Patricia Moreno beat one set of odds in being the first runner named as a torchbearer in the lead-up to the Vancouver Olympics. The next will be to show her friends they’re wrong when they tease her about falling down with the torch when the 18-year-old Vancouver high-school student takes centre stage with the [...]

CAIRO, Egypt – Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to launch a jihad against Israel and condemned Arab governments as allies of the Jewish state in a new message aimed at harnessing anger in the Mideast over the Gaza offensive.
Bin Laden spoke in an audiotape posted Wednesday on Islamic militant Web sites where [...]
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Guerrillas in Lebanon rocketed northern Israel on Wednesday for the second time in a week, drawing Israeli artillery fire and threatening to drag the Jewish state into a second front as it battled Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The violence defied a new call from the U.N. chief to immediately end [...]
Preparations for the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) gained
further momentum at the end of the year with the launch of two new programmes: the Olympic Education Programme (OEP) and Friends@YOG. “Since Singapore won the bid to host the 2010 YOG, our schools have been actively organising various activities to intensify the YOG buzz. [...]
The Japanese Olympic Committee is considering holding a large-scale half marathon in Tokyo to boost the Japanese capital’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Games, it was learned Friday.
The JOC wants to jointly stage the event featuring around 30,000 competitors with the Olympians Association of Japan and is looking to pencil in the race [...]
Toshiaki Nishioka of Japan beat Genaro Garcia of Mexico on a technical knockout in the 12th round Saturday to retain his WBC super bantamweight interim champion title.
It was Nishioka’s first successful defense of the belt he won against Napapol Kiatisakchokchai of Thailand last September.
With his sharp left hand, Nishioka was a comfortable winner over [...]
Usain Bolt let those long legs loose at the Bird’s Nest, and he left Beijing with three Olympic gold medals, three world records and hundreds of millions of new fans around the world.
Virtually unknown at the start of the year, the Jamaican sprinter was the star of the track in 2008, first setting a world [...]
Sailing scored a major coup as its television coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games was recognized as ‘The Best Sports Coverage by the Host Broadcaster’ at the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) “Olympic Golden Rings” ceremony, held last night (16 December) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The IOC’s Olympic Golden Rings ceremony recognises the contribution made by the [...]
A major conference in Madrid promoting tourism through the Internet has provided a showcase for Madrid’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Antonio Fernandez Arimany, Managing Director of the bid, told the TravelThink conference that the city would be the perfect Olympic host for the visitors from around the world.
He said, “for tourists Madrid [...]
World Cup slalom leader Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) skied two great slalom runs but still finished second behind Germany’s Maria Riesch, who won both the first and second runs, at the Audi FIS World Cup in La Molina, Spain on Sunday. Riesch built nearly a full second lead on the field with her first run [...]