Usain Bolt may play football or cricket after 2016 Olympics
Sprint star Usain Bolt will not appear in this year's Big Bash Twenty20 League but may consider switching to cricket or football after the 2016 Olympics.
The Jamaican, 26, held talks with Shane Warne's Melbourne Stars in October.
But Bolt's agent Ricky Simms told BBC Sport: "Usain is currently an athlete focused on his preparations for the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.
"He may try his hand at cricket or football when he retires from running but that would be after 2016."
Bolt, who grew up in cricket-mad Jamaica, was sounded out by Melbourne Stars captain Warne in August after cementing his status as an athletics legend by defending his 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay crowns at the London 2012 Olympics.
Bolt said at the time that he would "definitely" love to be involved in the Australian tournament, prompting Warne to launch a Twitter campaign to try to bring about the move.
The story resurfaced on Friday when ex-Australia wicketkeeper Ian Healy tweeted that a deal between Bolt and the Stars to play in the competition - which runs from 7 December to 9 January - was "hours away".
But Healy's claim was dismissed by Simms, who said: "I met with the Melbourne Stars in October and told them Usain is not available to play cricket this year."
Jamaica's Reggae Boyz pitted against Cuba in Carib Cup
Jamaica's Reggae Boyz have been drawn in Group A of the Caribbean Football Union's (CFU) Caribbean Cup, along with French Guiana, Cuba and the Dominica Republic and a strong 30-man squad will be named on Friday, assistant coach Alfredo Montesso told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.
Jamaica, the two-time defending champions, will not have the players from England available and the squad will be selected from those plying their trade in the US Major League, players from the Scandinavian countries and from the local premier league.
"We will not because they (English-based players) will be in competition, so we will have players from the MSL and Scandinavia and local players," Montesso confirmed.
But according to the Brazilian coach, he has seen Jamaica placed in two different groups, which has confused him and he is currently seeking clarification on the matter.
Preparations are well underway for Jamaica to defend their title at the 16th edition of the tournament and the players should be in camp by Sunday, November 25.
"We are starting the camp with 30 players and will include some young boys... to have the connection between the youth programme and the transition.
"At the end of the preparation, the squad will be reduced to 23 that will travel to Antigua," Montesso pointed out.
With Jamaica through to the six-team final stage of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers, Montesso said this tournament will be used for more than one purpose.
"We want to qualify as one of the teams to the Gold Cup and Jamaica is the champion of the competition, so we have to be really strong."
The top four teams in the Caribbean Cup will qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the USA, starting July 7, 2013.
"We have to take this opportunity to have a strong team together and not only think of the Caribbean Cup, which is really important to us, but of course about the preparation for the next World Cup phase," he added.
Montesso didn't divulge the names of the local players likely to be called to camp, said final checks with the clubs will be made before Friday to see the physical conditions of the local players before releasing their names.
"Actually, we have a couple players from the local league and we are checking with their clubs to see if they are fit to invite them. It will be a 15-day camp. We start on November 25 and go straight to December 6 when we leave and play on the 8th," revealed Montesso.
Group B of the 10-day tournament, to be hosted by Antigua and Barbuda (A&B), will also be contested by Haiti, Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago (T&T).
By virtue of being defending champions, the Boyz got a bye in the qualifying rounds, as have A&B as hosts.
T&T are the most successful country with eight titles, with Jamaica second with five for a combined 13 of the 15 championships to date. Martinique and Haiti have each won the tournament once.
Jamaica won the last two editions and three of the last four, with victories in 1991, 1998, 2005, 2008 and 2010.
Soure-JA.Observer
Brazilian football star on trial for killing lover
The trial of a former football star charged with orchestrating the kidnapping and gruesome murder of an ex-girlfriend started yesterday with courtroom arguments that caused two lawyers to abandon the case, and with a tearful plea for justice from the victim's mother.
The case of the former Flamengo goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes, known in Brazil as Bruno, has riveted Brazil and shocked the world of football. Fernandes' accomplices allegedly held his former girlfriend, model Eliza Samudio, before killing her, quartering her, and feeding her remains to dogs.
The former captain of one of Rio's premier clubs led his team to Brazilian football championship victory in 2009. That same year, Samudio made the first allegations to police that she was pregnant with Fernandes' child, and that the football great and others kidnapped her and tried to force her to terminate the pregnancy.
She refused. The child was born healthy, and named Bruno as well. The model disappeared soon afterward, in June 2010. In December 2010, Fernandes was found guilty of Samudio's initial accusations and is serving a prison sentence of four years and six months in that case. After a court dispute, Samudio's mother was named the child's guardian.
The former soccer great now faces a second trial, on charges he ordered his ex-girlfriend's grisly death.
Investigators said the player was behind a scheme that lured the 25-year-old woman from Rio de Janeiro to a ranch in the neighbouring state of Minas Gerais with the promise that Fernandes would recognise the child as his and give her an apartment. There she was allegedly held against her will by Fernandes' accomplices, killed and quartered, her remains fed to dogs who roamed the property.
