Doc Rivers: Kevin Garnett did not cross the line with Carmelo Anthony
(ESPN) Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers defended Kevin Garnett on Thursday, telling a Boston radio station that reports about Garnett insulting Carmelo Anthony by including a dig at his relationship with his wife were not true.
“Well, No. 1, I know what’s been reported did not happen,” Rivers told the Boston station WEEI, according to ESPN. “I know that as a fact.”
Pressed further on Garnett’s rumored remarks, Rivers said: “That did not happen.”
Anthony was suspended one game after he and Garnett were in a chippy mood during Monday night’s contest between the Celtics and Knicks. Both received technical fouls as tempers flared in the fourth quarter of a game in which Anthony struggled and shot only 6 of 26 from the field.
After the game’s final horn sounded, Anthony left the floor through the Celtics’ tunnel at Madison Square Garden. He was reportedly waiting for Garnett outside the Celtics locker room and was restrained by teammates and some security. Later, he waited for Garnett outside by the Celtics’ team bus with multiple security guards and five NYPD officers.
On Tuesday, Anthony said that some of Garnett’s trash-talking during the game had crossed a line. The New York Post reported that it was a comment about Anthony’s wife that set him off.
”There’s certain things that you just don’t say to men, another man,” Anthony said. ”I felt like we crossed a line, but like I said, we both have an understanding right now, we handled it the way we handled it. Nobody needs to know what was said behind closed doors, so that situation was handled.”
But Rivers dismissed both the reports and Anthony’s insistence that he didn’t deserve a suspension, saying that Anthony was trying to move the blame to Garnett.
“Guys, you know how this works,” Rivers said. “A guy does something crazy like Carmelo did, and the way to get out of trouble is to say, ‘Well, he said this.’ It happens all the time, and what bugs me about this whole thing is this is not a Kevin Garnett issue. And it was made into one, and it shouldn’t have been made into one.”
Australian Open could see Azarenka & Williams in semis
Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams are in the same half of the draw at the Australian Open, setting up the possibility of a semifinal match between the defending champion and the title favorite.
Top-ranked Azarenka has lost 11 of her 12 matches against Williams, who increased her career haul to 15 Grand Slam titles last year by winning at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Williams has won five Australian titles, more than any other woman in the Open era, and is in dominant form after winning 35 of her past 36 matches.
That run included a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 comeback victory in the U.S. Open final after being just two points away from defeat to Azarenka.
No. 2-ranked Maria Sharapova, the French Open champion, is on the other half of the draw with No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 5 Angelique Kerber and No. 6 Li Na. She could meet Venus Williams in the third round.
Novak Djokovic's bid for a third consecutive Australian Open title got a boost when No. 2-ranked Roger Federer and U.S. Open champion Andy Murray both landed in the other half when the official draw was made Friday.
Top-ranked Djokovic will face Paul-Henri Mathieu in the first round and also has fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych in his quarter of the draw and fourth-seeded David Ferrer in his half.
Ferrer is the highest-ranked Spaniard in the tournament in the absence of 11-time major winner Rafael Nadal, who hasn't played on the tour since the middle of 2012 due to a left knee injury.
"He was a top-20 player before. He knows what it's like to be on the big stage. He has a lot of quality - a lot of experience,'' Djokovic said of Mathieu. "There are expectations for someone who is in my position, but I am looking forward to it.''
Federer will play Benoit Paire of France in the first round and has a potential third-round match against local hope Bernard Tomic. Federer, a four-time Australian Open winner, could face Murray in the semifinals.
Murray, who ended a 76-year drought for British men at Grand Slam events when he won the U.S. Open last year, will start his run against Robin Haase of the Netherlands and has a potential quarterfinal against sixth-seeded Juan Martin Del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open champion.
On the women's side, Azarenka has a first-round match against Romania's Monica Niculescu and is in the same quarter as former No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki and seventh-seeded Sara Errani.
Serena Williams will play Edina Gallovits-Hall of Romania in the first round and is in the same quarter as 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and 19-year-old American Sloane Stephens, who is seeded 29th.
