Latvala wins Sweden Car Rally
Ford s Jari-Matti Latvala overcame a late puncture to win the Rally of Sweden on Sunday and make amends for crashing out of the Monte Carlo season-opener on the first day.
The Finn beat compatriot and former team mate Mikko Hirvonen, now with Citroen, by 16.6 seconds while eight-times world champion Sebastien Loeb finished a distant sixth.
Latvala still had to overcome a late scare when he hit a rock and punctured a front tyre on the 22nd stage, a setback that slashed his lead from more than half a minute to eight seconds.
He won the same event four years ago and was evidently happy with his sixth World Rally Championship victory.
Norway s Petter Solberg, Latvala s team mate, hit the same rock on the same 22nd stage and lost third place to compatriot Mads Ostberg, also in a Ford.
Frenchman Loeb, winner in Monte Carlo, saw his hopes vanish when he hit a snow bank on the opening day but retained the championship lead by winning the power stage.
Loeb leads the title race with 28 points, 10 ahead of Spain s Dani Sordo, whose Mini Cooper failed to finish after crashing on the eighth stage, with Petter Solberg third on 15.
The next event is the Rally Mexico from March 8-11.
Narrow win keeps Dortmund top
Borussia Dortmund maintained a two-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga with a 1-0 win at home to Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday as title rivals Bayern Munich beat Kaiserslautern 2-0 to keep pace.
Dortmund scored on the stroke of halftime when Japan international Shinji Kagawa shook off two defenders with a fine solo run and slotted the ball home with a clever left-foot shot from a tight angle.
Leverkusen keeper Bernd Leno spared the blushes of Stefan Kiessling with an acrobatic save to keep out a goalbound defensive header from Jakub Blaszczykowski s freekick.
The champions, who have won all four of their Bundesliga games this year without injured playmaker Mario Goetze, are now unbeaten in 15 straight league games since early September.
The result lifted Dortmund to 46 points from 21 games, still two ahead of Bayern, with Leverkusen stuck in sixth place on 31 and looking lacklustre ahead of their Champions League round of 16 first leg against Barcelona on Tuesday.
In Munich, Franck Ribery was the provider as Bundesliga top scorer Mario Gomez headed Bayern into a sixth minute lead with his 18th league goal of the season.
Thomas Mueller rose above the defence to add a second with a powerful header on the half-hour.
The Bavarians, who also reached the German Cup semi-finals in midweek and are also still in the Champions league, seem to have recovered from an erratic start to the year following one win in their previous three games.
Surprise package Borussia Moenchengladbach moved above visitors Schalke 04 into third on 43 points after taking them
apart in a 3-0 win.
Marco Reus opened the scoring in the second minute, twisting his way past two markers and swivelling to drill a low shot past the right hand of visiting goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall.
Mike Hanke doubled the lead in the 15th minute, curling in a right footed shot after a brilliant exchange of passes with Patrick Herrmann and Venezuela s Juan Arango, who then made it 3-0 after a 25 metre freekick on 31 minutes.
The result leaves Schalke fourth with 41 points.
Zambia triumph in CAN penalty shoot out
Didier Drogba s ghosts returned to haunt him as Zambia won the African Nations Cup for the first time after beating Ivory Coast 8-7 in a drama-filled penalty shootout following a 0-0 draw on Sunday.
Stoppila Sunzu converted the winning penalty after three successive efforts had been missed in a long and nervy shootout that totalled 18 kicks. But the goalless match might not have had to go to the shootout had Drogba not ballooned a 70th-minute penalty well wide to deny his team victory inside 90 minutes, repeating his miss in the 2006 final which the Ivorians lost to Egypt.
The loss was another near miss for the Ivorian s golden generation, who had been expected to win African football s top prize at the last four editions but failed every time.
Two of their English Premier League players – Kolo Toure and Gervinho – missed kicks in the shootout.
Zambia, who had gone into the game as underdogs, won over the 40,000 crowd in the Friendship Stadium in the Gabon capital with their positive play against a surprisingly timid Ivorian side who failed to take the initiative in the game.
After winning, the Zambian team held up banners remembering their side that died in a air crash not far from the stadium in 1993 and whose memory they had honoured on the eve of the game.
At times, Zambia showed complete disdain for their star-studded opponents, with showy tricks on the ball and some clever routines although they also lived dangerously in defence.
Yaya Toure and substitute Max Gradel both went narrowly wide for the Ivorians but it was Drogba who could have been the hero after Isaac Chansa had pushed down Gervinho in the penalty area in the 70th minute and the Senegal referee Badara Diatta bravely awarded a penalty.
Parliament will decide NATO supply restoration: COAS
While talking to the media in Jaccobabad, Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said that this is wrong impression that Pakistani fighter jets are unable to hit the NATO aircrafts.
