Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Italy freight train explosion kills many and injures more

A 14-car freight train transporting gas tanks derails in northern Italy and two tanks explode killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 40 others. The blast of the gas tanks occured at 11:45 p.m (21:45 GMT) as the train was passing through the town of Viareggio on the western coastline of Italy. Four of the tanks rolled over and after the explosion, the station and some houses around caught fire. Two of building crushed to rubble and many people died due to either home collapses or the fire. Video footage of the train explosion recorded shortly after the accident shows enormous flames surrounding populated area.
Update: The death toll raised to 16 after two children died due to bad injuries caused by the burns.

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Yemeni Airbus A310 plane crashes in Indian Ocean with 153 on board

Airbus disaster strikes again. 153 passengers vanished when an Yemeni jet plunged into the waters of the Indian Ocean. The Yemeni airliner, an Airbus A310 model was en route from Sanaa (Yemen's capital) to Moroni (Comoros island's capital) and crashed about one hour before reaching the destination. The Yemen's authorities declared that most of the travellers were Comorans. The duration of the flight was supposed to be about 4.5 hours to cover the 2900 km between Yemen and Comoros.The Comoran officials are freightened because they do not have sea rescue resources. There is no exact information on fate of Yemeni A310 flight.
Another air disaster that rocked the area took place in 1996 when an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 crashed off the coast of Comoros after being hijacked.
Update1: Flight 626 crashed while landing procedure near Hahaya Airport (Comoros). The plane made an U-turn before coming down into the sea. A surveillance plane spotted debris of the Airbus A310-300 and amazingly rescuers found one child alive from Yemeni flight 626. The jet was carrying 142 passengers and 11 crew aboard.
French officials said that 66 passengers on board Yemeni IY626 flight were french nationals.
Update2: Baya Bakari, a 13-years-old girls was the only survivor of Yemeni flight 626 crash. The teenager was recovered 2 hours after the crash among the dead bodies and the debris of the plane. Despite the violent crash, the girl escaped with minor injuries and she said that "did not feel anything". Now she is in the hospital and there is no danger threatening her life. The search teams managed to find one of the black box flight recorders of the Yemenia crashed plane. The signal coming from the black box was spotted about 40 km away from Grande Comore and at the moment it is still unknown if it was found the Flight Data Recorder or the Cockpit Voice Recorder. The search operation is still under way.
Yemenia Flight 626 crash report-CNN

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A few tips and tricks on weblog promotion

Everyone who starts a personal blog or an own-domain-website wants to increase the importance of his “creation” and become easily found on the internet. Sometimes the promoting procedure might take longer than expected and many steps to follow but a simple web-consulting can make it shorter. Here a few ideas to cut it short.
In general the importance of a website is given by the search engines through their Page Rank. In order to be recognized over the internet the web-domain must be indexed by the crawlers and spiders of the search engines. The most important aspect is the content of the site which subsequently is supposed to bring traffic. The first step to do is the submission to the high ranked search engines and directories and this should be done after the webpage has somehow a main content (design). Actually, the content is that part which does the most, but depends on the way it is written, therefore it is introduced the notion of “optimization”.
The website importance (PR) is dictated by the amount of traffic and about 80% of it comes from the search engines (and the rest from direct visitors). The most important viewpoint of the web-marketing is that the optimization is a way of advertising the desired target. On that purpose the user must optimize the website content, which means that for a specific combination of keywords the page entry will be displayed in the first results of an online search thus bringing more visitors as potential clients for a chosen niche. Hence it is better to be used the keywords combination that will show the least number of search results. Even if different companies offer services for web optimization, still the effects will be seen in time and not shortly after. The SEO technique must be applied correctly in order to bring benefits otherwise can lead to undesirable spam. A proper evaluation of your blog can be done here.

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Sunday, June 28, 2009

USA - Brazil 2-3 Confederations Cup Final 2009 - South Africa 28/06/2009

28-06-2009 20:30 - Confederations Cup Final game between the men's national football teams of the United States and Brazil.
Video highlights full match & all goals Brazil-USA 3-2 Confederations Cup Final
USA - BRAZIL 2 - 3
Live updates:
Min.10: USA-Brazil 1-0. Ten minutes needed the Americans to take the lead over Brazil on goal scored by Clint Dempsey.
Min.27: USA-Brazil 2-0. Unbelievable: USA increase its advantage to 2-0 on a fast counter-attack action finalized by L. Donovan.
Min. 46: USA-Brazil 2-1. Luis Fabiano scores for Brazil shorly after the beginning whistle of the second-half of the match.
Min. 74: USA-Brazil 2-2. The same Luis Fabiano levels the game after a nice action by Kaka. Fabiano scores by head a cross-bar deflected ball.
Min. 84: USA-Brazil 2-3. Six minutes before the final whistle,Lucio brings Brazil in advantage and very close to winning the Confederations Cup.
Min 93: Final whistle and Brazil wins the Confederations Cup 2009 - South Africa. United Stated made a good game and have had big chances to defeat Brazil.
USA - Brazil 1 - 0

USA - Brazil 2 - 0
USA - Brazil 2 - 1
USA - Brazil 2 - 2

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Spain-South Africa 3-2 Confederations Cup third (3rd) place 28/06/2009

Spain has beaten South Africa to claim the third place at the Confederations Cup 2009.

