Mourinho says he will call the Real shots

Jose Mourinho has made it clear that he will be the one making decisions about the Real Madrid first team should e leave Inter Milan and take over from Manuel Pellegrini as coach of the Spanish side.

Real coaches must work under the demanding management trio of president Florentino Perez, director general Jorge Valdano and sporting director Miguel Pardeza.

Portuguese Mourinho, who led Inter to a Champions League triumph on Saturday at Real’s Bernabeu stadium, was quoted by Spanish media on Monday saying that he needed assurances from the La Liga club that he would be free to run the team himself if he took charge.

“I want to see what they can offer me so that I have no concerns about being able to start my work,” the 47-year-old was quoted as saying by As sports daily.

“The president is not the one who wins, he’s not the one who plays and nor does he decide who is in the team and who is on the bench,” he added in Marca.

“That’s the responsibility of the professionals: the coach, the technical structure that depends on him and the players.

“I believe that the coach is a very important person in the whole club structure because he should lead all the departments linked to the first team.”

Real have yet to make any official comment about whether Chilean Pellegrini, who has a year left on his contract, will be sacked and replaced by Mourinho.

After becoming only the third manager to win the Champions League with two different clubs, Mourinho hinted he was on the verge of joining Real.

“I need to meet with some (Real) people with whom I have not yet spoken to,” As quoted the former Porto and Chelsea boss as saying in their Monday edition.

“I want to get to know the people, listen to their impressions and know exactly what they expect of me and the conditions,” he added.

Satyajit Ray's Goopy is no more

Veteran Bengali actor Tapen Chattopadhyay, who became a household name among the Bengali speaking population for his performances as Goopy in Satyajit Ray's Goopy-Bagha series of films, died at his residence on Monday following respiratory failure.

Chattopadhyay, 72, shot into the limelight after playing the role of Goopy Gyne in Ray's classic Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha), which was equally liked by children and adults and became a huge commercial success.

Apart from the Goopy-Bagha series, Chattopadhyay showed his acting prowess in several Bengali box-office hits and was also a powerful stage actor.

Inter beats Bayern 2-0 to win Champions League

His pupil bettered the Dutch master when Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan strolled to a comfortable 2-0 victory in the Champions League final over a weak Bayern Munich team coached by his one-time boss Louis van Gaal.

Argentina's Diego Milito scored twice yesterday as Inter Milan squeezed the life out of a hesitant Bayern team to end a 45-year wait for its third title.

The victory might also signal Mourinho's exit from Inter. After the game, he said it was "more probable that I'll go than stay." He is tipped to take over at Real Madrid, where yesterday's final was played.

The Argentina striker Milito scored in the 35th and 70th minutes at the Bernabeu Stadium to add the title to Inter's triumphs back in 1964 and '65.

The merited victory - Inter dominated the game - meant that Inter coach Jose Mourinho completed the triple triumphs of the Champions League and domestic league and cup successes and became only the third coach to win the title with two different clubs.

Mourinho, who won it with FC Porto in 2004, out-thought Bayern coach Louis van Gaal, the man he worked for while they were at Barcelona. This time the pupil was the master as Mourinho relied on his solid defense to snuff out the threat of Bayern's Arjen Robben and expertly won the game on the counter-attack.

Milito's two goals were taken with style and he had great support from attacking midfielder Wesley Sneijder and defensive midfielders Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti, the Inter captain who collected the trophy in his 700th appearance for the club.

The loss meant that Bayern missed out on the treble, having also won the domestic league and cups.

"We were not good enough to impose our game," Van Gaal said. "Inter only reacted but they still won deservedly. The timing of the goals was decisive. The players learned today that it comes down to small details.

"I still have the feeling that we could have won. There was no great difference. We attacked, Inter defended. But you have to be in great shape to beat Inter and we were not today. I still think Inter merited the win."

Franz Beckenbauer, honorary president of Bayern, said Inter deserved its victory."Bayern did not have its day. We had a few moments at the start of the second half but that was not enough," he said. "They made fewer mistakes."

