large bonuses in an attempt to recoup cash spent rescuing the financial sector
goldman robust earnings added to the mixed results the struggling sector began
reporting wednesday as the fourth quarter corporate results season got
underway
bank of america the biggest us bank by assets posted worse than expected
results loss of million dollars while morgan stanley managed profit of
million dollars and wells fargo topped expectations with net income of
billion dollars
analysts said the overall banking sector appeared to be still hampered by
difficult economic conditions and that profitability was largely driven by
trading and investment activities
olympics vancouver ones to watch gregor schlierenzauer
vancouver canada jan afp
penpix of stars to watch at the february winter olympics in vancouver
ski jumping
gregor schlierenzauer
the austrian star passed major milestone on january he turned so at the
vancouver games there ll be no more talk about the austrian wunderkind who had
already piled up world cup successes while still teen
schlieri promise did not take long to shine through as witnessed by junior
world title at while world team golds followed in and
five wins have come this season enabling the year old to keep pace with swiss
double olympic champion simon ammann in the world cup standings despite skipping
the trip to sapporo
in the four hills he suffered disappointment as despite two wins he could only
place fourth overall while olympic silver medalist and compatriot andreas kofler
raced off with the big prize ahead of finnish veteran janne ahonen and another
austrian in wolfgang loitzl
that why olympic glory in vancouver is so important to the youngster
winning the olympics is my childhood dream but for that to happen lot of
things have to come together he explained
but every year the cards are thrown up in the air and how they come down has
nothing to do with past form
training fall last year saw schlierenzauer injure his right knee but he has
bounced back and is along with ammann the man to beat
austrian fans are spoilt for choice but on top form schlieri should be the hot
tip
olympics vancouver ones to watch petter northug
vancouver canada jan afp
penpix of stars to watch at the february winter olympics in vancouver
cross country skiing
petter northug
since winning three world titles last winter at the age of just norway
northug has been tipped for gold in vancouver
he first rose to prominence at the world championships in sapporo japan
when he helped the powerful norwegian team to the relay gold
coached by norway quadruple olympic champion thomas alsgaard northug
continued to progress and hit the jackpot at the world championships in the
czech republic
in liberec he took gold in the pursuit relay and prestigious km freestyle
races
he will go to his first olympics confident of winning multiple titles but he
will have to go quite some way yet to compatriot bjorn dahlie who quit the
sport with eight gold medals and nine world titles
he is the clear favourite for the pursuit title after current olympic champion
yevgeny dementyev tested positive for erythropoietin epo in august
along with switzerland dario cologna and lukas bauer of the czech republic
northug is good bet for medals and will again anchor strong norwegian team
in the relay at the world championships he was norway anchor man and set off
on his km leg with deficit of seconds on germany double world champion
axel teichmann
he caught teichmann with time to spare before turning in devastating final
kilometre to give victory once again to norway and the norwegians will be the
team to beat in whistler
northug is one of the strongest finishers on the world cup circuit and this
along with his other qualities make him one to watch in whistler
tennis australian open results day five
melbourne jan afp
results from day five of the australian open at melbourne park here friday
denotes seeding
women singles
rd round
dinara safina rus bt elena baltacha gbr
alona bondarenko ukr bt jelena jankovic srb
olympics vancouver ones to watch magdalena neuner
vancouver canada jan afp
penpix of stars to watch at the february winter olympics in vancouver
biathlon
magdalena neuner
blonde pin up neuner was the darling of german sport in and although
injuries have blighted her fairytale rise she is coming back into form for
vancouver
having been voted germany sportswoman of the year in neuner became the
queen of biathlon after just two world cup seasons and had won six world titles
by the time she finished celebrating her st birthday
she won the overall world cup title in and it seemed the biathlon world lay
at her feet
but after her successful winters of and the bubble burst in
after bout of flu while bacterial infection has hampered her pre season
training
she struggled at the world championships but still came away with silver
after germany finished second in the relay
despite her setbacks neuner still did enough to end the season fourth in the
overall world cup rankings and finished second in the sprint discipline
born in the german alpine region of garmisch partenkirchen neuner showed she
was hitting form for vancouver after winning the first km individual
