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Olympics: Soni sets world record in 200m breaststroke semis
Lu Xiaojun sets snatch world record
Federer-Wawrinka lose Olympic doubles
Olympics: Sharapova avenges Wimbledon loss against Lisicki
Spain exits Olympics without scoring a goal
Cyclist killed in collision with Olympics shuttle bus
General Assembly to ask Syria's Assad to step down
Panetta asks Israel for patience on Iran
Six police killed in Iraq
Egypt prosecutor appeals Mubarak trial verdicts
Olympics: Pakistan beat Argentina 2-0
Oil prices climb on drop in US stockpiles
Stem cells blamed for cancer re-growth
Bangladeshi 'dead man' returns home to family
Kohli wants team to focus on 3rd win

Olympics: Soni sets world record in 200m breaststroke semis

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American Rebecca Soni broke the women s 200m breaststroke world record with a time of 2min 20.00sec in the semi-finals at the London Olympics on Wednesday. Olympic champion Soni reached the final in emphatic style as she bettered the previous world record of 2:20.12, set by Canadian Annamay Pierse in July 2009 at the world championships in Rome. It was the second world mark to fall on Wednesday night, after Hungarian Daniel Gyurta s record-breaking swim in winning gold in the men s 200m breaststroke.

Lu Xiaojun sets snatch world record

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Lu lifted 175 kilograms, bettering his own world record by 1 kilogram. He wanted to go for 177 kilograms in his third and last attempt in the snatch, but ran out of time and wasn t allowed to take the lift, sparking angry protests from his coach. Lu is in first place ahead of countryman Lu Haojie heading into the clean and jerk.

Federer-Wawrinka lose Olympic doubles

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Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka joyfully embraced each other four years ago in Beijing, where they won gold in men s doubles. This year s Olympics brought them disappointment and an early exit. The sixth-seeded Swiss pair lost to Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the second round on Court 18 at Wimbledon, where the somewhat disruptive wind and shadow at first seemed to favor Federer and Wawrinka. "I thought we played an excellent first set. Conditions were tough. They were breezy, a lot of shadow on the courts. But that didn t disrupt our great playing," said Federer, who is still in contention for a medal in singles. "It was a pity we couldn t create a few more, maybe, opportunities throughout the second set. But obviously they found a bit of a way to get back into the match," he said. "They definitely played better once sort of the shadow went, all the flags, all the spectator shadows were gone. It was more clean tennis." Wawrinka said: "One or two points can change the match, especially on grass courts." Ram and Erlich, who play the top-seeded Bryan brothers in the quarterfinals, were elated to have faced Federer in doubles. "It s not that we play him every day," Ram said. "In the beginning, we were very nervous. You could see it on the court," he said. "When we sit and we talked, we just tried not to do as many mistakes as we did in the first set, and we managed to do so, and we kept the level."

Olympics: Sharapova avenges Wimbledon loss against Lisicki

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Maria Sharapova avenged her Wimbledon defeat against Sabine Lisicki as the world number three savoured a 6-7 (8/10), 6-4, 6-3 victory over the German in the third round of the Olympics on Wednesday. Sharapova crashed to a shock Wimbledon fourth round exit against Lisicki last month and the Russian lost her place on top of the world rankings as a result. But the 25-year-old, back at the All England Club less than a month later, made amends as she produced a gutsy fightback to eliminate the 15th seed and booked a quarter-final meeting with Belgium s Kim Clijsters. A tense first set went to a tie-break and Sharapova, competing in her first Olympics, paid the price for failing to convert a set point as Lisicki produced some tremendous defence before going on the attack to snatch the lead. Lisicki was on the verge of another famous win over Sharapova when she broke in the second set. But Sharapova refused to surrender and she hit back in typically tenacious fashion to level at 4-4. A bruising encounter swung Sharapova s way when she broke as Lisicki served to stay in the set two games later. Sharapova had the bit between her teeth and she secured the crucial break late in the third set to finally scrape through in two hours and 47 minutes.

