Argentina beat Dutch 3-1 to win World Cup

ROSARIO, Argentina: Argentina defeated defending champion the Netherlands 3-1 on Saturday to claim the women’s field hockey World Cup title.

Carla Rebecchi scored goals in both halves and Noel Barrionuevo scored from a penalty corner to delighted a sellout home crowd of 12,000.Argentina won all of its seven games at the tournament and handed the Netherlands — the defending Olympic champion — its first loss of the World Cup.

It was Argentina’s second World Cup title following a triumph in 2002.

Rebecchi scored after only three minutes and Barrionuevo added the penalty corner just minutes later to put Argentina in control.

Maartje Paumen gave the Dutch a chance in the 44th with a penalty corner, but Rebecchi sealed the win in the 54th with her second goal.

“This is incredible,” Barrionuevo said, calling it an “unforgettable victory.”

Added Argentina captian Luciana Aymar: “From the beginning, I dreamed that this would happen. I don’t know what will happen next, but right now I am enjoying this moment with my team and with my people.”

Falling behind early was too much for the Dutch to overcome.

“We had a lot of confidence and preparation before the match,” Netherlands coach Herman Kruis said. “When you make lots of faults in the first six minutes and are down two goals, it is disappointing. But we are proud we came back in the match.”

In group play, Argentina defeated South Africa (5-2), South Korea (1-0), Spain (4-0),China (2-0) and England (2-0) and then defeated Germany 2-0 in the semifinals.

England earned its first medal at a women’s field hockey World Cup, defeating Germany 2-0 for the bronze earlier Saturday. Alex Danson scored in the 28th minute and Helen Richardson converted three minutes later. It was England’s best result in a major tournament and matched third place at this year’s Women’s Champions Trophy, whereGermany was also the loser.

Germany was also fourth in the Beijing Olympics, which was won by the Netherlands.Argentina won bronze.

Germany hasn’t beaten England at the World Cup since 1994.

“I am delighted,” England coach Danny Kerry said. “It is the first time we have won a World Cup medal and the other thing I am delighted about is that we only lost one game in the entire World Cup and that was to Argentina. I am very proud of the staff and the girls. So I am absolutely over the moon.”

Germany captain Fanny Rinne explained the deep hurt of the loss.

“I did not ask everybody, but I can see it in their eyes,” Rinne said of her teammates. “It is hard, especially for those that went to the Olympics in Beijing — to come away there and here with fourth place is really hard. Everyone has to think on their own and has to change, but first this is very frustrating.”

In other playoffs Thursday and Friday: Australia finished fifth, beating South Korea 2-1; New Zealand defeated China 3-0 for seventh place; India finished ninth, beating South Africa 4-3; and Japan edged Spain 2-1 for 11th place. -AP

India imposes curfew in Srinagar after protests

SRINAGAR: India deployed thousands of security forces and slapped an indefinite curfew on Srinagar on Sunday — a day after Muslims set fire to public buildings in protests against New Delhi's rule, officials said.

The Indian government has been trying to respond to the biggest separatist demonstrations in two years in Kashmir triggered by the killing of a 17-year-old student by police in June. Seventy people have died, most from police firing into protesters.

Troops equipped with assault rifles patrolled deserted streets and blocked off lanes with razor wire and iron barricades in Srinagar, the heart of an insurgency where tens of thousands of people have been killed in two decades of violence.

The curfew extended to other big towns in the Kashmir valley.

Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, told NDTV news channel that the fresh violence in Kashmir had dealt a setback to an anticipated new government peace initiative.

“Such protests create problems for everybody else,” Abdullah said. “How can you take this move forward if violence continues?”

Police have accused the region's main separatist leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, of instigating violence and arson. Farooq denied the charges.

After Eid prayers to mark the end of the Ramazan fasting month, tens of thousands marched through Srinagar on Saturday, allegedly setting fire to government and police buildings. Farooq led the main demonstration.

