management to separate themselves from allegations put by PCB chairman just before the start of fourth one-day. Mr. Strauss expressed his surprise and dismay over the comments and showed disappointment on the question of their integrity as cricketers. He said we complete turn down the allegations and will work closely with ECB to seek options for legal action.

Since the ICC suspended three Pakistani team members for alleged spot-fixing in the fourth test and fresh allegation on Friday match that the scoring pattern of Pakistan batting was prearranged, Mr. Butt accused that English players thrown third international which Pakistan won by 23 runs at Oval.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

Pakistan cricket team face fresh spot-fixing investigation

2010-09-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

Umar Gul celebrates the wicket of Stuart Broad in third one-day at Oval

Fresh Spot Fixing Investigation against Pakistan Cricket Team

Scoring Pattern against England was prearranged

In light of the information published in the Sun Newspaper, ICC will investigate the allegations that a scoring pattern in Pakistan’s innings was prearranged.

This investigation will follow the earlier investigation when Pakistani players received money to bowl no-balls at prearranged times.

However, Pakistan won the third one-day by 23 runs. The Sun further claims that after receiving details from Dubai-based match-fixer and a Delhi bookie it had passed on the information to the ICC before the starting of Oval’s match. It was observed by Cricket chiefs that fixer information was appeared to be correct as the Pakistani scores advances.

A Pakistani Cricket Board spokesman, Nadeem Sarwar denies commenting any further in the sense that ICC has already issued it’s statement.

The ICC has already suspended Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir against no-ball fixing allegation earlier in this tour. The suspended cricketers had responded to the notices but ICC has yet to decide date for hearing.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

UN accused Iran for objecting nuclear inspections

2010-09-06T20:15:00.001-07:00

Iran’s Air Force Members shouting slogans to support their motherland nuclear programme.

Iran reluctant to respond inspector’s solicits for information: Says IAEA
Restricting some UN inspectors and breaking UN seals imposed by Iran has been accused by United Nations’ nuclear watchdog today.
The International Atomic Energy Agency continues complaining about Iran’s reluctant behavior on providing information about its activities and plans in its quarterly report on Iran’s programme. Specifically, the report says that agency is unable to monitor nuclear work going on in Iran due to its continued reluctant and cold behavior and is a hot topic in several UN resolutions and international sanctions.
However, IAEA observes that Iran has right to stop inspections on some level for example on the basis of nationality – but denied strongly on Iranian claim that “false and fake” report has been made by two inspectors earlier. The report in question was about separating uranium or plutonium from spent nuclear fuel and removal of sensitive laboratory equipment under IAEA surveillance. Further IAEA did not accept blame on impartiality and professionalism of concerned inspectors.

Some of its seal on Iran’s stockpile of low enriched uranium (LEU) has been broken, indicated by UN agency. The purpose of seals are to obstruct and ensuring that Iran is purifying and converting LEU to weapon-grade purity secretly. Iran responded that the said seals had been broken by chance, but agency did not believe it and said it would verify it in next month’s stocktaking exercise if any nuclear material had been converted.
An authority on agency’s Iran file claimed that seals are meant for containment and once seals are broken there is no containment.
Although UN regularly demanded Iran to curb the enrichment of Uranium on the basis it can be used in making weapons and as well in power plants. On the contrary, Iran insists that its programmes are meant only for peaceful purposes and also claims that it has right to enrich Uranium for its programmes. Till now Iran has already amassed 2.8 tonnes of LEU, but is does not seems that it has also enriched it on the same rate. However, Iran is advancing to stockpile of Uranium enriched to a higher lever of purity, regardless of UN resolution, whereas Iran says that this Uranium is required in Tehran in a medical research reactor.

We have to worry now whether the Iranians are weakening safeguards to the point that if they do “break out” [try to build a bomb insidiously]., if won’t be noticed for a longer period of time.”, said by one of the ex-nuclear inspector David Albright, who is now the head of the Institute for Science and International Security.

UN accused Iran for objecting nuclear inspections

2010-09-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Iran’s Air Force Members shouting slogans to support their motherland nuclear programme.

Iran reluctant to respond inspector’s solicits for information: Says IAEA

Restricting some UN inspectors and breaking UN seals imposed by Iran has been accused by United Nations’ nuclear watchdog today.

The International Atomic Energy Agency continues complaining about Iran’s reluctant behavior on providing information about its activities and plans in its quarterly report on Iran’s programme. Specifically, the report says that agency is unable to monitor nuclear work going on in Iran due to its continued reluctant and cold behavior and is a hot topic in several UN resolutions and international sanctions.

However, IAEA observes that Iran has right to stop inspections on some level for example on the basis of nationality – but denied strongly on Iranian claim that “false and fake” report has been made by two inspectors earlier. The report in question was about separating uranium or plutonium from spent nuclear fuel and removal of sensitive laboratory equipment under IAEA surveillance. Further IAEA did not accept blame on impartiality and professionalism of concerned inspectors.

Some of its seal on Iran’s stockpile of low enriched uranium (LEU) has been broken, indicated by UN agency. The purpose of seals are to obstruct and ensuring that Iran is purifying and converting LEU to weapon-grade purity secretly. Iran responded that the said seals had been broken by chance, but agency did not believe it and said it would verify it in next month’s stocktaking exercise if any nuclear material had been converted.

An authority on agency’s Iran file claimed that seals are meant for containment and once seals are broken there is no containment.

Although UN regularly demanded Iran to curb the enrichment of Uranium on the basis it can be used in making weapons and as well in power plants. On the contrary, Iran insists that its programmes are meant only for peaceful purposes and also claims that it has right to enrich Uranium for its programmes. Till now Iran has already amassed 2.8 tonnes of LEU, but is does not seems that it has also enriched it on the same rate.

However, Iran is advancing to stockpile of Uranium enriched to a higher lever of purity, regardless of UN resolution, whereas Iran says that this Uranium is required in Tehran in a medical research reactor.

We have to worry now whether the Iranians are weakening safeguards to the point that if they do “break out” [try to build a bomb insidiously]., if won’t be noticed for a longer period of time.”, said by one of the ex-nuclear inspector David Albright, who is now the head of the Institute for Science and International Security.

Qantas 747 makes emergency landing after 'uncontained engine failure'

2010-08-31T18:26:00.000-07:00

An Australia-bound Qantas Boeing 747 returned to San Francisco this morning after suffering a problem with one of its engines. The San Francisco Chronicle writes the "engine failure in midair punched a hole in the external casing, an incident that one expert called 'extremely rare.' "
Such an incident is referred to as an "uncontained engine failure." The Chronicle says it occurred on Qantas Flight 74 as it "reached 30,000 feet about 45 minutes after takeoff ... ."
Following the incident, The Associated Press says the Qantas crew "shut down [the engine] on the Boeing 747 and sought priority clearance to return to San Francisco." The flight had departed for Sydney on Monday night around 11:10 p.m. PT, returning to make the emergency landing around 12:45 a.m. PT this morning, according to AP.
AP adds "there were no injuries during the emergency landing, [Qantas spokesman Simon Rushton] said, and the plane was able to pull up to the jetway at the terminal so passengers could deplane. Rushton said there was no fire, but an engine surge can often cause what appear to be flames."
"Engineers have determined the engine does need replacement, and they are checking to see what caused the problem," Rushton tells AP.
Passenger Nolan Goldstein describes the incident to the Bay Area's KTVU TV, saying: "I heard a thud, a bump and the plane veered off to the left. It was very uncertain for a period of time until the captain announced that we had an engine that blew up…It was a real uncomfortable vibration at first and then the plane began to shake a bit."
Neil Dufty, another passenger on the flight, tells KTVU that the captain came on the public address system "and assured everybody that the plane was still relatively safe. (He said) there was serious damage in one of the engines. We jettisoned some fuel and turned around. The captain made a very good landing. We all cheered."
Qantas' Rushton is quoted by CNN as saying that the airline put the affected passengers into local hotels while it worked to get them on another flight to Australia.

England v Pakistan: alleged match-fixing a real tragedy for game of cricket

2010-08-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

Dirty business: secretly-filmed footage appears to show Mazhar Majeed discussing a bribe to fix the fourth Test

If the allegations concerning leading Pakistan players being involved in spot-fixing in the fourth Test against England at Lord’s are true, it is nothing less than a tragedy for the world of cricket.

Pakistan have been this way before — their Qayyum Inquiry into match-fixing was damning when it was published in the summer of 2000 — but that was in a time of peace in the country. This latest incident has occurred when the country’s cricket team can only play abroad because of the security situation, and only makes a sad situation tragic.

The facts are that in the first three Tests of this series, Mohammed Amir bowled three no-balls in 105 overs. In the Lord’s Test he bowled 28 overs with four no-balls.

Throughout yesterday Pakistan played as if something was amiss, especially when they batted. Their batting had improved substantially in the Oval Test a week ago, but in only two sessions they lost 14 wickets - a disintegration even by their own mercurial standards.
It had been widely assumed that match-fixing in cricket had been largely eradicated after heat was turned on various players in 2000, notably the Pakistanis identified by Justice Qayyum’s investigation, and the Indians identified by their Central Bureau of Investigation.
But it all seemed much too like a cosy deduction that suited all concerned. No more questions were to be asked by investigators.
The only upshots of note were that the International Cricket Council set up their Anti Corruption and Security Unit and appointed regional officers who lectured young players in the dangers of becoming involved in match-fixing.
But some older players who had been involved escaped the net and lived to fix another day. The game within the game also became more subtle. Instead of fixing results, as happened in the heyday of the 1990s, attention turned to fixing incidents within a match — often of a minor nature, but equally lucrative and insidious, because small events can still influence the result.
Bowling a no-ball in the first over of a game was 'standard practice’, or a wicketkeeper allowing a ball in the first over to go for four byes. A change of batting gloves, or a signal made during a drinks interval, would be enough to confirm the deal between on-field players and the illegal bookmakers or punters.
This crisis, which it will be if the allegations are proven, can be seen as a direct result of the game’s authorities not clamping down much harder when match-fixing was brought into the daylight ten years ago. The ICC were content with the bans imposed by India and Pakistan on their players, while plenty of other players with doubts against their names — from other countries — were allowed to stay and pollute.
The ICC’s regional security officers are few and thin on the ground. The declared practice is for one of them to attend every international match: the officer then keeps an eye on the players’ dressing-rooms, arranges for a close-circuit television camera to monitor comings and goings, and makes sure the players and coaches do not use mobile phones in the course of the day.
But there were many loopholes in the security arrangements for this year’s Edgbaston Test for a start. The old pavilion had been demolished to make way for the construction of a new one, and the temporary dressing-rooms were next to the media centre and a corridor that any hospitality guest could use.
It is understood that a key figure in the News of the World allegations had access to this corridor and the media centre during the second Test at Edgbaston between England and Pakistan.
This routine is clearly insufficient, even at the best of times and at the securest of venues. The ICC has to monitor what is happening on the field of play as well inside and outside the players’ dressing-rooms.
Sudden changes in scoring-rates for example have to be monitored, and the incidence of wides and no-balls — especially no-balls delivered when the bowler oversteps the popping crease by a large margin.
When Lord Condon became the first head of the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, his initial report argued that there was far too much cricket played — and that the more international cricket there was, the greater the danger of infiltration by illegal bookmakers and punters.
This remains just as true today.
In addition, the link with Indian television has become all the more perilous. Most of the illegal bookmaking is carried out in India, partly to avoid taxation and service the black economy.
In April this year the Essex police announced there were investigating 'match irregularities’ involving the Pakistani legspinner Danish Kaneria and the fast bowler Mervyn Westfield. Kaneria was in Pakistan’s Test party until after the first Test.
Both players have to appear before Essex police on September 15.

No bedbugs in TIFF theatre, Cineplex confirms

2010-08-31T18:16:00.000-07:00

Pest-control company finds no evidence of bedbugs in theatre after guest complaint

Cineplex Entertainment says there's no need to worry about bedbugs at a downtown movie theatre that will be used for the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.
The company says it got the all clear from Abell Pest Control Inc., which it hired Monday afternoon after hearing from a theatre guest who thought he'd been bitten by the pests at the Scotiabank theatre.
“After a thorough investigation overnight, which involved a specially trained sniffing dog and a secondary visual inspection, Abell has confirmed that there were no bed bugs located within the Scotiabank theatre,” Cineplex said in a statement Tuesday morning.
In recent months, Toronto hospitals, libraries, stores and upscale apartment buildings have been overtaken by bedbug infestations.
Earlier this month, pests invaded a popular movie theatre in New York's Times Square and sparked an investigation into all AMC theatres in Manhattan.
“Recent media coverage related to two New York City theatres has caused a flurry of media calls and guest enquiries and unfortunately has lead many people to jump to erroneous conclusions,” said Pat Marshall, vice president of communications and investor relations at Cineplex Entertainment.
“However, we took the matter seriously and fully investigated it.”
The Toronto film festival runs Sept. 9 to 19.

