Roland Garros 2009 French Open: Nadal Lost

For French Open 2009 updates and timetable / schedule see here.

Rafael Nadal lost. He’s beaten by Robin Soderling. A wide open opportunity for Roger Federer and Andy Murray to lift the 2009 French Roland Garros trophy.

In the greatest tennis upset in the modern era Spain’s Rafael Nadal, unbeaten at Roland Garros in 31 matches and attempting to beat Bjorn Borg’s record of four consecutive French Open titles, was beaten 6–2, 6–7 (2), 6–4, 7–6 (2) by the unheralded Robin Soderling of Sweden, the No23 seed, in the fourth roundtoday.

Watch Video of Nadal lost To Robin Soderling in Round 4

Manohara Odelia Pinot Home Safely

The Jakarta Post reports the dramatic escape of Manohara from her Malaysian Prince husband:

Manohara Odelia Pinot, an Indonesian model who was reported to have been kept and abused by her Malaysian royal husband, joyfully returned to Indonesia on Sunday, after a dramatic escape from a hotel in Singapore.

Speaking to a packed press conference in Jakarta, the American-descent Indonesian model, who speaks fluent English and French, recounted her movie-like escape: she had to stay long in a bathroom to buy time, refused to be injected and repeatedly pressing the emergency button in the elevator before the Singaporean police came to help her.

“They (Singaporean police) brought me to a room. Mother came to me not long after it. I embraced her,” she said as quoted by Detik.com.

Daisy Fajarini told El-shinta radio she flew to Singapore after learning that her daughter was in the country.

The Foreign Ministry said the American embassy was involved in the process of freeing Manohara. “The ministry coordinated with the United States embassy because Manohara’s biological father is a US national which makes her a US national as well,” the Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah told The Jakarta Post.

The Malaysian insider, the only Malaysian media who covers this story immediately, has this report from Jakarta:

Indonesian model Manohara Odelia Pinot, whose family claimed was abused, fled for home today from Singapore where the Kelantan royal family was accompanying the ill sultan undergoing medical treatment.

Local press reports say the Indonesian-American beauty met her mother Daisy Fajarina in the city-state and flew home this morning.

She met reporters and told them she was no longer in love with the prince, Tengku Muhammad Fakhry, whom she accused of sexual abuse and violence.

Google Wave

Google introduces Google Wave. What does it stand for?

..a bid to redefine the way people communicate on the Internet by blending e-mail, instant messaging, file sharing, and collaboration software into one service.

Mark Hachman of Pcmag has more details about this new invention:

What is Google Wave? Think of an open-source version of Gmail constructed via instant messaging. To start a wave, two users start what is essentially an instant-message session, which can be archived as a conversation. Other users can then be invited to join each wave or conversation, and there’s even a “playback” feature to track the process of the conversation. Google also said it intends Wave to be a platform as well as a protocol, with the appropriate tools and extensions for each.

In fact, it might not even be accurate to call it a reinvention of e-mail. Google executives tied the instant-message/e-mail model to real-time document collaboration, even search, and extended it to the Web and to blogs.

Not surprisingly, images can be attached easily. What’s fascinating, however, is that those images or embedable objects can also be Wave gadgets: for example, in a demo, a Google Map of Bora Bora was dropped into a wave. However, Rasmussen was able to manipluate the map in real time from his own screen, and the changes showed up dynamically on the screen of Stephanie Hannon, the project manager.

Real-time updates seem to be a critical element of Wave. Not only can conversations be updated in real time, but users who allow others access to their wave can allow those users the ability to update thier waves in real time.

Rasmussen displayed the design document overseeing Wave, which featured not only collaborative editing but also embedded conversations within Wave, an interesting tweak to the collaborative toos already inside Microsoft Office and other suites.

Want to publish a wave to a blog? No problem. A tool called “Bloggy” allows you to publish the entire wave, which can itself be updated like a normal wave.

Rasmussen and Hannon also said that the Google Wave model will be extended to Android for mobile updates. Integration with Firefox was also demonstrated as well.

The introduction of Google Wave got a good reviews from several quaters. Edward N. Albro of PCworld has this to say:

… it looks more like the kind of social network that I’d really like, one where I can exactly target the people with whom I want to share a comment, a photo, or a video.

One of the problems with Facebook is that most of the things you share through it go to everybody you have friended, whether those people are relatives, tennis buddies, coworkers, or your boss. But few people want to share everything with everyone they know. The stereotypical example, of course, is posting pictures of weekend debauchery and having your boss see them. But it’s not just a matter of being unintentionally embarrassed. Sometimes you come across a video you know your friends will love, but your mom and dad just won’t get the joke. Or you want to share a work-related link with professional colleagues, but know that your friends will be utterly bored with it.

Google Wave is still only a glimmer in Google engineers’ eyes; the company just made source code available to select developers today. (The service is based on HTML5, an open standard that Google made much of on the first day of Google IO.) But from the description and early screenshots of the service, it looks like something that could be perfect for sharing content with only the people you choose.

