Redknapp’s QPR win at the 17th attempt

LONDON – Queens Park Rangers gave chairman Tony Fernandes the early Christmas present he yearned for on Saturday by ending a record 16-match run without a win and moving off the bottom of the Premier League.

Queens Park Rangers' Adel Taarabt (R) celebrates beating Fulham with Armand Traore after their English Premier League soccer match at Loftus Road in London December 15, 2012. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

The Malaysian entrepreneur, whose AirAsia airline had confirmed a $9.4 billion order for 100 more Airbus jets on Thursday, said on his Twitter feed in the week that he had been doing some early Christmas shopping "but all I want is three points".

On Saturday, despite a nervous last few minutes after Fulham had pulled a goal back in the West London derby, his wish came true with a deserved 2-1 win in front of a capacity 18,233 crowd at Loftus Road.

"Best best feeling in the world," Fernandes declared, again resorting to the social media network before heading down to the local pub to meet up with fans.

The irony was that both the second-half goals came from Moroccan Adel Taarabt, a player who has been at QPR a lot longer than Fernandes or any of the expensive signings who have so signally failed to gel.

Taarabt was instrumental in getting QPR out of the Championship (second division) and back into the Premier League in 2011 under manager Neil Warnock, who was sacked in January only a few months after Fernandes took over.

Kiessling helps Leverkusen close gap on Bayern

BERLIN – Unsung striker Stefan Kiessling scored twice to lead Bayer Leverkusen to a 3-0 win over Hamburg SV that cut Bayern Munich’s lead at the top to nine points at the halfway mark of the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Andre Schuerrle was also on target as second-placed Leverkusen took advantage of Bayern Munich’s slip-up the night before, when they were held 1-1 at home by Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Hamburger SV goalkeeper Rene Adler speaks with his former team mate Stefan Kiessling of Bayer Leverkusen during their German first division Bundesliga soccer match in Leverkusen December 15, 2012. 

Promoted Eintracht Frankfurt went third with a 2-0 win at VfL Wolfsburg, where all the drama came in a six-minute spell early in the game.

Alexander Meier and Takashi Inui scored for Eintracht while Wolfsburg had Josue sent off for a studs-up challenge, all before the 20th minute.

Greuther Fuerth and Augsburg both finished with 10 men as they drew 1-1 in a meeting of the bottom two, leaving them level on nine points from 17 games at the foot of the 18-team table.

Sascha Moelders gave Augsburg an early lead and Lasse Solbiech levelled after the break for Fuerth, who are in the Bundesliga for the first time and have yet to win at home.

Malaga tighten grip on fourth with Sevilla win

MADRID – Malaga strengthened their hold on fourth place with a 2-0 win at Sevilla on Saturday, and recorded their first road win in La Liga since the beginning of September.

Sevilla's Alvaro Negredo (L) tries to save a goal after Malaga's Martin Gaston Demichelis (2nd R) heads the ball during their Spanish First Division soccer match at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville December 15, 2012. 

Martin Demichelis and Eliseu, with a penalty, earned Malaga the points as they were helped by a red card for Sevilla defender Federico Fazio in the 69th minute.

Malaga, who have qualified for the last-16 of the Champions League in their debut campaign, moved on to 28 points from 16 games, four behind third-placed Real Madrid.

Unbeaten leaders Barcelona, with 43 points, host second-placed Atletico Madrid on Sunday, when Real are at home to struggling Espanyol.

Sevilla paid dearly for failing to convert early pressure into goals, in particular striker Alvaro Negredo who rounded the Malaga keeper only to fire against the post in the third minute.

Malaga scored with almost their first attempt just after halftime when Argentina defender Demichelis looped a header back under the bar at a corner, and Sevilla struggled to react.

Kolarov questioned after reported case of racist abuse

LONDON – Manchester City’s Serbian defender Aleksandar Kolarov was reported to have been questioned by police on Saturday after a complaint of racist abuse during a Premier League match at Newcastle United.

Media reports said two fans were understood to have been waving an Albanian flag as Kolarov, who came on as a substitute in the game, warmed up on the side of the pitch in the first half at St James’ Park.

Everton expect Fellaini to be punished for headbutt

LONDON – Everton expect midfielder Marouane Fellaini to be punished for an apparent headbutt against Stoke City’s Ryan Shawcross that was not seen by the referee, manager David Moyes said on Saturday.

