Full-back would take Newcastle or Celtic

Sky sports

Toulouse star Herita Ilunga has told skysports.com he would jump at the chance to join either Celtic or Newcastle.

Socerway

Manchester City have been very much in the news recently, unfortunately mostly for the wrong reasons.

To make matters even worse, amidst the current strife, Mark Hughes’ bid for his ex Blackburn Rovers striker Roque Santa Cruz has been turned down by his former club.

Defender signs deal until 2012

Sky Sports

Gareth Bale has handed a Tottenham a major boost ahead of the new season by signing a new long-term deal.

AP, WASHINGTON -- Retail sales fell in July, the weakest performance in five months, as shoppers shunned autos and other big ticket items.

AP, NEW YORK  -- Stocks fell sharply for a second session Wednesday after the government reported retail sales fell in July to their weakest levels in five months and as oil prices advanced. The Dow Jones industrial average fell about 150 points.

Deere & Co., the world's largest of maker of farm machinery, said Wednesday third-quarter profit rose 7 percent as high crop prices spurred stronger sales of tractors and harvesting equipment, reports AP.

The International Day of Indigenous People was observed on Aug 9 as of every year in pursuance of a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 23 December 1994. This year's slogan was 'The economic and social rights of the indigenous people.' Human rights activists, leaders of indigenous people and speakers at different functions organised in observance of the day that stressed the need for upholding the ethnic identity of the indigenous people and ensuring their fundamental, social, cultural and economic rights.

HAVANA, Wed Aug 13,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro turned 82 on Wednesday, still a world and national figure even though he has not been seen in public since falling ill two years ago.

BEIJING, Aug 13 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Jamaican Usain Bolt has buried his reputation for laziness over a couple of sensational years in which he has become one of the world's best 200 metres runners and set a new 100m world record.

BEIJING, Aug 13 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Athens Olympic 200 metre breaststroke champion Amanda Beard failed to make it to the semi-finals in Beijing on Wednesday, finishing 18th in qualifying.

BEIJING, Aug 13 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - American swimmer Michael Phelps won two more golds on Wednesday to eclipse compatriots Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis and become the all-time most successful Olympian.

BEIJING, Aug 13 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Spain's Rafael Nadal took a step closer to an Olympic tennis medal on Wednesday with a 6-4 6-2 defeat of Russian Igor Andreev to reach the men's singles quarter-finals.

BEIJING, Aug 13 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Japan's Masae Ueno became the third Japanese judoka to retain her Olympic title, beating Anaysi Hernandez of Cuba in the final to win gold in the women's 70-kg category on Wednesday.

MOSCOW/BRUSSELS, Wed Aug 13, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The European Union on Wednesday backed sending peacekeeping monitors to Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia to supervise a ceasefire between Russia and Georgia after days of heavy fighting.

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Wed Aug 13, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Palestinians gave their national poet Mahmoud Darwish what amounted to a state funeral in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday, mourning a man who articulated their sense of loss, exile and defiance.

COLOMBO, Wed Aug 13, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops killed 14 Tamil Tiger rebels and captured rebel positions in the far north of the island, as government forces continued their push into the rebels' stronghold there, the military said on Wednesday.

BEIJING, Aug 13 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Georgia's Manuchar Kvirkelia won the Olympic gold medal in the 74kg greco-roman wrestling on Wednesday.

By Peter Rutherford BEIJING, Aug 13 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Athens gold medallist Marco Galiazzo of Italy was knocked out of the men's Olympic individual archery by Britain's Alan Wills and South Korean Lee Chang-hwan set an Olympic record to advance on Wednesday.

PARIS, Wed Aug 13, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The Dalai Lama sought on Wednesday to defuse criticism of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been accused at home of caving into Chinese pressure by declining to meet the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

Efforts to release Khaleda soon, emergency to be relaxed for upazila polls, corruption strongly handled, CA informs

Staff Reporter

Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed chaired a meeting of the interim cabinet at the