■ Soccer
Burst ball results in replay
A Belgian league game between Anderlecht and La Louviere in which the ball burst in during the scoring of a goal will have to be replayed, the Belgian soccer federation ruled Thursday. Anderlecht beat La Louviere 2-1 in a 12th-round match on Nov. 5, rally to equalize in the 65th minute when midfielder Walter Baseggio scored with a drive in which the ball burst. The ball was limp going into the net, but the protests of La Louviere players were rejected. Anderlecht won on a 71st-minute penalty by Par Zetterberg. An initial plea from the club was turned down, but the federation's appeal body accepted La Louviere's complaint on Thursday. It was unclear when the game would have to be replayed. Anderlecht is currently second in the league, seven points behind leader FC Brugge.
■ Olympics
Armani to carry the torch
Italian designer Giorgio Armani will be among those who will carry the 2006 Turin Olympic torch, which was officially unveiled in Milan, Italy on Thursday. Organizers said 2002 Olympic ice dancing bronze medalists Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio also would be among the celebrities and athletes picked to be torchbearers during the flame's trip through the Lombardy region prior to the games. Created and produced by the renowned Pininfarina company of auto designers, the torch will start its journey from Rome on Dec. 8, and arrive in Turin on Feb. 10, 2006 for the Winter Games' opening ceremony. The most striking feature of the 77cm high torch is that the flame is contained within the aluminum shell, covered by cap with holes rather than exposed at the top. With the flame only scheduled to burn for 15 minutes in each torch, about 12,000 torches will be produced for the relay. The first torchbearer will be Athens Olympic marathon champion Stefano Baldini.
■ Soccer
Emmanuel Petit to retire
Midfielder Emmanuel Petit, who scored France's third and final goal against Brazil in its 1998 World Cup triumph, has told French media he's retiring. Petit, who left English team Chelsea last year, told French radio station RTL on Thursday that at the age of 34 he no longer feels fit enough to continue his career, especially after suffering a knee injury. "I've earned a lot of money. I have a career rich in achievements," Petit told RTL. "My only regret is to end with an injury, but you have to stop one day." As well as sealing France's 3-0 World Cup win over Brazil on July 12, 1998, Petit was also a member of the French squad that won the European Championships in 2000.
Taiwan’s men’s A team last night defeated their counterpart B team 82-77 in their first showdown in the William Jones Cup at New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang Gymnasium. With four wins under their belt, Taiwan’s A squad — also known as the blue team, consisting of the national team’s main roster — lead the tournament, while Malaysia and the Philippines Strong Group-Pilipinas, who were not scheduled to play last night, are both undefeated with three wins each. Taiwanese-American teenager Robert Hinton, playing in his first William Jones Cup, led the scoring early in the first quarter, putting up nine points for the A
A chance encounter during a drunken night out was the unlikely catalyst for breaker Sunny Choi’s journey to the Paris Olympic Games. The 35-year-old American is to showcase her skills before a global audience in Paris when breaking makes its debut on the Olympic stage. Choi is the beneficiary of efforts to attract younger fans to the Olympics, a move that led to breaking’s inclusion for the first time. However, as Choi says, the Olympics was the last thing on her mind when she took up the sport. A freshman student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Choi stumbled into breaking
Teenage gymnast Shoko Miyata has been pulled from Japan’s team for the Paris Olympics after being caught smoking and drinking, officials said yesterday. The 19-year-old, a world bronze medalist and captain of Japan’s women’s gymnastics team for the Games, was sent home from their training camp in Monaco and admitted she had violated the squad’s code of conduct. “With her confirmation and after discussions on all sides, it has been decided that she will withdraw from the Olympics,” Japan Gymnastics Association (JGA) secretary-general Kenji Nishimura told reporters in Tokyo. Nishimura said the association had been told that Miyata was seen smoking in a
Country singer Ingrid Andress on Tuesday apologized and said she was drunk after a widely panned performance of the US national anthem at the MLB Home Run Derby. “I’m checking myself into a facility today to get the help I need,” she wrote on Instagram. “That was not me last night. I apologize to MLB, all the fans, and this country I love so much for that rendition.” The MLB is not commenting, spokesperson Matt Bourne said. On Monday night, the four-time Grammy nominee belted an a cappella version of The Star-Spangled Banner, an incredibly challenging song to sing. Clips of her less-than-popular