COMMONWEALTH GAMES

After nine days of fasting, the Team Anna, as the Indian anti-graft activist Anna Hazare and his supporters are known, has decided to call off its indefinite hunger strike Friday and has floated a proposal to form a "political alternative" as an answer to an "unresponsive" government.

The Indian activist Anna Hazare began his fifth hunger strike in 16 months on Sunday to pressurize the government to set up an anti-graft agency and tougher laws to abate the unbridled corruption in India.

Seven teenage athletes, who were selected by UK's seven renowned Olympic champions, lit the London 2012 Games cauldron Friday, marking the official start of the games.

The most popular thing in London right now -- besides the 2012 Olympic Games, of course -- is British Olympic diver Tom Daley, who just turned 18. Girls, mostly, have taken to Twitter to show their appreciation for the diver's skill set, as well as his physical assets.

Fast shooter Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi, 29 is the first Malaysian woman-shooter to participate in the Olympics. However, what makes her stand out in Olympics 2012 is the fact that she is one of the only women athletes to compete at the Olympics while 8 months pregnant.

The aptly named Lauryn Mark will be representing Australia at the upcoming 2012 London Olympics as the American-born Mark tries to go for gold in skeet shooting.

Responding to the bombshell of a story carried by an Indian newspaper on the suspicious military movements insinuating a military coup, Prime Minister Monmohan Singh Wednesday said that the reports were alarmist and should not be taken at face value.

A group of young, semi-clad Ukrainian women gate crashed into the Indian embassy in Ukraine's capital Kiev last month, tore down the Indian flag and threw it on the ground.

Doug Sellars, the executive vice-president of Fox Sports in LA and former executive of CBC sports died on Friday after an apparent heart attack. He was 50.

The Lok Sabha passed the Lokpal bill on Tuesday to create an anti-corruption ombudsman, in a move the government hopes will deflate a protest movement led by Anna Hazare.

The hype and expectation circling the still elusive 100th international century for Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar, is a clear indication of the pathetic state of sports, in general, in India.

Australia has hailed the decision to award the 2018 Commonwealth Games to the Gold Coast as a major economic boost to the subtropical beachside region of Queensland.

With both Formula One championships already wrapped up by Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team, India takes the starring role on its long-awaited grand prix debut this weekend.

Queen Elizabeth II Wednesday arrived in Australia for a 10-day tour along with the Duke of Edinburgh. There have been speculations that this could be probably her last visit to the country.

The officials also decided to de-congest the roads in the vicinity of the courthouse.

Routine bribery shakedowns have driven middle-class Indians to pour into the streets to say enough is enough.

Hazare, whose arrest a day earlier sparked protests across the country, rejected the government's offer for his release, choosing to remain in prison until he is permitted to go on a hunger strike.

The arrest of 74-year-old Anna Hazare and the crackdown on the peaceful protest against the tooth-less anti-corruption bill by the Indian government might boomerang against the already troubled government.

The U.S. contingent in the World Badminton Championship in London suffered a jolt on the opening day of the tournament Monday as the American players lost their five out of six matches. In the very first match Men's Doubles pair of Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan lost to Malaysia's Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif and Thien How Hoon 17-21, 14-21.

Collated medallists after the eighth day of pool competition on day 16 of the world swimming championships in Shanghai on Sunday (* indicates medal winners on Sunday):

In an effort to clean up dangerous parts of Rio before the upcoming World Cup and Olympic games, the Brazilian military has sized control of a Rio slum.