UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

http://www.godaddy.com - cheapest domain registration fee? USD7.95/year only.
http://www.zefrank.com/ - rather interesting……….weird even…..

Maria Sharapova of Russia shows her emotion during her match against Serena Williams of the USA during day eleven of Australian Open 2005. Photo by: Getty Images 

Tennis: Australian Open 2005

Malaysian athletes! Take note!!!!!!!!!! Now this is what I call mental toughness, never-say-die attitude as shown by Serena Williams and Lleyton Hewitt in the face of immense pressure and incredible adversity. They overcame all the odds, never gave up when it seems all chips are down. Imagine what went on in Hewitt’s mind when Roddick fired ace after ace and he could only watch helplessly. And Williams, where she stared at almost certain defeat not once, but twice, but still held her nerve to win over Maria Sharapova. And in the final, carrying an injury, she still battled bravely and deservedly went on to win the Asia-Pacific Tennis Slam of 2005 at the expense of world no.1 Lindsay Davenport.

And as for Marat Safin, way to go man! For once, Federer seemed out of sorts after that classic 4-set quarters win again over another great, Agassi.

WOMEN’S FINAL

Serena Takes the Title - Saturday, 29 January, 2005 - by Luke Buttigieg

No.7 seed Serena Williams has rallied from a one-set deficit, and a lower back injury that troubled her early, to beat No.1 seed and fellow American Lindsay Davenport and claim her second Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup as Australian Open women’s champion.

2003 champion Williams looked down and out in the first set when she was twice broken and had to leave the court to have injury treatment, but after holding serve in a critical fifth game of the second set, she won 10 of the last 11 games to triumph 2-6 6-3 6-0 in 89 minutes.

The victory was the 14th in succession for Williams at Melbourne Park - she had not lost in the tournament since 2001 because injury sidelined her in 2002 and 2004 - and gives her a seventh Grand Slam title, with her haul also including two US Opens, two Wimbledon crowns and a French Open title.

A jubilant Williams jumped for joy when Davenport’s final shot of the match went long, and after leaping up to high-five members of her entourage in the stands, she happily accepted the trophy from Margaret Court.

Davenport had to be content with being runner-up for the second day in succession after she and partner Corina Morariu were beaten in Friday’s women’s doubles final, and it was her participation in both singles and doubles that may have contributed to the way she fell away at the end of the match, giving up the final set in just 20 minutes.

Having not won a Grand Slam title since lifting the trophy here five years ago to claim her third major in as many years, the 28-year-old could be running out of time to add to her collection after hinting several times recently that 2005 could be her last year on tour.

Davenport made a dream start to the match, breaking in the opening game courtesy of a backhand error from Williams, and after holding her own serve went ahead 3-0 when another Williams error with her backhand saw her give up a second break.

At the changeover after the third game Williams did some stretching exercises while sitting down to loosen her lower back, but couldn’t prevent Davenport holding serve for a 4-0 lead.

Williams had two game points at 40-15 on her serve in the fifth game, only for a double fault to allow Davenport to claw back to deuce, but Williams finally managed to hold and get on the board after 13 minutes.

With Davenport leading 4-1 Williams called for treatment on her back, and after receiving some attention at courtside she then went to the locker room for further treatment.

Williams returned and though she had a break point in Davenport’s next service game, Davenport managed to hold yet again to lead 5-1, and two aces when she served for the set in the eighth game secured her the one-set lead.

The most telling statistic from the first set was that while Davenport made the most of her chances with two breaks from as many opportunities, Williams failed to take advantage when presented with just one.

The first four games of the second set went comfortably with serve, but the turning point came in the fifth game, when Williams saved six break points - even when luck appeared against her with a Davenport shot that hit the net and beat her to land in - and eventually held serve after the game also went to deuce eight times.

Davenport managed to hold serve easily in the sixth game of the second set, but after Williams did likewise in the seventh, the decisive break came in the eighth with Davenport’s third double fault of the set.

With Williams holding to level the match thanks to her sixth ace of the set, again it was break point opportunities that made the difference as Williams converted one of her two and Davenport none of her six.

Once Williams drew level she quickly put daylight between herself and Davenport, breaking three times in the final set and winning 24 of the 32 points contested to seal the comeback victory.

