.Defending champions Spain proved there is life without Rafael Nadal when it swept aside Switzerland 4-1 overnight to set-up a mouthwatering Davis Cup quarter-final clash with France.
World number two Novak Djokovic won a five-set thriller to defeat America’s John Isner and hand Serbia a first ever place in the Davis Cup quarters.
Serbia will face bitter rivals Croatia at home on July 9-11 for a spot in the semi-finals after Djokovic claimed a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 win over Isner in a four hour, 16 minute marathon as his team took an unassailable 3-1 lead.
Croatia, the 2005 champions, the Czech Republic, which was runners-up to Spain last season, and France had already wrapped up their quarter-final places on Saturday.
Russia also went through thanks to a 3-2 win over India, its 17th successive home win, which gave it a last eight clash against Argentina who defeated Sweden 3-2 in Stockholm.
Nicolas Almagro then eased past Marco Chiudinelli 6-1, 6-3 in the dead rubber.
In Logrono, world number 16 David Ferrer scored the winning point for Spain as he easily saw off an exhausted Stanislas Wawrinka 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 to give the hosts an unbeatable lead after they had led 2-1 overnight.
Despite his heroics, Ferrer admitted that his place in the team for July’s clash with France was not guaranteed with Nadal and Fernando Verdasco expected to return. I just want to focus on the next tournaments,” said Ferrer. .
“It’ll be like a final, it’s the kind of thing you dream about,” said France captain Guy Forget.
France maintained their 72-year domination of Germany when they wrapped up a 4-1 win in Toulon, leaving the French eager to face Spain on home ground..
“Facing the defending champions with Nadal, Verdasco, Ferrer, Lopez…”
France will have the advantage of playing the tie at home and will – not surprisingly – opt for a hard court rather than the clay courts favoured by the Spanish. We have started to talk about it and I hope that the boys will be in peak form.
Croatia wrapped-up a 5-0 win over Ecuador in their first round tie.
“You play tennis for moments like this, at home, in front of your own fans and against a very strong team,” said Forget.
Rohan Bopanna won the dead rubber, beating Teimuraz Gabashvili 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, to ensure a final scoreline of 3-2, after veteran doubles pairing Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won Saturday’s doubles to keep India in the tie.
In Moscow, Mikhail Youzhny eased Russia into the last eight when he beat Somdev Devvarman 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 to give his side a 3-1 lead over India.
“It was much easier for me in the first two sets.
“It wasn’t as easy as the scoreline may suggest,” Youzhny said.”
David Nalbandian was Argentina’s match-winner in Stockholm when he defeated Andreas Vinciguerra 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the deciding rubber after Robin Soderling had seen off Leonardo Mayer 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 to pull Sweden level. I won many points with drop shots as he (Devvarman) was not running well. Chile were 2-0 ahead after the opening singles. Chile were 2-0 ahead after the opening singles.
-
.France captain Thierry Henry said he understood why fans were jeering him after persistent booing from the home crowd during the 2-0 loss to Spain in a World Cup warmup match at the Stade de France on Wednesday.
France, in its first game since Henry’s infamous handball against Ireland in a World Cup play-off in the same stadium last November, was outclassed by the European champions and the 32-year-old captain was the main focus of French fans’ wrath even before Spain opened the scoring.
“I understand people who were eager for us to play well against Spain and, when you don’t play well, you have to expect being jeered at.
“It’s the same story as usual and it’s not the first time I’ve experienced that kind of situation at the Stade de France,” he said.
“I absolutely had no pace. I don’t know if I deserved that but there is nothing I can do.
Coach Raymond Domenech, who had been a firm supporter of France’s all-time topscorer until Wednesday night, expressed his concern at Henry’s present state. .
“[His situation] raises some questions but we’ve not reached the point yet when it has become alarming.
“Obviously, everybody knows Titi has performed better in the past and it’s obvious that it is becoming a problem for him to play high level games such as this one while he’s got less playing time [at Barcelona],” Domenech, the only man French fans booed more than Henry, said.”
