Posts tagged Saturday

Whitney Houston fans to follow funeral on Internet (AP)

By on February 16, 2012

NEW YORK ? They won’t be there in person, but singer Whitney Houston’s millions of fans worldwide will be able to share in her homecoming service Saturday as they watch her private funeral on the Internet.

It will provide a much-needed connection for fans who have lacked a formal place to eulogize Houston, one of the world’s best-selling artists who died in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Saturday at the age of 48.

Some have gathered and placed flowers outside the Newark, N.J., church where the funeral will be held by invitation-only at the request of Houston’s family, who wish to maintain some privacy. Others have stopped by the funeral home. But many have longed to share more fully in commemorating the superstar’s life, and have shown their grief in one of the few ways available to them ? by buying her music.

Houston’s funeral will be at New Hope Baptist Church, where she sang as a child. Her eulogy will be given by gospel singer Marvin Winans, a Grammy Award winner and longtime family friend. Afterward, Houston will be buried in Fair View Cemetery in Westfield, N.J., according to her death certificate. Her father, John Russell Houston Jr., was buried there in 2003.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, investigators for the coroner’s office have subpoenaed records from the singer’s doctors and pharmacies who dispensed medication found in the hotel room where she died.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said such inquiries are routine in virtually all death investigations.

Investigators have not said what medications they have recovered from Houston’s room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The singer was found underwater in a bathtub by a member of her staff hours before she planned to attend a chic pre-Grammy gala. Police have said there were no signs of foul play and Winter said there were no signs of trauma on her body when an autopsy was conducted on Sunday.

It will be weeks before toxicology results reveal the medications and quantities, if any, that were in Houston’s system when she died. The Grammy winner’s history of substance abuse has added to the speculation that her death may have been caused by prescription drugs.

In a 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Houston talked about how she was deeply shaken by the death of singer Michael Jackson. Jackson died at age 51 that year from an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.

Houston recalled taping a show celebrating Jackson’s 30th anniversary celebration in 2001. Both stars were strikingly thin.

“I was getting scared,” she told Winfrey. “I was looking at myself going, `No, I don’t want this to be like this. This can’t happen. Not both of us.’”

Like Jackson, Houston was on the verge of a career comeback before her death on Feb. 11. And, like Jackson, sales of her recordings have soared since her passing as fans try to recapture her glory days in the 1980s and 1990s. Old recordings have been propelled to the top of sales charts on iTunes and Amazon.com.

Houston’s publicist, Kristen Foster, announced Wednesday that The Associated Press will be allowed a camera at Saturday’s funeral in Newark. The AP will stream the service on http://livestream.com/aplive. The event also will be available to broadcasters via satellite.

____

Associated Press entertainment writer Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120216/ap_en_ot/us_whitney_houston

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Kuyt to the rescue

By on January 30, 2012

Dirk Kuyt /

updated 5:58 p.m. ET Jan. 28, 2012

LONDON – Liverpool reached the fifth round of the FA Cup on Saturday at the expense of its fiercest rival, a last-gasp 2-1 victory over Manchester United leaving the famous competition without the English Premier League’s top two teams.

While Chelsea progressed with a 1-0 win at Queens Park Rangers thanks to Juan Mata’s second-half penalty, Netherlands forward Dirk Kuyt scored the winner for Liverpool in the 88th minute at Anfield.

United earlier dumped out neighbor Manchester City ? the Premier League leader and defending FA Cup champion ? in the fourth round, leaving the world’s oldest club knockout competition wide open this year.

Second-tier Brighton beat Premier League Newcastle 1-0 at Amex Stadium in another Cup match that Magpies defender Mike Williamson will want to forget.

Williamson deflected in Will Buckley’s close-range effort for the only goal 14 minutes from time. The defender also scored an own goal last season when Newcastle lost to then League Two side Stevenage in the third round of the competition.

Bolton beat Swansea 2-1 and Norwich won by the same scoreline at West Bromwich Albion in the other all-Premier League matchups, while Stoke ? which lost the 2011 final to Man City ? also progressed with a 2-0 win at Derby.

Arsenal hosts Aston Villa on Sunday.

