* Baseball
Shinji Mori released
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays released Japanese reliever Shinji Mori on Monday. An All-Star in Japan, Mori agreed to a US$1.4 million, two-year US Major League Baseball contract with Tampa Bay in January last year but never threw a pitch for the Devil Rays. Two months later, he tore the labrum in his right shoulder during his spring training debut in a minor league game. The 32-year-old right-hander was a five-time All-Star with the Seibu Lions of the Pacific League in Japan.
* rugby union
Grewcock out for six weeks
Danny Grewcock's place in England's World Cup squad is in danger after the lock forward was banned for six weeks for punching an opponent. The suspension, which begins at the start of the season on Aug. 4, would rule the Bath forward out of England's three warmup games as well as its first two group matches at the championship which starts on Sept. 7 in France. Grewcock was found guilty of punching Thibault Privat in Bath's European Challenge Cup final loss to Clermont Auvergne on May 19. England coach Brian Ashton will name his initial training squad of 40 on Friday and has to decide whether to select a player who will miss five important games.
* soccer
Henry linked with Barca
Arsenal striker Thierry Henry has reached an agreement to transfer to Barcelona, the Web site of a French sports magazine reported on Monday. Henry's agent and Barcelona's sports director agreed to a three-year contract, and it's now up to "convincing" the north London club, France Football reports in its edition to be published yesterday. Details were not immediately available. The site only showed a photo of the magazine's cover page featuring a photo of Henry under the headline "Barca-Henry: Deal Reached."
* tennis
Americans advance
Top-seeded Francesca Schiavone and Meghann Shaughnessy of the US won their opening matches at the Barcelona KIA Open on Monday. Schiavone, who is looking for her first tournament title after three runner-up finishes last year, advanced to the second round when fellow Italian Romina Oprandi retired with a right arm injury after losing the first set 6-2. Shaughnessy, seeded sixth, beat Spanish wildcard Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the second round. Third-seeded Emilie Loit of France worked hard to get past Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 7-5, 6-3.
* soccer
Urs Linsi leaves FIFA
Urs Linsi is leaving FIFA after five years as general secretary of world soccer's governing body. Linsi was appointed general secretary in December 2002 after temporarily filling in for Michael Zen-Ruffinen, who left the organization after accusing FIFA president Sepp Blatter of corruption. "Dr. Urs Linsi has decided to seek new challenges elsewhere," FIFA said on Monday in a statement. "FIFA hereby thanks Urs Linsi for his significant achievements." Markus Kattner, the director of finance and controlling, will take over as acting general secretary, FIFA said. Blatter served as general secretary for 17 years under former FIFA president Joao Havelange. Since succeeding Havelange, Blatter will be getting his third general secretary since 1998. FIFA's Executive Committee will decide on a new organizational structure for the 2007-2010 period at a meeting on June 27.
agencies
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