Turkey

China bid farewell to Olympic Games inspectors on Sunday, brushing off human rights concerns and vowing to make Beijing the clean, green and modern city it promised in its bid to host the 2008 Games.

Paris will stage the best Olympics ever if it wins the right to hold them in 2008, the bid organisers said in an official statement.

Promising a "utopia" for competitors, Toronto Olympic bid organisers have sought to rally athletes behind their campaign for the 2008 Games.

Facts about the FIFA vote to decide who stages the 2006 World Cup finals, which will take place on Thursday in Zurich.

Euro 2000 organisers have said they were shocked by the deaths of two Leeds United fans in Turkey overnight, but said they were confident the tragedy would not complicate security at this summer's tournament.

The volleyball world championship's fashion police have struck, fining seven teams $3,000 each for ignoring its new dress code.

A US government official has stated that President George Bush will not block Bejing?s bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, despite the current political unrest between the US and China.

China has sentenced an activist to two years in a labour camp for urging the International Olympic Committee to use Beijing's bid for the 2008 Games to press Chinese authorities to free jailed democracy activists.

Paris officials have abandoned plans to hold the gymnastics in the historic Grand Palais if they win their bid to host the 2008 Olympics.

Turkish soccer club Galatasaray has applied for permission to sell shares in an initial public offering, the Istanbul stock exchange has said.

The roof of the Amsterdam Arena was closed for the first time during Euro2000 on Saturday for the opening quarter-final between Portugal and Turkey.

China has launched Beijing's bid for the 2008 Summer Games under the slogan "New Beijing, Great Olympics."

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.

A favourable review of Beijing's 2008 Games bid by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) showed human rights protestors and US critics were out of step with world opinion, a Beijing official said on Sunday.

China's banned Zhong Gong meditation group issued an appeal on Monday to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to press Beijing to release its jailed leaders, a Hong Kong`-based human rights group said.

China's capital Beijing has spent billions of dollars this year widening and extending roads to pave the way for its bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, the Xinhua news agency has reported.