Shocked' Williams wins U.S. Open final thriller

Serena Williams battled back from the brink of defeat to claim her 15th grand slam title and win the U.S. Open for the fourth time with a 6-2 2-6 7-5 victory over world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka on Sunday. The American added to her 2012 Wimbledon and Olympic crowns after being pushed to the limit by the Australian Open champion, who forced the 30-year-old to drop her first set of the tournament.

It was the first time in 17 years that the women's final went the distance in New York, and it ended Azarenka's run of 12 successive victories in matches lasting three sets.
Serena deserves to win. She showed how true a champion she is," Azarenka said. "I definitely gave it all today. Stepping off this court I will have no regrets." Williams won the hard-court tournament for the first time as a 17-year-old in 1999 but has not enjoyed much success since her third win in 2008.

She lost in an ill-tempered final last year and was also fined in 2009 after being involved in another incident during her semifinal defeat.The former world No. 1 won the opening set in just 34 minutes, as she threatened to steamroll Azarenka as she has all opponents since bouncing back from her first-round defeat at the French Open.

However, unlike in their Wimbledon semifinal clash in July, her 23-year-old opponent picked herself up and dominated the second set with some power play of her own.Azarenka broke to lead 2-1 in the deciding set but was immediately pegged back by the fourth seed.

A break to love in the seventh game put her in the position of serving for the title at 5-4, but Williams rallied to win the next three games and leave Azarenka in tears after missing a golden chance to win her second grand slam title.

Williams took her record in grand slam finals to 15-4, becoming the first 30-something to win a major since Martina Navratilova at the 1987 U.S. Open, as she claimed the $1.9 million first prize.

It was the first time since 2002 that a woman has won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year, when Williams also won the French Open.

She joined her older sister Venus and Steffi Graf as the only women to win Wimbledon, the Olympics and the U.S. Open in the same year.It has capped a remarkable comeback for Williams, who spent almost a year out of the game following her 2010 Wimbledon triumph.She needed surgery after cutting her foot in a freak accident at a restaurant and then suffered life-threatening complications when blood clots formed on her lungs.

42 die when bus falls into Moroccan ravine.

News reports say dozens of people have died after a bus drove off a road in central Morocco and plunged down a 500-foot (150-meter) ravine.

The official news agency MAP says 42 people were killed when the bus overturned between the desert cities of Marrakesh and Ouarzazate. Another 24 people were injured, four of them seriously, in the accident in the early hours of Tuesday.

Most of the injured were taken to  emergency rooms in Marrakech.The bus regularly makes the journey between the two cities.

iPhone 5 almost here, hints Apple's media invite.

Apple on Tuesday invited reporters to a news conference next week in San Francisco with a message that suggests that it will reveal the  iPhone 5, as expected.The email invitation shows a big "12," for September 12, casting a shadow in the shape of a "5.''

Various unconfirmed reports have pointed to September 12 as being the day Apple shows off the new phone, which is expected to go on sale a week or two later.The next  iPone is expected to have a taller screen and the ability to access the latest wireless data  networks in the US Analysts expect it to set sales records.

Other unconfirmed reports say Apple will reveal a smaller version of the  iPad, taking on competitors like Amazon.com's Kindle Fire, which have nibbled on the edges of the iPad's dominance in the tablet category.On Wednesday, Nokia and Motorola are holding events of their own in New York, apparently to reveal their latest products ahead of the iPhone launch.

Apple shares rose $5.18 to $676.42 in afternoon trading. The shares are close to their all-time high of $680.87, hit a week ago.

Replica of Knight Rider's KITT for sale.

Here’s your chance to hassle crooks like the Hoff and make a few bucks on the side.
A company that rents out a replica of Knight Rider’s Kitt for special events and photo shoots is for sale in the U.K.

The 1987 Trans Am has been customized to look just like Michael Knight’s sidekick, complete with what passed for a high-tech interior during the Reagan/Thatcher years, plush velour sports seats and Kitt’s signature red LED lighting on the hood.The vehicle was recently featured on an episode of TV’s Britain’s Got Talent, and sports David Hasselhoff’s signature on the dashboard.

The price to own this camp classic? £29,500 or best offer, which is about $47,000 in Hollywood money and about five times what you’d pay for a similar Trans Am without the pseudo-celebrity pedigree.


 

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1st combined liver-kidney transplant concludes successfully

Japan's first combined liver-kidney transplant from a brain-dead donor was successfully carried out at Okayama University Hospital, the surgeon in charge said on Sunday."The surgery ended without any trouble, and we can say it was successful," Professor Takahito Yagi told a press conference. The recipient, a woman in her 50s, "is in a quite stable condition."The woman is expected to be discharged from the hospital after around two months, Yagi said.

The donor, a man in his 40s, had suffered a head injury and was declared brain dead in line with the organ transplant law at a hospital in the Shikoku region.Although he had not expressed his desire to donate his organs in writing, his family approved the transplant.The recipient had been diagnosed with chronic liver failure and loss of kidney function.

Osaka University Hospital had attempted a combined liver-kidney transplant from a brain-dead donor in December 2010, but the recipient died before the kidney was transplanted.

29 killed in Turkey security post attack

Kurdish rebels armed with machine-guns and rocket launchers attacked a security complex in southeastern Turkey overnight, triggering fierce clashes that left about 29 people dead."Nine security agents were killed and eight others wounded," said Vahdettin Ozkan, governor of Sirnak province.Other local sources said about 20 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were also killed in the latest fighting between the rebels and Turkish forces.

Ozkan said the militants had attacked the security complex at Beytussebap late yesterday, killing nine members of the security forces. Police and soldiers returned fire, triggering fierce clashes.The PKK has stepped up its assaults against Turkish security forces in recent months, with Turkish officials and the local media linking the surge to the conflict raging in neighbouring Syria.Last month, 10 people were killed in a car bomb attack blamed on the separatist Kurds in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened military intervention if the Kurdish rebels set up bases in Syria.

Some government officials believe that Damascus, once backed by Ankara, is helping the PKK in retaliation for Turkey's support for rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.The PKK, considered a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.