George W Bush used a speech given on the eve of the opening of the Beijing Olympics to call on the Chinese government to respect the human rights of its people.

“America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents and human rights advocates and religious activists,” Mr Bush said in Bangkok in what was almost certainly his last major policy address in Asia.
Given before setting off for Beijing, where he will attend the Games’ opening ceremony, the speech was intended to balance the very public symbol of support for Beijing that his presence will provide.
“We press for openness and justice not to impose our beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs,” he said.
Mr Bush was one of the first world leaders to say he would attend the Games, and has resisted calls for any boycott over human rights, China’s rule over Tibet or its support for the Sudanese government. He has said the Games are a sporting spectacle.
On what is the last Asian tour of his presidency, he has been keen to shore up key American allies in troubled times. The right-wing President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea, his first stop, has so far proved unpopular since taking office in February, while democracy in Thailand is deeply embattled.
Mr Bush was careful to balance his praise of democratic Asian nations and his rebuke to China for not following suit with enthusiasm for the material progress that China has made in recent decades. When he first came to China in 1975, he said, where his father George Bush senior was head of the American liaison office in Beijing, it was a poor city with few cars and most people dressed identically.
Now it was increasingly prosperous, and its young people, as they grew used to trading goods, would press for greater freedom to trade ideas.
“Change in China will arrive on its own terms and in keeping with its own history and its own traditions,” he said. “Yet change will arrive.
“And it will be clear for all to see that those who aspire to speak their conscience and worship their God are no threat to the future of China. They are the people who will make China a great nation in the 21st century.”
The authorities in Beijing will reject Mr Bush’s message, and have already attacked his decision to meet five Chinese dissidents and religious activists in Washington before setting off for Asia.
But their reaction will be tempered by the decision by the White House not to “spoil the show” by making a critical speech in China itself. Mr Bush will however make a symbolic gesture of support for China’s Christian community by attending a protestant church on Sunday in Beijing, albeit one that is part of the state-backed official church.
A request for him to attend a “house church” - illegal because not approved by the official church - was turned down.

from: telegraph.co.uk

The government has installed about 300,000 cameras in Beijing and set up a network to spy on its citizens and foreigners.

The blocking of human rights websites in China leading up to the Olympics is part of an information control and surveillance network awaiting visitors that will include monitoring devices in hotels and taxis and snoops almost everywhere.

Government agents or their proxies are suspected of stepping up cyber-attacks on overseas Tibetan, human rights and press freedom groups and the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement in recent weeks. And China is spending huge sums on sophisticated surveillance systems that incorporate face recognition technology, biometrics and massive databases to help control the population.
China has installed about 300,000 cameras in Beijing under an estimated $6.5-billion, seven-year program dubbed the Grand Beijing Safeguard Sphere. Although face recognition software still can’t process rapidly moving images, China hopes that it can soon electronically identify faces out of a vast crowd.

“China is trying to project a picture and a narrative about the Olympics,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Hong Kong-based researcher with Human Rights Watch. “By limiting journalists, shutting down the Internet, arresting activists, it’s hoping to control the message.”

The world’s most populous nation has legitimate concerns, as seen this week in an attack in the far western province of Xinjiang that killed 16 police officers. Few expect the security infrastructure to be even partially dismantled, a step Greece took after hosting the 2004 games.

Critics said these systems give China more advanced tools in its bid to control domestic critics, activists and media. In recent months China has recruited thousands of Beijing taxi drivers and hundreds of thousands of neighborhood busybodies to keep an eye on foreigners and its own citizens.

“Everyone feels they’re entering a police state, which by the way it is, duh,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of New York-based Human Rights in China. “So they’ve got people reporting down to the lowest neighborhood level, which is not new, overlaid by state-of-the-art technology. It’s the best of the old and the new.”

Another technology that raises concern involves the new identity cards China is phasing in for its 1.3 billion citizens. The cards, developed with help from Plano, Texas-based China Information Security Technology, carry radio signal devices and a chip that records not only a person’s height, weight and identification number, but also health records, work history, education, travel, religion, ethnicity, reproductive history, police record, medical insurance status and even his or her landlord’s phone number.