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Michael Jackson undergoes a cardiac arrest and rushed to UCLA Medical center in critical condition. Michael Jackson has died in Los Angeles hospital

Pop music star Michael Jackson just suffered a heart attack hours ago and was taken to hospital. Jackson - aged 50 - was in critical condition when medical assistance got to his place. He was not breathing and then he was taken to UCLA Medical Center. He was applied intensive cardiac treatment in the ambulance. His father told the media that his son was not doing well. Hospital officials have not released yet any information on Jackson's condition but unconfirmed reports by local media said that he has died. Los Angeles Times and Associated Press add up to multiple media confirming his death. CNN confirms with LA coroner (Fred Corral) that Michael Jackson passed away. An autopsy was planned for Friday to see what caused his death.
Audio recording of 911 call made from Michael Jackson's house - BBC
Michael Jackson death - early footage when taken by paramedics from his Holmby Hills home and rushed to UCLA hospital in Los Angeles. At that time he had already suffered the cardiac arrest and probably he was dead.


Michael Jackson death suspecting case reported by Fox TV

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Confederations Cup Semi-final: Brazil-South Africa 1-0 25/06/2009

Tight match at Ellis Park Stadium in the second semi-final of the Confederations Cup. At half-time it is still an even score (0-0) between South Africa and Brazil national football teams. Is South Africa going to be the second shocking surprize of the Confederations Cup 2009 after historical win of the USA over Spain?
Second-half of the semi-final kicks off.
Min. 76. So far, South Africans play excellend and defend well by blocking any brazilian attack.
Min. 83. About 7 minutes to go before extra-times.
Min. 87. Unfair faul obtained by Brazil in a dangerous zone at the edge of 16 meters South African penalty area.
Min 88. Dani Alves scores a nice goal from a straight free-kick. Perfect shot near the left post of the african goalkeeper.
Min. 90+3. The final whistle of the game.
Watch Dani Alves goal, video-highlights Brazil - South Africa 1-0 Confederations Cup second Semi-final 25-06-2009

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Miraculous escape: 4-year-old Turkish boy hit by car walks away unscratched

Sensational escape of Muhammet Dirlik, a four year old kid who was striken by a car out of control which made him fly a couple of meters. The driver lost control of the vehicle trying to avoid a doggy off the street, then knocked down the little boy. After the accident the boy stood up and ran off crying towards his parents.

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AC/DC Amsterdam Arena Stadium - Black Ice Tour 23/06/2009

That's why I like to go to the stadium. The best shows take place there. The last great event was the AC/DC concert at Amsterdam Ajax FC Arena Stadium on Tuesday 23 June 2009. Because it is hard to describe in words, I would better just say "no comment" and post some pictures. When taking hundreds of photos, the task of making a selection is even harder. Enjoy!!!
Link to more pictures from AC/DC AMSTERDAM ARENA 2009

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Confederations Cup Semi-finals: Spain - USA 0-2 Bloemfontain 24/06/2009

At the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, the first semi-final of the Confederations Cup outlined an unexpected surprize so far, at half-time the United States leads 1-0 Spain on goal scored by Jozy Altidore in minute 27.
Min. 74, USA-Spain 2-0, a chain of mistakes made by Spain's defense and Clint Dempsey sends the ball into the net increasing seriously USA chances to step into the final.
Historical win of the United States over Spain in the first semi-final of the Confederations Cup 2009 and the americans progress into the final of the tournament.
USA men's national football team managed to brake Spain's record of 35 unbeaten consecutive games and proved that "The ball is round, a game lasts 90 minutes, anything else is pure theory"

Spain-USA 0-2 Jozy Altidore's goal (0-1) Confederations Cup Semi-final 1 - South Africa 24/06/2009

Video - highlights and all goals Spain-USA 0-2 Confederations Cup Semifinal 1 - South Africa 24 June 2009.

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

At least 9 killed and dozens injured in Washington DC Metro train crash

The worst ever Metro train crash accident in the history of Washington metropolitan area occured Monday afternoon just before 5 p.m., a rush hour time for the America's capital. Two subway trains collided on an above-ground track in the northeast outskirts of the city between Takoma Park-Maryland and Fort Totten stations along the Red Line. From preliminary investigations, it came out that one train in high speed smashed from behind into another one which was stationary waiting for clearance. At first impression it looked like the moving train ran on top and jumped over the train which was stopped but at the 8:30 p.m press conference NTSB spokesman declared that it was not known yet which train was on top - the trailing train or the stalled one. Initially at least four people were confirmed dead and at least 60 wounded but according to the last updates it seems that the death toll raised to 9 and more than 100 were seriously injured in the incident. The rescue teams arrived at the crash site about 10 to 15 minutes later.
The 9 p.m. updates reported six fatalities of the accident.
The last updates announce 9 dead people.
Video Washington subway train crash tragedy.

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Monday, June 22, 2009

Neda, Iranian girl shot dead on Tehran streets

Shocking video recording of Neda Soltani during her killing. The death of Neda who was participating with a friend - a teacher of music and philosophy - in a protest march on Tehran streets, was captured on camera by bystanders . Saturday 20 June 2009 at 19:05 in the area of Karegar Ave., at the corner crossing between Khosravi Street and Salehi Street, Neda Agha-Soltan a young woman who was standing along with a friend watching the street protests, was suddenly shot by a member of basiji militia who was hiding on the roof of a nearby house. After being stuck in traffic for more than an hour inside a Peugeot 206 - a subcompact with a poorly working air conditioner - Neda and the family friend decided to get out of the car for some fresh air. Neda, wearing a baseball cap over a black scarf, a black shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes, does not appear to be chanting and seems to be observing the demonstration.
Suddenly, a gunshot is heard. She collapses to ground - hit by a single gunshot in the chest - and seconds after, she appears to lose consciousness while her eyes roll to the right side. Intense blood streams start to come out from her mouth and nose and she dies in less than 2 minutes. The video footage shows Neda's dying moments and the eye witnesses declared that she was shot straight in the heart. "It burned me" - were Neda's last words before she died. She was burried in silence on Sunday only in the presence of her family, after the government forbade any mosque in Tehran to hold memorial ceremony service for Neda. Terrifying video of the dying moments of Neda Salehi Agha Soltan.
Video Iranian Neda Soltan shooting.

