Chelsea beats Barcelona

 

Chelsea are through to the Champions League final after a draw against Barcelona in their semi-final second-leg encounter was enough to hand them a 3-2 aggregate victory over the holders.
Roberto Di Matteo's team defended brilliantly throughout, and will now travel to Munich on May 19 despite playing the majority of the match with 10 men.The Catalans appeared to be home and dry after goals by Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta either side of a John Terry red card appeared to put the Blues out of the competition before half-time.However, Ramires put the tie back into Chelsea's hands with a fantastic effort just before the interval.Lionel Messi missed a penalty early in the second-half, and the Blues combined superb defending with a bit of luck, before Fernando Torres put the icing on the cake by finishing off a counterattack at the death.


The game plan from Di Matteo was simple as Chelsea, much as they had done in the first leg, looked to defend deep in numbers and relieve pressure on the counter whenever they could.

Barca continued to control the game, and opened Chelsea up once more with a delightful passing move, with only the legs of Petr Cech preventing Messi from opening the scoring.
Cesc Fabregas and Didier Drogba each found the side netting before Javier Mascherano sent an unlikely 25-yard piledriver just over the bar as the home side continued to search for a way through.
The hosts were forced to bring on Dani Alves after 26 minutes for Gerard Pique, who failed to recover sufficiently from an earlier clash of heads with Victor Valdes.
The Brazilian played a part in the opener 10 minutes after his arrival, releasing Isaac Cuenca down the left, whose cutback evaded multiple bodies before Busquets tapped in.
It went from bad to worse for Chelsea, as they found themselves reduced to 10 men within two minutes. Terry appeared to knee Sanchez in the back off the ball, and was shown a straight red card by the referee.
Barca took advantage of their superior numbers, and struck again two minutes before half-time. Messi caused panic with a run at the defence before slipping in Iniesta, who slotted into the corner.
But rather than implode, as so many teams have done against the Catalans, Chelsea responded, out of nowhere, in some style.A punt from defence by Frank Lampard was latched onto by Ramires, who guided a delightful lob over Valdes to send the Londoners into the break with the advantage on away goals.
Barca were handed a chance to regain the aggregate lead three minutes after the restart, with an apparent trip on Fabregas by Drogba in the box was spotted by the officials, leading to a penalty.
However, Chelsea’s advantage was left intact as Messi smacked the spot-kick off the crossbar.
Sanchez headed an Alves cross just wide and Cuenca was blocked at the last by Cech, as Barca set up camp in the opposition half for the remainder of the match.
But it was proving to be the same story as the first leg, as Chelsea’s doggedness at the back was just enough to keep Guardiola’s men at bay.
They were almost caught out 10 minutes before the end though, but Messi could only strike the post after being put clear with only the keeper to beat.
But the Catalans were out of ideas in attack, and were finished for good by substitute Torres in the final minute of injury time. With almost every Barca player committed in the opposition half, the Spaniard latched onto a pass from defence by Ashley Cole, rounded Valdes and fired home.
Chelsea continue their incredible renaissance under Di Matteo, and will await either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the final at the Allianz Arena on May 19.

India tops in spam email

 

India is now the top spam-spewing nation on the planet overtaking America, according to a report of the security firm Sophos which ranks nations by the amount of junk mail routed through computers in each country.

The report said that some ten per cent of all junk mail sent across the web came from or passed through computers in India with America in the second place at 8.3 per cent and South Korea third at 5.7 per cent.

It attributed India’s dramatic rise up the ``spam chart’’ partly to the inexperience of many of first-time internet users. The report reckoned that about 80 per cent of all junk email was routed through PCs hijacked by hi-tech criminals who used computer viruses to seize control of the machines. Once a computer was under their control they used them to send out mail on their behalf, typically relaying it from another nation.

New species of crab discovered in the Philippines

 

Four new species of crab have been discovered in the Philippine island of Palawan. And one of them has an unusually bright purple shell.National Geographic reports that the crab may use its uniquely colored shell to help identify its own kind."It is known that crabs can discriminate colours. Therefore, it seems likely that the colouration has a signal function for the social behaviour, e.g. mating," Hendrik Freitag of the Senckenberg Museum of Zoology in Dresden, Germany told AFP."The particular violet coloration might just have evolved by chance, and must not necessarily have a very specific function or reason aside from being a general visual signal for recognition,"said  Freitag. Freitag's report on the new species of crabs was published in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology.The crabs are quite small in stature, each from about an inch to two inches wide.

While many species of crab are known by their red rust hues, some differently colored crab species are quite popular around the world, perhaps most notably the Chesapeake blue crab.

Freitag said the purple crabs likely have several natural predators, including some humans in remote areas. But he said the greatest threat to the species is ongoing forest clearing for farming, mining and home building.