ARSENE WENGER insists he will not solve his side's plight by splashing the cash - because Arsenal simply cannot afford it.

The manager was visibly rocked by back-to-back humiliations against rivals Manchester United and Chelsea, which all-but killed his title hopes.

Wenger has rarely looked so down. This was the Frenchman at his lowest ebb.

He was raw, tetchy, fidgeting and uncomfortable as he fielded questions about his team's inability to mount a credible title challenge.

Yet Wenger, 60, is adamant his way is the ONLY way Arsenal can be run.

He said: "It is very painful for me. Do you think I fight every day and night to lose the game?

"What is great is that you have another chance."

That chance comes tonight at home to Liverpool in a game Arsenal dare not lose.

Fans are calling for a big name - a big-money signing.

And those demands have never been as loud as in the past few days.

But Wenger is adamant he will not be sucked in and start spending 'silly money', as Arsenal cannot do it.

He said: "We've gone for a policy and need to be strong, patient and sometimes get knock-backs but still persist because it's the only way this football club can be run.

"I know everybody else is impatient. My job is to be patient and to work and to let people think if I do the right things or the wrong things and that's it. It's part of my job to live with that."

Wenger also took a swipe at Chelsea who have spent way beyond their means in seven years under owner Roman Abramovich.

He said: "We cannot show them because they can lose £150million - we cannot live like that.

"I don't know in what kind of world you live? Football lives in an artificial world at the moment.

"You know what the situation is. We have to live in a realistic world at Arsenal and we are very proud of that.

"If you go on high transfers, you go on high wages. It is linked. We cannot afford that."

This of course is the last thing large numbers of increasingly frustrated Gooners want to hear.

But Wenger insists fans of all clubs are going to have to get used to lack of spending.

He added: "Look at what happened in this transfer market. Give me one big move? Zero.

"People ask me 'Why do you not buy a great striker?' But tell me one who has moved from one club to another, not one."

Wenger also could not hide his frustration at Chelsea's sniping after their 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Blues star Michael Ballack said Arsenal were predictable and not serious Premier League title contenders.

China, India Seek to Limit Climate Plan, Stern Says


Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- China, India, South Africa and Brazil seek to “limit the impact” of the U.S.-led Copenhagen Accord by emphasizing that the climate change deal isn’t legally binding, U.S. negotiator Todd Stern said today.

President Barack Obama and leaders of the four countries crafted the Copenhagen agreement to combat climate change in December after United Nations talks there broke down over divisions between developed and developing nations.

The U.S. and Europe back calls to make the plan a legally binding agreement to serve as a framework for an international treaty to curb greenhouse gases. India’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, has said the Copenhagen Accord should be part of a larger two-track negotiating process rather than a “stand- alone document.”

“It makes no sense to suggest that it should play second fiddle to a negotiator-level text that generated wide disagreement in Copenhagen,” Stern said today in Washington.

The Copenhagen Accord is the first climate-protection agreement that contains numerical goals for the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas emitters. Each participating country proposed its own, voluntary target to limit carbon pollution.

Countries shouldn’t now “cherry pick” parts of the agreement they like and scrap the broader plan, which represents a “fair balance,” Stern said.

Obama’s Talks

The plan was reached in the Danish capital after Obama had talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and South African President Jacob Zuma. Obama said at the time the accord would fall short of the expectations of many and that it will be difficult to turn it into a legally binding treaty in the next year.

“Only history will tell us” if the accord succeeds or fails, said John Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress, a Washington research group that hosted an event with Stern today.

Stern said the accord is “more sketch than painting,” though it shows a “way forward” with the negotiations. Ninety nations so far have said they want to associate with the plan, he said.

Talks for a new treaty stumbled last year over aid for developing countries, pollution-reduction goals and how to verify nations’ pledges to cut emissions.

The U.S. entered the UN discussions in Denmark at a disadvantage because Congress has yet to pass legislation capping emissions. The lack of guidance from the Senate, which must approve treaties, left Obama’s officials without clear negotiating guidelines.

Stern today said Congress “must” pass legislation this year.

India's No.1 billionaire denies buying into Liverpool

Indian industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Subroto Roy are reportedly in the race for a 51 per cent stake in Liverpool football club bidding to pay off its 237 million pounds debt.

Liverpool is presently owned by American duo George Gillett and Tom Hicks, who acquired the club in February 2007.

One of the most successful clubs in the history of English football, Liverpool emerged as a takeover target for Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries and the seventh- richest man in the world, as pressure mounted on Hicks and Gillett to cut a deal to sell the club, The Times reported today.

When contacted in Delhi, a Reliance spokesman denied the reports. "We are not bidding for Liverpool," he said. There was no immediate word on the issue from the Sahara Group owned by Roy.

Both Ambani and Roy have reportedly each tendered similar bids to pay off Liverpool's 237 million pounds debt in return for a 51 per cent stake in the club.

Liverpool chief executive Christian Purslow also denied any knowledge of bids by Ambani and Roy, but The Times reported that approaches began as early as November and that some preliminary talks had taken place.

