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Sports Briefs
Friday, May 15, 2009, Page 5
■ CRICKETB
Delhi charge to top of IPL
Deccan Chargers skipper Adam Gilchrist smashed a rapid-fire half-century, but failed to stop Delhi Daredevils from posting a 12-run win in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday. Delhi scored 173-7 before restricting Deccan to 161, despite Gilchrist’s 33-ball 64, to boost their chances of qualifying for the semi-finals. Delhi lead the eight-team competition with 16 points from 10 matches. Gilchrist went for his shots from the beginning, hitting seamer Ashish Nehra for four boundaries in the opening over. He cracked five sixes and as many fours before inside-edging seamer Pradeep Sangwan’s delivery on to his stumps. Andrew Symonds kept the momentum with a 22-ball 41, before seamer Rajat Bhatia (4-15) triggered a dramatic collapse that saw Deccan lose their last seven wickets for just 12 runs. Dinesh Karthik earlier helped Delhi set a stiff target with a 23-ball 44 not out, including 18 runs off the last five deliveries from Sri Lanka pace man Chaminda Vaas. Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan set the pace, plundering 24 runs in an over from pace man Shoaib Ahmed. He cracked one six and seven fours in his 18-ball 37, before being caught by Ravi Teja in the deep off Symonds. South Africa’s A.B. de Villiers scored a 36-ball 44.
■CYCLING
Menchov wins fifth stage
Russia’s Denis Menchov won the 125km fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday, while Lance Armstrong slipped back after a punishing mountain climb. Rabobank rider Menchov pulled away on the final straight and although LPR’s Danilo Di Luca had no energy to respond, the Italian clung on to take second spot and seize the race lead. Sweden’s Thomas Lovkvist, who held the pink jersey, finished third. Seven-times Tour de France winner Armstrong found the stage tough and is 3 minutes, 34 seconds back in 22nd place overall.
■SOCCER
Van Gaal gets Bayern job
German giants Bayern Munich confirmed on Wednesday that Dutch coach Louis van Gaal will take over as head coach on July 1 having signed a two-year contract to replace Jurgen Klinsmann. Having led AZ Alkmaar to the Dutch title this season, the 57-year-old has signed a deal with the Bundesliga champions, ending weeks of speculation over whether or not he would succeed Klinsmann, who was fired on April 27.
■SOCCER
Gremio into quarter-finals
Strikers Jonas and Herrera scored either side of halftime to lead Gremio to a 2-0 win over Peru’s San Martin and into the Copa Libertadores quarter-finals on Wednesday. Jonas opened the scoring in the 17th minute when he headed in a corner by midfielder Tcheco. Herrera, who replaced Jonas in the second half, sealed the win in the 74th minute after gathering a perfectly placed pass from fellow forward Maxi Lopez.
■BASKETBALL
King James heads All-NBA
LeBron James was a unanimous selection to the All-NBA first team on Wednesday, after leading Cleveland to a team-best regular-season record and a pair of playoff sweeps of the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks. James was put on the first team on every ballot of 122 sportswriters and broadcasters who regularly cover the league. Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant finished second in voting, making the first team on 119 ballots, while Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat and Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks rounded out the first team.
■YEMEN
Media crackdown intensifies
Police stormed the office of the country’s leading daily newspaper on Wednesday, opening fire and wounding three workers as the government escalated its crackdown on media it accused of stoking unrest in the south. Hesham Bashrahel, editor-in-chief of Al-Ayyam daily, said police surrounded the two-story building housing his newspaper office. They also formed a cordon around his nearby home, he said. The move early on Wednesday followed a concerted government crackdown on the press, which officials said had stoked unrest in the south and fueled sometimes violent protests by residents there demanding separation from the north.
■DENMARK
Off with veils on the bus
Observant Muslim women will have to remove their face veils when their travel passes are being checked, one of the country’s leading transport operators Arriva said on Wednesday. Bus companies have introduced the rule after two incidents where Arriva drivers refused to allow passengers wearing the face veil, or niqab, to travel on their buses. “All bus companies have recently come to an agreement on this point as it is normal that passengers holding photo travel passes should identify themselves to the driver or the conductor,” Arriva spokesman Martin Wex said. Those passengers who refuse to show their faces will be forced to buy another ticket to get on board, he said.
■SPAIN
Susi the elephant depressed
Susi, the only elephant at the Barcelona zoo, lives in a small pen, has lost her best friend and is said to be depressed. But now someone has come to her aid — not a fairy godmother or even a princess, but a queen. An animal rights group said Queen Sofia was asking Barcelona City Hall to move Susi, who is 36, to a larger space, perhaps at a safari-style park. The Foundation for the Adoption, Sponsorship and Defense of Animals said on Wednesday that it wrote to the Royal Palace in February and the queen promised to intervene.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Hearse hot-wired
A British funeral director said on Tuesday that one of her colleagues was forced to hot-wire a hearse last year after a rival undertaker stole the keys during a funeral service. Irene Jessop said the coffin of Patricia Thorburn was being carried out from the Salvation Army citadel in Middlesborough when staff members realized the keys had been stolen from the ignition of the vintage Rolls Royce hearse. She said that the move had effectively trapped mourners in the parking lot outside the citadel because the hearse was blocking the exit.
■KENYA
Aristocrat jailed for shooting
The heir to the most famous white settler family was sentenced to a further eight months in jail yesterday for shooting a black poacher in a case that has highlighted land and race tensions in the east African country. Tom Cholmondeley, grandson of Lord Delamere who came to Kenya from Britain a century ago, was found guilty of manslaughter in the 2006 shooting of Robert Njoya on the family’s vast ranch. At Kenya’s High Court, Justice Muga Apondi said he was giving a “light” punishment given that Cholmondeley had been imprisoned for three years already, and had tried to help Njoya with first aid and transport to hospital. Cholmondeley, 40, will serve the eight months in jail despite the fact he has already been in a Nairobi prison since mid-2006.
■UNITED STATES
Palin to write memoirs
Alaskan Governor and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is to write a book of memoirs, publishers HarperCollins said on Wednesday. The book, due to appear early next year, will describe her overnight rise from obscure governor to Senator John McCain’s running mate and her party’s popular, but polarizing cheerleader. “Governor Palin is one of the most charismatic, inspiring and controversial figures to appear on the national political stage for many years,” HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray said. “She has a fascinating story to tell.”
■UNITED STATES
Menus must show calories
Massachusetts is expected to unveil the toughest restaurant menu labeling rules in the US on Wednesday, requiring fast-food chains to list how many calories are in the food they sell in a bid to combat obesity. The state’s Public Health Council is expected to vote on Wednesday on regulations making fast-food chains list the calorie counts of their food on their menus and menu boards.
■UNITED STATES
‘Titantic’ survivor gets funds
Titanic stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and director James Cameron have responded to a challenge and donated US$30,000 to support the last survivor of the Titanic in her last years, a representative for DiCaprio said on Monday. The survivor, 97-year-old Millvina Dean, has reportedly resorted to selling her autograph to pay her nursing home bills in Southampton, the English city from which the Titanic began its fateful maiden voyage in 1912. Dean was only nine weeks old when her family traveled on the Titanic in hopes of beginning a new life in the US. Her father was one of the 1,517 casualties after the ship hit an iceberg. DiCaprio, Winslet and Cameron made their combined US$30,000 donation after Irish author and photographer Don Mullan publicly challenged them to match his donation.
■GUATEMALA
Teenager kills brother
A teenage member of a violent street gang killed his younger brother for belonging to a rival group, police said on Friday. Hector Mazariegos, 18, who belongs to the Mara 18 gang, shot dead his 13-year-old brother Cesar, a member of the rival Mara Salvatrucha, outside the house they shared in a dangerous run-down district of Guatemala City. The younger brother wounded his sibling.
■UNITED STATES
Obama nomination blocked
Republicans in the Senate have blocked for the first time a department nomination by President Barack Obama. His pick for the No. 2 job at the Department of the Interior failed because of a dispute over oil leases in Utah. In a 57-39 Senate vote on Wednesday, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes they needed to advance the nominee. David Hayes is an environmental lawyer picked by Obama to serve in the spot. Senator Bob Bennett led Republican opposition to the nomination after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled oil and gas leases in Bennett’s home state of Utah.
■PERU
Gay police not allowed
Lima said on Wednesday it would ban homosexuals from serving as police. The new rules cover homosexuals and those engaged in extra-marital affairs. They indefinitely suspend “police officers who have sexual relations with people of the same gender and because of their actions cause scandal, or denigrate the institution’s image.”
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