After the final whistle, Mourinho walked onto the field and was congratulated by his players in a low-key celebration by his standards. In the past he has been known to race across the pitch to celebrate some of his most famous victories, infuriating opposing supporters.

'Kites' catches fancy of US media

"Kites", starring Hrithik Roshan and Mexican actor Barbara Mori, has caught the fancy of the American media, making it perhaps the most reviewed Bollywood film on opening day by so many US critics. The New York Times considered it "all completely loony, but the stunts are impressive, the photography crisp and the leads so adorably besotted that audiences might as well check their cynicism at the door."

"A lovers on-the-lam blast of pure pulp escapism. Directed by Anurag Basu with a finger in every genre jar, 'Kites' caroms from car chase to shootout, from rain dancing to bank robbing with unflagging energy," it said.

In Times' view Bollywood star "Roshan requires viewing uncut: writhing on the dance floor or just gazing into space, the man was made to drive women crazy, one movie at a time."

Calling it "A romantic adventure!", Los Angeles Times noted "the love story draws from westerns, musicals, film noir, chase thrillers with stunts so preposterous they verge on parody - and it gets away with everything because of Basu's visual bravura and unstinting passion and energy."

While the movie was seen as "An exhilarating escapist entertainment that plays out like a violent and floridly poetic allegory," the two top stars got noticed for their looks. "Mori has a sultry gorgeousness that at times recalls Ava Gardner. Roshan has the dashing, chiselled looks of a silent movie matinee idol."

To the New York Daily News it was "An engaging Bollywood tale! Melodrama, romance and action are cheerfully jumbled together ."

"You'll get more than your money's worth," said Newsday describing it as "A boldly old-fashioned, I'll-die-without-you, nobly self-sacrificing movie romance. Gogeously photographed. The story is the stuff Old Hollywood tear-jerkers are made of."

Variety magazine found it "Deliriously entertaining!" The film, it said, "owes more to Hollywood than Bollywood, though director Anurag Basu borrows plenty from both, aiming to give Indian song-and-dance pics the same sort of crossover success 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, did for Asian martial-arts movies."

"Indian star Hrithik Roshan makes a striking international debut in an ambitious Bollywood crossover film. Grand, action-packed love story set amid the garishness of Las Vegas," said The Hollywood Reporter.

"'Kites' flies! Entertaining and lovely to look at! It works perfectly well on its own terms," said the Film Journal.

"Roshan and Mori are as beautiful as human beings can be, and the love they depict is as high-flown as you'll find in a movie," said the San Franciso Chronicle suggesting, "Go in smirking, but by the time it's over, you'll believe."

Philadelphia Inquirer found it "Preposterously entertaining!" Chicago Newcity called it "a glory of delirium. Anything can, and does, happen. I long for an Amer-Indie movie with the same lunatic verve. As curry-dusted popcorn goes, 'Kites' is savoury distraction."

Search still on for Air India aircraft's black box

The search for the digital cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder of the ill-fated Air India aircraft that crashed here Saturday was still on, more than 24 hours after the disaster.

Together called the black box, the equipment gives crucial inputs to investigators on the causes of air mishaps. A sturdy system the size of shoeboxes, it can withstand extreme temperatures.

It records the conversations inside the cockpit and those with the air traffic controllers, among its other uses, giving vital clues to the cause of any air disaster.

A team of officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) joined the search at the crash site, police said here.

"Yes, the search for the recorders is still on. Our team, along with firefighters, is looking for it. It's just a matter of time before we locate it," a DGCA official said.

As many as 158 people were killed when a packed Air India Express flight from Dubai crashed Saturday morning while landing at the Mangalore airport, breaking into pieces and falling into a deep gorge in balls of fire.

Eight passengers miraculously survived in one of India's worst aviation disasters.

