The 40th Iditarod began on Sunday in Willow, Alaska with 66 teams competing for more than $500,000 in prize money at sled-dog racing's most prestigious race. Wasilla, Alaska's Ray Redington Jr. holds an early lead over Hugh Neff and four-time champion Lance Mackey through the Rainy Pass checkpoint. The fastest teams are expected to finish in eight or nine days after covering nearly 1,050 miles on the way to Nome, Alaska.
Read more at the Anchorage Daily News
The association representing pro cycling's biggest teams on Friday recorded a vote of "no confidence" in the leadership of the International Cycling Union. The Association International des Groupes Cyclistes Professionels, or AIGCP, is upset at UCI President Pat McQuaid's reluctance to share revenue from television broadcasts or negotiate over a rule that bans riders from wearing radios during races. In a statement, AIGCP said it "respects the hard work of the UCI" but "does not have confidenc... Read More
Keepers from a Tokyo aquarium are working to find a missing Humboldt penguin that escaped after apparently scaling the wall of its enclosure. The bird has since been spotted in the nearby Kyu-Edo river, but managed to evade officials attempting to capture it. "It's a bit of a struggle to catch it when it is swimming, because it swims at a tremendous speed," Takashi Sugino, an official at Tokyo Sea Life Park, told the AFP. "We are hoping to catch it when it climbs up on land to sleep." Even if ... Read More
On Friday, British Petroleum agreed to a $7.8 billion settlement with some 100,000 people and businesses who sued in the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. If approved by a federal court in Louisiana, it would become the largest class-action settlement on record. BP will likely establish a trust to compensate fishermen, cleanup workers, and business owners. The settlement does not include forthcoming fines and environmental claims from the states and the federal government, whi... Read More
Ian Thorpe's return to competitive swimming has stalled with only three week's remaining before Australia's Olympic trials. On Friday, Thorpe, a nine-time Olympic medalist, refused interviews after a 52.88-second 100-meter freestyle performance in Zurich. Australian coach Leigh Nugent blamed the race on a goggle malfunction but acknowledged that Thorpe's times are unlikely to earn him an individual berth on the Australian Olympic team. Still, Nugent he cautioned against writing Thorpe off. "Th... Read More
