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JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Spain’s place among world football’s all-time greatest teams was assured Sunday when Andres Iniesta scored with four minutes of extra time remaining to beat the Netherlands 1-0 and clinch his country’s first World Cup.

With the teams facing a penalty shootout after an often ill-tempered game of few clear chances, Iniesta collected a sliding pass into the area from substitute Cesc Fabregas and smashed the ball across goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg and in at the far post.

The goal clinched Spain’s fourth straight 1-0 victory in South Africa and made the team only the third to be world and European champion at the same time.

At the final whistle, the Spanish players hurried to swap their blue shirts for their more familiar red colors in time to collect the trophy. They donned shirts decorated with a single gold star to mark their triumph, becoming the eighth nation to receive the honor in the tournament’s 80-year history.

“I can’t quite believe it yet,” said Iniesta, who was voted man of the match. “I had the opportunity to score that goal which was so important to my team. It’s something absolutely incredible. I simply made a small contribution to my team in a match that was very rough.”

The Dutch players trudged forlornly to collect their runners-up medals, the third squad from the Netherlands to finish second in football’s biggest game.

Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk took off his silver medal as soon as left the podium, with a look of disgust on his face at having failed to better the “Total Football” generation that lost the 1974 and ’78 finals.

It was a less-than-classic performance by Spain and both teams created few clear chances at Soccer City, although the game opened up slightly after a cagey opening hour. The Netherlands broke up Spain’s attempts to get its famous passing game going with physical play that brought nine yellow cards.

Defender John Heitinga got his second yellow and was sent off in the 19th minute of extra time to become only the fifth man to get a World Cup final red card.

With Spain also collecting five yellows, the total beat the 1986 record of six between Argentina and West Germany and made it the dirtiest World Cup final of all time.

“There were all sorts of things happening on the pitch,” Iniesta said.

Extra time was littered with almost as many chances as normal time. Stekelenburg saved a low shot by Fabregas before winger Arjen Robben was blocked and defender Joris Mathijsen headed over at the other end.

With Wesley Sneijder crowded out and Spain striker David Villa continually forced wide in search of possession, Robben looked the most likely player to put the finishing touch to his team’s uncompromisingly physical approach.

The winger broke free in the 62nd minute but his low shot to the far post was brilliantly kept out with the toe of goalkeeper Iker Casillas’ right boot.

He was clear again with seven minutes of normal time remaining, collecting Robin van Persie’s flick from Nigel de Jong’s hopeful punt forward. Robben held off Carles Puyol’s attempts to wrestle him to the ground and tried to take the ball across Casillas, only for the goalkeeper to gather it at the forward’s feet.

Villa and Sneijder had few chances to add to their five tournament goals, the latter unable to find his range with free kicks and most notable for the sliding pass between Spain’s central defenders that set Robben free in the 62nd.

Villa went closest in the 70th when Stekelenburg somehow knocked his close-range finish over the bar, shortly before Sergio Ramos headed over the bar while unmarked.

Villa, Sneijder, Uruguay striker Diego Forlan and Germany forward Thomas Mueller tied at the top of the tournament scoring charts with five goals from seven matches. Mueller took the golden boot for the leading scorer, winning because of the number of assists he provided.

The Netherlands’ physical approach only began after its attempt to defend deep in the opening exchanges allowed Spain 60 percent of possession and gave away chances. Stekelenburg had to dive at full stretch to keep out a header by Ramos, and Villa broke free of the defense only for the Netherlands to be saved by a narrow offside call.

The Dutch responded by pressing hard whichever Spanish player happened to be in possession, heralding a spell of five yellow cards in 14 minutes.

Van Persie was penalized for hacking down Joan Capdevila and Puyol took out Robben in retaliation before Mark van Bommel, whose physical play has attracted criticism throughout the tournament, got a yellow card for a foul from behind that lifted Iniesta off his feet and left him in a heap.

Ramos got his team’s second yellow card for another rough challenge before De Jong was lucky not to get a red card when he slammed his boot into Xabi Alonso’s chest.

“They made it very difficult for us to play comfortably,” Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said. “It was a very intense match.”

But one incident showed the Dutch fouls were perhaps down to surplus passion rather than a premeditated mean streak.

Casillas threw the ball upfield and out to allow Puyol to receive treatment after a heavy fall. In keeping with sporting convention, the Netherlands attempted to return possession to the Spanish but the punt back to Casillas deflected up off the turf and forced the goalkeeper to tip it behind for a corner.

Not a single Netherlands player went forward for the corner kick and Van Persie just rolled it along the ground for Casillas to pick up.