-
.World number one Serena Williams has withdrawn from next week’s Paris Indoor Open, organisers confirmed.
Williams blamed a leg injury which she picked up on her way to victory in the Australian Open.
Former world number one Mauresmo won last year’s event but has since retired from competition.
The American has lifted the Paris trophy twice in five appearances, winning both her titles in 1999 and 2003 against France’s Amelie Mauresmo. .
Russia’s Elena Dementieva is the now the top player in the tournament, which starts on Monday
.The amateur archaeologist who first discovered a World War I mass grave in the French town of Fromelles says it was “wonderful” to see the first soldier from the site laid formally to rest at the weekend.
Gunshots rang out across the frozen cemetery on Saturday as the first of the 250 unknown British and Australian soldiers, who all died in the 1916 Battle of Fromelles, was lowered into an individual grave.
“It was wonderful to see the services and that’s what it’s all been about – dignity, and in time, identity for the soldiers of Pheasant Wood,” he said.
Lambis Englezos, whose work was central to bringing the Pheasant Wood grave to light, said he was moved watching the burial at the weekend. And hopefully in time we can give as many of these soldiers as possible their identity.
“Seeing the Army burying their own – our own – was really quite moving.”
The full military honours burial took place in a specially-built cemetary just metres from where the grave was discovered.
“For me, it’s wonderful to see the burial of that soldier and to know that our boys are in good hands in the village of Fromelles.
The final soldier will be buried and the cemetery will be dedicated on July 19, the 94th anniversary of the battle.
The fallen soldiers, who remained undisturbed for over 90 years, are being buried without headstones as a panel aims to identify as many as possible.
“I think we’ve got a moral obligation to recover our war dead, I think the Australian Army has to be congratulated, having established and maintained a process which has brought us to this point,” he said.
– ‘Moral obligation’ –
Mr Englezos said while it would have been preferable for families to be present to witness the individual burials of their loved ones, the sheer scale of the operation meant this was impossible.
“But having said that, Pheasant Wood and the work there, it’s not blood specific, there’s a general ownership of the Pheasant Wood work, and it’s just been remarkable to see this.
“However I would have hoped that maybe the panel of identification could have sat prior to the burial, so that families could have been given the opportunity to be there.
In 24 hours Australian forces suffered over 5,000 casualties as troops charged German trenches in broad daylight.”
The 1916 Battle of Fromelles was the first offensive involving Australian troops on the Western Front.
Veterans’ Affairs Minister Alan Griffin described the Battle of Fromelles as “the bloodiest 24 hours in our military history, before, or since.
The end of the offensive, which had been deemed unnecessary days earlier by senior commanders, found the Australian troops forced back to their original positions. .”
– Task ahead –
While identifying the soldiers has been central to the recovery process, DNA consultant Dr Peter Jones says many gravestones may remain nameless.
But the organiser of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, David Richardson, says he is hopeful the team will be able to put names on some of the headstones.
“At the very, very best, with everything working completely perfectly, the most we’re likely to match up is about 100,” he said.
“There are so many cemeteries here in France and Belgium and all over the world where we work, where there are unknown soldiers, so I think individual burials for us are just fantastic.
“I think, in a way, that’s a little bit of a bonus,” he said.”
Mr Richardson says it is a relief to see the soldiers reburied.”
Mr Richardson says it is a relief to see the soldiers reburied.
“I’ll be more relieved at the end of February when we’ve buried the full 250, but it’s great to see the cemetery fit for burial,” he said.
“It’s the first new cemetery since World War II, but to build something from scratch on a brand new site in a limited time scale in a wet field in northern France has posed some challenges.”
.Stade Francais prop David Attoub has been hit with a mammoth 70-week ban from rugby union for gouging after what the disciplinary chief who imposed the penalty labelled “the worst act of contact with the eyes that I have had to deal with”.
The ban, which has been backdated to start on December 18, means, as things stand, Attoub cannot play rugby again until April 22, 2011 ruling him out of the remainder of the current European season and most of next term’s campaign.
