Sri Lanka beat Australia by eight wickets

ADELAIDE (Reuters) - Lahiru Thirimanne struck his first one-day century as Sri Lanka levelled the one-day series against Australia with a convincing eight-wicket win on Sunday.Sri Lanka put the hosts in to bat after rain delayed the start at the Adelaide Oval and the bowlers capitalised on cloud cover and moisture in the pitch to restrict Australia to 170 all out from 46.5 overs.The tourists' reply...

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Cricket-New Zealand 64-2 v South Africa - tea, day three

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, Jan 13 (Reuters) - New Zealand were 64 for two wickets following on in their second innings, trailing South Africa by 340 runs, at tea on the third day of the second test at St. George's Park on Sunday.ScoresSouth Africa 525-8 declared (Graeme Smith 54, Hashim Amla 110, AB de Villiers 51, Faf du Plessis 137, Dean Elgar 103 not out); New Zealand 121 all out (BJ Watling...

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All jokes aside, top-ranked Novak Djokovic hoping for a hat trick of Australian Open titles

MELBOURNE, Australia - Novak Djokovic shelved the conventional preparations for a while, warming up for a shot at a third consecutive Australian title with a bit of weekend hit-and-giggle and a Gangnam Style dance with Serena Williams.That was for kids' day, when thousands of people flocked to Rod Laver Arena to see 2012 Australian champions Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka hitting in a just-for-fun...

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C. African Republic leader faces rebel threat

DAMARA, Central African Republic (AP) — More than 30 truckloads of troops from Chad line the two-lane highway just outside of Damara, supporting Central African Republic government forces who want to block a new rebel coalition from reaching the capital.In a display of force, the turbaned fighters hold their rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons they threaten to use if the rebels seeking to...

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Presidents of Sudan, South Sudan to meet Friday

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan, two countries which were at the brink of all-out war last year, are to meet Friday in Ethiopia's capital.Spokesman Dina Mufti said Thursday that Ethiopia is optimistic the meeting will advance stalled peace deals.Sudan President Omar al-Bashir and South Sudan President Salva Kiir signed...

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Ethiopian police says Qaida terror cell arrested

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia's spy agency says that security forces have arrested 15 people alleged to be members of a terror cell linked with al-Qaida.The spy agency says military training manuals, videos and weapons were seized from the suspects. The agency announced the arrests late Wednesday.Authorities said the suspects were trained by al-Shabab militants in neighboring Somalia and Kenya....

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Italians, backed by the Catholic Church, aim to stop Sunday shopping

Italians are fighting a government lift of regulations on business operation hours, insisting that the move will eventually hurt the small shops and values that have long been the foundation of the Italian business community.The deregulation, put into effect January 2012, removes restrictions on business operating hours, including Sundays and holidays. It is intended to stimulate competition in what...

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Egypt's contentious Islamist constitution becomes law

CAIRO (Reuters) - President Mohamed Mursi admitted on Wednesday that Egypt's economy faces serious problems after he enacted a new, bitterly contested constitution that is supposed to help end political unrest and allow him to focus on the financial crisis.The president said the economy also had great opportunities to grow, but earlier the Egyptian pound tumbled to its weakest level in almost eight...

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Syrian minister leaves Beirut for fear of arrest

 Syria's wounded interior minister cut short his treatment at a Beirut hospital Wednesday and returned home for fear of being arrested by Lebanese authorities, while Syria's chief of military police defected to the opposition, becoming one of the highest-ranking officers to switch sides.The twin developments reflected the deepening isolation of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, which...

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Sudan's Bashir says ready to meet Kiir to try to get oil flowing

- Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Wednesday he was ready to meet his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir to try to move forward with setting up a demilitarized border zone and restart oil flows.His comments raise the prospect that the two could set aside their differences after signing agreements in September meant to secure their disputed border and to allow the South to resume...

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Egypt's Morsi: constitution dawn of new republic

 Egypt's Islamist president proclaimed the country's newly adopted constitution as the dawning of a "new republic" in a television address Wednesday, calling on the opposition to join a dialogue with him after a month of violent turmoil and focus on repairing a damaged economy.Mohammed Morsi sought to present the Islamist-drafter charter as the turning of a historic page for Egypt, but his speech...

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In Hezbollah stronghold, Lebanese Christians find respect, stability

In a home in a Shiite neighborhood in southern Beirut, images of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah share mantel and wall space with the Virgin Mary.The face of the revered Shiite militant leader appears on posters, a calendar, and in several photographs nestled amid those of Christian homeowner Randa Gholam's family members. Mr. Nasrallah is, Ms. Gholam asserts amid a string of superlatives, “a gift...

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Delhi gang-rape case could be turning point for India's rape laws

The gang-rape and beating of a 23-year-old woman on a private bus as it cruised around Delhi Sunday could be the turning point for improvements in the country’s rape laws.After nearly a week of massive protests across the capital demanding tougher punishments for rapists and better protection of women, the parliamentary standing committee will meet next week to discuss creating fast-track courts for...

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Good Reads: gun laws, lottery winners, online education, and tech gets sensory

The Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut brought a deluge of media attention to gun control. One useful perspective came from the Lexington’s Notebook column in The Economist magazine. Britain’s gun-related homicide rate is drastically lower than that of the United States not only because guns are harder to purchase, but because ammunition is scarce, the writer points out. In one recent incident...

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Syrian civil war at stalemate, Assad won't go: Russia

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's civil war has reached stalemate and international efforts to persuade President Bashar al-Assad to quit will fail, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday.Mainly Sunni Muslim rebels seeking to overthrow Assad are fighting on the edge of the capital Damascus and expanding southwards from their northern strongholds in Aleppo and Idlib into the central province...

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Pope pardons ex-butler who stole, leaked documents

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI granted his former butler a Christmas pardon Saturday, forgiving him in person during a jailhouse meeting for stealing and leaking his private papers in one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times.After the 15-minute meeting, Paolo Gabriele was freed and returned to his Vatican City apartment where he lives with his wife and three children. The...

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