Lee teams up with NBA stars to fight gun violence

NEW YORK • Film director Spike Lee has joined the National Basketball Association in an initiative to fight gun violence in the United States, hoping that star power can succeed where politics has so far failed to make a dent.

Lee will direct several commercials as part of the End Gun Violence campaign, with the first television spots to hit the air during NBA games airing on Christmas.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

IAAF taskforce to make Russia inspection in January

PARIS • A taskforce from the governing body of world athletics will make a first visit to Russia on Jan 10-11 to check on progress towards cleaning up the doping scandal that led to Russia's suspension from the sport last month. The International Association of Athletics Federations has set out a series of steps that Russia must take to be reinstated before the 2016 Rio Olympics.

REUTERS

Tough conditions ahead for Sydney-Hobart fleet

SYDNEY • Australia's gruelling Sydney to Hobart race faces choppy seas and high winds after it gets under way tomorrow with a record 27 international entries among those vying for honours.

The fleet for the 71st edition of the often brutal 1,163km blue-water classic stands at 109. It includes the 100-foot supermaxi Wild Oats XI who won line honours for an eighth time last year.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE