wracked country
alert
avatar sets new world box office record taking billion dollars
football french cup results
paris jan afp
french cup results on tuesday
last
auxerre sedan aet
auxerre won on pens
vannes grenoble aet min
elin visits tiger in sex rehab hopes to avoid divorce reports
orlando florida jan afp
elin nordegren visited tiger woods at sex addiction clinic last week and hopes
to save their marriage for the sake of their children according to internet
celebrity website reports tuesday
people magazine and radaronline reported nordegren wants to avoid divorce
citing unnamed sources after spending five days with the golf star as part of
his rehabilitation treatment program in hattiesburg mississippi
nordegren parents divorced when she was child and she wants to avoid having
her children two year old daughter sam and week old son charlie face the
same difficulty
elin wants solid family life source told people she was child of
divorce and felt her dad slighted her she absolutely does not want that to
happen to sam and charlie
so she wants to keep her family together even if she and tiger live together as
friends instead of lovers
us weekly reported that she stayed at the estate of american football star brett
favre while in hattiesburg and that she and woods management team pressured
woods into taking part in the six week program
part of the gentle path program in the middle of six weeks of therapy and
counseling is for patient spouse to visit for about week for disclosure
day when woods would have told nordegren about all of his affairs
woods has admitted infidelity and taken an indefinite leave of absence from
professional golf to solve his personal problems even as more than women have
claimed sexual relationships with the first billion dollar athlete
woods wants to stay married to nordegren according to people sources
tiger wants to go back to being golf star with major endorsements the
source told people he wants his clients who have kids of their own to think
he is good family man he had hoped all along that his wife initial furor
would die down so they could discuss the situation and behave rationally
keeping the family together is very important to tiger so he is doing whatever
it takes to keep elin from leaving him and taking the kids
us reported that woods is not allowed to play golf in addition to not having sex
of any kind during the treatment program meaning he is unable to prepare for
return to the pga tour or use the sport as an escape
he is used to going in this robot mode of hitting ball over and over as way
to escape source told us his dad taught him that at age but he can do
that now
radaronline citing its own unnamed source said nordegren was pleased when she
arrived home sunday and has not filed divorce papers
she was happy when she came home things went well the source said he has
told her he serious about making it work and doing whatever he can the stress
has taken big toll on her but she strong woman
us reported she would fly home to sweden in february to regroup but had not
planned to move back to her homeland
the orlando sentinel reported tuesday that her daughter pre school has hired
on off duty deputy to deal with photographers causing traffic problems trying to
take pictures of sam
nordegren was photographed without wedding rings in orlando on monday when
news broke about daily beast story purporting to detail her actions the night
she learned woods was having an affair
the daily beast report had woods warning his wife last november that tabloid
report would claim he had an affair with rachel uchitel so he had the two of
them talk for about half an hour
later nordegren found mails between the two on his cell phone one of them
reportedly from him to uchitel saying you are the only one ve ever loved
nordegren sent uchitel message purportedly from woods and later called from
her husband number saying knew it was you when uchitel answered
woods who had taken sleeping pill was awakened to nordegren screaming at him
and locked himself in the bathroom he later attempted to flee while barefooted
as his wife chased him with golf club according to the report
white house denies spending freeze to slow growth
washington jan afp
the white house on tuesday denied president barack obama government spending
freeze would suffocate the economic rebound or stifle efforts to ease crippling
percent unemployment
the initiative will be centerpiece of obama debut state of the union address
wednesday in which he will seek to revive ties with voters who gave him
mandate for change but who now seem underwhelmed with his performance
preaching fiscal restraint obama has vowed to cut the deficit in half by the
end of his term in but the scale of his task was underlined wednesday by
new data putting the shortfall at more than trillion dollars in
the freeze on non security discretionary spending which exempts the pentagon
and international affairs budgets would kick in with the accounts and last
three years to save billion dollars over decade
some critics have said that curbing spending with the economy in deep hole is
wrong arguing the government needs to spend its way out of recession
we do not believe the president does not believe the economic team does not
believe that the overall macro economic effect would impact the recovery
efforts white house spokesman robert gibbs said
gibbs also said that if the government could not cut down on discretionary
expenditures it would have little hope of making further cuts in the budget
if we can make these steps how are you going to go after stuff that is
politically hard how are you going to create coalition to do that
the fiscal straitjacket will lead to painful decisions on some government
programs beloved of democratic leaders and lawmakers in congress and will crimp
