kueytoc

WAH !...sooo lucky ah. Carling Cup - Arsenal stroll into semi-finals Tue, 30 Nov 22:03:00 2010 Arsenal moved into the semi-finals of the Carling Cup with a 2-0 victory over Wigan at a freezing Emirates Stadium. The Gunners missed several good chances before they took the lead on the stroke of half-time through an own goal from Latics skipper Antolin Alcaraz. Wigan lost Victor Moses to a suspected broken wrist and Nicklas Bendtner's close-range effort on 67 minutes kept Arsene Wenger's men on the road to Wembley. Earlier, Bendtner - recalled to the starting XI alongside Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott - missed a great chance to take an early lead when Bendtner failed to connect with his free header at the far post from Van Persie's deep free-kick. Wigan tried to knock the ball around crispy as Moses darted down the left and cut back inside to the Arsenal penalty area before drilling a low shot into the side netting. Emmanuel Eboue's careless backpass from the halfway line allowed Mauro Boselli to scamper clear, but fortunately for the Arsenal defender the Argentina forward was pushed wide and eventually the attack broke down. Carlo Vela's angled drive was deflected out for a corner which Laurent Koscielny flicked over as Arsenal upped the tempo. The Mexican was put through again on 26 minutes, this time by Van Persie's clever backheel, but as the keeper committed himself, Vela's chip curled just wide of the empty net. Wigan defender Steve Gohouri showed great composure to chest the ball back to his keeper after it was lofted through the six-yard box. However, when Maynor Figueroa bodychecked Walcott, referee Martin Atkinson immediately reach for his back pocket. There was then a brief stoppage as Moses received treatment from an awkward fall in the build-up to Arsenal's counter-attack, landing on his wrist. The England youth international was carried off on a stretcher, replaced by Charles N'Zogbia. Arsenal appealed for handball against Figueroa as Van Persie looked to collect a chip into the Wigan box, but neither the referee nor his assistant were interested, which replays suggested they should have been. Arsenal went ahead on 42 minutes through an own goal. Walcott's corner caused all sorts of problems in the Wigan six-yard box, with Alcaraz - just back from suspension - flicking the ball into the net under pressure from Bendtner. There were some anxious moments for Arsenal at the start of the second half when Van Persie needed treatment after being sandwiched between two Wigan defenders as he tried to connect with Vela's cross into the six-yard box. Walcott weaved down the right and chipped the ball back for Bendtner, but the Denmark striker headed wide. Wigan continued to come forward and caused some concern around the Arsenal penalty box. As the hour mark passed, the temperature continued to plummet with snow swirling around inside the Emirates Stadium basin. Arsenal looked to have secured safe passage to the semi-finals when Vela was put clear down the left, and his low centre was bundled in by Bendtner from two yards after 67 minutes. Walcott got away again down the right, beating the advancing keeper and pushing the ball out to Vela, but the angle was too tight as Ali Al Habsi recovered to save on the line. With the tie now safe, Arsenal took off Van Persie and Jack Wilshere, replaced by Craig Eastmond and Samir Nasri. Walcott almost made it three when he cut in from the left and curled a low effort just wide of the far post. It was all too much excitement for one young fan, who sprinted down the touchline to shake hands with Wenger before being escorted away by stewards. In stoppage time, Nasri broke into the box and rounded the keeper, but his shot was cleared off the line by James McArthur. PA Sport

Champions League - Mourinho fined and banned over reds Tue, 30 Nov 18:06:00 2010 Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has been given a two-match ban following allegations that two of his players deliberately got sent off in a Champions League match against Ajax. UEFA also handed out several fines related to events late in the November 23 Group G game in Amsterdam including 120,000 euros (£100,305) for Real, 40,000 for Mourinho (£33,434) and lower amounts for players Xabi Alonso, Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas and Jerzy Dudek. The second match of Mourinho's European ban has been deferred for a probationary period of three years. The latest setback for Real and Mourinho followed the Madrid side's embarrassing 5-0 defeat by their arch-rivals Barcelona in El Clasico at the Nou Camp on Monday. Real have three days to appeal against UEFA's punishment. Spain internationals Ramos and Alonso were dismissed late in Real's 4-0 win in the Dutch capital after picking up second yellow cards for time-wasting. The sendings-off meant they would serve automatic one-match suspensions in the final group game against Auxerre, which is a dead match for Real as they are assured of first place in Group G and qualification for the last 16. Both players had accumulated two yellow cards in the group stage before they were sent off and a further yellow card in a subsequent game would have meant a one-match suspension during the knockout rounds. UEFA said the red cards given to Alonso and Ramos would stand and they have been suspended for one match. The pair will start the knockout stage with one yellow card each against their names as the cards picked up before the Ajax game still stood. Spanish media reports said the players were acting on instructions from Mourinho. They said the message was passed by reserve goalkeeper Dudek during a conversation with first-choice keeper Casillas. Spanish television repeatedly replayed a moment during the match when the pair were seen talking with their hands over the mouths. Mourinho was also filmed with his hand over his mouth. Two years ago, UEFA fined Lyon players Cris and Juninho 15,000 and 10,000 euros respectively for getting deliberately booked in a Champions League match against Fiorentina. UEFA's disciplinary panel decided the pair had committed fouls in order to serve a one-match ban during their team's meaningless final group stage match against Bayern Munich. Reuters

The best performance ever Tue Nov 30 02:23PM By Alex Chick After Barcelona destroyed Real Madrid last night, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho agreed that they are not really five goals better than their great rivals. Mourinho said: "The result today does not reflect the difference between the two teams," while Guardiola parroted: "This match isn't representative of the difference between the two teams." True, if the game were replayed on Saturday it would probably not finish 5-0 again, but the result perfectly reflected the gaping chasm between the teams on the night. This was not one of those drubbings that flatters the winners (England's 5-1 win in Munich springs to mind). Barcelona were completely dominant from start to finish, and by an absurd degree. I remember watching Barcelona beat Panathinaikos 5-0 in 2005, and thinking it was just about the most perfect exhibition of football I had ever seen. It was a remarkable performance, summed up by an extravagant final goal scored by Samuel Eto'o and made by Lionel Messi. But then I reminded myself it was only Panathinaikos. Last night was better than that, and against vastly superior opposition. Messi's pass to David Villa for the fourth echoed the one for Eto'o five years earlier, only with a much greater degree of difficulty. What stood out last night was not the flair, the precision or the technique, although all were exceptional. It was the vision. Barcelona's players saw everything, all the time. As they played their tight triangles, the ball would come to them as white shirts surrounded leaving them, leaving only one available pass - yet invariably they would spot the gap and find a team-mate with ridiculous ease. It is not easy to know what is going on around you when you play football. As a jobbing full-back, I was afflicted by tunnel vision preventing me from seeing anything other than that which was directly in front of me. It hardly needs saying I wouldn't have been a good Barcelona player. But even the top players get it wrong sometimes. Watching on the TV or high up in the stands, you have the benefit of seeing all the action, and you know a good player when he is able to spot the same passes you can see from your elevated vantage point. Barcelona were not just picking the passes you could see on the telly. They were playing outrageous, impossible balls we mere mortals could not anticipate, and which left you confused for a second, trying to work out how they pulled it off. Even more impressively, they were all on the same page. Xavi would play a ridiculous reverse pass it seemed nobody in the stadium could see coming, only Iniesta would anticipate it and make the right run. So consistently beaten to the punch were Real, they must have felt like they were playing a team from five seconds in the future. Trying to decide the best team performance ever is obviously personal and subjective, but I have never seen one better. This was the same style that Spain used to win the World Cup, only turbocharged by Messi to make it much more incisive and completely devastating. Not only did Real not have an answer to it, they barely seemed to understand the question, and even the tactically astute Mourinho was reduced to throwing defensive players on in a futile bid to curtail Barca's mind-bending 'tiki-taka'. As an Englishman, it was hard not to be reminded that my country's footballers are so far behind the world's best, the idea of winning a major tournament in my lifetime seems about as plausible as Ann Widdecombe opening a dance school. I recently wrote a column saying the Premier League is better than La Liga, and I still think, by and large, it is - in terms of entertainment and competitive balance. Where it simply cannot compete is in the sheer quality of its leading lights. Of course, the Spanish title race is not over, and one slip from Barca could see Real go top again. But in a sense it doesn't really matter. Last night's result was so powerful, so overwhelming, that it arguably carries as much clout as the other 37 games combined (especially given La Liga's lack of depth). Unless Real turn the tables completely in the season's second Clasico - and they won't - the memory of that game in the Camp Nou will be at least as significant as the final table.

