Saturday, July 31, 2010

ASTON VILLA v Crystal Palace: Selhurst Park saviour Stiliyan Petrov struggling to be fit for FA Cup replay

Aston Villa have a doubt over skipper Stiliyan Petrov for tomorrow night"s FA Cup replay against Crystal Palace.

The Bulgaria international, whose late goal at Selhurst Park earned Villa a replay, has picked up a virus and had to be sent home from training.

Manager Martin O"Neill has better news on the selection front from striker Gabriel Agbonlahor and central defender James Collins.

Stiliyan Petrov (right)

Virus: Stiliyan Petrov (right) was sent home from training due to illness

Agbonlahor was forced off with a calf problem during Villa"s 5-2 win against Burnley on Sunday but he has responded well to treatment and is fit.

Collins, who needed stitches in a head wound after a clash of heads against Burnley, is also available.

Provisional squad: Friedel, Cuellar, Warnock, Collins, Dunne, Luke Young, Downing, Milner, Petrov, Ashley Young, Heskey, Agbonlahor, Carew, Sidwell, Delfouneso, Davies, Delph, Beye, Guzan.

More...Spurs, Liverpool, Man City or Villa? The lowdown on the race for fourth placeO"Neill"s half-time "hairdryer" inspired Villa to Burnley blitz, admits DowningMartin O"Neill is the new Brian Clough, insists Burnley boss Brian LawsASTON VILLA FC NEWS FROM ACROSS THE WEB

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Portsmouth send ask is deserted by Premier League prior to even reaching FIFA

Portsmouth have had their request to be aloowed to sell players outside the transfer window rejected by the Premier League despite FIFA indicating they would consider an exemption to their rules.

The beleaguered South Coast club had appealed for a relaxation of the transfer regulations to try and ease the financial burden which is threatening to put the club out of business.

FIFA were contacted by both the Premier League and the Football Association to gauge their position. And although the issue was not rejected out of hand, The Premier League have decided not to allow Portsmouth any leeway.

Portsmouth

Dark clouds: Portsmouth are under pressure to find cash

Worries about protecting the integrity of the competition coupled with a hope that Portsmouth are close top finding a fifth owner of the season are the motivating factors behind the decision.

Portsmouth are due back in court to on March 1 to contest a winding up order brought by HM Customs & Revenue over an outstanding 12.1million bill.

The hope is that new owners will be in place by then to provide the necessary funds to stave off the prospect of Portsmouth becoming the first Premier League club to be placed into administration or even liquidated.

A South African consortium is understood to have moved ahead of investment company, Endeavour Plan, in the race to buy Portsmouth, who are saddled with a 60m debt, from Hong Kong businessman Balram Chainrai

Should Portsmouth go into administration then players could yet be sold outside the window in an effort to pay off creditors. Chainrai is owed around 17m while former owner Alexandre Gaydamak claims he is due over 30m.

Avram Grant

In the mire: Portsmouth manager Avram Grant

More...Don"t let Portsmouth sell outside transfer window! Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger"s message to Premier League Going for Gold! Relegation-fearing West Ham chief offers Pompey 10m lifelineBoateng desperate to quit Portsmouth after blasting "amateurish" medical carePORTSMOUTH FC NEWS FROM ACROSS THE WEB

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Id throw afar my award if it would move behind the lads who died says soldier

Deborah Haynes, Defence Editor & hair wig

Women barred from Cairo clubs as recoil stirs opposite the hijab

Women side by side in normal and difficult dress

Ashraf Khalil in Cairo & , : {}

Yasmine al-Mehairy did not even unequivocally wish to be there. She had been invited to a friends birthday celebration at an upmarket nightclub called 35, in the Four Seasons hotel. She was parked illegally but usually programmed to palm over a fragrance and outlay ten mins inside. But when the bouncer forked at her headscarf as the reason she could not enter, Ms al-Mehairy motionless to fight.

I finished up arguing with the man for longer than I would have stayed in the initial place if he only let me in, pronounced the 29-year-old IT professional, who in the future gave up and called her crony to encounter her at the doorway and accept her birthday flowers.