The first day of the murder trial in Minas Gerais was marked by high drama, with attorneys for two of Fernandes' alleged accomplices who are also facing murder charges -- former police officer, Marcos dos Santos, and the football player's right-hand man, Luiz Romao -- walking out on the case after arguing with the judge over access to videos of witness testimony.
Others also charged with Samudio's kidnapping, murder and the hiding of her body are Dayanne Rodrigues, Fernandes' wife, and Fernanda Castro, a lover. All those charged with the death have pleaded innocent, including Fernandes.
The attorney for the former soccer player said he remained confident that his client would walk out a free man.
"Bruno is tired of being in prison," said attorney Rui Pimenta to O Globo newspaper outside court in the town of Contagem. "He is ready to walk out and go eat some rare barbecue."
The defence's argument is that there can be no murder charges because Samudio is, in fact, alive. The attorney Pimenta says he will produce proof that Samudio is living in Eastern Europe.
Samudio's mother, Sonia Moura, told the news website G1 that she trusted justice would be made and dared the football player to look her in the eyes in court.
"I believe in justice, and in the condemnation of all the accused," she said. "I want my daughter's mortal remains."
Source-AP
Australia's Dan Christian banned for trashing changing rooms
Dan Christian has been banned for one match for smashing up a dressing room for the third time this season.
The former Hampshire player, 29, trashed changing rooms after three successive dismissals for the West End Redbacks.
"When blokes get out it really is tough," South Australia director of cricket Jamie Cox said.
"But it doesn't give anybody the right to actually smash up equipment and smash up dressing rooms."
Cox added: "We all have bad days but you can't go belting holes in walls and start upsetting the people around you."
Christian was fined for his second transgression but after again vandalising the changing room at Perth's WACA, where he was out for eight and four as the Redbacks were beaten by the Warriors, he has been banned for the match against Victoria Bushrangers.
The all-rounder helped Hampshire win the FP t20 title in 2010 and has played 17 one-day internationals and 11 Twenty20 matches for his country.
HP: Autonomy lied about finances
Computer maker Hewlett Packard has asked US and UK authorities to investigate alleged misrepresentations before its takeover of UK software group Autonomy last year.
This led to a $5bn (£3.1bn) charge in its latest quarterly accounts.
HP said it was "extremely disappointed" that Autonomy had appeared to have "inflated" the value of the company prior to the takeover.
"These efforts appear to have been a wilful effort to mislead," HP said.
The total one-off charge recorded in HP's accounts for the three months to the end of October was $8.8bn, pushing the company to a $6.85bn net loss.
Greece: Eurozone ministers to make crunch decision
Eurozone finance ministers meet later to decide whether to release the next 33bn euros ($42bn; £27bn) of bailout cash needed by Greece to stay afloat.
On the agenda will be a two-year delay to Greece's austerity programme, how to meet the country's extra funding needs, and how to make its debts sustainable.
The International Monetary Fund, which will also be at the meeting, insists Greece's debtload must be alleviated.
But Germany and the European Central Bank oppose writing off Greece's debts.
The EU has already accepted the need to give Athens two more years to get its overspending under control.
Spending cuts have added to the devastation the Greek economy, which it was confirmed last week shrank a further 7.2% in the third quarter of 2012 from a year earlier.
The far-right Golden Dawn movement is on the rise - and is rumoured to have infiltrated the Greek police - and there are concerns that the country's pro-austerity government - a shaky coalition of right-wing and left-wing former adversary parties - may fall apart.
Debt forgiveness
However, giving Greece more time inevitably means that the government will also be borrowing more for longer.
Athens is supposed to cut its total debtload to 120% of annual economic output by 2020 under the current bailout programme.
Some eurozone ministers appear to want to postpone this deadline by two years, but the IMF opposes this, believing that the 2020 deadline must be retained if it is to deem Greece's debts "sustainable".
The Fund is not allowed to lend to a country that it deems incapable of repaying its debts.
But it is unclear what Greece can do to cut its debtload.
As a precondition to its current, second bailout package, Greece has already negotiated with its private sector lenders a write-off of three-quarters of the value of what it owed them.
There has been talk of a similar write-off of what Greece owes its official lenders - including the ECB and the eurozone's bailout funds - but almost certainly not the IMF.
However, any such debt forgiveness has been fiercely resisted by the German government, who deems such a move politically untenable with German voters.
The German finance minister has made clear that it could not permit any further lending to Greece if the country fails to honour its existing debts.
The ECB is also against cancelling the Greek debts it owns, something that it would consider "monetisation of government debt", which is forbidden by the central bank's constitution.
Greece has earned itself one new ally in the Netherlands. The previous Dutch government took a similarly hard line to Germany, but elections in September brought a new centre-left government to power on a wave of anti-austerity sentiment.
The new Dutch finance minister told his country's parliament on Monday that the onus was on Europe to do more: "In the end, European countries will have to meet Greece halfway to get a sustainable perspective."