Near the Second Ring Road in downtown Beijing, Wu Naimei, 74, sat on a folding chair fanning herself. “If we see any suspicious people, we call the police and report on them,” the retired subway worker said, adding that she can’t define a suspicious person but knows one when she sees one. “We are happy to help protect our motherland, assist the nation and help our leaders relax.”

The West might have a stronger argument in questioning China’s potential for intrusive surveillance if it weren’t moving rapidly in the same direction. London is believed to have the largest number of closed-circuit TV cameras of any city in the world. Many countries have seen vast troves of personal data lost or stolen. Financial records and phone calls are now routinely monitored.

The difference is that Western countries have better checks on police power, some human rights activists said, even as they expressed concern that the U.S. could soon be using technologies developed in China.

“Every country wants to avoid abuse of police power,” said Xu Zhiyong, a lecturer at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. “It’s getting better in China, but we still have a ways to go.”

In addition to blocking online information about corruption and human rights violations, the government is suspected of collecting information on visitors’ Internet search activity.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) said late last month that foreign-owned hotels in China were under pressure to sign contracts authorizing police to install hardware and software to monitor their guests’ Internet activity. Hotel managers contacted in Beijing declined to comment.

This followed a State Department warning in March that “all hotel rooms and offices are considered to be subject to on-site or remote technical monitoring at all times.” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang quickly called the U.S. report irresponsible and denied that China employed more surveillance than normal.

In Beijing, two taxi drivers who asked not to be identified while discussing confidential matters displayed a pair of black button-sized devices just to the left of their steering wheel linked to the vehicle’s navigation system. They said the devices allow a central monitoring station to listen to anything inside the taxi.

One driver said that besides listening in on passengers, officials can hear any griping he might do about the Communist Party, which could result in punishment.

The Danish women’s soccer team caught two men spying on its members in September during a FIFA World Cup meet in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Lars Berendt, the group’s communication director, said in a telephone interview from their headquarters in Brondby.

Berendt said team members were in a hotel room having a tactical meeting when they noticed some movement behind what turned out to be a one-way mirror. In an adjoining room, they found two men, at least one of whom wore a hotel badge, and they held them until police arrived.

Berendt said the hotel denied any knowledge of the incident, and the International Olympic Committee and FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, said it was a matter for local authorities. Chinese police haven’t commented on any investigation.

“We’re not holding our breath,” Berendt said.

The state-run New China News Agency quoted fans as saying the Danes were just sore losers.

Security experts say company executives attending the Olympics are being advised to bring computers that have been wiped clean and to safeguard their smart phones. In extreme cases, they are also weighing the laptop to the gram to test whether ultra-light hardware devices have been added.

But a Western security consultant for one Olympic sponsor who asked not to be identified given the sensitive nature of his work said many of these fears were overblown, and that Chinese police had better things to do than spy on every “self-important corporate executive.”

Li Wei, a counter-terrorism expert with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, a semiofficial research organization, said most Chinese surveillance was in line with that of other Olympic host nations and didn’t dangerously compromise privacy.

Still, experts such as Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and author of a recent report on Chinese surveillance, believe that China is pushing the envelope.

“With Internet controls, there are ways around,” Rotenberg said. “But with surveillance technologies, you’re getting into the fabric of the state.”

source: latimes.com

On a map, the city of Kashgar looks a world away, more than 4000km west of Beijing across China’s vast girth.

But yesterday, the oasis city in the fractious region of Xinjiang felt closer than the Great Wall, that enduring monument to China’s mighty dynasties which lies inside the Beijing Municipality.

News of the deadly terrorist attack on jogging policemen in Kashgar was a bloody reminder that security remains a pressing concern for the Olympics.

Trudging through Beijing’s security checkpoints (operated, it has to be said, far more efficiently than those of Sydney or Athens) it’s easy to become blase and cynical as the guards dig through your bag.

Is this just for show? How much is it about control and how much is it about protection?

Kashgar’s separatist guerrillas delivered the answer, even though they struck far from the birds nest-like National Stadium.

