Finally, Taufik Meets His Trophy

The Associated Press: Second-seeded Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia defeated Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia 21-18, 21-19 on Sunday to clinch the India Open men's singles title, while top-seeded Pi Hongyan of France took the women's event.

Taufik, winner of all previous six meetings with Hashim, exuded confidence in his strokes and succeeded in inducing errors from his Malaysian opponent.

"The score was close; winning a title is always very satisfying," Taufik said.

"This win will give me a lot of confidence for the world championships at this venue in August. There's a bit of drift inside the stadium here, so it takes time to get used to the shuttle in the high tosses. I think, I read the drift much better than him."

Pi, ranked fourth in the world, rallied to beat fifth-seeded Julia Wang Pei Xian of Malaysia 17-21, 21-15, 21-14 in the women's final.

Pi, whose last title came at the 2006 Singapore Open, is six years older than Wang and used her experience to slow the rallies with high tosses to the back court after having lost the opening game.

"Wang's a very tough opponent. She beat me two years ago, but here I felt I was in control," Pi said.

"It was tough to come back after losing the first game. I then decided to slow down the game, thinking it would suit me better."

In the men's doubles final, the experienced Malaysian duo of Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah defeated the new Singapore combination of Hendri Kurniawan Saputra and Hendra Wijaya 21-9, 21-11.

Ma Jin and Wang Xiao Li of China downed Vita Marissa and Nadya Melati of Indonesia 21-14, 21-13 for the women's doubles title.

Marissa also teamed up with Flandy Limpele to beat V. Diju and Jwala Gutta of India in the mixed doubles final.

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You know, Taufik Hidayat was a temperamental Indonesian athlete. He has his own think to go 0n or go out but with his popularity Indonesian People still wondering his capability to collect more trophys for Indonesia. I thought, he would have lack of trophy since he had bad attitude and moved away from National Badminton Center. I hope, this thropy can bring him to glory and glory.

Situ Gintung Bloody Flood, March 26

BBC.co.uk: A dam has burst south-west of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, killing at least 58 people.

Witnesses said a "horrifying" flash flood of water up to 4m (13ft) deep engulfed hundreds of homes in Cirendeu in the Tangerang district.

Officials say they expect the death toll to rise, and 150 body bags have been sent to the scene.

An official said the Situ Gintung lake behind the dam became overloaded after hours of heavy rain.

"The dam was an old dam, 16m (52ft) deep," said Ratu Atut Chosiyah, governor of Banten province, where the lake is located.

"Last night, because of heavy rain, the dam could not hold back the water so it broke," she added.

Thick mud is hampering rescue teams, but the waters have now begun to recede.

'Still sleeping'

The incident happened at about 0200 local time (1900 GMT) in what is a popular tourist area.

A surge of water laden with debris slammed into the suburb of small, poorly built houses, sweeping away cars and toppling telephone lines.

Dam burst felt 'like tsunami hit'

"People were still sleeping and couldn't do anything," local official Danang Susanto told the AFP news agency.

"Many people are still trapped and the rescue is ongoing."

Television footage showed rescue workers wading through deep water and bodies being pulled from the mud.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sent his condolences to the families of the victims and officials said he was planning to travel to the scene of the disaster later in the day.

Vice-President Yusuf Kalla and Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie have already visited.

"We will provide emergency help to the victims. For those whose homes were destroyed, the government will help with the repairs," Mr Kalla told Metro TV.

Sirens

The decades-old dam had been holding back a lake of about two million cubic metres of water.

One resident said the dam broke after the morning call to prayer.

"I took all my family out of the house and I saw my neighbour with his pregnant wife drifting away. They asked for help but the water was so fast," Hamdani said.

Another resident, Seto Mulyadi, said he heard a siren from the dam before water crashed into his house, breaking through all the windows and doors and leaving water 2.5m (8ft) deep.

"A flash flood came suddenly and was horrifying," he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

"My house in a dreadful mess. Thank God my family is safe."

One man told local media it had been "like being in a tsunami".

People were screaming 'the water's coming in, the water's coming in,' and our dog was barking," a local resident told Detikcom news website.

"I could hear our door being pounded on and I wondered who could it be, but it was the water."

Map

"Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry Crisis Centre, said people in the area were being evacuated to higher ground.

"About half of them are still on rooftops waiting for help," he said.

South Jakarta Police chief Makmur Simbolon told AP that it was not yet known what had caused the failure of the 10m (32ft) dam, which was apparently earthen.

The BBC's Katherine Demopoulos in Jakarta says the city is prone to floods and has an ageing, poorly maintained drainage system which struggles to cope with heavy rainfall.

In 2007, floods in the capital left more than 50 people dead.

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Oh dear, oh dear... Could you everyone thought what the victims did while flood doing "its job"?

Earth Day 2009: Switch Off

panda.org: On behalf of everyone at WWF, we'd like to say a big, big THANK YOU to all who took part in Earth Hour 2009. Because of you it was the biggest Earth Hour ever. You were joined by millions of others in almost 4000 towns and cities across 88 countries. People who switched off their lights and demonstrated their concern at how our climate is changing. It was an amazing night. We couldn't have done it without you.
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it's brilliant idea that made brilliant event, and much brilliant people joined. I felt, the earth was so kindly servicing our soul at the moment.

F1 Sensation, Brawn GP gets Rock!

BrownGp.com: We have worked incredibly hard for the victory in Melbourne and to see the dedication, commitment and sheer hard work come to fruition with Jenson and Rubens bringing home a one-two finish for Brawn GP at the first race of the season was immensely rewarding. After everything that our team has been through over the past four months, it was quite simply a sensational result.

It is just the beginning for us and it wasn’t a perfect race by any means so we will learn and continue to improve. We have to keep developing the car throughout the season if we want to challenge for further wins and the championship.

I would like to express our sincere thanks to Norbert Haug and Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines who have been so supportive over the past few months and have worked closely with the team to ensure we were in a position to go racing this year. Thanks also to Virgin, Henri Lloyd and all our team partners for having the vision to see what the team could do and wanting to be a part of it. It’s difficult to put into words what this win means to our team but I’m sure that I speak for every single one of them, here at the track and back at the factory in Brackley, when I say it was a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for everyone support.
Ross Brawn
Team Principal
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Absolutely, this will be my best experience watching F1 so far. Brawn GP made a racing becoming very smiling...