opposition
hodgson also faces an anxious week as he waits to see if highly rated young
defender chris smalling is the subject of bid by arsenal before the transfer
window closes on february
if arsenal are interested then guess they better get in touch with us
hodgson said have not spoken to arsene wenger at all it has never been
mentioned and our chief executive has not spoken to their chief executive
presumably that means they have got no interest or the interest is being
generated by someone else in the club or outside the club he added
hodgson will be without american striker clint dempsey who injured his knee
during their defeat by blackburn last week
football go if you re not happy mancini tells robinho
scunthorpe england jan afp
manchester city manager roberto mancini admits he won stop robinho leaving if
the brazil forward is not happy at eastlands
robinho told brazilian radio station over the weekend that city directors
are happy to let him return home to join santos on loan before the transfer
window closes on february
after watching robinho score city final goal in their fa cup fourth round
win at scunthorpe on sunday mancini denied any knowledge of an imminent exit
for the former real madrid star but did concede that he would let him leave if
he isn happy
robinho who cost city club record million pounds last season has
repeatedly produced below par displays and mancini appeared to run out of
patience when he replaced the winger after sending him on as substitute against
everton earlier this month
think one player can stay in squad only if he is happy if he wants to play
every game and if he wants to work every day that is most important because the
players and manager must be happy mancini said
hope he will stay here but it is important he will stay here happy and enjoy
it he is very good player think he is enjoying manchester
hopefully in the end robinho will stay here in the next day the situation can
change but at the moment he stays here and am very happy for him
mancini knows he has several other attacking options so he has no pressing need
to keep robinho if he continues to under perform
he added have five or six strikers and must decide every game between
them it impossible to play with four strikers robinho didn play against
manchester united in the league cup but he played against scunthorpe
mancini was pleased with his side fa cup progress but admitted they face
another tough test in the fifth round when arsenal conquerors stoke visit
eastlands
he added the fa cup is very difficult and we saw that with arsenal and stoke
every game will be hard and the next game against stoke will be difficult
game
scunthorpe boss nigel adkins admitted city extra quality had seen them through
but he praised his championship side for the way they pushed their illustrious
opponents all the way
adkins said pleased for the players who have worked hard and made it an
entertaining cup tie against the might of manchester city and the big players
they have brought here
we all had belief that there was giant killing in the offing but it just
wasn to be we got off to bad start but credit to the players they didn
buckle
they regrouped and kept going and conceded goal on the stroke of half time
that can deflate anybody but they came out in the second half and gave it
right good go
you ve seen the way they break they re like the red arrows aerobatic flight
display team at times and that the difference between the very top and
where we are
haitian who predicted big one calls for evacuation
port au prince jan afp
less than one month before haiti devastating earthquake geologist claude
prepetit gave the latest in string of warnings that the big one was coming
no one listened
but now he has fresh message for the authorities after years of shouting
into the void evacuate port au prince or risk another disaster on scale of
the january quake which killed at least people
we are sitting on powder keg prepetit an engineer from the haitian mines
and energy bureau told afp
we are faced with the threat of future earthquakes and have to decentralize
and depopulate port au prince
prepetit said in an article in the haitian newspaper le nouvelliste less than
month before the quake that we have entered an apparent lull during which the
energy has continued to accumulate in the ground and the day when it cracks the
consequences will be catastrophic for the region
for years he has pushed his ideas at schools universities and conferences
explaining the slow shearing of the american and caribbean continental shelves
which made the tremor inevitable
even in los angeles they are waiting for the big one but they don know when
he says
he pushed in vain for the government to buy seismological equipment capable of
detecting the movements imperceptible to humans that would precede big quake
the government listened to me but they had other priorities he said
referring to the meager resources available to the authorities of the poorest
nation in the americas
the last catastrophic earthquake to hit port au prince was in and with the
tectonic plates moving by seven milimetres year along the so called
enriquillo plantain garden fault over years that means there is
metre yard gap to make up he said
it simple mathematics rupture of that size corresponds to magnitude
quake he said the quake that eventually hit was
while the us geological survey says there is percent risk of aftershocks of
magnitude of for month after the quake prepetit is worried that
kilometre mile fault there has been not ruptured to the east of the
capital with only about fifth of its length having cracked
he fears the rupture could repeat in the north of the country where there is
another fault just below the town of cap haitien home to people
faced with these risks prepetit believes that the government must depopulate