"I would expect us to get the punishment, we’ll accept whatever punishment is given out for it," Moyes told Sky Sports News after the 1-1 draw at Stoke that left Everton fourth in the Premier League.

"I’ve told him (Fellaini) in the dressing-room it’s not acceptable and whatever he’s handed out, he and us deserve it."

Belgian international Fellaini was seen to butt the Stoke captain as they jostled for position at a corner taken by the visitors.

Blatter tells Indonesia to get ‘house in order’

TOKYO:  FIFA president Sepp Blatter has described the world body’s decision to grant Indonesia an extension to solve their football crisis as a “Christmas gift”, urging them to get their “house in order”.

Football in the South-east Asian nation has been in turmoil for the past two years because of a row between the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) and their rivals the Indonesian Soccer Rescue Committee (KPSI).

FIFA had set PSSI a Dec 10 deadline to reconcile their differences with KPSI, who run a rebel league splitting the nation’s top teams, but the regulator’s Executive Committee on Friday extended the deadline by three months.

“It’s been two years now, two years, that they have tried to put together the two parts of the football organisations but they couldn’t do it,” Blatter told a news conference in Tokyo yesterday.

Karpal appointed DAP chairman for third time; Guan Eng remains sec-gen

GEORGE TOWN: DAP strongman Karpal Singh (pic) was re-appointed party chairman by the central executive committee (CEC ) during the 16th DAP National Congress here Sunday.

This is the third time Karpal has been appointed to the post since 2004.

Incumbent Lim Guan Eng, who is also Penang Chief Minister, was re-appointed secretary-general.

Meanwhile, Tan Kok Wai replaced former deputy chairman Dr Seng Giaw.

The number of positions for vice-chairman was increased from four to five, with Chow Kon Yeow, M. Kulasegaran, Chong Chieng Jen, Teresa Kok and Dr Ariffin Omar apppointed to the post.

Ten CEC members were appointed - Dr Tan Seng Giaw, Dr P. Ramasamy, Dr Ariffin Omar, Zairil Khir Johari, Jimmy Wong Sze Phin, Dr John Brian Anthony, Dr Edwin Bosi, Leong Ngah Ngah, V. Sivakumar and Thomas Su Keong Siong.

Dr Seng Giaw was dropped from the CEC list after getting only 802 votes from 1,823 delegates during the congress elections Saturday.

Earlier Sunday, the newly-elected 20 CEC members had a hour-long closed-door meeting to appoint party positions.

A new Pakatan Rakyat bureau has been set up to strengthen the collaboration between the party and its PKR and PAS counterparts, and it will be chaired by Teng Chang Khim.

Wall Street ends lower on sour Apple, "cliff" uncertainty

NEW YORK: Stocks fell on Friday as another slide in Apple took a toll and investors unloaded some shares because of the uncertainty surrounding the "fiscal cliff" negotiations.

For the Nasdaq, this marked the second losing week in a row. All three major U.S. stock indexes ended the week slightly lower.

Apple's stock slid 3.8 percent to $509.79 - its lowest close since February 17 - after UBS cut its price target on the stock to $700 from $780. The stock of the most valuable U.S. company has been hit hard in the last three months. On Friday, Apple's stock fell after a tepid reception for the iPhone 5 in China.

The S&P Information Technology Index <.GSPT> lost 1 percent as Apple fell and Jabil Circuit Inc shed 5.5 percent to $17.51 after UBS cut its price target.

The possibility of a fiscal cliff deal not taking place until early 2013 is rising. The back-and-forth negotiations over the fiscal cliff in Washington have kept markets on hold in what would already be a quiet period for stocks.

"We're faced with uncertainty ... and that's going to continue now into January. It basically puts everybody on hold and (you) just have the markets kind of thrash around," said Larry Peruzzi, senior equity trader at Cabrera Capital Markets Inc in Boston.

President Barack Obama and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner held a "frank" meeting on Thursday at the White House to discuss how to avoid the tax hikes and spending cuts set to kick in early in 2013.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> slipped 35.71 points, or 0.27 percent, to 13,135.01 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> fell 5.87 points, or 0.41 percent, to 1,413.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> lost 20.83 points, or 0.70 percent, to close at 2,971.33.

