Shanghai  - Novak Djokovic couldn't be more pleased after reversing his 2007 run of year-end bad luck by qualifying a year later for the semi-finals of the Masters Cup.

The world number three Serb, who cemented his place with a three-set victory Tuesday over Nikolay Davydenko, goes into his last red group match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga relaxed and calm.

London  - Arsenal's youth players produced another sensational performance Tuesday, beating Wigan 3-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup.

Manager Arsene Wenger again took the opportunity to give the younger players in his squad a chance, his side having an average age of just 19.

Jay Simpson seized on a reverse ball from Jack Wilshere to open the scoring three minutes before half-time. He added a second from Carlos Vela's unselfish square pass midway through the second half, before Vela chipped a sensational third.

Yangon  - US president-elect Barack Obama is expected to take a more multilateral and "effective" approach to Myanmar's transition to democracy than the outgoing administration of President George Bush, a prominent dissident said Wednesday.

Win Tin, formerly Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoner and an executive member of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, said he expected Obama to maintain support of Myanmar's democracy movement as was demonstrated by his fellow Democrat former president Bill Clinton.

San Francisco  - Google unveiled video and voice capabilities to its popular Gmail chat program Tuesday, making it a more worthy competitor to rival applications from Microsoft and Yahoo, which have boasted such features for years.

The new service requires users to download and install a plug-in and have their computer connected to a webcam. Google has teamed with camera maker Logitech to offer users healthy discounts on webcams, the companies said in a statement.

Wellington - Nearly half of all Maoris registered to vote for the seven parliamentary seats reserved for New Zealand's indigenous people boycotted last weekend's general election, the Maori Party said on Wednesday.

"Something is terribly wrong with our democracy," said Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia.

She said the party had campaigned strongly to persuade their people to vote and despite many Maoris being poverty-stricken it was clear they had become seriously alienated and disenfranchised.

Non-banking finance companies registered a decline in loan disbursement amid global financial crisis. They are thinking to tie up with banks to survive in volatile market. NBFCs are also considering repaying short-term obligations to mutual funds.

Rating agency, Crisil, confirmed that disbursement is declined by about 70 per cent within two months. It expects that NBFS have to work under large banks and sell their services. They are facing problems due to low maturity period on their amount while banks give at least three year maturity period on loans to customers.