Egypts solid deposit towards sacrament has been well documented. But right afar there are signs of a backlash. In smart clubs and cafs opposite Cairo, the hair and neck-covering headband well known as the hijab is increasingly being shunned as unsuitable dress.

Several bars and restaurants where ethanol is served right afar radically anathema potential women from entering. The process is some-more open in a little places than others but seems to request to at slightest half a dozen Cairo venues.

Related LinksFrance goes from burkas to burgers in Muslim rowMuslim lady fighter breaks down barriers in the ring

They regularly give you the theres going to be ethanol reason, pronounced a Western-raised potential Arab lady who has lived in Cairo given 2006. In Egypt the often that they dont similar to the see of it. They wish to say a little sort of prestige, the woman, who did not wish her name to be published, told The Times.

Club and grill managers refused to criticism on the jot down about the ban, but multiform questioned because a righteous potential lady would even wish to attend venues that served alcohol. One physical education instructor of a Cairo club, however, pronounced that the restrictions were less about safeguarding the potential women from corrupted environments than about helmet the clubs core clients from carrying to see at potential women. It causes a lot of annoy and doesnt emanate the ambience I need to have money, the physical education instructor said. I can possibly have my regulars gentle or I have the alternative 1 per cent comfortable.

Ms al-Mehairy, who adopted the deceive when she was 19, concurred that she in all did not similar to going to bars or nightclubs. But if a organisation of friends plan to encounter in a bar or smart restaurant, she right afar calls forward to endorse the process on the hijab. I only dont wish to put myself in a on all sides to be incited afar at the door, she said.

The investiture of the new de facto hijab-free zones highlights a extraordinary insurgency to Egypts lean towards religion. A distinguished shred of the race feels dumbfounded and besieged by the trend, and is peaceful to accept and even welcome the kind of stairs that would prompt an evident taste legal case and cries of Islamophobia if they were attempted in the US or Europe.

Our attribute with sacrament has turn so schizophrenic and love-hate, pronounced Ethar al-Katatney, a immature potential publisher and unchanging writer to the Muslimah Media Watch website, that marks tellurian issues relating to Muslim women. Were essentially some-more judgmental to muhajabat [veiled women] than they would be in the West.

Ms al-Katatney, who began to wear the deceive when she was 13, pronounced that a masculine crony once told her that the last thing he longed for to see whilst carrying a drink was someones hijab. He told me that he wishes restaurants had hijabi and non-hijabi sections the same approach they have no-smoking sections. Egypts difficult attribute with category could fool around only as big a purpose in the suspicion. Im sure theres an component of category dynamics, one unchanging nightclub enthusiast said. Its a vestige of the old days when the hijab was deliberate low class.

Egypts westernised classes traditionally regarded such sincere loyalty as the range of the reduce and center classes. We wish to be similar to the West and the hijab is regarded as a throwback, Ms al-Katatney said. The people who go to these places are a sure shred of society. In this shred the hijab is deliberate tacky.

hair wig

Monday, July 26, 2010

Toyota extends US use debate

Alexandra Frean, US Business Correspondent & , : {}

Toyota, the uneasy Japanese car group, last night reliable that it had lengthened a use debate on a series of models sole in the US and was charity to reinstate leaking oil hoses on some-more than 900,000 vehicles. A mouthpiece for the association in the US reliable that it was adding 217,000 Avalon and Rav4 cross-over vehicles, to an progressing use campaign, initial voiced last year, relating to 716,200 Toyota and Lexus cars.

The association is still in the surrounded by of a fibre of reserve recalls of some-more than eight million vehicles worldwide over increase in speed and alternative problems that have been related to some-more than thirty deaths. It insisted that the use debate was not a product reserve recall. This is not a reserve issue, the spokeswomen said.

She combined that the association was mouth-watering influenced owners to take their cars to a Toyota play for a free deputy oil hose a procession receiving around an hour since it had detected that the rubber apportionment of the oil supply hose in sure models might reduce over time, causing oil to leak.

