the scandal emerged as tensions were already running high between the pro
british protestant dup and its catholic partners in the power sharing government
in belfast sinn fein who want united ireland
the two former arch enemies have shared power since but have failed to
reach agreement on when policing powers for the province should be transferred
from london to belfast the final part of the devolution process
sinn fein president gerry adams vowed to keep working to resolve northern
ireland political problems regardless of the scandal
there is crisis but it is political crisis that is the difference he
said we are prepared and others are prepared to work through these issues and
more particularly to work beyond these issues
fears of return to violence in the province rose significantly last year when
two british soldiers and policeman were shot dead in attacks claimed by
dissident republicans
in the latest incident friday catholic police officer was seriously injured
after bomb exploded under his car as he drove to work he remains in
critical condition
football rangers left counting cost of accies shock
glasgow jan afp
rangers were left with an unexpected replay and fresh injury headaches after the
scottish cup holders were held to an extraordinary draw by hamilton
academical
steven davis and top goalscorer kenny miller both suffered injuries as scottish
premier league leaders rangers were pushed all the way by top flight strugglers
hamilton at new douglas park on sunday
rangers were cruising at up in the th minute after goals from steven
whittaker and miller
but hamilton hit back with three goals in an astonishing minute burst at the
end of the first half simon mensing starting the recovery from the penalty spot
before marco paixao and mickael antoine curier stunned the visitors
however miller controversial penalty just after the hour mark brought the
score back to as hamilton played out the final minutes man down
following richie hastings red card
the result left the teams facing replay at ibrox with the winners up against
st mirren in the last
meanwhile rangers assistant manager ally mccoist said the glasgow giants could
have done without the setbacks suffered by davis and miller
injuries are part and parcel of football said mccoist we could do without
them but hopefully they are not long term
davis has dead leg and with his style of play mobility is important for him
and we had to get him off
kenny has been feeling his groin for couple of weeks and don think the
cold weather helped him
hopefully we got him off in time
it been little niggle and the conditions probably played part today we
could ve done without injuries but they had no bearing on the goals we lost
we won know the full extent until the next hours but the squad is
certainly being put to the test over the coming weeks
would be lying if said it was not concern but we have to handle it
reflecting on the match former scotland striker mccoist said it was
everything you would expect from scottish cup tie there was enough crammed
into that game for few cup ties
the first minutes were bit bizarre because we were up without really
playing well couldn see where it came from
but also didn see hamilton scoring three goals in minutes it was
strange feeling to go from being delighted to little down and we had work to
do at half time
hamilton kicked off points behind rangers but manager billy reid insisted
thought over the minutes we were the better side
we have taken few doings over the last couple of seasons but there is
progress being made at the club and that important
just tell the players to believe in themselves lot will be made of rangers
not playing well but that discredit to hamilton thought we were
brilliant
battle scarred tamils emerge as lankan kingmakers
colombo jan afp
for decades sri lanka tamil tiger rebels fought for an independent ethnic
homeland in may they were defeated but observers say tamil voters could now be
key to who becomes the next president
the two main candidates incumbent mahinda rajapakse and former army chief
sarath fonseka both claim credit for crushing the tigers and ending the
island bloody ethnic conflict
with the majority sinhalese vote split between rajapakse and fonseka close
race is expected and sri lanka million battle scarred tamils could decide
who wins the election on january
rajapakse and fonseka have been on the campaign trail in the northern tamil
heartland of jaffna turn of events unimaginable year ago when fighting
raged between the tigers and government troops
in the first four months of the united nations estimates that mainly
tamil civilians were killed in the fighting while between and
people died in nearly years of bloodshed
at their peak years ago the liberation tigers of tamil eelam ltte
controlled one third of sri lanka rajapakse launched his push for complete
victory in and fonseka led the troops to triumph eight months ago
the two candidates have sought tamil support by promising to step up
reconstruction in the former war zone and the speedy re settlement of tens of
thousands of tamil civilians displaced by the final months of battle
the president moved about freely and spoke with the civilians his spokesman
said of sunday brief visit to jaffna while fonseka addressed rally in the
region week ago
victor ivan the editor of the weekly ravaya newspaper told afp the sinhalese
community was still buoyant after the tigers defeat but divided over whether to
back rajapakse or fonseka
the tamil minority will be voting for the first time in years without the
presence of the tigers he said tamils could decide the next president
major questions remain over the tamil vote including whether many in the war
ravaged north and east are registered and able to cast their ballot and who
they might vote for
hundreds of thousands are still displaced and their turnout at the poll could be
low said nimalka fernando of the movement for democracy private advocacy
group
still the tamil vote will be big factor she said
there is one independent tamil candidate in the fray but group of tamil
