Los Angeles, Nov 21 : British star David Beckham has signed off his five-year Los Angeles Galaxy contract by lifting the MLS Cup with a 1-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo in Sunday’s championship game.

The Galaxy finished the season with a league-leading 67 points, a plus-20 goal differential and an undefeated record at the Home Depot Center.

Standing near midfield in the 72nd minute, Beckham headed a delicate ball to Robbie Keane down the left flank.

Keane charged forward, cut to his right and placed a perfectly weighted pass to Landon Donovan, who had sneaked in behind him.

Washington, Sept 30 : Former women's boxing champion Laila Ali has opened up about her new out of the ring life as mother and show host, and praises her famous dad, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, for his support.

The 29-year-old, who retired from boxing in 2007, will be the host of "Everyday Health," a new show that will air Saturdays on ABC stations.

The program will feature inspirational stories about people who have faced health challenges.

Washington, Sept 5 : Late Bob Marley's daughter, Cedella Marley, has been appointed as the official designer for Team Jamaica's uniforms for the London Olympics and Paralympics.

The 44-year-old revealed that reggae legend Bob, who lost his battle with cancer in 1981, as well as singer and style icon Grace Jones, influenced her collection.

"Dad has been a big part of everything that I've done with this collection," Contactmusic quoted her as saying.

"I'm all over the place with pride... If Dad was here, I think he would be pinching me now and I would be pinching him going, `Can you believe this?'

Washington, August 19: Looks like computer scientists working in the field of artificial intelligence have got some help from football players.

By watching the Oregon State University Beavers play football, scientists have made an important advance that blends computer vision, machine learning and automated planning, and created a new system that may improve everything from factory efficiency to airport operation or nursing care.

The idea is for a computer to observe a complex operation, learn how to do it, and then optimize those operations or accomplish other related tasks.

North Carolina (US), Aug. 9 : Melbourne golf wunderkind Karl Vilips sank a 10-metre birdie putt at the famous Pinehurst course in North Carolina yesterday to secure a second consecutive US Kids World Championship.

Back at Southern Golf Club in Dingley, where Vilips hangs out, nobody was too surprised.

Vilips, who turns 10 in a few weeks'' time, has been setting records for a year or so now.

This year, for instance, he became the youngest player to compete in Golf Victoria''s elite pennant competition for under 23s.

New York, Aug. 4 : New York Yankees third baseman Alex "Bomber" Rodriguez could face suspension if a Major League Baseball (MLB) investigation proves he violated previous warnings about illegal poker.

Major League Baseball wants A-Rod to show his cards about whether he played in illegal poker games, the New York Daily News quoted officials, as saying on Wednesday.

MLB investigators and the FBI are looking into a supermarket tabloid report A-Rod participated in underground Texas Hold ''Em games in Los Angeles and Florida that turned violent, a source said.

Washington, July 30 : A study on players'' golf swings has revealed several biomechanical factors that help identify the duffers from the pros.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have for the first time identified several key rotational-biomechanic elements of the golf stroke in its entirety, from backswing to follow-through, were analysed, and then the data were used to generate benchmark curves.

Jessica Rose, PhD, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery and senior author of the study, and colleagues found that swing biomechanics were highly consistent among a group of professional players.

Washington, July 18 : A team of kitesurfers are set to create a world record by kiteboarding across the Bering Sea, a 56 mile stretch of Pacific Ocean between Alaska and Russia.

This is the Maurice Lacroix Bering Strait Expedition''s second year attempting the record, reports Discovery News

The three kitesurfers on the team who will work together and with their safety crew during the crossing are Geza and his brother, Andre Scholtz, and entrepreneur Constantin Bisanz of Austria, founder of an online shopping club with operations in multiple European countries.

Washinton, July 13 : A new study has found that goalkeepers usually tend to dive to the right in penalty shoot-outs when their team is behind on the scoreboard.

Many earlier studies have found that people and animals that want something tend to go to the right.

When dogs see their owners, they wag their tails more to the right; toads strike to the right when they’re going for prey; and humans are more likely to turn their heads to the right to smooch their sweeties.

Washington, July 13 : A Six-year-old American girl hit an 85-yard hole-in-one on a golf course in central Illinois, setting a record for the youngest person to do so since the course opened in 2006.

But instead of jumping for joy, little Reagan Kennedy, of Bloomington, calmly walked back to her golf cart, because her parents had told her not to make too much noise while playing, the Daily News reports.

But 13-year-old Cheyenne Broquard said she told her younger sister that making an ace was the one time a golfer could be excused for being loud.

“We told her this is one time you can scream,” Broquard said.

Washington, July 9: Lace-up ankle braces may help prevent ankle sprains and fractures in high school basketball players, a new research has shown.

"We wanted to see whether the use of lace-up ankle braces is a viable option for injury prevention in high school basketball players," said lead researcher, Timothy A. McGuine, PhD, ATC, with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Basketball has one of the higher rates for ankle injuries, and this study illustrates how a simple brace can help keep an athlete on the court."

Washington, July 7 : Women footballers are less likely to fake on-field injuries in comparison with their male counterparts, a new study has revealed.

The study has been carried out researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Washington, July 2: Golfer Sean O'Hair has met up with the man whose life he saved after an "errant golf shot" of his had hit the latter on the head.

Nearly a year ago a misdirected shot from the pro golfer, during the final round of the AT and T National at the Aronimink Golf Club in Newton Square, went astray and hit Chris Logan's left temple.

As he was being checked out by emergency technicians, a doctor asked Logan about a lump below his throat and urged him to get it checked out. The lump turned out to be a malignant tumour on his thyroid.

Washington, July 2 : The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has approved new guidelines to give female weightlifters the option of covering their arms and legs.

The decision came after Muslim female weightlifter, Kulsoom Abdullah, established a historic victory to convince the International Weightlifting Federation to change it''s dress code.

Thirty-five-year-old Abdullah of Atlanta, who holds a PhD in computer engineering, has waged a personal crusade with both the U. S. Olympic Committee and USA Weighlifting to push reform of the uniform law, the Daily Mail reports.

New York, Mar 25 : World No. 1 golfer Tiger Woods is scheduled to hold his first press conference in nearly five months on April 5, following the public exposé of his extramarital affairs.

It will be his first press conference in nearly five months, and his first time facing a room full of reporters since he crashed his SUV into a tree on November 27, 2009, setting off shocking revelations of rampant infidelity, the New York Post reports.

Woods is the only player scheduled for an interview that day. Given the sensational nature of his downfall, what he says could trump the NCAA basketball championship game to be held later that night.