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.
Coe, government back lifetime Olympic doping ban
The British government and Olympic great Sebastian Coe are backing the national Olympic body s fight to keep a lifetime ban for drug cheats.
Coe, the two-time 1,500-meter champion who heads the organizing committee for the 2012 London Games, and Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said Friday they have written letters supporting the British Olympic Association s hardline doping rule.
The letters were sent to the Court of Arbitration for Sport ahead of a hearing in London on March 12.
The BOA is challenging a decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which ruled in November that the lifetime ban was “noncompliant” with the global code and amounts to a second sanction.
The BOA contends the rule, which has been in place since 1992, is a matter of eligibility.
London Olympics ethics commissioner quits
A commissioner of the sustainability watchdog for the 2012 London Olympics resigned Wednesday in protest at the involvement of Dow Chemical, because of its links to the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
Meredith Alexander said she was stepping down from her unpaid position on the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 (CSL), which monitors sustainability at the Olympics and Paralympics.
“I don t want to be party to a defence of Dow Chemicals, the company responsible for one of the worst corporate human rights violations in my generation,” Alexander said in a statement.
Dow is a major sponsor of both the London Games and the International Olympic Committee, and has stepped in to fund a high-tech “wrap” around the stadium.
“I think the responsible thing to do would be for Dow to withdraw from the wrap contract. Otherwise London 2012 is undermining its aim to be the most sustainable Games ever and showing contempt for the Bhopal victims,” Alexander added.
The London Olympics organisers, LOCOG, said in December that Dow s name would not be on the wrap during the Games or on five test panels either.
India is strongly opposed to the company s involvement with the Games.
Dow is now the parent company of Union Carbide, whose pesticide plant leaked gas into Bhopal in 1984, killing tens of thousands of people in the world s worst industrial accident.
The company has said all liabilities for the disaster were resolved after Union Carbide settled with the Indian government in 1989 by paying $470 million to the Bhopal victims.
London’s Big Ben is leaning, parliament sinking: reports
January 24, 2012 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
LONDON: The landmark clock tower containing Big Ben at Britain’s Palace of Westminster, is tilting, while media reports said the mother of all parliaments was slipping into the River Thames, raising fears over its future.
The House of Commons commission, which is responsible for the upkeep of the 19th century neo-Gothic parliamentary estate popular with tourist photographs, met Monday.
Media reports said it would discuss a surveyor’s report which could recommend lawmakers move out for repairs costing up to one billion pounds, while the Daily Telegraph said another proposal might be to sell to Russian or Chinese developers for about 500 million pounds (£779.7 million).
But a commission spokesman said there was no surveyor’s report, and members were only meeting to discuss setting up a group to look at general long-term renovation of the grade 1-listed building designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin.
“I think there’s been twos and twos added together and come up with we are selling to the Russians, but they won’t be talking about anything like that,” the spokesman said.
The 96-metre tall clock tower, which houses the bell originally nicknamed Big Ben, leans about 46 cm to the left of its peak.
A construction expert who worked on the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy and a multi-storey carpark under the houses of parliament in central London, said there was nothing to worry about, and it would take 10,000 years to reach an angle of concern.
Professor John Burland of Imperial College London also said work on the underground Jubilee train line in the 1990s had not caused dramatic movement, while a spokesman for the commission said the tilt could have existed since its construction in 1859.
The lean which is just visible to the naked eye had “been there for years,” Burland said.
“When I first started work on the car park it was obvious that it was leaning,” he told BBC radio.
“It was probably developed at a very early stage because there’s no cracking in the cladding and we think it probably leant while they were building it and before they put the cladding on.
“That was a long time ago and buildings do lean a little bit.”
He also dismissed concern in the media that parliament was slipping into the Thames, while the commission’s spokesman denied the walls around the palace were suffering from a particularly bad subsidence problem causing Big Ben to lean.
The current building, which houses the upper and lower chambers as well as the offices of some lawmakers, was built after its medieval predecessor was largely destroyed by fire in 1834 and has required constant maintenance.
“There’s no such thing as an old building that isn’t cracked,” he said.
“In fact they’re beneficial because the building moves thermally more than is caused by the Jubilee Line and the movements concentrated around the cracks and, if they didn’t, there’d be cracking elsewhere.
“So these have been there for years and they’re certainly not caused by the Jubilee Line or the car park.” AGENCIES?
Taylor Swift and Zac Efron getting close and cozy?
TrendPK.com: There may be a new, hot, young couple in Hollywood if a recent dinner out together was as romantic as some make it sound.
It is being rumored that Taylor Swift and Zac Efron recently grabbed dinner together in Los Angeles at an Italian spot after arriving together in Efron’s car, states UsMagazine.com.
The dinner reportedly had the two laughing and enjoying each other’s company. Swift and Efron are currently costars in Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Lorax.’
Both stars are single, but other rumors claim they are just friends.
Do you think they should date?
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Spice Girls reportedly working on musical, possible Olympics performance
TrendPK.com: It looks like the Spice Girls aren’t done yet as they are reportedly signing off on a musical involving their songs and images, and could possibly be doing something for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
First, the women have reportedly all signed off on the musical, ‘Viva Forever,’ as they all approved of the script, states RadarOnline.com. Now, there is the question of whether or not they will reunite for the upcoming Olympics in London.
