WIMBLEDON, England — No man had beaten Roger Federer at Wimbledon since 2002. But in near darkness, one of the greatest tennis matches ever played concluded in the Wimbledon final Sunday with Roger Federer hitting a short forehand into the net and with a victorious Rafael Nadal flat on his back with camera flashes illuminating his drained and delighted face.
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No one had beaten Roger Federer at Wimbledon or on grass since 2002. More Photos »

Nadal had come the closest to ending Federer’s streak at Wimbledon in last year’s final, pushing his friendly rival to five sets before ending up in tears in the locker room as Federer equaled Bjorn Borg’s modern men’s record with his fifth straight title.

Last year’s emotional tussle immediately took its place among the best Wimbledon finals, but this five-set classic — played on a rainy, gusty day — was better yet.

At 4 hours 48 minutes, it was the longest singles final in Wimbledon’s 131-year history and did not finish until 9:16 p.m. local time.

“The most important thing is to win the title,” said Nadal, who won, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7. “After that, you think about winning against the No. 1, probably the best player in history or close, and the fact it was so dramatic. But it’s one of the most powerful feelings I’ve had in my life.”

By the end, as hard as it was to see, the top-seeded Federer and the second-seeded Nadal had produced so much brilliant tennis under pressure that it seemed the most normal thing in the world that Federer smacked yet another ace to get out of trouble or that Nadal hunted down yet another sharply angled ground stroke and ripped an off-balance passing shot for a winner.

The capacity crowd at Centre Court, which had not diminished through two rain delays, continually roared with delight or surprise and took turns chanting each combatant’s first name, which is not the way these things usually work at proper Wimbledon.

“Probably my hardest loss, by far; I mean it’s not much harder than this right now,” Federer said later, his voice muted and his eyes red.

The loss kept Federer from matching the men’s record of six consecutive Wimbledon titles set by Britain’s William Renshaw in the 19th century. Federer had won 65 straight matches on grass.

“I’m disappointed, and I’m crushed,” Federer said. “He played a super match, and I’m sure it was a great match to watch and to play, but it’s all over now. I need some time.”

Federer, 26, earned himself more time on Centre Court by saving two match points in the fourth-set tie breaker. He was later only two points from victory himself with Nadal serving at 4-5, 30-all in the fifth set. But Nadal, like his opponent, has a remarkable will as well as a remarkable topspin forehand.

And although Federer kept chipping and ripping away at Nadal’s service games, he broke him just once in the match, and that was early in the second set. In all, Federer squandered 12 of 13 break-point opportunities.

Nadal, a Spaniard whose serve was once considered his weakness, converted 4 of his 13 chances against Federer, none more important than the break that came when Federer, serving at 7-7 in the fifth, took a huge cut at a short forehand and knocked it just long.

Nadal, seldom short of positive energy, leapt with delight and hustled to his chair to prepare to serve for the championship. It was 9:10 p.m. in London when he walked to the baseline, and the light was so dim at the end of this intermittently rainy day that both players were concerned.

“I almost couldn’t see who I was playing,” Federer said, shaking his head.

Nadal agreed. “In the last game, I didn’t see nothing,” he said. “Was unbelievable. I thought we have to stop.”

Wimbledon’s organizers have pushed their sessions to the limit this year, with other matches finishing at 9:30 p.m. Not finishing on Sunday would have forced the tournament to extend to Monday, with all the logistical challenges that would have entailed.

“It would have been brutal for fans, for media, for us, for everybody to come back tomorrow, but what are you going to do?” Federer said. “It’s rough on me now, obviously, to lose the biggest tournament in the world over maybe a bit of light.”

“The average blood donor gives less than two times a year”, said Dr. Reddy, interim CEO of the Midwest Blood Region. “It’s important to remember that you can donate whole blood every 56 days.”

Collecting blood during the summer months is often more difficult than during other times of the year. Up to 20 percent of blood donations made to the Red Cross comes from colleges, universities and high schools. When school is out of session during the summer, these donations can drop by as much as 53 percent.