Taliban footprint 'spreading' in Afghanistan: Petraeus

2010-08-31T18:05:00.000-07:00

Petraeus said the Taliban footprint is spreading

KABUL — The US commander of the Afghan war acknowledged Tuesday that the Taliban were expanding their footprint across the country even as international forces close in on their traditional southern strongholds.
General David Petraeus said a sharp rise in attacks on foreign troops showed the Taliban were feeling threatened but said there needed to be political as well as military action to wipe out the "industrial-strength insurgency".
In an interview with foreign media organisations, Petraeus also hailed the counter-insurgency efforts by neighbouring Pakistan, which has faced accusations it has not done enough to combat extremism.
Petraeus said the overall campaign strategy in Afghanistan after almost nine years of war was reaching its "final stages," with the number of US and NATO troops set to peak at 150,000 in the coming days.
The number of American troops killed fighting the Taliban in the last four days hit 22 on Tuesday with the deaths of five US soldiers in the east of the country, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
The total number of foreign troops to die this year is now 485, compared to 521 for all of 2009, according to an AFP count based on a tally kept by the independent icasualties.org.
Petraeus said the intensified fighting was a reflection of the militants' desperation as the alliance poured in more resources in an effort to speed an end to the war.
US President Barack Obama's surge of an extra 30,000 troops, announced last December, is aimed at flooding the Taliban hotspots of Kandahar and Helmand and adding pressure on the insurgents, he said.
"Levels of attacks have gone up and that's a manifestation of us increasing our resources substantially and taking away safe havens that the Taliban have been able to establish over the course of the last several years," he said.
"And when the enemy's safe havens are threatened they fight back.
"I said in testimony last year several times... that indeed it would become harder before it got easier. That's the nature of these endeavours," he said.
Petraeus acknowledged the spread of Taliban influence, especially to parts of the formerly peaceful north.
"I don't think anyone disagrees that the footprint of the Taliban has spread," he said, adding the insurgents had "reconnected in various safe havens and sanctuaries outside and inside the country," a reference to Pakistan.
"The US and ISAF forces in Afghanistan have worked hard to try to get the inputs right, to establish the organisations that are necessary for the conduct of a civil-military counter-insurgency campaign with our Afghan partners.
Petraeus, 57, took over command of international forces in Afghanistan on June 4, after his predecessor US General Stanley McChrystal was sacked.
As US combat forces pulled out of Iraq, Petraeus said Obama's plan to begin drawing down in Afghanistan from next July would be gradual.
Obama has been accused of stoking Taliban morale with the withdrawal announcement, though his administration has said any drawdown would be "conditions based".
"The transition likely will occur in districts initially, rather than in entire provinces although there may be some provinces where this may be possible," Petraeus said.
While the surge had hit the Taliban leadership hard, he said, "you don't kill or capture your way out of an industrial strength insurgency".
Military effort needed to be backed with good governance in order to build popular faith in the government, he said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose government was first installed by the West after the toppling of the Taliban in 2001, has criticised the coalition strategy as "ineffective" and resulted only in civilian casualties.
Petraeus said Karzai's call last week for a shift in military focus to insurgent hideouts in neighbouring Pakistan was "understandable... and we share those concerns".
"We have obviously worked with our Pakistani partners over time to increase their capability to deal with the extremist elements on their soil who are threatening their writ of governance and who are causing enormous security problems in Afghanistan and in some cases in other areas of the world as well," Petraeus said.
"The fact is that Pakistan does deserve credit for having waged a very impressive counter-insurgency campaign over the last 18 months."

Officials: Terrorism unlikely in Philippine blast

2010-08-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

Police investigators examine the site where a powerful explosion occured outside the Zamboanga city airport in Zamboanga, southern Philippines, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010 killing one person and wounding about a dozen others, including Governor Sakur Tan of Sulu province.

MANILA, Philippines -- A bomb that killed two people and wounded two dozen others at a southern Philippine airport was probably an assassination attempt on a governor, not an act of terrorism, officials said Sunday.
The remotely triggered explosion killed a man who was carrying the bomb and his companion and wounded two dozen people, including Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan, at the Zamboanga city airport late Thursday, Zamboanga police Chief Edwin de Ocampo said.
The explosion caused U.S. Ambassador Harry Thomas to postpone a trip to Zamboanga the following day and rekindled fears of terrorism in the city, a bustling metropolis about 540 miles (860 kilometers) south of Manila that has experienced deadly bombings by al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants in the past.
"We can rule out terrorism," de Ocampo told The Associated Press. "By all indications, it was a politically motivated attack."
Tan, governor of Sulu island province - an Abu Sayyaf stronghold south of Zamboanga - blamed political rivals for the attack, which left a small wound near his ribs.
The bomb went off in a backpack carried by a local carpenter, Reynaldo Apilado, as Tan walked out of the airport after disembarking from a flight from Manila, Zamboanga Mayor Celso Lobregat said.
The blast killed Apilado and a companion, Hatimil Yacob, and slightly wounded Tan, who was a few yards (meters) away. The backpack was slung on Apilado's back as he faced Tan, causing him to absorb the impact, de Ocampo said.
The perpetrators of the attack may have deceived Apilado by placing the explosive in his bag without his knowledge and then setting it off, de Ocampo said.
Apilado and Yacob checked in at a budget Zamboanga hotel on July 27 and went to the airport together on the day of the attack. Apilado's girlfriend told investigators that he went to the airport to meet an engineer who supposedly would hire him on a construction project, de Ocampo said.
The bomb - a mix of ammonium nitrate and kerosene - did not contain nails or other shrapnel frequently used by Abu Sayyaf militants to make an attack more lethal. Part of a car power lock system was recovered at the scene of the attack, indicating the mechanism may have been used to remotely detonate the explosive, de Ocampo said.
Investigators were checking the background of Apilado and Yacob to determine who might have set them up for the attack, de Ocampo said.
Tan, an enemy of Abu Sayyaf militants, escaped unharmed in May last year when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his convoy in Sulu. A town mayor and at least three security escorts were wounded in that attack.
Newly elected President Benigno Aquino III, facing his first security crisis since assuming office in June, condemned the violence and ordered authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice, his spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, said.

Ambrose wins Nationwide Zippo 200

2010-08-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

Marcos Ambrose, driver of the #47 Kwik Fil/Zippo Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International on August 7, 2010 in Watkins Glen, New York.

Third straight time driver has finished first in race

Marcos Ambrose has won the Nationwide Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International for the third straight time.
Ambrose started on pole and dominated the race, leading the final half of the 82-lap race around the 11-turn, 2.45-mile layout, and beat Joey Logano by 2.8 seconds.
Kevin Harvick somehow avoided a 10-car wreck and overcame a dustup on the first lap and a speeding penalty on pit road to finish third. Points leader Brad Keselowski was fourth, followed by Kyle Busch, who was seeking his fourth straight win.
Ron Fellows, Nelson Piquet, Jacques Villeneuve, Steve Wallace and Michael McDowell rounded out the top 10.
Carl Edwards, second in points, finished 33rd after losing a cylinder and dropped 327 points behind Keselowski.

Windfall for power investors

2010-08-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

Top job: International Power chief Phil Cox could run the combined groupMore than 360,000 small shareholders in International Power look set for a windfall after it announces a £14 billion merger with French energy giant GDF Suez this week.

More than 360,000 small shareholders in International Power look set for a windfall after it announces a £14 billion merger with French energy giant GDF Suez this week.The deal, expected to be announced on Tuesday alongside financial results from both groups, will give majority control to GDF, 35 per cent owned by the French government.
Bankers are finalising details this weekend that will include a cash element for shareholders of International Power, formed in 2000 after a demerger from the privatised National Power.
At that time, shares were worth 282p. They ended last week at 366p and analysts suggest the deal could value them at 400p. They say that the cash could be limited to 45p a share as GDF must pay £2 billion of International Power's debt.
Sources say the combined group is likely to be run by International Power chief executive Phil Cox with a Frenchman as chairman.
The new company, to be listed in London, will be formed through a reverse takeover. International Power will issue shares in return for GDF ploughing assets into the venture.
All International Power's 45 plants in Britain, the Middle East, North America and Pakistan will be injected into the group while GDF will contribute assets such as its UK and Turkish stations along with some outside Europe.

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2010-08-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

An Afghan man rides his bicycle past the International Assistance Mission (IAM) in Kabul August 7, 2010. Eight foreign medical workers, including ''several'' Americans, were killed by gunmen in Afghanistan's remote northeast, police and officials said on Saturday, with the attack claimed by the Taliban.

By Paul Tait
KABUL (Reuters) - An international Christian aid group denied on Sunday Taliban accusations that eight of its foreign medical workers among 10 killed in Afghanistan's remote northeast had been proselytising.
The bodies of the medical aid workers were flown by helicopter from Badakshan province back to Kabul on Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in the Afghan capital said.
"Consular staff and FBI special agents assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, alongside Afghan counterparts and representatives from the UK and German Embassies, are now working to identify the victims of this tragic attack," the embassy said in a statement.
Although those killed have not been formally identified, aid group the International Assistance Mission (IAM) has said it appears the victims were from its 12-member eye care team that had been working in Badakshan and neighbouring Nuristan.
IAM has said the team consisted of six Americans, a German, a British woman and four Afghans. Five of the foreigners were men and three women.
On Saturday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, saying the medical workers had been carrying bibles in Dari -- one of Afghanistan's two main languages -- and were killed because they were proselytising.
"The accusation is completely baseless, they were not carrying any bibles except maybe their personal bibles," Dirk Frans, the executive director of IAM, told Reuters.
"As an organisation we are not involved in proselytising at all," he said.
Despite the Taliban claim, there was no independent confirmation of any role by the Islamist group.
The IAM said the members of its eye care team were on their way back to Kabul when they were killed by unidentified gunmen.
"NO ONE EVER EXPECTS"
One of those killed was British surgeon Karen Woo, who worked with a separate group called Bridge Afghanistan and was well known in the foreign aid community in Afghanistan.
She wrote in a recent blog posting that she would act as the team doctor and run a mother-and-child clinic in Nuristan.
"Perhaps no one ever expects it to be them, perhaps not their immediate friends either, it (is) always some poor unknown person, a local national, a third country national. We count those that matter to us," Woo wrote in another recent blog about the dangers of working in Afghanistan (link.reuters.com/puc83n).
The IAM describes itself as an "international charitable, non-profit, Christian organisation" which has been helping Afghans with health and economic development since 1966.
Frans said the group would review its security procedures after the incident but thought it was "highly unlikely" they would leave Afghanistan.
"We have been here when the king was in power, when the Russians were in power, when the mujahideen were fighting here in Kabul under the Taliban and all the time we have stayed," Frans said.
Afghan police told Reuters the bodies had been found early on Saturday and that the group had been warned not camp near dense forest in Nuristan.
Nuristan is a remote region with a growing insurgent presence as well as smugglers and bandits. U.S. forces withdrew from the province in the past year after taking heavy losses in years of battle near its Pakistan border.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since U.S.-led and Afghan armed groups overthrew the Taliban in 2001.
June was the bloodiest month of the war for foreign forces in Afghanistan, with more than 100 killed. Hundreds of Afghan civilians have also been killed this year as they become caught up in the crossfire.

