Prem Preview: Chelsea – Newcastle United
What: Barclays Premier League
Who: Chelsea (3rd, 38 pts) v. Newcastle United (11th, 26 pts)
When: Saturday, 29th December, 15:00 (GMT)
Where: Stamford Bridge, London
Chelsea battle Newcastle at Stamford Bridge with manager Avram Grant being without the services of his key players, yet needing all three points to keep his team in the title race.
Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce, meanwhile, is fighting to save his job on Saturday.
Selection Woes For Grant
Chelsea's Boxing Day encounter against Aston Villa was indeed fantastic entertainment for football fans. For Grant though, the thrills on the football pitch have turned into a massive selection headache against Newcastle.
Defender Ricardo Carvalho is suspended. Talismanic playmaker Frank Lampard suffered a torn thigh muscle that has left him sidelined for many weeks. Skipper John Terry is still out injured. Winger Florent Malouda has not regained full fitness. The Blues’ number one hitman, Didier Drogba, is still recovering from injury.
As Grant looks to replace these players, it is likely that he’ll call upon Michael Ballack to play a crucial role.
The German international showed his hunger to play against Villa – winning a penalty and snatching a goal to boot. But since moving from Bayern Munich, the midfielder has been considered a misfit, and he’ll go into the match against the Magpies with plenty to prove.
A suspect defence, though, may pose the biggest problem for Grant. To concede four goals against the Villains will have done little to inspire confidence. A less-than-able replacement in Tal Ben Haim is set to step in to fill Carvalho’s shoes – Grant and his assistant Henk Ten Cate had better start worrying.
The Blues have picked up only four points over Christmas – finding themselves off the pace behind second-placed Arsenal and league leaders Manchester United.
With a proud record to maintain at home, where Chelsea remain unbeaten in all competitions since February 2006, it’s without a doubt that Grant and his charges will be motivated to get a result against Newcastle.
Three points will, indeed, spark Chelsea’s title chase back to life again.
Talk The Talk, Walk The Walk, Allardyce
Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce enjoys voicing his opinion on most matters football – except for his own team.
Now, the under-pressure manager has to silence his critics after a dismal 2-2 draw against bottom club Derby County and a humiliating 1-0 defeat to Wigan on Boxing Day.
The former Bolton boss has blamed his players, he allegedly blasted them in the dressing room after the loss, saying that they’re going to cost him his job.
Strangely though, Allardyce has blamed everyone but himself. It’s obvious, though, that the methods which have brought him success at the Reebook Stadium have failed to work at Tyneside.
The beleaguered manager is fighting to save his job, and the arrest of summer signing Joey Barton by the police over an alleged assault will not help his cause.
The Newcastle faithful have already turned their back on Big Sam, with many booing him and calling for his dismissal. A defeat to Chelsea on Saturday will probably mark the end of his reign at St James’ Park
source: http://www.goal.com/en-india/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=528653
Friday 28 December 2007
Pakistan: Al-Qaida behind Bhutto killing
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's government asserted Friday that al-Qaida was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and offered the transcript from a phone tap as proof. Hundreds of thousands mobbed her funeral as the army tried to quell rioting elsewhere that left 27 dead.
President Pervez Musharraf's government also said Bhutto was not killed by gunshots or shrapnel as originally claimed. Instead, it said her skull was shattered by the force of a suicide bomb blast that slammed her against a lever in her car's sunroof.
The new explanations were part of a rapidly evolving political crisis triggered by the death of Bhutto, Musharraf's most powerful foe in the elections. The rioting by Bhutto's furious supporters raised concerns that this nuclear-armed nation, plagued by chaos and the growing threat from Islamic militants even before the killing, was in danger of spinning out of control.
Pentagon officials said Friday they have seen nothing to give them any worries about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
While many grieving Pakistanis turned to violence, hundreds of thousands paid their last respects to the popular opposition leader as she was placed beside her father in a marble mausoleum in the Bhutto ancestral village in southern Sindh province.
