Spanish McLaren Formula One driver Fernando Alonso

MADRID, Spain, Nov. 3--Former world champion Fernando Alonso has left McLaren after agreeing an early release from his contract.
McLaren and Alonso have had an acrimonious relationship this season and a team statement said that both parties had “agreed to move on“, BBC wrote.
Alonso is free to join another team in 2008, and his agent said neither party would pay a financial penalty. Red Bull and Renault are the favorites to sign him, and Red Bull are the more likely option.
Alonso’s relationship with McLaren soured following a series of rows with team boss Ron Dennis this season.
McLaren described the split as a “mutual parting of the ways“, adding: “Both parties believe that this was the right decision.
Alonso said: “Since I was a boy I had always wanted to drive for McLaren, but sometimes in life things do not work out. I continue to believe that McLaren is a great team. Yes, we have had our ups and downs during the season, which has made it extra challenging for all of us, and it is not a secret that I never really felt at home.
“I know there have been suggestions of favoritism within the team and people say a lot of things in the heat of battle, but in the end I was always provided with an equal opportunity to win.“
Dennis added: “He is a great driver but for some reason the combination of McLaren-Mercedes and Fernando has not really worked out, and in the end we reached a stage where none of us could find a way to move forward.“
It is not known who will replace Alonso as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate, but Williams’s Nico Rosberg and Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen are the favorites.
Alonso finished 2007 tied on points with team-mate Lewis Hamilton and only one adrift of Raikkonen. He joined the team this season on a three-year contract worth a total of 50 million euros.
But he spent much of his time at McLaren under a cloud. His initial misgivings about the level of support McLaren were giving to Hamilton, who was in his debut season this year, soon degenerated into a series of rows with Dennis.
These became public in the course of the spy scandal that rocked the sport this season, when McLaren were fined $100m and thrown out of the constructors’ championship after being found guilty of being in possession of confidential Ferrari documents.
Alonso became central to the story when, in a row with Dennis at the Hungarian Grand Prix in August, he threatened to reveal incriminating e-mails to governing body the FIA.
Although Alonso soon apologized, Dennis had already phoned FIA president Max Mosley himself, starting the chain of events that led to McLaren’s punishment.
Following those events, the relationship between Hamilton and Alonso also deteriorated, with both saying they would rather not partner the other again for another season.
Both men later said the antagonism between them had been overplayed by the media.

Phoenix Suns' Steve Nash (r) gets stopped on his drive to the basket by Los Angeles Lakers' Derek Fisher in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game, Friday.

PHOENIX, USA,
Nov. 3--Vladimir Radmanovic made all four of his 3-pointers and scored 19 points, and Kobe Bryant added 16 points and 11 rebounds, leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a stunning 119-98 rout of listless Phoenix in the Suns’ home opener on Friday night, AP wrote.
The capacity crowd at US Airways Center booed the home team, often, for the first time in recent memory as the Suns lost at home to the Lakers for the first time in the regular season since Steve Nash came to Phoenix in 2004.
Phoenix, the three-time defending Pacific Division champion, fell behind by 17 in the second quarter, 29 in the third and an embarrassing 33 in the fourth, giving up a seemingly endless series of layups, dunks and open jumpers.
Radmanovic, questionable before the game because of a sore throat, shot 6-of-7. Bryant, coming off a 45-point game in Los Angeles’ season-opening loss to Houston, was just one of the guys in this one as five Lakers reached double figures.
The Lakers shot 57 percent, 8-of-13 from 3-point range. Andrew Bynum had 14 points and 13 rebounds. Leading 63-50 at the half, the Lakers outscored Phoenix 27-11 to go up 90-61 with just under two minutes left in the third quarter on Ronny Turiaf’s dunk, on a pass from Bryant.
After Boris Diaw scored four, Radmanovic made a 3-pointer from the corner at the buzzer and Los Angeles led 95-67 entering the fourth. Amare Stoudemire was 2-for-10 shooting for four points and had one rebound in 24 miserable minutes for Phoenix.
Nash had 19 points but only three assists and sat out the fourth quarter, as did most of the Lakers’ starters. Leandro Barbosa led the Suns with 23, 17 in the fourth quarter. Shawn Marion had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Grant Hill scored 12 in his first home game for the Suns.
In a late-game exchange with the Lakers’ coaching staff during a timeout, Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni shouted “We’re good. We’ve got three more games.“
After giving up 58 first-half points in Seattle in their opener on Thursday night, the Suns were even worse, and this time the lousy defense lasted the whole game.
The Suns were bad from the start, and Bryant was only a role player in a 17-2 Lakers’ run that put Los Angeles ahead 25-14 after Jordan Farmar’s two free throws with 2:38 to go.
In all, the Lakers outscored Phoenix 31-10 in the last nine minutes of the opening quarter to lead 33-20. It got worse for the Suns in the second quarter.
Luke Walton’s uncontested inside basket put the Lakers up 48-31 with 7:23 left in the half.
Phoenix cut it to 56-44 when Brian Skinner made one of two free throws 3 minutes before halftime. The Lakers stretched it to 17 again, the last time at 63-46 when Sasha Vujacic made two free throws with 40 seconds to play. Nash scored the last four of the half to cut the margin to 13.