For those of us in Beijing, the threat has seemed undaunting. Rower Rob Waddell, back for his third Olympics, noted yesterday that the level of security was high, but only on a par with anything he had experienced before.
“You’re certainly not going to get anywhere without your accreditation,” he said. “It’s what you expect and you feel perfectly safe on the course and inside the village.”

In the co-host city of Shenyang, though, the men’s soccer team feel more oppressed.

Coach Stu Jacobs said yesterday that moving around the city was almost impossible and that the team were virtually confined to the team hotel and the grounds.

“They’re very adamant that if you go off-site, someone needs to accompany you,” he said. Players are biding their time watching movies downloaded to their i-Pods.

It’s understandable things are a little tenser in Shenyang. It’s far from the missile and fighter-jet enhanced protective cloak around Beijing and New Zealand’s Oly-Whites are due to face host China tomorrow.

Are any of China’s domestic enemies determined enough to seek a starring role during these Games? Perhaps that’s a thought to ponder in the security checkpoint queue.

source: nzherald.co.nz

Some of the biggest and richest names in world sport will be at the Beijing Olympics, with the superstar mega-list headed by Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Lionel Messi, Yao Ming, LeBron James, and Michael Phelps.
Some will be mucking in with their teammates at the Olympic Village although others are expected to stay in hotel suites more becoming of their status and financial clout.
While the Olympics will attract more than 10,000 athletes, only a handful can claim to be truely global household names, and even fewer can boost of multi-million dollar bank accounts to boot.
Perhaps the most recognisable face is Federer, the Swiss tennis machine who has dominated the sport for five years, although in China, home to 1.3 billion people, Houston Rockets centre Yao Ming and 110m hurdler Liu Xiang are bigger.
When it comes to money, the American basketball team carries perhaps the most clout.
Players like James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwyane Wade are heavyweights of the game who have multi-million dollar salaries and all will be in Beijing.
James, or ‘King James’ as he is known, is one of the richest sportsman on the planet, and, if you believe the reports, is well on his way to becoming the first billionaire athlete.
Once the Cleveland Cavaliers star made it in the NBA, he reportedly bought all of his high school basketball team a new car. And his house just outside Cleveland includes a bowling alley, a barbershop, and casino.
Bryant and his teammates are equally flush, but it will be about face in Beijing after the Americans suffered the most humbling moment in their basketball history when they lost in the semi-finals in Athens.
It ended their three-Olympics reign as champions and they are desperate to reclaim the mantle.
“We will be Olympic champions this year,” James said.
“We have guys who don’t want to lose - Kobe (Bryant), Carmelo (Anthony), Dwyane (Wade) — and the guys off the bench are very good. We’ve got so many great players.”
Federer has reigned as the number one tennis player since 2004 - although his position is now under threat from Rafael Nadal - which makes him not only seriously rich, but a top draw in August.
But he has indicated he will be one of those forgoing the Olympic village.
While the overall experience, including bonding with teammates from more traditional Olympic sports, is part of the attraction of the Games, being a celebrity means autograph hunters badgering you even among fellow athletes.
Federer doesn’t want distractions in his quest for a first-ever Olympic gold.
“It was quite difficult in Athens,” he said. “Taking the bus and not being in control of my own schedule, and many people recognising me in the village.
“Every time I go to eat everyone taps on your shoulder.”
Maria Sharapova will also be in town, and is certain to be one of the most photographed competitors.
“One of the things I’m really looking forward to is the opening ceremony and walking with athletes from my country in front of thousands of people,” said the Russian, adding that she would love to watch some gymnastics.
“When I was younger I wanted to be a rhythmic gymnast,” she said.
Barcelona’s star striker Lionel Messi, considered by many to be the best young player in the world, hopes to be in Beijing, although his club Barcelona are dead set against it.
Many clubs have barred players competing, but Barcelona have little choice. Messi is 21 and clubs are obliged to release players under 23 years of age.
Yao, another from the mega-rich basketball fraternity, is huge in China and is sure to be a major focus of attention.
China’s richest celebrity earned some 55 million dollars from basketball and sponsorship activities last year alone and is perhaps the most recognisable Chinese face in the world, alongside President Hu Jintao.
Phelps isn’t on the same pay scale although he will reportedly receive one million dollars from Speedo if he matches Mark Spitz’ record of seven swimming golds this summer.
Regardless of his earnings power, Phelps could become the star of the show, with few other athletes in a position to win so many medals.
Another major attraction will be Athens gold medallist Liu Xiang, whose rock-star following in China and sponsorships by Nike, Coca-Cola, Visa and a host of Chinese brands have made him not only rich but very popular.
The world’s fastest sprinters, Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay, will also be top draws, with their 100m showdown set to be one of the great moments of the Games.

