Terror-devastated Mumbai hotels reopen

The first guests checked back into the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi-Trident hotels Sunday, marking the reopening of the two luxury venues damaged by terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month.

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Bush arrives in Croatia after Nato summit

 

ZAGREB  ( 2008-04-05 03:08:21 ) : 

President George W. Bush arrived in Croatia on Friday after attending a Nato summit where the Balkan country was invited to join the alliance and ahead of talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Bush, whose plane touched down just after 3:00 pm (1300 GMT) at Zagreb airport, arrived in Croatia a day after the former Yugoslav republic was invited to join Nato.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation invited both Albania and Croatia to join the military alliance at its summit in the Romanian capital Bucharest.
"Both these nations have demonstrated the ability and the willingness to provide strong and enduring contributions to Nato. Both have undertaken challenging political, economic and defence reforms," Bush said after the announcement was made.
The two countries will become the 27th and 28th members of Nato once the accession and ratification process has been finalised, which alliance officials hope can be accomplished within a year.
Later Friday Bush met with President Stipe Mesic and attended a dinner with some 60 of the country's top sports people, artists and politicians.
Meanwhile dozens of protestors gathered in downtown Zagreb carrying banners reading "Nato stinks," "United States of Aggression" and "Bush the bloodthirsty dictator," holding a picture of him next to one of Adolf Hitler.
On Saturday, Bush is to meet Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and make a public speech at a square in central Zagreb, where Croatian activists are planning more anti-Bush rallies.
In his speech on Saturday Bush is expected to praise joining Nato as a guarantee of security and stability in the region "devastated by the war and fanaticism and the ethnic cleansing" of the 1990s, according to the White House.
He is to speak in the presence of leaders of Croatia, Albania and Macedonia, although Nato in Bucharesy decided not to invite Skopje until a long-running dispute with Greece regarding Macedonia's name is solved.
Bush is to stress that those three countries have soldiers in Afghanistan, according to the White House.
From Zagreb, Bush is to leave for the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi where he is to have his last meeting with Putin before the Russian leader steps down as president next month.
Bush is "coming to recognise the hard work that Croatia has done on the path towards receiving this invitation," US ambassador to Croatia Robert Bradtke told journalists earlier this week.
"He is coming to show other countries in southeastern Europe that if they do the hard work carrying out political, economic and defence reforms the door of Nato is also open to them," he said.
Local analysts underline that the United States as the leading Western power wants to boost its position in the volatile Balkans region, which saw a series of bloody wars in the 1990s during the break-up of Yugoslavia.
They point notably to potentially unstable Serbia, strongly backed by Russia. Serbia was enraged when the province of Kosovo proclaimed independence from it in February.
"Using non-political language, one would say the US likes Croatia," read a commentary in the biggest-circulation daily, Vecernji List.
"Using political language, the US has a strategic interest in the Balkans and peace in the region, and in this US goals completely correspond with Croatia's and they would be hard to achieve without (Zagreb)," it stressed.
Croatia's leders define membership of Nato, as well as the European Union, which Zagreb hopes to join by 2010, as its strategic goals.
However, in the past ties between Zagreb and Washington were not always cosy, notably during the rule of the late autocratic president Franjo Tudjman, who died in 1999.
The situation has improved since Mesic came to power in 2000, but major points of friction remain.
They include Croatia's condemnation of the US invasion of Iraq and its refusal to agree immunity for any US citizens sought by the International Criminal Court.
Bush's visit will be the second to Croatia by a US president since the former Yugoslav republic proclaimed independence in 1991.
Bill Clinton made a brief stop in Zagreb in 1996.