Liverpool and United met for the first time since the unsavory race row between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra erupted in a Premier League match between them in October.

Evra, United’s captain on Saturday, was booed throughout while Suarez watched from the stands as he served the seventh of his eight-game ban for repeatedly racially abusing the France defender.

The match passed without trouble, however, with United manager Alex Ferguson saying: “The players showed great respect to each other ? there wasn’t a bad tackle in the game.”

Denmark center back Daniel Agger’s opener for Liverpool in the 21st minute was canceled out by United’s Park Ji-sung six minutes before the break in a first half edged by the visitors, despite being without a raft of key players including the injured Wayne Rooney.

Kuyt settled the match when he ran to a flick-on by Andy Carroll and beat United goalkeeper David de Gea at the near post.

___

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Three days after Barcelona ended its Copa del Rey title defense, Real Madrid came from behind to beat last-place Zaragoza 3-1 on Saturday as its campaign rolled on to break its fierce rival’s hold on the Spanish league title.

Three days after Barcelona ended Real Madrid’s Copa del Rey title defense, the Spanish champions’ own hopes of a fourth successive league dimmed after a 0-0 draw at Villarreal on Saturday.

Barcelona’s slip let Madrid move seven points clear of its fierce rival just past the season’s midway point through its earlier 3-1 comeback win over last-place Zaragoza.

Lionel Messi missed with a chip shot early, and Cesc Fabregas hit the crossbar late in Barcelona’s best scoring chances.

Zaragoza, which upset Madrid at home late last season, started well with Angel Lafita scoring an 11th-minute opener.

But Kaka leveled for Madrid in the 32nd, and Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut Oezil added two more shortly after halftime at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Ronaldo has scored in each of Madrid’s last four games, and his 24 league goals are best in Spain, two ahead of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, who was playing later Saturday against Villarreal.

Madrid has won nine of 10 league home games this season, with its only home loss to Barcelona in December.

“Every game is tough. Zaragoza is a good team and they showed it with a quick goal,” Madrid midfielder Esteban Granero said. “But we gave it our all and were able to turn it around.”

After his team’s strong performance in its closely fought elimination by Barcelona on Wednesday, Madrid coach Jose Mourinho opted again for an attack-minded starting 11 with rarely used Granero and Kaka in midfield behind Oezil and scoring pair Karim Benzema and Ronaldo.

Fernando Llorente scored a hat trick to give Athletic Bilbao a 3-2 win at Rayo Vallecano.

After Miguel “Michu” Perez’s opener for Rayo, Llorente headed in a free kick to level in the 16th minute, and added a second when he controlled a pass with his chest, spun and fired from the edge of the area in the 23rd.

Alejandro Arribas drew Rayo even moments later, but Llorente headed home Gaizka Toquero’s cross for the 68th-minute winner and his 11th league goal of the season.

Bilbao, which plays third-tier Mirandes in the Copa del Rey semifinals this week, moved into sixth place.

Also, Espanyol edged 10-man Mallorca 1-0 to climb level on points with fourth-place Levante.

___

BERLIN (AP) ? Bayern Munich beat Wolfsburg 2-0 to remain top of the Bundesliga on goal difference, just ahead of Borussia Dortmund and Schalke.

All three are tied at 40 points, but Bayern will be looking nervously over its shoulder after Dortmund brushed Hoffenheim aside 3-1 and then Schalke came from behind to win 4-1 in Cologne.

American Fabian Johnson scored his second goal of the season for Hoffenheim, and his first in the Bundesliga since Dec. 5, 2009. His other goal this season was in the German Cup last July 31.

Dortmund was already 3-0 up at home through two goals from Shinji Kagawa and another from Kevin Grosskreutz, before league scoring leader Mario Gomez’s 60th-minute strike allowed Bayern a sigh of relief.

Dutch winger Arjen Robben sealed the points in an edgy win for Bayern with a goal in injury time.

“We had a lot of chances and for me this win is fully deserved,” Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes said. “The win gives us security so we can continue like this in the coming weeks.”