Spain exits Olympics without scoring a goal

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Spain exited the men s Olympic football tournament without scoring a single goal in three matches after a 0-0 draw against Morocco on Wednesday in the final group round. Forward Adrian Lopez had the best chances for Spain, hitting the post in the 31st minute and then wasting a good chance in the 69th when he was clear on goal. Lopez latched on to a throughball, but then glanced at the linesman to see whether he was offside instead of shooting. When the official kept his flag down, Lopez dribbled slowly toward goal and sent a weak shot wide. Spain, who finished last in Group D, was already eliminated from the tournament after losing 1-0 in its first two matches against Japan and Honduras. Morocco also goes home after finishing third in Group D.

Cyclist killed in collision with Olympics shuttle bus

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A man was killed after his bicycle was involved in a collision with an Olympics shuttle bus near the site of the Games in London on Wednesday, the ambulance service said. An AFP reporter saw a man s legs protruding from under the double decker bus on a slip road outside the Olympic Park and his mangled racing bicycle lay nearby. A group of around 30 soldiers who had been carrying out security duties at the Olympic Park ran over to the scene, where traffic soon built up causing long tailbacks. A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman confirmed that one man was found dead at the scene. The shuttle buses ferry the thousands of journalists covering the Games between the Olympic Park in Stratford in the east of the capital and hotels in central London. The organisers of the Games were not immediately available for comment.

General Assembly to ask Syria's Assad to step down

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Arab countries pushed ahead Wednesday with a symbolic UN General Assembly resolution that tells Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign and turn over power to a transitional government. It also demands that the Syrian army stop its shelling and helicopter attacks and withdraw to its barracks. A vote is set for Thursday morning. The draft resolution takes a swipe at Russia and China by "deploring the Security Council failure" to act. Moscow and Beijing have used their veto in the smaller, more powerful Council three times to kill resolutions that could have opened the door to sanctions on Syria. While the 193-member General Assembly has no legal mechanism for enforcing a resolution, an overwhelming vote can carry moral and symbolic power. Voting is by simple majority, and there is no veto. The U.N. reported a significant escalation in Syria s civil war Wednesday, with the military using warplanes to fire on opposition fighters in the 12-day battle for Aleppo. The General Assembly draft resolution, written by Saudi Arabia and lobbied for by Egypt and Bahrain, is an attempt to get around the stalemate in the Security Council. "What s important here is that a meeting of the General Assembly on this topic would be an expression of the frustration felt in the international community at large about what s happening in Syria and the inability of the international community, so far, to be able to help bring an end to the violence that everybody wishes to see," said Martin Nesirky, spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. France, which took over the Security Council presidency for the month of August on Wednesday, has called for a foreign minister-level meeting of the Security Council to address the Syria crisis. It was not clear what that could accomplish. U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be quoted, suggested the Arab countries might be ready to weaken some provisions of the draft resolution to guarantee a larger majority vote. The resolution condemns the increasing Syrian military reliance on heavy weapons, including tanks and helicopters, and the "failure to withdraw its troops and heavy weapons to their barracks" in line with a set of proposals by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general who has been trying to mediate the crisis. The resolution backs Annan s demand that "the first step in the cessation of violence has to be made by the Syrian authorities." Reacting to Syria s recent confirmation that it has chemical weapons and its announcement that it would use them on any invaders, the General Assembly "demands that the Syrian authorities refrain from using, or transferring to non-State actors, any chemical and biological weapons, or any related material." The last General Assembly resolution on Syria had 137 votes in favor, but diplomats speculated that the current draft might have trouble winning more than 100 votes. Some U.N. member-states may be uncomfortable backing recommendations for Syria that they would never live with themselves.

