Athletics: Lagat regains indoor record
Bernard Lagat regained the American indoor 5,000-meter record on Saturday with a victory at the 104th Millrose Games, the first in 98 years to be staged outside of Madison Square Garden.
Three-time Olympian Lagat won in 13mins 7.15secs, showing his fitness six months before the London Olympics at age 37 by breaking the US mark of 13:11.44 set by Galen Rupp last year in the British city of Birmingham.
“I had a few problems in training this past week and rested a bit more than I usually do, so to run 13:07 at this time of the year, in a week like this, that s a good indication I can do a lot better,” he said.
Lagat, a two-time 1,500 Olympic medalist, performed just as coach James Li had expected right down to the second.
“Bernard did exactly what we expected,” Li said. “We knew from his training that he was ready for something like this.”
Kenya s Lawi Lawang, Lagat s training partner, was second in 13:08.28 to smash the US college record that was also owned by Rupp.
Rupp answered by breaking Lagat s two-mile American record, winning in 8:09.72 at the USA Track and Field Classic in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
“That s the way it goes,” Lagat said. “You win some, you lose some.”
In a showdown of US Olympic contenders, David Oliver won the 60m hurdles in 7.51 with Terrence Trammell second in7.52 and Aries Merritt third in 7.53.
Two-time US Olympic relay medalist Sanya Richards-Ross won the 400 in 50.89, surpassing Bulgarian Vania Stambolova for the fastest time in the world this year.
Matthew Centrowitz, the son of a two-time US Olympian, won the men s mile in 3:53.92.
Women s world 1,500m champion Jenny Simpson won the 1,500 title in 4:07.27 while LaShawn Merritt, the 2008 Olympic 400-meter champion and 2011 world 400 runner-up, won the rarely contested 500m in 1:01.39.
World high jump champion Jesse Williams of the United States cleared 2.32 to win while Russian Olga Kucherenko of Russia won the long jump in 6.75 and world leader Jenn Suhr took the pole vault by clearing 4.58m.
Whitney Port allegedly dating her show’s former producer
TrendPK.com: Former reality TV star Whitney Port split from her longtime beau, ‘The Buried Life’s’ Ben Nemtin, last summer, but she has apparently moved on to someone she’s known for quite a bit.
Port is allegedly dating a former associate producer with ‘The City,’ Tim Rosenman, after having a crush on him for some time, states UsMagazine.com. The two reportedly kept in touch after her reality show ended, but didn’t start dating until some time after her split with Nemtin.
Port and Rosenman allegedly vacationed together this January in Miami.
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Two Lahore fires cause loss worth millions of rupees
February 11, 2012 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
TrendPK.com
LAHORE: Goods worth millions of rupees were gutted in two incidents of fire during the last 24 hours in the city. Also, four people sustained burns injuries in the two incidents.
A blaze incident occurred in a plaza housing shops of electronics products located at Hall Road, where goods worth millions of rupees were torched by the sudden fire after engulfing two shops.
The relief teams contained the fire on time.
Another fire, caused by short circuit, broke out in a business center located on Gulberg’s main thoroughfare. Fire has been brought under control; but, at least two floors of the plaza are completely burned down with goods of millions of rupees gutted.
According to traders, the commercial center was furnished with considerable firefighting system; but, the fast-paced blaze stormed the plaza in no time. TrendPK
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Tension prevails in Rawalpindi after firing incident
February 11, 2012 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
TrendPK.com
RAWALPINDI: Tension prevailed at Adiala Road of the city after exchange of fire between two rival groups, TrendPK reported on Saturday.
Eye witnesses told media that some people, both from rival groups started firing on each other from top of buildings.
The road was closed for traffic after the incident and nearby markets were also closed.
One laborer became hurt in the incident that was taken to a hospital for treatment. TrendPK
Doctors’ protest continues on 6th day
February 11, 2012 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
TrendPK.com
KARACHI: Doctors on Saturday continued their protest against non-payment of salaries for the sixth consecutive day.
