penpix of stars to watch at the february winter olympics in vancouver
alpine skiing
marcel hirscher aut
much of this season build up ahead of the winter olympics was based on swiss
tyro carlo janka form
that changed when austria claimed world cup cleansweep in val isere to
dispel concerns that the team was down and out
even better news for the austrians was that the winner of the giant slalom that
weekend was the up and coming year old hirscher vastly promising racer
already in his third season
his maiden win on the world cup circuit followed second spot in the super
combined behind veteran team mate benjamin raich and hirscher has continued to
impress in the slalom
raich predicted that his team mate had lot more to achieve and will go very
far
he ll be top champion said raich he doesn care he just goes for it
but he winner
hirscher has indeed built up well deserved reputation of being racer who
will stake everything on his bid to force the pace
always push as hard as possible and try to risk more than percent on
each race he has admitted
that sets up mouth watering prospect of hirscher going head to head for
olympic glory with austrian team mates raich manfred pranger and reinfried
herbst frenchman julien lizeroux american ted ligety and croat ivica kostelic
urgent china urban fixed asset investment up pct in
beijing jan afp
china urban fixed asset investments rose percent in compared with
year earlier the government said thursday
urgent china consumer prices up percent in december
beijing jan afp
china consumer price index rose percent in december compared with the same
month year earlier the government said thursday
football benitez expects reds to be spurred on to success
liverpool england jan afp
liverpool manager rafael benitez is confident his team will go from strength to
strength in the second half of the season after their victory over tottenham
hotspur here at anfield
wednesday premier league win moved liverpool to within point of fourth
placed spurs who currently occupy the final qualifying place on offer to
english clubs for next season champions league
liverpool who ve endured largely lacklustre season to date are currently
without first team players fernando torres steven gerrard yossi benayoun and
glen johnson through injury
but benitez believes previous campaigns have shown the reds they can still make
charge in the final weeks of the season
and having previously guaranteed top four finish he is sure his side are
well positioned in the race to finish in the champions league places
it question of having the players available and if you don have these
players at least we ve seen they can work like this benitez told reporters
after wednesday match
in the last five years we ve done better in the second part of the league the
spaniard added
everybody knows liverpool is good team and it was question of starting to
win games and show the quality
the squad is not as bad as people have said he insisted we were playing
without six players that could maybe start and all of them are quality players
but the rest of the squad has showed character
it was important for everyone here because we knew we had to reduce the gap to
stay in the race pleased with the players with their attitude their
spirit and effort and we showed real character
meanwhile tottenham manager harry redknapp said the londoners were still strong
runners in four horse race for fourth place despite losing to two goals from
liverpool dirk kuyt the dutch striker scoring early on before his stoppage
time penalty put the result beyond doubt
it open man city liverpool aston villa tottenham it toss up
we ve been on good run and just because we lose one doesn mean we re out of
it the former portsmouth manager added
it all to play for still it very open and wouldn like to say where the
momentum is
nevertheless redknapp admitted spurs had missed trick at anfield
it was good chance for us at liverpool he said when you come here and you
see liverpool without gerrard torres johnson benayoun you ve got to think
it good opportunity
even though tottenham have not won away at the so called big four of
liverpool chelsea manchester united or arsenal in attempts redknapp said
he would not be changing spurs style of play on their travels
we all felt we could win we played very open attacking team two people who
play off the wide men who don really defend and two strikers who don drop
in and defend
we re an open team that came here and looked to win and that how we play
redknapp explained
redknapp has been linked with january transfer window move for real madrid
striker ruud van nistelrooy the former manchester united forward
but he added he was unlikely to bring any new players to white hart lane this
month saying be surprised if we sign anybody
urgent china retail sales up percent in
beijing jan afp
chinese retail sales the main gauge of consumer spending in the world third
largest economy rose percent in compared with last year the
government said thursday
tennis davydenko steams into open third round
melbourne jan afp
