February 2012


Pavel Pogrebnyak
A fifth red card of the season for a QPR player at Loftus Road ensured Hoops manager Mark Hughes suffered defeat against his former club Fulham.
Pavel Pogrebnyak gave Fulham the lead following Moussa Dembele's wonder pass.
And Rangers were reeling when debutant Samba Diakite was dismissed for a second yellow card in the 32nd minute.
Paddy Kenny was the busier goalkeeper - notably saving from Danny Murphy - though QPR might have snatched a point when Shaun Wright-Phillips shot wide.
Defeat means Hughes' side have picked up just four points from a possible 18 since the Welshman took over from Neil Warnock in January.
It was a miserable afternoon for the former Blackburn and Manchester City manager, who left the Cottagers in 2011 after just one season in charge.
The result underlined Fulham manager Martin Jol's pre-match assertion that his club have a greater Premier League stature than Rangers.

QPR are in deep trouble after another home defeat. They always had a mountain to climb after the sending off of Samba Diakite, who looked a little naive and has a lot to learn in the Premier League.
The game was never out of reach but QPR did not do enough to test Fulham, who looked like the more competent Premier League side.
QPR proved more competitive as a team after Diakite's dismissal - he was red-carded after picking up a second yellow card for fouling Bryan Ruiz - with Fulham enjoying plenty of possession, but failing to capitalise on their numerical advantage.
For swathes of the second half it was hard to remember Kenny making a save, though in the closing stages gaps did begin to appear in the home side's defence with substitute Dickson Etuhu running clear only to shoot wide.
In the first half, Kenny had made an important block to push away Danny Murphy's shot as Fulham threatened to give their neighbours a second mauling following their 6-0 win over QPR at Craven Cottage earlier in the season.
Andy Johnson scored a hat-trick in that game and, returning to the Fulham side for the first time since 27 January, he flicked a header past Kenny into the net only to be ruled offside.
Dembele was at the heart of Fulham's good work in an impressive start and it was his backheel that created Pogrebnyak's goal.
With his back to goal there seemed little danger but the Belgian international's vision and technique ensured the ball put the Russian international in the clear, with Pogrebnyak letting Kenny go to ground before rolling his shot into the net.
Ruiz and Clint Dempsey were also prominent in those early Fulham attacks and the United States international almost added a second after a run and shot.
Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer was tested just once in the first half, saving well from a Wright-Phillips shot and then reacting quickly to block Bobby Zamora's follow-up, though the QPR striker had strayed offside.
Schwarzer did not have much to do in the second half, though he held his ground well to narrow the angle when Wright-Phillips spurned a late chance to draw level.

Yen notes There are fears that losses at the firm may run into billions of dollars
Japan's financial watchdog has told an investment firm to halt its operations on suspicion that it has lost most of the $2.3bn (£1.5bn) funds it manages.
Operations at AIJ Investment Advisors, which manages group pension funds for more than a hundred firms, have been suspended for a month.
It came after reports in Japan alleged that the firm may have covered up losses for years.
Authorities said they would also probe all other investment firms in Japan.
"The Financial Services Agency (FSA), together with the labour ministry, will take every possible step to prevent this kind of incident from happening again," said Shozaburo Jimi, the head of the FSA.
'Very difficult' The report has taken analysts and industry watchers by surprise.
"It is very difficult to understand how they were able to hide all these losses," Yuuki Sakurai of Fukuko Capital Management told the BBC.
"They should have had accounting firms checking all their balance sheets."
At the same time, analysts said that investment firms also provided their clients with reports of how and where their money had been invested.
Financial regulators have been examining the books of AIJ Investment Advisors since January.
They now say most of the $2.3bn in pension funds it manages is missing - one of the biggest scandals of its kind in Japan.
AIJ manages pension schemes for more than a hundred small and medium sized Japanese companies.
It attracted clients by offering what it said was stable profits from stock options trading.
Japanese pension funds have traditionally been invested mostly in safe but low yielding bonds.
But more than a fifth of the population is now over the age of sixty-five and some funds have been diversifying to try to increase returns.
They said it was difficult to believe that none of the firm's clients has raised any concerns.
"It is a case of negligence at various different levels," Mr Sakurai added.
The financial watchdog said that it was still investigating the extent and scale of losses at the firm.
"AIJ cannot explain its asset management situation. The size and cause of the losses are now under investigation," an FSA official told a news conference.
'Will get sorted' The news of AIJ's losses comes just months after another Japanese firm Olympus admitted that it hid $1.7bn in losses for as long as 20 years.
Analysts said that scandals may see changes being made to corporate laws in Japan.
"I am sure this will lead to a review of the checks and balances in place," said Gerhard Fasol of EuroTechnology.
However, industry experts believe that while these cases have been high-profile and may have raised concerns about corporate governance, it would be unfair to draw too many conclusions about the state of Japan's corporate culture.
"This has nothing to do with Japan's business culture. The reality is that not every person is true and honest," Mr Fasol said.
He added that once the investigations had taken place, those responsible would be held accountable.
"It may take time, but things will get sorted out," he said.

