the australian open with gripping five set victory over american andy roddick
on tuesday
cilic at the youngest of the eight quarter finalists wore down the seventh
seeded roddick in three hours minutes on rod
laver arena
his reward is semi final against either defending champion rafael nadal of
british fifth seed andy murray
today was tough match mentally and for murray or nadal it going to take
also lot of energy out of me he said so we ll see how going to be able
to survive
think the biggest thing is to try to recover as much as can and to try to
be ready so can play at my level
it was another test of endurance for the th seeded cilic who has spent the
longest time on court of all the remaining players in the draw at hours
eight minutes for his five matches
it was his third five set match of the tournament
today was not easy was little bit tired from the matches before he said
the first set took lot of energy out of me because it was not only physical
battle but mental one as well
cilic looked as if his challenge was fading when roddick fought back to level at
two sets all after the croatian had claimed the opening two sets
but he found his second wind in the gruelling deciding set to finish off
roddick who was bidding for his fifth semi final appearance at the australian
open
was bit surprised because he was breaking me pretty easily in those two
sets he said
when got out of it started to serve better was mentally fresher
cilic remains unbeaten this year at after defending his title at chennai on
his way to australia
it was his second consecutive quarter final appearance at grand slam after
losing to eventual champion juan martin del potro at last year us open
yet again it was more heartbreak for roddick as he fell short in his bid to add
to his sole grand slam title from the us open
roddick is the last american male grand slam winner the longest major title
drought for the proud tennis nation
but he was not too disappointed given sore shoulder
to be able to push it and have shot thought it was pretty good effort
roddick said
hit the ball about as well as could throughout the whole match still hit
the ball pretty well in the fifth
roddick had medical timeout after the first set to seek treatment for the
painful right shoulder
felt it little bit the other night the cold weather trying to hit through
and didn hit yesterday he said
felt pretty good today in warmup and in the first couple games and then
aggravated something
he has losing five set career record of while cilic is
the young croat prevailed even though he struggled on serve with his first serve
percentage down to percent but he out aced the power serving roddick to
he broke roddick serve five times and dropped his six times
tennis marathon man cilic outlasts roddick
melbourne jan afp
marathon man marin cilic became the first croatian to reach the semi finals of
the australian open with gripping five set victory over american andy roddick
on tuesday
cilic at the youngest of the eight quarter finalists wore down the seventh
seeded roddick in three hours minutes on rod
laver arena
his reward is semi final against either defending champion rafael nadal of
british fifth seed andy murray
today was tough match mentally and for murray or nadal it going to take
also lot of energy out of me he said so we ll see how going to be able
to survive
think the biggest thing is to try to recover as much as can and to try to
be ready so can play at my level
it was another test of endurance for the th seeded cilic who has spent the
longest time on court of all the remaining players in the draw at hours
eight minutes for his five matches
it was his third five set match of the tournament
today was not easy was little bit tired from the matches before he said
the first set took lot of energy out of me because it was not only physical
battle but mental one as well
cilic looked as if his challenge was fading when roddick fought back to level at
two sets all after the croatian had claimed the opening two sets
but he found his second wind in the gruelling deciding set to finish off
roddick who was bidding for his fifth semi final appearance at the australian
open
was bit surprised because he was breaking me pretty easily in those two
sets he said
when got out of it started to serve better was mentally fresher
cilic remains unbeaten this year at after defending his title at chennai on
his way to australia
it was his second consecutive quarter final appearance at grand slam after
losing to eventual champion juan martin del potro at last year us open
yet again it was more heartbreak for roddick as he fell short in his bid to add
to his sole grand slam title from the us open
roddick is the last american male grand slam winner the longest major title
drought for the proud tennis nation
but he was not too disappointed given sore shoulder
to be able to push it and have shot thought it was pretty good effort
roddick said
hit the ball about as well as could throughout the whole match still hit
the ball pretty well in the fifth
roddick had medical timeout after the first set to seek treatment for the
painful right shoulder
felt it little bit the other night the cold weather trying to hit through
and didn hit yesterday he said
felt pretty good today in warmup and in the first couple games and then
aggravated something
he has losing five set career record of while cilic is
the young croat prevailed even though he struggled on serve with his first serve
percentage down to percent but he out aced the power serving roddick to
he broke roddick serve five times and dropped his six times
germany to send more troops to afghanistan merkel
berlin jan afp
germany plans to send more troops to afghanistan chancellor angela merkel