"I don't know what will happen to the country now," said mourner Nazakat Soomro, 32.
The government said it would hunt down those responsible for her death in the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border where Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders are thought to be hiding.
"They will definitely be brought to justice," Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said.
The government released a transcript Friday of a purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud and another militant.
"It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her," Mehsud said, according to the transcript. The government did not release an audiotape.
Cheema described Mehsud as an al-Qaida leader who was also behind most other recent terror attacks in Pakistan, including the Karachi bomb blast in October against Bhutto that killed more than 140 people.
Mehsud is thought to be the commander of pro-Taliban forces in the tribal region of South Waziristan, where al-Qaida fighters are also active.
In the transcript, Mehsud gives his location as Makin, a town in South Waziristan.
This fall, he was quoted in a Pakistani newspaper as saying that he would welcome Bhutto's return from exile with suicide bombers. Mehsud later denied that in statements to local television and newspaper reporters.
Cheema announced the formation of two inquiries into Bhutto's death, one to be carried out by a high court judge and another by security forces. Bhutto was assassinated Thursday evening after a rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad. Twenty other people also died in the attack.
On Thursday, authorities had said Bhutto died from bullet wounds fired by a young man who then blew himself up. A surgeon who treated her, however, said Friday she died from the impact of shrapnel on her skull.
But later Friday, Cheema said those two accounts were mistaken. He said all three shots missed her as she greeted supporters through the sunroof of her vehicle, which was bulletproof and bombproof.
He also denied that shrapnel caused her death, saying Bhutto was killed when she tried to duck back into the vehicle, and that the shock waves from the blast knocked her head into a lever attached to the sunroof, fracturing her skull. The government released a photograph showing blood on the lever.
Denying charges the government failed to give her adequate security protection, Cheema said it was Bhutto who made herself vulnerable and pointed out that the other passengers inside Bhutto's bombproof vehicle were fine.
"I wish she had not come out of the rooftop of her vehicle," he said.
Bhutto's death sparked deadly rioting that killed at least 27 people, according to an Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Rioters in the southern city of Karachi torched 500 vehicles, 13 banks, seven gas stations and two police stations, police chief Azhar Farooqi said. The violence killed 13 people, including five workers in a garment factory that was set ablaze, police said. A shootout between rioters and police wounded three officers, police said.
Another six people died from suffocation in Mirpurkhas, about 200 miles northeast of Karachi, when a bank building was set on fire, said Ghulam Mohammed Mohtaram, the top civilian security official in Sindh province.
About 7,000 people in the central city of Multan ransacked seven banks and a gas station and threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas. Media reports said 200 banks were attacked nationwide.
Vandals also burned 10 railway stations and several trains across Sindh province, forcing the suspension of all train service between Karachi and the eastern Punjab province, said Mir Mohammed Khaskheli, a senior railroad official.
An Associated Press reporter saw nine cars of a train completely burned. Witnesses said all the passengers were pulled out before the train was torched.
Desperate to quell the violence, the government sent troops into the streets of Hyderabad, Karachi and other areas in Sindh. In Hyderabad, the soldiers refused to let people out of their homes, witnesses said.
The army readied 20 battalions of troops for deployment across Sindh if they were needed to stop the violence, according to a military statement.
"We will sternly deal with those who are trying to create disorder," Cheema said.
Paramilitary rangers were also given the authority to use live fire to stop rioters from damaging property in the region, said Maj. Asad Ali, the rangers' spokesman.
"We have orders to shoot on sight," he said.
Many cities were nearly deserted as businesses closed and public transportation came to a halt at the start of three days of national mourning for Bhutto.
Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said the government had no immediate plans to postpone Jan. 8 parliamentary elections, despite the violence and the decision by Nawaz Sharif, another opposition leader, to boycott the poll.
"Right now the elections stand where they were," he told a news conference.
The United States, which sees Pakistan as a crucial ally in the war on terror, was counting on Musharraf to proceed with the vote in the hope it will cement steps toward restoring democracy after the six-week state of emergency he declared last month.