Werder Bremen drew 1-1 with Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburger SV won 2-1 at Hertha Berlin, and Augsburg and Kaiserslautern played out a 2-2 draw in a relegation battle.

___

MILAN (AP) ? Juventus’ charge towards the Serie A title gathered pace with a 2-1 win over third-place Udinese in falling snow on Saturday.

Alessandro Matri scored either side of Antonio Floro Flores’ equalizer to help unbeaten leader Juventus move four points clear of second-placed AC Milan, which faces Cagliari on Sunday.

Udinese was two points further back and could be caught by Inter Milan, which visits Lecce on Sunday.

“I was worried a lot about this game because Udinese is a team which plays very interesting football and has a lot of talented players who make up a great team,” Juve coach Antonio Conte said.

“Towards the end we were obviously tired after the Italian Cup, but we controlled the game well and got an important win. However, today we lost too many balls in midfield and so gave Udinese too much space to counterattack.”

Catania was held to 1-1, a result which did neither team any favors in the standings.

Gonzalo Bergessio gave Catania a deserved lead shortly after the half-hour mark, but Francesco Modesto leveled 10 minutes later.

The tie left Parma nine points above the relegation zone before the rest of the weekend’s fixtures. Catania, which has won only one of its past seven games, was tied with Cagliari a point further back.

___

PARIS (AP) ? Big-spending Paris Saint-Germain needed a scrappy 1-0 win over Brest to keep a three-point lead over Montpellier at the top of the French league.

PSG defender Milan Bisevac flicked home a corner from Christophe Jallet in the sixth minute.

Brest lost its first home match this season while PSG has now won all four games under coach Carlo Ancelotti, who replaced Antoine Kombouare last month.

Also Saturday, it was: Nice 0, Montpellier 1; Lyon 3, Dijon 1; Toulouse 1, Caen 0; Lorient 1, Sochaux 1; and Auxerre 1, Nancy 3.

Lille hosts Saint-Etienne later Saturday.

___

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Olympiakos closed within two points of Greek league leader Panathinaikos by defeating stubborn visitor Ergotelis 3-0.

Ergotelis ended the game with nine players, as Mario Hieblinger and Andreas Bouhalakis were shown second yellow cards for rough challenges in the 56th and 60th minutes, respectively.

Also, OFI beat Xanthi 1-0 and Panionios defeated Kerkyra 2-0.

Panathinaikos travels to last-place Drama on Sunday.

___

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) ? Rangers kept the pressure on Scottish Premier League leader Celtic with a 4-0 thrashing of 10-man Hibernian.

Captain Steven Davis scored two goals.

Celtic, whose lead was trimmed to one point, was not in league action this weekend. Instead, Neil Lennon’s team will face Falkirk in the semifinal of the Scottish League Cup on Sunday.

Motherwell tightened its grip on third place, six points ahead of Hearts, by beating St. Johnstone 3-2.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Kuyt to the rescue

??Euro roundup: Liverpool reaches the 5th round of the FA Cup, beating rival Manchester United 2-1.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46175745/ns/sports-soccer/

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Iran calls for calm in crisis with Britain (Reuters)

By on December 6, 2011

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iran called on the West to avoid a deepening diplomatic crisis following the storming of the British embassy in Tehran, saying it was an issue between Tehran and London alone, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

Britain closed its embassy after Tuesday’s incursion by hardline youths and expelled all Iranian diplomats from London. The fallout for Tehran spread when several other countries recalled their envoys, including France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

France was also bringing some of its diplomats and their families home from Tehran to ensure their safety, a French foreign ministry spokesman said on Saturday. The move was temporary.

“The British government is trying to extend to other European countries the problem between the two of us,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was reported as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.

“But of course we have told European countries not to subject their ties with us to the kind of problems that existed between Iran and Britain.”

Western nations on Thursday significantly tightened sanctions against Iran, with the European Union expanding an Iranian blacklist and the U.S. Senate passing a measure that could severely disrupt Iran’s oil income.

Iranian diplomats expelled from London arrived home on Saturday to supporters bearing flowers and chanting “Death to England.”

“Spy embassy closed for good,” read one of the many placards carried by the crowd of some 100 men and women, at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, most of whom appeared to be members of the hardline Basij militia.

