somalia is also the focus of us counterterrorism efforts where an embattled
transitional government faces relentless attacks from extremist shebab militants
and their hezb al islam allies
the central government asserts little control over the country located along key
shipping routes to oil fields in the middle east with pirates now swarming the
gulf of aden and the indian ocean
us officials have said they are seeking to boost military and intelligence
cooperation with yemen
general david petraeus the head of us central command which oversees region
encompassing the middle east the gulf the horn of africa and central asia
welcomed yemen desire to tackle extremists on its own
we would always want host nation to deal with problem itself we want to
help we re providing assistance he told cnn after returning from trip to
yemen during which he held talks with president ali abdullah saleh
petraeus said washington planned to more than double its economic aid to yemen
this year to million dollars or more up from million last year but us
officials have insisted the total aid amount has not yet been determined
though the figure pales in comparison to the billions of dollars washington has
poured into afghanistan the general stressed other allies were providing aid
including saudi arabia which has reportedly allocated two billion dollars and
the united arab emirates which pledged million dollars to sanaa
cycling australian team for beijing uci world cup
sydney jan afp
the australian team named on monday for the beijing uci track world cup classic
from january to
australia alex bird luke durbridge michael hepburn leigh howard peter
lewis travis meyer shane perkins glenn shea ashlee ankudinoff megan
dunn sarah kent anna meares emily rosemond josephine tomic
team jayco daniel ellis jason niblett scott sunderland kaarle mcculloch
shamed wife of ireland leader having psychiatric treatment
belfast jan afp
the disgraced politician wife of northern ireland first minister peter
robinson is undergoing intensive psychiatric treatment as her husband future
hangs in the balance he said late sunday
iris robinson is being treated after revelations she had an affair with lover
years her junior and secured pounds euros dollars
from two wealthy developers to help him set up restaurant
she is quitting her seats in the northern ireland assembly and britain house
of commons and pressure is mounting on her husband to resign over allegations
about how much he knew about his wife financial dealings
robinson leader of the democratic unionist party dup moved to quash
speculation about year old iris whereabouts saying iris is receiving
acute psychiatric treatment from the belfast health and social care trust
his wife has been suffering from acute depression
one of robinson predecessors as leader of the troubled british run province
said sunday his position was becoming untenable
david trimble who jointly won the nobel peace prize in for his efforts to
bring stability to northern ireland after three decades of violence predicted
in bbc interview that robinson would quit in the next few days
trimble an ulster unionist who was northern ireland inaugural first minister
from said if peter robinson is going to fight to clear his name then
the place to do that is from the back benches
to have situation where party leader sees his wife expelled from the party
and acquiesces in it doesn even persuade the party to give her decent way
out shows there has been complete loss of authority
robinson denies any knowledge of his wife financial dealings if he had been
aware of them he should have reported them to parliamentary authorities
the row comes as tensions run 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 in northern ireland should be
transferred from london to belfast the final part of the devolution process
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
nfl national football league playoff results
washington jan afp
results on sunday in the national football league playoffs
st rd
american conference
at foxboro massachusetts
baltimore new england
national conference
at phoenix arizona
arizona green bay ot
saturday st rd results
american conference
at cincinnati ohio
new york jets cincinnati
national conference
at dallas texas
dallas philalphia
remaining fixtures
second round
saturday january
arizona at new orleans
baltimore at indianapolis
sunday january
dallas at minnesota
ny jets at san diego
conference championships
sunday january
afc championship game
nfc championship game
super bowl xliv
sunday february at miami
afc champion nfc champion
chavez vows clampdown on post devaluation speculators
caracas jan afp
president hugo chavez warned sunday that any price speculation by shopkeepers
will trigger business seizures and called on the national guard to help people
fight price gouging
to those gentlemen let call them looters of the people if they want to
go ahead and do it but we ll take their business and hand it over to the
workers chavez said on his weekly radio and television talk show alo
presidente
the firebrand leftist president was tackling fallout from his announcement
friday to devalue the local currency for non essential imports to bolivars
per dollar double the present rate but to just bolivars for basic
goods to help poorer venezuelans
if tomorrow butcher shop opens its doors with price increase report it and
