Month: July 2011

Patna, July 28: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday welcomed the BJP Parliamentary Board’s decision asking Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to resign immediately.

“I welcome the BJP leadership for the decision asking Yeddyurappa to quit immediately,” Kumar told reporters here.

Ending the uncertainty over the fate of 68-year-old Yeddyurappa who headed the BJP’s first government in the south, the BJP Parliamentary Board today met and unanimously decided that there should be a change in leadership in Karnataka and “advised” him to resign immediately.

Washington July 28 – Here are some of the key sticking points that led to the National Football League’s (NFL) first work stoppage since 1987 and how they were resolved over the four months when players were locked out.

Revenue split
The NFL, which makes more than $9 billion in annual revenue, wanted to reduce the share of league revenue set aside for players by $1 billion, claiming operational costs had risen since the prior deal was struck.

Shanghai, July 28 – American great Michael Phelps broke his gold medal drought in Shanghai with a convincing 200m butterfly win Wednesday, claiming his third straight world title in his favorite event.
The Olympic champion and world record-holder stormed ahead to fight off a late challenge by Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda, clocking a winning time of 1min 53.34sec.

Matsuda timed 1:54.01 while China’s Wu Peng claimed bronze in 1:54.67.
“The race felt good. I wanted to do what I usually do when I’m in better shape,” Phelps said.

Finland, July 28 – Mikko Hirvonen is hoping home advantage will supply him with a winning hand in this weekend’s Rally of Finland.

In its 60 years of existence this ultra demanding leg of the world rally championship has only been won seven times by non-Finnish drivers, the last being Sebastien Loeb in 2008.

Hirvonen, who hails from Jyvaskyla the town around which the rally runs, captured it in 2009 but crashed out last year.
The 30-year-old said: “A win here is important, not only because I live close by but also because I need to get as many points on the board as I can.”

Jeddah, July 28 – The Filipino Basketball Association (FBA) will open its 31st season of basketball tournament at the Sheraton Jeddah Hotel sports complex at 5 P.M.

Atlanta, July 28 – The longest game of the Major League season ended on a controversial play in the 19th inning as the Atlanta Braves prevailed 4-3 over the Pittsburgh Pirates in a marathon affair that ended Wednesday morning.

Atlanta’s Julio Lugo scored the winning run from third base on an infield ground ball after he was called safe, even though it appeared Pittsburgh catcher Michael McKenry had tagged him out.
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle furiously argued the call as the umpires retreated from a lengthy contest that started Tuesday and carried over into the morning hours.

London July 28 – London 2012 began its final year countdown Wednesday with swimmers making a splash in the newly-opened Olympic pool and IOC president Jacques Rogge putting preparations on a par with great Games of the past.
British medal hope Tom Daley was due to make the first dive later in the evening, before Rogge formally invites the world and its athletes to come and join the party next July.

“With a year to go, we are inviting the athletes, spectators and visitors from around the world to come to the UK next summer,” declared London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe.

Stanford, July 28 – Serena Williams, playing her first WTA Tour match on US soil since the 2009 US Open, made her return a victorious one with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Australian Anastasia Rodionova.
The hardcourt tournament in Stanford is her third event since she won Wimbledon in 2010 and she’s hoping it’s a stepping stone to good things at the last Grand Slam of the season, the US Open in New York starting August 29.
Williams, now ranked 169th, encountered little resistance from 105th-ranked Rodionova, who has lost five straight matches.

London, July 28– Former German international Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has launched a scathing attack on football’s rulers and wants clubs to be given a bigger say in running the sport, it was reported Wednesday.

Rummenigge, the chairman of the European Club Association and chief executive of Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich, told The Guardian he had lost confidence in FIFA following a string of recent corruption scandals.

The 55-year-old said ECA clubs such as Bayern, Manchester United and Real Madrid should launch a “revolution” to transform football if necessary.

Los Angeles, July 28– Seventh-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and US teenager Ryan Harrison led the youth movement in evidence Tuesday at the ATP Los Angeles hardcourt tournament.

Dimitrov, 20, made short work of two-time Los Angeles champion Tommy Haas, downing the 33-year-old German veteran 6-3, 6-2 in 66 minutes.
The Bulgarian arrived in Los Angeles at a career-high 57th in the world rankings and aiming to improve on two quarter-final appearances on the ATP Tour this year.

Sao Paolo, July 28 – The 2014 World Cup in Brazil will take place between June 12 and July 13, FIFA announced Wednesday, insisting that the country will be ready to host the sport’s greatest tournament.

“The World Cup in 2014 will start on June 12 and finish on July 13. I know everyone wants to know the city that will host the opening game of the event, but that will be decided in October,” said FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke.

Jeddah, July 28 – The Jeddah Mayoralty has beefed up its cleaning operations to remove 70,000 tons of urban waste from various districts in the coastal city, said Dr. Abdul Qader Tankle, Assistant Deputy Mayor at Jeddah Mayoralty, in a report carried by Al-Madina.

