Ben Fox, AssociatedPress
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — Leaders of the Commonwealth countries called Saturday for a legally binding international agreement on climate change and a global fund with billions of dollars to help poor countries meet its mandates. “Climate change is the predominant global challenge,” the Commonwealth leaders said in a joint declaration. “For some of us, it is an existential threat.”

Their endorsement of a global fund came a day after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, both attending the meeting in the twin-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, also backed the idea. Brown said Britain would contribute $1.3 billion over three years, but other countries have not yet specified their commitments.

The 53-nation meeting was the largest gathering of international leaders before next month’s global climate summit in Copenhagen. Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, making rare appearances at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) to help drive the climate discussion, portrayed the joint declaration as further evidence of growing momentum for next month’s summit. “I will leave Trinidad fully convinced that it will be possible to reach an ambitious agreement in Copenhagen,” Loekke Rasmussen told reporters after the Commonwealth leaders issued their statement following a private meeting. Some 90 countries have now agreed to attend the summit in Denmark.

The Commonwealth countries, which represent about a third of the world’s population, said in the statement that the members all agreed on the need for an ambitious program to reduce the risks of climate change. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday that his country is willing to sign an ambitious global target. But he set no specific figures and insisted it be accompanied by “equitable burden sharing.” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters progress was being made. “You see as each day passes a large number of states come forward with their own national commitments,” he said.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Liverpool FC has become synonymous with many great legacies over the past century sharing accolades with no other football team in Britain, the greatest of which is the most league titles. We now share that with manure. 

We have been and are THE most revered team in football across all generations. we have more titles than any other, we have had arguably the greatest coaches and the best teams pound-for-pound in almost every era. Without question we haven’t always had the best individual talent, but we have more heart than any other team-throughout our history. 

The Kop was the first and still is the loudest, most creative fan stadia anywhere in football. The Kop was the first to begin such passionate songs and chants that has now become omnipresent in football; and still remains the most passionate section in the world. Players first look towards the Kop on their first trip to Anfield, hoping that what lies there will touch them. Anfield.      

I really believed that this would weight heavily on Rafa’s mind this past season, but if it did, there was no indication. In the annals of Anfield there are many secrets which will never come to light. However, in his desire to win he did try many things and eventually got it right towards the end, by building the team around the redmen with the most heart, namely; Dirk Kuyt, Mascherano, Gerrard, Xabi Alonso, Torres and the incomparable Sami Hyppia. 

Sami’s Impact will be a lasting legacy, no doubt, but I fear there is no one who can continue with his tremendous mental acumen at the back. Hardwork, Speed and Power will have to suffice, but will only take them through 27-30 games without error. How will Rafa address the rest of the games where the mental preparation and more importantly, execution, will make the difference? Who can be brought in with that type of mind? 2009-2010 will be see an unfolding of every legacy that is LFC. 

Somewhere during the nineties we lost our grasp on the intangibles that make Liverpool Football what it is. Finally, I believe, Rafa and the reds now hold on dearly to those, keeping them under the skin and within their hearts and souls. For these past few months–beginning with that 4-0 demolition of Real Madrid and 4-1 repeat against manure–they have seen it clearly, trusted it, embraced it and swallowed the kool-aid that is Liverpool Football. There shall be no turning back.

No-one on this current team wants to come this close so many times during the season and so close at the end and not prevail. Looking back I expect everyman to learn from the lessons of the history making 2008-2009 season, least of which is that we can be our own worst enemy. Everyman KNOWS we can beat everyone, everyman knows we must beat every other team twice in 2009-2010. We shall not settle for anything less. Imagine we had one of our greatest seasons ever whilst NOT doing our best! would you still doubt this is Anfield? would you still doubt this is Liverpool, would you still doubt this the our time? 

This is Anfield. This is Red Football. These are our legacies. Let no one stand in our way lest we shall bring upon them the full might of the Kop, the crushing  weight of Liverpool Football, the spirit of Shankly, the fortitude of Paisley and the genius of Rafa and his band of merry red men.

Lets raise the call to every red man, woman and child, step up and be heard, we are coming. We shall command every territory, claim every accolade and demolish those that stand in our way.

Our championship season begins NOW. #19. 

Do you have any doubt we rule football again?