Match Facts
� The deciding set was over in 20 minutes
� Davenport converted 2 of 8 break-point chances
� Williams had 21 unforced errors, Davenport 25
� Williams served 12 aces, Davenport 7

MEN’S SEMIS (1)

Hewitt Now One Step Away - Friday, 28 January, 2005 - by Damian Glass

Lleyton Hewitt has rallied from one set down to beat Andy Roddick and become the first local since Pat Cash at the inaugural Melbourne Park tournament in 1988 to qualify for the Australian Open final in the event’s Centenary.

In another gutsy performance from the Australian, Hewitt weathered the storm of an awesome serving display from Roddick to wear down the American and win in four sets, 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 6-1, in just under three hours on Rod Laver Arena.

Waiting for Hewitt in Sunday night’s final will be Russian No.4 seed and two-time finalist Marat Safin - who ended the campaign of defending champion Roger Federer in five pulsating sets on Thursday night - with the pair’s head-to-head career record standing at 5-5.

In all of the pre-match talk before this semi-final, Hewitt was the player who, having spent twice as much time on court as Roddick to reach the semis, was supposed to struggle physically.

The grueling five-set encounters that Hewitt had to play in the fourth-round and the quarter-finals to reach the last four were supposed to take their toll, but the Australian played low-error tennis to give him every chance of negating Roddick’s power game.

In the end, the irony was that Hewitt - having worn down the American by winning the second and third set tie-breaks - went from strength-to-strength while Roddick appeared to capitulate in the fourth set.

Roddick’s serve was always going to be his best friend and the most influential factor in the match.

After breaking Hewitt’s first service game of the match, the American did not concede a point on his own serve until his fourth service game.

Eventually, Roddick did come under pressure on serve but he always had the answers.

Remarkably, Roddick served six aces in the final game of the opening set to take it 6-3 and, if that wasn’t enough, he then won his first service game of the second set to love with four aces in a row.

Roddick had gained the ascendancy in the match on the back of his thunderbolt serve and by being patient from the baseline, but midway through the second set Hewitt began to show the first signs of getting back into the match.

While Roddick continued to have success with his serve, the rallies were getting longer and he was equally less successful in the baseline exchanges.

There was only one break point in the second set - Hewitt’s eighth for the match with the Australian leading 3-2 but, as had been the norm, Roddick turned to his most potent weapon to get out of trouble.

At times, Roddick clocked more than 220km/h on his first serve and as much as 211km/h on his second, but Hewitt’s serve had also been broken only once in the match and at 6-6, there was a critical deadlock.

Under the pressure, Roddick’s serve showed signs of faltering during the tie-break.

Roddick could only win one point with five serves in the tie-break and, after Hewitt had fallen 1-2 behind, he won five of the next six points to bring up three set points and then duly closed out the set to level the match.

As he did in the first set, Roddick broke Hewitt’s opening serve of the third set to race to a 3-0 lead.

Games then went with serve until Hewitt, trailing 2-4, finally converted a break point - his ninth of the match - courtesy of a Roddick double fault to break back. Hewitt then held serve in the next game to level the set at 4-4.

At 6-6, a tie-break was again needed and just as the earlier tie-break was telling, this one proved decisive.

The match was on a knife edge with the tie-break score at 4-4 and Roddick serving.

Significantly, the American changed tact, attempting to serve volley and he was passed down the line by Hewitt who gained the mini-break and converted his next two serves to take a two-sets-to-one lead in the match.

Bit-by-bit, Hewitt had dragged himself back into the contest and having survived Roddick’s early onslaught, he now had all the momentum going into the fourth set.

After holding serve, Hewitt broke Roddick to take a 2-0 lead. Staring down the barrel of defeat at 1-4, Roddick, who had served just six double faults in five matches in the tournament, served his ninth double fault of the semi-final to hand Hewitt a double break and an unassailable 5-1 lead.

At 40-15, Hewitt brought up two match points on serve but only needed one to become the first Australian player in 17 years to reach an Australian Open Final.

� Roddick had 50 unforced errors, Hewitt 21
� The American served 31 aces, Hewitt 14
� Roddick had 12 aces and 12 unforced errors in the 2nd set
� The American’s average 1st serve speed was 205 km/h
� Hewitt won 142 points, Roddick 127

WOMEN’S SEMIS

Serena Battles Past Sharapova - Thursday, 27 January, 2005

Serena Williams will take a shot at her second Australian Open women’s singles crown on Saturday after outlasting Wimbledon winner Maria Sharapova in a hard-hitting, tension-filled, see-sawing, three-set semi-final on Rod Laver Arena.

