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/ 7 September 2005
United States Senator Hillary Clinton fuelled the political debate over Hurricane Katrina on Wednesday, insisting on an independent inquiry into the federal response and sharply rejecting President George Bush’s bid to lead the probe himself. ”I don’t think the government should be investigating itself,” Clinton said.
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/ 7 September 2005
Roger Federer dropped his first set in the United States Open before putting away Nicolas Kiefer of Germany 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday to earn a spot in the quarterfinals. Lleyton Hewitt won 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 over number 15 Dominik Hrbaty, who drew more attention for his pink peekaboo shirt than his play.
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/ 7 September 2005
Kim Clijsters’s never-say-die philosophy kept her bid for her first Grand Slam title on track on Tuesday as she rallied to beat Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in three sets and book a US Open semifinal berth. Clijsters was down a set and trailing 2-4 in the second, looking tentative in the face of Williams’s power and perhaps in the face of yet another Grand Slam disappointment.
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/ 6 September 2005
Lindsay Davenport reached the quarterfinals of the United States Open in straight sets on Monday, while eighth-seeded Guillermo Coria needed more than four-and-a-half hours to subdue Chile’s Nicolas Massu in the longest match of the tournament. Number seven Andre Agassi also advanced.
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/ 6 September 2005
A week after Hurricane Katrina swept through New Orleans, engineers plugged the levee break that had swamped much of the city and flood waters began to recede, but along with the good news came the mayor’s direst prediction yet: as many as 10Â 000 dead. Hopeful signs of recovery were accompanied by President George Bush’s second visit to Louisiana.
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/ 5 September 2005
Fred Joerger, one of Disneyland’s original model makers who crafted miniature versions of the park’s Sleeping Beauty Castle and other attractions, has died. He was 91. Walt Disney hired Joerger in 1953 as one of his first three model makers. They invented the profession that became known as ”imagineering” .
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/ 5 September 2005
United States President George Bush on Monday nominated conservative Judge John Roberts, already his choice for a seat on the US Supreme Court, to replace the late chief justice William Rehnquist. ”I’m confident that the Senate can complete hearings and confirm him as chief justice within a month,” when the court resumes work, Bush said.
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/ 5 September 2005
Rescuers have plucked tens of thousands of terrified residents from the rooftops of their homes in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast, capturing what may be the bulk of the survivors in readily visible locations. Now the more difficult door-to-door scouring begins, and it could take weeks, if not months.
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/ 5 September 2005
Robyn Rafferty had wanted to pick up her pets and jewellery from her wrecked home before heading off to start a new life with her family in Nashville, Tennessee. But as thousands of her fellow citizens in New Orleans are discovering, suddenly becoming an evacuee can be a frightening and painful experience.
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/ 5 September 2005
The United States chief justice, William Rehnquist, whose deeply conservative views helped to reshape the country’s supreme court during the past three decades, has died, leaving President George Bush with a historic opportunity to make his mark on the highest court.
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/ 5 September 2005
For many American athletes, concentrating on games is the furthest thing on the minds of those who lost homes or have relatives dead or missing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. So, teams, owners and athletes are banding together in a heart-felt show of sympathy and support.
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/ 5 September 2005
Wimbledon champion Venus Williams beat her little sister Serena 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of the United States Open in New York on Sunday, but the sister act was hardly a show-stopper. Belgian Kim Clijsters crushed Venezuelan Maria Vento-Kabchi, and Lleyton Hewitt’s five-set win over Taylor Dent had plenty of drama.
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/ 5 September 2005
New Orleans was finally emptied of all but the most desperate remnants of its population on Sunday, leaving behind a ghost town under military occupation as troops fanned out through the city streets. In belated recognition of the depth of the crisis, Washington swallowed its pride and asked for blankets, food and water trucks from the EU and Nato.
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/ 4 September 2005
Wild card James Blake of the United States stunned French Open champion Rafael Nadal of Spain at the US Open on Saturday, winning a classic third-round match 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Two-time champion Andre Agassi chalked up a four-set third-round victory over 19-year-old Czech Tomas Berdych.
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/ 4 September 2005
United States Supreme Court Chief Justice William H Rehnquist died late on Saturday outside Washington after battling advanced thyroid cancer for more than 10 months. He served more than 33 years on the court, including nearly 19 years as the 16th chief justice in the court’s 216-year history.