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Tips and comparisons when choosing a TV package

What is the best option when it comes to chose for a tv package? The TV services are provided by either regular cable networks or more recently, satellite tv networks. The last one comprises two main operators: Dish network and a dish network.
In spite of the fact that the satellite networks started to become widespread across the world, I consider that the cable system still remains one of the most profitable, simple and reliable entertainment media so far. There are advantages and disadvantages for each system but all these are just a matter of advertisement, depending on the people’s taste. Certainly the satellite networks hold more advanced technology over the cable but the user must keep in mind if this technology really fits his needs. All the tv supplying networks compete in improving two main branches: the Equipment and the Programming. The cable network equipment is less stuffy than the satellite one, requiring just a coaxial cable and a digital receiver for programming. The number of channels for the standard package is about 35 depending on the provider and the cost per channel but this number can be increased to the cable availability band of around 300 tv channels. Initially the cable networks started with analog signals, but now also the digital technology was implemented.
When and why would I switch to satellite networks? As mentioned above, the world satellite tv network is dominated by two main competitors: Dish network and Direct TV network. What’s different compared to cable system? Satellite networks - Dish system and Direct TV System - offer equipment which consists of satellite dish and the HD satellite receiver which in most cases has also a Digital Video Recorder. One of the benefits of the Directv Service - or satellite services in general- compared to cable network is the broadband, thus combining TV with high speed Internet connection. Another advantage is the fact that the Internet stream along with TV signal comes through satellite dish, hence this is a nice option if I would live in a remote area with no cable services. On the other side, a so-called drawback of the Directv system is that the hardware parts are not for free, they are actually sold to the subscriber. In case of break down of one of the equipment components, there is no maintenance included in the package, the only thing which can be done is to order e new one.
Another reason to opt for satellite providers is the fact that they offer packages coming with an overwhelming number of program channels, including also XM radio channels so that it can be watched almost everything from movies, sport and music channels to other channels like the regular broadcasting ones. Now you have to ask yourself: do you really need hundreds of tv channels or radio? Is it worth to pay for more services?
As a final conclusion - cable, dish network or Direct TV - I can barely say that there is a best option when choosing among them. The best choice is that one which fits the user’s needs.

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Confederations Cup Italy-Brazil 0-3 and Egypt-USA 0-3 21/06/2009 South Africa

Unexpected results in the last games of the group B at the Confederations Cup South Africa. Brazil beats Italy 3-0 on goals by Luis Fabiano (37, 42) and A. Dossena (45, o.g) and qualifies to the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup. In the other game, USA produced the surprise by defeating 3-0 Egypt and progressed along with Brazil to the Confederations Cup semi-finals stage.
Video-highlights and goals Italy-Brazil 0-3 Confederations Cup 21/06/2009.


Video-highlights and goals Egypt-USA 0-3 Confederations Cup 21/06/2009.

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Saturday, June 20, 2009

World number one Rafael Nadal withdraws from Wimbledon 2009

In the picture, Wimbledon 2008 champion Rafael Nadal with Ian Ritchie - Chief Executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club during the press conference in London - Friday 19 Jun 2009.
The defending champion Rafael Nadal decided to pull out from Wimbledon tournament this year due to his on-going knee injuries. Nadal started well 2009 by winning the first grand slam of the season - Australian open - but shortly after, he started to become overwhelmed by medical problems. He lost the final of the Rome tournament to world number 2 Roger Federer and also against Swedish Robin Soderling at the French Roland Garros. Trying to take rest and go back to fitness, the Spaniard was constrained to quit the Wimbledon warm-up at Queen's club. The last trainings were done on Thursday when lost to Australian Lleyton Hewitt in an exhibition match and on Friday when was beaten again by Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in another exhibition match. Following these results, it was obvious that Nadal was not in his best shape thus loosing the battle to recover from the knee injury. Friday (19/06/2009) Rafael Nadal decided to withdraw from Wimbledon (which starts on Monday 22 Jun 2009) becoming the forth player in the men's single tennis history not being able to defend his title after Stan Smith and John Newcombe in the 1970s, and Goran Ivanisevic in 2002.

Video Rafael Nadal press conference Wimbledon 2009 withdrawal (in spanish).

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Friday, June 19, 2009

Tarom incident in Madrid: Two Airbus planes landed at Barajas due to cracked windshield

Two TAROM A310 planes with the same technical problem – cracked windshield.
A Romanian Air Transport (TAROM) Airbus A310-300 plane made Thursday (18 Jun 2009) a safety landing at Barajas airport in Madrid after one of the crew member noticed a crack in one of the windshields.
The TAROM flight RO7443 (registration YR-LCA) was carrying 200 passengers and 10 crew on board and was en route from Bucharest Otopeni to Tenerife Sur Reina (Spain). The coincidence comes up when a second plane of the Romanian Air Company – another Airbus A310 - was sent from Bucharest to carry the passengers of Flight RO7443 from Madrid to Tenerife; amazingly after landing in Madrid also this one proved to have a cracked windshield. Romanian officials declared that the later plane showed no problem before taking off from Bucharest and believe that the break occurred during the flight to Spain’s capital. In the end the first plane was fixed and 24 hours later (Friday 19/06/2009) the passengers continued the trip to Tenerife where they arrived with no further troubles.

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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Confederations Cup USA-Brazil 0-3 and Egypt-Italy 1-0 video-highlights group B 18/06/2009

Video Brazil-USA 3-0 highlights and goals Confederations Cup South Africa 2009


Egypt Italy 1-0 (half-time): Egypt proved that the game against Brazil was not just a lucky coincidence and took the lead by defeating the italian goalkeeper in the 40th minute on goal scored by M Hommos.
Min 82: The game is tight and shows high quality football, both teams playing on counter-attacks. Egypt is very close to a historical victory against Italy, but there are still 10 minutes to play.
Final time: A glorious win obtained by Egypt against the World Champions.