The need for blood is constant, but during the summer your gift of blood donation is especially important. Give a little of yourself and donate blood. When you give blood to the Red Cross, you can change a life, starting with your own.

July Blood Donation Opportunities in Dodge, Washington and Cass counties:

7/5 Alliance Church Fremont, 7:00-Noon.  Call Bev 721-6628.

7/8 Mutual of Omaha-Blair, 8:00-1:00.  Call Lori 351-5945.  Employees only.

7/8 Salem Lutheran Church Fremont, 1:00-6:00.  Call Marilyn 721-6534.

7/14 Plattsmouth’s Methodist Church, 11:30-5:30.  Call Doug 733-5137.

7/15 North Bend’s City Auditorium, Noon-6:00. Call Caryn 652-8663 or Lois 666-5214.

7/15 Murdock’s Methodist Church, 2:30-7:00.  Call Linda 867-2089.

7/23 Blair Cargil, 7:00-1:00.  Call Janice 533-4306.

7/26 Sinai Lutheran Church, Fremont, 7:30-11:30.  Call Carolyn 721-4372.

7/29 Hooper Care Center, Noon-6:00.  Call Sue 654-3362.

Appointments can also be made for all blood drive on www.giveBLOODgiveLIFE.org.

How to Donate Blood

Simply call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (1-800-448-3543) or visit givebloodgivelife.org to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or driver’s license, or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Donors must be at least 17 years old, 16 years old with a signed parent/guardian consent form in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin and must weigh at least 110 pounds.

About the American Red Cross

Governed by volunteers and supported by giving individuals and communities, the American Red Cross is the single largest supplier of blood products to hospitals throughout the United States. While local hospital needs are always met first, the Red Cross also helps ensure no patient goes without blood no matter where or when they need it. In addition to providing nearly half of the nation’s blood supply, the Red Cross provides relief to victims of disaster, trains millions in lifesaving skills, serves as a communication link between U.S. military members and their families, and assists victims of international disasters or conflicts.

Brendan Fraser has earned his high-profile adventure cred: First, there’s Friday’s 3-D “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” followed by the return of his Rick O’Connell role in August’s “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperoro.”

So why has he kept such a low profile lately?

“The answer, my friends,” he said, is due to lengthy post-production special effects, particularly the 3-D kind.

“Journey” is the first film to use the real 3-D cameras developed by James Cameron for his upcoming “Avatar.”

It was shot “two summers ago,” the 39-year-old actor said. “It wasn’t that it was tabled or anything,” but theaters had to be equipped to show 3-D. The count has since topped 1,400 screens, he said.

That extra dimension was what piqued Fraser’s interest. “My eyeballs popped out of my head. The last time I saw anything in 3-D, it was an image that came from the camera I shot something through.”

Fraser also went back to the original Jules Verne novel, which inspired the original 1959 movie.

“You’ve got to have a reason to go to the center of the earth. If you are going to do an updated version, it’s not just because we can. It’s got to be some sort of human feeling. If you don’t care about the people and the story that brings them there, then in this case it would be a 3-D film where you are just going to wind up watching a fireworks display.”

Fraser is now, as Verne wrote the character, a professor whose nephew goes on the journey with him. “They have this madcap, half-baked, zany idea that there is a way to get to the center of the Earth based on mythology that there is a portal in Iceland.”

Mr. Ben-Brahim, 42 years old, currently helps oversee emerging-markets trading at Goldman Sachs from London. GLG, which is run by several former Goldman partners, targeted Mr. Ben-Brahim to help it expand its so-called special-situations business, which covers a variety of longer-term investments, including in private companies or less-liquid assets. That will include running the roughly $1.2 billion emerging-markets special-situations fund that is now run by Greg Coffey, the fund manager who is leaving the firm.

GLG said in April that Mr. Coffey, who oversees four funds including the firm’s largest, GLG Emerging Markets Fund, will leave in October. At the beginning of this month, GLG executives placed restrictions limiting the amount of money investors in the firm’s largest fund could withdraw to 10% of the fund’s total assets. GLG executives had said they could see $4 billion of assets leave with Mr. Coffey, but people familiar with the matter say withdrawals so far have been less than half that.