in form russian nikolay davydenko easily advanced to the third round of the
australian open thursday with the sixth seed crushing ukrainian qualifier illya
marchenko
urgent china says growth at percent percent for
beijing jan afp
china economy expanded by percent in the fourth quarter of compared
with the same period year earlier and by percent in the government
said thursday
alert
china retail sales up percent in
football neill proud as villa come of age
birmingham england jan afp
aston villa manager martin neill said his side had grown up after they
booked place in the league cup final with an extraordinary semi final
second leg win over blackburn rovers
wednesday victory here at villa park saw neill men go through on
aggregate and secured the midlands club first wembley final appearance in
decade where they will face either manchester city or manchester united
but that looked long way off as blackburn down after the first leg
stormed into an early lead on wednesday thanks to two goals from croatia forward
nikola kalinic
villa though hit back through rovers old boy stephen warnock james milner
penalty and steven nzonzi own goal
gabriel agbonlahor then deflected in milner shot before emile heskey made it
on the night to villa
but resilient rovers refused to accept their fate and responded with superb
overhead kick goal from martin olsson
australia brett emerton added another goal for rovers six minutes from time
before villa ashley young finally put the result beyond doubt late on with the
tenth goal of an extraordinary match
neill villa have won plaudits for their attractive play in recent seasons
but what pleased neill most was the character they showed against spirited
rovers side
there were two games to play and have to say overall thought that we
thoroughly deserved to go to wembley neill told reporters
and am genuinely delighted for the players they showed tremendous character
to come from two goals down
the team really grew up because that was certainly not the way we planned
things to happen added neill whose side are now match away from winning
villa first major trophy since they last lifted the league cup in
blackburn gave us real jolt and we were very nervous and anxious don
think we were complacent at all
former nottingham forest and northern ireland midfielder neill reserved
special praise for midfielders stiliyan petrov and milner who masterminded
villa comeback with the latter display bolstering his bid for place in
england world cup squad
bulgarian petrov had to have an injection in an achilles tendon problem at half
time and neill said did not expect to see him again in the tie
he was magnificent he led that team superbly
and milner is character and half his game has reached new level am
certain of that central midfield is his position and he just keeps getting
better and better
meanwhile rovers manager sam allardyce left himself open to disciplinary action
by the football association after criticising the performance of referee martin
atkinson
allardyce had no argument with the th minute sending off of rovers
christopher samba for professional foul on agbonlahor but insisted atkinson
erred badly in allowing villa first goal to stand
there was clear foul on ryan nelsen in the build up to the first goal
agbonlahor pushed him and made no attempt to head the ball allardyce said
the result of that is villa first goal and that gives them some light at the
end of the tunnel
he added major part of the reason we are not going to wembley is the
referee we can go where we want to go because of the official
we can go even further to say that villa fourth goal should not have been
allowed to stand either because it hit agbonlahor on the hand
it has made massive difference
football neill proud as villa come of age
birmingham england jan afp
aston villa manager martin neill said his side had grown up after they
booked place in the league cup final with an extraordinary semi final
second leg win over blackburn rovers
wednesday victory here at villa park saw neill men go through on
aggregate and secured the midlands club first wembley final appearance in
decade where they will face either manchester city or manchester united
but that looked long way off as blackburn down after the first leg
stormed into an early lead on wednesday thanks to two goals from croatia forward
nikola kalinic
villa though hit back through rovers old boy stephen warnock james milner
penalty and steven nzonzi own goal
gabriel agbonlahor then deflected in milner shot before emile heskey made it
on the night to villa
but resilient rovers refused to accept their fate and responded with superb
overhead kick goal from martin olsson
australia brett emerton added another goal for rovers six minutes from time
before villa ashley young finally put the result beyond doubt late on with the
tenth goal of an extraordinary match
neill villa have won plaudits for their attractive play in recent seasons
but what pleased neill most was the character they showed against spirited
rovers side