Ammonia leak interrupts repair efforts on International Space Station Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/07/2135698/ammonia-leak-interrupts-repair.html#ixzz0w1WR0jwI

2010-08-08T07:11:00.000-07:00

In this image taken from video and made available by NASA, astronauts Douglas Wheelock, top, and Tracy Caldwell Dyson
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. | A pair of International Space Station astronauts during an urgent spacewalk Saturday had to hammer loose a stuck connector to restore a crucial cooling system — then an ammonia leak erupted and hampered the repair effort.
Despite making one of the longest space walks ever, Douglas Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson had to give up trying to remove a broken ammonia pump and retreat inside.
Managers said two more space walks now would be needed to replace the pump and get the space station’s cooling system operating normally again. The original plan called for two space walks.
Another space walk won’t be attempted until Wednesday at the earliest. Engineers huddled following Saturday’s eight-hour, three-minute effort — the sixth-longest space walk ever — to consider their options.
“We will get through this problem,” said Mike Suffredini, space station program manager. “The challenge is to get through this problem before the next problem hits the other cooling system.”
The pump failure knocked out half of the space station’s cooling system last weekend, leaving the orbiting lab with only one good cooling loop. Another breakdown could leave the station in a precarious situation.
From the start, NASA described the repair work as some of the most challenging ever attempted at the 220-mile-high complex.
The latest trouble struck halfway through Saturday’s spacewalk. Wheelock and Caldwell Dyson could not get one of the four pressurized ammonia hoses to come off the disabled pump.
“Wow. That thing is not budging,” Wheelock told Mission Control.
A bit of ammonia coolant leaked out as the spacewalkers struggled with the connections.
Wheelock said the escaping ammonia resembled tiny snowflakes.
Lagging well behind by that point, the spacewalkers managed to remove three of the four hoses. Wheelock tried once more to disconnect the balky line, banging a jammed button with a special tool. It worked.
Mission Control erupted in applause.
“Awesome,” it radioed.
But the exuberance was dampened by a stream of escaping ammonia.
The astronauts managed to stop the leak when they plugged the troublesome connector back in. There was time for little else as the spacewalk neared the seven-hour mark.
They headed back to the air lock, and inspected their suits and equipment for ammonia crystals.
None was found, but the pair still had to go through drawn-out decontamination procedures.
Any further repairs will need to be made by astronauts, not ground controllers, Suffredini said.
Ultimately, the hose in question must come off if the failed pump is to be removed, but additional ammonia leakage is unacceptable.
The pump is supposed to push ammonia coolant through a line on the right side of the complex and prevent equipment from overheating.
The cooling pump broke after a power surge, and the station has used one pump — instead of the usual two pumps — to keep the station cool.
To cope with the failure, the six-person crew had to turn off all unnecessary equipment and halt science experiments a week ago.
The cooling line on the left side — unaffected by the trouble — has had to manage everything.
Although space station managers knew an ammonia pump would fail one day, they did not expect it to happen so soon in the 12-year life of the complex. The pump that broke had been in operation since 2006.
Wheelock could find nothing wrong with the pump — about the size of a bathtub — and he saw no signs it had been hit by micrometeorites or other debris.
Suffredini later noted that the connectors were prone to trouble, and that the leak was not entirely surprising.
Each pump is a boxy 5 1/2 feet by 4 feet by 3 feet and has a mass of 780 pounds. A new pump, an on-board spare, presumably will be installed on the second or third spacewalk.
For now, the crew is in no danger and station operations continue with little disruption. But if the remaining pump fails, the crew would be forced to cut power to much of the station and rely on the Russian section, which runs on a different power and cooling system, to handle critical tasks.
Saturday’s spacewalk was the first by Americans, without a shuttle present, since 2008.
The crew includes three Americans and three Russians. Caldwell Dyson has been on board since April, and Wheelock since June.

The Orlando Sentinel contributed to this report.

Florida Church planning to burn Qurans on 9/11

2010-08-01T04:49:00.000-07:00

A Florida church is planning to burn a stack of Qurans on 11th September this year, in a tasteful effort to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre.

The Dove World Outreach Center, a non-denominational church in Gainesville, is charmingly trying to rebrand 9/11 as International Burn A Koran Day. If you’re interested, there’s a Facebook group for it. The info tab has a succinct little mission statement, which you may find illuminative:

Mission: To bring to awareness to the dangers of Islam and that the Koran is leading people to hell. Eternal fire is the only destination the Koran can lead people to so we want to put the Koran in it’s place – the fire!
The Dove Center, which describes itself as ‘a New Testament Church – based on the Bible, the Word of God’, has a bit of a history of making, shall we say, provocative statements about Islam. Its pastor and proprietor Dr Terry Jones recently published a sober treatise entitled Islam Is Of The Devil, while he also has a history of opposing things like homosexuality, same-sex marriage and abortion. If anyone is in Gainsville on 2nd August, for instance, you might like to swing by the City Hall at lunch time and join in the fun at the church’s ‘No Homo Mayor’ protest.
And in case anyone else was wondering what they really felt, they also have a massive sign outside their church, also saying ‘Islam Is Of The Devil’:

It’s all deeply unpleasant, of course, and easy to mock, but unpleasant anti-Islam sentiments like these really do seem to be on the rise in the US. There’s a huge battle going on in New York over whether an entirely benign Muslim community centre – which would also contain a mosque – can be built near Ground Zero, for instance, while a mosque in Jacksonville, also in Florida, was firebombed earlier this year. It’s getting easier to draw parallels between the rise of the religious right and these kinds of tensions, and I really wouldn’t like to say we’ve reached their height, either, not by a long shot: brace yourselves for a good deal more of this unpleasantness as the new American right grows its fangs.
The Dove World Outreach Center, meanwhile, was subjected to an expose about the way it pays its taxes last year in The Gainesville Sun, while they were investigated for potential financial impropriety in March this year. It hasn’t really taken the wind out of their sails, however. You’ll note that, in the picture above, Dr Jones has a picture of himself flanked by Abraham Lincoln and George Washington – a little detail I’ll let speak for itself. His Youtube channel – named, without even a pinch of hubris, the Braveheart Show – is worth a watch if, like me, you relish the demagoguery of hateful maniacs.

PIA plane coming from Kabul escapes accident

2010-08-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

The PIA flight PK-252 with 107 passengers aboard, coming from Kabul, was hit by some ‘hard object’, damaging its windscreen.—File photo

LAHORE: Just a day after an Airblue plane crashed into Margalla Hills in Islamabad killing all 152 people on board, a Pakistan International Airline plane coming from Kabul escaped an accident.

The PIA flight PK-252 with 107 passengers aboard took off from Kabul airport on Thursday afternoon for Islamabad.

According to a source in the Civil Aviation Authority, some ‘hard object’ hit the plane, a Boeing 737, damaging its windscreen.

“When it was approaching Islamabad airport the control tower asked the pilot to divert the flight to Lahore as weather was rough,” he said. The plane landed at the Allama Iqbal International Airport at 6.10pm.

According to PIA spokesperson Yasmin Haroon, the sight panel’s outer cover of the windscreen cracked when it took off from Kabul. She said the plane did not make an emergency landing at Lahore airport.

Ms Haroon said that passengers would leave for Islamabad on Friday at 9am.

Pakistan flood toll tops 900 as cholera emerges

2010-08-01T04:41:00.000-07:00

Evacuating residents carry their belongings through floodwaters the Mohib Bhanda area in Nowshera district. (AFP: A Majeed)

The death toll from Pakistan's worst floods in living memory topped 900 as outbreaks of waterborne disease emerged and penniless survivors sought refuge from the raging torrents.

A total of 862 people have been killed by monsoon rains, flash floods and landslides around the north-west province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and at least 47 have died in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, officials said.
Up to one million people have been affected in all, according to the UN, with thousands of homes and vast swathes of farm land destroyed in a region of Pakistan already reeling from years of extremist bloodshed.
"This is the worst flood in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the country's history," said provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain.
Hundreds of survivors were finding shelter in schools in Peshawar, the main city in north-west Pakistan, and in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, after escaping the floods with children on their backs.
Pakistani television and photographs shot from helicopters showed people clinging to the walls and rooftops of damaged houses as gushing waters rampaged through villages.
Muqaddir Khan, 25, who fled the floods with nine relatives, said he had lost everything.
"I laboured hard in Saudi Arabia for three years and set up a small shop which was swept away by flooding in minutes," Khan said.
Razia Bibi, 48, said she and her family had a sleepless night watching the floodwaters rise.
"My house has now gone under water and I could escape with only a few belongings," Bibi said.

'Unprecedented' rain

Pakistan's weather bureau said an "unprecedented" 312 millimetres of rain had fallen in 36 hours in the north-west, but predicted only scattered showers during coming days.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, flash floods have killed at least 65 people and affected more than 1,000 families, officials said.
More than 3,700 houses have been swept away by the floods in Pakistan and the number of people made homeless is rising, the provincial minister said.
"The flash floods destroyed maize and (rice) paddy crops in Nowshera (town)," Mr Hussain said.
"Our rescue teams are also trying to extricate some 1,500 tourists who are stranded in the Kalam and Behrain towns of Swat district," he said, referring to a region where the military last year waged a major anti-Taliban offensive.
"We are also getting confirmation of reports about an outbreak of cholera in some areas of Swat," Mr Hussain added.
The army said it had sent boats and helicopters to rescue stranded people and its engineers were trying to open more roads and divert swollen rivers.
-AFP

Kiwi to be nominated for ICC

2010-08-01T04:38:00.000-07:00

Alan Isaac, chairman of New Zealand Cricket. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Cricket Australia will back a New Zealand candidate as International Cricket Council vice president due to opposition to its own nomination, former Australian prime minister John Howard.
New Zealand Cricket has proposed its chairman, businessman Alan Isaac, for the role and Cricket Australia said in a statement today it now supported that nomination.
The Australian board reaffirmed Howard's credentials and said it was "disappointed and most concerned by the ICC Executive Board's lack of support of his nomination, and regards it as completely unacceptable that no reason has been provided as to why he has not been accepted."
The former Australian prime minister's nomination was voted down at an ICC executive board meeting in Singapore in early July by six of 10 test-playing nations voting mainly along racial lines.
His election should have been a formality as, by convention, the vice presidency changes hands every two years on a rotational basis. After two years the vice president becomes the ICC president.
"The CA board accepts that the New Zealand nominee, Mr Alan Isaac, is eminently qualified to fill the role of ICC vice president and president, and given the stance of the ICC Executive Board with the nomination of Mr. Howard, will support his name being forwarded to the ICC for ratification," Cricket Australia said in the statement.
Cricket Australia chairman Jack Clarke said the board remained disappointed that the joint Australia-New Zealand nomination of Howard had not been supported by the ICC board, particularly as Australia and New Zealand had previously complied with the rotational ICC vice presidential nomination process.
"We still have been given no official reason why a strongly credentialed candidate of Mr Howard's qualifications, skill and stature was not supported," Clarke said.
"Our directors were today very strongly of the view that Mr Howard continues to be the best candidate CA could nominate. We are not prepared to suggest another candidate but given it is clear Mr Howard will not be supported, we clearly have to consider a new approach.
"Accordingly, we are pleased to support New Zealand Cricket's suggestion that Alan Isaac be nominated for the role."
Howard, a conservative, was Australian prime minister for 11 years before his Coalition government was swept from power in 2007.
While he has been a regular attendee at test matches and describes himself as a "cricket tragic," he doesn't have experience as a cricket administrator. His name should have been submitted in January but even Australia and New Zealand initially were divided over his selection.
Zimbabwe, which was angered by Howard's successful efforts to keep it out of the Commonwealth, spearheaded the opposition.
- AP

Greek drivers continue strike

2010-08-01T04:34:00.000-07:00

Greek truckers said they will maintain the strike at the height of the busy tourism season [AFP]

The Greek government has ordered its military to help with fuel deliveries in the country as 33,000 truck drivers continue to refuse to go back to work.
Their strike continued into a sixth day on Saturday, defying an emergency government order to return to the road, which has resulted in fuel shortages across the country.
The protest began last Sunday against plans by the government to liberalise the tightly-controlled freight sector.
But authorities warn that the greatest damage has been caused to the vital tourism industry, which accounts for nearly a fifth of the recession-hit Greek economy, leaving thousands of travellers stranded and booking cancellations mounting.
"The period to August 15 is the heart of the tourism season and an entire week has now been lost," Vassilis Korkidis, the head of the Greek trade association, told state television.
'Unfair' reforms
The truckers decided to maintain their protest, ignoring warnings by the government that strikers who continue to defy the law would be prosecuted and that their operating licenses could be forfeit.
George Tzortzatos, the head of the Greek truck owners confederation, told reporters after a union meeting: "We will continue [the strike] in dynamic fashion."
The truckers say that boosting competition in the freight sector by reducing new licence charges is unfair to existing operators ,who have already paid high start-up fees running up to $391,000.
The plan is part of a reform programme that the Athens government committed to in May in exchange for a $143bn loan package from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.
Greece has suffered waves of strikes and protests over the unprecedented budget cuts and reforms the government had to agree to in order to tap the IMF-EU money it desperately needed to avert default on debts close to 300 billion euros.

Samir crowned Amman International champion

2010-08-01T04:30:00.000-07:00

Earlier, Samir had won the first leg of the same event.—File photo

LAHORE: Samir Iftikhar, an upcoming tennis sensation of Pakistan, was crowned with another title when he defeated Tom Diederich of Luxemburg to win the Amman International tennis championship on Saturday.

After losing the first set, Samir, the second seed, staged a come back to carve out win against the fourth seed with the score being 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Earlier, Samir had won the first leg of the same event.

Israeli air strikes on Gaza kill Hamas commander

2010-08-01T04:27:00.000-07:00

A man carries a wounded young Palestinian to al-Shifa hospital after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City.

