Football honours Sir Bobby Robson

31 July 2009

Leading figures from the world of football and politics have paid tribute to Sir Bobby Robson after his death at the age of 76 following a long battle with cancer.
Robson was a renowned and revered figure in football and led England to the World Cup semi-finals at Italia 90, the closest they have come to repeating their 1966 success on home soil.
Fellow managers, his former players, Prime Ministers past and present, and the presidents of Fifa and Uefa were among those saluting his life and achievements.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson mourned the passing of a "great friend, a wonderful individual and tremendous football man."
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair called him "one of the nicest, most caring and genuine people I ever met - a real Geordie gentleman."
Here is a selection of the tributes paid by the football fraternity and others to one of the game's most respected and popular figures.
source: bbc.com

Posted by News Point at 7:39 PM 0 comments  

US plans IPL-style cricket league

There are plans to launch a Twenty20 cricket league in the US similar to the successful Indian Premier League, a top US cricket official says.
The chief of the USA Cricket Association, Don Lockerbie, said that potential commercial partners are being sought for the tournament.
The matches next year are planned for three venues, including a new cricket stadium that has been built in Florida.
There are some 15 million cricket fans in the US, Mr Lockerbie said.
By organising America's first professional cricket tournament, Mr Lockerbie said he was trying to make America "one of the top 15 cricket playing nations by 2015".
"[The planned tournament] is a very serious initiative and the chances [of it succeeding] are better than a 50-over tournament," he said.
Mr Lockerbie said proposals have already been sought from potential commercial partners and efforts were on to find out how much the tournament was worth.
source: bbc.com

Posted by News Point at 7:35 PM 0 comments  

India's family battle over gas

The world's richest brothers are locking horns yet again - and this time, it is over natural gas.
The latest spat between Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, who control India's Reliance group of industries, could turn out to be the most unsavoury yet and hinder efforts to solve the country's chronic energy shortage.
This week, Anil Ambani, the 50-year-old younger brother, described the government as "partisan and biased" towards his elder brother, Mukesh.
At the heart of the latest battle between the siblings is the natural gas that was discovered by Reliance Industries in the Krishna Godavari basin off India's eastern coast in 2002, three years before the brothers parted ways.
The Reliance empire was divided between the two brothers in 2005 after a bitter seven-month feud.
In a family pact vetted and supervised by the brothers' mother in 2005, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) was to supply 28 million cubic meters of gas a day at $2.34 per million units to Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Limited (RNRL) for 17 years.
source: bbc.com

Posted by News Point at 7:32 PM 0 comments  

Musharraf emergency 'unlawful'

Pakistan's Supreme Court has ruled that emergency rule enforced by former President Pervez Musharraf was unconstitutional and illegal.
The order clears the way for him to be tried for treason because under the constitution, anyone found guilty of abrogating it can be prosecuted.
The court ruling also said that the appointment of judges after the emergency was illegal.
However, the order will not affect the position of President Asif Ali Zardari.
It said that questions over the constitutional legitimacy of his appointment should be "exempted".
The court ruled that if this matter was brought before it, there was a danger Pakistan could be plunged into another constitutional crisis.
But the ruling does mean that those judges who were appointed after the emergency was imposed could lose their jobs.
Criminal prosecution
Significantly though, the ruling did not touch on the National Reconciliation Ordinance, which the former president issued just before he enforced emergency rule. source: bbc.com

Posted by News Point at 7:29 PM 0 comments  

Al Qaeda changing, training, plotting

Editor's note: This story is based on interrogation reports that form part of the prosecution case in the forthcoming trial of six Belgian citizens charged with participation in a terrorist group. Versions of those documents were obtained by CNN from the defense attorney of one of those suspects. The statement by Bryant Vinas was compiled from an interview he gave Belgian prosecutors in March 2009 in New York, and was confirmed by U.S. prosecutors as authentic. The statement by Walid Othmani was given to French investigators, and was authenticated by Belgian prosecutors.
When Bryant Neal Vinas spoke at length with Belgian prosecutors last March, he provided a fascinating and sometimes frightening insight into al Qaeda's training -- and its agenda.
Vinas is a young American who was arrested in Pakistan late in 2008 after allegedly training with al Qaeda in the Afghan-Pakistan border area.
He was repatriated to the United States and in January pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization.
In notes made by FBI agents of interviews with Vinas, he admits he went to Pakistan to join al Qaeda and kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
But the terror group appeared to have other ideas for him. He volunteered to become a suicide bomber but was dissuaded at every turn. Read how al Qaeda is now operating
On Thanksgiving weekend last year, shortly after his arrest, much of the New York mass transit system including Penn Station was put on high alert. According to the Belgian prosecutor's document, Vinas had told al Qaeda's command everything he knew about the system.

Posted by News Point at 7:27 PM 0 comments  

Philippines ex-leader Aquino dies

Former Philippines President Corazon Aquino has died at the age of 76, her family said.
She had been suffering from colon cancer for more than a year and recently refused further treatment.
Her family had said she was leaving her fate to God, prompting church services offering prayers for her health.
National mourning has been declared for Mrs Aquino who became president when the 1986 "people power" uprising deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Cory remained untainted by corruption up until her last days in office.
Nelson, Long Beach USA
BBC News website reader
Corazon Aquino: Your reaction
"Our mother peacefully passed away at 0318 [1918 GMT Friday] of cardio-respiratory arrest," Mrs Aquino's son, Senator Benigno Aquino Jr, told the media.
source: bbc.com

Posted by News Point at 7:24 PM 0 comments  

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