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WIGAN: Defending champions Manchester United trounced Wigan 5-0 in English soccer’s Premier League here on Saturday.In the match played in Wigan, no team could make any goal in the first half but Manchester United scored all of their goals in the second half to outclass Wigan.Wayne Rooney scored twice while Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov and Nani netted one goal each.Rooney completed his one hundred goals for Manchester United in this match.In other matches, Arsenal outplayed Portsmouth 4-1, Hull City defeated Bolton 1-0 for its first victory, Sunderland beat Blackburn 2-1 and Manchester City beat Wolverhampton 1-0. Birmingham and Stoke tied 0-0.

Monday, August 24, 2009 TORONTO: Elena Dementieva won her third singles title of the year, snapping a run of poor showings against Maria Sharapova in an all-Russian showdown at the WTA Rogers Cup on Sunday. In a tune-up event for the US Open, the 27-year-old Dementieva posted a 6-4, 6-3 win over unseeded Sharapova to earn her 14th career singles title. "I really like to play this tournament, but I've never done anything better than first or second round, which was very disappointing for me," Dementieva said. "Every time I come I have such great crowd support. "I just feel so happy to finally win this title. It means a lot to me." She also won titles this year in Sydney and Auckland but hasn't had much success against Sharapova over the years. It was just the third win for Dementieva over Sharapova in 12 career meetings and first in three years. Her last win was in the semi-finals of the 2006 Los Angeles tournament. Former world number one Sharapova is ...

KABUL: NATO military commanders told U.S. President Barack Obama's envoy on Sunday that they needed more troops and other resources to beat back a resurgent Taliban, particularly in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.The Taliban has made inroads in recent months in many areas that U.S. forces though they had stabilized. The deteriorating security has increased pressure on the Obama administration to consider sending more forces into the fight, a move that could prove a hard sell with the U.S. Congress and the American public.U.S. Major General Curtis Scaparotti, commander of forces in eastern Afghanistan, said he told U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke that veteran Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani had expanded his reach in several areas in Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan."Haqqani is the central threat. We've seen that expansion and that's part of what we're fighting," Scaparotti told reporters after the meeting.The U.S. military has launched...

Monday, August 24, 2009 SANTIAGO: At least 200 sea lions have been found dead along Chile's northern coast.Local television stations Channels are showing images of the dead and dying mammals on the rocks and in the sea near Iquique.Chile's fishing service says many of the dead apparently are young sea lions abandoned when their mothers were drawn too far offshore hunting food. It says the El Nino phenomenon has made prey scarce near shore.Environmental groups said Saturday they suspect a local molybdenum plant or other industry may be to blame.News media in neighboring Peru reported earlier this month that more than 20 sea lions had been found dead in the Chimbote region there.

Monday, August 24, 2009 DAR ES SALAAM: A fire that started when a student at a central Tanzanian girls' school tried to study in candlelight has killed 12 students, police said on Sunday. The Saturday night incident at Idodi Secondary School in Iringa region, about 460 km (285 miles) southwest of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, razed a dormitory to the ground. "It burnt one dormitory completely and 12 students were killed. Another 20 have been injured," Iringa Regional Police Commander Evarist Mangala told the British news aency by phone. "We're still investigating (the cause), but it looks like it's from a candle lit by a student who was trying to study at night." Mangala said the school had 461 students.

Sunday, August 23, 2009 ROME: Residents of a village in central Italy were celebrating Saturday after a ticket sold there produced the richest jackpot in European lottery history -- nearly 148 million euros.After weeks of mid-summer lotto madness in Italy, the winning ticket was sold in a bar in the village of Bagnone, in the central region of Tuscany.The identity of the winner -- who is now 147,807,299.08 euros (about 212 million dollars) richer, according to a news agency -- was being kept secret.But Italian television pictures showed emotions running high in the picturesque village of only 2,000 inhabitants."We were watching the football match where Milan were playing when someone came in saying that we had won the SuperEnalotto," the bar's manager, Annamaria Ciampini, told another news agency."We immediately changed the channel and we started to hear the name of the village. What more can I say? I didn't win and I don't know who did," she added.Outs...

Sunday, August 23, 2009 WASHINGTON: Nearly eight years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda remains "very capable" of attacking the United States, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen said Sunday.Al-Qaeda is "still very capable, very focused on it," Mullen said on a US TV channel."They also are able to both train and support and finance, and so that capability is still significant," he said.Mullen, the top US military officer, added that the US military is "very focused on making sure that it doesn't happen again," referring to the potential for another such attack on US soil.Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, in which extremists hijacked jetliners, struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon and killed some 3,000 people.

Sunday, August 23, 2009 WASHINGTON: The situation in Afghanistan is "serious and deteriorating," Washington's top military officer said on Sunday."I think it is serious and it is deteriorating, and I've said that over the past couple of years, that the Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated in their tactics," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a US news channel.