Keeping the election on track was the biggest immediate concern in sustaining an American policy of promoting stability, moderation and democracy in Pakistan, U.S. officials said Friday.
Bhutto's death left her populist party without a clear successor. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who was freed in December 2004 after eight years in detention on graft charges, is one contender to head the party although he lacks the cachet of a blood relative from the Bhutto clan's political dynasty.
Throughout the day, hundreds of thousands of mourners arrived in Bhutto's hometown of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in tractors, buses, cars and jeeps for her funeral cortege and burial.
Bhutto's plain wood coffin, draped in the red, green and black flag of her Pakistan People's Party, was carried in a white ambulance toward the marble mausoleum about three miles away, passing a burning passenger train on the way.
source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071228/ap_on_re_as/pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf's government also said Bhutto was not killed by gunshots or shrapnel as originally claimed. Instead, it said her skull was shattered by the force of a suicide bomb blast that slammed her against a lever in her car's sunroof.
The new explanations were part of a rapidly evolving political crisis triggered by the death of Bhutto, Musharraf's most powerful foe in the elections. The rioting by Bhutto's furious supporters raised concerns that this nuclear-armed nation, plagued by chaos and the growing threat from Islamic militants even before the killing, was in danger of spinning out of control.
Pentagon officials said Friday they have seen nothing to give them any worries about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
While many grieving Pakistanis turned to violence, hundreds of thousands paid their last respects to the popular opposition leader as she was placed beside her father in a marble mausoleum in the Bhutto ancestral village in southern Sindh province.
"I don't know what will happen to the country now," said mourner Nazakat Soomro, 32.
The government said it would hunt down those responsible for her death in the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border where Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders are thought to be hiding.
"They will definitely be brought to justice," Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said.
The government released a transcript Friday of a purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud and another militant.
"It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her," Mehsud said, according to the transcript. The government did not release an audiotape.
Cheema described Mehsud as an al-Qaida leader who was also behind most other recent terror attacks in Pakistan, including the Karachi bomb blast in October against Bhutto that killed more than 140 people.
Mehsud is thought to be the commander of pro-Taliban forces in the tribal region of South Waziristan, where al-Qaida fighters are also active.
In the transcript, Mehsud gives his location as Makin, a town in South Waziristan.
This fall, he was quoted in a Pakistani newspaper as saying that he would welcome Bhutto's return from exile with suicide bombers. Mehsud later denied that in statements to local television and newspaper reporters.
Cheema announced the formation of two inquiries into Bhutto's death, one to be carried out by a high court judge and another by security forces. Bhutto was assassinated Thursday evening after a rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad. Twenty other people also died in the attack.
On Thursday, authorities had said Bhutto died from bullet wounds fired by a young man who then blew himself up. A surgeon who treated her, however, said Friday she died from the impact of shrapnel on her skull.
But later Friday, Cheema said those two accounts were mistaken. He said all three shots missed her as she greeted supporters through the sunroof of her vehicle, which was bulletproof and bombproof.
He also denied that shrapnel caused her death, saying Bhutto was killed when she tried to duck back into the vehicle, and that the shock waves from the blast knocked her head into a lever attached to the sunroof, fracturing her skull. The government released a photograph showing blood on the lever.
Denying charges the government failed to give her adequate security protection, Cheema said it was Bhutto who made herself vulnerable and pointed out that the other passengers inside Bhutto's bombproof vehicle were fine.
"I wish she had not come out of the rooftop of her vehicle," he said.
Bhutto's death sparked deadly rioting that killed at least 27 people, according to an Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Rioters in the southern city of Karachi torched 500 vehicles, 13 banks, seven gas stations and two police stations, police chief Azhar Farooqi said. The violence killed 13 people, including five workers in a garment factory that was set ablaze, police said. A shootout between rioters and police wounded three officers, police said.
Another six people died from suffocation in Mirpurkhas, about 200 miles northeast of Karachi, when a bank building was set on fire, said Ghulam Mohammed Mohtaram, the top civilian security official in Sindh province.
