Roman Pavlyuchenko kept Tottenham on course for the Champions League as his double-strike clinched a 3-1 win against Blackburn on Saturday.

After a miserable first half of the season, Pavlyuchenko has been in superb form of late and the Russia striker took his goal tally to eight in his last six games to ensure Harry Redknapp's side consolidated fourth place in the Premier League.

Lee Chong Wei's dream of becoming only the second Malaysian in 44 years to win the men's singles title at the All-England Open moved impressively closer with a brilliantly taken semi-final win.

The top-seeded Olympic silver medallist beat Peter Gade, the former All-England champion from Denmark, 21-17, 21-14, to earn his second successive final at Britain's national indoor arena.

An Iranian court has sentenced a top female reformist arrested after last year's election dispute to three years in jail for plotting to harm national security, her lawyer said on Saturday.

Azar Mansouri was arrested in September during a widespread crackdown on opposition supporters who challenged the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009.

Mansouri, a senior leader from reformist political party, Islamic Iran Participation Front, was sentenced to a three-year jail term, lawyer Mohammad Reza Faghihi told ILNA news agency.

The European Union will unilaterally impose new sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear programme if there is no consensus at the UN, Finland's foreign minister said on Saturday.

"I think we'll be able to convince China and Russia and I'm confident that we'll get something at the UN Security Council," Alexander Stubb said on the sidelines of a meeting of his peers in Finland.

"Failing (this) there would mean unilateral EU sanctions, we would do it unilaterally within the European Union," he said, adding: "There is consensus enough."

Investment Dar, the troubled Kuwaiti firm that owns half of luxury British carmaker Aston Martin, said on Saturday it has filed for legal protection under Kuwait's financial stability law.

"Investment Dar announces today that it has started a process of legal protection under the terms of Kuwait?s Financial Stability Law," a company statement said.

The company, which has debts of over three billion dollars, said the move aims at pushing through a debt restructuring plan that is backed by more than 80 percent of creditors but is opposed by a minority.

The Netherlands gave veteran goalkeeper Guus Vogels a retirement present by winning the bronze medal in the men's field hockey World Cup with a 4-3 win over England on Saturday.

In a thrilling play-off for the third and fourth place positions, Rogier Hofman scored the winning goal three minutes before the final whistle after the Dutch fought back from 1-3 at half-time.

Vogels, who turns 35 later this month, was named the Dutch captain instead of Teun de Nooijer for the bronze medal match, his last international game after earning 259 caps for his country.

A roadside bomb exploded in central Afghanistan on Saturday, killing six people in a civilian vehicle, the interior ministry said.

The blast occurred in Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, said the ministry. One passenger was also wounded in the incident, it added.

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are widely used by Taliban insurgents against Afghan and international troops, but often claim civilian lives.

British Formula One legend Stirling Moss said he was feeling better after breaking several bones falling three floors down a lift shaft, the 80-year-old said on his website Saturday.

Speaking in a video clip from his hospital bed, the motor racing star referred to the fall as a "shunt" and said he would be "bouncing back soon".

Moss suffered two broken ankles, four broken bones in his feet, skin aberrations and four chipped vertebrae following the accident at his central London home on March 6.

At least 10 people were killed in a suicide attack in Pakistan's Swat valley on Saturday, a day after a series of bombings brought chaos and bloodshed to the city of Lahore, police said.

The bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a building used by security forces in Saidu Sharif, on the edge of Mingora, the main town in Swat, where the military said last year it had quelled a Taliban uprising.

Pakistan's Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, in which three security personnel and a nine year old child were among the dead.