current standing in men tennis
he insists the confidence is there it just question of once again winning
final
the confidence the only way to have confidence is winning matches winning
important matches did that in abu dhabi and did that in doha he said
referring to his two warm up tournaments
so think am in the right way it needs little bit more time but am
ready to try to play my best tennis
think am playing well think am playing much better than what did in
the last four months
he opens his tournament with night first round match against australian peter
luczak on monday with briton andy murray looming as possible quarter final
opponent
nadal was not ready to look that far ahead
never talk about quarter finals before getting there he said there are
four matches until the quarter finals we will see what happen before that
figure skating rochette wins sixth canadian title in row
london canada jan afp
joannie rochette captured her sixth consecutive women title at the canadian
figure skating championships and berth in the vancouver olympics by winning
saturday free skate final
rochette who settled for second in friday short programme to cynthia phaneuf
won the free skate with points to finish with an overall score of
the reigning world silver medalist rochette now hopes to take the confidence
gained in london and use it to her advantage at the vancouver olympics next
month
don know why cried she said it the sixth time was going for
this title it seems like every year more nervous about it
even though was qualified for the olympic games it was really important
for me to come here and do two strong performances
phaneuf who skated after rochette in the final group was second in the free
skate with to finish second overall on and claim the other
available olympic berth earning chance to skate on home ice next month
jessica dube and bryce davison captured their second pairs title in row by
winning the free skate earlier saturday
dube and davison won the long programme with points to for
anabelle langlois and cody hay who had captured the short programme friday
in the final standings dube and davison won with points with langlois and
hay taking the other olympic spot with points ahead of meagan
duhamel and craig buntin
reigning world bronze medallists tessa virtue and scott moir captured their
third consecutive dance title they did it with canadian record score of
there was lot of energy in the arena and we were really trying to feed off
that moir said it added little bit of pressure for us today we really
wanted to go out there and give them something to stand up for
we re going to want to push it out little bit more into the games but for
where we re at right now we re thrilled
skating to gustav mahler fifth symphony virtue and moir compiled
points in the free dance
the men free skate set for sunday
yahoo slammed by china partner for google support
beijing jan afp
china commerce giant alibaba on sunday condemned as reckless its partner
yahoo support of google which has threatened to pull out of the asian nation
over censorship and cyberattacks
alibaba group has communicated to yahoo that yahoo statement that it is
aligned with the position google took last week was reckless given the lack of
facts in evidence the firm spokesman john spelich told afp in an email
alibaba doesn share this view
google announced on tuesday that it would no longer censor search engine results
in china and possibly leave the world largest online market complaining about
cyberattacks and censorship by the communist regime
china based cyber spies struck the internet giant and reportedly more than
other firms in an apparent bid for computer source codes intellectual property
and information about human rights activists around the world
spokeswoman for yahoo which owns percent of alibaba on wednesday
welcomed google decision
yahoo is committed to protecting human rights and takes our users privacy
and security very seriously the spokeswoman said we condemn any attempts to
infiltrate company networks to obtain user information
we stand aligned with google that these kinds of attacks are deeply disturbing
and strongly believe that the violation of user privacy is something that we as
internet pioneers must all oppose she added
alibaba controls yahoo operations in china and also runs the nation top
online auction site taobao com and business to business commerce platform
alibaba com
chinese authorities in the world most populous nation regularly block content
and websites they deem politically objectionable in vast censorship system in
country with over million online users
social networking site facebook google video sharing system youtube and
micro blogging website twitter are also blocked
tennis australian open schedule
melbourne jan afp
monday schedule of play on show courts for the australian open tennis at
melbourne park denotes seeding all sessions start at am gmt
unless stated
rod laver arena
maria sharapova rus maria kirilenko rus
kim clijsters bel valerie tetreault can
andy murray gbr kevin anderson rsa
pm gmt
peter luczak aus rafael nadal esp
jelena dokic aus alisa kleybanova rus
hisense arena
magdalena rybarikova svk dinara safina rus
andy roddick usa thiemo de bakker ned
michael russell usa juan martin del potro arg
kirsten flipkens bel justine henin bel
margaret court arena
yanina wickmayer bel alexandra dulgheru rou
guillaume rufin fra bernard tomic aus
elena dementieva rus vera dushevina rus
