Stoner on pole for Valencia Moto GP season finale

Sunday, November 08, 2009 VALENCIA: Australia's Casey Stoner of Ducati on Saturday secured pole position ahead of Spaniards Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo in qualifying for Sunday's season-ending MotoGP Valencia Grand Prix.Stoner, who won on the Ricardo Tormo circuit here last year, will start from the front for the 22nd time in his career and the 18th time in MotoGP.The Australian led from the eighth minute of the session and only Lorenzo looked capable of trumping him.Valentino Rossi, who has already been crowned 2009 MotoGP champion, was fourth fastest ahead of the American Colin Edwards."I’m really happy, everything’s gone really well and we’ve been quickest in every session," said Stoner, who is bidding for a third successive win after missing three rounds with fatigue."We’ve made small improvements to the bike each day. The only problem we’ve got now is the pretty windy conditions, which is making it very difficult to ride and understand where the limit is."I lost the front (of the bike) a few times on the last qualifying tyre, but there‘s no way we’re going to be pushing that hard in the race."Having secured his first ever Grand Prix win at Valencia in the 125cc category in 2003, Stoner was victorious last year in the premier class at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit here.A third successive win would be the perfect way to round off the year for the 24-year-old."It’d be a nice end to the season we’ve had so far," Stoner added."It’s definitely not gone the way we wanted it to, but I’m very happy with the way things have gone so far in this last period, and we’ll just have to see what tomorrow brings."

Comments

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in

Cuba's world-famous cigar festival closes in Havana

Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo

Cyprus lace to be declared UNESCO cultural heritage

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 NICOSIA: Traditional hand-made lace produced in the Larnaca district village of Lefkara in Cyprus known as lefkaritiko includeded in UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Soseilos said that the relevant UNESCO committee has already decided to include lefkaritiko in its list of the world’s ICH, a more recent addition to UNESCO’s long-standing list of World Heritage sites, and the decision will be formally announced at the UNESCO General Assembly next month. The tradition of needlework and lace embroidery in Lefkara goes back centuries.

ONE NEWS

Search This Blog