Eleven others wounded as warplanes target five sites across terrirory in biggest attack since three-week offensive in 2009

Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed a Hamas commander and wounded 11 other people.
Warplanes fired missiles at five targets across Gaza, including Gaza City, last night for the first time since Israel's three-week offensive in the territory ended 18 months ago.
Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the territory, said the man killed was Issa Batran, 42, a commander of its military wing in central Gaza and a rocket maker. Eight of its supporters and three civilians were also injured.
The air raids came after a Palestinian rocket attack struck the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon on Friday, causing no casualties but damaging buildings and cars in the city.
The city's mayor said the attack was the most serious since the end of Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli offensive that left around 1,400 Palestinians dead, in January last year. Renegade militant groups have fired dozens of rockets and mortars into southern Israel since then, although most of those attack have been ineffective, with rockets mostly landing in open fields.
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, earlier said he took the rocket attack on Ashkelon, which lies seven miles north of Gaza, "very seriously". No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The cross-border violence has raised concerns of further escalation.
A Hamas spokesman said the group would avenge Batran's killing.
"Hamas will not be quiet over the blood of its martyrs," said Hamad al-Rakabi. "Israel is opening all the gates of fire. This blood will cascade into rage and fire."
The targets hit in last night's air strike included a military training camp in Gaza City, smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border and Batran's shack, on the outskirts of the Nusseirat refugee camp, according to Hamas security officials.

STAR ALLIANCE MEMBER CARRIERS CO-LOCATE AT DELHI AIRPORT’S NEW TERMINAL 3

2010-07-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI, India – July 28th, 2010 – Making use of the opportunity provided by India’s expanding airport infrastructure, Star Alliance becomes the first and only airline alliance to establish a series of joint passenger amenities and related infrastructure at the newly developed Terminal 3 at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
A ribbon-cutting marked the opening of the new facilities on the first day of operations in the new terminal today. Check-in counters for all member carriers are co-located in rows E,F,G,H,J and K. In addition, Austrian, Continental Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS share a joint ticket desk which is accessible from both inside and outside the terminal, allowing easier access for passengers needing ticketing assistance. Overall, the co-located Star Alliance area will offer unprecedented customer experience in conjunction with New Delhi’s newest air terminal. Future Star Alliance member carrier Air India is also located in the same area, so as to provide seamless service to customers upon their joining.
Recognising Star Alliance’s presence at Terminal 3, developer Delhi International Airport (P) Limited, has also enabled individual member carrier operational back-offices to be positioned in a common area, directly overlooking the check-in area for greater synergies.
Lee Hock Lye, Vice President Products and Services, Star Alliance said: “Our presence at Terminal 3 through Star Alliance’s ‘Move under one Roof’ and Seamless Alliance Travel Experience strategies pave the way for unsurpassed passenger convenience at an important and developing Star Alliance destination. We have ensured that from the onset many facilities are shared with future member carrier Air India, thereby laying the groundwork for offering a seamless alliance product, from the moment they officially join.”
With Air India* developing Terminal 3 into its integrated hub and as a part of the co-location programme currently underway, Star Alliance First and Business Class passengers along with Star Alliance Gold members can look forward to a new and modern Air India Lounge , set to open in the middle of September. In the interim, eligible Star Alliance customers will have access to either the Premium Plaza or the ITC Group Lounge**.
Building on the success of similar installations at airports such as Paris – Charles de Gaulle, London – Heathrow or Tokyo – Narita, the Star Alliance member carriers flying to Delhi will be offering a Star Alliance’s Common Baggage Service Facility for arriving passengers. Here both member carrier and Air India* passengers will have their mishandled baggage queries addressed in an expedient manner.
Locating the member carriers into a single terminal is called “Move under one Roof”, a programme that is in place at more than a dozen airports around the world, like for example Beijing, Paris – Charles de Gaulle, Tokyo – Narita.
From Delhi’s Indira Ghandi International Airport, nine Star Alliance member carriers offer more than 70 flights to 10 Star Alliance hubs in nine countries. From these hubs – Bangkok, Beijing, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Munich, Newark (New York), Seoul – Incheon, Singapore, Vienna and Zurich – passengers can connect to reach the over 1,100 destinations served by the Star Alliance network.
* Air India is a future Star Alliance member carrier
** Capacity restrictions could apply at certain times

Analysis: IMF bound by politics in Chinese yuan debate

2010-07-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

Yuan banknotes are seen in this illustrative photograph taken in Beijing July 26, 2010

(Reuters) - Substantially.

That single word, left out of the International Monetary Fund's assessment of China's undervalued currency, laid bare the tricky IMF internal politics that govern even its most routine interactions with the world's newest economic power.
IMF staff, under pressure for years from member countries to tell it like it is when assessing a country's economic health, said China's yuan was "substantially" undervalued.
But by the time the final assessment passed through the IMF's 24-member board of shareholder countries on Monday, that word had fallen victim to disagreements between those who put faith in Beijing to let its currency rise more rapidly and those among the Group of Seven rich nations who doubt much progress would be made.
The board statement simply called the yuan "undervalued" with several countries questioning the accuracy of IMF staff projections of a major increase in China's current account surplus over the next several years.
On the one side are emerging market economies, like Brazil, who stood behind China, and on the other the G7 old-line powers who believe the yuan is still too cheap but did not say so.
"The G7 wants more flexibility in how the currency is managed but at the same time they want to do that diplomatically," said Domenico Lombardi, a former IMF board member now at Brookings Institution.
Still, Lombardi said calling the yuan undervalued, regardless of whether it is substantial or not, sent a strong signal to Beijing that it needs to revalue the currency.
"It is clear the board adopted a diplomatic stance. They tried to do their best not to upset the Chinese authorities but in the end preserved the substance of the IMF staff's message by concurring the exchange rate was undervalued," he added.
SOFTER ONE FROM WASHINGTON
The outcome reflects not only muscle-flexing on the part of China but some softening of the U.S. position.
The Obama administration has toned down some of the rhetoric the previous Bush administration used when describing the extent to which China's yuan is undervalued.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said repeatedly it is "China's choice" to decide how and when to let market forces play a larger role in determining the yuan's value, even as he emphasized it was in China's interest to do so.
As recently as Sunday, he praised Beijing's recent move to free the yuan from a dollar peg and described that as a helpful move toward easing global trade imbalances even though the yuan has risen less than one percent since China did so.
"What matters to us is how fast and how far they let it go," Geithner said, a gentle reminder that while Washington likes Beijing's policy direction it is also monitoring its effectiveness.
In contrast, the Bush administration grew frustrated with efforts to convince China to let its currency rise faster and pressured the IMF unsuccessfully to label China a currency manipulator.
While the IMF never bowed to that pressure, it did change its currency surveillance rules to say that member countries should stay away from policies that result in "external instability," in addition to avoiding currency manipulation and intervention.
Beijing accused the IMF of not being even-handed and stalled the IMF's process for reviewing its economy for two years. Current IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has overturned that rule, saying it made discussions with member countries less open.
DISAPPEARING FOOTNOTE
In another twist, China -- supported by other emerging market economies -- took umbrage with a footnote in the IMF staff report stating that staff estimated the yuan was undervalued by somewhere between 5 percent and 27 percent.
The footnote was removed at China's behest before the staff documents were published on Thursday.
Such estimates are not unusual and fall under the IMF's expertise. They have, however, always been a thorny issue because of the broad disagreement among economists on how best to determine whether currencies accurately reflect a country's economic fundamentals.
To be fair, all IMF member countries have a say in what is published and what is not in reviews of their economies.
"The Chinese looked at the whole report to assess whether it's a fair and balanced report and also if we had reflected their views correctly in the report," IMF mission chief to China Nigel Chalk told reporters on a conference call.
Eswar Prasad, a former IMF official and trade professor at Cornell University, said China's surprisingly quick agreement to release the report reflected Beijing's growing confidence it is control of the global debate over its currency.
While the staff report had some tough language on the need for further currency reforms, it also praised Beijing's recent announcement to move to a more flexible exchange rate, even though there has been little actual movement in the yuan.
China was further emboldened by the board's at best lukewarm support for the IMF staff's relatively hard-line position on the currency issue, said Prasad, a senior fellow at Brookings. He said the staff report, which contains the authorities' views, shows Beijing pushing back on all of the staff's analysis and assertions used to support the finding of a substantially undervalued exchange rate.

Major Pakistani air crashes

2010-07-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

A Pakistani Airbus passenger jet operated by Airblue crashed in densely wooded hills outside the capital Islamabad on Wednesday, killing up to 152 people on board.
Following is a chronology of major air crashes in Pakistan or involving Pakistani planes:
May 20, 1965: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Boeing 707 crashes on its inaugural flight while attempting to land at Cairo airport, killing 124 people.
August 6, 1970: A PIA Fokker F27 turboprop aircraft crashes while attempting to take off from Islamabad in a thunderstorm, killing all 30 people on board.
December 8, 1972: A PIA Fokker F27 crashes in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. All 26 people on board are killed.
November 26, 1979: A PIA Boeing 707 bringing home Pakistani Hajj pilgrims from Saudi Arabia crashes shortly after take-off from Jeddah airport, killing 156 people.
October 23, 1986: A PIA Fokker F27 crashes while coming in to land in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 13 of the 54 people on board.
August 17, 1988: A US-made Hercules C-130 military aircraft crashes near Pakistan’s eastern city of Bahawalpur, killing military ruler General Mohammad Zia ul Haq and 30 others including Pakistani generals and the US ambassador.
August 25, 1989: A PIA Fokker carrying 54 people disappears after leaving Gilgit in northern Pakistan. The wreckage is never found.
September 28, 1992: A PIA Airbus A300 crashes into a cloud-covered hillside on approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu after the plane descended too early, killing 167 people.
February 19, 2003: An air force Fokker F27 crashes in fog-shrouded mountains near the northwestern city of Kohat, killing air force chief Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali, his wife and 15 others.
February 24, 2003: A chartered Cessna 402-B carrying Afghan Mines and Industries Minister Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, four Afghan officials, a Chinese mining executive and two Pakistani crew crashes into the Arabian Sea near the southern city of Karachi.
July 10, 2006: A PIA Fokker F27 bound for Lahore crashes into a field and bursts into flames shortly after takeoff from the central city of Multan, killing 41 passengers and four crew.
July 28, 2010: An Airblue Airbus 321 flying from Karachi crashes into hills outside Islamabad while preparing to land, killing everyone on board. Civil aviation authorities say 152 people were on board while police put the number at 149.

Logitech Announces Neil Hunt, Netflix Chief Product Officer, as New Board Nominee

2010-07-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

Logitech International (SIX:LOGN) (Nasdaq:LOGI) announced that its board of directors will ask shareholders to approve the election to the board of Neil Hunt, chief product officer of Netflix, Inc., the Internet movie subscription service, at the company’s annual general meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland on Sept. 8, 2010.

At the meeting, Logitech shareholders will also be asked to re-elect to its board of directors Daniel Borel, Logitech co-founder, Sally Davis, BT Wholesale chief executive officer, Guerrino De Luca, Logitech chairman and Monika Ribar, Panalpina chief executive officer.

Logitech’s annual report and invitation and proxy statement for the annual general meeting are available on Logitech’s Web site at http://ir.logitech.com. The materials for the meeting will be mailed to Logitech registered shareholders in early August.***

6 U.S. troops, 12 civilians killed in Afghan attacks

2010-07-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Afghan rescue and security personnel are seen at the site of a bomb explosion in Kandahar.

Afghanistan —

Six American service members and at least a dozen civilians died in attacks Saturday in Afghanistan's volatile east and south, adding to a summer of escalating violence as Taliban militants push back against stepped-up operations by international and Afghan forces.

NATO said four U.S. service members died in the east: One as a result of small-arms fire, another by a roadside bomb, a third during an insurgent attack and the last in an accidental explosion. Two other U.S. troops died in separate roadside bombings in southern Afghanistan. Their deaths raised to 23 the number of American troops killed so far this month in the war.

Also, unknown gunmen killed 11 Pakistani Shia tribesmen in the east and at least one person died when a bomb planted on a motorbike exploded in Kandahar city in the south, officials said.

Explosions also hit two convoys of international troops in different parts of the country, with Germany saying two of its troops were wounded by a roadside bomb in the northern province of Kunduz. Another explosion targeted NATO troops in Khost in the east, but the alliance said there were no casualties.

Afghan and international forces also said a combined commando unit killed a Taliban operative and captured eight others in an overnight raid in Paktia province in the east, though local villagers claimed the men were innocent civilians. In the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, thousands of Afghan's staged an anti-U.S. protest over another night raid that killed two security guards.

