incontrovertible
haiti government ends quake search and rescue phase un
geneva switzerland jan afp
haiti government has ended the search and rescue phase of the quake relief
effort after at least people were pulled out alive from under the rubble
the united nations said saturday
the government has declared the search and rescue phase over the un
organisation for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said in its latest
situation report on the relief effort
there were live rescues by international search and rescue teams it
added
an year old woman and year old man were pulled out of the rubble in
haiti capital port au prince on friday about ten days after the magnitude
quake
cricket defending champs india knocked out of world cup
wellington jan afp
pakistan knocked defending champions india out of the icc under world cup
saturday in tense rain affected quarter final at lincoln
in the other last eight tie played saturday the west indies beat england by
runs in match shortened to overs side by bad weather
india could only manage in their overs but pakistan had to battle to
reach the modest total getting to their target with only three balls remaining
and two wickets in hand
mandeep singh top scored for india with after the champions lost two
wickets in the first over the main bowlers to cause the damage for pakistan
were fayyaz butt with and raza hassan who took three wickets
pakistan chase started badly they lost their first three wickets for just
runs in the first seven overs but partnership of between ahsan ali and
rameez aziz brought them back into the reckoning
wickets fell regularly until hammad azam steered pakistan home scoring an
unbeaten from balls
in the other quarter final the west indies scored before dismissing england
for
the west indies victory was built on run third wicket partnership between
kraigg braithwaite and andre cleary as well as devastating spell of
bowling by paceman jason holder who took
pakistan will meet the west indies in the first semi final on monday new
zealand will play australia and south africa meet sri lanka in the remaining
quarter finals on sunday
former malaysia king dies aged
kuala lumpur jan afp
the sultan of malaysia johor state iskandar ismail who served as the
nation king for five years has died aged state media reported
abdul ghani othman chief minister of the southern state announced the sultan
death late friday after he was admitted to local hospital the day before for
an unspecified illness state news agency bernama said
the sultan of johor was very much respected and loved abdul ghani said
reading statement on tv according to bernama he said the sultan died at
pm gmt
the sultan eldest son tunku ibrahim ismail iskandar was proclaimed as the
state new sultan saturday morning
the announcement was made just hours before sultan iskandar burial broadcast
live on tv
sultan iskandar was born in and educated in australia and britain before
joining the state civil service
he took over as sultan of johor in following the death of his father and
served as malaysia king from to
malaysia has rotational monarchical system in which each state sultan takes
turns to serve for five years as king
local papers were filled with tributes to sultan iskandar calling him
selfless ruler at heart and ruler close to his subjects
premier najib razak cut short state visit to india returning to malaysia
early saturday for the sultan funeral bernama reported
urgent haiti government ends quake search and rescue phase un
geneva jan afp
haiti government has ended the search and rescue phase of the quake relief
effort after at least people were pulled out alive from under the rubble
the united nations said saturday
alert
haiti government declares quake search and rescue phase over un
tennis verdasco benefits from koubek virus
melbourne jan afp
spanish ninth seed fernando verdasco was gifted place in the fourth round of
the australian open saturday when austrian opponent stefan koubek retired after
losing the first set
verdasco will now play sixth seed nikolay davydenko for place in the quarter
finals
the th ranked koubek who had to go through qualifying to reach the main
draw said he became ill on friday and spent restless night before deciding to
play verdasco
had fever sore throat and headache and felt really bad yesterday
koubek said
was sweating alot and didn sleep very well last night so went to the
doctor and took some pills
thought would go out today and compete but it made no sense to continue on
for my sake and fernando just didn have any energy so retired
the left handed verdasco reached the semi finals at last year australian open
where he lost in five sets to compatriot rafael nadal in the longest ever
singles match here in five hours minutes
of course you never want one guy to play sick and to feel like this he said
but it also good and have more rest for my important match in fourth
round
tennis serena sets up stosur rematch
melbourne jan afp
defending champion serena williams set up marquee australian open fourth round
clash with samantha stosur on saturday and the pair have some history
williams blitzed spaniard carla suarez navarro while australian th
seed stosur pummelled italian alberta brianti
the fourth round showdown on monday is sure to create plenty of interest with
stosur beating the world number one the last time they met
williams then added fuel to the fire by accusing stosur of being good
framer implying many of her winning shots of being miss hits
guess she thought hit too many frames or shanks during that match stosur
said after her win over brianti
