Arch-rivals Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova set up a dream Australian Open final Thursday while Andy Murray ground down Tomas Berdych to give himself a fourth crack at winning the Melbourne Park title. Williams battled past gallant fellow American Madison Keys while Sharapova demolished Russian compatriot Ekaterina Makarova to ensure the top seeds meet in Saturday's showpiece. She has a 16-2 record against Sharapova, with the Russian five-time Grand Slam champion losing their every encounter since 2004. An impressive Murray swept into a fourth Australian final in six years as he zeroed in on the elusive title, dousing big-serving Czech Berdych 6-7 (6/8), 6-0, 6-3, 7-5.

By Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of new confirmed Ebola cases totalled 99 in the week to Jan. 25, the lowest tally since June 2014, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, signalling the tide might have turned against the epidemic. "The response to the EVD (Ebola virus disease) epidemic has now moved to a second phase, as the focus shifts from slowing transmission to ending the epidemic," the WHO said. "To achieve this goal as quickly as possible, efforts have moved from rapidly building infrastructure to ensuring that capacity for case finding, case management, safe burials, and community engagement is used as effectively as possible." The outbreak has killed 8,810 people out of 22,092 known cases, almost all of them in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Cases and deaths have fallen rapidly in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the past few weeks, with just 20 deaths recorded in Liberia in the 21 days to Jan. 25.

BEIJING (AP) — For years, Alibaba faced complaints it failed to stamp out sales of counterfeit goods on its e-commerce websites. But Chinese regulators stayed silent, apparently reluctant to disrupt the rise of an Internet star even as they accused foreign automakers, dairies and others of violating anti-monopoly or consumer protection rules.