CNN) -- Real Madrid have confirmed the signing of Turkish international midfielder Hamit Altintop from Bayern Munich on a four-year contract.
The 28-year-old Altintop joined Bayern from Schalke in 2007, but injuries restricted him to just 63 matches for the Bavarian giants in four years.
Last year, Altintop won the FIFA Puskas Award for his superb volley against Kazakhstan in a Euro 2012 qualifier.
Altintop will join compatriot Nuri Sahin at the Bernabeu for next season, following the 22-year-old's 10 million euros switch from Borussia Dortmund earlier this month.
Speaking about the new signing, assistant coach Aitor Karanka told the official Real Madrid website: "Altintop is an international who comes from a great side, Bayern Munich.
Altintop has sign fot four years of contract with the best time the Real Madrid I think that it was good for the Madrid to buy it because it needs another player to complete the team and I think that with one year of practice with the team he will adapt with it and will be such a good player as all of the team.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Inspired McIlroy sets the pace at Congressional
(CNN) --
After his round he told Sky Sports: "I feel good, to be honest it could have been been a few shots better but I'll take a 65. I didn't make many mistakes, I only missed one green, and when you do that it's pretty good.
Asked how he felt his game was compared to the Masters in April he said: "It feels pretty similar, I feel very comfortable with every aspect of my game and I feel comfortable on this golf course.
"I need to prove to everyone else that I've moved on from Augusta."
A shot back from Yang and Schwartzel, Open champion Louis Oosthuizen is in a group on two-under including American Ryan Palmer, Sergio Garcia, from Spain, and Brazilian Alexandre Rocha.
Defending champion Graeme McDowell carded a round of one-under to sit five shots behind his compatriot and Ryder Cup teammate McIlroy.
He told the PGA tour's official web site: "I feel like I've spent the last three months talking about Pebble and defending my Open title, and so somehow coming here this week, I really felt that I had already sort of did all the talking and I was ready to move forward.
"I felt really, really good this morning. I felt normal. It felt like a regular major championship. It didn't feel like I was defending anything. And I just went out there.
"I set myself some challenges this morning to go out and try to think well, try to go through my processes correctly, through my routines, and just be patient and enjoy the round. And I really accomplished those things."
Former major champions Padraig Harrington, from Ireland, and Argentina's Angel Cabrera sit on level par while world number one Luke Donald lies on three over, with Lee Westwood a further shot back.
once again gave notice of his designs on a major championship after a stunning round of 65 saw him surge to the top of the U.S. Open leaderboard.
The Northern Irishman carded a blemish free round of six-under-par to lead by three shots from Y.E. Yang, of Korea and Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, of South Africa.
The 22-year-old led the Masters at Augusta for three rounds back in April, before a humbling final round saw him slump back to finish tied for 15th. He also led the British Open after round one in 2010 before falling away.
But McIlroy showed none of the frailties that cost him the green jacket at Augusta by producing a near flawless performance in Maryland.
He started solidly, but three consecutive birdies at the turn propelled him to the top of a congested leaderboard.
Two more birdies at the 13th and 15th sent him out in front on his own and had he converted a clutch of chances on the final holes, his lead could have been even better.
After his round he told Sky Sports: "I feel good, to be honest it could have been been a few shots better but I'll take a 65. I didn't make many mistakes, I only missed one green, and when you do that it's pretty good.
Asked how he felt his game was compared to the Masters in April he said: "It feels pretty similar, I feel very comfortable with every aspect of my game and I feel comfortable on this golf course.
"I need to prove to everyone else that I've moved on from Augusta."
A shot back from Yang and Schwartzel, Open champion Louis Oosthuizen is in a group on two-under including American Ryan Palmer, Sergio Garcia, from Spain, and Brazilian Alexandre Rocha.
Defending champion Graeme McDowell carded a round of one-under to sit five shots behind his compatriot and Ryder Cup teammate McIlroy.
He told the PGA tour's official web site: "I feel like I've spent the last three months talking about Pebble and defending my Open title, and so somehow coming here this week, I really felt that I had already sort of did all the talking and I was ready to move forward.
"I felt really, really good this morning. I felt normal. It felt like a regular major championship. It didn't feel like I was defending anything. And I just went out there.
"I set myself some challenges this morning to go out and try to think well, try to go through my processes correctly, through my routines, and just be patient and enjoy the round. And I really accomplished those things."
Former major champions Padraig Harrington, from Ireland, and Argentina's Angel Cabrera sit on level par while world number one Luke Donald lies on three over, with Lee Westwood a further shot back.
Comment: This player, McIlroy, is wonna be a very good player. He is very young too. In the Masters he was leeding 3 straight days, but the last day he go gwrong and he lost the possibility of the championship.
NEWS THURSDAY
(CNN) -- The first time Wilson Alvarado got lost on the way to a neighborhood park, he told his wife, Patricia, not to worry about it -- he was 62, he told her, and just getting a little forgetful.
Patricia thought it was strange, considering the park was only a half-mile away, and he'd driven there every week for more than 30 years. Then Wilson got lost again on the way to the park. A few months later, he called Patricia from the supermarket, asking why he was there.
"I thought, well, maybe he really is just getting old," Patricia recalls. "My mother has Alzheimer's, and I thought maybe that was it."
It was easy to overlook the little memory lapses until several years later when the situation reached a head. While her husband was visiting relatives in Puerto Rico, Patricia received a phone call from his cousin saying they'd taken Wilson to the hospital because he "wasn't making any sense" and was acting so aggressive the hospital put him in restraints.
"It was really horrifying," she says.
Patricia had him put back on a plane to Buffalo, near their home in Cheektowaga, New York. His doctors explained that liver disease was behind Wilson's memory lapses and erratic behavior.
"When you think about this kind of thing, you think about dementia, or Alzheimer's," she says. "You don't think about the liver."
Wilson had cirrhosis, just like alcoholics get, but in his case, fat, not alcohol, was the culprit. At 5 feet 8 inches and 185 pounds, Wilson is overweight, and too much fat in his liver eventually caused it to malfunction.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a third of Americans are either overweight or obese, and doctors say they're seeing more and more patients like Wilson Alvarado.
"It's overwhelming how many patients we're seeing with this problem," says Dr. Naim Alkhouri, a hepatologist at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. William Carey, also a hepatologist at the Cleveland Clinic, adds, "This is huge. We didn't even know this disease existed 30 years ago. Now it's the most common liver disease in America."
'We won't have the ability to treat all these patients'
About a third of the U.S. population has nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to Dr. Michael Curry, a hepatologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Curry said most of those people -- about 80% -- will not develop significant liver disease. The other 20% will develop a disease called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. Of those, about 20% to 30% will go on to develop cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease, where the only real treatment is a liver transplant.
"That's about 6 million people. We won't have the ability to treat all those patients," Curry says. "If we even have a fraction of that number of patients, it will overwhelm liver transplant programs."
Laundry in the refrigerator
NASH is often silent, according to the National Institutes of Health. While some people have pain in the right side of their abdomen, most do not. Liver enzyme tests are sometimes normal, and even ultrasounds and CT scans don't always pick up on the disease.
"Symptoms are few and far between," the Cleveland Clinic's Carey says.
"It can sneak up on you," says Dr. Kevin Mullen, a hepatologist at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "Even your doctor might miss it."
Often symptoms don't show up until the disease has progressed. Sometimes, the first sign is a swollen stomach or ankles, or vomiting blood.
Some patients, such as Wilson Alvarado, develop brain changes called hepatic encephalopathy. As the disease progresses, the liver has a hard time filtering out toxins, which can go to the brain and cause problems such as memory lapses, trouble sleeping at night and lack of coordination.
"It might start out with minimal changes, like a few more dents in the car," Curry says.
Later, the changes can become more disturbing.
"I had a patient who put his laundry in the refrigerator," Carey says. "Another one couldn't remember the family party that had just happened that very day."
Curry adds, "One of my patients got into the shower and turned on boiling hot water and couldn't figure out how to switch it off."
Mullen says, "It really can be bizarre. They might try to sell their house for $100 or walking around the neighborhood unclothed."
Preventing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
If a patient loses weight, eats better and exercises, he or she can often reverse the disease in its earlier stages.
"That's why we like to find these people early," says Alkhouri of the Cleveland Clinic.
However, by the time the disease has advanced to the point of cirrhosis, it's usually irreversible, he adds.
Alvarado had to have a liver transplant last month at the Cleveland Clinic, and his wife says his thinking has become more clear.
COMMENT fat in yor life can affect your brain because if you are a fat person you will probably have your self esteem on the floor because you will see that you dont look good and you cant do much stuff so you should think about that and try to exercise every time you can.
Patricia thought it was strange, considering the park was only a half-mile away, and he'd driven there every week for more than 30 years. Then Wilson got lost again on the way to the park. A few months later, he called Patricia from the supermarket, asking why he was there.
"I thought, well, maybe he really is just getting old," Patricia recalls. "My mother has Alzheimer's, and I thought maybe that was it."
It was easy to overlook the little memory lapses until several years later when the situation reached a head. While her husband was visiting relatives in Puerto Rico, Patricia received a phone call from his cousin saying they'd taken Wilson to the hospital because he "wasn't making any sense" and was acting so aggressive the hospital put him in restraints.
"It was really horrifying," she says.
Patricia had him put back on a plane to Buffalo, near their home in Cheektowaga, New York. His doctors explained that liver disease was behind Wilson's memory lapses and erratic behavior.
"When you think about this kind of thing, you think about dementia, or Alzheimer's," she says. "You don't think about the liver."