Killings of civilians have fuelled anger across Kashmir, where sentiment against New Delhi's rule runs deep. Human rights groups say India's Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives security forces wide powers to shoot, arrest and search in battling a separatist insurgency, further alienates people.

India's Congress party-led federal government is considering a partial relaxation of the act in Kashmir as part of a peace initiative expected in the next few days. But no consensus has been reached on the issue yet, local media have reported.

“We don't want peace, we don't want the peace of a graveyard,” Farooq said in a statement. “We want a solution of the Kashmir dispute and that will end all the problems.”

Peace in Kashmir is crucial for improving relations between India and Pakistan, which are trying to revive peace talks halted after India blamed Lashkar-i-Taiba (LT) militants for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full though they rule it in parts and fought two of three wars over the region.

Clijsters reigns supreme as Federer's run ends

NEW YORK: It was all too easy for Kim Clijsters at the US Open on Saturday. And all too hard for Roger Federer.

Clijsters won her third women’s singles title with ridiculous speed, thrashing her nervous Russian opponent Vera Zvonareva 6-2 6-1 in less than an hour.

For the second year in a row, Clijsters celebrated her victory by fooling around with her infant daughter on the centre court. The photographers lined up to start snapping away but Jada protested. “No photos, no photos,” she told them.

Clijsters giggled and the crowd at Arthur Ashe Ashe Stadium lapped it up.

“I’m very excited that I was able to defend my title,”

Clijster said. “It’s always an honour to go back to a place, especially a Grand Slam, where you’ve done well and you’ve won.”

Zvonareva was reduced to tears, hiding her head under her towel as she sobbed. The seventh-seed had played some brilliant tennis to get to the final but these were not her finest 59 minutes.

It was not Federer’s greatest day at Flushing Meadows either. For the first time since 2003, the Swiss master will not be appearing in the men’s singles final after his loss in the semi-finals to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.

“I’m not as disappointed as I would have been in the final. That’s the only positive news to enjoy anything out of it,” he said.

Federer had two match points in the final set, which lasted longer than the entire women’s final, but missed his chances and Djokovic went on to win 5-7 6-1 5-7 6-2 7-5.

“It’s one of those matches that you will remember for the rest of your life,” said Djokovic. “I am very proud of myself.”

His reward was a place in Sunday’s final against the world number one Rafa Nadal, who sailed through with a 6-2 6-3 6-4 victory over Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny.

Nadal has never won the US Open but it will take an extraordinary performance from Djokovic to deny him this time.

“I have tried my best for a lot of years,” Nadal, who has not dropped a single set in the tournament, said. “So now after a lot of work I am here and I’m happy for that.”

Nadal is now tantalisingly close to completing a career grand slam. Only six men, including Federer, have achieved the feat and Nadal only needs the US Open to become the seventh.

If he does it on Sunday, the 24-year-old will be second youngest.

“I feel great,” Nadal said. “It’s not a dream, because a dream is to win the tournament.”

Nadal’s only moments of concern against Youzhny were late in the match when he dropped serve for just the second time in the tournament and had his left foot retaped and bandaged because of a blister.

LABELLED QUITTER

Djokovic’s victory put the Serbian into his third grand slam final. The world number three made the US Open final in 2007, losing to Federer, but won the Australian Open the following season. At 23, he has time on his side and the game to match.

The biggest questions about him have revolved around temperament. He has been labelled a quitter whenever he has failed to finish a match.

In the third set against Federer, he repeatedly smashed himself in the head with his racket in an attempt to motivate himself. It worked and by the end, he was on his knees planting a sloppy kiss on the court.

“(I have) many, many more years to come. I look forward to it,” he said. “I’m working hard on my game. I’m getting some things together and hopefully on the court it’s gonna pay off.”

His victory robbed the tennis world of what might have been the ultimate grand slam final. Federer and Nadal have played each other in the Wimbledon, French Open and Australian Open finals, but no two men have ever met in the finals of all four majors.