Attoub, 28, was cited for gouging Ulster lock Stephen Ferris during a stormy European Cup clash on December 12 in Belfast that the Irish province won 23-13.
It is the second-most severe suspension to have been handed out for a gouging offence in the professional era, exceeded only by the two-year ban handed to Richard Nones, a prop with French club Colomiers, in 1999.
Judge Jeff Blackett, the disciplinary supremo at England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU), who heard Attoub’s case said it was the IRB directive and the player’s previous history of gouging, which included a suspension for contact with the eye/eye area in a European match in the 2004/05 season, that saw him impose a penalty which has the potential to end the forward’s career.
Eye gouging is regarded as one of the worst acts of foul play in the 15-man game and the International Rugby Board (IRB), the sport’s global governing body, have instructed disciplinary authorities to come down hard on those found guilty of the offence.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Blackett said: “This is the worst act of contact with the eyes that I have had to deal with: it is a case of deliberate eye gouging”.
Blackett, who found Attoub guilty of the offence on Friday but only passed sentence when the disciplinary hearing reconvened on Monday, determined his action was “in the top-end in the level of seriousness for an offence of contact with the eye/eye area”.
But Blackett’s ruling made clear he accepted the images were genuine and he delivered a damning indictment of Attoub’s conduct.
The initial hearing on December 18 was adjourned until January 15 to allow for more evidence to be gathered after doubts were cast on the veracity of photographs which showed the incident. .
“When he was shown the incriminating photographs and asked to explain what he saw or what was happening he replied that he did not know,” Blackett said.”
The ban follows a 24-week ban given to Attoub’s team-mate and scrum-half Julien Dupuy who also gouged Ferris in the same match.
“It was this evasiveness which satisfied me that his account was less than truthful and that he knew that he had deliberately attacked the eyes of an opponent but was trying to evade responsibility.
-
.The health ministry in France has issued a warning after eight people died and seven fell sick in two European countries from using heroin contaminated by anthrax.
“Since December 6, there have been 15 confirmed cases of anthrax among heroin users, 14 in Scotland and one in Germany,” the ministry’s General Directorate for Health (DGS) said in a statement. “The likeliest source is heroin contaminated by anthrax spores.
“Eight people died,” it said.
Anthrax is a potentially lethal bacterium that exists naturally in the soil and can also occur among cattle. .
The ministry said the contaminated drug may also be circulating in France and other European countries. It is also, more notoriously, a potential bio-terror weapon.
–
.
“There is no outward sign or colour enabling the user to tell whether the heroin has been contaminated by anthrax, and contaminated heroin dissolves or is used in the same way as uncontaminated heroin,” it said
.A 66-year-old French man has been jailed in Abu Dhabi after making a bomb joke on a plane, the French foreign ministry says.
Pensioner Jean-Louis Lioret, who was flying to Bangkok from Paris on Etihad Airways, was arrested after cabin crew overheard him using the word bomb in an exchange with his co-passenger, his brother Michel Lioret said.
During a stopover at Abu Dhabi, Lioret’s neighbour asked him to keep a packet on the other seat next to him as it was empty.
He was taken off the plane on Tuesday and grilled by police and then jailed.
Lioret’s jocular “I hope it’s not a bomb,” was overheard and set off alarm bells.
The French foreign ministry said it was informed of the arrest on Friday and was following the case closely. He was also informed that the packet contained cigarettes and not a bomb.
-
.The niece of a British government minister has told a court she drunkenly plunged a knife into the naked body of a Frenchman she picked up in a bar, but has no idea why she did it.
Jessica Davies, 30, told her French murder trial she had blacked out and had no recollection of killing Olivier Mugnier except “the sensation of the knife going in”.
“I am horrified by what I have done,” said the niece of Britain’s junior defence minister Quentin Davies. I don’t remember killing Olivier, but I take responsibility for killing him.
“I remember telling the police that I was a monster.
Davies called emergency services after the stabbing.”
Davies says she no longer remembers making a statement the day of the November 2007 that said “I just wanted to cut him a little but the knife went in by itself”.
