Soccer’s net losses

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 4:56 PM - 9 Comments

Isac Zagury, former chief financial officer with Aracruz Celulose SA (Photo by Douglas Engle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Europe is the centre of the soccer universe, and for good reason. The continent is home to the game’s most prestigious clubs, whose rosters are stocked with the best players on earth. If the World Cup is a showcase for the game’s stars, this is their proving ground. Yet European soccer is in trouble. Reckless spending habits and a winning-at-all-costs mentality has created a financial crisis that has reached its breaking point. Continue…

Finland proposes a ban on guns

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 2:00 PM - 26 Comments

On Sept. 23, 2008, a culinary student named Matti Juhani Saari walked into a vocational college in Kauhajoki, Finland, drew a semi-automatic pistol, and killed 10 people before taking his own life. Less than a year earlier, an 18-year-old fatally shot eight people at a high school in Tuusula, 50 km north of Helsinki, before killing himself. In the wake of Saari’s rampage, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen promised a grieving nation that “events like this would not happen again.” Now, he is trying to back up those words with legislation.

Finland, population 5.3. million, has 650,000 licensed gun owners, ranking it fifth in civilian gun ownership per capita behind the United States, Yemen, Switzerland and Serbia, according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey. But since the shootings, the country has been debating whether to introduce greater restrictions on gun ownership. Last week, a Finnish government commission set up to investigate the shooting in Kauhajoki proposed a ban on semi-automatic handguns. The commission’s report noted that Saari “used a self-loading or semi-automatic firearm, which was small-calibre but still capable of inflicting serious damage.” In addition, the commission suggested that the minimum age for owning a gun be raised from 15 to 20, and that permits be temporary and require two years of proven shooting practice. Parliament is now debating whether to go ahead with the commission’s recommendations.

But no matter how strict Finnish law gets, there are no guarantees future massacres will be thwarted: last March in Winnenden, Germany, a 17-year-old walked into the secondary school he graduated from and killed 15 people before taking his own life. At the time, German law prohibited anybody under the age of 18 from buying a handgun, and required an ownership licence and background check for anyone who wanted to purchase one. Since then, Germany has passed legislation to implement an electronic, nationwide weapons registry and has approved random home inspections of gun owners.

Beautiful game’s got debt trouble

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 1:00 PM - 2 Comments

The English Premier League, home to some of soccer’s biggest superstars and most storied clubs, is facing tough economic times. Overspending on salaries and transfer fees, along with a laissez-faire approach to governance—teams are often bought and sold by questionable characters, including Thailand’s disgraced former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who once owned the Manchester City franchise—has left many clubs buried under mountains of debt.

Last June it was reported that the 20 Premier League clubs owed a combined $5.2 billion. Two of the league’s most successful teams, Manchester United and Chelsea F.C., led the way with debts of roughly $1.2 billion each. Manchester United’s owners have since launched a plan to borrow $837 million to help refinance its existing debt load. Liverpool, another of the league’s famed clubs, has accumulated $400 million worth of debt since 2007. The 18-time Premier League champion was told earlier this month that it must cut existing debt by $167 million before bankers would consider refinancing the club’s existing loans.

And it’s not just the top clubs that are in trouble. Portsmouth, the worst team in the league, is buried under $101 million of debt; its players are not being paid on time, and last week the club shut down its website for a few hours because it couldn’t pay its service provider.

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No more games for drunk Brits

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 12:30 PM - 6 Comments

In a desperate attempt to stop Brits from drinking excessively, U.K. officials are banning drinking games and all-you-can-drink deals at pubs and clubs that cater to the nation’s growing binge-drinking culture.

The crackdown includes outlawing games such as the “dentist’s chair”—where alcohol is continuously poured into a customer’s mouth while they are restrained—along with incorporating compulsory identity checks on customers who look younger than 18 years old. In addition, establishments must provide free tap water and offer customers the choice to select either a single or double spirit, or a small or large glass of wine. Bar owners who break the rules could be fined upward of the equivalent of $34,000, or even spend six months in jail.

