dean hefferman putting the visitors up inside five minutes
kuwait roared back and scored twice in frenetic end to the opening period
through hamad al enezi and yousef nasser
al enezi drew fine save from aussie keeper eugene galekovic nine minutes from
time to keep the socceroos level with the kuwaitis in group on eight points
but second on goal difference
oman win over indonesia in jakarta means they are still in the mix on
seven points but the indonesians are out
australia still have to entertain the indonesians while kuwait travel to oman
perennial underachievers china secured their berth with hard fought goalless
draw in zhejiang against qualified syria in group
but gao hongbo team had to wait an agonising minutes to hear the result
from beirut where minnows lebanon held vietnam to draw which sent the
chinese through
it was sweet revenge for china who lost to syria at the start of the
qualifying campaign almost year ago under caretaker coach yin tiesheng but
since then had recorded three straight wins before wednesday draw
iran traditional asian powerhouse still recovering from its failure to make
next year world cup in south africa ensured they will kick off in doha in
january with convincing victory in singapore
while the home team started brightly defensive blunders gifted iran two goals
in the space of seconds
hadi aghli opened the iranian account with penalty on minutes and mehrzad
madanchi made it minute later after picking up stray mustafic fahrudin
pass on the edge of the box and firing home
nor alam shah pulled one back for the home side just after half an hour but
delicate chip from radham rezaei mid way through the second period sealed
victory for iran
singapore can still reach their first asian cup finals since hosting the
competition back in after bryan robson thailand failed to dispatch
jordan
their draw in bangkok draw means singapore and thailand both have six points
with jordan on five and game to play
jordan would appear to have the advantage with home tie against singapore on
march while thailand must travel to iran
uzbekistan and syria had already booked their places at the showpiece in qatar
along with the host nation and iraq saudi arabia and south korea the top three
in the tournament
india are also through as the afc challenge cup winners
last gasp goal from substitute ahmed khalil sent united arab emirates through
after he scored in stoppage time to seal group win over malaysia at al
shabab stadium
in manama ismail abdullateef scored hat trick and abdulla al dhakeel netted
the other to leave bahrain coach milan macala happy man as his men progressed
with japan
the main thing was to qualify and now that we have achieved it we are not
bothered too much about the final scoreline said the czech
hong kong coach fai chun liu said the result was not totally unexpected but
added that it was good learning experience
we played well in the opening stages but once we conceded the first goal we
tried too hard to get back into the match said liu
afp americas news agenda for january
washington jan afp
duty editor kerry sheridan
tel
what happening in the americas on thursday
obama unveils new security measures after airline bomb bid
washington president barack obama administration releases an unclassified
version of its report on intelligence failures relating to terrorist watch
lists following the thwarted christmas day airliner attack expect coverage
attacks us nigeria
las vegas covering the international consumer electronics show until sunday
expect coverage us it internet electronics consumer ces
europe africa news agenda for january
paris jan afp
europe africa news agenda for thursday
duty editor robert macpherson
tel
top stories
british prime minister gordon brown responds to leadership test
french foreign minister bernard kouchner meets rwanda president
defence case begins in trial of congolese warlord thomas lubanga
london follow up after two ex ministers called for ballot of labour lawmakers
on whether british prime minister gordon brown should remain leader
highlighting his vulnerability months before general election britain
politics
kigali bernard kouchner meets rwandan president paul kagame during the first
visit to rwanda by french foreign minister since the two countries resumed
ties in november rwanda france diplomacy
the hague start of the defence case in the war crimes trial of congolese
warlord thomas lubanga accused of recruiting child soldiers before the
international criminal court warcrimes icc lubanga trial defence gmt
picture
europe
london protest in downing street by iranian dissidents supported by handful
of british lawmakers from noon monitoring
berlin monitoring situation after around million high tech german bank cards
were rendered useless on january by computer bug linked to the year
germany banking it
athens second day of visit by members of the european central bank and the
european commission on mission to examine with greek officials crisis
programme to stabilise greek finances ecb bank greece eu economy budget
paris president nicolas sarkozy and portuguese prime minister jose socrates
open two day new world new capitalism symposium
european affairs minister pierre lellouche holds talks with his german and
british counterparts werner hoyer and chris bryant that are expected to touch
on afghanistan gmt
ankara german foreign minister guido westerwelle meets turkish officials at the
start of regional tour that will also take him to the the gulf press
conference scheduled for gmt
copenhagen decision over the release of greenpeace militants detained in
denmark since december when they displayed banner during an official
dinner at the un climate summit
madrid meeting between prime minister jose luis rodriguez zapatero and algerian
president abdelaziz bouteflika photo
africa