“Our fouls may be sad for a final,” Van Marwijk said, “(but) I would have loved to win it with not so beautiful football.”

___

Lineups:

Netherlands: Maarten Stekelenburg, Gregory van der Wiel, John Heitinga, Joris Mathijsen, Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Edson Braafheid, 105), Mark van Bommel, Nigel de Jong (Rafael van der Vaart, 99), Dirk Kuyt (Eljero Elia, 71), Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie.

Spain: Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Joan Capdevila, Sergio Busquets, Xabi Alonso (Cesc Fabregas, 87), Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Pedro Rodriguez (Jesus Navas, 60), David Villa (Fernando Torres, 106).

Syukur( Thanks to God) all settled for June. For now on Friday, I have settled submitting all proposals required for qualify for this month challenge; CEO’s Anniverary Challenge 2010 that let’s me grab GPS Garmin Nuvi.

Starting yesterday, I put my mind and body for rest for a while or so. Really, I need rest . My body feels so tired during the hectic times. That time, it’s just my mind pulls my body to work on and fight until the end to qualify for the challenge.

Whatever the result, I have to accept and syukur! Tonite, I have agency meeting and tomorrow I have Retreat event. There are big event since it’s half year already. I have to look back what happen in last six months and thinking and take action to improve and speed up my business and my production.

With Allah bless, I hope all thing goes well. Amin.

LAST week, a report from World Bank warned of the re-emergence of inflationary pressures in Asian economies that could complicate the region’s prevailing policy stances to support growth.

Consumer prices have been on the rise in the region’s economies since the beginning of the year, as economic activity starts picking up across the region. For instance, in the two largest Asian economies – China and India – inflation have already accelerated over the last two months.

In China, consumer price index in May rose 3.1% from a year earlier, compared with April’s 2.8% rate, while property prices rose 12.4% from a year earlier.

This has prompted World Bank to urge China to raise interest rates to curb the country’s rising inflationary pressure and soaring property prices.

In India, on the other hand, inflation hit a two-year high last month, with wholesale price index rising 10.16% from a year earlier, compared with the 9.59% rate in April, as higher food and fuel prices continued to drive overall costs up.

Local key government officers over the week said India’s inflation rate had reached “very uncomfortable” levels and that the central bank had to step in to curb the pressure.

Singapore’s consumer prices jumped 3.2% in April, and are expected to rise around 2.7% in May, while Indonesia’s inflation rate has already exceeded the 4% mark since last month.

In Malaysia, the numbers have yet to show any worrying sign, as the country’s inflation rate seems to be well on target.

Figures from the Department of Statistics show that consumer price index (CPI) for May rose at a tame rate of 1.6% from a year ago, almost matching the April’s rise of 1.5%.

Food prices remained the major contributor to the country’s inflationary pressure, rising 2.5% compared with 2.2% in the preceding month.

Most economists expect consumer prices in Malaysia to move higher in the second half of the year, albeit moderately, as the low-base effects fade and as domestic demand continues to strengthen on improved economic prospects.

No doubt, with subsidy rationalisation plan on the cards, inflationary pressures could accelerate further in the future. But with the Government reiterating its position of not rushing in to implement changes to the subsidy scheme, economists say the inflationary pressures in the country could still be kept at a restrained level for the rest of this year.

That is not to deny the fact that consumers will still be challenged by the rising cost of living in the country.

Malaysia’s CPI is based on a basket of goods and services, ranging from food and beverage, utilities and fuel, clothing and footwear to transport and communications. This means the actual prices paid by consumers for certain type of goods or services are actually much higher than that indicated by the CPI.

A customer shops at a wet market in Klang. Most economists expect consumer prices to move higher in the second half of the year. – AP

As it is, inflation expectations in the country are already building up. Such expectations tend to result in employees demanding for higher wages and businesses to potentially raise prices further to protect their margins.

In an annual survey conducted by international recruitment and human resource services agency Randstad, it was found that around 47% of Malaysian employees are expecting a pay rise of 5% to 10% this year.

On the other hand, the average salary increases this year, based on a survey by the human-resource specialist Kelly Services, is expected to range from only 4% to 5%.

“Many businesses are already struggling to cope with the rising cost of production that’s eating into their profit margins,” an economist with a local investment bank explains.

For instance, figures from the Department of Statistics showed that producer price index had remained on the up trend for the sixth straight month in May, as higher prices of domestic inputs continued to exert pressure on production costs.

“Eventually, businesses will have to pass on their higher costs to consumers – which would translate into higher prices of goods and services – to bolster their revenues and profit margins,” the economist explains.

