Tiger Woods is ready for Presidents Cup, says Stricker

Greg Norman was way off base when he criticized captain Fred Couples for naming Tiger Woods to the U.S. Presidents Cup 2011 squad, according to Woods’ teammate, Steve Stricker.

"I’m for it. I think it’s a good thing," Stricker, a Wisconsin native, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an article published Sunday. "I don’t know why Greg said what he did. He did basically the same thing with Adam Scott a couple years ago when Adam wasn’t playing well. It kind of turned Adam's game around. So I don’t know where that came from."

Norman, skipper of the International team that will meet the U.S. in next month’s competition in Australia, recently dissed Couples for making the winless and oft-injured Woods a wild-card pick. He was hardly alone in questioning Couples’ judgment, as Capt. Fred has heard it from all sides for choosing the former ace over PGA champ Keegan Bradley.

Stricker, however, believes Woods will more than rise to the occasion, as he so often has.

"I think it’s great," Stricker said. "I talk to Tiger through texting every now and then. He’s really excited. We’re looking forward to it.

"I think he’ll be ready, too. He’ll find a way to get it done," added Stricker, who paired with Woods for a 4-0 run through the 2009 Presidents Cup and notched a 2-1 record with him when they partnered during last year’s Ryder Cup. "When you play him one on one, he’ll find a way. Just like at the Ryder Cup last year. He trounced the guy he was playing [Francesco Molinari of Italy, 4 and 3, in singles]. He loves match play."

While Woods has apparently recovered from his most recent leg injuries, Stricker is still dealing with his own physical woes. Weakness in his left arm from a herniated disk in his neck caused him to withdraw after two rounds of the BMW Championship in September, but he played the following week and finished 15th in the FedEx Cup finale Tour Championship.

Stricker said his neck was better, thanks to work with a chiropractor and "rest, traction, and strengthening exercises," according to the Sentinel, which noted he may eventually undergo surgery to repair the disk. While Bradley remained a long shot to make the trip Down Under should Stricker be unable to play, a long-time friend of Stricker’s told us recently that nothing would keep the world’s fourth-ranked golfer from playing in the Presidents Cup.

Stricker confirmed that sentiment with the Sentinel. "My arm would have to be falling off for me not to play," he said.

Scott, by the way, did not do much for his ’09 Presidents Cup team, going 1-4-0. But he was able to build on the confidence Norman showed in him by coming out strong the following season. After making just nine cuts in 19 events in 2009, Scott posted one win, seven top-10 finishes, and made 14 cuts in 18 events in his 2010 PGA Tour season.

It would be difficult for Woods to perform any better at this year’s Presidents Cup than he did last time around, but he has a long way to go to rebound in the regular 2012 season as Scott did in 2010. Woods missed only three of 21 cuts in the past two seasons, but he’s plummeted from No. 1 in the world golf rankings to No. 56 and has only four top 10s since his six-win season in 2009.

Source from : Waggle Room

Lionel Messi Leads World Player Award Candidates

Lionel Messi has to be seen as the favorite for the World Player of the Year award after the list of 23 candidates was released.

Messi has won the award the past two seasons and could face the stiffest challenge from his illustrious teammates at Barcelona. Seven Barca players other than Messi have been named to the award’s shortlist.

The other Barca players on the list include Eric Abidal, Dani Alves, Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta, David Villa, Xavi, and Gerard Pique. Pique, Abidal, and Alves were the only defenders named to the list.

Real Madrid added five players to the list, bringing the Spanish giants combined total of players to 12, over half the candidates. Cristiano Ronaldo, Iker Casillas, Karim Benzema, Mesut Ozil, and Xabi Alonso are the five that made it for Los Blancos. Casillas is the only nominated goalkeeper.

Champions League runner-up Manchester United produced a pair for the list. Portugal star Nani finds his way onto the list following a breakout season. He is joined by re-emerged star Wayne Rooney for the Red Devils. Rooney is the only England player nominated, a year after England produced zero finalists.

