LONDON (AP) -- Tour de France champion Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race, his Phonak team said Thursday on its Web site. The statement came a day after the UCI, cycling's world governing body, said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test during the Tour.
And the statement came just four days after Landis stood on the victory podium on the Champs-Elysees, succeeding seven-time winner Lance Armstrong as an American winner in Paris.
The Swiss-based Phonak team said it was notified by the UCI on Wednesday that Landis' sample showed "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone" when he was tested after stage 17 of the race last Thursday.
Landis made a remarkable comeback in that Alpine stage, racing far ahead of the field for a solo win that moved him from 11th to third in the overall standings. He regained the leader's yellow jersey two days later. Landis rode the Tour with a degenerative hip condition that he has said will require surgery in the coming weeks or months.
Arlene Landis, his mother, said Thursday that she wouldn't blame her son if he was taking medication to treat the pain in his injured hip, but "if it's something worse than that, then he doesn't deserve to win." "I didn't talk to him since that hit the fan, but I'm keeping things even keel until I know what the facts are," she said in a phone interview from her home in Farmersville, Pa. "I know that this is a temptation to every rider but I'm not going to jump to conclusions ... It disappoints me."
Phonak said Landis would ask for an analysis of his backup "B" sample "to prove either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake." "The team management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result," the Phonak statement said.
Landis has been suspended by his team pending the results. If the second sample confirms the initial finding, he will be fired from the team, Phonak said.
Landis wrapped up his Tour de France win on Sunday, keeping the title in U.S. hands for the eighth straight year. Armstrong, long dogged by doping whispers and allegations, won the previous seven. Armstrong never has tested positive for drugs and vehemently has denied doping.
Speculation that Landis had tested positive spread earlier Thursday after he failed to show up for a one-day race in Denmark on Thursday. A day earlier, he missed a scheduled event in the Netherlands.
On the eve of the Tour's start, nine riders - including pre-race favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso - were ousted, implicated in a Spanish doping investigation. The names of Ullrich and Basso turned up on a list of 56 cyclists who allegedly had contact with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, who's at the center of the Spanish doping probe.
#1
You're kidding. I'm amazed, doesn't sound in character with what I know of Floyd Landis.
He certainly was pumped up for that stage! Given that his nuts were in a vice, do or die, I'm not surprised there was a high level of hormone in his system! He was an angry man even at the finish, from what I could see. So, under natural conditions, what happens to the testosterone level in, say, a warrior in the heat of battle?
Wrap up on OLN Sunday. 7 PM, I believe. Could be interesting.
#2
John Lelangue, the head of the Phonak team, said in a telephone interview that the squad had been notified of the test result. He denied that Landis had failed a doping test.
Patrick Schamasch, the International Olympic Committee's medical director, said in a separate telephone interview that the high testosterone level ``could potentially lead to an anti- doping violation.''
News media, including Reuters, said Landis had failed a doping test.Bloomberg
#3
Officials from the Tour de Phrance also announced that Floyd Landis was also found to have banned substances on his body in the form of soap residue, de-odorant, shampoo, toothpaste and mouthwash.
#4
I hope there's a valid explanation for this. This is not the way to continue Armstrong's legacy and is an embarassment to all American athletes on the international stage if proven to be a true positive.
Posted by: Dar ||
07/27/2006 12:50 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Five Astaná riders who were forced out of the 2006 Tour de France because of alleged links to a blood doping investigation have been formally cleared by Spanish courts.
Joseba Beloki, Isidro Nozal, Sergio Paulinho, Allan Davis and Alberto Contador have all received a written document officially clearing them of any links to the ongoing "Operación Puerto," the Spanish newspaper El Diario Vasco reported Wednesday.
The five riders received a legal document signed by Manuel Sánchez Martín, secretary for the Spanish court heading up the "Operación Puerto" investigation, stating, "there are not any type of charges against them nor have there been adopted any type of legal action against them."
The five were among nine riders from four teams who were forced out of the 2006 Tour because of alleged links to controversial Spanish doctor, Eufemiano Fuentes.
Other riders forced out were pre-race favorites Jan Ullrich and Oscar Sevilla (T-Mobile), Ivan Basso (CSC) and Francisco Mancebo (Ag2r). Comunidad Valenciana lost its wild-card bid after one of its assistant sport directors was among five people detained in May.
oops. Guess Team Astana (including Vinokurov) should not have been banned from the Tour. Oh well, sorry guys, try again next year.
According to El Diario Vasco, the riders can now make legal claims in Spanish courts against damages caused to them or their team.