from: afp.google.com

The ban on Iraq competing at the Beijing Olympics next month has been lifted, the International Olympic Committee announced here on Tuesday.

Iraq’s compact Olympic contingent was cleared to take part in the 2008 Games after agreement was reached between the IOC and the Iraqi government at a crisis meeting at the IOC’s headquarters in Lausanne.

As the deadline for competitors at the Games for all events except athletics passed on July 23 the Iraqi contingent will now number only two athletes - Haidar Nasir in the discus and sprinter Danma Hussein.

The lifting of the ban came about after the Iraqi government agreed on a series of steps leading to a fully functioning independent National Olympic Committee (NOC) in Iraq.

IOC president Jacques Rogge hailed the eleventh hour deal, saying: “We look forward to seeing the Iraqi flag in Beijing.”

The Olympic chief added: “I commend the government of Iraq for reaching an agreement that serves the long-term interest of Iraqi athletes.

“We have said all along that we want to see Iraqi athletes in Beijing.”

Under the deal brokered Tuesday rather than being frustrated observers the two Iraqi athletes will compete in Beijing under the Iraqi flag, led by coaches and team leaders selected by the independent Iraqi NOC.

Five government representatives will be invited by the IOC as observers to the Games in Beijing.

The Lausanne agreement also calls for the transparent and fair election of a new, independent Iraqi National Olympic Committee, no later than the end of November.

This process will be overseen by the IOC and the Olympic Council of Asia and will be held in cooperation with the Government of Iraq, and in accordance with the Olympic Charter.

In June the IOC had suspended Iraq for “political interference” in its NOC which was sacked in May and replaced by a new panel headed by Iraqi Youth and Sports Minister Jassem Jaafar.

The Iraqi government had said that the previous Olympic committee was sacked because of “solid evidence of blatant corruption, lack of legitimate transparent electoral processes and accountability.”

It said the committee had an insufficient quorum and had failed to hold elections in more than five years.

The head of the committee, Ahmed Al-Samarrai, was kidnapped at gunpoint in Baghdad in July 2006 at the height of sectarian violence in Iraq along with several associates and he has not been heard of since.

from: afp.google.com

Japanese officials on Tuesday denied a report that the track cycling sport of keirin may have bribed its way into the Olympic Games.
The BBC said an investigation had uncovered documents outlining payments of $3 million from the Japan Keirin Association (JKA) to cycling’s world governing body the UCI.
But a senior Japanese official insisted there had been no wrongdoing before keirin first entered the Olympics at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
“The JKA has been co-operating with the UCI for many years to develop keirin and we have been involved in various activities to improve the sport,” the JKA’s Akihiro Matsukawa said.
“I have not been able to verify the documents the BBC say they have but the JKA denies the claims (of bribery).”
Keirin, which involves riders following a motorbike for several laps before a sprint finish, is big business in Japan, its country of origin, generating huge gambling revenues.
Hein Verbruggen, president of the UCI from 1991 to 2005, also protested his innocence.
“It has been done in total transparency,” Verbruggen, currently the International Olympic Committee’s chief inspector, told the BBC.
“This was done for the development of track cycling around the world.”
Britain’s Chris Hoy won keirin gold at this year’s world championships in Manchester and will start as favorite in Beijing.

(Writing by Alastair Himmer in Tokyo; Editing by Ed Osmond)

from: reuters.com

Competitors staying in the Beijing Olympics athletes village will be able to purchase a wide variety of soft pornography - but websites such as the BBC Chinese news page are still banned.