“I would have loved to play against him here,” Federer said. “I won’t watch but I hope he wins.”

Clijsters won her first US Open title in 2005 but was unable to defend her crown because of an injury. She missed the next two years after taking time off to start a family.

She won it again last year in her comeback to grand slam tennis and Saturday’s win saw her become the first woman to successfully defend her the crown since Venus Williams in 2001.

“When I started my US summer, the US Open was my main goal,” Clijsters said. “It was a new situation for me as well, going back to the Grand Slam where I was actually defending my title for the first time. Not having been able to do that in 2006 was frustrating at the time.” -Reuters

Pakistan win toss, choose to bat against England

LEEDS: Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi won the toss and elected to bat against England in the second one-day international at Headingley here on Sunday.

Both teams were unchanged from the first of this five-match series, which England won by 24 runs at the Riverside on Friday.

Pakistan's decision to stick with the same side meant there was still no place for all-rounder Abdul Razzaq who has been struggling with shoulder and back injuries.

Once again fast bowler Wahab Riaz, who will be interviewed by police next week in the course of their spot-fixing inquiries, was omitted.

Teams: England: Andrew Strauss (capt), Steve Davies (wkt), Jonathan Trott, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Michael Yardy, Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, James Anderson; Pakistan: Kamran Akmal (wkt), Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Yousuf, Fawad Alam, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi (capt), Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Irfan

Two thirds in Kashmir want independence: poll

NEW DELHI: About two thirds of residents in Indian-administered Kashmir want independence for their region, with less than one in ten seeking a merger with Pakistan, a survey showed Sunday.

The Kashmir region is administered separately by India and Pakistan, with the Indian part subject to an insurgency and violent separatist movement for the last 20 years that has claimed an estimated 47,000 lives.

The poll, conducted for the Sunday Hindustan Times newspaper, showed that 66 per cent of respondents in the Kashmir valley wanted “complete freedom to entire Jammu and Kashmir as a new country”.

Jammu and Kashmir includes the violence-wracked Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, the Hindu-majority region of Jammu and the mostly Buddhist Ladakh area.

Only six per cent in Kashmir wanted a “complete merger of the entire Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan.”

The desire for independence for the state is not shared in the Jammu and Ladakh parts however, where 76 per cent and 70 per cent wanted a “complete merger” of the state into India.

Kashmir has a special status under the Indian constitution and was initially autonomous after partition of the subcontinent in 1947, though much of its autonomy has slowly been eroded.

Respondents were also asked who was to blame for a current wave of unrest in the Kashmir area where young stone-throwers have clashed with security forces for the last three months.

Seventy protesters and bystanders — some children — have been killed, mostly by security forces who have fired on demonstrations.

In Kashmir, 56 per cent blamed India for the unrest, while 44 per cent of those asked in the “rest of India” thought Pakistan was responsible for stirring up trouble.

Majorities in all areas concurred that Indian forces should not use bullets against protesters, with 96 per cent saying it was wrong in Kashmir, and 85 per cent in the rest of India.

Two thirds thought it was wrong in Jammu, while 31 per cent said it was acceptable.

The poll was conducted by Team CVoter and canvassed 2,369 people.

On Sunday, Indian security forces enforced a strict curfew in much of Kashmir, a day after prayers marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramazan erupted into protests.

Thousands, including women and children, marched through the city and held demonstrations at its historic business centre.

Protesters hoisted green Islamic and Pakistani flags atop a clock tower and later police blamed them for setting fire to a government building that housed the offices of the force's crime branch and power development department.

Separatists, who led Saturday's protests, blamed “anti-movement elements” for setting fire to the building and called for a probe into the arson.

Police said they had imposed a curfew on Sunday to prevent further violence.

The Muslim-majority Kashmir region has been fought over by India and Pakistan since the partition of British-ruled India in 1947, with the region now cut in two along a UN-monitored line of control.

