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NASSAU, Bahamas (AP): Europa League matches next season will be played with five officials as part of a trial involving FIFA and UEFA.




FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Sunday that European football's governing body had agreed to undertake the experiment during the tournament formerly known as the UEFA Cup.

The system involves an extra official standing on the side of each goal, assisting the referee and two touchline assistants make decisions by communicating through headsets.

FIFA and its rule-making arm, the International Football Association Board, ordered the system tested last year as an alternative to using video replay. UEFA was asked to use the system at under-19 European Championship qualifying matches in Slovenia, Hungary and Cyprus, and it was hailed a great success.

UEFA said the extra pair of eyes monitoring play in each area had a preventive effect as well as promoting better decisions on suspected fouls. Players were less prone to shirt-pulling at corners and free kicks, diving in the area and dissent, it reported.

UEFA president Michel Platini is credited with having the original idea. Platini opposes using technology to decide goal-line decisions and proposed the five-official experiment to retain a human element in decision-making.

The Europa League is the continent's second-tier club competition behind the Champions League. More than 150 clubs will take part in the restructured tournament, with qualifying-round matches beginning in July.

Blatter reported the experiment after a two-day meeting of FIFA's executive committee in Nassau.

Em seemed displeased at his close view of Bruno's midsection.

While the show has not reached its halfway point, the award for most outrageous presenter at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards surely goes to Sacha Baron Cohen's Brüno, who surprised an unamused Eminem with a front-row seat to his manhood.

When it was his turn to present the Golden Popcorn statue for Best Male Performance, Brüno, the fictional gay Austrian fashion reporter, descended from the rafters dressed as a sort of angel. He lowered himself directly over Em, who had just returned to his seat after performing a medley of two tracks from his new album, Relapse, until his legs were on either side of the rapper's head and his bare buttocks were exposed.

Em then seemed to utter an expletive and request his bodyguards to get Brüno off of him. A minor melee ensued and Brüno dangled above Em, who quickly got out of his seat and left the auditorium as cameras followed his exit.

Somewhere in there, Brüno announced the winner of the Best Male Performance: Zac Efron, for his performance in "High School Musical 3: Senior Year."

Efron had a tough act to follow — "That was weird!," he said — but he was gracious in his thanks for his award.

Source : http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1612970/20090531/story.jhtml

PETALING JAYA: Time is up for loan sharks high on the wanted list and police will now turn the tables on them by circulating their photos to the public through the media.

The 24-hour deadline given to these savage moneylenders has lapsed.

“Since they did not show up, the police will go after them,” Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said.

Their photographs will be made available to the press today.

According to Selangor CID chief Datuk Hasnan Hassan, as at noon yesterday, none of the Ah Long had surrendered.

Police have also arrested two more men believed to be involved in the abduction and confinement of three victims at a Seri Kembangan shoplot last week.

Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation vice-chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye called for the photographs of the brutal Ah Long and their runners to be displayed in public places.

“This is because the public is often not aware of the underhanded tactics some of the Ah Long are capable of,” he said.

“When people know who they really are, they will not dare borrow money from them. This can help reduce the number of intimidation cases involving Ah Long,” he said.

He also urged the courts to impose heavy penalties on merciless loan sharks to serve as a deterrent to others.

Citing the case of the three loan defaulters who were chained and tortured, Lee said this was an example of how the loan sharks were capable of inhuman acts.

He also called on the Government to study the circumstances that drove people to borrow from loan sharks.

“There are so many cases out there where people are desperate for even small amounts of money. They do not know where to turn to for help as financial institutions would not entertain them.

“The Ah Long business is flourishing because transactions can be made almost immediately,” he added.

Lee said it was high time the Finance Ministry carried out a study to find ways to help people who need micro loans to settle medical bills or to pay for their children’s education.

The PSP Go is real, and Sony itself has described many of the details of the hardware via an early episode of its own digital news show, Qore. We have the details, and some images, of the next step in Sony's move towards a less physical future.

It didn't take long before one of the biggest E3 rumors was confirmed. GamingConsoleNetwork noticed that the PSP Go made an appearance in an early release of the Sony video series Qore. And then it was described in detail. And then shown some more. Soon after that, Eurogamer got ahold of a series of pictures of the hardware, which reveal everything in beautiful detail. The system is real, it is small, and it has no UMD drive.

The video is being pulled from YouTube just as soon as it's being uploaded, but a quick search or two should turn up a copy of the video if you'd like to see the hardware in action. Here's what we know about the hardware so far... it seems like the Mole was right about many of the details.


The hardware will not take the place of the current PSP-3000 on store shelves—they will be sold side-by-side. The PSP Go hardware is significantly lighter, with 43 percent less weight to hold in your hand. The screen is 3.8 inches, the unit will come with 16GB of memory and a memory card slot for expanded storage, and it will feature bluetooth support. The screen slides to reveal the buttons, and the placement of the analog stick does not look comfortable. Hopefully, we'll be able to get our hands on the system at E3 to give you some more details on how comfortable—or not—the system is.

