Oct 23
A Sunday Times report of alleged vote-selling will be dealt with by the world body?€™s ethics committee, says U.S. official Chuck Blazer.
More here: FIFA world Cup vote unlikely to be delayed, says official
Oct 23
Olympics official says IOC has ‘moral high ground’ in case against LaShawn Merritt
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A senior Olympic official says the IOC holds the “moral high ground” in the doping case involving American runner LaShawn Merritt.
More here: Olympics official says IOC has ‘moral high ground’ in case against LaShawn Merritt
Oct 09
LONDON: Fifa’s top medical official says football at the highest level is being disfigured by “criminality” and “brutality” on the pitch.
Visit link: Football disfigured with brutal tackles
Jul 27
LONDON : Britain could cut funding for half its sports at the London 2012 Olympics if the government orders another budget tightening, an official warned Tuesday, two years before the starting gun is fired.
Go here to see the original: Olympics: Britain may cut funding for sports at 2012 Olympics
Jul 22
It’s almost that time of year for the annual battle between soccer videogame megaseries Pro Evolution Soccer and EA Sports FIFA. Here is a first good look at Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (PES 2011) courtesy of an official Konami trailer …
Visit link: Video: Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) 2011 Trailer « FOOTBALL FASHION.ORG
Jun 23
Shakira Waka Waka Official Song of the Fifa World Cup 2010 Music Video is the favorite song of this month for the Garda Lake fans : www.gardalake.com – Shakira is simply fantastic ! Shakira Official Channel www.youtube.com
View post: Shakira – WAKA WAKA – Official Song World Cup 2010 – HD MUSIC VIDEO
Jun 13
An Uruguayan football association official has been robbed of money from a safe in his hotel room in Cape Town, and a pair of New Zealand television journalists had their equipment stolen from their hotel in Rustenburg. The robbery involving the Uruguayan occurred Friday morning at the Vineyard hotel, several hours before Uruguay’s match with France.
Jun 09
At 4.00pm on June 01 2010 Fabio Capello announced the final England squad which will be on the plane to South Africa. Is this the squad that can win the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa? Subscribe to the Official England channel here on YouTube for all the latest news from the England camp.
See more here: England 2010 Football World Cup Squad – The Final 23
Jun 09
The official theme of the South African World Cup 2010
See the original post: FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 Official Theme Song
Jun 09
The World Cup’s official message is this: football is a vehicle of harmony, uniting all nations in peace under the banner of sport. What if the truth were not so pretty? What if, instead of healing national wounds and bringing people …
See original here: Fever pitch: Football's just a game… isn't it? | www.bullfax.com
Jun 09
The World Cup’s official message is this: football is a vehicle of harmony, uniting all nations in peace under the banner of sport.
See more here: Fever pitch: Football’s just a game… isn’t it?
Feb 24
Plants cool 3 million square feet of rooftops throughout the city. Wind, hydropower and biofuels provide one-fifth of its energy. And last year, the mayor announced one of the country’s most ambitious plans to slash greenhouse-gas emissions.
So when Chicago promises to host the greenest Summer Olympics ever if it’s awarded the 2016 games, organizers say it’s not a gimmick. It’s an extension of efforts that have been transforming this former Rust Belt city for years.
“We’ve got a real opportunity to take the best aspects of our city, the parks, the lakefront and the environmentalism and bring a real asset to the table,” Chicago 2016 spokesman Patrick Sandusky said. “It’s certainly one of the great strengths of the city of Chicago that we have to offer.”
In Chicago’s official Olympic bid book, released earlier this month, organizers tout a low-carbon “blue-green” event, with most venues along Lake Michigan, which is lined with parks, and a focus on environmentalism.