abuja monitoring of us nigeria relations after the decision by washington to
place us security restrictions on air passengers from nigeria which the
government in abuja warned is likely to harm ties between the two countries
us attacks nigeria security airport diplomacy
chinese foreign minister yang jiechi visits nigeria as part of his african
tour
accra inquiry continues by agents of the us federal bureau of investigation
into the sojourn in ghana of nigerian man accused of trying to blow up us
airliner attacks us nigeria ghana fbi
goma drcongo developments in eastern democratic republic of congo where the
nyamulagira volcano has been erupting since saturday drcongo volcano
niamey talks restart between niger authorities and the opposition mediated
by the economic community of west african states aimed at ending political
crisis niger politics
rallying lopez wins motorcycling stage
antofagasta chile jan afp
chilean motorcyclist francesco lopez won the arduous kilometres fifth stage
from copiapo of the dakar rally here on wednesday
american pilot mark miller won the car stage beating his volkswagen team mate
former world rally champion carlos sainz by minutes seconds
however sainz moved to top of the standings after frenchman stephane
peterhansel encountered huge problems during the stage
lopez beat overall leader cyril despres of france by minute seconds which
also saw one of the favourites for the title david casteu forced to retire after
breaking his leg in crash
lopez barely made dent in the gap between him and despres who had lead of
minutes over him going into the stage
despres also saw one of his other major rivals for the title have dreadful day
as spaniard marc coma suffered mechanical problems and finished minutes off
lopez and is over an hour behind the overall leader
cuba denounces detained man as us secret agent
havana jan afp
us citizen detained in cuba for the past month was denounced by senior
official here wednesday as secret intelligence agent dispatched by washington
to aid in the downfall of the communist regime
ricardo alarcon one of cuba top figures and speaker of the national assembly
gave the most detailed and damning assessment yet of the case of the american
detained here in major blow to any hopes for closer bilateral ties
the us citizen who remains unidentified was arrested december reportedly
while distributing cell phones laptops and other communications equipment
this was gentleman hired by company that hires people to work for us
intelligence we have already done an investigation and can assure you that he
is doing much better and mean much much better than the victims of us
contractors around the world alarcon told reporters
as president raul castro has said that was no contractor alarcon added
saying that the contractor belonged to the ranks of hired agents torturers and
spies who are part of an american policy of privatizing war
the new york times has said the detainee is us government contract worker
employed by development alternatives inc dai of bethesda maryland just
outside washington
dai which is regularly contracted by the us agency for international
development usaid has confirmed one of its employees was arrested but has
provided no additional details citing privacy concerns
in speech to the national assembly on december president castro accused
the obama administration of sending the man here to illegally supply cuban
opposition members with advanced communications equipment
the enemy is as active as ever castro charged in his annual address to
the assembly
in recent weeks we have witnessed an increasing number of efforts by the new
us administration with that objective the fostering of open and covert
subversion against cuba is on the rise cuba president warned
he claimed washington has earmarked million dollars to support cuban
dissidents
there had been slight thaw in us cuba relations since obama took office in
january and lifted some us travel and remittance restrictions to the island
nation both governments recently resumed negotiations on migration and postal
exchange issues
yet after more than five decades of enmity these baby steps have not turned
into strides the united states insists cuba should change while havana
suggests the united states do the same
the neighbors have not had full diplomatic relations since
cuba denounces detained man as us secret agent
havana jan afp
us citizen detained in cuba for the past month was denounced by senior
official here wednesday as secret intelligence agent dispatched by the
washington to aid in the downfall of the communist regime
ricardo alarcon one of cuba top figures and speaker of the national assembly
gave the most detailed and damning assessment yet of the case of the american
detained here in major blow to any hopes for closer bilateral ties
the us citizen who remains unidentified was arrested december reportedly
while distributing cell phones laptops and other communications equipment
this was gentleman hired by company that hires people to work for us
intelligence we have already done an investigation and can assure you that he
is doing much better and mean much much better than the victims of us
contractors around the world alarcon told reporters
as president raul castro has said that was no contractor alarcon added
saying that the contractor belonged to the ranks of hired agents torturers and
spies who are part of an american policy of privatizing war
the new york times has said the detainee is us government contract worker
employed by development alternatives inc dai of bethesda maryland just
outside washington
dai which is regularly contracted by the us agency for international
development usaid has confirmed one of its employees was arrested but has
provided no additional details citing privacy concerns
in speech to the national assembly on december president castro accused
