overall condition of the course and greens is better than last year and it will
provide stern test irrespective of whether we have windy conditions club
official cameron van niekerk told the domestic media
luck will not be an element in the africa open with the golfer who delivers the
best round on the day taking the spoils said the man charged with preparing
the metre course
baseball all star pitcher johnson retires after seasons
san francisco jan afp
five time cy young winner randy johnson who won more than games in his
career is retiring after glorious seasons in major league baseball
the left handed american who was nicknamed the big unit made the announcement
on tuesday
the year old johnson is time all star who six months ago became the th
pitcher in american baseball history to win games
getting the end result of the performance is what it was all about johnson
said there was learning curve for me for awhile worked hard was
fierce competitor and gave everything had
johnson won one world series championship with the arizona diamondbacks in
he threw two career no hitters including perfect game and ranks second in
career strikeouts
the ft in johnson finishes with career record of and
strikeouts
asked what his biggest career moment was johnson said it was playing in the
world series and sharing the co mvp honours with curt schilling
did my part to get to the world series that was my crowning achievement he
said
hurt as egyptian police activists clash over gaza relief convoy
el arish egypt jan afp
about people were injured late tuesday in clashes between egyptian police and
pro palestinian activists trying to get relief convoy into the gaza strip
militants and medics said
some activists belonging to the convoy led by charismatic and outspoken
british mp george galloway broke down the gate at the port in el arish to
protest an egyptian decision to ship some of the goods through israel
they blocked the two entrances to the sinai port with vehicles and clashed with
police forty militants were injured source close to them said while medical
sources said policemen were also hurt
the protests were sparked by an egyptian decision to allow vehicles to enter
gaza through the rafah bordering crossing about kilometres miles from
el arish but requiring remaining vehicles to pass via israel
talks in which galloway and delegation of turkish mps sought to change the
egyptian minds proved unsuccessful
early wednesday the activists were entrenched in the port surrounded by hundreds
of police an afp correspondent said
the convoy of nearly vehicles arrived in the mediterranean town on monday
after dispute with cairo on the route
but the convoy arrival came after bitter dispute between its organisers and
the government which banned the convoy from entering egypt sinai from jordan
by ferry forcing it to drive north to the syrian port of lattakia
cairo accused the convoy organisers of trying to embarrass egypt which has
refused to permanently open its rafah border crossing with gaza after the
islamist hamas movement took control of the palestinian enclave two years ago
israel and egypt have severely restricted travel to and from the gaza strip
since hamas seized power there in june after winning palestinian
legislative elections in
hamas takeover of the impoverished and densely populated territory led to an
israeli blockade that allows in only very basic supplies gaza was devastated in
war last winter between hamas and israel
obama lashes us intelligence screw up
washington jan afp
an angry president barack obama tuesday lectured us spy chiefs on an
intelligence screw up that left us airliner carrying people open to
barely averted al qaeda attack on christmas day
in highly unusual public rebuke of the us clandestine community obama made
terse televised statement about the thwarted bombing after gathering agency
chiefs and national security aides at high stakes white house meeting
it is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analyzed or fully
leveraged obama said suggesting that missed red flags before the attack
were more serious than originally thought
that not acceptable and will not tolerate it obama said
obama was even more explicit during the meeting in the secure white house
situation room an official said calling for immediate repairs to the flawed us
homeland security system and not typical washington finger pointing
this was screw up that could have been disastrous the official speaking on
condition of anonymity quoted obama as saying in the meeting
we dodged bullet but just barely it was averted by brave individuals not
because the system worked the president said according to the official
nigerian suspect umar farouk abdulmutallab is accused of attempting to
bring down the northwest jet outside detroit with explosives sewn into his
underwear he was thwarted by quick action by passengers and crew
as the white house faced intense political pressure over an initial crisis
management response dismissed by critics as sluggish press secretary robert
gibbs insisted that the fbi got actionable intelligence from abdulmutallab
republicans have faulted the decision to put abdulmutallab into the criminal
justice system rather than declare him an enemy combatant and submit him to
military questioning and justice
abdulmutallab spent number of hours with fbi investigators in which we
gleaned usable actionable intelligence gibbs said
obama also announced he would suspend transfers of guantanamo bay prisoners to
yemen after blaming an al qaeda affiliate in the arab country for plotting the
attack but vowed he would make good on his promise to close the camp
make no mistake we will close guantanamo prison which has damaged our
national security interests and become tremendous recruiting tool for al
qaeda obama said
white house spokesman robert gibbs said the decision could mean more prisoners