The news circulated among the peloton before the Clásica de Ordizia in Spain on Tuesday. Astaná riders were not participating in the one-day race because of complaints from ex-sponsor Würth, which didn't want its name on team jerseys after it pulled out of its sponsorship deal in the wake of the Tour expulsions.
Actually, the teams and officials are showing perhaps an overabundance of caution, which will come back to bite them. But they are definitely coming down hard on offenders, and that's good for the sport.
A few days before the Tour started, Landis and Lim were training in a small town high in the Pyrenees of northern Spain. The training had gone longer than originally planned, and Landis awoke the last morning looking at a stormy forecast and a hellacious travel day. In order to make it to a pre-Tour Phonak team meeting in Tours, France, they were scheduled to drive two hours south to Barcelona, catch a plane for the two-hour flight to Paris, get picked up, then drive an additional two hours to Tours. Not a big deal under most circumstances, but on this morning, Landis didn't want to hopscotch all over Europe like some business traveler. He wanted one last, hard ride.
Lim awoke to the sight of Landis pulling on his biking gear. The trainer was confused. Didn't he have to pack up? Didn't he have a plane to catch?
And so Landis did. He pointed his front wheel north toward France and started pedaling. He rode up and over the Pyrenees and down the mountain roads, into the vineyards of Limoux, following the road signs north. Landis rode for six hours, covering 130 miles, then got off his bike, stripped off his mud-soaked jersey and shorts, and hurled them off a nearby cliff. Donning dry clothes, he climbed in the car to drive the rest of the way with Lim. "You know how I got to the Tour last year?" Landis asked. When Lim shook his head, Landis grinned. "Lance's private jet," he said.
#8
I "tried it" on a Schwinn unitl I was old enuf to buy a 57 Chevy. I pitched newspapers and delivered groceries, pulled a lawnmower, went to baseball practice. Raised a family, paid taxes, and kept a job until retirement. Never pulled on spandex, never will. The concept is brokesprocket in my book. Just my two cents worth.
#10
I became a fan when OLN started carrying the races. I TiVo 'em all. Best virtual tourism ever. Course I'd be hard pressed to do 20 miles on the flat, much less climb.
#11
Can we say that Americans naturally produce more testosterone than the French are used to seeing?
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/27/2006 14:20 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Never pulled on spandex, never will.
And there's no reason to, unless you ride at 35 mph, which is three times as fast as most people can manage. Downhill, they hit 50 mph. These guys train in windtunnels and slippery clothing is essential. Wind resistance goes as velocity squared, so they see nine times the resistance at 36 mph and sixteen times at 48 mph. One of the main team tactics is drafting, which allows the guys in back to rest while the guy in front 'breaks trail'.
Besides, spandex makes a better billboard for professional sponsorship than cotton shorts. Notice how they zip up before they cross the finish so the logos won't be obstructed by folds.
For the rest of us, there's Rivendell, no spandex in sight (mostly wool, the other extreme).
#13
Wasn't Lance Armstrong accused of something similar? Didn't he just win a big lawsuit over the issue of doping or saying he was doped or chemotherapy or something?
MUMBAI: Othello is set for a Bollywood makeover in which William Shakespeare's jealous lover is the leader of a gang of outlaws in modern-day India's political badlands. Bollywood's version of the play, slated for release tomorrow, is the story of a gifted chieftain, Omkara, whose jealousy and blind obsession for his lover tears his secure world apart. Set amidst violent political conflict in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Omkara is director Vishal Bharadwaj's second tryst with Shakespearean drama after the critically-acclaimed Maqbool, loosely based on Macbeth.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Any "wet sari" sequences? It's just not real Bollywood without 'em.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/27/2006 16:48 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Wet sari scenes most sexy in Bollywood : Survey
According to a recent survey, Bollywood's sexiest appeal is in wet sari scenes. The Website polled on various wet sari scenes and 20,000 voted the top eight.
In Bollywood, one way the Directors and Producers have made sexy scenes available is through getting the actress wet while taking a bath or getting soaked in rain without much undergarment. The audience historically went nuts over these scenes. Recent trend shows such a scene required in each movie. And except a few Bombshells, most of the actresses do not mind it. Lisa Ray's wet clothes scenes are sexiest. However the slideshow will show the top eight scenes.
Posted by: john ||
07/27/2006 20:13 Comments ||
Top||
#4
My favorite is the one one the far left huh huh huh. Do you think you could get me a date Fred? I have the entire collection of Picayune times in a shoe box under my bed. Would ya tell her? Would ya huh huh.