Tankle said the Cleaning Department at the Mayoralty has already succeeded in removing 16,000 tons of accumulated trash and rubble. Cleaning companies with mayoralty contracts have increased their volume from 3,000 to 7,000 tons a day. The Bride of the Sea will have all accumulated waste removed in just a few days, he said.

Riyadh, July 28 – Zain Saudi Arabia has organized a series of recreational activities for orphan children enrolled in a charity in Abha.
The telecommunications company is organizing events in different regions of the Kingdom as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR), which includes on-the-job training programs for Saudi youths.

Jeddah, July 28 – The Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) has conducted a study on the impact of diving on the Kingdom’s Red Sea coral reefs, according to a recent report from the organization. Forty mooring buoys were installed in twenty diving and fishing locations along the coast of the Makkah region, and the Farasan Islands and the type of seawater at the Red Sea coasts were studied to evaluate the effect of diving and fishing on coral reefs, the report said.

Dammam, July 28 – Several realtors do not favor expansion of the mortgage system, according to an expert who said the financial crisis that hit most countries was a lesson.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, a member of the Asharqia Chamber’s Real Estate Committee, acknowledged, though that real estate mortgages are necessary, “not an economic luxury;” without it, banks would not be assured that their financial rights are preserved as they carry out their lending.

Jeddah, July 28 – Saudi Arabian Airlines has flown a record 20,978 passengers on 192 flights to Paris over the first six months of this year, a 31 percent or 4,940 increase compared to the same period last year.

Fahd Al-Huwaifi, director of the airline in France, Spain and Portugal, said the Paris office exceeded its target by five percent and achieved a 98 percent performance rating in terms of punctuality of flights.

Dammam, July 28 – With 8.4 million foreign workers in Saudi Arabia recorded in the April, 2010 census and the number increasing each year, there are more expatriates who die in the Kingdom, and, as a result, licensed cargo operators are doing an increasing business in repatriating the remains of deceased workers to their home countries.

Romania, July 28 — A Romanian woman whose daughter was on the Utoya island youth camp in Norway says she has called and texted her “hundreds of times” since the attack but believes she is dead.

Anca Holst said 15-year-old Karin Elena Holst called her Friday saying a man was “shooting everyone.”

The petrified girl did not want to hang up, but her mother urged her to stop talking and hide, she told Realitatea TV late Wednesday.

RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 28 — Palestinian police raided the West Bank home of a rival of President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, deepening a feud that has shaken the upper ranks of the ruling Fatah Party.

The raid targeted Mohammed Dahlan, a former security chief in the Gaza Strip who was expelled from Fatah in June because of his repeated criticism of the president.

Cairo, July 28 — Egypt’s deputy justice minister says ousted President Hosni Mubarak will be brought to Cairo for his trial on charges of corruption and ordering the killings of protesters.

Reports that Mubarak’s health was faltering had raised speculation his trial, due to start Aug. 3, could be postponed or held in the Sinai resort where he has been undergoing treatment at a hospital. Earlier Wednesday, the health minister said Mubarak was healthy enough to be moved.

Cairo, July 28 — Egypt’s health minister says ousted President Hosni Mubarak is healthy enough to be moved from a Sinai hospital to Cairo for his trial on charges of corruption and ordering the killings of protesters.
The minister, Amr Hilmy, has told reporters that a hall at Cairo’s Conference Center is being prepared for the trial. But he says an appeals court still must make a final decision on the venue.

He says “Mubarak’s health is in an appropriate condition to be tried in Cairo.”

Baghdad, July 28 — A double bombing Thursday struck an Iraqi bank in Saddam Hussein’s hometown where policemen were picking up their paychecks, killing 12 and wounding 34 people, officials said.

The two midmorning blasts — one from a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives, immediately followed by a parked car bomb explosion — marked the fourth major attack this year on Iraqi security forces in the northern city of Tikrit, a former hotbed for Sunni insurgents bent on targeting the government and exposing the country’s instability.

Beirut, July 28 — A global campaigning organization said Thursday that one person disappears in Syria every hour and that almost 3,000 people have gone missing since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad more than four months ago.

The online activist group Avaaz.org said its investigation has identified 2,918 Syrians who were arrested or abducted by force by security troops and whose whereabouts are now unknown.

Cairo, July 28 — Hundreds of rebels in western Libya launched a broad offensive against government forces Thursday, seizing two towns from them and advancing on others in an attempt to secure a major supply route near the Tunisian border, a rebel spokesman said.

Four rebel fighters were killed and several were wounded in the biggest push in the area since the start of Libya’s civil war five months ago, said the spokesman, Badees Fessato. He said rebels captured 18 government soldiers.

Iraq, July 28 — Hamayel Khan, the mother of the president of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, has died at the age of 85.
A government spokesman on Thursday said Massoud Barzani’s mother died Wednesday of cancer in a hospital in Vienna, Austria.

Spokesman Fouad Hussein says a three-day mourning period will be observed in the three northern provinces that make up Iraq’s self-ruled Kurdish region.
Khan had been ill for several weeks.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James F. Jeffrey offered his condolences in a statement to Barzani’s family, calling Khan a “historic and nurturing figure.”