Sport

Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated that his country is prepared to have a standoff with the United States. The move comes as the U.S. decided to send another aircraft carrier to the Middle East. According to the U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the USS Stennis was dispatched to the region to "impress on Iran that the four-year war in Iraq has not made America vulnerable." In response to the deployment of additional troops, Ahmadinejad said that Iran was prepared for any possibility in the standoff with the West over its n

Australian A-League club Sydney FC has been docked three competition points by Football Federation Australia (FFA) after it was found guilty of breaching the Player Contracting Regulations. The FFA stated that the offences warranted a A$259,000 fine as well as a three-point deduction, however it considered "the cooperation and full disclosure provided by the current Sydney FC Board and Management to the FFA" during the investigation process, and reduced the penalty to a A$129,000 fine plus two competition points deducted. However, this most r

The Ayles ice shelf, which is more than 11,000 football fields in size and is located just south of the North Pole, has broken free in the Canadian Arctic. Scientists say that global warming has played a "major" role in the break. The entire 41 square miles of the shelf broke away from Ellesmere Island at least 16 months ago, and the break was discovered when a satellite took pictures of the region recently. "This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place

Speed skater Cindy Klassen was voted as the 2006 Bobbie Rosenfeld Award's female athlete of the year, on Wednesday. Her second time winning the honour, she was given the award for winning five medals at the 2006 winter Olympic games in Turin, Italy, in February. Klassen had 131 of 144 first-place ballots in voting by sports editors and broadcasters. The editors and broadcasters were surveyed by the Canadian Press and Broadcast News. She finished at 412 points in the Canadian Press award voting. Clara Hughes, of Winnipeg, was second with 104 po

The Indian cricket team has finally won a Test match in South Africa for the first time ever. Having set the homeside 402 to win, South Africa was all out for 278, India winning by 123 runs and going one-nil up in the three match series. Paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth was one of the heroes for India taking 3/59 after his 5/40 in the first innings. Zaheer Khan picked up 3/79 while leg spinner Anil Kumble finished with 3/54. Ashwell Prince made a valiant 97 before being second last man out, bowled by Kumble. It is a great result for captain

RFID chips, the major component of e-passports, emit radio signals that can be read at a short distance by an electronic reader. Lukas Grunwald and Christian Bottger realised that they could clone an identical and undetectable e-passport. They downloaded the data from their own passport using an RFID reader (available from eBay) and then onto a blank chip thanks to a software they have developed, called RFdump. Doing so, they were able to clone an e-passport in less than five minutes. Ironically, a spokesman from the UK Home Office said:

Melbourne Victory has won the 2006-07 A-League football (soccer) premiership after defeating New Zealand Knights 4-0 at Olympic Park, Melbourne. The win takes Melbourne to 41 points, 13 ahead of Sydney FC in second place, with only four games remaining in the regular season. This makes it mathematically impossible for the Victory to be caught. The regular season consists of 21 home-and-away rounds, with each team playing each other team three times. Each match sees the winning team awarded three competition points, or in the case of a draw, t

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is reportedly interested in taking the vacant head football coaching job at the University of Miami, numerous sources have reported. As early as Dec. 1, reports were filtering out that Leach was open to discussing the job. Over the weekend, message boards and blogs were openly discussing the possibility that the coach, known for his wide-open offenses while at Tech, will make the jump to the Hurricanes. Leach, whose Red Red Raiders went 7-5 this season, is slated to coach in the Insight Bowl on Dec. 29.

Turkey will be adopting new passports standardized according to the International Civil Aviation Organization guidelines. The passports, which are expected to be distributed at the beginning of next year, will have RFID chips embedded in them. These chips, loaded with the passport owner's private information, will be used in airport gates. To obtain a new passport, one will need only a national identity card. RFID chips, sometimes called "spychips", are controversial, especially when loaded with personal information. For instance, one can scan

The Chinese government has decided to allow foreign reporters freedom of movement and information in most of China, between Jan. 1, 2007, until Oct. 17, 2008 in order to better cover the Olympics. The Games will be held in August 2008. Foreign reporters will also be able to report and interview without approval from government censors during the regulatory hiatus. The freedoms will not apply to Tibet or Xinjiang, two sensitive territories. Nor will Chinese journalists be granted the same freedoms.

At stumps on day two, England has opened a commanding lead in the second cricket test against Australia. In its first innings, England made 551 runs for the loss of 6 wickets before declaring (ie. 551 for 6 dec.) during the evening session of day two. England's Paul Collingwood made a personal best of 206 runs partnered by Kevin Pietersen (158). Australia went on to post 28 runs for the loss of 1 wicket (Justin Langer, caught by Kevin Pietersen and bowled by Andrew Flintoff) by the end of the days play. There are three more test matches left

The ex-Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly has made a comeback in the Test team after he was unceremoniously dropped for ten months. Ganguly is expected to play the first test match of the series against South Africa commencing on December 15. Chairman of selection pane for the Indian team Dilip Vengsarkar said that the team batting had failed in one-dayers in the current series, so there is need to bring back experienced players. VVS Laxman has been appointed as vice-captain of the test team. Board of Control for Cricket in India (B