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  • Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic in dream US Open final

    Five-time champion Federer, 34, bidding to become the oldest New York champion since 1970, swept past Swiss compatriot Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3, 6-1

    Djokovic, the 2011 champion, booked a place in the final for the sixth time with a record 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 rout of defending champion Marin Cilic in the most one-sided US Open semi-final of the modern era.

    Sunday’s clash will be a rematch of July’s Wimbledon final, where Djokovic triumphed to claim his ninth career Grand Slam crown.

    Federer, the holder of 17 majors but without a Grand Slam title since Wimbledon in 2012, will take a 21-20 career edge over Djokovic into the championship match, having won their last duel in Cincinnati in August.

    The Swiss legend was imperious against Wawrinka and his victory means he has not dropped a set since the Wimbledon final, a perfect stretch of 28 sets, as he reached a seventh US Open final.

    “I’m very happy. It’s been a great tournament so far, I have tried very hard in the last six years to get back to the final and tonight it worked,” Federer said after his 92-minute win sealed by a 10th ace.

    “I am playing at a good level, possibly my best. I am serving very well, going for my shots.

    “I’d love for it to keep working for one more match.”

    Federer is the oldest finalist in a Slam since 35-year-old Andre Agassi at the 2005 US Open, which the Swiss star won.

    On Sunday, he will face Djokovic for the sixth time this year — all have been in finals.

    “Novak has had a tremendous year. There’s a lot on the line. He could win his third Slam of the year while I can win my first for some time.

    “He’s the best mover on hard courts. He will be tough to beat but I am ready for the challenge,” said Federer, the champion from 2004-2008 and runner-up to Juan Martin del Potro in 2009.

    Cilic suffers record rout

    Federer was defeated by Wawrinka in their last clash in the French Open quarter-finals in June, when his compatriot went on to the title.

    It was just one of three losses against 16 wins with all three setbacks coming on clay.

    Federer converted the only break point he carved out in the opening set to lead 2-1 and saved three when Wawrinka threatened in the sixth game.

    The 30-year-old Wawrinka had to save five break points to nip ahead 3-2 in second set, three from 0-40 down.

    But he cracked in his next service game as Federer broke for 4-3 and again in the ninth game, when he was broken to love and Federer opened a two-sets lead having won 16 of the last 17 points.

    Federer was unstoppable now, breaking the outclassed Wawrinka in the fourth and sixth games on his way to his 27th Grand Slam final.

    Djokovic’s rout of Cilic was the most lopsided semi-final of the Open Era at the tournament, beating Lleyton Hewitt’s 6-1, 6-2, 6-1 defeat of Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 2001.

    Djokovic has now reached the finals of all four majors this year, winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles and finishing runner-up to Wawrinka in Paris.

    Sunday’s final will be his 16th in the last 21 Grand Slams and 18th overall, tying the record of Pete Sampras.

    It took Djokovic just 85 minutes to see off Cilic, whose hopes were undermined by an ankle injury.

    The ninth seeded Croatian committed 37 unforced errors and took just 13 points off the Djokovic serve.

    “Marin has had an ankle injury for a few days now so he was very courageous to come out and finish the match,” said Djokovic, who will be chasing a 10th Grand Slam title on Sunday.

    “It’s never easy knowing that your opponent is not 100 percent but I had to show good intensity and stick to my game plan.”

    “It’s a great achievement to reach the finals of all four majors in the same year for the first time. It’s where you want to do your best.”

    It was Djokovic’s 14th win in 14 meetings against Cilic.

    “I haven’t been 100 percent with my ankle and Novak exposed it more than any other player,” said Cilic.

    “I thought about not playing but I decided to play as it is a Grand Slam tournament. Anywhere else I would have pulled out so as not to aggravate it.”

  • 11 dead in rebel shelling on Syria's Damascus: monitor

    The Britain-based monitor said the deaths were in the Duwaylaa neighbourhood of Damascus, adding that most of those killed appeared to be civilians.

    At least 20 people were also injured in the Friday shelling, the monitor said.

