malaysia second success of the day was achieved through world no koo kien
keat tan boon heong who had to work hard for their win over
xu chen guo zhendong of china in thrilling minute battle in the men
doubles
it was koo and tan second malaysia open title after triumphing on their debut
in
nordic skiing world cup results
rybinsk russia jan afp
results of the men world cup sprint relay on sunday
russia min sec
italy at
germany
italy
russia
injured as iran plane crashlands catches fire media
tehran jan afp
an iranian passenger plane crashlanded sunday in thick fog in the northeastern
city of mashhad and caught fire injuring at least people state television
and other news networks said
iranian officials told local news networks that the rear end of the russian
built tupolev plane owned by taban airline and piloted by russian caught
fire as the aircraft landed in the fog
forty six people have been injured but most of them are not serious state
television quoted javad erfanian head of disaster management of khorasan razavi
province of which mashhad is the capital as saying
he said that emergency services evacuated the passengers after which the rear
end of the aircraft broke up
pictures released by iranian news networks showed both wings of the plane torn
off and the rear end burning
the english language state owned press tv said the plane travelling from abadan
in southwest iran to mashhad had passengers on board erfanian said the
plane also had crew members on board
an unnamed informed source told fars news agency that the accident occurred as
the russian pilot landed the plane in the fog and its tail hit the ground and
broke up
the plane caught fire after passengers were evacuated the report said as press
tv footage showed smoke billowing from the rear end
mohsen esmaili manager of mashhad airport told mehr news agency that the pilot
landed the plane in fog despite repeated warnings from the control tower
saying he had sick patient on board
reza jafarzadeh spokesman for iranian civil aviation said the plane had left
abadan on saturday but bad weather in mashhad led to the aircraft landing in the
central city of isfahan for the night before it took off again for mashhad early
sunday
the captain had critical patient on board and so had to do an emergency
landing in mashhad which is why the aircraft met with an accident he was
quoted as saying on the website of state television
iran which has been under years of international sanctions has suffered
number of aviation disasters over the past decade several of them involving
small companies using russian crew or crews from former soviet republics of
central asia
iran civil and military fleet is made up of ancient aircraft in very poor
condition due to their age and lack of maintenance
in its worst air accident plane carrying members of iran elite
revolutionary guards crashed in february killing people on board
in july last year soviet designed tupolev caught fire mid air and plunged
flaming into farmland northeast of tehran killing all people on board
in december total of people were killed when lockheed transport
plane crashed into high rise housing block outside tehran
in november military plane crashed on takeoff at tehran mehrabad
airport killing all people on board including members of the
revolutionary guards
merkel prepares tough sell on afghan mission
berlin jan afp
chancellor angela merkel prepared sunday to sell sceptical voters on bolstering
the german presence in afghanistan with sharper focus on reconstruction and
reconciliation
germany the third biggest provider of foreign troops would make training
security forces its primary focus in afghanistan merkel said as her ministers
bombarded the sunday papers with interviews on berlin fine tuned strategy
we are going to focus our military mission principally on training security
forces the chancellor said in her weekly internet podcast at the weekend
germany is chiefly engaged in northern afghanistan and that is where we will
fulfil our training commitment in speedier and more concentrated manner than
hitherto
merkel said she would discuss how best to coordinate afghan and international
efforts during talks tuesday and wednesday in berlin with afghan president
hamid karzai ahead of crunch international talks thursday in london
she made no mention of us request for germany to deploy more troops having
previously said she would take no decision on this score before the london
conference
but defence minister karl theodor zu guttenberg told the daily frankfurter
allgemeine zeitung that he would propose before london concrete figure for
possible increase of the participation of german troops
the hike would however depend on the outcome of the london meeting he said in
an interview to be published monday
the remarks come ahead of hectic diplomatic week for merkel after the karzai
talks the chancellor is to address parliament wednesday on afghanistan
berlin participation in the strong international force fighting the
taliban insurgency with its deployment of around troops is deeply
unpopular among germans
foreign minister guido westerwelle who is to represent berlin in london said
germany was still weighing whether to boost its force but would not go along
without change in strategy
ve never said that we would send no extra troops for example to train afghan
forces he told sunday bild am sonntag weekly but not giving blank
cheque
he also called for using the current contingent in the best way
westerwelle who leads the pro business free democrats junior partners in
merkel ruling coalition has been vocal in calls for change in strategy in
afghanistan focused on rebuilding the country and dealing with former fighters
