Finland's Janne Ahonen soars through the air during the qualification for the third event of the Four-Hills ski jumping tournament in Bischofshofen, Sunday.

BISCHOFSHOFEN, Austria, Jan. 6--Finland’s Janne Ahonen won the third round of this season’s Four Hills tournament on Sunday to move a step closer to become the first man to clinch the overall title five times, AP reported.
Ahonen, who has already won the sport’s most prestigious competition on four occasions, finished ahead of Austria’s Thomas Morgenstern and Simon Ammann of Switzerland.
The 30-year-old was leading this year’s series going into the fourth and final stage on Sunday.
Morgenstern, who won the opening round at Oberstdorf in Germany last week, is second in the standings while teenage star Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria, who headed the Four Hills race going into Saturday’s action, is now third after managing just a fifth place finish.
The third round of the competition should have taken place at Innsbruck on Friday but was cancelled because of strong winds.

LISBON, Portugal, Jan. 6--Dakar Rally chiefs insisted on Saturday that the marathon race, cancelled for the first time in its colorful 30-year history because of terrorist threats, will survive and return in 2009.
But the grueling event may have to find an alternative finishing point to the Senegalese capital to allow the event to avoid African terror hotspots, reported AFP.
“There will be a great event in 2009. We will start work on it from tomorrow. It could be another Dakar. It’s a little complicated to imagine straightaway what will be The Dakar next year but we will work on it very quickly,“ said Etienne Lavigne, the rally director.
The 2008 Dakar Rally had been due to start here on Saturday but the murder of four French tourists in Mauritania on December 24 led to the French government advising against any travel to the country.
Eight of the rally’s stages were due to pass through the northern African country en route south for Dakar and the scheduled finish on January 20. It was the first time the rally had been cancelled since its creation in 1979.
Rally organizers and competitors were initially defiant saying they were willing to take the risk, but the pressure increased early Friday with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner adding his voice of warning.
Apart from the deaths of the four French tourists there have been concerns that an Al-Qaeda group is active in northern Africa and could target the high-profile race.
If the race is to survive, organizers are expected to examine a route which does not involve crossing deep into Saharan Africa.

NYAGAN, Russia, Jan. 6--Two-time grand slam champion Maria Sharapova admitted she was surprised to see childhood idol Martina Hingis handed a two-year ban following a doping offense.Ê
According to Press Association, Hingis tested positive for cocaine following her defeat by Laura Granville at Wimbledon last year and on Friday was handed the ban by the International Tennis Federation.Ê
And Sharapova had nothing but praise for the Swiss star, saying: “Martina has always been super nice to me. It is definitely sad to see as to this day I think she is an incredible champion and in front of my eyes she has always been an incredibly hard worker from spending extra hours on the court to extra time in the gym.“Ê
She added: “She has been one of the toughest examples, especially when I was growing up, to see the work ethic she put in to what she did was incredible.Ê
“I think it is just as surprising to me as it is to anyone else.“Ê
The 27-year-old, who spent three years away from the sport before returning in 2006, retired from tennis last November after revealing she had tested positive.Ê
The former world number one and five-time grand slam winner returned a positive result from a routine urine sample following the defeat by Granville, but has previously insisted she was “100% innocent“.

Jens Lehmann

BERLIN, Jan. 6--Arsenal’s German international goalkeeper Jens Lehmann revealed Sunday that he will make a decision on an offer from Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund in the coming days.
“I can’t give an exact date but I’m thinking of a reasonable timeframe of several days,“ Lehmann told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
Lehmann has already played for Dortmund between 1999 and 2003, the year he left for England.
“It’s a difficult decision which will have a major effect mainly on my family, so I have to think about and discuss certain things.“
Dortmund boss Hans-Joachim Watzke has admitted to being “cautiously optimistic“ concerning the eventual arrival of Lehmann.
Lehmann has lost his place at Arsenal to Manuel Almunia and Dortmund have been trying to put together a deal to take him to the Bundesliga.
The 38-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season and the Gunners were believed to be ready to offer him a free transfer.

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback David Garrard (9) runs past Pittsburgh Steelers' Tyrone Carter for a 32 yard-gain during fourth quarter of an NFL wild card playoff football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday.

