Mickelson produces in Abu Dhabi

Phil Mickelson is back into contention in Abu Dhabi following a fantastic nine-under-par 63 in the third round.

World number five Phil Mickelson
produced a typical swashbuckling effort to surge into contention with a nine-under-par 63 in the third round of the $2.7 million Abu Dhabi Championship.

The five-times major winner blitzed his way to the turn in 31 strokes with four birdies, an eagle and one bogey.

Mickelson added five more birdies coming home, together with a dropped stroke at the 14th, to snatch the clubhouse lead with a 10-under total of 206.

The American's final hole summed up his third-round performance at the European Tour event.

Mickelson found a bunker off the tee at the par-five 18th before hitting his second shot into sandy waste.

Spectacular closing birdie

With a palm tree in front of him, the 43-year-old Californian conjured a low, fading escape that scuttled up on to the green and he fist-pumped the air in delight when he rolled in his putt from 30 feet for a spectacular closing birdie.

"It probably wasn't very sensible of me to try to go for the green but hey, that's what I do," Mickelson told reporters.

"I was fortunate in that I just had enough room to trap out a low pitching wedge that flew under the leaves and up on to the green.

"To get back in contention to win my first golf tournament of the year is hugely important so I'll look forward to tomorrow," said Mickelson.

Also on 10-under and still out on the course were world number seven Rory McIlroy, Briton Craig Lee and India's Gaganjeet Bhullar.
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LeBron, Bosh lead Heat to big win

Chris Bosh scored 25 points and the Miami Heat defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 101-8 to snap a three-game slide.

In the Heat's victory, Bosh scored 25 points whilst LeBron James finished with a near-triple-double including 21 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds for Miami (28-11), who last lost three straight in January 2012.

The 76ers (13-26), who lost for the fifth time in six games, made just two of their 20 three-point attempts. Miami also blocked 12 shots, five by Bosh, and forced 22 turnovers.

Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Clippers matched a season-high five straight wins after knocking off the New York Knicks 109-95.

Blake Griffin led the Clippers with 32 points, Jamal Crawford came off the bench to record 29 points and DeAndre Jordan registered his 18th double-double with 11 points and 16 rebounds.

The Knicks (15-24) dropped their third in a row after capturing five straight. Carmelo Anthony led five Knicks in double figures with 26 points and 20 rebounds.

Kyle Lowry scored 24 points and added six assists and five rebounds and the Toronto Raptors defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 94-89 to extend their home winning streak to six.

It was the Raptors' 10th win in a row over the Timberwolves at Air Canada Centre.

The depleted Los Angeles Lakers staged a rally to defeat old foe the Celtics 107-104, spoiling point guard Rajon Rondo's return to the Boston lineup.

The Lakers ended a six-game overall losing streak and a seven-game road skid.

John Wall had 23 points and 11 assists as the Washington Wizards won their third straight game and second over the Chicago Bulls this week with a 96-93 victory.

Washington, who have yet to post a winning record at any point this season, shot 50.6 percent from the field in the seesaw affair that included 12 lead changes and 11 ties before leaving the Bulls at 18-20.

Utah rookie point guard Trey Burke pumped in 20 points and had a career-high 12 assists to propel the Jazz to a 110-89 win over Detroit.

Burke, who led the University of Michigan to the national championship game last season, got a measure of revenge against the Michigan pro team that passed on him during the draft lottery in June.

Veteran centre Al Jefferson had 30 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Charlotte Bobcats to a 111-101 victory over the hapless Orlando Magic.

The Magic (10-30) lost their 10th consecutive game, the longest current streak in the NBA.

Josh McRoberts had 17 points, including a season-high five three-pointers for the Bobcats (17-24), and Kemba Walker had 19 points and 10 assists.

Forward LaMarcus Aldridge had 26 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 109-100 win over the San Antonio Spurs.

Aldridge was 11 of 22 from the field and hit all four free throws as the Trail Blazers (30-9) staved off a furious comeback from San Antonio.

Guards Wesley Matthews added 24 points, Damian Lillard 21 and Mo Williams 13 for Portland.

Guard Manu Ginobili scored a season-high 29 points to lead San Antonio (31-9).