Rounding out the list is Manchester City sensation Sergio Aguero, Uruguayans Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez, Thomas Muller and Bastian Schweinsteiger of Germany, starlet Neymar, and Dutch star and Manchester United rumor king Wesley Sneijder.

Source from :  Rant Sports

Messi looks for 200th Goal with Barca

Barcelona could seal their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League on Tuesday night when they travel to Viktoria Plzen, where Lionel Messi could also reach the 200-goal mark for the Catalan club.

A Barca victory in the Czech Republic combined with anything other than a win for BATE Borisov over AC Milan in the other Group H match would see the reigning champions secure their berth in the next phase.

Pep Guardiola's men are level on seven points with leaders AC Milan heading into the fourth round of fixtures, with BATE and Plzen propping up the group with just one point apiece.

Barca sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta said just prior to his side's departure for Prague on Monday: "Before the group stage, the first objective was to qualify. The second objective is to be first, but the most important thing is to get through and be in the draw for the last 16. So a win will mean we can relax a little."

Zubizarreta is not expecting it to be easy at Eden Stadium though, recalling the first meeting between the two sides at the Nou Camp where Barca needed a late goal from David Villa to seal a 2-0 win.

He added: "The fans there create a lot of pressure. And our opponents have a challenge, which is to beat Barca, something which puts you on the map.

"Viktoria showed us that they are not a team who get daunted, they take risks and they look to create chances. We had a lot of chances in the Nou Camp, but that didn't scare them much either."

The first meeting between the two sides saw Messi - having netted 16 times in his opening 12 competitive matches for Barca this season - draw a rare blank in front of goal, and it sparked a three-match barren run that led to talk of some sort of goalscoring crisis for the Argentina ace.

However, the 24-year-old responded to that with a hat-trick in the opening half-hour of Saturday's 5-0 league defeat of Real Mallorca - his third treble of the season and 13th overall for Barca.

Speaking after the game, Messi said: "It's crazy to say I was in crisis, just because I'd gone three games without scoring."

Messi's latest hat-trick saw him move onto 199 competitive goals for Barca and, having climbed above Laszlo Kubala into second place on the club's all-time scoring list earlier this month, he now has Cesar Rodriguez's record of 235 in his sights.

Zubizarreta said of Messi on Monday: "His value and talent shouldn't be doubted. If we look at things in terms of mistakes, he's the man who makes the fewest in world football right now."

Plzen's hopes of securing a top-two berth in Group H look slim after picking up just a point from their opening three games, which came at home to BATE in round one.

They have been in good domestic form recently though, winning their last three games and scoring 12 goals in the process, and midfielder Milan Petrzela believes that is a handy boost heading into Tuesday's match.

"When you score goals, self-confidence grows and a more confident player certainly helps. You believe in yourself more, plus we have already face them so we know what to expect," said Petrzela, who netted in all three of those victories.

"I think this game will be similar to the one in Barcelona. Barcelona will definitely want to win and will come here with the same tactics. They play their football and it will be very demanding physically (for us)."

Source from : Fox Sports

MotoGP lose Talented Rider , Rest in Peace Simonceli

Honda Gresini MotoGP rider Italian Marco Simoncelli eventually died after a crash at Sepang Circuit, Malaysia, Sunday (23.10.11). Similarly, an official announcement said. "It's official. He's dead. He gave up," said an official from Dorna who is the company's broadcasting rights holder of MotoGP.

Accidents involving Marco Simoncelli, Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi, also makes the Malaysian Grand Prix 2011 season is officially canceled.

At the start of the race, four of Honda rider directly in front after the red light goes out. Stoner, who started from second place, ahead of Pedrosa successful, as the holder of pole position, followed by Andrea Dovizioso, and Simoncelli. Only one lap only, Stoner, who last week had confirmed themselves into MotoGP world champion 2011, already more than 1 second ahead of Pedrosa.

But in the fourth position, said the fight occurred between Simoncelli with Rizla Suzuki rider Alvaro Bautista. They were preceded in some occasions, before the horror accident befall Simoncelli, who was involved in a clash between himself and Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards, and Ducati rider, Valentino Rossi.