there are many hangers on with the taliban terrorists who do not share their
fanatical beliefs but who for economic reasons are on the wrong path he
said
they need to be offered an economic and social way out for themselves and their
families we will provide additional funds for that he said predicting
completely new approach to reintegrating insurgents into society at the london
talks
but the us envoy in afghanistan and pakistan richard holbrooke indicated there
would be little time for bottom up debate telling the german weekly der
spiegel to appear monday that the strategy for afghanistan is settled and the
london conference would be to implement it
since the horrors unleashed by the nazis during world war ii germany has
remained reticent about military missions abroad
northern afghanistan where the bulk of germany troops are based has seen
sharp rise in attacks on foreign forces in the last year
in response to the mounting threat german commander on september called in
raid near kunduz that killed up to people including several civilians
the bombing just weeks before the german general election prompted public
outrage forcing the defence minister at the time to resign and putting merkel
under pressure to clearly define berlin afghan policy
iraqi mps call for probe into bomb detection device
baghdad jan afp
the head of the iraqi parliament defence and security committee on sunday
called for an investigation into controversial device used at checkpoints to
detect bombs but recently banned by britain
we will start to gather evidence to find out how this piece of equipment was
sold to iraq hadi al ameri chair of the committee told afp
if the british company was responsible we will seek compensation via the
ministry of foreign affairs
ameri was referring to the ade hand held pistol shaped device which uses
series of interchangeable credit card size paper cards said to be able to
detect explosives such as and tnt as well as weapons
it is manufactured by atsc british based company was reputedly sold for
between and dollars per unit and has become ubiquitous in iraq
having been bought in large numbers by local security forces
britain banned export of the device last week after tests showed it was not
suitable for bomb detection police also arrested atsc director jim mccormick
on suspicion of fraud by misrepresentation he was bailed pending further
investigation
the ade was being used on sunday in baghdad the restive northern city of
mosul and the sprawling southern city of basra afp correspondents said
ammar touma an mp who sits on the defence and security committee echoed
ameri concerns and called for probe into why the ade had been bought
want an investigation into why this device was purchased he said also
want to know if corruption was involved
the defence and security committee investigation must be approved by parliament
before it is formally allowed to come into force
nordic skiing russian men claim world cup sprint relay win
rybinsk russia jan afp
russia nikolay morilov fresh from claiming the individual sprint title and
team mate alexei petukhov won the men world cup team sprint relay here on
sunday
the russian pair clocked min sec around the km course to finish
just sec ahead of italian duo fabio pasini and loris frasnelli
germany team of tim tscharnke and josef wenzl were third after crossing the
line sec behind the winners
drug that helps ms patients walk faster approved in us
washington jan afp
the us food and drug administration fda has approved drug which has been
found to allow with multiple sclerosis ms to walk faster the drug watchdog
said
multiple sclerosis patients treated with the drug ampyra generic name
dalfampridine were found in clinical trials to have faster walking speeds than
those treated with placebo the fda said
trouble with walking is one of the most debilitating problems people with ms
face russell katz director of the division of neurology products in the fda
center for drug evaluation and research said in statement saturday
ampyra is the first drug approved by the fda to help improve ms patients
walking
multiple sclerosis is chronic often disabling disease that affects the brain
spinal cord and optic nerves
around million people worldwide including in the united states
have ms according to multiple sclerosis society
badminton malaysian open finals results
kuala lumpur jan afp
results from the finals of the malaysian open part of the super series
tournament held at the bukit jalil stadium on sunday denotes seeds
men singles
lee chong wei masx bt boonsak ponsana tha
women singles
wang xin chn bt bae youn joo kor bae retired hurt
men doubles
koo kien keat tan boon heong masx bt xu chen guo zhendong chnx
women doubles
du jing yu yang chnx bt ma jin wang xiaoli chnx
mixed doubles
thomas laybourn kamilla rytter juhl den bt tao jiaming zhang yawen chn
afp
football eto wants to halt egypt humiliation
benguela angola jan afp
cameroon skipper samuel eto has said he wants his team to beat egypt in
monday africa cup of nations quarterfinal here and bring to an end poor run
against the defending champions
in the past five years the indomitable lions of cameroon have only managed
draw at home with egypt who have won the three other clashes between the two
teams
we will fight and do our best because they have humiliated us for some time
now but not god to say we will win said eto at press conference here
on sunday
have always tried to give the best of myself in every game and that
what will do against egypt
we have squad of capable players who are all here to defend the
national colours no player is here on holiday and we will continue to work
hard and stay focused
egypt were forced to draw by cameroon in decisive world cup
