KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday assured jobs to several Commonwealth Games (CWG) medal winners and other sportspersons and announced that her department will set up four academies to groom talent with the 2012 Olympics in mind.

CHENNAI - India's striker, 15-year old Rani Rampal who caught the eye of the discerning with six goals at the recent women's hockey World Cup in Argentina, is among the nominees for the FIH Young Player of the Year award.

MONTPELLIER - India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi of Belarus went down to Britain's Ross Hutchins and Australia's Stephen Huss 6-3, 3-6, 12-14 in the quarter-final of the 650,000-euro Open Sud de France tennis.

CHENNAI - For second seeded Manik Dutta (boys under-15) and Anandita Gupta (girls under-15) the script went wrong as both the Madhya Pradesh players lost their semi-final matches in the National sub-junior and junior squash championship here Thursday.

MADRID - Spain and Portugal, joint bidders for the 2018 football World Cup confirmed Thursday that their bid was being investigated by FIFA for possible illegal agreements with other federations.