Beckham returns to pitch for Galaxy

LOS ANGELES: David Beckham, sidelined six months by injury, made his Major League Soccer season debut for the Los Angeles Galaxy Saturday, playing 20 minutes in a 3-1 victory over Columbus.

Beckham came in for Juninho in the 70th minute and received loud cheers, his entry bringing some fans at the Galaxy's Home Depot Center ground to their feet.

The 35-year-old former England captain had been sidelined since March 14, when he tore his left achilles tendon while playing on loan for AC Milan.

The injury kept Beckham, England’s most-capped outfield player, from playing in his fourth World Cup as he missed the 2010 finals in South Africa.

“Being out there felt good,” Beckham said. “I've never been out of the game for such a long time.”

Doctors had originally estimated Beckham would be ready to return in October, and he was pleased to get back to action sooner.

“It has been a quick recovery and I’m happy with that. I thought I was ready for 90 minutes four months ago,” Beckham said.

Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said he was impressed with Beckham’s determined rehabilitation.

“It’s kind of remarkable that he's back on the field in such a short period of time,” Arena said. “To put the kind of effort in to come back at his age is inspiring for our players to see.

“By the end of the season, we want him playing 90 minutes.” Four minutes after he came into the match, Beckham received a yellow card for a reckless foul against Emmanuel Ekpo.

But Beckham admitted he was feeling his lack of matches.

“After 10 minutes on the field, I thought like I was dying, Beckham said. “But I came through it, felt good after that and finished strong.”

Edson Buddle, Dema Kovalenko and Jovan Kirovski scored for the Galaxy, who regained the lead in the MLS Western Conference, three points ahead of Real Salt Lake.

Andres Mendoza scored for Columbus, whose lead over second-place New York in the Eastern Conference dwindled to four points.

Buddle opened the scoring in the 13th minute, his first goal since August 14 and his league-leading 14th of the season.

Kovalenko made it 2-0 in the 35th minute with his first goal in two years and Kirovski made it 3-0 in the 55th.

Mendoza scored for the Crew in the 85th. – AFP

Failed suicide attack kills bomber in Azad Kashmir

MUZAFFARABAD: A man blew himself up in a botched suicide bombing Sunday in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, an official said.

The bomber's explosives went off as he was heading to a target in Rawalakot district, 120 kilometres south of regional capital Muzaffarabad.

“The bomber was trying to hit some sensitive installations but the explosive went off before time, when he was on his way to hit his target,” Chaudhry Raqeeb, the top administrative official in Rawalakot, told AFP.

He said the bomber was identified as a local resident.

Attacks blamed mostly on the Taliban have killed more than 3,700 people across Pakistan since July 2007, concentrated in the northwest and major cities rather than the northern mountains and eastern border with India.

In a separate incident, police defused a timed device hidden in a pressure cooker in a shop after being tipped off by a local security guard in a congested market in Muzaffarabad, administrative official Chaudhry Imtiaz said.

On January 6, a suicide bomber killed four Pakistani soldiers near the demarcation line with India, and officials blamed that attack on Taliban insurgents based in the northwest near the Afghan border.

Kashmir was split in two in the bloody aftermath of independence from British rule over the subcontinent in 1947. India and Pakistan each control a part of the mountainous land but both claim the region in full.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a nearly 20-year revolt in Indian-administered Kashmir, where militants have fought against New Delhi's rule, but bomb attacks are rare in the Pakistani-administered zone.

Iran ready to release US hiker woman on bail: prosecutor

TEHRAN: A senior prosecutor said on Sunday that Iran is ready to release Sarah Shourd, one of three US hikers held for more than a year and accused of spying, on bail of around 500,000 dollars.

“For the female defendant (Shourd), bail has been set at five billion Iranian rials (around 500,000 US dollars),” the official IRNA news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying.

“She can be freed by posting the bail... Her lawyer has been informed.”

Shourd was arrested with fellow hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal on July 31, 2009 after straying across the border from neighbouring Iraq.

