IRAQ: International soccer returns to Baghdad

Iraq’s future might be fraught with peril. Bombs explode daily around the country and its myriad political problems remain unsolved. But on Tuesday night, Iraqis’ desire for  ordinary lives was on display as international soccer returned to Baghdad.

For the first time since 2002, a team from abroad dared venture to Baghdad to engage in the national pastime. The opponents were the Palestinian team, a people themselves no stranger to war and still without statehood. Baghdad, where on any given day bloodshed can occur, from mortar fires, to rockets to suicide bombs, took all security precautions.

IRAN: Despite tensions, soccer diplomacy in the works

While the Obama administration is mulling over the possibility of engaging Iran, the United States Soccer Federation has beaten U.S. officials to it. 

Two months ago, USSF President Sunil Gulati sent a letter to his Iranian counterpart, Ali Kafashian, requesting a friendly soccer match, meaning it wouldn't count toward tournament play.

The invitation was sent directly to Kafashian, missing the intermediary typical of recent Iranian-U.S. relations.

No agreement has been reached yet, but Kafashian on Tuesday expressed the Islamic Republic’s willingness to play the American national team. 

AFGHANISTAN: Former wrestling divas visit the troops.

Four former divas from World Wrestling Entertainment ventured to Afghanistan as a morale boost for Army personnel, according to the Armed Forces Press Service.

Terry Runnels, Nora "Molly Holly" Greenwald, Christy Hemme and Shelly Martinez visited troops at the Bagram air base and other locations. For Martinez, it turned into a fact-finding mission.

"People back home will never really understand how things are here without actually having been here," she told press service reporter.

Ton Perry, San Diego

Photo: Wrestling diva Shelly Martinez meets a soldier. Credit: U.S. Army

ISRAEL: Heavy guns on the soccer field

Sports fans are anxiously awaiting Saturday night's soccer match between Israel and Greece. Liverpool player and Israeli captain Yossi Benayoun's name has been mentioned on the radio this week almost as often as that of Benjamin Netanyahu, now in the final stages of completing his new government.

It's an important game. If Israel wins, it increases its chances of qualifying for the World Cup, for the first time in 40 years.

Extreme situations call for extreme measures. Seeking extra motivation for their players in advance of the critical game, coaches Dror Kashtan and Moshe Sinai decided to call in a heavy gun.

Ilan Malka isn't your average locker room motivator. He's Col. Ilan Malka to you, commander of the IDF's Givati Brigade.

DUBAI: Israeli tennis players unwittingly court controversy

Politics and sports make a volatile mix when a game involves Israeli athletes competing in the Middle East in an environment of hostility toward the Jewish state.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates recently denied a star Israeli female tennis player entry to the city-state of Dubai to participate in an international tournament.

The incident was met with a wave of condemnations by journalists, sports associations and politicians in the U.S.

For now, it looks like the oil-rich Arab country might backtrack on its earlier decision to bar Israeli players.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) told a news conference in New York that the UAE would grant male doubles player Andy Ram a visa to take part in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships next week.

Organizers of the tournament argued that the presence of an Israeli player would anger local crowds and create an unacceptable security situation.

Anti-Israeli sentiment has been exacerbated throughout the Arab world after the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which ended last month.

For weeks, Arab TV viewers were exposed to daily footage of Israeli jets causing havoc in Palestinian towns and of children agonizing in hospital beds. 

ISRAEL: The Gaza effect on sports, diplomacy

This week, Turkish sports fans and angered citizens took their fury over Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip to the basketball court.

Thousands protested in Ankara, the capital, outside an arena where visiting the Israeli basketball team, Bnei Hasharon, was warming up to play Turk Telekom.

Indoors, the mood was red-hot with crowds chanting slogans against Israel and supporting Hamas.

Although police were present, things didn't cool down, and when fans threatened to charge the court, the Israeli team retreated and took cover in the locker rooms for three hours before being safely extricated.

LEBANON: A marathon for many causes

For once, the slogans were not political. Tens of thousands of Lebanese rallied in the streets of Beirut on Sunday, this time to rally support for social causes, promote their companies and schools or simply enjoy a sunny weekend day with friends and families.

They gathered to run in Beirut’s yearly marathon. In any other country, such a race would merely be seen as a fun sports event. But in Lebanon, where the masses take to the streets mostly to commemorate a political leader’s assassination or to support a militant group, it was refreshing to see people from all sectarian groups stand side by side in a non-politically tainted occasion.

Mirroring the relatively stable situation in the country, the marathon put the spotlight this year on a  health issue rather than security and politics. The slogan: “With strength we run against cancer."

SAUDI ARABIA: Let's take the morality police bowling

When the men from the Committee to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice arrived unexpectedly at a shopping mall in Jeddah, the trendy Saudi youth in their Western-style attire were seized with fear. 

The religious force is notorious for beating up and arresting men and women in Saudi Arabia for what they perceive as immoral behaviors as well as Western ways of behaving or dressing up.

But this time, the bearded men of the religious police had totally different intentions. They just wanted to engage in a game of bowling with a group of youth at the mall in the Saudi coastal city, the local daily Al-Watan reported on Tuesday.   

The newspaper said that high-ranking officials from this police force, who turned out to be talented bowlers, won the game against the young group of bowlers. They all engaged in a friendly conversation, Al-Watan added.

This unusual event raised questions in the kingdom about whether the morality police widely viewed as austere and brutal are trying to spruce up their public image by engaging with young people.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Dubai continues shopping spree

While a credit crunch has begun to strangle commerce in the rest of the world, the cash-rich elite of the Persian Gulf seem not to have lost their appetite for high profile deal-making.

We published an extensive report earlier this week about how Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth funds continue flexing their economic muscles by grabbing up chunks in companies, grabbing properties and taking over sports teams even as the rest of the world's financial titans have been reduced to pint-sized weaklings by a crisis in the real estate, capital and lending markets.

Today comes word that Zabeel Investments of Dubai is pushing to purchase England's struggling Charlton soccer club.

According to news reports, the Dubai investment firm has already made a cash offer, which the team's current owners are considering.

IRAQ: A Brazilian boost for Iraqi soccer fans

The stale-smelling room where U.S. and Iraqi officials hold most press conferences is not normally stuffed with giddy reporters, but the ones who gathered there Wednesday to hear that Brazilian Jorvan Vieira was coming back to coach Iraq's national soccer team made no attempt to hide their excitement.

Iraq is mad for soccer, especially in light of the country's unexpected victory in July 2007 at the Asian Cup under Vieira's guidance. In the midst of some of their country's most violent days, and as Iraq's political leaders showed no signs of working through the sectarian distrust crippling the country, the ethnically and religiously mixed team beat Saudi Arabia, 1-0, to claim the cup.

Tens of thousands of fans poured into the streets of Baghdad in celebrations that lasted well after dark -- a novelty in the violent capital. 

Vieira became a hero to Iraqis, but he stepped down after the event. Two subsequent coaches, a Norwegian and an Iraqi, failed to lead the team to success in World Cup qualifying matches. The Iraqi, Adnan Hamad, stepped down in June after a loss to Qatar ended Iraq's hopes of making the World Cup finals in 2010. It would have been the country's first time playing in the World Cup since 1986.