Following the dramatic 2-6 7-5 8-6 triumph, which took two hours 39 minutes, No.7 seed Williams awaits the winner of the second semi-final between world No.1 Lindsay Davenport and French No.19 seed Nathalie Dechy.

Sharapova will be devastated by the loss after twice serving for the match, only to have Williams come up with the big shots at the right time, including a final break of serve in the 14th game of the third set.

The 17-year-old Russian dominated the first set, breaking Williams twice, and looked well on the way to a straight-sets win when she broke again midway through the second set.

But Sharapova failed to serve out the match at 5-4 and the 23-year-old American immediately broke a second time, completing a run of four successive games from 3-5 down, to send the match into a third set.

Williams, who was absent from Melbourne Park last year after taking the title the year before, started the decider nervously, dropping her serve, but immediately broke back for 1-1.

Games went with serve until Sharapova again forced a break in the seventh game and, for the second time in the match, had the chance to serve it out at 5-4.

For a second time, Williams refused to accept defeat, breaking back and then holding serve to put immense pressure on the Russian No.4 seed in the 12th game of the set, but this time Sharapova held firm.

However, after making Williams fight hard to hold her own serve, Sharapova was unable to hold on in the next game as the American secured the final break at the right time.

� The sets lasted 30, 63 and 66 minutes, respectively
� Williams converted 5 of 8 break point chances, Sharapova 5 of 12
� Williams hit 33 winners, Sharapova 21
� Williams won 115 points, Sharapova 110
� Williams made 53 unforced errors, Sharapova 51
� Williams put 61% of her first serves into play, Sharapova 63%
� Both players won 66% of points on their first serves
� Williams won 49 of 113 points (43%) on Sharapova’s serve
� Sharapova won 46 of 112 points (41%) on Williams’ serve

MEN’S SEMIS (2)

Seventh Heaven for Safin - Thursday, 27 January, 2005 - by Damian Glass

Marat Safin has taken seven match points - and saved one in the fourth set - to send world No.1 Roger Federer out of the Centenary Australian Open with a remarkable win in an epic five-set semi-final, winning 5-7 6-4 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 9-7.

The Russian No.4 seed came back from two-sets-to-one down to upset the hot tournament favourite on Rod Laver Arena, becoming the first man through to Sunday night’s men’s final.

It was the first time Federer had lost to a top 10 player since October 2003 and the first time he had lost a match since the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

The defending Australian Open champion looked to be through to the final when he led the fourth set tie-break 5-2. Remarkably, Safin fought back to level the tie-break 5-5 but the Swiss then brought up his only match point with a delicate drop shot.

Federer was desperately close to winning the match after a superb drop volley but Safin somehow chased the ball down. He lobbed Federer but the Swiss ran back, only for his between-the-legs return to go into the net.

From that point, Safin won the next two points to win the tie-break and send the match into a deciding fifth set.

Before this semi-final, Federer had won only one of six five-set matches on Rod Laver Arena while Safin had never lost a five-set match at the venue.

The Russian began the fifth set looking as if he was going to keep his winning record on Rod Laver Arena in tact and, in the fifth game, he broke Federer to take a 3-2 lead.

Games then went with serve until Safin served for the match for the first time at 5-3 but Federer saved two match points to break back.

At 4-5, Federer saved another match point on his own serve. Trailing 6-7, the Swiss maestro saved two more, displaying the hallmarks of a true champion.

Just when it looked like Safin was going to rue not having taken advantage of five match points, he held serve to take an 8-7 lead and then, in Federer’s next service game, the Russian brought up another two match points at 15-40.

Stunningly, Federer served an ace to save the sixth match point but on the seventh match point for Safin, the Russian’s return forced Federer out of court allowing the two-time runner-up at Melbourne Park to dispatch a forehand into the open court to finally take the match and move into another final at Melbourne Park.

Earlier, Safin had begun the match knowing his serve was going to have to stand up for him to have any chance of winning and in the first set it did, serving at 73% at an average speed of 212km/hour. The problem for the Russian was that Federer is as good as anyone at returning serve. However, at the end of the set, it wasn’t Safin’s serve that let him down.

Trailing 5-6 and serving to stay in the set, Safin made six unforced errors in the game to hand the set to Federer 7-5.

Despite losing the opening set, Safin was forcing Federer to play the sort of tennis that had gone unsighted in the tournament so far. Unlike others before him who had no answers to Federer’s serve and superior baseline game, Safin’s philosophy was producing some uncharacteristic errors from the Swiss.

