comeback at the emirates stadium
bolton needed just seven minutes to take the lead when cahill scored from kevin
davies flick on
bolton doubled their lead in the th minute when lee chung yong was brought
down in the box by denilson and taylor scored from the penalty spot
but arsenal reduced the deficit in the rd minute when rosicky fired in shot
at the near post
and the gunners were level in controversial fashion seven minutes after the
break
arsenal william gallas was fortunate not be sent off for crude tackle on
mark davies but referee alan wiley let play continue
the ball eventually fell to fabregas who evaded couple of challenges before
shooting through the legs of bolton keeper jussi jaaskelainen
worse was to follow for wanderers with goalscoring centre half vermaelen firing
the gunners in front in the th minute with half volley that went in off the
post
then with five minutes remaining arsenal got the fourth goal they needed to go
top when russia forward arshavin after neat one two with eduardo slammed
shot past jaaskelainen
obama admits mistake after shock election loss
washington jan afp
president barack obama said wednesday he had mistakenly neglected his direct
connection to the american people after stunning republican election win
shifted the balance of power in washington
obama aides meanwhile insisted his historic health reform drive was not dead
after massachusetts voters handed the late edward kennedy former senate seat
to republicans casting deep doubt over the president sweeping agenda
as he absorbed the stinging blow from voters which sent shock waves through the
democratic party in key election year obama admitted that his need to tackle
flurry of crises had weakened his bond with us voters
if there one thing that regret this year is that we were so busy just
getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of
us that think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the american
people obama told abc news
the president said that he had assumed that if he concentrated on making good
policy decisions voters would understand them but instead they had become
consumed by feeling of remoteness and detachment from washington
that do think is mistake of mine obama said diagnosing mood of anger
and frustration in the united states over the grinding and lingering impact of
the worst recession for decades
obama admission was far cry from the euphoria of his inauguration exactly
one year ago which drew crowd of several million people and the nationwide
feeling of hope and change sparked by his election victory
the special election upset in liberal massachusetts on tuesday was seen by some
observers and republicans as referendum on obama first year and his
embattled effort to pass historic health care reform
that task became suddenly much harder when the republicans snatched away the
democrats th senate seat allowing them to mount delaying tactics to slow and
thwart white house bills
in his interview obama cautioned that democrats should not try to jam the
legislation through in the short period before republican senator elect scott
brown can get to washington
david axelrod obama top political advisor said that despite the election
shock the president believed middle class americans were hobbled by crisis in
health care and would not give up the reform fight
it not an option simply to walk away from problem that only going to get
worse he told msnbc
republicans however styled their triumph as clear sign that americans wanted
obama to put the brakes on his reform drive and to ditch the effort to remake
us health care and begin again
this was in many ways national referendum principally on the major issue
we re wrestling with here in the congress said senate republican minority
leader mitch mcconnell
mcconnell also saw the election as vindication for his party strategy of
branding obama as traditional big spending liberal who wants to expand the
size of government
the american people have made it abundantly clear that they more
interested in shrinking unemployment than expanding government
they tired of bailouts they tired of the government spending more
than ever at time when most people are spending less and they don want
the government taking over health care
several leading democrats including pennsylvania senator bob casey said it was
time for breath to consider options on health care
the massachusetts result made for dismaying first anniversary of obama first
year in office
it followed two stinging democratic defeats in gubernatorial races in new jersey
and virginia where obama won big in and comes as his personal approval
ratings dip below percent
the shifting congressional mathematics cast doubt over whether obama will be
able to enact big ticket items like global warming legislation financial
regulatory reform and immigration reform this year
new york democratic congressman anthony weiner meanwhile said democrats had no
choice but to heed the message delivered by voters in massachusetts
if we re having problem in massachusetts we re going to have problems
all over the country weiner said on fox business channel
think the president has to come down off the mountain bit and help us sell
to the american people these changes we re trying to make
football english league cup result
london jan afp
english league cup result on wednesday
semi final nd leg
aston villa warnock milner pen nzonzi og agoblahor heskey
young blackburn kalinic olsson emerton
aston villa win on aggregate
tuesday
semi final st leg
manchester city tevez pen manchester united giggs
nd leg jan
white house gatecrashers keep quiet in congress
washington jan afp
us couple who crashed president barack obama first state dinner leaving the
white house red faced refused on wednesday to answer congressional
committee questions about the incident
on the advice of my counsel respectfully assert my right to remain silent
and decline to answer your question tareq salahi repeatedly told the