Organizers say vehicles provided by the games would run on low-carbon fuels or electricity and event sites would be powered by renewable energy. Storm water would be collected for reuse; the venues would use recyclable or reusable products. And sites would adhere to green building standards and coexist with natural habitat.
more at: usatoday.com
Feb 18
Asian countries will unfortunately support Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, Chinese State Sports General Administration Director Liu Peng told Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone on Monday, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry. In response to Nakasone’s request to support the bid, China’s state sports director said Japan is capable of hosting a successful Olympic Games.
Since Japan has several Human rights issues still open it should put efforts on that before having international events. Japan is still not a foreign-friendly country and foreigners are viewed with suspicion.
Liu was also quoted as saying that he felt that the Japanese government and people are determined to host the Olympics, after seeing the sites that would be used for the event. The Chinese official expressed the hope of promoting sports exchanges with Japan.
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Jan 14
Sharing the pride… Canada Post delivers its Vancouver 2010 Winter Games stamps
information 2 Comments »In just over a year, athletes from more than 80 countries will come together to showcase their skills, learn from their peers and claim their sport’s ultimate bragging rights. As Canada prepares to welcome the world, Canada Post invites all Canadians to share the pride.
Canada Post, an Official Supplier for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, today unveiled their starting Olympic and Paralympic stamp line-up. The 10 stamps are part of a three-year program that, upon its completion, will be among our country’s most significant philatelic milestones. In 2010, Canada Post plans to issue additional stamp designs honouring the Games.
For the first time in Canada’s postage stamp history, the country’s definitive stamp roster – almost a billion stamps – will focus on one theme. “As these stamps find their way across this country, to the United States and around the world, people will know that Canada is the very proud host of the 2010 Winter Games,” says Moya Greene, President and CEO of Canada Post. “As a company so closely connected to the daily lives of all Canadians, we’re thrilled to bring this level of awareness to the Games and we are honoured to share the pride in delivering the 2010 Winter Games with all of Canada and our employees.”
The Honourable Rob Merrifield, Minister of State (Transport) and Member of Parliament for Yellowhead (AB), participated in the unveiling, noting the stamps convey the excitement and honour we feel to be hosting this world-class event for only the second time in its history. “With their vibrant designs, Canada Post’s 2010 Winter Games stamps capture the values of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, as well as the people, places and character of the host nation-our beloved Canada. I thank Canada Post for showing their Olympic spirit and support for our athletes with these wonderful stamps.”
Jan 13
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli ground troops battled Palestinian militants in the streets of a densely populated Gaza City neighborhood early Tuesday, destroying dozens of homes and sending terrified residents running for cover as gunfire and explosions echoed in the distance.
Israel’s push into Tel Hawwa neighborhood was the farthest it has moved into Gaza City during its 18-day offensive against Hamas militants, and brought Israel’s ground forces within a mile of the crowded city center. Palestinian hospital officials say more than 900 Palestinians, half of them civilians, have been killed.
Israel launched the offensive on Dec. 27 to end years of Palestinian rocket attacks on its southern towns, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has vowed to press forward with an “iron fist,” despite growing international calls for an end to the fighting. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was headed to the region Tuesday to press for a cease-fire.
Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli forces moved overnight about 300 yards into Tel Hawwa, a neighborhood of high-rise buildings on the southeastern edge of Gaza City. Palestinian medical officials reported at least 16 people killed in fighting, though the Israeli army suggested the number could be much higher.
One resident, Khader Mussa, said he fled his house while waving a white flag as the Israeli forces advanced. He spent the night huddling in the basement of a relative with 25 other people, including his pregnant wife and his parents.
“Thank God we survived this time and got out alive from here. But we don’t know how long we’ll be safe in my brother’s home,” Mussa, 35, told The Associated Press by telephone.
Several buildings were on fire, witnesses said, including a lumberyard. Sounds of the battle could be heard clearly around the city of 400,000 as the Israeli forces, backed by artillery and attack helicopters, moved into neighborhoods east and south of Gaza City. Israeli gunboats shelled the coast from the west.
