UMAG, Croatia (AFP) – Italy’s Potito Starace battled past eighth-seeded Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela to advance to the final of the ATP Croatia Open here on Saturday. Starace came through 6-7, (4/7), 6-3, 6-2 in the semi-finals and next meets either former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain or Italy’s Andreas Seppi for [Continue]
NEW DELHI (AFP) – Indian tycoon Anil Ambani has begun talks with Universal Studios on building a 1.5-billion-dollar movie-themed amusement park in India, a source with knowledge of the discussions said Saturday. The park, which would be promoted by Ambani’s company Reliance Big Entertainment, will mix themes from Hollywood with [Continue]
BRASILIA (AFP) – A region of mountainous forests in Sri Lanka and an isolated archipelago off Hawaii have been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list, officials of the UN cultural and scientific body said Saturday. The World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization decided to add the two [Continue]
LAS VEGAS (AFP) – Hackers are weighing in on the Facebook privacy controversy with creations that help people strengthen privacy or empty profile pages at the world’s leading social networking service. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) technology fellow Chris Conley showed off an arsenal of such applications at the infamous DefCon [Continue]
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Engineers Saturday readied a plan to permanently seal a damaged Gulf of Mexico well, despite delays to the process caused by debris left behind by a recent tropical storm. As the work continued, incoming BP boss Bob Dudley vowed his company would not abandon residents affected by the spill after [Continue]
GENEVA (AFP) – France’s Richard Gasquet has marked his return to action after a seven-week injury break by reaching the Swiss Open final where he will face Spain’s Nicolas Almagro on Sunday. Gasquet, who missed Wimbledon because of a back injury, beat Kazakhstan’s Yuri Schukin 6-3, 6-4, taking just 90 minutes to beat an [Continue]
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Google does not know if the Chinese authorities were behind a disruption in the company’s services on Thursday, chief executive Eric Schmidt said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Schmidt said that although the Chinese government can “arbitrarily decide” the level of service Google can provide [Continue]
KABUL (AFP) – Flash floods in Afghanistan have killed at least 65 people and affected more than 1,000 families, the national disaster authority chief told AFP Saturday. Rescue teams in the northeast of the country are still struggling to reach areas cut off by flooded roads and the threat of insurgent attacks, said Abdul Matin [Continue]