Liverpool gets ready to host Chelsea at Anfield yet again in the UEFA Champions League. Both teams are full of confidence after coming off English Premier League wins this weekend, with Liverpool 2nd in the table and pushing for their first league title in 19 years, and Chelsea are 3rd in the table just three points behind Liverpool. Manchestes United managed to scrape a last minute win on Sunday against Aston Villa as they get ready to face Porto on Tuesday and sit atop the EPL with a slim one point lead (and a game in hand) over Liverpool going into the final weeks of the 2008/2009 season.

Many believe that Man U will repeat as both League champions and lift the UEFA Champions League cup, making them the favourites in both competitions. They face a resurgent Porto who top the Portugese league and are aiming to repeat their 2003/2004 win at Old Trafford that led to a Uefa Champions league victory that season. Porto expects to win and wanted to face Man U in the quarters. They got their wish, now they just have to deliver on that promise.

Lest we forget Arsenal faces Villareal on Tuesday in Spain and on Wednesday Bayern crosses the border into catalan territory to face the revered Barcelona.

Everyone at Livepool are playing their best football of the season. They play every minute of the match, winning at least 11 in the last moments of the game. They took apart Real Madrid in the last Champions League match netting 4 goals with Pepe Reina keeping another clean sheet as he is now making a habit of keeping the ball out of Livepools nets. Liverpool has set their sigths on winning everything and in the process dethroning Manchester United and swelling hearts around the world and in Merseyside.

Here is the upcoming Quartefinals schedule

Quarter-finals

After a dismal performance last Saturday against Honduras, Trinidad & Tobago could only gain one point from that encounter. Today (Wednesday April 1st, 2009) they face the USA in a  must win match, a daunting task to say the least. The Soca Warriors have never won on US soil, but of late they have fared better against their perenial opponents. Although the CONCACAF finals is ten match affair and this is but the third matchday, T&T needs a win to remain competitive in the group. After the match against Honduras on Saturday they sit fifth in the 6 team table with two points.

Thus far they have been less than impressive against El Salvador drawing that match 2-2 when they were 2 nil up after 25 minutes, and against Honduras on Saturday they seemed lackadaisical at all positions even though several key players were unavailable, inlcuding dwight Yorke due to a 2 game suspention.

Today against the USA they will again be without Dwight Yorke but must do everything to win, a draw or a loss will put T&T in a tough whole against a much stronger CONCACAF finals group  than previous World Cup Qualifying series. The Soca Warriors has a strong talented team with several world class players in the group, but they must all play their very best match to beat the USA today, 7:30 PM EST on ESPN2 & Galavision, with a 6:45 pm CST kick-off at LP Field in Nashville.

 SATURDAY
28.3.2009 Mexico – Costa Rica 17:00 Ciudad de Mexico, MEX

28.3.2009 Trinidad & Tobago – Honduras 17:00 Port of Spain, TRI
7:00 pm Galavision

28.3.2009 El Salvador – USA 19:00 San Salvador, SLV
7:00 pm ESPN2 & Telefutura

WEDNESDAY
1.4.2009 Costa Rica – El Salvador 20:00 San Jose, CRC

1.4.2009 USA – Trinidad & Tobago 18:57 Nashville, Tennessee USA
6:30pm ESPN2 & Galavision

1.4.2009 Honduras – Mexico 19:30 San Pedro Sula, HON

Full 10 day schedule here

From Reuters ay Frank Prenesti

LONDON (Reuters) – Britons are entering the downturn unable to cut household costs because they don’t know how to cook cheap meals, turning instead to fast food, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver said Wednesday.

Britain is witnessing a “new poverty that we have never seen before,” Oliver told parliament’s health committee. ”This isn’t about flash trainers or mobile phones or Sky dishes or plasma TV screens. It is a poverty of being able to nourish their family, in any class (of society),” he said.

“It directly runs with the outrageous obesity that is actually happening now.” Oliver, who is on a crusade to improve Britain’s eating habits, said that in previous downturns households were more equipped to trim costs and still make food “nice and tasty.” ”But this is the first time in British history where you haven’t got most of the population able to cook and you can statistically see where people are spending their money now and fast food options are up,” he said.

Oliver added that the problem straddled all social classes. ”It is genuinely classless. There’s plenty of City boys, who used to earn a load of money, that can’t nourish their kids properly even with a gold (credit card),” he said. The chef, who almost single-handedly convinced the government to spend an extra 200 million pounds on improving dinners in Britain’s schools, warned that Britain was facing an “incredibly profound” health crisis. At a news conference after the hearing, Oliver said obesity was now an “epidemic.”

