FIFA dress code rules Iran's girls out of Olympics

FIFA dress code rules Iran's girls out of Olympics

ZURICH (AP) — Iran's girls football team has been kicked out of the Youth Olympic Games because FIFA rules prevent players wearing an Islamic head scarf.

Thailand was nominated on Monday to replace the barred Iranians, the Asian Football Confederation said on its Web site.

The Asian governing body said the hijab scarf -- worn to observe Islamic dress code -- was not allowed under FIFA rules relating to on-field equipment.

Iran was scheduled to compete in a six-nation tournament for girls at the games being held Aug. 12-25 in Singapore.

Around 3,600 athletes aged 14-18 will compete in 26 sports at the inaugural Youth Summer Games.

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Debate over Olympic ticket spending continues

Debate over Olympic ticket spending continues

Vision Vancouver Coun. Heather Deal says she has no regrets about the city spending almost $170,000 on tickets for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

But COPE councillor Ellen Wordsworth, who paid for the Olympic ticket she used, says she thinks the money could have been used better. "Wait a minute, didn't we just cut $61 million from the budget -- and we're closing services and increasing fees?" said Woodsworth.

"About $170,000 can do a lot of things in the city," she said.

All the details about the spending and who got the tickets is in a report going to council Tuesday.

Also included is similar information on the additional $18,920 the city spent on tickets for the Paralympics.

Of the 1,555 Olympic tickets and 534 Paralympic tickets, only two went unallocated.

Steel from Mittal for London's Olympic monument

Steel from Mittal for London's Olympic monument

The mayor of London has unveiled the design of a 115-metre tall monument that will mark the 2012 London Olympics.

The structure, which will be built in the Olympic Park, has a strong India connection as it is designed by prize-winning artist of Indian-origin, Anish Kapoor, and is being funded by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

This spiraling structure that incorporates the five Olympic rings will be London's answer to the Eiffel Tower. It will be taller than New York's Statue of Liberty, offering panoramic views of London.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, called the statue, "a legacy of the Olympics to London".

Sweden wins 2nd straight gold medal, beating Canada in women’s curling on Norberg’s last shot

Sweden wins 2nd straight gold in women’s curling

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Sweden went the distance in capturing another gold medal in Olympic women’s curling, beating a Canadian team cheered by a cowbell-clanging crowd.

Anette Norberg played through the din, nailing the last shot to give her team a 7-6 victory in an extra 11th end Friday to spoil the Canadian party.

Olympics: Living it up on the slopes

THE 2010 Winter Olympics have brought very different results for two New England natives: Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., and Lindsey Jacobellis of Stratton, Vermont. Sunday in Vancouver was Miller time, when a breathtaking slalom run won Miller the gold in the men’s super combined, adding that medal to his super G silver and his downhill bronze.

While redemption is a cliché of sports narratives, Miller’s performance did show an athlete who has matured markedly since the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. There, his party-boy attitude and blasé platitudes proved profoundly off-putting. In Vancouver, Miller understood the Olympics matter - and not just to millions of spectators worldwide, but to himself as well. With his performance, Miller, 32, has finally lived up to his Olympic promise.

Olympics tops 'American Idol' in ratings

(AP)

NEW YORK — Shani Davis, Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White are the true American Idols.

In a startling turnaround from the night before, the Olympics clobbered Fox's "American Idol" in the ratings Wednesday night. The Nielsen Co. said that during the one hour the two shows competed against one another, the Olympics were seen by 30.1 million people while 18.4 million watched "American Idol."

It was the first time in six years that anything has beaten the nation's most popular program head to head in the ratings.

Davis, Vonn and White were all heavily promoted American contenders who won gold medals Wednesday.

On Tuesday, "Idol" beat the Olympics by nearly 4 million viewers.

Elder Pharma’s Uttarakhand facility on stream

Mumbai-based Elder Pharmaceuticals has commenced commercial operations at its new U.S. FDA compliant manufacturing facility at Langa Road in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), which is an excise benefit zone.

The company plans to move manufacturing of all syrup-based products to this Rs.150-crore facility. These products are now either being manufactured or being outsourced.

Production lines

The facility has production lines for liquid orals, sterile injectables, cephalosporin block for tablets as well as dry powder injectables.

Anger as Olympic flame fenced off

VANCOUVER–They came by the thousands to get a photo with the Olympic flame. They had to settle for a shot of the Olympic fence.

The chain-link wall keeping the unwashed away from the outdoor Olympic cauldron is a menacing doozy, maybe 10 feet high and peaked with sharp prongs. It's more North Korea than West Coast Canada, but there it is, fronting a demilitarized zone the size of a football field that separates the flame from the public's closest vantage point.