Sri Lanka eye record-setting win over Windies

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad: Sri Lanka can kill the proverbial two birds with one stone when they face West Indies in the second and final Test, starting on Thursday at Queen's Park Oval.
When Sri Lanka flew into the region a fortnight ago, they had a single objective on their mind - to win a Test series on Caribbean soil for the first time.
They gained a welcomed boost to their chances when they clinched the opening Test at the Guyana National Stadium by 121 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the brief series.
But there is an extra special reason that Sri Lanka will pursue victory vigorously in the second Test - and that is to become the first side visiting the Caribbean to sweep a Test series of any length.
In the 80 years that West Indies have been a Test-playing nation, no side has ever come into their backyard and embarrassed them with a series sweep, although West Indies have achieved this several times on foreign soil.
Australia came close five years ago, when they won the first three Tests in a series of four before the West Indies embarked successfully on a World record 418 to win the final Test at St. John's.
Squads:
West Indies (from): Chris Gayle (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan (vice captain), Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Fidel Edwards, Amit Jaggernauth, Daren Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Marlon Samuels, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor.
Sri Lanka (from): Mahela Jaywardene (captain), Kumar Sangakkara (vice captain), Ishara Amerasinghe, Tillakeratne Dilshan, Rangana Herath, Prasanna Jaywardene, Nuwan Kulasekera, Muttiah Muralitharan, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Silva, Thilan Thushara, Chaminda Vaas, Michael Vandort, Malinda Warnapura, Chanaka Welegedera.

Gunmen kill two soldiers in southwest Pakistan: police

QUETTA: Gunmen shot dead two Pakistani soldiers in a drive-by shooting in the insurgency-hit southwestern province of Baluchistan on Wednesday, police said.
The off-duty soldiers were returning home when they were gunned down by assailants riding on a motorbike in the provincial capital Quetta, city police chief Mohammad Akbar Arain told a foreign news agency.
The attack was claimed by a militant group, the Baluchistan Liberation Army.

Aamir stay away from Olympics: Tibetans

 

MUMBAI  ( 2008-03-27 15:14:09 ) : 

The protesting Tibetan community in India has appealed to ace actor Aamir Khan not to run in the Olympic torch relay.
Aamir, who is one of the Olympic torchbearers, in India has been asked by the Tibetan protesters distance himself Olympics to be held in China in 2008. A teenage protester went as far as issuing threats of immolating himself.
Aamir, who is going to play the role of a torchbearer for the Olympic Torch relay in Delhi next month, has issued no statement as yet. When contacted, his representative stated that the actor was too busy shooting for his upcoming flick Ghajini to indulge in these political controversies.
With the protesters now targeting Bollywood, the China-Tibet political saga has taken an all-new turn. Perhaps one reason why the Tibetans chose to appeal to Aamir is because the star has panache for taking up social causes.
Besides, Aamir the brother-sister combo Saif and Soha Ali Khan too shall participate as runners in the Olympic relay.

OpenSocial is no longer just a Google standard.

Microsoft catches social networking religion. And most folks are wondering where Facebook will land in this mess. The larger question: Is there a business hook here somewhere?

Yup, I hear the crickets too.

Social networking remains a consumer thing. And to the blogosphere it’s an opportunity to work in a Mark Zuckerberg quip, toss in Google as a reference and navel gaze a bit about the “conversation.”

But there has to be a corporate use in here somewhere.

Tuesday’s news that Yahoo is supporting OpenSocial and Google is stepping away to assure “neutrality” and interconnect social apps is a big deal. OpenSocial can now forge ahead as a real standard. Meanwhile, Microsoft has also entered the social network standard game (boy this all sounds familiar after awhile) and launched its own initiative. The gory details are fortunately rounded up by Techmeme.

I can’t help but think that this neutral OpenSocial foundation is a good thing for the enterprise. Perhaps enterprise apps will hook into OpenSocial. Perhaps vendors–beyond Oracle and Salesforce.com–will flick to the effort. Perhaps corporations will become more social.

Until then, however, there isn’t much of a huge plan when it comes to businesses.

Last week, I spoke to Joe Kraus, Director of Product Management at Google, about the enterprise implications of OpenSocial. Even though OpenSocial will be “forever free and open” there’s a lot of work to do before this becomes even slightly interesting to the enterprise.