According to Britain’s National Health Service, alcoholic liver disease deaths are soaring, along with drinking-induced crimes that cost the U.K. between $13 billion and $22 billion a year. But health experts say the new laws don’t go far enough: it’s “better than nothing,” says Carys Davis, spokesperson for Britain’s Alcohol Concern charity, but the restrictions “seem tame” compared to raising the minimum price of bulk alcohol products (at shops and supermarkets, many alcohol products sell for less than the cost of brand-name mineral water), a move the NHS is lobbying for.

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The hidden message in fried chicken

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 40 Comments

UPDATE: Since the publication of this story, Australian authorities have charged Jaspreet Singh with lodging a false report for financial gain. Police allege that Singh was not set on fire in a racially motivated attack, but that he instead accidentally burned himself while torching his car for an insurance claim.

*****

When it was reported last spring that dozens of Indian students attending university in Melbourne and Sydney had been attacked, Australian authorities dismissed racism as a motivating factor. Instead, they suggested the students were “soft targets” because they often travelled alone and carried valuable items, such as laptops. That response sparked Indian-led rallies in Melbourne and Sydney to raise awareness and promote greater safety measures, yet the attacks continue and India is now accusing Australia of sitting idly by as they occur.

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Al-Qaeda: the world’s new pushers

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 10:48 AM - 16 Comments

In a partnership that U.S. authorities are referring to as an “unholy alliance,” Islamist extremists are helping Colombian guerrillas smuggle cocaine into Europe through unstable West Africa to increase their funding.

Marxist rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have started collaborating with al-Qaeda in the wake of interdiction efforts on the part of American and European forces aimed at curtailing the amount of cocaine travelling straight from Colombia and other Andean nations to the United States and Europe. “In the mid- to late-1990s when the Europeans became better at maritime interdiction, off the coasts of Portugal and Spain, for example, traffickers started moving their routes southward,” says Jay Bergman, director of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for the Andean region of South America. “So the next progression was to Western Africa.” Indeed, according to the DEA, drug flights from South America to West Africa have greatly increased over the past three years, and officials have seized “ton-sized quantities of cocaine.” Interpol also estimates that two-thirds of drugs sold in Europe in 2009 were trafficked through West Africa.

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Egyptian women like their niqabs

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 2:31 PM - 9 Comments

Egypt has long championed a moderate interpretation of Islam, but some Egyptian women are rebelling against government-promoted secularism. More and more of them are choosing to wear the niqab—a veil that covers the face—in addition to the traditional hijab, which only covers the hair, spreading fear among government officials that some Egyptians are embracing hardline Islamic values.

The controversy surrounding the niqab boiled over in October when Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, Egypt’s top cleric and head of the Islamic Al-Azhar University, walked into a high school classroom in Cairo and told a female student to remove her veil. Soon after, Tantawi banned niqabs in classrooms and dorms at his campus, on the grounds that it “has nothing to do with Islam” and that it was unnecessary since the university is gender-segregated.

Egypt’s state-run media have backed Tantawi’s ban by encouraging females to show their faces, citing the “damaging” effects of the niqab on society, while the ministry of religious endowments has gone so far as to distribute booklets that suggest the niqab is un-Islamic. But despite the government campaign, analysts say increasing numbers of women have taken to wearing the niqab, which was almost never seen in Egypt just a decade ago.

Some women are wearing the niqab as a form of rebellion against a government that is widely viewed by the masses to be autocratic, corrupt and uncaring—they feel they should be able to choose their own dress. For others, the decision is based on the belief that wearing the niqab will bring them closer to God, a notion inspired by Salafism, an ultra-conservative school of thought practised in Saudi Arabia that places an emphasis on orthodox Muslim doctrines.
Although most followers of Salafism shun politics, the movement has much in common with the ideology of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, giving the government even more ammunition in its quest to quell the movement.

Saddam is back – on TV, at least

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 1:19 PM - 6 Comments

Saddam TV is on the air. A mysterious television channel dedicated to celebrating former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein made an unexpected debut across the Arabic world last week. The so-called Saddam Channel, launched by al-Lafeta TV, headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, has no actual programming: instead, it presents a flattering montage of still pictures that show Saddam dressed in uniforms, a variety of suits, even straddling a white horse. Accompanying the pictures are recordings of Saddam’s speeches and poetic recitals, and a patriotic song urging viewers to “liberate our country.”