said tuesday ahead of london conference on the international mission future
the current upper limit of german troops is capped at merkel also said
there would be an new additional reserve of soldiers
merkel said that berlin was not setting withdrawal date for german troops and
that berlin would provide million euros million dollars to an
international fund to bring insurgents into the mainstream
we are not going to name withdrawl date but we support the afghans in this
aim merkel told reporters
haitians face decade to rebuild lives
port au prince jan afp
quake hit haiti will need at least decade of painstaking reconstruction aid
chiefs and donor nations warned as homeless scarred survivors struggled
tuesday to rebuild their lives
two weeks after the disaster which killed around people and left
million homeless fresh looting and chaotic food handouts underlined the grim
conditions those who lived through magnitude quake
right now the needs of the people are survival and immediate recovery said
pierre kraehenbuehl who is director of operations at the international
committee of the red cross
next comes the phase of long term reconstruction he told foreign media in
tokyo this is going to be more than years of efforts
international powers meeting in montreal to discuss aid and reconstruction for
haiti one of the world poorest nations even before the quake heard
canadian prime minister stephen harper deliver similar timeframe
we must work to ensure that every resource committed every relief worker
every vehicle every dollar is used as effectively as possible he said
haitian prime minister jean max bellerive said the world must hammer out long
term strategy after meeting the caribbean country immediate needs for food
water shelter and health care
we are still in an emergency us secretary of state hillary clinton told the
meeting
there is terrible humanitarian crisis that we are dealing with we don yet
feed all of the people we don yet have water for them
we have so many who have been grievously injured those who have received
medical care many of them have amputated limbs and there are no prosthetics
there are no places to sleep
donor countries agreed to hold full conference on aid to haiti at the un
headquarters in new york in march
rescuers led by us troops have struggled to get enough aid into the
capital port au prince and flattened towns near the quake epicentre stoking
security fears
haitian police shot two people in the head as scavengers picked through the
debris in the ruined heart of port au prince while thousands of people joined
mass exodus from squalid tent camps
haiti president rene preval in statement urged the world to urgently
airlift more tents and million ready to eat packs before the rainy
season starts in may
wendy batson executive director of the us branch of handicap international
which is racing to supply temporary prosthetics said the disabling injuries
surpass anything we ve ever seen anywhere else
at the presidential palace daily aid hand out descended into chaos as small
team of uruguayan un peacekeepers were confronted by desperately hungry
haitians
whatever we do it doesn matter they are animals un trooper said as
others sprayed pepper spray and fired rubber bullets into the air
bulldozers cleared corpse filled houses elsewhere in the city centre but hopes
have faded of finding more miracle survivors in the rubble the last man who
survived for days by drinking cola was rescued on saturday
merchants are risking their lives trying to protect what little they have left
as the sun sets looters appear shots ring out in the distance as shadowy
figures flee clutching bolts of fabric soda bottles pants anything they
can get hold of
the united nations said more than haitians have used free buses to flee
the filth in port au prince for more hygienic camps outside the capital others
have used private transport
health minister alex larsen said that tents were being readied for
people at mini villages that will initially hold and in the long term
accommodate around one million
in the town of leogane percent destroyed by the quake some good news has
emerged it has acquired new hospital after more than two years without after
international aid teams set up operations at nursing school
josh white an american doctor said his mobile unit comprising general
surgeon five orthopedists and urologist planned to stay for the next six
months as the town homeless try to rebuild their lives
mobile toilets hit dhaka streets
dhaka jan afp
bangladesh has ordered an emergency deployment of mobile toilets in its
capital to head off worrying rise in public defecation dhaka mayor said
tuesday
sadeque hossain khoka told afp the sprawling metropolis which has an official
population of million has only public toilets one for every quarter of
million residents
we have launched mobile toilets which will be carried around manually on
tricycle vans they will be strategically placed so that people don have to
use road corners to answer the call of nature he said
unofficially dhaka population tops million when vast slums on the city
outskirts are included
the tin sided mobile toilets are plastered with colourful advertisements
including quotes from famous bangla poem which tells people let do good
work no matter where you were born
they also carry posters urging people not to treat streets and open spaces as
public toilets
the mobile toilets will charge five taka cents for people to defecate and
two taka to urinate and are now available for hours day between am and
pm
dhaka chief city planner sirajul islam said the authorities had adopted the
mobile toilet plan after failing to identify sufficient plots of vacant city
centre land on which to build permanent public toilets