Sindh health minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed assured them that their problems will be solved soon but the doctors continued their hunger strike and protest.
A large number of doctors and medics from Institute of Heart Diseases, carrying placards and banners, rallied in the city areas causing severe traffic jam in the area for many hours.
The OPD closure has caused serious problems for patients arriving for the treatment as no government authority have so far assured release of the doctors’ payments. TrendPK
Firefighters bring Orega Centre blaze under control
The massive fire started at the office of a multi-national company’s office situated at the 4th floor of Lahore’s Orega Centre in Gulberg main Bulevard and soon engulfed the entire shopping plaza.
Rescue teams and fire brigade from different parts of city reached the site and started operation. The fire brigade brought the fire under control after a 5-hour hectic effort.
The fire destroys millions of rupees material despite the fact that traders and shopkeepers pulled out their belongings from the shops on self-help basis.
Eye-witnesses said that the fire started from the top floor and soon spread to other offices and shops in the shopping plaza.
Canadian festival buys fake snow
The usually frigid Canadian city of Winnipeg – often nicknamed Winterpeg – has been so mild and dry this winter that a popular snow-sculpting competition has been forced to truck in 200 loads of fake flakes for this year s annual event.
While Europe shivers through a severe cold snap that has killed hundreds of people, Winnipeg has enjoyed its third-mildest January in more than a century, with the average temperature a relatively balmy -10.8 Celsius (12.6 Fahrenheit).
It s been the same story across much of Canada. Toronto, the country s biggest city, was forecast to climb well above the freezing mark on Thursday, while Berlin will be at -11 C going into the weekend and Paris and London will hover around -6 C.
“People refer to Winnipeg as Winterpeg so they expect it to be really cold, but everyone is really happy about the warm weather,” said Emili Bellefleur, spokeswoman for Festival du Voyageur, which includes snow carvings of wolves, bison and cultural symbols around the city of 700,000.
“We re going to take it, you know?”
With supplies of natural snow skimpy, the festival is trucking in artificially made snow from a winter recreation area, similar to the machine-made snow used on ski hills.
Bellefleur said she knows of only one other year that the 43-year-old festival had to buy artificial snow.
Winnipeggers and others in Western Canada can thank a flip-flop in air pressure patterns for the mild winter, which has funneled warmer southwest air across the Prairies, said Natalie Hasell, meteorologist at Environment Canada.
Normally, the La Nina weather phenomenon off the Pacific Coast of North America would leave the Prairies digging out of frigid, snowier than usual conditions.
But this winter it s been much milder, and bone dry. Nearly all of the country s main grain-growing region has received below-normal precipitation since November 5.
While Winnipeggers have happily put away their snow shovels, a dozen of the Festival du Voyageur s snow sculptors, coming from as far away as Switzerland, the Netherlands and evenMexico have been shocked by the mild weather.
Usually, “the worst part for them when they come from Mexico is dealing with the cold itself,” Bellefleur said. “Not necessarily the (lack of) snow.”
Explosions rock Syrian city
Three explosions rocked Syria s second largest city of Aleppo on Friday, activists said, adding that one of the blasts took place near a military intelligence building.
Syrian state television said two explosions had taken place and reported a number of casualties, including soldiers. It blamed the attack on “armed terrorist gangs.”
The television said one of the blasts targeted a military intelligence centre and the other a centre for the security forces.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP there were three blasts in the northern city, a main commercial hub.
They occurred in the neighbourhoods of Sakhur and Marjeh and the Dawar el-Basel roundabout.
More than 80 killed in Syria, most in Homs: activists
More than 80 people died in violence across Syria on Thursday, activists said, with the majority killed in a fierce assault by regime forces on the flashpoint central city of Homs.
Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that of the 83 deaths nationwide, 63 people were killed in shelling and other violence in Homs province.
Fifty-three were killed in Homs city, which has been under a relentless bombardment by regime forces for the past six days, he told AFP.
Of these, Abdel Rahman said 35 civilians died in the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs and 11 were killed when a shell slammed into their house in the protest hub s Inshaat district.