competition in italy last week despite picking up three penalties on the
shooting range
the photogenic neuner led cleansweep for germany in antholz with teammate kati
wilhelm second and andrea henkel third
her passions include knitting making woolly hats is her speciality and music
she plays the harp with both hobbies inspired by family members
but as girl who knows how to handle gun she is also licenced motorbike
rider and regularly takes her father machine out for spin
neuner will celebrate her rd birthday just days before the winter olympics
start
olympics vancouver ones to watch miki ando
vancouver canada jan afp
penpix of stars to watch at the february winter olympics in vancouver
figure skating
miki ando
japan miki ando is heading to one final winter olympics determined to put past
disappointments behind her and emulate her idol shizuka arakawa
the world champion failed miserably in turin four years ago as she
struggled to stay on her feet placing just th as arakawa surged to japan
first olympic figure skating gold
the world junior champion can however take heart from the fact that the
legendary arakawa also had an up and down career before finally claiming the
most coveted crown in figure skating
it was the performance of arakawa six years her senior at the nagano
games that inspired ando to take up the sport despite the later olympic champion
finishing just th
and again it was arakawa who was instrumental in the young skater decision not
to retire after turin
ando is now more mature and is coached in new jersey by nikolai morozov
the man who guided arakawa to the surprise gold
since turin ando has finished twice on the world podium winning gold the
following year and bronze at last year world championships
once known primarily for her jumps including the first and only quad landed by
woman in competition at the junior grand prix final ando has now become
more complete and fluid skater
this season she has shown her form by winning the cup of russia and nhk trophy
in the grand prix series and placing second behind south korean olympic
favourite kim yu na at the final in tokyo to seal her olympic ticket
fourth at japanese nationals won by rival mao asada has failed to take the
shine off her season as she prepares to tackle the world best in vancouver
es dj
clinton calls for chinese probe into google cyberattacks
washington jan afp
us secretary of state hillary clinton urged china thursday to conduct thorough
probe into cyberattacks on google and other us companies pressing technology
firms to resist internet censorship
without specifically mentioning china clinton said in speech on internet
freedom at the newseum here that countries and individuals who engage in
cyberattacks should be punished
china meanwhile sought to play down the row with the united states over
google insisting that the internet giant threat to quit the country over
censorship and cyberattacks should not be linked to sino us ties
google chief executive eric schmidt said the california company would like to
remain in the asian giant but could no longer agree to censor results on its web
search engine there
we re in conversation with the chinese government he said after releasing
google quarterly results which saw net profit soar five fold to billion
dollars we made strong statement that we wish to remain in china
we continue to follow their laws we continue to offer censored results
schmidt warning that in reasonably short time from now we will be making
some changes there
in another development microsoft released patch for internet explorer aimed
at fixing vulnerability in the web browser that china based cyber spies used
to probe the computer systems of google and other companies
clinton cited china north korea tunisia and uzbekistan as countries
restricting the free flow of information or censoring the internet and noted
that access to social networking sites in vietnam has suddenly disappeared
some bloggers and activists have been detained in egypt she added calling
china saudi arabia and vietnam nations that have co opted the internet as
tool to target and silence people of faith
on their own new technologies do not take sides in the struggle for freedom
and progress she said but the united states does we stand for single
internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas
she lamented the electronic barriers some countries have erected to limit
people access to the internet and remove certain terms from search engine
results
they have violated the privacy of citizens who engage in non violent political
speech the chief us diplomat said urging us technology firms to take up their
shared responsibility to safeguard free speech and play role in developing
new tools to circumvent politically motivated censorship
american companies need to make principled stand this needs to be part of
our national brand she said
when their business dealings threaten to undermine this freedom they need to
consider what right not simply the prospect of quick profits
the state department has plans to hold high level meeting next month with
companies that provide network services for talks on internet freedom