“If we don’t deal with it in the next 10 years, it’s going to be 10 times harder to fix and it will be a horror show,” he told reporters. Last month, Oliver set out an anti-obesity “manifesto,” in which he called for more cookery education and government-funded food centers in every town. It calls for cooking skills to be taught in primary schools as well as to adults at work and in the community. He demanded the government appoint a dedicated minister for food from within the private sector to drive policy over the next decade. ”We are not in a great place, but we are in a place from which it can be fixed,” he told the committee.

“If we leave it, it will be like America, where it is almost not worth it, because it’s so ingrained.

Read the complete article here http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE4A47Q220081105?feedType=nl&feedName=usoddlyenough&pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=10339

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Each team has played two matches and has 4 to go as we look forward to another 16 matches on Matchday 3 featuring all 32 teams. Some of the big guns have faltered while others have prevailed as expected. Liverpool is expected to triumph on Wednesday over Athletico Madrid after coming from behind to beat Wigan 3-2 on Saturday in their EPL league match. Athletico is also the former club of Liverpool Striker Fernando Torrres who will be facing them for the first time since his transfer to Liverpool in 2007; he will be fresh for this fixture since Manager Rafa Benitez rested him last Saturday, returning home to Madrid will certainly be an emotional test for Torres. Both teams are level in the UEFA Champions League Group D with 6 points each, so both will be looking to dominate the Group with a win making for a very interesting match-up. Man U has four points from their previous 2 matches and will be looking for a win against Celtic tomorrow. Celtic has just one point in Group E but is atop the Scottish Premier League and are defending SPL champions, they will have a tough time at Old Trafford facing the defending EPL & UEFA Champions League cup holders.

Here is the two day schedule for Matchday 3, click on any team name for more news and details.     

Matchday 3 – 21 October 2008

Matchday 3 – 22 October 2008

For more

By Kevin Smith

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s biggest bookmaker said on Thursday it would pay out more than 1 million euros ($1.35 million) on bets that Barack Obama will be the next U.S. president, three weeks before the election.

Dublin-based bookmaker Paddy Power said it made the “unprecedented decision” to pay on bets taken so far, following Wednesday’s final campaign debate between Obama and his Republican rival John McCain, which polls judged the Democrat to have won. ”We declare this race well and truly over and congratulate all those who backed Obama,” Power said in a statement.

“Although he seemed a little out of sorts in last night’s final debate we believe he has done more than enough to get him across the line on November 4.” The bookmaker said the overall betting trend had shown “one-way traffic” for the Illinois senator since the start of the summer, with odds shortening to 1-9, meaning a bet of 9 euros is required to make 1 euro profit. The odds on McCain winning are 5-1.

Power said it had taken more than 10,000 bets on the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the majority in support of Obama.

Read the full story here Reuters

Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Opheera McDoom

LONDON (Reuters) – Doctors baffled by an unexplained rash on people’s ears or cheeks should be on alert for a skin allergy caused by too much mobile phone use, the British Association of Dermatologists said on Thursday.

Citing published studies, the group said a red or itchy rash, known as “mobile phone dermatitis,” affects people who develop an allergic reaction to the nickel surface on mobile phones after spending long periods of time on the devices. ”It is worth doctors bearing this condition in mind if they see a patient with a rash on the cheek or ear that cannot otherwise be explained,” it said. The British group said many doctors were unaware mobile phones could cause the condition.

Safety concerns over mobile phones has grown as more people rely on them for everyday communication, although the evidence to date has given the technology a clean bill of health when it comes to serious conditions like brain cancer. ”In mobile phone dermatitis, the rash would typically occur on the cheek or ear, depending on where the metal part of the phone comes into contact with the skin,” the group said in a statement. ”In theory it could even occur on the fingers if you spend a lot of time texting on metal menu buttons.”

Nickel is a metal found in products, ranging from mobile phones to jewelry to belt buckles and is one of the most common causes of allergic contact dermatitis, according to the Mayo Clinic in the United States. Earlier this year Lionel Bercovitch of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and colleagues tested 22 popular handsets from eight different manufacturers and found nickel in 10 of the devices.

Report from CONCACAF PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – Dwight Yorke converted a 79th-minute penalty to give Trinidad & Tobago a 2:1 victory over the United States on Wednesday, moving it to the brink of the the final round of World Cup qualifying.

