Tennis glamour girl Ivanovic emerges from mental fog

30 December 2010 - 07H22

File photo of Serbian tennis player Ana Ivanovic, who clearer of mind and fitter of body than for some time, is confident she can climb back into the top 10 in 2011.

Ranked no.1 in the world in 2008, when she won her only Grand Slam singles title at the French Open, Anna Ivanovic dropped out of the top 60 this year as she battled poor form before climbing her way back to 17 by season's end.

AFP - Clearer of mind and fitter of body than for some time, Serbian glamour girl Ana Ivanovic is confident she can climb back into the top 10 in 2011.

Ranked no.1 in the world in 2008, when she won her only Grand Slam singles title at the French Open, Ivanovic dropped out of the top 60 this year as she battled poor form before climbing her way back to 17 by season's end.

The 23-year-old claimed titles in Austria and Bali in the last three tournaments she played for the season and enters the new year full of confidence that her career is finally back on track.

Speaking on Thursday as she prepared to partner Novak Djokovic in the mixed teams Hopman Cup, Ivanovic said she was reaping the rewards of working with a new coaching team and an improved fitness regime.

She said the main improvement in her game was a renewed belief in her own ability.

"I am on the right way," she said.

"I feel good about my game and my fitness at the moment.

"It is a strange thing, once you lose it (confidence) you feel like it is very hard to get it back.

"In my case, I tried to search for it in many different directions and many different places and with different people, but you realise that it is all the time within you, you just have to discover it."

Ivanovic said she started working on her fitness with a close friend after Wimbledon.

"Once I got fitter, I felt like it gave me confidence on the court," she said.

"I worked really hard and started to play a lot better in the summer in America and all the things started to come together.

"It wasn't any more this balance between my game, my fitness and my mental, which was very nice to see.

"Once you start to feel better the confidence just grows and to have two titles at the end of the year meant a lot to me."

Ivanovic is confident she can win more Grand Slam titles to add her Roland Garros success.

"I am very excited about this upcoming year," she said.

"There is a lot of potential to do really well, there are a lot of great players out there, but it has been a little bit up and down and a lot of players have been fighting injuries of haven't played that many events.

"If you can start good and be really consistent, you can get far next year.

"I want to get back to top 10 and hopefully win another Grand Slam.

"I know I have potential to win some more."

Facebook chorus prompts Qantas to scrap instruments ban

Australian musicians Thursday said they had scored a victory against Qantas after a Facebook campaign helped persuade the airline to scrap a ban on carrying instruments as cabin luggage.

AFP - Australian musicians Thursday said they had scored a victory against Qantas after a Facebook campaign helped persuade the airline to scrap a ban on carrying instruments as cabin luggage.

Jazz saxophonist Jamie Oehlers started the online protest when Qantas introduced a policy requiring all musical instruments except violins and violas to be checked in and stored in the cargo hold.

"After travelling with them for 20 years, I was made to check my saxophone in for the first time a few weeks ago, causing 1,200 dollars worth of damage," Oehlers wrote, launching the Facebook campaign last month.

"I want to get a boycott of Qantas by musicians in place until they reverse this ridiculous policy."

More than 8,700 people joined the group, including members of the country's symphony orchestras, posting stories and pictures of instruments that had been damaged in the cargo hold.

Qantas confirmed Thursday it had reversed the policy from December 24.

"In this situation we were able to listen to our customers and we were able to provide a change in our policy," a Qantas spokeswoman told AFP.

She said Qantas was aware of the Facebook group and had spoken to Oehlers, but the policy change followed a wide range of "feedback received directly by our customer care team".

Oehlers, about to depart for a gig in New York, said it was a victory for the Australian musical community, an "inspiring group of people".

"I'm sure we'll be crossing paths or bumping into each other at the airports with our instruments on our shoulders," he wrote on the Facebook site.

The new policy allows small musical instruments as carry-on baggage, provided they are no longer than 81 centimetres (32 inches), higher than 30 centimetres or more than 19 centimetres deep.

LG pledges action against patent suit by Sony

30 December 2010 - 07H31

An LG sign at the company's headquarters in Seoul. LG Electronics said Thursday it would "actively respond" to a lawsuit filed by Japan's Sony that seeks to block mobile phone shipments to the United States by the South Korean firm.

AFP - LG Electronics said Thursday it would "actively respond" to a lawsuit filed by Japan's Sony that seeks to block mobile phone shipments to the United States by the South Korean firm.

Sony has filed a patent infringement complaint claiming LG's mobile phones sold in the United States had used its technologies without permission.