let the national guard step in chavez said
even capable of taking the butcher shop away from its owner and turn it
over to the people working in it
economists predict devaluation induced spike in inflation which last year
already hit percent thousands of people descended on local shops saturday
hoping to buy imported goods ahead of imminent price increases
there no reason prices should go up chavez said warning venezuelans to
beware of scammers
we re going to launch an offensive against speculation want the national
guard to help people on the street fight speculation
chavez gave special warning to banks who fail to serve their customers
properly
there bank out there that treading dangerous ground it knows who
talking about they re not going to blackmail me any banker who slips up ll
take the bank away from him no matter how big it is chavez said without
naming the institution
the bolivar devaluation was the first since and was designed to aid
public finances that have withered amid dwindling oil revenues and rapidly
contracting economy
critics said the move would allow chavez to boost public spending ahead of
elections in september but would severely damage the health of the economy
since coming to office chavez has sought to remake the venezuelan economy
vowing to create more equitable socialist model
he has initiated string of nationalizations of foreign firms banks and
measures that have sent inflation soaring
nfl national football league playoff results
washington jan afp
results on sunday in the national football league playoffs
st rd
american conference
at foxboro massachusetts
baltimore new england
national conference
at phoenix arizona
arizona green bay ot
social democrat josipovic wins croatian presidency
zagreb jan afp
social democrat ivo josipovic who pledged to lead croatia into the european
union and crack down on corruption was elected president with over percent
of the vote official results showed monday
after the results were announced josipovic told crowd his supporters that he
will work for just country which honours european values
want european croatia croatia that will be one of the shining stars in
the european sky not only by eu membership but by values that we stand for
democracy freedom human rights rule of law minority rights and religious
freedom josipovic said
he took percent of the vote in sunday run off presidential election
while his rival populist zagreb mayor milan bandic garnered percent the
official results from percent of all polling stations showed
josipovic law professor and classical music composer who has enjoyed an
untarnished political career reiterated his promise to lead an uncompromising
fight against corruption
every citizen of this country tonight is winner since deeply believe that
we all want better more just croatia we all want to live in country
where work gets paid and crime is punished the country of social security and
justice
the fight against corruption is key challenge if croatia which joined nato
last year wants to succeed in its bid to join the european bloc and put the
trauma of the war further behind it
in recent months several investigations were launched into alleged graft at
state run firms more than dozen officials have already been detained
josipovic election is certainly an important step towards boosting of ties
between zagreb and brussels radovan vukadinovic an international relations
expert told afp
he will try to make croatia country that can serve as an example to others in
the region that are aspiring to join the eu
the process of eu integration of the region thus gets an important new
dimension and provides possibility to develop even better ties with europe
he told afp
of the six republics that made up yugoslavia before it collapsed in series of
wars in the bosnia croatia macedonia montenegro serbia and slovenia
only the latter is an eu member
josipovic who will be croatia third president since its independence in
has also promised to try to help pull the country economy out of recession
unemployment is running at around percent and its economy is expected to
have contracted up to percent in its external debt is meanwhile nearly
percent of gross domestic product
for all his campaign pledges the day to day running of croatia is largely in
the hands of conservative government led by prime minister jadranka kosor as
the president has limited powers
kosor early monday welcomed the result of the presidential vote vowing to
cooperate with josipovic
believe that the cooperation between the new president and the government
will be for the benefit of all citizens kosor who leads the ruling croatian
democratic union hdz told reporters
believe that president josipovic and the current government will lead croatia
into the eu she said
josipovic election was also hailed by croatian serb leader milorad pupovac
josipovic is the man that croatia needs to continue the fight against
corruption reform the judiciary and economy join the eu and settle relations
with neighbours notably serbia pupovac was quoted by local media as saying
ties between croatia and serbia have gradually improved since the war
during which the belgrade regime backed serb rebels
boxing pacquiao to fight clottey at cowboys stadium
dallas texas jan afp
filipino superstar manny pacquiao will take on ghana joshua clottey at cowboys