there were two games to play and have to say overall thought that we
thoroughly deserved to go to wembley neill told reporters
and am genuinely delighted for the players they showed tremendous character
to come from two goals down
the team really grew up because that was certainly not the way we planned
things to happen added neill whose side are now match away from winning
villa first major trophy since they last lifted the league cup in
blackburn gave us real jolt and we were very nervous and anxious don
think we were complacent at all
former nottingham forest and northern ireland midfielder neill reserved
special praise for midfielders stiliyan petrov and milner who masterminded
villa comeback with the latter display bolstering his bid for place in
england world cup squad
bulgarian petrov had to have an injection in an achilles tendon problem at half
time and neill said did not expect to see him again in the tie
he was magnificent he led that team superbly
and milner is character and half his game has reached new level am
certain of that central midfield is his position and he just keeps getting
better and better
meanwhile rovers manager sam allardyce left himself open to disciplinary action
by the football association after criticising the performance of referee martin
atkinson
allardyce had no argument with the th minute sending off of rovers
christopher samba for professional foul on agbonlahor but insisted atkinson
erred badly in allowing villa first goal to stand
there was clear foul on ryan nelsen in the build up to the first goal
agbonlahor pushed him and made no attempt to head the ball allardyce said
the result of that is villa first goal and that gives them some light at the
end of the tunnel
he added major part of the reason we are not going to wembley is the
referee we can go where we want to go because of the official
we can go even further to say that villa fourth goal should not have been
allowed to stand either because it hit agbonlahor on the hand
it has made massive difference
alert
china industrial output expands percent in
alert
china says consumer prices up percent in december
alert
china says urban fixed asset investments up percent
alert
china says growth at percent percent for
skorea hynix swings to profit as chip industry recovers
seoul jan afp
south korea hynix semiconductor said thursday it swung to net profit in the
fourth quarter following loss in the period the year earlier in further
sign that the global chip industry is recovering from two year slump
hynix the world second largest memory chip maker reported net profit of
billion won million dollars in october december against net loss of
trillion won in the fourth quarter of
it was the second straight quarter of net profits after losses for seven
consecutive quarters
continued rise in chip prices also helped it achieve fourth quarter
operating profit of billion won compared to an operating loss of billion
year earlier
sales rose percent to trillion won from trillion year earlier
despite traditionally weak seasonality in the first quarter hynix is expected
to perform well due to likely brisk sales of pcs ahead of the chinese new year
and stable chip prices benjamin ban an analyst at daishin securities told
dow jones newswires
to speed up its shift towards more advanced chips hynix recently raised its
capital spending for this year to trillion won from the trillion won it
had originally planned
in it earmarked capital spending of one trillion won
for the whole of hynix reported billion won net loss sharp
improvement from trillion won net loss in sales rose percent to
trillion won
hynix reported billion won operating profit for all sharply turning
around from trillion won loss year earlier
all figures are consolidated meaning they include the financial results of the
company overseas units
winter olympics advisory
paris jan afp
the winter olympics take place in vancouver from february and afp
sports is filing package of advancers
in the build up to the games we will file individual sports previews guides to
the ins and outs of winter sports as well as focus on the stars to watch on the
snow and ice of vancouver and whistler
we will also be filing series of colour stories focussing on national
prospects as well as the offbeat side to the olympics
questions queries etc can be directed to our olympic desk contact is
david james afp com
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skorea hynix swings to profit as chip industry recovers
seoul jan afp
south korea hynix semiconductor said thursday it swung to net profit in the
fourth quarter following loss in the period the year earlier in further
sign that the global chip industry is recovering from two year slump
hynix the world second largest memory chip maker reported net profit of
billion won million dollars in october december against net loss of
trillion won in the fourth quarter of
it was the second straight quarter of net profits after losses for seven
consecutive quarters
continued rise in chip prices also helped it achieve fourth quarter