Upon entering the second lap in curve 11, Simoncelli crashed and involves the Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards, and Ducati rider, Valentino Rossi.

The accident was caused horror Simoncelli helmet lying on the track with terlepat and he did not move, while Edwards dragged out the tracks and suffered a dislocated shoulder. Meanwhile Rossi survived, being able to control the motor so it only extends to the outer tracks and riding Ducati GP11.1 suffered only minor damage.

After the accident, directly marshal waving a red flag stopped the race mark. However, it seems things could not allow to do this race on Sunday, because the concentration of the condition of the medical team Simoncelli.

Source from : Blogger Maps

Successes Overseas Are Unlikely to Help Obama at Home

President Obama’s announcement that the last American soldiers will leave Iraq by the end of this year capped a momentous week in which he could also take credit for helping dispatch one of the world’s great villains, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

Conventional wisdom holds that none of this will matter to Mr. Obama’s frayed political fortunes, which will be determined by the economy rather than the notches he is piling up on his statesman’s belt.

Yet Mr. Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq — a campaign pledge kept — and the successful NATO air campaign in Libya — with no American casualties, and at a tiny fraction of the cost of Iraq — allowed him to thread a political needle: reaffirming his credentials as a wartime leader while reassuring his Democratic base that he is making good on the promises that got him elected.

This one-two punch may also strengthen the president’s hand against his eventual Republican opponent, according to Mr. Obama’s supporters, by depriving Republicans of a cudgel typically used on Democratic presidents, that they are weak on national security. The swift and fierce criticism of his Iraq decision by the Republican candidates shows how reluctant they are to cede this advantage to him.

“There is an aggregate effect to all the president’s foreign policy successes,” said Bill Burton, a former White House aide who is a senior strategist at Priorities USA Action, a political action committee backing the Obama campaign. “The notion of who is a stronger leader will be deeply influenced by the promises the president kept.”

Mr. Burton said he could foresee television advertisements playing up Mr. Obama’s foreign successes, including the deaths of both Osama bin Laden and Colonel Qaddafi, though he did not say whether his group had made such plans. On Saturday, Mr. Burton circulated a memo to producers of the Sunday talk shows drawing a contrast between the cost of the Iraq war and the lower-cost Libya operation.

Still, there is little doubt the election will be dominated by the economy and the weak job market, where the president is dealing with a steady drip of bad news and scant hope of improvement before Election Day.

A discussion of foreign policy has been largely absent from the debates among the Republican presidential contenders, a striking fact given that the nation is enmeshed in three major military conflicts and that Republicans have historically claimed an edge in national security.

“Foreign affairs is important, but when placed against the scale of the problem with jobs and the economy, it’s dwarfed,” said David Winston, a Republican strategist. “It’s the equivalent of a house on fire: he’s fixing the window while the rest of the house is burning down.”

Karl Rove, a former strategist to President Bush, said, “To the degree Obama tries to suggest he should be re-elected because of foreign policy strength, he looks like he’s dodging the main issue.”

Mr. Obama’s poll numbers also show he is getting little credit for his successes. His approval rating shot up 11 points, to 57 percent, in a New York Times/CBS News survey after he ordered the commando raid in Pakistan that killed Bin Laden in May, but fell back below 50 percent a month later as fears about the economy punctured the euphoria.

Last week’s successes could fade too — if sectarian violence in Iraq flares up after the American troops leave, if Libya becomes another Somalia or if a terrorist group manages to stage an attack on American soil.

“If things go off track in the next year or two, it’s not going to matter what the military successes were,” said David Rothkopf, a foreign policy expert who has written a history of the National Security Council.

Even as former Bush administration officials praised Mr. Obama for the victory in Libya, the Republican presidential candidates were trying to draw attention to the failed talks between the United States and Iraq over legal immunity for a small force of trainers that the Pentagon had wanted to remain.

Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Jon M. Huntsman Jr. and Herman Cain all criticized the president’s decision, with Mr. Romney issuing the most strident condemnation.

Source from : NY Times

Marco Simoncelli Dead After Horror Moto GP Crash

In sad news for the motorsport world, Italian MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli has passed away after a crash at the Malaysian GP.