There was no distress call from pilot Z. Glusica, a British national of Serbian origin who had flown in and out of Mangalore at least 19 times and received due landing clearance four miles from touchdown at the hilltop airport at Bajpe, about 20 km from here and 350 km from Bangalore.

Aircrash in Mangalore

158 killed as AI plane overshoots runway, crashes in Mangalore

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Indo-Asian News Service

Mangalore (Karnataka), May 22, 2010

First Published: 07:38 IST(22/5/2010)

Last Updated: 13:59 IST(22/5/2010)

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At least 158 people were killed on this morning when an Air India Express Boeing 737 with 166 passengers and crew flying from Dubai overshot the runway while landing at the Mangalore airport and turned into a ball of fire as it crashed into a forested ravine, authorities and witnesses said.

The aircraft was coming down in clear visibility around 6 am when the Serbian pilot overshot the runway at Bajpe, some 30 km from Mangalore, and desperately tried to take off, member of parliament Sadananda Gowda said. But the plane hit a radar pole and spun out of control.

In no time, it smashed into the ravine almost a kilometre away amid a deafening roar, breaking into pieces. Only eight people, an infant included, miraculously survived the disaster as they crawled out of the burning broken parts of the Boeing. Some of the injured are stated to be critical.

Air India Director Anup Srivastava announced in Mumbai that the plane was carrying 160 passengers, including four infants, and six crew members.

Air India Express is the low cost arm of Air India.

A grim looking Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa had said earlier that "survivors were unlikely". "Except for half a dozen people who were rescued, the rest may not have survived." he said in Bangalore, the state capital, before leaving for the crash site. "It is a grave tragedy."

Most passengers were Indians, many returning home from Dubai where they worked.

Survivor Ummar Farooq said the plane seemed to be on course for landing.

"Soon after it touched the runway, I heard a sound and saw smoke quickly fill the plane. Soon there was fire and all hell broke loose," he said.

"A crack appeared on the plane's body where I was seated. I immediately jumped out. Two or three people seated behind me also jumped out. I am hurt in my knees and suffered burns on my hands and face. As I fled from the aircraft, flames engulfed it," he said.

The airport at Bajpe is in a hilly area and considered one of the most difficult airports to land and take off from. The area had been experiencing heavy rains for the last two days.

There was no immediate official word, however, why the the accident occurred. Air India's Srivastava said only an investigation would dig out the truth but most accounts blamed the pilot, identified as F Glusica.

The pilot gave no distress signal before the crash, Mangalore airport officials said.

Villagers from the neighbourhood were among the first to rush to the accident site but the huge flames leaping into the sky kept them away.

Firemen and police personnel from the airport quickly began rescue operations, only to come across ghastly scenes of mangled bodies strewn over a large area. Some charred bodies still had the seat belts on.

About 25 ambulances and over 20 fire tenders were involved in the operation that lasted about four hours. Large crowds gathered at the site, many rushing all the way from the airport where they had been waiting for the plane's arrival.

As firemen doused the flames, policemen began taking out bodies from the wreckage, many burnt beyond recognition. Each body had to be taken up the ravine by hand before being transferred to ambulances.

One of the passengers escaped with injuries on his knee and a minor fracture of the spine and was warded at the Kasturba Medical College Hospital in Mangalore. "He is stable, he has been shifted to the ward, and he is with the family," doctor Vir Singh said. "We also got patients brought dead, totally charred."

The rescue operations were hit for an hour as a drizzle turned into heavy rains. "It is a tragic incident," Karnataka Home Minister VS Acharya said.

The Mangalore airport manager Peter Abrahim said there were initial difficulties in reaching the accident.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condoled the loss of lives in the air crash at the Mangalore airport Saturday and ordered compensation of Rs.200,000 for the families of the dead and Rs.50,000 for the injured.

He also postponed an event scheduled at his official residence Saturday evening to celebrate his government's one year in office during its second tenure.