Wilson had cirrhosis, just like alcoholics get, but in his case, fat, not alcohol, was the culprit. At 5 feet 8 inches and 185 pounds, Wilson is overweight, and too much fat in his liver eventually caused it to malfunction.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a third of Americans are either overweight or obese, and doctors say they're seeing more and more patients like Wilson Alvarado.
"It's overwhelming how many patients we're seeing with this problem," says Dr. Naim Alkhouri, a hepatologist at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. William Carey, also a hepatologist at the Cleveland Clinic, adds, "This is huge. We didn't even know this disease existed 30 years ago. Now it's the most common liver disease in America."
'We won't have the ability to treat all these patients'
About a third of the U.S. population has nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to Dr. Michael Curry, a hepatologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Curry said most of those people -- about 80% -- will not develop significant liver disease. The other 20% will develop a disease called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. Of those, about 20% to 30% will go on to develop cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease, where the only real treatment is a liver transplant.
"That's about 6 million people. We won't have the ability to treat all those patients," Curry says. "If we even have a fraction of that number of patients, it will overwhelm liver transplant programs."
Laundry in the refrigerator
NASH is often silent, according to the National Institutes of Health. While some people have pain in the right side of their abdomen, most do not. Liver enzyme tests are sometimes normal, and even ultrasounds and CT scans don't always pick up on the disease.
"Symptoms are few and far between," the Cleveland Clinic's Carey says.
"It can sneak up on you," says Dr. Kevin Mullen, a hepatologist at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "Even your doctor might miss it."
Often symptoms don't show up until the disease has progressed. Sometimes, the first sign is a swollen stomach or ankles, or vomiting blood.
Some patients, such as Wilson Alvarado, develop brain changes called hepatic encephalopathy. As the disease progresses, the liver has a hard time filtering out toxins, which can go to the brain and cause problems such as memory lapses, trouble sleeping at night and lack of coordination.
"It might start out with minimal changes, like a few more dents in the car," Curry says.
Later, the changes can become more disturbing.
"I had a patient who put his laundry in the refrigerator," Carey says. "Another one couldn't remember the family party that had just happened that very day."
Curry adds, "One of my patients got into the shower and turned on boiling hot water and couldn't figure out how to switch it off."
Mullen says, "It really can be bizarre. They might try to sell their house for $100 or walking around the neighborhood unclothed."
Preventing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
If a patient loses weight, eats better and exercises, he or she can often reverse the disease in its earlier stages.
"That's why we like to find these people early," says Alkhouri of the Cleveland Clinic.
However, by the time the disease has advanced to the point of cirrhosis, it's usually irreversible, he adds.
Alvarado had to have a liver transplant last month at the Cleveland Clinic, and his wife says his thinking has become more clear.
COMMENT fat in yor life can affect your brain because if you are a fat person you will probably have your self esteem on the floor because you will see that you dont look good and you cant do much stuff so you should think about that and try to exercise every time you can.
Arabian unicorn' saved from extinction
The return of wild oryx to the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula is being hailed as a conservation success story.
The latest International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species states that the wild population of the two-horned antelope species now stands at around 1,000, nearly 40 years after the last wild animal was hunted and killed.
"To have brought the Arabian Oryx back from the brink of extinction is a major feat, one which we hope will be repeated many times over for other threatened species," said Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Director General of the Environment Agency -- Abu Dhabi.
The species is now listed as "vulnerable" and is the first time an animal listed as "extinct in the wild" has improved its status by three categories.
The turn-around has been the result of conservation efforts that began in 1982 in Oman. Captive bred oryx were successfully released back into the desert habitats of the country and then in regions of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel and Jordan.
Known locally as Al Maha, the Arabian Oryx is thought to be uniquely adapted to living in harsh, dry environments with its ability to smell water from miles away.
It is thought that it was also the source of the unicorn legend, as when viewed in profile the two horns appear as one.
The latest published findings from the IUCN Red List also have new additions to the ranks of endangered and threatened species.
Eight new species of amphibians are classified as critically endangered, just one place from "extinct in the wild." The IUCN says that amphibians are one of the most threatened species groups with an estimated 41% at risk of extinction.
The main threats come from habitat loss, pollution, diseases and invasive species.
COMMENT: This is a very great information because with human abilities a kind of animal had been saved from extinction, I think that is a reason to congratulate the people who participate in the action. I think this is a rare animal and because the courn is call the arabian unicorn.
The latest International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species states that the wild population of the two-horned antelope species now stands at around 1,000, nearly 40 years after the last wild animal was hunted and killed.
"To have brought the Arabian Oryx back from the brink of extinction is a major feat, one which we hope will be repeated many times over for other threatened species," said Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Director General of the Environment Agency -- Abu Dhabi.
The species is now listed as "vulnerable" and is the first time an animal listed as "extinct in the wild" has improved its status by three categories.
The turn-around has been the result of conservation efforts that began in 1982 in Oman. Captive bred oryx were successfully released back into the desert habitats of the country and then in regions of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel and Jordan.
Known locally as Al Maha, the Arabian Oryx is thought to be uniquely adapted to living in harsh, dry environments with its ability to smell water from miles away.
It is thought that it was also the source of the unicorn legend, as when viewed in profile the two horns appear as one.
The latest published findings from the IUCN Red List also have new additions to the ranks of endangered and threatened species.
Eight new species of amphibians are classified as critically endangered, just one place from "extinct in the wild." The IUCN says that amphibians are one of the most threatened species groups with an estimated 41% at risk of extinction.
The main threats come from habitat loss, pollution, diseases and invasive species.
The IUCN estimates that human impact has meant extinctions are happening at anything between 100 and 1,000 times the natural rate.
COMMENT: This is a very great information because with human abilities a kind of animal had been saved from extinction, I think that is a reason to congratulate the people who participate in the action. I think this is a rare animal and because the courn is call the arabian unicorn.
'Jurassic Park 4' in the works?
Dinosaurs have been extinct since 2001, when “Jurassic Park III” failed to reach the bar set by its predecessors. But now, Steven Spielberg is thinking about bringing the vertebrates back to life with a fourth installment of the pre-historic franchise, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Spielberg has allegedly been talking with Mark Protosevich, who wrote 2006’s “Poseidon,” about bringing “Jurassic Park” back to the big screen. However, according to THR, Universal Pictures says nobody has been attached to the project as of yet, and that it’s still just an idea at this point.
The first film of the trilogy grossed more than $900 million worldwide, while the second, “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” raked in more than $615 million. “Jurassic Park III,” with an estimated budget of $90 million, earned just over $360 million worldwide.
Does a “Jurassic Park” reboot have a chance of succeeding after a 10-plus-year hiatus? Sound off below!
I think that is very good that they are making again jurassic park, because all the movies before were very good, and many people would see that movie. I hope that they do the movie, and not only the idea of the movie.
Dinosaurs have been extinct since 2001, when “Jurassic Park III” failed to reach the bar set by its predecessors. But now, Steven Spielberg is thinking about bringing the vertebrates back to life with a fourth installment of the pre-historic franchise, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Spielberg has allegedly been talking with Mark Protosevich, who wrote 2006’s “Poseidon,” about bringing “Jurassic Park” back to the big screen. However, according to THR, Universal Pictures says nobody has been attached to the project as of yet, and that it’s still just an idea at this point.
The first film of the trilogy grossed more than $900 million worldwide, while the second, “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” raked in more than $615 million. “Jurassic Park III,” with an estimated budget of $90 million, earned just over $360 million worldwide.
Does a “Jurassic Park” reboot have a chance of succeeding after a 10-plus-year hiatus? Sound off below!
I think that is very good that they are making again jurassic park, because all the movies before were very good, and many people would see that movie. I hope that they do the movie, and not only the idea of the movie.
Athens, Greece (CNN) -- The planned reshuffling of Greece's Cabinet has been delayed, and the new Cabinet members will be sworn in at 1 p.m. Friday, state television reported late Thursday.
The change was announced after Prime Minister George Papandreou urged his parliamentary deputies Thursday to continue working toward rebuilding Greece under a new government, yet to be announced.
"We must not flee the battle, however difficult," Papandreou said. "I have faith in our MPs, in our movement, in our historical political party. You can rely on me, and I will rely on you. We will get Greece out of this crisis."
Earlier Thursday, two members of parliament from Papandreou's ruling socialists resigned, shaking confidence in his efforts to reconstitute his Cabinet.
The prime minister has come under fire for his inability to form a coalition with conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras, who repeated Thursday a call for elections to be held as soon as possible.
Greece crisis could ripple across EU Europe to rescue Greece? Trichet: Consider big picture on Greece
RELATED TOPICS
Greece
George Papandreou
European Union
Papandreou's planned Cabinet reshuffle represents an attempt to win support for additional austerity measures intended to help the economy weather the current crisis.
Lawmakers from the prime minister's own Panhellenic Socialist Movement, also known by the Greek acronym PASOK, met in an emergency session Thursday.
Papandreou faces opposition from his party over the austerity measures, which are intended to reduce the government deficit in order to secure a second bailout package from institutions including the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.
There are fears that efforts to restructure Greece's debt could wreak havoc with Europe's banking sector, sparking investor panic like that caused by the 2008 collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank.
The crisis raises concerns for Europe's currency, the euro. If a struggling nation such as Greece, Portugal or Ireland were to default on its debts, it could affect the world economy.
The IMF issued a statement Thursday saying it would continue to back Greece, provided it carried out economic policy reforms agreed upon by the government.
In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney said U.S. officials are monitoring the situation in Greece closely but believe their European counterparts have the capacity to deal with it.
"We consider it a headwind, if you will, in terms of the global economy and therefore the domestic economy," he said.