the obama administration of sending the man here to illegally supply cuban
opposition members with advanced communications equipment
the enemy is as active as ever castro charged in his annual address to
the assembly
in recent weeks we have witnessed an increasing number of efforts by the new
us administration with that objective the fostering of open and covert
subversion against cuba is on the rise cuba president warned
he claimed washington has earmarked million dollars to support cuban
dissidents
there had been slight thaw in us cuba relations since obama took office in
january and lifted some us travel and remittance restrictions to the island
nation both governments recently resumed negotiations on migration and postal
exchange issues
yet after more than five decades of enmity these baby steps have not turned
into strides the united states insists cuba should change while havana
suggests the united states do the same
the neighbors have not had full diplomatic relations since
tennis federer and nadal ease into last eight
doha jan afp
roger federer aiming to regain title he last won four years ago reached the
quarter finals of the qatar open with performance which for the second
successive day suggested he is starting the new season well rested and in fine
shape
the grand slam record breaker won against evgeny korolev young and
rising russian on the verge of the world top who hit ambitiously but looked
capable of achieving more than he actually did
federer contained him well moved excellently prevented his inexperienced
opponent from feeling comfortable and from time to time had moments of sublime
attacking which helped maintain an intimidating aura
this was more dangerous match than my first one because he is big ball
striker and plays aggressive on forehand and backhand federer said
conditions were difficult today it was very slow out there and had to be
patient and grind it out so was happy with the way adapted and with the way
the match went
federer was helped by several moments when korolev beat himself perhaps overly
aware of federer reputuation notably after he broke the great man serve to
get back to only to play poor service game himself
then unaccountably korolev failed to appeal against line call on the opening
point of the final game when he was serving to save the match
hawkeye was showing as on the line drive which had been called out but the
russian missed his chance to get the decision overturned
by contrast at federer appealed against another out call on his own
drive this time and got it reversed taking the score to and giving him
two match points
korolev fought back bravely and saved both of them but still lost that game and
the match had he appealed as federer did he should have reached with all
to play for
federer is seeded to play final on saturday against his greatest rival rafael
nadal who looked particularly pumped up after dismissing potito starace
former top player from italy by
asked if he were particularly keen to start this year well after going the last
eight months of without title nadal replied it always important to
start every season well
but the former world number one did volunteer that he had worked exceptionally
hard during the off season strengthening the muscles above and below his knees
in an effort to reduce the repeated problems he has had with them
the season is long nadal said
if want to have chances have to be there all the time fighting every
match trying like this the right way all the time
if do will have chances to win big titles don know if it will be now
or in three months time but will have them
nadal next plays steve darcis belgian qualifier who was too fresh and fast
for younes el aynaoui winning against an opponent who the day before
became the oldest player since jimmy connors in to win singles match on
the atp world tour
even though competing twice in two days proved too much for year old body
which had not competed on tour since el aynaoui still had cause to
remember fondly his one sided loss
the champion here in and once world top player the highly popular
moroccan was presented with special trophy on court to mark his last ever
match on the tour
federer next plays another dangerously hard hitting opponent ernests gulbis
the year old latvian whom many thought might be pushing into the top by
now and who beat andreas seppi the smooth stroking italian
there was also win for nikolay davydenko the russian who beat federer on the
way to winning the atp world tour masters in london four weeks ago and who is
seeded to meet the world number one in friday semi finals
davydenko beat marco chiudinelli of switzerland and appeared to have
recovered well from the bronchitis which caused him to play with anti biotics in
last week exhibition event in abu dhabi
berlusconi shops for nudes
nice france jan afp
italian prime minister silvio berlusconi took break from the rough and tumble
of italian politics wednesday shopping for nudes on the french riviera
the premier who is recovering from an attack last month that broke his nose and
two teeth visited the village saint paul de vence on the cote azur where he
bought four bronze statuettes
art gallery spokesman loic deltour described the works as sensual nudes worth
several tens of thousands of euros
the billionaire media magnate has been mostly out of the public eye since
december when man said to have long history of psychiatric troubles
hit him in the face with miniature model of milan cathedral
witnesses said security was visibly tight around the premier during his shopping
trip
argentina bank chief refuses president demand to resign
buenos aires jan afp
argentina central bank chief refused to resign after president christina
kirchner demanded on wednesday that he step down in growing row over payments
of debt