could be sent to thomson correctional center in illinois selected by the
administration to hold guantanamo bay inmates
obama said probes into the botched plot to blow up northwest plane showed us
intelligence missed other red flags as well as the already revealed fact that
abdulmutallab was nigerian extremist who had traveled to yemen
he said us intelligence knew that the group al qaeda in the arabian peninsula
wanted to strike not only us targets in yemen but in the united states itself
over the holiday season
the bottom line is this the us government had sufficient information to have
uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the christmas day attack but our
intelligence community failed to connect those dots obama said
this was not failure to collect intelligence it was failure to integrate
and understand the intelligence that we already had
when suspected terrorist is able to board plane with explosives on
christmas day the system has failed in potentially disastrous way
obama promised that in the coming weeks he would lay out further steps to
safeguard aviation security including better integration of information and
enhanced passenger screening
he promised public summary of preliminary report into the intelligence
failures within days and demanded swift action to close the gaps
want specific recommendations for corrective actions to fix what went wrong
want those reforms implemented immediately so that this doesn happen again
and so we can prevent future attacks
the state department meanwhile said tuesday it had revoked more visas for
people with suspected ties to terrorism
many experts have expressed incredulity that abdulmutallab was able to travel on
valid us visa despite his suspected ties to extremists
obama high powered meeting included the heads of the cia the fbi the
national security agency and the national counterterrorism center as well as
secretary of state hillary clinton and defense secretary robert gates
football spanish cup results
madrid jan afp
results from the first leg of spanish cup match on tuesday
barcelona ibrahimovic fc sevilla capel negredo pen
playing wednesday
celta vigo villarreal
alcorcon racing santander
valencia deportivo la coruna
recreativo huelva atletico madrid
thursday
rayo vallecano real mallorca
hercules alicante osasuna
malaga getafe
tokyo stocks open higher
tokyo jan afp
japanese share prices opened higher wednesday with the benchmark nikkei
index gaining points or percent to in the first minutes
of trading
ford posts first annual market share gain since
chicago jan afp
ford motor co posted its first full year us market share gain since even
as industry sales fell to levels not seen in nearly years the automaker said
tuesday
it was challenging and very volatile year said ken czubay ford vice
president for us marketing sales and service
we had to deal with near depression economy there were bankruptcies
bailouts discontinued brands distressed pricing government stimulus
program that resulted in huge shifts in demand from one month to the next
czubay attributed ford success to the processes and disciplines established
with restructuring plan which got underway in
for leaving my seatbelt on because think that volatility is still
an element of the new norm czubay said in conference call discussing ford
december sales results
ford market share rose points to percent in and points to
percent in december according to autodata
december marked the th time in months that the second largest us automaker
increased its retail share but it has not yet overtaken toyota for the number
two spot in us sales
general motors remains solidly in the top spot despite seeing its share shrink
points in december to percent and points to percent in
ford december sales rose percent to vehicles from year
earlier total sales for were down percent to million vehicles
overall industry sales were up percent in december and down percent in
according to autodata
we made very good progress in in very difficult business environment
czubay said
ford expects global vehicle sales to resume growth this year after two
consecutive years of decline
it estimates that global vehicle sales will fall to million units in
down about percent from the peak of million
it offered preliminary prediction that global sales will rise to between
and million units and that us sales will range from to million
units
we look forward to with optimism and we begin the year with more forward
momentum than ever czubay said promising sharp focus on developing new
products and vowing that we will not count on momentum to carry the ford day
unlike rivals general motors and chrysler ford managed to cope with the
collapse of auto sales last year without resorting to bankruptcy protection or
the need for billions of dollars in government aid
ford posted surprise earnings of nearly billion dollars in the third quarter
and said it was on track to become solidly profitable by after years of
painful losses cost cutting and major revamp of its product offerings
sales at ford three key brands ford lincoln and mercury were up
percent at in december and down percent in at million
sales at volvo which ford is in the midst of selling to china geely were
up percent in december at and down percent in at
ford said it had posted higher sales in every product category and for every
brand in december with car sales up percent trucks up percent
crossovers up percent and larger sport utility vehicles up percent
gobble meter helps fight against child obesity study
paris jan afp
new device aimed at discouraging eaters from bolting their food is useful
tool in combatting childhood obesity according to study published online on
wednesday by the british medical journal bmj
doctors carried out an month assessment of small computer linked scale
called mandometer which has been developed by scientists at sweden
karolinska institute
the gadget entails an electronic scale which sits underneath the diner plate
