Japanese club Urawa Reds' Yuichiro Nagai (l) celebrates after scoring a goal against Iranian club Sepahan as Sepahan's Jaba Mujiri reacts during their FIFA Club World Cup match in Toyota, central Japan, on Monday.

TOYOTA CITY, Japan, Dec. 10--Japan’s Urawa Reds Diamonds beat the Iranian team Sepahan, 3-1, at the Club World Cup on Monday to set up a semifinal bout with AC Milan.
According to Reuters, striker Yuichiro Nagai put Urawa out in front, pouncing on Takahito Soma’s low cross to score from point-blank range after 32 minutes.
The Brazilian forward Washington made it 2-0 nine minutes into the second half, scoring from an acute angle, before Hadi Aqili’s own goal put the match pretty much out of the reach of Sepahan.
Sepahan was hoping to avenge a defeat by Urawa in the Asian Champions League final last month, but it rarely threatened before a late score by the substitute Mahmoud Karimi in the 80th minute.
Urawa will face Milan, the European champion, in Yokohama on Thursday.
The South American champion, Boca Juniors, will face Etoile Sahel of Tunisia in the first semifinal on Wednesday.

TEHRAN, Dec. 10--Iran’s paintball team won the 2007 Asian Paintball Championship on Monday.
The four-round tournament kicked off in Taiwan with 17 teams from nine countries, IRNA reported.
The Iranian team was the winner in both the first and second rounds, while it ranked second in the third round and gained the highest total score.
Iran also stood at first place in the 2006 Asian Paintball Championship.

Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh drives to the basket against Houston Rockets guard Tracy McGrady during the second half of their NBA game in Toronto, Sunday.

TORONTO,
Dec. 10--Chris Bosh returned from injury to score 21 points and lead the Toronto Raptors to a 93-80 victory over the Houston Rockets on Sunday.
According to Reuters, Bosh, who had missed five games with a strained groin, also had 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.
“It just took me a couple minutes,“ Bosh, who was 1-for-7 in the first half, told reporters. “I felt I had a good hard practice, and I felt I was ready to roll.“
Houston led 45-34 at the half, but the Raptors held the Rockets to 11 points in the third quarter and went on an 18-3 run to seize a 62-56 lead.
Anthony Parker had nine of his 11 points in the quarter and Bosh contributed seven.
“The thing I love about this team is we stay with it. No matter what happens, we continue to try playing defense, and keep taking those shots,“ Bosh said.
Toronto forward Kris Humphries then scored 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter and pulled down nine rebounds for the game.
Tracy McGrady led Houston with 23 points. Yao Ming added 15 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots.
*Miami coach Pat Riley won his 1,200th NBA game as Dwyane Wade had 35 points and 10 assists to help the Heat end a five-game losing streak with a 100-94 road win over the Los Angeles Clippers. Riley, who has a 1,200-642 record, became the third NBA coach to reach the milestone. Corey Maggette paced the Clippers with 24 points and 12 rebounds.

GLASGOW, UK,
Dec. 10--Andy Murray has been named the British male player of the year.
Murray won the men’s category in the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) awards, voted for by members of the public, BBC wrote.
Katie O’Brien took the women’s award after finishing the year as British number one.
Fitzpatrick became the first Briton for six years to reach the semifinals of the girls’ singles at Wimbledon.
The 18-year-old from Sheffield received more than 50% of the online votes on the LTA website, with Laura Robson, Jessica Ren and Jennifer Ren her fellow nominees.
Fitzpatrick, a member of the Monte-Carlo Tennis Academy, is the British number eight and has spent the majority of the year breaking through on the ITF senior circuit.
The other awards went to Peter Norfolk (Disabled Player of the Year), Great Britain’s Davis Cup team (Team of the Year), and Dan Cox (Male Junior Player of the Year).
LTA chief executive Roger Draper will present the awards at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton on 18 December.

MOSCOW, Dec. 10--Tehran men’s Taekwondo team was runner-up in the World Capitals Taekwondo Tournament held in Moscow on Sunday.
Tehran ranked second after a 3-1 loss to Seoul in the final games while the Korean team topped the event for the first time, Mehr News Agency wrote.
Moscow’s A team won over Minsk to rank third, respectively. In the women’s category, Moscow’s A team won the championship ahead of Warsaw and Tehran.
The two-day tournament was held during December 8-9 with 21 participants.

TEHRAN, Dec. 10--First half of Iran’s Professional League (IPL) season will end on
Dec. 29.
The first half of the season will be off after the SepahanÐPersepolis football match on Dec. 28, 2007, and will restart on January 21, 2008, IRNA reported.
This is while the program will be practical, if Sepahan’s postponed games are not changed.

