Ali's Legendary Trainer Angelo Dundee Dies at 90

n this Jan. 14, 2012, file photo, Muhammad Ali, right, celebrates his 70th birthday next to his longtime trainer Angelo Dundee at a fund raiser for the Muhammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, Ky. (The Muhammad Ali Center/AP Photo)

Celebrated boxing trainer Angelo Dundee, Muhammad Ali's cornerman in his greatest fights, has died at the age of 90.

"Angelo died surrounded by family and friends," his family said in a statement. "He was very happy that he got to celebrate Ali's (70th) birthday earlier this year and also that he got to go to the Hall of Fame.

The genial trainer got to see his old friend, and reminisce about good times. It was almost as if they were together in their prime again, and what a time that was.

Dundee died in his apartment in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday night at the age of 90, and with him a part of boxing died, too.

He was surrounded by his family, said his son, Jimmy, who said the visit with Ali in Louisville, Ky., meant everything to his Dad.

"It was the way he wanted to go," the son said. "He did everything he wanted to do."

Jimmy Dundee said his father was hospitalized for a blood clot last week and was briefly in a rehabilitation facility before returning to his apartment.

"He was coming along good yesterday and then he started to have breathing problems. My wife was with him at the time, thank God, and called and said he can't breathe. We all got over there. All the grandkids were there. He didn't want to go slowly," the son said.

Dundee was the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Ali in his greatest fights, willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, and coached hundreds of young men in the art of a left jab and an overhand right.

More than that, he was a figure of integrity in a sport that often lacked it.

"To me, he was the greatest ambassador for boxing, the greatest goodwill ambassador in a sport where there's so much animosity and enemies," said Bruce Trampler, the longtime matchmaker who first went to work for Dundee in 1971. "The guy didn't have an enemy in the world."

How could he, when his favorite line was, "It doesn't cost anything more to be nice."

Dundee was best known for being in Ali's corner for almost his entire career, urging him on in his first fight against Sonny Liston through the legendary fights with Joe Frazier and beyond. He was a cornerman, but he was much more, serving as a motivator for fighters not so great and for The Greatest.

Promoter Bob Arum said he had been planning to bring Dundee to Las Vegas for a Feb. 18 charity gala headlined by Ali.

"He was wonderful. He was the whole package," Arum said. "Angelo was the greatest motivator of all time. No matter how bad things were, Angelo always put a positive spin on them. That's what Ali loved so much about him."

Arum credited Dundee with persuading Ali to continue in his third fight against Joe Frazier when Frazier was coming on strong in the "Thrilla in Manilla." Without Dundee, Arum said, Ali may not have had the strength to come back and stop Frazier after the 14th round in what became an iconic fight.

Dundee also worked the corner for Leonard, famously shouting, "You're blowing it, son. You're blowing it" when Leonard fell behind in his 1981 fight with Tommy Hearns — a fight he would rally to win by knockout.

A master motivator and clever corner man, Dundee was regarded as one of the sport's great ambassadors. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992 after a career that spanned six decades, training 15 world champions, including Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio and Jose Napoles.

"He had a ball. He lived his life and had a great time," Jimmy Dundee said. "He was still working with an amateur kid, a possible Olympic kid, down here. When he walked into a boxing room he still had the brain for it."

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Israel could launch military strike on Iran 'within nine months

Israel could launch an air strike against Iran within nine months in a bid to slow Tehran's progress towards building a nuclear weapon, according to a former senior White House aide.

Dennis Ross, a veteran diplomat on the Middle East, said Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not necessarily feel restrained by objections from President Barack Obama, despite his country's historically close ties with Washington.

His remarks came as Israel's chief of military intelligence, Gen Aviv Kochavi, said Israel was convinced Iran had enough radioactive material to produce four nuclear bombs.

"Iran is very actively pursuing its efforts to develop its nuclear capacities, and we have evidence that they are seeking nuclear weapons," he said.

With anxiety about an Israeli attack spreading, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said: "I worry that there will be a military conflict and that certain countries might seek to take matters into their own hands."

Britain, he said, had been attempting to demonstrate "that there are very tough things we can do which are not military steps in order to place pressure on Iran".

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Taliban will retake Afghanistan: US

LONDON: The Taliban are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country.

That’s according to a leaked US report, which also accuses Pakistan of assisting the Taliban in attacking NATO forces.

The Times of London newspaper said the document’s findings were based on interrogations of more than 4-thousand Taliban and al Qaeda detainees. Pakistan denies the charge, describing the report as "frivolous" and going against the country’s policy of "non-interference".

The leaked report comes as the US and Afghan governments are trying to enter peace talks with the Taliban. Despite the presence of about 100-thousand foreign troops, the UN says violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban was ousted in 2001.

Large parts of Afghanistan have recently been handed back to the Afghan security forces, with the last foreign troops due to leave by the end of 2014.

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UAE, Qatar stop trade finance to Iran over sanctions

 The central banks of UAE and Qatar have told lenders to stop financing trade withIran, bankers said on Thursday, cutting another source of credit for a country struggling under Western economic sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme.

The Gulf has a long history of trade with Iran, especially in Dubai where there is a large Iranian trading community, and Gulf banks had been expected to fill a funding gap for the import of grains left by European lenders banned from financing trade by EU sanctions.

"Banks in Dubai were asked by the UAE central bank to stop issuing letters of credit to finance trade with Iran. Before the sanctions, the central bank regularly checked on trading with Iran and wanted to know of all dealings between the two countries," said a Dubai-based banker active in trade financing.

"Banks can't do this anymore."