He said that F-16 jets would be seldom used in war on terror, adding that restoration of NATO supply restoration would be decided by the Parliament.
Serbia into Davis Cup quarter-finals
Serbia reached the Davis Cup quarter-finals here on Sunday when Janko Tipsarevic defeated Michael Ryderstedt 6-2, 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 to secure an unbeatable 3-1 lead over Sweden.
The Serbs, playing without world number one Novak Djokovic, won both opening rubbers on Friday but Sweden stayed alive by winning the doubles on Saturday.
SC allows Gilani to take his car inside courts premises
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was allowed to take his car inside Supreme Court premises when he arrives for hearing in contempt case today.
In an earlier development the apex court had barred Gilani from taking his car inside court’s premises.
Pakistan People’s Party’s secretary information Qmar Zaman Kaira moved an application in the court that security risks have increased due to hearing of missing persons case by the Supreme Court.
Interior Minister also wrote a letter to registrar of the Supreme Court, asking him to grant permission to prime minister to bring his car inside the Supreme Court building.
Coalition partners accompany Gilani to SC
Pakistan People’s Party core committee and government’s coalition partners held separate meetings in Islamabad in connection with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s appearance in the Supreme Court in contempt case.
They observed that Supreme Court building came under PML-N workers attack during Nawaz Sharif tenure but no one was convicted on contempt carges. They were of the view that Gilani might be first prime minister of Pakistan to be convicted on the contempt of court charges.
The meetings also discussed the options that in case of sentence, the notification to de-seat Prime Minister would be sent to Election Commission via Speaker National Assembly.
According to a core committee member, Supreme Court has issued 20 to 22 passes and some cabinet ministers and leaders of the coalition parties will accompany Prime Minister Gilani to the court.
SC to hear missing prisoners case today
Seven prisoners have been brought to the Supreme Court on the court order.
The three-member Supreme Court (SC) bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will resume hearing of missing prisoners case today.
The court, during previous hearing, had directed the officials of sensitive agencies to produce the 11 missing prisoners from Adiala Jail on February 13.
The court has also summoned secretary defence to appear before the court today. The counsel for the sensitive agencies, Raja Irshad informed the court during previous hearing that four of the 11 prisoners taken into custody from Adiala Jail have died while four are under treatment at the Lady Reading Hospital and remaining three are under detention in Para Chinar.
Greece approve austerity as protesters, police clash
Greek lawmakers approved a new round of drastic austerity measures late Sunday after a long day of street battles between police and protesters left Athens buildings ablaze and the streets in chaos.
The deputies defied the 100,000-strong turnout in Athens and Thessaloniki and approved another round of stringent budget measures requested by Greece s international creditors in return for a multi-billion rescue fund.
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos denounced the violence in the debate leading up to the vote, saying the street battles around the parliament building had no place in a democracy.
Deputies “will assume their responsibility” and make the most important choice of “advancing with Europe and the single currency”, Papademos said shortly before the vote took place.
The fire brigade said 10 buildings were set ablaze in central Athens, most of them by petrol bombs hurled by masked protesters who have been a common presence at anti-austerity marches since the crisis began in 2010.
The health ministry said 54 people were injured in the day s events.
Fire engines were initially unable to intervene because of the size of the protest and the chaos that filled the streets around the parliament building, where lawmakers debated the austerity plan ahead of a late-night vote.
When protesters wearing gas masks tried to break through the riot police cordon around parliament, the standoff broke out into running battles, with tear gas canisters and rocks flying in opposite directions.
An estimated 80,000 protesters gathered in Athens, police said, matching the biggest turnouts achieved against earlier austerity packages last year, while around 20,000 also demonstrated in the second city of Thessaloniki.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told parliament it had to back the government-approved plan to unlock a 130 billion euro ($171 billion) rescue fund from the EU and the IMF, or Greece would be forced to default.
“The situation is very clear. Tonight at midnight before the markets open the Greek parliament must send the message that our nation can and will (support the debt deal),” Venizelos said.
The pressure on Greece is huge as leaders in the eurozone core countries express their exasperation with Athens and increasingly minimise the wider dangers of the country stumbling out of the single currency.
Gilani arrives in SC to face contempt case
The apex court has allowed Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to take his car inside the Supreme Court premises.
In an earlier development, the apex court had barred Gilani from taking his car inside court’s premises.
A seven-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk and comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmani, Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Athar Saeed will hear the case.
The apex court is all set to frame charges against Gilani in contempt of court case.
Various leaders including Firdous Ashinq Awan, Khurshid Shah, Qamaruz Zaman Kaira, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Asfandyar Wali Khan are also present in the court to express solidarity with PM Gilani.
The security around the SC building is high alert.