    Rebels in strongholds on the outskirts of the capital regularly fire rockets into Damascus, often killing scores of people, many of them civilians.

    The regime also regularly carries out air strikes on rebel-held areas around Damascus, particularly the Eastern Ghouta region, where aerial assaults in August alone killed 377 people, according to Doctors Without Borders.

    Rights groups have criticised both rebels and the regime for indiscriminate fire that largely affects civilians.

    The shelling on Damascus came as an Islamist rebel group that often fires on the capital began an assault on Syria’s largest prison.

    Jaish al-Islam began the attack on Adra prison near Damascus on Friday, seizing two buildings, according to the Observatory.

    Syria’s state news agency SANA made no mention of shelling or deaths in Duwaylaa, though it reported five people had been killed in rocket fire on several other Damascus neighbourhoods on Friday.

    More than 240,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.

  • 'Mario', still super after 30 years

    With his blue overalls, red cap and fulsome moustache, Mario is instantly recognisable, a rare quality in the games market, matched only by a handful of characters such as Lara Croft, Sonic the Hedgehog and Pac-Man.

    So beloved is Mario that Nintendo has sold more than 310 million units featuring him since he first hit the screens under his own name in 1985, the year that Ronald Reagan began a second term as US president and the Live Aid concerts for the Ethiopian famine relief took place.

    “Mario now has a status in popular culture equal to Mickey Mouse,” Florent Gorges, the French author of a book on Nintendo’s history, told AFP.

    “He is likely to be around for some time yet because we notice that it’s often parents who introduce him to their children.” Even before the first “Super Mario Bros” game was released on September 13, 1985, in Japan on the Famicom console, the character had already made an appearance in the Nintendo arcade game “Donkey Kong”, but under the name Jumpman. The Mario moniker came from the landlord of the warehouse where the US arm of Nintendo was based, whose physical appearance made the programmers think of a video game character. Mario’s creator, game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, said: “I had it in mind to make him an Italian when I was drawing the character, so I decided to officially call him Mario.” Shaped by limited hardware  Mario’s plain appearance is attributed to the limitations of the hardware at the time, with a limited number of pixels and restricted range of colours — but it has possibly helped increase his longevity. “I drew him with a big nose and a moustache so that players could recognise his face. (At first) Mario wore a white shirt and red overalls so his arm movements would be clearly visible,” Miyamoto said in an interview released by Nintendo. There was a simple explanation for his cap too — the designers initially lacked the technology to make his hair move.

    In his best-known adventures, Mario comes to the rescue of Princess Peach, but our hero has also been inserted into formats featuring football, golf or karting.

    The games have often been accompanied by technological advances, such as the fully three-dimensional format introduced by “Super Mario 64” in 1996.

    To mark the three-decade  milestone, Nintendo is releasing “Super Mario Maker” on the WiiU console, which allows players to create their own worlds for Mario, or use those created by other players and shared through the Internet.

    And for adults still nostalgic for the Mario of their youth, the new game allows players a choice of four styles of graphics, ranging from those in 1985’s “Super Mario Bros” to “New Super Mario Bros U” released in 2012. –AFP

  • US Open: Serena drama builds as Pennetta into final

    Drama built at Arthur Ashe Stadium around the upcoming match, postponed from Thursday by rain, between three-time defending champion Williams and Italy’s 43rd-ranked Roberta Vinci, in her first Grand Slam semi-final.

    Williams, on a 33-match Grand Slam win streak and a 26-match US Open win streak, is only two victories shy of completing two of the most incredible achievements in the history of tennis, playing her best tennis at an age once thought impossible for such success.

    The 33-year-old American, who already holds all four major titles, is chasing the first calendar Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988 and trying to match Graf’s Open Era career record of 22 Slam singles titles, two shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record.

    Williams, who is 4-0 lifetime against Vinci, owns a 7-0 career edge on 26th-ranked Pennetta, who took just 59 minutes to dispatch second-ranked Halep 6-1, 6-3 and reach her first Grand Slam final.