Forward Kevin Durant scored a new career-high 54 points in leading the Oklahoma City Thunder past the Golden State Warriors 127-121.

Durant took 39 points into the fourth quarter before adding 15 points to put the game away.

It was Durant's sixth straight game of at least 30 points and third game of more than 40 in January.

Oklahoma City (30-10) forward Serge Ibaka added 21 points and eight rebounds while the Warriors (25-16) got 37 points on 11-for-18 shooting from guard Seth Curry.

The Memphis Grizzlies were down seven points with 4:01 to play but closed the fourth quarter with a 10-2 run to defeat the Sacramento Kings 91-90.

Memphis point guard Mike Conley led all scorers with 25 points and had six assists.

Guard Kyrie Irving scored 23 points, forward Tristan Thompson had 20 points and 10 rebounds and the Cleveland Cavaliers held off the Denver Nuggets for a 117-109 win.

Guard C.J. Miles and forward Luol Deng added 18 points each for Cleveland.

Forward Wilson Chandler scored 23 points and guard Ty Lawson had 19 points and 11 assists for the Nuggets, who had their four-game home winning streak stopped.

Guard Monta Ellis collected 24 points, six rebounds and seven assists and forward Dirk Nowitzki added 21 points as the Dallas Mavericks led from wire to wire but had to hang on to beat the Phoenix Suns 110-107.

The Suns had one last chance to tie the score in the final seconds after a basket by Phoenix guard Goran Dragic cut the Mavericks' lead to three with 6.7 seconds left but P.J. Tucker's shot from the deep right corner spun out.
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Murray, Azarenka and Nadal progress

Weather cools as Andy Murray, Victoria Azarenka and Roger Federer progress into the fourth round of the Australian Open.

An agitated Andy Murray was at his muttering, tormented best before reaching a higher plain to trounce Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 6-2 and advance to the Australian Open fourth round on Saturday.

The scorching heat that plagued Melbourne Park all week had given way to a pleasantly cool summer's day but the moody Briton fumed and berated himself throughout the opening two sets at Hisense Arena as he struggled with his backhand.

However, on surrendering the second set, 26th seed Lopez's resolve crumbled, allowing the 26-year-old Scot to coast to an encouraging victory in 135 minutes.

Fourth seed Murray, a three-times finalist at Melbourne Park, will next play French lucky loser Stephane Robert for a place in the quarter finals.

Victoria Azarenka remained on course for a third straight Australian Open title with a thumping 6-1 6-0 victory over Yvonne Meusburger in exactly an hour on Saturday.

The second seed reached the fourth round when she broke the Austrian world number 49 for the seventh time with a thundering smash at the net to bring an end to a thoroughly one-sided contest on Rod Laver Arena.

Azarenka has not lost a set in her three matches this week and extended her winning streak at Melbourne Park to 17 matches.

The Belarussian will next meet American Sloane Stephens, who she beat in controversial circumstances in the semi-finals last year on her way to her second successive Australian Open title.

Rafa Nadal shrugged off an injury scare to destroy flamboyant Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-1 6-2 6-3 and storm into the Australian Open fourth round on Saturday.

Serving at 1-1 in the second set, the world number one stooped after a forehand from behind the baseline and clutched his right foot before limping off the court at the change of ends.

After jiggling his foot around some more during the break, Nadal returned to the court to humble Monfils in just over two hours, running the 25th seed ragged and feasting on his second serve.

The rangy Frenchman battled hard in the third set to prise breakpoints at 3-3, but Nadal's serve remained unbroken as he set up a clash with Japan's Kei Nishikori for a spot in the quarter-finals.

Played through pain

Meanwhile Grigor Dimitrov upset 11th seed Milos Raonic 6-3 3-6 6-4 7-6(10) in an 156-minute Australian Open thriller on Saturday to reach the fourth round of a grand slam for the first time.

Famous more for being the boyfriend of Maria Sharapova, the 22nd ranked 22-year-old Bulgarian has long been identified as a rising talent in men's tennis but previously flattered to deceive on the game's biggest stages.