IranÕs futsal team won the championship of the Second Asian Indoor Games in Macau on Saturday.

MACAU, Nov. 3--Defending champion Iran defeated Thailand 7-4 in the final round of the Second Asian Indoor Games in Macau to retain the men’s futsal title on Saturday.
Iran’s futsal ranked first in the first Asian Indoor Games which was held in Thailand after defeating the host and celebrated championship for the second successive race.
The powerhouse team defeated all rivals in the tourney and clinched the gold as the best team in Asia, who has won seven times in the Asian Championship, according to IRNA.
Early on Saturday, Uzbekistan defeated China futsal team 3-2 to stand at the third spot.
Iran futsal attended the event with the second team while the main team went to Brazil to participate in the Mini World Cup. Iran ranked second in Brazil tournament last week.

LONDON, Nov. 3--Kevin McIntyre is the new British welterweight champion after taking the title in fine style from Kevin Anderson at the Magnum Centre in Irvine.
As reported by BBC, the judges’ scores of 120-107, 119-108, 118-110 reflected the superiority of the challenger from Paisley. Anderson, from Buckhaven, was making his third defence and aiming to win a Lonsdale belt outright but did not recover from two early standing counts.
A surprise winner, McIntyre, 29, made a storming start and did not look back. Anderson looked focused and oblivious to the noisy crowd but he was in trouble when he was sent crashing to the canvas from a McIntyre right in the first round.
The challenger went for the kill as the shocked Anderson, after taking a count of eight, took some time to steady himself. Anderson appeared to slip in the second round during a clinch but was again the subject of an eight count.
Both men went toe-to-toe in an enthralling, if scrappy, battle but McIntyre was snappier and more accurate in the trade-offs. McIntyre was enjoying success with his right hook much to the frustration of the champion, who continued gamely but could not find any rhythm.
The seventh round witnessed both boxers take some heavy blows and the pace dropped markedly in the following round. Anderson looked the stronger fighter thereafter and connected with a sweet right hand in the 10th.
The defending champion needed a big 11th round but it ended with McIntyre finding his way through with some ferocious right hands. Anderson needed a knockout in the last round but looked dispirited as he watched his title slip away.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Nov. 3--Iranian athlete Majid Ahmadi has set a world record at 70 meters in the Compound Men division.
He breaks the former record of 2005 by two points, according to FITA.
The result was achieved at the Third Asian Grand Prix that took place in Iran on October 20-26.

MACAU, Nov. 3--Iran ranked eighth in medals tally at the nine-day Second Asian Indoor Games held in Macau.
The Iranian athletes snatched a total of 17 medals (4 gold, 4 silver and 9 bronze) in the event.
This is while Iran’s sports officials had promised better results.
Giant China won the Second Asian Indoor Games with 102 medals in overall (52 gold medals, 26 silver medals and 24 bronze medals).
Thailand, as a new emerging strong country, ranked second with 69 medals (19 gold medals, 28 silver medals and 22 bronze medals) and Hong Kong stood third with 35 medals (15 gold medals, 9 silver medals and 11 bronze medals), according to Mehr News Agency.
Iran Grabbed four gold medals in hockey, futsal, 50-meter breaststroke and middleweight Muay Thai.
Iran also bagged silver medals in Electronic Games, Indoor Athletic, chess and Muay. Bronze medals were also grabbed in Indoor Athletics, Kabaddi, chess, Muay and Electronic Games.

