Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

TENNIS

Tennis: Federer breezes through at Halle

Roger Federer warmed up for Wimbledon by easing to victory in the second round on the Halle grass on Thursday, as he returns from a back injury that has disrupted his season.

Published: 16 June 2016 20:14 CEST
Tennis: Federer breezes through at Halle
Federer brushed Jaziri aside. Photo: AFP

The world number three, who dropped out of last month's French Open, had little trouble swatting aside Tunisia's Malek Jaziri, 6-3, 7-5, and next faces Belgium's David Goffin.

Federer, who is in the twilight of a sparkling career and turns 35 in August, is chasing a ninth title in Halle, Germany.

He has yet to win a title in 2016, his longest drought to start a year since he went title-less in 2000.

Goffin set up the meeting after Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky retired from their clash.

Also into the next round is home hope Philipp Kohlschreiber, the eighth seed, who beat Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 7-5.

The indefatigable Kohlschreiber was playing for a 10th straight day.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

TERRORISM

German man jailed for life over deadly anti-Semitic rampage

A German court on Monday handed down a life sentence to the assailant behind a deadly far-right attack last year that nearly became the country's worst anti-Semitic atrocity since World War II.

Published: 21 December 2020 11:50 CET
German man jailed for life over deadly anti-Semitic rampage
Stephan Balliet (R) who shot dead two people after an attempt to storm a synagogue in Halle an der Saale, eastern Germany. AFP

A bolted door at the synagogue in the eastern city of Halle with 52 worshippers inside marking Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, was the only thing that prevented the heavily armed attacker from carrying out a planned bloodbath.

After failing to storm the temple on October 9, 2019, Stephan Balliet, 28, shot dead a female passer-by and a man at a kebab shop.

During his five-month trial, Balliet denied the Holocaust in open court — a crime in Germany — and expressed no remorse to those targeted, many of whom were co-plaintiffs in the case.

“The attack on the synagogue in Halle was one of the most repulsive anti-Semitic acts since World War II,” prosecutor Kai Lohse told the court in the nearby city of Magdeburg as the trial wrapped up.

The prosecution had demanded a life sentence for Balliet. The defence team asked presiding judge Ursula Mertens only for a “fair sentence”.

A lawyer for nine of the co-plaintiffs, Mark Lupschitz, told AFP early Monday the trial had been “fair” and called the proceedings both “stressful and empowering” for the intended victims. 

During the trial, Balliet insisted that “attacking the synagogue was not a mistake, they are my enemies”.

Dressed in military garb, he filmed the attack and broadcast it on the internet, prefacing it with a manifesto espousing his misogynist, neo-fascist ideology.

Israel's ambassador to Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, called the attack “a very, very alarming moment in German history”.

“If that guy would have been able to get into a synagogue… it would have had a tremendous impact on German identity after the war and the fight against anti-Semitism,” he told AFP in an interview.

SHOW COMMENTS