United claim title as Chelsea held

LONDON, England -- Manchester United were crowned English Premier League champions on Sunday as nearest challengers Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

Chelsea went into the match needing a victory to keep alive their slim hopes of winning a third successive title, but despite a brave late rally came up short.

It is United's first title since 2003 and their ninth since the inception of the Premiership.

"It's a fantastic day for the club," said United manager Alex Ferguson who admitted to watching the last 15 minutes of the Arsenal-Chelsea match on television.

"Over the last two years, Chelsea have dominated the Premier League, and yes, we had a big job to do to catch up with them. The key was having a good start to the season and trying to stay with them. And I think we did that very well."

United can complete the double when they face Chelsea in the FA Cup final later this month at the new Wembley Stadium.

The two sides also meet at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday in what had been billed as a title decider but is now academic with United seven points clear with just two games remaining.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was magnanimous in defeat, but also praised the way his side had gone done fighting.

"Congratulations to Sir Alex, his players and their fans but I have to say I'm prouder today of my team than when we became champions," he said.

"I'm very very proud of my players. When a team has a lot of success and loses it's usually down to lack of motivation, but my team were the opposite - they were brilliant, fighting against everything, and the game today was one to remember.

"And the season's not over, we've got a (FA Cup against Manchester United) final to play."


"Over the last two years, Chelsea have dominated the Premier League, and yes, we had a big job to do to catch up with them. The key was having a good start to the season and trying to stay with them. And I think we did that very well."

United can complete the double when they face Chelsea in the FA Cup final later this month at the new Wembley Stadium.

The two sides also meet at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday in what had been billed as a title decider but is now academic with United seven points clear with just two games remaining.

Arsenal went ahead just before halftime as Gilberto Silva converted from the spot after Khalid Boulahrouz had pulled back Julio Baptista to concede the penalty.

Chelsea protests
Boulahrouz was sent off by referee Alan Wiley, prompting fierce Chelsea protests and leaving Arsenal with a man advantage for the entire second half.

The home side wasted a series of chances to make the game safe with Emmanuel Adebayor and Williams Gallas the main offenders and were nearly made tLONDON, England -- Manchester United were crowned English Premier League champions on Sunday as nearest challengers Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

Chelsea went into the match needing a victory to keep alive their slim hopes of winning a third successive title, but despite a brave late rally came up short.

It is United's first title since 2003 and their ninth since the inception of the Premiership.

"It's a fantastic day for the club," said United manager Alex Ferguson who admitted to watching the last 15 minutes of the Arsenal-Chelsea match on television.

"Over the last two years, Chelsea have dominated the Premier League, and yes, we had a big job to do to catch up with them. The key was having a good start to the season and trying to stay with them. And I think we did that very well."

United can complete the double when they face Chelsea in the FA Cup final later this month at the new Wembley Stadium.

The two sides also meet at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday in what had been billed as a title decider but is now academic with United seven points clear with just two games remaining.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was magnanimous in defeat, but also praised the way his side had gone done fighting.

"Congratulations to Sir Alex, his players and their fans but I have to say I'm prouder today of my team than when we became champions," he said.

"I'm very very proud of my players. When a team has a lot of success and loses it's usually down to lack of motivation, but my team were the opposite - they were brilliant, fighting against everything, and the game today was one to remember.

"And the season's not over, we've got a (FA Cup against Manchester United) final to play."


"Over the last two years, Chelsea have dominated the Premier League, and yes, we had a big job to do to catch up with them. The key was having a good start to the season and trying to stay with them. And I think we did that very well."

United can complete the double when they face Chelsea in the FA Cup final later this month at the new Wembley Stadium.

The two sides also meet at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday in what had been billed as a title decider but is now academic with United seven points clear with just two games remaining.

Arsenal went ahead just before halftime as Gilberto Silva converted from the spot after Khalid Boulahrouz had pulled back Julio Baptista to concede the penalty.

Chelsea protests
Boulahrouz was sent off by referee Alan Wiley, prompting fierce Chelsea protests and leaving Arsenal with a man advantage for the entire second half.

The home side wasted a series of chances to make the game safe with Emmanuel Adebayor and Williams Gallas the main offenders and were nearly made to pay for their profligacy as Shaun Wright-Phillips crossed for Michael Essien to head a 70th minute equalizer.

It sparked Chelsea's best spell of the match and Jens Lehmann had to save smartly Frank Lampard and late on Salomon Kalou. Joe Cole also had the ball in the net but it was ruled out for offside.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was magnanimous in defeat, but also praised the way his side had gone done fighting.

"Congratulations to Sir Alex, his players and their fans but I have to say I'm prouder today of my team than when we became champions," he said.

"I'm very very proud of my players. When a team has a lot of success and loses it's usually down to lack of motivation, but my team were the opposite - they were brilliant, fighting against everything, and the game today was one to remember.

