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Monday, February 21, 2011

Olympique Marseille v Manchester United: Didier Deschamps keeps a lid on manic Marseille - Telegraph

Olympique Marseille v Manchester United: Didier Deschamps keeps a lid on manic Marseille - Telegraph: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

EU fears for citizens in Libya, but divided over Gaddafi

BRUSSELS: European Union foreign ministers are preparing for the evacuation of their citizens from Libya but cracks remained on how to handle Muammar Gaddafi.

During a meeting in Brussels, the 27 ministers denounced the government's violent repression against peaceful demonstrators and urged authorities in Tripoli to exercise restraint. They also debated whether to impose sanctions on Tripoli.

European Union foreign ministers have been united in their condemnation at the Libyan government's deadly crackdown on protesters and they are urging the government in Tripoli to use restraint.

Laurent Wauquiez, French EU Affairs Minister, said: "The news arriving, reports of deaths are unacceptable. Libya is a member of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Libya should respect its commitments, should not make this absolutely disproportionate use of armed force which we have seen being used for the last couple of days."

Finland Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Stubb also condemned the draconian measures taken against protesters in Libya.

"The country is a huge enigma no one really understands what is going on. All we can do at this stage is call for non violent demonstrations but we are seeing a lot of violence, we find that very unfortunate and we condemn it."

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Deadly Earthquake Strikes New Zealand

At least 65 deaths are being reported after a powerful earthquake struck the New Zealand city, Christchurch. Buildings have collapsed, prompting fears that residents and office workers could be trapped in the rubble.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck near Christchurch at lunchtime Tuesday, when one of New Zealand's key cities was at its busiest.

The police think that many lives have been lost, including passengers aboard two buses crushed by falling debris.

Television reports show wounded people being helped by rescuers along damaged streets. Emergency workers and volunteers carried others from buildings, on makeshift stretchers, as panic spread.

AP source: Knicks, Nuggets agree on Anthony deal

NEW YORK – Carmelo Anthony is getting his wish, and the New York Knicks are getting a second superstar.

The Knicks have agreed to a trade with the Denver Nuggets for Anthony, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Monday night.

The deal that would end the season-long trade saga involving Denver's All-Star forward and send him to his desired destination can't be finalized until Tuesday during a conference call with the NBA office. Assuming it goes through, it puts Anthony alongside Amare Stoudemire in a potentially explosive frontcourt — at a heavy cost to the Knicks.

The person provided no other details of who was in the deal, which was first reported Monday by the Denver Post. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the trade.

The Post, citing a league source, said the Knicks would send Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov and a 2014 first-round draft pick to the Nuggets, who would get additional picks and cash.

Along with Anthony, New York would acquire Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman, according to the Post.

ESPN later reported it was a three-way deal with Minnesota, which would acquire Eddy Curry and Anthony Randolph from the Knicks for Corey Brewer.

The Nuggets have explored an Anthony trade since he refused to sign the three-year contract extension worth nearly $65 million they offered him last summer. They appeared on the verge of sending him to the New Jersey Nets on multiple occasions, but the Knicks increased their offer enough to land Anthony, who was believed to prefer New York all along.

The Knicks would hope he could be in uniform Wednesday when they host the Milwaukee Bucks.

Denver coach George Karl said there was "some sadness" to the deal, which sends away not only Anthony but Billups, the popular Denver native. But he added it was "time to move on, reinvent."

Egypt to ask for African Cup postponement

CAIRO – Egypt's soccer federation will ask to have next month's African Cup of Nations qualifying match against South Africa postponed because of unrest at home.

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Mourinho prepares Real for Lyon revenge

MADRID (AFP) – Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho admits his side have two major psychological barriers to overcome when travel to Lyon on Tuesday for the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie.

Nine-time winners Real have fallen at the last 16 stage in each of their last six seasons and Mourinho believes that is something his team have to get over along with the fact that Lyon eliminated Real 2-1 at this stage of the competition last season.

"There are two barriers we have to overcome: getting into the quarter-finals and overcoming a Lyon team that eliminated us the last time we met," Mourinho said.

"I am not losing any sleep (over Lyon). Since the day the draw was made I have worked with my team to find out all the details about Lyon. We also have (Zinedine) Zidane who knows them well."

French legend Zidane is an advisor to Real president Florentino Perez and has been giving Real inside information on his compatriots.

Real defeated Levante 2-0 on Saturday as Mourinho stretched his unbeaten league home record with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real to an incredible nine years.

Mourinho's team have won all 12 of their league home matches but have not been as convincing away from home, dropping 12 points on the road, and have had one day's less rest than their French opponents who played on Friday.

"I liked that my team played a serious match," Mourinho said. "These games ahead of Champions League matches can be complicated because players may focus more on the European competition.