Panetta asks Israel for patience on Iran

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, standing next to the US defense chief, said Wednesday without qualification that international economic sanctions have had no effect on Iran s nuclear programme and suggested Israeli patience was wearing thin, a statement that amounted to an indictment of President Barack Obama s policy toward the Islamic republic. Netanyahu dismissed US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta s assurances that the United States shared its goal of a non-nuclear Iran, saying the central features of Washington s strategy for stopping the Islamic republic s nuclear ambitions sanctions and diplomacy were perilously close to failure. Netanyahu did not explicitly threaten to attack Iran, but that was the unspoken implication of his assertion that all non-military measures have proven ineffective in persuading Iran to change its course. "Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear program," Netanyahu said. "This must change, and it must change quickly because time to resolve this issue peacefully is running out." His message was particularly striking, given that he delivered it beside Panetta, who spent two days in Israel offering reassurances that the two allies shared the same goals on Iran. "I want to reassert again the position of the United States that with regards to Iran, we will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Period," the Pentagon chief said. "We will not allow them to develop a nuclear weapon. And we will exert all options in the effort to ensure that that does not happen." Panetta argued that all non-military means of pressuring Iran must first be exhausted before military action is called for. He said repeatedly that Washington still considers military action an option for the future. But Netanyahu was unyielding in his view that more must be done now. He said sanctions have hurt Iran s economy but not achieved their ultimate purpose, which is to change the calculus of Iran s rulers. "Neither sanctions nor diplomacy has yet had any impact on Iran s nuclear weapons programme," the Israeli leader said.

Six police killed in Iraq

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Gunmen killed four police in an attack on Wednesday on a patrol in Taji, north of Baghdad, while two more were killed in an attack on a prison, security and medical officials said. An interior ministry official said that unknown gunmen attacked a police patrol in Taji, killing four police, a toll confirmed by a medical official, who said the attack came at around 8:30 pm (1730 GMT). According to the medical official, a roadside bomb exploded when police reinforcements arrived at the scene. A police captain said that gunmen also tried to break into a prison in Taji, killing two police guards, and setting off bombs that destroyed a gate under construction and wounded five police in an observation tower. Clashes broke out, and the area was surrounded by army and police, the captain said. Policeman Thair Al-Muzaham, who was at the prison, said: "Two of my colleagues died in the attack, and one was wounded and is in very critical condition." The attack comes after Al-Qaeda front group the Islamic State of Iraq said it would look to retake territory, and appealed for Sunni Arab tribes to send fighters, in a recording posted in the name of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The message posted on various jihadist forums said the ISI would begin targeting judges and prosecutors, and try to help its prisoners break out of Iraqi jails. Earlier on Wednesday, Staff Brigadier General Hamid Mohammed Qamr told AFP that Wissam Karim al-Shilal, an alleged Al-Qaeda leader accused of planning and executing an attack on an Iraqi army base on July 23 that left 15 soldiers dead, was killed in fighting with Iraqi soldiers. Shilal was killed near Al-Adheem, north of Baghdad. Violence in Iraq has declined from its peak in 2006-2007, but attacks remain common, killing 325 people in July according to official sources, the highest monthly toll in almost two years.

Egypt prosecutor appeals Mubarak trial verdicts

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Egypt s prosecutor general appealed on Wednesday against the outcome of the trial of Hosni Mubarak and several of his senior officials over deaths in the uprising that unseated the veteran strongman. The prosecutor called for the June 2 verdicts to be annulled and for a new trial to be held. It was not immediately clear on what grounds the appeal was made. Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmud said a day after Mubarak and former interior minister Habib al-Adly were sentenced to life in prison and six senior police officials acquitted, that he would lodge an appeal. The verdicts, particularly against the police officials, set off a wave of protests by people who said they were too lenient. Judge Ahmed Refaat convicted Mubarak and Adly for their roles in the deaths of more than 800 protesters during the revolt that ousted them in February last year but failed to punish any of those who actually conducted the killings. Corruption charges against Mubarak s sons, Alaa and Gamal, were also dropped because of the expiry of a statute of limitations, and the ex-president was acquitted in one of the graft cases. But Alaa and Gamal remain in custody because they are awaiting trial in another case. At the time, a senior member of Mubarak s defence team told AFP the 84-year-old would himself appeal the verdict.