Safin’s tactics drew mistakes from Federer who, unusually, was not in control of a match. In the first set Safin made five more unforced errors than Federer but in the second, Federer made 14 to Safin’s five.

It came as no surprise when Safin broke Federer’s serve to lead 2-1 early in the second set. In particular, Safin attacked Federer’s backhand with success as he continued to thwart the Swiss from the back of the court.

Federer had a chance to get back into the set holding a break point at 3-4 but Safin served his way out of trouble and went on to win the set 6-4 and level the match at one set apiece.

In the important third set, Federer surrended a 2-0 lead and was two break points down at 4-4. But, as was the case in the first set, Safin could not hold his serve at 5-6 and lost it 5-7.

At the start of the fourth set, it was going to take a Herculean effort from Safin to break his hoodoo against Federer, who had previously won six of the seven matches between the two players.

Little did Safin know of the drama that lay ahead - that he was about to play one of the greatest semi-finals on Rod Laver Arena (and perhaps the match of his life) to finally defeat Federer again.

Match Facts
� Safin took 7 match points to defeat the world No.1
� The fifth set went for 80 minutes
� Federer won 201 points, Safin 194
� The Swiss had one match point in the 4th set tie-break
� Unforced errors: Federer 59, Safin 60
� The match went for 4 hours and 28 minutes

MEN’S QUARTERFINAL

Agassi No Match for Federer - Tuesday, 25 January, 2005 - by Scott Spits

World No.1 Roger Federer is well on track to defend his Australian Open title after a straight-sets quarter-final defeat of four-time champion Andre Agassi on Day Nine.

In a comprehensive display, the Swiss threw down 22 aces and outplayed his American opponent to win 6-3 6-4 6-4 in balmy conditions for the night session on Rod Laver Arena.

Federer progresses to a semi-final clash with Russian Marat Safin in a re-match of last year’s final at Melbourne Park.

The Swiss destroyed Agassi in one hour and 39 minutes, accumulating 46 winners over three sets compared to just 13 for the American.

Interestingly, Federer committed 31 unforced errors - while Agassi had just 20 - as the No.1 seed took Agassi on at every opportunity.

ref:
www.australianopen.com

Google answers: http://answers.google.com/ - find answers to anything you want for a price between USD2 and USD200 (well that’s the highest price I saw so far)! Now this is what i call information overload………All Free Dictionaries Project: http://www.fdicts.com/ - at last I found a Japanese Romaji - English - Japanese Romaji online dictionary!

Websites of the day

http://www.plaxo.com - free connected address book, contact, tasks lists, seamless integration with O/OE

http://www.yousendit.com/ - good for sending huge (up to 1GB) files over the internet, secure, free

Teen Is Co-Creator of Firefox Browser

Sun Jan 23, 2:48 PM ET

By JOHN PAIN, AP Business Writer

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. - By age 10, Blake Ross was designing Web pages on America Online. By 14, after mastering complex programming languages such as C++, he was fixing bugs in Netscape’s Web browser from home, a hobby that landed him a job offer.

“What, at the local store or something?” David Ross remembered thinking when his son told him.

No, at Netscape Communications Corp.

Ross, now 19, a sophomore computer science major at Stanford University, has an even more impressive resume than most of his peers. Before graduating high school, he helped develop Firefox.

Colleagues who worked with Ross only online were surprised when they met him to find “a scrawny 15-year-old kid,” recalled Chris Hofmann, engineering director at the Mozilla Foundation.

To take an internship at Netscape during the summer of 2001, Ross moved with his mother to a rented apartment near Netscape’s offices in Mountain View, Calif. She drove him to work each morning.

He continued working on the browser on contract after returning to Florida to attend Gulliver Preparatory School. He breezed through computer classes, finishing projects in a day that took others two weeks, said Dean Morell, a former teacher and chairman of the school’s computer science department.

Ross soon took on a much more demanding project.

America Online Inc., which bought Netscape in 1999, was trying to resurrect the once-mighty Netscape browser. AOL added features, but they bogged down the software and reduced performance, Ross said in recent interviews by e-mail and at his parents’ condo in Key Biscayne, a Miami suburb.

At 17, Ross and another Netscape programmer, David Hyatt, started a side project that became Firefox. They wanted to strip down Netscape and the Mozilla suite on which it is based. By reducing the software to its browsing basics, they figured it would run more efficiently.

Ross and Hyatt created an early version of the browser. Because the project was open source, thousands of volunteers could examine the programming code and suggest ways to improve performance and fix bugs.