"Levante were organised in defence, but we scored early and had things under control. Winning and resting players is what mattered."

Togo forward Emmanuel Adebayor, German midfielder Mesut Ozil and Spanish playmaker Xabi Alonso were all rested against Levante.

Lyon hope for Champions League home success against Real

LYON, France (AFP) – Lyon's Stade Gerland has become a familiar venue for Real Madrid in recent years but, ahead of Tuesday's Champions League last 16 first leg, it has not been a happy hunting ground.

In six encounters between the sides since 2005, Real have failed to win and the nine-time European champions' record at Lyon reads: played three, lost three, scored none, conceded six.

Lyon won 1-0 on home turf when the sides met at the same stage of last season's competition, before Miralem Pjanic's 75th-minute equaliser in the away leg secured a 1-1 draw that sent Real crashing out.

The French side went on to reach the semi-finals for the first time in their history and president Jean-Michel Aulas is relishing the prospect of Jose Mourinho bringing his expensive squad to town.

"Even though the draw wasn't kind, I hope to beat Real Madrid over two games for the fourth time in a row," Aulas told French sport daily L'Equipe.

"Mourinho's head and his credibility are on the line, and it's the same for the president, (Florentino) Perez, but we'll do everything to beat them."

Gadhafi goes on Libyan TV amid wave of protests

CAIRO – Deep rifts opened in Moammar Gadhafi's regime, with Libyan government officials at home and abroad resigning, air force pilots defecting and a bloody crackdown on protest in the capital of Tripoli, where cars and buildings were burned. Gadhafi went on state TV early Tuesday to attempt to show he was still in charge.

World leaders expressed outrage Monday at the "vicious forms of repression" used against the demonstrators.

The longest serving Arab leader appeared briefly on TV to dispel rumors that he had fled. Sitting in a car in front of what appeared to be his residence and holding an umbrella out of the passenger side door, he told an interviewer that he had wanted to go to the capital's Green Square to talk to his supporters, but the rain stopped him.

"I am here to show that I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela. Don't believe those misleading dog stations," Gadhafi said, referring to the media reports that he had left the country. The video clip and comments lasted less than a minute — unusual for the mercurial leader, who is known for rambling speeches that often last hours.

Pro-Gadhafi militia drove through Tripoli with loudspeakers and told people not to leave their homes, witnesses said, as security forces sought to keep the unrest that swept eastern parts of the country — leaving the second-largest city of Benghazi in protesters' control — from overwhelming the capital of 2 million people.

State TV said the military had "stormed the hideouts of saboteurs" and urged the public to back security forces. Protesters called for a demonstration in Tripoli's central Green Square and in front of Gadhafi's residence, but witnesses in various neighborhoods described a scene of intimidation: helicopters hovering above the main seaside boulevard and pro-Gadhafi gunmen firing from moving cars and even shooting at the facades of homes to terrify the population.

Youths trying to gather in the streets scattered and ran for cover amid gunfire, according to several witnesses, who like many reached in Tripoli by The Associated Press spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. They said people wept over bodies of the dead left in the street.

Warplanes swooped low over Tripoli in the evening and snipers took up position on roofs, apparently to stop people outside the capital from joining protests, according to Mohammed Abdul-Malek, a London-based opposition activist in touch with residents.

Gadhafi appeared to have lost the support of at least one major tribe, several military units and his own diplomats, including Libya's ambassador in Washington, Ali Adjali. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi accused the longest-serving Arab leader of committing genocide against his own people in the current crisis.

A postseason teaser: Kobe vs. LeBron

Kobe vs. LeBron was supposed to cure the hangover pro basketball endured in the wake of Michael Jordan's departure. Ever since he walked into the league calling himself "The King," the suspense was whether James could swipe the crown off Bryant's head, if ever.

Based on Sunday night's meeting — an exhibition, to be sure, and nothing like the competition we can expect in June — the answer remains "not yet." Better still, judging by the show a cast of supporting characters put on around them, it's far from the only drama the league has to offer.

The NBA goes back to the regular-season grind coming off its best All-Star game weekend in a while. The revelation of Friday night's celebrity game was that Justin Bieber could actually ball, not exactly an entry you'd expect to find on the resume of a small, skinny kid who grew up in hockey-mad Canada training to be a pop star.

On Saturday during the slam dunk contest, Blake Griffin, the Clippers' rookie sensation who should have run out of ways to surprise people long before now — he'd already dunked 140 times in the first half of the season — came up with a surprise anyway.

He jumped over the hood of a car to win the competition, a highlight that went viral almost immediately in every one of the more than 200 countries to which the weekend's events were being broadcast. The event drew 8.1 million viewers in the United States, the best in its 26-year history, and who-knows-how-many-more overseas, since viewers in even the most faraway markets didn't need subtitles to be thrilled by the sight of a man flying through the air.