the spending plans of some members of obama own cabinet
it may also force obama to scale back the size of his ambitious reform agenda
just one year into his four year term of office
you can afford to do everything you might have always wanted to do said one
senior obama administration official
that the decision making process the president and the economic team went
through it the very same process american families have gone through for the
past several years
but prominent members of obama core democratic base offered lukewarm or
downbeat reaction to news of the spending freeze
we ll have to look at see what the president talking about cutting senate
democratic majority leader harry reid said
we have to make sure that we have money for education we have to make sure we
have money to take care of our civil society police fire
we have all kinds of programs ll look at very very closely but mention
two of those that are extremely important to me reid told reporters
obama got lashing on monday night on msnbc from liberal commentator rachel
maddow who accused him on her show of adopting the style policies of
former president herbert hoover that made the depression great
steny hoyer the top democrat in the house of representatives admitted that
obama move would force tough choices on congress
in the short term we need to build jobs and in the long term we need to
balance our budgets
the freeze will certainly give the congress the challenge to make choice on
priorities within those freeze numbers and think we will do that
the congressional budget office added fuel to the turbulent political debate on
tuesday saying that the government budget deficit would come in at
trillion dollars in
the size of the deficit is one factor along with high unemployment and the
sluggish economic recovery from the worst financial crisis in decades that is
helping to drag down public perceptions of obama economic management
republicans have hammered obama for big spending programs including
billion dollar economic stimulus plan and dismiss administration claims that
the program saved or created two million jobs
they downplayed obama freeze saying it would not do enough to rein in wasted
spending by lawmakers and also pointed out in his campaign the president
had argued that such curbs never worked
americans aren happy with the administration approach said the top
senate republican mitch mcconnell
they tired of the spending debt and government takeovers they want
step by step approach to our problems not grand government experiments and
schemes
urgent yahoo posts quarterly net profit of million dollars
san francisco jan afp
yahoo on tuesday posted quarterly net profit of million dollars and swung
out of the red for the year with an annual net profit up percent to
million dollars
us stocks hobbled by china japan fears
new york jan afp
us stocks sputtered tuesday as global recovery fears arising from concerns over
the chinese and japanese economies overshadowed third straight monthly rise in
us consumer confidence
the dow jones industrial average fell points percent to in
final trades in choppy session
the nasdaq composite dipped points percent to and the
broad market standard amp poor index shed points percent to
provisional close of
the market oscillated between positive and negative territory opening lower on
concerns over china lending squeeze and possible sovereign credit rating
downgrade for japan that could dampen global economic recovery
stocks recovered by midday after private research firm the conference board said
its consumer confidence index rose to in january from an upwardly revised
in december for the third monthly rise
but sentiment turned negative just ahead of the final bell
after slightly rebounding yesterday from last week solid declines stocks
are back under some pressure as concerns about the impact of tighter lending in
china on the global economic recovery are resurfacing to pressure sentiment in
early trading analysts at charles schwab amp co said in clients note
additionally uneasiness regarding japan sovereign credit quality on the
heels of an outlook downgrade by standard amp poor and smaller than
expected increase in fourth quarter uk gdp are adding to the global economic
concerns they said
new technology gives views of arteries
washington jan afp
cardiologists could soon have images of patients coronary arteries at their
fingertips and better treat heart disease thanks to new software unveiled by
researchers on tuesday
the technology which has just been tested for the first time on people remains
in the early stages of testing according to feasibility study published in
circulation cardiovascular interventions an american heart association
journal
this is very exciting technology that holds great promise study investigator
john carroll professor of medicine and director of interventional cardiology
in the division of cardiology at the university of colorado in aurora said in
statement
the study allows doctors to assess more accurately and rapidly the length
branching pattern and angles of heart arteries as well as any blockages
cardiologists currently use two dimensional ray images shot from different
angles to visualize arteries inside the body
they also inject contrast dye into thin tube catheter inserted into
patient leg artery and threaded up to the heart to produce shadow images
during cardiac catheterization procedure
although it uses existing ray systems the new software could reduce the need
for several of the images thus reducing patients exposure to radiation and
contrast dye while also decreasing the time doctors need to analyze the images
the study authors explained
the researchers compared standard images to automatically generated