GLG had about $24.6 billion of assets as of the end of March.

Mr. Ben-Brahim, a Moroccan national, joined Goldman in 1996. In 2004, he took over the running of the firm’s global foreign-exchange desk. Since 2006, he has been running Goldman’s emerging-markets investments. He has remained close to Emmanuel Roman, who left Goldman in 2005 to join GLG as co-chief executive. GLG executives expect Mr. Ben-Brahim, who will take a senior role at the firm and steer the firm’s macrotrading strategy, to start his new role in the fall.

Mr. Ben-Brahim declined to comment.

It is the latest in a string of recent hires made by GLG, which has added about 16 investment professionals to its ranks in the past several months.

A shelter spokesman says the city has taken in nearly 130 animals so far this weekend. About 40 of those animals showed up Sunday–but that number is likely to go up before the end of the day.

Animal welfare officials say they normally take in anywhere from 50 to 100 animals on any given weekend.

Animal shelter workers say it has been years since they have seen so many scared strays. They say dogs can not stand the bangs and booms of fireworks, so they do anything the can to get away from the loud noises.

That is exactly what happened to Jeannie Parker’s pet.

“I’ve done all the things: I called where I needed to call and left the information and she is micro chipped so hopefully she just comes here and they’ll call me,” she said at she looked for her dog at an animal shelter.

Workers say it has been about five years since they have seen this many dogs scared away by fireworks.

With firework usage expected to continue through the weekend, animal shelter workers say to keep your pet in a closed room with some toys and treats and turn on the radio or television to drown out firework noise.

The 129-122 vote in the lower-house for the tax increase was a victory for Mrs. Kirchner, though at a steep cost, following nearly four months of protests from farmers that have buffeted the economy and sapped her approval ratings. It isn’t clear how much the congressional stamp of approval on the measure will assuage angry farmers, who have withheld products and blocked rural roads, in Argentina’s worst political unrest since its financial collapse in 2002. Rural interests are also challenging the measure in courts.

The lower-house approval came after some arm twisting by Mrs. Kirchner’s husband, Nestor, the former president and current head of the governing Peronist party. He managed to win over some wavering legislators from rural districts by incorporating tax breaks and subsidies for smaller farmers into the proposal. But Mr. Kirchner refused to budge on the most contentious part of the plan, a move to change the tax on soybean exports, which had been fixed at 35%, so that it shifts in line with international prices.

The farmers say the tax places an excessive economic burden on them. But the government maintains the tax will provide additional revenue to fund vital programs and pay for energy subsidies.

Rural leaders tried to put a positive face on the lower-house vote, likening it to a soccer game that still had another half to play in the legislature’s upper house, the Senate. But it seemed likely that the Senate, which is dominated by the Kirchners’ Peronist faction, would follow the lead of the lower house and give the Kirchners the simple majority they need. One preliminary count by the Buenos Aires newspaper La Nacion had 38 out of 72 senators backing the government. The Senate will start discussions on the bill this week.

Some agrarian leaders remained defiant after the lower-house vote. Alfredo de Angeli, a soybean grower who has emerged as a celebrity during the debate, said, “The protest continues; the demands are going to continue.”

But other farm representatives were more careful in their comments in the wake of the legislative defeat. And analysts say that agrarian leaders, who have won widespread sympathy in opinion polls, have to be careful about overplaying their hand. The farm leaders had hailed Mrs. Kirchner’s decision to send the proposal to Congress last month as a victory for democracy; originally, she had tried to impose the increase by decree. Now, if farmers persist in protesting, they run the risk of being perceived as undemocratic, something the Kirchners have long contended, analysts say.

A local official quoted by the agency said “a local security official and a local resident” died on the spot while two other people including a translator working for a UN mission in Abkhazia succumbed to their wounds in hospital.

An inquiry was opened, he added.