committee invoking his constitutional rights against self incrimination
his wife michaele did the same in the hearing before the house of
representatives homeland security committee the couple refused to take
questions from reporters
the salahis made headlines after they attended the early portion of the november
dinner honoring indian prime minister manmohan singh despite apparently
lacking either an invitation or proper secret service clearance
the salahis boasted of turning up at the list event on their joint facebook
page with the message honored to be at the white house for the state dinner in
honor of india with president obama and our first lady
the two reportedly aspiring reality tv stars were even photographed with
president barack obama
in his opening statement to the committee tareq salahi said the couple had
offered to let their lawyers testify to the committee on their behalf but that
the committee had refused
salahi said he and wife had respect for the presidency and the secret service
and were strong supporters of the men and women in uniform both here and
abroad
when asked if he attended the dinner as part of reality tv stunt salahi
initially told the committee he was under non disclosure agreement and should
not discuss matters related to the television matter
but the pair then stonewalled barrage of questions about their actions from
lawmakers together invoking their rights under the fifth amendment to the us
constitution more than times
the exchanges descended into farce when frustrated democrat congressman bill
pascrell asked tareq salahi to no avail other questions including whether
he had worn tuxedo on the night
are you here today mr salahi are you here right now you ve got to get an
answer from your attorney on that pascrell mocked
committee chairman bennie thompson said the lawmakers respect the constitution
and therefore we must respect their decision though other committee members
said that the safety of the president was no joke
the top republican on the committee peter king meanwhile repeated his demand
for desiree rogers president obama protocol secretary to testify
the white house has invoked the separation of powers to refuse to offer her
testimony while the democrat led committee has not asked her to appear
as the salahis appeared on capitol hill michelle obama met tourists on the
white house tour in surprise visit in an apparent display of confidence in
security at the site
figure skating european championship results nd update
tallinn jan afp
results from the second day of the european figure skating championships here on
wednesday
pairs
final result
yuko kavaguti alexander smirnov rus aliona savchenko robin
szolkowy ger maria mukhortova maxim trankov rus
tatiana volosozhar stanislav morozov ukr vera bazarova yuri
larionov rus nicole della monica yannick kocon ita
vanessa james yannick bonheur fra anais morand antoine dorsaz sui
maylin hausch daniel wende ger adeline canac maximin
coia fra
free skate results
yuko kavaguti alexander smirnov rus aliona savchenko robin
szolkowy ger maria mukhortova maxim trankov rus
tatiana volosozhar stanislav morozov ukr nicole della
monica yannick kocon ita vera bazarova yuri larionov rus
vanessa james yannick bonheur fra anais morand antoine dorsaz
sui maylin hausch daniel wende ger stacey kemp david
king gbr
men short programme
yevgeny plushenko rus brian joubert fra yannick
ponsero fra michal brezina cze stephane lambiel sui
alban preaubert fra samuel contesti ita tomas
verner cze stefan lindemann ger kristoffer berntsson
swe
kevin van der perren bel adrian schultheiss swe
javier fernandez esp anton kovalevski ukr viktor
pfeifer aut paolo bacchini ita sergei voronov rus
zoltan kelemen rom jorik hendrickx bel
gregor urbas slo
maciej cieplucha pol ari pekka nurmenkari fin
karel zelenka ita peter reitmayer svk maxim shipov
isr boris martinec cro matthew parr gbr
damjan ostojic bsh viktor romanenkov est alexandr
kazakov blr
kutay eryoldas tur boyito mulder ned marton marko
hun saulius ambrulevictius ltu girts jekabsons lat
georgi kenchadze bul pierre balian arm
withdrew joffrey bourdon mne
wall street slumps on china credit squeeze bank results
new york jan afp
wall street stocks suffered their biggest drop for the year wednesday following
credit tightening by global economic growth driver china and mixed earnings
results from key american banks
the dow jones industrial average plunged points percent in final
trades to day after the key us indexes leapt to their best levels
in more than months
the nasdaq composite dipped points percent to and the
standard amp poor index lost points percent to
the market opened after top banks morgan stanley bank of america and wells
fargo declared their fourth quarter earnings which provided mixed
picture on the key sector as the economy recovers from recession
bank of america and morgan stanley missed analysts expectations while wells
fargo posted an unexpected profit
adding to the uneasy backdrop were us housing starts that fell more than
anticipated which flared up concerns about the housing recovery and
overshadowed surprising jump in building permits analysts at charles schwab
amp co said in note to client note
credit squeeze in china to rein in excess liquidity raised market doubts about
global economic recovery prospects they said
china top beijing regulator said china would rein in credit after explosive
growth last year as the nation vies to cool its red hot economy
this year we will continue to control the pace of the credit supply banking
regulator liu minkang told the asian financial forum in hong kong
however he downplayed report by the official china securities journal that
major banks had been told to stop extending new loans for the rest of january
obama allies cautiously vow to pursue health overhaul
washington jan afp
president barack obama top democratic allies in the us congress reeled
