Australia Vs Sri Lanka in Fight for Semifinal: High on confidence after imposing wins in their previous matches, Australia and Sri Lanka face off on Sunday in a Super Eight game with the winner’s prize being a semifinal berth in the Twenty20 World Cup.

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Considered Twenty20 duds before they landed in the Caribbean, the Australians have done well so far and are fast emerging as title contenders. The Sri Lankans, on the other hand, have been their usual consistent self, quietly making their progress in the tournament.

With both the teams in fine form, it’s hard to pick a favourite for Sunday as they seem evenly matched in all departments of the game.

The Aussies, led by Michael Clarke, have a power-packed batting line up and perhaps the most destructive opening pair in the tournament in David Warner and Shane Watson.

Warner, who dealt mostly in sixes against India on Friday, has been unstoppable so far and it would be quite a task for the Lankan bowlers to contain the stocky left-hander, who is an excellent fielder too.

Watson, on the other hand, adds value to the Aussie team with not just his batting but also his medium pace.

The imposing all-rounder, who struggled with injuries in the early part of his career, has become almost indispensable in the Australian line-up.

Adding to their batting power are the Hussey brothers — David and Mike — with the former being the big-hitter and the latter being the partnership-builder.

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Clarke himself is an established batsman and with all-rounder Cameron White coming in late in the order, Australia have a fairly long and formidable line-up.

The bowling too is equally well-balanced. The pace trio of Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait and Doug Bollinger have rattled opposition batting consistently though the spin department remains slightly suspect as Steven Smith is yet to make much of an impression.

The Lankans, meanwhile, also have a strong batting order to boast of with Mahela Jayawardene and skipper Kumar Sangakkara in fine form, as was evident in their 57-run triumph over the West Indies on Friday.

On the bowling front, they have pretty strong pace attack in Nuwan Kulasekara, Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga.

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Australia Vs Sri Lanka in Fight for Semifinal was first posted on May 9, 2010 at 6:49 pm.
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Australia Vs England T20 Final Today, BRIDGETOWN: Australia seek a world title treble while England will be chasing a first global one-day trophy when the old enemies meet for Twenty20 World Cup final in Barbados today.

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Australia already own the titles in the 50-over World Cup and the Champions Trophy but England have failed to land a prize in the 35 years since the International Cricket Council began global one-day events.

An exciting tournament will end at the Kensington Oval with the two best teams meeting in a fixture given added spice by the ancient rivalry between Australia and England.

While Australia have dominated the Twenty20 throughout, they will face an England team that has looked more together, focused and talented than any they have assembled in recent years.

However, as skipper Paul Collingwood has frequently noted, that progress will count for little if they return home from the Caribbean empty-handed again.

“We haven’t won anything yet — that’s the thing. We’ve got to a final but it means nothing until we win a World Cup,” he told reporters. “Until we do that we’re going to keep our feet on the ground.”

Collingwood hinted he would field the same team that comfortably beat Sri Lanka in their semi-final on Thursday.

That will mean a first taste of Australian pace bowling for young openers Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb.

The pair have kick-started England’s innings well throughout the tournament and despite the threat posed by the pace of Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes, Collingwood said he would not ask his openers to change their positive approach.

Australia have looked the most powerful outfit in the event although they needed a rescue act from Mike Hussey, who struck a brilliant 60 in 24 balls, to get past Pakistan in Friday’s semi-final.

Michael Clarke’s men will be favourites largely due to their strength in depth and experience in big matches.

Clarke, though, said the form book counted for little in the compressed action of Twenty20.

“People would have thought we were the favourites on Friday and we nearly got beaten,” he said. “The fact is that we’ve got two wonderful cricket teams who’ve played fantastic Twenty20 cricket throughout this tournament.

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“We have come a long way in this form of the game. But we didn’t come here to make the final, we came here to win the final.

“There’s no doubt we’d be much happier leaving Barbados with that one last trophy we don’t have just yet,” added Clarke..

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Australia Vs England T20 Final today was first posted on May 16, 2010 at 1:34 pm.
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California budget was released by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Friday. It outlines bleak fiscal realities for the Government of a state that is out in front with most national trends. Decades of tax revolts & Governing at the ballot box have with the great recession converged to create the California budget crisis of 2010.

Spending general fund will Reach the Lowest level in six years, $ 83.4 billion for the fiscal year Beginning in July. Even so, Schwarzenegger’s administration projects the state is Facing a $ 19.1 billion deficit.

Schwarzenegger’s budget would freeze funding for local schools, weitere cut state workers’ pay and take away 60 percent of state money for local mental health programs. Also he eliminating proposed CalWorks, the state’s welfare-to-work program. State parks & higher education areas are among the few that would be spared.

Schwarzenegger said that cuts over the past few years have done away with the “low-hanging fruit” in state government. “we now have to use the ax,” he said.

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California Budget was first posted on May 15, 2010 at 2:42 pm.
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Earthquake in Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico : An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7 struck the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico early Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake hit at 1:16 a.m. (0516 GMT) four miles (six kilometers) from the small community of Espino on the western side of the island and 63 miles (101 kilometers) from the capital, San Juan. It was recorded at a depth of 68 miles (110 kilometers).

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said it did not expect a tsunami, but local tsunamis triggered by underwater landslides were possible in coastal areas close to the epicenter.

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Earthquake in Puerto Rico was first posted on May 16, 2010 at 2:17 pm.
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KARACHI: Mohsin Hasan Khan began his stint as Pakistan’s new chief selector by calling for Pakistan’s Twenty20 set-up and thinking to be divorced from the Test and ODI line-ups, arguing that cricket’s newest format had played havoc with Pakistan’s skills in the longer formats.