Thousands of protesters have clashed with riot police and burned election posters of President Joseph Kabila ahead of a historic poll in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Police fired tear gas at demonstrators who threw molotov cocktails and chunks of masonry. They ripped Kabila's campaign posters from signposts and set fire to banners in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa. The country is tense ahead of Sunday's vote - the first free, multiparty elections for presidential and parliamentary positions for more than 40 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The leftist contesting Mexico's July 2 election on the grounds of vote-rigging declared himself president on Wednesday and said his supporters would step up a campaign of civil disobedience next week. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who lost the vote count to conservative rival Felipe Calderon by a tiny margin, said in a television interview that a rally on Sunday in Mexico City would show his backers have the energy to keep up protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Viva la Gore Calderon
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/27/2006 1:01 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The Mexican army will start busting heads soon I see.
#3
Lopez Obrador begins filming his new anti-global-warming documentary, working title ¡Somos todos que van a morir y es la avería de George Bush!, next week.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/27/2006 7:39 Comments ||
Top||
#11
I suppose Mexico should be grateful that this commie clown is just declaring, protesting, and calling for "civil disobedience" - instead of what the sore loser usually does down there.
Tourist: "What's Mexico's favorite sport?"
Tour guide: "Bullfighting."
Tourist: "Isn't it revolting?"
Tour guide: "No, that's our second favorite sport."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/27/2006 20:59 Comments ||
Top||
A Russian rocket that was to put 18 satellites in orbit crashed shortly after liftoff early Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported.
The Dnepr rocket crashed about 15 miles south of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan but caused no injuries or damage on the ground, Interfax quoted Russian space agency deputy chief Yuri Nosenko as saying.
The rocket was carrying a Russian satellite and 17 from other countries, including the United States and Italy, Russian news agencies reported.
Interfax, citing an unidentified Mission Control official, reported preliminary information indicated a problem occurred when the rocket's third stage detached. RIA-Novosti and ITAR-Tass, also citing unnamed officials, said the engine shut off 86 seconds into the flight.
Russia's space program has recently suffered several embarrassing failures, jeopardizing its hopes of earning more revenue from commercial launches of foreign satellites.
The launch of a rocket carrying a European weather satellite was postponed indefinitely last week because of a problem discovered minutes before liftoff.
#1
That sucks. Russian commercial satellite delivery was looking like a real bright spot for space systems. Maybe we should build the first space elevator in Russia.
(RIA Novosti) - Georgian troops are preparing to storm the hideout of a rebellious militia leader and several dozen supporters, a national TV station said Wednesday. Rustavi-2 said Emzar Kvitsiani and about sixty former members of his Hunter border guard battalion were hiding in a cave in the Kodori Gorge, the de facto border between Georgia and its breakaway Abkhazia province and that security forces would try to fight the men out by storm.
The Hunter battalion was formally disbanded in 2005, but most of its members have not laid down their arms yet. Earlier on Wednesday, local broadcaster Imedi said the former presidential envoy to the mountainous area - the only part of Abkhazia remaining under Tbilisi's control - had been wounded in the stomach while trying to break through a police blockade. It said the breakthrough attempt had been made before the four-hour ultimatum given to Kvitsiani by the Interior Ministry to surrender expired.
According to Rustavi-2, Deputy Prosecutor General Kakha Koberidze told a news conference that criminal proceedings would be launched against Kvitsiani on charges of treason, illegal possession of arms, and establishment of a militia force. Georgian authorities placed the man on a wanted list and issued a warrant for his arrest. The operation against Kvitsiani was launched after he said Sunday he would no longer obey orders from Tbilisi
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Chinese investigators say activist Fu Xiancai, who was paralysed after a severe beating, inflicted the blows himself, according to a rights body. Mr Fu, who campaigned for people displaced by the Three Gorges Dam, was beaten up returning home after he was summoned by police in Hubei province. The June beating was so severe he is not expected to walk again, according to Human Rights in China (HRIC).
But an official investigation has ruled the attack was fabricated. Officials told Mr Fu's son, Fu Bing, that investigators had failed to find anyone else's footprints at the scene of the attack, and had concluded that he must have hit himself.
Right. And all those guys in Bangladesh are really killed in "crossfires"
The blow to the back of his neck was so severe that three of his vertebrae were broken, HRIC said.
Must have thrown himself down several flights of stairs
HRIC said it was strongly concerned about the independence of the investigation, which was carried out by the same public security bureau that had a record of harassing Mr Fu.
