Thursday, July 19, 2012

Homebush Bay, New South Wales —

In a closely fought game Thursday night between the Australian Rollers and the Great Britain men’s national wheelchair basketball team at the Sport Centre at the Sydney Olympic Park, Australia rolled away as 65–51 victors.

The Australians, many with facial hair, met the partially tattooed Great Britain side with a lot of aggression and sometimes borderline violence on the court. Wheelchairs rammed into each other with much greater frequency than in the previous match played between the Australian and German women. Both teams were very vocal on the court and on the bench, loudly telling their teammates what to do or occasionally arguing with the referees. Bench players on both teams demonstrated a lack of creativity in their sideline chanting, with the Rollers chanting “Defense. Rollers. Defense.” and the Great Britain side chanting “Defense. Defense.” The Great Britain side, initially very loud from the bench following a 37–33 half time lead, got quieter as the game progressed. With 6:22 left in the fourth quarter, the game appeared to have gotten away from the referees who answered by calling a technical against Great Britain after one of the Australian players ended up on his back on the court. The call followed a fan screaming from the stands that the game was not supposed to be a contact sport. Following the siren to end the game, both sides shook hands.

Australia plays their last game in pool play in the Rollers & Gliders World Challenge at 7:30pm Sydney time Friday against Japan while Great Britain meets Japan at 12:00pm Sydney time Friday. All three teams are London bound for the Paralympics next month.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Documents found at the hideout of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi revealed al-Qaeda‘s desire to force a war between the U.S. and Iran. The document was translated by Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie, but the authenticity of the information could not be confirmed to be from al-Qaeda.

The documents reveal that al-Zarqawi was planning to destroy the relationship between the Shi’ite Iraqis and the United States. The document also said the U.S. military was hurting the insurgency by seizure of weapons, disrupting their financial outlets, massive arrests, and training Iraqi security forces.

The translated document said, “Generally speaking and despite the gloomy present situation, we find that the best solution in order to get out of this crisis is to involve the U.S. forces in waging a war against another country or any hostile groups.”

Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said, “These documents have given us the edge over al-Qaeda and (they) also gave us the whereabouts of their network, of their leaders, of their weapons and the way they lead the organization and the whereabouts of their meetings.”