Manchester United beats Chelsea

The most successful football coach in world, Alex Ferguson continued his winning streak with Manchester United as his team defeated defending Premier League and FA Cup champions Chelsea 3 – 1 in Community Shield match here on Sunday.
Both the teams used the match as a good chance to introduce new youngsters into the starting lines ups. But it worked out well only for Manchester United as their newly signed Mexican Javier ‘Chicarito’ Hernandez made a big impact on his dream debut.

Manchester United made the lead in the 41st minute of the game through Luis Antonio Valencia. Man U were leading by 1 – 0 during half time. Javier Hernandez who came in the second half scored a goal on the 76th minute and showed that he will be the key player this season for Manchester United.

Dimitar Berbatov scored in the very last minute of the game and confirmed Man U’s victory over the strong Chelsea side. Salomon Kalou produced the lone goal for Chelsea on the 83rd minute. With this impressive performance, they are clearly the serious contenders for the Premier League title this season.

Chelsea playing XI: Anelka, Cole, Essien, Hilario, Ivanovic, Kalou, Lampard, Malouda, Mikel, Paulo Ferreira, Terry.
Substitutes: Benayoun, Bruma, Drogba, Sturridge, Turnbull, Van Aanholt, Zhirkov.

Manchester United playing XI: Carrick, Fabio Da Silva, Jonathan Evans, O’Shea, Owen, Park, Scholes, Valencia, Van der Sar, Vidic, Wayne Rooney.
Substitutes: Berbatov, Fletcher, Giggs, Hernandez, Kuszczak, Nani, Smalling.

Green Countries of the world - Switzerland

Switzerland stands 2nd in the list of Green countries of the world with 89.1 points. The country which was the leader in the list of cleanest countries in 2008 has been pushed to second place in 2010. Swiss, which always prefers to stay as a ‘clean’ and a ‘green’ country is gradually reducing emissions of carbon dioxide. The government is gradually creating new national parks, where nature comes in its original form.

Not only the government, but also the small and large scale industries, as well as individual firms, are adopting ‘green’ technology in every possible way. They also encourage their clients and customers to the use of such ‘green’ technology. For example, a number of hotels in this country are giving a considerable discount to those tourists who arrive in hybrid cars. Many houses in Swiss use geothermal sources for heating system. Switzerland is trying to regain the top spot in the list of green countries.

Big B for Airtel Champions League T20 Cricket

Sports Channel giant ESPN has roped in Bollywood Megastar ‘Amitabh Bachchan’ as its "sports ambassador" for its ad campaign ahead of the forthcoming Airtel Champions League T20 Cricket tournament. The financial terms between ESPN and Bachchan were undisclosed.

The 67-year-old actor, Big B will be seen in ad campaign along the cricket greats like South Africa's Hershille Gibbs, Australia's Andrew Symonds and our own Dada Saurav Ganguly.

The Twenty20 cricket festival which starts on September 10 will be held in South Africa. The tournament will feature 10 Twenty20 domestic teams from around the world with three teams from India namely the IPL 3 Champions Chennai Super Kings, runner up Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Bib B has already completed the shooting of promotional films and stills for print. With Big B joining cricketing extravaganza, the excitement has just doubled. Remember he is also getting ready to host 'kaun banega crorepati 4' replacing the badshah of Bollywood 'Shah Rukh Khan'.

Kumble adopts King cobra

Former Indian cricketer Anil Kumble, adopted a King cobra for Rs 2,500 at an animal adoption program organized by the Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP), Green Matrix and Samhita Academy.

The animal adoption awareness drive which is just two-month-long is raising awareness among the citizens, in particular the slender youth, about how they too can contribute towards wildlife conservation. This program will conclude on Oct 4 with World Wildlife Week festival celebrations.

Kumble who was recently appointed as the vice-chairman of the Karnataka State Board for Wildlife said reporters that he would spread awareness of animal adoption and wildlife conservation. He has asked his friends in Indian Cricket team particularly Rahul Dravid to adopt animals as celebrity adoption can boost awareness. He has also expressed his desire to adopt an elephant which will cost Rs. 2 lakh per year.

The Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK) has also come up with the adoption rates applicable to all the animals in the zoos which come under its authority. The pricing starts from Rs. 750 to Rs. 1.75 lakh for adopting an animal for a year. If you feel you can't adopt an animal for a year, then you can look for adoption programs such as adopting an animal a day or week or even a month.

Tax Benefit:
The interesting fact here is the Income Tax department of India has given a blanket exemption for people taking up animal adoption under section 80(G).

Inspired by this post? Then why don't you adopt an animal and save some tax too?

Please feel free to Contact:
The Executive Director and Conservator of Forests,
Bannerghatta Biological Park,
Bengaluru,
Karnataka,
India — 560083

Call: +91 80 7828540/7828300

E-mail: bannerghattazoo@gmail.com

Official Site: www.bannerghattabiopark.in

FIFA World Cup finalists Spain & Netherlands fined

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) fined 2010 Football World Cup Champion Spain 10,000 Swiss francs ($9,363) and the runner up Netherlands 15,000 Swiss francs ($14,040) for their poor behavior in World Cup final on 11 July 2010 at Soccer City, Johannesburg.

2010 FIFA World Cup final will be remembered for 14 yellow cards that were handed out by referee Howard Webb. This was indeed a new record, breaking the previous one set by Argentina and West Germany with six cards in 1986 Football World Cup. The match had the most number of fouls (47), especially from the Netherlands. Though there were no red card issued, Netherland's defender John Heitinga who received his second yellow card was sent off on the final stages of the match.

These incidents prompted FIFA president Sepp Blatter to say 'he had been let down by the players' behavior'. He also fined both the teams under article 52 of the FIFA disciplinary code, under which "disciplinary measures may be imposed on associations and clubs where a team fails to conduct itself properly". The first part of the article reads: "a fine may be imposed where the referee sanctions at least five members of the same team during a match (caution or expulsion)."