computer images of the coronary artery systems of patients
this is the first in human use carroll explained the next step is to test
it in multiple centers around the world in addition we ll formally test it to
see the impact on clinical care
cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in the united states it is
responsible for million deaths worldwide each year according to the world
health organization
philips healthcare funded the study
alert
yahoo posts quarterly net profit of million dollars
jordanian formally takes over mediterranean union
paris jan afp
ahmad massaadeh former jordanian ambassador to the eu and nato has formally
been named head of the mediterranean union project making him the first leader
of the forum created in france foreign minister said tuesday
the appointment of the secretary general constitutes decisive step in the
institutional construction of the union bernard kouchner said in statement
the union must now catch up after the delay due mostly to repercussions on the
organisation from political events in the middle east last year kouchner
added
the foreign minister said the objectives of the union for the mediterranean
upm are to create space of peace solidarity and prosperity through
cooperation projects and to develop areas around the mediterranean region
with massaadeh nomination preparations can get underway for the second upm
summit in barcelona in june at the end of spain six month eu presidency
massaadeh was named head of the upm on january and the foreign ministers of
the countries in the union formally appointed him on monday
the secretary general of the upm will be based in barcelona and have israeli
palestinian turkish and arab league deputies
the upm involves around nations and was launched with great fanfare in paris
in july by french president nicolas sarkozy
the mediterranean union project brings together eu members with states from
north africa the balkans the arab world and israel in bid to foster
cooperation in one of the world most volatile regions
there will be transfer of powers between france and egypt co presidents of
the upm since its creation and spain and morocco who will co manage the upm
for two years
it was aimed at breathing new life into the eu so called barcelona process
which was constantly blocked due to disputes between its middle east members
but like that process it too became bogged down notably over israel military
campaign against the gaza strip just over year ago in response to hamas
missile strikes
the union priorities are to fight pollution in the mediterranean sea increase
solar energy use build land and sea highways and cooperate on higher education
and research
its goals are meant to be achieved by joint infrastructure projects aimed at
improving regional integration
us seeks progress on ireland
washington jan afp
the united states called tuesday for rival leaders in northern ireland to
complete deal on devolution of powers as secretary of state hillary clinton
prepared to fly to london
clinton spoke by telephone about the crisis with prime minister gordon brown and
may discuss northern ireland further with him when she attends meetings on
afghanistan and yemen in london through thursday the state department said
there been some progress made lately and we think it vitally important
opportunity for the leaders in northern ireland to complete this process state
department spokesman philip crowley told reporters
we remain strongly supportive of northern ireland efforts to develop
strong lasting and prosperous peace he said
he said the united states believed the full devolution of government authority
to locally elected officials including policing and justice powers is an
important aspect of this
downing street spokeswoman earlier said brown and clinton took stock of the
progress that been made and the need to make an agreement
the united states helped to broker the good friday agreement which largely
ended three decades of violence that killed at least people and led to the
creation of power sharing executive devolved from london
but emergency talks are looking at the final step of devolving police and
justice powers from london to belfast if the issue is not resolved it could
trigger snap election to the northern ireland assembly
corrected alcoa to shutter italian plants
milan italy jan afp
us aluminium giant alcoa said tuesday that it planned to shut down two plants in
italy temporarily as it waited for solution to the problem of high energy
prices
at the same time however it said there was no hope given the current
situation of reopening one of the plants at later date
they would stop production until february it said
late last year eu regulators ordered alcoa to repay italy for state aid worth
between and million dollars received since in the form of
subsidised electricity prices for the two smelters at fusina and portovesme
price subsidies that result in artificially low energy prices for selected
companies waste taxpayers money and distort competition in the single market
eu competition commissioner neelie kroes said in november
alcoa will have to pay back most of the illegal subsidies she added
alcoa said it would appeal the decision and temporarily idle production at its
two aluminum smelters
the curtailment is result of uncertainty in obtaining future power supply for
the smelters at competitive rates and the financial impact of the european
commission decision alcoa said
alcoa said the tariff had been in place for more than years in italy and
approved by the eu in the year that alcoa purchased the operations
afp world news agenda
hong kong jan afp
what coming up around the world
obama gives state of the union
results expected in sri lanka first post war election
haiti quake efforts continue