"So far, Greece has made significant progress in terms of reforms. But it is important that the Greek government carry on with the fiscal measures and reforms that are frequently under discussion with the EU and the IMF."
The political crisis in Greece has helped send the euro down 2 points against the dollar over two days, while the credit default market now sees a 78% chance of Greece failing to pay its debts.
Many political observers were skeptical that Papandreou retains sufficient political authority to form a new government.
Vasso Papandreou, a founding member of the governing Panhellenic Socialist Movement (but of no relation to the prime minister), said this was "a critical time for the country" as she circulated a petition among party members calling for "an immediate meeting of PASOK's parliamentary group."
Asked what would be discussed at the meeting, the lawmaker replied: "Everything."
One of the two lawmakers from the party who resigned Thursday, former government Minister George Floridis, said that both Papandreou and the leader of the main conservative opposition had displayed unforgivable lack of leadership in failing to form a national coalition.
"One-party governments, even if they include broadly popular figures, cannot bring about today's difficult mission," Floridis said in an open letter.
"This is not the time for bemoaning our fate and complaining," Papandreou responded in his speech. "The next government will be more effective and proceed to make the great changes that the people want and demand."
Papandreou spoke with conservative leader Samaras by phone on Wednesday afternoon after street riots marked the introduction of a 28 billion euro ($39 billion) austerity bill in Parliament. But by evening, their talks had broken down into mutual recriminations.
The main opposition party, New Democracy, has repeatedly demanded that Papandreou quit and that a cross-party coalition renegotiate the terms of the bailout package.
Papandreou said Wednesday that he would be willing to resign if he were the only thing standing in the way of a national unity government.
The government's popularity has plunged recently, and anti-government protests turned violent Wednesday, as demonstrators threw gasoline bombs at the Ministry of Finance and police fired tear gas at protesters, police said.
On June 9, the Cabinet approved a tough five-year plan for 2011-15 and introduced a bill in Parliament to put the measures into effect.
The government has said that the passage of these additional measures is essential to Greece's securing the fifth portion of a 110 billion euro ($158 billion) bailout package that Greece signed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to prevent the country from defaulting on its debts.
"We stand ready to continue our support for Greece subject to adoption of the economic policy reforms agreed with the Greek authorities," said Caroline Atkinson, director of external relations at the IMF, in a statement Thursday.
Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou has said the country hopes to secure a second bailout deal this month.
The search for a second bailout comes after it became evident that Greece is unlikely to raise capital from private markets in 2012 because of the high interest rates it would face.
Papaconstantinou has also indicated that European Union members may support calls to involve the private sector.
Despite the harsh austerity measures that the Greek government has imposed, it is failing to close its budget deficit as quickly as many had hoped. The country is in recession amid its fiscal restructuring program.
The finance minister has defended the austerity plan as necessary to keep Greece solvent. The new measures will include additional taxes and an additional 20% cut in public-sector jobs.
Protesters have been gathering outside Parliament for more than three weeks as part of peaceful demonstrations against austerity measures, with some camping in the square facing Parliament.
The credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Monday cut Greece's rating to just two notches above default, among the lowest in the world. The agency has said that a default on some debt appears "increasingly likely."
Unemployment in Greece skyrocketed to more than 16% in May, a 40% rise since last year. The European Commission has said Greece's economy was expected to shrink by 3.5% this year.
The change was announced after Prime Minister George Papandreou urged his parliamentary deputies Thursday to continue working toward rebuilding Greece under a new government, yet to be announced.
"We must not flee the battle, however difficult," Papandreou said. "I have faith in our MPs, in our movement, in our historical political party. You can rely on me, and I will rely on you. We will get Greece out of this crisis."
Earlier Thursday, two members of parliament from Papandreou's ruling socialists resigned, shaking confidence in his efforts to reconstitute his Cabinet.
The prime minister has come under fire for his inability to form a coalition with conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras, who repeated Thursday a call for elections to be held as soon as possible.
Greece crisis could ripple across EU Europe to rescue Greece? Trichet: Consider big picture on Greece
RELATED TOPICS
Greece
George Papandreou
European Union
Papandreou's planned Cabinet reshuffle represents an attempt to win support for additional austerity measures intended to help the economy weather the current crisis.
Lawmakers from the prime minister's own Panhellenic Socialist Movement, also known by the Greek acronym PASOK, met in an emergency session Thursday.
Papandreou faces opposition from his party over the austerity measures, which are intended to reduce the government deficit in order to secure a second bailout package from institutions including the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.
There are fears that efforts to restructure Greece's debt could wreak havoc with Europe's banking sector, sparking investor panic like that caused by the 2008 collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank.
The crisis raises concerns for Europe's currency, the euro. If a struggling nation such as Greece, Portugal or Ireland were to default on its debts, it could affect the world economy.
The IMF issued a statement Thursday saying it would continue to back Greece, provided it carried out economic policy reforms agreed upon by the government.
In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney said U.S. officials are monitoring the situation in Greece closely but believe their European counterparts have the capacity to deal with it.
"We consider it a headwind, if you will, in terms of the global economy and therefore the domestic economy," he said.
"So far, Greece has made significant progress in terms of reforms. But it is important that the Greek government carry on with the fiscal measures and reforms that are frequently under discussion with the EU and the IMF."
The political crisis in Greece has helped send the euro down 2 points against the dollar over two days, while the credit default market now sees a 78% chance of Greece failing to pay its debts.
Many political observers were skeptical that Papandreou retains sufficient political authority to form a new government.
Vasso Papandreou, a founding member of the governing Panhellenic Socialist Movement (but of no relation to the prime minister), said this was "a critical time for the country" as she circulated a petition among party members calling for "an immediate meeting of PASOK's parliamentary group."
Asked what would be discussed at the meeting, the lawmaker replied: "Everything."
One of the two lawmakers from the party who resigned Thursday, former government Minister George Floridis, said that both Papandreou and the leader of the main conservative opposition had displayed unforgivable lack of leadership in failing to form a national coalition.
"One-party governments, even if they include broadly popular figures, cannot bring about today's difficult mission," Floridis said in an open letter.
"This is not the time for bemoaning our fate and complaining," Papandreou responded in his speech. "The next government will be more effective and proceed to make the great changes that the people want and demand."
Papandreou spoke with conservative leader Samaras by phone on Wednesday afternoon after street riots marked the introduction of a 28 billion euro ($39 billion) austerity bill in Parliament. But by evening, their talks had broken down into mutual recriminations.
The main opposition party, New Democracy, has repeatedly demanded that Papandreou quit and that a cross-party coalition renegotiate the terms of the bailout package.
Papandreou said Wednesday that he would be willing to resign if he were the only thing standing in the way of a national unity government.
The government's popularity has plunged recently, and anti-government protests turned violent Wednesday, as demonstrators threw gasoline bombs at the Ministry of Finance and police fired tear gas at protesters, police said.
On June 9, the Cabinet approved a tough five-year plan for 2011-15 and introduced a bill in Parliament to put the measures into effect.
The government has said that the passage of these additional measures is essential to Greece's securing the fifth portion of a 110 billion euro ($158 billion) bailout package that Greece signed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to prevent the country from defaulting on its debts.
"We stand ready to continue our support for Greece subject to adoption of the economic policy reforms agreed with the Greek authorities," said Caroline Atkinson, director of external relations at the IMF, in a statement Thursday.
Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou has said the country hopes to secure a second bailout deal this month.
The search for a second bailout comes after it became evident that Greece is unlikely to raise capital from private markets in 2012 because of the high interest rates it would face.
Papaconstantinou has also indicated that European Union members may support calls to involve the private sector.
Despite the harsh austerity measures that the Greek government has imposed, it is failing to close its budget deficit as quickly as many had hoped. The country is in recession amid its fiscal restructuring program.
The finance minister has defended the austerity plan as necessary to keep Greece solvent. The new measures will include additional taxes and an additional 20% cut in public-sector jobs.
Protesters have been gathering outside Parliament for more than three weeks as part of peaceful demonstrations against austerity measures, with some camping in the square facing Parliament.
The credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Monday cut Greece's rating to just two notches above default, among the lowest in the world. The agency has said that a default on some debt appears "increasingly likely."
Unemployment in Greece skyrocketed to more than 16% in May, a 40% rise since last year. The European Commission has said Greece's economy was expected to shrink by 3.5% this year.
News
The infamous meat dress Lady Gaga was grilled for wearing at the MTV Video Music Awards last year will be unveiled Thursday as the main course in a sizzling new display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
It will join the "Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power" exhibit at the hall in Cleveland, Ohio.
The dress, once made of juicy cuts of raw Argentinean beef, was treated and preserved by a taxidermist over a number of weeks.
"The dress was kept in a meat locker until the treatment was ready to begin," said a statement from the hall. "It was then placed in a vat of chemicals and, while still pliable, was put on a body form and allowed to dry."
To keep the dress from looking like a large collection of beef jerky, it was painted to look like fresh meat.
Lady Gaga wore the dress when she accepted the award for Best Video of the Year for "Bad Romance" at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. It was a collaboration by designers Franc Fernandez and Nichola Formichetti.
Comment: This is crazy! Lady Gaga's meat dress on Rock'N'Roll hall of fame! Her weridness drive her to the place of big people memories rest. She's kind of "awesome" and she have made good music. The thing is, the dress is on the ROCK'N'ROLL hall of fame. That's so so werid, but I'm happy for her achievement!
It will join the "Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power" exhibit at the hall in Cleveland, Ohio.
The dress, once made of juicy cuts of raw Argentinean beef, was treated and preserved by a taxidermist over a number of weeks.