The three have been accused of illegally entering the Islamic republic and of spying.

Dolatabadi said that there were “enough reasons to accuse the three of espionage.”

“The case is nearly complete and the judge has issued an indictment for the three Americans accused of spying,” he said, adding that Bauer and Fattal had been remanded in custody.

Several Iranian officials had said on Thursday that Shourd would be released on Saturday. But legal technicalities delayed her release, Dolatabadi said on Friday. – AFP

Biography says French first lady’s demure image is facade

PARIS: An unauthorised biography of French first lady Carla Bruni paints an unflattering picture of the Italian ex-supermodel claiming she lives a solitary life, neglects her charitable works and forces her husband to socialise with her former lovers.

“Carla, A Secret Life” by former journalist Besma Lahouri discloses that following her marriage to President Nicolas Sarkozy a presidential adviser was assigned to help re-brand Bruni, whose former lovers include Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, as a demure political wife.

It also alleges that Bruni, 43, has had extensive plastic surgery despite denials, and had a 20-year relationship with a Paris surgeon.

The disclosures appeared in a report Saturday in British newspaper The Times, which has been given the book ahead of publication along with the French weekly Marianne.

Describing, Bruni as a “female Don Juan”, the book, which the author says the Elysee Palace tried to discourage, says she has maintained contact with former paramours.

“Since he married the woman that some called a ‘man-eater’, (Mr Sarkozy) has to put up every day with this burdensome tribe. Singers, philosophers, lawyers, bosses, men of the press or politics.”

No less than three such men were house guests at Bruni’s Riviera villa last year during Sarkozy’s first holiday there.

Bruni had finally met her match in her marriage to Sarkozy with a “man even more unpredictable than her”, Lahouri said.

After their whirlwind romance and 2008 marriage, the Elysee Palace embarked on a carefully managed image makeover of the new first lady led by presidential aide Pierre Charon.

“Carla had warned me ‘they are going to say a lot of things about me, about my past life. Things, photographs are going to come out’... So we had to help give her a new image. That of a shy young woman...,” he told Lahouri.

That image was successfully projected during Bruni’s state visit to London in March 2008 when she was feted by the British media for her effortless chic.

Behind the scenes, however, the book says she lives a solitary life and Lahouri describes her foundation to fight AIDS as “an empty shell”.

Lahouri, also the author of a best-selling biography on French footballer Zinedine Zidane, spent two years interviewing family friends and Bruni colleagues.

She found her to be “attractive and impetuous, free and calculating...faithful in friendship and fickle in love.”

But she added that she believed Bruni’s true nature was a long way from that of the “well-brought up girl with her head bowed.”

“I did not set out to be unkind but to reveal what she really is... The image of Carla Bruni is totally false,” she said.

Lahouri says Charon attempted to deter her from writing the book, warning her, “It’s not worth it. It’s too complicated.”

The Elysee had also tried to obtain a copy of the manuscript and was now hinting at possible legal action, she said.

The book is in contrast to another biography due to be published this month which was produced with Bruni’s cooperation.

In “Carla et les Ambitieux” (Carla and the Ambitious), authors Yves Derai and Michael
Darmon concentrate instead on her life as first lady.

Lahouri's biography will be published on Wednesday by Flammarion. – AFP

Swift to sing about West debacle this year at VMAs

NEW YORK: Be warned, Kanye: Taylor Swift has written a song about you, and she’s singing it at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards.

The country superstar’s win for best female video last year was marred when Kanye West got on stage and said it should have gone to Beyonce.

Swift wrote a song about the experience earlier this year, and a source familiar with the show said Saturday the 20-year-old will sing the new song at the VMAs, which will be aired live on MTV. The source did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The song is on Swift’s upcoming album “Speak Now,” due out in October. The source said Swift performed it during a secret rehearsal in Los Angeles for the VMAs on Friday.

