USA

A cabinet minister and kimono-clad young women turned out to greet Olympics inspectors when they arrived on Sunday in Japan's western metropolis Osaka to evaluate its bid to stage the 2008 Summer Games.

CART has notified Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that it has reserved its right to cancel the March 25 Rio 200, round 2 of the 2001 FedEx Championship Series.

Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports has announced that 70% of the advertising time for the first 10 weeks of the XFL football league, starting February 3is sold out.

Ted Leonsis, owner of the NHL's Washington Capitols and president of AOL Interactive Properties Group told delegates at the 23rd annual Sport Summit Trade Show and Conference in New York that "Sport is broken"- but indicated that the internet can fix it.

The Oakland Raider?s first NFL playoff game for seven years could be blighted by the distribution of hundreds of duplicate tickets by the Coliseum?s ticket operation.

The MBNA Corporation has signed a long-term deal with the United States Tennis Association for MBNA to become the official credit card issuer for the USTA.

September's Sydney Olympics should be a financial success after being praised worldwide as the greatest Games in history, Olympic leaders said on Tuesday.

CastPro.com is to provide production and live webcasting for the NCAA's Men's Water Polo Championship.

The International Basketball League and ABA 2000 - two of professional US basketball's minor league's - are teaming up to create one minor basketball league.

Fans of Major League Baseball?s Chicago White Sox are set for a price increase in tickets ? the first since 1997.

The NHL's New York Islanders ownership group of Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar, as well as business associate Russell Artzt, have been approved by the Arena Football League's board of directors for the sale and relocation of the Iowa Barnstormers.

The Washington Redskins has partnered wireless application service provider, Ztango, Inc., to provide Redskins fans with information services to wireless handheld devices.

New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens has launched his official website for AthletesDirect, a subsidiary of Broadband Sports.

The president of World Sports, Patti Wheeler, has resigned following the decision of Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks to cease production operations at the World Sports Enterprises unit December 1- the date that World Sports' contract with Nascar expires.

US athletics head Craig Masback has rejected a call by White House drugs chief General Barry McCaffrey to release immediately the names of all American athletes who have tested positive for drugs.

NBC, responding to viewer complaints, has dropped a commercial for Nike sports shoes and clothing featuring a female Olympic runner being pursued by a chain saw-wielding man.