NEW DELHI, India, Nov. 3--Salman Butt hit 83 off 84 balls as Pakistan warmed up for the one-day series in India with a seven-wicket victory over a Delhi XI.
According to Reuters, left-hander Butt hit a six and 13 fours before retiring to give team-mates a chance of some batting practice.
And Pakistan reached 215-3 in the 43rd over after earlier restricting the home side to 213-9. India and Pakistan will play five one-day matches, the first at Guwahati on Monday, before three Test matches.
And the tourists are in upbeat mood despite a recent home series defeat by South Africa. Pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar took 1-46 in his 10 overs after skipper Shoaib Malik won the toss and opted to field first, while Rajat Bhatia top scored for Delhi with 75.
Bhatia rescued their innings in a fifth wicket stand of 91 with Shikhar Dhiwan (52) after they had been reduced to 46-4, but both were run out as Pakistan enjoyed a good day in the field.
Seven bowlers were used by the tourists, and part-time leg-spinner Younus Khan proved the most successful with figures of 2-25. Pakistan’s reply began badly when Kamran Akmal was leg-before to left-armer Kunal Lal for five, but Imran Nazir and Butt responded with a flurry of boundaries to put them well ahead of the required rate.
The total had reached 66 in only the seventh over when Nazir (34 off 22 balls) gave a catch to mid-on, but Misbah-ul-Haq joined Butt in adding 91 to effectively end the game as a contest.
Butt returned to the dressing room with the total on 157 and Misbah eventually fell for 39, before Yasir Hameed (33 not out) and Fawad Alam (10 not out) knocked off the remaining runs.

Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus reacts after defeating 6-4, 6-4, Spain's Tommy Robredo in their quarterfinal match of the Paris Tennis Masters tournament on Friday.

SHANGHAI, China, Nov. 3--The air-tight race for one of the two remaining positions for next weekend’s start of the Masters Cup lost a contender as Tommy Robredo was knocked out of contention with a Paris Masters loss on Friday.
A 6-4, 6-4 quarterfinal win by Shanghai hopeful Marcos Baghdatis, the 2006 Australian Open finalist who learned his tennis in Paris, put an end to the dream of the Spaniard, AFP wrote.
At the start of play on Friday, five men were in the chase for two remaining spots at the season-ending event in Shanghai. There are now four.
Two Spaniards have already booked into the field: Rafael Nadal and first-timer David Ferrer.
Robredo stood provisional eighth in the points chase for the eight-man conclusion, but will stay on 353 points.
The two men directly behind him--Scot Andy Murray and Frenchman Richard Gasquet--will play later. The winner of that match will pass Robredo, leaving the Spaniard out in the cold for China.
Baghdatis has now beaten Robredo twice after winning their match at the 2005 Australian Open, a year before the Cypriot made the final against Roger Federer.
Federer has shrugged off a double dose of David Nalbandian and will head to Shanghai ready to do battle at another year-end wrap-up.
The Swiss was quick to put his second straight loss to the beefy Argentine out of mind--he blamed a notoriously slow indoor court as well as his own lack of top form--after going out in straight sets in the Paris third round.
That setback followed three weeks on from a defeat against the reviving Argentine in the final of the Madrid Masters. But with his eye always on the big picture and his growing place in the sport, the steady Swiss cannot be frayed by one bad match.
“I was originally going to fly (to China) on Monday, I don’t know if I’m going to go earlier than that,“ he said less than an hour after going out at the Bercy arena on Thursday night.
“I’d like to get there early and get over the jetlag and get used to the surface over there and hopefully finish well over there.“
If precedent holds, that wish would be a safe bet, with the Swiss winning three of the last four editions of the eight-man season-ending spectacular.

NEW YORK, Nov. 3--Former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre has been hired to take charge of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
According to AP, Torre, 67, parted company with the Yankees two weeks ago after they went out of the play-offs in the first round for the third successive season.
After 12 years in the hotseat, he was offered a new one-year deal on reduced terms but turned it down. Torre, who won four World Series in New York, replaces Grady Little at the Dodgers on a three-year contract.
He said: “I consider it an honor to be a part of this organization which is one of the most storied franchises in all of sports.“
Dodgers owner and chairman Frank McCourt said: “Joe Torre is one of the most respected men in baseball. As a player, a broadcaster, a manager and in his life off the field, Joe is a winner through and through. His dedication, desire and ability will help lead the Dodgers to our ultimate goal, a world championship.“
Torre also managed the New York Mets, Atlanta Braves and St Louis Cardinals with little success before ushering in a new era of success for the Yankees in the late 1990s.
He has been replaced at the Yankees by former catcher Joe Girardi, who was his bench coach in 2005. The Dodgers were formed in Brooklyn in 1883 and moved to LA in 1958. They were one of MLB’s glamour teams but have struggled in recent years and not won a World Series since 1988.