“I have fond memories of long nights spent at Netscape just poring over all the feedback people submitted about our programs,” Ross said.

Hofmann, the Mozilla engineering director, said Ross dealt with the pressures of Silicon Valley quite well for his age.

“I don’t think that he was intimidated or awe-struck at all,” he said. “With open-source projects you rise to a level based on your skills. It is really a meritocracy. Anyone who has the skills rises quickly and Blake had all those skills.”

AOL ultimately spun off the project and created the not-for-profit Mozilla Foundation to develop Firefox and related software.

Hyatt left to design Apple Computer Inc.’s Safari Web browser, but Ross stayed and helped fix Firefox bugs from college.

Firefox was officially released Nov. 9. It was used by 4.6 percent of Web surfers in early January, and that number could reach 10 percent by mid-2005, according to WebSideStory, which tracks browser use. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has dropped to 90.6 percent this month from 95.5 percent in June.

Security experts like Firefox, saying it isn’t as vulnerable as Internet Explorer to viruses, spyware and other malicious programs.

Ross has assisted with marketing, helping to place an ad in The New York Times paid for by thousands of Firefox users.

Ross will work with a team on Firefox version 2.0. He also gets calls from venture capitalists and has a startup with Joe Hewitt, another veteran of Netscape and Firefox. He said he can’t talk about their work, but he’s also interested in writing movies or children’s fiction.

The downside of his success: “All my computer science professors are expecting straight A’s, even in classes that have nothing to do with the Internet,” he said.

And have his appearances in major newspapers posted on his eponymous Web site helped with those California girls at school?

“They’re the ones that aren’t impressed at all,” he said with a laugh.

ref:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050123/ap_on_bi_ge/firefox_co_creator
http://www.blakeross.com (blog)

Dog gets German designer’s house

Friday, 21 January, 2005

Murdered German fashion designer Rudolph Moshammer has left his home in Munich to his Yorkshire terrier Daisy.

Under the terms of Moshammer’s will his beloved pet will stay at the villa until she dies, cared for by his former chauffeur, the newspaper Bild reports.

A 25-year-old Iraqi man has been charged with killing the designer, found dead at his home on 14 January.

Millions of Germans are expected to watch TV coverage of the flamboyant 64-year-old’s funeral on Saturday.

Homeless charities

Always seen with Daisy in his arms, he built a reputation for the extravagant clothes he designed and wore, and was well known on Germany’s celebrity circuit.

Among his clients were Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger, now Governor of California, tenor Jose Carreras and the Las Vegas-based magicians Siegfried and Roy.

Moshammer’s coffin in St Lukas Church, Munich
The funeral cortege will pause in front of the designer’s boutique

Moshammer first opened a boutique in Munich’s most expensive street, Maximilianstrasse, in 1967, where he offered his fur, cashmere and silk garments.

His funeral procession is expected to pause in front of the shop before continuing on to Munich’s Ostfriedhof cemetery, where he will be buried next to his mother and a previous pet Yorkshire terrier.

According to reports, the designer’s will stipulates that the bulk of his estate should go to the benefactor who helped him realise the dream of opening the boutique almost 40 years ago.

Meanwhile, the proceeds from the sale of the shop, limousines and other possessions are to go charities for the homeless.

In 2002, Moshammer sold a shirt thought to have been worn by Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo at auction for more than 62,000 euros ($81,200), donating the proceeds to a Munich homeless charity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4196633.stm

The BBC reported on 22nd January 2005 that a husband in Italy who lost hope of his wife waking from a four-month coma has killed himself - only for his beloved to regain consciousness hours later.

Doctors said when Rossana, 67, stirred, she asked for her husband Ettore.

The tragedy, recalling the ending of Romeo and Juliet, took place in Padua, 60km (40 miles) from Verona, the setting of Shakespeare’s play.

Ettore, 71, had kept a daily vigil at Rossana’s side after she had a stroke and fell into a coma in September.

Italian media report that he would visit his wife daily, sometimes coming to the hospital in the northern town as many as four times a day.

But on Wednesday, Ettore committed suicide by gassing himself in the garage of the couple’s Padua home.

About 12 hours later, Rossana, a former nurse, emerged from the coma and asked for her husband.

Ettore had recently told the local pastor that he was very pessimistic about the prospects of his wife’s recovery, Italian news agency Ansa reports. The couple had no children.

In Shakespeare’s play, Juliet drinks a potion in order to appear dead as part of a plan to elope with Romeo.