Tim Cook Apple chief executive Tim Cook is "thinking very deeply" about cash reserve
Apple shareholders are to be given a greater say in selecting the firm's board of directors.
It comes after the company agreed to change its governance rules. In future directors will have to win the backing of the majority of shareholders to win a seat on the board.
Previously investors could only object by withholding their vote.
The change of policy came after a campaign by Calpers, the largest US public-sector pension fund.
Almost 80% of firms in the S&P 500 stock index now operate a similar policy.
Apple announced the change at the first annual gathering of shareholders since the death of co-founder Steve Jobs.
Chief executive Tim Cook also repeated that he had been "thinking very deeply" about what to do with the company's large reserve of funds.
Shareholders are keen for Apple to deploy some of the $98bn (£62bn) it holds in cash and shares.

Kevin Rudd said Julia Gillard has lost the trust of the Australian people
Kevin Rudd has confirmed he will stand against Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Monday's Labor Party leadership ballot.
He would ''restore the trust'' of the Australian people that she had lost, he told a news conference in Brisbane.
Ms Gillard, who ousted him as prime minister in June 2010, called the vote following weeks of speculation that he would challenge her for the top job.
Speaking in Melbourne after Mr Rudd, she asked colleagues for support, stressing she was the right choice.
The ballot is to be conducted at 10:00 on Monday (23:00 GMT Sunday). It follows weeks of infighting over the leadership.
Mr Rudd resigned as foreign minister late on Tuesday, prompting Ms Gillard to call the leadership ballot a day later.
'Finish the job' Mr Rudd won the 2007 election by a landslide and remains popular in opinion polls.

KEVIN RUDD

  • Member of the Australian Labor Party, first elected to parliament in 1998
  • Became leader of the Labor party in 2006
  • Served as 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007-2010
  • Ousted by deputy Julia Gillard on 24 June 2010
  • Recalled to cabinet as foreign minister 14 Sept 2010
  • Resigned as foreign minister on 21 February 2012
"I want to finish the job the Australian people elected me to do when they elected me to become prime minister," he said, speaking to reporters in Brisbane just hours after returning from the United States.
He called for a ''truly secret'' ballot on Monday and also said that if he failed to win the majority vote from his colleagues, he would go to the backbenches.
''I will not challenge Julia a second time; I will continue to work for my community,'' he said.
He focused on the importance of beating opposition leader Tony Abbott in the next election in 2013. ''Beating Mr Abbott is vital. Beating Mr Abbott is doable,'' he said.
Ms Gillard, meanwhile, asked voters to look at her record.
''Australians can have trust in me that I am the person to get things done,'' she said, referring to Mr Rudd's remark that her leadership had eroded the trust of the people.
She also stressed that she had worked on ''hard reforms'' in her time as prime minister.
''Talk is easy, getting things done is harder and I'm the person to get things done,'' she said.
Numbers game The Labor Party is struggling to retain voter support and Ms Gillard's popularity has been slipping in opinion polls. She leads a minority government that relies on support from independents to get its legislation through.

JULIA GILLARD

  • Member of the Australian Labor Party, first elected to parliament in 1998
  • Became the 13th deputy prime minister in 2007
  • Served as Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Education from 2007 to 2010
  • Ousted Kevin Rudd and became Australia's first female prime minister in June 2010
Mr Rudd emphasised that his polling figures had remained consistently higher than those of the Gillard-led administration.
But he refused to address a question on the exact number of supporters he had among his party colleagues.
He said he was encouraged by the support, adding that some of his colleagues were ''working on those numbers''.
Political observers say currently Ms Gillard appears to have the support of at least two-thirds of the 103-member Labor caucus.
She said the leadership ballot was not a popularity poll like ''an episode of Celebrity Big Brother''.
"The choice that my colleagues will make on Monday is about who should be prime minister of this nation,'' she said.
"It's a choice about who has got the strength, the temperament, the character and the courage to lead this nation."