port au prince where there are two million people percent of the haitian
population and move them onto dozens of shantytowns on square kilometres of
designated safe ground outside the capital
it is necessary to think of haiti as whole and not just of the republic of
port au prince it is necessary to take time to rebuild the capital and to
locate people in the provinces while creating infrastructure and jobs to keep
them there he said
priorities also include improving construction standards which are non existent
in the capital and educating population that is familiar with hurricanes and
floods but has long forgotten the risk of earthquakes
education can save people and ignorance can kill prepetit said
when his house started to shake like leaf on january the geologist had his
wits about him and took shelter beneath doorframe he says
but he admitted that during those seconds which seemed to last an eternity he
said that he like millions of other haitians ended up praying no my god
no
space tourists highlighted in sundance film
park city utah jan afp
the elite band of super rich tourists willing to pay millions of dollars to
voyage into outer space are spotlighted in documentary vying for honors at the
sundance film festival
swiss director christian frei latest film space tourists explores the
phenomenon of wealthy individuals who have capitalized on the fading glory of
the former soviet union space program to fulfill the journey of lifetime
frei says he was drawn to the subject after reading newspaper article about
japanese billionaire willing to pay million dollars to journey into space
wearing spacesuit based on his favorite cartoon character
thought there is something crazy there said frei who has already
earned an oscars documentary nomination for his film war photographer
was also curious to what was left of the russian side of the space race
while following the preparations of the eccentric japanese tycoon who inspired
the film daisuke enomoto frei discovered the baikonur cosmodrome the former
hub of the soviet space program situated in the desert wilderness of the
kazakhstan steppes
frei film also shines light on the kazakh scrap merchants who make living
scouring the vast expanse of the steppes searching for debris from rocket
launches which is then sold to china
when the soviet union collapsed actually the whole steppe was kind of covered
with rockets and other debris frei told afp
but nobody dared to touch them after people realized that they could sale them
to china and that when the business started
russia which leases the baikonur facility from kazakhstan barred frei from
filming the scrap merchants disparaging them as alcoholic scavengers
however with the help of google earth frei and his production team were able to
capture the work of the merchants
with google earth we zoomed in and my assistant made huge map so we could
see the tiny little tracks of the collectors trucks realized that could
actually approach them from the south frei said
the russians couldn do anything
the ingenuity of frei approach reaped rewards the images of the merchants
waiting in the middle of nowhere to pounce on debris are among the film best
moments pretty sure no one has ever filmed that frei said
frei project was almost derailed when enomoto withdrew from his space odyssey
for health reasons to be replaced by anousheh ansari an american iranian who
had held lifelong dream of journeying into space
knew in my heart that would find the way ansari told afp when got
married told my husband that if die and did make it to space wanted
him to make sure that he would find way to send my ashes to space
for frei who was able to benefit from using the footage shot by ansari during
her eight days on board the iss space travel holds little appeal
if had million dollars wouldn go to space because have other
dreams frei said
ansari however has been bitten by the bug and is already on the waiting list of
passengers for british tycoon richard branson virgin galactic
space travel is like drug ansari said
us seeks international support for yemen against al qaeda
washington jan afp
the united states is set to hold talks with european and arab partners in london
on wednesday to try to rally support behind drive to help yemen defeat
growing al qaeda threat
the impetus for the meeting comes from botched bid on christmas day to blow up
us airliner over detroit by nigerian passenger allegedly trained by the
yemen based al qaeda in the arabian peninsula aqap
though there has been no official confirmation secretary of state hillary
clinton will likely attend the meeting in london which comes days after britain
raised its terrorism threat assessment from substantial to severe
the united states hopes donors will speed up aid previously pledged to sanaa to
help it tackle set of growing troubles threatening the stability of country
some analysts call failing state
however persuading donors to deliver on all of the billion dollars pledged
at london conference in apparently depends on whether yemen can carry out
the reforms needed to reassure them the funds will be spent properly
us officials did not explicitly make the link but did not deny one
clinton spoke of common threat from violent extremists when she appeared in
washington last thursday with yemeni foreign minister abu bakr al kurbi as they
discussed yemen problems and plans for the london conference
we have seen al qaeda in the arabian peninsula kill tourists in yemen yemeni
security officers and being involved in the training and equipping of the
perpetrator on the attempted christmas day airline bomber she told reporters
her spokesman philip crowley said later that clinton pressed kurbi on the need
for sanaa to do more to promote development and creation of economic
opportunity as tool to help reduce both extremism and conflict within yemen
