■ Thousands suffer in cold
More than 10,000 households in the northwest have been without heat since Saturday and face several more days of sub-zero temperatures after a boiler failed, Xinhua news agency said. The central boiler furnace failed at a power company in the city of Urumqi due to a build-up of coal dregs more than 30cm thick on its walls, Xinhua said yesterday. Company officials said that it could be three to five days before heat was restored. The company had been forced to buy the low-quality coal from small coal mines because its main contractor could only meet 80 percent of its demand, Xinhua said.
■ Australia
Stranded divers rescued
Divers have rescued two crew who spent 15 hours on the seabed in a stranded rescue submarine off Australia's west coast, the military said yesterday. The Australian Submarine Rescue Vehicle (ASRV) Remora ran into trouble at midnight local time on Monday when a winch system failed as it was being recovered during trials. After more than half a day in 130m deep water west of Perth, the vessel was brought to within 15m of the surface and the two crew were evacuated by divers.
■ Indonesia
Sex tape lawmaker resigns
A senior politician resigned from the country's largest political party after he was featured with a popular singer on a sex tape that was widely circulated in the country, media reports said yesterday. Yahya Zaini -- who is the head of the Golkar Party's religious affairs department, which has responsibility for moral issues -- submitted his resignation from the party, which was immediately approved by its chairman, Jusuf Kalla, who is also Indonesia's vice president.
■ Soccer
Bilbao's Orbaiz sidelined
Athletic Bilbao and Spain midfielder Pablo Orbaiz will be sidelined for up to eight months after rupturing a ligament in his right knee, his club said in a statement on Monday. Orbaiz sustained the injury on Sunday during Bilbao's 2-1 defeat by Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Orbaiz, who already had spent a month sidelined after straining a left knee ligament in October, was removed on a stretcher in the 56th minute. The setback is the latest in a series of serious knee injuries to strike the Primera Liga this season.
■ Speedskating
Cheek to receive award
Olympic speedskating champion Joey Cheek will receive the inaugural Heisman Humanitarian Award for his efforts to help refugees in war-ravaged Darfur. The Heisman Trophy Trust will honor Cheek at a dinner on Monday in New York. After winning gold and silver medals at the Turin Olympics this year, Cheek donated all of his performance bonuses -- a total of US$40,000 -- to Right To Play, a humanitarian organization founded by another Olympic champion, Johann Olav Koss. Cheek earmarked his money for refugees in Darfur, a region in the African nation of Sudan.
■ Sailing
Swiss wins Velux 5 first leg
Bernard Stamm of Switzerland started his defense of the Velux 5 Oceans by winning the first leg of the around-the-world solo race from Spain to Fremantle, on Australia's west coast. Stamm, sailing his self-built Open 60 Cheminees Poujoulat, arrived at Fremantle's port, the site of the 1987 America's Cup, at 7:18pm on Monday after 43 days and 20,000km of racing. Stamm, who left Bilbao, Spain with the rest of the race fleet on Oct. 22, was cheered by his partner, two children and support crew when he crossed the finish line. "I am very pleased to be here, to have won this leg and to be back on dry land," Stamm said.
■ Soccer
Henry dismisses rift rumors
Arsenal striker Thierry Henry dismissed rumors of a fallout with manager Arsene Wenger, saying in an interview published on Monday that he would stay with the team for life. Henry told L'Equipe that reports of a rift between him and Wenger were off target. They originated, he said, from a heated talk in the locker room about his leg injury. Wenger told Henry to take time off to heal, which upset the 29-year-old Arsenal captain. "I was worked up because I couldn't help my team on the pitch," he said. "That's hard for me to accept. But I didn't argue with Arsene Wenger."
■ MotoGP
Rossi excited about race
Valentino Rossi will be racing even closer to home next season at the Misano track, which was introduced on Monday for next year's MotoGP season. The race, to be held Sept. 2, will be called the San Marino and Rimini Riviera Grand Prix. Rossi is from the nearby town of Tavullia. "I'm seriously worried about what could happen. I think I'm going to have to turn my cell phone off then because the entire world is going to call me for tickets," Rossi said. "Joking aside, Tavullia is right around the corner and I'm sure the fans will come en masse." Misano last was used for a motorcycle grand prix in September 1993. Italian Luca Cadalora won, although the race was remembered more for the crash of Wayne Rainey while the US rider was leading.
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier