Middle East

Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and global newspaper publishers Hollinger International have joined forces to launch Faceoff.com, a world-wide source for hockey-related news, information and e-commerce.

NBC has clinched a record NBA Finals rating with a sixth-game overnight score that may also be the top single-game rating in league history.

Former Tyrrell F1 deputy technical director Mike Gascoyne has joined Jordan Grand Prix as their new chief designer.

Nike has reported a fourth-quarter (April to June) loss in the 1997 to 1998 financial year of $US67.7 million ($A111.7 million).

Carmen Policy who resigned last week after seven years as president of the 49ers, has announced that he and billionaire banker Al Lerner are applying to buy the Cleveland expansion team that begins play in 1999.

The NBA's negotiating team spent Wednesday studying the union's luxury tax proposal to see if it will actually slow the growth of player salaries. .

NBA players agents and some of the league's leading stars have met to consider launching an alternative league if the current lockout continues.

Michael Jordan confirmed yesterday that the NBA Player's union is unified and will never accept a hard salary cap.

NBA Commissioner David Stern cut two more weeks off the NBA schedule, and then met with the players to see if the sides could compromise on the "guts" of a new deal. The earliest the season could begin is now December 1st.

A basic framework for an NBA labour agreement appeared to be in place following eight hours of talks Wednesday between NBA owners and players but both sides acknowledged they were not yet close to making a deal.

Fund management group Warburg Pincus is to take a financial stake in the Jordan Formula One team.

After 11 days of silence, the opposing sides in the NBA lockout agreed to resume formal bargaining talks later this week, in a bid to save their Christmas NBC TV schedule.

The NBA have informed NBC that the network's Christmas Day doubleheader, featuring the Chicago Bulls and possibly Jordan, is the latest casualty of the nearly five-month-long NBA lockout.

Michael Jordan will retire as soon as the NBA lockout ends, according to Charles Barkley.

Superstar Shaquille O'Neal and his Los Angeles Lakers are the centrepiece of a condensed post-lockout NBA schedule which forces every team to play on three consecutive nights at least once.

Irish property developer Jim Mansfield said he was considering plans to build a circuit capable of staging a Formula One grand prix in Dublin.