The Olympic torch will make its only North American stop in the city of San Francisco on Wednesday. This torch relay will follow a six mile route, beginning at 1 p.m. at McCovey Cove at ATT Park, following the Embarcadero, past Fisherman’s Wharf, and ending at Justin Herman Plaza. Tibetans and their supporters will be holding a rally on Tuesday at the United Nations Plaza, at Market Street and Hyde Street near the Civic Center BART, to protest the Olympic torch relay and China’s recent crackdown on protesting Tibetans in Lhasa.

Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu and Actor Richard Gere will be as guest speakers at the rally, which begins at 6 p.m. Police in San Francisco said that they are taking special actions to protect the torch, which had to be extinguished three times in Paris because of protests, before organizers in the French capital decided to cut short the route.

COLORADO - USA Basketball had announced this Tuesday that the national sport governing body is considering a relocation of its headquarters to Indianapolis, suburban Louisville, Kentucky or Phoenix. The organizers of US teams for global competitions, including the National Basketball Association stars that will play in Beijing next August, is also considering remaining here near a major US Olympic training center. 6 months ago, USA Basketball sought proposals for relocating its executive officers following the conclusion of the Beijing Olympics.

Visits are planned to the finalist cities in the next 2 months with an announcement of a final decision planned for this summer, likely while the US men’s and women’s teams are preparing for their trips to China. “We are very pleased with the tremendous interest in our organization that has been shown by many cities across the country,” USA Basketball president Val Ackerman said.

“Based on the strength of the four finalists, we believe we are in an excellent position to improve USA Basketball’s administrative operations, our basketball programs and the services we deliver to our teams.” Louisville and Indianapolis are in the heart of states where basketball is beloved. Each has a strong history of supporting the sport at high school and college levels.

TEHRAN - Mehdi Taj, Iran’s Football Federation (IFF)’s spokesman says several countries have invited the national team to play friendly matches. Football federations of Colombia, Scotland, Mali, Nigeria, Ecuador and Uruguay have invited Iran’s national soccer team to play some friendly matches in April or May 2008.

The Committee of National Teams has accepted some of the invitations, but however, Iran’s head coach will have the last word, Taj added. He further voiced the federation’s full support for the appointment of Ali Daei as the national team’s new coach. The 38 year-old Daei, who presently coaches Tehran team Saipa, is to announce his assistants by next week.

Honolulu - In first pre-season game of 2008 ended with disappointment for David Beckham as they lose the game with Japan’s Gamba Osaka with 1-0 on Wednesday. The English midfielder played the entire game at Aloha stadium but was unable to prevent his team losing to their J-league opponents. He was involved in angry exchange with Brazilian Lucas after a heavy collision in the second half.

Winning goal scored by the Brazilian striker Bare in the third minute with firing a left-foot shot past goalkeeper Steve Cronin. “It is always disappointing when you lose the game but when you don’t start off properly that happens. For the first 15 minutes we were terrible,” Beckham told reporters.” Los Angeles will face Sydney FC in the third-place playoff on Saturday after the Australian side lost 3-0 to Houston Dynamo in the second semi-final.

After 14 years of big league career with the Phillies and Dodgers, Lieberthal has planned to retire. On Saturday, Lieberthal said “I’m done”. “I decided a couple weeks after the season ended. If (the Dodgers) had picked up my option, I probably would have played one more year. But I didn’t want to go anywhere else.” Lieberthal who is now 36, grew up near the Westlake Village and played his first 13 season with Philadelphia before joining the Dodgers. He has hit 274 with 150 homers and played in two all star games. He also added “The money was great as a backup, but I have made (enough) money in baseball. I just don’t want to go through what I have to go through with my body to play 20-25 games a year. It’s not worth it. I’m in a totally happy place.”

For many young people, today the basketball culture is an important fashion statement. According to an apparel company, the game of basketball has the biggest fans which are beyond those oversized hoodies and baggy pants. This is why many apparel companies such as Undrcrwn, has brought out a line of clothing which has basketball netting patterns. The company has also brought out Hawaiian-print basketball shorts, puffy quilted jackets and sweatshirts made to fit. Camouflage hoodies are embedded with the images of ballplayers and V-neck sweaters with netting graphically threaded. The line also includes T-shirts with sly references to the National Basketball Association players. At present these clothing are an enormous hit among basketball enthusiasts.

The Southern California University has beaten the Florida State University by 2-0, which was the first women’s soccer championship. The Game was held at the College Station, Texas; where the University of Southern California scored once in each half. The Southern California University finished with a record of nineteen wins, to ties and three losses, while the Florida State was 18-3-5; at 82:06, the Florida State defender Libby Gianeskis was given a red card and ejected.

Two days ago, during the National College Athletics Association tournament, Southern California eliminated UCLA and Florida State ousted Notre Dame in the semifinals.

Mexico was beaten by Brazil 8-2, in the finals of Beach soccer World cup. For the second time, Brazil has won this World cup again. Previously Brazil has defeated Mexico by 6-4. Brazil scored its first goal from Andre in eighth minute. Brazil was able to score three more goals by the end of the second period. The Brazilian fans had started to chant ‘We are the champions’ at the beginning of the third period, before Junior Negao and Brazil’s Andre each scored to expand their lead to 8-1. The World Cup, has been held 13 times on Rio de Janeiro’s famous Copacabana beach, now this will move to the French city, Marseille for the first time in 2008 and then in 2009, to the United Arab Emirates, Dubai.

The Hilltoppers from Duluth Marshall won the boy’s Class A title game, defeating the Bears from the Blake School. Doug Frey scored the only goal which led the Hilltoppers to win with a score of 1-0 in their first state soccer tournament. The second game of the day was for the girls Class A championship. The Blake School girls took on Totino-Grace which required overtime and a shootout. All five penalty kicks was scored by Totino-Grace and won the shootout, with a goal 5-3. Totino-Grace won the game and the girls Class A state title.

The Indiana Pacers led event broke the World Guinness Record for the most people to dribble basketballs. Last Sunday afternoon, nearly 4,600 people took part in this event. The previous record was 1,111 people which was held by an Australia school.