weighing the remaining food as the meal is consumed
sitting next to it on the table is small screen which shows graph
indicating the rate at which the food is being eaten this line is matched
against an ideal graph for consumption as programmed by food therapist
too much deviation from the ideal graph prompts the computer to make spoken
request for the eater to slow down the idea is to train overweight people to
eat less and more slowly thus helping them to feel satiated
researchers at bristol royal hospital for children and the university of bristol
in western england carried out test among patients aged between nine and
years
all were clinically obese meaning they had body mass index bmi of or
more bmi is determined by one weight in kilos divided by one height in
metres squared
some of the volunteers were trained on using the mandometer while the others
were given standard anti obesity care both groups were encouraged to raise
their levels of physical exercise to minutes day and follow healthy diet
year later the mandometer group had fallen points in bmi on average
around triple that of counterparts in the standard care group this
improvement was maintained when the investigators carried out follow up test
at the month mark
portion sizes among the mandometer group were also somewhat smaller by the end
of the study falling by grammes one and half ounces the volunteers
speed of eating had reduced by percent whereas it accelerated by four
percent in the other group
levels of good cholesterol were also much better in the mandometer group
the authors led by julian hamilton shield say the mandometer is useful
adjunct in treating obesity among adolescents health area where the options
outside the use of drugs are few and call for further tests
they point out though that mandometer was not stand alone device in the
experiment as it was used hand in hand with education about nutrition and
encouragement to do exercise
afp
afp world news service no unauthorized reproduction
inflatable toad gives small guys the slip
paris jan afp
the female cane toad can pump herself up to mega size to throw off smaller males
striving to mate with her australian biologists reported on wednesday
the unusual tactic suggests that female anurans as frogs and toads are called
may have far more power to select their sex partner than thought according to
their study appearing in the british journal biology letters
female cane toads bufo marinus are typically choosier than males when it comes
to reproduction
they discriminate among potential mates by approaching the toad with the best
call
but as they head to rendezvous with the hunk with the mightiest ribbit they
also have to run the gauntlet of excited rival males
an unwanted suitor will seek to climb on the female back grasping her tightly
in the armpit or groin waiting until she starts laying her eggs in order to
fertilise them
this is where the pneumatic trick comes in say the scientists led by benjamin
phillips of the university of sydney
by inflating sacs in her body the female is able to loosen the grip and the
luckless male slides off her body defeated
as result the female is able to choose the size of her mate factor that is
important to the species says the team fertilisation among cane toads is most
successful when males and females are similar in size
phillips and his two colleagues worked on the small to xxxl hunch after noting
that the cane toad puffs itself up in the presence of predator to make itself
look scarier
female toads likewise inflate at copulation time but until now this was
presumed to be reflex to being pushed kicked and occasionally flipped over as
panting males wrestled for amorous contact
phillips team went to exceptional lengths to test their hypothesis
they inflated dead anuran with pump to measure the sacs air pressure
there was even touch of toad necrophilia male toads were given jolt of sex
hormones to encourage them to mate with dead females so that the scientists
could measure the strength of the copulatory grip
in the final phase nine living females were given tracheal surgery to prevent
them from inflating their body and turned out to be unable to shake off even
the smallest male
after the experiments the nine were killed humanely
the paper suggests that females in other species may similarly use defence
mechanism to help them choose mate
many of the traits that enable female to repel predator also allow her to
repel unwanted suitors and hence facilitate mate choice it notes
cane toads are notorious pest in australia the species indigenous to central
and latin america was introduced in to help control beetles that
threatened sugar cane crops
the creature has now spread across most of tropical australia killing native
carnivores including crocodiles snakes and lizards that cannot tolerate its
toxins and devastating native frogs and toads through habitat loss
airline plot buck stops with me obama
washington jan afp
president barack obama declared thursday the buck stops with me over major
intelligence flaws exposed by an al qaeda attack on us passenger jet and
ordered sweeping homeland security overhaul
releasing two reports into the thwarted christmas day bombing obama said spy
agencies did not properly connect and understand disparate data that could
have busted the plot as it was planned by an al qaeda affiliate in yemen
he said the probes revealed that us analysts knew alleged attacker umar farouk
abdulmutallab was an extremist and knew al qaeda in yemen was plotting an attack
but could not connect the two strands of intelligence
and as critics charge his administration is too soft on terror and slow to act
after the attack obama said the united states is at war with al qaeda but
promised terrorists would not force americans to adopt siege mentality
am less interested in passing out blame than am in learning from and