The leader of the separatists in Abkhazia, Sergei Bagapsh, accused Tbilisi of having organised the “bombing” in the Gali region, declaring: “This attack confirms once again that Georgia has taken the road of state terrorism.”.

Abkhazia, a strip of land on the Black Sea, has enjoyed de facto independence since breaking away in a conflict following the collapse of the Soviet Union that killed several thousand people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

Tensions have risen since Russia earlier this year moved to bolster ties with Abkhazia, whose independence is not recognised by any country. Abkhazia does however have strong diplomatic and economic support from Russia.

The former Cuban president’s comments follow the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian politician, and 14 others on Wednesday.

In an internet article posted on Saturday, Castro said he was against kidnapping and holding prisoners in the jungle.

But he also said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) should not lay down their weapons, warning that as a rule, fighters who have done so over the past half-century “did not survive to see the peace”.

“If I may dare to suggest something to the Farc guerrillas, it is that they simply, by whatever means at their disposal, declare that they have unconditionally freed all the hostages and prisoners still under their control,” Castro wrote in the article just days after Colombia’s military rescued the group’s most prized hostages.

Colombia’s government says the Farc still holds about 700 hostages for political leverage or ransom, although its most valuable captives were among the 15 rescued last week, including Betancourt and three American defence contractors.

Words of hope

IN VIDEO

Colombian mother’s plea to remember hostage son

In Colombia on Sunday, five of the recently rescued hostages went on the country’s airwaves to speak about their ordeal and encourage the remaining hostages not to give up hope.

Betancourt also joined the Voices of Kidnapping radio show, calling in from France where she says she will remain for a while.

The programme on Colombian station Caracol Radio offers an emotional lifeline to rebel-held hostages, who with portable radios often hear messages from their families.

The rescue operation last week in which the military tricked the rebels into releasing the 15 hostages, has boosted the popularity of Alvaro Uribe, Colombia’s president.

His approval rating went up nearly 20 per cent to 91 per cent, according to the latest opinion poll in the country.

Plea to remember

But families whose loved ones are still being held by the rebels are calling for him to do more.

The mother of one such hostage, Magdalena Rivas Hernandez, says she fears her government will forget lower-profile captives such as her son, Lieutenant Elkin Hernandez Rivas, who was kidnapped in October 1998.

“Now that the high profile hostages like Ingrid Betancourt and the three Americans have been rescued, I’m worried that the Colombian government will forget about every day people like my son,” she told Al Jazeera.

“The president has to do something to help my son and the other people that remain prisoners in the jungle.”

Sunday’s blast came on the first anniversary of the ending of a siege at the city’s Red Mosque, in which more than 100 people died during fighting.

The mosque was stormed by Pakistani troops to evict militants who had taken sanctuary within its complex.

PM Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and President Musharraf condemned Sunday’s attack.

The White House also denounced the bombing, saying it was a “needless act of violence”.

Fiery rhetoric

Interior secretary Kamal Shah told AFP news agency that a team of senior policemen and special investigators has been formed to investigate the attack.

“At this stage it is too early to say who is behind it,” he said.

Officials said that the blast happened 15 minutes after a meeting of several thousand Islamists near the mosque, which is also known as Lal Masjid, ended.

The meeting was held to mark the first anniversary of the ending of the siege.

A year ago, Pakistani army commandos stormed the mosque, which had been taken over by pro-Taleban clerics.

Islamist militants responded with a wave of suicide bombings around the country that killed around 1,000 people.

The anniversary demonstration itself was peaceful, but the rhetoric was fiery, with calls for revenge and a Muslim holy war.

No organisation has admitted carrying out the attack, but local media reports said the tone of the rally grew more heated after the arrival of banned militant groups suspected of being allied to or inspired by al-Qaeda, our correspondent adds.

Last year, al-Qaeda leaders had called on Pakistani Muslims to avenge the raid.

The bombing comes after a period of relative calm, with the country’s newly elected government adopting a strategy of political negotiations and development to try to end Islamic militancy.