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/ 3 September 2005
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to ”kill” internet search leader Google in an obscenity-laced tirade, and Google chased a prized Microsoft executive ”like wolves”, according to documents filed in an increasingly bitter legal battle between the rivals. The allegations were filed on Friday in a Washington state court.
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/ 3 September 2005
Australian Open champion Serena Williams scrambled to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Francesca Schiavone in New York on Friday to set up a possible fourth-round clash with elder sister Venus at the US Open tennis championships. Maria Sharapova, Lleyton Hewitt and Asian number one Paradorn Srichaphan also advanced.
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/ 2 September 2005
Thousands of National Guardsmen with food, water and weapons streamed into hurricane-ravaged New Orleans on Friday to bring relief to the suffering multitudes and put down the looting and violence. Their arrival came amid blistering criticism from the mayor and others who said the federal government was bungling the relief effort while people lay dying in the streets.
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/ 2 September 2005
Massive explosions rocked the New Orleans riverfront a few kilometres south of the French Quarter on Friday. Meanwhile, leading United States newspapers on Friday slammed the US government for its sluggish response to the hurricane-spawned crisis in New Orleans.
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/ 2 September 2005
Machinists at Boeing voted overwhelmingly to strike, rejecting a three-year contract proposal their leaders had deemed ”insulting”. The strike by more than 18 000 assembly workers at 12.01am local time on Friday means Boeing will stop building commercial airplanes, and comes at a time when new orders had picked up in recent months.
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/ 2 September 2005
Eight-time grand-slam champion Andre Agassi delivered on a tall order on Thursday, downing rangy Croatian Ivo Karlovic in straight sets to reach the third round of the United States Open tennis championships. Lindsay Davenport, Amelie Mauresmo and Justine Henin-Hardenne raced into the third round.
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/ 1 September 2005
Leading women, including Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters, overcame a swirling, capricious wind on Wednesday to blow into the third round of the ,75-million United States Open. The men’s second seed, Rafael Nadal, successfully translated his power game to the hard court.
Army engineers trying to plug New Orleans’s breached levees struggled to move giant sandbags and concrete barriers into place, and the state governor said on Wednesday the situation is growing more desperate and there is no choice but to abandon the flooded city. The Pentagon has begun mounting one of the biggest search-and-rescue operations in United States history.
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said on Wednesday that 90% of buildings in the worst-hit area of the Gulf Coast in his state are ”totally just gone” after Hurricane Katrina, as the mayor of New Orleans said it will be three to four months before residents can return to the city, which is nearly 80% submerged.
The Federer express steamed into New York on Tuesday and once again Ivo Minar was tied to the tracks as Roger Federer launched his United States Open title defence by dismantling the Czech in straight sets. World number one and second seed Lindsay Davenport held off a spirited challenge from China’s Li Na.
Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller stunned former champion Andy Roddick in New York on Tuesday, sending the fourth-seeded American packing 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/1) in the first round of the US Open tennis championships. Muller spoiled what should have been Roddick’s 23rd birthday celebrations with a display of poise and precision.
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Singer Art Garfunkel, who pleaded guilty last year to drug possession, has been charged again after a marijuana cigarette was allegedly found in his car, New York state police said on Tuesday. Garfunkel was pulled over by a trooper on Sunday after failing to halt at a stop sign not far from Woodstock in upstate New York.
Defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was unceremoniously bundled out of the first round of the United States Open tennis championships in New York on Monday by fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova. Maria Sharapova wasted no time in taking a step toward another major title as she defeated Greece’s Eleni Daniilidou 6-1, 6-1.
Eight-time grand-slam champion Andre Agassi launched his 20th United States Open campaign with a swift straight-set victory over Romanian Razvan Sabau on Monday, to the delight of New York fans. French Open champion Rafael Nadal eased into the second round with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Bobby Reynolds.
Former French Open champion Gaston Gaudio became the United States Open’s first major casualty on Monday, falling to American Brian Baker in three sets on the first day of the season’s final grand slam. Eighth-seeded Serena Williams beat back a second-set challenge from 16-year-old Taiwanese qualifier Yung-Jan Chan 6-1, 6-3
Fifth seed Marat Safin of Russia has been forced to pull out of this week’s United States Open because of a knee injury. The 25-year-old, who won the Flushing Meadows tournament in 2000, has been bothered by tendonitis in his left knee for most of the summer.