qualifier in paving the way for the ivory coast to qualify for their
first ever world cup while at the nations cup in ghana the pharaohs beat
cameroon in group game before they again defeated them in the
tournament final
cameroon did not not go to the world cup in germany because of egypt
but because of cameroon we did not score the last minute penalty to take us
there argued the inter milan striker who added that he has fulfilled his
promise to qualify the team to the last eight of the competition
and we would have won the final of the last nations cup after they beat us
in our first match of the tournament
egypt are an experienced team but on monday it will be players against
players and so we have to run faster than the egyptians to win no egyptian
player has four legs
cameroon coach paul le guen said he has been worried that his team have let
in early goals in their group match in lubango
my concern is that at the start of our group matches we conceded three
early goals and it was difficult to come back after these goals acknowledged
the former lyon coach
but am satisfied with the team spirit this is the most important thing
and it is getting better and better
the four time champions had to come back against zambia to win with late
goal while they forced tunisia to draw in an all important final group
game after going down within minute
sam lp
bin laden claims christmas bombing warns of further attacks
dubai jan afp
al qaeda chief osama bin laden claimed responsibility for the botched christmas
day bombing of us airliner and vowed further strikes on us targets in an
audio message broadcast sunday
the brief statement carried by al jazeera satellite television warned washington
that the attack was meant as similar message to that of the september
attacks on the us carried out by al qaeda militants who hijacked airliners
and crashed them into buildings
bin laden in the statement praised as hero nigerian national umar farouk
abdulmutallab who allegedly tried to detonate explosives on northwest airline
over detroit on december but who was foiled when passengers pounced on him
the message that was conveyed through the attacked plane of the hero umar
farouk is to stress earlier messages delivered to you by the heroes of the
september attack he said
that message is that america should not dream of security until we enjoy it
as reality in palestine he added
the authenticity of the brief audio statement could not immediately be verified
but al jazeera said the voice was that of bin laden
had we been able to deliver our messages to you in words we would not have
sent them by planes the audio statement said
it is not fair that you america enjoy good life while our brothers in gaza
endure the worst standard of living therefore god willing our attacks against
you will continue as long as you maintain your support to israel
al qaeda franchise in yemen al qaeda in the arabian peninsula aqap had
claimed responsibility for the christmas day plane attack and analysts said bin
laden through his latest statement is stressing that he is still in overall
control of the network
intelligence officials military analysts and other experts have long believed
he is holed up along the remote mountainous border between pakistan and
afghanistan and have hinted that groups such as aqap could be operating
autonomously
washington has accused aqap of training abdulmutallab who had spent some time
in yemen
the us administration is putting pressure on yemen to clamp down on al qaeda
militants in the impoverished country and an international meeting to discuss
combating militancy in yemen will be held on january in london
british foreign secretary david miliband said in london sunday that the
christmas day foiled attack marks new phase in al qaeda campaign against
the west
the heart of the al qaeda senior leadership remains on the afghan pakistan
border miliband said
but there is real issue in yemen the fact that al qaeda in the arabian
peninsula should have tried to strike in detroit marks new phase in the
campaign and that why there an important meeting on yemen on wednesday
the yemeni government has intensified its campaign against al qaeda carrying
out waves of air strikes on the extremists hideouts and insists it can battle
the group on its own without any foreign military intervention
bin laden who has million dollar bounty on his head last made public
statement four months ago when he was quoted on september by site
intelligence group monitoring service as urging european countries to pull their
forces out of afghanistan
in an audio message released in march he accused some arab leaders of being
complicit with israel and the west against muslims and urged holy war to
liberate the palestinian territories
us grand jury has indicted year old abdulmutallab on six counts arising
from the attempt to blow up the jet packed with passengers and crew on
flight from amsterdam to detroit
michigan district court documents accused him of carrying concealed bomb of
high explosives inside his clothing on northwest airlines flight
us intelligence chiefs last wednesday admitted that they missed slew of
warning signs that should have stopped abdulmutallab from boarding the plane and
prevented the attempted attack
nordic skiing women world cup sprint relay results
rybinsk russia jan afp
results of the women world cup sprint relay
germany min sec
slovenia at
russia
germany
switzerland
tennis shattered del potro out for the count
melbourne jan afp
shattered us open champion juan martin del potro was dumped out of the
australian open after losing titanic five setter to croatian th seed marin
cilic in the fourth round on sunday