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Shoking image: man beheaded by helicopter propeller

A tragic and fatal accident just occured at Folea, Timis county, Romania. A man has been beheaded because he did not approximate well and approached too much a helicopter getting within the range of the propeller blades.

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Continental Airlines tragedy - Captain dies on Belgium-New Jersey flight, co-pilots take over control

18/06/2009. The captain of Continental Airlines flight 61 en route from Brussels to New York unexpectedly dies during the flight. The co-pilots declare emergency and continue the flight. Besides the incident, everything on board is ok. The first two officers will land the plane at Newark airport.
Continental Airlines plane - a Boeing 777 with 247 passengers on board - made an emergency landing at Newark Liberty International Airport at about 12:00 ET (16:00 GMT). The passengers were not told about the situation aboard exepting the fact that a request for a doctor was made in mid-flight. The captain, a 61-year-old man seems to have died of natural causes. He was on duty with the air company for about 32 years - the airline officials said.
Family identified the deceased pilot of Continental flight 61 as Craig Lenell. In the photo Craig Lenell is shown with daughter Jennifer Lenell-Small, a former Continental employee.
On the left, Craig Lenell picture with his daughter.

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Hugo Spowers hydrogen concept car presented in London

A new hydrogen powered car was launched yesterday in London. The 2 seat vehicle is called Riversimple and brain behind its production is Hugo Spowers, a former race car driver. Riversimple weights just 300 kg, being able to reach a top speed of 80 km/h and having and autonomy of 322 km per re-fueling. The company aimed to launch 10 prototypes next year in UK, the cars being leased with fuel and maintenance costs included at an estimated price of $322 per month.

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Death of Petru Barladeanu, the Romanian murdered in Naples, caught on camera

The drama of Petru Barlandeanu, the Romanian citizen killed on 26th of May at Cumana metro station in Naples (Napoli) was recorded by the surveillance cameras. The Romanian was shot twice - in the chest and the leg - after being accidentally caught in the middle of a fight between mafia mobsters. It was not clear what happened untill the videotapes revealed the exact chain of tragic events. Eight mafia related gangsters tried to "settle" accounts with a rival member by opening fire in the middle of the street. Two innocent passers-by, an Italian 14-year-old and Petru Barladeanu just happened to be at the wrong time at the wrong place and they were hit by random bullets. Whereas the Italian escaped with injuries, for Romanian proved to be fatal in the end. The tapes show that after being hit, Barladeanu found refuge inside Cumana metro station. He walked a few steps before loosing his strength and falling down between the ticket office and platform. His wife was screaming desperately for help but obviously the scared people were trying to flee the area. After a while, some curious passers-by started to take pictures. The help arrived half a hour later when the Romanian was already dead. Subsequently, the Italian and Romanian media made a lot of noise on the fact that the help came too late despite the fact that a hospital was located nearby. Therefore it's still unknown if the Romanian was left to die at Cumana station because of either the medical services flaw or outrageous indifference from the passing people.
Video moartea romanului impuscat la Napoli.
Video footage Petru Barladeanu murder in Napoli
The lack of help from the people around is known as and tightly related to the bystander effect, which was also the case of Petru Barladeanu.
Petru Barladeanu last moments at Napoli (video bystander effect)

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Footage of Tehran university attack

Pro-governmental iranian militia attacking the students in a dormitory of the University of Tehran. Twitter, facebook and youtube, the only media of communication. CNN, BBC restricted.
Video footage Iran Isfahan university attack

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Frozen sharks, a creative way of smuggling Mexico drugs

The Mexican Navy was surprised of an innovative method used by drug smugglers when found more than a tonne of cocaine hidden nowhere else than in frozen sharks. The officers checked a freight ship in the Gulf coast port of Progreso in Yucatan state and discovered on board more than 20 sharks "loaded" with cocaine . Sniffer dogs and X-rays devices were used to detect the drugs shipment. Some other items employed for such illegal trafficking are furniture, sealed beer cans or religious statues.

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Nothern Ireland Racist attacks on Romanians in Belfast

115 Romanians were forced to spend the time at Ozone Leisure Centre in south Belfast after racist attacks on their homes. Loyal paramilitary group was believed to have been involved in the incidents but the suspicions were later denied. Romanian hate attacks were condemned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness who considered the tragic events a shameful episode and urged the police and all agencies to take action in protecting the people. About 20 Romanian families found refuge in a church on Tuesday night following attacks with bricks and stones on their houses by unknown persons. The people had been threatened verbally and later three properties were attacked on the same day - Jolena Flett, Racial Harassment Adviser for the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities said. Local officials including Lord Mayor Naomi Long do not want to see the Romanians flee out of Belfast they being considered part of the city.

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Confederations Cup South Africa 2009: Spain-Iraq 1-0 and South Africa-New Zealand 2-0 17/06/2009

Wednesday (17/06/2009), in the second round of games at Confederations Cup group A, Spain will face Iraq and South Africa will search for its first goal against New Zealand. According to the German tactician Ottmar Hitzfeld, Spain are the favorites for winning the tournament despite the presence of the World Champions (Italy) or the five-times World-Cup winners (Brazil).
Video-highlights and goal Spain-Iraq 1-0 Confederations Cup 17/06/2009


Video-Highlights and goals South Africa-New Zealand 2-0 Confederations Cup

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Monday, June 15, 2009

Confederations Cup: Brazil-Egypt 4-3 and Italy-USA 3-1

Brazil defeated 4-3 Egypt by a late 90 minute penalty kick scored by Kaká. The five-times World Cup champions had a 3-1 lead on goals by Kaká, Luis Fabiano and Juan in the minutes 5, 12 and 37 respectively, overcoming a 9th-minute goal by Mohamed Zidan. But Egypt did not give up, fought back beating goalkeeper Julio Cesar twice in just one minute and leveled the score on goals by Mohamed Shawky in minute 54 and Zidan in the 55th.
Brazil was saved lately in the 90th when Ahmed Al Muhamadi was kicked out for using his hand to stop Lucio’s shot on the goal line, and Kaká scored the penalty kick.
Watch video highlights all goals Brazil - Egypt 4-3 Confederations Cup Group B - South Africa 15/06/2009.