Mr Fu has highlighted the plight of people moved to make way for the Three Gorges dam. He had been subject to a series of threats, attacks and harassment in the past year, the group said. China says the dam, which will be the world's largest hydro-electric project, will provide electricity for its booming economy and help control flooding on the Yangtze River. But it comes at the expense of villagers, who in many cases have been resettled on inferior land and been deprived of compensation by corrupt local officials, the rights group said.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/27/2006 08:48 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It's like the old Soviet dissidents who committed suicide by shooting themselves in the head...twice.
#5
Then he shot himself in the back of the head. Twice.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2006 11:01 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Why, didn't that happen to Hillary's close associate. Seems that he was head shot, then managed to levitate several hundred yards just to find a soft, grassy resting spot. Just goes to show, amazing things happen every day.
WARSAW, Poland - Poland's Navy said Thursday that it has identified a sunken shipwreck in the Baltic Sea as almost certainly being Nazi Germany's only aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin a find that promises to shed light on a 59-year-old mystery surrounding the ship's fate.
The Polish oil company Petrobaltic discovered the shipwreck earlier this month on the sea floor about 38 miles north of the northern port city of Gdansk. Suspecting it could be the wreckage of the Graf Zeppelin, the Polish Navy sent out a hydrographic survey vessel on Tuesday, said Lt. Cmdr. Bartosz Zajda, a spokesman for the Polish Navy.
"We are 99 percent sure even 99.9 percent that these details point unambiguously to the Graf Zeppelin," said Dariusz Beczek, the Navy commander of the vessel, the ORP Arctowski, said soon after returning to port Thursday morning after the two-day expedition.
During their time at sea, naval experts used a remote-controlled underwater robot and sonar photographic and video equipment to gather digital images of the 850-foot-long ship, Zajda said. "The analyses of the sonar pictures and the comparison to historical documents show that it is the Graf Zeppelin," Zajda told The Associated Press.
Zajda said a number of characteristics of the shipwreck exactly matched those of the Graf Zeppelin, including the ship's measurements and a special device that lifted aircraft onto the launch deck from a lower deck. I think they called that...ummmmmmm...the elevator. Write that down AP reporter...
The naval experts were still waiting to find the name "Graf Zeppelin" on one the ship's sides before declaring with absolute certainty that it is the German carrier, Zajda said.
The Graf Zeppelin was Germany's only aircraft carrier during World War II. It was launched on Dec. 8, 1938, but never saw action. After Germany's defeat in 1945, the Soviet Union took control of the ship, but it was last seen in 1947 and since then the ship's fate has been shrouded in mystery.
Navy researchers plan to continue to examine the material they gathered during their two days at sea, but the analysis of the shipwreck will then fall to historians and other researchers, Zajda said. The Graf Zeppelin will almost certain remain on the sea bed, he said. "Technically it's impossible to pull it out of the water," Zajda said.
#1
The Graf Zeppelin will almost certain remain on the sea bed, he said.
No shit?????
"Technically it's impossible to pull it out of the water," Zajda said.
Now, I have to ask: did he volunteer this tidbit of information spontaneous, or did some flatheaded, drooling submoron of a "journalist" ask him something like, "Sir, do you have any plans to raise the Graf Zeppelin?"
#4
Graf Zeppelin was a pretty suboptimal design. If the Poles really need a carrier, we can always sell them one of our old conventional-powered jobs, or even dust off the plans for the Kennedy and build 'em a new one.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/27/2006 13:45 Comments ||
Top||
PESHAWAR: The brother of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Ziaur Rehman, has been reappointed to the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees after his first appointment was declared void by the Peshawar High Court.
Rehman was appointed additional commissioner for administration on July 1, officials at the commissionerate said on Wednesday. The officials said that Rehman's reappointment had been opposed by NWFP Chief Secretary Ejaz Qureshi but Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani ignored the chief secretary's objections and ordered the Establishment Department to notify Rehman's appointment. The officials claimed that Rehman had acquired four government vehicles for his use, adding that the additional commissioner's attendance at the office was irregular. The Peshawar High Court had cancelled Rehman's first appointment on an appeal filed by a retired army officer.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm always prepared to be surprised by novel out-of-the-box solutions, but I very much doubt this will produce one, the problem (of getting a vehicle from A to B) is just too well understood.
A powerful earthquake rocked the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Thursday but there was no reports of any casualties and damage while meteorologists played down the risk of tsunami. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered 6.0 on the Richter scale. Indonesian meteorologists put the magnitude at 6.1, centered closed to Nias island off the coast of Sumatra.
There were some reports of panic on Nias, where hundreds of people were killed by another strong quake in March 2005. Senior Indonesian seismologist Fauzi told Jakarta-based Radio Elshinta the earthquake appeared too small to trigger a tsunami, Reuters said. A seismologist in North Sumatra province told Reuters that no damage had been reported from the closest areas to the epicentre.