With swift condemnation from around the world, the embassy storming risks further isolating Iran, which is already under several rounds of sanctions.

The incident followed accusations from Washington of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador and a report from the U.N. nuclear watchdog suggesting Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons.

The United States and Israel have not ruled out military strikes if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear dispute. Some Israeli leaders have again started to contemplate the idea of military action to prevent Tehran from making bombs.

POLITICAL RIFT

Mixed signals from Tehran over the attack have drawn attention to the deepening political rift within the Iranian leadership, a split created after Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential vote.

Iran’s foreign ministry immediately apologized for the storming of the embassy, but some hardline rivals of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised it, attributing it to a spontaneous outburst by hardline students in reaction to Britain’s “historically hostile Iran policy.”

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on state matters, and Ahmadinejad have remained silent, a sign of the unease within the clerical establishment over the crisis.

But in remarks reported on Saturday, Ahmadinejad said Iran would not yield to pressures.

“We will stick to our revolution’s principles and values with all our power even if the entire world rise up against us,” he told a group of clerics, his official website President.ir reported.

Hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami, one of four Tehran Friday prayer leaders appointed by Khamenei, condemned the embassy storming.

“I say this explicitly, that I am opposed to attacks on and occupations of foreign embassies in the Islamic Republic,” the students news agency ISNA on Saturday quoted Khatami as saying.

“The attack by the students will lead to a feeling of insecurity among foreign diplomats in Iran,” he said.

The protesters stormed two British diplomatic compounds, smashing windows, setting fire to a car and burning the British flag in protest against new sanctions imposed by London.

Analysts say the closure of the embassies, by cutting off the channel of communication, will complicate finding a diplomatic solution to the nuclear dispute.

“The end of talks with major powers means confrontation and military strikes against Iran. This scenario scares the Iranian regime,” said one analyst, who asked not to be named.

Analysts say Iranian authorities are concerned about a military strike against their nuclear facilities as well as a revival of anti-government street protests that followed the 2009 vote, which the opposition says was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad’s re-election.

“Sanctions are hurting the people and might force them to take to streets to vent their anger over the economy,” said analyst Hamid Farahvashi.

“Some Iranian hawks favor a military strike that will reinforce their strength … But wiser rulers want to preserve the system through an easing of the tension.”

(Additional reporting by Sanam Shantyaei, Hashem Kalantari and Robin Pomeroy; Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Rosalind Russell and Alessandra Rizzo)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111203/wl_nm/us_iran_britain

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Flood barriers will determine Thai capital’s fate

By on October 17, 2011

A woman sits on sandbags made for flood barriers Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. Fear and confusion gripped Bangkok as residents grappled with mixed messages over whether Thailand’s worst floods in decades would overwhelm the intricate defenses of the low-lying metropolis of 9 million people. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

A woman sits on sandbags made for flood barriers Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. Fear and confusion gripped Bangkok as residents grappled with mixed messages over whether Thailand’s worst floods in decades would overwhelm the intricate defenses of the low-lying metropolis of 9 million people. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

Thai villagers wade through floodwaters in Pak Kred district in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Flooding that has devastated great areas of northern and central Thailand and taken nearly 300 lives since July is threatening to seep into the capital, though officials say they can keep it out of the central part of the city. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai villagers with their belongings wade through floodwaters in Pak Kred district in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Flooding that has devastated great areas of northern and central Thailand and taken nearly 300 lives since July is threatening to seep into the capital, though officials say they can keep it out of the central part of the city. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A Thai villager wades through floodwaters in Pak Kred district in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Flooding that has devastated great areas of northern and central Thailand and taken nearly 300 lives since July is threatening to seep into the capital, though officials say they can keep it out of the central part of the city. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A woman stops to read a notice pasted on a closed-down gate of an underground train station Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. Fear and confusion gripped Bangkok as residents grappled with mixed messages over whether Thailand’s worst floods in decades would overwhelm the intricate defenses of the low-lying metropolis of 9 million people. Underground train operators closed some gates in fear of the floods. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

RANGSIT, Thailand (AP) ? Beside a wall of white sandbags that has become a front line in Thailand’s battle to prevent an epic season of monsoon floods from reaching Bangkok, needlefish swim through knee-high water inside Sawat Taengon’s home.