maybe hit couple but hit with bit of spin maybe she wasn expecting
so many balls to drop in because of the spin
whether she genuinely forgets or whether just wants to stay onside with stosur
vocal australian fans williams insisted she could not recall saying anything
negative about her rival
don remember that she said when asked about the incident
she good friend of mine so like her lot
just remember hit some great shots and she returned them back for winners
it was good that we played last because know what to expect she on the up
and up and is nice girl she has nothing to lose going into this match
neither do it ll be fun
stosur will have her work cut out although it was far from plain sailing for
williams saturday despite the scoreline with the plucky spaniard recovering
from disastrous start to push the top seed for much of the second set
williams came out with all guns blazing and raced to lead in only
minutes suarez navarro winning just five points in the first five games
she only seemed to wake up in the sixth game which went for an amazing
minutes with deuces williams clinching the first set on her eighth
opportunity
think it was definitely the toughest six love set williams said
especially in the end because she was really fighting for it she was too
didn want to lose that game and at the end of day glad didn lose
that game
williams was made to run all over the court but she showed her superb
athleticism as she chased down many of the spaniard best shots and returned
them with interest
she broke suarez navarro in the third game of the second set and was never in
any trouble on her own serve holding comfortably to when she seized on
loose game by the spaniard to break again and take the match
despite williams being clear favourite stosur buoyed by her improved form
said she wasn scared of facing her
looking forward to it she said ve lived up to my expectation and ve
got to where should have got to
playing the number one player in the world defending champion can go out
there and really enjoy it know won the last time we played against each
other
that probably not going to mean too much going into monday match but at
least know ve be able to beat her before
taliban kidnap afghan district police chief
assadabad afghanistan jan afp
taliban militants attacked police patrol in eastern afghanistan early
saturday capturing district police chief and two other officers police said
the patrol which included jamtullah khan the police chief of shaigal district
in kunar province on the border with pakistan was attacked after midnight
provincial police chief khalilullah ziayee told afp
taliban abducted the district police chief along with two other policemen he
said
it is the first abduction of police chief by militants zemarai bashary
afghanistan interior ministry spokesman told afp
hundreds of afghan businessmen foreign journalists politicians aid and
construction workers have been kidnapped in the past by militant groups or
criminal gangs
most of the abductions have criminal motives or are carried out in bid to
secure release of fellow fighters from afghan jails
nba nets drop their th straight
oakland california jan afp
stephen curry scored career high points as golden state beat the new jersey
nets despite losing leading scorer monta ellis to injury
corey maggette finished with points and cartier martin had points and
eight rebounds for the warriors who beat the nets for the second time
this season
ellis hurt his right ankle in the second quarter he finished with season low
four points with five assists and was taken for rays
brook lopez had points and six rebounds for new jersey which lost its
th straight the nets haven won since beating the new york knicks on
december
they dropped to on the road
global lawyers group says barred from vietnam trial
hanoi jan afp
observers from global association of lawyers were barred last week from
controversial vietnamese trial at which four dissidents were jailed the group
said saturday
the international bar association iba human rights institute said two
observers it sent to monitor the trial wednesday in ho chi minh city were not
allowed into the court despite diplomatic intervention
the observers were then subsequently interrogated by immigration authorities
the group said in statement
it said that international conventions to which vietnam is party provide for
the right to fair and public trial and expressed grave concerns at the
observers exclusion
the practice of sending trial observers is well established and accepted in the
international community the presence of impartial and independent observers
helps facilitate the proper functioning of the court process and helps guarantee
the right to fair trial said martin solc co chairman of the rights
institute division of the london based iba which represents lawyers
around the world
some diplomats and foreign journalists were permitted to monitor the one day
trial from separate room via closed circuit television whose sound was
sometimes difficult to understand
internet entrepreneur tran huynh duy thuc was sentenced to years in
prison while blogger nguyen tien trung received seven years human rights
lawyer le cong dinh and le thang long were each given five years
their convictions for trying to overthrow the communist state prompted
criticism from the european union the us ambassador and british minister
vietnam foreign ministry responded late friday that the case was handled in
accordance with vietnamese and international law it accused foreigners of
intervening in the country affairs