La Liga - Mourinho defiant after thumping Tue, 30 Nov 00:30:00 2010 A defiant Jose Mourinho brushed off Real Madrid's crushing 5-0 defeat at arch rivals Barcelona, saying there were plenty of matches left in the season and the championship would still go down to the wire. The flamboyant Portuguese, a former assistant coach at Barca who later managed Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan before being poached by Real, suffered his worst defeat in a league match at the hands of the La Liga champions but said it was "by no means a humiliation". "It's easy to digest because it's a defeat in which there was no chance of winning," he told a news conference at Barca's Nou Camp stadium. "One team played to their potential tonight and the other played very badly," he added. "The championship will be very close to the end." Mourinho had got off to a flying start in the Spanish capital in his bid to end Barca's two-year reign as domestic champions and restore Real's fortunes in the Champions League. His expensively-assembled side were undefeated in all competitions before Monday but have now slipped two points behind leaders Barca with 13 of 38 matches played. Mourinho, who has failed to win at the Nou Camp in six attempts, said the Barca team was "the finished article" and "the result of many years of work" and reiterated that it will take time to mould the Real squad into an effective unit. "The result today does not reflect the difference between the two teams," he said. "Obviously I am sad because nobody likes losing and least of all by that score. "I hope it doesn't affect the players psychologically and I told them exactly that, that the championship does not end today and who knows we might be back at this stadium again this season (in the Champions League)." He urged his players to "show character" and pick themselves up for Saturday's La Liga match at home to Valencia. "When you lose by four or five goals you don't need to go out and cry but go out with a desire to train, to work and to win the next match. "I have no need to be concerned about my team, who have played fantastically up to now. "Today they did a very bad job and on Saturday they have to return to winning ways. "There is nothing more to be done today but from tomorrow a great deal." Reuters

How's the quality of the CROCEAS ???

No worries...these SPSes do appear in shipments here. Juz gotta 'fine-tune' ya ears to the ground when & where these shipment arrives.

AT luvs to swim against strong currents. Ya SUMP does not offer much open space for the AT to swim naturally. Time to release ya AT in order not to stress the lovely fella.

'Empire Strikes Back' director dies Mon 29 Nov 3:34 PM Irvin Kershner, best known for directing classic 'Star Wars' movie 'The Empire Strikes Back’, has died. He was 87. Kershner died at his LA home after a long illness, his goddaughter said. A veteran filmmaker, Kershner's screen credits include 'The Return of a Man Called Horse' and 'The Eyes of Laura Mars’. It was the latter film that convinced George Lucas that his former film teacher was the right man to helm the sequel to the hugely successful 'Star Wars'. (Kershner is seen in the pic left, alongside Lucas and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. 'The Empire Strikes Back' is seen by many as the series' high point, with the film featuring classic scenes like Darth Vader telling Luke he is his father and Han Solo being frozen in carbonite. The film also introduced iconic characters like Yoda and Boba Fett. The film was also praised for its visual style. Lucas once said that Kershner "knew everything a Hollywood director is supposed to know... but was not Hollywood". He would only go on to direct two more films after 'Empire Strikes Back' - Sir Sean Connery's unofficial return to the James Bond character in 'Never Say Never Again' and sci-fi action sequel 'Robocop 2'.

RELAX lah !!! Geldof admits responsibility for worst songs ever Posted Mon 29 Nov 2010 13:17 GMT by Paul Johnston in Behind The Music Bob Geldof has admitted he feels responsible for two of the worst songs of all time. The singer told Australias Daily Telegraph: I am responsible for two of the worst songs in history. One is Do They Know Its Christmas? and the other one is We are the World. Do They Know Its Christmas? was released 26 years ago today to raise money for famine-hit Ethiopia. The song, which featured the likes of Sting, Bono, George Michael and Phil Collins, became the biggest-selling single ever at that time and its success led to the release of We Are the World, which featured Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross. Speaking about the Band Aid song, he added: Any day soon, I will go to the supermarket, head to the meat counter and it [Do They Know Its Christmas?] will be playing. Every ****ing Christmas. He also claimed it irritates him when carol singers perform the song: "They think 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' is as old as 'Silent Night'. Sometimes I think that's wild because I wrote it. Or else I am thinking how much I want them to stop because they are doing it really badly."

La Liga - Barcelona thrash Real Madrid in El Clasico Mon, 29 Nov 21:56:00 2010 Barcelona showed their class with a resounding 5-0 win over Real Madrid at the Nou Camp in a memorable El Clasico to usurp their rivals in style at the top of the La Liga table. Xavi gave the hosts a 10th-minute lead as Pep Guardiola's side seized the initiative from the off, before Pedro doubled their lead eight minutes later as the visitors were made to look sluggish in the face of Barcelona's scintillating attacking play. The second half followed a similar pattern of dominance from the hosts with Real humbled into submission as David Villa unleashed a clinical three-minute brace before substitute Jeffren Suarez added a fifth in stoppage time to crown an imperious display from Guardiola's side. There was a surprise inclusion for Karim Benzema in place of the injured Gonzalo Higuain, while Jose Mourinho resisted the temptation to effectively asphyxiate Barca - as he did last season in charge of Inter - with an additional holding midfielder, sticking with Mesut Ozil in his usual creative berth. A vociferous atmosphere was created at the Nou Camp as the 98,000 Barca fans were handed placards to form a mural in the Catalunya colours, the hype giving way to a frenetic opening as Barcelona stamped their authority on the clash from the outset. The hosts dominated the early possession, and almost found a sublime seventh-minute opener through a predictably inspired source as Lionel Messi unfurled an audacious chip from out on the right which beat Iker Casillas, but not the far post. Guardiola's side were in front three minutes later, however, albeit in slightly fortuitous fashion as Messi combined with Andres Iniesta out wide, before the latter's through ball deflected off Marcelo into the path of Xavi, who kept his composure to poke the loose ball beyond Casillas. Barcelona continued to stroke the ball around with consummate ease as they held their opponents firmly under the cosh, and the hosts doubled their lead in the 18th minute. A mesmerising 25-pass move culminated in David Villa hurtling to the left byline before cutting a precise delivery back into the path of the onrushing Pedro, who was able to simply tap home from just a yard out. Amid all the exhilarating exchanges, the first half was littered with petulance from both sides. First, an exasperated Cristiano Ronaldo pushed Guardiola on the touchline to spark off an absurd melee, then a flailing arm from Ricardo Carvalho saw Lionel Messi mysteriously booked for diving. Real were desperate to muster any kind of a resurgence, and Ronaldo took a tumble under a challenge from Victor Valdes just before half-time which provoked merely a withering look from the referee, but represented a source of grievance in the eyes of a few visiting players. Mourinho acted swiftly at the break as he introduced Lassana Diarra at the expense of Ozil, but it was Barcelona who almost made an immediate impact after the restart as Carvalho was forced to make a sliding block to deny Villa from close range. Barcelona were three up in the 55th minute as Messi slid an incisive through ball beyond Pepe, and Villa beat the offside trap with a perfectly timed run before planting an emphatic finish beyond the helpless Casillas. It was quickly turning into a rout, and the same combination made a mockery of the visitors' static and beleaguered defence once more as Messi picked out Villa, who thundered in another clinical strike just before the hour mark. Just when it seemed as though Real's humiliation could get no worse, substitute Jeffren popped up to make it five, bundling the ball home from Bojan's cross out on the right. Mourinho's first taste of an El Clasico could barely have been more inauspcious. Carvalho could quite easily have been dismissed for a deliberate handball to deny Villa a goalscoring opportunity late on, but in an extreme case of leniency, the referee appeared to take pity on the defender and brandished the yellow card. Madrid's misery was compounded on the stroke of the final whistle as a mass brawl ensued as tempers flared with Sergio Ramos dismissed amid all the furore for a push in the face of Carles Puyol. The comprehensive victory not only sees Barcelona leapfrog their rivals to the top spot in the La Liga table, but the Catalan club build significantly on their superior goal difference to Mourinho's side, who have now been put firmly in their place. Dan Quarrell / Eurosport

