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Three days after being routed by England, Chile handed Iraq their first victory of the tournament succumbing to a 0-3 loss to be virtually eliminated from the competition. The former Argentine goalkeeper however was confident of an arithmetical turnaround of the team to make the last-16. “There has been historical cases when a team wins big and advance after two losses. We would like to keep going further,” Caputto said at the post-match news conference last night....

The Chinese women’s water polo team stunned the United States 9-7 in the semifinals of the FINA World League Super Final here Wednesday. China will meet the winner between Hungary and Russia in the final Thursday, reports Xinhua. The hosts, runners-up at the 2011 Shanghai world championships, showed good defence and led 7-4 after the third period. However, the United States, winners of the London Olympics, made several attacks in the last period and levelled it 7-7....

Devvarman, who recently entered the top 100 in the ATP rankings, maintained his good form from Kuala Lampur where he reached the main draw, to secure yet another victory over a higher ranked player. In a match against a difficult opponent, it appeared initially that the Indian number one would go down tamely against the more experienced Haase. Despite creating as many as 5 break point opportunities in the opening set, Devvarman could not capitalize on any of them, with Haase breaking twice to take the opening set....

Liu’s team on Friday said the date of announcement is yet to be set but reports revealed the 110 metre hurdler will formally hang up his boots on Tuesday, reports Xinhua. “The date is an ordinary day as Liu Xiang chooses to go back to the life of an ordinary person and start afresh,” a spokesperson said. However, Liu, China’s first male Olympic champion in athletics, will be forever looked as the extraordinary for his milestone wins in the 2004 Olympics and world championships....

Vikram Pratap Singh took home the top-scorer prize, finishing the competition with two goals in three matches. In case you didn’t know… The Blue Colts were on a tour of China, playing in a four-nation tournament comprising of China, North Korea, and Thailand. The tournament has since been concluded, but the young India side’s preparation for AFC U-16 Championship continues. The heart of the matter Bibiano Fernandes’s boys weren’t at their absolute best during the four-nation tournament, as they lost two and drew one of their our matches....

China is scrambling to build enthusiasm for winter sports ahead of the Games with an ambitious goal to increase the number of fans tenfold, to 300 million, by 2022. The doctors, nurses and former sheep farmers are part of this mammoth effort, training for several days a week over the past year to make the cut as volunteers and workers during the Games. The training continued through the searing summer in Yanqing district on the outskirts of Beijing, which will host several events in 2022, including Alpine skiing, bobsledding, skeleton, and luge....

In July 2020, Smith travelled to Bryon Bay for a week-long workout with Zocchi before a jam-packed cricket tour commenced with the limited-overs tour of England, followed by the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 and India’s tour of Australia. Smith surprised the celebrity trainer with his strength and Zocchi was quoted as saying, Steve Smith can’t stay away from batting It’s known to cricket fans that Steve Smith loves to bat and how he gets his wife Dani Willis to feed balls to the bowling machine even in the wee hours....

The former Truck Series driver took home the victory at the Bar Harbor 200 presented by Sea Watch International on Saturday. The win was his sixth of the season. With the victory, he passed Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle for the most wins by an Xfinity rookie. Bell currently leads the Xfinity playoff standings after his win Saturday and may be primed to make the move to the next level in 2019....

A few weeks ago, a 17-year-old-girl arrived. As introduced myself, I noticed that she did not seem comfortable in her fluorescent green smock and pants. Though they were probably two sizes too big for her, she seemed to be holding them close to her small frame. She’s not the first female student we’ve had, so I knew I had to ask an uncomfortable question: “Do you have underwear?” I spoke low, trying not to let my voice carry to the rest of the unit; its current occupants: 37 teenage boys....

Wang on Sunday looked to assert China’s role in promoting lasting Middle East peace talks and said Beijing believes the root cause of the current deterioration is there has never been a just solution for the Palestinian people. The Chinese Communist Party envoy to the U.N. told the 15-member Security Council that Israel needs to stop expelling Palestinians from their homes and to respect Muslim religious sites in disputed parts of East Jerusalem....

Changzhou, Sep 18 (PTI) Olympic and world championship silver-medallist P V Sindhu Tuesday progressed to the pre-quarterfinals but Saina Nehwal bowed out after a narrow loss at the USD one million China Open World Tour Super 1000 tournament here. The third-seeded Sindhu, who had clinched the China Open title in 2016, defeated World No. 39 Saena Kawakami of Japan 21-15, 21-13 in the opening round at the Olympic Sports Center Xincheng Gymnasium....

The annual gathering in Victoria Park—banned on health grounds for a second year running—is a “minefield” for those planning to attend on June 4, according to online news portal HK01. It will be the first memorial since China’s sweeping Hong Kong national security law came into effect on June 30 last year. Before last year, annual candlelight vigils had been lawfully held in Hong Kong since 1990, a year after soldiers and tanks rolled through Tiananmen Square in the Chinese capital and quashed a student-led protest for democratic reforms....

Beijing’s authoritarian system has galvanized pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong and Taiwan. While Hong Kong is already under Chinese control as part of its “one country, two systems” approach, Taipei remains independent—much to Beijing’s frustration. Chinese officials maintain that Taiwan—left independent after communist forces took control of the mainland in the country’s civil war—is a wayward province that will be returned to the fold under the Communist Party’s rule, whether by diplomatic or military means....

Zhang Ming, the head of China’s mission to the EU, said Wednesday in an article published by the Brussels Times and Euroactiv that the coronavirus pandemic has made EU-Chinese relations even more important. The article was published on the 45th anniversary of the establishment of Chinese-EU diplomatic ties. “The COVID-19 has posed unprecedented health, economic and social challenges to the whole international community, including China and the EU,” Zhang wrote....

The Beijing Olympics are almost exactly a year away. The gala opening will commence on 8:08 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008–playing on the Chinese belief that eight is a lucky number. But Beijing authorities are already locked in a contest of ideas. In a series of “one-year-to-go” celebrations this week, they’ve been highlighting the best about Beijing (or at least trying to, through a soggy haze of pollution)....

Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang is likely to miss this season as he recovers from the injury which dramatically ended his bid to win back the Olympic title in London last year, a report said on Wednesday. Liu’s coach Sun Haiping said the 29-year-old, Olympic champion over 110m in 2004 and one of China’s biggest stars, would make a “full recovery” from his ruptured Achilles tendon, but would probably not be in action this year....

Others call it another Internet bubble. Analysts warn that the Chinese portals are wildly overvalued, and that even some of their top executives are selling off lots of shares. The three portals all earned less than $10 million in the last quarter, and yet the market value for Sina and Netease is well over $1.5 billion; for Sohu it’s more than $1 billion. “The valuation we’re seeing is mad,” says Morgan Stanley economist Andy Xie, who expects a crash....

As the temblor struck China’s southwestern province of Sichuan at just before 1 p.m. local time, residents of the provincial capital, Chengdu, descended from their high-rise apartments and headed for open ground. But many found the exits locked or blocked by community health workers, who urged them to remain indoors. Just hours earlier, the city had extended mandatory quarantine measures for the majority of its 21 million residents by three more days to help curb a surge in coronavirus cases....

Some 39 detainees—many without charges—remain at the facility in southern Cuba. The question of whether to shut down “Gitmo” for good has carried over successive administrations, with the United Nations among several leading organizations calling for a swift and conclusive resolution by the U.S. At a regular press conference in Beijing on Wednesday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, called the continued operation of the prison “a dark chapter” in the world’s human rights record....