United go on top after Suarez handshake snub
Manchester United regained top spot in the Premier League with a 2-1 victory over Liverpool on Saturday in a stormy clash marred by fresh controversy stemming from the Luis Suarez racism affair.
Two second-half goals in three minutes from United talisman Wayne Rooney — playing in his 500th game at senior level — saw the champions go one point clear of Manchester City, who face Aston Villa on Sunday.
But the early kick-off at Old Trafford was dominated by incidents involving Suarez, who scored Liverpool s only goal in his first start since returning from an eight-match ban for racially abusing United captain Patrice Evra.
Despite assurances from both clubs managers during the week that Evra and Suarez would shake hands before the kick-off, the Uruguayan caused an unnecessary flashpoint by ignoring Evra s outstretched hand.
Evra angrily grabbed Suarez s arm as the South American walked away, before United defender Rio Ferdinand then snubbed Suarez s offer of a handshake.
Disgusted United manager Sir Alex Ferguson branded Suarez a “disgrace” afterwards and said the striker should never play for Liverpool again.
“I couldn t believe it. I just could not believe it,” Ferguson said when asked for his reaction. “I had a chat with Patrice this morning and he said he was going to shake his hand. He said I have nothing to be ashamed of.
“Suarez is a disgrace to Liverpool Football Club. He shouldn t be allowed to play for Liverpool again.
“The history that club s got, he could have caused a riot. It was terrible what he did. It was a terrible start to the game and it created a terrible atmosphere.”
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish later insisted he had not seen the incident, but lost his cool with a television interviewer at the suggestion it had led to a bust-up between players from both sides at half-time.
“I never knew he didn t shake his hand. I will take your word for it. That is contrary to what I was told,” Dalglish said.
“It s bang out of order to blame Luis Suarez for anything that happened today, how many bookings were there? The fans had a bit of banter.”
Dalglish meanwhile admitted Liverpool had been beaten by a better side.
“They were the better side but you would expect that at home. We left ourselves with a mountain to climb,” Dalglish said.
The Suarez incident was the main talking point of a low-key opening 45 minutes, with Paul Scholes header from close range the best scoring chance.
However, tempers flared on the stroke of half-time, with Suarez appealing for a foul after being tackled by Ferdinand when through on goal, and later kicking the ball angrily towards the dug-out area.
Police and stewards were then called to the tunnel to defuse tensions between scuffling players from both sides.
When the second half kicked off, Rooney effectively settled the result in a devastating three-minute spell.
The England striker volleyed in his first from close range on 47 minutes after Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson inadvertently flicked on a Ryan Giggs corner.
Rooney then made it 2-0 in the 50th minute after a Jay Spearing blunder let in Antonio Valencia. Valencia s pass found Rooney, who coolly stroked his shot past Pepe Reina.
United remained firmly in control for the remainder of the half but a lapse in concentration saw Suarez pull a goal back for Liverpool to set up a nervous final 10 minutes.
Zardari pays tribute to outgoing senators
President Asif Ali Zardari Thursday said the outgoing senators will be remembered in the parliamentary history as proud members of the parliament that unanimously removed the traces of dictatorships from the Constitution by passing the historic 18th and 19th Constitutional Amendments, besides making possible the realization of shared national ideal of restoring democracy by their wisdom and selflessness while being members of the upper House.
“Nobody can deprive you of this great honour which will always remain the first line in your biography regardless of other achievements to your credit,” he remarked.
The President was addressing a dinner hosted for the outgoing senators here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr on Thursday night that was attended among others by Chairman Senate Farooq H. Naek, ministers, parliamentarians and outgoing senators.
Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar said that the President while commending the role of senate, said that, driven by the spirit of reconciliation and consensus, the outgoing senators have to their credit as members of the senate that passed some very important pieces of legislation unanimously including the recently adopted a far reaching pro-women bill.
The President appreciated the devotion and commitment of the outgoing senators to the public welfare and said that he was confident that their successors will take their legacy to new heights expressing the hope that guided by the outgoing senators’ example the new comers will add new chapters of glory.
Zardari said that differences are being created among the political leaders. He also advised the opposition to refrain from mud-slugging.
London: Kate undertakes solo public engagements
Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, undertook her first solo public engagement on Wednesday with a visit to London s National Portrait Gallery.
The Duchess, also known as Kate, has recently become a Patron of the gallery. She attended a private viewing of an exhibit by artist Lucien Freud.
