Two a penny

.Two-time grand slam winner Amelie Mauresmo has announced her retirement at the age of 30 in a decision made “after careful consideration”.
The Geneva-based Frenchwoman, a former world number one who currently stands 21 in the rankings, won Wimbledon and the Australian Open in 2006 during a stellar career which saw her land 25 singles titles as well as $US15 million in prize money.
“I’ve come here to announce the end of my career.
Mauresmo came to prominence at grand slam level with a run to the 1999 Australian Open and she reached the semis at the US Open that same year. .
In 2004 she won Olympic silver.
Her Wimbledon title success came after three losing semi-final showings.
But she suffered disappointments on home clay at Roland-Garros, where she could only manage two runs to the quarter-finals.
Mauresmo’s last appeared on court was on September 2, when she lost in the second round of the US Open against 39th-ranked Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak in straight sets.
In 2005 she won the Masters end-of-season event.
Her final title came appropriately enough at the Paris Open earlier this year, when she defeated Russia’s Elena Dementieva in the final.
She announced the following month she would not play again this season, citing a slump in her motivation to keep competing at the top level.
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.The Socceroos face the potential of being grouped with two powerhouses of world football at next year’s World Cup, after France and Portugal were left unseeded for Saturday’s (AEDT) draw.
World football’s governing body said the seeds were selected according to the FIFA rankings as of October, meaning Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England made the grade.
South Africa was also seeded in Pot One as the host nation.
With one team from each pot to be drawn in each group, Australia faces the possibility of drawing both a seeded team, such as Brazil or England, and either France or Portugal in the group stage.
France and Portugal’s omission means they are in Pot Four along with the rest of the UEFA teams, including Denmark, Greece, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Switzerland.
Pot Three features Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Algeria.
The Socceroos were seeded in Pot Two alongside Asian rivals Japan, North Korea and South Korea, CONCACAF qualifiers Honduras, Mexico, USA and neighbours New Zealand, killing off any hopes of a trans-Tasman clash in the group stage.
Under a best-case scenario, the Socceroos could still draw a relatively favourable group that featured hosts South Africa and the likes of Algeria and Slovenia. .
The worst case could be a group consisting of Brazil, France and African powerhouse Ivory Coast.
Pot One (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England
Pot Two (AFC, Oceania and Concacaf): Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Honduras, Mexico, USA, New Zealand
Pot Three (CAF and rest of South America): Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria
Pot Four: (rest of UEFA): Denmark, France, Greece, Serbia, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Switzerland
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FIFA said the teams had been drawn with geographical criteria respected, meaning that no two teams from the same confederation will be drawn in the same group, except the Europeans where a maximum of two will be in a group

.The Republic of Ireland has appealed to world governing body FIFA to be allowed to compete as a 33rd team in next year’s World Cup finals, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Monday.
Ireland was eliminated from the competition earlier this month by France after Thierry Henry handled the ball in the build-up to William Gallas’s equaliser that gave France a 1-1 draw and a 2-1 aggregate play-off win.
“We received a delegation from Ireland at FIFA and they were naturally absolutely unhappy at what has happened,” Blatter told a keynote address at the Soccerex business conference.
“Naturally they have not asked for any sanctions to be given to any player or the referee, but they have asked, very humbly ‘can’t we be team number 33 at the World Cup? They have asked for that, really.
“They know the match cannot be replayed and the decision of the referee is final. I cannot confirm what will happen, but I will report it to the executive committee.
“I will bring it to the attention of the Executive Committee.”
Blatter said that FIFA’s Executive Committee would consider Ireland’s appeal when they held their extra-ordinary meeting in Cape Town on Wednesday (local time).
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.The world’s biggest atom-smasher has set a world record by accelerating to energy levels that had never been previously reached.
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) says its Large Hadron Collider has “become the world’s highest energy particle accelerator, having accelerated its twin beams of protons to an energy of 1.
A teraelectronvolt (TeV) is equivalent to the kinetik energy level of a flying mosquito, but the collider squeezes this energy into a much smaller space.18 TeV in the early hours of the morning”.0 teraelectronvolts in its bid to replicate the conditions immediately after the big bang.
CERN wants to ultimately achieve a maximum power of 7.98 TeV.
The previous world record was set by a the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Tevatron collider in 2001, when it reached 0.
The LHC was relaunched on November 20, after breaking down nine days after it was started with great fanfare in September 2008.
Scientists are looking to the collider – inside a 27-kilometre tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva – to mimic the conditions that followed the Big Bang and help explain the origins of the universe.5 teraelectronvolts, reaching “close to five” teraelectronvolts in the second half of next year, scientists said. .5 TeV, we can open new windows into physics.
“Already with 3.
At the same time, he would not predict how soon new data could be generated from the LHC, stressing that “it depends on how kind nature is to us”. That can already happen next year,” CERN director-general Rolf-Dieter Heuer had said.5 billion).
The LHC at CERN took nearly 20 years to complete, at a cost of six billion Swiss francs ($6.
The Holy Grail will be finding a theorised component called the Higgs Boson, which would explain how particles acquire mass.
The massive experiment aims to resolve physics enigmas such as an explanation for “dark matter” and “dark energy” that account for 96 per cent of the cosmos and whether other dimensions exist parallel to our own.
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. The elusive Higgs has been dubbed the “God particle”