stadium the billion dollar state of the art home of the nfl dallas cowboys
promoters said sunday
promoter bob arum and cowboys owner jerry jones announced the deal day after
arum attended the cowboys nfl playoff victory over philadelphia at the stadium
on saturday night
jones had put the facility forward as venue for the anticipated fight march
between pacquiao and unbeaten american floyd mayweather
that super fight fell through last week over disagreement on the drug testing
protocol and arum lined up clottey for pacquaio world boxing organization
welterweight title defense
jerry jones knows exactly how big and important this event is which is why it
was so easy to put this deal together arum said if jerry could sell me on
cowboys stadium and the north texas market you know he is going to have no
problems selling out cowboys stadium on march
we are ready to roll up our sleeves and promote manny debut as world
welterweight champion manny pacquiao is the lone star of boxing there isn
more appropriate place in the world for him to fight
jones told espn com he was thrilled to host bout involving fighter of
pacquaio stature regardless of his opponent and even if the fight with
clottey won be the mega money spinner that pacquiao mayweather promised to be
never got into the nfl or bought the cowboys for the money jones told
espn com was lucky enough to already have some
this is about having fighter like manny and an event like this in our venue
when we finished the deal was shaking as much as was when we beat the
eagles just as excited
the stadium won be configured for maximum seating capacity they ll
start out planning in the seat range but can increase that capacity if
needed
manny defending his title against joshua clottey is not just great fight
it great event and one we can showcase to the fullest in cowboys stadium
jones said we going to promote this like it was the super bowl
the hard hitting clottey who lives in new york is coming off controversial
split decision loss to puerto rico miguel cotto last june fight many
thought clottey won
cotto was then pounded by pacquiao in november in fight stopped in the final
round
the pacquiao mayweather bout which had been tentatively scheduled for march
in las vegas fell apart over the issue of pre fight anti doping blood tests
mayweather originally insisted they be conducted right up to the fight while
pacquiao wanted day cut off before the bout they were unable to reach
compromise
urgent 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
afp sports schedule for monday january
paris jan afp
afp sports schedule for monday january
football
title favourites ivory coast launch their african cup of nations campaign
against burkina faso in the cabinda enclave where the togo squad were attacked
by separatists in terror attack as algeria play malawi in luanda
see separate advisory
masterslug fbl afr
in the english premier league manchester city host blackburn also auxerre
travel to amiens in french cup action
slug fbl eng pr mancity blackburn fbl fra cup
cricket
bangladesh india at dhaka in the fifth odi of three nation tournament which
also includes sri lanka india and sri lanka have already qualified for the
final
slug cricket ban ind
tennis
world number one serena williams headlines crack women field featuring nine
of the world top at the sydney international the men draw sees world
no gael monfils the top seed ahead of czech tomas berdych swiss stanislas
wawrinka and australia lleyton hewitt
also atp at auckland and wta at hobart
slugs tennis atp wta aus tennis atp nzl tennis wta aus
rallying
day nine of the dakar rally sees the day special reduced to km from
copiapo to la serena because of persistent fog
slug auto moto rally dakar
football cup history beckons as benin confront mozambique
luanda jan afp
africa cup of nations history will be created on tuesday whatever the result of
group clash between benin and mozambique in angolan coastal city benguela
victory for the beninese squirrels or mozambican snakes will be their first in
the biennial continental football showcase while draw gives the west africans
first tournament point
not that share of the points will satisfy either minnow with win needed to
have any chance of mocking form book which suggests defending champions egypt
and nigeria will cruise into the quarter finals
mozambique back at the cup after year absence need to overcome
disappointing warm up results with home loss to malawi followed by further
reverses in south africa against zambia and gabon
the snakes have proved match for the best on their artificial maputo pitch
holding ivory coast and nigeria before defeating tunisia to deprive the north
africans of world cup place
but away form is far less impressive with string of losses suggesting the
three time qualifiers will struggle in what appears the least intriguing of four
first round mini leagues
dutch coach mart nooij who has received widespread praise from his squad for
lifting mozambique out of the football doldrums is not convinced travel
sickness will upset his team
in angola there will be teams playing away which makes the refereeing and
conditions similar for all the teams and would be delighted with quarter
finals place he told reporters
my philosophy is that keeping the ball is the best defence as your rival cannot
score the players love this style because it matches their skills and they can