In the Margaret Court Arena bearpit on Saturday, though, he held his nerve through the tightest of fourth set tiebreaks to seal the victory on his fifth match point when Canadian Raonic netted a forehand.

The man once nicknamed "Baby Fed" for the similarity in his playing style to Roger Federer will next face world number 62 Roberto Bautista for a place in the quarter-finals after the Spaniard beat Benoit Paire 6-2 6-1 6-4.

Four-time champion Roger Federer has advanced to the fourth round at the Australian Open for the 13th consecutive year following a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 win Saturday over Teymuraz Gabashvili.

The win may be a good omen for the sixth-seeded Federer. The only other time the two have played - in the first round at Wimbledon in 2007, when the Russian also lost in straight sets - Federer went on to win the title.

Federer was back in familiar territory Saturday at Rod Laver Arena.

On Thursday, he won his second-round match at the secondary Hisense Arena, the first time in a decade that Federer was not given prime billing at the 15,000-seat Rod Laver where he had played his previous 63 consecutive Australian Open matches.

Maria Sharapova continued to put on her distinctive ice jacket at end changes despite the considerably cooler temperatures as she beat France's Alize Cornet 6-1 7-6 (8-6).

The Russian endured temperatures of 43 degrees Celsius to reach the third round in the longest match of career and her
passage to the fourth round was mercifully shorter.

On the comeback trail after a shoulder problems cut short her 2013 season, the third seed accepted that she had won
without playing her best tennis.

France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga raced into the last 16 of the Australian Open with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 6-2 victory over Gilles Simon on Saturday, bringing an end to his compatriot's remarkable run at Melbourne Park.

While a string of players dropped out early in the first week with niggling injuries in the sweltering conditions, the whippet-thin Simon earned the right to call himself one of the toughest men in tennis.

The 29-year-old badly twisted his right ankle at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament in the week before the year's
first grand slam began and was hobbling around on crutches last weekend.

 

Results

Andy Murray def. Feliciano Lopez (26) 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-2.

Roger Federer def. Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.

Rafael Nadal def. Gael Monfils 6-1, 6-2, 6-3

Grigor Dimitrov def. Milos Raonic (11) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10).

Maria Sharapova def. Alize Cornet 6-1 7-6 (8-6)

Victoria Azarenka def. Yvonne Meusberger 6-1 6-0
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Deadly car bomb strikes Nigeria's Maiduguri

At least 17 killed in north eastern city after car bomb explodes in front of state television offices.

A car bomb has exploded in front of the state television offices in the north eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri killing at least 17 people, according to a senior police official.

The bomb, planted in a three-wheel rickshaw taxi, exploded outside the state television offices at about 1.30pm (1230 GMT), witnesses told Reuters.

"My men counted 17 dead as at 2:00pm and they are still counting. I have instructed my men to go to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and the state specialist hospital to verify if there are others," said Borno Police Commissioner Lawan Tanko.

"I saw two boys on the ground and their bodies cut into pieces, two other cars immediately caught fire and I ran away because there was too much blood," city resident Aisha Hassan told Reuters.

Soldiers fired shots into the air to disperse crowds before cordoning off the roads around the bomb site, witnesses said.

Dozens of youths, some armed with machetes, protested on the street after the attack, accusing politicians of failing to curb violence in Maiduguri, they said.

No one claimed responsibility for the blast. 

Maiduguri is the capital of Borno state and the focal point of an armed rebellion waged by Boko Haram, which wants to create an Islamic state in the north of Africa's most populous nation and top oil exporter.

President Goodluck Jonathan stepped up a military campaign against the group in May last year. But experts say it has not stemmed the violence which killed thousands last year.

Boko Haram has continued to attack schools and government and military targets in the face of the army crackdown on its four-year-old revolt.

On December 2, hundreds of its fighters in trucks and a stolen armoured personnel carrier attacked an air force base and international airport on the outskirts of Maiduguri in one of the armed group's most daring attacks.

Two helicopters and three decommissioned military aircraft were heavily damaged in the attack.
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Clashes in DR Congo national park kill four

The clashes in Africa's largest park resulted in the death of one park ranger and three suspected Rwandan rebels.

