Vietnam

U.S. agents have arrested three Taiwanese and a U.S. citizen on charges of smuggling millions of dollars worth of counterfeit golf equipment into the United States, the U.S. Customs Service has said.

Communist-ruled Vietnam has approved Hanoi's first horse racing track.

Cola giant Pepsi has presented the Vietnam Football Federation with a cheque for VND500million.

Retailer FJ Benjamin has scored an exclusive deal with English soccer champions Manchester United to sell club merchandise and set up a chain of theme stores and cafes across soccer-crazy South-east Asia.

The 20th Southeast Asian games begin on Saturday with attention focused as much on the tiny sultanate of Brunei as the actual competition itself.

Millions of soccer crazy Vietnamese missed the start of the English Premier League season at the weekend after Vietnam Television (VTV) failed to reach an agreement with the company holding distribution rights for Asia.

A Chinese-led consortium has won the contract to build a new stadium in Hanoi, Vietnam, as the venue for the 2003 Southeast Asia Games.

Vietnam has signed a contract with a Chinese consortium to build a $52.9 million (?59m) main stadium for the 2003 Southeast Asian Games, an official said.

US LAWYER Alan Caplan says he and his colleagues have launched court action in California against Nike, alleging that it is deceiving consumers over the working conditions in its Asian factories, The Australian reports.

Asian sports broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) has acquired the exclusive terrestrial, cable and satellite television broadcast rights of the English Premier League for the next three seasons beginning August 2001.

Phil Knight, CEO of the Beaverton Oregon based sporting goods manufacturer, bowed to pressure and announced that the company would raise the minimum wages for workers in it's Asian plants.

Sporting group Royal Clicks Ltd said on Thursday its new joint venture with Sports Equipment (Far East) Pte Ltd had secured exclusive distribution and licensing rights for soccer brand Umbro for nine countries.

Television shops in soccer-mad Vietnam are gearing up for an expected bonanza during the upcoming World Cup in France that starts June 10.

Tiger Beer and the Vietnam Football Federation have inked a three-year agreement under which the beer company will provide the national football team with US$450,000 over three years.

Asia's economic crisis has begun to bite into Singapore's professional soccer league, with players being forced to take a pay cut, a source close to the island state's national team has said.

Indonesia have been awarded the right to hold the 2002 Tiger Cup by the Asian Football Federation four years after civil unrest forced the nation to relinquish hosting the event.

Indonesia and Thailand could be disciplined by the Asian Football Federation following the bizarre behaviour of their teams in a Tiger Cup group match.

The English Football Association and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have put the finishing touches to a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will lead to long-term technical co-operation between the two governing bodies.