the argentine fourth seed battled for four hours minutes before going down
on hisense arena
cilic will play in his first australian quarter final on tuesday against either
american seventh seed andy roddick or former finalist fernando gonzalez of
chile
it was sweet revenge for the croat who lost to del potro at the same stage in
last year tournament and in the quarter finals at the us open
it wasn easy to play him had to stay all the time really focused cilic
said think the thing that kept me in there was my serve that was one key
thing that did well
think since the us open ve started to play much better and win against
better guys more often
ve had some tough matches here in the first few rounds but today felt
really good physically and that in the end was the main difference
del potro who savoured the euphoria of nation after his us open final triumph
over roger federer was exhausted as he reflected on his loss
we played hard match five sets again he said marin is playing great
tennis think he did better than me and he won
he said far from being burdened with expectations he revelled in the pressure
of being grand slam champion
no really enjoyed that pressure he said the crowd has been unbelievable
with me they supported me in every match every point
was down in every match and they helped me to keep fighting like today
really like it that pressure
it ended draining week for the argentine he spent almost hours on court
and played total of sets in his four matches at the year opening grand
slam
he was troubled during the tournament by wrist injury which forced him out of
the kooyong classic lead up exhibition tournament in melbourne
will go home and will see the doctors there need little rest to recover
and be in good shape for my next tournaments
del potro was bidding to match his best result at the australian open when he
reached the quarter finals last year before going down in straight set to
federer
the victory stretched cilic winning streak to this season after
successfully defending his title at chennai on the way to australia
ve played some great matches and winning against del potro shows that
not going to let it go easy cilic said
cilic broke del potro service four times in the marathon match in the th
game of the second set the th and th games in the third set and in the
fourth game of the final set
the croat hit winners and made unforced errors as the match ebbed and flow
and edged out del potro with aces to
ahmadinejad hints iran resolved to make pct nuclear fuel
tehran jan afp
president mahmoud ahmadinejad hinted on sunday that tehran would itself pursue
uranium enrichment to higher levels if the west spurns its offer of phased
fuel swap promising iranians sweet news in the days ahead
ahmadinejad said iran will make an announcement regarding the enrichment of
uranium to percent purity when the nation marks next month the st
anniversary of the islamic revolution which toppled the us backed shah
iran has given chance to western countries ahmadinejad was quoted as saying
by fars news agency when asked by reporters about iran deadline to world
powers over the controversial nuclear fuel deal
therefore during the days of dawn february to we will announce good
news regarding the production of percent enriched fuel in our country he
said referring to the period marking the islamic revolution
this news is so sweet that it will make any iranian and any freedom loving
person in the world happy this news is about iran scientific advancement
fars quoted the president as saying
the un atomic watchdog has offered proposal which sees the bulk of iran low
enriched uranium of percent purity being sent to russia and france in one
shot for further enrichment to percent level and then returned as fuel for
tehran research reactor
enriched uranium of percent purity is used as fuel to power nuclear reactors
and iran needs it to run its internationally monitored tehran facility
iranian officials however have offered counter proposal of phased fuel
swap and foreign minister manouchehr mottaki gave the west an end january
deadline to accept the iranian plan
world powers led by washington are against iran enriching uranium as it can be
used fuel in nuclear reactors and also to make the fissile core of atom bomb
the west suspect iran wants enriched uranium despite three sets of un
sanctions so that it can make atomic weapons tehran says its nuclear
programme is aimed solely at generating electricity
western powers have indicated that iran has effectively rejected the un brokered
proposal put forward in talks in vienna hosted by the international atomic
energy agency the un nuclear watchdog
but mottaki insists iran has not rejected the principle of the nuclear fuel
deal
us secretary of state hillary clinton amid increasing international frustration
with tehran has vowed washington will not be waited out and not back down
in the face of iran defiance
iran chief nuclear negotiator saeed jalili meanwhile will travel to moscow
on tuesday for high level talks with russian president dmitry medvedev and prime
minister vladimir putin according to isna news agency
moscow has long been nuclear partner of tehran and has built iran first
nuclear power plant in the southern port city of bushehr but it is still to be
operational
in recent months medvedev has indicated that moscow could back fresh sanctions
against iran over its controversial nuclear programme
earlier this week russian foreign minister lavrov said moscow does regret
iran refusal to accept the un brokered fuel plan
he noted that the un security council had the capacity to study further
measures on iran but did not come out explicitly in support of further
sanctions against tehran