parties known as the tamil national alliance tna which has seats in the
member parliament announced last week that it supported fonseka
moderate tamil politician dharmalingam sithadthan said his community could act
as kingmaker in the race springing the percent tamil minority into an
influential position
although the ltte is dead their influence could still be around this means
most of the tamils could vote against rajapakse because he is seen as the one
who took the political decision to crush the tigers sithadthan said
the tna which was once seen as proxy of the tigers called boycott of the
november presidential vote which was narrowly won by rajapakse many
believe the result would have been different had the tamils voted
the tigers often used violence to stop voting and also carried out suicide bomb
attacks and assassinations in the run up to previous elections
fonseka the architect of the military victory quit in november accusing the
president of sidelining him and launched his campaign with direct attack on
rajapakse failure to deliver peace dividend
both candidates have promised to free thousands of tamils still detained as
tiger suspects
political observers say corruption the economy and media freedom are the
central issues for the majority sinhalese community which is impatient to see
the concrete benefits of victory
rajapakse called the election two years ahead of schedule in bid to ride
wave of public acclaim after the tigers defeat and the killing of their
notorious founder velupillai prabhakaran
but his row with fonseka has presented him with an unexpected rival for power
nfl ravens run over pats cards triumph in aerial duel
foxboro massachusetts jan afp
baltimore ran riot from the first play on sunday to end new england streak of
home dominance in the nfl playoffs while arizona took to the air in record
setting victory over green bay
baltimore ray rice exploded up the middle for an yard touchdown on the
opening play to set the tone for the ravens who downed the patriots to
book second round clash with indianapolis
one thing we said as an offense is we want to start games fast rice said
wanted to be the guy today to start fast whether it was five yard run or an
yard run wanted to be the guy to say this will be fast tempo game we
want the other team to play catch up to us
in arizona the cardinals also started fast then had hang on in the face of
green bay rally before triumphing in overtime in the highest scoring
playoff game in league history
despite the offensive onslaught it was defender karlos dansby yard fumble
return for touchdown in overtime that gave arizona the victory
michael adams stripped green bay quarterback aaron rodgers of the ball which
bounced off the foot of the packers signal caller and into the hands of dansby
he raced for the score that sealed game that had been passing duel between
playoff newcomer rodgers and veteran kurt warner
in foxboro new england superstar quarterback tom brady turned the ball over
three times on the first four possessions including fumble on the fourth play
of the game that baltimore turned into touchdown for lead after less
than five minutes
brady also matched playoff career worst with three interceptions as he lost
postseason contest at gillette stadium for the first time after winning seven of
them
the patriots had won their last home playoff games at gillette and at foxboro
stadium since their last defeat in
the patriots who won three super bowl titles from were perfect
at home in the regular season but were hearing jeers from their home fans as
they fell adrift in the first quarter
have been booing us too the way we played brady said playing the way
we played today we weren going to beat anybody
brady the nfl comeback player of the year after his return from serious knee
injury was of for yards with two touchdown passes and three
interceptions
brady wasn the only patriot to struggle randy moss caught just five passes
for yards
the patriots trailed at halftime after which they received the kickoff
brady shortly threw his third interception which dawan landry returned yards
to set up billy cundiff yard field goal that made it
brady then threw his second touchdown pass to julian edelman who was in for
injured receiver wes welker covering one yard
the patriots defense however couldn stop the ravens runners with
left baltimore willis mcgahee ran three yards for lead
the trio of rice mcgahee and le ron mcclain gained yards on the ground
rice leading the way with rice ran for two touchdowns and mcgahee and
mcclain one each
the ravens who lost the afc championship game to eventual super bowl champions
pittsburgh last season will go to indianapolis next weekend seeking to avenge
regular season loss to the colts on november
football sevilla slump infuriates under pressure jimenez
madrid jan afp
sevilla began the season with aspirations to challenge for the spanish league
crown and win over real madrid back in october raised expectations but
saturday home defeat by racing santander was their third consecutive loss
to put the pressure on coach manolo jimenez
successive league defeats to getafe atletico madrid and racing have seen
sevilla slump to fifth and jimenez did not mince his words in his assessment of
the racing performance
rather than others losing respect for us at home we have lost respect for
ourselves he said
there are no excuses we played disastrous first half we knew january would
be tough but not this tough
they caught us out with counter attacks that we did not know how to stop
promising teenager sergio canales sevilla target scored twice in the first
half as the home side were caught on the break and they could not recover
despite koffi romaric pulling goal back in the second half
we have been losing games more because of our mistakes than our opponent
skill bemoaned jimenez we are confident that we will achieve our objectives
and succeed by the end of the season
the minimum objective would probably be to qualify for the champions league
again with top four finish and as it stands sevilla are fifth point behind
