South-East Asia

Olympic boss Juan Antonio Samaranch has lavished praise on Thailand's much-maligned organisers of the 13th Asian Games, describing Sunday's opening ceremony as one of the best he had ever seen.

Olympic chief Juan Antonio Samaranch has gaven a clean bill of health to Chinese sport and said Beijing was now an example to the world of how to fight against drug cheats.

The French capital announced it was bidding for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

The Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) today approved an application by Beijing to bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.

A growing scandal over cash payments made by Australian sports officials to snag the 2000 Olympics has stirred anger in Beijing, which lost the bidding war to Sydney by a razor-thin margin.

The Argentine Grand Prix has been scrapped from the 1999 Formula One calendar, the InternationalAutomobile Federation (FIA) has announced.

Sultan Ahmad Shah is expected to step down as president of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) this month.

Osaka, Japan's second largest city, has formally launched its bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics saying its campaign would mark the rebirth of "clean" Games.

Melbourne has tabled a bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games in anticipation of the International Olympic Committee moving to a system of rotating regions when awarding future Games.

The Malysian national oil company Petronas have launched a four-month long campaign to promote their sponsorship of the Formula 1 Grand Prix race to be held in Sepang International Circuit this October.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone's threat to pull F1 racing out of Europe if the EU competition authorities presses its investigation into the sport and imposes substantial fines could backfire.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has said he will allow free-to-air television broadcasts of grand prix motor racing for as long as he can.

Malaysia's ruling soccer body will not support Asia's tentative boycott of the 2002 World Cup over an extra berth, according to local newspaper reports.

Lisbon is expected to launch its second bid this year to host a major sports event.

Malaysia?s Selangor State Government is launching a major sports tourism thrust by highlighting the many golf courses in the state.

Two years after announcing that the World Cup of golf would become the fourth World Championships event in 2000, U.S. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem admitted recently that it was unlikely to happen.

News Corp's latest financial results for the second quarter 2001 have shown that Asian joint venture ESPN Star Sports (ESS) is still $21million (?23.4m) in debt.

The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) is hoping to raise US$3 million (?3.29m) in sponsorship for the 2002 World Cup.