Reported disagreements between Gillett and Hicks, and the lack of the fans' support, have led to rumours that that international buyers such as the Dubai International Capital would bid for the club.

AVATAR has become the UK's number one film of all time.

JAMES CAMERON'S mighty movie has smashed box office earnings in the UK, overtaking previous record holder Mamma Mia! by over £2 million.

The movie, already the highest grosser of all time, has taken £71.60 million in British cinemas, beating Mamma Mia's £69.17 million and Cameron's other smash Titanic, with £69.03.

Avatar, which is up for nine Oscars, stars SAM WORTHINGTON as a crippled marine 'reborn' as a blue alien in order to infiltrate the native population of a distant planet who are in the way of a mining programme.

ZOE SALDANA, SIGOURNEY WEAVER and MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ also star in the special effects extravaganza.

The film, which has taken over £1.4 billion in total, overtook Titanic as worldwide number one at the end of January.

This weekend it was knocked off the top spot in the US by CHANNING TATUM'S new movie Dear John.

Toyota adds new Prius to global recall list

www.reuters.com.jpeg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp said it would recall nearly half a million new Prius and other hybrid cars for braking problems as it battled criticism of its response to the spiraling safety crisis.

Hot Stocks

The world's largest automaker, whose reputation for quality is on the line, is under fire for two other recalls covering more than 8 million vehicles worldwide due to problems with slipping floormats and sticky accelerator pedal.

Toyota put an end to days of speculation on Tuesday, confirming that it would it would recall more than 400,000 hybrid models, including the latest version of its iconic Prius, to fix a problem with the regenerative brakes, which help charge the cars' electric batteries.

Ratings agency Moody's said it was reviewing Toyota's "AA1" rating for a possible downgrade, saying the carmaker faced considerable uncertainty over its operating and financial profile in the coming year, and possibly beyond.

Toyota also faces a potential rush of litigation for crashes linked to acceleration problems on the models recalled earlier and blamed for 19 deaths and numerous injuries in the United States over the past decade.

Chastised by safety authorities and members of U.S. President Barack Obama's administration for moving too slowly on those recalls, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said he never believed the company was infallible but it had always tried to repair defects swiftly.

Japanese Transport Minister Seiji Maehara added his voice to criticism from the U.S., telling Toyoda he had hoped for swifter action. Maehara was due to meet the U.S. envoy to Japan on Tuesday to smooth relations between the two sides over the recall.

"Let me assure everyone that we will redouble our commitment to quality as a lifeline of our company," President Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, told a news conference in Tokyo.

"With myself taking the lead, and by keeping to the 'genchi genbutsu' principle, all of us at Toyota will tackle the issue in close cooperation with dealers and suppliers together, we will do everything in our power to regain the confidence of our customers," he said, first in Japanese, then in English.

Genchi genbutsu, meaning "go and see," is one of the five principles in Toyota's much-emulated management and production philosophy.

In Toyota City, central Japan, where the carmaker is based, 55-year-old factory worker Kazuo Akatsuka said: "I think the decision came a little too late, but now the recall is official and as a Toyota worker, I feel better."

British GQ magazine and the Norman Mailer Writers Colony announce a new annual competition for non-fiction writing

Student writers: Win £1,000 plus the literary trip of a lifetime
The winner will be invited to spend a month at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony, a residential educational centre based at the legendary author's former home in Provincetown, Massachusetts, USA. All travel, accommodation and expenses covered. Plus a cheque for £1,000 and the chance to be published in a future issue of Britain's leading men's magazine.

Runners-up will receive cash prizes and the chance to be published in GQ.

Here's how it works
We are calling for submissions of published and unpublished work completed in the twelve months from May 1 2009.

Entries can be on any topic but must be no less than 2,000 and no more than 4,000 words long and submitted by email to gqmaileraward@condenast.co.uk, on or before May 1, 2010. Entries must be submitted as Word documents, double spaced.

All entries, which must be non-fiction, must include name, home address, name of college / university, email address and phone number, including mobile phone.

The competition is open to all undergraduates and postgraduates at UK universities. Entrants must be over 18 years old on February 4, 2010.

Judges
The awards will be judged by a panel including GQ Feature Director Alex Bilmes; Canongate publisher Jamie Byng; Condé Nast Managing Director and bestselling author Nicholas Coleridge; award-winning novelist and critic Geoff Dyer; GQ Editor Dylan Jones; bestselling novelist and GQ Contributing Editor Tony Parsons; publisher and investor Spas Roussev; Editor of the Times Literary Supplement Sir Peter Stothard; platinum-selling singer-songwriter Lily Allen; and leading literary agent Ed Victor.

Good luck!

National Divorce Agreement


American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists
and Obama supporters, et al:


We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce.... I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course.
Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.


Here is a model separation agreement:

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.


We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.
You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and bigcountry O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).


We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot
Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood ..

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are
under assault, we'll help provide them security.

We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find..

You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a
right. We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.

We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you Answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda with you..

P. S. S. And we won't have to press 1 for English.