Brive stun champions Clermont

8 January 2011 - 01H46

Clermont's fly-half Brock James runs with the ball past Brive's Mathieu Belie (L) and Simon Azoulai (2ndR) during the French Top14 rugby union match Brive vs. Clermont in Brive. Brive shocked French champions Clermont 29-22 on Friday to record their first Top 14 win in almost three months.

AFP - Relegation-haunted Brive shocked French champions Clermont 29-22 on Friday to record their first Top 14 win in almost three months.

Brive, with just three wins all season before the game, were ahead 16-3 at the interval thanks to a helping hand from Clermont's Australian fly-half Brock James.

After missing an early penalty, James had an attempted clearance charged down, tight on his own line, by Brive centre Regis Lespinas who gathered the ball to score a 15th-minute try.

That was converted by Mathieu Belie to add to Julien Caminati's fourth minute penalty.

James missed another penalty before the Australian finally found the target to cut Brive's advantage to 10-3.

Belie and Caminati then added another penalty apiece before the break.

Brive grabbed their second try in the first minute of the second period when Fabrice Estabanez sprinted away between a line of Clermont defenders left flat-footed by a smart, reverse pass from Lespinas.

Belie's conversion made it 23-8 before Clermont hit back with two tries in 10 minutes.

First, replacement scrum-half Morgan Parra showed quick-thinking by launching a tap penalty crossfield into the grateful arms of waiting centre Julien Malzieu.

Then it was Estabanez's turn to suffer a charge down when his clearance from behind his own line was gobbled up by Clermont No 8 Elvis Vermeulen.

James was successful with a simple conversion but Caminati then hit a 63rd-minute penalty to open a 26-15 lead for Brive.

Back came Clermont with a third try in the 66th minute when a James grubber kick left Brive's Ronnie Cooke and Clermont's Gavin Williams tussling for the ball which evaded both men only for South African centre Marius Joubert to claim the try.

James converted to reduce the gap to four points but Caminati had the last say with another penalty to secure a crucial 29-22 win.

US hearing for 'Merchant of Death' Bout postponed

8 January 2011 - 02H24

Courtroom sketch shows Viktor Bout (L) in Federal court in New York last year. The alleged "Merchant of Death" arms dealer will appear in court on January 21 and not this week as planned after his lawyer obtained a postponement, a US court said Friday.

AFP - Alleged "Merchant of Death" arms dealer Viktor Bout will appear in court on January 21 and not this week as planned after his lawyer obtained a postponement, a US court said Friday.

Bout, who turns 44 on January 13, was captured in a US sting in March 2008 and extradited from Thailand in November after a long legal battle. He is currently being held in a high-security prison in New York.

His lawyer had demanded a delay of 30 days but the judge only granted him until January 21, according to a court clerk.

Bout -- whose story inspired the 2005 Nicolas Cage film "Lord of War" -- has been charged with arms trafficking and terrorism and is accused of flying weapons to insurgents in Africa, South America and the Middle East.

If convicted, he faces between 25 years and life in prison.

The former Soviet military translator has insisted he is innocent and accused the United States of trying to make him a scapegoat for various international problems.

On Sunday Bout said in a rare interview with RIA Novosti that he had rejected a US plea bargain offer that would have exposed his alleged contact list.

Military analysts in Moscow have said his arrest was a particularly sensitive blow for Russia because it threatened to expose potential links between government officials and the illicit arms trade.

Russia initially fought the extradition to the United States. But the Kremlin's top foreign policy adviser said in November that Bout "should answer the questions that US justice has for him."

Arsenal face Leeds on quest for FA Cup silverware

8 January 2011 - 02H31

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (pictured) will rotate his squad as the Gunners open up a fourth front in their quest for a first trophy since 2005 with an FA Cup third round tie against Leeds on Saturday. Wenger has decided to make the FA Cup his lowest priority and will therefore rest a number of first-choice picks, including forwards Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri.

Arsenal's Kieran Gibbs (pictured), the England international left-back who suffered an ankle injury, is likely to play for the first time since December 8, with Emmanuel Eboue also coming in for the suspended Bacary Sagna at right-back, as Arsenal face Leeds on Saturday, in their FA Cup third round tie.

Leeds United's Luciano Becchio (left) celebrates after scoring during the FA Cup Fourth round replay match against Tottenham Hotspur at Elland Road in Leeds, England, on February 3. Leeds next play Arsenal in the third round tie, at the Emirates Stadium in London, on Saturday.

AFP - Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will rotate his squad as the Gunners open up a fourth front in their quest for a first trophy since 2005 with an FA Cup third round tie against Leeds on Saturday.

Arsenal have the first leg of a League Cup semi-final with another Championship side, Ipswich Town, to look forward to next week and Wenger is convinced his side is also in the running for the Premier League title, with Champions League action scheduled to resume next month.