World Cup News

Ronaldinho left out of Brazil squad

Reuters

May 21, 2009

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Off-form Ronaldinho was left out of Brazil's squad on Thursday for next month's World Cup qualifiers and the Confederations Cup.

Striker Ronaldo, who has not played for his country since the last World Cup, was also overlooked despite a promising start to his latest comeback with Corinthians.

Brazil face Uruguay in Montevideo on June 6 and host South American group leaders Paraguay in Recife four days later.

Coach Dunga also sprang a surprise by including uncapped Gremio goalkeeper Victor along with four other home-based players - fullbacks Kleber and Andre Santos, midfielder Ramires and striker Nilmar.

Ramires and Andre Santos are both uncapped while Nilmar, whose career has been plagued by injuries, has played twice for his country.

Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Gomes was recalled after an injury to Doni, the regular second choice after Julio Cesar.

Dunga said he wanted Ronaldinho to return to full form before he picked him again.

"I'm going to do everything possible to help him recover," he told reporters.

"I have confidence in him, he's a special player. He's having a bad time but I hope he can get over this."

Ronaldinho has failed to settle at AC Milan since his move from Barcelona last year and has recently been mostly confined to the bench.

The playmaker was substituted in the 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw in Ecuador last March after one of his worst performances at international level.

He then found himself among the substitutes for the following game at home to Peru and came on late in the match with Brazil already leading 3-0.

Ronaldo has scored eight goals for Corinthians in his latest comeback following a serious injury with AC Milan last year, however most of them were in the regional Paulista championship against modest opponents.

The 32-year-old is still trying to regain full fitness.

"We want to see the Ronaldo that we all know," said Dunga. "But he's going to have to prove with his club that he's ready to be called up."

The coach added: "We've stuck to our guns and picked players who are doing well at club level. We have to use common sense to do the best for Brazil."

Brazil are second in the 10-team South American World Cup qualifying group with 21 points from 12 games, three behind Paraguay.

The top four teams qualify directly for next year's finals in South Africa. The fifth plays off for another place against the fourth team from the CONCACAF region.

Goalkeepers: Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Gomes (Tottenham Hotspur), Victor (Gremio)

Defenders: Maicon (Inter Milan), Daniel Alves (Barcelona), Alex (Chelsea), Juan (AS Roma), Lucio (Bayern Munich), Luisao (Benfica), Kleber (Internacional), Andre Santos (Corinthians).

Midfielders: Anderson (Manchester United), Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos), Josue (VfL Wolfsburg), Ramires (Cruzeiro), Elano (Manchester City), Felipe Melo (Fiorentina), Julio Baptista (AS Roma), Kaka (AC Milan)

Forwards: Alexandre Pato (AC Milan), Luis Fabiano (Sevilla), Nilmar (Internacional), Robinho (Manchester City).

Tiger News!!!!

• , Asia environment correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 21 May 2010 15.12 BST
• Article history

A Sumatran tiger, an endangered species. Laws protecting the tiger have failed to prevent body parts being offered on open sale in Indonesia. Photograph: Tom Brakefield/Corbis

Indonesia's forest rangers have notched up a major victory against tiger poachers with the arrest of a notorious figure who claims to have killed more than 100 of the endangered animals.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and his son were caught in a sting operation with the pelt and skeleton of a Sumatran tiger at Kerinci Seblat national park.

There are believed to be about 500 of the animals left in the wild, down from 10s of thousands at the beginning of the 20th century.

The 57-year-old suspect reportedly told police he had killed more than 100 tigers over a 30 year period.

His family is feared and respected in their village – Tunggang in northern Bengkulu – which has long been a centre of poaching, according to conservationists.

"He is very well known in the underworld," said Debbie Martyr, field co-ordinator for Fauna & Flora International's Kerinci tiger protection programme.

"For someone like this to get caught will put a chill down the spine of opportunist poachers. If these two can get caught, anyone can."

The arrests follow a two month undercover investigation led by rangers from FFI's tiger protection and conservation unit with backup from Bengkulu city police.