UBS trader Kweku Adoboli guilty of fraud over £1.4bn loss
A City trader who lost £1.4bn ($2.2bn) of Swiss bank UBS's money has been found guilty of one count of fraud.
Kweku Adoboli, 32, of Whitechapel, east London, denied four charges of false accounting and two of fraud between October 2008 and September 2011.
The prosecution told Southwark Crown Court he was "a gamble or two away from destroying Switzerland's largest bank".
Adoboli said he was encouraged to take risks by his bosses. The jury is deliberating on the other charges.
Adoboli, who was arrested on 15 September 2011, worked in UBS's global synthetic equities division, buying and selling exchange traded funds (ETFs), which track stocks, bonds and commodities.
He had joined the bank as a junior trader in 2006.
The court was told Adoboli lost £1.4bn of the bank's money in "unprotected, unhedged, incautious and reckless" trades.
But Adoboli, the Ghana-born son of a diplomat, told the jury his senior managers were aware of his actions and encouraged him to take risks.
'Magic touch'
He claimed he lost control over his trades during a period of market turbulence last year.
The court heard that at one point he stood to lose the bank £7.5bn ($12bn).
The judge, Mr Justice Keith, gave the jury a majority verdict direction, saying they could deliver a 9-1 verdict on the remaining five charges.
The jury has been reduced to five men and five women after two jurors were discharged.
The prosecution said Adoboli was a gambler who believed he had the "magic touch".
But, giving evidence, Adoboli said everything he had done was aimed at benefiting the bank, where he viewed his colleagues as "family".
Adoboli said he had "lost control in the maelstrom of the financial crisis", and was doing well until he changed from a conservative "bearish" position to an aggressive "bullish" stance under pressure from senior managers.
He told the jury that staff were encouraged to take risks until they got "a slap on the back of the wrist".
IMF hails Dominican Republic’s tax reform, warns of slumping economy
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Sunday said the recently passed tax reform will contribute to make Dominican Republic economy less vulnerable, but cautioned that the economic performance has deteriorated and the private sector’s activity has slumped
It said the deficit grew even further in 2012 on rising government spending and reduced transparency in budget execution.
The IMF said the country's economic growth weakened in the last 24 months after reaching 7.8% in 2010, slowing to 4.5% in 2011 and is expected to remain below 4% this year.
Suggests lowering the debt
The IMF suggests that the Government to reduce the public debt to 35% of the GDP), which was the level in 2007-2008, before the crisis and required, to achieve that goal," a strategy to reduce the overall fiscal deficit to a prudent level in 2013-2014."
"To reduce external vulnerabilities, and strengthen the fiscal position, it will be necessary to maintain a tight monetary stance that is consistent with the strengthening of the international reserve position.”
“The moderation in domestic absorption as a result of these policies will help safeguard external stability," the statement said.
In its evaluation of the Dominican economy, the IMF mission led by Przemek Gajdeczka said policy implementation has deteriorated, significantly increasing the fiscal deficit in 2012.
It said revenue was low (excluding exceptional factors), while the primary public spending jumped nearly 40%, and the consolidated government deficit doubled the projected for 2011 (at 8.5% of the GDP), in addition, a large proportion of expenditure was conducted above the corresponding budgetary appropriations, reducing the transparency of those operations. "The projected total public debt will reach 44% of GDP in 2012, compared with 35% of GDP in 2007-08."
IMF supports government plan
The IMF delegation agrees with the recently approved tax reform, with which the Government would reduce public debt to the ratio of GDP in 2007-08.
"The mission supports the authorities' plan to improve the business climate, promote competitiveness and create better conditions for economic growth, intensive job creation. Comprehensive implementation of reforms in the power sector is critical to ensuring a stable infrastructure for private sector development. The mission hails the recent adoption of the process of "one-stop window to register new companies and plans to expand the registration of titles to real estate and other properties," says the IMF report.
Total sells Nigeria Offshore Oil stake for $2.5B
French oil company Total SA said yesterday it had sold its stake in an offshore oil field near Nigeria for US$2.5 billion to China’s state-run firm Sinopec Corp, a sign of the growing Chinese thirst for the West African nation’s oil production.
US Charges 4 Men in Alleged Terror Plot
U.S. authorities have charged four men with plotting to kill Americans overseas by joining al-Qaida and the Taliban.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said late Monday the group was planning to engage in “violent jihad” with bombings of military bases and other government facilities.
The FBI says that in 2010, Sohiel Omar Kabir, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Afghanistan, introduced two of the men to the radical Islamic doctrine of cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed last year by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.
They later recruited the fourth man, and Kabir traveled to Afghanistan where he planned to arrange meetings with terrorists.
Kabir is being held in Afghanistan. The other three men — a U.S. citizen, and U.S. residents born in Mexico and the Philippines — are in federal custody in the western U.S. state of California.
Each defendant faces up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted.