Litex Lovech's midfield dynamo Georgi Milanov was voted Bulgaria's Footballer of the Year on Thursday, becoming the youngest player to pick up the prestigious prize.

Anna Ushenina of Ukraine claimed the women's World Championship crown, defeating Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria in the first set of tie-break games in Khanty Mansiysk.

Grandmaster D Harika's title aspirations suffered a major blow as she lost to Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria in the first game of the semi-final at World Women's chess championship in Khanty, Mansiysk, Russia. Despite displaying top form so far, Harika could not get things moving well in the first game and went down rather easily.

Grandmaster D Harika came up with a spectacular performance in the tiebreak games to beat Zhao Xue of China and enter the last four stage in the World Women chess championship in Khanty Mansiysk (Russia).

Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly continued with his demolishing form and defeated Yaroslav Zherebukh of Ukraine to jump into sole lead after the end of the third round of the Fujairah International Open Chess tournament in Fujaira, UAE, on Friday.

Koneru Humpy effortlessly defeated Denise Frick of South Africa while D Harika outplayed compatriot Soumya Swaminathan to move to the second round of the women's World Chess Championship, in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.

Denmark are to complain to FIFA over alleged racist chants directed at defender Patrick Mtliga during their 2014 World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria in Sofia on Friday, the Danish FA (DBU) said.

Holders Spain stretched their winning run in qualifiers to 23 as they began the journey to the 2014 World Cup with a 1-0 victory in Georgia on Tuesday but along with Germany and Italy they struggled to take the points.

Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta won a silver by pocketing seven points out of nine games while Tania Sachdev turned out to be the best woman performer for India with a bronze medal in the Chess Olympiad, that concluded in Istanbul Turkey on Sunday.

The Czech Republic hung on to claim a point away to Denmark with a 0-0 draw in their opening World Cup qualifier on Saturday.

England, Germany, France and the Netherlands all started the long road to the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil with victories but Italy stumbled out of the blocks when the European qualifying campaign began on Friday.

On a disappointing day for India, the men's team bowed out of medal contention after conceding another draw, while the women were tamed 1-3 by Russia in the ninth round of the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.

Former Asian queen Tania Sachdev continued with her dream run as Indian eves roared back to medal contention with an easy 2.5-1.5 triumph over Vietnam in the eighth round of the Women's chess Olympiad in Istanbul.

Fulham striker Dimitar Berbatov has been heavily criticised in his homeland after he snubbed the Bulgarian national team for a second time in 28 months.

Grandmasters P Harikrihsna and Abhijeet Gupta played in copy book style to give Indian men their third victory in a row in the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.

Grandmaster K Sasikiran showed the way as Indian men cruised to a 3-1 victory over Turkish 2016 team in the second round of the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.

Indian wrestlers continued to disappoint at London Olympics, as Yogeshwar Dutt lost his pre-quarter-final bout in the men's 60kg freestyle category at the ExCel Arena on Saturday. Yogeshwar, a gold medallist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, gave a tough fight to four-time and reigning World champion Besik Kudukhov of Russia but eventually lost 0-3 on classification points.

India's male freestyle wrestlers started their Olympics campaign on a disappointing note, as both young Amit Kumar and Narsingh Pancham Yadav crashed out of their respective categories in contrasting fashion, at the ExCel centre in London, on Friday.

MC Mary Kom on Monday created history as she assured India its fourth Olympic medal after winning her quarterfinal boxing bout against Maroua Rahali of Tunisia by 15-6 margin in the women's 51 kg category.

Indian shooters continued to misfire at the Olympic Games as Heena Sidhu and Annu Raj Singh bowed out of the women's 10m air pistol event after failing to qualify for the finals in London on Sunday.

South Korea set the first world records of the London Olympics, both in the men's archery competition, with legally blind Im Dong-hyun breaking the 72-arrow mark with 699 points.

Nine track and field athletes have been handed lengthy bans for doping violations in a crackdown on the use of prohibited substances in the lead up to the London Olympics, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said on Wednesday.

Strikes by train drivers and passport officials threaten major disruptions to the London Olympics, prompting the government to warn unions on Thursday that they risked public anger if the industrial action went ahead.

Ryan Giggs will captain Britain's football team at the London Olympics, head coach Stuart Pearce said on Sunday.

India-born US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said while 11 individuals were arrested in the US, another 13 were arrested in the UK, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Norway and Germany in the largest coordinated international law enforcement action in history directed at the 'carding' crimes -- offences.

Ambassadors of as many as 15 countries will be in Lucknow on June 30 to participate in a mango party, to be hosted by the mango growers of Malihabad where new initiatives were being taken to push mango exports across the globe.

How Viswanathan Anand won his five World Chess Championship titles.

Defending champion Viswanathan Anand was stretched to the tie-breaker of the World Chess Championship by Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand following a draw in the 12th and final game, in Moscow, on Monday.

German pride took a second bashing in eight days on Saturday as their Euro 2012 countdown began in earnest with a humbling 5-3 friendly defeat by Switzerland.

Defending champion Viswanathan Anand will have a lot to think about ahead of the last game of the Chess World Championship against Boris Gelfand of Israel in Moscow.

Viswanathan Anand remains favourite for the title in the World Chess Championship, but the 11th game will be crucial when the Indian plays his last black.

Striker Dimitar Berbatov wants to leave Manchester United because he feels he has fallen out of favour with manager Alex Ferguson.

The proposed India-European Union free trade agreement (FTA), which seeks to liberalise trade in goods and services, could be materialised by this year, EU Ambassador to India Joao Cravinho has said.

Diplomats of European countries have called on Nagaland Governor Nikhil Kumar and Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio amidst a controversy in New Delhi over their 'uninformed' visit to the North-Eastern state. The diplomats discussed the possibilities of enhancing cooperation between India and EU in various fields pertaining to the N-E region and Nagaland in particular during their meetings with Kumar and Rio on Monday, official sources said

The home ministry on Monday lodged a protest with the ministry of external affairs over the visit of eight envoys of the European Union to Nagaland without any intimation and security clearance and raised concern on the delegation meeting with political leaders and civil society.

Mist clears to reveal white marble images from classical Greece culminating in Myron's celebrated statue of an athlete poised to launch a discus in the prologue to Leni Riefenstahl's remarkable documentary film "Olympia".

Senegal, who stunned the football world when they upset defending champions France in the opening match of the 2002 World Cup, reached the Olympic football tournament for the first time on Monday with a 2-0 win over Oman.

Aston Villa fans will be able to munch on a special pie named in honour of their Bulgarian captain Stiliyan Petrov, who is battling leukaemia, in the home Premier League match against Sunderland on Saturday.

Gold has been with us since time immemorial.

Aston Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov has been diagnosed with acute leukaemia, the club said in a statement on Friday.