London: Camille Muffat of France edged Allison Schmitt of the United States by less than half a stroke to win the Olympic gold in 400-meter freestyle on Sunday. Muffat clocked an Olympic-record 4 minutes, 1.45 seconds, while Schmitt was second in 4:01.77. Defending champion and local favorite Rebecca Adlington made a late charge to take bronze in 4:03.01 for Britain's first swimming medal in the London Games. Two-time world champion...
01:26 AM, Jul 30, 2012
London: Kevin Durant scored 22 points, LeBron James added eight assists and the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team opened tournament play with a rough-and-ragged 98-71 win over France on Sunday. Seeking a second straight gold medal to match the one they won in Beijing four years ago, the Americans expected a tough test from a French team featuring San Antonio guard Tony Parker and five other NBA players. The U.S....
11:00 PM, Jul 29, 2012
Paris: Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France by protecting the yellow jersey during Sunday's final processional ride into Paris. He also helped Sky teammate Mark Cavendish earn his fourth straight sprint victory on the Champs-Elysees. Wiggins secured his win with a dominating performance in Saturday's final time trial to extend his already commanding lead. Fellow Briton and Sky teammate Christopher Froome finished second,...
10:21 PM, Jul 22, 2012
Chartres: Bradley Wiggins was 120 km away from becoming the first Briton to win the Tour de France after he outclassed the rest of the bunch in the penultimate stage, a 53.5-km time trial to Chartres on Saturday. Wiggins, who clocked one hour, four minutes and 13 seconds, at 50kph, left his nearest rival, team mate Chris Froome, 1:16 behind, quashing suggestions his compatriot was the stronger rider on this...
12:05 PM, Jul 22, 2012
Jeev Milka Singh is back to his best! The Indian ended a title drought of four years and 37 days on Sunday to beat Italy's Francesco Molinari in a play-off to claim the Scottish Open. His last European Tour win came at the Bank Austria Golf Open in 2008. With his latest triumph, the 40-year-old has overtaken Arjun Atwal as the Indian with the most number of wins on the...
09:29 AM, Jul 16, 2012
'Penguin Island' by Anatole France is a strange book so to say or thats what I thought when I first started reading it. It is probably nothing like I have ever read before and maybe that is why I did not have a reference point to compare it with, which in a way was the best way to read this book. So let me straight get to the plot: A...
06:47 PM, Jul 11, 2012
Paris: An armed man took hostages on Tuesday morning at a school complex just south of Paris, according to police officials. Children were initially among the hostages, but the man appears to now be holding one adult. One police official said the man was carrying a gun; others said they did not know what weapon he had. The police official said officers from the elite Raid force were on site...
03:03 PM, Jul 10, 2012
Paris: Didier Deschamps is on the verge of being appointed France coach, a source on the executive board of the French football federation said on Sunday. "There are two or three details yet to be ironed out but there is no issue, Deschamps will be the next France coach," the source told Reuters. France's 1998 World-Cup winning captain recently left Olympique Marseille after a poor 2011/12 season and would replace...
10:48 PM, Jul 08, 2012
Paris: Shiv Kapur recovered from an indifferent start to return a card of even par 71 that kept him in with a chance of a good finish at the Alstom Open de France golf tournament here. Kapur hit three bogeys in six holes from fourth to the ninth, but a third round 71 eventually saved the day for the Indian. Kapur, who missed the Tour Card last year but has...
01:22 PM, Jul 08, 2012
Paris: Shiv Kapur overcame a double-bogey start to card a two-under 69 and move to tied 14th spot at the end of the second round of Alstom Open de France at the par-71 Le Golf National near Paris. Kapur, one over for the first round, is now one-under for two rounds and five shots behind the leader Marcel Siem, who carded successive 68s in the first two rounds. Also making...
02:29 PM, Jul 07, 2012
Dubai: Iran's spy chief accused German and French intelligence agencies on Friday of involvement in assassinations of its nuclear scientists, sticking to a hard official line as sanctions imposed over its disputed atomic ambitions bite harder. The Islamic Republic has previously accused Israel, the United States and Britain of plotting the killings to set back its uranium enrichment programme, which Western powers suspect is being used to develop nuclear weapons...
05:04 AM, Jul 07, 2012
Paris: Indian golfer Jeev Milkha Singh carded a steady three-under 68 in the first round to be placed tied eighth at the Alstom Open de France at the par-71 Le Golf National near Paris. Jeev was four shots behind leader Sweden's Christian Nilsson, who shot a six-under 65 on the course that will host the 2018 Ryder Cup. Things were not too good for the other two Indians in the...
12:25 PM, Jul 06, 2012
Le Bourget (France): French air accident investigators say a combination of mistakes by inadequately trained pilots and faulty equipment caused an Air France jet to plunge into the Atlantic in 2009, killing all 228 people aboard. The BEA air accident investigation agency is recommending better training for pilots and stricter plane certification rules as a result of its three-year probe into the crash of Flight 447. The report lists a...
07:15 PM, Jul 05, 2012
London: Four-time champion Serena Williams overcame windy conditions and a gritty 65th-ranked opponent on Monday to pull out another three-set victory and reach the quarter-finals of Wimbledon, where she will meet the defending champion Petra Kvitova who ousted Francesca Schiavone on Monday. The sixth-seeded American won the last three games of the final set to beat Kazakhstani wildcard Yaroslava Shvedova 6-1, 2-6, 7-5, in cool and gusty conditions on Court...
07:42 PM, Jul 02, 2012
Le Touquet, France: India made little work of France here in the second friendly hockey Test, beating the hosts 4-0 to sweep the two-match series. But as the Indian men's hockey team leaves France to cross the border into Spain for a triangular series before the Olympics, coach Michael Nobbs expects his side to not relent and up their scoring rate leading up to the London Games. Nobbs termed the...
07:19 PM, Jul 02, 2012
Paris: France is looking for a new coach after Laurent Blanc turned down a new contract offer, and former World Cup-winning captain Didier Deschamps is touted as the favorite to replace him. Blanc stepped down on Saturday after a European Championship campaign that ended in the quarterfinals and with his players again being questioned about their behavior. Blanc informed the French Football Federation of his decision following lengthy negotiations with...
10:52 AM, Jul 01, 2012
Lille: Indian hockey team's preparations for next month's Olympic Games began on a confident note with a 8-2 route of France in the first of the two friendly matches here on Thursday. India led 3-2 at the half-time after the home side had taken an early lead. SK Uthappa scored the equaliser with a field goal while Sandeep Singh's penalty corner strike gave India a 2-1 lead. Gurvinder Singh Chandi...
10:01 PM, Jun 29, 2012
London: Actor-director Clint Eastwood's daughter Francesca has landed her first major movie role in her boyfriend Tyler Shields' directorial debut. Shields has already signed actress Abigail Breslin for thriller Final Girl, about a group of teenage boys who pick on the wrong girl as their last victim to initiate into their pack, reported Contactmusic. The 18-year-old is now set to embark on a tough training regimen to prepare for the...
06:24 PM, Jun 29, 2012
Lille: India kicked off their pre-Olympic European tour with a thumping 8-2 win over France on Thursday, and though coach Michael Nobbs was upset with the performance of his boys in the first half, overall he was satisfied considering the team was still acclimatising to the conditions. "Well, this was our first game and it was to acclimatise to [the] European conditions. We had two debutants, [Pradhan] Somanna and Nitin...
05:44 PM, Jun 29, 2012