About 7,000 people in the central city of Multan ransacked seven banks and a gas station and threw stones at police, who responded with tear gas. Media reports said 200 banks were attacked nationwide.
Vandals also burned 10 railway stations and several trains across Sindh province, forcing the suspension of all train service between Karachi and the eastern Punjab province, said Mir Mohammed Khaskheli, a senior railroad official.
An Associated Press reporter saw nine cars of a train completely burned. Witnesses said all the passengers were pulled out before the train was torched.
Desperate to quell the violence, the government sent troops into the streets of Hyderabad, Karachi and other areas in Sindh. In Hyderabad, the soldiers refused to let people out of their homes, witnesses said.
The army readied 20 battalions of troops for deployment across Sindh if they were needed to stop the violence, according to a military statement.
"We will sternly deal with those who are trying to create disorder," Cheema said.
Paramilitary rangers were also given the authority to use live fire to stop rioters from damaging property in the region, said Maj. Asad Ali, the rangers' spokesman.
"We have orders to shoot on sight," he said.
Many cities were nearly deserted as businesses closed and public transportation came to a halt at the start of three days of national mourning for Bhutto.
Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said the government had no immediate plans to postpone Jan. 8 parliamentary elections, despite the violence and the decision by Nawaz Sharif, another opposition leader, to boycott the poll.
"Right now the elections stand where they were," he told a news conference.
The United States, which sees Pakistan as a crucial ally in the war on terror, was counting on Musharraf to proceed with the vote in the hope it will cement steps toward restoring democracy after the six-week state of emergency he declared last month.
Keeping the election on track was the biggest immediate concern in sustaining an American policy of promoting stability, moderation and democracy in Pakistan, U.S. officials said Friday.
Bhutto's death left her populist party without a clear successor. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who was freed in December 2004 after eight years in detention on graft charges, is one contender to head the party although he lacks the cachet of a blood relative from the Bhutto clan's political dynasty.
Throughout the day, hundreds of thousands of mourners arrived in Bhutto's hometown of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in tractors, buses, cars and jeeps for her funeral cortege and burial.
Bhutto's plain wood coffin, draped in the red, green and black flag of her Pakistan People's Party, was carried in a white ambulance toward the marble mausoleum about three miles away, passing a burning passenger train on the way.
source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071228/ap_on_re_as/pakistan
Bupati Jamin Transparansi Bantuan Longsor Karanganyar
Bupati Jamin Transparansi Bantuan Longsor Karanganyar
TAWANGMANGU, KCM – Bupati Karanganyar Hj. Rina Iriani Sri Ratnaningsih menyatakan pihaknya akan menyediakan informasi secara terbuka mengenai bantuan kepada korban longsor di Kabupaten Karanganyar, Jawa Tengah.
“Kami mengupayakan semua (bantuan) open management, tidak ada rahasia, semuanya terbuka. Ada indomie satu yang diserahkan pun tercatat,” kata Rina Iriani yang saat dihubungi via telepon berada di posko kesehatan di Dusun Ledoksari, Kecamatan Tawangmangu, Karanganyar, Jawa Tengah, Jumat (28/12).
Tadi siang, Rina juga menerima bantuan dari mantan Panglima TNI Wiranto dan Gubernur Jateng Ali Mufiz yang berkunjung ke lokasi bencana. Pada kesempatan itu, Wiranto menyatakan bela sungkawa kepada penduduk setempat dan menyerahkan bantuan selimut serta makanan. Adapun Ali Mufiz menyerahkan cek sebesar 200 juta untuk korban longsor di Kabupaten Karanganyar.
“Saya bawa cek sekarang ini Rp350 juta. (Bantuan uang) yang lain lewat rekening di bawah koordinasi saya langsung,” kata Rina.