LG, the world's third-largest mobile phone maker, said it would take action after reviewing the technologies.

Spokeswoman Na Joo-Young told AFP: "Based on results of our review, we will take action and actively respond" to Sony's move.

Sony has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission -- which can ban imports of products found to violate US patents -- and also with a federal court in Los Angeles, which has the power to impose fines.

Sony's mobile phone joint venture, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, is the world's sixth-largest mobile phone maker. Sony is also the world's third-largest TV maker.

LG's mobile phone business has been under heavy pressure due to its slow response to the fast-growing popularity of smartphones. Chief executive Nam Yong resigned in September after the mobile phone business stumbled.

LG's third-quarter net profit plunged 99 percent year-on-year to 7.57 billion won (6.6 million dollars).

Iran reformist editor out on bail: report

30 December 2010 - 08H31

File photo shows an Iranian woman looking at a copy of the reformist daliy "Shargh" in Tehran. Iran has released on bail one of three editors of the leading reformist newspaper Shargh who had been arrested earlier this month, opposition website Kaleme.com reported Thursday.

AFP - Iran has released on bail one of three editors of the leading reformist newspaper Shargh who had been arrested earlier this month, opposition website Kaleme.com reported Thursday.

Chief editor Ahmad Gholami, who was detained on December 7 along with two other editors and a financial sponsor of the daily, was released after posting a bail of nearly 10,000 dollars, Kaleme reported.

On December 12, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said they all faced "security related crimes."

Kaleme, which belongs to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, said the release came after more than 150 prominent Iranian writers and journalists wrote a letter to judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani calling for such a move.

Shargh, the flagship of Iran's reformist press, has survived several closures since hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president in 2005.

The authorities have come down hard on the media and arrested scores of journalists since anti-government protests erupted after Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June 2009.

Many have since been sentenced to lengthy jail terms.

'At least 10 civilians dead' in Afghanistan blast

30 December 2010 - 10H19

Afghan policemen walk near US millitary vehicles in Helmand province in February 2009. More than 10 Afghan civilians were killed and several others were hurt in an explosion caused by insurgents Thursday in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, officials said.

AFP - More than 10 Afghan civilians were killed and several others were hurt in an explosion caused by insurgents Thursday in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, officials said.

International forces put the death toll in the incident at more than 10, while provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi told AFP that the toll of dead and injured was 16 and the incident happened when a minivan hit a mine.

Beijing opens 5 new subway lines amid gridlock woes

30 December 2010 - 10H24

A driver operates a train along one of five new subway lines stretching into the suburbs of Beijing -- additions the city hopes will help ease its infamous traffic jams, deemed the world's worst this year.

A cleaner gets to work on one of the platforms of a newly opened subway line in Beijing. China's capital on Thursday opened five new subway lines stretching into the suburbs -- additions the city hopes will help ease its infamous traffic jams, deemed the world's worst this year.

AFP - China's capital Beijing on Thursday opened five new subway lines stretching into the suburbs -- additions the city hopes will help ease its infamous traffic jams, deemed the world's worst this year.

The new routes add 108 kilometres (67 miles) to the capital's metro rail network, bringing the total to 336 kilometres, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The additions to the network -- which carries about five million passengers a day -- cost more than nine billion dollars, the report said.

Officials in Beijing are battling chronic gridlock and air pollution -- both of which rate as among the world's worst -- and the problems are getting worse as the city's increasingly wealthy citizens want to buy their own cars.

Last week, the city government announced new restrictions that will allow 240,000 new passenger cars registered in Beijing next year -- a third of the number that hit the roads in 2010.

China has also scrapped a tax cut on small passenger cars put in place as part of a massive stimulus package introduced to combat the global financial crisis. The purchase tax will be set at 10 percent from January 1.

Beijing and Mexico City have the worst traffic jams in the world, according to a survey released by IBM in June. The two cities scored 99 out of 100 in IBM's "commuter pain index".

European stocks steady at open

30 December 2010 - 10H34

A Cambodian woman counts US dollar bills and Japanese yen notes at her currency exchange shop in Phnom Penh in October. The dollar weakened against the yen on Thursday.

AFP - Europe's main stock markets were little changed at the start of trading on Thursday, with London's benchmark FTSE 100 index down 0.07 percent to 5,992.50 points compared with the previous day's close.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 grew 0.02 percent to 6,996.56 points and in Paris the CAC 40 gained 0.08 percent to 3,893.51.

Dollar-sensitive stocks were weak as the dollar fell, particularly against the yen, as investors exited the US currency because of falling US bond yields.