lersus

Over 2000 pounds of surplus medical and dental supplies and equipment from the recent Vancouver 2010 Winter Games are being provided to earthquake-hit Haiti as part of Olympic Truce legacy, the Games\’ organizers announced Friday.

The first major shipment of supplies will be en route this weekend to Port au Prince, Haiti\’s capital, which was struck by a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12, while the second gradually talking place over the coming weeks and months, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) said in a release.

This is a part of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Truce program and a legacy of the Games, VANOC said. The 2010 Winter Games ran from Feb. 12 to 28, while the Paralympic Games close at March 21.

"With the conclusion of the Games, our legacy is in the things we continue to do that reflect the unity and friendship celebrated in the name of sport and the Olympic Truce," said VANOC CEO John Furlong in the release, adding that the medical supplies could support the people of Haiti as they continue to heal and rebuild.

The donations, about 125,000 CAD in value, include a wide assortment of soft goods and surgical instruments ranging from bandages and suture kits to orthotic knee braces. They will be delivered to Canadian Medical Assistance Teams who have been providing medical support in Haiti since the earthquake.

Source: Xinhua

The medical staff at the Atletico-MG soccer team said on Sunday that Obina will need to undergo corrective surgery after he suffered a torn ligament in his left ankle during his team\’s 6-0 victory over Chapecoense on March 31.

"Unfortunately, Obina\’s left ankle is severely injured. The MRI confirmed that he ruptured his lateral ligaments. He will spend the next couple of days receiving special treatment on his ankle. Then, he will undergo corrective surgery to re-connect his ligaments. After his surgery, which is expected to take place on Tuesday, he will need three months to fully recuperate," said team\’s head doctor Rodrigo Lasmar.

Obina\’s injury came in the 1st minute of play in last Wednesday\’s match. The Chapecoense fullback, Rodrigo, entered in a dangerous slide tackle that wiped-out Obina\’s feet, but pined his left ankle on the grass, causing it to roll to outside.

Immediately after being taken off the field with a gurney, Obina was sent to the local hospital in Belo Horizonte. Initial x-rays showed that he did not break his ankle. Further studies were made on Saturday, taking an MRI to better observe the area. After an in-depth reading of the study, the team doctors said on Sunday the severity of his injury and the necessity to operate.

Atletico-MG will surely miss his presence as Obina has led his team in goals scored this year with 11. The good news for the club is that games in the 2010 Brazilian Championship will be paused during this year\’s World Cup. Obina is expected to return once the World Cup concludes in mid July. Enditem

Source: Xinhua

Atletico Madrid striker scored the opening goal of his side\’s 2-0 win at home to Athletic Club Bilbao on Thursday night and then criticized his club\’s fans for their attitude towards him.

Forlan celebrated his goal with gestures of irritation towards the fans, who had earlier booed him and the team in a first half in which Atletico was outplayed by the visitors.

"I am annoyed because of what you sometimes feel out on the pitch for our situation. Sometimes the people have short memories and that is annoying," said the Uruguayan, who was last season\’s top scorer in Spain with 32 league goals.

"You always try and do the best you can and I always give everything," added the striker who has scored 14 goals this campaign on Spanish TV Station – La Sexta. Although Atletico has been inconsistent in the Primera Liga this campaign, he reminded supporters that the season has been far from a disaster.

"We have reached the final of the Copa del Rey and we are going to play the quarter-finals of the Europa League against Valencia. It is not easy to play in three major competitions and do well in the league as well. We have not got a big squad and we have suffered injuries and suspensions. It is not easy to play on three fronts," insisted Forlan.

Finally Forlan admitted he had one ambition for Sunday\’s derby: to finally beat rivals Real Madrid.

"I have never won against them in all of the time I have been at this club. I have drawn against them playing for Atletico, but I have also lost," he said.

Source: Xinhua

In the last round of the second half of the Rio de Janeiro state championship, Vasco da Gama won in dramatic fashion on Sunday and secured their presence in the semifinals.

Beating Duque de Caxias 4-3, Vasco da Gama\’s interim head coach Gaucho achieved his third-straight victory and now leads his team into the playoffs.

