1.   History was made Thursday at the Doha International when women were permitted to take part in an athletics meet for the first time in the Middle East.

2.   The Johnson scandal emptied the stands at athletics meets, he said.

3.   The next major Italian athletics meet is at Rieti on Sunday.

4.   The next major Italian athletics meet is at Rieti Sunday.

5.   With a gallery of world champions, the annual Brazilian athletics meet opens the IAAF Grand Prix season on Saturday.

6.   There will also be elephant polo, a football tournament and an inter-college athletics meet as well as an exhibition of photographs and mountaineering philately.

7.   Only one legislator, Fred Li, was absent from the swearing-in ceremony because he was attending an athletics meet for the elderly in Melbourne.