Kate studied history of art of St. Andrews University in Scotland, where she met and fell in love with Prince William.
The Duke of Cambridge is currently serving in the Royal Airforce in the Falklands. He is not due back in Britain until the middle of next month, so Kate will be spending Valentine s Day without her husband.
Instead she is spending February 14 visiting her chosen charities in Liverpool, northwest England. She will visit an alcohol free bar in her role as Patron of Action on Addiction. Then she will visit a children s hospital and tour oncology and burns unit facilities.
Eight held as police move in on Occupy Wall Street
Police swept through the Washington offshoot of Occupy Wall Street on Saturday, arresting eight people in a day-long raid that virtually shut down the tent colony a stone s throw from the White House.
Some scuffles broke out, but stunned members of Occupy DC otherwise put up little resistance as National Park Service police descended on their sprawling, scruffy encampment in McPherson Square at dawn.
By nightfall, police in riot gear and sanitation workers in white overalls, backed with forklifts and garbage trucks, had taken away dozens of tents, as well as soiled bedding, personal belongings and a few dead rats.
Police arrested seven people for disobeying orders to move or for crossing police lines, and an eighth was taken into custody for hitting and injuring a police officer with a brick, a Park Police spokesman told local media.
“It is a sad day in American history when the small act of occupying public space warrants the heavy-handed response of the federal government,” said Occupy DC in a statement to news media.
“Moving forward, the Occupy movement will not die,” said American University student Mana Aliabadi, 18, to fellow protesters who mustered as much morale as they could in the drizzle outside a police barricade. But it was unclear where the leaderless campaign against economic inequality and corporate power that first erupted in New York s financial district in September would go next.
Occupy DC took root in McPherson Square — in the heart of the K Street lobbying district — on October 1, growing in time to around 100 tents that included a library, a cafeteria, a medical clinic and a teepee.
But while the original Occupy Wall Street and other encampments fell in the face of evictions, protesters in Washington hung on, partly due to the National Park Service bending its no-camping rules and classifying the protest as “a 24-hour vigil.”
Under growing pressure from Republican politicians and local businesses, the federal agency changed tack last week, declaring it would begin strict enforcement at both Occupy DC and a second, less controversial camp nearby.
Dozens of police officers, some on horseback, and with a helicopter overhead, descended on McPherson Square at dawn Saturday. Surrounding streets were sealed off and barricades went up around the park.
“We are not here to evict,” but to verify compliance with the no-camping rules, one police officer told protesters. Those rules define camping as the use of park land for “sleeping activities.”
Protesters complied with a request to take down their “tent of dreams,” a huge blue tarpaulin they provocatively erected Monday over an equestrian statue of Civil War general James McPherson in the heart of the park.
But by mid-morning Saturday, as police slowly swept through the park, quadrant by quadrant, it was clear that any tent with anything inside would be confiscated — sending some occupiers scrambling to pack up their belongings.
Virmeko Scott, 30, was confident the clampdown would not be the end of Occupy DC. “There s going to be more tents down here,” he told AFP by his freshly emptied tent. “They re going to multiply.”
Fellow occupier Melissa Byrne agreed: “We have been evicted, but word is going to get out and we re going to be back stronger than ever.” But passerby Jacqueline Meyers Edlow, a retiree, said the protesters had overstayed their welcome, and that citizens who sympathized with them at first now “want them to get the heck out.”
“I feel they should have been cleared out earlier, because of (the risk of) disease,” she said. “I know of no other country that would have let them stay this long.”
Thousands of sky lanterns released into evening sky
Taiwan celebrates the year of the dragon by releasing thousands of floating sky lanterns that decorated the evening sky, ahead of the annual lantern festival.
The festival, which is scheduled on February 6 this year, is celebrated on the first full moon night or fifteen days after the Chinese new year, which also marks the end of new year celebrations.
On a 20 feet (6 meter) tall giant lantern, the recently re-elected president Ma Ying-jeou wrote “Dragon in the sky offers protection to Taiwan.”
The dragon is the symbol of emperor and excellence in traditional Taiwanese belief, and the year of the dragon is considered especially auspicious for the Taiwanese people.
Participants of the event brought their prayers for the upcoming year to Pingxi Township in New Taipei City, where the event is held annually.
“I wish I and the people I love, my family and friends, stay in peace and good health. And I wish for a salary increase, and to win the lottery,” said 33-year-old Lee Wen-chiao.
The magnificent view fascinated first timer Chen Guo-bao.