About 8,000 Iranian traders are registered in Dubai, and re-export trade between Iran and the UAE totalled 19.5 billion dirhams ($5.32 billion) in the first half of 2011, according to the latest figures from United Arab Emirates' customs authority.

Qatar's central bank also recently told banks to stop providing credit for Iranian trade, according to a senior Doha-based banker.

Iran is struggling under the weight of sanctions. Its currency, the rial, has depreciated, there has been a run on its banks and inflation is rising, U.S. intelligence chiefs have said.

The United States imposed the harshest sanctions so far on Iran, banning transactions involving Iran's central bank, and the European Union has banned the import, purchase or transport of Iranian oil, cutting off its main foreign currency earner.

The 27-member bloc also agreed in January to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank to try to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at producing an atomic weapon.

Iran denies the charge.

The sanctions, which Western powers say are aimed only at the Iranian administration, may be having unexpected consequences.

SHIPMENTS STOP

Iran is heavily dependent on grain imports for animal feed, but some 10 ships have been unable to deliver grain to Iran for more than three weeks after banks refused to process payments, or offer loans to, Iranian buyers.

On Thursday, up to five of those vessels may have been diverted to new destinations, ship tracking data showed.

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The United Arab Emirates' central bank ordered financial institutions two years ago to freeze Iran-linked accounts belonging to firms targeted by United Nations sanctions.

In Bahrain, which has traditionally had more limited trade ties with Iran, there have been no guidelines.

"Business with Iranians flourished in the past but Bahrain was never a trading hub like Dubai," one senior banker said. "Financing export of goods through the ports wasn't really a prime line of business."

Iranian trade with Dubai has flowed for decades, plied by wooden dhows carrying household goods and basic commodities such as grain, rice and sugar.

"Historically, grain came to Dubai from South America, mainly Argentina, the USA and EU, mainly France and then re-exported from Dubai to Iran," said the Dubai-based banker.

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Taliban deny talks with Afghan govt

The Taliban have scotched reports they have planned direct peace talks with the Afghan government.
Rumours have swirled for days that President Hamid Karzai's government was seeking direct talks, to be held in Saudi Arabia, in an effort to take charge of the peace effort that has so far been dominated by American efforts and talks with Taliban representatives.
A statement on Wednesday from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected those reports as 'baseless.'
He also noted that exploratory talks between the insurgency and the US-led international military coalition in Afghanistan have not yet reached the stage for negotiations.
'Before the negotiation phase, there should be trust-building between the sides, which has not started yet,' Mujahid said.
The Taliban have so far expressed willingness only to talk with the US, calling the Afghan government a puppet regime. Washington insists it is only setting the stage, and any eventual talks must involve Karzai's government.
US intelligence officials acknowledged on Tuesday that the United States may release several Afghan Taliban prisoners from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an incentive to bring the Taliban to peace talks.
Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper told Congress on Tuesday that no decision had been made whether to trade the five Taliban prisoners, now held at Guantanamo Bay, as part of the nascent peace talks with the Taliban. He and CIA Director David Petraeus did not dispute that the Obama administration was considering transferring the five to a third country.
Who will lead any future peace negotiations has become a major concern. Karzai has reportedly felt sidelined by the US effort.
Afghanistan's own moves toward talks with the Taliban stalled after an ex-president heading the High Peace Council spearheading the effort was assassinated by a bomber claiming to have a message from the insurgents.
That killing damaged relations between Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan after Kabul blamed insurgents based over the Pakistani border for the killing.
Pakistan's foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, visited Kabul on Wednesday to mend relations and insisted her country has no hidden agenda in Afghanistan. Khar said Pakistan will back a peace process with the Taliban as long as it's driven by Afghans and not other figures on the international stage.
'Pakistan wants peace and stability in Afghanistan, and contrary to the hypotheses that do the rounds the world over, Pakistan prefers and considers it vital to have a stable Afghanistan,' she said.
'Our only prerequisite to be supportive of an initiative is that it should be Afghan-led, it should be Afghan-owned, it should be Afghan-driven and Afghan-backed.'
Khar's visit coincided with the leak of a classified NATO report saying that Taliban and its allied insurgents get support from Pakistan.
The US-led military coalition in Afghanistan said on Wednesday that an Afghan soldier shot and killed a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan in what the coalition described as an attack and an Afghan commander called an accident.
It was the sixth report since December 26 of an Afghan soldier turning his weapon on the international troops working to train the Afghan security forces. The string of attacks has raised concerns about relations between Afghan troops and their foreign allies.
The rising number of attacks by supposed friendly Afghan forces has prompted speculation that Taliban insurgents or sympathisers may be infiltrating national army and police as they rapidly expand to meet the 2014 target for Afghan forces to take over security and most international troops to leave.
There have been at least 35 attacks on international troops since 2007 by Afghan soldiers, police or insurgents wearing their uniforms, according to a tally by The Associated Press. The number rose sharply last year to 17, up from six in 2010.
Tuesday's killing brought to 34 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year.

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Pakistan ready to complete whitewash against England

Courtesy: The News Tribe

Dubai: England will try it best to avoid a whitewash at the hand of Pakistan in the three-match test series, as it is facing the host in the final test in Dubai on Friday.

Pakistan leading the series with an unassailable merging of 2-0 and ready to complete 3-0.

England would replace out of form Morgan with Ravi Bopara while Pakistan would replace Junaid Khan with Wahab Riaz.

There are reports that the pitch of Dubai stadium will help spinners.

Under Andrew Strauss England had won only against Bangladesh in the Sub-Continent.

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