Gold medal for Greek Judo athlete..[ 1779 ]

World Judo Champion Iliadis 

Saturday, September 11, 2010, 15:04

 

Gold  medal for Greek Athlet Ilias Iliadis

Third  and 'evil' for Ilias Iliadis, who became the first Greek athlete who won gold medals at world judo championships.

In the -90 kg category of the tzountoka of Philip Amyndeou managed to win in the final Japanese Ntaiki Nisigiama, fighting in front of his fellow in Tokyo.

Iliadis had taken second place in both the 2005 Cairo and 2007 in Rio de Janeiro. 

On the way to gold, won the No. On the way to gold, won the No. 1 world ranking, also Japanese, Ono Takasi.
 

The historic first made while the Greek athlete as $ 6,000 richer, while she won 500 points, which will be very helpful in trying to do to attend the London Olympics in 2012.

Al Qaeda bigs underground..[ 1778 ]

President Obama boasts air attacks driving Al Qaeda bigs underground

BY James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Saturday, September 11th 2010, 4:00 AM

Pratt/AP

Missile attacks by agency drones have driven Al Qaeda big wigs underground.

WASHINGTON - President Obama for the first time Saturday thumped his chest about a CIA campaign of air strikes that he claimed has driven two Al Qaeda kingpins in the 9/11 attacks underground.

Obama alluded to the rapid tempo of missile attacks by agency drones in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, where Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are believed to be in hiding.

"Capturing or killing Bin Laden and Zawahiri would be extremely important to our national security....It remains a high priority of this administration," he said.

Obama praised counterterror officials for a "very successful" offensive - which he said began in the last months of ex-President George W. Bush's administration - to "ramp up the pressure on Al Qaeda and their key leaders."

"And as a consequence, they have been holed up in ways that have made it harder for them to operate," the President told reporters. "Bin Laden has gone deep underground. Even Zawahiri, who is more often out there, has been much more cautious."

Zawahiri put out 14 propaganda tapes in 2009 but only a few this year as the drone strikes increased.

Obama defended locking up terrorists in U.S. prisons: "Our track record is they've never escaped."

But in 2005, Abu Yahya al-Libi - now poised to be Al Qaeda's No. 3 leader - escaped the U.S. maximum security prison at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/09/11/2010-09-11_prez_boasts_air_attacks_driving_qaeda_bigs_underground.html#ixzz0zDlhbMLV

U.S. Open final..[ 1777 ]

Clijsters to face Zvonareva in U.S. Open final

Clijsters: "I think today was probably one of the best matches that I've played throughout the tournament."

 

CNN.,September 11, 2010 -- Updated 0914 GMT (1714 HKT)

(CNN) -- Kim Clijsters willl face Vera Zvonareva in the women's final at the U.S. Open after the Belgian defending champion rallied from a set down to beat Venus Williams.

Williams, seeded third, started strongly at New York's Flushing Meadows, conceding just five points to Clijsters on her own serve in the first set.

But No. 2 seed Clijsters gradually asserted her dominance to claim her fifth straight hardcourt win over the American, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.

"It obviously means a lot to be in the final and to give myself a chance to defend my title from last year. It's a great opportunity," Clijsters said.

"But obviously beating Venus here last year and this year, it's a good feeling. I think today was probably one of the best matches that I've played throughout the tournament."

Zvonareva, seeded seventh, reached her second successive grand slam final after stunning top seed Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets.

The Russian, who reached the final at Wimbledon only to lose to Serena Williams, repeated that feat at Flushing Meadows, winning 6-4, 6-3 in an impressive display.

Home hopes distant ahead of U.S. Open

Wozniacki reached the final herself last year, where she lost to Belgian Clijsters, and Zvonareva admitted she had to play at her best to get through.

I was patient and aggressive like in my previous matches.
--Vera Zvonareva

The 26-year-old told the official WTA Tour website: "It was tough as Caroline was in the final last year and she is a great player, but I was patient and aggressive like in my previous matches.

"It was a great experience at Wimbledon but it's something that is in the past for me now and I am trying to look forward."

Wozniacki came into the match on the back of a 13-match winning streak and she said: "Vera was not missing and going for her shots and most were going in.

"I had chances and I made some mistakes that I usually don't do. It was a tough day for me at the office but I just need to learn from this," added the 20-year-old Dane

Japanese Business..[ 1776 ]

Renovated Ginza Mitsukoshi department store boosts appeal to younger shoppers

Customers relax on a ninth-floor terrace of the newly refurbished Mitsukoshi Department Store's Ginza outlet in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, on Sept. 11. (Mainichi)

(Mainichi Japan) September 11, 2010

The renovated Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo's Ginza district opened on Sept. 11 with additional floor space and more youth-oriented features.

The move comes amid the ever intensifying competition among stores to attract more customers in the upscale shopping district, with the Lumine commercial complex becoming most likely to replace the Seibu department store's Yurakucho outlet after the latter closes at the end of this year and other nearby rival stores coming up with various promotion measures.

According to Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, the Mitsukoshi department store in Ginza will have a 12-story annex that will be connected to the main eight-story building from the third through eighth floors as well as at the basement. The combined floor space will be about 36,000 square meters, or 1.5 times the original space, becoming the largest department store in the Ginza and Yurakucho area.

A clothing shop in the Mitsukoshi department store's Ginza outlet in Tokyo's Chuo Ward features a cafe to attract younger customers. (Mainichi)

The renovation, which is aimed at expanding the customer base mainly among younger generations, is the first full-scale project for Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings since the business integration of Mitsukoshi and Isetan department stores in 2008 and will "put the true value of the integration to the test," according to Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings President Kunio Ishizuka.