"The dress was kept in a meat locker until the treatment was ready to begin," said a statement from the hall. "It was then placed in a vat of chemicals and, while still pliable, was put on a body form and allowed to dry."
To keep the dress from looking like a large collection of beef jerky, it was painted to look like fresh meat.
Lady Gaga wore the dress when she accepted the award for Best Video of the Year for "Bad Romance" at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. It was a collaboration by designers Franc Fernandez and Nichola Formichetti.
Comment: This is crazy! Lady Gaga's meat dress on Rock'N'Roll hall of fame! Her weridness drive her to the place of big people memories rest. She's kind of "awesome" and she have made good music. The thing is, the dress is on the ROCK'N'ROLL hall of fame. That's so so werid, but I'm happy for her achievement!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
NEWS:
(CNN) -- In-demand Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas has revealed that his future has still to be decided, amid continued reports linking him with a return to boyhood club Barcelona.
Fabregas left the Catalan giants to sign for Arsenal as a 16-year-old, but has been linked with a return in recent years, speculation that has intensified with the London club now six seasons without winning a trophy.
However, speaking at a promotional event in Madrid, Gunners captain Fabregas -- a member of Spain's Euro 2008 and 2010 World Cup winnings squads -- said: "I haven't yet spoken to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
Lille reveal Gervinho set for Arsenal talks
"He is the one who makes the decisions and I don't know if Arsenal want to sell me or not. I have my values and after everything I have experienced with the team for eight years, I'm not going to say something that could ruin everything."
Wenger is the one who makes the decisions and I don't know if Arsenal want to sell me or not
--Cesc Fabregas
--Cesc Fabregas
RELATED TOPICS
The 24-year-old Fabregas has made no secret of his affection for Barcelona and that came to a head after the last year's World Cup victory, when he admitted he wanted to rejoin the club he left in 2003.
However, Fabregas has now conceded he might have erred in making his intentions known then. "I came out and gave my position and maybe I was wrong to do so," he revealed.
"Barca are the best team in the world and going there guarantees winning titles. Any player who says they are not frustrated by not winning titles is lying -- I am ambitious."
He added: "Everyone has their way of interpreting things, but in these decisions not everything depends on the player -- to say anything else would be to lie and give way to speculations that aren't true."
COMMENT:
THE SPANISH PLAYER CESC FABREGAS THAT PALYS IN THE ARSENAL IN THE BRITISH FOTBALL LEAGUE, TOLDS TO THE NEWS THAT HIS FUTURE STILL TO BE DECIDED, HE SAID THIS BECAUSE EVERYBODY IS SAYING THAT IS A NEW PLAYER OF THE BARCA
Actress Angelina Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the United Nations' refugee agency, will be headed to Turkey this week to visit Syrian refugees, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
Jolie is expected to arrive in Istanbul and head to Hatay on Friday, according to the ministry, which accepted an application for her visit on Wednesday.
More than 8,000 Syrians have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.
Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in early 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."
The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.' "
Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including a best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."
COMMENT: This is just GREAT! Angelina Jolie participating in charity. I think is everyone duty to help! And is really great that she, who has a big big fame, to give society and the world an example of what is helping. I like this. With the money she has maybe she could help a little bit more in charity.
Jolie is expected to arrive in Istanbul and head to Hatay on Friday, according to the ministry, which accepted an application for her visit on Wednesday.
More than 8,000 Syrians have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.
Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in early 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."
The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.' "
Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including a best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."
COMMENT: This is just GREAT! Angelina Jolie participating in charity. I think is everyone duty to help! And is really great that she, who has a big big fame, to give society and the world an example of what is helping. I like this. With the money she has maybe she could help a little bit more in charity.
300,000 still displaced in Ivory Coast
(CNN) -- More than 300,000 people are still displaced from their homes in Ivory Coast two months after a political crisis was settled in the West African nation, the United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday.
Ongoing violence has prevented their return home.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said most of the displaced are in camps or living with host families mostly in the western part of the country.
Ivory Coast endured months of bloodshed after a disputed November election that pitted the forces of Alassane Ouattara against those of Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to cede power.
Gbagbo was captured in April, and Ouattara was sworn in several weeks later. Both sides have been accused of atrocities.
The head of the Human Rights Division of the U.N. Mission in Ivory Coast has called for immediate and impartial investigations into reports of attacks by armed forces loyal to Ouattara against people in areas known to support Gbagbo.
The U.N. refugee agency said communal tensions are still high in the southwestern Sassandra region, where more than 280 civilians were killed in early May by mercenaries on the run from Abidjan, the nation's metropolitan center.
Comment: This type of political crisis is very bad, because there can be a war or some disagrement with the people that follows each candidate, so I think that travelling to another country to stay safe is a very good option.
(CNN) -- Luke Donald says he would happily trade his status as golf's best player for a haul of major titles as he prepares to battle for the U.S. Open crown.
On the eve of the tournament at Congressional Country Club, the Englishman admitted he would gladly swap his world number one tag for the four majors Phil Mickelson has to his name.
The left-handed American has been complimentary about Donald's form in the lead up to the U.S. Open and the 33-year-old says his consistency in 2011 has given him a real shot at landing his maiden major in Maryland.
"Certainly being No. 1 is a great achievement, but if you ask me if I would swap that for Phil's record, sure, I would love to take his majors and the number of victories he's had," he told the official PGA tour web site.
"But I'll continue to feed off all the good things that have got me to No. 1, and hopefully I can add to my victories, too."
Donald claimed golf's top ranking from Lee Westwood by beating his compatriot in a dramatic playoff at last month's PGA Championship at Wentworth in England.
The first goal is to get in contention and have that chance. And I've obviously done a great job of that
--Luke Donald
RELATED TOPICS
Luke Donald
Golf
PGA Tour
U.S. Open - Golf
Phil Mickelson
The world's top two have been drawn together for the opening two rounds of the U.S. Open, along with world number three Martin Kaymer, of Germany.
In his last 16 tournaments Donald has recorded 15 top-ten finishes. He came tied fourth at The Masters and The Players Championship and can also boast second place at The Heritage.
His only regret is not being able to convert those opportunities into more victories.
"Certainly if you're not in contention, you don't have a chance to win," Donald added. "That's the first goal is to get in contention and have that chance. And I've obviously done a great job of that.
"I could look back and think that I could have turned a couple of those into victories, for sure. But overall it's been a very satisfying few months. I've played extremely well, if I was sitting here winless, yes, it would be a different story."
Donald's competitors have been lining up to sing his praises too.
Mickelson said he is "someone to be reckoned with week in week out," while defending U.S Open champion Graeme McDowell thinks his Ryder Cup teammate has the "whole package."
As proud as Donald is of his status, and the kind words from his fellow pros, its clear he would love to cement his place at the top of his profession with a maiden major title.
"In simple terms, being No. 1 ranked means you've outperformed the rest of the golfers in a two-year period," Donald said.
"In that regards it's very gratifying to know that you've been more consistent and better over a two-year period. Obviously you win a tournament, you're better over a four-day period. But winning is a big deal, and winning majors is a big deal."
On the eve of the tournament at Congressional Country Club, the Englishman admitted he would gladly swap his world number one tag for the four majors Phil Mickelson has to his name.
The left-handed American has been complimentary about Donald's form in the lead up to the U.S. Open and the 33-year-old says his consistency in 2011 has given him a real shot at landing his maiden major in Maryland.
"Certainly being No. 1 is a great achievement, but if you ask me if I would swap that for Phil's record, sure, I would love to take his majors and the number of victories he's had," he told the official PGA tour web site.
"But I'll continue to feed off all the good things that have got me to No. 1, and hopefully I can add to my victories, too."
Donald claimed golf's top ranking from Lee Westwood by beating his compatriot in a dramatic playoff at last month's PGA Championship at Wentworth in England.
The first goal is to get in contention and have that chance. And I've obviously done a great job of that
--Luke Donald
RELATED TOPICS
Luke Donald
Golf
PGA Tour
U.S. Open - Golf
Phil Mickelson
The world's top two have been drawn together for the opening two rounds of the U.S. Open, along with world number three Martin Kaymer, of Germany.
In his last 16 tournaments Donald has recorded 15 top-ten finishes. He came tied fourth at The Masters and The Players Championship and can also boast second place at The Heritage.
His only regret is not being able to convert those opportunities into more victories.
"Certainly if you're not in contention, you don't have a chance to win," Donald added. "That's the first goal is to get in contention and have that chance. And I've obviously done a great job of that.
"I could look back and think that I could have turned a couple of those into victories, for sure. But overall it's been a very satisfying few months. I've played extremely well, if I was sitting here winless, yes, it would be a different story."
Donald's competitors have been lining up to sing his praises too.
Mickelson said he is "someone to be reckoned with week in week out," while defending U.S Open champion Graeme McDowell thinks his Ryder Cup teammate has the "whole package."
As proud as Donald is of his status, and the kind words from his fellow pros, its clear he would love to cement his place at the top of his profession with a maiden major title.
"In simple terms, being No. 1 ranked means you've outperformed the rest of the golfers in a two-year period," Donald said.
"In that regards it's very gratifying to know that you've been more consistent and better over a two-year period. Obviously you win a tournament, you're better over a four-day period. But winning is a big deal, and winning majors is a big deal."
15-6
I have a confession to make: I haven't used a locked phone since 2005.
Of course, it would make perfect sense if I'd hopped between several different carriers since then, but the truth is that I've been with one single carrier since 2004. Just yesterday, we made a good fuss about whether the $649 unlocked iPhone 4 is worth it. But what's my rationale for wanting to cut the phone cord?