jelena jankovic srb monica niculescu rou
not before pm gmt
matthew ebden aus gael monfils fra
show court
olivier rochus bel fernando gonzalez chi
anastasia rodionova aus svetlana kuznetsova rus
jarkko nieminen fin nick lindahl aus
rossana de los rios par marion bartoli fra
show court
jason kubler aus ivan ljubicic cro
anna chakvetadze rus flavia pennetta ita
marin cilic cro fabrice santoro fra
sorana cirstea rou olivia rogowska aus
figure skating canadian championships results
london canada jan afp
selected results here on saturday from the canadian figure skating
championships qualifier for the vancouver winter olympics
pairs
free skate jessica dube bryce davison pts anabelle langlois cody
hay meagan duhamel craig buntin mylene brodeur john
mattatall kirsten moore towers dylan moscovitch paige
lawrence rudi swiegers
final standings jessica dube bryce davison anabelle langlois cody
hay meagan duhamel craig buntin mylene brodeur john
mattatall kirsten moore towers dylan moscovitch paige
lawrence rudi swiegers
women
free skate joannie rochette cynthia phaneuf diane
szmiett myriane samson amelie lacoste adriana
desanctis
final standings joannie rochette cynthia phaneuf
myriane samson diane szmiett amelie lacoste
adriana desanctis
dance
free dance
tessa virtue scott moir pts vanessa crone paul poirier
kaitlyn weaver andrew poje kharis ralph asher hill
tarrah harvey keith gagnon allie hann mccurdy michael coreno
final standings
tessa virtue scott moir pts vanessa crone paul poirier
kaitlyn weaver andrew poje kharis ralph asher hill allie
hann mccurdy michael coreno tarrah harvey keith gagnon
british army chief wants boost in cyber warfare technology
london jan afp
britain army chief wants traditional investment in warships and fighter jets
cut to fund boost in cyber warfare technology he told the sunday times
newspaper
general david richards said future conflicts would be fought in increasingly
high tech ways and the threat of cyber attacks against britain infrastructure
now meant radical change was unavoidable
britain armed forces are facing new horse versus tank moment in dealing
with the challenges of modern warfare he told the weekly broadsheet
people say only talking about war with non state actors richards said
such as the taliban insurgents currently being fought in afghanistan
not saying this is how even war between states is more likely to be
fought in the future
he added we ve been in denial ever since the end of the cold war
since the berlin wall fell in britain has fought stabilisation or counter
insurgency operations in theatres such as the balkans sierra leone iraq and
afghanistan
but in our heart of hearts we thought that was an aberration and we go back
to jolly old war fighting like in the western desert or hot version with
battle lines drawn of the cold war richards said
some are waiting for conventional invasion of uniformed troops ready to be
repulsed by heavy armour or ships
he said britain enemies would have seen from iraq and afghanistan that for
relatively little cost unsophisticated opponents with very cheap weaponry can
pose deadly threats
why would you not learn lesson from that and think actually that how
would bring down great nations and great alliances much more subtly cleverly
and at much less risk
despite the push for high tech equipment richards nonetheless insisted that
more manpower was needed saying soldiers give you the most choice and the
most utility in today sort of conflict
japan to take action if china violates gas field promise
tokyo jan afp
japanese foreign minister katsuya okada told his chinese counterpart sunday that
tokyo would take action if china violates agreement over disputed gas
exploration projects
in his talks with yang jiechi okada also urged china to start discussing
details about jointly developing the gas projects in the east china sea said
japanese diplomat who declined to be named
if china violates the agreement japan will have to take certain action okada
said in the talks held on the sidelines of meeting of foreign ministers from
east asia and latin america
asia two largest economies and top energy consumers in said they would
share the potentially lucrative gas resources in the east china sea an
agreement that was struck after years of negotiations
but japan has reportedly observed that china has built drilling plant in the
area and appears ready to start extracting gas
in response yang told okada china will firmly stand by the agreement we
wish to continue unofficial working level exchanges to further enhance mutual
understanding
china started drilling in chunxiao gas field known as shirakaba in japan in
inflaming tensions with japan which voiced worries that beijing may
siphon gas from the deposit that stretches into what japan considered its own
side
the agreement stipulated that talks would continue over other gas fields
but china has since insisted that it has the right to develop them
nfl nfl playoff results
washington jan afp
saturday national football league playoff results
indianapolis baltimore
new orleans arizona
tennis clijsters ready to give fans what they want
melbourne jan afp
kim clijsters is big crowd favourite at melbourne park and she returns to the
australian open on monday determined to give her fans something to cheer
clijsters affectionately known as aussie kim after her past relationship with
lleyton hewitt hasn played here since when she walked away from the
sport when world number four to marry and have baby
