Spain, who won Euro 2008 with a series of superb performances culminating in their victory over Germany in the final, are ranked number one in the world and were grouped with Czech Republic, Scotland, Lithuania and Liechtenstein.
World champion Viswanathan Anand settled for his third successive draw, but P Harikrishna and Abhijeet Gupta posted wins in their respective groups on a reasonably good day for the Indians in the third round of the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
The Dutch striker injured his knee while playing in Wednesday's Euro 2008 qualifier against Slovenia.
Plans to introduce two additional assistant referees to monitor penalty areas will be put before soccer's rule-making body early next year, the European governing body UEFA said on Thursday. UEFA has experimented with the innovation at Under-19 matches in Slovenia, Hungary and Cyprus.
Venus Williams remained on course for a strong end to an inconsistent season when the American beat Italy's Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-3 to reach the Zurich Open semi-finals on Friday. Third-seeded Williams will face Serbian second seed Ana Ivanovic on Saturday after the world number four saw off Czech qualifier Petra Kvitova 6-1, 6-4.
The ongoing financial crisis, poverty reduction, reforms including expansion of the Security Council, uneven progress in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and Darfur conflict are likely to dominate the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly that begins on Tuesday. More than 170 heads of state and governments, foreign ministers and senior diplomats will participate in the discussion lasting about two weeks.
Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova muscled their way to straight-set wins on Saturday to set up an all-Russian final at the Pan Pacific Open.
Top seed Jelena Jankovic was bundled out of the Pan Pacific Open in a 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 defeat by Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in Friday's quarter-finals. The defeat ended the Serb's hopes of recapturing the world number one ranking from Serena Williams this week following her recent loss to the American in US Open final.
Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova avenged a shock defeat by China's Li Na at the Beijing Olympics in the first round of the Pan Pacific Open on Wednesday. The former US Open champion, toppled by Li at the first hurdle in Beijing last month, won 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 to reach the last 16 in Tokyo.
England were booed off at halftime against Andorra before grinding out a 2-0 victory as Europe's 2010 World Cup qualifiers began in earnest on Saturday.
Dronavalli Harika proved her superiority in the endgame to outplay Anna Muzychuk in the second rapid tie-breaker and sail into the third round of the ongoing World Women's Chess Championship in Nalchik (Russia).
World junior girls' champion Dronavalli Harika played out an easy draw as white with Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia in the first game of the second round of the ongoing World Women's Chess Championship in Nalchik, Russia. Harika, who had beaten Russian Vera Nebolsina in the first round to advance to the last 32 stage in this knock-out event, will play the return game on Tuesday with black.
Top seed Grandmaster Koneru Humpy suffered her second successive loss to go down 0-2 in the North Urals Cup at Krasnoturinsk, Russia.
Indian ace Sania Mirza grabbed the last spot to be seeded 32nd at the Wimbledon championhips.
An aggravated calf muscle injury forced Mahesh Bhupathi to withdraw from the semi-finals of the French Open mixed doubles.
Venus Williams bowed out of the French Open just nine hours after sister Serena when she was beaten 7-5, 6-3 by Italian 26th seed Flavia Pennetta in the third round on Friday.
Playmaker Luka Modric said on Tuesday the onus would be on Croatia's other goalgetters to make up for the absence of Eduardo da Silva at Euro 2008. Arsenal forward Eduardo, who suffered a multiple foot fracture in February, was the second highest scorer in qualifying with 10 goals.
Claude Arpi captures the fan's passion for football in an ongoing e-mail exchange with Ivan Crasto, Rediff.com's Sports Editor.
Top seeds Nikolay Davydenko and Juan Monaco battled through two matches each to reach the semi-finals in Poertschach.
The complete fixtures of the World Cup in SOuth Africa.
Serena Williams beat Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the Family Circle Cup quarter-finals. The fifth-seeded American won the last eight points to set up a clash with Russian number two seed Maria Sharapova, who defeated Ukrainian Tatiana Perebiynis 7-5, 6-2.
Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy overcame two rain interruptions and a strong challenge from Swede Johan Brunstrom and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands Antilles 6-3, 6-7 (8-6), 7-5 to enter the second round of the men's doubles match at the French Open in Paris on Thursday.
The fixtures of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, in South Africa, from June 11 to July 11.
Indian men and women experienced contrasting fortunes at the World Team Table Tennis Championships as the former blanked Nigeria 3-0 but the eves went down 2-3 to Australia.
Since Thursday, April 15, flights into and out of Europe have taken a severe beating due to volcanic eruption in southern Iceland, with ashes being spewed into Europe's busy airspace.
Olga Govortsova of Belarus was handed a second round clash against top seed Ana Ivanovic when Indian opponent Sania Mirza was forced to retire with cramp in the third set of their match at the Qatar Open.
The US-based Indian lass was beaten by qualifier Andreja Klepac of Slovenia in the first round of the Wismilak International.
Justine Henin made a belated start to her build-up for next week's Australian Open by thumping Estonia's Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 6-0 at the Sydney International on Wednesday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the upcoming moratorium does not stipulate permanent withdrawal from the CFE Treaty, adding that Russia will resume its obligations as soon as NATO countries ratify the adapted version.
Krishnan Sasikiran faces a tie-break in the Chess World Cup after his draw in the second game of his match against Russian Vadim Zvjaginsev.
Victory continued to elude Viswanathan Anand in the Corus chess tournament. The World champion was forced to settle for yet another draw, this time against Dutch Sergei Tiviakov in Group 'A'. However, Parimarjan Negi outwitted Dutchman Dmitri Reinderman in Group 'B' in the ninth round of match that concluded in Wijk Aan Zee.
World champion Viswanathan Anand registered his second straight draw after being held by England's Nigel Short and was placed tied-fourth at the end of the second round in Group 'A' of the Corus Chess tournament. Grandmaster Alexei Shirov of Spain emerged sole leader after his victory over last year's Group 'B' winner Fabiano Caruana of Italy.
The India ace was beaten by Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-4 on Monday night.
The decision was taken during a ministerial meeting of the four countries on Monday on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly session.
The Indian men's and women's teams registered identical 3-1 victories over Czech Republic and Slovenia respectively, in the 10th and penultimate round of the 32nd Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany, on Monday. The women's team, with 14 points, improved to joint-seventh while the men's team moved to joint-ninth place.
The Indo-Serbian pair lost to eighth seeds Shinobu Asagoe and Katarina Srebotnik at the Nasdaq-100 Open.
Justine Henin kicked off her US Open preparations with a routine 6-3, 6-1 win over Slovenia's Andreja Klepac.
The Russian beat Italy's Roberta Vinci 6-2, 7-6 in the Toronto Cup on Tuesday.
Ninth seed Dinara Safina survived a first-round scare at the $1.3 million Toronto Cup on Monday before rallying to tame Frenchwoman Camille Pin 7-6, 3-6, 7-5.
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