As Final Pitches Are Made, Carmelo 'Just Wants It to Be Over With'

Last weekend, in a move not found in many etiquette books, it was the Denver forward taking a hat off "to myself'' for the way he has handled this endless trade speculation. On Sunday night, it was Chicago guard Derrick Rose doing the honors.

"I take my hat off to him,'' Rose said in an interview with FanHouse after his East team fell 148-143 to Anthony's West outfit in the NBA All-Star Game at the Staples Center. "He's handling the pressure but still playing well. Man, he's doing good. I definitely couldn't go through it.''

Perhaps it would elicit a chuckle if Rose was playing off what Anthony had said last weekend, but he said he actually hadn't read that quote.

Speaking of hats, it's still up in the air if he'll soon be donning one for a Northeast Division team at a press conference as Thursday's trade deadline approaches. The hours are ticking down before the Nuggets will trade Anthony to New York, try to convince him to agree to a contract extension for a deal to get done with New Jersey or roll the dice and keep him in Denver.

Then again, with as much craziness as this Anthony situation has had, maybe some other team will throw its hat into the ring

"I just want it to be over with,'' Anthony said.
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Libya unrest: Violence against protesters backfires

It would be ironic if Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya were to become the third head claimed by this Arab Spring.

In 1986, Ronald Reagan famously dubbed him the "mad dog of the Middle East" and launched air strikes against the country, killing Mr Gaddafi's daughter.

But two decades later, the Bush administration announced that it was restoring full diplomatic relations and by 2008, US state department officials were speaking of their erstwhile adversary as "a person of personality and experience".

Both of those qualities seem unlikely to save his 42-year rule.

In the 1990s, with Libya's economy facing strangulation by sanction, Mr Gaddafi made a series of concessions over his role in the Lockerbie bombing, paying compensation to victims' families and making conciliatory statements that indicated a break with his radical past.

The real breakthrough came at the end of 2003. Mr Gaddafi's son Saif - who made a delusional and meandering speech on Sunday as the regime began to crumble at the edges - finally hammered out a deal in which Libya agreed to end its nuclear weapons programme and dismantle its ballistic missiles.

This rapprochement is not without consequence for those protesting and dying in large numbers on the streets of first Benghazi, and now Tripoli.

Yemeni youth killed, four wounded in Aden clash | Reuters

Yemeni youth killed, four wounded in Aden clash | Reuters: "Feb 21 (Reuters) - A Yemeni teenager was killed and four people were wounded in a clash with soldiers in the southern port of Aden on Monday, witnesses said.

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Eye-opener: What will Trevor Bayne's 500 win do for NASCAR?

Of all the things expected in Sunday's Daytona 500 having e a 20-year-old win in his first 500, and second start, for a team that has been toiling since the 50s, was probably not high on a lot of people's list.

Win gives NASCAR a youthful shot.

Daytona 500 results

"If I tried to put it into words, I couldn't do it any justice," said Bayne who called his car "a rocket ship."

The Wood Brothers began racing in 1953 and drivers included A.J. Foyt, David Pearson and Cale Yarborough but they had not won since 2001 and had not won a Daytona 500 in 35 years.

Celtics players got the message

LOS ANGELES — Even during All-Star weekend, the Staples Center crowd sent boos to the Celtics.

Ray Allen heard them, if only slightly. Rajon Rondo got a chorus of them. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were showered with them. And that was just during the introductions.

When the four clocked in together for the East squad midway through the first quarter of the Western Conference's 148-143 victory, the celebrity-studded crowd rained boos on them and the Celtics' stars didn't expect any other kind of reception.

"Do you know how many buildings we walk in and we get booed,'' said Allen. "That's just par for the course.''

On the bench, coach Doc Rivers, his staff, and the Celtics players got a nice chuckle out of it.

"The fact that it was in LA, you knew it wasn't going to be a rousing ovation,'' Rivers said. "That was fine. Our guys expected it. It was fun. Our guy got a good laugh out of it.''

Kayakers snap photo of England’s version of the ‘Loch Ness Monster’

Nothing puts a damper on a serene afternoon's kayaking like the sight of a primeval sea monster.

That was the rude lesson for Tom Pickles and Sarah Harrington, who'd taken their watercraft out on the foggy waters of Lake Windermere, only to encounter what appeared to be "an enormous snake" swimming by.

"It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10 mph," the 24-year-old Pickles told The Telegraph. "Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. Its skin was like a seal's but its shape was completely abnormal—it's not like any animal I've ever seen before."