He added that seven other people died in the city s Khaldiyeh and Karm el-Zeytoun neighbourhoods.
Ten more people, five from the same family, died in shelling and heavy gunfire as regime troops pushed forth with a more than week-long assault on the town of Zabadani near the Syrian capital, Abdel Rahman added.
“They are trying to choke the town before storming it,” he said. “Residents are fleeing to Bludan and other nearby villages.”
Elsewhere, seven security forces members were killed when rebels ambushed two buses near the southern town of Daraa, cradle of the revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Among other deaths in the armed forces, a military colonel was killed at his home in Rastan, in Homs province.
Four other civilians, including a young woman, were killed in the northwestern province of Idlib, and a man died of wounds he suffered the day before in Daraa.
No bullying Syria, Putin warns US, EU
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin said this after his envoy returned from talks with President Bashar al-Assad.
“Of course, we condemn violence from whichever side it comes, but we must not behave like a bull in a china shop,” Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying.
“We need to allow people to decide their own fate independently.”
He spoke after his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov declined to say earlier Wednesday whether Moscow had asked the embattled leader to go in his meeting with Assad.
“Any outcome of national dialogue should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all Syrians,” Lavrov told reporters.
He sidestepped a direct question from a reporter who asked him whether he urged Assad to step down during talks in Damascus Tuesday, conducted as Syrian forces shelled opposition centres in the city of Homs.
“Trying in advance to decide the result of national dialogue is basically not the job of the international community,” Lavrov said, adding that both the government and all the opposition forces should sit down for talks.
All those who have influence over the Syrian opposition forces should urge them to start negotiations with Assad s government, he added.
Some analysts said Lavrov s most recent remarks indicated Moscow had not shifted its stance on Syria.
“Judging by Lavrov s statements after his Damascus visit the question of Assad s resignation has not been raised,” said Boris Dolgov, an analyst at the Moscow-based Institute of Oriental Studies.
“It would have been strange anyway — why would Russia start talking about his resignation after having vetoed the Syria resolution” in the United Nations.
Lavrov quoted Assad as saying he told Vice President Faruq al-Shara “to contact all opposition groups and to organise a national dialogue that will be inclusive and encompass all Syrian political forces.”
Lavrov, who was given a hero s welcome in Damascus by pro-Assad demonstrators, also said that recalling envoys from Syria would not help the Arab League s plan.
“I do not think that recalling ambassadors helps create conditions that would be favourable to the realisation of the Arab League s plan,” he said after talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.
A day after the United States closed its Damascus embassy, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain joined Britain and Belgium on Tuesday in recalling their ambassadors to Syria for consultations.
The six Arab states of the Persian Gulf also said they had decided to expel Syria s envoys and withdraw their own from Damascus in protest at the “mass slaughter” of civilians.
Lavrov also criticised a “hasty decision” by the Arab League to freeze the work of its observer mission in Syria.
“The presence of foreign observers always plays a restraining role and it was unclear why a number of Gulf states recalled their envoys from this mission and why the mission after that was suspended at the very moment its report was supposed to be heard at the UN Security Council,” he said.
After Tuesday s talks Lavrov said Russia would work to end the crisis under a peace plan put forward by the Arab League and that Assad was ready for dialogue with all political forces.
But he did not specify whether he was referring to the latest Arab League plan calling for Assad to step down or a November plan that called for an observer mission and an end to violence.
Moscow sparked Western anger last week by joining Beijing in using its Security Council veto to block UN action against Assad s regime based on the more recent Arab League plan.
Seeking to address Western criticism that Russia missed a chance to end bloodshed, Lavrov Wednesday defended Russia s veto, saying Moscow had prevented wider opposition violence.
“We have missed an opportunity to allow the armed units that are fighting against government forces to take control of cities and villages,” Lavrov said sarcastically.
“If the authors of the resolution have this goal in mind, then you should directly say that we want the armed units to take control of cities in Syria.”
“You need to speak honestly with your partners,” he added. “Half of the truth is worse than a lie.”–AFP