Source--AP
Suarez could be driven out of Premier League
Luis Suarez could quit English football if he continues to be "victimised", says former Liverpool director of football Damien Comolli.
The Reds striker has been involved in a number of controversies sincejoining from Ajax in 2011.
"It'll be an absolute shame for English football if this victimisation drives him away," Comolli told BBC Sport.
"As the biggest league in the world you want to keep the biggest players, not drive them away for crazy reasons."
Liverpool signed Suarez for a then club record £22.7m and the Uruguay international has scored 40 goals in 80 appearances.
--BBC
Man Utd striker Wayne Rooney set to return for FA Cup replay
Wayne Rooney should be fit for Manchester United's FA Cup replay against West Ham on Wednesday, says his manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
However, Ferguson confirmed striker Rooney will miss Sunday's Premier League match against Liverpool.
The 27-year-old suffered a knee injury during training before United'sBoxing Day match against Newcastle.
Winger Nani and midfielder Anderson will return to United's squad for Sunday's game at Old Trafford.
Nani has been sidelined since the beginning of November and Anderson since the beginning of December, both with hamstring injuries.
T&T fans show love for Pollard
Kieron Pollard flew in on a jet plane Monday, drove straight to the team hotel and walked in on his teammates playing PlayStation games. The widely travelled all-rounder was busy recently in the Big Bash League in Australia, but made the long journey back in time to play for T&T in the Caribbean T20. On Tuesday night he was not required to bat in the win over CCC, but got a ‘hit’ on Wednesday night against the Leeward Islands.
Pollard is a crowd favourite and crowd-pleaser. He got the biggest cheer and a standing ovation as he marched to the crease at Queen’s Park Oval, and immediately made his presence felt with three of the biggest sixes of the tournament in 29 runs off 12 balls. He returned with the ball to take two wickets in an over as T&T beat Leewards by 95 runs to go top of the table.
“This is where it all started for me and others in this team. You could see the way the fans showed us so much love here. It feels really great to play in front of our home fans. It gives an added dimension to the game and you could feel your heart beating as you go out onto the field. We play a lot all over the world in various teams, but to be at home, playing together in front of our adoring fans is something special,” said the 25-year-old.
“The people in T&T are excited to come out and see us play. It’s a real motivation to come out and perform. Playing and winning in front the home crowd is amazing and richly rewarding. Last year, we had a similar win against the Leewards—we made a big score and then restricted them. That was away from home, so to do it at home is twice as nice.”
After four days of competition, T&T lead the table with nine points (three matches) followed by Barbados on eight points (two matches). Jamaica are third on five points (three matches) and Guyana fourth with four points (one match). Three teams: CCC (two matches), Leewards (two matches) and Windwards (one match) are all winless and were yet to register a point before last night’s two matches.
“We are on track again this year. We had a slow start in the match against Jamaica, which was affected by rain. We went out and played really well tonight. This win moved us to the top of the table and we will be looking to win the group stage,” said Pollard, who has made 175 appearances in Twenty20 since his debut for T&T in 2006.
“I like this new format where you get to play more matches and the group winners move straight to the final. We are feeling good and will look to continue the good form when we meet Guyana on Saturday night. That will be another big match. We know the fans will come out to see us play our last match at home.”
The Caribbean T20 continued at Queen’s Park Oval last night. Windward Islands played the Combined Campuses and Colleges and Barbados faced Guyana.
SCHEDULE
AT QUEEN’S PARK OVAL
Sunday
T&T vs Jamaica—Match abandoned due to rain
Monday
Barbados beat Leewards by 9 wickets
Guyana beat CCC by 2 wickets
Tuesday
Barbados beat Jamaica by 5 wickets
T&T beat CCC by 7 wickets
Wednesday
Jamaica beat Windwards by 12 runs
T&T beat Leewards by 95 runs
Last night
CCC vs Windwards
Guyana vs Barbados
Tonight
Leeward Islands vs Jamaica—4 pm
CCC vs Barbados—8 pm
Tomorrow
Windwards vs Leewards—4 pm
T&T vs Guyana—8 pm.
3 Days of Mourning in Pakistan’s Quetta
Officials in Pakistan's Baluchistan province Friday declared a three-day mourning period, following deadly bomb blasts in the province capital.