As part of its efforts to attract more female customers in their 20s and 30s, the remodeled Ginza Mitsukoshi will allow for more discretion among sales staff in each shop in the department store in selecting which products they will purchase and sell, a method adopted by Isetan. Another Isetan feature of abandoning partitions between neighboring brand stores will also be introduced.

Following Ginza Mitsukoshi's offensive, other department stores in the area are also desperate to boost their appeal to younger shoppers. The Matsuya department store in Ginza renovated its floors selling clothing lines for young women while launching a new space featuring brand products for women in their 20s and 30s at the Ginza Inz 2 shopping mall near the department store on Aug. 25.

The Matsuzakaya department store has already opened its "Forever 21" fast fashion boutique in its Ginza outlet, while opening in October the "Ufufu Girls" brand shop of clothes for women in their 20s and 30s, which became a hit at the Matsuzakaya group's Daimaru department store in Osaka's Shinsaibashi district.

The Takashimaya department store in the Nihonbashi district, about 1.5 kilometers away from Ginza, has also introduced a child clothing line from a Northern European brand amid concerns that the store's predominantly family-based customers could switch to stores in Ginza.

On Sept. 8, Lumine became most likely to succeed the Seibu department store premises in Yurakucho after its Dec. 25 closure and is set to open a new outlet there in the fall of 2011. A subsidiary of East Japan Railway Co. (JR East), Lumine currently operates 13 outlets mainly at major train stations in the Tokyo metropolitan area, featuring youth-oriented fashion brands. The Yurakucho outlet will be Lumine's first venture outside train stations.

Year-on-year sales at department stores nationwide dropped for the 29th consecutive month in July. 

A senior official with a major department store expects that Ginza Mitsukoshi's renovation will "prompt department stores to draw renewed attention from customers," but the emerging budget apparel stores in the Ginza district, including Uniqlo and H&M, are threatening to foil such expectations. Lumine's foray into the Ginza and Yurakucho fashion market could further escalate the fierce competition between fast fashion apparel stores and conventional department stores.

Click here for the original Japanese story

Democracy Meeting in Russia..[ 1775 ]

Putin Overshadows Medvedev's Democracy Meeting

Photo: AP

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev poses on the embankment in the ancient Russian city of Yaroslavl, about 300 kilometers northeast of Moscow, 10 Sep 2010

James Brooke | Yaroslavl, Russia / VoA., 10 September 2010

Russia's president talked democracy Friday at an annual gathering of intellectuals and political leaders.  But more than half-way through his four-year term in office, some of those in attendance at the gathering say President Dmitry Medvedev's talk about democracy has made that a topic of national debate, but that has not been able to implement concrete change.

While an autumn sun lit freshly painted white walls of this 1,000-year-old city, a long shadow was cast over the gathering by Russia's prime minister and former president, Vladimir Putin.

Several foreign visitors here had a dinner meeting with Mr. Putin under the auspices of the Valdai Discussion Club, a group of foreign intellectuals.  They came away with the impression that Mr. Medvedev's time to establish an independent political profile is running out, with presidential elections 18 months away.

Alexander Rahr, Russia director for the German Council for Foreign Relations, said of the group dinner with Mr. Putin:  "After seeing and speaking to [Mr.] Putin during the meeting of the Valdai Club, I think each of the members of the Valdai Club got the impression that [Mr.] Putin is not departing.  It remains to be seen if he will return as president, or stay as an even stronger prime minister.  Intentions are clear that he wants to form the strategy of Russia, and he wants to be an active politician."

When Mr. Medvedev was elected and Mr. Putin assumed the role of prime minister, many in Russia and in the international community wondered whether the new president would have the blessing of Mr. Putin, his mentor, to pursue his own agenda and the strength to carry it through on his own terms.  

In recent weeks, Mr. Putin has been cultivating his image as a man of action.  Night after night, Russians watched on the evening television news as their prime minister piloted a fire-fighting plane, shot an arrow into an Arctic whale, inaugurated a pipeline to China, launched construction of a space center and drove a bright yellow Russian-made Lada car across Siberia.

Nikolai Petrov, political analyst of the Moscow Carnegie Center, said Mr. Putin's image contrasts with that of President Medvedev in the public's mind.

"What is understandable for ordinary Russians is the fact that [Mr.] Medvedev is speaking, and [Mr.] Putin is doing. So [Mr.] Putin did manage to create the image of the guy who not only controls the situation almost entirely, but who is doing, who is acting, who is coming to ordinary Russians, who is visible on the ground, while [Mr.] Medvedev is sticking in his office and communicating with a few officials," said Petrov.

In his meeting this week with the visiting intellectuals, Mr. Putin cited the case of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the wartime U.S. president who was elected to four terms in office.  No other U.S. leader had been in office that long, and the U.S. Constitution was later amended to limit a president's service to two terms.

Russia's constitution limits presidential terms to two in succession. In 2008, after two consecutive terms in office, Mr. Putin stepped aside. His protégé, Mr. Medvedev, was elected to a four-year term.

Because the Russian constitution only limits terms that are consecutive, Mr. Putin is eligible to run again in elections in March 2012.  If he were elected to two additional consecutive terms, Mr. Putin could conceivably serve as president through 2024.

Anatol Lieven, a Russia expert at King's College London, also participated in the two meetings this week, first with Mr. Putin then with Mr. Medvedev.

"I am not sure whether [Mr.] Putin will run for president in 2012," said Lieven.  "I am sure that, as long as he wants to be, he will remain the strong man in the state.  He may be content, it is possible, unlikely, but possible, that he will leave [Mr.] Medvedev to occupy the bully pulpit and to sort of move reform along in a limited way along the edges, while [Mr.] Putin retains the real power over the real institutions of the state."

Russia's president complained recently that ministers and governors have checked their Blackberries and sent tweets during his meetings.