Readers can also choose between illustrated volumes of Chairman Mao’s poetry, the memoirs of pioneers of hybrid rice development, or from a large collection of Agatha Christie novels.

The Olympic village, where 16,000 competitors will stay when the Games get under way next week, opened to great fanfare at the weekend. Facilities, on the surface similar to those at previous host cities, nevertheless give an unexpected insight into the variety of modern Chinese life.

Athletes can enjoy a traditional tea ceremony, acupuncture and manicures, or enroll in a mandarin class where they will be offered the chance to have an official Chinese name based on their character.

That is if they are allowed in in the first place - security is overwhelmingly tight.

The village consists mainly of utilitarian-style, grey blocks of flats, which will be sold by developers after the Games. The only traditional building, a reconstructed courtyard mansion with elaborately tiled eaves, is not open to foreign residents.

It is the headquarters of the “mayor” or director of the village, Chen Zhili, a former state councillor and one of the most senior women in the Communist Party.

When Beijing won the right to hold the Games, officials had to promise that journalists would be allowed the same freedom to report as in previous host cities.

For that reason, travel restrictions on foreign correspondents in the country were lifted last year, but the issue of press freedom has remained one of the most contentious.

There have been repeated cases of journalists detained or otherwise stopped from reporting while covering Olympic and political issues in recent weeks. Officials had to apologise after a Hong Kong photographer was detained for six hours after scuffling with police while trying to film fights among those queuing for the last Olympic tickets on Friday.

Chinese officials normally mention “technical problems” when asked in public why certain websites like the BBC’s are blocked. Sun Weijia , media operations director for the Games, said he did not know of any such problems when asked about why Olympic promises had not been kept.

“I am not clear if the question of those two websites is a technical one or not,” he said.

by: Richard Spencer in Beijing

source: telegraph.co.uk

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Monday that he hopes to see the finest performance of Japanese athletes at the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games.

The Olympics, which is of lofty value, will inspirit every Japanese national to cheer for their team, said Fukuda in a send-off ceremony held for the Japanese Olympic delegation.

He expressed the hope that the athletes will recognize the value of the Olympics and put in their finest-ever performance.

He also expected the athletes to make their respective effort to present a vigorous Japan to the audience.

As Japan won a record 37 medals, including 16 golds, at the Athens Olympic Games four years ago, Fukuda said his expectation is that every Japanese athlete will be awarded a medal at the Beijing Olympics.

The Japanese Olympic delegation, composed of 339 athletes and 237 officials, is Japan’s largest deputation to participate in an Olympics held outside the country.

The delegation is headed by senior Japanese Olympic Committee official Tomiaki Fukuda, who said that the goal for the Japanese Olympic team is to win double digit golds and at least a total 30 medals.

Present at the ceremony was 19-year-old table tennis player Ai Fukuhara, who will lead the delegation as the flag-bearer during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on August 8.

Earlier Monday, the Japanese Olympic Committee announced the inauguration of the 576-strong Japanese Olympic delegation, which will head for Beijing in separate batches.

from: jappone.blogspot.com

Iraq have been banned from next month’s Beijing Games because of a government decision to disband the country’s National Olympic Committee (NOC), a senior official said on Thursday.

“This morning we were informed of the final decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to suspend the membership of the Iraqi Olympic Committee,” NOC general secretary Hussein al-Amidi told Reuters.

“It is a blow to Iraq and its international reputation, its athletes and its youth.”

The government of Iraq disbanded the NOC in May because of a dispute over how it had been assembled. The IOC gave Iraq a deadline to reinstate the committee but the government has refused to back down.

Iraq had planned to send a small team despite violence that has killed more than 100 athletes in the country since the 2003 United States-led invasion.

At least seven Iraqi athletes, two rowers, a weightlifter, a sprinter, a discus thrower, a judoka and an archer, had won places in Beijing.

“There’s nothing I can do. The government of Iraq wanted this. I can’t believe I’m not going to take part in the Beijing Olympics. The news is hard to take,” archer Ali Adnan told Reuters from Egypt where he had been training.

IOC DISAPPOINTED
The IOC, which has long supported Iraqi athletes training abroad to prepare for the Games, said it was very disappointed.

