Two a penny

.Spain’s David Ferrer dispatched Marco Chiudinelli in straight sets to level the depleted champions’ Davis Cup first-round tie against Switzerland at 1-1 in Logrono overnight.
Seven of the eight World Group matches were under way around Europe, with the start of Chile’s tie at home to Israel delayed to Saturday (local time) as a result of the disruption caused by last weekend’s deadly earthquake.
Russia carved out a 2-0 advantage over visiting India, victories for Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga put France 2-0 up at home to Germany, and last year’s finalists Czech Republic opened up a 2-0 lead in Belgium. Spain also won the title in 2000, 2004 and 2008.
The Swiss are bidding to become the first team to beat the Spanish in 19 home ties stretching back to a defeat by Brazil in 1999.
Ferrer, ranked 16th in the world, is the only survivor from last year’s Cup-winning team, with Rafael Nadal (3), Fernando Verdasco (12) and Juan Carlos Ferrero (14) hit by injuries.
Stanislas Wawrinka, leading the Swiss in the absence of world number one Roger Federer, drew first blood at the Plaza de Toros de Ribera bullring when he twice battled back from a set down to beat Nicolas Almagro 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Backed by the noisy, red and yellow-clad home support, he fought off stiff resistance from the powerful, 56th-ranked Chiudinelli in the second set on the clay before completing a 6-2, 7-6, 6-1 victory.
Real fighter
France’s Monfils earned his first Davis Cup point in Toulon when he fought past tenacious German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 before Tsonga took four sets to beat Benjamin Becker.
The three-day, best-of-five tie is finely balanced ahead of Saturday’s doubles, when home pair Tommy Robredo and Marcel Granollers play Wawrinka, who won the Olympic doubles gold in Beijing with Federer, and Yves Allegro.
“It was one of my best matches of the season,” he added.
“To win that game was a matter of honour because Kohlschreiber is a real fighter,” Monfils said.”
Elsewhere, Sweden’s Robin Soderling beat Eduardo Schwank 6-1, 7-6, 7-5 in the opening singles in Stockholm to put the hosts ahead against Argentina.
“I’m very happy with the way I moved on the court and the way I controlled the match and, of course, very happy to bring the point for France for the first time.
Ivo Karlovic came through in five sets to give Croatia the advantage over Ecuador in Varazdin and Serbia moved 1-0 ahead against the United States in Belgrade thanks to Viktor Troicki’s hard-fought 7-6, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4 victory over John Isner.
Ivo Karlovic came through in five sets to give Croatia the advantage over Ecuador in Varazdin and Serbia moved 1-0 ahead against the United States in Belgrade thanks to Viktor Troicki’s hard-fought 7-6, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4 victory over John Isner.
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Kunitsyn, drafted in after the injured Igor Andreev pulled out, said: “It was a surprise for me and there is no way you can prepare yourself with just an hour to go before your match”

.French police have arrested Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of Rwanda’s assassinated ex-president, who is wanted in her homeland as one of the alleged masterminds of the 1994 genocide.
The arrest came just five days after President Nicolas Sarkozy made the first trip by a French leader to Rwanda since the genocide.
French police - acting on an international arrest warrant issued by Rwanda - arrested Habyarimana at her home in Courcouronnes, south of Paris on Tuesday morning.
Habyarimana has lived in a Paris suburb for 12 years, having fled Rwanda after her husband Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down in April 1994 and his supporters launched a massacre of 800,000 civilians.
The Tutsi-led government in Kigali has accused the 67-year-old of being a member of the Hutu inner circle that planned the mass killings. .
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She has steadfastly denied the charge

.A pay telephone line for French Roman Catholics to confess their sins has drawn criticism from bishops.
“For advice on confessing, press one. To listen to some confessions, press three,” says a soothing male voice, welcoming the caller to “Le Fil du Seigneur”, or “The Line of the Lord” service. To confess, press two.34 euros a minute.
“In case of serious or mortal sins - that is, sins that have cut you off from Christ our Lord, it is indispensable to confide in a priest,” warns the service, which charges 0.”
The service was set up this month at the beginning of the Christian fasting period of Lent by a group of Catholics working for AABAS, a small Paris company that provides telephone messaging services, its creator told AFP.
The Conference of French Bishops warn in a statement that the line has “no approval from the Catholic Church in France.
She asked for her second name not be cited because she had received threats about the service.