Sejak musibah longsor terjadi, Rabu (26/12), Rina memimpin langsung upaya pencarian korban di Tawangmangu. Setiap pukul 06.00 Rina membuka upaya evakuasi korban oleh tim gabungan dari SAR, TNI, PMI dan penduduk setempat. Bantuan materiil maupun nonmateriil dikoordinir langsung oleh Bupati.
“Seluruh wilayah terpantau . Saya nggak ingin penduduk itu gara-gara makanan jadi masalah,” kata Rina.
Rina juga menyebutkan pihaknya setiap saat akan menyediakan informasi tertulis kepada pihak mana pun yang ingin meminta kejelasan penggunaan dana bantuan tersebut.
“Semua yang mau lihat ada di situ, ditempelkan di posko. Yang mau minta pun nanti saya bagi print-nya,” papar Rina. (LHW)
sumber: http://kompas.com/ver1/Nusantara/0712/28/195633.htm
TAWANGMANGU, KCM – Bupati Karanganyar Hj. Rina Iriani Sri Ratnaningsih menyatakan pihaknya akan menyediakan informasi secara terbuka mengenai bantuan kepada korban longsor di Kabupaten Karanganyar, Jawa Tengah.
“Kami mengupayakan semua (bantuan) open management, tidak ada rahasia, semuanya terbuka. Ada indomie satu yang diserahkan pun tercatat,” kata Rina Iriani yang saat dihubungi via telepon berada di posko kesehatan di Dusun Ledoksari, Kecamatan Tawangmangu, Karanganyar, Jawa Tengah, Jumat (28/12).
Tadi siang, Rina juga menerima bantuan dari mantan Panglima TNI Wiranto dan Gubernur Jateng Ali Mufiz yang berkunjung ke lokasi bencana. Pada kesempatan itu, Wiranto menyatakan bela sungkawa kepada penduduk setempat dan menyerahkan bantuan selimut serta makanan. Adapun Ali Mufiz menyerahkan cek sebesar 200 juta untuk korban longsor di Kabupaten Karanganyar.
“Saya bawa cek sekarang ini Rp350 juta. (Bantuan uang) yang lain lewat rekening di bawah koordinasi saya langsung,” kata Rina.
Sejak musibah longsor terjadi, Rabu (26/12), Rina memimpin langsung upaya pencarian korban di Tawangmangu. Setiap pukul 06.00 Rina membuka upaya evakuasi korban oleh tim gabungan dari SAR, TNI, PMI dan penduduk setempat. Bantuan materiil maupun nonmateriil dikoordinir langsung oleh Bupati.
“Seluruh wilayah terpantau . Saya nggak ingin penduduk itu gara-gara makanan jadi masalah,” kata Rina.
Rina juga menyebutkan pihaknya setiap saat akan menyediakan informasi tertulis kepada pihak mana pun yang ingin meminta kejelasan penggunaan dana bantuan tersebut.
“Semua yang mau lihat ada di situ, ditempelkan di posko. Yang mau minta pun nanti saya bagi print-nya,” papar Rina. (LHW)
sumber: http://kompas.com/ver1/Nusantara/0712/28/195633.htm
Sunday 2 December 2007
UN Climate Change Conference
We are Watching You, From a Distance
Unprecedented Police and Military Presence on Bali to Safeguard the UN Climate Change Conference December 3 – 14, 2007.
(From articles at www.balidiscovery.com)
(12/1/2007) Saying that Indonesia's international reputation depends on maintaining safety during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Bali Post provided a pre-conference summary of the extensive security precautions now in place on the Island.Drills using aircraft, mobile brigades, marine corps members and foot soldiers have all been undertaken in an effort to address every possible threat to holding a successful conference.