    “It’s amazing,” Pennetta said. “I didn’t think to be so far in the tournament. I played really well. I don’t know how to handle all the inspiration I have.

    “Really nothing changed. I tried to play every match the best I can from the first one, don’t worry about the draw and focus on the things I have to do on the court. And here I am.”

    Only five players have completed the calendar-year sweep of the Australian, US and French Opens and Wimbledon — Americans Don Budge in 1938 and Maureen Connolly in 1953, Australians Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969 and Court in 1970 and Germany’s Graf in 1988.

    Williams, 53-2 this season, seeks her 70th career title. She is trying for a seventh US Open singles crown, an Open Era record and one shy of Molla Bjurstedt Mallory’s all-time record, and a fourth US Open trophy in a row, matching Chris Evert for the Open Era mark.

    Also within Williams’s reach is stretching her own mark as the oldest Open Era Grand Slam champion, set when she won Wimbledon last July to complete the “Serena Slam” of four Slam titles in a row, and boosting the longest gap between first and latest Slam titles in history to 16 years.

    In a span that began with the 1999 US Open crown at age 17, Williams has won three French Open titles and six Wimbledon, Australian Open and US Open crowns.

    Williams is 21-4 in Grand Slam finals and could be going for her ninth Slam final victory in a row, last losing one at the 2011 US Open to Samantha Stosur. She has won her past 15 finals overall, last losing at Cincinnati in 2013.

    Pennetta, 33, broke Halep in the fourth game and again in the sixth when the Romanian netted a forehand on the way to taking the first set in 28 minutes.

    Pennetta and Halep traded breaks to open the second set and again in the fourth and fifth games of the second set.

    Halep led 3-1 but double faulted to surrender a break and Pennetta held and broke twice more for the victory, a forehand winner capping her fourth win in five tries over Halep.

    Pennetta becomes only the third Italian woman in a Slam final after Francesca Schiavone won the 2010 French Open final and lost in 2011 and Sara Errani, who lost the 2012 French Open final.

    If she hoists the trophy in her 49th Slam appearance, Pennetta would have the most tries of any Grand Slam women’s champion, two more than France’s Marion Bartoli when she won at Wimbledon in 2013.

  • Eoin Morgan guides England to victory in 4th ODI

    Captain Eoin Morgan top-scored with 92 as England beat the World Cup holders for the second time in four days by successfully chasing down a target of 300 with 10 balls to spare to make it 2-2 in the five-match series.

    Australia, who won the toss, reached 299-7 thanks to half-centuries from top scorer Glenn Maxwell, who made 85, George Bailey and wicket-keeper Matthew Wade.

    But with Morgan leading from the front, England achieved their highest ever successful one-day run chase against Australia.

  • British MPs reject controversial right to die bill

    In the first vote on the issue in 20 years, 330 lawmakers voted against the backbencher-proposed bill while only 118 backed the proposals.

    Prime Minister David Cameron was against the bill.

    If passed, the Assisted Dying Bill would have allowed doctors to help terminally ill adults diagnosed with less than six months left to live end their life, at the patient’s request.

    In rival protests outside parliament in London, around 200 campaigners came out in favour of the bill and there were dozens of protesters against it.

    “82 Percent of Britons Support Assisted Dying and the Current Law is Broken: Fix It!” read placards held up by supporters, while opponents’ signs read: “Do No Harm. Vote No” and “Assist Us to Live, Not Die”.

    Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said the vote showed that MPs were “ridiculously out of touch” with the British public on the issue.

    “Suffering will continue as long as MPs turn a blind eye to dying people’s wishes,” she said.

    But Peter Saunders, director of the Care Not Killing campaign, said: “They have done this because they have witnessed mission creep in the tiny number of places that have changed the law to allow assisted suicide and euthanasia.”

    Anglican leader Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the heads of all of Britain’s main faith groups wrote a joint letter to MPs last week urging them to throw out the assisted dying bill.