World Football - Butt signs for Hong Kong side Mon, 29 Nov 19:59:00 2010 Manchester United legend Nicky Butt has stunned the world of football by coming out of retirement to play for a side in the Hong Kong league. Butt hung up his boots at the end of last season after a career that included 12 years at Manchester United and six years with Newcastle. Yet the 35-year-old has backtracked on that decision and signed for South China FC, admitting that he was won over by the passion of the fans and the enthusiasm of club chairman Steven Lo during a fact finding trip to Hong Kong. "I am not going to lie," he said. "I have not been studying the Chinese League or Hong Kong for many years. It is all new to me. "But I have been there two or three times and it is unbelievable how passionate the fans in Asia are. "The football is not at the level of the Premier League but their fans still take it very seriously." Butt had originally been expected to join up with his new team-mates in February, but will now make his debut for his new Hong Kong first division side on Tuesday.

Game Over so soonzzz ??? Premier League - Papers: Chelsea eye Guardiola Sun, 28 Nov 08:37:00 2010 As the backroom shuffle continues at Stamford Bridge, the Sunday Telegraph reveals that Chelsea are lining up Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola to replace manager Carlo Ancelotti. The past couple of weeks have seen assistant manager Ray Wilkins unceremoniously dismissed, Michael Emenalo curiously promoted, sporting director Frank Arnesen deciding to step down in the summer and Carlo Ancelotti forced into denying that he is considering his own future at the club. The manager's protestations don't seem to have put the matter to rest, though, if the back page reports are anything to go by. Barcelona's former director of football Txiki Begiristain has been lined up to replace Arnesen, and Roman Abramovich rather likes the idea of reuniting him with Guardiola, who has already won every trophy within in his grasp in just two seasons of management. If Abramovich is hoping for more exciting football than Ancelotti's team produces (103 goals in a double-winning campaign last season doesn't seem so bad, mind you), then there will be worse options than young Spanish coach Guardiola. It's not the only staffing shake-up reported in the press today - the News of the World suggest that Arsene Wenger's number two Pat Rice is set to retire at the end of the season. Arsenal legend Steve Bould, currently in charge of the club's U18 side, could fill the job when it becomes available - but whether he will be able to convince Wenger to sign another goalkeeper and an imposing midfielder is another matter entirely. The News of the World also reports that Everton manager David Moyes is on a shortlist of three for the Tottenham job - along with Roy Hodgson and Guus Hiddink - should England come calling for Harry Redknapp. Perish the thought that anyone has got ahead of themselves on this story. "Ta-ra Der Sar" rhyme the Daily Star Sunday, which exclusively reports that Manchester United's goalkeeper will be retiring at the end of the season. Dane Anders Lindegaard was recruited yesterday for £3.5m to boost United's goalkeeping ranks, but Alex Ferguson may not be finished there, according to the paper. United's 'keeper hunt is set to lead them into a bid for Atletico Madrid's rising star David De Gea, while Germany star Manuel Neuer and Holland 'keeper Maarten Stekelenburg are also in the frame. That is, of course, if Fergie has any money left after signing Bastian Scheweinsteiger for £25m to bolster his midfield options (News of the World). Maybe he'll be able to make the figures work if he buys Schweinsteiger at the price quoted in the Sunday Mirror - just £12m! Elsewhere, Arsenal are said to be ready to splash out £10m on Bolton centre-half Gary Cahill (Mail on Sunday) and West Ham may have to sell Carlton Cole in January, so that they have the financial clout to hang on to midfielder Scott Parker (The People). Eurosport

MONEY$$$ GOT MORE THAN ENUFF !!! SITEX breaks record sales, attendance By yahoosingapore – November 29th, 2010 The four-day SITEX show at the Singapore Expo drew in a record crowd of over 900,000 people who splashed out over S$52 million on gadgets and IT peripherals. According to The Straits Times, visitor attendance and spending numbers were the highest in five years. Last year, 859,000 visitors turned up spending $48 million. Show organiser Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation also said this year’s show had the biggest-ever exhibitor turnout, with 44 new exhibitors coming on board. In total, about 160 exhibitors participated in the fair. Some of the hot-ticket items during the fair which lasted from Thursday to Sunday were tablet computers, Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation systems and digital cameras.

PEDRO: THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO FAIL Pedro Rodriguez has enjoyed a stellar rise through the Barcelona youth system. He may be surrounded by the crème de la crème of world football, but Barcelona’s Pedro Rodriguez is not feeling the heat. In an exclusive interview with Yahoo! SEA after Barcelona’s midweek Champions League victory over Panathinaikos – in which he netted two goals — Pedro admitted he ‘s excited at the prospect of facing the “new” Real Madrid squad. “For sure, it was a great feeling to score two goals in the Champions League,” he said over the phone. “But the El Clasico is different, because of the history. There’s a lot of passion and everybody knows that this is not a time to fail. The goal is for us to do well at Nou Camp in front of the culés (the Barca fans) on Monday,” the 23-year-old winger added. When asked what he thought of Ronaldo’s open “challenge” for Barcelona to repeat their 8-0 mauling of Almeria against Real on Monday, Pedro laughed. “Real Madrid have a good project this year with a talented group and they are league leaders. But with all due respect, we’re not intimidated by them, and we’re ready to take them on!” he said. Today, Pedro is a living example of what can be achieved through hard work and sacrifice. As a member of Barca’s youth teams and the renowned La Masia academy, he was handpicked by Pep Guardiola to join the Barcelona ‘B’ team in 2007. From there, it was a short step up to the full squad and in 2009/2010, Pedro exploded on to the scene, scoring 12 goals in 34 league appearances in a breakthrough season. In July, Pedro also became a world champion, playing a part in Spain’s successful 2010 World Cup campaign. Blessed with pace and the ability to play with both feet, Pedro’s greatest asset is his superb positioning. And he credits manager Pep Guardiola for all of his success. “Pep is still the same guy. He did the same things in the ‘B’ side as he is doing now. He motivates us to do well, and talks to us when we need someone. Some players need more motivation than others, and he knows that,” said Pedro, whose father works at a gas station south of Tenerife, near where the striker was brought up. As for Monday’s Clasico, Pedro — who was nicknamed ‘Pedrito’ because of his short height — can’t wait to be part of club folklore. “I grew up watching these games on TV, not just El Clasico, but other big derbies and now I’m playing in one of them. My reference when I was little was Rivaldo. Then, there was Messi, Iniesta, Xavi and the rest. It’s a luxury and a privilege to be playing with them today,” he said.