Sunday, August 23, 2009 BERLIN: Usain Bolt bagged his third gold medal of the World Athletics Championships here on Saturday when Jamaica stormed to the men's 4x100m relay title.Bolt has this week also shattered his own world records in winning the 100m (9.58sec) and 200m (19.19sec) to replicate his Beijing Olympics medal haul.The Jamaican, who turned 23 on Friday, played down any suggestion that he was the "saviour" of athletics.Steve Mullings, a 200m specialist, was the anchor man, handing on to Michael Frater, with former world record holder and current 100m bronze medallist Asafa Powell the sprinter entrusted with the final leg.Bolt, however, failed to completely demonstrate his explosive power around the bend despite the roars of a packed Olympic Stadium, and his handover to Powell almost went awry when he just avoided running into his teammate.The Jamaican foursome nevertheless set a championship record time of 37.31sec ahead of Trinidad and Tobago (37.62) with Bri...

WASHINGTON: Reports of fraud and intimidation in Afghanistan's presidential election continued to mount Saturday, with anecdotal, but widespread accounts of ballot-box stuffing, a lack of impartiality among election workers and voters casting ballots for others.Director Jandad Spinger, Foundation for free and transparent elections in Afghanistan said that over 7000 observers of his group told that the ballot boxes were already stuffed, while bogus voting and other irregularities continued.US newspaper said that European groups have also pointed out many discrepancies, while in several provinces the polling stations remained shut fearing violence. Karzai government has denied any sort of fraud committed in the elections.

Sunday, August 23, 2009 SEOUL: North Korean envoys delivered a message from their leader Kim Jong-Il when they met South Korea's president Sunday, raising hopes of an end to high tensions that had sparked fears of military clashes.Details of the verbal message were not disclosed.But both sides at the first high-level North-South meeting since President Lee Myung-Bak took office 18 months ago expressed hopes for warmer ties after more than a year of deep hostility from Pyongyang."I'm leaving with good feelings," Kim Ki-Nam, a close aide to Kim Jong-Il, told reporters as he left for the airport after the talks.Relations have been icy since the conservative Seoul leader scrapped a "sunshine" aid and engagement policy towards the hardline communist state and linked economic assistance to nuclear disarmament.Military forces along the heavily-fortified border have been put on alert at various times.Tensions rose further after Pyongyang's nuclear and missile te...

Sunday, August 23, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US space shuttle Discovery, and its crew of seven astronauts -- including one Swede -- are preparing this weekend to launch on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS).The shuttle is scheduled to take off Tuesday at 01:36 am (0536 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.The shuttle is to deliver equipment for a new bedroom, a treadmill, a freezer, food and other supplies. It will also be dropping off the newest member of the ISS team -- US astronaut Nicole Stott.Stott will be taking over from engineer and fellow American Tim Kopra, who has been aboard the ISS since July and is returning to Earth with the Discovery."Our systems are in good shape, the launch countdown preps are proceedings without much event and we have no new issues to report," said Test Director Steve Payne. "The flight crew, vehicle and the launch team are ready to go."The mission will be the 128th for the space shuttle progra...

Sunday, August 23, 2009 ATHENS: The Greek government declared a state of emergency and troops called in on Saturday as a large forest fire burned out of control on the northeastern outskirts of Athens, sending thick black smoke over the city and damaging dozens of homes.Fire fighters say the blaze that broke out in the early hours of Saturday near Marathon, 25 miles northeast of Athens is being fanned by gale-force winds. Nine small planes, five helicopters and 35 ground vehicles are trying to contain the fire, which is burning forest, brush and farmland.Locals said it was heading towards the town of Marathon after flames reached houses in the villages of Grammatiko and Varnavas. Residents with hoses, shovels and buckets of water are said to be trying to save their properties. So far no casualties have been reported. It is a very difficult fire because it rages in a mixed zone of residential areas and forest land," Greek fire brigade spokesman Giannis Kapakis told reporters. He u...

Sunday, August 23, 2009 WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has issued a special Ramadan message to the Muslim World, expressing hope for a more peaceful and secure world. In a video message to Muslims, Obama said the US was committed to keeping its pledge to build a safer world, end the Iraq war and isolate violent extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "All of these efforts are part of America's commitment to engage Muslims and Muslim-majority nations on the basis of mutual interest and mutual respect," Obama said in the message posted on the White House website. "And at this time of renewal, I want to reiterate my commitment to a new beginning between America and Muslims around the world." "We are also committed to keeping our responsibility to build a world that is more peaceful and secure," he said. Obama also mentioned the common Muslim-Christian principals and rituals, saying that people of the both faiths are in search of "advancing jus...