Local kids beat British juggernaut
The News Review:
- Local kids beat British juggernaut
- Assam evolves strategy to eliminate insurgency
- Scots seek World Cup redemption
- Looking back on the year in soccer around the world
- Mental toll of war hitting female servicemembers
Local kids beat British juggernaut
News & Observer - Jan 1, 2008
In the United States, parents do. In England, professional clubs subsidize developmental teams. Chelsea’s Academy aims “to produce home-grown professional footballers capable of competing with Europe’s elite players,” the west London club states. Because professional clubs are subsidizing British youth teams such as the one Chelsea sent to the Disney tournament, a bad performance can get a player cut, and fast. “You’re gone the next day, the next week, whatever,” says Charlie Slagle, chief executive of Raleigh’s CASL. Here, Slagle says, many club soccer players — if they’re not in it just for fun — hope to get college scholarships. That’s not a consideration in England, where the goal is to turn pro.
Assam evolves strategy to eliminate insurgency
Hindu - Jan 1, 2008
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi said that his government had drawn up special measures on three fronts — political, law and order and developmental activities. “Forces from outside the state have been behind the growth of militancy in Assam, where the NSCN-IM (a Naga outfit) and the Kuki Revolutionary Army (from Manipur) have recently supported the militant Adivasi National Liberation Army (ANLA),” he said. Besides home grown militancy, Gogoi pointed out that “jihadi elements were also active in Assam where Maoists were attempting to make inroads into the state through the ANLA. ”
“Looking back at last year, what was worrisome for the government was the rise in insurgency particularly growing activities of jihadis, Dima Halam Daogah, ANLA and Karbi Longri National Liberation Front,” he said. As the hill districts of Karbi Anglong and N C Hills were under the operational command of army 3 Corps based in Nagaland’s Dimapur, Gogoi said, the state government had urged the defence ministry to include the twin districts in the Assam-based 4 Corps. “Despite all this the good sign is that people have started defying the militants diktat. The militants are losing their bases”, he claimed.
Scots seek World Cup redemption
BBC News - Jan 1, 2008
Sadly for the Scots, the move backfired. Losses to New Zealand Maori, Ireland and Samoa meant their campaign ended abruptly at the group stages. Not only that, but the decision to place their faith in foreigners rather than home-grown talent upset the grass-roots brigade and left many wondering if the game of rugby league had a future north of the border.
Looking back on the year in soccer around the world
SI.com - Jan 1, 2008
Chelsea and England captain John Terry became the highest-paid player in the Premier League when he signed a contract worth $260,000 a week. He and teammate Ashley Cole missed England’s decisive Euro ‘08 defeat to Croatia at the new Wembley Stadium because of injuries, though both played for their club three days later. An underlying theme of the postmortem of England’s failure — aside from the argument that foreigners were inhibiting the progress of home-grown youngsters — was the belief that England’s highly compensated players lacked motivation when selected to play for their country. Whether that was the case or not, European club soccer was what mattered most in ‘07. The big beasts asserted themselves. The league titles in England, Italy and Spain were all won by traditional powers who had endured varying periods without success. Real Madrid ended its longest trophy drought in more than 50 years when it secured its first league title.
Mental toll of war hitting female servicemembers
USA Today - Jan 1, 2008
Boom! You see the smoke. The ground would shake. ”
As the mother of three grown children prepared to fly home last February, she took a medic aside. Holding a zip-lock bag of hair, she asked whether this was normal. “He said it sometimes happens,” she says. “It’s the body’s way of displaying stress when we can’t express it emotionally. ”
Numb, angry, verging on paranoia, Rathbun checked herself into a residential treatment center for female servicemembers suffering the mental wounds of war.