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■ SOCCER

Fan gets festive shock

A fan had a rude shock when he opened the first door on his treasured Schalke 04 advent calender when he found the face of one of his beloved side's arch-rivals grinning back. Passionate Schalke fan Tobias Meier, 28, was horrified to find not only a chocolate, but Werder Bremen's star midfielder Diego smiling back at him when he opened up the first door on Dec. 1. To add insult to injury, his father Peter, 50, had the same problem with his Royal Blues calender after a mistake at the Italian printers meant roughly 40 of the 40,000 Schalke calenders were printed with pictures of Bremen stars. "We were totally shocked," Tobias told German tabloid Bild. "We immediately opened the other doors and found there were Bremen stars behind every window -- it wasn't the surprise I was expecting."



■ SOCCER

Dortmund hit Bielefeld for six

Borussia Dortmund crushed Arminia Bielefeld 6-1 in the Westphalia derby after running riot with four second-half goals in the Bundesliga on Friday. Dortmund, fresh from a 2-1 win over champions VfB Stuttgart last weekend, took a 2-0 lead before the break with Tinga's early strike and an own-goal by Markus Schuler. Mladen Petric headed his eighth goal of the season from a Dede cross to make it 3-0 two minutes into the second period. Nelson Valdez converted a penalty for the fourth goal before Florian Kringe slotted home right-footed from a Petric pass and Giovanni Federico made it 6-0 in the 67th minute. Oliver Kirch's reply for Bielefeld in the 81st minute will have come as no consolation at all.



■ SOCCER

Anderlecht await their fate

UEFA will decide next week whether to punish Anderlecht after their fans threw objects onto the field during their UEFA Cup match with Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs midfielder Didier Zokora was hit by what appeared to be a cigarette lighter toward the end of Thursday's 1-1 draw in Brussels, while visiting goalkeeper Paul Robinson handed a match official a metal bar that landed on the turf. UEFA opened disciplinary proceedings against the Belgian champions on Friday after receiving the referee's match report and its disciplinary committee will hear the case on Thursday. Anderlecht have already been in trouble this season when they were fined US$16,200 after their fans threw objects and tried to get onto the field during a Champions League qualifying match against Fenerbahce.



■ CRICKET

West Indies win series

The West Indies made Zimbabwe pay for letting a good start slip on Friday to win the fourth one-day international by five wickets and take an insurmountable 3-1 series lead. Zimbabwe openers Vusi Sibanda (96) and Hamilton Masakadza (80) put on 167 for the first wicket before Masakadza was stumped for 80 off the bowling of Rawl Lewis in the 37th over. Zimbabwe then lost eight wickets for just 65 run in 13.1 overs at Queens Sports Club to total 232-9. Runako Morton hit 79 off 109 balls, Marlon Samuels 62 off 71 and Bravo 41 off 41 as the West Indies reached 234-5 with three overs to spare and clinch the series ahead of today's final game in Bulawayo. Sibanda was run out for 96 in the 39th over, and Zimbabwe's innings lost momentum completely. Much of that had to do with the good bowling of Jerome Taylor, who ripped through a Zimbabwean middle order intent on playing attacking strokes rather than consolidating the team's impressive start.

■ BASEBALL

Timlin accepts new deal

Veteran pitcher Mike Timlin will stay with World Series champion Boston for at least one more season after accepting a new contract, the Red Sox said on Friday. The right-hander, who in August became the 13th pitcher to appear in 1,000 major league games, has agreed a one-year deal estimated by local media to be worth US$3 million. Timlin has gone 71-69 with 140 saves and a 3.55 ERA in 1,011 career games. He ranks second in Red Sox history with 347 relief appearances. Despite being hampered by injuries, he went 2-1 with a 3.42 ERA and one save in 50 games last season.



■ BASKETBALL

Knicks worth most

The New York Knicks' struggles on and off the court didn't keep the team from remaining the NBA's most valuable franchise for the third straight year, according to a list compiled by Forbes. The Knicks were valued at US$608 million, up 3 percent from the previous year despite a spate of losses, an embarrassing defeat in a sexual harassment lawsuit, and continuing questions about the future of coach Isiah Thomas. The NBA's marquee franchise also had a league-high US$196 million in revenues for the 2006-2007 season while topping the list with negative US$42.2 million in operating income after going 33-49 and missing the playoffs.



■ ATHLETICS

Runner Kenyan again

Kenyan-born runner Leonard Mucheru, who has been competing with a Bahraini passport, has regained his Kenyan nationality, officials said on Friday. Mucheru, who transferred his allegiance to Bahrain in 2003, fell foul of the Bahraini athletics association after taking part in a January marathon in Israel -- with whom Bahrain has no diplomatic ties. Mucheru is now free to compete for Kenya once again, according to a statement from Athletics Kenya secretary general David Okeyo. Mucheru had competed for Bahrain under the acquired name Mushir Salem Jawher. Kenyan athletes often seek a nationality change to obtain better training facilities and remuneration, plus to avoid the stiff competition at home.



■ GOLF

Woods' wife wins damages

The wife of Tiger Woods won 125,000 euros (US$183,250) and an effusive apology on Friday from an Irish magazine that published a "deliberately offensive" article and a faked nude photo of her. Trevor White, publisher of the Dubliner, conceded that the article -- published in September last year when Ireland was hosting the Ryder Cup -- "was cheap, tasteless, and deliberately offensive. It was also completely untrue." The article visibly angered Woods during the opening day of competition, which the US lost to Europe. Nordegren Woods said she would donate the money to a cancer charity in honor of Heather Clarke, the wife of Northern Ireland golfer Darren Clarke. She died of cancer before the Ryder Cup tournament. The headline of the article that accompanied the fake photo described the US golfers' wives as "Ryder Cup filth." The story claimed that Woods' wife "can be found in a variety of sweaty poses on porn sites across the Web." "The photograph was not of Ms. Nordegren Woods. There are no such photographs of Ms. Nordegren Woods on internet sites or elsewhere. Ms. Nordegren Woods has never posed, or been photographed, nude. The story was utterly and comprehensively false," White said.
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