Though the West-Swift moment only lasted but a few minutes, it has endured for what seems to be a lifetime. It became a cultural watershed moment and gave West the most intense backlash of his career, despite an apology delivered later.

He dropped out of the spotlight, and last week on Twitter, said that he endured death wishes, had to cancel a tour and let go of employees. He again apologized to Swift and said he wrote a song for her and hoped she would sing it – and if not, he would perform it for her.

But instead, Swift will be singing her own song. The Grammy-winner is known for writing intensely personal songs, and skewering a few former boyfriends along the way.

After initially expressing her hurt, Swift has avoided addressing the matter.

West will also be a performer at the awards show; both are nominees. It's not clear what song he will sing.

Though there was anticipation of possible fireworks related to last year with West’s performance, Swift’s song all but guarantees it. – AP

Nato claims killing five insurgents in Afghanistan

KABUL: A Taliban commander who planned attacking polling stations during next week's elections and four other insurgents have been killed in eastern Afghanistan, Nato said.

The military alliance said in a statement Sunday that Nato and Afghan forces killed the five on Saturday night in a village compound in the Nangarhar province after they displayed “hostile intent”.

It said intelligence reports indicated that the Taliban commander was planning to conduct rocket attacks against voting centres during the September 18 parliamentary elections. The Taliban have vowed to attack polling stations and warned Afghans not to participate in what it called a sham vote.

Toll rises to six in California gas blast

SAN BRUNO: The toll in a huge gas pipeline blast in California rose to six after two more bodies were found Saturday, authorities said.

“I can confirm that two more bodies have been found this morning. I have no other details,” Steve Firpo, a spokesman for San Bruno township near San Francisco told AFP.

The two bodies raised to six the number of fatalities from the huge gas pipeline blast late on Thursday that also injured 52 people — three with third degree burns — and destroyed 37 homes leaving seven others severely damaged.

The blast-triggered fire consumed four hectares of property and was completely extinguished by Friday night.

The initial death toll was put at four, but California Senator Barbara Boxer told reporters in San Bruno Saturday morning that two people were still missing after the blast.

Firpo could not say for sure whether the two missing persons were those found dead earlier Saturday.

Emergency workers said they had searched over 75 per cent of the smouldering ruins.
But Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado — standing in for California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is on a trade trip to Asia — was more cautious, stressing that a quarter of the inferno site had yet to be checked.

President Barack Obama on Saturday called Schwarzenegger “to express his condolences for the tragic loss of life in San Bruno and his concern for those still recovering from injuries,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs in a statement.

Three of the fatalities have been identified so far. They include a mother and her 13-year-old daughter and a 20-year-old woman, the San Mateo forensic institute said.

Local utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) said a natural gas main ruptured in the town near San Francisco International Airport.

Several San Bruno residents said they had complained of gas smells over the past few weeks and some said they saw PG&E crews in the area who apparently did not take any measures.

PG&E President Chris Johns told a press conference Saturday that the company was “reviewing all the phone records...as of right now, we have not been able to confirm any calls...in that vicinity, happening in the first nine days of September.”

Both PG&E and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the blast.

Local authorities on Saturday still did not know when people evacuated from the blast area could return to their homes, as PG&E announced it would cover the cost of all emergency housing.

Saudi diplomat seeks asylum in US

WASHINGTON: A Saudi diplomat in Los Angeles reportedly has asked for political asylum in the United States, claiming his life is in danger if he is returned to Saudi Arabia.

The report Saturday by NBC News quoted the diplomat, Ali Ahmad Asseri, as saying that Saudi officials have ordered him back to his country because he is gay and had become a close friend to a Jewish woman. Asseri in a letter also reportedly criticised the role of militant imams in Saudi society.

NBC said that Asseri, who is first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, was questioned by the Department of Homeland Security after he applied for asylum.

The department declined comment to The Associated Press when asked about the diplomat. A call to Asseri's lawyer was not returned Saturday.