& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Sport transcends politics
HO CHI MINH Cl TY. Feb 15 : Americans and Vietnamese who once fought each other in the Vietnam
War competed in friendly races Saturday In preparation for the Ho Chi Minh City Marathon,’ the country’s first major International sports event, reports AP.
Young women In flowing ankle-length traditional dresses Joined a dragon dance that opened the two-seven-and-10 kilometer races with several thousand runners from two dozen nations. Tens of thousands of spectators lined the route for the races, broadcast nationwide by Vietnamese television.
More than 300 runners from 26 countries are to com-. pete in Sunday's marathon.
The favorites Include American Bill Rodgers. 44 a conscientious objector during the war. who is a four-time champion of the Boston and New
York City marathons.
The Ho Chi Minh City Marathon to be hls 56th, Is special, much more than just a sporting event, Rodgers said Saturday.
" It Is a way for a lot of different people to look at some difficult times In tlic past, and look to the future and feel better." he said.
The weekend of races was organized by the communist Vietnamese government and Is part of its search in recent years for new friends In the international community and funds to develop Its Impoverished economy.
The main factor isolating Vietnam has been a US-led trade embargo that remained In force after the communist North Vietnamese defeated the U.S-backed'South Vietnam government In April 1975. Washington later reconfirmed the embargo to punish Vietnam for invading Cambodia in late 1978.
The war cost the Ilves of
58.000 Americans and perhaps 2 million Vietnamese.
A few disabled US veterans are to participate in some fashion In the marathon. They Include Bob Farmer. 43. who was 19 when shrapnel blinded h|m during an ambush while he }vas patrolling a demilitarized zone between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. He later regained hls sight in hfS left eye. but two years after • he left Vietnam on a stretcher, he was paralyzed In a motorcycle accident.
About 70 Americans are to run In the marathon, said Bruce Aitken, an American who lives tn Hong Kong and is a technical adviser for tlx race . He said Vietnam hopes the marathon will help It " to open up in goodwill... to show tlic opportunities and encourage Crtlclpallon In a country Uiat
s a very gcs>d future".
The marathon course Is both scenic and historic in this bustling, anarchic city most people still call Saigon.