wednesday from shock election defeat but vowed to pursue efforts to remake us
health care his top domestic priority
first of all we are not going to rush into anything senate democratic
majority leader harry reid after massachusetts voters elected republican to
the chamber ending the democrats vote supermajority
reid said the senate would not act until senator elect scott brown who rode to
victory on wave of voter anger in painful economic times was sworn in giving
republicans senate seats and the ability to stall legislation
but in the coming year we will ensure all americans can access affordable
health care deny insurance companies the ability to deny health care to the
sick and slash our deficit in the process said the top senate democrat
republicans said massachusetts voters by giving republican the seat once held
by the late democratic lion ted kennedy had sent the unmistakeable message that
the overhaul should die
the people of massachusetts had an opportunity to speak yesterday and they
spoke rather loudly that they like to see the congress go in different
direction said senate republican minority leader mitch mcconnell
asked whether the democratic health legislation was dead mcconnell replied
sure hope so
the vote crippled democratic plans to meld rival senate and house versions of
the historic overhaul which aims to give health coverage to tens of millions of
americans who currently lack it and pass compromise bill
senate democrats emerged from their weekly policy luncheons saying they needed
to take stock of their shrinking legislative options now that republicans have
the votes to block obama proposal
to me the option that is non starter from the get go is the option of doing
nothing about the status quo said democratic senator tom carper
what we need to do right now is just take deep breath not rush to judgment
take deep breath consider the options that are before us he told reporters
let take breath and seriously consider number of options think it does
make some sense to take few days to arrive at decision now we re not
taking about weeks we ve got days agreed democratic senator bob casey
democratic senator paul kirk kennedy temporary replacement said the
massachusetts election reflected voter anger at the lack of progress towards
creating jobs but denied it was referendum on health care
certainly didn take away from it and don think anybody in the caucus
took away from it that this is reason to not go forward on health care he
said
democrats were considering range of options to achieve what their closed door
talks now could not get health care overhaul bill to obama desk before the
november mid term elections
one option may be for the house of representatives to swallow its massive
objections and endorse the senate version of the bill but it is far from
clear democrats have the votes for that option
democrats could try to modify that bill later using parliamentary procedure
that requires simple majority
heeding the particular concerns of the voters of massachusetts last night we
heard the people and hopefully we will move forward with their considerations in
mind said democratic house speaker nancy pelosi
but we will move forward she said
figure skating russians shock world champions to win euro gold
tallinn jan afp
russia yuko kavaguti and alexander smirnov claimed gold for the first time in
the pairs event at the european figure skating championships here on wednesday
they beat three time defending champions aliona savchenko and robin szolkowy of
germany who had to settle for silver with russians maria mukhortova and maxim
trankov taking bronze after the free skating final
two time world champions savchenko and szolkowy had held narrow lead from
the short programme but the germans paid for errors in their routine to the
soundtrack out of africa allowing the russians win by points
despite slight wobble by japan born kavaguti on the landing of her triple
toeloop jump she and smirnov gave strong performance to valse sentimentale
and the blue danube to score for the free skate and overall
savchenko who missed training earlier this month suffering from suspected
glandular fever looked slightly out of form as she two footed her landing on
their throw triple flip and doubled her triple salchow jump
they scored for the free skate and overall
world bronze medallists kavaguti and smirnov who teamed up in complete
their set of euro medals after silver last year and bronze in
football bordeaux marseille save face as lille run ends
paris jan afp
french title rivals bordeaux and marseille both overcame scares against lowly
opposition on wednesday but there was surprise defeat for high flying lille
bordeaux had to come from goal down to win at man bottom club grenoble
while marseille also overcame an early deficit to defeat le mans
lille who went into their game at sochaux on run of eight straight wins in
all competitions succumbed to reverse their first since november
while lyon hit back from down to win at lorient
bordeaux increase their lead at the summit by point with montpellier climbing
to second after winning at lens via late victor montano effort
lille fall to third place above marseille who trail bordeaux by points
with game in hand and lead lyon fifth monaco sixth and auxerre seventh
on goal difference
grenoble produced storming first half showing against bordeaux and took the
lead in first half injury time when home skipper laurent batlles cracked an
unstoppable strike into the top right corner from yards
but bordeaux held at home to marseille in their last outing were gifted
foothold in the game when grenoble midfielder jimmy juan was shown second
yellow card for rash challenge on jussie barely two minutes after the break
in less than minutes the champions were ahead
left back benoit tremoulinas set up yoan gouffran for the equaliser with
marouane chamakh heading home benoit chalme centre in the th minute and
fernando cavenaghi making sure of the points seven minutes from time
