Eli Manning and the New York Giants saved their very best for the fourth quarter to emerge with an epic 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI Sunday in Indianapolis.Manning led a go-ahead touchdown drive with 1:04 remaining as Ahmad Bradshaw rushed in from 6 yards.
The Patriots Tom Brady failed on a Hail Mary pass in the end zone on the final play of the game that fell incomplete.The Giants lost the coin toss, ending a streak of 14 straight coin-flip wins by the NFC in …

Actress Yazawa Shin and former K-1 champion Masato will soon become parents. Now in the stable period of pregnancy, Yazawa announced on her official blog that she is five months pregnant with their first child.
Yazawa and Masato have been married for almost five years. The two have been a well-known celebrity couple for a long time, as they began dating in 2001 and finally tied the knot on February 11, 2007.

Earlier today, it was announced that Nippon Ham Fighters pitcher Darvish Yu 25 will soon be moving to the Major League. Darvish has signed a six-year deal with the Texas Rangers, who won the exclusive right to negotiate with Darvish last month by bidding a whopping $51.7 million. The contract itself is for about $60 million, meaning that the Rangers have invested more than $111 million to bring Darvish to the club.
Over the past seven seasons, Darvish has posted a 93-38 win-loss record, with a 1.99 ERA overall and a …

Japan’s retired double Olympic judo gold medallist Masato Uchishiba was fired as a university coach Tuesday for sexually harassing a female student.
Uchishiba, 33, who won the 66kg title at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, had been coaching the women’s judo team at Kyushu University of Nursing and Social Welfare in Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan, since April last year.
He announced his retirement from competition in October last year and became a visiting professor at the university last January.
Read the rest of the story: AFP: Japan Olympic judo champ fired for sex …

Undefeated yokozuna Hakuho captured his 21st career Emperor’s Cup with room to spare Friday, dispensing with Bulgarian ozeki Kotooshu in a convincing display of strength on the 13th day of the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament.
The lone Mongolian yokozuna secured his second consecutive title with two days remaining at the 15-day meet — the closest rivals in the title race trailing in Hakuho’s wake by a gulf of three defeats while the grand champion improved to an unblemished 13-0 mark.
Read the rest of the story: Yokozuna Hakuho wins Emperor’s Cup.

A high-profile mudslinging battle is raging at the very top of Japan’s oldest and arguably most popular professional baseball club, pitching a powerful media shogun against a former reporter.
Hidetoshi Kiyotake, who was fired as general manager of the Yomiuri Giants last week after criticising the club’s reputedly untouchable chairman, said on Friday he would take legal action against his sacking, possibly next month.
"My dismissal is illegal and unjust and was carried out as a means to cover up a breach of compliance and as a retaliatory measure against me," the …

The Japan Tour plays the Casio World Open this week at the Kochi Kuroshio Country Club in Kochi in Fukushima, the fourth of the main islands of Japan.
The event has quite a history dating back to 1981 when Lee Trevino was victorious and although it has struggled at times in its history it now lays claim to offering the equal richest purse on the Japan Golf Tour.
Ryo Ishikawa is back from his trials and tribulations at the Presidents Cup and will start as the favourite on the basis of his …

There are no noisemakers and no one does the wave, yet football fans in North Korea are passionate in their own way about the team that has become a symbol of national pride.That pride will be at stake Tuesday when North Korea faces Japan at Kim Il Sung Stadium in a much-anticipated World Cup qualifier that promises to be about far more than just football.Four of the North Korean players, including star striker Jong Tae Se, were born into ethnic Korean communities in Japan, and bitterness still runs deep over …

Akiko Suzuki of Japan won the NHK Trophy on Saturday and Brandon Mroz of the United States made skating history by becoming the first to land a quadruple lutz in international competition.
Suzuki held off Mao Asada in the free skate to earn her first Grand Prix title in two seasons. Suzuki, who had an eight-point lead over Asada after the short program, made several mistakes in the final but scored 119.43 points for a total of 185.98, just 1.79 points ahead of Asada.
“I’m very happy to have won my first …

From Nov. 8-16, former Baltimore Orioles star Cal Ripken Jr. will lead baseball and softball clinics in Japan as part of his upcoming nine-day trip as a sports diplomat on behalf of the U.S. State Department.
Ripken will be joined by former Orioles teammate Brady Anderson at the clinics in Tokyo, Takarazuka, Kyoto and Ofunato, a city still recovering from the March earthquake and tsunami.
Japanese baseball great Sachio Kinugasa will also join the pair in Tokyo and Ofunato.
Read the rest of the story: Ripken to visit Japan as US sports ambassador.