On one side, a cloudy brown river pours through a canal diverting water around the Thai capital, just to the south. On the other side, homes just like his are unscathed. Whether floodwaters breach fortified barriers like these this weekend will decide whether Bangkok will be swamped or spared.

As of late Saturday at least, the alarmed metropolis of glass-walled condominiums and gilded Buddhist temples remained unscathed, and authorities were confident it would narrowly escape disaster.

“We just hope it doesn’t go higher,” said Sawat, a 38-year-old construction worker whose home had the misfortune of being inside the vast sandbag wall, which runs at least 2.5 miles (four kilometers) along a canal in Rangsit, just north of Bangkok’s city limits.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government says most of Bangkok, which lies about six feet (two meters) above sea level, sits safely behind an elaborate system of flood walls, canals, dikes and seven underground drainage tunnels that were completed over the last year.

The latest floods are posing the biggest test those defenses have ever faced.

Adisak Kantee, deputy director of Bangkok’s drainage department, reported encouraging signs Saturday. Runoff from the north had decreased slightly and high tides that could have impeded critical water flows to the Gulf of Thailand have not been severe as expected, he told The Associated Press.

Water levels along the main Chao Phraya River and key canals to the north in places like Rangsit are still manageable, he said. But he said there could be trouble if any critical barriers break.

On a bridge above a flooded canal in Rangsit, Army Col. Wirat Nakjoo echoed the need to be vigilant.

“The worst is not over,” he said. “The dams are at near full capacity and there’s still a lot of water that needs to be released.”

Government workers there were taking no chances, stacking new sandbags atop a canal-side wall about 4.5 feet high (1.4 meters high).

The government says the floods, which have killed 297 people, are the worst to hit the Southeast Asian kingdom in half a century. In a radio address Saturday, Yingluck called them “the worst in Thai history.”

Monsoon deluges that have pounded Thailand since late July have affected 8 million people and swept across two-thirds of the country, drowning agricultural land and swallowing low-lying villages along the way. More than 200 major highways and roads are impassable, and the main rail lines to the north have been shut down. Authorities says property damage and losses could reach $3 billion dollars.

Thailand’s lucrative tourist destinations ? beaches and islands like Koh Samui, Krabi and Phuket ? have not been affected, though, and its international airports remain open.

In the last few days, government officials have voiced increasing confidence the capital would survive without major damage, but those assurances have failed to stop Bangkokians from raiding supermarket shelves to stock up on bottled water, dried noodles, flashlight batteries and candles.

Subway gates have been sealed with steel barriers. Worried car owners are cramming vehicles into high-rise parking spaces at the city’s malls and airports. Some international hotels and street-side shops have barricaded their entranceways with sandbags ? not knowing where or when or even if flooding will occur.

But life in Bangkok remains normal, and the calm contrasts sharply with heavily flooded neighboring provinces, including Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani, where Rangsit is located. Television stations broadcasting images of swamped towns ? showing waterlogged residents in canoes and braving chest-high water ? have inadvertently fueled fears of imminent doom in the capital.

Earlier Saturday, a 10-man team of U.S. Marines arrived on a survey mission to determine how Washington can offer help, U.S. Embassy spokesman Walter M. Braunohler said. The Marines were traveling aboard an American military cargo jet full of bottled water and sandbags needed to reinforce flood barriers.

In Rangsit, Sawat said floods occur nearly every year, though never this bad. The water in the canal beside his home began rising a month ago, he said, and the sandbags have risen along with it.

Last week, his family began shifting their valuables to higher ground after flood waters seeped in. Now, his wife and four children move through their home atop makeshift wooden planks that allow them to avoid the water lapping below.

“It’s going to get higher,” he said. “We need to be prepared.”

___

Associated Press writers Grant Peck and Chris Blake contributed to this report from Bangkok.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-15-AS-Thailand-Floods/id-3f62d3898f1d4bd0a73a62b5ef3d1a7f

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