| Easterby: Team can play a winning game
Irish outfit Munster were twice runners-up before finally being crowned European champions at the Millennium Stadium last season. Now it's the Scarlets who have taken on the mantle of nearly-men, having lost at the semi-final stage for the third time in Saturday's 33-17 defeat to Leicester at the Walkers Stadium. But Easterby is convinced that they can still achieve their holy grail of Heineken glory in the future. 'We will bounce back from this,' insisted the Ireland flanker. .
SIMPSON BOOK RIGHTS TO BE AUCTIONED
LATEST: The rights to O.J. SIMPSON's scrapped book IF I DID IT is to be auctioned off next month (APR07). Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge GERALD ROSENBERG earlier this month (MAR07) ordered the rights to If I Did It - which hypothetically places Simpson at the scene of the 1994 murder of his ex-wife NICOLE BROWN SIMPSON and her friend RON GOLDMAN - be sold. Details of the sale have been sent to publishers, Hollywood studios and talent agencies, according to Goldman family attorney DAVID COOK, who hinted the family may also bid for the controversial manuscript. Rosenberg previously ruled if the book is ever published, proceeds must help pay off the $33.5 million (GBP17 million) Simpson owes following a 1997 civil case for wrongful death. The sale will take place on 17 April (07), and will be carried out by the Sacramento County Sheriff's department in California.
Uganda bids to host 2010 teams
Officials from the world soccer governing body FIFA will today inspect local facilities and decide their suitability to host build-up games before the 2010 World Cup.
FIFA officials David Petranshvili and Essan Ahmed will check Mandela National Stadium Namboole and the several hotels currently being prepared for the Commonwealth meetingCHOGM.
Charles Masembe, the chief executive of the Uganda soccer governing body FUFA, revealed yesterday that Namboole was high on the list of likely training venues before the World Cup starts. Namboole has a seating capacity of 40,202.
They are looking for venues in Africa that will help the visiting countries acclimatise to the South African weather, Masembe said.
After the inspection, the officials will conduct a one-day seminar fully sponsored by FIFA with officials from the education and sports ministry, National Council of Sports, FUFAs marketing and security officials, the police, and the Internal Security Organisation.
Modest Mouse, Shins, Decemberists Swag in Art Auction
Buckman Elementary School, an arts magnet school in Portland's public system, is rife with the cool, artsy kids. And these cool, artsy kids-- along with some high-profile, indie rock favorites-- have donated some items to be auctioned in benefit of the school; they're no mere pinch-pot ashtray castoffs, either. In addition to a fly-fishing trip and jaunts to the Sonoma wine country, a series of hand-decorated mini-guitars and other swag from the likes of the Decemberists and Carson Ellis, Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, the Shins, Stephen Malkmus and newest Jick Janet Weiss, Sam Coombs of Quasi, and the Dandy Warhols will go up for the good cause. The Art Rocks auction takes place in two parts: the first-- organized by Sleater-Kinney pillar and Buckman parent Corin Tucker-- goes down web-ways April 22, when online bidders can stake their claim on those hand-decorated mini-guitars via eBay (keyword: Buckman).
Knives out in ABN AMRO bidding war
A merger with Barclays, possibly ABN AMRO's last chance to avoid a breakup, is looking increasingly unlikely after ABN AMRO's shares surged 5.7 percent Monday. "The current share price is quite high for Barclays and is above what we expect it is willing to pay," said Dirk Peeters, an analyst at KBC Securities in Belgium. Analysts said ABN AMRO's rising share price could cause Barclays to walk away - which could make Barclays a takeover target itself - or to fight a possible rival bid by Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander Central Hispano and Fortis by seeking its own deep-pocketed partners. .
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