acting with logic of punishing iran is not sober approach he said
gholam ali haddad adel an influential iranian lawmaker with close ties to
supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei reiterated on sunday that tehran will not
give up its right to nuclear technology
there is no reason for westerners to pressurise us and if they want to
impose new sanctions then the iranian nation will not give up its nuclear
right haddad adel was quoted by state television website as saying
tennis zheng sees two chinese in semi finals
melbourne jan afp
history making zheng jie is confident two chinese players can make the semi
finals of the australian open further boosting the sport image in the world
most populous nation
the year old world number made the bold claim after beating st seeded
ukrainian alona bondarenko on sunday to become the first chinese
player ever to make the quarter finals in melbourne
her reward is last eight showdown against surprise opponent russian maria
kirilenko who made it through when second seed dinara safina withdrew in the
first set of their match with back injury
zheng and li na have already created history by becoming the first two chinese
players into the fourth round of grand slam
li plays her fourth round match on monday against fourth seed caroline
wozniacki with the presence of the two players in the second week sparking keen
interest in china
zheng said her success along with li was giving the sport in china massive
boost
feel tennis is very quickly going up in popularity in china she said
you can see lot of the newspapers coming from china she said pointing to
the large number of chinese reporters in the interview room
think it started to become popular from li ting and tian tian won the
gold medal from the olympic games
zheng won the first of her two grand slam titles at the australian open
when she took out the women doubles with yan zi
yan who lost in the first round of the mixed doubles on sunday said the game
was growing quickly in china with parents now encouraging their children to
play tennis rather than other sports
table tennis and badminton are still the most popular but more mums and dads
are taking their children to tennis clubs now yan said
that popularity will be sure to be grow even more if li can join zheng in the
quarter finals
think we can go further because you can see li na in the fourth round
hope both chinese players can be in the semi finals zheng said
zheng li yan and peng shuai were all part of the chinese national program but
have now been granted the freedom to plan their own careers and to keep the
majority of their prizemoney
for zheng li and peng that freedom has proved blessing with series of good
results throughout bringing further exposure back home
finally can have my own schedule zheng told the china daily last year
can control my time now
only yan has struggled since going out on her own but she told the newspaper
she had no desire to return to the state system
but despite the presence of the chinese women on the world tour the chinese men
have still not made any impact
maybe men need to work harder zheng said with laugh
nordic skiiing germany win world cup sprint relay
rybinsk russia jan afp
germany evi sachenbacher stehle and stefanie boehler won the women world cup
sprint relay here on sunday
the pair covered the km course in time of min sec with the
slovenian pair of katja visnar and vesna fabjan second at sec
the russian duo of irina khazova and olga rotcheva who were sec behind
claimed third
the islamic veil state of play in europe
paris jan afp
ban on the wearing of the full islamic veil is being studied in several
european countries including the netherlands denmark and austria
in france parliamentary commission is due to present much awaited report on
tuesday which is expected to recommend that new legislation be enacted to ban
the full veil known as the burqa or niqab in public places
the state of play in western europe
the netherlands several draft laws concerning the wearing of the veil are in
the pipeline including measure which would ban the garment for teachers
another draft aims at ban concerning civil servants
denmark the government is currently discussing the possibility of limiting
wearing of the veil in public places including school and courts it is
awaiting the opinion of government commission before deciding
italy law aimed at protecting public order makes it illegal to cover
one face in public places the provision applies equally to the veil and
motorcycle helmets some mayors from the anti immigrant northern league have
banned the wearing of the full veil and the islamic swimsuit locally
britain the british government on friday stated that it did not share france
views on secularisation in the uk we are comfortable with expressions of
belief be it the wearing of the turban hijab crucifix or kippa however the
education ministry in march published directives allowing directors of
public establishments and denominational schools to ban the niqab after several
high profile court cases
austria social democratic women minister gabriele heinisch hosek launched the
debate recently and is mulling ban on the full islamic veil in public spaces
if the number of women veiled from head to toe increases dramatically
france in it passed law banning headscarves or any other conspicuous
religious symbols in state schools
belgium numerous districts ban the full veil in public places under local laws
and police ban the wearing of masks in the street except during the period of
carnival
tennis australian open results day seven th update
melbourne jan afp
results from day seven of the australian open at melbourne park here sunday
denotes seeding
men singles
th round
