Sports

LONDON
Chelsea opened up a five-point gap at the top of the English Premier League here Saturday, with goals from Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou goal wrapping up a 2-0 victory over Wolves.
Malouda's goal came on 23 minutes, the French international providing the finish after neat interplay between Yuri Zhirkov and Nicolas Anelka. Salomon Kalou bagged Chelsea's second after a scintillating sequence of one-touch play opened up the Wolves defence on 81 minutes.
In other

STOCKHOLM
Crowd-pleaser Roger Federer staged an heroic recovery from a set and a break down against fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka to reach the semi-finals of the Stockholm Open 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 as home favourite Robin Soderling crashed out.
Hopes of a potential elite final between the tournament's top two evaporated as Soderling went down to defeat against German outsider Florian Mayer 7-6 (10/8), 6-1. Federer's patchy game in the first set was unrecognisable from the

LAHORE
Chief Executive Officer of the International Cricket Council, Haroon Lorgat, while praising Pakistan Cricket Board's recent measures to curb corruption, stated that the guidelines set by the world governing body were being implemented.
In an interview on a foreign website, Lorgat said that the PCB had pledged to show no leniency to players proved guilty of corruption. "The PCB has showed that it was serious in removing corruption," he said.
On Friday, the PCB

KARACHI
Suspended Pakistan batsman Salman Butt Saturday vowed to prove his innocence over allegations of spot-fixing on the recent tour of England. The 26-year-old was suspended along with bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer after they were charged with offences under the anti-corruption code of conduct last month.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) suspended them following revelations by British tabloid The News of the World and subsequent investigations by police

PARIS
The International Cricket Council said on Friday that Pakistan's fast bowler Mohammad Asif had withdrawn his challenge to the provisional suspension handed down last month for alleged match-fixing.
Teammates Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir have appealed against their own provisional suspensions and their hearings are still set for Dubai on 30 and 31 October.
"Mohammad Asif confirmed earlier today that he has withdrawn his challenge to the provisional suspension

LAHORE
Pakistan cricket team reached Abu Dhabi on Saturday for the month-long tour against South Africa which includes five one-day Internationals and two Twenty20 matches.
Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ijaz Butt could not deliver a lecture to the players on the new code of conduct due to personal engagements. The series between Pakistan and South Africa will begin on October 26 with two Twenty20 Internationals due to be played in the first phase.
Earlier, the

ROTTERDAM
Olympic champions China claimed a fourth straight men's team title at the world gymnastics championships here on Thursday as a late tumble ended the gold-medal hopes of Asian rivals Japan.
The title-chase went down to the wire with the Chinese sealing victory when Japan's Kazuhito Tanaka fell on the final rotation - the horizonal bar. The Kohei Uchimura-led Japanese finished 1.228 points behind to take silver with the bronze going to Germany in a repeat of the

BRISBANE
Skipper Kumar Sangakkara hammered 110 off 95 balls as Sri Lanka blazed to a score of 301 on their way to a 112-run win over Queensland in their opening Australian tour match on Friday.
The Sri Lankans, building up to their three-match one-day international series with Australia next month, were spearheaded by Sangakkara and Chamara Silva (75) at the Gabba.
The tourists then dismissed Queensland for 189 off 36.1 overs with paceman Dilhara Fernando taking 4-41

STOCKHOLM
Roger Federer, returning to the Stockholm Open after a decade away, swept past outgunned American Taylor Dent 6-1, 6-2 in his 900th career match on Thursday.
It took a mere 49 minutes for the top seed to move through, a tennis lifetime after his last appearance at the Kungligahallen which ended with a second-round loss.
The 16-time grand slam champion now stands 727-173 for his singles career and becomes the only active ATP player to reach 900 matches. Second

KUALA LUMPUR
Japan's Mika Miyazato and South Korea's Lee Jee-Young upstaged a star-studded field at the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia to take a one-stroke lead after the first day on Friday.
Big crowds turned up to watch the likes of Cristie Kerr, Michelle Wie and Natalie Gulbis, but it was the strength of the Asian players on the LPGA Tour that stood out with Miyazato and Lee both firing 66.
It left them five-under-par and one stroke ahead of another Korean, Han Hee-Won,

PARIS
Emmanuel Adebayor, making a rare start for moneybags Manchester City, scored his first goals of the season on Thursday to secure a 3-1 win over Lech Poznan and give his club an excellent chance of qualifying from Europa League Group A.
Spoilt for choice City boss Roberto Mancini brought in David Silva and Shaun Wright-Phillips and benched Carlos Tevez and James Milner with French veteran Patrick Vieira replacing Gareth Barry - but it was Adebayor who bagged the

LAHORE
Pakistan squad is set to leave for the United Arab Emirates for another gruelling series against South Africa but the national team management is yet to submit its report on the England tour and the spot-fixing scandal that rocked international cricket.
A Pakistan Cricket Board official confirmed that the board had not received any tour report up till now from former manager Yawar Saeed or coach Waqar Younis. "Till now we have not received any report from the manager

LAHORE
Pakistan hockey captain Zeeshan Ashraf is confident that his team can end its losing streak against India and tame the arch-rivals in next month's Asian Games at Guangzhou, China.
Pakistan and India will meet in a crucial Pool B encounter in the Asian Games hockey event on November 20. "We have to win our match against India at any cost," Zeeshan said in an interview on Thursday. "We played badly against them in our last match but we won't repeat the same mistakes

LAHORE
Pakistan's top umpire Aleem Dar, recently nominated the ICC Umpire of the Year, was given half-a-million rupees and a souvenir by the Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ijaz Butt at the National Cricket Academy here on Thursday.
Aleem made his international debut as an umpire in 2000 and joined the ICC's Elite panel of umpires in 2004. It is the second time that Aleem has received the award ahead of his colleagues Tony Hill and Simon Taufel, the five-time ICC umpire of

ROTTERDAM
Rebecca Bross and Alexandra Raisman will be gunning to restore US pride and scupper Russian star Aliya Mustafina's bid for a gymnastics double in the women's all-around final at the world gymnastics championships here on Friday.
Mustafina helped Russia to their first ever women's team gold by a narrow margin ahead of the US at the Ahoy Arena on Wednesday night, and is now a favourite for all-around gold after leading qualifiers.
World silver medallist Bross is

MILAN
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp vowed not to sell hat-trick hero Gareth Bale for any figure after the Welshman lit up the San Siro in the Champions League.
Spurs hit back from a 4-0 half-time deficit and the early sending off of goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes as Bale stunned the holders with a brilliant treble in the second period. And although Spurs didn't win, the form of Bale gave Redknapp hope for the future. But he said there's no chance he'd be selling his star

JOHANNESBURG
World number two Lee Westwood will lead five of the victorious Europe Ryder Cup team to the Sun City Challenge golf tournament in December.
Fellow Englishman Ross Fisher, Irishman Padraig Harrington, Spaniard Miguel Angel Jiminez and Italian Edoardo Molinari are the other members of the team heading for north-west South Africa.
Europe pipped defending champions the US by one point in a Celtic Manor thriller this month that went to the wire with the final