"And the season's not over, we've got a (FA Cup against Manchester United) final to play."
o pay for their profligacy as Shaun Wright-Phillips crossed for Michael Essien to head a 70th minute equalizer.

It sparked Chelsea's best spell of the match and Jens Lehmann had to save smartly Frank Lampard and late on Salomon Kalou. Joe Cole also had the ball in the net but it was ruled out for offside.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was magnanimous in defeat, but also praised the way his side had gone done fighting.

"Congratulations to Sir Alex, his players and their fans but I have to say I'm prouder today of my team than when we became champions," he said.

"I'm very very proud of my players. When a team has a lot of success and loses it's usually down to lack of motivation, but my team were the opposite - they were brilliant, fighting against everything, and the game today was one to remember.

"And the season's not over, we've got a (FA Cup against Manchester United) final to play."

Official: No survivors in Kenya Airways jet crash

None of the 114 people aboard a Kenya Airways flight survived its crash into a thick mangrove swamp over the weekend, an official said Monday after returning from the water-filled crater left by the plane.
Asked whether anyone survived, Luc Ndjodo, a local government official in charge of the recovery effort, said: "No."
Ndjodo added he had surveyed the entire site, about the size of a soccer field, and saw no survivors: "I was there. I saw none."
The plane was submerged in murky, orange-brown swamp, with scraps of metal and plastic floating on the surface.
"We assume that a large part of the plane is underwater," Ndjodo said. "I only saw pieces."
Earlier, Thomas Sobakam, chief of meteorology for the Douala airport, said the plane nose-dived into the swamp and disintegrated on impact.
"The plane fell head first. Its nose was buried in the mangrove swamp," Sobakam said.
The plane took off from Douala, Cameroon's commercial capital, and its wreckage was found just 12 miles from the town's outskirts. The cause of the crash remained unclear.
A U.S. Embassy official who saw the crash site from a plane Monday said it would have been impossible to find from the air without coordinates provided by searchers on the ground. He said searchers in planes saw nothing when they flew over before sunset Sunday after hearing reports the plane could have gone down in the swamp.
"It's not what you expect, a bunch of trees knocked down and charred," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. "It's just a big muddy hole, like many others out there."
The United States and France are among the nations providing aircraft and other equipment to help the Cameroonians search. A team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board was expected in Cameroon on Tuesday.

Chelsea thank Cole for narrow lead

Joe Cole's first half goal gave Chelsea a 1-0 win over Liverpool in the first leg of their all-English Champions League semifinal at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
The England winger swept in from six meters from Didier Drogba's cross on 29 minutes after the Ivorian had proved too strong for Daniel Agger, beating the defender before firing low into Cole's path.
It was only Cole's second goal of his injury-plagued season -- and the first time Chelsea had scored against Liverpool in five Champions League meetings.
"I am happy with the players, I think the performance was top," Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho told Sky Sports.
"The first half performance was superb... we had five or six great chances to score. The second half was different, Liverpool attacked more... we still had chances on the counter-attack."
Liverpool, who left top scorer Peter Crouch on the bench until early in the second half, threatened sporadically.
"It was (a game of) two different parts today. The first half we were not controlling... the second half a little bit better but when you play against Chelsea you know they like to counter-attack," said Benitez.
"We will see at Anfield... we need to score one goal and see what happens."
Manchester United or AC Milan meet the eventual winners in the final in Athens on May 23. United won the first leg 3-2 at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

BA: The biggest luggage losers

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Airways has apologized to passengers after a report revealed the airline lost more luggage than all other major European airlines last year.

BA misplaced 23 bags per 1,000 passengers carried in 2006 -- the worst figure in a list of 24 airlines who are members of the Association of European Airlines (AEA).

The UK's Air Transport Users Council (AUC), which released the figures Wednesday, said BA had told the council its performance on bags last year was unacceptable and it apologized to customers.

The AUC also detailed past cases of lost luggage and various airlines' failure to meet the desired service standards.

In one case a passenger's mobility scooter was damaged in transit and she paid £263 ($519) to have it repaired. Spending weeks coping without it, she was offered only £25 ($49) by the unnamed airline in compensation.

The AUC and AEA baggage figures for 2006 showed that more than 5.6 million bags went missing among the 24 airlines -- an average of 15.7 bags per 1,000 passengers.

Among those airlines that had worse-than-average figures were BA, Lufthansa of Germany, Air France, Italy's Alitalia and KLM of the Netherlands (now merged with Air France).

The AEA stated 85 percent of misplaced bags were returned to passengers within 48 hours, indicating about one million items took longer than two days to reach their owners and some "never got returned at all."

In response to the findings BA said: "We accept that our levels of service have not been up to an acceptable standard and we fully apologize to customers who have been affected by delayed baggage in the past year.