demonstrate to the fans how good they are
veteran striker and captain manuel tico tico bucuane remains an inspirational
figure for mozambique while much is expected of young midfield destroyer simao
mate from greek giants panathinaikos
just qualifying was memorable achievement for the tiny west african state of
benin who eliminated world cup qualifiers angola in the second round and
finished above mali in third
however like mozambique they have been unable to recapture cotonou form on
foreign fields resulting in two nations cup campaigns that delivered six
consecutive defeats and goal tally
benin are guided by pragmatic frenchman michel dussuyer whose key players are
both france based paris saint germain midfielder stephane sessegnon and metz
striker razak omotoyossi
when you talk of benin football his name sessegnon immediately comes to mind
there are other good players in the squad like razak but stephane has taken his
image to another level which is good for the team the coach said
dussuyer will be appearing at his third nations cup having steered guinea to the
quarter finals and worked as spy for ivory coast coach henri michel in
egypt two years later
alert
french guiana says no to more autonomy official results
auckland airport buys stake in queensland operator
wellington jan afp
auckland international airport announced monday it was to buy quarter stake in
the operator of cairns and mackay airports in queensland for million
australian dollars million us
auckland international airport chief executive simon moutter said the deal to
buy the percent share in north queensland airports from westpac bank would
help strengthen links with asian tourism markets
we believe that asian tourism markets offer the greatest opportunity for volume
growth and that one of the keys to growing asian traffic is improved air
services connections moutter said
driving more travel demand out of asia will be crucial to the future growth of
both auckland airport and the new zealand tourism sector
cairns airport australia seventh busiest with about million passengers
annually focuses on asian tourism and mackay domestic airport offers exposure
to the booming australian resources sector he said
mackay is close to the bowen basin which contains one of the largest coal
deposits in the world and is also near the whitsunday resort islands
the stake would amount to about five percent of auckland international airport
total assets moutter said
the purchase due to be settled on wednesday is conditional on north queensland
airports obtaining the approval of its financiers
nba rondo fires up celtics with triple double
toronto jan afp
rajon rondo recorded his first triple double of the season and rasheed wallace
scored season high points as boston continued their mastery over toronto
with nba victory sunday
rondo had points assists and rebounds for the celtics who posted their
seventh consecutive victory over toronto
the celtics came out quickly charging to lead as rondo assisted on each
of boston first four baskets he also finished nine for in posting his
third career triple double
it nice to have the triple double but the biggest thing is to get the
win said rondo who had four steals hate to get triple double where
had big game and we lose
it was just the start the celtics needed after losing four of six games heading
into sunday national basketball association contest they nailed three
pointers including five from wallace in front of crowd of at the air
canada centre arena
ray allen paul pierce and kendrick perkins each scored points for boston
doc put big emphasis on it before the game to come out and get good start
said rondo getting off to good start was big for us we didn finish the
game extremely well but we got the job done
rondo said his teammates encouraged him to go for it in the final quarter once
they realized he was getting close to triple double he had points through
the first three quarters
rondo got defensive rebound with just over seven minutes remaining to seal the
triple double
toronto chris bosh had points and rebounds before fouling out while
teammate andrea bargnani scored points
the loss snapped the raptors six game win streak at home
tokyo financial markets closed
tokyo jan afp
japanese financial markets are closed on monday for national holiday trading
resumes on tuesday
mexican prisoners moved for mel gibson film
xalapa mexico jan afp
mexican officials have transferred detainees from prison in the eastern
state of veracruz to make way for mel gibson film despite the protests of
relatives
ignacio allende prison chief victor gerardo hernandez said saturday that
detainees remained there but did not rule out transferring more detainees to
villa aldama penitentiary kilometers miles away
saturday operation lasted five hours military officers were deployed to keep
relatives away from prisoners who fought with police several days earlier after
learning of the imminent transfer hundreds of family members protested the
move
in early december vera cruz governor fidel herrera beltran announced the us
australian director planned to film several scenes of his upcoming feature in
the state including at ignacio allende prison location he scouted in april
gibson previously directed the action packed braveheart and the passion
of the christ he shot apocalypto in eastern mexico the film was