Authorities said security forces have been deployed around Quetta where political and religious groups say they will hold protests against the bombings.
The victims' funerals are set to begin Friday.
Police say two suicide bomb blasts Thursday in Quetta in a billiards hall frequented by Shi'ite Muslims killed 82 people.
The billiards hall attack came just hours after another deadly bomb blast in the Quetta market.
A string of bombings across Pakistan Thursday killed 115 people and wounded nearly 250, on one of the nation's deadliest days in years.
The outlawed militant Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the Quetta explosions.
Shi'ites make up about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 160 million people.
Ali Dayan Hasan, the Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch, said Friday that Pakistan's Shi'ite Muslims are living in a state of siege and warned sectarian violence is likely to rise. He said “if yesterday's attack is any indication, it's just going to get worse.” Four hundred Shi'ites were killed in Pakistan last year.
Austrian Neo-Nazi Sentenced to 9 Years
An Austrian court has convicted a well-known member of the far-right to nine years in prison for propagating Nazi ideology online, in violation of the country's strict anti-Nazi laws.
Gottfried Kuessel, who had been arrested in April 2011, was sentenced late Thursday in Vienna. Two convicted accomplices were given lesser sentences — seven years and four-and-a-half years.
Prosecutors said Kuessel was the leader of the now-banned neo-Nazi group, VAPO .
Kuessel posted his material on the neo-Nazi website alpen-donau.info, which was shut down in March 2011. The servers for the site were based in the United States, so Austrian authorities had to get American cooperation.
Kuessel spent time in prison in the 1990s for disseminating Nazi propaganda. He has denied the Holocaust and denounced the diary of Anne Frank as a fabrication.
Obama, Karzai Meet at White House
U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai meet Friday at the White House to discuss the future role of the U.S. in Afghanistan, their first meeting since Mr. Obama's re-election.
The two leaders will hold a joint afternoon news conference.
Current plans call for the U.S. to withdraw nearly all of its nearly 70,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
But that plan hinges on a number of conditions, including whether Afghan forces will be able to take over security at that time. It is also unclear what will be the role of the Americans who stay behind, if any do remain.
On Thursday, Mr. Karzai met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Earlier, at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Mr. Karzai that the U.S. and Afghanistan have come a long way towards making sure Afghanistan will never again become a safe haven for terrorism.
Panetta said more than 10 years of the U.S.-led war against the Taliban have paved the way for Afghanistan to stand on its own.
Mr. Karzai expressed appreciation for the years of support from the U.S. and Afghanistan's other allies.
But while Mr. Karzai has often criticized U.S. actions in Afghanistan, he also has spoken about his desire for some U.S. presence to remain.
115 Killed in Pakistan Blasts
A leading human rights group says Pakistan's Shi'ite Muslims are living in a state of siege, after a string of bombings across the country killed 115 people and wounded nearly 250, in one of the nation's deadliest days in years.
Ali Dayan Hasan, the Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch, warned Friday that sectarian violence will likely rise, a day after 82 people were killed in Quetta in suicide bomb blasts in a billiards hall frequented by Shi'ites.
He said more than 400 Shi'ites were killed last year and “if yesterday's attack is any indication, it's just going to get worse.”
The billiards hall attacks came just hours after a deadly bomb blast at the Quetta market.
The outlawed militant Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi contacted local media to claim responsibility.
Shi'ites make up about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 160 million people.
Elsewhere in Pakistan Thursday, at least 21 people were killed and more than 70 wounded in a bombing in the city of Mingora, where a crowd had gathered to hear a speech by a religious leader. Mingora is the largest city in northwestern Pakistan's Swat province.
No one has claimed responsibility for that attack.
Dozens Dead and Missing in China Landslide
Chinese authorities say at least 18 people have been confirmed dead and dozens are missing after a landslide swept through a village in southern China.
Local authorities and state media said rescuers had recovered 18 bodies in the village in Yunnan province, including seven people from one family.
The official Xinhua news agency said dozens more people remain buried.
It is unclear what triggered the landslide, but heavy rains periodically cause such disasters in the region.