■ Bangladesh
Angry fans attack jail
Hundreds of soccer fans in the capital Dhaka attacked a jail and an electricity office after power failures interrupted broadcasts of the quarter-final match between Argentina and Germany. A group of protesters threw stones at the gates of the central jail in Dhaka's densely populated Lalbagh district, slightly injuring more than a dozen jail security guards who attempted to prevent them from going to a nearby electricity office, Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Aminul Islam said yesterday. He said the protesters also threw stones at the home of a top official of the jail authorities during the melee. Later, another mob wielding iron rods attacked the electricity office in the same area, Islam said.
■ India
TV ratings soaring
Indians are turning into couch potatoes and guzzling beer like never before as excitement in the Asian country over the World Cup peaks, local media reported yesterday. The scenes in homes and pubs across the cricket-mad country differ little from soccer-playing countries. "A remote in one hand and brew in the other -- that is the general picture," the Hindustan Times said, reporting that beer sales had shot up by nearly 40 percent in New Delhi and Mumbai and that TV viewing in cities was up by 175 per cent on match days. Even though the Indian soccer team (ranked a lowly 117) has failed to qualify for World Cup time and again, people are becoming interested in the sport and are following the tournament closely. Soccer has taken over as the most-watched sport in India, pushing cricket into second place.
■ Tourism
Numbers exceed targets
The World Cup has triggered an influx of visitors exceeding tourism officials' expectations. By the time the tournament ends next Sunday, the number of visitors from abroad is expected to reach 2 million, said Petra Hedorfer, head of the German Center for Tourism. Officials originally forecast the World Cup would lure 1 million visitors. Hedorfer said her organization had commissioned a survey of 1,281 World Cup visitors. It found that more than 90 percent would recommend Germany to others as a destination and 91 percent felt welcome in the country.
■ Cards
Averages at record level
Going into the quarter-finals, the World Cup averaged 4.86 yellow cards a game, according to FIFA. That compares to 4.25 per game in South Korea-Japan in 2002, 4.03 in France 98, 4.52 in USA 94, 3.12 in Italy 90, 2.56 in Mexico 86 and 1.88 in Spain 82. The Germany tournament is averaging 0.45 red cards a game. That's up from 0.27 in 2002, 0.34 in 1998, 0.34 in 1994, 0.31 in 1990, 0.15 in 1986 and 0.12 in 1982.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
After pushing for months to get a shot at Colby Covington, Ireland’s Ian Machado Garry is getting to headline the UFC’s final card for this year. However, it will not be against Covington. The promotion on Friday announced that Machado Garry, the No. 7-ranked welterweight, would face ninth-ranked Joaquin Buckley at UFC Fight Night in Tampa, Florida, on Dec. 14. Machado Garry, 26, is undefeated through 15 matches, the most recent coming on June 29 when he beat Michael Page via unanimous decision. Last month, Machado Garry said in an Instagram post that in September he was offered a fight with Covington — the