Cricket-Australia recall Clarke for Sri Lanka ODIs

Jan 14 (Reuters) - Australia captain Michael Clarke is one of three big names to return to the squad for the third and fourth one-day internationals against Sri Lanka after a disappointing showing by stand-ins on Sunday.Opening batsman David Warner and wicketkeeper Matthew Wade were the others to be recalled for the matches in Brisbane on Friday and Sydney on Sunday, with all-rounder Moises Henriques...

Read More..

Sharapova starts Australian Open with 6-0, 6-0 win

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Maria Sharapova finished her first match of the year in 55 minutes Monday, cruising to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Olga Puchkova to start proceedings on center court at the Australian Open without showing any signs of trouble with her sore right shoulder.The No. 2-ranked Sharapova, who lost the final to Victoria Azarenka here last year before going on to win the French Open, faced...

Read More..

Tennis-Australian Open order of play - day two

MELBOURNE, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Order of play on the mainshowcourts at the Australian Open on Tuesday (play starts at0000 GMT on all courts, prefix denotes seeding):Rod Laver ArenaRobin Haase (Netherlands) v 3-Andy Murray (Britain)1-Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) v Monica Niculescu (Romania)Benoit Paire (France) v 2-Roger Federer (Switzerland)From 0800Bernard Tomic (Australia) v Leonardo Mayer (Argentina)20-Yanina...

Read More..

New Zealand show fight against South Africa

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (Reuters) - New Zealand fought bravely to move to 157 for four in their second innings, following on and still 247 runs behind South Africa, at the close of the third day's play in the second test on Sunday.Unbeaten pair BJ Watling (41) and Dean Brownlie (44) provided stern resistance and the duo looked relatively untroubled as they added an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership...

Read More..

Australian wildfires spare observatory, uncover bush drug lab

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Raging wildfires destroyed at least another 28 homes and licked at Australia's leading optical space observatory on Monday, officials said, but spared giant telescopes that have mapped far-away galaxies and discovered new planets.Less fortunate were a father and son who police arrested after a fire was lit deliberately to destroy illegal drug laboratories they were alleged to...

Read More..

Award-season hopefuls stop in Palm Springs; Gere, Affleck, Field, Cooper among honorees

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - Award-season hopefuls made their first stop of the new year in the middle of the desert a couple of hours east of Hollywood at the annual Palm Springs International Film Festival gala.A blast of Golden Globe nominees and Oscar hopefuls walked the press gauntlet Saturday night, including Naomi Watts ("The Impossible"), Helen Hunt and John Hawkes ("The Sessions"), Ben Affleck...

Read More..

Regulators ease key bank rule to spur credit

BASEL, Switzerland/LONDON (Reuters) - Global regulators gave banks four more years and greater flexibility on Sunday to build up cash buffers so they can use some of their reserves to help struggling economies grow.The pull-back from a draconian earlier draft of new global bank liquidity rule to help prevent another financial crisis went further than banks had expected by allowing them a broader range...

Read More..

NBC says it is conscious of violence, but isn't the 'shoot-'em-up' network

PASADENA, Calif. - NBC says it is conscious about the amount of violence it airs in the wake of real-life tragedies, but it isn't really an issue because NBC isn't the "shoot-'em-up" network.Network entertainment President Jennifer Salke said Sunday that NBC hasn't taken any specific steps to ask show creators to tone down violence. She said it would be different if NBC was perceived as a "shoot-'em-up"...

Read More..

Egypt commission says Mubarak watched uprising

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Hosni Mubarak watched the uprising against him unfold through a live TV feed to his palace, despite his later denial that he knew the extent of the protests and crackdown against them, a member of a fact-finding mission said Wednesday. The finding could lead to the retrial of the 84-year-old ousted president, already serving a life sentence.In questioning for his trial for the...

Read More..

American journalist missing in Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — An American journalist has been missing in Syria since he was kidnapped more than one month ago, his family said Wednesday, less than two years after he was held by government forces in Libya while covering that country's civil war.The family of James Foley, of Rochester, N.H., said he was kidnapped in northwest Syria by unknown gunmen on Thanksgiving day.Foley, 39, has worked in a number...