It is the third success in six months for the unit, which was established in 1995. Last November a tiger dealer and poacher were nabbed and later jailed for 18 months. A month later, another dealer was detained after a year-long surveillance operation.

Villagers can earn the price of a new motorbike for a tiger. But the deterrent of anti-poaching operations is starting to take effect.

"After 10 hard years, I'm not saying we are winning the battle, but we are holding our own," said Martyr. "We now have about 140 tigers in this national park. That is more tigers than in Laos, Nepal, Cambodia or China."

But, on the eve of the eve of International Day for Biological Diversity, the threat to the tigers is far from over. Even as the rangers celebrated one success, they were called out to try to save a tiger that had been shot and badly wounded by poachers.

Kites Review

Two people (Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori), respectively romance another from the same family (Kangana Ranaut, Nicholas Brown), purely for the love of the money. The girl’s an illegal immigrant into the US from Mexico. The boy is the American half of various green card marriages on sale: “$1,000; honeymoon charges extra.”

Both gatecrash into a Mafia home, hoping to settle in with the riches. The premise from hereon could take the shape of a slight comedy of deceit (Woody Allen’s Matchpoint), or follow an aggressive drama (Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr Ripley).

This is, but, a ‘massy’ desi movie. The said Mafiosi home belongs to one, Bob Grover (Kabir Bedi), the “owner of one of the biggest casinos in Vegas,” no less. Senators, governors etc swim under Bob’s pant pockets – “Vegas mein Bob ko koi naa nahin kehta (No one says no to Bob in Vegas).” You sense what’s replaced the ‘Singhania group of industries, and villas with spiral staircases in Bollywood’? Vast expanses of a fake First World, peopled by butlers in BMWs and Indians alone.

The attempt, of course, is still to please you with the masala. The screenplay tightly alternates genres: romance before action, a little comedy, after a crackling chase sequence….

The story is credited to the producer Rakesh Roshan. When given the story idea to adapt into a screenplay, the director suggests in an interview, he couldn’t see a two-hour film in it. That, sort of, shows. Neatly lined assemblage of some really fine shots, can often conceal a lot of the hollowness in a script. It helped for the producer that the director he chose was Anurag Basu.

Few filmmakers in mainstream Bollywood light up their screens the way Basu does (Gangster, Life In A Metro). His patent colour, you can tell, is deep red, and favoured scenes concern rains, with strong back lighting; or a top shot looking into a city from a ledge. Basu’s greatest achievement as an aesthete may well be making Emraan Hashmi look good (Murder).

It helps far more for the director that the leading man before him this time’s Hrithik Roshan: hair blonde-dyed, body sharp and straight like blade, flexi like rubber, suitably under-stated in its moves. No Hindi film actor ever, I suspect, has worked himself up this much to make the super-star grade. Hrithik remains the perfect foil for an action piece across the barrenness of Nevada. It matters little that we know nothing of his character, besides his insane love for a girl, and an extreme sense of adventure.

The film, as you may already know, is largely in English. The hero attempts an accent that is more confused than American. The heroine speaks in Spanish, which is sub-titled into English; something only a minority of Bollywood's core audiences can satisfyingly read. This should be of concern to financiers of this Rs 140 crore bonanza, or those who closely follow box-office numbers. The language alone turns it into a cut-piece made neither wholly for Peter, nor quite for Patel.

It’s a passionately romantic pic, or at least hyped as one in ways that few films can live up to. The expression of that intense love, its most important element, is often lost in translation - what many might rightly perceive as lack of chemistry between the leading pair.

The producers of course were seeking mainstream international viewership. Aspirations of such kinds can sometimes spell trouble. This is no foreign language classic; God, no. It is, but, an ambitiously big-budget Bollywood summer flick. And certainly, not a poor or boring ride at that, at all.

Kites not to release in Karnataka

The much-awaited movie Kites, starring Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori, slated to be released all over the world on Friday, is not to be screened in Karnataka, the state's film association has said.