google microsoft yahoo and cisco are among the us technology giants that have
been accused by us lawmakers and others of helping to build what has been dubbed
the great firewall of china
clinton called on china to conduct thorough review of the cyber intrusions
revealed by google and for its results to be transparent
the internet has already been source of tremendous progress in china and it
is fabulous there are so many people in china now online she said
but countries that restrict free access to information or violate the basic
rights of internet users risk walling themselves off from the progress of the
next century
cyberattackers should face punishment clinton said
those who disrupt the free flow of information in our society or any other pose
threat to our economy our government and our civil society she added
countries or individuals that engage in cyberattacks should face consequences
and international condemnation
her remarks came after chinese vice foreign minister he yafei said the google
case should not be linked with relations between the two governments and
countries
otherwise it an over interpretation he added
if google has any problems in its business in china these must be resolved
according to chinese law and the chinese government is willing to help resolve
these problems
olympics vancouver ones to watch patrick chan
vancouver canada jan afp
penpix of stars to watch at the february winter olympics in vancouver
figure skating
patrick chan
world silver medallist patrick chan will share canada gold medal hopes along
with the country much vaunted ice hockey squad in vancouver
canada hosts of the calgary games have not won gold at an olympics staged
by them an anamoly that year old chan the son of chinese immigrants will
be hoping to rectify
chan who won three gold medals in isu competition last season has re
established himself as podium contender after early season woes by winning his
third national crown
his performances at the nationals were not on par with last season but were
better than expected coming after the resignation of his coach don laws
the announcment capped tough season for chan who withdrew from the cup of
russia where he was due to compete against olympic champion yevgeny plushenko
for the first time because of muscle tear in his left calf
he competed poorly at skate canada falling on his triple axel in his short
programme to cold play viva la vida and then tumbled three times in the
free skate to the phantom of the opera to finish sixth overall
the skater from toronto then moved to colorado springs to work with jumps
analyst christy krall move to altitude which he credits with increasing his
stamina but which resulted in the decision by florida based laws to quit
despite lacking quadruple jump chan believes he can challenge the likes of
plushenko and france brian joubert
it the total package the spins the footwork said chan
and the quad ve realized it not really necessary to win medal you can
win medal gold medal with just two clean programmes
tennis jankovic bundled out of open
melbourne jan afp
eighth seed jelena jankovic was bundled out of the australian open on friday by
st seed alona bondarenko crashing in the third round
us troops expected in haiti sunday official
washington jan afp
the us military is ramping up its mission in quake hit haiti with us
troops expected to operate on ground and offshore by sunday the us commander
overseeing the region said
general douglas fraser the head of us southern command southcom said
thursday that over us troops were currently operating on the ground in
haiti to boost the still struggling aid effort in the aftermath of killer
quake
he said that number was expected to swell to by the weekend and that
another were currently afloat aboard vessels offshore
over other soldiers and marines from the nassau amphibious ready group and
the th marine expeditionary unit left north carolina late wednesday scrapping
scheduled deployments to europe and the middle east
they were expected to arrive on sunday fraser said bringing the total us
military contingent to nearly as survivors still scramble for food water
and even the most basic of medical supplies in the aftermath of the catastrophic
january temblor
we re still looking where the specific requirements are that we need them
fraser told reporters at the pentagon via live video feed from miami
again the security environment is calm remains stable but we re getting
demand to escort humanitarian assistance to various parts and so we were
uncertain of what the demand was going to be and so asked for that capability
just so was prepared to meet the demand
the general said the influx of additional forces will give us an increased
capacity to move humanitarian supplies throughout the country
despite the additional stress on an already thinly stretched military the head
of us central command said the haiti relief effort would have no impact
whatsoever on plans to ship out some additional troops to afghanistan
we re also obviously watching very carefully as we are providing resources to
the government of haiti said general david petraeus who oversees the wars in
iraq and afghanistan