the score of was bit flattering conceded bordeaux coach laurent blanc
and even though disappointed by the manner of victory it was good result
in terms of the table
third bottom le mans took shock th minute lead at marseille through anthony
le tallec but captain mamadou niang struck twice to earn victory for didier
deschamps charges
lille fell behind in the eighth minute against sochaux when damien perquis
headed in from corner and three minutes later stephane dalmat made it by
finishing off one man counter attack with sumptuous lob
the visitors spurned the chance to pull one back before half time when yohan
cabaye saw his penalty pushed away by sochaux goalkeeper teddy richert and
although robert vittek did reduce the arrears lille were unable to prevent
their exhilarating streak of form coming to an end
the end of our run is irrelevant said lille manager rudi garcia
we knew that it wouldn last until the end of the championship what more
annoying is that the other teams at the top won
brace by kim kallstrom including an opportunist strike from wide on the left
touchline earned lyon win at lorient after lisandro lopez had cancelled
out pierre ducasse th minute opener for the hosts
elsewhere auxerre won at nice with an injury time goal from ireneusz jelen
toulouse drew at home to nancy and an own goal by goalkeeper apoula edel
consigned paris saint germain to defeat at home to monaco
we could have played for three hours without scoring said psg coach antoine
kombouare after match that his side largely dominated
wednesday late kick off sees second bottom boulogne promoted from the second
tier for the first time in their history last season entertain valenciennes
in tuesday game relegation threatened saint etienne were held to draw
at home to rennes
amazon hikes kindle royalty payment for self publishers
washington jan afp
amazon offered higher royalty payment on wednesday to authors and publishers
who use self publishing platform on its kindle electronic book reader
the online retail giant said the new royalty option will allow authors to keep
percent of the list price of digital book minus delivery costs which work
out to around six cents per unit
amazon did not reveal the amount of the previous standard royalty option
but the company said that with the new percent option an author for example
would make dollars on an dollar book compared with dollars with
the standard option
amazon said the new percent option will be available from june
it comes with number of conditions
the list price of digital book must be between dollars and dollars
and percent below the lowest list price for the physical book
the seattle based amazon said the percent royalty option only applies to in
copyright works and for the moment is only be available for books sold in the
united states
russ grandinetti amazon vice president of kindle content said the new
royalty option was significantly higher than that offered for many digital or
physical books
today authors often receive royalties in the range of seven to percent of
the list price that publishers set for their physical books or percent of
the net that publishers receive from retailers for their digital books
grandinetti said in statement
we re excited that the new percent royalty option for the kindle digital
text platform will help us pay authors higher royalties when readers choose
their books
the kindle digital text platform allows authors and publishers to format and
upload their own books to the kindle store
amazon move comes less than week ahead of hotly anticipated product
announcement by apple which is widely expected to unveil tablet computer
which can double as an electronic reader on january
according to various reports apple has been holding talks with book newspaper
and magazine publishers about making their content available for the device
mark mahaney citigroup analyst said the new percent royalty being offered
by amazon was in line with what apple was offering publishers
amazon kindle is considered the runaway leader in the book reader field but
has been facing increasing competition from japan sony britain cool er and
us bookstore barnes and noble among others
mahaney said citigroup believes amazon sold at least two million kindles in
accounting for as much as percent of all reader sales and some
million books according for more than percent of all book sales
us lifts bush era ban on two muslim scholars
washington jan afp
the us government said wednesday it has lifted bush era ban on two prominent
muslim scholars saying neither is deemed security threat to the united
states
state department spokesman philip crowley framed the move as part of president
barack obama campaign to improve us ties with muslim countries by promoting
global debate including those who criticize washington
crowley said secretary of state hillary clinton signed exemptions under the us
immigration and nationality act allowing scholars adam habib and tariq ramadan
to apply for us visas like other prospective visitors
habib is at the university of johannesburg in south africa and ramadan at saint
antony college oxford university in england
the next time professor ramadan or professor habib applies for visa he will
not be found inadmissible on the basis of the facts that led to denial when they
last applied crowley told reporters
we do not think that either one of them represents threat to the united
states said crowley the assistant secretary of state for public affairs
however he said the pair will still be subject to the other standards that
apply to anyone seeking visa for the united states
consistent with president obama outreach to muslims around the world we want
to encourage global debate crowley said
we want to have the opportunity potentially to have islamic scholars come to
the united states and have dialogue with other faith communities and people here
in our country he said