controversial in mexico due to some bloody scenes and criticism it eclipsed the
importance of the maya civilization
the actor director has already visited the allende prison and he donated one
million dollars toward hurricane relief in the gulf of mexico region in
mexico crowded prisons frequently face rioting
mp co creator wants to smarten up dumb devices
las vegas nevada jan afp
german electrical engineer who helped make mp players reality has turned
his attention to making dumb devices act smart
karlheinz brandenburg now professor at ilmenau university of technology in
germany is backing perfect stream technology that lets computing power in the
internet cloud do the thinking for simple gadgets
when first met these guys it sounded crazy to me brandenburg told afp while
courting partners for perfect stream at major consumer electronics show that
ended sunday in las vegas
but have fondness for crazy ideas because when we started mp it seemed
crazy to everyone as well
mp is now nearly ubiquitous format used for digital content online and in
mobile devices such as smartphones and music players
the idea with perfect stream is to have digital video and audio tailored to
individual tastes and delivered as service to essentially any gizmo that can
talk to the internet
perfect stream has proven itself in germany and the company was at ces to
license the technology to internet service providers in the united states
this technology works and now we are trying to internationalize it said
nikolas samios of perfect stream
services can be programmed with person preferred shows news sources music
twitter feeds or other internet content and the data can be routed to digital
picture frames in car navigation systems feature phones game consoles and
more according to brandenburg
it bridges the different technologies samios said
these are all walled garden devices that usually never talk to each other
personalized internet streams can flow seamlessly to sophisticated online
electronics or to any kind of stupid phone dollar phone with prepaid
plan according to samios
the key is in processing digital content on servers in the cloud and then
feeding it to gadgets that need only receive and decode the data brandenburg
said
perfect stream demonstrated the service on series of devices including an
inexpensive internet radio and philips television with basic internet
connectivity
croatia president elect pledges european values
zagreb jan afp
social democrat law professor ivo josipovic pledged monday following his
election as croatia president that he will work for just country that will
honour european values
want european croatia croatia that will be one of the shining stars in
the european sky not only by eu membership but by values that we stand for
democracy freedom human rights rule of law minority rights and religious
freedom josipovic said
he was addressing hundreds of his supporters chanting ivo ivo at his
electoral night headquarters in dowtown zagreb
josipovic took percent of the vote in sunday run off presidential
election while his rival populist zagreb mayor milan bandic garnered
percent the results from percent of all polling stations showed
josipovic law professor and classical music composer who has enjoyed an
untarnished political career campaigned under the slogan justice for
croatia pledging an uncompromising fight against corruption
every citizen of this country tonight is winner since deeply believe that
we all want better more just croatia he said after the official results
were released
we all want to live in country where work gets paid and crime is punished
the country of social security and justice
croatia third president since its independence from the former yugoslavia in
is expected to lead the recession hit country into the european union
zagreb hopes to join the member bloc by
the fight against corruption is among key criteria for croatia eu bid
josipovic is succeeding the popular centrist stipe mesic who steps down on
february after serving his maximum two five year terms in office
the year old successfully guided the country to parliamentary democracy
after the authoritarian rule of independence leader franjo tudjman
afp
afp world news service no unauthorized reproduction
haitian presidential palace collapses after quake report
washington jan afp
haiti presidential palace and numerous other government buildings in the
country capital port au prince collapsed tuesday after massive
earthquake haitian television streaming online reported tuesday
communications to the island the most impoverished in the western hemisphere
were cut in the wake of the massive earthquake which produced several
aftershocks and prompted tsunami warning
urgent haitian presidential palace collapses after quake report
washington jan afp
haiti presidential palace and numerous other buildings in the country
capital port au prince collapsed tuesday after massive earthquake haitian
television streaming online reported tuesday
google may quit china over cyberattacks on rights activists
san francisco jan afp
google threatened tuesday to shut down its operations in china after uncovering
what it said were highly sophisticated cyberattacks aimed at chinese human
rights activists
google said china based cyber spies struck the internet giant and at least
other unidentified firms in an apparent bid to hack into the email accounts of