but now she is back and with bang
it feels really good to be back here obviously lot of things have changed
around the courts and everything and inside so that took few days to get
used to knowing my way around she said
was able to practise on centre court little bit it just nice to see that
again because never thought it would happen again to be playing tennis here
it exciting
the popular belgian produced the tennis story of the year in when she came
out of retirement to win the us open after being granted wildcard
whether she can repeat that feat here remains to be seen with not just the
williams sisters standing in her way but also the returning justine henin
but the powerful clijsters showed she is major threat by winning the brisbane
international warm up event beating henin in classic final and no one is
ready to discard her
really put in the work and the effort so think that will always pay
off in some sort of way said the belgian who is returning to the tour full
time this year
she said her focus would be on the major tournaments
my focus is not really based on ranking as much as probably really aiming for
the big tournaments think my schedule for the year is far from being busy
she said
obviously hope to do well at the tournaments but think play about
or tournaments maybe including fed cups and everything
she gets her tournament underway on monday against canadian qualifier valerie
tetreault
embattled ireland leader could return within fortnight
london jan afp
northern ireland first minister peter robinson said sunday he could be back in
full charge within two weeks having stepped aside to deal with sex and money
scandal engulfing his wife iris
robinson also told the sunday times newspaper his wife who is receiving acute
psychiatric treatment was in an unfit state to give reliable answers
and in symbolic first the democratic unionist party leader also said the
situation had led him to shake hands with his deputy first minister martin
mcguinness of the dup old foes sinn fein the other main party in northern
ireland power sharing government
robinson stepped aside temporarily on monday to clear his name over financial
allegations linked to his wife affair with teenage cafe proprietor
the scandal comes at an already sensitive time as the dup and sinn fein try to
thrash out their entrenched differences on when policing and justice powers
should be devolved from london to belfast the final stage of devolution
ve handed over some duties to enterprise minister arlene foster my
colleague for up to six weeks but maybe it will be only two ll see
robinson told the sunday times
people are asking what effect this will have on the political process but
will continue to lead the negotiations with martin mcguinness on the devolution
of policing and justice we are down to the last three issues
he kindly sent me text and voicemail messages and spoke to me privately when
saw him he expressed sympathy and put out his hand
we never shaken hands before but thought it would be wrong for me in those
circumstances to do anything other than respond that was first
robinson said he had been tempted to resign as first minister and dup leader
over the scandal
he said he was trying to find some rationale in his wife behaviour
iris is in residential facility and will be for some time he said
it difficult to get answers from her about what happened or perhaps it
more accurate to say you are always getting answers but she isn in state
where you could rely on the answers you get
suspect the psychiatrists will want lot more time to make assessments
robinson also said he had lost pounds kilogrammes in weight since his
wife revealed her infidelity in march last year
tennis dad federer fired up by fatherhood
melbourne jan afp
doting dad roger federer is fired up for his first australian open as father
saying having children has given him extra hunger to win grand slams
the swiss superstar who has missed playing in only one of the last grand
slam finals is in melbourne with wife mirka and six month old twin daughters
myla and charlene
he gets his tournament underway on tuesday against russia igor andreev and
said he was feeling better than ever despite now mixing babysitting duties with
his tennis preparations
with the hunger there always going to be speculation when you have family
they look at the history and see some players didn win when they had family
he said
but the hunger is still there working as hard as have been
haven been just baby sitting you know also like to go out in the
morning put in the big hours
feel my game really where it supposed to be can only put in the best
effort can and hope that the results will follow
bookmakers have again made the swiss legend three time winner here the
favourite to capture his th grand slam in the season opening major
tournament after year in which he continued winning the ones that mattered
he finally broke through at roland garros clinching the french open at his th
attempt and followed up with sixth wimbledon crown in seven years
federer became the all time grand slam leader in men tennis in the process
passing the won by american pete sampras and retrieved the world number one
ranking off rafael nadal after period of weeks
now he is as excited as ever at the start of new season with his fitness
back in contrast to this time last year when he was coming off series of
injuries and indifferent form
new start to the season is in way always refreshing and exciting he said
