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/ 12 September 2006
Two of Lance Armstrong’s teammates in the 1999 Tour de France admitted taking the banned performance-enhancing substance EPO in preparing for that race, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. In a story posted on its website, the newspaper said Frankie Andreu and another rider, who did not want his name disclosed, both admitted wrongdoing in interviews with the Times.
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/ 11 September 2006
A United Airlines flight was diverted to Dallas on Monday out of ”an abundance of caution” on the September 11 anniversary after two unclaimed objects were found aboard the plane, United States security officials said. Transportation Security Administration spokesperson Yolanda Clark said United Flight 351 from Atlanta to San Francisco was diverted for security reasons.
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/ 11 September 2006
Roger Federer freely admits that he even shocks himself at times. Speaking after winning the US Open and three Grand Slam events in the same year for the second time in three years, the Swiss star says he never expected to achieve so much. ”I always knew I was talented, I had potential and everything,” he said.
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/ 11 September 2006
United States President George Bush laid a wreath at Ground Zero on Sunday as he began two days of commemorations marking the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Bush and his wife Laura silently placed a floral wreath upon reflective pools of water that mark the former locations of the twin towers.
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/ 10 September 2006
Maria Sharapova showed grit, firepower and the ability to come up big when it counted most to whip Justine Henin-Hardenne and capture the US Open in straight sets on Saturday. The 19-year-old Russian defeated world number two Henin-Hardenne 6-4 6-4 at Arthur Ashe Stadium by displaying the tenacity normally seen by her more seasoned rival.
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/ 9 September 2006
Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami on Friday condemned the September 11 attacks against the United States as an atrocity and said suicide bombers did Islam an injustice and would not go to heaven. Three days before the fifth anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3 000 people, the Shi’ite cleric urged Muslims to work against ”Islamaphobia”.
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/ 8 September 2006
Two-time defending champion Roger Federer continued his mastery over Americans at the US Open, beating fifth seed James Blake on Thursday to reach the semifinals. The 25-year-old Swiss superstar overpowered Blake 7-6 (9-7), 6-0, 6-7 (9/11), 6-4 to extend his wining streak against United States opponents to 27 matches.
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/ 8 September 2006
Technicians at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida started filling space shuttle Atlantis‘ fuel tank for a launch attempt on Friday after nearly two weeks of delays due to weather problems and technical glitches, officials said. Lift-off is targeted for 11.41am (3.41pm GMT) and meteorologists predicted a 70% chance the weather would be suitable for launch.
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/ 7 September 2006
The African Union may keep its forces in Darfur beyond September 30 if Sudan refuses to allow them to become part of a United Nations peacekeeping operation, a senior United States State Department official said on Wednesday. Sudan has so far rejected a UN Security Council resolution calling for the creation of a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur.
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/ 7 September 2006
World number two Rafael Nadal crashed out of the United States Open on Wednesday losing to unseeded Mikhail Youzhny, who has made a habit of ousting Spanish top seeds at the ,5-million event. The Russian defeated the two-time French Open champion and Wimbledon finalist Nadal 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 in a quarterfinal match.
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/ 7 September 2006
Amelie Mauresmo and Justine Henin-Hardenne stayed on course on Wednesday for their third Grand Slam final of the year when both scored straight sets wins in the quarterfinals of the United States Open. Top seed Mauresmo of France, who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles, cruised past Dinara Safina of Russia 6-2, 6-3 in a lop-sided encounter.
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/ 7 September 2006
The second sample for sprinter Marion Jones’ doping test was negative, clearing the five-time Olympic champion of the latest allegations that she used performance-enhancing drugs, her attorneys said on Wednesday night. ”I am absolutely ecstatic,” Jones said in a statement released by her lawyers.
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/ 6 September 2006
Steady rain on Tuesday left former champions Roger Federer and Lindsay Davenport high and dry as their matches were postponed due to bad weather at the US Open. The Swiss top seed and defending champion found his fourth-round contest against Frenchman Marc Gicquel postponed, while 1998 winner Davenport was unable to take to the court against Justine Henin-Hardenne, the second seed.
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/ 6 September 2006
Google News is getting a sense of the past to balance out its relentless focus on the present. Google has added the ability to search through more than 200 years of historical newspaper archives alongside the latest contemporary information now available on Google News, the market-leading web search firm said on Tuesday.
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/ 5 September 2006
Amelie Mauresmo showed grit, fearlessness and poise to stage a dramatic final-set recovery and defeat long-time nemesis Serena Williams in fourth-round action at the US Open on Monday. World number one Mauresmo knocked out the unseeded two-times former champion Williams 6-4 0-6 6-2 to set up a quarterfinal match against Russian Dinara Safina.
