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■ China
Premier League wins case
England's Premier League has won a trademark dispute giving it exclusive use in China of its crowned-lion logo. A Beijing court upheld an earlier ruling that the Xiangshi Celebration Service Company must stop using a similar lion-image trademark, court spokesman Wang Wenbo said yesterday. The dispute began in 1999 when the Chinese company registered its trademark -- nearly identical to the Premier League version, but minus a soccer ball in the lower left corner of the logo.

■ Saudi Arabia
Figo joins Al Ittihad
Portuguese soccer star Luis Figo signed with Al Ittihad on Wednesday, and will move to Saudi Arabia next week. Figo will play for six months for US$8 million, said a club official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The 34-year-old Figo has been with Inter Milan since last year. Al Ittihad won the Asian Champions League in 2004 and last year, and was knocked out in the quarterfinals this year.

■ Spain
Match promotes peace
Members of Israel's national squad partnered Palestinian players against a team representing the southern Spanish region of Andalusia on Wednesday for a friendly organized by the Peres Center for Peace aimed at promoting peace. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres was among the 35,000 fans at Seville's Sanchez Pijuan stadium, and he and French soccer great Michel Platini performed the honorary kickoff. The proceeds from the match were to go toward financing schools in Palestinian territories in a project sponsored by the Andalusian regional government. As for the game, Andalusia beat the Israeli-Palestinians 3-1.

■ TV ratings
Defeat drew record ratings
Germany's defeat in the World Cup semi-final drew the largest-ever TV audience in that country, according to year-end ratings released on Wednesday. Some 29.66 million Germans -- out of a population of 80 million -- watched Germany's 2-0 loss to Italy on July 4. Telephone surveys estimated another 16 million followed the game on huge screens set up in public across the country. All seven of the national team's games at the World Cup, hosted by Germany, topped 20 million. The World Cup final between Italy and France got 25.88 million viewers. Michael Schumacher's final race on Oct. 22 at the Brazil Grand Prix pulled in 13.45 million.

■ Speedskating
Female athlete of the year
Speedskater Cindy Klassen was overwhelmingly voted Canada female athlete of the year for winning five medals at the Turin Olympics. She won the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award for the second straight year in the survey by The Canadian Press and Broadcast News. Klassen received 131 of 144 first-place ballots in voting by sports editors and broadcasters across Canada. In addition to her Olympic medals, Klassen set world records at 1,000m and 3,000m, took the overall title at the world all-around championships in Calgary, Alberta, and won the World Cup overall title in the 3,000m.

■ Soccer
Pauleta to stay at PSG
Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) striker Pauleta is likely to end his career at the French club. The 33-year-old Pauleta, who scored a national record 47 goals for Portugal before retiring after this year's World Cup, doesn't regret staying with PSG -- despite the club currently languishing in 16th place. "Several things made me decide to stay in Paris and probably end my career at PSG," Pauleta told the Lusa news agency on Wednesday.

■ Soccer
Schalke inquest dropped
The investigation into whether Schalke possibly committed accounting fraud after buying its old stadium for 1 euro (US$1.3) was dropped on Wednesday. The district attorney's office also dropped its investigation into whether Gelsenkirchen -- the city where Schalke plays -- had acted against the public interest by selling Parkstadion that cheaply in 2003. The office didn't say why the investigation was dropped. Schalke, rumored last year to be near bankruptcy after building an expensive stadium, was accused of hiding its financial crisis by listing Parkstadion as worth an inflated 15.6 million euros (US$19.7 million).

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