The crash which claimed the life of promising young rider Marco Simoncelli came just four minutes in to the Malaysian MotoGP.

Simoncelli was aged 24.

In the second lap of the race Simoncelli, who had been fourth placed at the time, lost control of his bike and veered across the track, immediately into the path of his fellow riders.

He was struck by Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards. Edwards was thrown from his bike by the force of collision but escaped serious injury.

Simoncelli lost his helmet in the incident, and lay motionless on the track as medical staff rushed to his aid.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident Australian rider and 2011 champion Casey Stoner spoke of his concern for the rider.

"As soon as I saw the footage, it just makes you feel sick inside," Stoner told BBC2 shortly after the incident.

After being rushed to hospital following the crash, he was listed as in critical condition in early media reports but a little over an hour later it was confirmed that he had passed away from his injuries.

The race was immediately red flagged, and later cancelled as a sign of respect for Simoncelli.

Marco Simoncelli was considered by many to be an up and coming rider in the motorcycle racing world. He was a favorite among fans for his unusual riding style, but this style often contributed to crashes on the track.

Just days before he had spoken with confidence about his chances of winning the races that would in the end claim his life. The Sepang circuit had been the same one in which he had secured his 250cc win in 2008.

After a slow start to the 2010 MotoGP season, his first, Simoncelli managed to a final rank of 8th, ahead of more experienced riders such as Edwards and Capirossi. Up until the Malaysian GP he had been ranked 6th in the 2011 MotoGP season, having reached a career high in the Australian GP, finishing second.

He had previously been the world 250cc Champion in 2008 and third placed rider in the following season, with 12 career wins from 64 starts in the format.

The crash was the first fatal incident in the MotoGP since 2003, when Daijiro Kato was killed following a collision with a wall at up to 120km/h.

Simoncelli's death comes a week after the death of veteran racing driver Dan Wheldon in a 15-car pile up during the IndyCar World Championship.

Source from : Auto Racing

United Nations Says Myanmar Has more Work to Do

Despite positive political developments in Myanmar, the government has a long way to go in addressing human rights concerns, a U.N. official said.

Last week, the government in Myanmar released around 200 prisoners as part of a general amnesty given to an estimated 6,300 detainees.

The release followed an appeal to the government from the head of the state-backed National Human Rights Commission to set free prisoners accused of ordinary crimes so they can participate in "nation-building tasks."

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N. special envoy on human rights in Myanmar, told the U.N. General Assembly that despite the political progress, he was receiving allegations of human rights violations.

"Measures to ensure justice and accountability, including access to the truth, are essential for Myanmar to face its past and current human rights challenges and to move forward toward national reconciliation," he said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch staff members expressed concern about ethnic violence in northern Myanmar. The organization in September said sexual violence and torture against ethnic communities were on the rise in that region.

Quintana said those complaints, along with reports of military forces using prisoners as human shields, showed there was much work to be done in Myanmar.

Source from : UPI.com

Obama Announces End of Iraq War, All Troops Gone by 2012

President Obama announced the complete withdrawal of all remaining troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.

"As a candidate for president I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to an end," the president said Friday, speaking from the White House.

"Today I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops will come home by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over."

Pledging that troops stationed in Iraq will "definitely be home for the holidays," the president praised the more than one million men and women who have served in Iraq since war was declared there in 2003.

"The last American soldiers will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high...that is how American military efforts in Iraq will end," the president said.

He also noted that the end of the war in Iraq would reflect a transition in America's military priorities. "The tide of war is receding," he said.

The drawdown of 100,000 troops from Iraq since Obama took office freed the armed forces to focus on the war in Afghanistan and the fight against al-Qaeda, he said, with results that have been seen in recent months, including the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Obama's remarks came after a morning call with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and followed the breakdown of U.S. efforts to come to an agreement with the Iraqi government about how residual troops in Iraq would be treated if they remained into 2012, according to The Washington Post. Around 150 troops will remain in Iraq to protect the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the paper reported.

Source from : The Atlantic