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/ 4 September 2006
Andre Agassi’s glittering career came to a tearful conclusion when he lost in four sets to German qualifier Benjamin Becker in the US Open third round on Sunday. Becker, the world number 112 who is playing just his second grand slam event, sent the 36-year-old Agassi into retirement with a 7-5 6-7 6-4 7-5 victory at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
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/ 4 September 2006
Top-seeded Roger Federer was not on the main stage at the US Open on Sunday but the world number one enjoyed the cosier surroundings and a quick trip into the fourth round. Playing a rare night match at Louis Armstrong Stadium, twice defending champion Federer rolled into the round of 16 with a crushing 6-3 6-3 6-0 victory over unseeded Vince Spadea.
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/ 3 September 2006
Andre Agassi received another anti-inflammatory injection on Saturday and got an extra day to rest before playing in the third round of the United States Open, his match postponed because of intermittent rain. Matches involving Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova also were pushed back to Sunday.
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/ 2 September 2006
When a wooden politician delivers the best line of the MTV Music Video Awards, you know the thrill is gone. So was the decadence, outrageousness and spontaneity that used to make the awards such a guilty pleasure. James Blunt and Gnarls Barkley each took home two awards on Thursday night.
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/ 2 September 2006
Top-seeded Roger Federer beat Tim Henman 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 on Friday to reach the third round of the United States Open, punctuating his victory with a moving, behind-the-back volley between his legs. Federer took the court 11 hours after Andre Agassi’s palpitating victory over Marcos Baghdatis on the same court.
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/ 1 September 2006
Silicon Valley ranks dead last in an annual ranking of 12 United States technology hubs because of the region’s notoriously high housing costs, traffic congestion, high unemployment rate and other quality-of-life problems. The valley is one of the few global tech hubs that dominate both the technology and life-sciences industries.
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/ 1 September 2006
Intel, the world’s leading computer chip maker which employs 99 000 people worldwide, could soon slash up to 20 000 jobs, a report said on Friday. The layoffs could come as early as next week, when Intel has scheduled an internal announcement, The Wall Street Journal said quoting analysts and former employees of the company.
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/ 1 September 2006
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday voted to create a United Nations peacekeeping force in Sudan’s Darfur region to avert a new humanitarian disaster, but the Khartoum government rejected the resolution as ”illegal.” The vote to send the force to Darfur once Sudan has agreed to its deployment passed with 12 votes in favour.
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/ 1 September 2006
Only governments can effectively deliver services like health and education to the poorest, development group Oxfam said in a report on Friday critical of groups like the World Bank for hindering poverty programmes by pushing private-sector solutions.
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/ 1 September 2006
American veteran Andre Agassi kept his US Open campaign alive and staved off retirement with a stunning 6-4 6-4 3-6 5-7 7-5 victory over a stubborn Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus to reach the third round on Thursday. Agassi extended his run by closing out an extraordinary fifth set against a cramping Baghdatis with a service break to finish the three-hour 48-minute contest.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both took confident first steps towards an eventual third straight grand-slam final showdown in the first round of the United States Open on Wednesday. Top seed Federer of Switzerland needed just one hour and 40 minutes to dispatch Wang Yeu-Tzuoo of Taiwan 6-4, 6-1, 6-0.
Major powers will begin discussing an Iran sanctions resolution at a meeting in Europe next week if Tehran continues to defy a United Nations Security Council demand to halt uranium enrichment, the United States State Department said on Wednesday. But Iranian President Mohammad Ahmadinejad remained unmoved, telling state media: ”Sanctions cannot discourage people from making progress.”
Rain wrecked the second day of the US Open on Tuesday with only an hour of play possible all day. A three-and-a-half hour delay kept players off court to start with as heavy showers swept through the New York area and when they did begin hitting balls, it was women’s top seed Amelie Mauresmo who got the action under way.
Alabama native Sarah Jane Keith (30) stopped on a desolate street of the New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward where porches had teemed with neighbours a year ago, before Hurricane Katrina. ”I stood in the middle of the street and screamed. I cried. Nobody heard me,” she said.,
Turns out finding money to make movies was an easy mission for Tom Cruise. Only days after the Mission: Impossible movie star effectively was fired by Paramount Pictures, Cruise, his film partner Paula Wagner and an investment fund run by professional football team owner Daniel Snyder agreed on Monday to a financing package that puts Cruise back in business.
United States Vice-President Dick Cheney, seizing on Democratic calls to pull troops out of Iraq, on Monday linked early withdrawal to the possibility of terrorist attacks in the United States. As Cheney and President George Bush try to help Republicans keep control of the US Congress on November 7, polls show public support for the war ebbing.
Andre Agassi’s retirement will have to wait a little longer after the eight-times grand slam winner battled to a 6-7 7-6 7-6 6-2 victory over Romania’s Andrei Pavel in the US Open first round on Monday. At times looking like a maestro and others like the 36-year-old he is, Agassi needed three hours and 31 minutes to clinch victory.