The Saddam channel is shrouded in mystery—nobody knows who is bankrolling it, or from where exactly it is being broadcast. The Associated Press tracked down a man in Damascus named Mohammed Jarboua, who claims to be running the channel, but he balked at divulging too many details due to “threats that the Iraqi government will shut it down [and] kill its employees.” He also denied reports that the channel is being funded by Baathist loyalists, former members of the outlawed Sunni-dominated political party Saddam once led.

Other versions of the station’s origins have also surfaced. The man who headed Saddam’s defence team at the start of his trial in 2004, Jordanian Baathist Ziad Khassawneh, claims it is supported by wealthy Iraqis in Lebanon, Syria, and other parts of the Arabic world, although he declined to mention who they are. The launch of the Saddam Channel on Nov. 28 coincided with the third anniversary of Saddam’s execution, according to the Islamic calendar. Officials in Iraq have labelled the channel “an attempt from the dissolved Baath party to return to Iraq’s politics,” but are undecided about shutting it down.

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Cubans are unhappier than ever

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 2:00 PM - 13 Comments

When Raúl Castro replaced his ailing older brother Fidel as president of Cuba in February 2008, Cubans looked forward to an era of greater freedoms. They would be able to rent cars, use cellphones, buy consumer electronics and even have a sex change if they pleased. Or so they thought.

A series of new reports paints an ominous picture of the island nation 144 km off the southern tip of Florida. One, from Human Rights Watch, says Raúl’s government is using “draconian laws and sham trials to incarcerate scores who have dared to exercise their fundamental freedoms,” and notes that people are being punished before they even commit a crime. With details obtained by the New York-based group in a clandestine mission this past summer, the report highlights some 40 cases in which individuals were jailed for the fuzzy offence of “dangerousness.” Their crimes include staging rallies, writing articles that are critical of the government, and attempting to establish independent unions. Those unfortunate enough to be rounded up are serving time in “overcrowded, unhygienic and unhealthy” prisons where malnutrition and illness are rampant.

Even for non-“dangerous” Cubans, life isn’t much better. A survey released by the International Republican Institute found that four out of five Cubans are unhappy with the overall direction of the country. “Cubans are as frustrated and pessimistic as they’ve ever been,” noted Alex Sutton, the institute’s Latin American programs director. Of the 432 Cuban adults interviewed for the survey, 75 per cent said they would vote for democracy and 20 per cent suggested the political system should be changed altogether.

And Cubans don’t expect things to improve: just 15 per cent believe Raúl’s regime will solve Cuba’s biggest problems—low salaries, high cost of living and food shortages—in the next few years.

Long-legged, and looking for friends

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 9:40 AM - 2 Comments

Just a decade ago, the giraffes of West Africa, famous for their large orange-brown spots and skinny white legs, were on the verge of extinction. From Senegal to Chad, the breed had been over-hunted, and displaced by human populations and advancing deserts during the last century. In 1996 it was estimated that a mere 50 still roamed the continent.

Yet despite predictions that they could vanish for good, the giraffes have made a remarkable comeback: in just 13 years, it is estimated that the population has quadrupled in size. Credit for the turnaround is being attributed to government intervention, conservationists and locals, who are working together to protect the towering creatures while also striving to live harmoniously with them.

Once, the giraffes were hunted and poached for their skin, meat and even hair, but now many countries prohibit such practices and are handing out severe punishments to anyone who breaks the law. Killing a giraffe in Niger, for example, can result in a five-year prison sentence, with fines of more than 100 times the yearly income of a farmer. That represents a dramatic shift in mentality, considering that in 2004 the country’s president, Mamadou Tandja, requested that a pair of giraffes be captured and given to Togo’s long-standing dictator, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, as a gift. Giraffe meat, a delicacy cooked on giant skewers, has also been taken off the menu in restaurants that are frequented by tourists to reduce the potential of poachers trying to turn a profit.

