■ China
Premier League wins case
England's Premier League has won a trademark dispute giving it exclusive use in China of its crowned-lion logo. A Beijing court upheld an earlier ruling that the Xiangshi Celebration Service Company must stop using a similar lion-image trademark, court spokesman Wang Wenbo said yesterday. The dispute began in 1999 when the Chinese company registered its trademark -- nearly identical to the Premier League version, but minus a soccer ball in the lower left corner of the logo.
■ Saudi Arabia
Figo joins Al Ittihad
Portuguese soccer star Luis Figo signed with Al Ittihad on Wednesday, and will move to Saudi Arabia next week. Figo will play for six months for US$8 million, said a club official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The 34-year-old Figo has been with Inter Milan since last year. Al Ittihad won the Asian Champions League in 2004 and last year, and was knocked out in the quarterfinals this year.
■ Spain
Match promotes peace
Members of Israel's national squad partnered Palestinian players against a team representing the southern Spanish region of Andalusia on Wednesday for a friendly organized by the Peres Center for Peace aimed at promoting peace. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres was among the 35,000 fans at Seville's Sanchez Pijuan stadium, and he and French soccer great Michel Platini performed the honorary kickoff. The proceeds from the match were to go toward financing schools in Palestinian territories in a project sponsored by the Andalusian regional government. As for the game, Andalusia beat the Israeli-Palestinians 3-1.
■ TV ratings
Defeat drew record ratings
Germany's defeat in the World Cup semi-final drew the largest-ever TV audience in that country, according to year-end ratings released on Wednesday. Some 29.66 million Germans -- out of a population of 80 million -- watched Germany's 2-0 loss to Italy on July 4. Telephone surveys estimated another 16 million followed the game on huge screens set up in public across the country. All seven of the national team's games at the World Cup, hosted by Germany, topped 20 million. The World Cup final between Italy and France got 25.88 million viewers. Michael Schumacher's final race on Oct. 22 at the Brazil Grand Prix pulled in 13.45 million.
■ Speedskating
Female athlete of the year
Speedskater Cindy Klassen was overwhelmingly voted Canada female athlete of the year for winning five medals at the Turin Olympics. She won the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award for the second straight year in the survey by The Canadian Press and Broadcast News. Klassen received 131 of 144 first-place ballots in voting by sports editors and broadcasters across Canada. In addition to her Olympic medals, Klassen set world records at 1,000m and 3,000m, took the overall title at the world all-around championships in Calgary, Alberta, and won the World Cup overall title in the 3,000m.
■ Soccer
Pauleta to stay at PSG
Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) striker Pauleta is likely to end his career at the French club. The 33-year-old Pauleta, who scored a national record 47 goals for Portugal before retiring after this year's World Cup, doesn't regret staying with PSG -- despite the club currently languishing in 16th place. "Several things made me decide to stay in Paris and probably end my career at PSG," Pauleta told the Lusa news agency on Wednesday.
■ Soccer
Schalke inquest dropped
The investigation into whether Schalke possibly committed accounting fraud after buying its old stadium for 1 euro (US$1.3) was dropped on Wednesday. The district attorney's office also dropped its investigation into whether Gelsenkirchen -- the city where Schalke plays -- had acted against the public interest by selling Parkstadion that cheaply in 2003. The office didn't say why the investigation was dropped. Schalke, rumored last year to be near bankruptcy after building an expensive stadium, was accused of hiding its financial crisis by listing Parkstadion as worth an inflated 15.6 million euros (US$19.7 million).
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
RSS