Carvalho: Time for a new era to begin By Ash – November 28th, 2010 It is possibly the biggest club game in the world. Real Madrid versus Barcelona. Two of the world’s biggest football dynasties, steeped in rich tradition and history. And this Monday night (Tuesday morning, S’pore time), in a match that will be broadcast in five continents and watched by a global TV audience of hundreds of millions, both sides will wage war at Barcelona’s majestic Nou Camp stadium once again. Not only will the league’s leading scorer Cristiano Ronaldo come face-to-face with the irrepressible Lionel Messi but the season’s first ”Super Clasico” has been given added spice following manager Jose Mourinho’s arrival at Real Madrid. After a slow start, Real have been firing in all cylinders in recent weeks. They currently lead La Liga by one point and superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has been bang in form. Not to be outdone, reigning league champions Barcelona warmed up for Monday’s clash with their tenth win in 11 games, a 3-0 win over Panathinaikos in the Champions League. In the domestic league, Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick in an 8-0 demolition of Almeria last weekend. Indeed, coming into Monday’s game, it’s been hard to tell who’s been in better shape. And although it’s his first Super Clásico as a Real Madrid player, Ricardo Carvalho is far from nervous. After all, in his 13 years of professional football, the experienced Portuguese centre-back has already seen his fair share of big games. And Monday’s sizzling encounter between two of Spain’s most celebrated sides will be no different. “Sure, it will be an important game for the people living in Spain, our fans and football lovers all around the world,” Carvalho told Yahoo! Southeast Asia in an exclusive phone interview from Madrid. “But for us, the team, it will be ‘um jogo comum’ (a normal game) because we are Real Madrid. Our intentions have always been the same each week, that is to win,” he said in Portuguese. Carvalho is a key member of Mourinho's Real Madrid. Real have struggled in the shadow of hated arch-rivals Barcelona, who marched to successive back-to-back league titles in recent years. Guided by the steady, sure hand of former great ‘Pep’ Guardiola off the field and the irresistible play of Messi on it, the Catalans revelled in an era of unprecedented success, winning an incredible six trophies in 2009, including the domestic league title, Champions League and World Club Championship. They followed that up by romping home to La Liga title in 2010 in a new record haul of 99 points. Guardiola may be 4 and 0 against Real Madrid since taking charge at Barcelona two seasons ago but all that may be about to change come Monday. “Barcelona are a great side and I respect them for their achievements last season. But it’s time to talk about the present, and Real Madrid are ready to rewrite history.” The 32-year-old, who joined Los Blancos from Chelsea this year, also repeated his desire to see his side put up a real “fight” against the Catalan giants when they take to the pitch. “We know that Madrid have struggled in the past to win at the Nou Camp, but I believe it will be different this time,” said Carvalho. “There is a great feeling within the team now. We’re playing well, and we’re able to understand one another better. I’m confident (of) all three points,” said the defender, who is good friends with fellow national and club team-mates Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe. Carvalho – whose style of play has been compared to legendary Italian defender, Franco Baresi — is also known for his no-nonsense crunching tackles and pace. After breaking into the youth team at Porto in 1996, Carvalho’s game and career has gone from strength to strength, his fortunes mirroring that of Mourinho’s closely. The defender was a key part of Mourinho’s 2002 Champions League triumph with Porto in 2002. Following that, he followed Mourinho to England, where Carvalho enjoyed a successful six-year career at Chelsea, making 210 appearances in total for the Blues and scoring 11 goals. Although he and Mourinho parted ways when the manager left to join Inter Milan, and Carvalho to Real Madrid, both are now reunited at the Bernabeu. And like many of his peers, Carvalho was full of praise and admiration for his coach and countryman. Although the two were embroiled in a public feud in 2005, with Mourinho telling him to get an “IQ test” in response to his alleged unhappiness at being dropped for the season opener, Carvalho maintained there are ‘no problems’. “We’ve put all that behind us. There’s no doubt that he’s a great coach and deserves all the compliments he can get,” said Carvalho. “He has won at every club he has coached at and this is not something that anybody can do. He’s very passionate and knows exactly what he wants from each of us, so there are no excuses if we do badly on the pitch,” the defender added. Carvalho has also leapt to the defence of Cristiano Ronaldo, who has come under fire this week for challenging Barcelona to repeat their 8-0 demolition of Almeria last weekend come this Monday. “Cristiano is a perfectionist and I know this from my time spent with him in the Portugal squad. He gets easily affected when we do not win because he is a very hardworking player, ” said Carvalho. He added that Ronaldo’s enthusiasm has often been mistaken for arrogance. “He’s a really important part of Real Madrid’s project now, so he doesn’t like it when the critics doubt him,” said Carvalho. ON ASIAN FOOTBALL Carvalho also shared his thoughts on Asian fans and football. “I’ve read and watched so much about the Asian passion for football,” he admitted. “It’s very touching to know that millions support Real Madrid and Portugal from far away, especially in countries like Indonesia.” “We definitely hope to do a tour some time and meet our fans there,” he added.

Moyes offers Beckham Everton loan deal AFP - Sunday, November 28 LONDON (AFP) – Everton coach David Moyes on Saturday offered David Beckham a route back into English football by saying that he would be prepared to offer the England superstar a loan move to Goodison Park. Beckham recently finished the Major League Soccer season with the Los Angeles Galaxy, but he spent the last two winters on loan at Italian giants AC Milan in a bid to prove his form and fitness to England coach Fabio Capello. The 35-year-old missed the World Cup after sustaining an Achilles tendon injury with Milan in March and said in September that he would not be joining another European side this season. Moyes, though, said a loan deal would be easy to arrange and hinted that Everton skipper Phil Neville, a former team-mate of Beckham's at Manchester United, could play a part in setting up the move. "I hope that if David wanted to come he would give me a call. He only needs to call me or Phil Neville," said Moyes, who briefly played alongside Beckham at Preston North End while Beckham was there on loan from United in 1995. "He knows how to get hold of Phil and he knows how to get hold of me. "We would have to look into it financially. But if he came and said to me 'I would like to come and play' then I would have to go to the chairman and ask if we could make it work by selling enough replica shirts." Despite his "respect" for Moyes, Beckham did not seem over-enthusiastic about the offer. "Right now I'm just getting my body back into shape because I was out of the game for six months with a pretty serious injury and I came back pretty quickly," Beckham said after LA Galaxy's 2-1 friendly loss to the Newcastle Jets in Australia on Saturday night. "I think I'm feeling the effects of the month and a half I've played since I got injured. "I think it's always nice to be wanted and it's always nice to have options out there and I've always respected David Moyes from the time I've played with him at Preston North End ... plus I respect him as a manager. "It's always nice to be wanted, but I'm a Man United fan and it's a pretty close rivalry, so I don't know." Beckham is England's most capped outfield player with 115 caps and is only 10 caps short of goalkeeper Peter Shilton's overall record. He has not played for England since before the World Cup but a move to a European team would likely boost his chances of earning a recall from Capello. Beckham's Galaxy team-mate Landon Donovan impressed during a loan spell at Everton last season and Moyes revealed that he was also hoping to bring the American international back to the club. "Landon does not need to make up his mind until next month," said the Scot.