correcting these mistakes to make us safer obama said signaling there would
be no immediate firings of top spy chiefs over the security breakdown
ultimately the buck stops with me as president have solemn responsibility
to protect our nation and our people and when the system fails it is my
responsibility
obama top anti terror official john brennan however delivered personal mea
culpa
told the president today let him down told him that will do
better
obama said the plot was not the fault of single individual or organization
but rather systemic failure across organizations and agencies
he said the us homeland security system and intelligence community broke down in
three ways allowing abdulmutallab to board northwest jet from amsterdam to
detroit with explosives hidden in his underwear
he blamed us spies for not aggressively chasing down the al qaeda in the
arabian peninsula aqap group that planned the attack then did not properly
analyze intelligence
then the intelligence that was known was not properly filtered through the us
terror watch list system allowing abdulmutallab onto the plane
to remedy the failures obama directed that specific individuals or teams must
be assigned to follow up on intelligence leads to ensure accountability and
close attention to suspected threats
intelligence reports must be shared among the clandestine community more quickly
and better analyzed and improvements will be made to watch listing procedures
he said
though warning there were no silver bullets obama also vowed significant
investments in aviation security
homeland security secretary janet napolitano promised new and layered
approach and called on foreign nations to do their part to safeguard their own
citizens as well as us security
there were passengers from countries aboard flight this is an
international issue not just one about the united states she said promising
to initiate global negotiations to improve security standards
napolitano promised to speed up the deployment of body imaging machines at
airports and raised the possibility of more and said the government would
aggressively seek to develop new detection technology
there will also be an overhaul of terrorist watch lists more canine security
teams at airports and more uniformed and undercover detection officers
including more federal air marshalls on planes
obama has faced barrage of criticism since the christmas day attack
including from republicans who say he still does not understand the nature of
the terrorist threat facing the united states
but in his speech he attempted to stamp out such claims
we are at war obama said
we are at war against al qaeda far reaching network of violence and hatred
that attacked us on that killed nearly innocent people and that is
plotting to strike us again
we will do whatever it takes to defeat them
some republicans were not satisfied however
worry that the president preoccupation with health care and other
domestic issues has distracted him from keeping our nation and its citizenry
safe from harm said republican senator john cornyn
republican national committee chairman michael steele added too often
president obama and democrats disregard the fact that terrorists are at war with
us which is dangerous thinking in this post era
new details meanwhile emerged of the plot from yemen
the arab country deputy prime minister for defense and security affairs rashad
al aleemi said abdulmutallab had met anwar al awlaqi us yemeni cleric also
linked to the fort hood massacre
the united states has accused awlaqi of terrorist links and said nidal hasan
the us military officer accused in the november military base shootings in texas
that killed people had also been in contact with the cleric
football friendly ivory coast rwanda
dar es salaam jan afp
result of friendly international between rwanda and african nations cup
qualifiers ivory coast late thursday
ivory coast souleiman angoua brou rwanda
chad army arrests southern rebel chief officials
ndjamena jan afp
the chad army has arrested southern rebel commander colonel djibrine dassert
the military and government said thursday
the head of the rebel movement for peace reconciliation and progress was
arrested week ago and has been brought to the capital military official
told afp on condition of anonymity
the minister of interior and public security ahmat mahamat bachir confirmed
the arrest
he is mercenary in the pay of foreigners and is supplied from abroad he
said refusing to give further details
chad has accused sudan of supporting rebels seeking to oust the government
while khartoum has charged ndjamena with backing ethnic minority rebels in the
western sudanese region of darfur
dassert took part in the offensive that helped idriss deby itno take power in
coup in he took up arms against his former ally in november
israeli strikes on gaza kill one palestinian medics
gaza city jan afp
israeli air strikes hit seven targets in the hamas run gaza strip early friday
killing one man and wounding two others palestinian medics said
the casualties occurred near gaza border with egypt when israeli jets bombed
two tunnels which palestinians use to smuggle goods into the besieged coastal
strip medics and hamas security officials said
the raids came after palestinians fired more than mortars and rocket into
israel thursday without causing casualties according to the military
israeli aircraft also hit three targets near gaza city and two near the southern
town of khan younis witnesses and hamas officials said all the strikes hit
empty buildings or open spaces
the army had no immediate comment
on thursday israeli planes dropped thousands of leaflets over the gaza strip
warning residents to stay clear from the border after palestinian militants
fired mortar shells into israel
the letters which were dropped over northern gaza and gaza city warned
residents not to get within range of metres yards from the heavily