“This is my first time here to release a sky lantern, I am very happy. It is a good feeling to see so many lanterns released into the sky,” said 32-year-old Chen.
According to history of Pingxi Township, the lanterns were first used as a tool to help protect the safety of townspeople, but gradually evolved to become a way to send prayers to heaven.
The lanterns, also called “Kongming Lanterns”, was believed to be an invention by Zhuge Kongming, the military mastermind in the Three Kingdoms era (220-280 A.D.), as a communication tool for the army.
Others believe the name “Kongming Lanterns” comes from the shape which looks like the hat worn by Zhuge Kongming in his portraits.
The wide-topped hot air balloons made of cotton paper and bamboo, which allows hot air to fill up, and the bamboo ring at the bottom holds 12 sheets of paper money at the center as the wick.
Once the paper money starts burning, the lantern is held on the ground for a minute then released up the sky.
Court rejects bail plea by Megaupload founder
A New Zealand court refused an appeal by the founder of online file-sharing site Megaupload.com to be freed on bail, Friday, agreeing with prosecutors there was a risk he would attempt to flee before an extradition hearing.
Kim Dotcom, a German national also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, was returned to custody until February 22 ahead of a hearing on an extradition application by the United States.
The High Court in Auckland said the lower court judge was right to rule there was a significant risk Dotcom, who had passports and bank accounts in three names, might try to flee the country.
There was nothing to tie Dotcom to New Zealand except his motivation to fight the charges and get his funds, Justice Raynor Asher said.
“The judge correctly concluded that the risk of flight cannot be mitigated by the imposition of conditions, including electronic monitoring,” said prosecutor Anne Toohey.
STRENUOUSLY DENIES CHARGES
Prosecutors say Dotcom was the ringleader of a group that netted $175 million since 2005 by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization.
Dotcom s lawyers say the company simply offered online storage and that he strenuously denies the charges and will fight extradition.
Dotcom, 38, and three others, were arrested on January 20 after armed New Zealand police raided his country estate at the request of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
He told the court that with his assets frozen and business shut down he had no intention of trying to flee to his native Germany, where he would be safe from extradition.
“I will not run away. I want to fight these allegations on a level playing field. I have three little children. My wife is pregnant with twins. I just want to be with them,” he said in court.
EXTREME FLIGHT RISK, FUNNY VISITS
The prosecution again painted Dotcom as an extreme flight risk because of he had multiple passports, sources of funds, access to various means of travel, and previous history of fleeing to avoid criminal charges.
Officers cut Dotcom out of a safe room he had barricaded himself in within the sprawling mansion, reputedly New Zealand s most expensive home.
Dotcom said he said he had received “funny visits” and contacts while in jail, including one from a man claiming to be a prosecutor asking for money in return for a favorable bail hearing. He denied knowing anyone with a background in providing forged documents, whom the prosecution said had tried to visit him.
He said police had been unnecessarily aggressive when they raided his property.
“I was punched in the face, I was kicked down on the floor, one guy was standing on my hands … it was bleeding.”
Legal experts have said extradition hearings are likely to be drawn out with appeals likely all the way to the country s highest court.
The lower court judge said the accused appeared to have “an arguable defense at least in respect of the breach of copyright charges.”
US Archives unveils Magna Carta after repairs
The National Archives unveiled its 715-year-old copy of Magna Carta on Thursday after a conservation effort removed old patches and repaired weak spots in the English declaration of human rights that inspired the United States founding documents.
A $13.5 million gift from philanthropist David Rubenstein funded conservation and a new case for the only original Magna Carta in the United States. Rubenstein bought the historic document at auction in 2007 for $21.3 million and sent it to the National Archives on a long-term loan.
Rubenstein, who is co-founder of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, said he bought the document previously owned by Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot because he wanted to keep it from leaving the country. The only other copies are in Britain and at Australia s parliament.
The U.S. copy was one of four reissued in the year 1297. It still carries the wax seal of King Edward I of England, which is attached by a ribbon under the document.
As a history buff, Rubenstein, 62, has become somewhat of an expert on Magna Carta s legacy dating to 1215. That s when noblemen came together to declare their rights to King John, including the right to a trial by jury and the first limits on arbitrary taxation that led to the principle of “no taxation without representation.”
“This became something that set the trend of common law” in Britain and later in the United States as founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison referred back to Magna Carta, Rubenstein said.
Rubenstein said he became interested in the ideas behind the Constitution while working for Congress in his 20s, which led him to study the Magna Carta. The document will likely remain at the National Archives permanently, he said.