Five-star Berbatov puts Manchester United back on top Reuters - Sunday, November 28 By Alan Baldwin LONDON - Dimitar Berbatov scored five goals to send Manchester United roaring back to the top of the Premier League with a 7-1 rout of Blackburn Rovers at Old Trafford on Saturday. The Bulgarian, eclipsing team mate Wayne Rooney in the England striker's first league start since the beginning of October, put in a five-star performance after wrapping up his hat-trick two minutes after the break. Under increasing flak for a scoring drought extending back to September, Berbatov was only the fourth player to score five in a single game in the Premier League. In the absence of champions Chelsea, who can reclaim top spot at Newcastle United on Sunday, Arsenal enjoyed a brief spell in first place after beating Aston Villa 4-2 in the early match. United, now unbeaten for 29 games in all competitions, have 31 points from 15 games to second-placed Arsenal's 29. Carlo Ancelotti's misfiring Chelsea, who have lost three of their last four Premier League encounters, slipped to third overall with 28 points from 14. Manchester City, held 1-1 at Stoke City after conceding a late equaliser, stayed fourth on 26 points. West Ham United remained bottom despite a 3-1 home win over another relegation-threatened side, Wigan Athletic, after fellow strugglers Wolverhampton Wanderers overcame Sunderland 3-2. BLACKBURN ROASTED Berbatov wasted no time getting on the scoresheet at Old Trafford, taking his first goal from close range in the second minute and his second in the 27th before notching a third in the 47th. He made it four in the 62nd and five eight minutes later. "We've been waiting for that performance for weeks," said United manager Alex Ferguson. "We kept saying that our rhythm and tempo has not been good enough in the last few weeks but today it was. We found it." The only other player to manage five for United in Ferguson's time as manager was Andy Cole and the Scot was quick to praise Berbatov and the team effort. "There was some great football attached to those goals and getting off the mark early I think helped him because he hadn't scored for 10 games," he told Sky Sports. "And that does prey on strikers' minds because that's the way they are." South Korean forward Park Ji-sung had made it 2-0 in the 23rd while Nani scored United's fifth in the 48th with Blackburn, taken over this month by Indian poultry giant Venky's, getting a roasting. Chris Samba scored a late consolation goal with a header seven minutes from time. Arsenal, still smarting from their 3-2 home defeat by North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur last weekend and a 2-0 Champions League loss at Braga in midweek, eased the pain of those results with victory at Villa Park. Arsenal went in 2-0 ahead at halftime but then allowed Villa back into the game, youngster Ciaran Clark scoring twice to set up a nervy final 20 minutes with Arsenal leading 3-2. Marouane Chamakh had scored their third while teenage midfielder Jack Wilshere made it 4-2 deep into stoppage time when he headed in his first league goal for Arsenal. "It was important to win today," said Wenger. "Repeated things happening negatively become a syndrome and that's what you don't want." West Bromwich Albion returned to form by trouncing Everton 4-1 at Goodison Park while Bolton Wanderers recovered from two goals down to draw 2-2 at home to Blackpool.

Time to Build-Up 'Rainbow Connection'...

Artillery heard on tense Yellow Sea island By Associated Press Jin-man Lee And Foster Klug, Associated Press 18 mins ago YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea Fresh artillery shots were heard Friday on the tense South Korean island of Yeonpyeong just three days after it was devastated by a North Korean attack. One report said the shots were from military drills being carried out on the nearby North Korean mainland. The blasts came hours after Pyongyang warned that the peninsula was on the brink of war, and just after the top U.S. commander in South Korea, Gen. Walter Sharp, toured Yeonpyeong Island in a show of solidarity with Seoul and to survey damage from Tuesday's hail of North Korean artillery fire that killed four people. An official at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said several new rounds of artillery fire were heard Friday on the island, just 7 miles (11 kilometers) south of the North Korean mainland. The military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several distant explosive sounds came from the direction of North Korea. North Korea's heavy bombardment of Yeonpyeong on Tuesday took hostilities to a new level because civilians were killed, prompting Washington to reaffirm plans to send a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to South Korean waters for joint military drills starting Sunday. The North unleashed its anger over those drills in a dispatch earlier Friday on its state news agency, saying the weekend drills were a reckless move to target the North. "The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war," the Korean Central News Agency said. Hours later, AP photographers at an observation point on the northwest side of Yeonpyeong heard about four explosions, and said they witnessed at least one flash of light on the North Korean mainland. There were no immediate reports of damage. South Korea's YTN television network, citing an unidentified military official, said North Korea apparently was carrying out a military drill, and had fired up to 20 rounds. Yeonpyeong residents were fleeing to shelters, the report said. The report couldn't be immediately confirmed. Only a few dozen residents remained on Yeonpyeong, with most of the population of 1,300 fleeing in the hours and days after Tuesday's attack and authorities urging them to evacuate. Sharp toured Yeonpyeong earlier Friday, dressed in a heavy camouflage jacket and army fatigues and wearing a black beret. He walked down a heavily damaged street strewn with debris from buildings. Around him were charred bicycles and shattered bottles of soju, a kind of Korean alcoholic drink. Sharp had returned to Seoul before the reports of artillery shots, said Kim Yong-kyu, a spokesman for the U.S. military. North Korea's dispatch said that the country's army and people are "now greatly enraged" and "getting fully ready to give a shower of dreadful fire," the agency said. "Escalated confrontation would lead to a war, and he who is fond of playing with fire is bound to perish."