The Israeli military said it carried out some 60 airstrikes overnight, hitting groups of Hamas militants holed up in a hotel, a house and a mosque. It said it also struck 15 squads of gunmen, rocket launching sites and 15 smuggling tunnels along the Egyptian border.
Jan 09
The UN Security Council has passed a resolution urging an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with the US alone abstaining.
The UK-drafted resolution also calls for a full Israeli withdrawal, unimpeded humanitarian access and intense diplomatic efforts for peace.
After 13 days of war, an estimated 770 Palestinians and 14 Israelis are dead.
Israeli bombing killed at least six Palestinians overnight, medics and Hamas officials say.
In a report which could not be verified independently, Hamas said a bomb had flattened a five-storey apartment block in northern Gaza.
Israeli warplanes made 30 new air strikes after dark.
The UN’s relief agency halted aid operations in Gaza on Thursday after one person was killed and two hurt when a fork-lift truck on a UN aid mission came under Israeli tank fire at Gaza’s Erez crossing.
US waits
It is the first time the Security Council has acted since the Israeli offensive in Gaza began on 27 December.
Explaining America’s abstention, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the resolution was a step forward but her government wanted to see the outcome of mediation efforts.
“The United States thought it important to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation efforts, in order to see what this resolution might have been supporting and that is why we chose to abstain,” she said.
Jan 08
Israeli air attacks on the Gaza Strip has resumed after a three-hour truce to allow in humanitarian aid, with border tunnels apparently the main target.
Israeli planes leafleted southern Gaza by day, warning of imminent attacks, and the sounds of war could be heard from the border by nightfall.
Nearly 700 Palestinian and 11 Israeli lives are said to have been lost since the offensive began 12 days ago.
Peace efforts move to Cairo shortly, with an Israeli envoy due in the city.
But Israel is prepared to go even deeper into the Gaza Strip in the coming hours, BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen reports from the Israeli border near Rafah.
Our editor could hear the clatter of Israeli helicopters and the report of at least one explosion from inside southern Gaza late on Wednesday night.
“Because Hamas uses your houses to hide and smuggle military weapons, the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] will attack the area,” read leaflets released earlier by the thousand over the Rafah area by Israeli planes.
Unconfirmed reports speak of a tank advance with helicopter support towards Khan Younis, also in the south, shortly after midnight.
Truce options
Israeli security sources have confirmed that senior Israeli defence official Amos Gilad will travel to Cairo on Thursday to discuss ceasefire options.
A Hamas delegation is expected in Cairo at some stage for parallel “technical” talks, Egyptian diplomats said.
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is expected in the Egyptian capital on Friday.
Jan 07
At least 40 people were killed and 55 injured when Israeli artillery shells landed outside a United Nations-run school in Gaza, UN officials have said.
A number of children were among those who died when the al-Fakhura school in the Jabaliya refugee camp was hit, doctors at nearby hospitals said.
Israel said its soldiers had come under fire from militants inside the school.
Earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned of a “full-blown humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.
Speaking on the 11th day of the Israeli assault, a senior ICRC official, Pierre Kraehenbuhl, said life in Gaza had become intolerable.
Palestinian health ministry officials say 595 people have been killed since the attacks began, 195 of them children. Mr Kraehenbuhl said much more needed to be done to protect civilians.
The UN Security Council is set to resume debate on a ceasefire call in New York, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, several Arab foreign ministers, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice among those attending.
At least 125 Palestinians and five Israeli soldiers were killed on Tuesday.
One soldier was killed in an exchange of fire with militants in Gaza City, while four others were killed by shellfire from their own tanks earlier in the day, Israeli military officials said.
Israel says its offensive is stopping militants firing rockets, but at least five hit southern Israel on Tuesday, with one reaching the town of Gedera, about 40km (25 miles) from Gaza, and injuring a baby.
Four Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket fire from the Gaza Strip since the offensive began.