The creator, known only as Camille, says it does not offer absolution for sins, which only a priest can provide.
It is believed the line received about 300 calls in its first week.
“The idea is to confess sins which are not capital sins, but minor sins, directly to God,” she said.
The bishops say telephone services have a role to play in lending an ear to the aged, isolated or those with disabilities, but “it is unacceptable to allow confusion over the notion of confession”.
Callers do not talk to a person but are offered an “atmosphere of piety and reflection,” where they can listen to prayers, music and other people’s confessions and can opt to record their own.”
Camille says part of the money received for the calls goes to charity. .
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.Frenchman Julien Benneteau will seek to win the first tournament of his career after beating second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semi-finals of the Open 13 tournament in Marseille.
Eighth-seeded Benneteau beat his compatriot Tsonga 7-6 (13-11), 5-7, 7-6 (7-3) in a fiercely contested match over two hours and 57 minutes.
Benneteau, who defeated world number one Roger Federer at the Paris Masters in November, will contest the fourth final of his career at the age of 28.
He will now face compatriot Michael Llodra, who prevailed 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) over German Mischa Zverev.
Tsonga levelled things up by winning the second set, battling back from 5-3 down to cancel out Benneteau’s advantage, but the world number 39 refused to be cowed and sewed up victory in a tense deciding tie-break.
Defending champion Tsonga broke first in the opening set but Benneteau fought back to take it to a tie-break that he eventually won after a titanic tussle.
“He makes fewer errors with his forehand.
“Julien has really improved,” said Tsonga, the world number nine.”
Benneteau enthused: “It was a great match, an intense battle. .
“But I’m proud to have held on until the end. I was afraid because I was leading 5-3 in the second set and I couldn’t see it out.
“I have to build on what I did here, where’ve I’ve gone after matches against players ranked higher than me. I’m not going to put crazy pressure on myself to win my first tournament though.”
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.Yvo de Boer, head of the UN’s climate change convention, will resign as of July 1, his office announced.
De Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), will join the consultancy group KPMG as global adviser on climate and sustainability and work with a number of universities, the UNFCCC secretariat said.
The announcement came nearly two months after the Copenhagen summit on climate change, seen even by its supporters as a disappointment and by its critics as a chaotic failure. .
The UNFCCC, an offshoot of the 1992 Rio summit, gathers 194 nations in the search for combating the causes of man-made climate change and easing its effects.
“I believe the time is ripe for me to take on a new challenge, working on climate and sustainability with the private sector and academia,” he said.
In a statement Mr de Boer said it had been a “difficult decision” to step down.
“Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms, but the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming.”
A Dutch national, Mr de Boer was appointed the UNFCCC’s executive secretary in September 2006.
“This calls for new partnerships with the business sector and I now have the chance to help make this happen.
Instead, after nearly two weeks of talks, the summit was only able to yield a general agreement on limiting warming to two degrees Celsius.
He had pinned hopes on a breakthrough in Copenhagen that would unlock a new treaty on climate change that would take effect after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol’s current pledges expire.
The document did not gain approval at a plenary session of the UNFCCC, and it has so far failed to gain the official endorsement of major developing emitters which helped to craft it.
The accord did not spell out the means for achieving this goal, and the pledges made under it are only voluntary.
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.Yvo de Boer, head of the UN’s climate change convention, will resign as of July 1, his office announced.
De Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), will join the consultancy group KPMG as global adviser on climate and sustainability and work with a number of universities, the UNFCCC secretariat said.
The announcement came nearly two months after the Copenhagen summit on climate change, seen even by its supporters as a disappointment and by its critics as a chaotic failure. .
The UNFCCC, an offshoot of the 1992 Rio summit, gathers 194 nations in the search for combating the causes of man-made climate change and easing its effects.
“I believe the time is ripe for me to take on a new challenge, working on climate and sustainability with the private sector and academia,” he said.
In a statement Mr de Boer said it had been a “difficult decision” to step down.
“Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms, but the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming.”
A Dutch national, Mr de Boer was appointed the UNFCCC’s executive secretary in September 2006.
“This calls for new partnerships with the business sector and I now have the chance to help make this happen.
Instead, after nearly two weeks of talks, the summit was only able to yield a general agreement on limiting warming to two degrees Celsius.
He had pinned hopes on a breakthrough in Copenhagen that would unlock a new treaty on climate change that would take effect after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol’s current pledges expire.
