Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Soccer-World-We've nailed the World Cup, now for the Olympics - Board Games

PRETORIA July 12 (Reuters) - South Africa is basking in the
glory of successfully staging the first World Cup on African
soil but the country's thoughts have already shifted to another
top sports event -- the Olympic Games.
With rumours spreading fast that the coastal city of Durban
is seriously considering bidding for the 2020 summer Olympics,
South Africa may be gearing up for a battle that is much harder
to win than the right to stage a World Cup.
The Olympics are the biggest multi-sports event in the world
and while the World Cup may test a country's operational
strength with several cities involved in the staging of the
matches, the Olympics, held in one city alone, can sap its
energy and drain its financial resources.
It is the equivalent of staging 28 world championships with
the top athletes of each sport, simultaneously, within just a
few miles of each other.
"The World Cup is one of the two great sporting events in
the world along with the Olympics, and I am quite certain that
every member of the International Olympic Committee has been
looking at the matches from South Africa and seen the enthusiasm
and the excitement," IOC Executive Board member Craig Reedie
told Reuters.
"I would suspect they would not be surprised at all if a bid
came from the South African Olympic Committee for a future
Games, be it 2020 or 2024... I think the decision to go south of
the equator for the first time would be a natural encouragement
for South Africa," he said.

GOVERNMENT BACKING

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Factbox: Lohan latest in string of stars to serve time - Tv Series

(Reuters) - Actress Lindsay Lohan was released from jail early on Monday after serving 13 days of a 90-day sentence and taken straight into a rehabilitation program, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Here are details of some other celebrities who have served time behind bars in recent years:
* Martha Stewart -- U.S. business mogul and lifestyle guru spent five months in prison in 2004 for lying about stocks.
* Lil' Kim -- U.S. rapper served 10 months in prison in 2005 for lying about her friends' involvement in a shooting.
* Paris Hilton -- U.S. hotel heiress, served just over 22 days in detention in June 2007, for violating probation in a drunken-driving case.
* Michael Vick -- U.S. football player pleaded guilty in August 2007 to charges relating to a dogfighting ring and went to prison for 21 months.
* Nicole Richie -- U.S. star of the reality television show "The Simple Life" served 82 minutes of a four-day sentence for driving under the influence in August 2007.
* Kiefer Sutherland -- Star of the TV series "24" spent 48 days in jail after a September 2007 DUI arrest.
* Michelle Rodriguez -- Former star of the TV series "Lost" served 17 days of a six-month sentence in January 2008 for probation violation on previous DUI and hit-and-run offenses.
* O.J. Simpson -- Former athlete, acquitted of the 1994 murder of his ex-wife and her friend, currently serving 33 years in prison for bungled attempt to recover his own sports memorabilia.
* Phil Spector -- Eccentric record producer sentenced to 19 years to life in May 2009 for murdering an actress in 2003.
* T.I. -- U.S. rapper began serving a one-year prison sentence in May 2009 for possessing firearms before being moved to a halfway house six months later.
* Lil Wayne -- U.S. rapper began an eight-month prison sentence in March 2010 stemming from 2007 weapons charges.
* Lindsay Lohan -- Lohan, whose promising career has floundered during two years of strenuous partying, is freed on Monday after serving 13 days of a 90-day sentence.
-- She had been sentenced last month after violating her probation on a 2007 drunken-driving charge by missing a string of alcohol education classes. She was booked into the Lynwood Correctional Facility, an all-female jail in south Los Angeles on July 20.