the situation has become so bad on some roads that you cannot walk there this
is spreading disease he said
china says unaware of rights lawyer whereabouts
beijing jan afp
chinese government official said tuesday he had no idea of the whereabouts of
human rights lawyer feared to have died in custody
state security personnel took gao zhisheng from his home village in the northern
province of shaanxi in february last year and he has not been heard from since
the new york based human rights in china has said
guess that he should be where he should be foreign ministry spokesman ma
zhaoxu told reporters
but honestly speaking really have no way to get this type of information and
also don know where he is he said
according to us based christian rights group chinaaid the police officer who
detained gao recently told the attorney brother that gao had been missing
since september sparking concern he may have died in custody
you cannot ask the foreign ministry spokesman to know where everyone is china
has population of billion cannot know where everyone is ma said
gao once prominent lawyer and communist party member has been an outspoken
defender of people seeking redress from the government including coal miners
underground christians and the banned falungong spiritual movement
in december he was convicted of subversion given suspended sentence of
three years in prison and immediately placed under house arrest
after writing an open letter to the us congress in gao said he was
subjected to several weeks of torture including electric shocks to his genitals
and having his eyes burned by cigarettes
gao wife geng he and their two children fled beijing early last year to live
in the united states after their daughter had tried to commit suicide several
times
china tightening weighs on asia stocks
hong kong jan afp
lingering concerns that beijing will move to tighten liquidity fed into regional
stock markets tuesday which fell as investors overlooked positive result on
wall street
markets have been on edge since china announced last week that its economy
expanded at better than expected pace last year while inflation was soaring
and bank lending was at record high
the region has also been on downward slope since us president barack obama on
thursday launched series of initiatives to restrict what he called the
excessive bank risk taking that led to the global downturn
china strong figures have led to speculation that authorities will move to
rein in the red hot economy by staunching lending or raising interest rates
shanghai closed down percent or points amid reports that
chinese authorities had ordered several banks to stop issuing new loans this
month as fears grow that the extra money is fuelling inflation
more investors are moving to the sidelines as they remain cautious of more
policy headwinds zhang qi from haitong securities told dow jones newswires
the concerns spilled over into hong kong which saw its fifth straight loss to
close down percent or points to
there is growing expectation that china will lift interest rates soon after
reporting economic expansion of percent in and percent in the
fourth quarter of the year data also showed inflation at month high
beijing is also keen to put the brakes on runaway lending last year that has led
to fears of asset bubbles and possible bad debt and recently raised the amount
banks must hold in reserve
in bid to calm fears over tightening the people bank of china tuesday kept
the yield on its benchmark one year bills unchanged after having raised it
twice in the previous two weeks
however the yen shot up in asian trade on worries that chinese moves to curb
lending could derail still fragile global economic recovery
the dollar slid to yen in tokyo afternoon trade from in new york
late monday the euro dropped to dollars from and to yen
from
the stronger local currency led tokyo lower with the bank of japan decision
to keep interest rates unchanged at percent overlooked as the yen
strengthened
the nikkei dropped percent or points to
however the central bank upgraded its growth forecasts slightly predicting the
economy would shrink percent this financial year to march before rebounding
percent next year
in october the bank had predicted percent contraction this year and
percent expansion next year
but standard amp poor warned that it might cut its rating on japanese
government bonds saying efforts to curb the soaring public debt were faltering
under prime minister yukio hatoyama four month old government
seoul dropped percent or points to after data showed the
south korean economy grew more slowly in the december quarter than in the
previous three months the market is at seven week low
taipei closed percent or points off at its lowest level
since november
dealers had been given good start after wall street broke losing streak
overnight rising percent on optimism that federal reserve chairman
ben bernanke will be confirmed in his post for second term
oil was lower with new york main futures contract light sweet crude for
delivery in march down cents to dollars barrel
london brent north sea crude for march delivery dropped cents to
dollars
gold closed lower in hong kong at us dollars from monday
finish of dollars
markets in sydney and mumbai are closed tuesday for public holidays
in other markets
singapore lost percent or points to
concerned that this would be the start of sustained correction period we
really have to wait and see before attempting to buy anything at this juncture
said dealer with foreign brokerage
dbs bank tumbled cents to and singapore airlines dropped cents to
manila shed percent or points to
first philippine holdings was unchanged at pesos while philippine long