operating profit of billion won compared to an operating loss of billion
year earlier
sales rose percent to trillion won from trillion year earlier
despite traditionally weak seasonality in the first quarter hynix is expected
to perform well due to likely brisk sales of pcs ahead of the chinese new year
and stable chip prices benjamin ban an analyst at daishin securities told
dow jones newswires
to speed up its shift towards more advanced chips hynix recently raised its
capital spending for this year to trillion won from the trillion won it
had originally planned
in it earmarked capital spending of one trillion won
for the whole of hynix reported billion won net loss sharp
improvement from trillion won net loss in sales rose percent to
trillion won
hynix reported billion won operating profit for all sharply turning
around from trillion won loss year earlier
all figures are consolidated meaning they include the financial results of the
company overseas units
golf bob hope classic scores
la quinta california jan afp
leading first round scores here on wednesday in the bob hope classic usa unless
noted
shane bertsch
alex prugh jeff quinney
hayes george mcneill joe ogilvie garrett willis
martin flores jeff klauk heath slocum roger tambellini vaughn taylor
bubba watson
ricky barnes cameron beckman chad collins ryuji imada jpn matt
kuchar scott mccarron rod pampling aus tim petrovic webb simpson kevin
stadler mike weir can
henrik bjornstad nor brenden pappas rsa jesper parnevik swe john
senden aus
steve elkington aus richard johnson swe matt jones aus
alex cejka ger greg chalmers aus tim clark rsa fredrik jacobson
swe cameron percy aus justin rose gbr
chris baryla can graham delaet can james nitties aus
daniel chopra swe brian davis gbr martin laird gbr carl pettersson
swe michael sim aus brendon de jonge zim
greg owen gbr
david lutterus aus
mathew goggin aus
olympics whistler sale makes no sense say games chiefs
vancouver canada jan afp
the embarrassing prospect of whistler flagship skiing venue being sold off in
the middle of next month olympics would make no commercial sense games chiefs
insisted on wednesday
the whistler blackcomb resort site to the north of host city vancouver will
stage the blue riband skiing as well as the sliding events at the february
olympics
but its future is uncertain after foreclosure proceedings were reportedly
started
creditors who had lent billion us dollars to the resort owner
intrawest gave notice that it had seized control of the company and would be
attempting to sell off its assets by auction on february right in the middle
of the games
fortress investments new york hedge fund bought intrawest in for
billion dollars but recently missed million dollar payment connected to
the deal
but vancouver organizing committee vanoc board chairman rusty goepel said
there wasn any advantage to the creditors in trying to disrupt the games
don know why you would rush an auction when you want to go around the
world and find all the potential buyers if you are creditor said goepel
you want to provide them with full due diligence and information to make
potentially the highest bidder
you are going to have the best exposure for whistler that it ever had in
its history
so if vulture fund and own some of its outstanding debt trying
to increase the value of whistler not decrease it at this point it makes no
rational sense nor do know if they have the ability to in fact run an auction
on the premises
dan doyle vanoc executive vice president of construction described intrawest
and whistler blackcomb as good partners adding that it didn make good
business sense for creditors to put them out of business at the time of year
when they make their most earnings
have had experience with bankruptcy and ccaa companies creditors
arrangement act and it doesn happen overnight he said
it process that takes months given all that we are very confident that the
games will go on at those two venues in whistler and they go on with the
co operation of the people that are running the mountain
spokesman for intrawest earlier hit out at media coverage of the controversy
there have been inaccurate and misleading media reports surrounding intrawest
today said company statement
fortress investment group continues to own and control intrawest and all of its
properties
serious discussions with intrawest lenders are ongoing regarding refinancing
and the company continues to operate business as usual at all of its resort
properties
nepalese climbers in bid to clean up everest
kathmandu jan afp
group of top nepalese climbers is planning high risk expedition to clean up
everest concerned at the toll that decades of mountaineering has taken on the
world highest peak
the climbers led by seven time everest summiteer namgyal sherpa will brave
thin oxygen and temperatures well below freezing to clear more than two tonnes
of rubbish discarded by mountaineers
environmental activists say everest is littered with the detritus of past
expeditions including human waste and mountaineers corpses which do not