yemeni president ali abdullah saleh government is not only grappling with the
aqap but also shiite rebellion in the north secessionist movement in the
south water shortage and crumbling economy
crowley said the chief us diplomat also pressed kurbi on his government plans
for not only defeating al qaeda but also resolving shiite revolt
the meeting is not going to be donors conference per se but just simply to
outline what we think the most significant requirements that yemen has to be
able to stabilize itself crowley said
the secretary pledged that we will look to see how we in the most urgent
areas how we can speed up assistance crowley said confirming that aid from
the conference was slow in coming
kurbi said he believes donors now realize the delay in implementation of aid
is not the fault of the yemeni government but rather the result of
bureaucratic and technical issues
but senior state department official told afp three weeks ago on the condition
of anonymity that donors have hesitated to deliver on their pledges amid doubts
about accountability in the country
marisa porges former us government advisor on counter terrorism now with the
council on foreign relations said the london meeting will help put the
international community on the same page on how to tackle yemen problems
it will also put pressure on yemen leadership to live up to expectations or
have the response that would be most helpful to solve the situation whether it
is al qaeda the rebellion or other issues she told afp
analyst daniel byman said in remarks earlier this month on the brookings
institution website that the problem in yemen was far more complicated than
simply shoring up fragile government
he noted that the saleh government had been half hearted in taking on al qaeda
in the past partly because it used the group to fight its domestic enemies and
sanaa may want to keep such an option open in the future
we have to watch this one closely he said
the united states for its part has been helping yemen to train and equip its
forces since and officials say its contribution is expected to rise to
million dollars in development and security assistance in the fiscal year
both countries are sharing intelligence and the united states is widely
suspected of having helped yemeni forces conduct airstrikes against al qaeda
targets in the past few weeks
refugees from nightmare swamp haitian town
saint marc haiti jan afp
the haitian town of saint marc is sinking beneath tide of humanity with
refugees lodging with friends strangers or in churches after fleeing the
nightmare of the quake hit capital
buses incessantly pass through the town some kilometers miles north of
port au prince loaded with earthquake victims hoping to find food and shelter
from the aftershocks of the january disaster
my house was destroyed we slept on the pavement near the wounded we had to
leave says magalie esteverle year old dressmaker with three children
staying with distant cousin of her husband
called my cousin and said was ready to even sleep under table so we left
with only the clothes on our backs
haitian authorities announced plans last week to evacuate up to people
from squalid conditions in port au prince and put on dozens of free buses to
what it promised would be more hygenic tented camps outside the city
but with thousands of others fleeing the capital on private buses the mass
exodus is putting huge burden on places like saint marc town of
inhabitants which also hit by deadly floods in
feelings of solidarity run high here hundreds of people have found refuge in
hotel or on reed mats installed in churches and schools thousands more have
been put up in the houses of relatives friends and even strangers
they have been fed and clothed by anonymous donors who have spontaneously
reached into their pockets forgetting their own poverty and unemployment
hundreds more have flooded into the saint nicolas hospital to seek treatment for
injuries after being turned away by the capital inundated hospitals the
government says nearly people were wounded in the quake
there was nowhere to stay in port au prince and nothing for us to live on
says florence dorfeuil year old student sitting at the bedside of her
cousin who is awaiting an operation on his leg
but saint marc is choking with the weight of these refugees
the un world food programme has distributed tonnes of food but it is not
enough
familes who have accommodated up to seven people have received no extra aid and
the anonymous donations are tailing off says local civil protection
administrator constant jean elie
we have no means of feeding the refugees we lack everything he says
nothing has been given to help us accommodate these families we are obliged
to rely on local population of whom the majority does not work it feels like
we will collapse
magalie estervele cousin jobless widow with four children is doing all she
can
sometimes we have sometimes we don we share but without help won be
able to put them up for long says eva jean
at the hospital dozens of the wounded lie on mattresses on the floor
amputations and other operations are not happening quickly enough and there are
only only three orthopaedic specialists and cruel shortage of medical
equipment says hospital director yfto mayette
we don have enough to deal with all these cases he says
the local authorities are coping for now but they worry about tomorrow
if the refugees stay there will be big problems lack of food and the
increase in joblessness could provoke violence and could overwhelm our existing
structures says local administror jean elie
the director of the hospital has similar fears for the town which already
houses refugess from string of deadly storms almost two years ago
all these people who have nothing and do nothing and whom one can help will
increase social problems here mayette says