Those who live near giraffes are also being convinced that it’s worth their while to help out. The Association to Safeguard the Giraffes of Niger is handing out loans to villagers living around the western town of Koure, who allow guides to bring visitors through the area to look at the animals. The revenue from the tours also goes toward building wells and planting trees so the giraffes can continue to prosper. In the wild, giraffes have no natural predators. With the human predators neutralized, there is reason to believe the population could swell to even greater numbers.

The tragedy of forced marriage

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 4:40 PM - 9 Comments

Although Afghan women have attained greater freedoms since Western soldiers first arrived in their country in 2001, one imprint of the restrictions placed on women under Taliban rule remains: forced marriages. Now brides who find themselves in these hellish arrangements are resorting to a disturbing method of escape—they’re burning themselves to death. Earlier this month, it was reported that the Herat Regional Hospital burns unit in western Afghanistan had handled 51 cases of female self-immolation between January and July of this year. Of those cases, 38 patients succumbed to their wounds.

The doctor in charge of the burns unit, Mohamed Aref Jalali, said that the practice comes from Iran, which has one of the highest rates of self-immolation in the world, especially among Kurds living in rural areas along the border. Many Afghan refugees adopted the custom when they fled there during the decade-long war with the Soviet Union that ended in 1989, and continued it when they returned home in the 1990s. The popularity of burning oneself to death has since grown among poor, uneducated Afghan women who live in areas where young girls are traditionally forced into marriage.  Continue…

Vancouver 2010: Maclean's predicts the winners

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 9:10 PM - 48 Comments

Experts are predicting a huge medal haul for Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Games, and the pressure is on our athletes to make the host country look good. Although the Canadian team won’t be finalized until a few weeks before the competition begins, here is a glimpse at 50 athletes we think have podium potential.

Check after the break for the full listing.
Continue…

NHL Trade Deadline: Predictions from the experts

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Monday, February 23, 2009 at 1:58 PM - 19 Comments

With only nine days left before the NHL Trade Deadline, Hockeycentral analysts Nick Kypreos, Doug MacLean and Mike Brophy from Rogers Sportsnet look at a few of the players rumoured to be on the move, and what they are worth. Continue…

Manny being a spoiled brat

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 2:11 PM - 11 Comments

It’s no secret that Manny Ramirez thinks and acts on a different wavelength than the average professional athlete. In a game last July at Fenway Park against the Twins, he climbed into the Green Monster and was seen chatting on his cellphone during a pitching change. A few months later he held up a handwritten sign in a game against the Angels that read: “I’m going to Green Bay for Brett Favre straight up.”

Such odd behaviour is somewhat endearing, if not good for the game. But after turning down a $25 million, one-year offer from the Dodgers yesterday—which would have made him the second-highest paid player in MLB behind Alex Rodriguez—Manny is coming off as a little bit of a spoiled brat. Perhaps nobody told him that at age 36 he’s not exactly a spring chicken anymore, and that turning down such an offer at a time when millions of people around the world are losing there jobs is, well, a little selfish.

But in this situation, Manny’s greed is only half the problem. The other half is his agent, Scott Boras. Boras has played an integral role in the past decade of increasing salaries to the point of absurdity. Using tough, if not downright intimidating, negotiation tactics he’s secured mammoth deals, like Alex Rodriguez’s $250 million, 10- year  contract with the Texas Rangers in 2000, Barry Zito’s seven-year, $126-million deal with the San Fransisco Giants in 2006, and of course just a few months ago made CC Sabathia $160 million richer.

Such deals no doubt garner a tremendous amount of attention for MLB, but in doing so they’ve created a level of disparity in the game that has made it virtually impossible for more than half of the teams in the league to compete. I know that critics will point to Tampa’s amazing run last year as an example of a low-budget team making it big, but such a breakthrough came from collecting a slew of excellent draft picks through years of squalor and combining it with sound baseball development and a lot of luck. And when those players go looking for a raise in a couple of years after their current contracts expire, thanks to Boras the only way the Rays will be able to keep them is if they go door-to-door around the Sunshine State asking seniors for donations. Maybe they’ll find Manny’s house and he’ll give them a few bucks, or he just might shrug as he’s doing above and continue chatting on his cellphone.