Read More..

Algerian forces kill 2 Islamist insurgents

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algerian security forces killed two radical Islamist insurgents on Wednesday in the same locality east of the capital where seven were killed a day earlier.The official APS news agency quoted an unidentified security source as saying army troops on a search operation killed the two guerrillas in Boulzazene in the Boumerdes region, 70 kilometers (45 miles) east of Algiers.Algeria...

Read More..

UN says more than 60,000 dead in Syrian civil war

BEIRUT (AP) — The United Nations gave a grim new count Wednesday of the human cost of Syria's civil war, saying the death toll has exceeded 60,000 in 21 months — far higher than recent estimates by anti-regime activists.The day's events illustrated the escalating violence that has made recent months the deadliest of the conflict: As rebels pressed a strategy of attacking airports and pushing the fight...

Read More..

Egypt panel implicates Mubarak, military in deaths

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian fact-finding mission determined that Hosni Mubarak watched the uprising against him unfold through a live TV feed at his palace, despite his later denial that he knew the extent of the protests and crackdown against them, a member of the mission said Wednesday.The mission's findings increase pressure for a retrial of the 84-year old ousted president, who is already serving...

Read More..

Nicaragua volcano spews ash cloud, residents evacuated

 Nicaragua's tallest volcano has belched an ash cloud hundreds of meters (feet) into the sky in the latest bout of sporadic activity, prompting the evacuation of nearby residents, the government said on Wednesday.The 5,725-foot (1,745-meter) San Cristobal volcano, which sits around 85 miles north of the capital Managua in the country's northwest, has been active in recent years, and went through...

Read More..

South Africa: Mandela released from the hospital

Former South African President Nelson Mandela was released Wednesday from the hospital after being treated for a lung infection and having gallstones removed, a government spokesman said.The 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon will continue to receive medical care at home.Mandela had been in the hospital since Dec. 8. In recent days, officials have said he was improving and in good spirits, but doctors...

Read More..

Tensions hit French Embassy in C. African Republic

Angry protesters carrying clubs threw rocks at the French Embassy in Central African Republic on Wednesday, criticizing the former colonial power for failing to do more to stem a rapid rebel advance as fears grew that the insurgents aim to seize the capital.The demonstrations began earlier in the day outside the U.S. Embassy before about 100 protesters then took to the French Embassy, carrying pieces...

Read More..

Children, many ill, would be victims of Russia ban on U.S. adoption

Family Christmas cards and smiling snapshots of children sent by their adoptive American parents fill Galina Sigayeva's office in Russia's second city St Petersburg.Many of them were crippled by illness and in desperate need of medical care before her agency helped organise their adoption into U.S. families, she recalls.Children's rights campaigners say children like these will suffer most if President...

Read More..

New turmoil hits Egypt's tourism

At Egypt's Pyramids, the desperation of vendors to sell can be a little frightening for some tourists.Young men descend on any car with foreigners in it blocks before it reaches the more than 4,500 year-old Wonder of the World. They bang on car doors and hoods, some waving the sticks and whips they use for driving camels, demanding the tourists come to their shop or ride their camel or just give money.In...

Read More..

Kenya Red Cross: 30 people killed in clashes

At least 30 people were killed when farmers raided a village of herders in southeastern Kenya early Friday in renewed fighting between two communities with a history of violent animosity, the Kenya Red Cross said.Five children and five women were among the dead, the Red Cross said. Forty-five houses were set on fire during the attack, Red Cross spokeswoman Nelly Muluka said.Anthony Kamitu, who is...

Read More..

Burning pipeline fire sign of Nigeria's woes

 The gasoline pipeline burns unstopped near a village close to Nigeria's sprawling megacity of Lagos, shooting flames into the air as leaking fuel muddies the ground. All around it, the ground is littered with plastic jerry-cans, used by those who hacked into the line to steal the fuel within.The pipeline explosion here in Ije Ododo shows the ongoing problems oil-rich Nigeria faces. While the...

Read More..