It was the Soca Warriors’ first victory over the USA in 12 tries in World Cup qualifying, and ended the Stars & Stripes’ six-game winning streak in their bid to reach the 2010 finals in South Africa.  The USA already had clinched its place in the six-team CONCACAF “hexagonal”, but the result moved Trinidad into second place in second-round Group A with eight points, three better than Guatemala, which was beaten 2:1 by Cuba. 
Only one game remains in the second round of qualifying. Trinidad will be at home against Cuba on 19 November while Guatemala will have to travel to face the USA. 

Yorke converted after Trinidad was awarded the penalty when Jozy Altidore dragged down Makan Hislop by grabbing his shirt on a corner kick. He said, “To turn over the Americans here today, it’s very important for this nation to get into the big six,” Yorke said. “We needed to get a result tonight. This will propel us. Hopefully we’ll get the results from here on in.” Forty-year-old Russell Latapy gave Trinidad the lead with his 29th career goal in the 61st minute. Latapy, who has played for Falkirk in Scotland since 2003, scored after Trinidad had more of the possession and chances. Chris Birchall sent the ball down the right to Carlos Edwards, who chipped it back to the top of the area. Latapy stuck the volley with his left foot, hitting the left post, but the ball rebounded off the back of diving goalkeeper Brad Guzan and deflected back into the goal. 

Read more here CONCACAF

From TTFF Website

Trinidad and Tobago’s 2-1 win over the US, coupled with a similar triumph by Cuba against Guatemala, virtually assured the “Soca Warriors” of a place in the final CONCACAF qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup.

Guatemala require a win on the road against the United States to progress at the Warriors’ expense but, even then, they will need Trinidad and Tobago to lose, in Port of Spain, to a Cuban team they dismantled 3-1 in Havana, two months ago. Maturana, who was much maligned after last month’s 3-0 loss away to the “Yankees”, was in high spirits on Wednesday. ”The people of Trinidad and Tobago will always remember this game,” said Maturana, through translator Professor Ancil Glod. “I feel very, very contented.” One reporter suggested that Wednesday’s result might have saved Maturana’s post and the former two-time Colombia World Cup coach did not disagree. If Maturana remains at the helm for the final round of six, he would owe much to the man initially expected to take his job. 

Maturana, typically gracious, was liberal in his praise of his 40-year-old star Russell “the Little Magician” Latapy, who scored the opener with a smart volley. ”He is a player who is out of this world,” said Maturana, whose only prior knowledge of Latapy was a televised look at his 25-minute 2006 World Cup cameo against Paraguay. “His professionalism and his great way about him stands out Dwight (Yorke) and Latapy were an example to the youths.”

Read more at TTFF

By Deborah Jian Lee, Reuters.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Gina Sutton takes aim and deftly strikes down several targets in a row as they pop up on the screen in front of her. A self-described girl gamer, she traveled from her home in Virginia to spend her 16th birthday at the Nintendo World Store in New York, and she can’t understand why anyone would think video games are just for boys. ”It’s like saying boys play with action figures and girls play with dolls,” she said as she used a Wii Zapper in a game called Link’s Crossbow Training. “I’m the girl who plays with action figures.”

With her nimble fingers and bubbling enthusiasm, she is one of a fast-growing posse of female gamers in the United States and elsewhere capturing the attention of video game makers — expanding the market beyond male-appeal games like Grand Theft Auto. Girls and young women are a “pot of gold” for the industry, said George VanHorn, senior analyst at market research firm IBISWorld. “The gaming industry has market characteristics that many would die for.” According to IBISWorld, 38 percent of U.S. gamers are female, up from 33 percent in just five years. From January through August of 2008 females ages 18 to 45 made up 28 percent of the total industry revenue, ranking second to males ages 18 to 45, who made up 37 percent. Software makers have churned out a throng of non-violent, easy-to-play games in a bid to capture so-called casual gamers — those who don’t spend a lot of time on games — and women make up a big part of that target audience. 

At the Nintendo World Store in New York this month, Fatima Gomez, 8, bounced from one game to the next, looking for short, easy ones and never spending long on one. She likes Bratz, Disney Princess and Hannah Montana and she doesn’t like shooting games, said Oscar Gomez, her father, who brought his family from Mexico City on vacation. ”She doesn’t care if she wins or not. It’s different with this guy,” he said, pointing to his son. “They like to win.”

Read the complete article at Reuters.com