In a special executive meeting, the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) on Thursday night decided that "Kites" will not be screened in any theatre in Karnataka.

Basanth Kumar Patil, president of KFCC, told IANS that the executive meeting decided against allowing the film's screening because its makers have "violated the regulatory principles of the chamber".

"The film's release will be detrimental to the interest of Kannada cinema if it is allowed to be screened all over," Patil said.

All single screen and multiplexes are members of KFCC.

No representative of Reliance was present at the meeting on Thursday evening. Big Pictures owned by Reliance Group is releasing the film.

Kannada film producers and film distributors of all languages who are members of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce have protested against the film as it was slated to release in more than 90 theatres, exceeding the limit of 24 theatres stipulated in the state.

Patil had earlier said that many big Hindi films starring Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan like 3 Idiots and My Name is Khan have been released in fewer than 24 theatres and the distributors of these major films complied with the KFCC orders.

Maoist Rampage

Maoists blow up government warehouse in Orissa

Maoist guerrillas blew up a government warehouse in Orissa's Malkangiri district during their two-day strike protesting the government offensive against them, police said on Wednesday.

The rebels blasted the warehouse at Bodigata, about 40 km from Malkangiri late Tuesday, Deputy Inspector General of Police Sanjeeb Panda said.

It was an unused warehouse and the rebels blasted it, anticipating that it may be used for paramilitary forces engaged in the anti-Maoist operation, he said.

Maoists are active in more than half the state's 30 districts. Malkangiri district is considered a Maoist stronghold and is 618 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.

The outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist called for the on strike Tuesday in the five states of Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

On Monday evening, 35 people were killed when Maoists blasted a bus in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada area.

Maoists strike again in Dantewada, kill 36

Virtually striking at will, Maoists blew up a private bus near Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, killing at least 36 people. Of the dead, 24 were civilians and 12 special police officers. It is feared the number of dead will go up. Maoists had killed 76 securitymen in Dantewada on April 6.

Reacting to the attack, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that he will again try to persuade the Union cabinet for a wider mandate including air support (but not air power) to tackle the Maoists.

Monday’s attack took place near Chingawaran on Sukma Road in Dantewada, about 550 km south of Raipur. This is an area dominated by Maoists and they have demonstrated this many times in the past.

This is the first time Maoists attacked a private bus. Official sources said some of the SPOs might have alerted the Maoists by sitting on top of the bus in their trademark khaki uniforms.

The sources said the rebels might have accessed information about many SPOs having boarded the bus along the route, assumed to be heavily mined by the extremists.

“The policemen appeared to have been the main targets and the rebels also attempted to spread fear among private transporters and civilians to force them to disallow the forces from travelling in their vehicles,” a top intelligence official in the state police headquarters told HT on condition of anonymity.

Rights activist and director of Tribal Welfare Society Pravin Patel blamed the police administration for using private buses to move in the red zone.

“The tribal villagers and the bus owners are in a fix as they cannot refuse the security forces from boarding the buses. At least, the law enforcing agencies should avoid using private buses,” he said.

Immediately after the attack, the Union Home Minister said that he will ask for a wider mandate to tackle the Maoists. Speaking to NDTV, he said, “We will go back to the cabinet committee to revisit that (limited) mandate in the light of the revised strategy that the CPI(Maoist) is following.”

He said the “men on the ground” want air support in the fight against the Maoists. “The security forces, the CMs want it. The CMs of Bengal, Andhra, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa asked for air support.”

In Raipur, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said the attack shows Naxals frustration who were now targeting civilians.

The last big attack in Dantewada was on April 6 when Maoists trapped and gunned down 75 Central Reserve Police Force men and a policeman.

Now this should not be going on at all. How the system is tolerating this I cannot imagine when they seem intolerant of even a baby crying in its mother's lap. Maoists are a real threat to us, the people of India and they need to be tackled as they should be, as the enemy of the state.