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Saturday, February 13, 2010 WASHINGTON: There was snow on the ground in 49 states Friday. Hawaii was the holdout. It was the United States of Snow, thanks to an unusual combination of weather patterns that dusted the U.S., including the skyscrapers of Dallas, the peach trees of Atlanta and the Florida Panhandle, where hurricanes are more common than snowflakes. More than two-thirds of the nation's land mass had snow on the ground when the day dawned, and then it snowed ever so slightly in Florida to make it 49 states out of 50. At the same time, those weird weather forces are turning Canada's Winter Olympics into the bring-your-own-snow games. "I'm calling it the upside-down winter," said David Robinson, head of the Global Snow Lab at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Snow paralyzed and fascinated the Deep South on Friday. Snowball fights broke out at Southern Mississippi University, snow delayed flights at the busy Atlanta airport, and Louisiana hardwar

Saturday, February 13, 2010 RIO DE JANEIRO: Carnival erupted Friday in Rio with raucous street parties that brought together cheering, drum-beating locals with sweaty foreigners escaping snowbound cities. Thousands of Carnival revelers flooded the cobbled streets of the bohemian Santa Teresa neighborhood in skimpy costumes bordering on blasphemous. At the "Carmelitas" party — named after a nearby convent — groups of young women dressed as sexy police in cutoffs and tank tops, while grown men who donned baby outfits, sucked on pacifiers and showered themselves with talcum powder. The drum line, whose powerful samba beat kept the crowd dancing in the sweltering heat, was made up of young men dressed as nuns, as were many in the crowd. Friday marked the start of dozens of the eccentric, pulsating street parties that are the heart and soul of Rio's pre-Lent festival. The seaside city is opening its arms to more than 700,000 visitors this year, according to tourism

Saturday, February 13, 2010 PORT-AU-PRINCE: A top UN official in Haiti said many of those made homeless by the massive earthquake one month ago are unlikely to be provided "good shelter" before the coming rainy season. While the United Nations and other organizations involved in aid efforts are aiming to provide some sort of shelter material before the rains begin around May, the deputy head of the UN mission here said the challenge will be immense. "I think it's almost certainly going to be the case there are going to be a lot of people without good shelter by the time the rains really come," Anthony Banbury said in an interview. He said officials debated whether to distribute more sturdy shelter that could better withstand the elements but that would take longer to provide and reach fewer people, or work to hand out something to everyone. "I think for obvious humanitarian reasons, the decision was to give something to everyone," Banbury sai

Saturday, February 13, 2010 WASHINGTON: Internet giant Google has bought Aardvark, a "social search" service that relies on a user's contacts to provide answers to questions. "I can confirm that we have signed an agreement with Google," Aardvark co-founder and chief technology officer Damon Horowitz said in reply to an email from a French news agency. "We can't comment further at this time." Technology blog TechCrunch put the purchase price at around 50 million dollars. San Francisco-based Aardvark was founded in 2007. Its co-founders include former members of Google. Aardvark uses the contacts in a person's network to provide answers to questions via the Web at Vark.com, instant messaging, email or Twitter. In a recent blog post, Aardvark said it had more than 90,000 users in October 2009 and 87.7 percent of the questions sent to Aardvark received answers from a friend or a friend of a friend. Aardvark said 75 percent of the user

Saturday, February 13, 2010 SYDNEY: In just one hour, 88 millimeters (3.46 inches) of rain fell over parts of Sydney on Saturday night, causing a large tree to fall and damage two houses. The storm dumped one of the largest amounts of rain on the Australian city in a decade, local media reports said, with the weather bureau is predicting more rain over the weekend. An elderly lady had just returned home from hospital when her roof caved in due to the downpour. "I heard a little noise and I thought it was somebody out here doing something, and then, next thing I heard this crash coming down and it was the ceiling coming down. I couldn't believe my eyes," said resident of the house, Marie Carrol. Firemen are assessing the damage to the house.

For most of the world, the Winter Olympics is a spectacle of strange sports (curling) and even stranger names (luge). For the host Canadians, it's a rare and glorious shot at world domination through sacred winter sports like hockey. So when economist and Olympic prognosticator Daniel Johnson predicted Canada is poised to be top dog, you might expect the country to be thumping its collective shoulder pads in celebration. But hold off on the celebratory poutine. Medal predictions are tricky, perhaps more of an art than a science, and it's not clear that economists or anyone else using objective data are best suited for the endeavor. Does home field advantage matter? Do you take individual sports and athletes into account, or look at broad demographic trends? The most important number, by far, is a country's past medal count. That is the benchmark of all Olympic medal predictions, and it's often hard to beat. (Here's a handy interactive graphic for medal winners