decompose because of the extreme cold
everest is losing her beauty sherpa told afp the top of the mountain
is now littered with oxygen bottles old prayer flags ropes and old tents at
least two dead bodies have been lying there for years now
almost people have climbed mount everest since edmund hillary and tenzing
norgay became the first people to conquer the world highest peak in
sherpa team will begin their ascent in late april when small window between
spring and the summer monsoon offers the best conditions for climbing the
metre foot peak
there have been other attempts before to clean up parts of everest but sherpa
said his would be the first to penetrate into the so called death zone above
metres where there is not enough oxygen to sustain human life
we are taking big risk nobody has ever tried to clean up everest at that
height he said describing it as daring and heroic mission
coping with extreme weather conditions like freezing temperatures strong winds
and blizzards will make our task difficult but we are confident that we will
rise to the challenge
in all people will take part including cooks and porters
but only the most experienced climbers all of whom have reached the summit
before will go above metres
each will have to make repeated journeys into the death zone carrying down
kilogrammes of rubbish at time
climbers spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to reach the summit but
sherpa said few paid much attention to the rubbish they left behind
nepal sherpa people who are buddhists and believed to be of tibetan origin
make up most of the population in the harsh everest region and have long revered
the world highest peak as sacred
government officials said everest expeditions were expected to bring down all
their rubbish themselves but the rules were impossible to enforce
our officers accompany the expedition teams but they cannot go to the top so
our monitoring is weak said jitendra giri mountaineering specialist at the
tourism ministry
we receive lots of complaints about mountaineers discarding tins bottles and
used batteries but there nothing we can do
sherpa clean up campaign has won the support of nepal prime minister and
now the team are trying to raise million rupees dollars to fund the
expedition
we hope that our effort will open the eyes of the government and mountaineering
fraternity to the need to preserve everest he said
everest has given fame to lots of mountaineers sadly very little has been
done to preserve the sanctity of the mountain
there is only one everest and we must preserve it we need the mountain for our
future generations
muslim police in britain blast official anti terror strategy
london jan afp
muslim police in britain have attacked the government anti terrorism strategy
for triggering an upsurge in islamophobia and deepening divisions in
communities
the national association of muslim police namp warned that the prevent
programme which aims to combat violent extremism was stigmatising muslims by
focusing on so called islamist extremism
the group said the real threat came from the growing far right movement
the hatred towards muslims has grown to level that defies all logic and is an
affront to british values said the association in written submission to
parliamentary commission examining the anti terror initiative
the climate is such that muslims are subject to daily abuse in manner that
would be ridiculed by britain were this to occur anywhere else
there may be connection in the rise of islamophobia and our prevent programme
as it feeds on the stereotypes that the media and some rightwing parties
promote the group said
these stereotypes were that all muslims are evil and non trustworthy added
the officers
community cohesion may have suffered as result of the strategy said the
association which has more than members and was founded in july
they also highlighted the growth of rightwing movements as threat that needed
greater attention
the impact and growth of the far right and its ability to carry out terror acts
cannot and should not be underestimated said the association
kennedy successor to visit us senate
washington jan afp
republican senator elect scott brown will visit the us senate on thursday for
the first time since his stunning victory in the race to succeed the late ted
kennedy lawmakers and his office said
he coming down at my invitation tomorrow to be in to talk about the
transition ll be as helpful as possibly can to him democratic senator
paul kirk kennedy placeholder until tuesday special vote said wednesday
kirk said that the timing of brown swearing in was not in my hands but
underlined that all senators understood we ve got to move forward here after
brown upset democrat martha coakley for the massachusetts seat
his shock victory dealt blow to president barack obama by stripping his
democratic allies of their vote supermajority which had enabled them to
overrun any republican tactics to stall key legislation
brown was to meet with republican senator john mccain whom obama defeated in