Stolen Children in China are Seeking Answers By AUSTIN RAMZY / SHANGHAI Austin Ramzy / Shanghai – 2 hrs 5 mins ago He remembers playing in the countryside - a place where farmers grew wheat and snow fell in the winter. There was a house filled with many families who would wash clothes together outside or sit and gossip in their shared courtyard. Someone may have even had a television, though that bit is hazy. His parents ran a noodle stall, and his father would give him dried beef to eat on the walk to school. He wasn't a great student, and the teacher would criticize his classwork. He remembers an older brother who looked out for him until, in the end, he couldn't. And he even recalls his former name, Zhou Chengliang, though he still can't figure out who he is, or where in the vast nation of China he is from. Today, Zhou is about 27 years old (he doesn't know for sure), goes by the name Huang Jie, and is an entrepreneur based in the western Chinese city of Lanzhou, where he buys building materials such as granite and marble from mines on the Tibetan Plateau. He spends part of each year in Shanghai, selling the materials for construction projects along China's central east coast. Zhou has made a life for himself feeding China's voracious economic engine, but he suffers from memories of a lost past: he was one of countless young Chinese children kidnapped and sold to strangers to be raised as their own. Zhou's story is a human tragedy, but it's also emblematic of a country in the throes of rapid change, torn between tradition and modernity, challenge and opportunity, morality and corruption. Zhou's nightmare began when he was 6. He and his older brother - Zhou thinks his name was Chengjiang - were leaving school when they met a couple who claimed to be friends of their parents. The man and the woman said they were there to take them home. They asked Zhou what he wanted to eat and treated him to a bowl of his favorite cold noodles. But Chengjiang was wary and stood watching from outside the shop. When they boarded a bus, his older brother refused to go along. As the bus went past his stop, Zhou sensed something was wrong. "I remember thinking, 'These people are so cold,'" Zhou says. They boarded a train, and there was nowhere to sit. So he lay down on the floor and cried. No one paid him any notice. The journey, which lasted at least two days, continued by another bus and then by boat. The couple transferred Zhou to an older woman in the countryside. "We went to a house. I remember it was along a road," he says. "And that didn't work out. Maybe it was an issue of price? So we took a three-wheeled cart to another place. And then we went to another place. In the end she took me to my new family." The late 1980s were an unsettling period for China. The economic reforms that had begun a decade earlier had opened up huge opportunities - and not just for law-abiding citizens. Corruption also began to rise, and organized crime, beaten back by relentless social controls during the Maoist era, grew once again. Because of new freedom of movement, gangs found it easier to take children from one place and sell them in another. The authorities are slowly coming to terms with the extent of the problem; last year they launched their biggest crackdown ever, with more than 15,000 people arrested over 17 months. In September, a court in Quanzhou city in southeastern Fujian province sentenced to death the two ringleaders of a gang that had sold 46 children for up to $6,000 each. Tackling the aftermath, however, can be even harder than cracking the trafficking gangs. In the Quanzhou case, many of the stolen children were left with the people who bought them even as the authorities tried to track down their real families, according to a report in the state-run Legal Daily. Despite a new official effort to reunite families with their lost children, volunteers shoulder much of the work. And while the public is increasingly aware of the extent of the human trafficking, the implications of having tens of thousands of children wrenched from their families are only now emerging as those who went missing in the 1980s reach adulthood. Some were kidnapped at such a young age that they will never have any recollection of their birth family. A Pained Beginning Zhou was repeatedly told by his new family, a large farming clan in Fujian, that his life would have been much worse had he never been sold to them. During his first several years in his new home, that seemed hardly the case. While the family was relatively prosperous by local standards, Zhou says he was given less food than the others, and he had to do more work around the farm to earn his keep. He constantly fought with his new parents, and would escape several times a year in hopes of returning home. But he had no idea where home was. By his midteens, Zhou had learned to grudgingly get along in his new surroundings. The family paid for a better school for him, and he stopped running away so often. They began to treat him more like one of their own. In 1997, he left home and moved to Shanghai. He married, had a daughter and started his building-materials-supply company. Despite the painful circumstances of his upbringing, he still considers the people who raised him as family. "My feeling is, no matter how you treated me, you raised me to this point, so I should thank you," he says. But Zhou still feels the undeniable pull of kinship, and over the past several years has struggled to find his brother and his birth parents. "Seeing my own daughter's infant gurgling slowly turn into speech has made me think of how my own parents must have once raised me," he wrote in an online plea. "I can't help but long for them." Profit and Loss To control population growth, in 1979 the central government launched the one-child policy, which prevented most families from having multiple offspring. A traditional preference for male children, meanwhile, persisted in many parts of the country. These factors contributed to the development in the late 1980s of syndicates that traded not only in children but also in young women, who were then sold into marriage in rural areas short on eligible brides. "Things that you used to not be able to sell, you could sell again," says Pi Yijun, an expert on juvenile justice at China University of Political Science and Law. "People's lives, sex - these all became things you could sell. So it was natural that this would become much more hot than under the planned economy." The trafficking routes follow China's geographic divides between rich and poor. Children are kidnapped from poor interior provinces like Yunnan or Guizhou in the south or the anonymous migrant-worker districts of bustling manufacturing cities. They are then sold in relatively prosperous smaller towns in places like coastal Fujian. Generally the buyers aren't wealthy but are rural or suburban residents who have achieved moderate prosperity, says Pi. For them, buying a child is an investment to ensure they are taken care of in old age. "Older people worry about this," he says. "So they are willing to spend money, or even borrow money, to buy a child who will take care of them." Zhou's Fujian parents, for instance, have their own children but wanted more for precisely the reason Pi gives. While China has a one-child policy, it is unevenly implemented and sometimes loosely enforced, particularly in rural areas. Violators can pay a fine - or circumvent the rule by bribing local officials. Chinese authorities have launched multiple crackdowns on kidnapping, but it remains a scourge. In the first seven months of last year there were 2,093 cases reported, although the total number of disappeared could easily be five times that, experts say. In September, says China's Public Security Ministry, more than 10,000 women and nearly 6,000 children had been rescued in a crackdown that began in April 2009. If a case is broken immediately after the crime, police can easily reunite children with their families. The longer the time lag, however, the more difficult the task; also, many victims are often too young to provide useful information. Even arrested kidnappers are of limited value in tracing the victims' origins, as such details are intentionally obscured as children are channeled through kidnapping networks. "Children are often sold several times during the crime," says Chen Shiqu, who heads the Ministry of Public Security's anti-human-trafficking office. "If we missed one of the suspects, or if any of the suspects died, we wouldn't be able to find out where he got or sold the child." As part of last year's crackdown, the police launched a website called "Baby Searching for Home," which publicizes the details of rescued children whose parents haven't been identified. The authorities confirm any possible matches through DNA tests. So far 813 children have been reunited with their families through the program. Litany of Sorrow For every successful reunion, however, there are hundreds, possibly thousands of unresolved kidnappings. In recent years volunteer organizations have emerged to help pick up the slack. In April 2007, Zhang Baoyan, a 49-year-old former bank employee in Tonghua, a city in northeastern Jilin province, started a website called "Baby Come Home" that has since become a clearinghouse for information about missing children. Zhang says she was moved after losing her own 4-year-old son in a market for a brief but horrifying few hours. "Even though I managed to find him after a couple of hours, I still felt the fear," she says. "Then I started to pay attention to parents who lost their children." Most post flyers with photos and terse stories of their children's disappearance. Zhang's husband Qin Yanyou, who runs the computer center at Tonghua Normal University, said that organizing them online would improve their effectiveness, so he helped her set up the website. So far, they have successfully reunited 155 families. But they still have over 5,000 unsolved cases. Each notice of a missing child is a condensed portrait of pure grief. "Baby, where are you? Have you eaten? Mother misses you; you have to wait for her," begins one with a photo of a toddler staring quizzically at the camera, a single lock of hair pulled up in a red ribbon. "Pan Hong, female, born Feb. 4, 2007; went missing Feb. 8, 2010, from the Jianshe Road vegetable market in Dengbu village, Yujiang county, Jiangxi. She has short, soft but thin hair, a round face with single-fold eyelids and a birthmark 10 cm below her left knee." A Quest in Vain Zhou turned to the internet because he feared that attempts to find his parents via official channels in his new family's hometown of Putian, a midsize manufacturing center along the Taiwan Strait, would go nowhere. "Before, I thought the easiest way to find them was to go through the police. But Putian is a very unenlightened place," he says. "It's all about power, money and connections." Any vigorous effort to investigate his case could uncover official corruption, as the arrival of a child should have raised questions when his new family applied for his residence permit and sent him to school. While the police do crack down on kidnapping, from Zhou's perspective, "it is mostly just for show." So he began posting his own story online, plus a photo of himself as an adult - his sharply angled face with high cheekbones staring down at the camera - in whatever forums he could find. In April he told his story on Zhang's "Baby Come Home" website. He received more than 200 replies from volunteers who forwarded his story to other forums, searched public records for matching names and suggested other lines of inquiry based on the faintest of clues. His recollection of eating dried-beef snacks led some to suggest looking in Shandong, Henan or Anhui provinces, where such food is common. Since he speaks Mandarin without a distinct accent, others volunteers concluded he was from north China. (Read "China's Alarming Spate of School Knifings.") One volunteer, a 38-year-old woman surnamed He (she would not give her full name), took up the case in Guizhou, a poor province in southern China where kidnappings are common. He, a Guizhou native, learned of the antikidnapping group through her work with another charity that improves access to education for children in impoverished areas. Zhou's was the first kidnapping case she worked on. After volunteers for "Baby Come Home" found 30 possible matches for the family names that Zhou recalled, He agreed to help track down a Zhou Chengjiang - the name he remembered as his older brother's - who was listed in the town of Liupanshui. On a hot day in late May she went with another volunteer to the police station in a mining village, where they learned that a coal miner matching that name had moved away two years ago. The police furnished them with a new address, so they went to another village, only to learn the address didn't exist. They went back to the first village, hoping to find more clues. Most of the residents, however, were miners who traveled from all over the country to work temporarily, then head elsewhere. Many locals were suspicious of their questioning, says He, but a local newspaper reporter had tagged along, and after he showed his credentials some people opened up. Finally someone came up with a phone number for Zhou Chengjiang. He called, and the man said he did have a brother with the name Zhou Chengliang, but he had never been kidnapped. "I should have been happy for that family," she says. "But I thought about all the hard work in that heat, and I burst into tears." Later, a volunteer told her that the other leads for names matching Zhou's had been tracked down; none was a match. (Read "Why Americans Are Adopting Fewer Kids from China.") Zhou is stoic about the disappointments. Being taken from his family at such a young age has left him with a hard-earned resilience. He relishes raising his own 3-year-old daughter, even when it reminds him of what his life is missing. "This experience taught me to cherish happiness," he says. "I worked hard to have what I have now. I learned to do everything the best I could. I often rethink what I did at the end of the day, to see how I can improve tomorrow." Like the booming, striving nation he lives in, Zhou's future appears bright. It's the past he is trying to figure out. with reporting by Chengcheng Jiang / Shanghai This article originally appeared in the November 22, 2010 issue of TIME Asia.