distance telephone dropped percent to pesos
wellington rose percent or points to ending seven
day losing streak
market heavyweights boosted the index with telecom up five cents to
dollars and construction company fletcher building rising cents to
jakarta fell percent or points to
coal miner bumi fell percent to rupiah while rival adaro was off
percent at
kuala lumpur fell percent or points to
the weak sentiment regionally has spilled over recent strong gains and
lack of positive leads are encouraging players to take profit dealer said
glove maker top glove slid percent to ringgit as cimb bank dropped
percent to ringgit
plastic packaging maker daibochi rose percent to ringgit
bangkok dropped percent or points to
britain narrowly exits record recession official
london jan afp
britain narrowly exited its longest recession on record in the fourth quarter of
when its economy grew by less than expected percent official data
showed on tuesday
gross domestic product gdp increased percent in the fourth quarter of
compared with decrease of percent in the third quarter the office
for national statistics ons said in statement
analysts had expected return to growth of percent in the final three
months of after six successive quarters or months of contraction
compared with the fourth quarter of the economy fell by percent while
gdp shrank by percent during the biggest annual contraction since
records began in according to the ons
britain economy has meanwhile shrunk by percent since the recession began
in the second quarter of
tuesday data is the first estimate of three by the ons and is based on just
percent of the relevant data leaving the measure vulnerable to revisions in
either direction
the british pound slumped following the initial estimate while london
benchmark ftse stock market index remained about percent lower
somali islamists claim deadly attack on medics
mogadishu jan afp
somalia hardline insurgent group shebab on tuesday claimed responsibility for
mortar attack on an african union peacekeepers base in mogadishu that left
several people dead
on monday mortar round crashed into group of somali civilians queuing up at
one of the entrances of the au peacekeeping mission amisom to receive
medical treatment from the force doctors
the attack on the compound of the african infidels was carried out by our
mujahedins holy warriors it was successful attack which left many of the
enemy doctors dead shebab spokesman sheikh ali mohamoud rage told afp
officials on the base said at least one ugandan peacekeeper was killed in the
blast they added that several somali civilians may have died but could not
provide an accurate count
civilian source on the base said total of five people were killed
the hardline islamist insurgent group shebab an organisation whose leader
recently proclaimed allegiance to al qaeda supremo osama bin laden and their
allies from the more political hezb al islam movement routinely fire mortar
shells on the base
they launched fierce military offensive in may aimed at toppling
internationally backed president sharif sheikh ahmed whose embattled
administration has owed its survival largely to the protection of amisom
peacekeepers
the shebab accuse amisom ugandan and burundian soldiers of occupying their
country and being engaged in christian crusade against muslim somalia
earlier monday the au mission top civilian official and the un special envoy
somalia visited the base and reiterated their full support to sharif
transitional federal government
the ugandan soldier killed on monday and burundian peacekeeper killed several
days earlier were evacuated by plane on tuesday according to an afp reporter at
the amisom base
afp world news agenda
paris jan afp
what coming up around the world
karzai meets afghan neighbours in turkey
sri lanka stages first post war election
france lawmakers move towards burqa ban
istanbul afghan president hamid karzai meet counterparts from turkey and
pakistan along with officials from iran china tajikistan and turkmenistan to
discuss peace moves in his country press conference at gmt afghan
unrest picture
colombo sri lankans vote under tight security in their first post war
presidential election polls close at gmt srilanka vote pictures
paris france moves closer to barring muslim women from wearing the full islamic
veil when parliamentary committee releases its recommendations report due
gmt france politics religion islam women rights
abuja nigeria senate debates the protracted absence of president umaru
yar adua from the country due to illness debate starts from gmt nigeria
politics president health parliament
belfast the british and irish prime ministers battle to bring northern
ireland divided leaders to an agreement on policing and avert the collapse of
the once troubled province fragile administration talks from gmt
britain nireland politics
berlin afghan president hamid karzai arrives for two day visit ahead of
summit in london on thursday on the future of the international mission working
dinner with chancellor angela merkel gmt afghanistan unrest germany
picture
israeli president shimon peres holds working lunch with merkel at gmt
news conference at gmt germany israel diplomacy picture
brussels nato military committee meets military chiefs from the member
countries followed by joint nato russia meeting meeting starts gmt
nato russia afghanistan picture
paris foreign minister bernard kouchner hosts working dinner on palestinians
with delegates including special envoy tony blair eu foreign affairs chief
catherine ashton and palestinian prime minister salam fayyad press conference
at gmt mideast eu diplomacy
warsaw israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu meets his polish counterpart