Among the highlights of my conversation with Kraus:

• Social networking is the new black. Most killer apps are social by nature–email, IM and photo sharing for instance. Companies have been slow to adopt these uses–beyond email of course.
• Social networking isn’t a destination site. It will branch out through the entire Web. How will corporations handle this branching out process?
• Enterprises will adopt social standards like OpenSocial to embed third party applications. The rub: “These applications will need policies around them,” says Kraus. Simply put, a lot of social applications are frivolous–throwing sheep, awarding virtual beers (what’s the point folks?) and poking people. Surely, there’s a business function here somewhere.
• How do you tighten up social applications? “Social applications are loose in consumer land,” says Kraus. “We expect them to become much tighter in enterprise land.”
• What’s the model? Consumer social applications are built around advertising. In the corporate world that model won’t fly. What exactly will corporations license?
• Whatever develops in the socialprise will begin with CRM. “Salesforce and Oracle both see the opportunity, but CRM is a social application to begin with,” says Kraus.

German minister asks Beijing to end Tibet blackout (Roundup)

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier telephoned Beijing Tuesday and asked China to bring the violence in Tibet out into the open for the sake of 'maximum transparency,' aides in Berlin said.

A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said meanwhile she was 'open' to a fresh meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Beijing has protested angrily at western contacts with the Dalai Lama, whom it accuses of orchestrating protests by monks.

The Foreign Ministry announced Steinmeier's phone conversation about Tibet with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in advance.

It said Steinmeier appealed for 'maximum transparency regarding the events in Tibet.'

Yang had replied that China had invited Western journalists on a trip to Tibet to see for themselves. Following protests at the expulsion of journalists from Tibet, Beijing announced Tuesday it would set up an escorted trip for about a dozen to Lhasa.

Steinmeier said he hoped the violence would cease permanently and called for a dialogue between Beijing and the Dalai Lama.

He had also told the Beijing official he did not regard a boycott of this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing in protest at Tibet policies as an appropriate response, a ministry spokesman said.

Thomas Steg, deputy government spokesman, earlier said calls for an Olympic boycott tended to 'distract from the need to move towards a political solution to the conflict.'

'We regard it as indispensable that both sides, the Dalai Lama and the government in Beijing, close their gap,' he said, adding that there was no alternative in Germany's view to negotiations.

Merkel had made plain 'that she was absolutely willing to meet again with the Dalai Lama on an appropriate occasion, speak to him and discuss current topics,' said Steg.

However Merkel would not be in Germany at the time of the spiritual leader's scheduled spring visit to the country.

Merkel received the Dalai Lama, who lives in India, last year in her Berlin office, prompting an angry protest from Beijing.

The German Federation of Olympics Sports, or DOSB, said Monday that there would definitely be no boycott of the Games. Athletes on the official German team voiced relief, saying the event would be height of their careers for many.

DOSB general director Michael Vesper said on ZDF television it was 'naive' to suppose people in China or Tibet would be better off if athletes stayed away from the Games.

But a senior member of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party criticized the DOSB Tuesday for pledging attendance at the games and thus taking a boycott over Tibet out of play.

Ruprecht Polenz, who chairs the federal parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, said on SWR television that given the situation in Tibet, it would have been smarter to leave attendance at the Games this summer open, 'thus not ruling a boycott out.'

Polenz is not a member of the Merkel government, a coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, but is a respected voice on foreign policy issues.