    “While it is not a crime in the UK for someone to take his or her own life, we recognise that it is a tragedy and we, rightly, do all that we can to prevent suicide.

    “The assisted dying bill requires us to turn this stance on its head, not merely legitimising suicide, but actively supporting it,” they said.

    Under the plans, two doctors and a family court judge would have had to assess the patient’s prognosis and confirm they were mentally competent and made the decision free from coercion.

    The patient would still have had to administer the lethal medication themselves.

    In Friday’s vote, MPs were free to vote according to their conscience and the parties did not impose a whip or party line, as would usually be the case.

    Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg as well as in the US states of Vermont, Oregon and Washington.

  • Labour selects Pakistani man to stand for London mayor

    Khan, a former human rights lawyer, will stand in elections being held next May to decide who should follow Conservative Boris Johnson, one of Britain’s best-known politicians, into City Hall.

    While the mayor of London has fewer powers than in comparable world cities such as New York, it is a high-profile job which usually attracts ambitious figures.

    Khan, 44, said he wanted to iron out inequalities in a city home to some of the world’s richest people, as well as some of Britain’s poorest.

    “Our burning ambition must be to ensure that all Londoners have the same opportunities,” he told a press conference after being nominated.

    “London must once again become a city in which everyone can fulfil their potential.”

    Khan, who is of Pakistani descent and is MP for Tooting in south London, vowed to build more affordable housing and freeze transport fares while still investing in infrastructure projects.

    He was one of the MPs to nominate veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership — a race Corbyn is expected to win Saturday. Khan reportedly did not actually vote for Corbyn.

    Johnson, known for his shock of blonde hair and for introducing the “Boris Bikes” rent-a-cycle scheme in the British capital, will have served two terms asmayor by next year.

    He was elected as an MP in the House of Commons in May and is tipped as a possible future Conservative leader.

    The Conservatives have not yet selected their mayoral candidate but Zac Goldsmith, an MP, environmentalist and son of a billionaire, is the favourite.

    Labour’s last London mayor was Ken Livingstone, a socialist who was in office between 2000 and 2008.

  • Swedish police give refugees warm Facebook welcome

    The video features nine police officers speaking to the camera in Swedish in separate clips, offering kind words of support.

    Hello, we want to especially welcome you who have come to Sweden from another country!Hope that we, Sweden, can help you with accommodation, employment, housing, schooling, or maybe to revisit your family!Here you have all the same rights and obligations, you should believe what or which god you want, express your opinion, enjoy and marry whoever you want! It is something that we in Sweden are proud of.For us police it is a matter of helping people in need, regardless of where you come from. Have you escaped from your country, fled to find safety for you and your family, then you should know that we, the police, do our utmost to make you and everyone else who is, in Sweden to feel safe!If you have the desire, feel free to write a few lines about yourself in the comments below, maybe about your journey or anything else you want to share!Again, welcome here!Take good care of yourself!Camilla, Tomas, Fredric, Veronica, Jonas, Martin, Erik, Doctorn & Joel – Police in Sweden

    Posted by Doktorn on Thursday, September 10, 2015

    “Welcome to our beautiful country. We hope that Sweden can help you with whatever help you need. We hope everything turns out alright for you with school, work, housing, or maybe reuniting with your family,” says one male police officer kneeling on the grass as he pets his black service dog.

    “We’re the same, you and I,” says another.

    “We’re equals, with the exact same rights and obligations. You can believe in whatever you want, whichever God you want, express your opinion about whatever you want, marry whoever you want,” says another.

    A brief text in English below the video reads: “Hello, we want to especially welcome you who have come to Sweden from another country!”

    Posted on the official police Facebook site on Thursday, the video had been viewed more than 35,000 times by Friday midday.

    Mikael Ericson, one of the police officers in the video, told AFP the clip was a private initiative undertaken by him and his colleagues, but approved by their superiors.

    “We have noticed in our work that many of the people who come here are fleeing oppressive regimes and they’ve been beaten, oppressed and shot at by police, so of course they’re afraid of us when they come here … they don’t trust us, they’re terrified,” he said.