“You can t be buried with these documents as far as I know,” Rubenstein said.
Magna Carta will return to public view at the National Archives on Feb. 17. A new interactive display will allow visitors to zoom in on an image of the parchment and see how it was repaired. They can read an English translation of Magna Carta s Latin words and see comparisons to language in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
On Thursday, conservators showed the document in its new protective case developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Rubenstein s gift also is funding an upcoming exhibit that will open in 2013. There, Magna Carta will be shown as a forerunner to the freedoms imagined in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights and will be paired with other documents declaring human rights for African Americans, women, immigrants and others.
FIFA seeks report on Egypt football tragedy
World football s governing body FIFA on Thursday called on Egyptian authorities to deliver a full report on the post-match violence that killed 74 football fans.
“FIFA is in mourning and our thoughts are with the families of all those who lost their lives. Furthermore, FIFA has asked the Egyptian authorities for a full report on the incidents in order to evaluate what happened,” it said in a statement.
The football body noted: “It is important to recall that FIFA has established strict safety regulations for all of its competitions.”
FIFA said the regulations are not only “guidelines for competitions and matches not organised by FIFA” but that organisers and local authorities need “to apply their own safety regulations”.
FIFA offered “its full support to the Egyptian Football Association and will provide the EFA with any assistance it needs with regard to this tragedy.”
The president of FIFA Sepp Blatter in a letter to the head of the EFA, Samir Zaher, said: “Today is a black day for football and we must take steps to ensure that such a catastrophe never happens again.
“Football is a force for good and we must not allow it to be abused by those who mean evil.”
The FIFA president said he would await further news from Zaher regarding the tragedy.
Egypt began three days of mourning after the deaths following an eruption of violence at a football match that sparked new anger against the military rulers for failing to ensure security.
The rioting in the northern city of Port Said on Wednesday night marked one of the deadliest incidents in football history and sent shares on the Cairo stock exchange plunging in Thursday trade.
US stocks rise after upbeat jobless claim data
US stocks opened modestly higher Thursday after initial jobless claims showed more signs of improvement in the labor market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 24.49 points (0.19 percent) to 12,740.95 in the first five minutes of trade.
The broad S&P 500 added 2.75 points (0.21 percent) to 1,326.84, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq points gained 6.88 points (0.24 percent) to 2,855.15.
On Wednesday, the major indices scored moderate gains on data showing global growth in manufacturing and expectations that social-networking giant Facebook would soon announce its long-awaited initial public offering.
After the markets closed, Facebook filed to raise $5 billion in the IPO, which would be the largest flotation in history by an Internet company on Wall Street.
Famed boxing trainer Angelo Dundee dies
Famed boxing trainer Angelo Dundee, who helped guide the careers of legendary fighters Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, died at age 90 on Wednesday in Florida.
Dundee was considered one of the greatest trainers in the history of boxing, known as a master motivator as a cornerman during some of the biggest fights the sport has ever seen.
Dundee s work spanned six decades and he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994, cementing his legacy as an invaluable asset to some of the most decorated boxers of all time.
“Angelo died surrounded by family and friends,” his family said in a statement. “He was very happy that he got to celebrate Ali s birthday earlier this year and also that he got to go to the (Hall of Fame).
“He still had much to do, but led a full and extraordinary life.”
Dundee, noted for his knack for motivating and challenging the best of boxers, passed away at his home in Tampa, Florida.
While working with Ali for the majority of the boxing great s career, Dundee trained 15 world champions in total, including Leonard and George Foreman.
One of the more indelible memories of Dundee s career came in 1981 when he loudly exhorted Leonard in the late stages of a world championship unification fight against Thomas Hearns.
After famously telling the fighter, “You re blowing it, son,” Leonard came back out to register a thrilling knockout after having been dominated in preceding rounds.
“He saved Ray Leonard in the Hearns fight. He saved Ali (against Joe Frazier) in Manila,” longstanding boxing promoter Bob Arum told Reuters, having worked with Dundee countless times over the years.
“To motivate (a fighter) takes a special skill and there aren t many people that can do it. In the (more than 45 years) I ve been in boxing, he is the greatest cornerman by far of anyone that I ve ever witnessed.”
“Ali was this unbelievable figure, and a guy who symbolized an entire era of American culture and was idolised around the world,” Arum added. “And through all those times, the person at his side was Dundee. For that, he will always be remembered.”