in her cousin tiny living room magalie esteverle feels indebted
am trying to do whatever can to make up for it she says but going
to stay in saint marc ll never return to port au prince it nightmare
football wenger defends selection policy as arsenal crash out
stoke england jan afp
arsene wenger defended his right to field weakened team in arsenal fa
cup fourth round defeat at stoke and insisted his desire to lift the premier
league title had been behind his decision
wenger made nine changes at the britannia stadium but will recall the likes of
william gallas thomas vermalaen gael clichy andrey arshavin and eduardo for
the crucial league trip to aston villa on wednesday
this disappointing defeat leaves wenger still waiting for his first trophy since
but the frenchman places far more importance on the league
after the visit to villa park the gunners currently two points behind leaders
manchester united with game in hand face three more crunch encounters
against sir alex ferguson champions then chelsea and liverpool
and wenger insisted injuries left him with no alternative but to operate
rotation policy ahead of those matches
he said wanted to win this game and don regret the team picked did
not have much choice
if you look at our schedule it simply that you cannot always play with the
same eleven
if you rotate and you don win it your fault can only stand up and say
that the team that picked
it unfortunate but we had injuries and we re going into period where we
cannot rotate lot in the big games
we ve got to focus on those games because we are in an interesting position we
didn want to go out of the competition if we been at home we could have got
away with it
you get no surprise when you come here we weakened the more the game went on
and they were more dangerous than us
the one highlight on an otherwise dismal afternoon for wenger was an impressive
second debut for sol campbell
the former england defender whose last appearance was at morecambe in his ill
fated spell at notts county is likely to be replaced by gallas for the villa
game but did enough to prove he still has premier league future
wenger added sol did very well for guy who not played for five months he
was tired for the last minutes but he looked very fit
it was an encouraging performance believe he is motivated he works hard in
training and he been rewarded for that commitment here
even with campbell in the team stoke ricardo fuller proved the scourge of
wenger men
arsenal couldn handle the first exocet throw from stoke rory delap and when
lukasz fabianski flapped fuller stole ahead of the poland international to find
the net with close range header in the second minute
the gunners levelled in the nd minute through denilson cesc fabregas played
free kick outside the box across to the brazilian midfielder and he arrowed
low drive past thomas sorensen with the aid of two deflections
but fuller headed in mamady sidibe cross in the closing stages before dean
whitehead grabbed the third goal four minutes from time to leave stoke manager
tony pulis hoping for home tie in the fifth round
pulis said we ve picked strong side and don think anybody can question
the spirit and togetherness in the dressing room
proud of the players and the supporters should be too we ve given it
right tilt and it gone for us
the last thing we wanted was draw we ve got seven games in february so it
was very important to get result
football liverpool defender skrtel demands winning run
wolverhampton england jan afp
martin skrtel has urged liverpool to go on long winning run as rafa benitez
side look to strengthen their champions league claims with victory at
struggling wolves on tuesday
uncertainty continues to surround the future of reds manager benitez as result
of liverpool failings with his team already eliminated from the league cup
fa cup and champions league
after being humiliated by reading in the fa cup liverpool earned battling
draw at stoke before beating tottenham and skrtel believes his side lack of
domestic cup games will mean they are fresher than their closest rivals in the
race for top four finish
skrtel said firmly believe that better times are ahead of us as up to
present we have been far behind the pre season objectives
the last two games against stoke and tottenham showed us that we are ready to
do our best for the club we would like to start long winning run
in the premier league we want to finish fourth in the worst case unlike our
rivals though we will be playing fewer games so we should be more relaxed and
have more energy
believe we will reach our objective of finishing within the top four also
we are still in the europa league and will be trying to get as far as possible
one player hoping to be an integral part of liverpool expected charge is
alberto aquilani who admits the pressure is still on him to justify his
substantial price tag following difficult start to his anfield career after
joining from as roma
the italian midfielder is expected to make another start at wolves despite the
expected return of steven gerrard from hamstring problem although benitez
will still be without injured star striker fernando torres
aquilani said know lot has been said and written about me so far without
me being able to prove my ability in matches but soon believe that will
understand that people are still wondering whether will be good signing
for liverpool but need to be judged after have played in run of games
feel lot better about my fitness now although it could still be higher
am relaxed because know can do lot better and with time know that
will happen
wolves manager mick mccarthy rested several key players for the weekend fa
cup draw with crystal palace and has no regrets despite the poor result
mccarthy said had no hesitation in making the changes of course was
thinking of the liverpool game