fourth placed deportivo la coruna
while their league form is poor sevilla have been going strong in the cup
competitions reaching the last of the champions league as group winners and
beating barcelona at camp nou on tuesday in the first leg of the last
kings cup tie
after the way we played in the barcelona game it is real shame to let this
game get away from us at home lamented diego capel
we aren doing well against teams coming to the sanchez pizjuan and this is
problem because we want to make it fortress
it has been far from fortress with four wins three draws and two losses from
their nine home matches
captain andres palop claimed sevilla struggled against teams that came to pack
players behind the ball rather than the likes of barcelona who try to attack
we play better against teams like them barcelona because they want the ball
and want to create space with lot of movement explained palop they don
just want to shut up shop and play to detstroy the game
we find more space and are comfortable against these teams and that is why when
teams come just to destroy our game and play on the counter attack they cause us
lot of problems this is something we have to improve on
we have dropped too many points at home and we are not going to reach them if
we let these points escape
an injury list has not helped sevilla with brazilian international forward luis
fabiano just one key player sidelined while the timing of the african cup of
nations has not been ideal with ivory coast midfielder didier zokora and mali
striker frederic kanoute both taking part in the competition
of course we have lots of injuries but we can think about that because the
other day we went to camp nou with lots of injuries and played terrific game
said striker alvaro negredo
we shouldn look at this as an excuse and think of the errors we are making
and know that if we do things well we will start to win games we have to pick
our heads up
sevilla next match is at home to barcelona on wednesday in the second leg of
the last kings cup tie as they try to win the cup for the first time since
british banks to see recovery falter survey
london jan afp
british banks fear their fragile recovery will grind to halt over the next few
months according to survey by employers organisation the confederation of
british industry cbi
growth in britain financial services industry was lower than expected towards
the end of the quarterly study by cbi and pricewaterhousecoopers showed
banks and building societies warn that an increase in retail and corporate
banking lending over the next six months will be choked off by march leading to
cuts in income and profits
firms do not expect growth in business volumes to continue over the coming
three months and do not anticipate improving profitability despite further cost
reductions the cbi said
asked how their business volumes fared in the three months to december
percent of institutions said volumes rose while percent said they had
fallen
the resulting balance of plus four percent is lower than september figure of
plus seven percent
ian mccafferty cbi chief economic advisor said the bounce in uk financial
services activity over the past six months is not expected to last as we enter
firms see their business volumes falling back again with no further
improvement in profitability over the next three months
banks are the worst hit fearing they will see business volumes drop back to the
lows of when the global financial crisis was biting hard
they pointed to number of factors including flight of savers money from
the safe haven of major banks to investment products in search of higher
interest returns and to take advantage of rising stock market
the cbi did however see some encouraging signs
on more positive note financial services firms confidence in the general
business situation has continued to increase profitability improved and much
slower reduction in numbers employed was seen in this survey mccafferty said
job losses are also expected to be minimal in the coming quarter
nhl stamkos scores again as suspended game completed
newark new jersey jan afp
steve stamkos scored his second goal against new jersey in three days as tampa
bay beat the devils as just people turned out to watch the completion
of suspended nhl game on sunday
stamkos added sunday goal to the one he scored friday when the game was
suspended halfway through the second period because of lighting problem
the lightning led and had to hold on for the final minutes and seconds
after play was suspended friday night with remaining in the second period
travis zajac and zach parise scored for the devils
steve downie and brandon bochenski also scored for the devils who like the
lightning had to play three consecutive days
tampa faced philadelphia saturday and the devils played in montreal
the crowd was announced at on sunday but only about returned to
watch the abbreviated game at the prudential center arena
new jersey general manager lou lamoriello said broken circuit breaker at the
three year old arena caused the initial problem
the players were sent off the ice and waited in the dressing room for almost two
hours before the nhl decided to suspend the game
referees steve kozari and tim peel returned for the final minutes but
linesmen david brisebois and don henderson were replaced by derek nanson and
jean moran on sunday
this marks the first suspended game in the nhl in over four years when czech
star jiri fischer collapsed on the detroit red wings bench and doctors had to
perform cpr on him
hong kong leads ipo race but critics warn over quality
hong kong jan afp
hong kong stock exchange was the world hottest ipo market last year with
more than billion us dollars in new listings but it stands accused of
sacrificing quality for quantity
the bourse is keen to stay ahead of rival shanghai and attract non chinese
companies but criticism has mounted after the controversial approval of russian
aluminium giant uc rusal share sale and string of listing debacles
the exchange repeatedly delayed approving rusal billion us dollar initial