SIFF readies 200-film lineup

SINGAPORE -- Despite facing a significant cut in its annual budget, the Singapore International Film Festival that kicks off Friday will welcome more than 200 films from 40 countries.
Now in its 21st year, SIFF saw its budget drop from S$850,000 ($611,372) in 2007 to S$400,000 this year.
The program opens with a Rainer Werner Fassbinder retrospective and a collection of human rights shorts, while the main 10-day festival will open a week later on April 4 with Wayne Wang's "The Princess of Nebraska," a story of a pregnant Chinese girl living in the U.S. Other films include the critically acclaimed Golden Bear winner "Tuya's Marriage," by director Wang Quan'An, along with "I'm Not There," Todd Haynes' unorthodox biopic in which Bob Dylan is played by a number of actors.
The festival also includes an Australian Focus segment, a tribute to the late Indonesian film director Sjuman Djaya (1934-85) and a retrospective of 55 years of Vietnam cinema, ranging from such classics as "Little Girl of Hanoi" and "Mrs. Tu Hai" to the recent "The Life" by Dao Duy Phuc, in competition along with another 11 films for the festival's Screen Awards for best Asian feature.
For the first time, the SIFF is introducing a Singapore Panorama segment that will feature 14 new homegrown feature-length and short films. They include "The Olive Depression" by Joshua Lim, which captures the conflicting emotions faced by the film's protagonists before their conscription into mandatory military service, and Kan Lume's "Dreams From the Third World," about an idealistic filmmaker trying to convince a prostitute to star in his porn film

PCB names venues for Australia tour

LAHORE, Feb 6: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has finalised the venues for hosting world champions Australia during their proposed tour of March-April.
PCB’s Director Cricket Operations Zakir Khan said on Wednesday that Karachi, Multan, Lahore and Faisalabad have been chosen to hold the 10 matches against Ricky Ponting’s Aussies as all these grounds are equipped with the best facilities.
The renovation at the Pindi Stadium, according to Zakir, is still in progress so it has been ruled out at the moment. The tour, which is currently in the doldrums, now awaits final approval from a Cricket Australia (CA) security delegation from Down Under which would be travelling to Pakistan after the country’s general elections on Feb 18.
The tourists are to play five One-day Internationals and three Tests, besides a Twenty-20 game and a side match.
When asked how the PCB planned to organise 10 matches at four stadia, Zakir said their priority was to provide best available facilities to the visitors and the four venues suited the purpose adequately.
In choosing the four top cities for the matches, PCB is obviously mindful of the security concerns expressed by foreign teams who remain apprehensive about playing in cities like Peshawar or Rawalpindi which have experienced a lot of turmoil recently due to frequent bomb blasts and unrest among the tribal areas.
The recent explosion in Pindi’s Raja Bazaar sadly coincided with the efforts of PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf who has flown to Dubai to convince Cricket Australia delegates about the Australia tour.
Karachi too, in the past, has faced a lot of problems in recent years and has frequently been avoided by prominent teams due to security reasons. South Africa is the only team to have played a match there during their last tour.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, the PCB also began renovation work at the Gaddafi Stadium with plans of shifting the media gallery to the opposite side. However, the work is not expected to be completed before the arrival of the Australians.
Reuters adds: “Australia indicated they have an open mind on the tour and they very much want to play in Pakistan but would take a final decision after the elections on Feb 18,” the PCB Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf said.
“We reaffirmed and reassured Cricket Australia that Pakistan, as far as cricket is concerned, has a very safe and secure environment.
“We told them they can send their security team and based upon that their tour should go ahead as planned,” he added.
The 2002 series between the two countries was played at neutral venues.

Ivanovic, Hantuchova into semis of Australian Open

 

MELBOURNE: Third seed Ana Ivanovic was pushed all the way by Venus Williams before edging to a 7-6, 7-3 6-4 victory in Australian Open quarterfinal.
Ivanovic will play Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova in the last-four.
Hantuchova, 24, marched into her first Grand Slam semi-final by thumping Polish teenager Agnieszka Radwanska.
The Slovakian kept up the tempo in the second, destroying Radwanska's serves, and quickly closed out a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
Maria Sharapova takes on Jelena Jankovic in the other women's semi-final.

Organizers: New, temporary venues for Chicago's 2016 Olympics bid to cost about $900 million

CHICAGO (AP) -New and temporary venues for the city's 2016 Olympic Games bid will cost an estimated $900 million.