For the week, the Dow slipped 0.2 percent, while the S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq declined 0.2 percent.

CNBLUE Reveal Teasers For Upcoming Activities

CNBLUE is recently anticipating to fans their activities with posting photos about their upcoming concerts which will be hold on December 15th and 16th.

The whole band has been busy with preparing "2012 Blue Night" concerts until the very end but via Twitter FNC Entertainment and Yonghwa himself posted several photos for their fans.

One Piece Film Z Grosses 750 Million Yen On First Day

Bunka Tsushin, a Japanese news company, reported that the new One Piece film sold 600,000 tickets on its 1st day. The film grossed 750 million yen (approx. US$9 million) at the box office and is expected to sell 1 million tickets by Sunday and gross over 1.3 billion yen (US$15,576,340).

If the 1.3 billion yen mark is met, One Piece will top Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo's 1,131,004,600 yen (US$13,913,200) for the title of "Japan's highest weekend box office of 2012." 

Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross Rap Up Cali Christmas Concert

Kendrick Lamar performs at Power 106 FM's Cali Christmas

LOS ANGELES - The holidays came early in California as Rick Ross, Meek Mill, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, the Weeknd and Def Jam's newly-signedTrinidad James rocked the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City on Friday night for Power 106's annual Cali Christmas concert.
There was no shortage of hits as tracks like "Ima Boss," "Dance (A$$)," "No Lie" and everyone's new favorite, "All Gold Everything," were all performed properly, but it was 2012's breakout star and hometown heroKendrick Lamar who stole the show with a Hiii Powered-performance.

Shortly after 11 p.m. PT, K-Dot stormed the stage rapping along to his Young Jeezy collaboration "Westside, Right On Time," and though the Snowman wasn't in attendance, Kendrick's guest list was both long and star-studded. After spitting through "The Recipe," Lamar opened the floodgates, first bringing Ab-Soul onstage for "P&P" and then J. Cole two songs later to do his own Missy Elliott collaboration, "Nobody's Perfect."

Schoolboy Q would perform "Hands on the Wheel" and Jay Rock came out to deliver his verse on "Money Trees," but the crowd worked themselves into an absolute frenzy when Bay Area rap legend E-40 bounced out to his party-starter "Function."

Focussed Lions back to work early

Singapore – The determination of the Singapore national team to win the AFF Suzuki Cup for a record fourth time was evident when the players checked back into the team hotel a day earlier than planned in order to prepare for their final showdown with Thailand.

Coach Radojko Avramovic had planned to give the players two days off after their hard-fought semi-final victory over the Philippines on Wednesday but his charges had other ideas and asked him to resume preparations on Friday afternoon.

“This is worth the sacrifice,” said midfielder Isa Halim to The Straits Times. “The medical staff are at the hotel, so those players carrying injuries can receive treatment and massages to speed up their recovery.

“This is also a good opportunity to recharge our batteries without distractions.”

Singapore team manager Eugene Loo, who was also involved in the Lions’ successful campaigns in 2004 and 2007, was impressed by the dedication shown by the players and said that it boded well for their fourth appearance in the Asean regional final.

Datsakorn eyes AFF Suzuki Cup to cap glittering career

Midfield general Datsakorn Thonglao, a leading light in Asian football over the past decade, is just 180 minutes away from putting the seal on a great career with an AFF Suzuki Cup winner’s medal for Thailand.

Datsakorn, a combative and skilful player with an eye for a killer pass, has starred for Thailand in their eye-catching run to the two-legged final with Singapore.

He ran the midfield in the victories over the Philippines (2-1) and Myanmar (4-0) in Group A action before sitting out the 3-1 win over Vietnam due to the recurrence of a groin injury.

Refreshed and revitalised, he played both legs of the semi-final with Malaysia and impressed with his vision and ability to dictate the tempo of the game.

Not for the first time, coach Winfried Schafer highlighted his contribution in the 2-0 victory over the defending champions on Thursday that sealed Thailand’s place in the final and described as “brilliant” a defence-splitting pass from Datsakorn that freed striker Teerasil Dangda for a run towards goal.

Though still just 28, Datsakorn has played at the top level since 2000 and won his first cap for Thailand the following year.

But he was left out of Thailand’s winning squad at the 2002 Asean Football Championship and was also omitted from the so-called “Young Bloods” two years later when the Thais fell at the group stage.