Bryant heats up late as Lakers swat Hornets in OT

Kobe Bryant scored 11 of his game-high 39 points in overtime to propel the Los Angeles Lakers to a 115-111 win over the New Orleans Hornets on Friday.

Lakers veteran guard Derek Fisher forced the extra session when he nailed a game-tying 3-pointer with 14 seconds remaining after a furious fourth quarter comeback by the visitors.

Rasual Butler led the way with 31 points for New Orleans, which outscored Los Angeles 32-19 in the final period before the game was taken to OT by Fisher's three.

Bryant, the NBA's reigning MVP, shook off 10-for-27 regulation shooting by making all three of his shots in overtime as the NBA-best Lakers (45-10) won their third straight game.

"I wanted to attack, I was missing a lot of easy ones," Bryant told reporters. "It was important for me to take my time and gather myself for shots.

"We did OK tonight, but we still have a lot of room for improvement."

Spaniard Pau Gasol scored 20 points and 12 rebounds while Lamar Odom finished with 12 points and 17 rebounds for Los Angeles.

Data Source : Reuters.com

Tiger Woods wants to test himself

Tiger Woods has been on the golf course every day, either practicing or playing, hitting his full array of shots without fear of pain shooting down his left leg or bones sliding out of place.

The next step is taking that inside the ropes. And not even Woods is sure what to expect.

“I’m as curious as you,” Woods said yesterday during a conference call. “The feeling of adrenaline, the rush of competing and playing again, all that I haven’t done in a while.”


Woods will have gone more than eight months - 253 days to be exact - without hitting a shot that counts when he returns from reconstructive knee surgery next week at the Accenture Match Play Championship just north of Tucson, Ariz.

His goal is to win. That hasn’t changed. The surgery in June was to repair his knee, not his heart or his mind. But as confident as Woods feels about his game, his main concern is how sharp he will be in his first tournament since the U.S. Open last June.

“It’s one thing to do it in a practice environment at home against my buddies for a little bit of cash,” Woods said. “It’s a totally different deal to do it at a PGA Tour event against the best players in the world. I’m excited to get out there and experience that.”

But at least he’ll be doing it on a healthy knee, saying “it’s been years” since he was without pain.

“One of the great things coming back is my bones aren’t moving anymore,” Woods said. “It’s a very comforting feeling hitting a golf ball without your bones sliding all over the place. That’s been very exciting to play that way, and I’m looking forward to the season.”

All 64 players who qualified for the Match Play met the entry deadline yesterday, meaning Woods likely will face Brendan Jones of Australia. The brackets will not be final until tomorrow evening.

If anyone withdraws before then - Justin Rose is the only question mark because his wife is expecting their first child - the brackets would be redone and Woods would face the first alternate, Richard Green of Australia.

Data Source : Bostonherald.com

England wait for Flintoff update

Flintoff bowled 13 overs on the final day as England pushed for victory


England are assessing their options ahead of finding out the results on Saturday of Andrew Flintoff's scan.


The all-rounder, 31, has a suspected tear in his right hip that severely hindered him in the drawn third Test.

Paceman Amjad Khan and all-rounder Ravi Bopara have been added as cover and could both feature in a two-day tour match starting in Barbados on Sunday.

Spinner Graeme Swann, who took eight wickets in Antigua, is also an injury doubt because of elbow trouble.

In only his third Test, Swann celebrated his maiden five-wicket Test haul in the first innings and then took three in the second innings as England almost secured a series-levelling victory.

Data Source : BBC.com

Frustrated England fall painfully short

England's captain Andrew Strauss and wicketkeeper Matt Prior react after Strauss fails to catch Ramnaresh Sarwan. Photograph: Andres Leighton/AP


History repeated itself at the Antigua Recreation Ground yesterday as England and West Indies drew the third Test in the most dramatic fashion. The light was already closing in when the last West Indies batsman, Fidel Edwards, joined Daren Powell with England rampant and closing in for the kill. But as the shadows lengthened and the fielders hovered like vultures around the bat waiting for the carcass, the pair batted defiantly, surviving, amid the oohs and aahs of fielders and crowd alike, for 10 overs until finally, more than an hour after the scheduled close, the umpires Rudi Koertzen and Daryl Harper deemed it too dark even to face spinners.

The batsmen embraced and strode triumphant from the field. Three years ago in what, but for the events earlier in the week, would have been the final Test on this ramshackle old ground West Indies survived similarly, leaving India a single wicket away from victory.

Data Source : Guardian.co.uk

Ecuador: Hope renewed

After a sluggish start, El Tri have responded to coach Sixto Vizuete's promptings and now lie a single point behind Uruguay. Recent results have set the alarm bells ringing again, however. Three friendlies in late 2008 brought single-goal defeats by Mexico and Oman, and a 1-0 win over Iran. Also causing concern is the fact that leading players, such as Joffre Guerron, are struggling to find form with their clubs. But with back-to-back home games in their Quito stronghold upcoming, albeit against the top two teams in the group, the Ecuadorians have a fine chance of muscling their way into the qualification places.