the move was hailed by the american civil liberties union aclu which said it
had filed lawsuits challenging the denial of visas to habib and ramadan by the
previous administration of president george bush
the orders ending the exclusion of adam habib and tariq ramadan are long
overdue and tremendously important said jameel jaffer director of the aclu
national security project
for several years the united states government was more interested in
stigmatizing and silencing its foreign critics than in engaging them he said
in an aclu statement
the decision to end the exclusion of professors habib and ramadan is welcome
sign that the obama administration is committed to facilitating rather than
obstructing the exchange of ideas across international borders he said
the aclu said the bush administration had denied visas to dozens of foreign
artists scholars and writers critical of us foreign policy and many of them
muslim without explanation or on vague national security grounds
it was not clear how soon the pair might come to the united states
brazil tasked with keeping the peace in quake hit haiti
port au prince jan afp
the monumental task of stabilizing haiti already challenge for brazilian
led un peacekeeping force in place since suddenly got lot harder
following last week devastating earthquake
we will be here as long as it takes because now we have even more reason to
stay said colonel joao batista bernardes the officer in charge of brazil
battalion in the un stabilization force for haiti
he was speaking after army officials confirmed that brazilian peacekeepers
died in the earthquake
two civilians the deputy head of the un mission luiz carlos da costa and
high profile children rights campaigner zilda arns were also killed in the
disaster
brazil is taking steps to reinforce the peacekeeping mission in response to un
chief ban ki moon plea for extra troops and police to boost the
already deployed
brazilian defense minister nelson jobim has asked congress to approve sending at
least more soldiers and police officers which would take brazil total
contribution in haiti to more than
the military aspect of the un mission is under the orders of brazilian general
floriano peixoto
the troops are drawn from argentina bolivia brazil canada chile ecuador
france guatemala jordan nepal paraguay peru the philippines south korea
the united states and uruguay
most of those countries also contributed police officers alongside bangladesh
benin burkina faso cameroon the central african republic chad china
colombia croatia egypt el salvador guinea india ivory coast jamaica
madagascar mali niger nigeria pakistan romania russia rwanda senegal
serbia spain sri lanka switzerland togo turkey and yemen
brazilian patrols regularly head out to clear the debris and corpse strewn
streets of haiti and to counter roaming gangs of looters
the contingent is also involved in aid distribution
our soldiers make contact with community leaders in specified neighborhood
and select to women who will receive the humanitarian aid it always
women who receive it civilian official in the main brazilian peacekeeping
base told afp
the base was now spilling over with extra medical and rescue personnel leading
to search for suitable sites to host the growing numbers
with the situation calming somewhat as us troops increase security and aid
organizations spread out beyond the capital haitians were turning to the
brazilians in hope of reducing their daily plight
lines of locals hoping for work on the base even for day stretched in front
of the facility for menial work many were looking for nothing more than water
and food
while it was relatively calm during the day the tenser moments are during the
nighttime patrols because the entire city is dark and there is always the risk
of disorder with the distribution of humanitarian aid bernardes said
in the cite soleil slum where the brazilian maintain post crowd has formed
around pipe broken to get at its undrinkable water
the brazilians stepped in to organize the crowd prompting several haitians to
respond some even in portuguese
we don have any food or water and no medicine said one fabio junior
year old speaking brazilian portuguese almost without an accent around him
the crowd asked what he said and applauded when he translated into french
corrected euro plunges to five month low against dollar
london jan afp
the euro tumbled to its lowest level against the dollar since last august on
wednesday with worries mounting over the european economy and the dollar
getting boost from china credit tightening
the european single currency was changing hands at dollars late in
london compared to dollars late in new york on tuesday
the euro also fell against the japanese currency to yen compared to
on monday while the dollar rose to yen from yen
the euro has continued to fall after poor german economic sentiment data
yesterday as well as on concerns about how greece financial plight will weigh
on the european economy said cmc markets analyst michael hewson
the shared european unit until recently favoured as high yielding currency
is now being shunned in favour of the dollar despite persistent weakness in
the us economy said hachijuni bank strategist masatsugu miyata
due to the uncertain economic outlook in europe markets are in no mood to buy
the euro he said noting increasing worries over greece fiscal health and
german survey that showed drop in business confidence
although the united states has its own problems at least it is in control of
its fiscal policies relative to europe he added
international rating agency moody on tuesday said it was maintaining
negative outlook on greece because it was unclear whether the government could
implement plan to shore up public finances
the greek government which last month suffered credit downgrade from all
three leading ratings agencies is struggling to overcome huge debt and public
deficit that have sparked concern among its eurozone partners