As a result, the Frenchman has decided to make the FA Cup his lowest priority, even though the famous trophy was the last to be placed in the club's trophy cabinet, and will therefore rest a number of first-choice picks, including forwards Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri.

That means Kieran Gibbs, the England international left-back who suffered an ankle injury, is likely to play for the first time since December 8, with Emmanuel Eboue also coming in for the suspended Bacary Sagna at right-back.

"We will rotate," said Wenger. "There are going to be changes, many changes. It will be good to have Kieran back and Eboue will play as Sagna is suspended.

"I cannot give you the team yet. I have somewhere in my mind that I will make changes but I don't know who will play. But I will certainly rest van Persie and maybe Nasri."

France international Sagna begins a three-match ban after being sent off in the 0-0 draw with Manchester City on Wednesday for violent conduct, a decision Wenger was prepared to accept.

"I have seen it again and there is no way we can appeal," he said. "For me it is a red card and we have to accept it. Bacary lost his temper and had too strong a reaction. He acknowledges that he should have kept control. We will not appeal."

Leeds, who won 1-0 at Manchester United at the same stage of last season's competition when they were in the third tier League One, are waiting on the fitness of forward Sanchez Watt, who suffered a head wound against Cardiff.

The teenager is on loan from Arsenal but has been given permission to play against his employers, for whom he has played only three times, in the League Cup last season.

As Leeds are involved in the race for promotion to the Premier League their manager, Simon Grayson, could be forgiven for fielding fringe men but that is unlikely to be the case.

"All the players in my dressing room will want to play in this game," Grayson said. "Credit to them because they haven't taken their eye off the ball and they can think about Arsenal now.

"It's a great game against one of the best teams in the world and we'll enjoy it. Then we'll get back to the hard work of our league campaign."

The two sides met in the 1972 final, with a goal from Allan Clarke sealing a 1-0 victory for Leeds.

Gunmen abduct two Frenchmen in Niger: witnesses

8 January 2011 - 02H37

File picture shows soldiers standing guard in front of the presidential palace in Niamey. Gunmen abducted two French nationals from a restaurant in Niamey, the capital of Niger, witnesses told AFP.

AFP - Gunmen abducted two French nationals from a restaurant in Niamey, the capital of Niger, witnesses told AFP.

Two armed men burst into the restaurant, Le Toulousain, in the city centre, when it was crowded with diners and forced the two men to follow them, said staff and diners.

They taken to a four-by-four vehicle bearing Benin plates in which other armed men were waiting and then driven off at speed. The incident happened between 10:30 pm and 11:30 pm (2130 and 2230 GMT).

A security source in Niger confirmed the abduction and one police source said that one of the two Frenchmen abducted had arrived that same day to attend a wedding. Another officer said police had been mobilised to try to intercept the abductors.

In Paris, a French foreign ministry spokesman told AFP late Friday: "We are aware of this information, we are fully mobilised both in Paris and in Niamey to check it."

At the restaurant, staff and diners described what had happened.

"The Frenchmen tried to resist but finally they (the abductors) pushed them into the car and they drove off quickly," said one member of staff.

Witnesses said both the abductors had been wearing turbans and one customer at the restaurant said the two abductors had fair skin and had spoken Arabic.

"When they came in they fell on the two Frenchmen and they shouted, 'You and you, follow us'. In their rush, one of the attackers lost his turban.

"When they went out with the two Frenchmen I took my car and I chased them for about a kilometre, but as they were moving at great speed and with the lights out, I couldn't catch them," he added.

Some diners told AFP that they had seen the vehicles used by the kidnappers near the restaurant a few hours before the abduction.

France is already working to secure the release of five French hostages seized in Niger in September along with a Togolese and a Madagascan.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are believed to be holding them in neighbouring Mali.

In November, AQIM head Abdelmalek Droukdel, alias Abou Moussaab Abdelouadoud, said in the message on Al-Jazeera television that bin Laden alone could negotiate the release of the hostages

French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie rejected any suggestion that France would negotiate their freedom with Osama bin Laden and pull its troops out of Afghanistan.

Waitress was on phone to doctor of dying Jackson

8 January 2011 - 03H40

A picture dated from 2010 shows Dr. Conrad Murray in court. A cocktail waitress recounted Friday how she was called by Michael Jackson's personal doctor the day the pop icon died, and heard a "commotion" apparently as the medic struggled with the crisis.

A Michael Jackson fan from New York, stands outside the preliminary hearing for Dr. Conrad Murray in Los Angeles, California. A cocktail waitress recounted Friday how she was called by Jackson's personal doctor the day the pop icon died and heard a "commotion," apparently as the medic struggled with the crisis.