commentary about the case saturday in the quan doi nhan dan people army
daily said foreign newspapers had published articles which showed biased
attitude towards the vietnamese state and also an over intervention into the
internal affairs of an independent country
tennis federer almost became an aussie
melbourne jan afp
swiss tennis legend roger federer on saturday revealed he came close to
emigrating to australia as youngster
federer who has south african mother was born in switzerland and has won his
record grand slam titles under the swiss flag
but his swiss father robert who is employed in the pharmaceuticals industry
spent three months working in australia when his son was aged about
and the family considered moving down under
was maybe years old said federer after progressing to the fourth
round of the australian open
actually remember my parents having debate about moving away from
switzerland to come live over here
at the end they just said look we have all our friends over here
so in the end they decided to stay in switzerland
federer said the family went on vacation to australia before he joined the swiss
national tennis centre at
we went on big vacation here through melbourne brisbane and cairns and
everything to get better idea of the country he said
it was beautiful vacation but in the end we decided to stay in switzerland
federer has long enjoyed close relationship with australians including two of
his coaches tony roche and peter carter who died in car crash in
tennis dangerous davydenko dares to dream
melbourne jan afp
nikolay davydenko is daring to dream after another sparkling performance at the
australian open on saturday
the russian sixth seed crushed argentinian juan monaco and is yet
to drop set in three matches conceding just games in nine sets in reaching
the last for the fifth year in row
the win over the th seeded monaco extended his current winning streak to
matches and the year old said for the first time he felt like grand slam
title was within reach
am feeling very good confident now he said
before didn want to tell you guys yes can win and want to win grand
slam
but this level if keep it up maybe have chance to win
despite being veteran of the tour davydenko said his game had improved
significantly over the last months
maybe it depends how many matches you play and against who you play and against
who you win he said
last year beat so many good guys roger federer rafael nadal and juan
martin del potro
also in shanghai beat novak djokovic
very tough matches but now have very good confidence and maybe my tennis has
changed little bit
maybe starting to play bit faster and do not make so many mistakes
monaco was powerless to stop an early onslaught as the russian reeled off the
first nine games in quick time
the argentinian won just eight points in the first set and took until the fourth
game of the second set to get on the board
such was the dominance of davydenko that monaco raised his arms in triumph and
looked thankfully to the heavens when he finally held serve to open his account
monaco was more competitive in the third set achieving his only break of the
match but davydenko quickly steadied and break of his own in the ninth game
allowed him to serve out the match
davydenko who has never made grand slam final hit winners on his way to
his fourth win in five meetings with monaco while his opponent could only
manage four
the russian will now play ninth seeded spaniard fernando verdasco for place
in the quarter finals
verdasco was handed an easy third round victory when opponent stefan koubek
retired ill after dropping the first set
japan kingmaker questioned over scandal reports
japan jan afp
japanese prosecutors on saturday questioned ichiro ozawa the kingmaker of the
ruling coalition over funding scandal that has rocked the centre left
government local media reported
ozawa secretary general of prime minister yukio hatoyama democratic party
of japan dpj appeared for questioning at tokyo hotel after weeks of
refusals japanese public broadcaster nhk and jiji press said
more than reporters and photographers swarmed outside the building waiting
for ozawa often dubbed the government shadow shogun
the scandal has dealt serious blow to hatoyama who has seen his public
support slide rapidly ahead of national election in july seen as test for
the dpj ability to hold on to power over the long term
prosecutors have raided ozawa offices and arrested three of his former or
current aides to investigate whether he took millions of dollars in bribes from
construction firms and invested the money in tokyo property
the veteran of japanese backroom politics and the architect of last summer
landslide election win has angrily professed his innocence and publicly
questioned the motives of the prosecutors
but reversing his earlier stance ozawa has decided to accept questioning after
growing criticism of his position even among ruling coalition members
as politician he needs to explain to people sincerely mizuho fukushima
head of the socialist party one of the two junior coalition partners told
her party convention on saturday
us research institute last week ranked ozawa third on list of the most
influential leaders shaping global politics in following chinese premier
wen jiabao and us president barack obama
hatoyama who faces his own money scandal for dipping into his family fortune to
fund political activities expressed his support for ozawa telling him to
please fight the prosecutors
the premier who is theoretically authorised to interrupt any probe by
prosecutors has since denied trying to strong arm investigators into going easy