three amphibious ships the uss nassau the uss mesa verde and the uss ashland
will support the haiti deployment along with helicopter squadron tilt
rotor squadron and medical personnel and facilities
the nassau has one of the largest ship borne hospitals after the usns mercy and
usns comfort hospital ships staffed with crew of the comfort has already
treated more than emergency patients and will eventually provide around
hospital beds according to the white house
over patients have been treated from five medical teams of the us health
and human services department and one us funded international medical surgical
team
southcom has contracted for the purchase of handheld radios now the
main means for most haitians to reach out to lost family members and learn about
new developments nearly have already arrived in port au prince and the
remainder are due by monday
the united states has distributed over water bottles and meals
in recent days while hundreds of thousands more gallons liters of water were
being produced using water treatment units
total food and non food assistance for haiti from the us agency for
international development has reached nearly million dollars
some us navy and coast guard ships helicopters and vehicles were
supporting the effort
the airport in port au prince is now supporting about to flights day
but the massive influx of international aid means there is waiting list of
over flights waiting to land according to fraser
another three airports have been opened to facilitate the transfer of much
needed supplies
the haitian capital badly damaged port meanwhile was beginning to receive
ships and was about percent operational the white house said
baseball hurler blanton phillies agree on million dollar deal
philadelphia pennsylvania jan afp
joe blanton and the philadelphia phillies agreed to three year million
dollar contract thursday avoiding salary arbitration
they came to me with the prospect of going long term and couldn have been
more thrilled said blanton year old right hander who was with
era last year
couldn be happier to have this opportunity to stay in the phillies
organization ve enjoyed my time here and feel like the organization just
keeps getting better and better every year
blanton who made dollars last year asked for million dollars
in arbitration and was offered million dollars he already had agreed to
new deal before those numbers were submitted
joe has been absolutely outstanding since he been with us phillies general
manager ruben amaro jnr said he probably been one of the most consistent
pitchers in baseball his consistency and what he brings to the table for us as
person we re very pleased to basically buy out two years of free agency and
have joe for the foreseeable future
blanton has pitched more than innings over the last five years he joined
the phillies in midseason trade in and helped them win the second world
series title in franchise history
last season blanton didn get decision in two postseason starts and two
relief appearances when the phillies lost to the new york yankees in the world
series
although he was one of the phillies most reliable starters in the regular
season he didn hesitate at going to the bullpen
winning is what about that the big thing blanton said
the phillies now have four starting pitchers roy halladay cole hamels ja
happ and blanton under contract through
that was part of the reason we went long term with joe amaro said if you
look at the clubs that have sustained success it about having stability in
your rotation
winter olympics advisory
paris jan afp
the winter olympics take place in vancouver from february and afp
sports is filing package of advancers
in the build up to the games we are filing individual sports previews guides
to the ins and outs of winter sports as well as focus on the stars to watch on
the snow and ice of vancouver and whistler
we will also be filing series of colour stories focussing on national
prospects as well as the offbeat side to the olympics
questions queries etc can be directed to our olympic desk contact is
david james afp com
we are about to move
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cricket former australian pm howard linked to icc top job
melbourne jan afp
former australian prime minister john howard is in the running to take charge of
international cricket reports said on friday
the melbourne age newspaper said howard was candidate to be president of the
international cricket council but cricket australia would not confirm whether
it had nominated him for the position
howard who is self confessed cricket tragic also had no comment
he does not want to say anything about the rumours spokesman for the former
prime minister said
the governing cricket bodies in australia and new zealand will next month
propose an australasian candidate to take the leadership of the icc from
the chosen candidate will serve as icc deputy president from the middle of this
year
since his defeat at elections howard only official position has been as
director of the bradman foundation his office said
the bradman foundation owns and operates the bradman museum of cricket and
manages bradman oval in bowral southern new south wales state where the