Joe and Katherine Jackson arrive for the second day of the preliminary hearing for Dr Conrad Murray in Los Angeles, California. A cocktail waitress recounted how she was called by Michael Jackson's personal doctor the day the pop icon died and heard a "commotion," apparently as the medic struggled with the crisis.

AFP - A cocktail waitress recounted how she was called by Michael Jackson's personal doctor the day the pop icon died and heard a "commotion," apparently as the medic struggled with the crisis.

Sade Anding, of Houston, Texas, was one of 11 people with whom the physician, Conrad Murray, spoke by telephone in the hours leading up to Jackson's shock death on June 25, 2009.

In other testimony at hearings into whether Murray should stand trial for involuntary manslaughter, the court heard that 12 vials of the powerful sedative propofol which killed Jackson were found in a closet at his home.

The waitress said she had met Murray in a Texas steakhouse in February 2009. The pair had exchanged phone numbers, and she received a call from the doctor on the morning of the fateful day.

"He told me that he was doing well," she said, adding she had cut him off and started talking, but realized five or 10 minutes later that Murray was no longer on the phone.

"I heard a commotion... coughing, mumbling of voices," she said, adding that she was unsure if the mumbling was coming from Murray.

Anding said she stayed on the phone for about five minutes, saying it was unusual for Murray to stop responding. "I just remember saying, 'Hello? Hello? Hello? Are you there?' Are you there? Are you there?'" she said.

The waitress eventually hung up and tried to call Murray back and send him text messages, but got no reply.

Prosecutors allege that Murray, 57, negligently administered an overdose of the powerful sedative propofol to help Jackson sleep and then tried to cover it up. The doctor denies the charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Paramedics and emergency room doctors this week have said Murray initially failed to mention having administered propofol, and that Jackson appeared to have died at least 20 minutes before they arrived at his mansion.

On Thursday paramedic Martin Blount said that when he arrived Jackson seemed to have been dead for at least 20 minutes, despite Murray's claim that he had stopped breathing a minute before they were called.

Blount added that Murray initially denied having given Jackson any medications, but said he saw the doctor holding a needle and spotted three bottles of the anesthetic Lidocaine on the floor.

In new evidence Friday coroner's investigator Elissa Fleak said she found 12 vials of propofol in the wake of Jackson's death.

One was found empty on the floor near the singer's bed shortly after his death, while the other 11 were discovered four days later in a closet at his rented home.

Two had been opened and were found inside a dark-blue Costco bag, while the other nine, some of them open, were found in another bag, Fleak said.

Anding meanwhile said she heard nothing more until police contacted her. She called Murray, who apologized for involving her, and urged her to call his lawyer to be present if she met with detectives.

Los Angeles detective Dan Myers told the hearing that Murray had made or received 11 cellphone calls, totaling some 90 minutes of conversations, in the roughly five hours leading up to midday on the fateful day.

These included a 32-minute call to his medical practice in Las Vegas and an 11-minute call shortly before Murray called Jackson's personal assistant at 12:12 pm to say the singer had had a "bad reaction."

Prosecutors allege that Murray "abandoned his patient" after administering the propofol some time between 10:40 am and 11:00 am.

Murray could face up to four years in jail and lose his doctor's license if the case goes to full trial and he is convicted.

Jackson's death shocked the entertainment world and triggered intense debate over the performer's health in the run-up to the London concerts, known as the "This is It" tour.

EU charges former Kosovo rebels with war crimes

8 January 2011 - 04H21

Serb residents are jeered by a crowd of ethnic Albanian Kosovars in Mitrovica in 1999 as they leave. European prosecutors charged two former top Kosovo Albanian guerrillas with war crimes during the 1998-99 conflict, according to a definitive indictment obtained by AFP Friday.

Picture from June 1999 shows members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) escorting Serb prisoners in the southern Kosovar city of Prizren. European prosecutors have charged two former top Kosovo Albanian guerrillas with war crimes during the 1998-99 conflict, according to a definitive indictment obtained by AFP Friday.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci talks to the media in Pristina last month. A report by the Council of Europe's envoy Dick Marty linked Thaci and other senior commanders of an ethnic Albanian guerilla group, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), of having set up organ trafficking during the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo.

AFP - European prosecutors have charged two former top Kosovo Albanian guerrillas with war crimes during the 1998-99 conflict, according to a definitive indictment obtained by AFP.

The then commander of the military police for the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) Sabit Geci, 52, and Riza Alija, 50, were charged with "war crimes against (the) civilian population" committed in two KLA camps in neighbouring Albania, the indictment said.

The indictment, seen by AFP in its Albanian version, was issued by EULEX, the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo.