LONDON, Dec. 10--Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson admitted on Monday a Football Association charge of using abusive and/or insulting words to a match official.
According to AFP, Ferguson was charged after confronting referee Mark Clattenburg at half-time of United’s game at Bolton on November 24, with the veteran Scottish boss unhappy with what he believed was the official’s failure to punish some excessively physical tackles.
United, currently a point behind Premier League leaders Arsenal, lost the match 1-0.
Ferguson has not requested a personal hearing and a regulatory commission will consider the charge at a date to be announced.

NEW YORK, Dec. 10--The New York Yankees have acquired free agent reliever LaTroy Hawkins on a one-year, $3.75 million contract, The New York Times reported on Monday.
Hawkins, who turns 35 later this month, was 2-5 with a 3.42 earned run average last season with the National League champion Colorado Rockies.
A physical exam is required before the deal becomes official.
The right-handed reliever, who spent nine of his 13 major league seasons with the Minnesota Twins, would shore up a bullpen that is expected to lose fireballing Joba Chamberlain to New York’s starting rotation.
The durable Hawkins, who has appeared in 60 games or more in eight straight seasons, has also has pitched for the Cubs, Giants and Orioles.
Last season Hawkins appeared in 62 games, allowing 52 hits in 55 1/3 innings. He walked 16 and struck out 29.

LONDON, Dec. 10--Everton are likely to be without Aiyegbeni Yakubu for a month early next year after the striker said he planned to play for Nigeria in the African Nations Cup.
The 11.25 million pounds ($22.8 million) club-record signing from Middlesbrough in August scored a second-half hat-trick in Everton’s 3-0 home win over Fulham on Saturday, taking his seasonal tally to nine and Everton’s unbeaten run to 10 games, Reuters wrote. However, Yakubu, who fell out of favour with Nigeria after run-ins with the management earlier this year, now says he wants to represent them in the Nations Cup in Ghana from January 20 to February 10.
During that period he could miss five league games, in addition to FA and League Cup matches.
“I played a couple of games for Nigeria in the summer and, if I am called up for the African Cup of Nations, I will be going,“ he told Monday’s Daily Telegraph.
“I will be a bit sad because there are important games coming up here but everybody wants to play for their country. I have to play for them and I am ready for it if they call me up.“

Fernando Alonso

LONDON, Dec. 10--Double world champion Fernando Alonso and Brazilian Nelson Piquet junior will race for Renault in an all-new line-up next season, the Formula One team announced on Monday.
“Fernando and Nelsinho will form one of the most exciting driver line-ups of 2008,“ Renault team boss Flavio Briatore told Reuters.
Alonso, 26, won both his titles with the French manufacturer in 2005 and 2006 before joining McLaren. Piquet, whose father and namesake was a triple champion in the 1980s, was test driver this year.

LONDON, Dec. 10-- Although extra contingency money will be allocated for security at the London 2012 Olympics the overall budget has not gone above the 9.3 billion pounds ($18.97 billion) announced in March, the government said on Monday.
According to Reuters, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell confirmed an additional 238 million pounds of contingency money would be set aside for security during the Games in London’s East End on top of the 600 million pounds announced in March.
The government released the figures as part of its most detailed financial breakdown of the Games’ costs, following a request in July by the financial watchdog, the National Audit Office, to draw up a detailed plan for controlling the budget.
The baseline budget, to be met by the public sector funding package, remains at 6.1 billion pounds, including tax but excluding a contingency pot, with the total government funding still at 9.325 billion pounds, the Olympics minister said in a statement to the House of Commons.
“The budget is consistent with the funding package I outlined in March this year,“ she said.
“Months of careful scrutiny have confirmed that the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has the money it needs to deliver the venues and infrastructure for a terrific summer of sport, as well as leaving a long-term legacy for one of the most deprived parts of the country.“
The contingency was confirmed as enough to cover the risks at both project and overall levels, she said.
However the financial update showed the ODA, which oversees construction of Olympic venues and infrastructure, had been given all the 500 million pounds earmarked for initial contingency to cover costs on early projects.

MADRID, Spain,
Dec. 10--Cycling should not be singled out for special attention when it comes to combating doping in sport, Spanish national team coach Paco Antequera said on Monday.
“I don’t think the new anti-doping measures are the solution for cycling. It should be treated like any other sport,“ he told a meeting organised by the Europa Press news agency, Reuters reported.
“Perhaps it is a more demanding sport, but it shouldn’t be possible that we take something for a simple cold and end up giving a positive.
“(The press) should step back a little and shouldn’t be right on top of cycling. We shouldn’t have this millstone round our necks all the time.“
Two months ago, the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) unveiled tough new anti-doping measures which include the creation of a biological passport for professional riders.
The sport has suffered an unprecedented number of doping scandals during 2007.
Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping during the Tour de France and was kicked out along with his Astana team, and Dane Michael Rasmussen was sacked by his Rabobank team as he led this year’s Tour for lying about his training programme.
Former winner Bjarne Riis admitted to doping during his victorious ride in 1996. In September, American Floyd Landis, who won the 2006 Tour, was handed a two-year suspension by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and stripped of his title by the UCI following a positive test for testosterone during his victorious ride.