The debate will do small to revive open certainty in the company, that is disorder from the scale of the stream recalls as well as slow open fears that it might not have got to the bottom of the technical problems that have caused a little of the cars to accelerate out of control.

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It comes as comparison Toyota management team hope for to give justification on Tuesday prior to a US Senate review in to the companys recalls and the US Governments response, after dual hearings hold in Congress last week at that Toyota officials took a hammering from US lawmakers over their reserve record.

It additionally coincides with new total on car sales on Tuesday, that are approaching to show that Toyotas US sales fell by in between 10 and twenty-six per cent in February.

The use debate will be offering until Mar 31, 2013 and covers 2007-2010 indication year Camry, 2005-2009 Avalon, 2006-2009 Rav4, 2007-2008 Lexus ES 350 and 2007-2009 RX 350 vehicles.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Berlusconis feat in Mills justice box is usually a vale one

Richard Owen, Rome & , : {}

On the face of it, the preference by Italys top justice to throw out charges opposite David Mills for usurpation a cheat from Silvio Berlusconi is a delight for the embattled Prime Minister.

Time and again in his domestic career, Mr Berlusconi, 73, has been held in a mixed of crime cases that crop up to spell his severe threat and then, similar to Houdini, with one jump he is free, possibly clear on interest or since the box runs out of time underneath Italys government of limitations.

In the Mills case, the judges supposed the perspective that the crime the remuneration of $600,000 by Mr Berlusconi by one of his managers to Mr Mills after the latter had funded damning justification in crime trials opposite the Prime Minister was committed in 1999, not 2000 as the charge claimed.

Since temptation cases end after ten years, the 4 1/2-year prison judgment imposed on Mr Mills last year was annulled.

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Mr Berlusconis own hearing for giving the bribe, that restarted when a law giving him shield from charge was overturned last October, resumes in Milan tomorrow. That case, too, is right away expected to collapse.

If Mr Mills former confidant on offshore taxation supports to Mr Berlusconi (and disloyal father of Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister) cannot be locked up for usurpation the income since as well most time has elapsed, it would appear to follow that the same relates to the man who gave it to him.

Victory for Berlusconi, pronounced a ensign title in Il Giornale, the journal owned by Mr Berlusconis hermit Paolo, adding that Mr Mills had been most acquitted. RAI, the open broadcaster, additionally told viewers Mr Mills had been "acquitted".

Fabrizio Cicchitto, the head of Mr Berlusconis People of Liberty (PdL) celebration in the reduce residence of Parliament, pronounced the settlement was a oppressive better for severe magistrates plotting to move down the Prime Minister.

Mr Mills pronounced he was beholden over difference to my family and friends who knew I was innocent.

But the Supreme Court did not justify Mr Mills, nor did it contend he was innocent.

On the contrary, the judges reliable that a crime had been committed the remuneration and acceptance of a cheat that Mr Mills after used in a remortaging contract and usually ruled that since of the time that had gone by (and the delayed gait of Italian justice, that counterclaim lawyers mostly exploit) the law-breaker could not be punished.

No consternation Mr Berlusconi was reported to be usually half-satisified.

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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Hung council looms as Tory await crumbles Politics The Guardian

Guardian/ICM check graphic, twenty-two Feb 2010.

Guardian/ICM check graphic, twenty-two Feb 2010, display the Tory lead descending to usually 7 points. Photograph: Paddy Allen/guardian.co.uk

Support for David Cameron"s Conservative celebration has crumbled to the lowest point for scarcely dual years, according to the ultimate monthly Guardian/ICM poll, withdrawal Britain on march for a hung council at the entrance ubiquitous election.

The survey, display the Conservatives holding usually a seven-point lead, will come as a service to Gordon Brown as he one after an additional to deflect off potentially fatal claims over his formidable character, together with suggestions that he bullies staff.

The accusations – that flush in a book by the Observer"s domestic writer Andrew Rawnsley – sparked an additional day of raging domestic manoeuvring yesterday.