Insurgent attacks have intensified across the country and the international coalition has been stepping up raids to root out militant leaders as 30,000 more American troops arrive to try to turn around the war and build a stable Afghan government nine years after U.S.-backed forces toppled the Taliban's hard-line Islamist regime.

Last month was the deadliest of the war for the multinational force, with 103 international troops killed, 60 of them Americans.

A remotely detonated motorcycle bomb killed one person Saturday in Kandahar city, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban, authorities said.

The blast set cars ablaze and shattered windows at a popular shopping center. One man was killed as he drove by in a car just as the bomb exploded, the provincial government said in a statement.

The province is the site of a U.S.-led military operation to strengthen government control.

In the eastern border province of Paktia, unidentified gunmen killed 11 Pakistanis who had crossed into Afghanistan to buy supplies, according to Rohullah Samon, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Samon said 11 Shia minority Muslim tribesmen died and three people, including a child, were wounded in the ambush of their minibus in Chamkani district.

Elsewhere in Paktia, a combined Afghan-coalition commando force raided a compound in Ahmad Abad district overnight, killing one person and arresting nine others, officials said.

The Ministry of Defense said the elite force killed an insurgent operative and captured eight others with weapons. The ninth person arrested was determined to be a civilian and turned over to local authorities, it said in a statement.

Paktia spokesman Samon complained that local authorities were not informed of the raid. He said villagers protested outside government offices Saturday, saying the dead man and those captured were innocent civilians. They promised a larger demonstration the next day if the eight prisoners were not released.

Combined coalition and Afghan forces have been stepping up night raids across the country trying to break up Taliban leadership and operations capability.

In the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, more than 1,000 people protested Saturday against the deaths of two security guards in another night raid near a market.

The crowd chanted "Death to America! Long live Islam!" Protesters said the security guards were unjustly killed when combined Afghan and international forces landed by helicopter at the bazaar before dawn Wednesday.

NATO spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said the two guards were shot when they raised their weapons at the commandos and refused orders to put them down. He said the raid succeeded in capturing a Taliban operative who supplied bomb-making material.

The coalition says the new wave of raids has captured more than 100 senior- and midlevel Taliban figures since April and killed dozens more. But the success rate has not made much of a dent in insurgent attacks.

On Saturday, an explosion tore through a NATO convoy traveling in the eastern province of Khost, though no one was killed. The German army later said two of its soldiers were slightly wounded by a roadside bomb in the northern province of Kunduz — the second homemade explosive attack on German troops in the area that day.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force has been in Afghanistan since shortly after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, when U.S.-backed forces toppled the regime that sheltered the al-Qaida terrorist leadership following the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

UN condemns South Korea ship sinking

2010-07-11T06:22:00.000-07:00

Security Council statement expresses ‘deep concern’ but doesn’t blame North Korea

The UN Security Council on Friday condemned a deadly attack on a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors and pointed a finger toward North Korea but didn't directly blame the reclusive communist nation.
A statement approved by all 15 council members expressed “deep concern” over the findings of a South Korean-led international investigation that concluded that a North Korean torpedo sank the 1,200-ton Cheonan on March 26.
The statement, read by the council president, calls for “appropriate and peaceful measures to be taken against those responsible.”
But it doesn't identify who is responsible, and “takes note” of North Korea's response “that it had nothing to do with the incident.”
North Korea has called for a new joint investigation by both Koreas “to verify objectively the truth of the incident.” It warned that its military forces will respond if the council questions or condemns the country over the sinking.
South Korea had wanted the council to condemn the North. But China, the North's closest ally and a veto-wielding council member, opposed a third round of sanctions against North Korea or direct condemnation for the sinking.
The council statement “underscores the importance” of preventing further attacks or hostilities against South Korea or in the region, and stresses “the importance of maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia as a whole.”
It calls for “full adherence” to the Korean Armistice Agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and “encourages the settlement of outstanding issues on the Korean peninsula by peaceful means” and an early resumption of negotiations “with a view to avoiding conflicts and averting escalation.”
South Korea sent a letter to the council on June 4 asking the U.N.’s most powerful body to respond to the sinking “in a manner appropriate to the gravity of North Korea's military provocation.”
After more than a month of closed-door discussions, the United States announced Thursday that the five permanent council members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — as well as South Korea and Japan had reached agreement on the text.

Death by stoning in Iran: international outrage leads to last-minute reprieve

2010-07-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a mother of two who is facing the punishment of stoning to death in Iran.

An Iranian woman will not be stoned to death for adultery, after her lawyer's blog posts sparked a global campaign to save her life.

But 12 other women and three men still face a death sentence by stoning in the theocractic Middle East country, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported.
Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old Kurdish woman, was facing imminent execution before an apparent last-minute reprieve.

The Iranian Embassy in London said Ashtiani would no longer face death by stoning, according to Channel 4 News and The Guardian newspaper. A message seeking comment from the embassy was not immediately returned, and it was not immediately clear if Ashtiani still faced death by other means.
"According to information from the relevant judicial authorities in Iran, she will not be executed by stoning punishment," the embassy said in the statement reported by Channel 4 News and The Guardian.
Ashtiani's face, framed in a black chador, stared from the front page of The Times of London on Thursday, while The Guardian carried an interview with Ashtiani's children — 22-year-old Sajad and 17-year-old Farideh — who described the sentence as a nightmare. Protests are planned in front of the Iranian Embassy over the weekend.
Stoning is a "medieval punishment which has no role in the modern world", British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters Thursday. "If the punishment is carried out, it will disgust and appall the watching world," Hague said in a media conference with Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu in London.
He appealed to Tehran to halt the planned execution.
Celebrities including Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, and Robert Redford have already signed on to the campaign to push for her release, according to The Times, which also quoted US Senator John Kerry and Howard Berman, the chairman of the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, as expressing their disgust at the sentence.
Even Lindsay Lohan publicised the case, becoming one of hundreds of Twitter users rallying the online world to Ashtiani's defence.
Under Iran's Islamic laws, adultery is the only capital offense punishable by stoning. A man is usually buried up to his waist, while a woman is buried up to her neck. Those carrying out the verdict then pelt the convict with stones until he or she dies.
Stoning was widely imposed in the years following the revolution, and even though Iran's judiciary still regularly hands down such sentences, they are often converted to fines. The last known stoning was carried out in 2008, although the government rarely confirms that such punishments have been meted out.
"It's possible that the numbers are much higher than has been reported," said Faraz Sanei, an Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, one of several groups publicizing Ashtiani's case.
The rights group said she was first convicted in May of 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men following the death of her husband — for which a court in Tabriz, in north-western Iran, sentenced her to 99 lashes. But later that year she was also convicted of adultery, despite having retracted a confession which she claims was made under duress.
That Ashtiani's plight has received unusually wide play might be attributable to the determined work of Germany-based activist Mina Ahadi as well as to the internet savvy of Ashtiani's lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, a prolific blogger, Sanei said.
In one of his recent posts, Mostafaei warned that his client could be executed at any time without notice, Sanei said.
Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, told reporters in the British capital that his country would raise the issue with Iran.

India wants more Pakistanis tried for Mumbai raid

2010-06-27T00:39:00.000-07:00

Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik (2nd R) walks with Indian counterpart Palaniappan Chidambaram (2nd L) after his arrival in Islamabad June 25, 2010. India urged Pakistan on Saturday to put more people on trial for the 2008 Mumbai attacks which killed 166 people in India's financial capital.

India urged Pakistan on Saturday to put more people on trial for the 2008 attacks on Mumbai as the two nuclear-armed nations promised to join efforts to combat terrorism.
Relations between the uneasy neighbours, who have fought three wars since 1947, went into a freeze after Pakistani-based militants killed 166 people in the Indian financial capital.
"All the masterminds and the handlers behind 26/11 must be brought to justice," Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram told a joint news conference with Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik a day after their meeting in Islamabad.
"At the same time, we must ensure that terrorists have no free run, either in Pakistan or (in) India."
Although Chidambaram did not mention him by name, India also wants Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group and the man New Delhi says masterminded the bloodshed, to face trial.
Malik said Pakistan was committed to bringing those responsible for the Mumbai attacks to justice and both countries had promised to coordinate their efforts to confront terrorism.
"We have resolved together that both (investigating) agencies of India and Pakistan will be working together and we will not allow any such incident in future."
Chidambaram said he had held "positive" talks with Malik. Chidambaram is the first Indian government minister to visit visit Pakistan since Mumbai attacks, signalling a thaw.
The meeting came a day after the two nuclear rivals' top diplomats expressed optimism that relations would improve after Mumbai.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani met on the sidelines of a regional conference last month in Bhutan and agreed to get talks going, which India broke off after the assault.
Pakistan has acknowledged the Mumbai attack was plotted and partly launched from its soil but has maintained that India has not provided sufficient evidence against Saeed.
Pakistan's Supreme Court last month upheld a lower court's decision to release Saeed, who also leads an Islamist charity, Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The U.N. Security Council put Saeed and his charity on a list of al Qaeda associates.
The foreign ministers of Pakistan and India will meet on July 15 in Islamabad to push forward efforts aimed at normalising ties.

Germany defends cuts ahead of G20

2010-06-27T00:32:00.000-07:00

Merkel says her government’s plan to save $100-billion is growth oriented

Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Thursday to defend Germany's planned austerity measures at this weekend's G-20 summit as she shrugged off U.S. concerns that budget cuts could threaten the global economic recovery.
“We, the Europeans and the Germans in particular, think that reducing the deficits is indispensable for achieving sustainable growth,” the chancellor told journalists.
Merkel's government has pledged to save €80-billion ($100-billion U.S.) by 2014 by cutting welfare benefits and raising new taxes. But U.S. President Barack Obama has urged leaders to refrain from pushing through austerity plans in a bid not to threaten the recovery.
Ms. Merkel acknowledged that there are differences “about the philosophy, the approach of how to overcome the financial crisis,” and said she expects discussions at the summit of the world's wealthiest nations plus emerging economies in Toronto to be “fruitful, but very controversial.”

Ms. Merkel points to Germany's dropping jobless rate – 7.7 per cent in May – and other indicators of positive growth in insisting that reducing the deficit is the right thing for her country.
The chancellor told ARD public broadcaster earlier in the day that she had explained to Obama in a telephone call earlier this week that the stimulus measures amount to more than 2 per cent of gross domestic product in the current budget and that “Germany has done much more to revive the global economy than most other nations.”
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble echoed Ms. Merkel’s tough stance in an editorial published in German daily Handelsblatt and the Financial Times.
“Governments should not become addicted to borrowing as a quick fix to stimulate demand. We need carefully considered exit strategies,” he said.
Mr. Schaeuble openly hinted that there is a rift between the U.S. and Europe as economic policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic are taking a fundamentally different course. While the U.S focuses on short-term corrective measures, “we take the longer view and are, therefore, more preoccupied with the implications of excessive deficits and the dangers of high inflation.”
But some experts caution Germany should not try to cut spending at a time when other, more indebted countries, such as Greece, Spain and Portugal, are already doing so.
U.S. billionaire investor George Soros on Wednesday in Berlin warned that Germany's insistence on fiscal tightening could initiate a “a period of prolonged stagnation or worse,” leading to widespread “discontent and social unrest” that could endanger the European Union.
But German economists have largely applauded the government's move as a return to fiscal orthodoxy.
“The economy at the moment is so strong that it can stand the moderate planned consolidation effort,” Ulrich Kater, chief economist at Germany's Deka Bank, said.
“The events on the financial markets showed a lot of countries in the euro zone that their amount of debt has reached the limit of sustainability,” Mr. Kater added, noting that the U.S., due to its size, can afford higher deficits.
Following a meeting of the G-8 starting Friday, the G-20 nations will meet on Saturday and Sunday in Toronto.
Shortly before her departure to Canada, Ms. Merkel said she expected the leaders to act to ensure that all financial products, trading places and market actors will be regulated in the future to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis.
She acknowledged, however, that summit participants are unlikely to agree on all proposals of how to get the financial sector to participate in shouldering the costs of the crisis, for example by introducing a bank levy.
An agreement on a global tax on financial transactions at the summit seems unlikely, she said. “But I would prefer to have a clear answer than no answer, because then we can try to go our own way on a European level,” she added.

US forces chief McChrystal meets Obama but outcome unclear

2010-06-27T00:28:00.000-07:00

Military officials had said the general was prepared to submit his resignation over the remarks in a magazine that is to be published later this week

The US commander for NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has left the White House after meeting President Obama to explain derogatory remarks about members of the US administration.
He had been called back from Afghanistan for the meeting, which lasted about half an hour.
There is no report yet on its outcome.
Jonathan Schanzer is Vice President of Research at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies.

