■SWAZILAND
No prostitutes for visitors
Police on Wednesday shot down suggestions that tourists should be allowed to hire prostitutes if they visit the kingdom for the 2010 World Cup in neighboring South Africa. Police spokesman Vusi Masuku said police would act against sex workers as long as a 19th century law banning prostitution remains in force. Swaziland hopes to benefit from a predicted influx of hundreds of thousands of soccer fans for the tournament in June. A spokesman for the local organizing committee, Bongani Dlamini, had earlier told local media that the issue was being looked into. “During the 2010 World Cup tournament, we are expecting tourists from all walks of life. After we have taken a decision on prostitution, we will then make a statement or even advise the tourists accordingly,” Dlamini said. Dlamini said the committee had to consider that in some countries, sex workers were not outlawed. “For example, when a tourist who needs the services of a sex worker arrives and finds that prostitution is prohibited, we will advise him accordingly that he has to propose for love to a Swazi girl first and then consent for sex,” he was quoted as saying.
■PALESTINE
Players die in Gaza attacks
Two prominent Palestinian players were killed by Israeli forces this week in the Gaza Strip, the Palestine Football Association (PFA) said on Wednesday. In a statement posted on its Web site, the PFA said a former member of the national team, Ayman al-Kurd, a 28-year-old with three children, was killed two days ago by Israeli shelling. The PFA also reported that Wajih Mushtahi, a member of the Palestinian Olympic soccer team, was killed this week in Gaza. The Islamic Jihad militant group said in a statement that Mushtahi was one of its fighters and had died in combat.
■BRAZIL
Clubs don’t need Viagra
Palmeiras and Gremio denied they are thinking of using Viagra to combat oxygen depletion during high-altitude Copa Libertadores matches. The issue emerged this week when reporters asked Gremio trainer, Alarico Endres, about the potential use of Viagra during the South American championship. “We’re going to analyze everything that could benefit the players in [high] altitude,” Endres said. But Gremio physician Marcio Bolzoni said Endres was misinterpreted. “Gremio would never uses professional athletes to experiment with a drug,” Bolzoni said. “If it is proven that it enhances an athlete’s performance, its use will be immediately considered as doping.” Palmeiras doctor Claudio Pavanelli told the GloboEsporte Web site: “Viagra may be a potent vascular dilator, but it is no use pumping more blood to the muscle if it does not have the capacity to receive it. It would be like equipping an old car with a bigger gas tank but keeping the same engine.”
■INDIA
Size matters for federation
Tall, strong and physically imposing — that’s the new mantra for talent scouts in India. Skill-wise, India is on a par with other nations but the team lacks physique, All India Football Federation’s technical director Colin Joseph Toal said this week at an under-13 soccer festival in the city of Jamshedpur. “Hence, we are focusing on talented footballers with good height and strong physique,” Toal said. India are ranked 20th in Asia after clinching the AFC Challenge Cup last August. The national team has shown improved results in the last two years under British coach Bob Houghton but are still ranked 142nd in the world. On Wednesday they lost 2-1 in a friendly to Hong Kong.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
Taiwan on Wednesday finished with 15 medals at the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Hong Kong, taking home four gold, five silver and six bronze medals across the age group divisions. Taiwan ranked third on the medal table after South Korea with 17 golds and the US with eight golds at the five-day competition. “Your athletes have proven themselves as the best in the world,” World Taekwondo president Choue Chung-won said at the closing ceremony of the martial art contest that was attended by a record 1,727 athletes from around the world. On the first day of the competition at the Hong Kong
Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
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