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Mohsin was appointed yesterday, taking over from Iqbal Qasim, who handed in his resignation after Pakistan’s winless tour of Australia. He becomes the third full-time chief selector in less than a year and though his first assignment will be to pick a squad of 15 for the World Twenty20 defense in the Caribbean in April, his real work, he said, will begin after that.

“My personal opinion is that Test cricket and ODI cricket should have no relation to Twenty20 cricket,” Mohsin said at the National Stadium in Karachi, echoing the belief of Mohammad Yousuf who said during the Australia tour that the format would “destroy” cricket in Pakistan.

“Twenty20 cricket should be totally separate apart from some outstanding players like Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Fawad Alam, Saeed Ajmal and Umar Gul who fit into every format. But apart from these players, I would request the chairman to have a totally different set-up for the format. Twenty20 cricket has messed up our Test cricket skills and in ODIs we cannot bat even 50 overs.”

The terms of reference for his role and its parameters appear broad and flexible currently; no time limit is set on the job and the former Test opener even insisted that he would be more than willing to help out in a coaching capacity, an option he was initially keen on in his negotiations with the chairman.

“For two to three months I had been in direct talks with the chairman,” Mohsin said. “I said that if I do come back to the board then in two fields am I capable of giving something back to cricket, coaching or selection. The chairman called me yesterday and said he wants me to start with the selection committee right now.

“Coaching is still my first choice and I have told the chairman, I still feel physically fit enough to do it. I have said whenever you need my services in coaching department it is always there. In our top order batting we do have a problem, so I have said whenever you need my services I am ready.”

Pakistan’s chief selectors in recent years have had to deal constantly with problems over the ambit and nature of their role. The post has become, essentially a full-time, professional one, barring Qasim’s recent stint, which was in an honorary capacity.

But both Abdul Qadir and Salahuddin Mulla in recent years have faced issues over the apparent undermining of their authority and say in selection by the captain and coach. “The chairman has given me total authority,” Mohsin said.

“In selecting a team, there are three pillars and all have to take blame or credit: the selection committee, captain and coach. All three have to take responsibility. I want the captain and coach in the process, because they have to fight on the field.”

These issues will be discussed in a meeting with Ijaz Butt later in the week but Mohsin said he is more than happy to have no set time limit on his role.

“I have not asked for a specific time period. I will start and do the work and keep doing it until the board is satisfied with me and I am satisfied with them. People have had tenures before which they didn’t finish so I said to the chairman let’s not set a fixed time. Until I am doing well, until the board thinks I am doing well, fine. I don’t want to be a burden anywhere. You clap with two hands, not one. We will work together, how long for I don’t know.”

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Former NBA star Jayson Williams faces sentencing Tuesday for a shooting that happened eight years ago in New Jersey.

Williams is scheduled to appear in court in Somerville. He’s expected to get 18 months in prison after pleading guilty last month to aggravated assault in the February 2002 death of hired driver Costas Christofi.

Williams was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter in 2004 but convicted on four counts of covering up the shooting. His sentence for those convictions will run concurrent to the assault sentence.

When he pleaded guilty, Williams had faced a retrial on a reckless manslaughter count.

Witnesses testified Williams snapped a shotgun shut in the bedroom of his New Jersey mansion after a night of drinking. The gun went off, hitting Christofi in the chest.

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Jayson Williams Sentencing was first posted on February 23, 2010 at 11:08 pm.

LONDON – The suspect in the disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway has confessed to disposing of her body in a swamp on the Caribbean island of Aruba, according to a Dutch tabloid newspaper and Aruba’s chief prosecutor.

Joran van der Sloot made the statement in a sit-down interview with a television journalist, De Telegraaf reported Tuesday.

However, Aruba’s chief prosecutor Peter Blanken told NBC News that the suspect’s story was “very unbelievable.”
Holloway, from Mountain Brook, Ala., was 18 when she was last seen leaving a bar in the Aruban capital on the final night of a high school graduation trip in May 2005. Her body has never been recovered.

Authorities in Aruba reopened the investigation after they found out about the alleged confession, which is believed to have been recorded in August.

“The locations, names and times he gave just did not make sense,” Blanken told NBC News.

‘Lies’
De Telegraaf quoted Blanken as saying that van der Sloot’s statement was “held together by lies and fantasy.”

The interview was not aired by German broadcaster RTL because of doubts about whether van der Sloot was telling the truth, Blanken added.

Van der Sloot claimed that Holloway had died accidentally and insisted that he did not kill her, Blanken said.

In 2008, the suspect was secretly taped saying that Holloway had died after suffering a seizure on a beach and that he had dumped her body in the sea.

Van der Sloot later said he had been lying in a bid to impress the man he was talking to.

He also told a U.S. journalist that he sold Holloway to a man on a boat for $10,000. However, he subsequently insisted he had also made up that story.

Holloway disappeared on May 30, 2005. She was last seen getting into a car with van der Sloot and two of his friends.

The three men have been questioned repeatedly by police but have never been formally charged.

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Natalie Holloway Confession was first posted on February 23, 2010 at 11:22 pm.

Cayman Islands Earthquake latest news updates :- A Cayman Islands earthquake rattled the region Tuesday morning with a 5.8 magnitude.

The Cayman Islands are located south of Cuba in the Caribbean Region, which is still recovering from the Haiti earthquake a week ago.

On Monday, a 6.0 Guatemala earthquake was recorded, though there was reportedly no damage.

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Cayman Islands Earthquake was first posted on January 19, 2010 at 9:49 pm.