Filed for EULEX by US prosecutor Robert L. Dean, it said the camps in the northern towns of Kukes and Cahan set up by the KLA were "logistic, training and supply" sites.

However, the two accused used them to detain "civilians and persons who were not taking part in the war," it said.

It was not clear when the trial would start.

The war between KLA guerrillas and Serbian forces loyal to Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic ended after the June 1999 NATO air campaign ousted Serbian forces from Kosovo.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008 and has so far been recognised by 72 countries, despite Belgrade's strong opposition.

The 3,000-member EULEX mission was launched in December 2008 to enforce the rule of law in the newly declared country and supervise its police, customs and judiciary.

EULEX has the power to step in and take on cases that the local judiciary and police are unable to handle because of their sensitive nature.

But a EULEX pre-trial judge has already decided that the Kosovo judiciary has jurisdiction over the case even though the alleged war crimes took place in Albania.

The indictment comes at a time when Pristina is still reeling from allegations of KLA atrocities in a report by the Council of Europe's envoy Dick Marty.

Marty linked Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and other senior KLA commanders to organ trafficking and organised crime.

Thaci has dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign and warned that those "fake patriots" in Kosovo who had cooperated with the Council of Europe envoy in his investigation might face consequences.

"These names are known and they will be made public very quickly," Thaci said in a weekend interview with Kosovo private TV station Klan.

One of the indicted men, Geci is mentioned in Marty's report as suspected of the "killing of a civilian in Kukes who was beaten and shot."

According to Dean's indictment, the two men detained Kosovars who fled the conflict and were suspected of collaborating with the then Serbian regime or had "political views that differed from the KLA."

Geci and Alija were "directly involved in ordering and took part in mistreating persons kept in these detention centres," from the end of March or beginning of April to June 1999, the document alleged.

Civilians "were beaten regularly and were hit with batons and nightsticks (truncheons), kicked, mistreated and verbally abused," it added.

"They were kept in filthy and... unhealthy conditions.... They were denied food, water and medical treatment," the indictment said.

The indictment described an incident in Kukes where two detainees were ordered to put on bulletproof jackets and afterwards "were shot by a firing squad" as a way of torture.

European police arrested Geci in May and Alija in June.

The EULEX prosecution provided testimonies from some 20 detainees who said they has suffered great physical and psychological trauma "because of the conditions they were being kept (in) and as the result of beating and torture."

Their identities have been kept secret, their names coded in a special confidential appendix to the indictment.

In another case, EULEX officials said Friday they would decide in two weeks whether to prosecute seven people suspected of organ-trafficking in Kosovo.

The charges revolve around the Medicus Clinic in Pristina, which was shut down in 2008 after a young Turkish citizen collapsed at the airport, having had a kidney removed for a transplant to an Israeli citizen.

Those facing indictments include a former health secretary who had issued a licence to the clinic involved even though Kosovo law forbids transplants.

Volkswagen says China sales hit record in 2010

8 January 2011 - 04H27

German automaker Volkswagen said its sales in China, the world's biggest vehicle market, soared 37 percent year-on-year in 2010 to an annual record of more than 1.9 million cars. In a statement on Friday Volkswagen Group China said it would invest 10.6 bln euros ($13.7 bln) from 2011 to 2015 to maintain and reinforce its position in the country.

AFP - German automaker Volkswagen said its sales in China, the world's biggest vehicle market, soared 37 percent year-on-year in 2010 to an annual record of more than 1.9 million cars.

In a statement on Friday Volkswagen Group China said it would invest 10.6 billion euros ($13.7 billion) from 2011 to 2015 to maintain and reinforce its position in the country.

"In 2010, growth in the Chinese automobile market has exceeded everyone's expectations", Karl-Thomas Neumann, president and chief executive of Volkswagen Group China said.

"Although the growth of the car market might cool down in 2011, we still expect a good performance in the next years," he added.

Europe's largest car maker said the new investment to expand plants and develop new products marked its biggest cash injection yet in China.

Volkswagen is the number two foreign car maker in China after US rival General Motors, which set an annual record of 2.35 million vehicle sales in China last year, a 28.8 percent year-on-year jump.

Neumann said Volkswagen was in a strong position to maintain sales growth in China in 2011, when it will introduce its first electric cars with the Volkswagen logo in the country.

Automakers expect market growth to slow this year as China withdraws stimulus measures introduced to cushion the impact of the global economic downturn.

The government raised the purchase tax for small passenger cars to 10 percent starting this year, ending an incentive policy that helped the nation overtake the United States as the world's top auto market in 2009.

The country's auto sales totalled 16.4 million units for the first 11 months of 2010, up 34.1 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Total sales were likely to reach 18 million units for 2010, a 32 percent jump from 2009, and to grow a steadier 10 percent this year, it said.