with the team we played any club in the championship would be thrilled with
that side
but have to manage the squad for games and will do it again we ve got draw
in the fa cup and it better than being out of the competition
ronald zubar was handed rare start and is now hoping to retain his place
against liverpool
he said hopefully it will be enough to keep me in the team liverpool is
massive game working hard to try and be picked for it the gaffer makes the
decision and you have to respect it but happy with the way played against
palace
it good time to play liverpool they are not having brilliant season and
it important to play them at this moment in time
afp sports schedule for monday january
paris jan afp
afp sports schedule for monday january
football
second and final batch of africa cup of nations quarter finals as defending
champions egypt take on four time winners cameroon and surprise packages zambia
play two time winners nigeria
coverage by nick reeves david legge and samm audu
slugs fbl afr
tennis
eighth day of the australian open in melbourne with australians hoping their
finest can prove too good for their respective opponents former world number
one lleyton hewitt has the awesome task of playing switzerland world number
one roger federer while in the women section aussie th seed samantha stosur
is up against top seed serena williams
coverage by martin parry robert smith andrew dent and scott coughlan
master slug tennis open aus
formula one
seven times world champion michael schumacher launches mercedes car for
world championship in stuttgart germany
slug auto prix ger mercedes
cricket tourists india hold the upper hand going into day two of the second and
final test against bangladesh the hosts werre skittled out for in their
first innings while india who are up in the series were for no loss
slug cricket ban ind
golf bob hope classic scores
la quinta california jan afp
leading fourth round scores here on sunday in the hole bob hope classic usa
unless noted
alex prugh bubba watson
bill haas tim clark rsa
joe ogilvie
mike weir can matt kuchar kevin streelman
martin flores
ryan moore
steve elkington aus trahan jeff klauk
john merrick brandt snedeker chad collins
richard johnson swe matt jones aus
john senden aus carl pettersson swe graham
delaet can
greg chalmers aus ryuji imada jpn henrik
bjornstad nor fredrik jacobson swe brendon de
jonge zim
rod pampling aus
brenden pappas rsa michael sim aus
brian davis gbr greg owen gbr
failed to qualify
justin rose gbr
james nitties aus jesper parnevik swe
cameron percy aus
mathew goggin aus martin laird gbr
garth mulroy rsa alex cejka ger
daniel chopra swe
david lutterus aus
chris baryla can
haiti rattled by magnitude aftershock
port au prince jan afp
haiti was rattled by magnitude aftershock sunday days after it was
devastated by powerful earthquake the us geological survey and local
residents said
felt shake it was brief just few seconds patrice dumont school
teacher from the ruined town of leogane kilometres nine miles west of port
au prince told afp by telephone
heard sound like grumbling then drumbeat as if something wanted to
burst from the belly of the earth he added it was not immediately clear
whether the latest quake caused any damage or casualties
the new tremor epicenter was kilometers miles west of the capital at
shallow depth of kilometers miles the usgs said on its website it
struck at pm local time or gmt
the haitian capital on january was devastated by earthquake that killed
more than people with tens of thousands still missing and hundreds of
thousands made homeless
since the deadly quake haiti has suffered at least aftershocks of varying
intensity and the usgs has warned that it could face more including perhaps
another catastrophic hit over the next month
possible new survivor under haiti rubble french rescuers
port au prince jan afp
french rescue workers detected movement under collapsed building in port au
prince on sunday days after haiti earthquake and are digging in the hopes
of finding survivor
we detected movement on radar we don know what it is it could be an
animal or person we have been digging since and it will take hours
french civil defense commander philippe chaussinand told afp
five hours after the search began at the scene narrow street in the downtown
district of delmas two dozen french firefighters were working in and around the
building behind cordon protected by armed french gendarmes
there was someone who came to talk to tell us that they heard noises from that
house there commander samuel bernes of the french civil defence service told
afp at the scene of the rescue bid
we came to see and indeed our radar and audio soundings picked up scratching
and cries he said as rescuers broke off their digging and redeployed the
ground penetrating radar device
noises had stopped two hours earlier bernes said adding that this might mean
simply that the supposed victim was asleep
the haitian government called off the international search and rescue mission on
friday as it is extremely rare to find anyone alive and trapped more than
days after an earthquake
but on saturday french us and greek crews found year old man who had been
trapped in the ruins of grocer shop and had managed to survive for days
by drinking coca cola and eating small amount of snack food
french rescuers have said that while they will soon halt generalized searches
with ground penetrating radar they will remain on stand by in port au prince
until mid february in case more survivors are found
more than international specialist teams converged on haiti in the wake of
the catastrophic january earthquake and between them they have so far
managed to pull survivors from the wreckage
french warship arrives off haiti with aid
port au prince jan afp
french amphibious assault ship equipped with two landing craft four
