CHARLESTON: Top seed Elena Dementieva cruised into the semi-finals of the Family Circle Cup on Friday after her opponent Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia retired hurt. The Russian, who won Olympic gold in Beijing, will meet Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who trounced France's Virginie Razzano 6-2 6-0. Dementieva, who had lost only four games in her two previous matches, was leading 6-4 1-0 in the quarter-final when the seventh-seeded Slovakian retired with a left thigh injury.Fifth seed Wozniacki, who won last weekend's Florida claycourt title, completely outclassed 13th seed Razzano, but was banking on a sterner test in the semi-final. Another teenager in Sabine Lisicki of Germany booked a semi-final place, the 19-year-old riding out a comfortable 6-46-0 winner over Elena Vesnina of Russia. Lisicki, who upset world number five and second seed Venus Williams in the previous round, will play the winner of the quarter final bout between sixth seed Marion Bartoli of France and Hungarian Melinda Czink.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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