martin redrado had declined to hand over billion dollars of argentina
foreign currency reserves to pay off national debt after the president ordered
him to do so three weeks ago
the standoff could lead to political crisis since redrado can only be fired
by decision from argentina lawmakers
kirchner announced the call for redrado resignation on her official website
early wednesday
they have asked him to step down he responded that he will not quit
central bank official said adding that the government would have to apply the
appropriate mechanism to remove redrado
according to the bank charter the government would have to turn to congress
to decide to remove sitting central bank president
however kirchner control over congress has weakened since mid term elections
last year
kirchner in december signed presidential decree ordering the transfer of
billion dollars from central bank reserves to new fund known as the
bicentennial fund to guarantee debt payments in and free up cash for other
spending
redrado had sought to investigate all the possible legal consequences of such
decision which was opposed by opposition lawmakers and which the supreme court
sought to clarify
kirchner said in december that she wanted to guarantee the debt payment in an
effort to help argentina end its isolation from global credit markets
international investors remain skittish after the south american nation
massive sovereign debt default
the prospective payment aimed to lower as much as possible the future potential
indebtedness of our country kirchner said
redrado took control of the central bank in under the government of nestor
kirchner the husband of the current president and his mandate is due to expire
in september this year
the government has offered his post to mario blejer who led the central bank
under the government of eduardo duhalde in during the worst economic
crisis for decades
argentina faces maturing debt repayments totaling billion dollars in
the central bank reserves contain more than billion dollars
argentina fulfilled its repayments of billion dollars in but the rate
of growth in government income has slowed down due to the global economic
crisis
the whole episode is symptomatic of wider problems in the economy notably
the collapse in revenues that has resulted from deep recession and the drop in
commodity prices since mid neil shearing senior emerging markets
economist for capital economics ltd in london told afp
period of impasse now looms and markets have sold off accordingly the peso
is down percent against the dollar equities are down by percent
shearing added
germany ohb to win eu galileo satellite contract source
brussels jan afp
the european commission will on thursday award germany ohb technology
contract for at least eight satellites for its galileo satnav system dealing
blow to rival eads astrium an industry source said
we havent heard yet if its eight or satellites said philip davies
senior official at surrey satellite technology sstl ltd british partner of
ohb in the bid
am percent sure it will be ohb which will be chosen tomorrow said
davies whose company is an offshoot of surrey university
such decision would be blow to european aerospace giant eads which led its
own galileo bidding group including thales alenia space
the satellite network is meant to challenge the dominance of the us built global
positioning system gps which is widely used in navigation devices the eu aims
to have the network up in space by
the eu has struggled to secure financing for the project originally put at
billion euros billion dollars and has had to tap unused funds from the
bloc massive agricultural budget
the economic crisis has also cut the planned number of satellites from to
the project has been divided into six sections and on thursday brussels will
announce the winners of three contracts satellite construction launchers and
support systems
ohb much smaller than rival astrium battled hard to secure the satellite
contract and the two will do battle at later stage for the remaining
satellites
according to the bidding rules contracts for eight satellites could run no
higher than million euros and million euros for
since the launch of the bidding process eads has taken over surrey satellite
technology so it will not be completely be left out in the cold
europe arianespace hopes to secure the satellite launchers contract
last year the european court of auditors criticised the galileo project as ill
prepared and badly managed
the galileo joint undertaking tasked with supervising the project
technological development activities was set up in but scrapped in
while test satellites have been launched none of galileo operational
satellites have been put in space yet
the project was the first close collaboration between the european space agency
esa and the commission on such large space programme
it was also the first industrial project to be managed at european level and the
first time the commission was to participate in public private partnership
scheme
tennis qatar open tennis results collated
doha jan afp
results from the third day of the qatar open here on wednesday denotes
seeding
nd rd
ivo karlovic cro bt benjamin becker ger
ernests gulbis lat bt andreas seppi ita
nikolay davydenko rus bt marco chiudinelli sui
rafael nadal esp bt potito starace ita
steve darcis bel bt younes el aynaoui mar
lukasz kubot pol bt sergiy stakhovsky ukr
roger federer sui bt evgeny korolev rus
viktor troicki srb bt olivier rochus bel
cricket de villiers reignites ball tampering row
cape town south africa jan afp
south african batsman ab de villiers reignited controversy over ball tampering
on wednesday when he accused england fast bowler stuart broad of being little
bit naughty and said he believed an official complaint should have been made
about broad actions during the third test at newlands