Organizers released the estimate Tuesday after Chicago officials sent answers to a detailed questionnaire about the games to the International Olympic Committee. And Chicago's price tag likely will grow if history is any guide. The cost of staging the 2012 London Olympics tops $19 billion, more than more triple original estimates.

The questionnaire covered everything from competition venues and financing to security and transportation.

Chicago is one of seven cities bidding for the games. Besides Chicago and Tokyo, the other bid cities are Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Baku, Azerbaijan; Doha, Qatar; Madrid, Spain; and Prague, Czech Republic.

Details also have emerged about the other cities' plans, including Tokyo, which said 95 percent of its competition venues would be within five miles of downtown.

In releasing its bid documents, Madrid organizers said the eastern edge of the city will be the focus for the Olympics. There will be 15 competition venues there, and all but five of the 30 venues will be about seven miles from the city center.

Madrid leader Mercedes Coghen called Chicago's bid "a little general.''

"I think it's the little things that (the IOC) really wants spelled out,'' she said.

Double amputee begins fight for Beijing-Pistorius wants to have tests prove he doesn't get unfair advantage

 

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius hopes that independent tests will show that he does not get an unfair advantage from his prosthetic racing blades.

The IAAF, track and field’s world governing body, ruled Monday that the South African is ineligible to compete at the Beijing Olympics — or any other sanctioned able-bodied competition — because his “Cheetah” prosthetics give him a clear competitive advantage.

“I was pretty surprised by the outcome,” Pistorius said Tuesday in an interview with Associated Press Television News. “Because some of the details had come out we were anticipating it, but it was still a big shock and I was pretty disappointed.”

The IAAF ruling was based on studies it commissioned by German professor Gert-Peter Brueggemann, who conducted tests on the prosthetic limbs and said they gave Pistorius a mechanical edge.

Pistorius again disputed that claim Tuesday.

“My goal was to qualify for the Beijing Olympics and I was 0.8 seconds off for the South African qualification time,” he said. “The company that makes my prosthetics is pretty confident they don’t give me an advantage.”

“We have given the results to some university professors of biokinetics in the U.S. and they strongly believe I do not have an advantage,” Pistorius said. “We are hoping to redo the tests at an independent level.”

Pistorius said the IAAF tests were done “very professionally” but added that other experts had told him the tests were not comprehensive enough.

“I am sure the whole thing will be sorted out in the next few months,” he said.

His manager, Peet van Zyl, said they were getting legal advice before lodging an appeal.

“The onus is on us to prove that Oscar does not receive an advantage from his blades,” Van Zyl said. “We will have to do our own independent tests. We don’t believe this is the end of the road for us.”

Pistorius was due to leave for a training camp for the Beijing Paralympics in Cape Town.

Pistorius, nicknamed the “Blade Runner,” had announced last week that he planned to appeal any adverse decision, including taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Pistorius has set world records in the 100, 200 and 400 meters in Paralympic events.

Pistorius finished second in the 400 meters at the South African national championships last year against able-bodied runners.

Even if the IAAF decision was overturned, he would still need to qualify for the South African team to race at the Beijing Olympics. The athlete said his schedule would be seriously affected by the ruling because about 80 percent of his races are able-bodied events.

Pistorius was born without fibulas — the long, thin outer bone between the knee and ankle — and was 11 months old when his legs were amputated below the knee.

He began running competitively four years ago to treat a rugby injury, and nine months later won the 200 meters at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens.

Bucknor unhappy with ouster from Australia-India series

 

MONTEGO BAY: Cricket umpire Steve Bucknor expressed disappointment in being sent home from the Test series between India and Australia.
Bucknor said he was "disappointed that I am not continuing the tour between Australia and India, in Australia. But I respect ICC's authority in the matter."
"To err is human, to forgive divine, as the old saying goes. However, I consider it a sad day to see umpires sidelined after making only two wrong decisions out of a record of 35 appeals."
Bucknor, a West Indian umpire, was dumped by the ICC after India complaints over his performance in last week's Sydney Test match won by Australia.
Bucknor the most experienced Test umpire in the Elite Panel made a quiet return home to Jamaica over the weekend, managing to elude the glare of the local press and a group that had planned to meet him at the airport to show their support for him.