British passengers stuck on steamy US runway for hours

2010-06-27T00:21:00.000-07:00

A Virgin Atlantic Airways plane sits on the tarmac at Bradley International Airport

British passengers on a diverted Virgin Atlantic flight spent more than four hours stuck in a hot, dark plane parked on a runway. At least three people fainted and were taken away in ambulances.

Bad weather grounded the flight from London to Newark, New Jersey, at Connecticut's Bradley International Airport on Tuesday night.

Passengers told CNN they landed at about 8.20 pm and were kept on the plane until about 1 am on Wednesday without food or water as babies - and adults - yelled and screamed

"It was like four hours on the ground without any air conditioning. It was crazy. Just crazy," Beth Willan, a passenger, told CNN. "There were babies on the plane. And we are in dark and hot. You try to be patient but people were yelling and screaming."
The airline's London office said the 300 passengers on Flight VS001 were being bused to Newark on Wednesday morning.
"Virgin Atlantic would like to thank passengers for their patience and apologise for any inconvenience caused," the airline said in a statement.
Janine Doy, a Virgin spokesman in London, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Bradley "isn't used to dealing with international flights" and had to call customs and immigration officials back to the airport on Tuesday night to process the passengers. She said the airline was forced to keep people on the plane.
"It was a situation that was beyond our control," she said. "There were weather conditions. ... Bradley had to get customs and immigration to the airport."
A new federal rule on flights stuck on runways went into effect in April and bans US carriers from making passengers wait on planes for longer than three hours. But because the London-to-Newark flight was by an international carrier, it is not eligible for a fine under the tarmac delay rule.
Ken Cast, an airport operations specialist at Bradley, said Virgin was not one of the airport's carriers and the airline had to call in personnel to handle the passengers.
"Being an international flight, it's not like you can let people wander aimlessly," Mr Cast told the AP. "They need to be processed, and they need to be kept safe. Everyone has to clear customs.
"The rules still need to be followed," Mr Cast said. "Everyone was safe. They may have been uncomfortable, but they were safe. It's better to be on the ground wishing you were somewhere else than to be in the air wishing you were on the ground."
Mr Cast confirmed that a few passengers who were not feeling well were treated by paramedics. Details on the sick passengers were not immediately available.
The Obama administration has proposed extending the rules on tarmac delays to international flights and making sure international carriers have contingency plans to handle passengers who have been kept waiting for long periods.

World Cup 2010: Chile v Switzerland - as it happened

2010-06-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Alexis Sanchez grapples with Reto Ziegler

Afternoon all. Interesting, very interesting (as Barry Davies once said). And I don't think I'm the only one utterly intrigued by this fixture. The suped-up Ford Fiesta that is Chile v the slightly-battered but rugged Swiss Land Rover.

Chile were superb in their first game against Honduras, their full-backs attacking with vim and vigour, their midfielders tricksy and direct. There usn't a Player Of The First Round of Matches Award, but if there was I'd have handed it to Alexis Sanchez, who was more refreshing than a shower in lemon juice (and almost as zesty).
Coach Bielsa likes to employ a 3-3-1-3 and they'll need to get players forward to break down a Swiss side that produced (still) the shock of the tournament so far by beating Spain, despite having 0.43% of the possession. The question is whether the Swiss look to land a knockout blow and risk a slightly more adventurous outlook, or whether there'll take a 'it was good enough for Spain, it'll be good enough today' approach. Although, to be fair, they played with two up front against the Spanish, and were discliplined in extremis against a team with clear technical superiority. Perhaps we shouldn't confuse work-rate and pragmatism with negativity.

The teams are in:

Chile (3-3-1-3):-Claudio Bravo; Mauricio Isla, Waldo Ponce, Arturo Vidal; Gary Medel, Carlos Carmona, Gonzalo Jara; Matias Fernandez; Alexis Sanchez, Humberto Suazo, Jean Beausejour.
Switzerland (4-4-2): Diego Benaglio; Stephan Lichtsteiner, Stephane Grichting, Steve Von Bergen, Reto Ziegler; Valon Behrami, Gokhan Inler, Benjamin Huggel, Gelson Fernandes; Alexander Frei, Blaise Nkufo.
Referee: Khalil Al-Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia)
So both sides see the return of important strikers. Chile's Suazo was the top scorer in South American qualifying, while Alex Frei is Switzerland's all-time top scorer with 40 goals from 73 caps and his personal website's photo album contains this picture, which I find myself inexplicably fond of.

If you haven't already watched it take a bit of time pre-match to enjoy our brick-by-brick reconstruction of England v Algeria. Rooney's fan rage is particularly good. And speaking of child-like joy, I'm going to an sports day this evening. In the park, With some friends. Egg-and-spoon race, beanbag-on-the-head race, digging-up-childhood-trauma-of-coming-last-and-getting-sympathy-applause-from-parents race … there'll all be there. Any last-minute suggestions to add to the programme?

Pre-match email dept. "Good to see Alex Frei back for the Swiss," writes Dave Cisowksi. "He's got the best theme song of all time. Bang bang!" Ah, once upon a time I might have liked that. Now it's just noise. You know you're getting old when German thrash metal doesn't do it for you anymore.

And on a sports-day theme, here's another bit of music from Hani Zaccarelli. Well, actually it's Roots Manuva, but you know what I mean. Clearly I need to get my hands on a multicoloured parachute for this evening.

Guy Mowbray has just referred to Swiss sports day on the Beeb commentary (a reference to Roger Federer playing at Wimbledon alongside the footballers). Spooky or what? As an aside, I spoke to Mowbray this morning for our England v Slovenia programme. A very nice man.

Anthemwatch: Chile: Big brass, big drums, bit of glockenspiel and a hands-on-heart full volume rendition from the players. Good stuff. Switzerland: Much more stately with an 18th century European feel. Chile supporters didn't do themselves any favours by chanting over it. Hmmm.

Peep! We're off! Chile in red, white and blue, Switzerland in their white away strip.

1 min: "How about 'best in the sack' race" chuckles Seth Ennis. That's more adult sports day than grown up sports day. Humberto Suazo is immediately into the referee's book for a studs-up challenge on Grichting.

2 min: "Re James Dart's Just Giving," noted Doug Suttle. "Er, can't help but notice that you haven't coughed up the conkers yet, so to speak? Shame on you! How about a fiver for every goal scored in this game?" It's a deal. Little pattern just yet, no one quite getting hold of the ball.

4 min: Sanchez gets on the ball for the first time and grapples his way to a free-kick off Ziegler. Decent position, wide on the left ...

5 min: ... headed away by Ziegler. It drops back out to Sanchez, who pings one well over the bar from an optimistic distance.

6 min: "I was always a keen spectator of the 'standing in tears, refusing to take part' race – usually fiercely contested, and very much a marathon, rather than a sprint," muses Michael Sones. Amen to that and the 'Wanting to go home now please' race. Behrami finds Lichtsteiner down the right but Chile smuggle it away comfortably.

7 min: Medel trips over and is very unfortuante to concede a free-kick to Switzerland, 40-odd yards out, level with the right edge of the box ...

8 min: ... Frei overhits. Goal-kick.

9 min: Jara finds Beausejour, who was outstanding in the first game, but he's offside. "You might want some KP Choc Dips for a treat afterwards, but don't make the mistake of experimenting with the white chocolate ones, they are pretty grim," writes
Bill Booth. "And what about those little certificates that we all used to get in pastel colours with edges that had been tarted up with pinking shears ..." Pinking shears? Where am I going to get pinking shears? 1987?

10 min: Superb double-save from Benaglio (who I might need to rename Benaglitypo considering how many attempts I just had at his name), first from Vidal, then from Carmona, both fizzing at goal, both wonderfully punched away.

12 min: Switzerland hearts skip a beat again as Sanchez gets round the back and pulls the ball out to Suazo on the edge of the area, who can only connect with the fresh Port Elizabeth air.

13 min: "In Silver Jubilee year as a six year old my sports day race involved making a 77 out of plasticine on a board and running with it above your head for 50 metres," writes Chris Williams. "I came last, very last. Thanks for bringing it up." Ah, the classic 'plasticine 77 above the head 50-yard dash'. Ziegler concedes a free-kick on halfway after clipping Sanchez.

15 min: The Chileans really are good to watch, the ball moves very quickly when they have possession, so it doesn't feel anywhere near as controlled as, say, Brazil, but it's certainly thrilling.

16 min: "When I was a five year old my all boys school used to organise a 'dressing up' race, which provided entertainment to onlooking teachers and parents as we poor sods struggled into our mother's dresses and stumbled over the finish line in stilettos," recalls Edward Vernon. "I won because my mum gave me a pair of flats." Cheat! You're the Kader Keita of the dressing up race. Fernandez just fails to find Isla (the rampaging right sided midfielder), but he's offside anyhoo.

17 min: Nkufo needlessly booked for ... well, nowt basically. That's two yellow cards already, worryingly.

19 min: Khalil al Ghamdi has been far too whistle-happy. He's a teacher in real life. Bet he clamps down hard on late homework. Nkufo can't quite get on the end of one through ball, and Benaglio does the sweeping up at the other end as Chile break.

21 min: "Re the 'standing in tears, refusing to take part' race," notes Wade in Adelaide. "France are currently leading I'd say." Peep! Peep! Peep! Carmona lunges in on Behrami to pick up a deserved booking. Dangerous free-kick, central, 50 yards out ...

22 min: ... scrambled away, but Beausejour can't find Sanchez.

24 min: Isla can't quite get on the end of Carmona's channel ball. "You 'really' know you're getting old when you confuse Rammstein with German thrash metal ..." chides Radbert Grimmig. Ponce becomes the fourth player booked for tapping the ball away. Someone's going to go here aren't they?

25 min: Grichting glances on the resultant free-kick but it drifts a yard or two wide of Bravo's goal.

26 min: Switzerland are doing a great job of nullifying their opponents at the moment. It's worth remembering that a draw would be perfect for Hitzfeld's side - victory over Honduras would then be enough for qualification, and even a defeat might be enough.

27 min: Bravo does very well as a pass-back falls short with Nkufo bearing down like an Alp.

29 min: Beasejour narrowly offside. The boisterous Chile fans let the linesman know what they think, but they need their team just to hold their runs a little more.

RED CARD! 30 min: Valon Behrami is off! It was a grapple with Beasejour, then one with Vidal. It wasn't a swinging elbow, but it was an arm in the face of the player behind him. Echoes of Keita last night as Vidal goes down, but there can't really be too much complaint.

32 min: Hmmm .. opinion will certainly be divided on that one, but with this referee, it wasn't smart from Behrami.

33 min: "What about the front-and-back-of-the-donkey race?" ponders Justin Kavanagh. "John Terry won't run unless he's at the head of England's outfit; Steven Gerrard acts as if the head is too big for him; Wayne Rooney doesn't know which part of the mule he is; and England are running around in circles with their head up their collective ..." Jara (I think) nods wide from a Chile free-kick.

34 min: Beasejour wins a free-kick, not far from the corner flag ...

35 min: ... nodded away by Nkufo as Fernandez whipped it in. Corner ball ...

36 min: ... again headed away by the Swiss backline. "The footballs they use at school sports days are the ones you can buy in your local petrol station for a couple of quid," writes Ian B. "They will fly like a Chris Waddle penalty or a Ronaldo effort with a Jabulani if you get underneath it."

37 min: Beasejour and Lichtsteiner are having a great battle on the Swiss right, the defender just getting the better of it at the moment. "I'm not sure that was a red card for Behrami (the Chilean went down very easily) - but Behrami then proceeded to fling himself to the floor like Vidal had takeb both his legs off," rages Rachel Clifton. "I agree that this ref is very whistle-happy, but when every single player on the pitch is feigning injury and chucking themselves around all the time in an effort to con the ref, you can't be surprised when it sometimes works against you. Apologies - that was rather ranty and not very funny, but I am sodding well sick of seeing 22 grown men take 3 feet at a free kick, or act like choirboys when they know they have committed a foul. It is just all so undignified..."

38 min: Chance for Suazo! But he can only get underneath a Fernandez cross and send his header sailing over the bar. He's not really impressed so far, Humberto.

40 min: And another fine chance! Beasejour wins his personal battle with Lichtsteiner on this occasion, finds Sanchez with his cross. The Udinese man chests down wonderfully, but can only stab a shot at goal, straight at Bengalio.

41 min: Frei is sacrificed (not in a pagan way) for Barnetta, a midfielder, and a decent one at that.

42 min: Barnetta's first task is to swing in a free-kick, which is headed away as far as Nkufo. His thumping strike rattles into the advertising hoardings.

