Obama bans Somalia charcoal import

LONDON (Reuters) - Soccer champions Manchester United topped the table for English Premier League television income in 2012-13, raking in almost 61 million pounds in the final year of the current three-year contract, the League said on Tuesday. Relegated Queens Park Rangers, owned by Malaysian airline boss Tony Fernandes, received almost 40 million pounds, the lowest figure among the 20 clubs. Television income will climb further next season after telecoms company BT entered the British market,

By Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff took a swipe at the naysayers on Monday as she officially inaugurated the last of six stadiums that Brazil will use next month to host a warm-up for the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament. "The pessimists said the stadiums would not be ready in time, but we are showing them today that we can deliver high-quality stadiums," Rousseff said in a speech in Recife before opening the 46,000-seat Arena Pernambuco outside the

REUTERS - Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson capped his final season in charge of the English Premier League champions by clinching the League Managers' Association Manager of the Year award for the fourth time on Monday. The 71-year-old Scot's unparallelled success in British soccer ended on Sunday with a remarkable 5-5 draw against West Bromwich Albion. "In a way I am glad it is all over now because it has been hard work," Ferguson told the BBC. "It has been overwhelming. "The club has

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has spoken out in defence of his captain Iker Casillas and confirmed that the Real Madrid goalkeeper will be part of the world and European champions' squad at next month's Confederations Cup in Brazil. Casillas has been warming the bench at Real since returning from a broken hand after he fell out with coach Jose Mourinho but Del Bosque said he had faith in his captain, who turned 32 on Monday, and he would be travelling to the warm-up