Italy meets USA in today's second game of group B . (Italy-USA live updates)
Italy-USA 0-1. The match is balanced untill minute 39 when Unites States gets a penalty kick which is scored by L. Donovan in the 41th and USA-Italy 1-0. Half-time still finds the americans in advantage.
Italy-USA 1-1. Italy starts the second half playing much better and more precisely and levels the score on a superb long distance goal by G. Rossi in the 58th minute.
Italy-USA 2-1. The other Rossi, (De Rossi) brings the lead for Italy with a long right-shot goal in minute 72.
USA is denied a clear penalty in the 80th.
Italy-USA 3-1. Italy plays almost perfect and after Toni's miss in the 90th, G.Rossi sends the ball into the net in the last minute of the extra-time (94th).
Video L Donovan goal Italy-USA 0-1 (Confederations Cup - South Africa 2009)

Confederation Cup Group B standings: Italy 3 (3-1), Brazil 3 (4-3), Egypt 0 (3-4), USA 0 (1-3)

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Baby jumping festival 2009 in Castrillo de Murcia, Spain

One of the weirdest feast in the world called "baby jumping festival" took place in Spanish city Castrillo de Murcia between 11-15 June 2009. The festival has a long history since 1620 and celebrates Corpus Christi with an act known as El Colacho which shows adults dressed in Devil jumping over rows of babies lying in the street. It is thought that incarnate devil take the evil with them as leaping over and leaving the children cleaned.

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Scotland's first deadly swine flu case

Scotland reported Sunday the first european swine flu fatality. Jacqueline Fleming, aged 38 died at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley while being treated after she gave birth prematurely. Scotland has around 500 people infected out ot 1261 cases in UK after Sunday's confirmation of 61 new cases in England and 35 new infected in scotland. Paisley swine flu death repesents orso the first fatal swine flu case outside America. The WHO reported that the H1N1 swine flu virus killed 145 people in Americas where two-thirds were in Mexico, 27 in USA, 4 in Canada, 2 in Chile and one each in Costa Rica, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Colombia. To all of these, it has just added Jacqueline Fleming death in UK. Last week the swine flu was raised at the pandemic level Phase 6, meaning that the desease spread to more countries and not that became deadlier or more dangerous.

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Saturday, June 13, 2009

14-year-old surviving meteor strike

Gerrit Blank, a 14-year-old boy survived after being hit by a pea-sized meteorite travelling 30000 mph (48270 km/h). The chances of surviving a meteorite strike are 1 in a million but the lucky teenager got only a 3 inch long scar on his hand. The event occured in Essen, Germany and the space meteor looking like a "ball of light" buried itself in the ground causing a foot wide crater. The red hot fragment which crashed to Earth was proved to be magnetic material. The only previous case of human survival by meteorite hit took place in Alabama, USA in November 1954 when a grapefruite-sized rock passed through the roof, deflected off the furniture and landed on a woman during her sleep.

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Friday, June 12, 2009

Final Destiny scenario: italian woman who missed Flight AF447 killed in car accident

Flight AF447 "Survivor" dies in car crash.
An italian woman, one of the passangers who missed the doomed Air France Flight 447 died in a car crash after her vehicle swerved into a truck in Kufstein (Austria). Johanna Ganthaler, a pensioner from Bolzano-Bozen province and her husban Kurt, were supposed to embark AF447 but their late arrival at the airport saved their lives and they took another flight to Europe the next day. The happiness did not last much, a few days later while travelling in Austria, the survivors of Air France tragedy have been involved in a road accident one of the car occupants dying and the other one being seriously injured. So far Story which resembles the topic of the movie Final Destination, - cheating the death or just coincidence?

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Guemar incident. 59 year-old-man killed one teenager for speaking loudly

Gunman killed one person after shooting three times at a group of teenagers who were speaking loudly. The incident occured in the Frech village of Guémar around 1 a.m. and besides the murdered person, another one was injured in a passing car due to glass explosion after the killer turned its gun to the vehicle and shot twice. (Le forcené de Guémar s'est rendu, 1 mort, 1 blessé grave)

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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Jetstar Flight 20 and American Airlines Flight 64 escape fire outbreaks

The series of flight events continue. Australian Jetstar A330-200 plane operating the Flight JQ 20 from Osaka to Australia's Gold Coast, made an emergency landing in Guam on Thursday morning after being confronted with a fire outbreak in the cockpit. Flight 20 was carrying 203 passengers and crew onboard (190 civilians and 13 crew) and after 4 hours into the flight, the fire ignited in the cockpit. The crew followed in-flight emergency procedures and landed the aircraft safely at Guam International Airport at 02.20am local time. Most of passangers were Japanese nationals along with a small numbers of Australians and a few overseas nationals; there were reported no injuries. Jetstar Flight 20 incident follows a similar development by American Airlines Flight 64 (Boeing 767) whose cabin caught fire on Tuesday evening. Flight 64 was en route from New York to Zurich (Switzerland) when the fire burst and determined the crew to land in Nova Scotia. In the same area a SwissAir flight crashed in 1998 due to fire causes.

