Turkey

The 10 cities hoping to host the 2008 Summer Games left International Olympic Committee headquarters this week confident they would all clear the first hurdle in the bidding process.

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

The International Olympic Committee said today that Beijing has assembled a high quality bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.

China urged International Olympic Committee (IOC) delegates arriving on Monday to assess Beijing's bid for the 2008 Games to focus on its credentials as a "sports superpower of 1.2 billion people", not its human rights record.

China will be too busy pursuing its bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games over the next few months and will likely leave Taiwan alone, Taiwan's Vice President Annette Lu said on Tuesday.

Turkish sport marketing agency Sar-an International has added to its soccer portfolio after signing an exclusive TV deal with soccer club Gaziantepspor.

Galatasaray, the Istanbul-based football club and reigning UEFA Cup champions, is set to sell over 35% of shares in the club?s sports marketing arm.

News Corp and Liberty Media has announced that its joint venture Fox Sports International is to launch a sports television channel targeting viewers in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Juan Antonio Samaranch has not yet got himself and his movement out of the worst storm to hit the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for decades.

Tibetan exiles demonstrated against Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games outside the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today before the release of a key evaluation report on the Chinese capital's plans.

Even the most experienced Olympic observers cannot agree on which city will win the battle to stage the 2008 Summer Games as the deciding vote draws near.

Beijing has started radio English lessons to get its citizens up to speed in the race for the 2008 Olympic Games, according to local reports.

China has declared that the dramatic axing of 27 athletes from its Olympic squad amid suspicions of doping has produced a leaner but meaner team that should hold its own at the Sydney Games.

U.S.-owned supermarket chain Asda has been criticised for selling England replica football T-shirts made in Turkey.

FIFA has given Azerbaijan a deadline of next Monday to settle its internal disputes or be banned from all international competition, a spokesman for the Azeri Soccer Federation (ASF) has said.

China has set up a 76-member committee to organise Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.