earlier in the day the matter appeared to have been laid to rest when the south
african team management confirmed it had not made an official complaint having
brought concerns about the condition of the ball being altered to the attention
of match referee roshan mahanama
the international cricket council issued statement saying no action would be
taken against england players the statement said the umpires had viewed the
footage of incidents shown in television coverage on tuesday and decided not to
bring charge against any player
no official complaint was made by south africa and the deadline for submitting
complaint passed when play resumed on wednesday
de villiers had clearly not been briefed on these developments when he attended
press conference at the close of the fourth day play
television pictures captured broad stopping then stepping on the ball with his
spikes while fellow fast bowler james anderson appeared to be manipulating the
seam
it not on to be climbing onto the ball with your spikes said de villiers
he added the south africans had been discussing the ability of the english
bowlers to obtain reverse swing relatively early in an innings since the second
test in durban where reverse swing undid several top order batsmen in south
africa innings defeat
we all like to get the ball to reverse and to swing all over the show as long
as you do it in legal way said de villiers who added that as the fielder
designated to look after the ball he had been asked by captain graeme smith why
the ball did not swing as early for the south africans as it did for england
de villiers said he had not seen anything illegal himself but referred to the
television footage of broad stepping on the ball
think there should be formal complaint because the ball did reverse after
that he said
it was quite clear there was piece of the leather missing after he stepped on
the ball and it not the first time it happened it little bit naughty
wouldn say he deserves to be banned but it should be looked at
de villiers comments prompted south african team manager mohamed moosajee to
explain the official team position he said the team were satisfied with the
decision of the match referee
our concern was raised to the match referee he came back to us and said the
umpires had looked at it and did not intend to take any further action
moosajee denied that south africa raising of the issue was aimed at any
england players
the tv footage showed the condition of the ball was changed there was an
indentation on the ball and marks that went across it
moosajee also denied the issue had been brewing since the durban test
when asked about de villiers comments he said the team is made up of
different individuals that his opinion am telling you what the team
position is
england vice captain alastair cook said he was glad the matter was officially
closed
we know what we ve done is fine the best people have looked at it the umpires
and the match referee with all the tv evidence have found nothing wrong
he explained the early reverse swing in durban
the outfield was quite lush but the square was abrasive we were surprised at
the time we were trying to look after the ball conventionally and from nowhere
it got scuffed up on the square and started to reverse swing
both de villiers and cook said the issue had not affected relations between the
teams de villiers said there was tension but it was purely because of the
situation in the series
there more than enough tension because obviously we want to win we still
clap when guy gets to fifty or hundred we still like to have the normal
manners greeting guys but when you go out there you re playing for your
country and you give your best
cook said the spirit between the teams was good
there are two tough teams playing cricket he said
alpine skiing razzoli breaks duck in slalom
zagreb croatia jan afp
italian skier giuliano razzoli won his first ever world cup slalom race here on
wednesday
the year old who earned his first podium placing here last year when he
finished third beat home compatriot manfred molgg by hundreths of second
while france world silver medalist julien lizeroux was hundreths of second
adrift for his first podium placing of the season
austrian reinfried herbst winner of the first two slaloms of the campaign
was fastest after the first leg but lost his rhythm on the second run and could
finish only fifth nearly second off the winner
however he retained his lead in the world cup slalom standings while compatriot
benjamin raich went top of the overall world cup standings after finishing th
benefiting from the absence of carlo janka of switzerland
world must act now to prevent new sudan war aid agencies warn
london jan afp
southern sudan could descend into new war unless the world community takes
action to salvage the peace accord that ended one of africa longest conflicts
five years ago aid agencies warned thursday
the agencies said lethal combination of rising violence crippling poverty
and political tensions has left the peace deal close to collapse as its fifth
anniversary approaches this week
it is not yet too late to avert disaster but the next months are
crossroads for africa largest country said the report co author maya
mailer from oxfam
last year saw surge in violence in southern sudan this could escalate even
further and become one of the biggest emergencies in africa in she added
in some people were killed and fled their homes higher
death toll than occurred in war torn darfur in the same period
the agencies said the rest of the world had largely overlooked the suffering
communities said women and children have increasingly been targeted in attacks
and the government of southern sudan and international peacekeepers had been
powerless to protect them
the peace agreement was struck between the sudanese government and the sudan