washington president barack obama gives his first state of the union speech
before the us congress gmt us politics obama
colombo full coverage of results after sri lankans voted in their first post
war presidential election with the government claiming the main opposition
leader was not eligible to contest the poll srilanka vote
port au prince international aid continues to flow into devastated haiti
haiti quake
beijing monitoring for developments in talks between representatives of the
dalai lama and china on the issue of tibet autonomy which kicked off tuesday
china tibet dalai diplomacy
berlin afghan president hamid karzai holds talks with german chancellor angela
merkel on the eve of the london conference on afghanistan joint press
conference gmt afghanistan unrest germany
davos switzerland world economic forum starts in the swiss resort of davos
with meetings from gmt davos forum economy
london world powers gather to discuss tackling islamist militancy in yemen
after an alleged bid to blow up us airliner by nigerian linked to al qaeda
there press conference gmt yemen attacks britain diplomacy
britain top law officer at the time of the us led invasion of iraq lord
goldsmith gives evidence before an official inquiry on the legality of the
conflict from gmt britain iraq military politics inquiry
manila trial resumes at gmt of andal ampatuan jnr who is accused of
orchestrating the massacre of people to eliminate rival election challenge
philippines politics massacre trial
san francisco apple unveils its highly anticipated tablet computer which
analysts said could shakeup the computer world gmt us it telecom
apple
seoul watching developments after north korea announces two month ban on
shipping near its disputed sea border with south korea in move set to heighten
tensions nkorea skorea military
tegucigalpa porfirio lobo elected in controversial presidential polls is to
be sworn in honduras politics coup
deposed honduran leader manuel zelaya says he will finally leave the
brazilian embassy where he has been holed up for more than four months
washington the federal reserve meets for second day amid doubts over senate
vote to reappoint chief ben bernanke to second term us economy bank
afp
imf world bank announce debt relief for afghanistan
washington jan afp
the imf and the world bank announced tuesday they will support an international
debt relief program of billion dollars for afghanistan after the war ravaged
country completed number of important reforms
the boards of directors of both institutions agreed that the country has taken
the necessary steps to reach the completion point under the enhanced heavily
indebted poor countries hipc initiative the sibling washington based bodies
said in joint statement
afghanistan qualified to become the th country to benefit from the
international program that rescues poor countries from being buried under
interest payments on mountains of debt
under the agreement afghanistan will have total debt service savings of
billion dollars the institutions said
that total includes billion dollars from the hipc initiative million
dollars from paris club creditors beyond hipc and million dollars from the
multilateral debt relief initiative mdri
nigerian vice president visits violence hit city
kano nigeria jan afp
nigerian vice president goodluck jonathan on tuesday urged his countrymen to
stop the carnage of religious violence after visit to city where muslim
christian clashes claimed more than lives
in the first official toll police said earlier tuesday that at least people
had died in days of bloodshed which broke out on january in the central city
of jos and spread to other areas
the federal government is saddened by this unfortunate development we should
talk to ourselves and stop this carnage it is not going to help anybody
jonathan told journalists after touring flashpoints and camps set up to house
people displaced by the violence
in crisis like this nobody gains we have been meeting with the leadership
of the plateau state government to ensure that this will be the last crisis in
the state he added
jos capital of plateau state has long been the site of religious violence in
country whose million strong population is divided almost equally between
christians and muslims
estimates from medical and aid workers and religious and community leaders have
put the toll from the recent bloodshed at more than
in kuru karama former mining village and muslim enclave in christian
district south of jos attackers who killed more than villagers disposed of
the bodies systematically
corpses were stuffed in water wells pits and sewer and irrigation canals
while others were burnt
the military was deployed to quell the violence when it became apparent the
killings were spiralling beyond the control of the local security forces
jonathan was accompanied on tuesday visit by the chief of defence staff air
marshal paul dike minister and state governors
since the incident happened we have been meeting every day at the highest
security level so as to ensure that the crisis does not spread to other parts of
the country jonathan said
police said people have so far been rounded up for suspected roles in the
jos killings
alpine skiing men world cup slalom results
schladming austria jan afp
men world cup slalom results here on tuesday
reinfried herbst aut
silvan zurbriggen swi
manfred pranger aut
benjamin raich aut
julien cousineau can
manfred moelgg ita
julien lizeroux fra
naoki yuasa jpn
akira sasaki jpn
ivica kostelic cro
marcel hirscher aut
michael janyk can
axel baeck swe
marc berthod swi
giuliano razzoli ita
disqualified
st leg felix neureuther ger
did not finish
st leg iason abramashvili geo oscar andersson swe jaroslav babusiak
svk alexandru barbu rom patrick biggs can bjoergvin bjoergvinsson
