Pat Robertson Haiti Quotes Update

Pat Robertson Haiti quotes have become a hot issue in the whole media world. In fact, Pat Robertson Haiti quotes was so harsh and mocking that every body has termed them as un-ethical, immoral and devoid of humanitarianism. When everybody in the world is mourning on the distressing earthquake of Haiti where thousands of people have lost their lives and millions of people have lost their homes and became injured and effected in different ways, such remarks by a TV commentator really pinched all and sundry. Such people attract severe criticism from analysts as well as the public at large. Now all are condemning him for his satirical comments on the people of Haiti.

Pat Robertson Haiti quotes – what these quotes actually were. Pat Robertson, in fact, while commenting on the recent Haiti earthquake had said that Haitians had committed an accord with the devil to ouster the French

from their country and they succeeded in doing so with the help of the devil, hence this earthquake had taken place, which was a blessing in disguise for them, so that they could redirect themselves to God. These remarks were taken into account by everybody and welcomed a lot of criticism for Pat Robertson.

If we study the whole story of Haitian earthquake, we come to the conclusion that a gigantic and harsh earthquake has turned every thing upside down. The life has been transformed to death. The people world over are praying for the life of those who have been injured. People are sending donations for them very quickly. In such a situation, the Pat Robertson Haiti quotes have been disliked by every one. Such a criticism on his remarks is but natural. No body, having a human heart, could pass such remarks in this state of natural wreckage.

Bangladesh Vs India in first Test

Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and sent India in to bat in the first cricket Test here on Sunday.

Virender Sehwag was leading India in the absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was ruled out with back spasms. Leading spinner Harbhajan Singh was also missing due to a stiff neck.

The start was delayed by 90 minutes because of fog and murky weather over this coastal city.

Bangladesh:
Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hasan, Mohammad Mahmudullah, Shahriar Nafees, Shahadat Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam.

India:
Virender Sehwag (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatsai Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma.

5 killed, 900 people saved from Philippine ferry

updated 9:34 a.m. ET Sept. 6, 2009

More than 60 are missing after vessel listed and sank in south of country

MANILA, Philippines - A ferry carrying nearly 1,000 passengers sank in the southern Philippines early Sunday, leaving at least five dead and more than 60 missing.

The Superferry 9 began to list before dawn about nine miles (15 kilometers) off Zamboanga del Norte province, rousing terrified passengers from their sleep and sending many jumping into the water, coast guard chief Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said.

Rescuers transferred 900 of 968 passengers and crewmen to two nearby commercial ships, a navy gunboat and a fishing boat, he said. A search was under way for more than 60 people who remained missing, Tamayo said, adding that they may have drifted with their life jackets or have been rescued but were not yet listed as survivors.

"We really hope they're just unaccounted for due to the confusion," Tamayo told The Associated Press.

A Canadian tourist, Jeffrey Predchuz, was among the survivors, officials said.

Navy ships were deployed and three military aircraft scoured the seas, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said. American troops providing counterterrorism training to Philippine soldiers in the region deployed a civilian helicopter and five boats, some carrying paramedics, to help, U.S. Col. William Coultrup said.

Teodoro said two men and a child drowned during the scramble to escape the ship. The bodies of two other passengers were later plucked from the sea by fishermen, the coast guard said, adding that three passengers were injured.

The cause of the listing was not clear. The ferry skipper initially ordered everyone on board to abandon the ship as a precautionary step, said Jess Supan, vice president of Aboitiz Transport System, which owns the steel-hulled ferry.

There were reports that the ferry listed to the right due to a hole in the hull, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said. As the 7,268-ton ferry tilted, some passengers may have panicked and jumped into the water, the coast guard said.

Passenger Roger Cinciron told DZMM radio that he felt the ferry was tilting around midnight but he was assured by a crewman that everything was well. About two hours later, he was roused from sleep by the sound of crashing cargo below his cabin, he said.

‘Really tilting’
"People began to panic because the ship was really tilting," he said as he waited for rescuers to save him and a group of more than 20 other passengers.

Reymark Belgira, another passenger, said many panicked as the huge ferry turned. He said he saw parents tossing children to people on life rafts below, but he could not immediately jump himself.

"I held on to the ferry for hours until day break. I couldn't jump into the water in the dark," he said.

Aerial photos from the navy showed survivors holding on to anything as the ferry tilted. Others climbed down a ladder on the side of the ferry as a lone orange life raft waited below.

The ferry left the southern port city of General Santos on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive in Iloilo city in the central Philippines later Sunday but ran into problems midway, Tamayo said.

There were no signs of possible terrorism, he said.

Al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants bombed another Superferry in Manila Bay in 2004, setting off an inferno that killed 116 people in Southeast Asia's second-worst terrorist attack.