“We sent a letter to the Iraqi government today saying that as the situation stands today it is unlikely to have Iraqi athletes at the Beijing Games,” said IOC spokesperson Emmanuelle Moreau.

The chances of Iraq reinstating the NOC seem slim. The government has said the committee was illegitimate because it lacked a quorum and had failed to hold new elections.

“There is no review of the government’s decision because it was taken in accordance with the law,” Youth and Sports Minister Jasem Mohammed Jaafar told Reuters.

However, the IOC said the Olympic Charter forbids political interference in the Olympic Movement.

Rule 28(9) of the Charter provides for the suspension of an NOC in the event “any governmental body…causes the activity of the NOC…to be hampered.”

The Iraqi government was invited to go to (the IOC’s headquarters in) Lausanne to discuss possible remedies but did not positively respond to the invitation, the IOC said.

DETERMINED ATHLETES

Iraqi athletes had been determined to make their presence felt in Beijing despite the difficulties they faced.

Athletes’s reputations and international links make them and their families targets for violence in Iraq and the country’s sports infrastructure has decayed over decades.

Former basketball player and NOC boss Ahmed al-Hadjiya was kidnapped along with other sports officials by gunmen who stormed a conference in broad daylight in 2006. They are still missing.

Sport gave Iraqis arguably their greatest moment of unity since the fall of Saddam Hussein when the national soccer team, including members of all its main warring groups, defeated a heavily favoured Saudi Arabia to win the Asian Cup last year.

Over the last five years the IOC and the wider Olympic family have provided funding and training opportunities to support Iraq’s NOC and more than 50 Iraqi athletes and coaches.

“The Iraqi government’s actions have destroyed this progress,” an IOC official said.

(Writing by Mohammed Abbas; additional reporting by Karolos Grohmann in Athens and Wisam Mohammed and Tim Cocks in Baghdad; editing by Jon Bramley, Ken Ferris and Pritha Sarkar)

source: reuters.com

For nearly six hours on Wednesday, play at the Rogers Cup was disrupted by pounding rain, lightning and thunder. Then Gilles Simon went out and made more noise than all of it combined.

France’s Simon eliminated world No. 1 Roger Federer 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 at the $2.6-million tournament on Wednesday. “That’s just unbelievable for me to win against him,” Simon said. Federer, who won the tournament in 2004 and ‘06, became the first top seed to lose in his first match at the Rogers Cup since Lleyton Hewitt in 2002.

OAKVILLE, Ont. - Somebody carrying a Canadian passport is bound to win the country’s national golf championship eventually.

Only two men have accomplished that feat since 1914 and neither of them is still alive to tell the players of today how they did it.

LOS ANGELES - Swimmer Jessica Hardy’s trip to the Beijing Olympics could be in jeopardy after testing positive for a banned substance, according to a person familiar with the test results.

Hardy’s “A” sample from the recent U.S. Olympic trials tested positive, the person told The Associated Press on Wednesday night. The person, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the banned substance was a stimulant but did not provide any other details.

MONTREAL - He’s by no means a superstitious guy, so star Canadian kayaker Adam van Koeverden doesn’t believe in the so-called “flag-bearer jinx” that supposedly casts a dark cloud over the athlete chosen to lead his country into the Olympic Games.

“Alex Baumann carried the flag in 1984 and he won two golds, so I can deal with that jinx,” van Koeverden said Wednesday during a news conference to announce he would be Canada’s flag-bearer for the Beijing Olympics.

BALTIMORE - A pitching duel between A.J. Burnett and Jeremy Guthrie ended without a clear winner.

The game between Toronto and the Baltimore Orioles was suspended by rain Wednesday night with the Blue Jays leading 2-1 in the sixth inning.

The Detroit Tigers were nearly perfect, from the pitching of Armando Galarraga right down to the torrid offence.

Galarraga carried a perfect game into the seventh inning, Miguel Cabrera drove in three runs and the Tigers beat Kansas City 7-1 Wednesday, capping off a series in which they hit .355 and outscored their opponent 33-6.

TORONTO - It’s been almost a year since David Beckham sat in his tailored suit on the sidelines of BMO Field, watching as his Los Angeles Galaxy played Toronto FC to a scoreless draw.

The buzz of anticipation in the air that night fizzled into disappointment for Becks fans as the former England captain sat out the game with an ankle injury.

CARSON, Calif. - Jelena Jankovic opened her bid to gain the No. 1 ranking with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over American Vania King in the East West Bank Classic on Wednesday night.

The top-seeded Serbian could knock countrywoman Ana Ivanovic from the top spot by winning the tournament, her first since injuring her right knee at Wimbledon. King pressed Jankovic throughout the first set before the Serb took control in the second.

EDMONTON - Canadian auto racing legend Paul Tracy will run his first practice lap Thursday in a car he’s never been in before in his first open-wheel race in almost four months as part of a one-shot attempt to determine his IndyCar future.

In other words, Tracy said Wednesday, no pressure. “We all want to do well, our expectations are to do well, but I haven’t set any type of goal on myself that we have to win the race,” Tracy told a news conference in advance of Saturday’s Rexall Edmonton Indy (5 p.m. ET) at the City Centre Airport. “We’re just going to take it step by step every day. From my standpoint, this is my opportunity to get back in the (IndyCar) series.”

SALTILLO, Mexico - The Dominican Republic defeated Canada 3-1 Wednesday at the NORCECA junior women’s volleyball championship.

Set scores were 27-29, 25-16, 25-15, 25-17. Canada fell to 1-1 in the preliminary round.

ALPE D’HUEZ, France - Carlos Sastre won Wednesday’s 17th stage of the Tour de France, the hardest ride this year up three huge Alpine climbs, to take the overall lead from CSC teammate Franck Schleck.

Sastre took the yellow jersey by speeding ahead of the main title contenders in the final ascent of the 210.5-kilometre ride from Embrun to L’Alpe d’Huez. “I suffered a lot on the way to the summit, but I take great pleasure in capturing the jersey,” Sastre said through a translator. “A pure climber has to take advantage of his opportunities, and this was mine.”

ALPE D’HUEZ, France - The King of the Mountains and white jersey for best young rider at the Tour de France were probably determined Wednesday.

Bernhard Kohl kept the polka dot jersey given to the best climber after the final stage in the Alps and Andy Schleck increased his lead in the white jersey standings to one minute 58 seconds over Roman Kreuziger.

TORONTO - Time is running out for the federal government to indicate whether it supports Ontario’s bid for Toronto to host the 2015 Pan Am Games, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday.

The formal deadline for bids is Jan. 31, 2009, and the Pan American Sports Organization says it wants informal presentations in October. However, McGuinty said the “real” deadline is much sooner. “It’s time for the feds to make up their mind,” he said.

TROON, Scotland - Greg Norman used last week’s British Open as a warmup and almost made history. The warmup over, he is now setting his sights on the Senior British Open.

Leading the tournament at Royal Birkdale with nine holes to play, the 53-year-old Australian was on course to become the oldest winner of a major, but finished six shots behind Padraig Harrington in a tie for third.

CALGARY - There are many moments of truth for Kyle Shewfelt these days.

Like the kid playing street hockey thinking “Game 7, Stanley Cup final, this goal wins it,” Shewfelt often imagines himself in Beijing on the mat for the men’s Olympic gymnastics floor final. “In training, I have to simulate the competition, so I call my coach over and say to myself ‘this is the one. It counts. It matters,”‘ he said.

VANCOUVER - The seats were empty and the ice wasn’t up to par but members of Canada’s short-track speedskating team liked what they saw as they held their first training camp at the venue where they will compete during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Besides spending time on the ice at the Pacific Coliseum, the skaters checked out the building’s facilities and got a chance to find their way around Vancouver.

LINZ/OTTENSHEIM, Austria - Two Canadian crews advanced after their repechage races Wednesday at the World Rowing Championships.

Poland won the race in 5:53.94, but Canada’s lightweight men’s eight (5:55.32) overtook Australia (5:57.37) in the final 500 metres to take the next qualifying spot in the 2000-metre race.

from: ckwstv.com