isl cristian deville ita christoph dreier aut stefan georgiev bul
stefano gross ita leif kristian haugen nor francois place fra mike
rishworth aus joery rooij van ned christophe roux mda dalibor samsal
cro stefan jon sigurgeirsson isl matic skube slo bryce stevens aus
riccardo tonetti ita stephanos tsimikalis gre mitja valencic slo
leg wolfgang hoerl aut lars elton myhre nor andre myhrer swe filip
trejbal cze
alpine skiing herbst delights austrian crowd with slalom victory
schladming austria jan afp
reinfried herbst sent huge home crowd into delirium here on tuesday after
blitzing to victory in men world cup slalom race
under floodlights and piste lined by tens of thousands of flare and flag
waving spectators herbst produced storming second leg to secure the win from
switzerland silvan zurbriggen with fellow austrian manfred pranger the leader
after the first leg in third
herbst timed min sec over the two legs sec ahead of zurbriggen with
pranger at sec
his eighth career win and season third saw herbst leapfrog frenchman julien
lizeroux who finished seventh at sec to the top of the world cup slalom
standings
pranger went into the second leg with an enormous sec lead but that had been
cut to sec by the second intermediary time and he faded badly in the final
third in extremely icy conditions with temperatures at degrees
another austrian the veteran benjamin raich was in fourth at sec enough
to consolidate his place atop the overall world cup standings after events
the early running among the top finishers from the first leg who got to race
in the second was sensationally set by japan naoki yusaka who eventually
finished th at sec one place ahead of team mate akira sasaki
buoying japanese slalom hopes for the upcoming winter olympics was third
racer kentaro mingawa finishing st to complete fine evening for the asian
nation in one of the bastions of alpine skiing
top us senator lukewarm to obama spending freeze
washington jan afp
president barack obama proposed partial government spending freeze drew
lukewarm welcome tuesday from his top ally in the us senate who said he had not
been consulted on the plan roll out
we ll have to look at see what the president talking about cutting senate
democratic majority leader harry reid said as obama prepared to unveil the
proposal in his prime time state of the union speech on wednesday
we have to make sure that we have money for education we have to make sure we
have money to take care of our civil society police fire we have all kinds of
programs ll look at very very closely but mention two of those that are
extremely important to me reid told reporters
still think that it good that the president going to look at this little
piece of the economy said the nevada senator
reid said he had only heard little bits and pieces of the proposal from media
accounts and when asked whether the white house had consulted him replied no
not about his speech
late monday aides disclosed obama would propose three year freeze on
discretionary expenditures in bid to cut the deficit from move many
democrats say will starve the economy at time when it needs priming
the congressional budget office added fuel to the turbulent political debate on
tuesday saying that the government budget deficit would come in at
trillion dollars in
obama curb on discretionary spending covers only non security projects and is
intended to save billion dollars over years senior administration
officials said
urgent imf world bank announce debt relief for afghanistan
washington jan afp
the imf and the world bank announced tuesday they will support an international
debt relief program of billion dollars for afghanistan after war ravaged
country completed number of important reforms
alert
imf and world bank announce billion dollar debt relief to afghanistan
us calls for immediate release of suu kyi
washington jan afp
the united states called tuesday for myanmar to immediately release democracy
icon aung san suu kyi after signals that the junta could free her following
controversial elections
the nobel laureate party the national league for democracy nld said it had
heard that the military regime was considering freeing her in november
meeting global demands for her release but only after the election
the idea that her release will conveniently come after the election is
unfortunate state department spokesman philip crowley told reporters
we will continue to press the burmese government for her release he said
using the military run nation former name of burma
he was speaking after secretary of state hillary clinton met with us senator jim
webb the leading advocate in congress for engaging the junta
the nld won landslide victory in the last democratic elections in but
the junta which has ruled myanmar since never allowed the party to take
office
the military regime has defied persistent international appeals by keeping aung
san suu kyi under house arrest for most of the past two decades
the opposition has been deeply suspicious of the election which the junta plans
to hold sometime this year believing it is plot to legitimize its rule
us president barack obama administration has launched dialogue with myanmar
in hopes of wooing the nation back to the international mainstream
but the administration has voiced concern about the country detention of
political prisoners and its military campaigns against ethnic minorities
us deficit to narrow to trillion dollars in cbo
washington jan afp
the us government budget deficit is expected to narrow slightly to
trillion dollars in but the fiscal outlook remains bleak amid mounting
debt estimates by congress showed tuesday
accumulating deficits beyond this year could double federal debt held by the
public to trillion dollars within decade the congressional budget office
cbo said in report