The weather was generally fair in the Zamboanga peninsula region, about 530 miles (860 kilometers) south of Manila, although a tropical storm was battering the country's mountainous north, the coast guard said.

Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of tropical storms, badly maintained boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.

Last year, a ferry overturned after sailing toward a powerful typhoon in the central Philippines, killing more than 800 people on board.

In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the Philippines, killing more than 4,341 people in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.

U.N. Tackles Universal Problem for Women: Divorce

Run Date: 09/06/09

By Theresa Braine WeNews correspondent

Women the world over lose out financially in divorce, say custodians of the U.N. treaty on women's rights. That's why they are reviewing what CEDAW says on the matter, with a new general recommendation expected next year UNITED NATIONS (WOMENSENEWS)--Guardians of the U.N.'s treaty on women's rights have begun to address one of the most daunting challenges for women the world over: financially surviving divorce. Setting international standards on this issue strikes at the core of cultural identity and even into people's personal sense of self, says Marsha Freeman, a member of the committee currently reviewing the treaty's position on divorce. And that, she says, is "the hardest place to make these changes." Freeman is the director of International Women's Rights Action Watch, a human rights group based at the University of Minnesota Law School that promotes worldwide recognition of the tenets of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW. She is also a member of the CEDAW working group that is studying the issue of divorce and its economic consequences for women. Freeman helped draft the statement given by Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, vice president of the U.N. committee overseeing implementation of CEDAW, during the most recent review session on CEDAW, which took place from July 20 through August 7 this summer. During the meeting the convention began airing current research and findings on the economic consequences of divorce on women. While revising the treaty's criterion for divorce won't be easy, CEDAW overseers consider it necessary. That's because although women the world over lead vastly different lives, most of them invariably lose out financially in divorce. States party reports, nongovernmental organizations and the U.N.'s own research has determined over the years that in many countries laws and customs do not support either women's accumulation of property during marriage or equal division of marital property upon divorce, says Freeman. Growing Concern "The economic consequences of divorce have been of growing concern to social scientists and policy makers," said Halperin-Kaddari in her statement. Halperin-Kaddari, the main presenter before the CEDAW committee, said research in industrialized countries has demonstrated that while men usually experience minimal income losses after divorce, most women experience a substantial decline in household income and an increased dependence on social welfare where it is available. "Throughout the world, female-headed households are the most likely to be poor," she said. Women's median income drops by 20 percent or so in the United States and 24 percent in the European Union, studies show. But the financial impact on men isn't as drastic. According to 1996 U.S. Census data, 21 percent of recently divorced women were living below the poverty line, while only 9 percent of men were. In many parts of the world the penalty is far worse, with women cast out of their in-laws' homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Halperin-Kaddari told Women's eNews that the CEDAW committee will continue collecting information on legal issues and data on the situation of women around the world after such family relations are dissolved. Based on this and other material, the committee next year will issue a new general recommendation that creates a global standard that gives divorcing women a fair economic shake. CEDAW Silent on Aspects of Divorce Adopted in 1994, CEDAW's current text addresses the social and legal aspects of a woman's right to choose a spouse and enter freely into marriage but does not delve into family life power structures or the economic consequences of divorce for women. The treaty grants women and men the "same rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its dissolution" and touches on divorce's aftermath, but it does not get specific about how to lessen the economic impact on women. The committee has said that any new recommendation will take into account the effect of globalization and development on family relations and divorce. Halperin-Kaddari said the goal is to set up a framework that can guide CEDAW member countries to create "an egalitarian legal regime under which the economic benefits of marriage and the costs and economic consequences of marital breakdown are equally borne by men and women." The recommendations aren't binding, but countries can use them as a guide in dealing with issues related to divorce and dissolution of the family unit. A few nongovernmental organizations and advocacy groups had their say as well. Women Often Give Up Claims Laurel Eisner, executive director of the New York City nonprofit Sanctuary for Families, noted that in the United States women often opt for an uncontested divorce, giving up their claim to property, because it is quicker to file a no-contest divorce that seeks nothing but the dissolution of the marriage. Such women may want a quick exit because it can help free them from an abusive relationship or avoid a costly legal battle, Eisner told Women's eNews. Women often don't know how to safeguard their rights, nor can they circumvent corruption that's built into the legal and judicial professions, said Silvia Pimentel, a CEDAW committee member from Brazil. Pimentel said that Brazil and other Latin American countries have passed a number of laws that benefit women. One example is Chile's legalization of divorce in 2004. But she said judges and lawyers don't necessarily respect CEDAW nondiscrimination principles when it comes to putting the laws into practice. "They always find ways of perpetuating stereotypes of women's inferiority," Pimentel said. And this means that women are often not given their fair share of assets or financial provisions for children in their custody. Theresa Braine is a freelance journalist based in New York City. Women's eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at editors@womensenews.org.