But what did Pickles and Harrington expect? Didn't they know that Lake Windermere is reputedly the home of the British version of the Loch Ness monster? In the past five years, sojourners on the lake have reported eight sightings of a Nessie-like serpent.

But the kayaking couple rallied from their shock and snapped the clearest photo of the Windermere "monster" since the sightings began. A journalism professor and his wife inaugurated the recent spate of Nessie-esque encounters on the lake back in 2006 reporting they had seen a "giant eel" somewhere between 15-20 feet long.

Ever since then, researchers have set out upon the lake with sonar equipment, in pursuit of "Bow-Nessie," as the creature's British compatriots like to call it. But so far, their efforts haven't borne fruit.

Aliens have invaded the planet and turned people into zombies. It's up to you to stand against them.

Stark Raving Ted is powered by dailygame.org

President Museveni gets 4th term

Museveni re-elected as opposition cries foul

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni, the flag-bearer of the National Resistance Movement party, was yesterday declared the winner of the February 18, 2011 presidential election.

The Electoral Commission chairman, Badru Kiggundu, declared Museveni the winner at Namboole stadium at 4:26pm before journalists and election observers.

Museveni polled 68.3% of the votes cast, while his closest rival, Col. Kizza Besigye, of the Forum for Democratic Change, got 26% of the 8,272,760 votes cast.

This means that Museveni's support rose by 10% compared to his score in the 2006 presidential election when he secured 59.2%.Besigye scored 37.3% of the votes in 2006, which means his support has dropped by 11%.

In terms of actual votes, Museveni's votes went up by over one million from 4.1m in 2006 to over 5.4m in 2011 polls. On the other hand, Besigye's votes dropped from 2.6m in 2006 to slightly over 2m this year.

Museveni also received more votes during this election than what he got in 2001 when he garnered 5.1million votes. But Besigye's votes dropped to almost the same amount he polled in the 2001, where he had 27.7% of the votes.

According to the results released by the commission yesterday, President Museveni won in all regions receiving 62.7% of the votes in central, 68.2% in eastern; 56.9% in northern and 80% in western. On the other hand, Besigye polled 31.7% in central; 28% in eastern; 26% in northern and 18% in western.

The UPC flag-bearer scored 7.2% in northern Uganda, beating Norbert Mao, who got 6.4% in the region. But Mao got 2.3% of the votes in central region, surprisingly beating Beti Kamya, who got 1.5%, as well as Bidandi Ssali, Abed Bwanika and Samuel Lubega, who each got less than one percent in their home regions. Kamya campaigned on a platform of federalism.

Besigye yesterday rejected the results, alleging fraud in the electoral process.

Out of the 13,954,129 registered voters, 8,272,760 voted, translating to 59.29% of registered voters.

The commission released results from 23,856 polling stations out of a total of 23,968. In 2006, the voter turnout stood at slightly over 69%.

Though the 2011 campaigns were largely peaceful, isolated incidences of violence were registered in the eastern districts of Mbale and the West Nile district of Arua.

Speaking to journalists after announcing the results, Kiggundu called upon the candidates who lost in the elections to concede defeat. He asked Ugandans to remain calm.

The commission said the process was free and fair and asked those with complaints to register them.

Kiggundu said the commission could have made some mistakes in the process but added that the mistakes did not affect the results.

He said it was good that Besigye had not declared his own results as he had planned to do. He reiterated that only the commission was mandated by law to ascertain and declare the results.

On display of ticked ballot papers by Besigye at a press conference on Saturday, Kiggundu said: "This is not the first time he is doing that. This time around the security agency will take him on and ask him to explain where he got them from."

The commission denied allegations of rigging but promised to look into grievances raised by the election observers.

Present at the announcement was the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, who warned the public against riots, saying "the iron arm of the law will deal with them."

"Wherever there are any grievances, there is a procedure in place provided by the Constitution for addressing such. If anybody does not abide by the law, the full force of the law will came down upon them," he added. Source

Chinese telecom giant calls off US deal

BEIJING – A major Chinese telecoms equipment maker is scrapping its effort to acquire a U.S. computer company after a security panel refused to approve the deal.

Huawei Technologies Ltd.'s bid to acquire 3Leaf Systems came amid concern in some countries about China's growing economic might and political assertiveness. American critics said the deal might allow sensitive technology to be transferred to China's military.

Huawei had said it hoped to win White House approval despite the recommendation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to cancel the deal. But in a weekend announcement, Huawei reversed course and said it would withdraw its application.

"This was a difficult decision, however we have decided to accept the recommendation of CFIUS to withdraw our application to acquire specific assets of 3Leaf," the company said in a brief statement. "The significant impact and attention that this transaction has caused were not what we intended. Rather, our intention was to go through all the procedures to reveal the truth about Huawei."