donald tusk on the eve of ceremonies to mark the th anniversary of the
liberation of the auschwitz concentration camp gmt poland israel
diplomacy holocaust pictures
washington the federal reserve opens its two day meeting amid doubts over
senate vote to reappoint chief ben bernanke to second term us economy bank
afp
urgent germany plans to send more troops to afghanistan merkel
berlin jan afp
germany plans to send more troops to afghanistan chancellor angela merkel
said on tuesday ahead of crunch conference in london on the future of the
international mission
search for bodies and black boxes in lebanon plane crash
beirut jan afp
rescuers tuesday combed the waters off the coast of lebanon for victims and the
black boxes of an ethiopian airliner that crashed into the sea with officials
offering little hope of finding survivors
information minister tarek mitri told afp that salvage crews had worked through
the night and were confident of identifying the area where the plane went down
they are scanning the area where the black boxes and the corpses are to be
found and there should be significant progress today mitri said adding that
improved weather should facilitate the search operations
ethiopia airlines flight tumbled in ball of fire into the mediterranean
early monday just minutes after takeoff from beirut airport in stormy weather
the boeing bound for addis ababa had passengers on board all are
presumed dead
lebanese officials have ruled out foul play and said the bad weather was likely
to blame
defence minister elias murr on monday said that the pilot of the plane had
failed to follow instructions on takeoff from the control tower for unknown
reasons
command tower recording shows the tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the
storm but the plane went in the opposite direction murr said
we do not know what happened or whether it was beyond the pilot control he
added
mitri said bodies had been recovered so far by an international task force
including ships from the united nations interim force in lebanon unifil us
navy destroyer as well as aircraft from france and britain
we are relying on dna testing to identify the bodies he said
the search is focused in an area south of beirut where the plane went down
in addis ababa spokeswoman for ethiopian airlines said bodies had been
recovered and that it was very unlikely that any survivors would be found
senior lebanese security official told afp that authorities were relying on
the uss ramage which has specialised sonar equipment to locate the flight
recorders and debris
we also have divers and we are using specialised equipment that can go down as
deep as to meters he said speaking on condition of anonymity
officials said there was virtually no hope of finding any survivors given the
time that had elapsed
mitri said authorities were pinning their hope on finding the black boxes to
provide answers to the tragedy
witnesses reported seeing ball of fire as the plane plunged into the
mediterranean at am gmt just south of the airport
experts have said that extreme turbulence or wind shear may have caused the
pilot to lose control of the plane which apparently exploded into four pieces
before crashing
captain habib karam the former head of the pilots union for lebanon national
carrier middle east airlines said the pilot probably flew straight into
cumulonimbus thunder clouds which would cause him to lose control of the plane
if pilot flies into this type of cloud it over he said
the passengers comprised lebanese nationals ethiopians one french
one british one iraqi one syrian one turkish and another of as yet
undetermined nationality there were seven crew members
the french passenger was identified as marla sanchez pietton wife of france
ambassador to lebanon
ethiopian airlines which was established in and operates an all boeing
fleet is considered one of africa best carriers
the airline had not been involved in major accident since when
nairobi bound jet was hijacked by three ethiopians seeking political asylum
the aircraft crashed into the indian ocean off the comoros when it ran out of
fuel killing of the people on board
alert
germany to send more troops to afghanistan merkel
cricket south african coach arthur quits
johannesburg jan afp
south african coach mickey arthur has resigned in the wake of the national
team failure to beat england in recent test series
arthur and cricket south africa chief executive gerald majola will address
press conference in arthur home town east london on wednesday
south african newspaper report claimed on tuesday that arthur had resigned
after meeting with cricket sa management to discuss south africa
performances against england the tourists beat south africa in rain hit one
day series and drew four match test series
arthur was appointed in originally on two year contract but his
contract was extended several times and he was due to guide the side until
the highlights of arthur tenure were test series wins in england and australia
in south africa achieved the official number one ranking in both test and
one day cricket during his time in charge
but after those highs south africa lost home series against australia failed
to reach the knock out stage of the icc champions trophy in south africa and
then performed only spasmodically against england
arthur forged close relationship with south african captain graeme smith
in an article for the south african cricket annual arthur said he saw
himself and smith as leadership package with me as sort of board chairman
and graeme as the ceo graeme and had to be on exactly the same page
signs of cracks in the relationship became evident during the test series
against england particularly after south africa were beaten by an innings and