Games were also discussed: Jak and Daxter, and the long-awaited Gran Turismo PSP that was discussed at the launch of the original PSP. A new Metal Gear Solid title was also mentioned.

No price was confirmed, although it was said that we'll be seeing the system released this Fall. This flood of information and images must have taken the wind out of Sony's sails, as the company now has one less big reveal for its E3 press conference.

A portable gaming system with no physical media is big news, although those who upgrade from their existing PSP systems won't be able to play their old games... that's going to put a dent in the system's sales. Nintendo has proven that gamers are willing to upgrade into newer hardware again and again, but cutting off support for old games is an interesting move. Of course, Sony is probably more than happy to re-sell you older content via its online store, just as Nintendo can now sell gamers classic Game Boy Advance content for the DSi; that system likewise removed support for some older physical game media.

There will be more information coming out of E3, that is certain. Until then, we must be content with one of the biggest stories of the show coming to us early.

GEORGE TOWN: An online blunder by apex-status Universiti Sains Malaysia in its first direct intake of undergraduates led to some 200 irate parents and applicants causing a ruckus here yesterday.

The error resulted in 4,574 students being wrongly informed that they had obtained places at the university.

Red-faced university officials apologised for their mistake when confronted by hollering parents and applicants, some sobbing.

The university had on Friday mistakenly uploaded the names of 8,173 applicants who had met the minimum criteria, stating they were successful in their application although the list should only contain the names of 3,599 eligible students.

The “successful” 8,173 were told to confirm their places with the university by 5pm yesterday.

Applicants and parents starting arriving at the university at 9am yesterday to confirm their places but were told of the mistake.

Tempers flared as parents, some of whom had travelled from other states for the registration, argued with registrar officers.

Acting vice-chancellor (Academic and International Affairs) Prof Ahmad Shukri Mustapa Kamal apologised for the mistake which he blamed on the university.

“The 8,173 names that appeared on the website on Friday were the shortlisted candidates who had met the minimum criteria out of the 22,000 students who applied to USM,” he said at a press conference yesterday.

“We realised our mistake at about 3pm on Saturday and took two hours to rectify the problem.

“By 5pm, only the successful applicants were notified through the website. We also followed up with SMSes and phone calls,” he added. USM was granted the apex status last September, thus allowing it to select its students directly.

Prof Ahmad said the mistake occurred as the university was in a “haste” to prepare the list of successful applicants for the Higher Education Ministry.

Higher Education Department director-general Datuk Prof Radin Umar Radin Sohadi said students who could not get a place at USM would be placed into the University Admission Unit’s (UPU) main pool for selection into other public universities.

A parent, M.T. Cheah, 56, who came from Taiping, Perak, said he could not believe that a university with an apex status could have committed such a mistake.

“My daughter has no appetite to take her breakfast and dinner. The university gave her hope a day earlier but crushed it the next day,” he said.

Another parent, who only wanted to be known as Lim, said his daughter also found her name among the list of successful applicants on Friday.

“We were so happy but only for a day,” said Lim, 49, when met in Petaling Jaya yesterday.

His daughter clicked her acceptance for the dentistry course and an acknowledgement notice appeared on the website,” said Lim.

But on Saturday, the Tunku Abdul Rahman college student went into the website again and found that her name was no longer on the list.

“Today (Sunday), she received an SMS stating that she did not get a place (in USM).”

Source : http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/1/nation/4022056&sec=nation

KOTA KINABALU: Chinese national Tong Ju’s (pic) dream of leaving his footprints in 193 countries was tragically cut short when he was knocked down by a vehicle in Kg Limbanak near here.

Tong became a hit-and-run victim late Saturday evening while doing what he enjoyed most – jogging.

The 52-year-old, who became the first man to jog three times around China in 1994 and covered all South-East Asian countries since 2007, was found dead by the roadside.

Penampang district police chief Deputy Supt Madang Usat said police were investigating the case as hit and run.

Tong, who had been in Brunei and Sabah since early this year, covered most parts of the state, including climbing Mount Kinabalu, and was planning to leave for Taiwan this week before returning to his hometown Hei Long Jiang in Harbin to celebrate his father’s 82nd birthday.

“This may be my the last time I see my parents as they are elderly. Whether I can be back alive is still a question mark,” he was quoted as saying in a recent interview here when he spoke of his plans to return home and later head for the Philippines and Pacific islands.

Tong had also said that it was his love for running and interest in geography that set him on a jogging mission to spread China’s 5,000-year-old culture and history to the world.

“I want to leave something to the world – my life, my dream, my spirit, my starting and ending point. Life is short, we should do what we want while we are alive,” Tong was quoted as saying.

He leaves behind his parents, a 25-year-old daughter and four brothers.

Local associations were helping the relevant authorities to send Tong’s body back to his homeland.