Tennis stadium evacuated for bag scare
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Bill Jempty | Tuesday, January 5, 2010 |
Was it just a coincidence that a peace group was protesting against one of the players? From AP-
The stadium where the ASB Classic women’s tennis tournament is being played was briefly evacuated Tuesday after an unattended bag was found.
The discovery of the bag coincided with a protest against the presence at the tournament of Israeli player Shahar Peer, but organizers said the events were apparently unconnected.
Players and spectators were forced to leave the tennis complex and streets around the central Auckland stadium were sealed off while emergency services dealt with the incident.
The evacuation occurred shortly before the scheduled start of play.
The New Zealand protest group Global Peace and Justice earlier Tuesday said it had written to the 22-year-old Peer asking her to withdraw from the tournament “as a demonstration of your commitment to peace.”
Some of the off the court tennis news in 2009 involved involved a Israeli tennis player being denied a visa to enter Dubai and a Israel-Sweden Davis Cup match played in Sweden without spectators present.
Global Peace and Justice doesn’t like the way Israel treats Palestinians. So they protest athletes in tennis tournaments. What will that accomplish? In a way the peace organization is choosing targets the same way terrorists do. They look for easy victims. One tennis player or a bus full of unarmed civilians. Their goals are also alike- to disrupt people’s lives who have little or no connection to their causes.
- WTA given written assurance of Shahar Peer getting a visa to play in Dubai
- Israeli Andy Ram allow to play in Dubai
- Davis Cup fines Sweden $25,000
- Dubai denies visa for Israeli tennis player
- Davis Cup match to be played in empty arena
- Venus Williams defeats Israel’s Shahar Peer at the Dubai Tennis Championships
- Dubai tennis cites security fear in barring Israeli tennis player
- Australia forfeits Davis Cup match
- U.S. Open Tennis officials issue twitter warning
- Tennis authorities looking into WTA match
- Eight is Enough- Edmonton beats Chicago 8-4
- Lydia Ko wins New South Wales Open
- The Comeback I- Pittsburgh Penguins beat NY Islanders 5-0
- Seattle Mariners Outfielder Greg Halman stabbed to death at age 24
- Hee Young Park wins CME Titleholders Championship
- Oklahoma State Women’s Basketball Coach Kurt Budke dead at 50
- Costly mistake- Blackhawks waive Rostislav Olesz
- Manager Tony La Russa announces retirement
- Puck Drop- Florida Panthers start the 2011-12 NHL season
- 13-time PGA Tour winner Dave Hill dead at 74
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