The future is bright for Toronto FC

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Friday, January 16, 2009 at 2:03 PM - 1 Comment

Although the first two years of the Toronto FC experiment were a huge success at the turnstile, not even the most rabid, scarf-waving fan could honestly claim that the team was slightly better than brutal. Finishing dead last in the Eastern Division both years—along with setting an MLS record for futility by going 824 minutes (more than nine matches!) without scoring a goal—solidified Toronto’s place as the doormat of the MLS.

But times are changing, and there is reason to believe that the next chapter in Toronto FC’s existence will be better than the last. In December, the team added Canadian international Dwayne De Rosario, an all-star attacking midfielder and four-time MLS Cup winner who has registered 51 goals and 42 assists during his eight-year career. Such an injection of skill and experience can only help a lackluster offense that scored a paltry 34 goals in 30 games last season. Throw in the fact that De Rosario, 30, is a local boy with leadership qualities and it was clearly the best move in the team’s short history.

And Toronto’s future is also looking considerably brighter after last night’s SuperDraft in St. Louis. Toronto GM “Trader Mo” Johnston resisted trading away any of his three first-round picks and brought home a bounty of prospects, including Toronto-born striker O’Brian White, 23, a University of Connecticut product who captured the Hermann Trophy in 2007 as the best U.S. college soccer player. Add in that youngsters like Marvell Wynne, Chad Barrett and Abdus Ibrahim have shown some flare and talent and it appears that Toronto FC is on the right path to future success, or at least making the playoffs.

A goodbye letter to Mats

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 6:20 PM - 10 Comments

Dear Mats Johan Sundin,

You must be pretty torn up right now about your decision to leave our Leaf Nation family and begin a new relationship with the mountains of British Columbia. I’ll be the first to admit that things fell apart between us in the end: three seasons without a whiff of post-season play, constant family issues that saw several members exiled and publicly scolded, and of course that fruitless pursuit of trying to find someone half decent to play on your wing. The writing was on the wall when you left last spring, then confirmed soon after when you put your house up for sale, again, and disappeared to your fishing boat in Sweden.

Yet I can’t help but feel that you were somewhat dishonest with us, that in some dark corner of your soul during last year’s trade deadline–when you refused to date another to help us through a tough, self-imposed jam in order to provide our family with some draft picks and prospects that we’d squander anyway–you were just playing with our emotions. What I really mean, oh God I’m trembling as I write this, is that I think you lied to us and took advantage of Cliff’s generosity, all the while knowing that you had no interest in returning. You always said that your heart was here, that you loved us and were a Maple Leaf through and through. Apparently that was just a crafty little guise that you brewed up to keep us happy. And to rub it in, last weekend I had to watch you smiling and really laughing it up in the New York Rangers press box during HNIC. I was so mad I threw your bobblehead doll across the room harder than that angry journalist threw his shoe at George Bush.

But I don’t want an apology. You can stick those in a sack. I was stupid enough to have thought that we might be able to pick up the broken pieces of our relationship and that you would come home and lead us back to the promise land, even if our chances of making the playoffs in the near future are as slim as Sean Avery shutting his trap. But I must warn you that somewhere down the line, not too far from now, you will regret what you’ve done. It might not happen this year, especially if your sipping out of Lord Stanley’s mug on the deck of your fishing boat, but mark my words it will happen. You see, Leaf fans are an ignorant, vengeful lot who are led by an incompetent organization that has a weird way of sticking it to its heroes. (Just ask Dave Keon, Darryl Sittler, or your fellow countryman Borje Salming, who told you that he deeply regretted not retiring in a Blue and White jersey).

So what can you expect? Well, for starters you might hear a few boos from the cheap seats when you come to town in February as a member of the Canucks. That shouldn’t hurt much. What will hurt is when the organization decides to retire your number…in 2031…and your invitations to the hall of fame games get lost in the mail. You see, we’ll still love you and call you our own. We just won’t be in any rush to honour your achievements and build statues of you around town.

Longingly yours,

Cameron

New leader too hawkish for South Korea

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Monday, December 1, 2008 at 9:00 AM - 2 Comments

To increase his chances of winning South Korea’s presidential election last year, Lee Myung-bak pledged to revitalize the economy, implement tougher policies toward North Korea and strengthen ties with the United States. At the time it appeared that the conservative Myung-bak had captured the mood of the country, as he won the election in a landslide. But since taking office in February, President Myung-bak’s administration has promoted some rather hawkish ideas that are raising the ire of many South Koreans.