"It happened near Nias island but we have not received reports of any damage from there. It has been an hour so I think there has been no indication of a coming tsunami," said Buha Simanjuntak. A government official on Nias told Reuters there was no indication of damage or casualties, but people fled homes and buildings after feeling the tremor.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/27/2006 09:49 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Allan is really sending them a message, and they're not gettin' it so far....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/27/2006 16:14 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Like with Afghanistan, their mullahs sez they haven't been holely enough. So before they know it a volcano was blowing through a crater.
Australian-led international forces have detained an East Timorese rebel leader along with 20 others for illegal possession of guns, a spokesman for the forces says. Major Alfredo Reinado, who led a rebel group of sacked soldiers, was arrested by Australian troops, Australian Brigadier Gus Gilmore said on Wednesday. The arrest came the day after a gun amnesty designed to contain recent violence expired.
"Major Reinado, together with a group of 21 other people, was identified as being in possession of weapons without authorisation and was detained," Gilmore said. He said 11 handguns and a "significant amount of ammunition" were confiscated from them. "Major Reinado and those detained with him will now be dealt with by the Timorese authorities," he said. Longuinhos Monteiro, East Timor's prosecutor-general, confirmed the arrest, saying Reinado had "to account for" the guns and ammunition.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Southeast Asian countries have privately sent a "very strong message" to Myanmar's military rulers to accept democratic reforms, the Malaysian foreign minister said Wednesday.
"How strong was it?"
"Very strong."
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters that a statement issued Tuesday by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Myanmar may have appeared weak because it had to reflect "a compromised position in order to be acceptable to all."
Ummm... It didn't seem very strong...
But "we have sent a very strong message during our meeting," Syed Hamid said, referring to the annual meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers that took place Tuesday. Myanmar's Nyan Win also attended.
"It was very strong. It only looked weak and ineffectual."
"Individually when we were having discussions, we sent a very strong signal that unless they change, the pressure is going to continue and this is not good for ASEAN," he said.
What kind of pressure?
"Strong pressure."
Asked if ASEAN has given Myanmar a deadline to restore democracy, Syed Hamid said "we want it as soon as possible." Tuesday's joint statement by ASEAN called on the Myanmar junta to show "tangible progress" on democratic reforms, and urged it to free political detainees - an apparent reference to Nobellaureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That sounds like carrots to me. Where's the stick ?
#2
Dictators like these, to include North Korea and Cuba, are immune to anything other than the utter destruction of their embedded regimes like Saddam's. 'Strong Signal' is UN/International speak for 'we will glare at you'.
#3
The Asean has been arse-seen for too long to be taken at its words. Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar is a mealy mouth spudhead, not particularly impressive or bright.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
MUMBAI: Othello is set for a Bollywood makeover in which William Shakespeare's jealous lover is the leader of a gang of outlaws in modern-day India's political badlands. Bollywood's version of the play, slated for release tomorrow, is the story of a gifted chieftain, Omkara, whose jealousy and blind obsession for his lover tears his secure world apart. Set amidst violent political conflict in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Omkara is director Vishal Bharadwaj's second tryst with Shakespearean drama after the critically-acclaimed Maqbool, loosely based on Macbeth.
Thousands of protesters have clashed with riot police and burned election posters of President Joseph Kabila ahead of a historic poll in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Police fired tear gas at demonstrators who threw molotov cocktails and chunks of masonry. They ripped Kabila's campaign posters from signposts and set fire to banners in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa. The country is tense ahead of Sunday's vote - the first free, multiparty elections for presidential and parliamentary positions for more than 40 years.
The leftist contesting Mexico's July 2 election on the grounds of vote-rigging declared himself president on Wednesday and said his supporters would step up a campaign of civil disobedience next week. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who lost the vote count to conservative rival Felipe Calderon by a tiny margin, said in a television interview that a rally on Sunday in Mexico City would show his backers have the energy to keep up protests.
PESHAWAR: The brother of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Ziaur Rehman, has been reappointed to the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees after his first appointment was declared void by the Peshawar High Court. 
A powerful earthquake rocked the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Thursday but there was no reports of any casualties and damage while meteorologists played down the risk of tsunami. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered 6.0 on the Richter scale. Indonesian meteorologists put the magnitude at 6.1, centered closed to Nias island off the coast of Sumatra.
Southeast Asian countries have privately sent a "very strong message" to Myanmar's military rulers to accept democratic reforms, the Malaysian foreign minister said Wednesday.
