Serena Williams moved a step closer to salvaging her season with a 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 semifinal victory over Amelie Mauresmo in the WTA Championships in Los Angeles on Sunday. ”She just went for it,” Mauresmo said. ”I would give all the credit to her. I was playing some good tennis and she really raised her level a lot.”

Alan Shearer claimed that referee Mike Dean had fallen foul of Sir Alex Ferguson’s mind games after Manchester United edged out troubled Newcastle 3-1 in a thrilling Premiership encounter in Newcastle at St James’ Park on Sunday. Dean awarded the visitors a hotly disputed penalty.

Dinesh Mongia defied South Africa with a patient tonne on the second day of their practice game against an Indian Board President’s XI in Jaipur on Monday. Mongia slammed 135 not out as the home side reached 320-5 in reply to South Africa’s 226-5 declared at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium. Hemang Badani was the other not-out batsman on 49.

Dinesh Mongia defied South Africa with a patient ton on the second day of their practice game against an Indian Board President’s XI on Monday. Mongia slammed 135 not-out as the home side reached 320-5 in reply to South Africa’s 226-5 declared at the Sawai Man Singh stadium.

United States scientists are developing hypersonic cruise missiles that will fly 10 times faster than current rockets, penetrate concrete armouring and could be launched from any site in the world. The missiles would have a range of 14 400km, more than a third of Earth’s circumference and be able to reach their targets within two hours.

After a 23-year war of independence and three terms as president, Sam Nujoma of Namibia is ready to step down, bringing an end to an era marked by fiery rhetoric as well as pragmatism and stability. The 75-year-old Nujoma is the father of his southwest African nation and the only leader its 1,8-million people have ever known.

The British government knew about the alleged plot to overthrow the President of Equatorial Guinea at least five weeks before a group of mercenaries was arrested in March for planning the coup. In a dramatic admission, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, confirmed that the government had been ”informed” of the alleged coup plot ”in late January 2004”.

Ten years ago a pretty 17-year-old called Silvia Munguía was working as a movie extra when an impressively voluptuous woman appeared as if out of nowhere and offered her ”the body of a goddess”. A few days later in a backstreet clinic the woman, who turned out to be a man, took the skinny teenager’s gold jewellery and in return injected her buttocks, calves and thighs with several large syringes full of a transparent oily liquid.

The children are playing with their new guns. Short, stubby pistols with removable magazines, black sniper rifles with scopes, silver revolvers, AK47s. None is real, of course. They are all toys. It’s Eid, the Muslim holy festival, and the day after the end of Ramadan, the holy month. All the children in Qalandiya refugee camp have presents.