Nevertheless, for the immediate term, the latest CPI numbers do suggest that there is less pressure for Bank Negara to raise interest rates in the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting in July.

The central bank had repeatedly indicated the importance of maintaining an accommodative interest rate regime to support the country’s economic growth.

Bank Negara has so far raised the country’s benchmark overnight policy rate (OPR) twice as part of the normalisation process this year. In fact, it became the first in the region to do so in March when it raised the OPR by 25 basis points from the record low of 2%.

Last month, Bank Negara revised the OPR again by another 25 basis points to the present level of 2.5%.

Some economists are betting on the central bank to pause its rate normalisation process for a while as a result of the mounting uncertainties arising from the 16-nation euro zone that are currently weighing on market sentiment and dampening global economic outlook.

Leading indicators seem to suggest that Malaysia’s gross domestic product growth have peaked in the first quarter of the year, after a double-digit expansion of 10.1% year-on-year.

The subsequent quarters are expected to record slower growth rates due to the waning effects of the low-base factor and economic stimulus measures as well as slower exports growth.

Source: The Star

World Cup 2010 South Africa is just started. Everyone in this planet got the fever. I like you too. I very exciting with the event too. I always can get the lastest news from web through Twitter and Soccernet.

i also looking for some widgets and plugins for latest World Cup 2010 news, scores and updates. I found quite good widget on FIFA website. I think i want to put it on my blog’s sidebar for this football season. It will showing some update on the event and I hope we all will get more excited!

Here some widgets that I get from it

iPhone users waiting this thing so much. I’m not using at this moment but the buzz on internet is so hot. Even last night I keep updating the tweets about it and WWDC on Twitter.

The new phone is powered by an A4 CPU (the same chip used in the iPad) and sports a 3.5-inch screen with 960×640 resolution, dual mics, and an upgraded camera system that will include HD video recording and editing capabilities.

Here are a handful of specs we’ve learned so far:

* 9.3mm thick, 24% thinner than current iPhone
* 3.5″ display, same as current iPhone
* 326 ppi display, 4 times the previous iPhone’s pixel density
* Case uses stainless steel and glass, including a glass back for the device
* Powered by the A4 chip
* Larger battery means 7 hours of talk time, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music and 300 hours of standby
* 7.2MB download and 5.8MB upload speeds, depending on carrier capabilities
* Gryroscope in addition to accelerometer
* 5MP camera with 5x zoom, tap to focus and LED flash
* HD video recording, and iMovie for editing video on the iPhone
* Front- and rear-facing cameras for FaceTime, the new video chat app
* iOS will allow for multitasking

The WWDC event is still living and people waits for good annoucement from Steve Jobs. We will wait and see.

Lagu ni lagu agak lama la. Tapi bila dengar balik best jugak. Layan

Lagu ni famous kat radio sekarang. Aku banyak kali dengar kat hitz.fm dan FlyFM. Kekadang sehari sampai 4 kali.! Yang menariknya MizzNina ni orang Malaysia( dengar citer anak Tan Sri). Lagu ni memang sedap didengar. Hidup 1Malaysia! Layannnnn…..

Masa berlalu begitu pantas. Sedar-sedar dah umur 32 dah . Banyak benda berlaku dan dialami selepas birthday tahun lepas sehingga sekarang.   Semuanya menjadi pengalaman dan pengajaran yang berguna dan tidak dapat dibeli dengan wang ringgit.

Tahun ini merupakan tahun yang saya set untuk expand my business to the next level. Goal yang diset ialah mencapai semua challenge yang Prudential throw especially Star Club Egypt. Beberapa strategi telah dibuat dan sedang dijalankan. Begitu juga dengan recruitment. Aktiviti berjalan dengan lancar dan diharapkan menjadi.

Tahun ini jugak tahun untuk melangsaikan hutang lapuk. Dijangkakan dalam bulan November semuakan sudah selesai. Saya akan jadi debt free person buat sementara sebelum membuat hutang baru.Hahaha.. Dan dalam tahun depan saya berharap saya akan melangkah ke alam kehidupan yang baru. InsyaAllah.

Selamat menyambut hari lahir ke 32 kepada saya.

Di penghulu segala hari ini marilah kita sama-sama mendengar lagu klasik; Iman Mutiara daripada Raihan. Liriknya penuh makna. Iman tidak dapat diwarisi!. Marilah kita sama-sama renungkan. Enjoy dan selamat beramal

Hari ni hari Ahad. Saya ambil masa untuk rest. No business deal. No booth. No office coming. Tapi Kunming Challenge belum lepas lagi but on track to get it.

Kita layan lagu Sang Mantan dari Nidji. Enjoy!