everything sort of starts at zero except the rankings which is good thing
thank god
most importantly focused on my game think put in lot of work last
year trying to get back to number one
also in the off season try to work extremely hard back where want to
be
on top of that on the personal note that was able to handle everything at
the same time was quite fascinating actually for me as well
excited now travelling the world as family it first for me and it
going really well it really inspiring
yet despite federer vast experience the world number one admits he still gets
anxious ahead of the big tournaments knowing everyone expects him to win
definitely do get very excited for many big events many tournaments trying
to prove myself over and over again and see if the hard work paid off he
said
playing in front of nice crowd is always something special because in the off
season there maybe two people hanging at the fence just walking by and seeing
you practice
now is where it special and you can get some momentum during the match
because of the spectators that really what looking forward to live again
this week or the next two weeks
golf sony open scores
honolulu hawaii jan afp
leading third round scores here on saturday in the million dollar sony open
usa unless noted
ryan palmer robert allenby aus
troy matteson davis love steve stricker zach
johnson
nathan green aus carl pettersson swe rory
sabbatini rsa michael allen usa tom lehman
briny baird chad collins graham delaet can
paul goydos
liang wen chong chn
ernie els rsa tim clark rsa retief goosen rsa
nick hern aus henrik bjornstad nor stephen ames
can angel cabrera arg
richard johnson swe choi kor yang
kor marc leishman aus
korean leader watches armed forces drill state media
seoul jan afp
north korea kim jong il has watched an armed forces joint drill state media
said sunday in the first such disclosure since the secretive communist state
leader took command of the military in
kim inspected the field exercise by the army navy and airforce from an
observation platform the north korean central news agency kcna reported
with the order for the start of the maneuvers flying corps warships and
ground artillery pieces of various kinds showered merciless barrage at the
enemy group in close coordination thus shattering the enemy camp to pieces
and turning it into sea of flame kcna said
it did not disclose when or where the manoeuvres were held
it is the first time north korea has released news of kim inspecting such
joint drill since he was named supreme commander of the armed forces by his
father kim il sung in december
the report came two days after pyongyang threatened to break off all dialogue
with south korea unless seoul apologises for an alleged contingency plan to
handle potential political instability in the communist state
unconfirmed south korean news reports say officials in seoul have drawn up
plan to administer the north in the event of regime collapse coup or
popular uprising there
the north powerful national defence commission ndc headed by kim denounced
the alleged plan as crime and said it would stage holy war against those
who drew it up
in statement on kcna it termed the alleged document plan to overthrow its
socialist system
the north said monday it wants talks with the united states on treaty to
formally end the korean war before it makes any further moves towards
nuclear disarmament
south korea the united states and japan rejected the pyongyang proposal for
early peace talks saying it must first return to nuclear disarmament forum
the north abandoned the six party forum in april month before staging
second nuclear test
pakistan power electricity gas
hong kong jan afp
attention editors our pakistan power electricity gas focus piece has been
delayed it will now move by gmt
cricket fog delays start of india bangladesh test
chittagong bangladesh jan afp
fog and murky conditions have delayed the start of the opening day play in the
first cricket test between india and bangladesh here on sunday
india the top ranked test side are due to play two tests on the short tour
british pm ratings on the up but party still lagging
london jan afp
british prime minister gordon brown personal rating has gone up but his
governing labour party is still well behind in the opinion polls surveys out
sunday showed
yougov poll for the sunday times newspaper found brown personal rating was
up points since last month to its highest level since april
however twice as many voters still think brown is performing badly rather than
well percent to percent
and he is still far behind conservative main opposition leader david cameron
percent well percent badly and liberal democrats leader nick clegg
percent well percent badly
the yougov poll put the centre right conservatives on percent nine points
ahead of centre left labour on percent figures unchanged since last month
the centre left lib dems were on percent
meanwhile separate poll by comres for the independent on sunday put the tories
gaining four percentage points for point lead
their survey put the conservatives on percent with labour and the lib dems
unchanged on and percent respectively since their december poll
the general election campaign is warming up in britain with the two biggest
parties pencilling out their battle lines
staking claim for middle class votes in what commentators said was shift
away from core vote election strategy brown said saturday that labour would