First came plans to force Internet users in one of the world’s most wired nations to adhere to stricter libel and slander laws. The proposal, still in the implementation stage, aims to curb negative commentary and fear-mongering, but it is being widely viewed as an infringement on freedom of speech. Now Myung-bak’s right-wing government is causing an uproar over a popular high-school textbook’s version of how American and Soviet forces seized control of Korea from Japanese colonialists after the Second World War. Nobody is taking issue with the fact that Soviet forces swept into Korea and installed a Communist-friendly regime in the north while American military forces controlled the south. What does infuriate conservatives is that the textbook proclaims that after Japan’s occupation, Korea became a divided peninsula ruled by foreign powers instead of two self-determining states. “It was not our national flag that was hoisted to replace the Japanese flag,” reads the textbook. “The flag that flew in its place was the American Stars and Stripes. Our liberation through the Allied forces’ victory prevented us from building a new country according to our own wishes.”

Conservatives believe such a declaration hurts national pride and have asked the authors to delete or change 55 sections in the textbook that “undermine the legitimacy of the South Korean government.” The authors are refusing to comply, arguing that the government is trying to “beautify” the country’s much-disputed past.

Like father, like brother, like son

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 4:21 PM - 7 Comments

Most parents teach their children to pursue peaceful resolutions when they find themselves in a heated argument. Patrick Roy’s philosophy is a little different. He apparently taught his sons that if anybody pisses you off, kick the hell out of them. His eldest son, Jonathan Roy, was suspended last year for seven games after attacking an opposing goalie in a QMJHL game. (To see Jonathan’s attack, check below). He also used the occasional to flip the bird to those who apparently disapproved of his actions. Now his other son, Frederick, has been suspended 15 games for a vicious high-sticking incident during another Quebec major junior hockey game. (To see the unbelievable cheap shot, check below). I wonder where they learned how to fight? (For fighting lessons from papa, check below).

Frederick Roy (Nov. 21, 2008)

Jonathan Roy (March 21, 2008)

Patrick Roy (April 1, 1998)

Were Kosovo patients slain for organs?

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Monday, November 24, 2008 at 9:00 AM - 13 Comments

Shortly after the Kosovo War ended in June 1999, harrowing reports began to surface about atrocities committed by both the ethnic-Albanian-led Kosovo Liberation Army and Yugoslav-Serbian forces. Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s trial later confirmed that crimes against humanity took place during the conflict, while reports of revenge attacks carried out by ethnic Albanian rebels against the Serb minority in Kosovo, then an autonomous part of what was left of Yugoslavia, highlighted the level of brutality that unfolded in the war’s aftermath. Now comes another sordid accusation to open up an old wound between the bitter rivals.

Last week, Serbian prosecutors announced that a number of mental patients who disappeared after the Kosovo War may have been victims of an organ-trafficking network set up in neighbouring Albania. Bruno Vekaric, Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor, told the Associated Press that the mysterious disappearance of 40 people in 2001 from a mental hospital in the southern Kosovo town of Stimlje may have been linked to the alleged organ-trafficking ring. Vekaric added that Serbian authorities have “reliable evidence [that] fits the picture that something gruesome was going on in Albania.”

To back up their claim, Serbian authorities are also pointing to a report released earlier this year entitled “The Hunt: War Criminals and Me.” In the report, former chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte wrote that more than 300 people who were kidnapped and transported to Albania have never been seen since, and that reports suggest they were victims of an organ harvesting operation. She stopped short, however, of identifying the source of those reports. The government of now-independent Kosovo refutes the claim, calling it “mere speculation from Belgrade.”