Position: 6th (12 points)
Next matches: Brazil (home) and Paraguay (home)
Main man: Joffre Guerron
The words: "I know I need to spend more time on the pitch for my club, but I feel I'm getting back to my best again. There are a lot of very good players in the national team and I hope we can show that in this final phase of the qualifiers," Ecuador forward Joffre Guerron.

Data Source : FIFA.com

I can't understand my own players, admits Capello

Paul Gascoigne has long since hung up his boots and Jamie Carragher is enjoying his self-imposed international retirement. But, even without the pair intonating through team meetings in their respective broad Geordie and abrasive Scouse dialects that even team-mates have said are, at times, incomprehensible, Fabio Capello has admitted that he is still struggling to get the hang of the northern accents in his England squad.

The Italian reflected on his progress so far in his adopted country in an interview with Sky Italia last night and, while the cliché insists that football is actually a universal language, he conceded that the finer points of some of his players' inflection remain something of a mystery. "I must admit I have a little trouble understanding northerners," said Capello, who hails from San Canzian d'Isonzo in Gorizia, northern Italy, where some of the locals speak Friulian and others even prefer Venetian. "When we talk about football, the vocabulary is fairly limited. But when we get away from that it becomes more difficult."

The remark was delivered tongue in cheek with the Italian having grown used to seeing his side inspired by the Merseyside twang of Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney. They have been joined by Michael Carrick, a Wallsend boy, in recent times, with Wes Brown, from Longsight, Manchester, and James Milner, of Wortley in Leeds, swelling the squad's northern contingent. It is unclear whether Capello would count the likes of Gabriel Agbonlahor, a favourite son of Birmingham, or Emile Heskey of Leicester as northern', even if they hail from appreciably further north than Soho Square.

Data Source : Guardian.co.uk

Rich nations failing to meet climate aid pledges

World's richest countries have pledged nearly $18bn to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, but less than $1bn has been disbursed.

Cosmic stage set for Comet Lulin show

Recently discovered comet to make its closest approach to Earth

A recently discovered comet is making its closest approach to Earth in the next few days and offers anyone with binoculars or a small telescope a chance to see some frozen leftovers of our solar system's making.

Data Source : Msnbc.msn.com

Bangladesh Picks Strix

Strix Systems, the leader in high-performance wireless mesh networking, today announced that Accatel, Inc., an international carrier based in New York, has partnered with Nextel Telecom (Bangladesh) to deploy a citywide wireless mesh network in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The network is based on Strix's Access/One Network Outdoor Wireless System (OWS), a multi-radio, multi-channel, and multi-RF mesh solution that delivers the highest-capacity mesh system available today. The Strix network will provide phone and Internet service to residential and business customers in Chittagong.

Accatel is now installing 90 Strix OWS nodes for the initial network deployment, which will support 10,000 voice subscriber lines in an eight-square-mile area of Chittagong, a port city of 3.5 million people that is the commercial capital of Bangladesh. Stage 2 of the deployment, which will roll out 6-12 months after Stage 1, will add 15-20,000 voice subscriber lines. Within three years, Accatel expects the Strix wireless mesh network will employ hundreds of OWS nodes and serve an estimated 200,000 voice subscriber lines. Ultimately, Accatel and Nextel Telecom plan to expand the wireless mesh network to include all of Chittagong as well as other cities and towns within the licensing area.

"We evaluated all types of WiFi, WiMAX, and mesh networks and found that Strix has the most flexible, easy-to-deploy, redundant, low-latency, and high-bandwidth solution available today," said Gregory Borodiansky, CTO of Accatel. "In addition to being superior technically, Strix's solution is also more reasonably priced."

"In developing countries such as Bangladesh, a reliable wireless mesh network is a quick and cost-effective way to facilitate communications and bring more citizens into the world economy," Yishai Shapir, CEO of Accatel. "Strix's solution provides us with the right approach for the Chittagong market, and the company has been extremely helpful in working with us on all aspects of this new venture."

Data Source : Unstrung.com

Game Day: This 'Wars/ is to the death

"Halo" was originally planned as a real-time strategy game, but series creator Bungie didn't make "Halo Wars," the first non-shooter in the series. Instead, it was developed by strategy veterans Ensemble Studios, the company behind Microsoft's "Age of Empires" and "Age of Mythologies" games.

Ensemble was shut down by Microsoft after "Halo Wars" was completed. The studio's end is disappointing, especially given the quality on display here.