    “This film is a way for us to show them that we are here for everyone.”

    In the comments field, many hailed the police initiative but there were several racist remarks as well.

  • Manchester United's De Gea signs new contract

    The announcement caps a remarkable turn of events after the Spain international was on the verge of signing for the Spanish giants only for the transfer to collapse because of paperwork arriving past the permitted deadline.

    United announced on their official Twitter account: “David de Gea has signed a new four-year contract at #mufc with an option to extend for a further year.”

    De Gea, 24, said: “I am delighted to be starting this new chapter in my United career.

    “I have always enjoyed playing with these great players in front of our fantastic fans. Manchester United is a special club and Old Trafford is an ideal place for me to continue to develop my career.

    “I’m looking forward to putting a difficult summer behind me and concentrating on working hard to improve and help my team-mates to be successful.”

    The news of an extension was understandably well received by United manager Louis van Gaal, who said: “I am absolutely delighted David has signed a new contract.

    “He is one of the best goalkeepers in world football. I am very pleased that he will be part of the team for many years to come.

    “David made a very important contribution to our performance last season and he has been the club’s Player of the Year for the last two seasons.

    “He is a popular player who is keen to learn and enhance his game. At such a young age for a goalkeeper, he has many years ahead of him,” added Van Gaal.

    That De Gea has committed his future to the Premier League giants is all the more remarkable given the events of the past few months.

    The Spaniard, long courted by Real, was on the brink of a move to Madrid worth between 30 and 40 million euros and involving Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas in part-exchange.

    But the deal collapsed at the last minute, with a Spanish Professional League (LFP) spokesperson telling AFP that De Gea had not been registered as a Madrid player.

    The Spanish club subsequently released a statement accusing United of sending the necessary documents after the deadline had passed in Spain.

    In a statement of their own, United laid the blame at Madrid’s door, adding: “The club is delighted that its fan-favourite double Player of the Year, David de Gea, remains a Manchester United player.”

    De Gea hasn’t played for the Premier League club this season after being dropped by van Gaal, who claimed the player had told him he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to play while the transfer saga dragged on.

    But with his future now cleared up De Gea could be set to return to the United team in time for Saturday’s showdown at home to fierce rivals Liverpool.

  • 'I panicked' says Hungarian camerawoman who kicked refugees

    “As I watch the footage now, it’s like I’m not watching myself. I honestly regret what I have done and take responsibility for it,” wrote Petra Laszlo in a letter to Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet published on its website.

    “I panicked. I’m not a heartless, child-kicking racist camera-person,” she added.

    In the footage, which spread rapidly across the Internet earlier this week, Laszlo, 40, can be seen tripping a man sprinting with a child in his arms, and kicking another running child near the town of Roszke, close to the border with Serbia.

    She was fired from her job at N1TV, an Internet-based television station close to Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party, and also faces criminal charges for breaching the peace.

    She was detained for questioning by police on Thursday and later released.

    “Only now could I get myself together enough to be able to write. I’m in a state of shock because of what I did and what has been done to me,” she wrote to the newspaper.

    “I was recording with the camera when hundreds of migrants broke through the police cordon, one of them ran into me and I panicked.

    “I was afraid as they were rushing toward me and then something snapped in my head. As I had my camera in my hand I couldn’t see who was coming at me, my only thought was that I was going to be attacked, and that I had to defend myself,” she added.

    “As a mother I’m particularly sorry that fate had it that a child was running at me, and I wasn’t able to sense that.

    “It’s not easy to make a good decision when you’re in a panic.”

    A “Wall of Shame” page on Facebook featuring pictures, videos and commentaries linked to the incident had gathered more than 35,000 likes by Friday.

    “You are a disgrace to your profession,” was the typical sentiment from one user.

    Laszlo said she did not “deserve either the political witchhunt that is going on against me or the smears or the many death threats”.

    “I’m just a woman, now unemployed mother of small children, who made a bad decision in a panic situation.”