■ SOCCER
Thaksin regrets flag insult
Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra has apologized to the Thai people after a group of the club’s fans emblazoned his name on the national flag, a crime in his homeland. The flag was unfurled reading “Thank you, Thaksin” during City’s home loss to Fulham a week ago, a shock defeat that fueled speculation that manager Sven-Goran Eriksson will be sacked. Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundarajev was not amused, while Thai police were reportedly mulling charges against the former premier for disrespecting the flag. In Thailand it is a crime to alter or deface the flag in any way. “I regret the incident by Manchester City fans in England, who were trying to show their love for the club and for Thailand,” Thaksin was quoted as saying in the Thai-language Daily News. “It’s OK in their culture, and once we explained the problem to them, they expressed their regret,” he said.
■ SOCCER
Wife's uncle sues Eduardo
Arsenal striker Eduardo Da Silva is being sued for 1.2 million euros (US$1.8 million) by his wife’s uncle over an unpaid transfer commission when he joined Arsenal last year. Zagreb estate agent Miljenko Radivojeciv says Eduardo has failed to honor a “working contract” they both signed in 2003 and which he believes entitles him to commission from any transfer to a foreign club. The amount Radivojevic says his nephew owes him represents 10 percent of the reported 12 million euro transfer fee when Eduardo moved from Dinamo Zagreb to Arsenal last year. Legal proceedings were started on Monday in a Zagreb court, the Hina news agency reported. Eduardo’s lawyer says the player and his wife are extremely concerned about their uncle’s decision to go to court. “They can’t understand that someone’s trying to take advantage of the transfer, especially someone who has done nothing for them, aside from buying Da Silva a pair of trainers,” Miroslav Separovic said.
■ BASEBALL
Argument sparks bar killing
After an argument over rival baseball teams spilled outside a bar in Nashua, New Hampshire, a woman aimed her car at a group of people to scare them and didn’t brake, hitting and killing a man, authorities and witnesses said. Ivonne Hernandez was arraigned on Monday on reckless second-degree murder and drunken driving charges and was held without bail. Hernandez, 43, early on Friday sped toward a small group that included the man, Matthew Beaudoin, 29, and never hit her brakes, prosecutor Susan Morrell said on Monday. Beaudoin died of massive head trauma at a hospital, Morrell said. Authorities won’t describe the argument, but witnesses said it heated up when Hernandez identified herself as a New York Yankees fan. Nashua, about 70km northwest of Boston, is the territory of the Boston Red Sox.
■ SOCCER
Milan get Flamini for free
AC Milan have signed Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini on a four-year deal after capturing the Frenchman on a free transfer, the Italian giants said on Monday. The 24-year-old turned down a new deal offered by Gunners manager Arsene Wenger prior to his contract running out at the end of the current season, meaning he heads to the reigning European champions for free. Flamini arrived in Milan on Sunday and sailed through a medical on Monday before putting pen to paper. The former Marseille player came notably to Milan’s notice when he played a major role in their elimination by Arsenal at the last 16 stage of this season’s Champions League.
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