MELBOURNE, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Order of play on the main showcourts on the fifth day of the Australian Open on Friday (play begins at 0000 GMT, prefix number denotes seeding):

(Reuters) - At least five people have died in severe rain and snowstorms that blanketed parts of California with at least five feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains this week, besides triggering flooding and mudslides, officials said.

Jan 17 (Reuters) - Chelsea have agreed a deal to sign striker Gonzalo Higuain on loan from Juventus until the end of the season, according to reports in the British media.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to approve the creation of a new 60,000-member national guard, a proposal embraced by leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as a crucial tool in the fight against organized crime.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lawsuit filed by a federal employees' union over the current U.S. government shutdown cannot move forward because the Justice Department lawyers who defend the government have been ordered not to come to work, a judge said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON/HAVANA (Reuters) - The Trump administration is considering allowing a law that has been suspended since its creation in 1996 to go into effect, allowing U.S. citizens to sue foreign companies and individuals over property confiscated from them by the Cuban government.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the partial U.S. government shutdown now in its 26th day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday urged President Donald Trump to reschedule his State of the Union address - a move that could deny him the opportunity to use the pageantry of the speech to attack Democrats in their own chamber over the impasse.

LIMA, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah was on the brink of a third Dakar Rally victory, and a first for Toyota, after finishing Wednesday's penultimate stage in southern Peru with a lead of 51 minutes.

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture will reopen about 980 Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices for three days starting on Thursday to help process farm loans and tax documents during the partial federal government shutdown.