Russia

Indian chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand has acknowledged the split among leading players had hit the game but argued it did not devalue the top tournaments.

The five cities bidding to host the 2008 Olympic Games have begun delivering their final presentations ahead of this afternoon's decision in Moscow around 3.30pm BST.

Beijing combined evocative images of ancient and modern China in its final bid for the 2008 Olympics on Friday just hours before the International Olympics Committee (IOC) votes on the host.

Beijing will host the 2008 Olympic Games after an International Olympic Committee vote in Moscow.

Beijing will be guaranteed at least $1.2 billion from the sales of television rights and sponsorships for the Olympic Games.

Charmaine Crooks, a former Olympic middle-distance runner, resigned abruptly from the IOC's ethics commission on Friday in a dispute over her role in Toronto's bid for the 2008 Games.

International sports leaders like to pretend to others, if not themselves, that sport is blissfully removed from politics.

The following profiles show the strengths and weaknesses of the five candidates seeking to take over from Juan Antonio Samaranch when he retires after 21 years in charge of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in July.

The IOC cannot be expected to help China with any internal issues or foreign disputes during the build-up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, IOC president Jacques Rogge has said.

Former Olympic rower Anita DeFrantz gets prickly when people suggest she is an outsider in the race to replace Juan Antonio Samaranch as International Olympic Committee (IOC) president.

sportbusiness.com will be reporting from Moscow tomorrow, giving you up-to-the-minute news on the chosen city to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

The future of the Olympic Games looks set to pass into the hands of a Belgian surgeon-cum-yachtsman who has earned a reputation for a calm touch in a storm.

Nobody can accuse Dick Pound, the 59-year-old Canadian lawyer and former Olympic swimmer, of not keeping up with the times as he campaigns for the most powerful job in world sport - the International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidency.

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.

The president of Russian premier division soccer side Fakel Voronezh has resigned following the death of a woman during the half-time interval of a 5-0 defeat by Spartak Moscow last weekend, club officials have confirmed.