(More on TIME.com: Apple's Top 10 Moments)
Many people, when they begin to look at cell phone contracts, often start phone first. What they don't realize is that phones can be easily replaced or changed, but very often changing and switching carriers can be messier than saying “contract.” They are, unwittingly, entering into what is essentially a very expensive two-year relationship with a phone carrier. What if that carrier has craptacular customer service? I decided to go the other route, and shop plan first.
That doesn't change the fact that some carriers have phone exclusivity. While unlocked phones may cost more to purchase, does it really matter if you're on a cheaper plan with one carrier versus the more expensive plan you would have been on with the phone-exclusive carrier? Though my phone might be more expensive, I save eons on my plan over the long term.
There is a reason for carrying an unlocked phone in the U.S. Back in the day when dinosaurs once roamed the earth, you had to go to AT&T for an iPhone. Unfortunately, what most people failed to consider was that AT&T's cell phone reception was the equivalent of dropping your iPhone in a toilet.
(More on TIME.com: PHOTOS: The History of the Cell Phone)
So I chose to stay with T-Mobile instead. I picked up an unlocked iPhone 3G for $250 on Craigslist two years ago, and plugged my SIM straight in. While you won't get the same 3G data speeds as you would with AT&T, I figured AT&T's data network was so sluggish it didn't make much of a difference in comparison.* The point is that you're tied to your network unless you're willing to shell out an often hefty ETF fee. But you are never tied to your phone.
Another key point to consider is flexibility. Like any good early adopter, sometimes I change phones more than Hugh Hefner changes Playboy bunnies. Unlocked phones are pretty common in the rest of the world and with so many models that never make it the shelves of your local wireless store, if you want to swap out to an HTC Desire HD, for instance, you've got free reign to do so. Unlocked phones often command a substantially higher unlocked resell value, too – perfect if you want to ditch your clunker for a new one. What can I say? I have trouble committing to a phone.
Besides, when I'm given an opportunity to be untethered from my desk, I take full advantage of it. I have this habit of roaming around the world – physically and digitally. The basic fact is that no matter where you go, roaming internationally is expensive. Often I pick up a prepaid SIM (some cards offer 3G data) for a few measly dollars at a local convenience store and go on my merry way. I've also got Google Voice integrated with my Android phone, so I get instant notifications, voicemails and texts sent to my U.S. number… with a cherry on top, please.
However, if you're a loyalist, it makes no sense whatsoever to get an unlocked phone. But if you don't want to be beholden to a particular carrier or to a particular phone, going unlocked might just be your yellow brick road to wireless freedom.
*Of course this T-Mobile or AT&T this or that may no longer matter in the
Read more: http://techland.time.com/2011/06/15/why-unlocked-phones-may-be-the-smarter-alternative/#ixzz1POLRVx00
Comment: Again, I other article or news from other web pages I don´t why cnn.com have articles from othres web pages. However this article or news is about the same that yesterday is about the new iPhone 4 that now is Unloked, I think that is a good decision from Apple.
News
Actress Angelina Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the United Nations' refugee agency, will be headed to Turkey this week to visit Syrian refugees, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
Jolie is expected to arrive in Istanbul and head to Hatay on Friday, according to the ministry, which accepted an application for her visit on Wednesday.
More than 8,000 Syrians have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.
Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in early 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."
The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.' "
Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including a best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."
Comment: This is just GREAT! Angelina Jolie participating in charity. I think is everyone duty to help! And is really great that she, who has a big big fame, to give society and the world an example of what is helping. I like this. With the money she has maybe she could help a little bit more in charity.
Jolie is expected to arrive in Istanbul and head to Hatay on Friday, according to the ministry, which accepted an application for her visit on Wednesday.
More than 8,000 Syrians have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.
Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in early 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."
The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.' "
Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including a best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."
Comment: This is just GREAT! Angelina Jolie participating in charity. I think is everyone duty to help! And is really great that she, who has a big big fame, to give society and the world an example of what is helping. I like this. With the money she has maybe she could help a little bit more in charity.
NEWS WEDNESDAY
(CNN) -- Black holes may be featured in "Star Trek" and "Event Horizon," but they're not just the stuff of science fiction.
Now, there's new evidence that these gravity-powered matter-eaters have been around in abundance since the dawn of the universe, and might be responsible for how the cosmos looks today.
Scientists say at least 30 million black holes had formed before the universe was 1 billion years old, which is quite early in the universe's 13.7 billion-year history.
A new study published in the journal Nature explains this discovery, which was made using NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
What is a black hole?
A black hole is a dense region of space that has collapsed in on itself such that nothing can escape it, not even light.
Yet some of the brightest objects in the universe are black holes that are devouring matter around them, since a lot of energy gets released in that process, said Kevin Schawinski, astronomer at Yale University and co-author of the research.
Material in the vicinity gets drawn in, and settles into a disc, called an accretion disc, that's constantly spiraling toward the black hole. As matter gets compressed by the black hole, X-ray radiation is emitted.
No one knows how the first black holes were formed after the Big Bang, the initial explosion that created our universe. There are many theories -- for instance, that the first stars were very large and exploded into black holes, or that gas collapsed into itself, but none of these ideas really fit, said Fulvio Melia, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Arizona, who was not involved with the Chandra study.
These early structures are "supermassive" -- perhaps millions of times the mass of our sun -- and most of the light around them doesn't make it out of their galaxies, Schawinski said. Only the highest-energy x-rays can get through, and that's the invisible radiation that allows researchers observe the black holes indirectly.
What are the new findings?
The early black holes in the Nature study, located at the centers of some of the earliest known galaxies, have been hard to pinpoint in the past because they've been buried in gas and dust, Schawinski said.
"We've solved the mystery of where the black holes have been," he said.
Using the Chandra observatory, astronomers scoured more than 250 distant galaxies, which had been identified with the Hubble Space Telescope.
It appears that between 30% and 100% of the distant galaxies have growing supermassive black holes, which is about 10,000 times more black holes than previously believed. They then calculated that there must have been at least 30 million black holes before the universe's 1 billionth birthday.
These black holes are also growing more aggressively than astrophysicists previously thought.
Such black holes are so far away that the radiation emitted is extremely faint. So astronomers took 200 images of every part of the sky with one of these early galaxies, and layered the images on top of each other. Only in this "stacked" image could these black holes be detected.
Why is it significant?
It's unclear which came first: the galaxy or the black hole, Schawinski said. The Chandra observations indicate that proto-galaxies already had central black holes, but it seems that the black holes and their galaxies are growing together.
We see that pattern in more modern star systems: The bigger the black hole, the larger the galaxy around it. The Milky Way has a black hole in its center, too, about 4 million times the mass of the sun.
"All the black holes we see at the centers of galaxies today are in a way descended from those baby black holes we see at the dawn of the universe," he said.
How that happens is still a mystery, but this discovery shows that this symbiotic relationship went back to the dawn of the universe, Schawinski said.
It could also change the way we think about the history of our universe, Melia said.
If the black holes did come first, they would have played a critical role in the formation of the overall structure of the universe, Melia said.
A young galaxy, shown in this artist's impression, has dust and gas at its center hiding a black hole."In some strange, indirect way, we may owe our existence to these black holes, because many of the galaxies may not have formed at all if it weren't for the black holes being there first," said Melia, who was not involved in the study.
These observations of early black holes also shed light on how the universe became transparent.
The very early universe was full of atomic hydrogen, a period called the "dark ages" because it was completely opaque, Schawinski said. Some mysterious event "re-ionized," or turned the hydrogen into charged particles called ions, such that light could travel freely.
The Nature study suggests that a typical black hole could not have "lit up" the universe in this way. That's because ultraviolet light would have been trapped behind gas and dust; only the highest-energy X-rays could escape, and they do not have this ionizing property.
What's next?
Schawinski's group plans to push even further into the early universe to gain more insights into the early black holes.
But clues may also emerge at the Large Hadron Collider, the $10 billion particle smasher here on Earth at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Insights from the LHC experiments might yield new properties of physics that could potentially explain the mysterious formation of the universe's earliest black holes, Melia said.
COMMENT the black holes in the early universe will be featured in strar trek but they are not only the stuff of science fiction they are gonna represent the real black holes that are in the universe to make us what is there in the universe
Now, there's new evidence that these gravity-powered matter-eaters have been around in abundance since the dawn of the universe, and might be responsible for how the cosmos looks today.
Scientists say at least 30 million black holes had formed before the universe was 1 billion years old, which is quite early in the universe's 13.7 billion-year history.
A new study published in the journal Nature explains this discovery, which was made using NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
What is a black hole?
A black hole is a dense region of space that has collapsed in on itself such that nothing can escape it, not even light.
Yet some of the brightest objects in the universe are black holes that are devouring matter around them, since a lot of energy gets released in that process, said Kevin Schawinski, astronomer at Yale University and co-author of the research.
Material in the vicinity gets drawn in, and settles into a disc, called an accretion disc, that's constantly spiraling toward the black hole. As matter gets compressed by the black hole, X-ray radiation is emitted.
No one knows how the first black holes were formed after the Big Bang, the initial explosion that created our universe. There are many theories -- for instance, that the first stars were very large and exploded into black holes, or that gas collapsed into itself, but none of these ideas really fit, said Fulvio Melia, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Arizona, who was not involved with the Chandra study.
These early structures are "supermassive" -- perhaps millions of times the mass of our sun -- and most of the light around them doesn't make it out of their galaxies, Schawinski said. Only the highest-energy x-rays can get through, and that's the invisible radiation that allows researchers observe the black holes indirectly.
What are the new findings?
The early black holes in the Nature study, located at the centers of some of the earliest known galaxies, have been hard to pinpoint in the past because they've been buried in gas and dust, Schawinski said.
