TUESDAY 2/09/07- BAR COUNCIL MUST AVOID BEING TOOL

Bar Council must not become tool of others, says Shahrir
1st October, 2007
JOHOR BAHARU: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad said Bar Council Malaysia should avoid being used as tool by certain parties in the video tape issue showing a popular lawyer on the phone allegedly talking to a senior judge over the appointment of a judge.

The Member of Parliament for Johor Baharu hoped that the march by 2,000 Bar Council members at Putrajaya on Wednesday over the video tape would not spread to other things.
“We hope that the Bar Council will not become a tool to certain parties as the video tape is being investigated by the government,” he told reporters after presenting welfare aid to the poor, orphans, disabled and single parents of the Semberong parliamentary constituency here yesterday.
He said the Bar Council should not become overly sensitive over matters which have yet to be verified and that the independent committee appointed should be allowed to investigate the authenticity of the video tape.
The Deputy Prime Minister recently announced the setting up of an independent committee chaired by former Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Haidar Mohd Noor with National Service Council chairman and social activist Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye and former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mahadev Shankar as members.
The panel’s job is to investigate the authenticity of the video tape.
Shahrir said the authenticity of the video tape should be proven first because the tape recording is five year-old and that its contents had been edited.
He also questioned action by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim over the video issue and asked why he did not do the same when former Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas was sacked during the constitutional crisis in 1988.
The video issue and march by Bar Council members had pressured the judiciary and proof that the people hold the judiciary in high regard.
Shahrir said it was a normal process as the people wanted to see the judiciary strengthened.
He had earlier received RM20,000 “zakat” money from Bank Rakyat, RM10,000 from Gerbang Perdana Sdn Bhd and distributed Ramadan goodies to orphans, single parents and the disabled from the Johor Baharu parliamentary constituency.

THE MARCH OF THE BAR COUNCIL

MONDAY 1/10/2007 - Women Football, Germany World Champion

SHANGHAI: Germany edged out Brazil in a gripping match to become the first team to retain the Women's World Cup.





Its test comes Sunday against Brazil in the final of the Women's World Cup.From the time it won its opening game 11-0, Germany was stamped as the team to beat. It enters the final as the highest-scoring team and has gone 529 minutes without allowing a World Cup goal.


NADINE ANGERER in action


"It would be absolutely special to be the first team to win two in a row," goalkeeper Nadine Angerer said. "We are aware of that record. We have a whole list of reasons we want to win this World Cup, and that is one of them."

"I'm proud of what we've achieved by not letting in a goal, but if we win the final 3-2 it would be fine with me."
















Marta proved the unlikeliest of FIFA Women's World Cup villains in Shanghai as Germany made history by completing the first successful title defence in the tournament's history.

Germany goalkeeper Nadine Angerer saves the penalty kick

from Brazil's Marta


Birgit Prinz and Simone Laudehr scored the all-important goals but it was Nadine Angerer who emerged as the German hero, saving a Marta penalty that would have brought Brazil level, while in the process preserving her unblemished record of six successive clean sheets at China 2007. The opening exchanges might have been tentative, with the sides' mutual respect clearly evident, but an evenly-matched contest sparked into life as early as the fifth minute when Marta tested Angerer at one end and, within seconds, Kerstin Garerfrekes burst through at the other to fire into the side-netting.

Brazil should, in fact, have taken the lead three minutes later when Formiga snatched at a superb chance, poking the ball wide after Angerer had uncharacteristically spilled a Daniela free-kick. The game ebbed and flowed throughout, however, and Sandra Smisek spurned an opportunity every bit as glaring soon after, scooping over from 14 yards after springing Brazil's offside trap.

Daniela was the next to try her luck, and the Brazilian No11 could certainly not have gone any closer with a sensational, sweetly-struck 20-yard volley that came crashing back off the inside of the post. However, Germany are nothing if not resilient and, having weathered a storm of Brazilian attacks as half-time drew close, they emerged to strike with deadly and oh so predictable precision.

Smisek, an unsung hero of their triumphant China 2007 campaign, fashioned the goal with a clever lay-off to Prinz, and although the big striker's shot was not the cleanest or most powerful she has ever struck, it contained enough zip to squirm under Andreia's body into the net.
A goal down within six minutes of the restart, Brazil initially struggled to respond, and they might have fallen further behind just seven minutes later when Annike Krahn headed wide from all eight yards when Renate Lingor's superbly delivered corner merited a better connection.
Then, however, almost out of nothing, Brazil were handed what seemed like a route back into this match when Australian referee Tammy Ogston correctly awarded a penalty for Linda Bresonik's trip on Cristiane. Marta, the darling of the Chinese fans, stepped up to take the kick, but with everyone expecting the net to bulge, Angerer dived low to her right to save the Brazilian's timid effort.

The stop took the German keeper ever closer to breaking Walter Zenga's FIFA World Cup record of 517 minutes without conceding, and it was fitting that she should surpass that milestone on the very second that she again sprung across goal to push away a goalbound 30-yard free-kick from Daniela.

The Canarinha midfielder threw up her arms in exasperation and, with just four minutes remaining to save their FIFA Women's World Cup dream, Brazilian hearts were well and truly broken when Simone Laudehr rose to bullet home another inch-perfect Lingor corner.
Player of the Match: Nadine Angerer (GER)