Study: Sudden sea level surges threaten 1 billion

More than 1 billion people live in low-lying areas where a sudden surge in sea level could prove as disastrous as the 2004 Asian tsunami, according to new research presented on Thursday.

New mapping techniques show how much land would be lost and how many people affected by rapid sea level rises that are often triggered by storms and earthquakes, a U.S. Geological Survey-led team determined.

E. Lynn Usery, who led the team, said nearly one-quarter of the world's population lives below 100 feet above sea level

"What we are suggesting is what kind of areas are at risk (in) a catastrophic event," Usery told a meeting of the Association of American Geographers.

"The fact that there are that many people living at that sea level means there are probably a lot of people potentially in harm's way."

The team also found that a 100-foot rise in sea level would cover 3.7 million square miles of land worldwide.

A rise of just 16 feet would affect 669 million people and 2 million square miles of land would be lost.

Sea levels are currently rising about 0.04 to 0.08 inches each year, making it unlikely such a scenario would suddenly occur across the globe, Usery said.

But he said 10,000 years ago sea levels rose 20 meters in 500 years -- a relatively short span -- after the collapse of the continental ice sheets.

"It can happen in a short period of time if we look at the historical da
ta," Usery said.

More importantly, he said, the new mapping technique provides detail that was previously unavailable and gives policymakers better tools to prepare for potential disasters. With just a mouse click on the computer, researchers can gauge how much land would be lost at various sea levels, and where.

The team developed its own mapping projection software and then plugged in U.S. Geological Survey data on population, elevation and different types of land cover.

Even though people know low-lying areas like the Netherlands or many parts of Asia are at risk of flooding, many do not realize just how big a risk they are facing.

"A 30-meter surge in Florida would leave the whole state covered except for a little plateau area," Usery said.

Ronaldo and Drogba vying for award

FA Cup final opponents Didier Drogba of Chelsea and Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo are on the six-man shortlist for the Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year award.
Two other United players, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, are included, along with Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, who won last year.
The award will be presented next Sunday and the 22-year-old Ronaldo, who has scored 21 goals in helping United to the top of the Premiership and semifinals of the Champions League, as well as the FA Cup final at Wembley, is many people's idea of the winner.
"Cristiano is the most exciting player in the country at the moment -- the quickness of his feet and the skills he possesses make you think, at times, that he is from another planet," said PFA chief executive Taylor.
Ivory Coast striker Drogba, who could also line-up against United in the Champions League final, has strong claims too, having already topped 30 goals for the season in which his club has already lifted the League Cup and still retain high hopes of success in three other competitions.
"Didier has, arguably, been Chelsea's best and most consistent performer this season -- no mean achievement when he is playing alongside so many top-class players at Stamford Bridge," said Taylor.
Ronaldo and the 19-year-old Fabregas are also amongst the nominations for the Young Player of the Year award, alongside Rooney, the winner of that honor for the last two seasons.
Scholes and Giggs have both recaptured their best form in United's outstanding season and Gerrard has been a key figure as Liverpool have again showed themselves to be accomplished performers in Europe, reaching the last four in the Champions League, where they will tackle Chelsea.

A sneak peek at the new `Shrek`

Time to catch up with your ogre friend Shrek, his greenish bride, Fiona, and their two men Friday, the yammering Donkey and the overreaching Puss in Boots.

The filmmakers behind "Shrek the Third" offered a sneak peek at their PDI-DreamWorks animation complex near San Francisco.

From the 20 minutes of footage they showed, the film looks likely to meet expectations as one of summer's hottest tickets.

Key voice stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas return, with Justin Timberlake headlining the newcomers as geeky teenager Artie.

"You feel you've got a lot to live up to, man," Timberlake said about being the new kid on the block in the Shrek world. "Every character is so good. When you come into 'Shrek,' you definitely feel you have a lot to prove."

Here's a rundown of the players and their exploits for the film that hits theaters May 18.

The whole gang returns, led by the key foursome of Shrek (Myers), Donkey (Murphy), Fiona (Diaz) and Puss in Boots (Banderas).

Shrek's still barking at everyone in his Scottish brogue, though married life brings out his softer side more and more.

"What I love about the Scottish people, which is part of my heritage, is they go from, 'I love you, come here,' to 'You get out of my house!' " Myers said. "Scottish people are hilarious when they're angry. They shift gears so fast."

Also back: Fiona's mom, Queen Lillian (Julie Andrews, who in a dizzy moment hums "My Favorite Things," a tune she sang in "The Sound of Music"); King Harold (John Cleese); villainous Prince Charming (Rupert Everett); and ugly stepsister Doris (Larry King).

It wouldn't be a "Shrek" movie without all those goofy bit players, including the three little pigs, Pinocchio and the Gingerbread Man. The minor characters were so much fun, the filmmakers said they had to reign them in or they might have taken over.