Kiwis poised to wrap up Bangladesh series

WELLINGTON: New Zealand had a firm grip on the second Test against Bangladesh on the second day here Sunday with the tourists needing 199 more runs with five wickets remaining to avoid an innings defeat. International whipping boys Bangladesh, already down 1-0 in the two-Test series, had collapsed to 51 for five at stumps after starting their second innings 250 runs in arrears. To add to their woes, Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal broke his thumb when he dropped a chance from Mathew Sinclair and there were doubts whether he would bat.

Chargers must believe they can win in New England

Before I go into next Sunday's championship matchups, Norv Turner has to be commended for the job San Diego has done. Remember, there was a lot of pressure on Turner to win that first playoff game because the Chargers hadn't won a playoff game in quite a while and he was replacing a coach — Marty Schottenheimer — who got fired because he couldn't win a playoff game.

First, the Chargers beat a very good Tennessee team. But to go to Indianapolis and win, well, that's special. There were a lot of people in the league that thought the Colts might still be the best team in the NFL. These people were saying the Colts were the one team that could beat New England. But it was the Chargers who beat the Colts — with a backup quarterback and a couple of backup running backs, no less. They won without last year's MVP (LaDainian Tomlinson) playing in the second half. Also, their great tight end Antonio Gates wasn't a factor. I mean, Turner won with a crippled football team on the road in one the league's most difficult stadiums to play.

You can't say enough about what the Chargers did. But having said that, and after throwing all those accolades their way, the Chargers now must go to New England. We all know that the Patriots are a different animal. Bill Belichick knows what he's going to face, and he knows he may be facing San Diego's backups or injured starters who definitely won't be at full speed. The task for San Diego is monumental.

I have talked to Norv about his team's early season loss in New England. He said that a lot of teams have been blown out by the Patriots. We all know that, but unfortunately San Diego knows it all too well. So that's in their head. That 38-14 loss the second week of the season will play in their minds.

What Turner has got to try to fight this week with his players is that they have accomplished more than what people expected of them. It's almost like the job is done, so it may make no difference how much Turner hollers and screams. But these players must understand what they have out in front of them — they are one game from the Super Bowl. Yes, it is understandable for players to think they can't go to New England and win. I mean, no one else has done it, so why should they be able to do it?

It's human nature for the Chargers to believe they can't beat New England. But they must find a way to prepare and overcome those thoughts. People don't try (to win) because they don't want to be hurt and they don't want to be disappointed. That's why a lot of people don't try in life. A lot of people don't try to attain things because the mental process is too much for them. They don't want to be hurt by failure and disappointment. So rather than put out the effort to prepare, they give themselves an excuse and don't prepare, believing that they can't win anyway.

Well, I think Turner has to really explain this to his players. He has to say, 'How do you know you can't win?' Maybe there is only one chance in a 100, but if you don't try and if you don't prepare, that one chance won't come into play. That approach is a hell of a lot better than not trying.

The Chargers can do this because they went into Indianapolis believing they could win. I mean, this victory over Peyton Manning and the defending champions should mean a lot to them.

Maybe I'm biased. I know Marty Schottenheimer is an outstanding football coach. But Marty is also the next cliché.

Norv is just a guy, but he's a guy who is sincere. It probably is a fresh approach to this San Diego group. I have to think that Turner's approach has worked with his players. I think a lot of times he didn't win in the past because he didn't have good teams or the best of players. I have to think that maybe Norv Truner has grown as a head coach, and maybe he finally deserves a little credit.