Rooney begins long road to redemption Thu Nov 25 09:02AM In the city where Alex Ferguson grew up, the Manchester United manager will now be hoping he has seen his star striker born again. Wayne Rooney made his first start for United in two months but, with all that has gone on in that time, documented fanatically on the tabloid front pages, it feels like a lot longer ago. The days when he was a post-World Cup pariah, let alone scoring for fun and winning every individual award going, seem like moments in the career of a different player altogether. After returning from his Oregon boot camp/sponsor marketing opportunity trimmed down and refreshed, he got the moment he visualised would send him on the road to redemption when he scored the winning penalty against Rangers three minutes from time. United's newly lean, mean, set-piece scoring machine celebrated ecstatically after firing home the spot-kick, which ensured United's progression from Champions League Group C. He may have had a mixed reception upon his return to action at Old Trafford last weekend, but at least he can count on one fan's affection. A pitch invader ran on to the Ibrox turf and leapt on the prostrate Rooney, locking him in an unbreakable embrace not seen on the field of play since Terry Phelan held on to Ray Houghton for dear life at the Giants Stadium in 1994. It is, of course, going to take a lot more than a mediocre performance and one conversion from 12 yards to win over the majority of the United faithful. The expression of his desire to leave the club will not be easily forgotten, not least for the way it highlighted the very real problems the club can expect to have in competing financially with their rivals as long as the Glazers are in charge. At least Rooney is aware enough to reference the fact that he has plenty of work to do if he is going to win back the hearts and minds of United's fans. "Not all the fans are going to want to be singing my name all the time and I fully accept that," he said. "But I have to go out and prove to the fans I am here to stay and I want to work. "Only I can say how I feel, and I know 100 per cent it was nothing to do with money." In purely footballing terms, a return of just two goals from eight games so far this season - both penalties - is a poor one. Rooney now has three matches against teams in the bottom half of the table - Blackburn, West Ham and Blackpool - before a trio of fixtures versus top opposition, in Valencia, Arsenal and Chelsea give way to the Christmas period. Once he has got through those games, we will know a lot more about the effect of Rooney's hiatus. - - - Whilst Rooney has to deal with the heavy weight of expectation, Tottenham continue to exceed those placed upon them in the Champions League. A swaggering 3-0 win over Werder Bremen at White Hart Lane last night has booked them a place in the knockout stage in their first season in the competition. This time two years ago, Harry Redknapp was a month into the Spurs job. The team had just dragged themselves out of the relegation zone after spending the early part of the campaign rooted to the bottom of the table. Now, here they are, through to the knockout stage with a game to spare, qualifying before local rivals Arsenal, who they beat away from home just four days beforehand. Seven of the players who started against Bremen last night were strugglers under Juande Ramos, but now they are playing in a bold and confident manner which has helped transform the club's fortunes. Redknapp has bolstered his reputation to the point where he is now the man everyone - including himself - expects to succeed Fabio Capello in 2012. The latest ploy in the long-running job interview for the FA role, which he seems to be conducting in public, was to give a good old-fashioned rallying cry to Our Boys Down Under. That it was also a little bit of extra promotion for his son's employers, owned by the same media giant that runs the newspaper his own column is printed in, was just a little bonus, of course. However, there is a sting in this Tottenham tale. Redknapp is due in Southwark Crown Court today for a hearing that will determine whether or not he and former Portsmouth colleagues Milan Mandaric and Peter Storrie will face trial for tax evasion next spring. It's a timely reminder of the baggage the man carries with him and, despite the lack of coverage as the media focuses instead on Bale, Modric and co's wonderful European run, the outcome of this hearing could have a major effect on the future of both Spurs and England. If the matter is put to rest today then he can continue to enjoy the upward trajectory his career is on it its latter stages. Should the case rumble on and his team's campaign be affected for the season run-in, however, the FA might be scared off whatever the outcome. Rumours that his ace in the hole is to threaten media silence if the case is taken any further are, at this stage, unconfirmed.

Champions League - Fergie hails Rooney 'courage' Wed, 24 Nov 22:41:00 2010 Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson commended Wayne Rooney's bravery to take the penalty that put his team into the Champions League last 16. In his first start since signing a new contract last month, Rooney stepped up to take an 87th-minute spot-kick that ensured United qualified from Group C, three points clear of Valencia, who also went through after a 6-1 hammering of Bursaspor. "It took a lot of courage to take the penalty kick," Ferguson said on ITV1, before admitting that Rooney was still short of match fitness. "It was not an easy night, he missed a couple of chances but that's what you expect with the rustiness in his game. We are pleased for him. "Every time he scores a goal he wants to celebrate with the fans and players." If United draw or lose by one goal at home to Valencia they would win Group C, although anything more than a one-goal win for the Spanish side would see Los Che top the standings on the head-to-head rule. "We want to go and win the group," Ferguson added. "We've got Valencia at home, we can look forward to that." Rangers boss Walter Smith was unhappy at the manner of defeat, with the penalty awarded for a clumsy tackle by Steven Naismith on Fabio. "Little bit disappointed to lose out to that type of goal. I don't think there was any great intent in Steven Naismith's challenge," Smith said. "We are happy on one respect that we do have European football after Christmas," added Smith, referring to Rangers’ qualification for the Europa League knockout stage.