on ozawa
the dpj in august toppled the conservative party that had dominated politics for
half century as part of an iron triangle with big business and the
bureaucracy system the new leaders have pledged to dismantle
tennis venus sees off tenacious dellacqua
melbourne jan afp
venus williams stayed on course for semi final against sister serena when she
beat tenacious casey dellacqua in the australian open third round
on saturday
williams won the first set comfortably but was made to work lot harder for the
second by the australian who is returning to the tour after recovering from
shoulder surgery
in the end it took the sixth seed one hour minutes to subdue dellacqua and
book fourth round meeting with th seeded italian francesca schiavone who
upset th seed agnieszka radwanska earlier in the day
williams broke dellacqua twice in the first set but found the australian left
hander serve lot harder to read in the second
at the same time williams serve which had worked well early went off the boil
allowing dellacqua to stay in the match
but williams recovered in the tiebreak and cleared away to lead which the
australian wildcard never looked likely to pin back
tennis atp need to fix sponsor tv and scheduling federer
melbourne jan afp
roger federer said saturday the major issues confronting the men atp tour are
to find major sponsor gain more television exposure for the sport and press
for shorter playing schedule
the game number one player sits on the atp player council along with his
major rivals rafael nadal and novak djokovic and wants to be involved in the
major decision making
federer who advanced to the fourth round of the australian open with straight
sets win over spaniard albert montanes said the players want to leave the game
in better shape
the swiss legend ran through the issues he believes need fixing as tennis enters
new decade
think it would be nice to have main sponsor for the atp that maybe
number one he said
always think figuring out getting tennis on tv as much as possible
especially in europe where the markets are pretty difficult to get to sometimes
because of the differing languages
other than that just shortening of the playing schedule don know if
that really big priority
mean it always something we ll talk about for the next hundred years but
we ll see if it possible to change or not
federer said they were the issues that are currently under debate inside the
atp
as for the top guys think we ll come together and find solution for that
he said
the longer the season is the more weeks you have off during the season so it
always works
federer praised the appointment of adam helfant as the atp executive chairman
who is entering his second year in charge
of course we do trust adam helfant and the board but it better for everyone
that we players are involved he said
because too many times the decisions have been taken and we almost only heard
about it through the press in the past that not the way think it should be
run
happy that rafa and novak have big interest the other guys trust what we
are doing so it going pretty smoothly
federer said he was not up to date about the latest moves to institute world
cup of tennis instead of the traditional davis cup teams competition
ve just read lot about it but don know quite enough about the concept
so don know we ll see how it goes he said
my focus is on the australian open not on the world cup or davis cup
we know we have issues but we ll see probably ll look more into it after
the open
revolutionary plan for world cup of tennis nations playing once every
two years to replace the annual davis cup surfaced this month
cricket under world cup results
wellington jan afp
results on saturday from the quarter finals of the icc under world cup in new
zealand
at rangiora match reduced to overs side by rain
west indies in overs kraigg brathwaite andre creary david
payne ben stokes danny briggs
england in overs jason holder nelson bolan john campbell
west indies won by runs
at lincoln match reduced to overs side by rain
india in overs mandeep singh fayyaz butt raza hassan
pakistan in overs ahsan alirun hammad azam not out jaydev
unadkat ashok menaria
pakistan won by two wickets
tennis serena says prince william shazam but harry better
melbourne jan afp
she may be the world top tennis player and the winner of multiple grand slams
but serena williams was left giggling like schoolgirl when she talked about
meeting prince william
serena was in the middle of mundane press conference after beating carla
suarez navarro in the australian open third round on saturday when someone asked
her about meeting the prince when he was at the tennis two days ago
she immediately lit up
it was super cool prince william was really dapper and suave you know he
was just basically shazam she said with laugh
wasn really nervous to meet him he was my age kind of always wanted to
meet him so it was cool
serena said she joked with william about their respective siblings
told him that might like his little brother better because he the little
brother and he laughed and said he might like venus better because she
older she said
so we just had little joke about that
asked if she and venus should consider double date with william and harry she
said not unless leo is there revealing her crush on hollywood heartthrob
leonardo dicaprio
every time see leonardo dicaprio get totally speechless every time
like hi
nba spurs duncan hits point milestone in loss
san antonio texas jan afp
tim duncan reached the career point plateau with point performance