Now with New England, the Patriots seem to keep their season on cruise control. I know Belichick won't like that description — cruise control — because this coach will have the pedal to the metal even if it is San Diego with Billy Volek at quarterback. Bill Belichick has been around the game long enough to know that anything can happen. So he won't put it on cruise control. He knows the only way his team will get better is if it plays better against San Diego, even if it means winning by 30 points. We all know that he will prepare his team that way.

It would be difficult for most teams in New England's situation not to be a little over-confident going into an AFC Championship game, but Belichick won't allow them to be. That's how they've approached this season. I mean, New England is one game away from where they want to be — the Super Bowl. I would expect that they will play better next Sunday than they did against Jacksonville last Saturday night.


A Giant effort
In the NFC, I must say that Tom Coughlin and his New York Giants have to be commended. New York defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo did a great job after New York opened the season 0-2. There was no reason why the Giants should have controlled the second half against the Cowboys, but they did.
I was impressed with how the Giants started getting better pressure on Tony Romo while also getting better coverage from a secondary that lost one its better players in Aaron Ross in the second half.

But Dallas simply didn't run its routes in the second half. Terrell Owens had four catches and a touchdown in the first half and zero in the second half. He was taken out of the game. Patrick Crayton had one catch and dropped one potential big catch. And then Marion Barber, who was running like a demon in the first half with over 100 yards, ended up with only 27 in the second half. When they did have the ball, the Cowboys didn't make any big plays.

I don't know if it was adjustments by New York's defense or if Dallas just became average. I mean, the last month or so of the season the Cowboys really slipped on offense. Tony Romo made some poor decisions in this game — he had that one grounding call. He also scrambled around a couple times and should have thrown the ball away and instead got sacked twice. The Cowboys also had a couple penalties go their way and still couldn't score the touchdown to win the game.

For the third straight game, Eli Manning played well. It will be interesting to see the Giants go to Green Bay now. But even before Dallas lost, I said Green Bay was the best team in the NFC. The Packers' defense has been consistent all year long. They have a super running back now in Ryan Grant and coach Mike McCarthy said on our show that his offensive line has really come on strong. They have opened up holes for Grant while also giving Brett Favre plenty of protection.

Favre has been something special this season. In my opinion, he was really coming off of two subpar seasons. He's adjusted his game to what McCarthy wants and has also protected the ball. He's utilizing the running game and underneath receivers and throwing those check downs — he's doing what is necessary to control the clock and ultimately the game. He's no longer forcing passes down the field.

I think Favre is playing smarter now than he's ever played, and it has shown up on the stats pages — Favre has had one of his best seasons ever. Right now, playing at home and in those wintry conditions, I don't see any holes in the Packers.

OK, I have praised the Packers and Favre, but the Giants continue to surprise me. They surprised me by playing so efficiently in Tampa, and they definitely surprised me in the second half against Dallas. Maybe they will surprise me again. They did give New England a great game before losing.

But I don't really think they will beat Green Bay because the Packers are really the better team.

Through this whole season, I know I got hot on some teams. I got hot on the Cowboys there for awhile, but week in and week out, the Packers got better and better. We thought they were really fortunate early in the season when they were winning without a running game. Now all of sudden they have Grant, they have that 1-2 punch — Grant and Favre. I always wondered if Favre would return to his old bad habits, but it never happened.

Finally, I want to say that I'm not really sure what happened to the Cowboys over the last month of the season. I don't know if they simply got caught up believing what people were saying about them. I mean, we were all saying they were really good.

But they were not efficient in the end. It is only human nature to pull back from your preparation and effort when you are having success. This is why I say that being a head coach is so hard. It is such a difficult job because you are dealing with highly paid athletes who are constantly being told how great they are. When that happens, the players don't work as hard. I don't know if that's the reason or not for the Dallas collapse. For some reason, the Cowboys did not get better as the season went along, and that's shocking to me because they do have so many great players.

The Cowboys obviously got to thinking they were pretty great and they weren't. Obviously, they weren't as good as the Giants. And I also know they aren't as good as Green Bay.