"We've solved the mystery of where the black holes have been," he said.
Using the Chandra observatory, astronomers scoured more than 250 distant galaxies, which had been identified with the Hubble Space Telescope.
It appears that between 30% and 100% of the distant galaxies have growing supermassive black holes, which is about 10,000 times more black holes than previously believed. They then calculated that there must have been at least 30 million black holes before the universe's 1 billionth birthday.
These black holes are also growing more aggressively than astrophysicists previously thought.
Such black holes are so far away that the radiation emitted is extremely faint. So astronomers took 200 images of every part of the sky with one of these early galaxies, and layered the images on top of each other. Only in this "stacked" image could these black holes be detected.
Why is it significant?
It's unclear which came first: the galaxy or the black hole, Schawinski said. The Chandra observations indicate that proto-galaxies already had central black holes, but it seems that the black holes and their galaxies are growing together.
We see that pattern in more modern star systems: The bigger the black hole, the larger the galaxy around it. The Milky Way has a black hole in its center, too, about 4 million times the mass of the sun.
"All the black holes we see at the centers of galaxies today are in a way descended from those baby black holes we see at the dawn of the universe," he said.
How that happens is still a mystery, but this discovery shows that this symbiotic relationship went back to the dawn of the universe, Schawinski said.
It could also change the way we think about the history of our universe, Melia said.
If the black holes did come first, they would have played a critical role in the formation of the overall structure of the universe, Melia said.
A young galaxy, shown in this artist's impression, has dust and gas at its center hiding a black hole."In some strange, indirect way, we may owe our existence to these black holes, because many of the galaxies may not have formed at all if it weren't for the black holes being there first," said Melia, who was not involved in the study.
These observations of early black holes also shed light on how the universe became transparent.
The very early universe was full of atomic hydrogen, a period called the "dark ages" because it was completely opaque, Schawinski said. Some mysterious event "re-ionized," or turned the hydrogen into charged particles called ions, such that light could travel freely.
The Nature study suggests that a typical black hole could not have "lit up" the universe in this way. That's because ultraviolet light would have been trapped behind gas and dust; only the highest-energy X-rays could escape, and they do not have this ionizing property.
What's next?
Schawinski's group plans to push even further into the early universe to gain more insights into the early black holes.
But clues may also emerge at the Large Hadron Collider, the $10 billion particle smasher here on Earth at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Insights from the LHC experiments might yield new properties of physics that could potentially explain the mysterious formation of the universe's earliest black holes, Melia said.
COMMENT the black holes in the early universe will be featured in strar trek but they are not only the stuff of science fiction they are gonna represent the real black holes that are in the universe to make us what is there in the universe
Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou announced Wednesday that a government reshuffle will take place Thursday, after which he will seek a vote of confidence in parliament.
The planned reshuffle represents an attempt to win support for additional austerity measures intended to help the economy weather the current crisis, measures that sparked debate Wednesday in parliament as demonstrators protested outside.
Papandreou faces strong opposition from his own party over the measures, with one member of parliament defecting and another saying that he would vote for them.
After Papandreou's announcement of the reshuffle in a brief televised statement, the main opposition called for an early election.
Thousands protest Greek austerity RELATED TOPICS
Greece
Greek Economy
Public Finance
George Papandreou
The Greek parliament has opened debate on the austerity measures, seen by some economists as essential to Greece's meeting the terms of its international creditors.
Papandreou said the formation of a unity government requires agreement from all opposition parties on the cuts and privatizations agreed to in an international bailout Greece undertook slightly more than a year ago.
Papandreou's reshuffle comes amid mounting opposition and the defection of one of his party's parliament members over the austerity program.
The main opposition party, New Democracy, has repeatedly demanded that Papandreou quit and that a cross-party coalition renegotiate the terms of the bailout package.
The government's popularity has plunged recently, and anti-government protests turned violent Wednesday, as demonstrators threw gasoline bombs at the Ministry of Finance and police fired tear gas at protesters, police said.
Tens of thousands of protesters had vowed to form a human shield around the parliament to prevent lawmakers from debating new austerity measures Wednesday afternoon.
"This is a joke. It is all a joke," protester Christos Miliadakis, 35, said of the government plans.
"When will we be able to get out of this vicious circle? My wife lost her job. I had a 12% pay cut as a result of the first bailout. The new measures want to cut another 20% of jobs in the public sector," he said. "So if no one has money and we are just more in debt, who is going to drive the economy? We will live like slaves paying all our lives."
Architecture student Maria Iliadi, 23, said that, for people like her, "the future in this country has been erased. There will be no big public projects, and no one will be building for a long time. Sometimes, finishing my degree seems totally pointless."
About 25,000 demonstrators were on the streets of the capital by the middle of the day, police said. Two police officers and four civilians were slightly injured, and 12 people were arrested, they said.
Labor unions were holding a 24-hour strike to protest the measures and planned to march to Parliament to join forces with the protesters.
The strike has brought public services to a grinding halt and kept most transport networks at a standstill, although flights have not been affected.
Rallies also were scheduled to take place in other Greek cities.
On June 9, the Cabinet approved a tough five-year plan for 2011-15 and introduced a bill in Parliament to put the measures into effect.
The government has said that the passage of these additional measures is essential to Greece's securing the fifth portion of a 110 billion euro ($158 billion) bailout package that Greece signed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to prevent the country from defaulting on its debts.
Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou has said the country hopes to secure a second bailout deal this month.
The search for a second bailout comes after it became evident that Greece is extremely unlikely to raise capital from private markets in 2012 due to the prohibitively high interest rates it would face.
Papaconstantinou has also indicated that European Union members may support calls to get the private sector involved.
Despite the harsh austerity measures that the Greek government has imposed, it is failing to close its budget deficit as quickly as many had hoped. The country is in recession amid its fiscal restructuring program.
The finance minister has defended the five-year austerity plan, saying it is needed to keep Greece solvent. The new measures will include a number of additional taxes and an additional 20% cut in public-sector jobs.
Protesters have been gathering outside Parliament for more than three weeks as part of an ongoing peaceful demonstration against austerity measures, with some camping in the square facing Parliament.
They call themselves "The Indignants," a grass-roots movement that takes its name from the Spanish campaign of "Los Indignados," who have been holding similar mobilizations against austerity across Spain.
The Indignants issued a statement saying it would keep going until the politicians and technocrats it blames for what is happening in Greece "go away."
The credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Monday cut Greece's rating to just two notches above default, among the lowest in the world. The agency has said a default on some debt appears "increasingly likely."
Unemployment in Greece skyrocketed to more than 16% in May, a 40% rise since last year.
The European Commission has said Greece's economy was expected to shrink by 3.5% this year.
Papandreou has pledged to continue with the changes no matter the political cost. He has said that the alternative, a default, "would be a catastrophe."
The five-year austerity plan is expected to face a vote in Parliament in before the end of the month.
The planned reshuffle represents an attempt to win support for additional austerity measures intended to help the economy weather the current crisis, measures that sparked debate Wednesday in parliament as demonstrators protested outside.
Papandreou faces strong opposition from his own party over the measures, with one member of parliament defecting and another saying that he would vote for them.
After Papandreou's announcement of the reshuffle in a brief televised statement, the main opposition called for an early election.
Thousands protest Greek austerity RELATED TOPICS
Greece
Greek Economy
Public Finance
George Papandreou
The Greek parliament has opened debate on the austerity measures, seen by some economists as essential to Greece's meeting the terms of its international creditors.
Papandreou said the formation of a unity government requires agreement from all opposition parties on the cuts and privatizations agreed to in an international bailout Greece undertook slightly more than a year ago.
Papandreou's reshuffle comes amid mounting opposition and the defection of one of his party's parliament members over the austerity program.
The main opposition party, New Democracy, has repeatedly demanded that Papandreou quit and that a cross-party coalition renegotiate the terms of the bailout package.
The government's popularity has plunged recently, and anti-government protests turned violent Wednesday, as demonstrators threw gasoline bombs at the Ministry of Finance and police fired tear gas at protesters, police said.
Tens of thousands of protesters had vowed to form a human shield around the parliament to prevent lawmakers from debating new austerity measures Wednesday afternoon.
"This is a joke. It is all a joke," protester Christos Miliadakis, 35, said of the government plans.
"When will we be able to get out of this vicious circle? My wife lost her job. I had a 12% pay cut as a result of the first bailout. The new measures want to cut another 20% of jobs in the public sector," he said. "So if no one has money and we are just more in debt, who is going to drive the economy? We will live like slaves paying all our lives."
Architecture student Maria Iliadi, 23, said that, for people like her, "the future in this country has been erased. There will be no big public projects, and no one will be building for a long time. Sometimes, finishing my degree seems totally pointless."
About 25,000 demonstrators were on the streets of the capital by the middle of the day, police said. Two police officers and four civilians were slightly injured, and 12 people were arrested, they said.
Labor unions were holding a 24-hour strike to protest the measures and planned to march to Parliament to join forces with the protesters.
The strike has brought public services to a grinding halt and kept most transport networks at a standstill, although flights have not been affected.
Rallies also were scheduled to take place in other Greek cities.
On June 9, the Cabinet approved a tough five-year plan for 2011-15 and introduced a bill in Parliament to put the measures into effect.
The government has said that the passage of these additional measures is essential to Greece's securing the fifth portion of a 110 billion euro ($158 billion) bailout package that Greece signed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to prevent the country from defaulting on its debts.
Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou has said the country hopes to secure a second bailout deal this month.
The search for a second bailout comes after it became evident that Greece is extremely unlikely to raise capital from private markets in 2012 due to the prohibitively high interest rates it would face.