ICC announces nominations for Annual Awards 2009

Updated at: 1306 PST, Wednesday, September 02, 2009
MUMBAI: International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the names of players for Annual Awards 2009.

No Pakistani player is included in the list of cricketer of the year and test player of the year. However, Umer Gul is included in one-day list whereas four other players including Shahid Afridi included in T20 list.

In a function here, ICC Chief Executive Haroon Logart in a function announced names of nominated players for ICC Annual Awards 2008-09.

Indian players dominated the eight different categories. Umer Gul is included in the list of One Day Players of the Year along with MS Dhoni, Verendar Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.

Twenty20 Player of the Year includes four Pakistani cricketers Shahid Khan Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Umer Gul and Abdul Razzaq.

The function of ICC Annual Awards will be held in South Africa during Champions Trophy.

Federer, Williams, Clijsters succeed US Open Tennis

Updated at: 1808 PST, Thursday, September 03, 2009
NEW YORK: The remarkable comeback of Kim Clijsters gathered pace at the US Open on Wednesday, underlining her growing threat to the domination of the Williams sisters.

The 26-year-old Belgian defeated 14th seed Marion Bartoli of France 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 to reach the third round.

In just her third tournament back after a two year "retirement" during which she got married and had a baby daughter, 26-year-old Clijsters started slowly but moved up through the gears to stun the former world top tenner.

She will next play another Belgian, Kirsten Flipkens, for a place in the last 16, where she could run into Venus Williams, who is struggling with a knee injury.

The 29-year-old American, who won back-to-back titles here in 2000 and 2001, wore a heavy white strapping to support her left knee in her tie against compatriot Bethanie Mattek-Sands, but she was rarely stretched and won 6-4, 6-4.

Younger sibling Serena, who is in the same half of the draw, later produced an awesome display of power hitting to demolish Hungary's Melina Czink 6-1, 6-1 and reinforce her position as the tournament's outstanding favourite.

Williams apart, other leading seeds to make it through from the second round were eighth-ranked Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who coasted past Barbora Zahlavova Strykova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-1, and seventh-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva, who hit back to defeat compatriot Anna Chakvetadze 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.

In-form Italian Flavia Panetta, the 10th seed, recorded the first whitewash of the tournament, defeating India's Sania Mirza 6-0, 6-0, but China's top player Li Na kept Asian hopes alive with a 6-1, 6-3 win over tempestuous teen Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal.

In other games, French veteran Amelie Mauresmo lost 6-4, 6-0 to Aleksandra Wozniak and said she would consider her future in the game at the end of the year, while Maria Kirilenko of Russia upset Polish 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

Bartoli was in command early on against Clijsters as both players struggled to hold their serves and she took the first set when Clijsters overcooked a forehand drive and then played a poor drop shot from 30-all on the French player's serve at 6-5 up.

But the Belgian, who won her only Grand Slam title here in 2005, varied her shot-making at the start of the second and Bartoli quickly unravelled as she was knocked out of her comfort zone.

The deciding set was all Clijsters with Bartoli looking increasingly tired and frustrated.

Venus Williams, who came within three points of a shock first-round loss to Vera Dushevina of Russia, said she was trying to play through the pain of her injured knee.

Williams will next play Slovakian suprise Magdalena Rybarikova with a likely fourth round matchup with Clijsters looming at the weekend should they both win.

Sister Serena, the defending champion and second seed who is seeking a fourth US Open title and a 12th Grand Slam title overall, took just 53 minutes to dismantle the unfortnate Czink in what was the first time a women's match had concluded the night-time session on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.

Williams sisters, Nadal reach 4th round at US Open

Updated at: 1125 PST, Saturday, September 05, 2009
NEW YORK: Seeking her third grand slam victory of the year, Serena Williams withstood a strong test from Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 6-3, 7-5 to advance to the fourth round of the U.S.Open.

No. 3 Venus Williams, the 2000-01 Open champion, avoided adding to the list of stunning results when she got past 46th-ranked Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-2, 7-5. Next up for the elder Williams. Other winners included No. 7 Vera Zvonareva of Russia, No. 10Flavia Pennetta of Italy, No. 18 Li Na of China and No. 26 Francesca Schiavone of Italy.

No. 1 Dinara Safina made it to Saturday's third round, but barely. She needed more than 4 hours to get through two three-set victories.

The best men have faced no such problems: No. 3 Rafael Nadal's 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory Friday night in the last match of Day 5means the men seeded 1-16 all reached the third round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in the 41-year Open era.

Friday's other winners included No. 2 Andy Murray, No. 7Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and No. 9 Gilles Simon. None of the top 10 men had even dropped a single set much less lost until 2008runner-up Murray's little slip in his 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 win over87th-ranked Paul Capdeville of Chile on Friday afternoon.