44 min: "I am not watching it on TV - did Behrami try to Gore Vidal?" chuckles Billy Williamson. It's a slightly tricky one to explain for those who ddin't see it. It wasn't exactly a swinging elbow in a stitch-that kind of fashion, but he flailed his arm up there into Vidal's face. Certainly not in the Kaka-Keita league. Two minutes added time to be played.

45+1 min: Again Beausejour is the catalyst, finding Sanchez at the back post, but again his shot is claimed by Benaglio. The Swiss need half-time, an orange segment, a milky of tea in a see-through pyrex mug and time to steel themselves for a second-half onslaught.

Peeep! Half-time, and another half-time arriving with 21 players on the pitch.

Half-time email dept.

"'The boisterous Chile fans let the linesman know what they think, but they need their team just to hold their runs a little more'," writes Andrew Young. "When you have Chile, it can be very difficult to hold your runs." A bom-tish for you, sir.
"If we're doing player name-based puns now," which we're not, Adrian Cooper, we're really not, "is there any chance that the ongoing battle between Beasejour and Licht(en)stein(er) will end like this, resulting in yet another red card?"
"I agree with Rachel Clifton," writes Derek Mee. "These guys make me sick. Fabiano and Keita are just the latest big-time offenders. I say, stop watching the football, go down to your local garage for a Jubulani and get out there yourself. Or go for a walk. Or play frisbee. Or have a drink with friends. Boycott the FIFA World Cup and don't go to matches any more until the overpaid prima donnas stop all this nonsense. I can't join you because I am in the office clicking refresh on MBM as if my life depended on it."

Half-time snack dept. Blackberries. Yes, blackberries.

In other news Roger Federer has been on the brink against Alejandro Falla. Falla was two sets up, but the world No1 has battled back. You can follow it here (if you're not a real football fan).

Peep! Valdivia and Gonzalez are thrown into the fray for the second half in place of ... er ... two other Chilean players. Hang on ... Suazo is off for one. And Vidal also.

DISALLOWED GOAL!!! 47 min: Jeez. Another yellow card after Barnetta tugs back Beausejour. The free-kick is rolled across to Sanchez whose shot is deflected past Benaglio. Cue wild celebrations, but three Chilean were stood offside, one of which was directly between keeper and ball and therefore had to leap over the shot.

49 min: Superb tackle from Grichting as Sanchez so nearly gets clean through. One-way traffic at the moment, though.

50 min: Another great tackle, Von Bergen this time, again as Sanchez sighted-up a shot. "Here the entire country is like a ghost town," writes the marvellously scatalogical Rafael Molina in Chile. "Ssurrealistic image... broke by every whoa! Noooooh! Here we are no happier playing against 10... heavier Swiss lock! Difficult to break down, considering the 15-20 cms difference in the height of the players. Difficult!"

52 min: Here's our very own Jonathan Wilson: "You may well be aware of this, but if Switzerland hang on until the 68th minute, they'll break Italy's record for the longest run without conceding in World Cups, having not let in a goal in four immensely tedious games in 2006."

53 min: It's press, press, press from Chile. Valdivia can't quite find Gonzalez at the far post with his low cross. A matter of time at the moment, though, surely? Although isn't that what we said in the Spain game?

55 min: Cracking save from Benaglio, who is eclipsing Enyeama as the tournament's best keeper so far. Sanchez was through, but the Swiss keeper smother the ball at the foreward's feet. His defenders thanked him bny hoofing the ball into his face and out for a corner.

57 min: "This is going to finish 9-9," writes Mervyn Mould. "Players. This ref's fussier than a very fussy hen protecting her first clutch of chicks whilst trying to put out a chip-pan fire." Nice Sean Ingle-esque analogy. Another corner for Chile ...

58 min: ... met by Gonzalez, whose few minutes on the pitch against Honduras consisted of him shooting on goal at sight, meets the cross, but can only nod wide.

59 min: Inler booked for tripping Sanchez, Fernandez for pushing Inler afterwards. This is nonsensical. That's seven yellows and a red.

60 min: Before the free-kick can even be taken Medel gets booked for a bit of shoving in the box. This referee is a complete joke, he really is.

61 min: Replays show Medel putting an arm into Von Bergen's chest. A risky thing to do with this card-happy lunatic, but Von Bergen's reaction - very much Keita-esque - was as preditable as it was pathetic.

63 min: What's this? A Swiss attack? It is you know. Nkufo does superbly to twist and turn away from his markers, and almost puts Barnetta through. A warning, albeit a fairly mild one, for Chile.

64 min: Fernandez off, Paredes on. Another striking option for Chile.

65 min: Free-kick to Switzerland, midway inside the Chile half ... five, six players thrust forward into the box ... Ziegler's ball in would have singed the hairs on Nkufo's head (if he had any). Bravo helps it behind, but the corner comes to nothing.

66 min: Here's Rafael Molina again: "The referee is way out from the level... let my explain it politically correct: insufficient, even the people of the media, news tv, radio says the same: referre is punishing the play, and the team who controls the espectacle.. did you saw a swiss shot to the goal?"

68 min: Derdiyok - who hit the post against Spain, you'll remember - replaces Nkufo. But perhaps more importantly, Switzerland have broken that not-conceding record. Well done them.

70 min: It's been a quiet little 10-minute or so spell. Have Switzerland weathered the storm or is this the calm before it?

71 min: I'd love to see the territory percentages for this game, it must be 70-30 at least. Isla wastes a terrific position wide on the right, shanking his cross hopelessly over the bar.

72 min:Beausejour gets a couple of yards of space, but again the attack peters out. "Ignoring the ref for a moment, the kind of player theatrics we've seen over the last two days does an untold amount of harm to the development of the game here in Australia," reckons Wade in Adelaide. "The World Cup is the most soccer people here watch, and seeing the best players in the world act in such an undignified manner keeps many away from the A League and trying the game live. Add in the lack of video replays, refs not held accountable and a local media who winge about every decision against the Socceroos ... and its amazing the sport has managed to make the inroads it has lately."

GOAL! Chile 1-0 Switzerland (Gonzalez 75) At last! Paredes breaks the offisde trap thanks to a sliderule through-ball from Valdivia. He gets round Benaglio, but the anglle is just too tight. Calmly, though, he picks out Gonzalez at the back post, nodding down and over the despairing Grichting on the line. I think I speak for most of the footballing world when I say 'Get in!'

77 min: Isla picks a Swiss defender's pocket but can only poke his cross straight at the keeper. Chile are still pouring men forward like custard over a crumble. Here's Rafael Molina's view: "Finally the goal... the city goes back to the movement... even the public transport re-started to run. It was like the earthquake a silent rumble in the distance ... and the gooooooooooooooooooooool was heard!"

79 min: It's Switzerland's turn to get on the front foot, something they've not done for many of the 170 minutes they've played in this tournament so far.

80 min: "I don't think 1-0 is good enough for Chile," notes Will Jones, somewhat dampening Rafael's fire. "There's a very real chance of all three top teams in this group finishing on six points – two 1-0 wins won't do much for the old goal difference and they need to get into credit in case Spain come out and beat them."

81 min: Dangerous free-kick to Switzerland ... but the referee blows up for some shoving in the area. "Re: Wade from Adelaide. Its the same thing here in Canada," writes Mike. "They just don't seem to regard it as a valid man's sport. Although saying that the manliness bar is pretty high - I watched a hockey playoff game this year where a player ruptured his testicle and was playing the next day." Inler wins a corner ...

82 min: ... all the way across to Lichtsteiner ... who smashes the ball high, high, high into the Port Elizabeth sky.

83 min: It should be two. It really should. Paredes, clean through, wangs the Jabulani over the bar.

85 min: "I am a referee in the US, and the kids here have not caught on to the diving culture - until now," writes Paul Ellarby. "Think I hand out one yellow card per season for simulation, but I have given almost one card per game in the last two weeks for it! Sad thing is, I had a team last night with one player who was throwing himself to the ground while the team was warming up - and who do you think I gave a yellow card to during the game?" Chile break as Switzerland start to pour forward, but Gonzalez shoots wildly. Not to mention unneccessarily. He had men in support.

86 min: Another shot from Gonzalez, but his sidefoot only finds Benaglio's chest. "Lichtsteiner takes a shot," chuckles Adrian Cooper. Again. "I'll stop now."

88 min: More loose passes from the Swiss - they just don't look comfortable when forced to make the running - and as Chile break away again Paredes somehow fails to make it 2-0. It was three on two, but he chose to cut inside and shoot himself. Wide.

A SITTER GOES BEGGING! FOR SWITZERLAND! 90 min: How did Derdiyok miss that. Great work from his team-mates down the left, and the ball finds its way to the substitute. In space. Ten yards out. Whole goal to aim at ... and a yard wide.

90+1 min: Yellow card for Valdivia for a terrible and entirely unneccessary dive. If he'd simply carried on he was clean through. Sign o' the times. Bah!

Peep! Peep! Peep! All over. A remarkable game in many ways. Chile's defensive frailties were seriously exposed in the final 10 minutes, but Switzerland couldn't take advantage.

Right, that's it from me. Thanks for all your emails. Sorry I couldn't read them all. Be sure to stick around for live coverage of Spain v Honduras later on.

Big Magna shareholders vow fight

2010-06-26T23:51:00.001-07:00

Pension funds, others intend to challenge Stronach buyout in court

Major shareholders of Magna International Inc. (72.33-0.67-0.92%) have vowed to continue the battle against the buyout of Frank Stronach’s multiple-voting shares, saying the additional disclosure ordered Thursday by the Ontario Securities Commission does not resolve the bigger problem of the excessive price the company is offering for the shares.
The giant Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will oppose the deal in court when it moves forward for approval by the Ontario Superior Court, chief executive officer David Denison said Friday.
“If it goes that far, we will definitely seek to appear before the court and speak to the issues there,” Mr. Denison said in an interview. “That is the ultimate decision, where the fairness will be determined. As the OSC has indicated, it is not in their ambit to opine on the fairness of it, but this is absolutely required [by the court].”
Magna’s $863-million deal to purchase all of Mr. Stronach’s Class B multiple-voting shares is structured as a plan of arrangement, which means it requires a court to approve the fairness of the deal before it can be completed.

But before the deal can get to that stage, the company will hold a shareholder vote on the offer, which has been delayed following the OSC ruling late Thursday. The commission said Magna must provide more information to investors before a vote can be held, but concluded the transaction is not abusive of shareholders or the capital markets.
“A transaction such as this is not abusive simply because the price proposed to be paid is considered by certain investors to be outrageous,” the panel said.
In its ruling late Thursday, the OSC said it wants significant additional information included in a new proxy circular for shareholders. OSC staff will review the disclosure five days before it is sent to shareholders to make sure the issues raised at the hearing are addressed.
Magna postponed a vote scheduled for Monday in the wake of the ruling, and has not set a date yet for a new vote. But it said it would provide the disclosure the OSC is seeking.
CPPIB and five other large investors banded together to oppose the transaction at the OSC hearing this week.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, British Columbia Investment Management Corp., Alberta Investment Management Corp. and Montreal investment firm Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc., said Friday they will continue to oppose the transaction.
“We've won a battle here but the war is far from over,” said Peter Letko, a principal of Letko Brosseau.
The decision gives those opposing the transaction time to change the minds of those who support it, with the help of additional disclosure about all the elements of the plan, Mr. Letko said. “The key here is for shareholders to take this opportunity and think very carefully about what they're giving Frank,” he said.
Teachers is also considering its legal options, senior vice-president Wayne Kozun said Friday, but has not made a decision yet on its next move.
Mr. Kozun said Teachers supports the OSC’s calls for greater disclosure, but is disappointed the commission didn’t go further to find the deal abusive and strike it down.
Mr. Denison said CPPIB has an alternative proposal for investors to consider to reduce Mr. Stronach’s influence over the company without incurring the huge expense of buying out his shares.
He said Magna’s board of directors has a fiduciary responsibility to cancel Mr. Stronach’s lucrative consulting arrangement with the company when it comes up for renewal at the end of the year, removing him from an active role at the company and also ending the significant “transfer of wealth” that has occurred for years.
University of Toronto law professor Anita Anand, who specializes in securities law, said the OSC has “taken a very useful and strong step” in its ruling. She said it is a new direction for the OSC to order a company to disclose all information to shareholders that was given to a special committee of independent directors in cases where the committee made no recommendation on the transaction.
But Prof. Anand said it won’t be easy for shareholders to get the Ontario Superior Court to rule the deal is fundamentally unfair once it has gone through the required process of a shareholder vote.