.New Zealand captain Richie McCaw won the International Rugby Board (IRB) player of the year award for 2009, the global governing body has announced, so becoming the first player to win the award twice.
Outstanding flanker McCaw, who won the IRB award for the first time in 2006, succeeded Wales wing Shane Williams as player of the year. .
World champion South Africa took the team of the year award, having won the Tri-Nations title and defeated the British and Irish Lions 2-1 in a Test series in 2009.
This year he saw off competition for the award from South Africa duo Francois Steyn and Fourie du Preez, Australia fly-half Matt Giteau, the Ireland pair of skipper Brian O’Driscoll and back-row Jamie Heaslip and England loose forward Tom Croft.
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Meanwhile, Declan Kidney was named coach of the year after overseeing Ireland’s 2009 Six Nations grand slam – the team’s first clean sweep of northern hemisphere rugby union’s premier international tournament in 61 years

.A nude photo of French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy – identical to one sold last year for $US91,000 ($99,400) – was withdrawn from a Paris auction after bids failed to hit the reserve price.
The black and white shot shows Bruni standing pigeon-toed and covering her crotch with her hands. .
Bidding for it reached only 5,800 – much less than the undisclosed reserve price, the Drouot auction house said.
The photos were shot by Michel Comte in 1993, many years before Italian-born Bruni – who gave up her modelling career to become a pop singer – met Mr Sarkozy.
An identical picture was sold at Christie’s in New York in April 2008 – just two months after Bruni married Nicolas Sarkozy – and fetched $US91,000, which was 30 times the expected price.
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.South Korean model Daul Kim was found hanged in her Paris apartment, a spokeswoman for the city prosecutor’s office said.
Police were investigating the cause of the 20-year-old’s death and said it was most likely that she committed suicide, the prosecutor’s spokeswoman said.
Kim, who modelled for Chanel, Dries Van Noten and Maison Martin Margiela, made her debut at Paris Fashion Week in 2007, according to fashion magazine Vogue’s website.
Kim’s body was found on Thursday morning (local time) in her apartment in Paris by a male friend, who alerted the police.

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Kim’s blog was last updated on Wednesday, with a YouTube video of the song I Go Deep by Jim Rivers

.Serbia’s Novak Djokovic has shrugged off a brave challenge from crowd favourite Gael Monfils to claim the Paris Masters title with a 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 win.
World number three Djokovic, who had outclassed Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals and had dropped only one set en route to the final, had to dig deep to win his second title in as many weeks.
Outplayed at first, Monfils, seeded 15th, thrilled a partisan 14,000 crowd packing the Bercy hall by fighting back to win the second set and recovering from 4-1 down to level the decisive set before losing it 7-3 in a tiebreak.
“It was incredibly tough,” Djokovic said after winning his fifth title this year but his first in 2009 in the showcase Masters 1000 Series.
Djokovic, who beat world number one Roger Federer in the Basel final week, showed signs of nerves at times and had to wait for Monfils to double-fault on the first match point to seal victory in two hours and 43 minutes. He was hitting the ball well and he’s got a strong serve.
“Gael is very unpredictable.
“At first I played unbelievable but then he started coming back, with the crowd on his side.
His current form suggests, however, that he will be the favourite at the season-ending November 22-29 World Tour Finals in London and could give Federer and Nadal a run for their money in 2010.”
The 22-year-old Serb has won 76 matches this year, more than any other player, although disappointing results at major events stopped him from getting anywhere near the number one spot.
The second set’s script was similar at first, another unforced error from Monfils handing Djokovic a 2-0 lead, and a crushing win looked on the cards.
Relying on his devastating forehand and hardly making an error, Djokovic wrapped up the first set in just 30 minutes.
Monfils seized his chance by hitting a return winner to manage the telling break in the 11th set and serve for the set, which he took with a service winner.
However the Serb dropped his guard, enabling his opponent to find his way back into the match.
The Frenchman, playing his first final in a Masters 1000 event, then staged his remarkable comeback in the third set under roars of appreciation from the crowd, but was left still chasing his third career title.
The Frenchman, playing his first final in a Masters 1000 event, then staged his remarkable comeback in the third set under roars of appreciation from the crowd, but was left still chasing his third career title.
“It’s a pity, really.
“I managed to fight my way back into it and I nearly made it,” he added, clearly moved.

.Relatives of eight victims of a flight that crashed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris have filed lawsuits seeking damages.
Air France flight 447 crashed sometime shortly after take-off on May 31, killing all 228 people on board.
The US lawsuits, filed in Illinios and California, name as defendants Airbus and a number of companies that make plane instruments, including General Electric, Motorola and Intel.
The lawsuit filed in Illinios alleges negligence and products liability on the parts of Airbus and the makers of various instruments used on the flight.
Investigators are still probing the reasons for the crash, which happened in the Atlantic, some 1,094 kilometres off Brazil’s coast. .
“As a direct and proximate result of defendants’ negligence, the subject aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, killing plaintiff’s descendants, resulting in severe terror and pain prior to impact, and resulting in both personal and pecuniary injuries,” the lawsuit said.
France’s air accident investigation agency is still looking into the causes of the crash, but reports have suggested that faulty equipment could have been a key factor.
Other companies named in the lawsuit include Honeywell International, Thales Group, Rockwell Collins, Hamilton Sunstrand, Goodrich, Dupont, Judd Wire and Raychem.
In addition to faulty weather sensors, investigators have looked at the pitot tubes that provide speed information, which reportedly had a tendency to become blocked on the type of aircraft involved in the crash.
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.Frenchman Fabrice Santoro has pulled the curtain on a remarkable and atypical career by losing to American James Blake in the first round of the Paris Masters. .
The pocket-sized Santoro, once nicknamed “the magician” by Pete Sampras for his habit of mystifying bigger opponents, had earlier suggested he might play the Australian Open in January before bowing out.
“I’ve had lots of fun but now it is time to take a break,” Santoro said after his 15th and final Paris Masters appearance.
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