Italy beat France in ill-tempered tie, Russia win

LONDON: Italy silenced an angry French team on Sunday to set up a Fed Cup semifinal with champions Russia.

Stars beat Predators

DALLAS: The Dallas Stars beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Sunday for their 11th win in their past 13 games at home this season.

IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Viva Ronaldo as step-over king wins

ZURICH: Manchester United and Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo was named FIFA World Player of the Year at a ceremony on Monday.

WORTHY WINNERS: Top three in this year's vote

THE CIRCUS MAGICIAN

The Rise of Ronnie

BEST IN THE WORLD:

Raising Arizona: Cardinals want revenge

NEW YORK: Sunday's championship finals to decide the Super Bowl combatants could produce contrasting games when defensive-minded Pittsburgh hosts Baltimore and Philadelphia visits high-scoring Arizona.

Super Bowl winning coach Dungy retires

NEW YORK: Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts, the first black coach to win the Super Bowl and one of the most respected figures in the sport, retired on Monday.

Henderson, Rice to join Hall of Fame

NEW YORK: Stolen base king Rickey Henderson and former Boston Red Sox slugger Jim Rice have been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, officials said on Monday.

Klinsmann saddened by Podolski's lack of fight

BERLIN: Out-of-favor Bayern Munich striker Lukas Podolski, set to leave the Bundesliga champions at the end of the season, has not shown enough determination to earn regular selection, coach Juergen Klinsmann said.

Score board

Golf

Pierce sparks Celtics to OT victory

BOSTON: The Boston Celtics beat the Toronto Raptors for the second time in two days on Monday, but this time they needed overtime to secure a 115-109 win.