SHOWDONWS: While Chelsea travel to Anfield, struggling Spurs will be looking to earn their first points of the season when they take on Derby at White Hart Lane
Liverpool tackle Chelsea as a resurgent City play stuttering champions United in the Manchester derby on a crunch weekend of fixtures in the English Premier League.

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Australia won gold in women's basketball at the World University Games yesterday, beating Russia 85-65 in the final. After losing its opening game to Brazil, Australia won five in a row to take the title.

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MORE WOES FOR WIE: Taiwan's Tseng Ya-ni ended the first round in joint third place while Michelle Wie's poor form continued as she finished 10 strokes behind the leader
American Laura Diaz shot a six-under-par 65 to seize the early advantage on Thursday at the US$2.25 million Canadian Women's Open.

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Wales's World Cup warm-up match against Argentina today is likely to be played out in front of a modest crowd at the Millennium Stadium as thousands of home fans vote with their wallets after a record defeat against England two weeks ago.

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World number ones Lin Dan and Zhang Ning stormed into the semi-finals of the world badminton championships yesterday, as China tried to reclaim control of this wildly unpredictable tournament.

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EASTERN PROMISE: Sven-Goran Eriksson will be taking a look at the Thai trio, who are being accompanied in England by their national coach
Manchester City, owned by former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have taken three Thai internationals on a two-week trial.

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REDBIRD RESURGENCE: After a dismal start to the season, St. Louis has fought its way back to within just two-and-a-half games of division-leading Milwaukee
Adam Wainwright gave up two hits in seven scoreless innings and Yadier Molina hit two homers as the St. Louis Cardinals completed a crucial three-game sweep of the Brewers with an 8-0 victory on Thursday.

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BY PAUL HUANG
Tilson Brito's fielding error on a hard two-out chopper by Chen Yuan-jia scored the go-ahead run for the Macoto Cobras as they held on to edge past the President Lions in a 6-5 road win in Tainan on Thursday evening.

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With NBA stars Nene and Leandro Barbosa guaranteed to play, Brazil is hoping to make it back to the Olympics next year.

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By Charles Snyder
In their quest for Taiwan's 18th world championship,Taiwan's Li Hsing Little League baseball dynamos will get a boost this weekend when Representative to Washington Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) travels to the small town of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to cheer the team on as the world championship series begins there.

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Beijing banned more than one million cars from its roads yesterday in a test run to improve air quality for the Olympics, easing gridlock but failing to lift a curtain of smog from the capital.

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A blockbuster end to the US golf tour season. A season-long points competition. A bonus worth five times the typical first-place check.

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COMING BACK: Wasps flanker Tom Rees, who has shrugged off two frustrating injury setbacks, will be looking to make his mark today at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille
England play France today hoping to reverse the 21-15 defeat they suffered in the first warm-up game against the French last week.

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BRUISING ENCOUNTER: The Irish skipper sustained a fracture to his sinus when he was hit in the face by New Zealand lock Mikarea Tewhata during a general melee
Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll will miss his country's World Cup opener against Namibia on Sept. 9 after being struck in the face in Thursday's warmup game against Bayonne, Irish team offcials said yesterday.

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Top ranked Justine Henin beat China's Peng Shuai 7-5, 6-2 on Thursday at the Rogers Cup, to move closer to her sixth WTA Tour title of the season.

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Canada's national team heads into next month's Rugby World Cup with plenty of optimism and the realization that they can't afford to let their guard down in their opener against Wales.

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Roger Federer survived a scare from Marcos Baghdatis on Thursday to move into the quarter-finals of the Western and Southern Financial Group Masters, which has been brutal to seeded players this week.

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■ HORSE RACING
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