Sport

There will be a delay in future Shuttle flights until at least the fall of 2006, due to damaged NASA facilities that house and manufacture parts for the Shuttle program. Hurricane Katrina has damaged several NASA facilities, including not only the Kennedy Space Center, but more importantly the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans itself and the Stennis Space Center on the gulf coast of Mississippi, both major worksites of NASA subcontractors that help with the servicing of parts for the shuttle. The Michoud New Orleans facility is the p

Several groups of farmers in protest have made several blockades with farm equipment on several important road and train lines in the South of Italy yesterday. The farmers are protesting for the prices being paid to them for their grape harvest this season (about 2 or 2.50 eur for 100 kg) in an effort to obtain more money from the state in the form of subsidies. The protest, riot and manifestation are very common in Italy around this time in the grape-growing season. In the past there have even been protests and riots even some soccer teams

In a last minute change of position, the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) has reversed its decision not to allow the Liberian National football team, The Lone Star, to attend Sunday's World Cup qualifier against Togo. The NTGL had announced on Wednesday that the squad would not be able to travel to Lome, Togo because of a lack of funds to pay for the team's travel. In a statement explaining its decision not to fund the team's travel, the NTGL highlighted more pressing financial obligations such as the country's upcoming nati

A Brazilian international footballer, Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, also known as Little Ronaldo (Ronaldinho), signed a contract with FC Barcelona until 2010, today, prolonging it for two years. It is fairly certain that he will stay in the club for the length of the contract. "Now I'll just carry on doing the same as I have been doing until now, only that now I have a longer term contract, I'll be even more motivated," an official Barcelona website quoted Ronaldinho. According to a new clause in his contract, any club who wants to buy him will h

The Football Association of England risked a backlash and possible disciplinary action from football's world governing body FIFA on Tuesday when it rescinded the suspensions due from red cards that had been given during the past weekend's matches to FA Premier League players Andrew Welsh of Sunderland and Paul Konchesky of West Ham United. The FA's decision permitted Welsh to play for the Black Cats in their 2-1 loss at home to Manchester City Tuesday evening. Konchesky will also be available for the Hammers' next game on Saturday when West H

Inter Milan won the Italian Super Cup on Saturday for the first time in sixteen years. The match took place at Stadio delle Alpi in Torino, Italy against the Serie A champions Juventus. The cup is the first opportunity to win a trophy in the Italian football season. Argentinian midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron scored the only goal of the match. He received the assist from Adriano in the sixth minute of the first half of extra time. Roberto Mancini, coach of Inter Milan, described the match as "tough". Inter now prepare for a preliminar

Michael Essien will sign a contract worth £26 million (US$47 million, €38 million) with the London football club Chelsea. The record-breaking offer from Chelsea was accepted by the French club Lyon on Monday. Several of Chelsea's previous offers were rejected. Essien, the 22-year old Ghanian midlfielder, did not sign the 5-year contract on Tuesday as planned, because Lyon delayed sending the necessary forms to complete the transfer. Lyon will receive Chelsea player Tiago along with the payment worth one third of Lyon's budget. Essien wil

Adidas, the second largest sports clothes manufacturer in the world, has announced it has struck a deal with the American company Reebok for EUR 3.1 billion. The deal has to be agreed by the Reebok shareholders. Adidas is doing this to increase its share in the US market and to compete with Nike, the largest sports brand in the world. Even after the merger, Nike will still be larger than the combined companies. Reebok's shares have risen by 16% to $51. Adidas is offering $59 a share. Lifetime opportunity Herbert Hainer, Adidas CEO, said "Th

All second qualifying round games of UEFA Champions League were played yesterday and today. Celtic almost managed to pull off a miracle, by scoring four goals at home against Artmedia, but were one goal short of forcing the game into extra time. All results Winner in bold* Second leg result Aggregate* Winner plays in next round Brøndby IF - FC Dinamo Tbilisi 3 - 1 5 - 1 Ajax Thun - Dynamo Kyiv 1 - 0 3 - 2 Malmö FF Trabzonspor - Anorthosis Famagusta FC 1 - 0 3 - 2 Glasgow Rangers PFC Neftchi - R.S.C. Anderlecht 1 - 0 1 - 5 Sl

A goal keeper from Serbia and Montenegro, Dragan Žilić, made his league debut for Croatian football club Rijeka against Cibalija. Žilić's appearance caused disturbance among some of Rijeka's fans, Armada, who did not approve of having a Serbian player in their outfit. However, the game played yesterday proved that only a minority of fans have such strong nationalistic sentiments. A group of about 200 Rijeka's fans present at the game started chanting songs such as: "Žilić go away" (Žiliću odlazi), "Hang Serbs on trees" (Srbe na vrbe), and "F

The first ever Olympic lottery scheme has been launched to the public in Britain, seven years to the day that the Olympics will be hosted to the City of London. A scratch card game will be one of the schemes that would be used to help make money for the Olympic Games in 2012. It is called "Go for Gold" and it costs £1 to buy. The actual amount that the National Lottery could give would be £1.5 billion pounds, but the lottery games would raise an estimated £750 million for sporting infrastructure. Olympics Minister and Culture Secretary Tessa

Michael Shields, an 18-year old Liverpool Football Club supporter, has been jailed for the attempted murder of a Bulgarian barman, despite another man from Liverpool admitting full responsibility. Shields, 18 from Wavertree was charged with the attempted murder of Martin Georgiev, 25, after being accused of throwing a brick at the barman's head in the city of Varna, where he was celebrating Liverpool football club's win over AC Milan in the final of the Champions League in Istanbul in May. Before being charged, a 20 year old man from Anfield