The document did not gain approval at a plenary session of the UNFCCC, and it has so far failed to gain the official endorsement of major developing emitters which helped to craft it.
The accord did not spell out the means for achieving this goal, and the pledges made under it are only voluntary.
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.France coach Marc Lievremont has forgiven Mathieu Bastareaud for lying about being attacked after a loss to New Zealand last year and named him in a 30-man squad for the Six Nations championship.
The 21-year-old centre had said he was attacked by up to five people as he returned to the team hotel following a 14-10 defeat by the All Blacks in Wellington last June. .
Back in France, after being told CCTV footage showed him entering the hotel uninjured, he admitted lying and said he had fallen in his bedroom because he was drunk.
“Bastareaud deserves to be back because he is performing well with his Stade Francais club and because he has started to do the community service he has been sentenced to.
“The unhappy episode of this summer is forgotten,” Lievremont said.
Half-back Frederic Michalak, winger Cedric Heymans, centre Florian Fritz and full-back Maxime Medard were left out of a squad already without suspended scrum-half Julien Dupuy plus prop Fabien Barcella and centre Damien Traille, who are both injured.”
The France coach also recalled 32-year-old scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, fly half Benjamin Boyet, wings Aurelien Rougerie and Julien Malzieu and full-back Clement Poitrenaud. It doesn’t mean they are too old or forgotten or rejected,” Lievremont said.
“There are some players we rely on, we appreciate but who have not performed as well in recent weeks.
France will start its Six Nations campaign against Scotland at Murrayfield on February 7.
Another surprise was the call-up of newcomer Fabrice Estebanez, a 29-year-old former rugby league international, who plays either at centre or fly half with Brive.
Backs: Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Morgan Parra, Benjamin Boyet, Francois Trinh-Duc, Mathieu Bastareaud, Fabrice Estebanez, David Marty, Yannick Jauzion, Vincent Clerc, Benjamin Fall, Julien Malzieu, Aurelien Rougerie, Alexis Palisson, Clement Poitrenaud.
Forwards: Thomas Domingo, Luc Ducalcon, Sylvain Marconnet, Nicolas Mas, William Servat, Dimitri Szarzewski, Sebastien Chabal, Romain Millo-Chluski, Lionel Nallet, Pascal Pape, Julien Bonnaire, Thierry Dusautoir (c), Imanol Harinordoquy, Alexandre Lapandry, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Louis Picamoles.
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.The International Automobile Federation (FIA) is to appeal a French court’s decision to overturn the lifetime ban on former Renault boss Flavio Briatore.
Briatore was let off the hook last week by the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris which found that the FIA sanction, imposed in September for allegedly ordering Nelson Piquet junior to crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, was illegal.
New FIA president Jean Todt, however, believes the world governing body has a case against the 59-year-old Italian and that an appeal is in order.
The scandal centred on driver Piquet junior’s claims that the team had ordered him to crash deliberately at Singapore to enable team-mate Fernando Alonso to go on and win.
The decision to appeal means the suspension against Briatore, and the five-year ban handed to the team’s former director of engineering Pat Symonds, remain in force.
He said that the French court’s decision “gives me back my dignity and the freedom which they arbitrarily tried to take away from me.
Briatore has denied all the accusations levelled against him and vowed to fight to clear his name.”
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.Veteran French rocker Johnny Hallyday has cancelled his farewell tour in order to recover after emergency surgery in the United States.
The 160,000 fans who bought tickets for the 24 concerts across France, which had been due to start January 8, will be reimbursed.
Doctors woke him on Tuesday after several days in a drug-induced coma.
The 66-year-old was hospitalised last week in Los Angeles after complications from a back operation performed in Paris last month.
Though little known abroad, Hallyday has sold more than 100 million albums and played 45 major tours in a career that began in the 1960s.
Hallyday’s son David said at the weekend that his father’s life was “out of danger”.

.New Zealand has filed an official complaint with the International Rugby Board after prop Tony Woodcock suffered abrasions around his eyes during Saturday’s 39-12 win over France in Marseille.
All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen says the team had asked the citing commissioner to investigate an incident late in the match.
“We asked the citing commissioner to have a look at it and we’ll leave it in his hands.
“There’s no doubt Tony got a facial, that’s how he described it,” he said.
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The officer has 48 hours to decide whether any player has a case to answer, but Woodcock says television footage of the incident was inconclusive and is happy to let the matter rest