Premier League - Papers: Why Wilkins was axed Thu, 25 Nov 09:13:00 2010 Former Chelsea assistant manager Ray Wilkins was given his marching orders at Stamford Bridge following a blazing row with the club's top brass, according to this morning's papers. The Daily Express reports that the former England midfielder argued during the summer with Roman Abramovich, and had a further furious bust-up with chief executive Ron Gourlay just two weeks before he was told his contract was not being renewed. Apparently, the row with Gourlay came over the use of substitutes; Wilkins is now suing Chelsea for unfair dismissal. The Champions League victories by Tottenham and Manchester United take up plenty of column inches in this morning's papers - and if all you'd seen were the back pages you'd have thought that Wayne Rooney had taken on Rangers all by himself and still won 10-0. "GeROOnimo," blasts the back page headline in the Daily Mirror, while by The Sun's inside headline is "Och aye the Roo - Life's sweet as Wayne sinks Scots". All good fun - though not exactly representative of a tight match in which United failed to impress and were rescued by the, admittedly, excellent Rooney spot kick. Spurs, meanwhile, were impressive in beating a weakened Werder Bremen, and the papers heap praise on them. "Everyone will fear us now," claims the Daily Express, with the Daily Mirror claiming that, "Spurs are on their way to Wembley." Presumably, they're not referring to a potential FA Cup semi-final against one of their London neighbours. Elsewhere, Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce has apparently been told by the club's new owners to make his side play more entertaining football, according to The Sun. Venky's chairwoman Anuradha Desai seems unaware that her request is a bit like asking the Pope to be a bit less religious, or suggesting to Ferrari engineers that they think about fuel economy a bit more. Then again, she did betray her knowledge of football by saying that Blackburn "should go up in the rankings" - but, in the century which saw McDonalds start selling salads, anything can happen. Desai - and Allardyce - will both be full of Christmas cheer if the top transfer rumour of the day comes off: former Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz could be on his way back to Ewood Park for £4 million in January, according to The Sun. That's £13m less than the sum they sold him to Manchester City for under two years ago. Chelsea's young star Daniel Sturridge could be set for a surprise loan move to Swansea, according to the Daily Mirror. The Swans had originally asked about an emergency loan earlier this week, but Brendan Rodgers is apparently now looking for a longer loan deal, as of January. And finally, the Daily Record reports that the Scottish refereeing saga is set for a few twists today: the paper reports that refs will vote not to back down on their strike threat - but also claim that the Dutch FA have agreed to provide all the officials required to enable this weekend's fixtures to go ahead. Eurosport

Aiyoh !...veri Troublesome leh. Having children abroad? Your country may not want them By Laura MacInnis Laura Macinnis 2 hrs 36 mins ago GENEVA (Reuters) Baby Rachel's dad is Canadian, her mother is Chinese and 14 months after her birth in Beijing she's finally a citizen too...of Ireland. However, Chloe -- who was born a month later in Brussels to Canadian and Algerian parents -- is still stateless. The two girls and their professional parents are confronting the increasingly common problem of securing nationality for children of the more than 200 million people who choose to live, work and study outside of their home countries. Most of the world's estimated 12 million stateless people -- who cannot cross national borders -- are poor, marginalized and live mainly in Kuwait, Nepal, Iraq, Myanmar, Thailand and the former Soviet republics. But Mark Manly, head of the statelessness unit at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that gaps between national citizenship laws have put high-flying professionals around the globe in the same boat as migrants and refugees when it comes to getting passports for their kids. "Far more people live outside their country of nationality than before, and there are more children born to parents of different countries," he said. "We have a lot of situations where the children are not acquiring any nationality at all." Certain countries, including Switzerland, Japan and much of the European Union, do not confer citizenship automatically to babies born on their soil. In such places, expats whose own nationality cannot be transmitted abroad can find themselves with more than the usual dose of new-parent stress. 'FLABBERGASTED' Ian Goldring and his wife Yamina Guidoum, both 43-year-old consultants based in Brussels, were not aware their daughter Chloe would be stateless until after her birth last year in Belgium, where the family of three has been marooned since. Goldring, who was raised in Canada after being born in Bermuda where his Canadian father was working as an accountant, cannot pass on his citizenship because Ottawa changed its laws in 2009 to limit nationality to one generation born abroad. And Guidoum was told that because she is a woman married to a foreign man, she cannot transmit her Algerian citizenship to a child born overseas. That leaves 16-month-old Chloe without a passport and her family confined to Belgium. "I was flabbergasted," Goldring said. "There are things that you could imagine happening in your life, like getting cancer, things that happen to people more or less like you. Having a stateless child is something that never occurred to me." Many countries limit citizenship to a certain number of generations born abroad, though in most cases an exemption is given when a citizen born abroad later resides in the country. Women from Malaysia and Lebanon are also unable to pass on their citizenship abroad, a situation that until recently also applied to mothers from Kenya, Egypt, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Goldring said his family's struggle to get a passport for Chloe has shocked their friends in Brussels and caused extra, undue anxiety in his and Guidoum's initiation to parenthood. "When people think of refugees and stateless people they don't think of Western, educated professionals with an office job," he said. DIFFERENT PASSPORTS Rachel's parents -- Canadian teacher Patrick Chandler and Chinese mother Fiona Zou -- were aghast to discover that because Chandler was born in Libya to Canadian parents and Zou was not married to him at the time of Rachel's birth, neither of their home countries were willing offer citizenship to their tiny tot. Rachel was stateless for 14 months until she acquired Irish nationality through her paternal grandfather, who was born in Ireland and emigrated to Canada four decades ago. "It really did not take long to get Irish citizenship for her, once we realized that it was an option," said the 22-year-old Chandler, who teaches English in Beijing. "I also applied for Irish citizenship for myself, because I figured that it might look strange to some customs officials at an airport when my family travels. They would see a Canadian, a Chinese, and an Irish baby traveling together," he said. Nationality is often the last thing on the mind of couples who fall in love, especially in places with large expatriate communities where international partnerships are common. "When I married my husband I wasn't thinking about the nationality of our children," said a 46-year-old Briton working for an international organization in Geneva, who is trying to secure British nationality for her sons. The official, who requested anonymity, said the fact that she was born in Kenya never crossed her mind as a complication when she and her Belgian spouse started a family in Switzerland. She considers it a cultural and emotional rift not to share her nationality with the boys. "This is something you don't actually stop and think about when you are working as a professional in a highly mobile world. You move to different countries for your career and you don't necessarily look at the practicalities of what that is going to mean," she said. 'DIFFICULT TO PREDICT' The United Nations estimates there are 214 million people currently living outside of their home countries, a large number of whom are workers of child-bearing age. While it is hard to quantify how many professionals abroad are facing nationality trouble, International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy said citizenship laws were not designed for the international life that many professionals today are pursuing. "All kinds of people can fall through the cracks," he said. Several of Manly's colleagues at the UNHCR in Geneva have knocked on his door seeking help with the jigsaw of nationality laws that affect them, including the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. That convention, which has only 37 signatories, states that when a child is ineligible at birth for another nationality, the country where he or she is born must grant them citizenship. The process to seek such recourse, where it applies, can be tricky and parents often need legal help to do so. Philip Turpin, an Oxford-based solicitor, said he and his legal colleagues were receiving increasing numbers of requests for help with citizenship issues from overseas professionals. "Individuals will often sort out their visas and the visas for their families but, when it comes to the birth of a child, different considerations arise," he said. "It is difficult to predict these because every country has its own provisions allowing the passing on of citizenship to children born overseas -- what we call citizenship by descent -- and every country has its own provisions for the acquisition of citizenship by birth." Statelessness rarely arises as a problem in the Americas region, where babies are broadly eligible for citizenship of their country of birth under the legal principle of "jus soli." Calls in the United States to deny nationality to "anchor babies," whose U.S. citizenship at birth can keep their foreign parents in the country, would not necessarily lead to more statelessness overall, Manly said. Requirements that citizenship be passed by descent or blood -- in legal terms, "jus sanguinis" -- are fine when there are policies in place to prevent people from falling through the cracks, he said, pointing to successful programs in Spain. "The U.N. does not say that jus soli or jus sanguinis is better. There needs to be a combination of the two and adequate safeguards in place so that statelessness does not occur on the territory or to the nationals of the country abroad," he said. (Laura MacInnis was born in the United States to Canadian parents and has worked for Reuters in Switzerland since 2006.) (Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Paul Casciato)