Archives for July 2008

Former Arsenal midfielder Gilberto has warned Mathieu Flamini and Alexander Hleb that they may regret leaving the Emirates Stadium. Gilberto moved to Panathinaikos this summer after six years in North London in search of first team football, having started just five games for Arsene Wenger's side last season.

Hleb and Flamini, however, were first choices for Wenger, and Gilberto believes they may have made the wrong decision to leave Arsenal. "When you win things, you achieve more than anybody else. You get better contracts, and more money, anyway," Gilberto told The Daily Telegraph.

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Keane's club, Tottenham Hotspur agreed to sell the Irish captain before the weekend, and provisions are now being made today for the transfer to be completed.

The Guardian reports that Keane is ready to sign on at his boyhood favourites for £80,000 a week for five seasons. He could make his debut in Wednesday's glamour friendly against Villarreal.

The 28-year-old will become Rafa Beintez's sixth summer signing, having already bolstered his ranks with Diego Cavalieri, Andrea Dossena, Phillip Degan, Emmanuel Mendy and David Ngog.

However, a player of Keane's experience with 80 goals in 197 Premier League games for Spurs, will add the requisite credentials for a Liverpool assault on the Premier League and Champions League.

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Exactly 100 years ago a Chinese YMCA lecturer had a dream - that one day China would host the Olympic games. That dream is now about to come true, and this highly readable book traces the history of China's sporting ambition, from an obscure lecture in Tientsin in 1908 to the "high-quality Olympics with Chinese characteristics" that are to open in Beijing next month.Xu notes that the modern Chinese word for, sport, tiyu, didn't exist until the 1890s and that late 19th-century Chinese attitudes towards the body and physical training "were ambivalent, to say the least .

Chinese elites generally considered sports undignified - a robust body was not consistent with the idea of the cultured gentleman". But as the Chinese empire crumbled and morale was crucially undermined by the country's defeat in the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, Chinese people became convinced that their nation was a "sick man" whose body needed to be strengthened through a regime of rigorous physical exercise. Sun Yat-sen, China's first president, declared that "If we want to make our country strong, we must first make sure our people have strong bodies."

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Oscars organisers have been given the identity of someone who tried to sell two tickets for this year's ceremony without permission for $5,000 (£2,516).

A judge in Los Angeles ordered website Craigslist, where the tickets were offered, to reveal the vendor's name. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences said that person would join other individuals and companies it was suing for selling or brokering tickets. It said invitees were forbidden from selling these for security reasons.

Lawyer David Quinto, for the Academy, said: "If you don't know who's inside the theatre, it's very difficult to provide security." 'Trespasser' The poster identified themselves on Craigslist only as Daniel. In March, the Academy announced it was suing a number of parties over the sale of tickets. Some of these cases have now been thrown out.

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Top seed Jelena Jankovic overcame some early jitters before battling to a 7-5 6-2 victory over Vania King at the Los Angeles Classic, the Serb advancing to the third round on a day of several upsets. Playing her first match since falling in the fourth round at Wimbledon, Jankovic staved off two set points in the 10th game against the unseeded American before taking control of the contest.

Jankovic is struggling to regain full fitness since suffering a torn meniscus in her knee during the Wimbledon defeat at the end of June, but she was able to take comfort from the fact the injury was not hurting her."I was little but behind the ball and not reacting as fast and not having then right balance on my shots," Jankovic told reporters. "But the most important thing is I don't have pain in my leg."

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Omarosa is not sorry for sparring with Wendy Williams. "I stand by everything I said," Omarosa told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The reality star _ whose full name is Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth _ appeared Monday on "The Wendy Williams Show" to promote her upcoming book but instead spent more time trading insults with radio personality-turned-talk show host Wendy Williams, who infamously engaged Whitney Houston during an interview on her radio show in 2003.

"When you're not honest with the American people, they do not respond well to you," said Omarosa, who became famous after appearing on the first season of NBC's "The Apprentice." "She should just go ask Star Jones about that. Honesty needs to be there. She's a phony. As long as she continues to be a fake and a phony, she won't be successful."

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The Dark Knight slew the opposition at the US and worldwide box-offices this week, with total ticket sales reaching close to $200m (£100m).

In the US, Christopher Nolan's second Batman movie reached the No 1 spot in its opening week with $155m, beating the weekend opening record set by Spider-Man 3 in May 2007 with $151m.

 According to reports, numerous screenings sold out weeks ago, with film fans waiting hours in long lines to enter cinemas. Some venues even added shows at 3am and 6am on Saturday morning to cope with demand.

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Madonna has recruited Britney Spears for a virtual appearance on her upcoming tour."There is footage being shot of Britney some time this week in conjunction with Madonna's upcoming (Sticky & Sweet) tour," Madonna's publicist, Liz Rosenberg, said in an e-mail Tuesday to The Associated Press. "That is all the information I have available. The rest is `a secret.'"Rosenberg denied reports that Spears, 26, is shooting a music video.