Papaconstantinou has also indicated that European Union members may support calls to get the private sector involved.
Despite the harsh austerity measures that the Greek government has imposed, it is failing to close its budget deficit as quickly as many had hoped. The country is in recession amid its fiscal restructuring program.
The finance minister has defended the five-year austerity plan, saying it is needed to keep Greece solvent. The new measures will include a number of additional taxes and an additional 20% cut in public-sector jobs.
Protesters have been gathering outside Parliament for more than three weeks as part of an ongoing peaceful demonstration against austerity measures, with some camping in the square facing Parliament.
They call themselves "The Indignants," a grass-roots movement that takes its name from the Spanish campaign of "Los Indignados," who have been holding similar mobilizations against austerity across Spain.
The Indignants issued a statement saying it would keep going until the politicians and technocrats it blames for what is happening in Greece "go away."
The credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Monday cut Greece's rating to just two notches above default, among the lowest in the world. The agency has said a default on some debt appears "increasingly likely."
Unemployment in Greece skyrocketed to more than 16% in May, a 40% rise since last year.
The European Commission has said Greece's economy was expected to shrink by 3.5% this year.
Papandreou has pledged to continue with the changes no matter the political cost. He has said that the alternative, a default, "would be a catastrophe."
The five-year austerity plan is expected to face a vote in Parliament in before the end of the month.
The plain Google search box will soon be able to handle more than taps on a keyboard.
Google is bringing features pioneered on smartphones, like voice and image search, to its flagship product, the company said at a news conference here on Tuesday.
The speech-recognition tool began showing up as a microphone button on the right-hand side of the Google.com search box for some visitors on Tuesday. It will only be available on Google's Chrome Web browser for now, but Google executives say they hope other software makers implement the technology to support the feature.
Like on Android or the Google application for the iPhone, people can click the mic icon on Google.com, and say a phrase or question into their computer microphone.
The speech technology attempts to account for accents and context in order to transcribe the recording into text. This produced mixed results in my testing, speaking in plain English or with a faux Cockney accent.
Take a peek at Google voice search
The image-search feature will start rolling out in the next few days, said Johanna Wright, a Google search director. "Every picture has a story, and we want to help you discover that story," she said.
Image Search can, say, look at a family vacation photo and figure out where it was shot, or help explain images that become Internet memes, such as Lolcats. The recognition technology applies a bunch of Google's proprietary algorithms to photos, but facial recognition isn't one of them, executives said in an interview with reporters.
People using newer Web browsers will be able to drag an image file from the desktop onto the search box. Additional features are available to those who install the Google Toolbar in Firefox.
Google Instant, the immediate suggestions offered when a user is typing into the search box, will debut on Google's image-search section "in the coming weeks," said Google exec Amit Singhal.
To complement Google's quest for high-speed Web surfing, the company plans to roll out a feature called Instant Pages. It will sometimes load the top search result on your computer before you click on the link, so that the page pops up instantly once you do.
The feature will only be available in Chrome, starting with the beta version of the software later this week.
That many of Tuesday's announcements will initially only be available in Chrome limits their reach. In May, Google controlled 65.5% of the U.S. Web search market, according to comScore, but Chrome only had 12.5% of browser usage -- far behind Internet Explorer and Firefox -- said research firm Net Applications.
I think that is very good that now google would have a better way, and maybe and easier way to search for topics that people want to, and it would be good that all people could use it.
After offering an unlocked version of the iPhone overseas for some time, Apple has finally begun selling an unlocked version of the GSM iPhone 4 in the U.S.
Rumors had been building over the last several days that Apple was preparing to add such an item to its inventory system sooner than later, and those rumors came to fruition early Tuesday morning.
The unlocked 16GB iPhone 4 is now available directly from Apple for $649, with the 32GB model going for $749. (Bet you're hankerin' for those subsidized phones again!)
Unlocked iPhone 4s are available in both black and white and the device is otherwise the same as the AT&T-locked iPhone 4 that many of us are already familiar with.
Aside from being beneficial for travel -- GSM is essentially the world standard when it comes to cell phones and travelers will be able to use the device on other GSM networks outside of the U.S. -- an unlocked version of the phone means that users can upgrade without committing to a new contract with AT&T.
T-Mobile in the U.S. also offers a GSM network that partially works with the iPhone 4, but those who take unlocked phones over to that network won't be able to use T-Mobile's 3G -- the device works with T-Mobile's EDGE only.
Comment: For the people that travel theirs iphone 4 is now unlocked words now you can use in any place or cities, this is good because if you don’t know any word or things like that you can consult your iphone.
Serena come back ended by Zvonareva
Serena Williams has been beaten in her comeback event in Eastbourne, losing a tight three-set second round match to top seed Vera Zvonareva on Wednesday.
American Williams has not played in a competitive tournament since defeating Zvonareva in the Wimbledon final a year ago.
However, the Russian claimed some revenge for that loss, recovering from dropping the opening set to secure a 3-6 7-6 7-5 triumph after three hours of intense tennis.
Zvonareva, who has been seeded second for Wimbledon next week, paid tribute to Wiliams after the match, telling the official WTA Tour website: "Serena has done an unbelievable job coming back after almost a year of not playing.
"She spent more than three hours on the court playing some unbelievable tennis. She's a great champion and I have a lot of respect for her."
Williams was appearing in Eastbourne for the first time after two operations on a foot she cut on broken glass in a restaurant, followed by further surgery in February to remove blood clots from her lungs.
COMMENT: I think Serena comes back to the professional tennis with a new actitude and have a lot of wishes to concrete this year. I think it is posible that she wins wimbledon or the us open because we have to remember that she is one of the best tennis players in the sport history.
American Williams has not played in a competitive tournament since defeating Zvonareva in the Wimbledon final a year ago.
However, the Russian claimed some revenge for that loss, recovering from dropping the opening set to secure a 3-6 7-6 7-5 triumph after three hours of intense tennis.
Zvonareva, who has been seeded second for Wimbledon next week, paid tribute to Wiliams after the match, telling the official WTA Tour website: "Serena has done an unbelievable job coming back after almost a year of not playing.
"She spent more than three hours on the court playing some unbelievable tennis. She's a great champion and I have a lot of respect for her."
Williams was appearing in Eastbourne for the first time after two operations on a foot she cut on broken glass in a restaurant, followed by further surgery in February to remove blood clots from her lungs.
COMMENT: I think Serena comes back to the professional tennis with a new actitude and have a lot of wishes to concrete this year. I think it is posible that she wins wimbledon or the us open because we have to remember that she is one of the best tennis players in the sport history.
CNN) -- Actress Angelina Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the United Nations' refugee agency, will be headed to Turkey this week to visit Syrian refugees, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
Jolie is expected to arrive in Istanbul and head to Hatay on Friday, according to the ministry, which accepted an application for her visit on Wednesday.
More than 8,000 Syrians have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.
Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in early 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."
The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.' "
Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including a best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."
angelina jolie visit syria and help the refugees of syria I think that persons like her well sometimes will help the world and help the people that need it she is an actrees and other persons would think that what we would be doing there and that are the minds that doesnt help the world.
Jolie is expected to arrive in Istanbul and head to Hatay on Friday, according to the ministry, which accepted an application for her visit on Wednesday.
More than 8,000 Syrians have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.
Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in early 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."
The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.' "
Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including a best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."
angelina jolie visit syria and help the refugees of syria I think that persons like her well sometimes will help the world and help the people that need it she is an actrees and other persons would think that what we would be doing there and that are the minds that doesnt help the world.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
News
As one of the world's most famous sportsmen, David Beckham is used to being center stage. But next year the English soccer star is looking forward to being "a fan" in what he tells CNN will be "one of the best, if not the best Olympics of all time."
The 36-year-old grew up in East London, parts of which have been transformed in the past few years as Britain's capital gears up to host the 2012 Games.
Beckham has been a key backer of the event and was present as an official ambassador in Singapore in 2005 when London was handed the Olympics for the third time -- becoming the first city to do so in the modern era.
The former Manchester United and Real Madrid player remained coy about his possible involvement with Team GB, preferring to focus on his nomination of 18-year-old Gabriella Roseje as one of 8,000 torch bearers for the pre-Olympics relay next year.
"My goal is first I want to be a fan at the Olympics and support our Team GB to win as many medals, to win as many gold medals, and to make our country proud, which they will do because we've got so many great young athletes that have been around for a while," Beckham, also an ambassador for 2012 sponsor Samsung, told CNN.
"So, it's an exciting time, and with my involvement I just want to be a part of it. For it to be in the East End of London is a proud moment for myself, and to be there with my sons, possibly my daughter, my wife, it's going to be a proud moment for not only myself but for many people in this country."
Comment: So, Bechkam is going to watch the 2012 Olympics. Why CNN is putting this as a tip news? I really cannot see the important thing in this. Really CNN should watch what they put. Ok Bechkam is a great sports man I know but, he's not that important is he? Really I don't know what to say about this "TOP NEWS".
The 36-year-old grew up in East London, parts of which have been transformed in the past few years as Britain's capital gears up to host the 2012 Games.
Beckham has been a key backer of the event and was present as an official ambassador in Singapore in 2005 when London was handed the Olympics for the third time -- becoming the first city to do so in the modern era.
The former Manchester United and Real Madrid player remained coy about his possible involvement with Team GB, preferring to focus on his nomination of 18-year-old Gabriella Roseje as one of 8,000 torch bearers for the pre-Olympics relay next year.