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Real Madrid offers world record $130 million for Cristiano Ronaldo

Manchester United have agreed to accept the amazing offer of $130 million (94 million euros) for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. The English club has allowed the Spanish officials to contact and start the talks with Ronaldo. If the portuguese accepts the deal, practically he will crush the world-record trasfer fee held so far by Zinedine Zidane whose transfer in 2001 cost the same Real Madrid 77 million euro (now $108 million). The Spanish club's president Florentino Perez wants to build a new team and after Kaka's transfer days ago he proved that he aims high.

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Netherlands-Norway 2-0 World Cup Qualifiers 2010 10/06/2009

Netherlands won 2-0 over Norway remaining unbeatable and keeping the perfect record at the top of the group. The goals were scored by Andre Ooijer (33) and Arjen Robben (51). The Dutch already rezerved their tickets to the next year's finals on Saturday, thus becoming the first qualified team to the World Cup 2010 .
Highlights and video goals Netherlands - Norway 2 - 0

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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Flight AF447 crash reconstruction. How did Air France plane break into fragments?

Reconstruction of the chain of events that led to the crash of Flight 447 based on the evidence gathered so far.

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Indian Air Force airplane vanishes with 14 on board

The airplane incidents become more frequently as going further into 2009, the third air incident in the last 10 days just occured in India where an Air Force plane with 14 aboard (eight crew and six civilians) is supposed to have crashed on Tuesday somewhere in northeastern India. The plane took off at 8 a.m. GMT (2 p.m. local) from Menchuka in Arunachal Pradesh and dissapeared off radar soon later.

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Spanish Iberworld plane pushed to emergency landing in Canary Islands

10 June 2009 An Airbus A320 airliner that took off today from the Canary Islands was constrained to return back to the airport after the pilots detected a problem with one of its engines. Spanish Iberworld Flight 6201 with 189 people on board was heading to Oslo (Norway) and shortly after the take off (8:05 a.m. Gran Canaria time) from Las Palmas airport, the crew figured out an anomalous behavior of one of the engines. The immediate request was the return to the airport and the landing was done safely without further incidents. Iberworld Flight 6201 incident comes just nine days later after the desastrous crash of Air France flight 447 and involves another airplane manufactured by Airbus.
It seems that the cause that made the plane go back to the airport was the fire, some passengers seeing flames coming out of the engine after take off. At the same time with the blaze several noisy bangs were heard - the Norwegian passenger Heidi Rendalen said. Many passengers at the back of the airplane were panicking and shouting "It is burning". Despite all the declarations of the witnesses, the Iberworld officials and AENA spokeswoman Karen Martel denied that engine had caught fire mentioning that it was just a technical undisclosed problem.

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Tired Federer quits Halle Open tournament

Roger Federer withdrew from the Halle tennis tournament organized this week on reason that he feels too tired and overwhelmed after his great achievement at Roland Garros two days ago. The grass-court of the Gerry Weber Open was mainly used by Federer and other tennis stars as a warm-up before the big Wimbledon. The main favorite at Halle Open is now the Serb Novak Djokovic, who began his challenge with a win over the italian Simone Bolelli 7-5 6-2 in 84 minutes. Rafael Nadal still hopes in a recovery to be able to defend his crown claimed last year at Wimbledon.

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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

10 most viewed videos on youtube

There is a list with ten most viewed videos on youtube; the running counters might change the order of the videoclips.
1. Girlfriend, the Avril Lavigne's hit with more than 118 million viewers.
2. Evolution of Dance is most favorited video on YouTube (All Time) counting at least 117 million views.
3. Lezberado: Revenge Fantasies is the third most viewed video with a lesbian girls topic.
4. Charlie bit my finger - again ! Home made video with over 92 million views.
5. Chris Brown - With You "With You" - third single from the album "Exclusive" 91 million hits.
6. Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist.
7. Rihanna - Don't Stop The Music, great song that received a Grammy nomination in the category of "Best Dance Recording" at the 50th Grammy Awards and also 86 million "votes".
8. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love, best-selling single of 2007 in the UK - 85 million views already.
9. HahahaSmall daring boy... 81 million views so far.
10. Alicia Keys - No One.

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Neal Wanless, a South Dakota cowboy wins $232 million lottery

Sometimes the line between poverty and wealth might be very thin for some people. A good example is the case of Neil Wanless, a 23-year-old american from South Dakota who was hit by fortune and won a huge Powerball jackpot of $232 million which was the ninth biggest jackpot in the history of Powerball. Looks like an emotional story for the young cowboy whose family had just loss their home to foreclosure and now he can afford to buy almost everything. A funny coincidence is the fact that Wanless purchased the ticket on a trip to Winner (South Dakota) and subsequently he became the winner of the big prize-practically there is a winner in Winner.

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Kaka leaves Milan for Real Madrid

Kaka has just become the last galactic after signing with Real Madrid on 6 year deal. The 27-year-old midfielder moved from AC Milan to Real for a transfer fee of about 65 milions euro ($100M). More accurately, Adriano Galliani - vice-president of AC Milan - has declared that the exact price Real paid to Milan for Kaka is 67.2 million euro. Kaka arrived at AC Milan in 2003 and won the UEFA Champions League trophy in 2007 and the golden ball the same year.
Real Madrid managers have a very ambitious project, planning to buy Cristiano Ronaldo and Frank Ribery as well.

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24 injured in third Hong Kong acid attack in the last 6 months. Mong Kok acid attack

Weird king of street attacks occur in Hong Kong where bottles containing corosive acid are droped from the top of the buildings by unidentified person. The most recent acid incident happened Monday night on Nielson Street injuring 24 people. It was the third attack in 6 months following that from 30th of May when 30 pedestrians were wounded and the first one in December 2008 that left 46 people hurt. Hong Kong authorities installed already a new surveillance system in the area -Mong Kok district, worth 219000 $.