Bradley Dredge leads BMW Open as Ernie Els and Sergio García miss cut

2010-06-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

Wholehearted approach: Bradley Dredge puts his back into his second shot on the ninth

Welshman Bradley Dredge claimed two eagles as he took the lead at the halfway stage of the BMW International Open in Munich, but Ernie Els and Sergio García failed to make the cut.

Dredge, still clinging to the hope that he might make the Ryder Cup on home soil in October, shot a second-round 67 which left him 13 under par, one ahead of Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal.

Tiredness appeared to catch up with Els, who was third in the US Open, when he dropped three late shots and narrowly failed to make the eagle he needed on the par-five last.

García was also at Pebble Beach, but there was far more behind his woeful performance than jetlag. Wearing the colours of the Spanish football team did nothing for the 30 year-old as his alarming slump continued.
For the first time as a professional García has missed back-to-back cuts on European soil and his nine-over-par total after rounds of 77 and 76 was his worst on this side of the Atlantic since the 1999 Open at Carnoustie.
"That's the way it is – I can't do anything about it," said the former world No 2, who has dropped to 36th in the rankings.
Els, who drove into the lake for a six on the 555-yard 11th and bogeyed the 14th and 16th holes as well, said: "I just ran out of steam I think."
In stark contrast, Dredge hit his second on the 11th to 12 feet and on the 481-yard sixth made a 45-foot putt for his second eagle.
Dredge, 36, is down in 29th place in the Ryder Cup race with two more months to go, but said: "I've got four big tournaments coming up, so things can change very quickly.
"Now is the time to do it. It's still mathematically possible and I'll be trying until it's not."
Larrazabal was one shot behind Dredge after a second successive 66, while fellow Spaniard Ignacio Garrido and Scot Peter Whiteford were in joint third place on 11 under.

Capello urges England to focus

2010-06-26T23:42:00.000-07:00

Three lions coach tells his players to begin a new history and forget the hype surrounding Sunday's clash with Germany

Fabio Capello has urged his players to shut out the historic significance of collisions between England and Germany in an attempt to focus minds before eagerly awaited the second-round encounter at Free State Stadium.
The English are saddled with a wretched record against these opponents in the World Cup, stretching back to the final in 1966, with the build-up to this tie dominated by the prospect of a dreaded penalty shoot-out to decide who progresses into the quarter-finals. Yet Capello believes his side have turned a corner, citing the encouraging display against Slovenia as evidence his squad have rekindled the confidence that propelled them so impressively through qualification.
“We have to play against all other teams here,” said Capello. “We have to beat the big teams, and Germany are one of those. But this game is not about anything more. There is pressure, of course, but that is normal. The game against Slovenia was very important for us because I saw the spirit of the team again.
“We played very well – passed it well, switched the play well, everything was really good – and created chances, so I have big confidence in my team. The spirit is back. It has been like that in training this week, too.”
Coping with the weight of history is more of an issue for England's players than their Italian manager, though only three of tomorrow's anticipated starters – Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and James Milner – have not tasted victory over the Germans.
“Experience helps when you're coping with all the talk of what this game means,” said the captain, Steven Gerrard, a veteran of the 5-1 win in Munich in 2001. “There's a lot of pressure and it's a tense situation with so much at stake. But there's excitement too. We want to make sure we have no regrets after this match. In these games you need to stand up and be counted. It is the stage, growing up, that you want to be playing at. There could be a big moment in the game that could end up defining any player's career. So you look forward to it. I'd love nothing better than to lead these boys into the last eight.”
Matthew Upson is expected to retain his place at centre-half in an unchanged side, despite Jamie Carragher's return from suspension, with Ledley King on the bench. Both captain and manager are confident that Rooney, who is yet to score in the tournament, can impose himself having recovered from a knock on his ankle. “It's only a matter of time before he scores,” said Gerrard. “Top players like him put pressure on themselves to perform. Wayne's doing that.”
“He's been scoring a lot of goals in training, and we hope he'll take that on to the pitch in this match,” added Capello. “But, even if he's not scoring, he has been important for us with his movement, his assists and everything he does in a game. I was happy with his performance against Slovenia, and he needs to carry that into this game.”The Germany coach Joachim Löw and the captain, Philipp Lahm, breached Fifa regulations by skipping last night's press conference at the stadium with their stand-in, the goalkeeping coach Andreas Kopke, insisting their no-show was not a protest at being unable to train on the stadium's pitch. It was, he said, merely down to “time constraints”, which seemed bizarre given the squad had undertaken their session in Bloemfontein at the university ground a stone's throw from the arena.
Rather, it appeared it could have been perceived as an attempt at mind games given how the issues of penalties has dominated in the build-up to this fixture, with Kopke the goalkeeper who saved from Gareth Southgate in the semi-final shoot-out at Euro 96.
The coach did confirm that the Stuttgart forward, Cacau, will miss the game with an abdominal muscle tear, though Bastian Schweinsteiger and Jerome Boateng trained yesterday and should have recovered from hamstring and calf problems respectively to feature.
Lineups
Germany (4-3-3; probable): Neuer; Lahm, Friedrich, Mertesacker, Badstuber; Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Khedira; Muller, Klose, Podolski.
On a yellow card: Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Khedira, Muller.
Injured: Cacau (stomach).
England (4-4-2; probable): James; Johnson, Terry, Upson, A Cole; Milner, Lampard, Barry, Gerrard; Rooney, Defoe.
On a yellow card: Gerrard, Milner, Johnson.
Referee: J Larrionda (Uruguay).

Toxic metals in whales threat to humans: study

2010-06-26T23:39:00.000-07:00

High levels of toxic heavy metals were found in sperm whales, which suggests pollution is reaching the farthest reaches of the oceans, U.S. scientists say.Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of Earth's oceans have built up high levels of heavy metals, according to U.S. scientists who warn the findings threaten human seafood.
A report noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years.
From polar areas to equatorial waters, the whales ingested pollutants that may have been produced by humans thousands of miles away, the researchers said.
"These contaminants, I think, are threatening the human food supply. They certainly are threatening the whales and the other animals that live in the ocean," said biologist Roger Payne, founder and president of Ocean Alliance, the research and conservation group that produced Thursday's report.
The researchers found mercury as high as 16 parts per million in the whales. Fish high in mercury such as shark and swordfish — the types health experts warn children and pregnant women to avoid — typically have levels of about 1 part per million.
The whales studied averaged 2.4 parts of mercury per million, but the report's authors said their internal organs probably had much higher levels than the skin samples did.
"The entire ocean life is just loaded with a series of contaminants, most of which have been released by human beings," Payne said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting in Agadir, Morocco.
Payne said sperm whales, which occupy the top of the ocean food chain, absorb the contaminants and can pass them on to the next generation when a female nurses her calf.
Ultimately, he said, the contaminants could jeopardize seafood, a primary source of animal protein for 1 billion people.
"You could make a fairly tight argument to say that it is the single greatest health threat that has ever faced the human species. I suspect this will shorten lives, if it turns out that this is what's going on," he said.

Report raises key issues: whaling commissioner

Payne called his group's $5 million project the most comprehensive report ever done on ocean pollutants.
U.S. Whaling Commissioner Monica Medina informed the 88 member nations of the whaling commission of the report and urged the commission to conduct further research.
The report "is right on target" for raising issues critical to humans as well as whales, Medina told The Associated Press. "We need to know much more about these problems."
Payne, 75, is best known for his 1968 discovery and recordings of songs by humpback whales, and for finding that some whale species can communicate with each other over thousands of miles.
The 93-foot Odyssey, a sail-and-motor ketch, set out in March 2000 from San Diego to document the oceans' health, collecting pencil-eraser-sized samples using a dart gun that barely made the whales flinch.

'Jaw-dropping concentrations'

After more than five years and 140, 000 kilometres, samples had been taken from 955 whales. The samples were sent for analysis to marine toxicologist John Wise at the University of Southern Maine. DNA was compared to ensure the animals were not tested more than once.
Payne said the original objective of the voyage was to measure chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants, and the study of metals was an afterthought.
The researchers were stunned with the results. "That's where the shocking, sort of jaw-dropping concentrations exist," Payne said.
Though it was impossible to know where the whales had been, Payne said the contamination was embedded in the blubber of males formed in the frigid polar regions, indicating that the animals had ingested the metals far from where they were emitted.
How that happened is unclear, but the contaminants likely were carried by wind or ocean currents, or were eaten by the sperm whales' prey.
Sperm whales are toothed whales that eat all kinds of fish, even sharks. Dozens have been taken by whaling ships in the past decade.
Most of the whales hunted by whaling countries — the major ones are Japan, Norway and Iceland — are minke whales, which are baleen whales that feed largely on tiny krill.

U.S. left to wonder what could have been

2010-06-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

Comeback Kids come up short, but Cup run has to be considered a success

U.S. star midfielder Landon Donovan reacts after his team conceded a goal to Ghana in extra time on Saturday. Ghana held on for a 2-1 victory and eliminated the U.S. from the World Cup.

U.S. star midfielder Landon Donovan reacts after his team conceded a goal to Ghana in extra time on Saturday. Ghana held on for a 2-1 victory and eliminated the U.S. from the World Cup.

RUSTENBURG, South Africa - This was one fight-back too many, even for the Comeback Kids.

For one long moment in the second half of the United States-Ghana match it actually looked as if the Americans might pull off the improbable once again.

They had gone down to another early goal and been played off the pitch by the Ghanaians for much of the first half.

Yet, as we've witnessed time and again in this World Cup, it was a different U.S. team that took to the field in the second half.

Miraculously the team clawed its way into a match it should have long lost. It leveled the score on a Landon Donovan penalty shot that found the net off the right post, and it even had chances to win the game before it was sent into extra time.

But when Asamoah Gyan muscled his way past U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra early in extra time and smashed an unstoppable shot past a helpless Tim Howard, there was to be no more American resurrections.

This time there was no sense of injustice stemming from controversial referee decisions for the players to draw extra motivation from.

Slideshow

2010 World Cup action
Top images from the World Cup games in South Africa.

NBCSports.com

Instead laid bare was a U.S. team of great spirit but also limited ability that had performed admirably — no, heroically — numerous times in this tournament, but in the end probably went as far as could be asked of it.

That's why this World Cup must be considered a U.S. success.

Still, we are left with a great sense of what could have been.

This, after all, was a U.S. team that had fought

Hopes had been raised when the U.S. reached the final of last year's Confederations Cup, held in South Africa and seen as the warm-up to the World Cup.

Slideshow

Fans of the 2010 World Cup
Some of the craziest demonstrations of national pride on display in South Africa.

NBCSports.com

But, despite the great result in the opening round of this tournament, there were worrying signs.

The defense had looked shaky in the early stages of every game with Oguchi Onyewu struggling for match fitness and Jay DeMerit committing serious errors of judgment.

Bradley said the early goal that the U.S. gave up against Ghana ultimately cost the team the match.

"We put ourselves in that spot one too many times," he said.

"There's a real feeling that we put a lot into getting back to 1-1 ... that comeback took its toll."

Up front, firepower was, once again, sorely lacking, with Jozy Altidore missing a one-on-one opportunity to put the U.S. into the lead with the score tied 1-1.

Like in the 2006 World Cup, the U.S. strikers were held scoreless in the tournament.

However, there were also strong, positive signs suggesting a bright future for the U.S. soccer team.

Landon Donovan scored three goals in the Cup and has, not surprisingly, been the U.S. star performer.

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‘Never Again’

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Military Offers Assurances to Egypt and Neighbors

Military Offers Assurances to Egypt and Neighbors

CAIRO — As a new era dawned in Egypt on Saturday, the army leadership sought to reassure Egyptians and the world that it would shepherd a transition to civilian rule and honor international commitments like the peace treaty with Israel.

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ICC resumes hearing for Pakistan cricketers

PCB stopped Amir, Asif and Butt using National Cricket Academy

Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Amir and Salman Butt have been stopped by PCB from using National Cricket Academy for training.

The PCB has sent letters to the above three for not using the National Cricket Academy in Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium until the resolution of Spot-fixing scandal put by ICC.

Amir and Asif have not used the facilities, but Salman Butt has admitted that he had done so while speaking to reporters last week from the NCA situated next to the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore.

ICC has not commented directly on the PCB issuing letters to the players but strictly asked to submit report to the ICC in 30 days about the integrity of the players.

PCB will also implement domestic anti-corruption code along with implementation of education program for players and detection of corrupt elements in the game.

Whereas Amir, Asif and Butt have lodged appeals against ICC suspension and its hearing will be held on 30th and 31st October in Qatar.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

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Whereas Amir, Asif and Butt have lodged appeals against ICC suspension and its hearing will be held on 30^th and 31^st October in Qatar.