DUBAI — Afghanistan's fairytale story in the world of cricket continued on Saturday as they defeated hosts United Arab Emirates to reach their first major tournament, the World Twenty20 finals in the West Indies which runs from April 30 to May 16. The Afghans won by four wickets, restricting UAE to 100-9 off their 20 overs - Mohammad Nabi taking 3-17 - and then reaching their target in 19.3 overs with opener Noor Ali topscoring with 38 not out. It is a remarkable feat by the Afghans - most of whom learnt to play cricket in refugee camps over the Pakistan border - as they were in the fifth division of the world cricket league just two years ago. Afghanistan, who showed their talent when they came within one place of reaching the 2011 World Cup finals, will play either Ireland or The Netherlands - both of them are the joint holders from the previous tournament - in Saturday's final. The winners of the final will be placed in Group C alongside India and South Africa while

WHISTLER, B.C. - Nodar Kumaritashvili celebrated his 21st birthday only three months ago. They say he was here to fulfil a dream. Instead, he died. The young luger from Georgia was ranked 41st in the World Cup standings at the beginning of 2010. And, despite the concerns of some Olympic competitors that the track here was too fast to be safe, Kumaritashvili did OK in early runs. He'd finished 17th on the first run Wednesday, but crashed on the second run. Nothing serious. He walked away. He went back to the track Thursday and finished 12th and 13th in the runs. But something went wrong on Friday. On his first run, he finished 32nd. And, by now, everyone knows what happened on his second try. His crash was gruesome. Sliding feet first, he flew from his sled and landed like a rag doll. It's not known how fast he was going when he crashed, but the track's top recorded speed is 153.93 km/h. His parents were told of his death by phone. They were called by both Ge

Cypress Mountain, the venue for the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events, has had to truck and fly in enough snow to fill 20 Big Bens. But organizers say it's now ready to go. West Vancouver, Canada :: These days, a perpetual rainy mist hangs over Cypress Mountain. For those trying to ensure that the venue will be ready to hold Olympic events starting tomorrow, it could just as easily be the smoke of battle. During the past month, the Vancouver Organizing Committee and the weather have been at war, and nowhere more so than on this suburban mountain that is set to host the snowboard and freestyle skiing events. After a historically warm January, the mountainside is mottled with the earthen spots of a receding winter, forcing organizers to import snow from distant peaks and passes by truck and helicopter simply to have enough to hold a competition. On the eve of the Olympics, the big story in Vancouver is still the weather, with fog potentially wreaking havoc on the Olymp

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has made its first appearance in Winter Olympics 2010 as Abbas, the first skier of the country, is bearing the country’s flag in the competition. The opening ceremony of Winter Olympics 2010 was held at Vancouver, Canada where Muhammad Abbas, an employee of Pakistan Air Force and the lone skier from Pakistan is proudly representing the nation in Alpine Skiing discipline of the Winter Olympics 2010, said a message received here. Under the aegis of PAF and Ski Federation of Pakistan (SFP), the athlete had previously participated in a number of international events and had performed well. Pakistan Air Force is the pioneer of Skiing in the countryand is making all-out efforts to promote the sport in the country.

Last February energy-drink maker Red Bull built U.S. snowboarder Shaun White his own half-million-dollar half-pipe in the back country of Silverton, Colo.-- so remote he needs a helicopter to shuttle him there. It was here where White invented the most dangerous trick in his repertoire: the double McTwist 1260, an inverted aerial in which he launches himself up off the side of a snow-packed embankment and flips head over heels twice while spinning three and a half times and holding his board. The move helped him win gold in January at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo., and padded his status as an action sport superstar. He also padded his wallet with US$40,000 in prize money. But compared to what he earns from sponsors, that was pocket change. Last year 23-year-old White pocketed US$7.5-million from the likes of snowboard-maker Burton, Red Bull, Target, goggle-maker Oakley, game-maker Ubisoft and AT&T, making him one of the highest-earning athletes appearing at the 2010 Winter O

The 2010 Winter Olympics opened Friday night at BC Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, with a rousing Opening Ceremony that didn't quite match the pageantry of Beijing, but did a fine job of capturing the essence of Canada. Fourth-Place Medal lists the 10 most memorable moments of the festivities: 1. The gaffe heard 'round the world -- Vancouver organizers had planned for four Olympic cauldrons to be lit by Canada's most famous athletes, but a mechanical error prevented one of the massive torches from rising from the floor of BC Place. Former hockey star Wayne Gretzky, two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash and Alpine skiing legend Nancy Green were able to light their cauldrons, but speedskater Catriona Lemay Doan was left with her flame when the fourth torch failed to emerge from underneath the stadium. It was an embarrassing end to an otherwise flawless Opening Ceremony. Instead of the indelible memory of four cauldron-lighters, this ceremony will be most remembered for the cauld