"My goal is first I want to be a fan at the Olympics and support our Team GB to win as many medals, to win as many gold medals, and to make our country proud, which they will do because we've got so many great young athletes that have been around for a while," Beckham, also an ambassador for 2012 sponsor Samsung, told CNN.
"So, it's an exciting time, and with my involvement I just want to be a part of it. For it to be in the East End of London is a proud moment for myself, and to be there with my sons, possibly my daughter, my wife, it's going to be a proud moment for not only myself but for many people in this country."
Comment: So, Bechkam is going to watch the 2012 Olympics. Why CNN is putting this as a tip news? I really cannot see the important thing in this. Really CNN should watch what they put. Ok Bechkam is a great sports man I know but, he's not that important is he? Really I don't know what to say about this "TOP NEWS".
Beijing (CNN) -- China Tuesday blamed its neighbors for escalating tensions in the South China Sea, one day after the Vietnamese navy held a live-fire drill in disputed waters.
"Some countries took unilateral actions to impair China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, released groundless and irresponsible remarks with the attempt to expand and complicate the disputes," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei at a regular press briefing.
Beijing and Hanoi have exchanged increasingly heated words in recent weeks, accusing each other of territorial intrusions in the South China Sea, which is claimed in whole or in part by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
The vast area of waters, dotted with partially submerged atolls and reefs, contain some of the world's busiest shipping lanes and are thought to hold large deposits of oil and natural gas.
Hanoi authorities have announced a few recent incidents, charging that Chinese ships last week intentionally severed electric cables on Vietnamese survey vessels in Vietnamese waters. Beijing has countered that Vietnamese vessels have been illegally surveying in Chinese waters and harassing Chinese fishing boats.
Computer hackers from both sides have also attacked websites in the other country, posting nationalistic images and messages, according to Chinese media reports.
Although tensions flare up periodically among the various claimants of the disputed waters, the current situation is drawing more international attention amid China's fast-growing political and military power.
The United States officially stays neutral in the disputes, despite some Congressional calls for a more forceful stance to balance China's clout. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, however, has expressed Washington's willingness to facilitate multilateral talks on the issue.
"The United States has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia's maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea," she said last July at a regional security meeting in Hanoi.
Chinese analysts see the United States using the South China Sea issue as a new way to contain China's rise.
"The United States used to have Taiwan as its main bargaining chip in the region," said Zhang Xizhen, a professor of Southeast Asian studies at Peking University. "Now that tensions across the Taiwan Strait have calmed down, they are turning to the South China Sea."
"Although the U.S. claimed neutrality on the issue, if conflicts arise in the area, they may use it as an excuse to intervene," he added.
The Beijing leadership balks at any notion of "internationalizing" the dispute, in sharp contrast to a recent comment by Vietnamese officials welcoming foreign involvement.
"China always maintains that countries directly related to the issue should conduct bilateral negotiations and friendly consultations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong said.
"China is trying to safeguard its own legitimate rights and interests, not infringing on other countries' rights," he added. "Justice lies in the heart of the people."
COMMENT:
Some countries took unilateral actions to impair China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, released groundless and irresponsible remarks with the attempt to expand and complicate the disputes.
"Some countries took unilateral actions to impair China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, released groundless and irresponsible remarks with the attempt to expand and complicate the disputes," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei at a regular press briefing.
Beijing and Hanoi have exchanged increasingly heated words in recent weeks, accusing each other of territorial intrusions in the South China Sea, which is claimed in whole or in part by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
The vast area of waters, dotted with partially submerged atolls and reefs, contain some of the world's busiest shipping lanes and are thought to hold large deposits of oil and natural gas.
Hanoi authorities have announced a few recent incidents, charging that Chinese ships last week intentionally severed electric cables on Vietnamese survey vessels in Vietnamese waters. Beijing has countered that Vietnamese vessels have been illegally surveying in Chinese waters and harassing Chinese fishing boats.
Computer hackers from both sides have also attacked websites in the other country, posting nationalistic images and messages, according to Chinese media reports.
Although tensions flare up periodically among the various claimants of the disputed waters, the current situation is drawing more international attention amid China's fast-growing political and military power.
The United States officially stays neutral in the disputes, despite some Congressional calls for a more forceful stance to balance China's clout. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, however, has expressed Washington's willingness to facilitate multilateral talks on the issue.
"The United States has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia's maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea," she said last July at a regional security meeting in Hanoi.
Chinese analysts see the United States using the South China Sea issue as a new way to contain China's rise.
"The United States used to have Taiwan as its main bargaining chip in the region," said Zhang Xizhen, a professor of Southeast Asian studies at Peking University. "Now that tensions across the Taiwan Strait have calmed down, they are turning to the South China Sea."
"Although the U.S. claimed neutrality on the issue, if conflicts arise in the area, they may use it as an excuse to intervene," he added.
The Beijing leadership balks at any notion of "internationalizing" the dispute, in sharp contrast to a recent comment by Vietnamese officials welcoming foreign involvement.
"China always maintains that countries directly related to the issue should conduct bilateral negotiations and friendly consultations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong said.
"China is trying to safeguard its own legitimate rights and interests, not infringing on other countries' rights," he added. "Justice lies in the heart of the people."
COMMENT:
Some countries took unilateral actions to impair China's sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, released groundless and irresponsible remarks with the attempt to expand and complicate the disputes.
Five Mexico stars banned after failing drugs test
(CNN) -- The governing body of Mexican football has banned five players from its national team after they failed drugs tests taken in late May before the start of an international tournament.
Decio de Maria, Secretary General of the Mexican Federation of Football, announced the suspensions of national team members Guillermo Ochoa, Francisco Javier Rodriguez, Edgar Duenas, Antonio Naelson "Sinha" and Christian Bermudez at a Thursday news conference.
De Maria blamed the failed drug tests on bad meat eaten by the players.
The five tested positive for clenbuterol, a banned anabolic agent that can be found in meats.
Mexican football officials contend the five players ingested the substance accidentally.
The suspensions could be devastating to Mexico's chances at the Gold Cup, an international tournament currently under way that includes nations from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Mexico is the tournament's returning champion.
Samples of red meat have been collected from a restaurant the players had frequented and will be tested, according to the federation.
The federation stated that a final decision on the players' status is pending the results of the tests.
Comment: The publication of this news is a little bit late but I think that it isn't good for the all the mexican people ( coaches, fans, players) that their drug exams are positive. But that team doesn't need those 5 players that were called out of the golden cup.
NEWS:
(CNN) -- World No. 4 Andy Murray completed his grass-court preparations for Wimbledon with a battling 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 victory against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the rain-delayed final of the Queen's Club Championships in London on Monday.
Tsonga had won an impromptu table tennis match between the two on Sunday as Britain's wet weather kept the duo inside, and the French fifth seed made a strong start to the final proper as he took the first set.
But second seed Murray leveled the match with victory in a second-set tie-break, then went on to became only the second British player to win more than one title at Queen's as he took the decider in a match lasting almost two and a half hours.
"He (Tsonga) was playing a different sport to me in the first two sets, I have never seen anyone dive so much. He is so much fun to watch but not much fun to play against," Murray told reporters.
"He was using variation on his serve, and a lot of aggression. But I managed to break him eventually. This has been one of the most fun weeks I've had on the tour. I've loved it."
Can Serena Williams succeed in her long-awaited comeback?
It was the 24-year-old Scot's first title this year and his 17th overall, adding to his 2009 success at Queen's as he overcame the ankle injury he suffered in reaching the semifinals of the French Open.
"My ankle has got much better each day. I still feel it from time to time though," he said ahead of the start of Wimbledon next Monday.
I have never seen anyone dive so much. He is so much fun to watch but not much fun to play against
--Andy Murray
--Andy Murray
French players have now lost four of the past nine finals at the tournament, following Sebastien Grosjean (2003-04) and Nicolas Mahut (2007).
Murray easily disposed of four-time Queen's champion Andy Roddick in Saturday's semis, but faced a tougher task against a player who eliminated world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the last eight.
In front of a capacity crowd of almost 7,000, Tsonga broke Murray's serve in the fifth game, and then again in the seventh, but the second set was a tighter affair until the tie-break.
Murray, who beat Tsonga in last year's Wimbledon quarterfinals, broke the 26-year-old in the fifth game of the third set and was able to entertain his fans with a drop-shot winner between his legs before serving out to love.
India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes failed in their bid for a first doubles title at Queen's, losing 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-4) 10-6 to American top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan.
The Bryan brothers repeated their Australian Open final success against a pairing who defeated French Open champions Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor in the semifinals at the weekend.
The U.S. duo have now won the Queen's title four times.
Meanwhile, Germany's Sabine Lisicki claimed her second WTA Tour title with a 6-3 6-2 victory over fourth seed Daniela Hantuchova in the final of the rain-delayed Birmingham Classic in England on Monday.
The 21-year-old, who beat Chinese third seed Shuai Peng in Saturday's semis, found out on Sunday that she had been given a wild-card entry to Wimbledon.
Lisicki reached the quarterfinals of the major in 2009 but fell out of the world top 200 due to injury last year, though she is now posed to break back into the top 100.
"I'm in disbelief -- I'm shaking. It's an amazing week. At the start of it I never thought I would be standing here today," she told reporters.
"The comeback from injury was so difficult, it means so much to me. There were so many doubters, and so much stuff coming from the sidelines that I wouldn't get there. So I had this tunnel vision about getting back. I always thought I would."
COMMENT:
THE BRITISH TENNIS PLAYER ANDY MURRAY MAKES HISTORY AFTER WINNING THE QUEENS FINAL AND BECAME FIRST BRITISH THAT WONS MORE THAN ONE TITLE ON QUEENS COMPETITION.
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