One of the Tory party"s infancy appropriate well known MPs, Ann Widdecombe, give up as a enthusiast of the National Bullying Helpline, the gift that on Sunday sparked a charge at Westminster when the founder, Christine Pratt, entered the domestic fray, observant she had perceived 4 complaints of bullying from No 10 staff.

Last night the gift was close to implosion as alternative congregation additionally resigned, observant Pratt had acted unethically. Among those who give up were the radio presenter Sarah Cawood and the workplace highlight consultant Cary Cooper. There were additionally reports that Tory councillor for Hillingdon Mary O"Connor resigned.

The helpline withdrew any idea that the complaints concerned Brown, and had to deflect off critique that it had close ties to the Conservative party.

Julian Glover and Michael White on an ICM perspective check display that a hung council could be the result of the ubiquitous choosing Link to this audio

The cupboard secretary, Sir Gus O"Donnell, additionally deserted calls for a open exploration and denied he had ever lifted concerns with Brown about intimidatory or bullying poise to No 10 staff.

In an talk in the Economist, Brown gave his initial approach reply given Rawnsley"s allegations were published. "The cupboard cabinet part of has finished it transparent that he"s had no inquiries, there"s been no reprimand, there"s been no in isolation summary to me ... (The) story is utterly wrong," Brown said.

The Tory hierarchy, though, will be dumbfounded at the party"s disadvantage to Labour attacks given the new year. With no some-more than 3 months to go until polling day, the Conservatives have depressed to 37%, down 3 points on last month"s Guardian/ICM check and down dual on an additional ICM check progressing this month.

The celebration has not depressed so low in an ICM check given the tail-end of the promissory note crisis, last descending to 37% in Feb 2008.

As not prolonged ago as last October, the Tories strike 45% in an ICM check and the celebration will be dumbfounded by this ultimate justification that the competition is tightening, that confirms the commentary of a little alternative new polls. Meanwhile, Labour support, at 30%, is eight points up on the comprehensive ICM low last May, and somewhat on top of the normal for the second piece of last year.

The antithesis has additionally lost belligerent on key process issues, together with the economy, and might be losing their debate opposite Labour"s supposed genocide tax.

Labour leads the Tories by eight points as the celebration with the infancy appropriate process on caring for the elderly. The dual parties are neck-and-neck on their capability to sort out the mercantile crisis, opposite a nine-point Tory lead when the subject was last asked in Aug 2009.

The mercantile anticipating tallies with Labour polling suggesting the Tories are not creation inroads with their process of highlighting the scale of the open necessity and the need to take evident movement to cut it. One Labour source said: "The genuine profitable domestic genuine estate in Britain right away is the optimism."

Labour additionally claims that the personal polling of Cameron shows he is seen as "too shrill, divisive and not vocalization for Britain any longer". Labour claims it is next in portraying Cameron as a man using a dissimulation strategy, held in between his branding and his beliefs.

Labour"s immobile check on all sides is not all great headlines for No 10 – the ICM check shows no progress for the celebration after Brown"s romantic and divulgence radio talk with Piers Morgan.

Research began last Friday and infancy was finished prior to the serialisation of Rawnsley"s book in the Observer, that might additionally have influenced Labour support. A fifth of responses were picked up on Sunday.

Nick Clegg"s hopes of a absolute place in a hung council are additionally increased by the poll, that puts the Liberal Democrats on 20%, unvaried on the infancy new ICM and down one point on last month"s Guardian poll.

All this suggests Labour and the Lib Dems are holding steady, whilst the Tories are losing belligerent to not as big parties. Nationalists are on 5%, Ukip and the Greens on 3% each and the BNP on 2%.

Estimates of what these shares would meant for the parties on polling day vary, but a 7% lead is at the margins of what the Tories think they need to win an altogether majority.

Brown will be anticipating that the debate over his impression will blow out prolonged prior to the tangible choosing debate starts in earnest.

ICM Research interviewed a pointless representation of 1,004 adults by write on 19-21 Feb 2010. Interviews were conducted opposite the nation and the formula have been weighted to the form of all adults. ICM is a part of of the British Polling Council and abides by the rules