secured border with israel
anyone who gets closer than this will be in danger the leaflet read in
arabic
palestinian militants earlier fired salvo of more than five mortar shells that
fell near the israeli community of kerem shalom causing no casualties or
damage an army spokesman said
as result israel closed down the kerem shalom crossing with the gaza strip
until further notice the defence ministry said in statement
the strikes marked the latest violence along gaza border which has been
mostly quiet since war israel launched on the islamist hamas in gaza on
december in response to rocket fire ended with mutual ceasefires on
january
the ceasefires have largely held despite violations by both sides
us urges japan to move forward on base row clarify alliance
washington jan afp
the united states said thursday it will urge tokyo to move forward on row
over us air base and clarify its stand on us japanese alliance that has
underpinned security in asia for years
hillary clinton will convey the message when she meets her japanese counterpart
katsuya okada in hawaii on tuesday when she begins her fourth tour of asia since
she became secretary of state one year ago officials said
president barack obama administration welcomed japan new center left
government elected last august but voiced irritation when it announced it may
scrap the previously agreed relocation of futenma airbase on southern okinawa
island
during the talks in honolulu clinton will tell okada how important it is to
move forward on these issues in futenma kurt campbell her top diplomat for
asian affairs told reporters in washington
the chief us diplomat will also tell okada that we also have to have very
clear headed recognition of how important this relationship is how many aspects
need to be maintained and engaged upon campbell said
campbell who will travel with clinton praised the new japanese government
multi billion dollar financial support for efforts to stabilize afghanistan and
combat global climate change but he hoped for more support
so there are number of areas that we ve seen very clear statements on the
part of the japanese government of wanting to work closely with the united
states the assistant secretary of state for asia and pacific affairs
but the truth is that this is security alliance at its core he said
and security issues are important in complex and changing asia and we want
very clear set of statements on the part of the japanese government of desire
to continue to work closely with us said campbell
and that one of the reasons why we are involved in such deep set of
interactions with our japanese interlocutors he said
in the talks clinton and her team will discuss plans for the th
anniversary of the us japan security alliance which will occur initially on
january he said
during her visit to hawaii clinton will also deliver major policy speech on
the american approach to asian security architecture at the east west center
he said
campbell attributed some of the problems in ties to the adjustment to governing
made by prime minister yukio hatoyama center left government which took power
in japan in august after half century of conservative rule
the new government pledged to review past agreements on the us military presence
and to deal with washington on more equal basis
hatoyama stated preference is to move the futenma base off okinawa or even
outside japan altogether breaching an agreement signed in between previous
conservative governments in washington and tokyo
since its defeat in world war ii officially pacifist japan has relied on
massive us military presence to guarantee its security initially as an occupier
and later as an ally
but the dispute over futenma has raised fears among some japanese that this
alliance might cool at time when rising china is making its presence felt
across asia
before leaving hawaii on january for papua new guinea clinton will meet with
the us military pacific command
on january clinton will travel to auckland new zealand she travels to
january to melbourne and canberra australia
smashed anti whaling superboat sinks in antarctic activists
sydney jan afp
high tech anti whaling powerboat that was badly damaged in collision with
japanese fishermen sank overnight after salvage attempts failed activists said
on friday
the super fast ady gil trimaran which had its front end sheared off in the
smash was being taken to an antarctic port when the tow line snapped peter
hammarstedt first officer of the bob barker ship told afp
the ady gil was taking on too much water it became too heavy on the tow more
and more of the vessel was under water he said
it was determined it would be only two to three hours before it was fully
submerged at this point unfortunately the ady gil is on the bottom of the
southern ocean
the bob barker which was towing the ady gil has now rejoined the hunt for
japanese whalers along with the steve irwin another protest ship operated by
the hollywood backed sea shepherd group
the ady gil sleek carbon and kevlar trimaran was capable of speeds up to
knots miles kilometres per hour and claimed the round the world record
in under its former name earthrace
urgent israeli airstrikes on gaza kill one palestinian medics
gaza city jan afp
israeli airstrikes hit seven targets in the hamas run gaza strip early friday
killing one palestinian and wounding two others medics said
alert
israeli airstrike on gaza kills one wounds two medics
us sunshine state shivers in arctic spell
miami jan afp
residents in the normally balmy us state of florida swapped their bikinis for
bobble hats on thursday as temperatures plummeted toward record lows
swathes of the state famous for its oranges alligators and retirees seeking
year round sun faced near freezing temperatures
as floridians raced to uncover long unused jackets farmers battled to salvage
some of the temperate and tropical crop that form the backbone of the local