While a few of them are allegedly on board, it seems that Victoria Beckham has a lot going on and isn’t a lock just yet.
Do you want them to reunite for the Olympics?
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Jessica Alba thinks Beyonce should maybe sell first baby photos
TrendPK.com: Beyonce recently gave birth to her first child with Jay-Z, and the public certainly wants to see what the little girl looks like.
And now, Jessica Alba is advising that Beyonce consider selling the first baby pictures before the paparazzi possibly get out of hand trying to get one, states Hollyscoop. “For our family, we just wanted to control the experience,” Alba said about her decision to sell photos of her daughter, Honor.
But more than that, Alba thinks safety is a factor as well: “If there’s a price tag on your child – which is so bizarre – people will go to crazy lengths. We wanted to avoid that hysteria.”
Alba has put the money away to give to her daughter, but thinks charity is also a good thing to do with the profit.
It has been rumored that Beyonce will not sell pictures of her child.
Do you think she will? Do you think she should?
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Jennifer Lopez: relationship with Marc Anthony is like Sonny and Cher
TrendPK.com: Apparently the rumors about the two not getting along aren’t true if you believe what Jennifer Lopez allegedly says in the first episode of their new show ‘Q’Viva! The Chosen.’
Lopez reportedly comments on the episode that she can work with her ex, Marc Anthony, just fine as the two have a certain kind of relationship, states People. Lopez jokes that the relationship now is “very Sonny and Cher after the divorce.”
However, it seems Anthony might not exactly agree as he responds, “Really?”.
The two were together when the show idea was announced, but had split once it went into production.
Do you think they still have a good relationship?
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Katherine Heigl talks making marriage work no matter what
TrendPK.com: Katherine Heigl has been open about her marriage with Josh Kelley, and even made the comment that she would probably forgive him if he made the mistake of cheating once.
Now, she is talking about continuing to make her marriage last despite the differences and occasional fights, states UsMagazine.com. “We’ve had some pretty explosive fights over the years trying to make our marriage work, but it’s been worth it,” Heigl commented, adding that she doesn’t want to be without him in her life.
The two have one adopted daughter together.
Do you like them as a couple?
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Le Pen snaps at Sarkozy’s heels in economic storm
January 20, 2012 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is staging a comeback in opinion polls less than 100 days before the presidential election, riding a wave of economic discontent that has endangered President Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election chances.
As rising unemployment and the loss of France’s triple-A credit rating tarnish Sarkozy’s presidential record, pollsters say that Le Pen’s brand of anti-European rhetoric is gaining ground with a broad swathe of unhappy voters.
On Thursday, a daily survey of voting intentions by pollster Ifop gave her 21 percent support in the first round of a two-stage election scheduled for April and May, just two percentage points behind the conservative head of state.
Analysts say the poll fits with a broader trend of growing support for Le Pen and her ideas that weakens both Sarkozy and his Socialist rival Francois Hollande, who leads the field.
A first-round exit for an incumbent president would be a first in the history of France’s Fifth Republic, founded in 1958.
“We cannot say today with certainty that either Francois Hollande or Nicolas Sarkozy will be qualified in the first round,” said Jean-Daniel Levy, an analyst with polling agency Harris Interactive.
“What is most surprising to us is that we have never seen such an elevated level of support for a far-right candidate three months before a presidential election,” he added.
Le Pen, who holds a strong third position behind Hollande and Sarkozy, has made a push for mainstream respectability in the year since she took over leadership of the National Front from her father, Jean-Marie.
Shifting away from its narrow focus on immigration, Le Pen has rebranded the National Front as a protector of French sovereignty, ready to abandon the euro and shut French borders to foreign competition.
A spate of industrial shutdowns has bolstered support for her idea of “intelligent protectionism” among disenchanted working class voters. Troubled Swiss refiner Petroplus became the latest to raise the spectre of a closure, announcing on Friday it was looking to sell its refinery in Petit-Couronne, northern France.
“It’s obviously the ultra-liberal policies defended by all presidential candidates, aside from myself, that is behind the closure of all these factories,” Le Pen told RMC radio, referring to both mainstream candidates.
Ifop pollster Jerome Fourquet said Le Pen’s comeback after a poll dip in late 2011 reflected disappointment with Sarkozy’s record on employment, with jobless claims at a 12-year high, and anxiety over the downgrade of French debt to AA+ by Standard & Poor’s last Friday.
“Bad news on the economic front clearly weakens the outgoing president, who had set a target of bringing unemployment down to five percent by the end of his term,” he said. “All of that gives Marine Le Pen new arguments to criticise the president’s mistakes.”
Sarkozy, who has yet to announce his candidacy officially, used a speech in Lyon on Thursday to launch an indirect attack on Le Pen’s ideas, saying a withdrawal from the euro would kill jobs and sink the French economy.
Boosting French competitiveness, notably by lowering labour costs, was “the only way”, he said. AGENCIES