Four people were killed and two seriously injured in a clash between national park rangers and suspected Rwandan rebels in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, the park said.

The Virunga national park, home to DR Congo's only population of endangered mountain gorillas, said one of its rangers died in a battle on Saturday morning that also claimed the lives of three rebel fighters.

Two other guards were wounded and one rebel was captured.

Virunga said in a statement that the Sunday clash was with the FDLR, a Rwandan rebel group that includes the remnants of the militia who carried out the 1994 genocide.

"The attack is thought to have been carried out in retaliation against the rangers' efforts to prevent the militias from regaining control of an area close to the habitat of the critically endangered mountain gorillas," the park said.

Virunga national park, a UNESCO world heritage site, was founded in 1925, making it Africa's oldest national park.

It is the most environmentally diverse area on the African continent, home to thousands of rhinos and 200 endangered mountain gorillas.
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Westgate Mall trial opens in Kenya

At least 67 people were killed in a September attack claimed by Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked Shebab group.

The trial of four men charged in connection with Kenya's Westgate Mall massacre, an attack claimed by Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked Shebab group, has started.

Adan Mohamed Abidkadir Adan, Mohamed Ahmed Abdi, Liban Abdullah Omar and Hussein Hassan Mustafah all pleaded not guilty to charges of "supporting a terrorist group" on Wednesday.

The men have been accused of supporting the gunmen who carried out the September attack that killed at least 67 people.

In court, witness Stephen Juma described how he had been directing traffic outside the mall when a car pulled up to the building and three men leapt out.

"I began to hear gunshots, I made a radio call for help while running to the main entrance," Juma said. "I took shelter in a residential compound until when I saw policemen come," adding that he had not seen the faces of the three men.

A warning to Kenya

Security forces initially reported that a dozen gunmen carried out the attack, but now it is thought that there were only four gunmen.

Two of the shooters are named in court documents as Mohammed Abdinur Said and Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow, a 23-year-old Somali who spent time in Norway.

It is believed that all attackers were killed in the siege. Interpol and the FBI have assisted Kenya in trying to identify four bodies believed to be those of the attackers. But a New York police report said a lack of evidence could mean the attackers escaped.

Al-Shebab said the gunmen came from a special suicide commando brigade and that the attack was a warning to Kenya to pull its troops out of southern Somalia, where they are fighting the group as part of an African Union force.

Western officials have said that as many as 94 people could have died in total in the mall attack, as bodies were buried under tonnes of rubble after part of the mall's roof collapsed at the end of the raid following an intense fire that burned for weeks.
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Nigerian president sacks military leaders

Goodluck Jonathan purges army, navy and air force top brass after court ruling their appointments were unconstitutional.

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has sacked his military top brass leading the fight against Boko Haram, following a court judgment that their appointment was illegal. 

The heads of the country's army, navy and air force have all been replaced, according to a statement from the president's office on Thursday.

Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said the decision would not affect the conflict with Boko Haram, which is now in its fourth year.

"Military operation is a continuum," he told the AFP news agency. "The new military chiefs will be briefed adequately by their predecessors and the operation will  continue as planned."

The sackings came after Festus Keyamo, a human rights lawyer, last year mounted a legal challenge to the officers' appointments, arguing they were not approved by the national assembly, as demanded by the constitution.

A judge in the High Court in Abuja declared last July that the appointments violated section 18 of the Armed Forces Act 2004. The law intends "to subject the armed forces to civil authority", Keyamo said, adding that neither the president nor the service chiefs were constitutionally superior to the national assembly.

Keyamo said on Thursday that he had been "absolutely vindicated".

Renewed violence

Nigeria's military meanwhile said that Boko Haram fighters had been killed in clashes in the Banki area of northeastern Borno state, near the border with Cameroon.

"Many of the terrorists (Boko Haram) were killed in the fighting. I don't have a precise figure," said Olukolade, adding that two soldiers died.

Borno state police commissioner Lawan Tanko confirmed the target was a police station in Banki and one police officer died. 

Witnesses said Boko Haram fighters also shot locals and burnt houses. Police in the far north of Cameroon and the country's state radio reported earlier that about 15 people were killed, four of them soldiers, and the rest  civilians.
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