Dwight Howard had 23 points and 10 rebounds to lift the Orlando Magic to an easy 112-83 victory over the Washington Wizards on Thursday night, giving the NBA's newest arena a grand opening and spoiling No. 1 overall pick John Wall's debut.

Vince Carter had 18 points and Jameer Nelson scored 16 to help the Magic cruise to another blowout victory after a perfect preseason.

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will compete in Australia's Tour Down Under in January in what will be his final professional race outside his native United States.

The 39-year-old will ride in the UCI ProTour race from January 16 to 23 for the third and final time, race director Mike Turtur said.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was on striking form when he met his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales on Wednesday -- on the football pitch for a friendly with top Iranian players, local media said.

The Iranian and Bolivian leaders, sporting T-shirts and shorts, played in the same team alongside Iran's star midfielder Karim Bagheri, with both scoring in a match that was drawn 4-4 at the end of normal time.

World number one Caroline Wozniacki moved to within one win of the year-end top spot when she continued her 12-week hot streak at the WTA Championships here on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old Dane outplayed Elena Dementieva, the former Olympic champion from Russia, 6-1, 6-1, bringing her 31st win in 33 matches since the start of August, during which she has won five of her seven tournaments.

World governing body FIFA on Tuesday released a short-list of 23 players who will contest the inaugural 2010 FIFA Ballon d'Or with seven members of Spain's victorious World Cup winning squad included.

Next after that came Germany with five players in the running for the world player of the year award, while four players from European Champions League winners Inter Milan are listed.

World Cup fever is sweeping across Asia as hundreds of millions of fans in the football-mad region count down to the start of an event that's a surefire winner for pubs, clubs and bookmakers.

From Seoul to Sydney, Beijing to Bangkok, preparations are underway for Friday's kick-off thousands of miles away in South Africa, heralding a month of late nights and bleary-eyed mornings for many Asian fans.

Drugs scandals, shark attacks, head-butting, insults, stamping on someone's genitals and the appearance of Jesus Christ: these are just some of the things which can be bet on at the World Cup.

British bookmakers -- who are predicting they will handle a record-breaking one billion pounds (1.2 billion euros, 1.4 billion dollars) on the tournament -- are taking bets on all manner of bizarre events in South Africa.

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