Argentina forward Lionel Messi will not play in the Olympic Games after a sporting tribunal ruled on Wednesday that his club Barcelona were not obliged to release him.
Three Indian rowers have booked their berths in the Beijing Olympics after winning the qualifying tournament in the Chinese capital on Sunday.
This threat from UWW comes days after the Delhi High Court was considering an application filed by four wrestlers including Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Bajrang Punia after the IOA dissolved the ad hoc committee on March 18 saying that there was "no further need" for it to run.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday met his Italian and Vietnamese counterparts as well as the president of Mongolia in Beijing and exchanged views with them on bilateral ties and the raging global economic turmoil. Dr Singh, who arrived in Beijing on Thursday night from Tokyo to attend the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit, kicked off his official engagements with a bilateral meeting with Mongolian President Namaryn Enkhbayar.
Olympic tickets for events in host city Beijing have completely sold out, Games organisers said, leaving only tickets for competitions in co-host cities still available. Organisers released the final tranche of 820,000 tickets on Friday, prompting chaotic scenes at ticket booths in Beijing, where queues of tens of thousands of people strained to break heavy police cordons.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi on Wednesday inched closer to their first joint Olympic medal by reaching the quarterfinals of the men's doubles event.
India has expressed concern about the movement of the Xiang Yang Hong 03 vessel in Indian Ocean waters and also prevailed on Sri Lanka to refuse permission for the ship to dock at Colombo port.
The US swimming team arrived in Beijing on Monday with Michael Phelps eager to start an Olympic adventure that could end with him breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven golds in a single Olympics. The 23-year-old and other members of the US swimming squad flew in from a pre-Games training camp in Singapore four days before Friday's opening ceremony.
World number three Maria Sharapova's participation in next month's Beijing Olympics hinges on a scan on her right shoulder later on Thursday.