Abu Ghraib Prisoners Raped

US Army in Iraq was not only tortured detainees but also rape them. Daily Telegraph reports the Abu Ghuraib scandal latest inquiry:

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

Indonesia Malaysia Ambalat Dispute

Hardly any Indonesian so cares or even knows about Ambalat waters. As Indonesia has more than 13,000 islands and thus maritime borders, Ambalat is only one among many. Until few days ago when Ambalat made top headlines in mainstream media because of alleged Malaysian warship which Indonesia claims has violated its maritime borders.

TNI AL [1] spokesman Iskandar Sitompul disclosed that TNI AL`s warship `KRI Untung Surapati-872 drove away a Malaysian warship, Kd Yu-3508, which attempted to enter Indonesian waters in the Ambalat Block on Monday.

When it was carrying out its task to guard the Sulawesi waters, KRI Untung Surapati-872 detected the Malaysian warship YU-3508 of the Fast Attack Craft type at the northern 04.03.00 – eastern 118.01.70 position, exactly in the Ambalat Block area. The Malaysian ship was sailing at a speed of 16 knots.

Basically it’s not the first dispute. The conflict over Ambalat heats up every now and then before:

In March 2005, Indonesia accused a Malaysian navy vessel, KD Renchong, of ramming into its military ship, KRI Tedung Naga. The incident caused minor damage to both vessels. A few days after the incident, Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono alleged that the Malaysian government had sent an apology regarding the incident. The Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak however denied making any apology.

The Malaysian navy had chased Indonesian fishermen out of Ambalat as well. Indonesia further accused Malaysia of 35 violations of Indonesian territory

Why Malaysia is so interested in Ambalat waters? This is about oil:

Malaysia and Indonesia have awarded oil concessions to Shell, Unocal, and ENI respectively. Both Southeast Asian countries have delivered protest notes to each other. Several demonstrations against this policy sparked in Indonesia within several months as well.

Malaysia has defeated Indonesia over Sipadan and Ligitan island based on effective occupation reasoning. Will Malaysia do it again this time if the case is carried to International Court of Justice?

Earlier, Malaysia and Indonesia were in dispute over the control of the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan. The matter was brought up to the International Court of Justice. In 2002, the ICJ awarded the two islands and its surrounding to Malaysia based on “effective occupation” reasoning.

Malaysia has the reason to come after any new profitable islands and waters nearby owned theoretically by Indonesia: it has a few land and strong willingness and aggressiveness to occupy “unoccupied” area in Indonesia. Indonesia on the other hand has many resources with little willingness to defend. The corrupt Indonesian officials and political elite are ready to give up and everything everything so far as it will make them get richer.

That’s said, Indonesian people would love to see the Ambalat conflict resolved in a peaceful manner among the two ASEAN countries and immediate neighbor and for that we support any dialog and peaceful negotiation between the two countries like that’s been done recently and is still going on.:

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said negotiations between Indonesia and Malaysia on the status of the Ambalat block border are still going on, and no agreement had yet been reached.

“The negotiations are still going on between the Indonesian foreign affairs ministry`s legal and international agreement director general and his Malaysian counterpart,” the minister told ANTARA News at the Jakarta Art Center, Ismail Marzuki Art and Cultural Park, here on Wednesday.

Juwono was a key speaker at a cultural dialog on “One Century of National Awakening” held at the Ismail Marzuki cultural park. National Awakening Day is observed every May 20.

He said Malaysia had so far not given up its claim to the Ambalat block which Indonesia considers as being part of its territory.

==
NOTE:

[1] TNI AL (Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Laut) Navy of Indonesia’s Armed Forces.

Barcelone defeats Manchester United in Champions League Final

Kudos FC Barcelona! I personally like to see Barcelona to win insteaf of MU. I think this Champions League finale is all about a match betweenLionil Messi and Christiano Ronaldo. And of course I prefer Lionel Messi to win over C Ronaldo. Kudos to Messi for becoming the Top scorer of Champions League 2009!

Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi were the heroes in Rome, as Barcelona beat Manchester United 2-0 in the Champions League final. Barca are the first Spanish club to win the league, cup and Champions League in the same year.

Barcelona’s striker Samuel Eto’o opened the scoring after 10 minutes, catching the United backline cold. A beautiful run and pass from midfield playmaker Andres Iniesta put the Cameroonian forward through on the right flank, Eto’o beat center back Nemanja Vidic and slotted the ball underneath United Keeper Edwin van der Saar.

… Argentine forward Lionel Messi – the top scorer in the tournament this season – grabbed his ninth goal in the Champions League by heading home a pinpoint cross from midfielder Xavi.

Watch Video Highlight of Barcelona vs MU 2-0 win. The video is not so good, mind you.

North Korea Nuclear Test

North Korea reaffirmed itself to become the third nuclear contry besides India, Pakistan and Israel outside the five permanent member of UN’s Security Council that’s US, Russia, France, China, UK. AP reports:

The U.N. Security Council swiftly condemned North Korea’s nuclear test on Monday as “a clear violation” of a 2006 resolution and said it will start work immediately on another one that could result in new sanctions against the reclusive nation. Hours after North Korea defiantly conducted its second test, its closest allies China and Russia joined Western powers and representatives from the rest of the world on the council to voice strong opposition to the underground explosion.