Olympics: Pakistan beat Argentina 2-0

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Pakistan defeated Argentina 2-0 in their second match of Olympic 2012 at the Riverbank Arena, Olympic Sports Park on Wednesday to keep their hopes alive for a place in the semifinals. Mohammad Imran gave Pakistan lead in the 30th minute by converting a penalty corner and skipper Sohail Abbas added the second goal, also on penalty corner, in the 44th minute. Argentina had already been thrashed by Great Britain by 4-1 in their first match at the Games. The group A is headed by Australia, favourite to win the gold medal, that crushed Spain 5-0 and added six points. Great Britain are second with four points while Pakistan are third also having four points, followed by Spain and South Africa with one, and Argentina remains at the last place with no points.

Oil prices climb on drop in US stockpiles

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Oil prices rose Wednesday, boosted by a sharper than expected drop in US crude stockpiles that sparked hopes for stronger demand in the world s biggest oil-consuming country. The US Federal Reserve s decision to keep monetary policy unchanged, announced in the afternoon after a two-day meeting, was widely expected but disappointed some investors who had hoped for additional economic stimulus. New York s main contract, light sweet crude for September, added 85 cents to settle at $88.91 a barrel. In London trade, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in September advanced $1.04 to $105.96 a barrel. For analyst Rich Ilczyszyn at iiTrader, the New York market had been "very quiet all day -- nobody was waiting for anything dramatic from the Fed." The trader said the market was on tenterhooks ahead of Thursday s European Central Bank policy meeting. The ECB has been under pressure to take stronger action to address the eurozone s sovereign debt crisis and economic downturn. Remarks by ECB president Mario Draghi in a post-meeting news conference "will be the big statement of this week," Ilczyszyn said. Traders focused Wednesday on the US Department of Energy s weekly energy report, which delivered a positive sign on the demand front. The DoE said that US crude stockpiles fell by 6.5 million barrels in the week ending July 27, instead of the much smaller drop of 800,000 barrels expected by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires. In the prior week, US crude reserves had climbed by 2.7 million barrels, after having hit a 22-year high in early July. "Oil prices moved up higher, off their two-week lows as US commercial crude inventories showed a decrease of 6.5 million barrels," said Sucden analyst Brenda Kelly. But, Kelly said, "in the absence of any (monetary policy) easing, the slowdown in China and Europe could keep prices fairly subdued in the near term."

Stem cells blamed for cancer re-growth

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Researchers presented evidence Wednesday for the existence of cancer stem cells, with three different studies seeking to end a decades-old scientific dispute about how tumours grow. The discovery should lead to new drugs targeting stem cells that cause tumours to reappear after cancer therapy, the teams argued in three scientific papers published simultaneously in the journals Nature and Science. "The hypothesis (that cancer stem cells exist) has been around now for some time. Hopefully these three papers now make an end to the discussion," Dutch researcher Hugo Snippert told AFP. All the studies were conducted on lab mice. Some experts have maintained that tumours are comprised of masses of cancer cells that are all the same, and all dividing. But Snippert said the latest papers clearly show a hierarchy of cells in tumours, with different functions -- including stem cells that act as cancer cell factories. Stem cells are infant cells that develop into specialised tissues of the body, touted by medicine as a future source from which to replenish damaged tissue. In the case of intestinal cancer, a healthy stem cell mutates to create a "cell of origin" from which a tumour grows, said Snippert. The tumour contains stem cells which then create new cancer cells. Cancer stem cells must now be targeted for drug research, argued Snippert, a member of the University Medical Center Utrecht research team which focused on intestinal cancer and published its findings in Science. "Since the cancer stem cells are so similar to normal stem cells, most treatments also harm the normal stem cells," he said. "That is why it is important now to have a look at cancer stem cells, comparing them to normal stem cells to find the differences." Focusing on incurable brain tumours, a US-based research team said they had found a subset of cells that appear to be the source of new tumour growth after chemotherapy. "This study serves as a proof of principle that in at least some solid tumours functional cancer stem cells exist," researcher Luis Parada of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center told AFP. Also writing in Nature, a separate team in Belgium and the UK found a sub-population of tumour cells with stem-like properties in skin cancer. "Taken together these reports provide evidence that point towards the existence of cells that may represent cancer stem cells," said a Nature press statement. Snippert said the latest technology has allowed the scientists to examine tumour cancer growth in as natural a state as possible, unlike earlier studies that involved tumour transplants in lab mice. The Dutch team was able to breed special mice in which different tumour cells displayed different colours which could then be studied under a microscope. Say the tumour cells were red and the stem cell blue, the scientists could follow the stem cell s progeny as they spread in the tumour. "Because of the colours we could visualise everything within one and the same tumour in its original mouse at the original position where the tumour was formed," Snippert said. "It is more natural... as it would behave normally in patients." The three teams studied different organs using somewhat different techniques, but all with technology that allowed them to let the tumours grow undisturbed, said Snippert. "Better understanding of the cancer stem cells will be critical for re-evaluation of existing therapies and development of new ones," added Parada.

