Venus, Zvonareva reach final of Qatar Open Tennis

DOHA: Venus Williams will play Vera Zvonareva in the final of the WTA Championships after both women achieved difficult three-set victories on Saturday. Wimbledon champion Williams overcame Serbian world number one Jelena Jankovic 6-2 2-6 6-3, and Zvonareva beat fellow Russian Elena Dementieva 7-6 3-6 6-3.The match between Williams and Jankovic produced high-quality rallies as both players defended well but attacked at every opportunity. Jankovic made a slow start and produced numerous errors, while her American opponent's strong forehand helped her to break twice to lead 4-1.Jankovic raised her game and, although it was too late to save the first set, she took the second. She recovered from 0-40 in the first game, winning nine of the next 10 points and going on to lead 3-0. She held off another threat after Williams broke for 3-2, saving two game points for 3-3 before breaking Williams again for 4-2.The final set was the most closely contested, with Williams breaking for 2-1 and then fighting off five break points to hold for 4-2. As errors once more began to appear in Jankovic's game, Williams broke a final time for the match.In the other semi-final neither player hit a single ace in the two-hour-20-minute battle as they both struggled to produce their best tennis. The first set was particularly disappointing, with breaks in eight of the 12 games and seven of the last nine points in the tie break going against serve.Fifth seed Dementieva served for the first set twice, at 5-4 and 6-5, and she held a set point in the tiebreak at 7-6 before losing it 9-7.Both players settled down and produced some decent rallies, although not on a consistent basis. Zvonareva dropped her serve with a double fault to fall behind 2-0, then wasted a breakpoint when down 3-1. The eighth seed quickly regained the upper hand in the final set, breaking for 2-0 when Dementieva made a backhand error. Although Dementieva broke back at 4-2, when a blistering return forced an error, another backhand error allowed Zvonareva to break once more and serve out the match to love.

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India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

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US drones to target Taliban in Afghan war

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, report said on Thursday.Although defeating the Al-Qaeda terror network remains an overriding goal for Washington, officials now believe the best way to pursue that objective is to ensure stability in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan instead of Al-Qaeda manhunts, the paper said, citing US government and Defense Department officials.It was more important to prevent a slide towards violence and anarchy that could be exploited by Al-Qaeda, which used Afghanistan to stage its attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the officials said."We might still be too focused on Bin Laden," an official said. "We should probably reassess our priorities."The shift in priorities for the drone fleet comes despite President Barack Obama's declaration that defeating and dismantling Al-Qaeda ...

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