public offering ipo
unproven allegations that chief executive oleg deripaska has links to organised
crime dogged the world biggest aluminium maker in its attempts to become the
first russian company to list in hong kong
and when the listing was finally approved last month the securities and futures
commission sfc stepped in with what observers call unprecedented
restrictions for the ipo
the sfc stipulated minimum investment in rusal equivalent to about us
dollars reportedly bid to shield small investors from the complicated
offering
it was quite surprise that the sfc agreed to rusal listing said raymond
chan acting director of the centre for corporate governance and financial
policy at hong kong baptist university
think the exchange and sfc are aware of the quality problem
chan warned that the exchange could be putting its reputation at risk listing
in hong kong would be associated with low quality
concern over the issue spiked after string of mainland chinese companies
shocked the market with less than full disclosure in
we list lot of fairly sub standard companies here just look at the
listings in the past year said corporate governance expert who requested
anonymity
it doesn do anything for this exchange
trading in shares of asian citrus the mainland largest orange plantation
owner was suspended on their debut amid claims that executives had
misrepresented the company value
aluminium producer china zhongwang holdings raised more than one billion us
dollars in april and then was also accused of misrepresenting details in its
share sale prospectus and obscuring its links to china military
the company said last week that it had been cleared of wrongdoing after an
independent review by accounting giant ernst amp young it did not make that
report public and china zhongwang has since suspended trading in its shares
without explanation
china metal recycling which also listed in hong kong last year saw its shares
plunge almost percent when its chief financial officer quit saying he was
denied access to company financial records
chan said hong kong was perceived as good place to list because of the lighter
regulatory touch
that one reason why many mainland chinese companies select the city as their
first overseas exchange the regulations are not too tight for them
especially compared with the us he said
but the transparency and disclosure in hong kong is less stringent than in most
western exchanges
we need to improve that to get the same standard as other exchanges
for its part the exchange said it had joined general trend away from so
called merit based listings to disclosure based regime putting the onus on
company directors for the accuracy of information flowing to investors
loss making rusal did not meet the bourse profit test but companies can still
list if they meet other criteria including positive cash flow an exchange
spokesman said
hkex agrees entirely that good corporate governance is of paramount importance
and therefore over the years has committed itself to building quality market
the spokesman said in statement to afp
quality market will result in virtuous cycle which attracts issuers and
investors
but high profile critic questioned the adequacy of the exchange disclosure
rules with no requirement for quarterly financial reports
virtually every place in asia requires quarterly reporting now said
shareholder activist david webb
some people think that the easier we make it to list the better if that the
case we might as well just trade on ebay without any regulation at all
french guiana says no to more autonomy official results
paris jan afp
seventy percent voters in french guiana voted against more autonomy for the
french department in south america according to definitive results released
monday by the french government
slightly over percent of voters cast ballots in the referendum with
percent voting against more autonomy for the overseas french department
bordering brazil and suriname
definitive results from the similar referendum on the caribbean island of
martinique were expected to be known around gmt
an opinion poll published thursday in martinique said percent of voters on
the island would say no
participation was slightly over percent one hour before polls closed in
martinique according to local authorities
the votes were held year after french overseas departments in the caribbean as
well as the indian ocean island of la reunion were convulsed by strikes and
rioting over low wages and high prices
president nicolas sarkozy proposed holding the referendums when he travelled to
martinique in june as part of drive to heal ties following the general strike
which degenerated into weeks of rioting at the start of
martinique which has around residents and guiana vast territory
with some residents were asked to approve or reject change in status
for their departments
the wording of the question was technical but in essence it asked voters if they
wanted to change the status to make it more like that governing more autonomous
french territories such as new caledonia in the pacific
sixty years after being granted the status of department which makes them
legally as french as normandy or provence the tropical territories face
recurrent social problems including high unemployment and low wages despite
massive financial support from the state
europe freeze strands travellers cuts power
berlin jan afp
the arctic freeze gripping europe left hundreds of people stuck in vehicles in
deep snow or stranded at airports with scores of flights cancelled and power
cuts to thousands of homes on sunday
the treacherous conditions cut off villages in northern germany and on the
baltic islands and disrupted rail traffic with eurostar still only able to run
two out of three trains under the channel
the weather blamed on low pressure system that forecasters labelled daisy
unleashed blizzards in north germany that left motorways secondary roads and
railways impassable at certain points
hundreds found themselves stuck in their cars and lorries in snow or in trains
overnight on saturday authorities said