Afghan demonstrators shout anti-US slogans during a protest against Koran desecration in Herat on 24 February Official apologies from Nato and the US have failed to cool anger on the streets
Part of a UN compound in the Afghan city of Kunduz has been set alight amid fresh protests against the burning of the Koran by US soldiers.
Four people were killed and dozens injured in clashes in the city, according to local doctors. Three more people were killed in the southern province of Logar.
More than 20 have died since the protests began on Tuesday.
On Friday Nato's Afghanistan commander Gen John Allen had appealed for calm.
US personnel apparently inadvertently put the books into a rubbish incinerator at Bagram air base, near Kabul.
'Bloody clothes' A group of 500 demonstrators attacked police defending the UN compound with stones, metal sticks and sharp objects, the deputy chief of police in northeastern Kunduz province said.
"Then warning shots were fired. But they refused our warnings," he added.
Eyewitnesses reported gunfire in the city and several buildings being set alight.
"The demonstrators have burned several shops and part of a government building", a shopkeeper in Kunduz told the BBC.
"[There is] a lot of gunfire going on. There is chaos. I have seen a lot of people with bloody clothes and bodies", he said.
The governor's house in Laghman province also came under attack on Saturday.
Afghan protesters gesture towards police in Kabul on 24 February Friday saw the worst violence yet in the continuing unrest
Eyewitnesses reported seeing smoke coming out of one of the building's security towers set alight by demonstrators.
Elite Afghan forces then arrived to secure the compound.
Doctors at Laghman hospital told the BBC that 21 people had been injured, two of them critically.
Police had detained 17 armed men from among the demonstrators in Laghman, the provincial governor Mohammad Iqbal Azizi told reporters.
Demonstrations were also reported by police and government officials in Paktia, Nangarhar and Sari Pul provinces.
'Major error' Friday was the deadliest day of unrest so far. At least 12 people were killed across the country as mobs charged at US bases and diplomatic missions.
Eight of the deaths reported on Friday were in western Herat province, which had seen little unrest previously.
Earlier on Friday, Gen Allen called on "everyone throughout the country - Isaf [International Security Assistance Force] members and Afghans - to exercise patience and restraint as we continue to gather the facts".
"Working together with the Afghan leadership is the only way for us to correct this major error and ensure that it never happens again," he said in a statement.
US President Barack Obama has also apologised for the Koran-burning incident.
In a letter to his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, Mr Obama said the books had been "unintentionally mishandled".
Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.
On Thursday the Taliban had called on Afghans to attack "invading forces" in revenge for "insulting" the Koran.
Last year, at least 24 people died in protests across Afghanistan after a hardline US pastor burned a Koran in Florida.


Former South Africa President Nelson Mandela has undergone a "diagnostic procedure" in hospital, but his life is not in danger, officials say.
Mr Mandela was treated for a long-standing abdominal complaint and is expected to be released from hospital by Monday, a government statement said.
The anti-apartheid icon, 93, is comfortable and "fully conscious", the statement said.
His health has declined in recent years and he rarely appears in public.
As the country's first black president after a history of white minority rule, the BBC's Andrew Harding in Johannesburg says Mr Mandela occupies a special place in the hearts of South Africans.
The statement from President Jacob Zuma's office said: "The doctors are satisfied with his [Mr Mandela's] condition, which they say is consistent with his age.
"He was in good health before admission in hospital but doctors felt the complaint needed a thorough investigation."
The presidency asked for his family to be given privacy.
Last time it was a mess. When Nelson Mandela was hospitalised for an acute respiratory infection in January 2011, the authorities here responded to the intense public interest with long silences, conflicting information and deep resentment towards most local and international media.
Since then, a more streamlined information system seems to have been put in place, with the South African presidency playing the role of gatekeeper - not an easy task given the broad range of organisations, officials and family members tied to the frail 93-year-old.
It is a hard balance to strike - between the obvious need to respect the privacy of Mr Mandela and his family, the protective instincts of many South Africans towards their revered icon, and the genuine desire of so many people around the world for information about the health of the anti-apartheid hero.
This time the presidency has been ahead of the social media rumours that fuelled much of the confusion in 2011, but the instinct to deny, rather than to say "no comment" remains strong, and as before, impatient and contradictory speculation has started to emerge.
The statement did not say which hospital he had been admitted to but there are suggestions it was a military hospital in the capital, Pretoria.
Journalists waiting outside one hospital were earlier told to move away or face arrest.
'Epitome of health' Mr Mandela had returned to Johannesburg last month from his rural home in the Eastern Cape and in January last year, he received treatment in the city's Milpark hospital for a serious chest infection.
"I can assure you that the former president is in good spirits and well," said Mac Maharaj, a spokesman for Mr Zuma.
"This was a long-standing complaint - nothing that cropped up suddenly and needed emergency attention," said Mr Maharaj, who was in prison in Robben Island with Mr Mandela.
"But it is an issue that the doctors treating him felt needed specialist attention, and so arrangements were made accordingly."
He would not confirm reports that Mr Mandela had undergone overnight surgery for a hernia, and appealed for "co-operation from the public and the media so we manage this thing properly".
The statesman's eldest granddaughter said she was not immediately concerned about his health.
"I don't see it as a big thing. When I saw him on Wednesday, he was in good spirits, in perfect health, and the epitome of health really for a man of his age," Ndileka Mandela told the AFP news agency.
"Grandad rebounded from his illness last year. I don't see any reason why this should be any different."

Mandela's key dates

  • 1918 - Born in the Eastern Cape
  • 1944 - Joined African National Congress
  • 1962 - Arrested, convicted of sabotage, sentenced to five years in prison
  • 1964 - Charged again, sentenced to life
  • 1990 - Freed from prison
  • 1993 - Wins Nobel Peace Prize
  • 1994 - Elected first black president
  • 1999 - Steps down as leader
  • 2001 - Diagnosed with prostate cancer
  • 2004 - Retires from public life
  • 2010 - Appears at closing ceremony of World Cup
Nobel prize
Andrew Harding says the government is clearly keen to control the flow of information, after previous alerts about the former leader's health became the subject of much speculation.
Mr Mandela retired from public life eight years ago - his last public appearance was at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner is affectionately known in South Africa by his clan name, Madiba.
He spent 27 years in prison for his fight against white minority rule before being released in 1990.
In 1994, he became South Africa's first black president, stepping down in 1999 after one term.

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