They arrived around 2:40 am (local time) on Sunday morning but within an hour Mugnier had succumbed to the two knife wounds, one of which went right through his body and touched his spine. .
Police told the court there was no sign of a struggle in the one-bedroom flat and that neighbours had heard nothing.
Earlier the court heard how Davies developed behavioural problems after the acrimonious divorce of her parents when she was 14 and how she was badly affected by her maternal grandmother’s repeated suicide attempts.
The blood-stained kitchen knife that killed 24-year-old Mugnier was passed around for inspection by the three judges and the nine members of the jury at the court in Versailles.
Her mother broke down in tears at one point as she comprehensive her daughter’s difficult adolescent and university years.
She started drinking heavily as a teenager and by the time she was in university, “I was drunk six days out of seven” she said, adding that she had also developed a cocaine habit.
Davies faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted of voluntary homicide without premeditation.
Davies faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted of voluntary homicide without premeditation.
-
.The niece of a British government minister is set to face court accused of the murder of a young Frenchman whose throat was slit after she brought him to her home.
Jessica Davies contacted police in the early hours of a Sunday morning in November 2007 to say she had stabbed 24-year-old Olivier Mugnier at her apartment, in the Saint-Germain-en-Laye suburb west of Paris.
Police found stab wounds on the young man’s body, some of them on his throat.
Police said the now 30-year-old niece of Britain’s junior defence minister Quentin Davies was four times over the drink-drive alcohol limit and could barely stand or speak when they arrested her.
Legal sources said psychiatrists who had examined Davies found she suffered from psychological problems and had a “borderline” personality and that responsibility at the time of the crime was “altered”. His death was caused by a knife blow to the chest, police said.
The trial by jury in a court in Versailles is expected to last two days, with a verdict on Tuesday.
Davies, who is being held in Versailles women’s prison, claimed to remember nothing of the stabbing except that she had met Mr Mugnier in an Irish pub near her flat a few hours before his death.
The British press speculated after her arrest that Mr Mugnier’s death was the result of a sex game that turned to violence.
Davies faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted of voluntary homicide without premeditation.
The papers said French police have probed whether Davies was inspired by that murder, for which US student Amanda Knox was handed a 26-year prison term last month and for which her Italian boyfriend also got 26 years in jail.
British papers drew parallels with a high-profile sex game murder in Italy, just a few days earlier.
-
.Muslim women who wear the full Islamic veil in France will face a possible 750 euro ($1,170) fine, according to a draft bill unveiled by the leader of the parliamentary majority.
Jean-Francois Cope, who heads the governing UMP party in the National Assembly, told Le Figaro newspaper’s weekly magazine that men who force their wives to wear the burqa or niqab could face an even heavier fine.
“The law will address an issue of security,” Mr Cope said in an interview with the magazine.”
The draft legislation will be presented in the next two weeks and should come up for debate in parliament after the March regional elections, he said.
“The proposed measure would prohibit the covering of the face in public places and on the streets, with the exception of special cultural events or carnivals.
“We can measure the modernity of a society by the way it treats and respects women,” he said.
The majority leader, who is also openly campaigning to succeed President Nicolas Sarkozy as the right-wing candidate for the presidency in 2017, said the burqa must be banned to defend women’s rights. .
Many politicians from the left and right have cautioned that a draconian law banning the head-to-toe veil would be difficult to enforce and probably face a challenge in the European rights court.
The burqa debate has heated up ahead of the release at the end of the month of a much-awaited report by a parliamentary panel that has conducted six months of hearings on the issue.
Critics argue that a specific law enacted to ban the full veil would be tantamount to using a sledgehammer to swat a fly.
Mr Sarkozy himself has said that the burqa is not welcome in France but has not stated publicly whether legislation should be enacted.
In the interview, Mr Cope argued that a law would act as a deterrent by sending a “clear message” that France will not allow women to fully cover themselves. Only 1,900 women wear the full veil in France, according to the interior ministry.
-