Bangladeshi 'dead man' returns home to family

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A Bangladeshi man who went missing 23 years ago has returned to his ancestral village and shocked his family who had long given him up for dead. Moslemuddin Sarkar, who had been missing since 1989, returned home on Tuesday with help from the International Committee of the Red Cross after spending 15 years in Pakistani jails. Hundreds of well-wishers turned out in Bishnurampur village in northern Mymensingh district to catch a glimpse of him and congratulate the tearful and jubilant family. Sarkar told AFP by telephone he had entered India without valid documents in 1989 without informing his family. He was then caught as he tried to cross into Pakistan in 1997 where he was jailed for trying to enter the country illegally. "I went to Pakistan believing that I would get a better job there. But they caught me at the border. I was beaten and tortured in prison," he explained in a mixture of Urdu and Bengali. "I wrote dozens of letters to my village address, but did not have any clue that they were never posted. At one stage I lost all hope of returning home," he said, adding that he was "delighted" to see his mother still alive. The Red Cross became involved and facilitated Sarkar s return after his family received a tip-off that he was locked up in Pakistan and turned to the organisation for help, according to spokesperson Onchita Shadman, who described him as "frail and overwhelmed". Julhas Uddin, Sarkar s younger brother, said most of the family had feared the worst. "We searched for him for years and finally gave up hope believing he might have drowned in the sea. But our mother always believed that her son would return home one day," he told AFP. "My mother passed out as he hugged her after returning. It was a heartbreaking scene. He could not control his tears for hours," he said.

Kohli wants team to focus on 3rd win

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India have yet again defeated Sri-Lanka in a bilateral series, having clinched a thumping win at the Premadasa on Tuesday but the man of the moment Virat Kohli believes that his team need to be focused and hungry for a third win on the trot when they meet their arch-rivals again in the final match of the series at Pallekele at Kandy on the 4th of August. Kohli reached his 5th ODI century of the year and 13th of his career yesterday and has become a nemesis for the Sri-Lankans. He has the highest aggregate for a 10 match consecutive streak in ODI history having amassed 775 runs leaving behind Amla who has 768. Currently he is regarded as the best batsman in the format and no wonder he wants to keep the momentum going and make it 4-1 for India which would be a repeat of the 2009 series. "If we can win three in a row it will be wonderful for us. Our game is as consistent as it can be," said Kohli. On his recent tremendous run in ODIs, the batsman said, "You put yourself under pressure when go up in the rankings. I personally think when you start scoring runs for your team and your country you have to take the game up one level." "Getting out for 105 or 106 after scoring a century doesn t help the cause of your team." He added that the key to their chase was to keep wickets in hand and build a partnership. "This was what me and Suresh (Raina) discussed in the middle. When you are defending 250 you need to take wickets at regular intervals. Our plan was to stop that and try and create a partnership. We knew that the powerplay was due," he said.

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Cricket - Sports

Thursday, August 2, 2012

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