At least 12,000 police and 7,000 Indonesian military personnel will be on duty during the conference to be centered at Nusa Dua December 3-14, 2007.Hundreds of special police and military vehicles have been deployed to Bali covering an entire range from escort motorcycles, tanks, bomb disposal units and special operational vehicles. Specially trained K-P corps dogs will also be on assignment at all the Island's gateways and main meeting venues for the conference.By Land, Sea and AirPolice artillery-equipped patrol boats including the KP Baladewa, KP Bisma and BP Kresna will be cruising the waters around the Island throughout the conference. At least five helicopters will be conducting active patrols near the meeting venues, prepared and practiced to perform VIP and victim evacuations, if a developing situation dictates.On the ground, the Bali Police will have no less than 900 motorcycles and 135 four-wheeled vehicles on constant patrol. Special crowd control barrier units are on stand by. VIP movements will be facilitated through the deployment of at least 30 escort units.17 canine unites employing dogs trained in crowd control, explosives detection and perimeter protection will be on duty with their handlers.Conference Central – Nusa DuaSophisticated screening devices and inspection procedures are now in operation at the entrance to the Bali Tourism Development Corporation (BTDC) Complex at Nusa Dua. Normally staffed by BTDC Security Personnel, the entrance gates to Nusa Dua will have an armed police and military contingent assisting in checking every vehicle, motorcycle and backpack entering the conference complex.Special screening devices have also been installed at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport including X-rays units capable of reviewing the contents of an entire shipping containers. Protestors seeking to disrupt traffic or the proceedings of the conference will face the daunting prospect of an entire fleet of rapid-deployment barbed-wire trailers and thousands of Mobile Brigade soldiers equipped and trained to deal with unruly crowds.Within the BTDC Complex an entire city of tents have been built to house NGO and supporting players at the Conference.
© Bali Discovery Tours. Articles may be quoted and reproduced if attributed to http://www.balidiscovery.com. All images and graphics are copyright protected.
Unprecedented Police and Military Presence on Bali to Safeguard the UN Climate Change Conference December 3 – 14, 2007.
(From articles at www.balidiscovery.com)
(12/1/2007) Saying that Indonesia's international reputation depends on maintaining safety during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Bali Post provided a pre-conference summary of the extensive security precautions now in place on the Island.Drills using aircraft, mobile brigades, marine corps members and foot soldiers have all been undertaken in an effort to address every possible threat to holding a successful conference.
At least 12,000 police and 7,000 Indonesian military personnel will be on duty during the conference to be centered at Nusa Dua December 3-14, 2007.Hundreds of special police and military vehicles have been deployed to Bali covering an entire range from escort motorcycles, tanks, bomb disposal units and special operational vehicles. Specially trained K-P corps dogs will also be on assignment at all the Island's gateways and main meeting venues for the conference.By Land, Sea and AirPolice artillery-equipped patrol boats including the KP Baladewa, KP Bisma and BP Kresna will be cruising the waters around the Island throughout the conference. At least five helicopters will be conducting active patrols near the meeting venues, prepared and practiced to perform VIP and victim evacuations, if a developing situation dictates.On the ground, the Bali Police will have no less than 900 motorcycles and 135 four-wheeled vehicles on constant patrol. Special crowd control barrier units are on stand by. VIP movements will be facilitated through the deployment of at least 30 escort units.17 canine unites employing dogs trained in crowd control, explosives detection and perimeter protection will be on duty with their handlers.Conference Central – Nusa DuaSophisticated screening devices and inspection procedures are now in operation at the entrance to the Bali Tourism Development Corporation (BTDC) Complex at Nusa Dua. Normally staffed by BTDC Security Personnel, the entrance gates to Nusa Dua will have an armed police and military contingent assisting in checking every vehicle, motorcycle and backpack entering the conference complex.Special screening devices have also been installed at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport including X-rays units capable of reviewing the contents of an entire shipping containers. Protestors seeking to disrupt traffic or the proceedings of the conference will face the daunting prospect of an entire fleet of rapid-deployment barbed-wire trailers and thousands of Mobile Brigade soldiers equipped and trained to deal with unruly crowds.Within the BTDC Complex an entire city of tents have been built to house NGO and supporting players at the Conference.
© Bali Discovery Tours. Articles may be quoted and reproduced if attributed to http://www.balidiscovery.com. All images and graphics are copyright protected.
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