In other developments:
* Israeli forces push further south in the Gaza Strip and clash with militants near Gaza City
* Skirmishes are reported on the edges of the Deir al-Balah and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza
* Witnesses say Israeli tanks and soldiers are advancing on the southern town of Khan Younis
* Venezuela orders the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador in protest at the offensive and its “flagrant violations of international law”
Many claims cannot be verified. Israel is refusing to let international journalists into Gaza, despite a Supreme Court ruling to allow a limited number of reporters to enter the territory.
‘Mortar fire’
The UN aid agency in Gaza, Unrwa, said three artillery shells had landed close to the al-Fakhura school on Tuesday afternoon, spraying shrapnel on people both inside and outside the building.
About 350 people had sought refuge at the school in an effort to escape the fighting between Israeli soldiers and militants on the outskirts of the Jabaliya refugee camp, to the east of Gaza City.
Television footage showed bodies scattered on the ground amid pools of blood.
The UN officials said they regularly provided the Israeli military with exact co-ordinates of their facilities, and that the school was in a built-up area.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply dismayed” that despite these efforts, three UN-run schools had been hit by nearby Israeli strikes.
The Israeli military said that, according to initial checks, its soldiers had come under mortar fire from militants inside the al-Fakhura school.
“The force responded with mortars at the source of fire,” it said in a statement. “Hamas cynically uses civilians as human shields.”
It later reported that two well-known members of a Hamas rocket-launching cell had been among those killed at the school, naming them as Imad and Hassan Abu Askar.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the incident was a “very extreme example of how Hamas operates”.
“If you take over – I presume with guns – a UN facility. If you hold the people there as hostages, you shoot out of that facility at Israeli soldiers in the neighbourhood, then you receive incoming fire – I think that’s a war crime under international law,” he told the BBC.
A Hamas spokesman, Fauzi Barhoun, said allegations that fighters had used the school to attack Israeli forces were “baseless”.
“There was no fire of any kind from the school,” he told the BBC.
Two unnamed residents who spoke to an Associated Press reporter by phone said a group of militants had been firing mortar shells from near the school.
Earlier in the day, at least three Palestinians were killed when another school was hit in the Shati camp, UN officials said.
Ten people were also injured at a UN health centre in the Bureij refugee camp.
Maxwell Gaylard, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for the Palestinian territories, described the incidents as tragic and demanded an independent investigation.
The director of operations for Unrwa, John Ging, told the BBC that conditions in Gaza were “horrific” and that nowhere was safe for civilians there.
Mr Ging said international leaders had a responsibility to act to protect civilians, some 14,000 of whom are sheltering in UN buildings.
‘Immediate ceasefire’
Diplomatic efforts to try to end the violence are gathering pace.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had asked his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, to help convince Hamas to co-operate with efforts to end the Israeli offensive. Syria is regarded as a main backer of Hamas.
Asked about the deaths at the UN school in Gaza, Mr Sarkozy said: “It reinforces my determination for all this to stop as quickly as possible.”
He later held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh, who offered to hold talks with Israel and the Palestinians on border security without delay.
US state department spokesman Sean McCormack said the US would like to see “an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.
US President-elect Barack Obama, meanwhile, broke his silence about the conflict, telling reporters that “the loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern for me”.
However, he also reiterated his principle that only President George W Bush would speak for US foreign policy at this time.
The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan in New York says the contours of an agreement are taking shape – international monitors along the Egypt-Gaza border to stop Hamas smuggling weapons and firing rockets at Israel, and the creation of a humanitarian corridor in southern Gaza to ensure that aid reaches the Palestinians.
The question now is whether Hamas will accept such a deal and if a call for a ceasefire will be heeded by Israel, our correspondent says.
Hamas has said that Israeli attacks on Gaza must stop and the crossings into the territory, which Israel controls, must be fully opened, before it agrees to a ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Miniser Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday that the military campaign in Gaza would continue until Israel had completely wiped out Hamas’s ability to fire rockets into Israel.
source: bbc.co.uk
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