PITTSBURGH, USA,
Jan. 6--Never in the Steelers’ 75 seasons had a team beaten them twice in Pittsburgh in the same season.
According to AP, the Jaguars beat history despite a memorable fourth-quarter collapse that nearly cost Jacksonville its season.
Josh Scobee saved the game by kicking a 25-yard field goal with 37 seconds remaining and the Jaguars came back after squandering an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter to beat the Steelers 31-29 on Saturday night in an AFC wild-card game that was wild in every sense of the word.
Jacksonville appeared to be done after Najeh Davenport’s second 1-yard TD run of the game gave the Steelers a 29-28 lead with about six minutes remaining. But quarterback David Garrard, not a great runner, found a seam on a convert-or-else fourth-and-2 play and rambled 32 yards to the Steelers 11 with 1:56 left.
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (29-of-42, 337 yards) put the Steelers into a deep hole by throwing three interceptions before halftime, then got rolling after he began lining up in a shotgun formation and threw touchdown passes to Santonio Holmes (37 yards) and Heath Miller (14 yards) in 4 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter to get Pittsburgh within 28-23.
The Steelers rallied from 15 points down to tie Jacksonville late in the Jaguars’ 29-22 win at Heinz Field on Dec. 16 but couldn’t close the deal. They couldn’t this time, either, even though Roethlisberger, shouldering the Steelers’ offense virtually by himself with no running game, was 17-of-23 for 263 yards and two touchdowns in the second half.
The Jaguars have beaten Pittsburgh four times in the last three seasons, including their 29-22 win on Dec. 16, and they appeared ready to do easily by building a 28-10 lead behind backup running back Maurice Jones-Drew’s playmaking.

DOHA, Qatar, Jan. 6--Andy Murray claimed the fourth title of his career with an absorbing 6-4 4-6 6-2 win over Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka in the Qatar Open final, AFP wrote.
Both players produced a nervy start but three breaks of serve compared to Wawrinka’s two were enough to give the Scot the opening set.
The match settled down in the second and Wawrinka leveled the contest after breaking Murray in the 10th game.
Murray wasted little time in the decider and two breaks sealed victory. The win will further convince Murray that his decision to employ a team of coaches after dispensing with highly regarded coach Brad Gilbert last November was the right one.
The Qatar Open was the first tournament since the split and his off-season work in Miami with fitness experts Jez Green, Matt Little and Miles Maclagan has paid immediate dividends.
Murray, looking to go one better than his runner-up finish in this event last year, defeated Nikolay Davydenko and Thomas Johansson on the way to Saturday’s final against the Swiss world number 36.
Both players struggled to impose their service games in a topsy-turvy first set with Wawrinka slipping up in the opening game.
Murray was broken in the next but broke again following a lengthy third before recording the first hold to go 3-1 ahead.

Disgraced former Olympic star Marion Jones might face more than the six months behind bars.

NEW YORK, Jan. 6--Disgraced former Olympic star Marion Jones, whose lawyers have appealed to keep her out of prison for lying to federal agents, might face more than the six months behind bars prosecutors seek, AFP wrote.
New York Times reported Sunday that US District Judge Kenneth Karas has filed an order asking prosecutors and defense lawyers why Jones should not receive two consecutive sentences.
Karas said Jones could face consecutive sentences rather than serving time for each simultaneously if they took place in “separate investigations of unrelated criminal conduct in different jurisdictions“.
That appears to be the case for Jones, 32, for lying about her taking steroids to investigators in the BALCO steroid case and another probe regarding her role in a check fraud scheme.
Karas noted he was not bound by sentencing guidelines or a plea agreement between Jones and prosecutors when handing down a sentence Friday on Jones, who has given up five medals, three of them gold, she won at the Sydney Olympics.
Prosecutors suggested a six-month sentence for Jones while defense lawyers pleaded for no time behind bars, saying probation was enough given the public humiliation she has endured.
Jones had spent years denying any wrongdoing before confessing last October to her use of performance-enhancing drugs before and after her star turn at the Sydney Olympics. Karas gave each side until Wednesday to reply to his request.

SYDNEY, Australia, Jan. 6--Michael Clarke took three wickets in the penultimate over as Australia beat India by 122 runs in Sydney to clinch their 16th Test victory in a row, Reuters wrote.
India, led by captain Anil Kumble, looked to have done enough for a draw, before part-time spinner Clarke, in his second over, ripped through the tail. Kumble was stranded on 45 not out off 111 balls as Australia bowled out India for 210 to take a 2-0 series lead.
The run of 16 wins matches Australia’s record streak from 1999 to 2001. Just as importantly, they had somehow done enough to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with two Tests remaining in the series.
The day began with Australia extending their lead, and with the showers staying away, Ricky Ponting declared slightly later than most observers had predicted, after Michael Hussey had hit a majestic 145.
Ponting finally pulled the plug on his team’s second innings shortly before lunch with the total on 401-7. India needed 333 to win, which was never on the cards, but Wasim Jaffer gave Australia an early fillip when he fell to Brett Lee in the first over.
The opener pushed forward uncertainly to a ball just short of a good length, edging to Clarke at third slip. Soon after lunch, Stuart Clark got Australia’s second wicket as he nipped a ball back into VVS Laxman’s pads.
Sachin Tendulkar was bowled by Clark off the inside edge six overs later and it was crisis time for the tourists. The dependable duo of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, restored some order for the visitors, as they stayed together for over an hour and took the Test into the final session. Then umpire Steve Bucknor was involved in another moment of high controversy.
Having been roundly castigated for failing to give Andrew Symonds caught behind on day one--the batsman went on to hit 162 not out--he awarded the Australian the most tenuous appeal for a catch at the wicket which ended Dravid’s innings.