After a long dry spell on the field, Vasco da Gama\’s Dodo returned to have a good game. With his two goals, he propelled his team to victory and a well-deserved spot in the semifinals.

Nearly two weeks ago, the team fired head coach Vagner Mancini, giving space for assistant coach Gaucho to lead the team.

The match was highly competitive. Duque de Caxias scored the game\’s first goal in the 15th minute. Junior slammed a stopped ball through the hands of Vasco\’s goalkeeper Fernando Prass.

Vasco da Gama quickly responded. In the 16h minute, Fagner took a shot on goal from well outside of the pentalty box that bent its way into the upper right corner of goalkeeper Getulio Vargas\’ net.

The team scored once more before halftime. In the 22nd minute, Leo Gago passed the ball off to Elton who then spun around the defense and fired the ball into the back of the goal.

Vasco da Gama extended their lead in the 50th minute when Dodo received the ball at the front of the Duque de Caxias goal. Dodo waited for the goalkeeper to make a move. Once Getulio Vargas approached, Dodo quickly lofted the ball over his head and into an empty goal.

Duque de Caxias responded by scoring two consecutive goals, tying the match at 3-3. Junior scored in the 56th minute, sending a stopped ball past Prass and into the left corner of the goal. Again, in the 63rd minute the home team scored when Marcelo recieved the ball unmarked and dribble his way towards the goal, sliding the ball past Prass.

Dodo would reappear to score his second goal of the match. In the 77th minute, the striker received a great heal pass from Elton, leaving him wide-open in the front of the net. Dodo dominated the ball and blew it past an approaching Vargas, scoring the game-winning goal.

"I am happy to be back to normal and help the team. I went through a bad phase, but I am slowly crawling out of my slump. It is great to return to be an important part of the team," celebrated Dodo.

The win takes Vasco da Gama to 15 points in Group B. In second place, the team will face the first place team of Group A Flamengo on April 11 in a single game elimination semifinals showdown.

Source: Xinhua

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was delighted at seeing his side win 1-0 in Mallorca\’s ONO stadium on Saturday night.

A 62nd minute goal from Zlatan Ibrahimovich meant Barcelona is only the second team to have won in Mallorca all season and the three points took Barcelona ahead of Real Madrid at the top of the BBVA Primera Liga table.

Guardiola\’s side rode its luck in the first period, when Mallorca twice hit the woodwork but produced an impressive display in the second period to assure the points.

"I hope the team sees this is the way forward," said Guardiola on the club website on Sunday morning. "The tone of the team was great. We were very intense and the players took a lot fewer touches tonight. We are used to just steamrollering others and that\’s why their attitude tonight was so good," he said.

The win was even more impressive given that Leo Messi, who has scored 11 goals in his last six games, started on the substitutes\’ bench.

"It\’s never good to have to rest Leo, but he was very tired after the game against Osasuna the other day. He came on for half an hour and gave us a lot without getting tired. He\’s more than vital to us, but we need others to help as well," said the coach.

With Messi rested young wingers Pedro and Jeffren were given a chance to start and Guardiola was delighted with their displays.

"Pedro and Jeffren were very intense and really helped us," he said.

Source:Xinhua

French football great Michel Platini announced on Thursday that he will seek re-election as president of European football\’s governing body UEFA next year.

The 54-year-old Platini beat off the challenge of the sitting president Lennart Johansson of Sweden to be first elected at the position in March 2007.

Platini is regarded as one of greatest French players of all time with the peak of his career coming in the 1980s when he starred as a multi-talented, goal-scoring No.10.

He had spells with Nancy, Saint Etienne and Juventus and won the coveted Ballon d\’Or (European footballer of the Year) three years consecutively — in 1983, 1984 and 1985.

In 1984, he inspired France to the European Championship title on home soil.

Source: Xinhua

Former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic beat French Pauline Parmentier 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday to reach the third round of the WTA and ATP Miami Masters. It was her first win since January.

The Serbian overcame six nervous double-faults, losing serve twice but also breaking twice in the victory.

Ivanovic had stood number one in the world after lifting the Roland Garros trophy in 2008, but she suffered a long time out of form following that career high point and only ranked 58 in the world now.