daisy dumped even more snow on germany during sunday particularly in the
northeast and forecasters warned of more to come overnight and all day monday
with heavy snow showers expected to spread southwards
school was cancelled for monday in mecklenburg western pomerania state while
snowsdrifts up to two metres six feet high meant many villages were left to
their own devices police said
all of germany was blanketed with snow whipped up in some places by strong
winds leipzig in the east shivered under centimetres inches of snow
berlin had centimetres and hamburg in the northwest centimetres
dozens of villages in rural schleswig holstein state and on the baltic sea
islands were completely cut off while more than car accidents have been
reported across germany in recent days several of them fatal
air travel was hit as well with nearly flights cancelled sunday at
frankfurt airport europe third busiest after flights were scrapped on
saturday spokesman told afp
the snowfall which has blanketed britain for week eased on sunday but the
freezing conditions continued to cause extensive disruption to air travel
more than flights were cancelled at london heathrow airport on sunday
while low cost airline easyjet scrapped almost flights
eurostar said that it would continue to operate on reduced timetable monday
and urged passengers to postpone their trip to later date if possible
the army helped to deliver much needed supplies of food to rural areas in kent
in southeast england snow had cut off many remote areas
at least people have died from the frigid weather according to british
media
health and safety concerns about access to stadiums wiped out all but two of the
weekend english premier league football matches and the serpentine swimming
lake in london hyde park was closed for the first time in years
temperatures were expected to edge above freezing as the week wears on
forecasters said
the unusually harsh conditions were caused as relatively warm humid air from the
mediterranean met cold air from the north and east meteorologist michel daloz
from meteo france said
in france fresh snow and freezing rain made for another day of disruption with
people including british tourists on their way to skiing break in the
french alps forced to spend saturday night at lyon airport
around homes in southeastern france were without power for second day
sunday while icy conditions caused numerous accidents on roads around paris
prompting the closure of motorway sections and ban on lorries
later in the day however conditions had improved enough for french road
authorities to lift status orange state of alert across much of the country
in poland around households were left without power after tree branches
weighed down by snow fell on electricity cables while freezing rain caused
major problems on busy rail links between warsaw and krakow
in the northeast of the czech republic heavy snow forced traffic on the rail
line into neighbouring slovakia to be suspended for six hours while in the
southeast power outages left thousands in the dark
in the balkans heavy rain and melting snow meanwhile led to flooding in parts
of croatia and bosnia with an emergency declared in the central croatian
district of lika and homes evacuated
several european countries sent rescue teams to albania after hectares
acres of land were flooded in the north affecting homes
officials said no deaths were reported
no plan to send troops to yemen obama says
washington jan afp
president barack obama says he has no intention of sending us troops to fight
militants in yemen and somalia despite growing concern over the presence of
militant cells there
obama made fresh push for international cooperation to confront militants in
yemen where the top us military officer admiral michael mullen said sending
troops was not possibility
never rule out any possibility in world that is this complex in
countries like yemen in countries like somalia think working with
international partners is most effective at this point obama said in people
interview to be published friday the magazine released transcript sunday
have no intention of sending us boots on the ground in these regions
he insisted the lawless tribal belt straddling the afghanistan pakistan border
remains the epicenter of al qaeda but acknowledged yemen based affiliate of
osama bin laden network has become more serious problem
the impoverished country long standing scourge of extremism was thrown into
the spotlight after the al qaeda branch claimed responsibility for narrowly
averted christmas day bombing aboard us bound airliner
recent strikes on al qaeda positions in yemen including cruise missile attacks
were reportedly led by the united states which has vowed to boost its economic
and military aid to sanaa london and washington have already announced plans to
fund counter extremism police in the country
mullen the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff acknowledged in cnn
interview that the united states was providing some support to yemen efforts
to strike al qaeda militants but insisted sanaa led the operations
yemen has been hostile to any us military intervention but analysts fear bin
laden ancestral homeland cannot tackle the militants on its own
striking conciliatory tone obama said the message his administration sends to
muslim communities around the world was extraordinarily important
we can return to sort of garrison state notion that we re just going to
hunker down and this is only an issue of firepower and boots on the ground he
added
thinly stretched us military has deployed large troop contingents in iraq and
afghanistan
the number of us troops in afghanistan where obama has vowed to focus his war
against al qaeda militants who have also sought refuge in neighboring pakistan
is set to triple under his watch from levels reaching some
later this year
washington has urged yemen to crack down on al qaeda but sanaa already faces
litany of challenges including water shortage dwindling oil reserves
shiite rebellion in the north and movement for autonomy in the south
