■ Soccer
Pele's son in drug bust
The son of Brazilian soccer great Pele, Edinho, was detained on Monday during a police raid on suspected drug traffickers, television reports said. Seventeen other people were also taken into custody in the raids in Sao Paulo state, Globo network said. Police accused the suspects of drug trafficking and links to a criminal organization in Rio de Janeiro. Agents seized 11 vehicles as well as weapons. Sao Paulo police gave no details about any suspicions against Edinho, a former goalkeeper who had a short-lived soccer career with the Santos, Portuguesa Santista, Sao Caetano and Ponte Preta clubs. All are Sao Paulo state first division teams. Edinho has been working as a soccer agent and impresario.
■ Olympics
Paris cements lead for 2012
It looks like Paris can't do anything wrong in the race to win the 2012 Olympics. The French capital cemented its front-runner status a month before the vote by receiving a glowing International Olympic Committee (IOC) review on Monday in the most competitive Olympic bid field in history. "Don't expect us to be self-satisfied," Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said. "Our team is more united, more determined [and] more combative than ever." London and Madrid also earned high praise in the 123-page report by the IOC. New York received a mixed assessment, with concerns over its proposed stadium, while long-shot Moscow took criticism for its lack of detailed plans. The IOC votes on July 6 in Singapore.
■ FIFA World Cup
Artists to unveil posters
Artists from Japan and Ghana are among a group of 13 who have created posters with soccer themes, to be unveiled tomorrow as part of the cultural campaign around the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. The posters will be presented at the "one year to go" festivities in Munich's World Cup stadium -- with Kwesi Owusu-Ankomah of Ghana, Japan's Hisashi Tenmyouya and Germans Norbert Bisky and Tobias Rehberger representing the artists.
■ Soccer
No fans at N Korea match
No North Korean fans will be on hand today inside Bangkok's Supachalasai Stadium to cheer their team in what had been scheduled as a home World Cup qualifying match against Japan. There will be no Japanese fans either. FIFA, soccer's world governing body, last month ordered the game, originally scheduled for the North Korean capital Pyongyang, to be played in Thailand, in a stadium closed to the public. The decision came after fans in North Korea rioted after a World Cup qualifying loss to Iran at Pyongyang. FIFA ordered North Korea to play its next match in a neutral country -- and with no spectators -- for safety reasons and as punishment for crowd trouble against Iran and an earlier match against Bahrain.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was