friday but it wasn enough as san antonio lost to houston
duncan finished with points and rebounds for the spurs who have lost four
of their past five games
kyle lowry and aaron brooks scored points apiece for the rockets at the at
and center arena lowry added nine assists and six rebounds and brooks
finished with seven assists
shane battier had points and trevor ariza and luis scola contributed
points each for the rockets who won for the third time in their past four
games
tony parker had points and assists while manu ginobili and george hill
added points apiece for san antonio
haitian seniors late to receive aid
port au prince jan afp
infirm and in pain even before last week killer earthquake asile communal
elderly residents have been dealt one of the hardest blows of their long
lives
at least two elderly people have tried to climb back into the building since
the earthquake but it just isn safe said jean emmanuel an administrator at
the damaged haitian nursing home in port au prince
vast amounts of international aid flooding haiti already one of the poorest
nations in the world have yet to reach them
eleven days after the quake they are still waiting for food medicine and care
living in stained bedclothes in garden next to ruins of their former home
washing and using bedpans with no privacy in cramped conditions
the ceiling of the women building fell during the earthquake the
administrative building sunk through its floors and the men building was
badly damaged but is still standing so some residents want to return inside
bright red christmas decorations hang on one of several green walls still
standing in the women quarters in which five people died
two other patients have died in their beds in the garden since the quake struck
on january one corpse still lies under sheet near survivors
we were lucky we were really lucky to lose so few people emmanuel said
two caretakers were driven for treatment to the neighboring dominican republic
and many others are unable to work because they are struggling to pick up the
mangled pieces of their own lives
asile communal is in the bel air neighborhood but while it may share the name
of posh community in los angeles it is far cry from the luxurious homes and
country clubs of the exclusive california bastion
scores of impoverished earthquake victims now camp in the senior center
garden while naked children run around the ruins beds and wheelchairs outside
with scores of looters taking to the streets to fight over scarce goods
caretakers here are constantly worried for the security of their vulnerable
patients
we didn have many means before but now we have nothing emmanuel lamented
nurses and medical center once supported the elderly transporting sick
patients to hospitals now destroyed or overflowing with earthquake victims
handful of the scores of non governmental aid organizations in haiti recently
discovered the home
these people are in dire state so we have to help here helpage
international emergencies programs coordinator margaret chilcott told afp
often people are child focused or pregnant women focused and old people get
left behind
the group along with private sponsors and medical aid from the international
red cross aims to provide basic food and care to help the center get back on
its feet
sitting among flies and almost on top of each other many residents expressed
anger at the city mayor for ignoring their needs
we still haven seen the mayor or any of his representatives we received
few bottles of water from foreigners on thursday but that it said exumi
fleurant blind year old sitting in wheelchair
chilcott stressed that the first thing is to get people comfortable adding
that management was still in disarray
in one corner of the garden an elderly woman sliced her hand across her throat
in local gesture indicating hunger
just want some food said clotide guerrier hunching forward on metal bed
in the unforgiving caribbean sun she estimated her age at
cycling desperate chase puts greipel in sight of victory
adelaide australia jan afp
andre greipel moved within sight of second tour down under victory on saturday
after thrilling chase over the race most demanding stage
reigning world champion cadel evans led fierce breakaway over the infamous
willunga hill before greipel battled back to hold on to the leader jersey with
one stage to go
spain luis leon sanchez the winner took the stage five victory with
greipel nine seconds behind reducing the german overall lead to seconds
milram luke roberts was second spanish star alejandro valverde third and
evans fourth seven time tour de france winner lance armstrong crossed in the
same group as greipel and was designated rd
but greipel the champion has already won three stages and will be
favourite to preserve his lead over sunday flat kilometre mile stage
six around central adelaide
it was just awesome from the guys greipel said there was no time to panic
we just needed to chase we were seconds behind
tomorrow just want to go with the guys in front hopefully there will be not
so many attacks but think with strong team like have we can hold on to
the jersey
greipel htc columbia team mate michael rogers said it was group effort to
drag the sprint specialist over willunga hill and close the gap on the leaders
in the dying stages
we were little bit nervous leading into the final eight or nine kilometres
but we used our experience and our brains rogers said
it came off perfectly in the end we didn win the stage but first and
foremost we held on to the leader jersey
greipel crashed out of last year tour down under when he hit parked police