What a brutal way for Annika to finish her career

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Friday, November 21, 2008 at 5:12 PM - 3 Comments

You gotta feel bad for Annika Sorenstam. The 10-time major winner, and arguably the best female golfer ever, failed to make the cut in her last professional tournament after posting a three-over in the second round of the ADT Championship in West Palm Beach, Fla., which left her two shots off the cut. Yet something tells me that Annika–who won a staggering 72 LPGA tournaments during her career and is the only female golfer in history to shoot a 59 in a single round–will be back for more. I mean let’s be honest, for her to miss the cut in the last tournament that she enters is sort of like Lance Armstrong falling off his bike on the final stretch off his last Tour de France race, or Roger Federer losing 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 in the first round of his last appearance at Wimbledon. She’s too good, and too damn competitive to go out like this. I hope that you come back Annika for one more go around and leave as the champion that you are, or at least a former champion who can still make the cut.

Which NHL club will land Brian Burke?

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 3:45 PM - 7 Comments

Well, well, well, it didn’t take long for all the hockey pundits to start brewing up theories about Brian Burke’s future in the NHL after he was released by the Anaheim Ducks yesterday afternoon. From what I hear an emergency meeting was arranged between Steve Simmons, Al Strachan and Darren Dreger–founders of the Truth, Rumour and My Dog Told Me Club–where they sat down at an unassuming Swiss Chalet on the fringe of Toronto and discussed how the media will spin the story. Apparently Strachan put gravy on his fries and ordered a second Rootbeer, which Dreger interpreted as a clear indication that Burke is bound for Boston. But all joking aside, Anaheim’s decision to release Burke because he wouldn’t sign a long-term extension with the club is a giant smoke signal that something is up. He is too smart to shy away from a rosy position in Anaheim without something waiting in the wings. So where is he going to end up? Well, we’ll let you the reader decide instead of feeding you rumours on this one.

Rangers reportedly want draft pick following death of Alexei Cherepanov

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Friday, November 7, 2008 at 11:36 AM - 8 Comments

According to the New York Post, the New York Rangers are seeking a compensatory pick in the 2009 NHL entry draft following the tragic death of Alexei Cherepanov last month. The team’s GM, Glen Sather, reportedly raised the issue during the general managers’ meeting in Chicago last month. To back up his demand, Sather cited CBA Article 8.3 (b) that stipulates that a compensatory pick be awarded to a team unable to sign a first-round draft pick. The paper added that Sather is in the process of submitting a request to receive the 17th selection in the second round of next year’s draft.

No doubt this type of move, if it’s true, will raise the ire of many hockey pundits and fans. On the one hand it appears that Sather is merely trying to better his team’s chances of winning down the road, and he seems within his rights to raise the issue given that the Rangers lost a top-end prospect who could have become a star in the NHL down the road. Yet on the other hand, it is hard not to view the move as a classless gesture from a storied organization. Let’s hope the story is a rumour and let the young man rest in peace.

Will A. J. stay with the Jays? Better open the vault to keep him.

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Friday, October 31, 2008 at 4:51 PM - 6 Comments

According to his agent, A. J. Burnett will decide on Monday as to whether or not he will opt out on the two years and US$24 million remaining on his contract. The the big question though isn’t if A. J. will opt out but if the Jays can afford him when he does. It appears on the surface that there is a chance that he might actually want to stay in Toronto. His agent has kept an open dialogue with Jays’ management in recent weeks, and his friendship with ace Roy Halladay appears strong enough that it could play to Toronto’s advantage. Of course his relationship with the fans and media has been tepid at best during his first three seasons, but any hard feelings will most certainly be trumped by dollar signs. And just how much would it take to keep the hard-throwing right-hander in a Jays uniform? Well, put it this way, Barry Zito posted a 10-17 win-loss record last season with a whopping 5.15 ERA and pocketed a cool US$14.5 million. A. J. in comparison was almost unhittable in the second half of the season and won 18 games while striking out an American League-high 231 batters. My guess is that he will be looking for a salary somewhere in the neighbourhood of $16 million per season over a five-year term. Is he worth that much? Maybe not. Do the Jays need him? You bet.

John Daly found drunk, really drunk, outside Hooters

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 10:32 AM - 4 Comments

Poor John Daly. Once again he just can’t resist getting totally loaded and making a scene. This story is just embarrassing.

WINSTON-SALEM N.C. — Golfer John Daly was taken into custody Sunday morning by Winston-Salem police after he was found drunk outside an area Hooters restaurant. Continue…