IN BRIEF (Page 24)

Soccer

Juventus reaches last eight by beating Empoli

MILAN, Italy: Juventus reached the Italian Cup quarter-finals after beating Serie A strugglers Empoli 5-3 in a Turin thriller on Tuesday to advance 6-5 on aggregate.

An under-strength Juve lost 2-1 at Empoli in December's first leg and Claudio Ranieri's decision to field a few of his big guns in the return match paid early dividends when Marco Marchionni burst through the defense to score.

Pavel Nedved doubled the lead on 10 minutes but an injury to defender Giorgio Chiellini knocked Juve off its stride.

Empoli capitalized when Luca Antonini slid in to pull one back and Nicola Pozzi produced an excellent header to bring the scores level on the night.

Deschamps next on Newcastle's wanted list

NEWCASTLE, England: Newcastle is ready to turn to France's former World Cup and Euro-winning captain Didier Deschamps as the Premier League club's search for a new manager drags on.

Deschamps is currently out of work after leaving Juventus, and Newcastle reportedly wants to open talks with him after receiving its second snub in four days.

Former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier had emerged as the favourite after Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp rejected Newcastle's five-million-pounds-a-year contract offer.

But Houllier told Jean-Marie Escallettes, his boss at the French Football Federation, where he works as a technical director, that he would not be taking over at St James' Park.

Basketball

Nuggets' Brazilian forward Nene has tumor removed

DENVER, Colorado: Denver Nuggets forward Nene had surgery to have a tumor removed, the Brazilian NBA player said in a statement posted Tuesday on his website.

Nene said the operation was performed Monday in Denver, and gave no details on whether the tumor was cancerous or where it was located.

Nene and doctors currently are waiting for further results to determine what medical steps to take next.

Nene, 25, took an indefinite leave of absence from the Nuggets last Friday to deal with an undisclosed medical situation.

Baseball

Blue Jays pitcher Kennedy had heart condition

OAKLAND, California: Major- League pitcher Joe Kennedy, who died suddenly in November at the age of 28, died of hypertensive heart disease, according to autopsy results reported on Tuesday.

The Hillsborough County medical examiner's department told the San Francisco Chronicle that the autopsy found degeneration of the mitral valve in Kennedy's heart.

Kennedy, a native of California, died at his home in Florida on November 23 after collapsing in his bedroom. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Olympics

Qatar launches ambitious bid for 2016 Olympics

DUBAI: Gas-rich Qatar has launched an ambitious bid to host the 2016 Olympics, citing state-of-the-art facilities it has or will build for the event and its record in staging the Asian Games.

"I am very confident that Doha will remain in the bid until the end and hopefully we will win," Hassan Ali bin Ali, chairman of the Doha 2016 bid, told AFP on Tuesday, one day after the bid was formally submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

"Doha is the first Arab capital to be in the bid to host the Olympic Games," bin Ali said in a telephone interview.

(China Daily 01/17/2008 page24)