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Monday, June 8, 2009

Swedish Pirate Party wins a seat in the European Parliament

Big surprize in the Sweden EU election where the Pirate Party won a seat in the European Parliament. Pirate Party is a political party which requires the legalization of the file-sharing on the internet and managed to gather 7.1% of the votes thus claiming one of the Sweden 18 seats in the European parliament. The party was founded in 2006 due to fury over the controversial law that blames the file-sharing. The boom of popularity increased in April 2009 after the 4 founding members of a file-sharing site called Pirate Bay were found guilty of violating the copyright rights and convicted to jail.

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Romanian exit polls for EU elections - PSD wins the elections under 2% advantage

The romanians proved that they are very "skilled" when it comes to politics. Everything went straight and romanian voters promoted a nice trio as messengers in the European Parliament: Gigi Becali, Elena Basescu and Corneliu Vadim Tudor - a football club owner (ex-shepperd), a fotomodel (former teenager) and a fanatic nationalist (no comment). All three are funny and likable but representing a country at the EU forum is however a bit too much. God have mercy and bless Romania.
After preliminary counting of 93% of the votes, PSD seems to win insignificantly the romanian elections with just less than 1% ahead PDL. Each of the both parties gathered around 30.5%. On the third position came PNL with about 16% followed by UDMR ~9%, PRM ~7.2% and Elena Basescu 3.5% of the votes. According to these results the number of Romanian seats (mandates) in the European Parliament are distributed as follows: PSD 10 seats, PDL 10 seats, PNL 5 seats, UDMR 4 seats, PRM 2 seats and 1 for Elena Basescu.
Romania euroelections 2009/june/07 update2: Aliance PSD-PC: 31,07%, PDL: 29,71%, UDMR: 8,92%, PRM: 8,65%, Elena Basescu-candidat independent: 4,22%, PNTCD: 1,45%. Total number of voters was 5.035.297 out of 18.197.316 possible.

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Sunday, June 7, 2009

Roland Garros French Open final 2009 - Federer dream come true

07 June 2009 Roger Federer has just won the final of Roland Garros grand slam after defeating the Swede Robin Soderling in three sets 6-1, 7-6, 6-4. Federer - number 2 in the world - had previously won 13 grand slams before today's success, but none of them at Roland Garros. By claiming the 14 grand slam title, Federer levels the record held by the American Pete Sampras as the most successful grand slam player in the history of men's tennis.
Roger Federer - Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-6, 6-4.
Roland Garros incident: The start of the forth game of the second set was shadowed by a funny incident when an intruder got on the pitch and tried to get to Federer but he was finally put down by the guards.
Watch video French Open final 2009 incident second set.

Video Roger Federer wins Roland Garros 2009 - Federer match point Roland Garros final.

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Saturday, June 6, 2009

Bodies from missing AF447 found

06 june 2009 Two male bodies and pieces of wreckage belonging to Flight 447 were found today in the Atlantic waters - Brazilians authorities reported. One of the bodies was confirmed to have been a passenger of the Air France crashed plane. Besides the corpses, the search teams found a backpack containing a laptop, a briefcase with a plane ticket authenticated as booked with Air France and also an oxygen mask. The discovered items were spotted about 680 km north of the Fernando de Noronha islands. The site of the crash was not located yet as the oceanic stream might have drifted the debris during the 6 day search.
07 June 2009 updates: Total number of AF447 bodies raised to five. Three more bodies from the Air France crash have been recovered from Atlantic raising the toll to five. The bodies along with many other items from Flight 447 were floating in water of 6000 to 8000 meters deep. The latest 3 were probably badly damaged such that their sex was not identified yet.
08 June 2009 updates: 16 bodies recovered from Air France AF447 crashed plane. Twelve more bodies have been picked up from the crash of the Air France A330 airliner raising the toll to seventeen. Nine bodies out of 16 were discovered by the Brazilian naval and air forces and the rest of seven were traced by a French ship joining the search operation. The area of the search missions covered 200000 square km so far, an area almost as big as the east european country of Romania (237500 square km). The AF 447 crash site becomes more and more localized since the bodies were spotted just 70 km away from where the plane sent out the 24 warning messages indicating electrical disturbances and cabin pressure loss. (Air France Flight AF447 bodies search updates).

09 June 2009 updates: Total number of found bodies from last week Air France crash reached 24. Eight more bodies have been pulled out of the water today - Brazilian oficials said. a very important item - a large tail section of the Airbus A330 - has been also recovered (see upper-left picture) helping consistently the investigation and narrowing the search for the black boxes. So far, the Air France crash investigation is focussed on air speed readings.
10 June 2009 updates: 17 more corpses were taken out of the ocean bringing the overall number of recovered bodies to 41. There are 187 more to be found. First corpse and some debris were brounght to land by a helicopter of Brazialian air force and they will be sent to coastal city of Recife Wednesday for identification. With black boxes still missing the investigators are focussing on the probability that the air speed Pitot tubes provided wrong indication to the plane's computers during the storm.

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Friday, June 5, 2009

World Cup 2010 preliminaries: Iceland 1-2 Netherlands and Lithuania 0-1 Romania. 06/06/2009

05 June 2009 The Netherlands might become the first qualified team at the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa if they win tomorrow evening at Reykjavik against Iceland. The dutch had and excelent qualification campaign by winning all 5 games up to now, scoring 12 goals and conceding only one. In another match, Romania will try to save its honour in the away game against Lithuania. Romania's chances for South Africa are gone, instead the new coach Razvan Lucescu aims to prepare building a new team for European Championship in 2012. Video highlights Iceland 1-2 Nederland and Lithuania 0-1Romania.

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Failure in finding AF447 wreckage. Missing Air France A330 search operation report. 05/06/2009

05 June 2009 Amazingly the long oil trace and debris fields spotted on Thursday do not belong to Flight AF447 - Brazilian authorities said. The amount of observed oil seems to be larger that the quantity the Airbus A330 would have carried and the frament picked up from the Atlantic proved also not to belong to the missing AF447 flight. Therefore the search operation fails at the moment to find the wreckage, puts the rescue teams on a dead track and approaches this tragic event more to a SF side.