create more middle class jobs than ever before if the party wins the looming
national vote due by june
on sunday cameron said he would try to revive sense of community in britain
in bid to fix social ills
elderly citizens living in fear behind locked doors teenage parents without
qualifications and children more likely to see their dad drunk than doing
day work were all victims of broken society he wrote in the mail on sunday
newspaper
we re going to encourage and enable people to get together to solve problems
and make life better instead of just waiting around for government to do it
all he said
meanwhile new report due out monday will say top civil servants believe there
is strategic gap at the heart of british government
the analysis by the institute for government an independent charity warns
there is no single coherent strategy and calls for urgent reforms
the office of the british prime minister holds concentration of formal power
greater than that of almost any other country in the developed world it
concludes
in contrast the fragmentation and lack of coordination at the centre of the
civil service leads to an administrative centre that is relatively weak
this curious situation has created strategic gap at the heart of british
government
yougov interviewed voters online on thursday and friday comres telephoned
adults between wednesday and thursday
former us presidents vow not to abandon haiti
washington jan afp
two former us presidents named by the white house as special coordinators of aid
to haiti vowed late saturday they would not abandon the stricken country but
admitted its recovery will be long
it long road to full recovery but we will not leave the haitian people to
walk it alone former presidents bill clinton and george bush wrote in an
op ed piece in the new york times
they said that in the future haiti will need better schools sturdier more
secure buildings and diverse industries that create jobs and foster
opportunities for greater trade
last thursday us president barack obama asked bush to join clinton in helping
lead the us relief effort after magnitude earthquake that devastated haiti
on tuesday clinton is already united nations special envoy to haiti
the former presidents said they saw reasons to hope
for the first time in our lifetimes haiti government is committed to
building modern economy and it has comprehensive economic plan to create
jobs they wrote
bush and clinton urged the international community to help the haitian people
realize their dream for stronger more secure nation
but we need more than just support from governments they argued we need the
innovation and resources of businesses the skills and the knowledge of
nongovernmental organizations including faith based groups and the generosity
and support of individuals to fill in the gaps
the ex president urged people donate money for haiti through their website
www clintonbushhaitifund org
football portsmouth taking legal steps over epl sanctions
london jan afp
portsmouth have sent legal letter to the english premier league over their
transfer embargo and withholding of television rights revenues the beleaguered
club chief executive peter storrie said
pompey seven million pound million dollar million euro share of
the latest payment of television income is being diverted by the epl to clubs
they owe money to over unpaid transfer deals
the division bottom team are unable to sign new players during the january
transfer window because of an embargo placed upon them by the league
the club are on the verge of trying to force the premier league to relax the
restrictions so they can bring in loan players to fratton park
can confirm we have issued legal letter to the premier league to demand
that the transfer embargo should be lifted storrie was quoted as saying by the
sunday mirror newspaper
we believe we ve very good case against them they have absolutely no right
to withhold television money in advance of future payments or payments to
foreign clubs
the premier league board held talks with cash strapped portsmouth who on
several occasions this season have failed to play their players on time
and the fa cup winners have been unable to convince the league they have
the money to cover reported million pounds of debts to other clubs hence
the decision to divert their share of the television cash to other teams
portsmouth scheduled premier league match with visitors birmingham was
postponed saturday due to waterlogged pitch
two dominicans shot in haiti during relief effort report
santo domingo jan afp
two dominicans were seriously wounded after being shot saturday as they handed
out aid in quake stricken haiti local media here reported
according to reports carlos gatas and milton matos arrived at the embassy of
the dominican republic in port au prince with gunshot wounds after an apparent
attack
gatas injuries were so serious that dominican armed forces evacuated him by
helicopter to jimani on the border with haiti and then on to barahona for
treatment at local hospital
matos was treated at building being used the un peacekeeping force minustah
reports said
aid has been pouring into haiti in the wake of tuesday massive earthquake
but poor organization and the difficult logistical situation has made it hard to
get the relief out to the country desperate population
teetering jal pins hopes on management guru turned monk
tokyo jan afp
japan airlines ceo haruka nishimatsu cut his pay ate in the company cafeteria
