Tomas Berdych served notice of his intent to Andy Murray and all the title favourites with a demolition of Julien Benneteau to reach the fourth round of the US Open.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas announced last night that he will resign over a spy and bribery scandal involving his government.

Defending champion Petra Kvitova set up a blockbuster Wimbledon quarter-final against Serena Williams by coming from a set down to beat Francesca Schiavone.

Serena Williams can still see room for improvement in her game despite racking up her 17th successive win at the Australian Open today.

Tomas Berdych ensured world number one Novak Djokovic's stellar season was brought to an end last night with a 3-6 7-5 6-1 victory over David Ferrer at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Janko Tipsarevic’s stay at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals will be a brief one after he was beaten by Tomas Berdych in another entertaining clash at the O2 Arena.

The man who sold his Southern California home to octuplets mother Nadya Suleman said today that he was going ahead with eviction proceedings over a long-overdue $450,000 (€342,169) payment.

Tomas Berdych will take sky-high confidence into his first Wimbledon final tomorrow as he aims to complete a demolition job on the world’s top three players.

Tomas Berdych gave himself “eight or nine” out of 10 for his performance in his semi-final win over Novak Djokovic but will be looking for yet more improvement in Sunday’s Wimbledon final.

Robin Soderling powered into his second successive French Open final today after coming from two sets to one down to beat Tomas Berdych.

The world’s longest surviving octuplets celebrated their first birthday at their California home.

Roger Federer fought off a strong challenge from countryman Marco Chiudinelli to set up a final meeting with Novak Djokovic at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in his home town of Basle.

TYSON FURY may be the new English heavyweight champion but he left nobody in any doubt about his Irish roots when he made his Dublin debut at the O2 on Saturday night.

Czechs and Poles were mixed in their reaction to the US decision to cancel a missile defence shield based in their countries today.

Fourth seed Novak Djokovic swept into the US Open quarter-finals with a solid straight sets victory over Radek Stepanek at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Octuplets mother Nadya Suleman fired a non-profit group of nurses that helped care for her children, accusing the group of spying on her and reporting her to child welfare officials, her spokesman said.

The Environment Minister has hit out at the actions of the Czech President while on a state visit here.

The Czech President has accused EU leaders of restricting democracy over the manner in which they have handled Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon treaty.

The Czech President breaks off his official state visit to Ireland later to meet the founder of the anti-Lisbon Treaty group Libertas.

EUROSCEPTIC Czech president Václav Klaus yesterday bluntly warned the Taoiseach his country would not fast-track the Lisbon treaty when it takes over the EU in January.

Russia will be forced to make a military response if the US-Czech missile defence agreement is ratified, the Foreign Ministry said tonight.

The United States and the Czech Republic today signed an initial agreement to base a US missile shield in Eastern Europe.

Goalkeeper Petr Cech insists Chelsea can still win the Premier League despite last night’s hugely disappointing 1-1 draw with Wigan.

American plans for a European-based missile defence system were fully backed by Nato today.

Portsmouth 4 Birmingham 2

Arsenal 7 Slavia Prague 0

Novak Djokovic kept alive his hopes of ending Roger Federer’s dominance at the US Open in New York as the third-seeded Serb edged past Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.

Czech Republic U21 0 England U21 0

Manchester United 0 Arsenal 1

Egyptian police were today searching for clues in the aftermath of the deadly bomb blasts in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheik that killed 88 people.

LIVERPOOL'S maligned stars gave Gerard Houllier the lifeline he so desperately needed on a night when anything but a convincing victory would have given further ammunition to his detractors.

Tim Henman is on course for a quarter-final against world number one Roger Federer at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam after disposing of the Czech Republic’s Tomas Cakl.

Frenchman Fabrice Santoro has been handed a €1,200 fine for spitting towards a line judge during his second-round defeat at the Australian Open.

Andy Cole struck a superb late equaliser as Liverpool failed to get their faltering title bid back on track at Anfield today.

Liverpool 1

Dean Macey made up for his Olympic heartache to take decathlon bronze for Britain at the World Championships in Edmonton.