"Halo Wars" – to be released March 3 – takes place 20 years before the discovery of a Halo installation in the first game. The war with the alien Covenant is a few years old and still far from the near-total destruction of the human race that has occurred by "Halo 3." The game opens with a series of missions on the devastated, icy human colony of Harvest, which the United Nations Space Command has just retaken from the Covenant after five years of fighting that has left the surface a frozen wasteland.

Data Source : Sacbee.com

Windows Mobile 6.5 Prototype Phone Stolen in Barcelona

Only mere hours after Microsoft announced Windows Mobile 6.5 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, an unnamed phone loaded up with the brand new mobile OS was lifted from the pocket of a Telstra executive.

No doubt, this unnamed Australian telecom dude must feel pretty sheepish right about now. His boss, CEO Sol Trujillo, had entrusted him with the phone; Trujillo, in turn, had been given the device by Microsoft to test it before the launch. What a clusterfrak. There's just a chain of disappointment there.

When the iPhone first debuted, it was displayed under heavy glass (with black-clad Apple snipers trained to fire on anybody who got too close to the displays). That's some serious fortification. None of this executive hot potato business, no sir.

Astute readers will remember that about a month ago, word had leaked about Microsoft's new answer to MobileMe (called SkyBox) and the App Store (called SkyMarket). That was embarrassing, but understandable. But getting an actual prototype phone stolen? That's the kind of ridiculousness that's usually the province of government bureaucracy.

I bet Windows Mobile 6.5 hits BitTorrent within the next few days, if it hasn't already.

Data Source : Pcworld.com

Internet Explorer 8: Features

Search suggestions

Search smarter with detailed suggestions from your favorite search providers and browsing history. See visual previews and get suggested content topics while you type in the enhanced Instant Search Box.

Data Source : Microsoft.com

Woods reveals playing return date

Tiger Woods will make his comeback from injury at next week's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona.


The 33-year-old has not played since undergoing knee surgery after winning his 14th major title last June at the US Open at Torrey Pines.

"We received confirmation that Tiger Woods has committed to play in next week's event," said PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.

"We are delighted that Tiger is returning to competition."

Woods is the defending champion of the event and won back-to-back Match Play titles in 2003 and 2004.

He will begin his defence against world number 64, Australian Brendan Jones.

The world number one celebrated the birth of his second child on last week and it remained unclear which tournament he would pencil in for his return to competition.

He added on his own website: "I'm now ready to play again.

"Elin (his wife) and our new son Charlie are doing great. I've enjoyed my time at home with the family and appreciate everyone's support and kind wishes."

Woods beat Rocco Mediate on the 19th hole of their playoff to land the 2008 US Open despite achieving the feat carrying a knee injury and a double stress fracture of his left lower leg. He announced soon after that he would need reconstructive knee surgery.

His instructor Hank Haney helped him during his rehabilitation and Woods began hitting full shots again midway through December.

Earlier in February Woods revealed that his trademark golf swing had not been altered following the operation.

"Many people have asked me if my swing has changed since the surgery and the answer is no," he said.

"I'm doing all the things I've been trying to do for a long time but I can actually hit into my left leg without my bones moving. It's a nice feeling.

"It is so much better than it ever has been because my bones aren't grinding against each other."

Data Source : BBC.com

Williams sisters to clash in Dubai semis

Serena and Venus Williams will meet for the 19th time in a competitive tournament after claiming staight sets victories in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Open on Thursday.

Top seed and world number one Serena fought back from going down 2-4 in the second set to beat French Open champion Ana Ivanovic 6-4 6-4.

Meanwhile, Wimbledon champion Venus, who is seeded six here, crushed in-form fourth seed Elena Dementieva -- the defending champion -- 6-3 6-3.

"Obviously Elena has been playing great this year and she has the game to control the match," Venus told the tournament's official Web site.

"That's how she likes to play and that's how I like to play so I'm pleased that I was able to control the match. I would have liked to have broken serve a little more, but I was able to keep the pressure on. That's the most important thing."

Their head-to-head stands at nine wins each, with Venus having won their last encounter, on a similar surface in Doha in November, before going to win the WTA Championships, the tour's end-of-year event.

Meanwhile, the day's biggest surprise saw France's Virginie Razzano, the world number 58, claim one of the best wins of her career with a 7-6 7-5 victory over Russian fifth seed Vera Zvonareva.
Razzano will now play 16th-seeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi, who beat Russian Elena Vesnina 6-3 7-5 in the other quarterfinal, for a place in this weekend's final.

Data Source : CNN.com

Keothavong through to semi-finals

Anne Keothavong battled through to the semi-finals of the RMK Championships in Memphis with a 6-2 1-6 6-2 victory over New Zealand's Marina Erakovic.



After losing the first two games of the match Keothavong dominated, winning six games in a row to take the first set.

The 25-year-old Londoner's first serve let her down in the second set but she bounced back.

Keothavong went on to win four games in a row in the third set to brush aside Erakovic and reach the semi-finals.

Data source : BBC.com