Canada

The Tennessee Supreme Court has declined to get involved in the fight over public funding for a $250 million NBA arena for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Organisers said they were not worried ticket sales for the world athletics championships were $1.65 million ($2.4 million Canadian) below their $8.33 million ($12.5 million Canadian) target on Wednesday, 16 days before the opening ceremony in Edmonton, Alberta.

The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) has filed a lawsuit against Canadian businesses that it claims are illegally distributing pay-per-view telecasts of WWF events.

Canadian city Montreal has won the race to host the World Swimming Championships in 2005.

United Arab Emirates cricket authorities demanded yesterday that all of their team's matches in the ICC Trophy be replayed because two of their top players were refused entry into Canada.

Ninety percent of the population of Beijing tuned into the broadcast of the Olympic vote on the host city for the 2008 Games which saw the Chinese capital emerge victorious.

Canada said it would bid to host the next soccer World Cup to be played in the northern American hemisphere.

Beijing seems to be cruising towards victory in the race to stage the 2008 Olympic Games, despite human rights demonstrations on the IOC’s doorstep and Chinese stadiums that currently exist only as computer graphics.

Costa Rica will take the place of Canada in the Copa America after Canada pulled out because it did not have time to prepare for the hastily rearranged competition.

As was widely predicted, Canada’s largest cable firm, Rogers Communications has bought a 40 percent stake in national sports network Sportsnet from broadcaster CTV.

China is in line for a billion-dollar pay day if Beijing wins the right to stage the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Soccer tournament the Copa America finally kicks off in Colombia on Wednesday after weeks of furious argument over when and where it should be played but, as the action starts, ordinary fans may be asking what the fuss was about.

Three days before Olympic officials vote on Beijing's bid, members of the U.S. Congress, flanked by world-class athletes, squared off on Tuesday over whether the 2008 Summer Olympics should be held in China.

Honduras has stated it will take part in Copa America, replacing Argentina after the South American side pulled out for security reasons of the tournament hosted by Colombia.

As Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games enters the home strait, Big Business is drooling at the prospect of the largest marketing event ever in the world's most densely populated country.

Beijing officials defended China's human rights record on Wednesday but conceded it faced a challenge persuading world opinion that the Chinese capital should stage the 2008 Olympic Games.

Osaka Olympic bid organisers stressed the quality of the Japanese city's venues and a government pledge of unqualified financial backing in its final submission to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday.

Public money cannot be used to build a new $250 million arena for the relocating Vancouver Grizzlies basketball side without a public vote, a court has ruled.