australian cricket icon don bradman first learned to play the game
howard was in the running last october for senior position with australia
national rugby league
spokesman for cricket australia said an australian candidate had been selected
but would not say if it was howard
we do have preferred candidate he is very dedicated to cricket and willing
for his name to go forward the spokesman said
howard has been regular cricket watcher at australian test matches both here
and overseas
he was prime minister from march to december and was the second
longest serving australian leader after sir robert menzies
victim in polanski case supports absentia bid
los angeles jan afp
the victim in roman polanski child sex case expressed support thursday
for the fugitive filmmaker request to be sentenced in absentia court filings
revealed
an attorney for samantha geimer who was when polanski allegedly plied her
with drugs and alcohol before having unlawful sex with her in also urged
prosecutors to withdraw request for the director extradition
polanski was arrested in september in switzerland where he is under house
arrest pending extradition to the united states
yet geimer attorney lawrence silver said in court filings that prosecutors had
failed to notify his client before seeking polanski extradition which he said
violated california constitution
geimer also asked los angeles superior court judge peter espinoza to dismiss the
case on the basis of judicial and prosecutorial corruption or to sentence
polanski in absentia
prosecutors rejected silver claims however saying they had consistently and
continuously reached out to the victim through her attorney and that
invitations to discuss the case had never been accepted
espinoza was scheduled to rule friday on request by polanski lawyers to be
sentenced in absentia
polanski allegedly gave geimer champagne and prescription drug during
photo shoot before having sex with her despite her protests
the director was initially charged with six felony counts including rape and
sodomy the charge was later reduced to unlawful sexual intercourse after plea
deal agreed in part to spare his victim the ordeal of trial
polanski later served days at secure unit undergoing psychiatric evaluation
but fled the united states on the eve of his sentencing hearing amid fears that
the trial judge planned to go back on previously agreed plea deal
tennis safina buries melbourne ghosts to reach open last
melbourne jan afp
dinara safina buried some of her ghosts when she raced into the fourth
round of the australian open by thrashing england elena baltacha on
friday
it was safina first appearance on the rod laver arena since last year
australian open final when she imploded spectacularly under the pressure of the
occasion to lose to serena williams in straight sets
there was sparser crowd this time around but safina still took heart from
winning return to the sight of one of her worst days in tennis
didn have good memories of the last match played on rod laver arena for
sure said the second seed
am glad to be back and had to fight hard and make sure won to forget the
bad memories
played some unbelievable matches on this court last year saving match points
and things but had that one bad match
safina simply overpowered the unseeded baltacha winning in under an hour
the russian hit winners while her english opponent managed just four in
another improved performance
the second seed arrived in melbourne with question marks over her chances of
maiden grand slam win as she returned from the back injury that hampered her in
late
however the year old has looked more comfortable each time she has stepped
on court
safina could face fellow russian maria kirilenko in the fourth round and appears
in favourable section of the draw
one of the belgian comeback duo of kim clijsters or justine henin is likely to
be her semi final opponent if she reaches that far
karzai plan to draw afghan insurgents back to civilian life
london jan afp
afghan president hamid karzai said on friday he plans to offer money and jobs to
taliban fighters to draw them back to civilian life and away from their warlord
masters
karzai told the bbc he would use funds from the international community to pay
for salaries and resettlement for former insurgents
those that we approach to return will be provided with the abilities to work
to find jobs to have protection to resettle in their own communities he
said
we know as the afghan people we must have peace at any cost he added
hardline taliban supporters who were members of al qaeda or other terrorist
groups would not be accepted the president stressed
the taliban gives its volunteers higher salaries than the afghan government can
afford to pay its forces and the president said his project would have
international backing to provide the necessary funds
the united states and britain would announce at major conference on
afghanistan in london next week that they had decided to back his plan the
president said adding japan would also offer financial backing
despite initial reluctance from major powers to back the project karzai said
they had now come round to the idea and would offer support