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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Air France Flight AF447 water crash - overview, picture timeline, updates

03 June 2009 The wreckage and debris field of Flight AF 447 were found Tuesday afternoon (CET) taking almost 36 hours of effort from rescuers and search teams. The GPS system would be of great help to trace the position of any flying object. Despite the fact that satellite technology is already available and being more developed, the costs and financial reasons determine the air companies not to use it. Some aircrafts are matched with GPS units, but they are quite "primitive" - like those used in the cars - due to fact that they are not reversible and capable of sending back data to the satellites.

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Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Air France tragedy above the Atlantic - Mysterious disappearance of Flight AF 447

02 June 2009 (13:00 GMT) It passed almost 36 hours since the disappearance of Air France Flight 447 and the missing passenger plane is nowhere to be found. The rescue and search mission continues across the Atlantic waters. The main questions that rise up is: What really made the A330-200 state-of-the-art jet to fall from sky? One speculative answer is related to lightning strike due to fact that the plane hit a storm area followed by a sequence of 4 minutes generation of warning signals announcing equipment failure on board aircraft. "The crash caused by lightning" theory is not fully accepted as long as a A330 jet is equipped with "fly by wire" protective system which controls electronically the movement of key surfaces of the airliner. Could an explosion onboard have brought down Flight AF447? Indeed this might be a realistic scenario backed up by the sudden loss of contact and total lack of communication with the crew. All the presumptions will be clarified when the search teams will find the AF447 FDR (Flight Data Recorder) and CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) respectively.
Update2: 14:00 GMT. Air France AF447 wreckage found along the scheduled path of the plane. Floating components and objects that seem to have belonged to A 447 flight were spotted at about 700 kilometers away from the Brazilian 21 islands archipelago of Fernando de Noronha. The search go on to gather enough evidence for confirming with certainty the debris of the Air France airliner.

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Monday, June 1, 2009

Air France jet plane from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappears off radar screen. AF447 disaster - a possible explosion?

01.June.2009 Air France flight AF447 with about 228 passengers (216 and 12 crew) on board has gone missing off the coast of Brazil. The Airbus A330 plane scheduled on a route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris took off at 7:30 p.m Sunday ET (22:30 GMT) from Galeao International Airport and planned to arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris at 11:15 (09:15 GMT 01/06/2009). About 4 hours into the flight the radio contact was lost. Fear for a crash into Atlantic waters started to come up and Brazilian Air force already conducts the search and rescue opperation around Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, 365 kilometers away from the coast. Rio de Janeiro AF447 air catastrophe is considered the worst in the 75-year history of Air France and also the deadliest aviation tragedy since 2001 involving a plane of the french company.
Update2: At 19:00 GMT (01/06/09) the fate of the missing Air France flight was still unknown the hopes of finding survivors fading away and new Air France A 447 flight information is released.
AF447 statistics, chain of events timeline and possible scenarios: Besides the 12 crew members there were 126 men, 82 women, 7 children and a baby aboard - Air France said. Most part of the flight path is without radar contact; at 01:33 GMT the crew makes a last contact with traffic control and at 01:48 GMT the plane vanishes off the radar screen. Eighteen minutes later, at 02:14 GMT, the A330 jet generates a series of automatic messages and warning signals of some electrical troubles on board before entering a stormy region and the next check-in contact scheduled for 02:20 GMT never occured. In the last conversation the pilots reported an unforeseen and unexpected situation - AF airline company chief said.
A447 passenger nationalities list:
Air France and Brazilian authorities disclosed the passenger nationalities on board A447 flight: 61 French, 58 Brazilian, 26 Germans, 9 Italians and Chinese, 6 Swiss, 5 Lebanese, 5 British, 4 Hungarians, 3 Slovaks, 3 Irish, 3 Norwegians, 2 Moroccans, 2 American and individuals from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Demark, the Netherlands, Estonia, the Philippines, The Gambia, Iceland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey. It was not released yet information on the crew members.
Regarding the fact the A330 plane was not found yet, still remains the question: where is AF 447 flight? Air France A447 crash (supposition which looks increasingly likely) is the worst accident involving an Airbus A330 (a plane with an excelent safety record). Because an A330-200 has several different ways of communication and due to sudden loss of contact, the possibility of an explosion scenario is not ruled out.
Video report on AF447 flight crash and technical information.

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Football. Video Dinamo Bucuresti - FC Brasov 0-2 and Poli Timisoara - Unirea Urziceni 1-2. 31/05/2009

31.May.2009 Just one game before the end of the 2008-2009 edition, a dramatic change of situation occured in the Romanian Soccer Championship. Dinamo Bucharest lost any chance of winning the league after being defeated at home by 2-0 in a game with FC Brasov. To mention that Dinamo led clearly the championship for about 30 games (out of 34) and they collapsed in the last games when none expected. On the other side, the main rivals, Unirea Urziceni managed to reach 99% chances of wrapping their first Romanian league crown after a historical 2-1 away victory against Politehnica Timisoara. Now, with only one game remaining, the only team which can still take the throne is Poli Timisoara if UEFA grant them back 6 points deducted by Romanian Football Association in a previous penalty and if Urziceni loses the last game at home against Steaua Bucharest.
Highlights goals video Dinamo Bucharest - FC Brasov 0-2 31/05/2009 gol Maldarasanu 29
Highlights goals video Poli Timisoara - Unirea Urziceni 1-2 31/05/2009 penalty Urziceni
Poli Timisoara 1-2 Unirea Urziceni tv debates, comments - Unirea Urziceni campionii Romaniei GSP TV dezbateri, analiza, comentarii 31-05-2009

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