Unaware of this, Romeo, believing she is dead, kills himself. Juliet awakens and, seeing Romeo dead, stabs herself.

Source

MADRID, Spain - In a substantial shift from traditional policy, the spokesman for the Catholic Church in Spain has said it supports the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS.”Condoms have a place in the global prevention of AIDS,” Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, spokesman for the Spanish Bishops Conference, told reporters after a meeting Tuesday with Health Minister Elena Salgado to discuss ways of fighting the disease.

The Catholic Church has repeatedly rebuffed campaigns for it to endorse the use of condoms in the fight against AIDS. The Vatican (news - web sites) states that condoms, because they are a form of artificial birth control, cannot be used to help prevent the spread of HIV (news - web sites), the virus that causes AIDS.

Martinez Camino said the church’s stance was backed by the scientific world. He cited a recent study by experts in the medical magazine Lancet that supported the so-called “ABC” approach of abstinence, being faithful to partners and using condoms.

“The Church is very worried and interested by this problem,” he said.

There was no comment from the Vatican to the Spanish statement.

Martinez Camino met the health minister as a representative of the church, though it was unclear whether he was expressing the official view of the church.

The change in view was welcomed by the Spanish Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals.

“I think it was absolutely inevitable that the Church would change its stance,” said federation president Beatriz Gimeno.

The leading daily El Pais pointed out that as recently as November the Spanish Bishops Conference had vehemently opposed the Health Ministry’s campaign to promote the use of condoms. The paper quoted Martinez Camino as saying then that it was “gravely false” to maintain that contraceptives prevented the spread of HIV.

In June, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, said condom use was “a form of Russian roulette” in fighting AIDS, El Pais said. The remark was roundly condemned by the Spanish government, the World Health Organization and other organizations involved in fighting AIDS, the papers said.

The United Left parliamentary coalition described the change in stance as “a historic advance.”

ref:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050119/ap_on_he_me/spain_catholics_condoms

Intelsat satellite loss cuts links with world for South Pacific nations

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - The “total loss” of an Intelsat satellite left 10 South Pacific nations and territories and part of Antarctica without telephone contact to the outside world, New Zealand communications officials said Tuesday.

[They had no backups whatsoever for this mission critical equipment.]

A further five Pacific states and three Asian territories were also affected but had alternative backups available, Telecom New Zealand Ltd. said in a statement.

In what satellite operator Intelsat Ltd. calls “an extremely rare event,” its Intelsat IS-804 satellite moved out of alignment and was lost at 11:32 a.m. on Saturday (2232 GMT Friday).

["extremely rare event" does not mean something could not ever go wrong. ]

The New Zealand communications company rented capacity on the lost Intelsat unit. The satellite’s loss left the Pacific Island nations of Cook Islands, Western Samoa, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Niue, Vanuatu, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Tonga and the U.S. territory of American Samoa without communications links to other states, Telecom said.

Other countries, including New Caledonia, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, East Timor, Vietnam, Korea and Saipan were also affected but could plug into backup systems.

New Zealand territories of Scott Base in Antarctica and Chatham Islands, 500 kilometers (312 miles) to the east, also lost all phone links.

“The loss of a satellite is an extremely rare event for us, and our first priority must be restoration of service to our customers,” said Intelsat Ltd. Chief Executive Conny Kulman.

Telecom spokeswoman Sarah Berry said communications had since been restored to the Cook Islands, Western Samoa and the Solomon Islands through alternative satellite options.

Most of the islands still without satellite services will have local phone and data services but will be without international calling and data access until alternative arrangements can be made, she noted.

“Bank services, (electronic cash) services … and airline data circuits have also been impacted and this could lead to some flight delays to and from these locations,” Berry said.

“Some services out of New Zealand and Australia may also be partially affected to east Asian locations such as Vietnam and Beijing,” she added.

Kulman said the 106.19 million New Zealand dollar ($US73 million; euro56 million) Bermuda-registered satellite was not insured.

“All necessary effort and assets will be allocated to ensure Intelsat satellite coverage throughout the Asia-Pacific region,” he said. - AP

ref:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/1/18/latest/20801Intelsats&sec=latest

i saw this car model in 2003 at Wawasan Plaza, Ferrari Challenge 360 with plate number SA1T 

Apparently costs about RM1.4 million.

After 10 months, hello again blogger.com!

I’ve moved from www.livejournal.com/users/pinolobu due to the irresistible Picasa-Hello photo upload feature, which is better than livejournal’s photo upload function.