Her triumph over French qualifier Parmentier was her first in the Miami main draw since winning a second-round contest in 2008 and snapped a four-match losing streak, the longest for Ivanovic since turning professional.

Source: Xinhua

Barcelona\’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic (L) and Thierry Henry react during a news conference at Movenpick hotel in Kuwait City December 20, 2009.  (Xinhua Photo)

FC Barcelona striker Thierry Henry spoke on Sunday about his emotional feelings over returning to face his former club Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Henry spent eight years at Arsenal and was voted the best player in the club\’s history before moving to Barcelona in 2007. This will be the first time he has played against them since his move to the Camp Nou.

"I am very emotional, but also keeping calm. It will be a strange game for me. Before the draw, I said that I did not want to meet Arsenal. That was my wish. It was the one team I did not want for reasons that everyone knows, but that is what happened. Now it is what we have been given and we will have to be at our best," he said with the Barcelona website.

Henry admitted that the fact Arsenal had moved from its old Highbury ground to the Emirates Stadium in 2006 would make his return slightly different.

"It is very special. To return home is strange and even more so in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. It will be different because I spent seven years at Highbury and only one at The Emirates. But to see the people and the fans and to see those who work at the club again will be very strange."

Despite the emotion he felt, Henry promised that he would not hold anything back in front of the fans who had loved him so much

"I spent eight years at Arsenal. It would be like if Xavi left Barca and then returned one day. You prepare yourself, but it is strange. Even so, if I play I will give everything like I always have done," he commented.

Henry said he knows where his responsibilities now lie.

"I know full well that we are going to play in the Champions League, this is the quarter-finals and I know that for the Barca fans it is really important that we reach the final and, if we can, to win it. For Barca supporters it is a dream to go to Madrid and for me it is odd to be facing Arsenal en route to that. But that is how football is," he said.

The striker, who is probably in his final season with Barcelona, also spoke about his memories of playing in London and found it hard to highlight the best moment, although lifting the Premier League title in 2004 stands out. "If I had to choose one moment over all others it was winning the league without losing a single match. In football now, playing against the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool .. there are so many difficult games away from home where anyone can beat you. It is almost impossible and we did it. That will always remain in the record books," he said.

However, he had no doubts in what was the worst moment. "Losing the Champions League final against Barca (2006). That was very hard," he confessed, before admitting he still kept a close eye on his former lcub.

"I am now an Arsenal supporter. I will always be one. When Arsenal play and I can see the game you can be sure to find me in front of a television," he concluded.

Source:Xinhua

France coach Raymond Domenech will name his 23-man squad for the FIFA World Cup South Africa on May 11.

Domenech, who had initially said he was going to announce the squad on May 2, said Monday, "This delay will allow us to minimise risks."

"There are too many games scheduled after May 2 that could result in some injuries," he added.

Source:Xinhua

The religious bracelet on Tiger Woods\’ left arm during his brief television interviews is a fairly common symbol of Buddhism, experts on the faith say.

The two thin bands encircling Woods\’ wrist came up on Sunday, near the end of his interview with Golf Channel reporter Kelly Tilghman. Woods also spoke to ESPN. The interviews were his first since Woods\’ serial infidelity became known late last year and he began undergoing therapy.

Tilghman said she noticed the bracelet and asked what it meant.

"It\’s Buddhist," Woods said, referring to his childhood faith. "It\’s for protection and strength. And I certainly need that,"

Woods explained he had been wearing the bracelet since before he went into treatment and he would wear it during the Masters. Beyond that, he didn\’t discuss its significance or origin.

However, it is common for Buddhists to wear such items as a reminder of their faith, said Jimmy Yu, professor of Buddhist and Chinese Studies at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

"Sometimes Buddhists, when they receive some kind of initiation into a certain practice, especially in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, they would be given a red thread, (to) go around the wrist," said Yu. "It sounds like this is what he was wearing."

Wearing bracelets, necklaces or other reminders of their faith are fairly common for practitioners of Buddhism, Yu said.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of Websites sell Buddhist jewelry, from 24-karat gold Buddha necklaces to simple wooden malas, or prayer beads, that practitioners can use while meditating.

Source: China Daily