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Jan Ullrich, seen here at the start of the Tour de France in 2005, won the world-famous cycling race in 1997 and remains the only German to have won it. AFP pic.Jan Ullrich, the only German winner of the Tour de France, has for the first time admitted to doping, with the help of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes who ran a large-scale doping network.
"Yes, I had access to treatment from Fuentes," the 1997 winner of the Tour de France told the Focus weekly in its edition to appear on Monday.
"At that time, nearly everyone was using doping substances and I used nothing that the others were not using."
Ullrich, who rose to prominence in cycling when he won gold and silver medals at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, said that he was motivated by the desire to be competing on a level playing field with his main rivals.
"In my view you can only call it cheating on my part when it is clear that I have gained an unfair advantage," he argued.
"That was not the case. All I wanted was everyone to have the same chances of winning."
He also told Focus that he believed that the main factors contributing towards success in cycling were pure talent, effort, team spirit and the will to win and that the damage he had done by doping was mainly to himself,
"It was myself who suffered most because of this episode as concerns my public image and what it meant for my own health," he said.
"Now it is time to bring down the curtain on all of this. I want to look to the future and no longer be dragged back to the past."
Ullrich's doping admission comes months after a similar public pronouncement by his greatest career rival and nemesis Lance Armstrong.
The seven-time Tour de France winner, admitted to doping throughout his career in January and was subsequently stripped of his Tour titles and banned for life.
Ullrich had three second-place finishes behind Armstrong in the Tour de France in 2000, 2001 and 2003 and was also runner-up behind Italian Marco Pantini in 1998, the year after he won the race.
"We are both guilty," said Ullrich, referring to the American. "I am no better than Armstrong, but no worse either.
"The great heroes of old are now people with failings that we've got to come to terms with. I always knew that even Lance Armstrong would not get away with it."
Ullrich was barred from the Tour de France in 2006 amid speculation that he had used illegal substances. He retired from cycling in February, 2007, denying that he had ever cheated.
He was later found guilty of a doping offence by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in February, 2012 and was retroactively banned from August of that year with all results gained since May, 2005 wiped from his slate. - AFP, June 22, 2013.
International football superstar David Beckham has apologised for sparking a stampede at the Shanghai Tongji University.
The famous footballer made his apology on his official China's twitter-like Sina Weibo account on Thursday, saying: "I had an incredible response from everyone at Shanghai Tongji University today.
"Sorry I couldn't get out on the pitch to see the teams. It was impossible to get through the massive crowds. I heard there were a few injuries, hope the fans are okay and I wish them a speedy recovery," he said on the microblog.
Beckham, who was appointed as China's first global soccer ambassador, is scheduled to make a seven-day promotional tour for the Chinese Super League in China.
His arrival on Wednesday had triggered the stampede which resulted in seven people, namely three police officers, two security guards and two students being injured.
It was reported that Beckham was to meet the university's football team when about 1000 fans stormed through a gate and broke through the human barricade formed by police and guards.
Local media quoted Shanghai police as saying an investigation would be conducted.
The stampede led to the cancellation of the interactive event between the university soccer team and Beckham, it said.
It was reported that Beckham will continue his week-long tour with a trip to Hangzhou.- Bernama, June 21, 2013.
A deceased 65-year-old woman has provided scientists with the material for the first super high resolution three-dimensional digital model of the human brain, researchers said Thursday.
The roadmap of the mind was painstakingly created by scientists in Germany and Canada and is 50 times more detailed than the last attempt, containing 100,000 times more data than a typical MRI, they said.
The 3-D map, described in the US journal Science, aims to offer a new perspective for scientists who want to study everything from Alzheimer's to Parkinson's disease and other disorders.
Known as BigBrain, it is "the first ever brain model in 3-D which really presents a realistic human brain with all the cells and all the structures of a human brain," said senior author Karl Zilles, professor at the Julich Aachen Research Alliance in Germany.
It was made from 7,400 sections of a human brain, carefully sliced 20 micrometers thick.
The sections were then mounted on slides, stained to reveal cell structures and digitized with a high resolution scanner.
The result is an anatomical scaffold of the brain's structures and pathways, into which scientists can plug further information about live human conditions for detailed study.
"We've raised the level of insight orders of magnitude beyond what was possible at the turn of the 20th century," said Alan Evans, a professor at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University in Canada.
"This data set will revolutionize our ability to understand internal brain organization."
More information is available at BigBrain.Loris.ca. The project is the first to create such advanced imagery.
Other brain mapping initiatives have been launched by the United States and China. - AFP/Relaxnews, June 22, 2013.
Anna Kendrick (pic) is in talks to play Cinderella in Disney's big screen adaptation of Broadway musical Into the Woods, an individual familiar with the situation told TheWrap in Los Angeles.
If the Pitch Perfect actress' deal comes through then she would be joining Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Chris Pine, Jake Gyllenhaal, James Corden, Emily Blunt, Tracy Ullman and Christine Baranski, all of whom are either in negotiations or set to star in the Disney movie.
Rob Marshall (Chicago) is set to direct the film about the Baker and his wife venturing into the woods to confront the witch responsible for putting a family curse on the childless couple.
Marshall is directing the film from a script by James Lapine, based on his book for the 1986 musical. Stephen Sondheim wrote the Tony-winning original score, and Marshall's longtime collaborator David Krane is working on musical arrangements for the film. John DeLuca is producing the movie, which is expected to start production in the fall.
Kendrick is currently filming another musical adaptation, The Last Five Years, and is also set to star in Zach Braff's next directorial effort, Wish I Was Here. - Reuters, June 22, 2013.
Jon Stewart took his politically engaged American satire to Cairo on Friday, appearing on a show hosted by the man known as "Egypt's Jon Stewart", who has faced investigation for insulting the president and Islam.
Among barbs aimed at Egypt's ruling Islamists and others, Stewart praised host Bassem Youssef for taking risks to poke fun. "If your regime is not strong enough to handle a joke," he said, "then you don't have a regime."
Youssef is a cardiologist whose online comedy clips inspired by Stewart's Daily Show won him wild popularity and a prime-time TV show after the 2011 revolution that ended military rule. He paid tribute to his guest as a personal inspiration as the pair traded gags over Stewart's impressions of a visit to Cairo.
Stewart in turn played down any difficulties his wit created for him in the United States, telling Youssef: "I tell you this, it doesn't get me into the kind of trouble it gets you into. I get in trouble, but nowhere near what happens to you."
With Egypt still in ferment and elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi facing off against liberals who fear he plans to smother personal freedoms, Youssef was released on bail after being questioned in March over alleged insults to Mursi and the channel he appears on was threatened with losing its licence.
Criticising such moves, which have also drawn reproaches for Egypt from the U.S. government, Stewart said: "A joke has never shot teargas at a group of people in a park. It's just talk.
"What Bassem is doing ... is showing that satire can still be relevant, that it can carve out space in a country for people to express themselves. Because that's all democracy is."
He took aim at Mursi's controversial decision this week to name a member of a hardline Islamist movement blamed for a massacre of tourists at Luxor in the 1990s as governor of that city. Having been brought into the studio hooded and presented as a "spy", Stewart spoke a few words in Arabic before saying Egypt's president had honoured him: "I am now the mayor of Luxor."
Stewart also appeared to take a gentle dig at the opposition, who hope demonstrations planned for June 30 can force Mursi from power after just a year in office. It took Americans 100 years before a president was impeached for the first time, Stewart said, "For you guys to do it in one year, it's very impressive."
Perhaps the biggest laugh in the studio, though, was for a simple crack at Egypt's perennial traffic chaos: "I know this is an ancient civilisation," he said. "Have you thought about traffic lights?"
Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak berkata kerajaan komited mengatasi masalah jerebu dengan menawarkan khidmat pembenihan awan kepada Indonesia.
Beliau berkata dengan inisiatif itu, diharapkan masalah jerebu akan segera berakhir.
Najib berkata demikian dalam laman Twitternya, hari ini.
Semalam, Menteri Sumber Asli dan Alam Sekitar Datuk Seri G. Palanivel berkata Malaysia akan menawarkan khidmat pembenihan awan yang akan disampaikan secara rasmi dalam pertemuannya dengan Menteri Alam Sekitar Indonesia, Rabu ini.
Beliau berkata perkara itu telah dibincangkan dengan perdana menteri pada mesyuarat kabinet Rabu lepas, yang pada mula mencadangkan supaya Malaysia mengadakan pembenihan awan di kawasan yang dilanda jerebu teruk di negara ini.
Jerebu yang melanda kali ini adalah terburuk berbanding pada 2005 dan 2010 apabila bacaan Indeks Pencemaran Udara (IPU) mencecah paras tertinggi melebihi 382 iaitu paras bahaya di Muar. - Bernama, 22 Jun, 2013.
Oleh Amin Iskandar, Pengarang Berita June 22, 2013
Naib Presiden PAS Datuk Husam Musa ditahan oleh polis hari ini di Pandan.
Menurut Husam, beliau percaya penahanannya bertujuan untuk menghalang beliau menghadiri perhimpunan bagi membantah dakwaan penipuan dalam Pilihan Raya 2013.
"Saya ditahan di Pandan tadi lebih kurang jam 4.00 petang. Sekarang ini saya berada di IPD Ampang," kata Husam apabila dihubungi oleh The Malaysian Insider merujuk kepada Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Ampang.
"Saya dibertahu oleh polis, mereka menahan saya kerana pihak polis Kelantan mahu saya ditahan. Tapi saya berada di Kelantan sejak tiga hari lalu takde pula yang menahan saya," tambahnya.
Baru-baru ini, Husam mengeluarkan kenyataan menggesa penyokong dan ahli PAS untuk menyokong perhimpunan Black 505.
"Andai kata kita terkorban, atau satu daripada kita terkorban, insya Allah ia adalah syahid fi sabillah," kata Husam disiarkan pada 18 Mei oleh Harakahdaily.
The Malaysian Insider :: Food
PETALING JAYA, June 14 – Located in the secluded, semi-industrial enclave of Section 13 PJ, Artisan Roast HQ isn't where you'd expect the third and latest café of a highly successful independent coffee ... Read More 
A deceased 65-year-old woman has provided scientists with the material for the first super high resolution three-dimensional digital model of the human brain, researchers said Thursday. 
Anna Kendrick (pic) is in talks to play Cinderella in Disney's big screen adaptation of Broadway musical Into the Woods, an individual familiar with the situation told TheWrap in Los Angeles. 
Naib Presiden PAS Datuk Husam Musa ditahan oleh polis hari ini di Pandan.