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Saturday's opening night of the 19th annual Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival promises to be a big multicultural event in Cupertino. Sumo champion Byamba will take on a couple of large opponents as the live opening act before the screening of the Israeli Film Academy Award-winning film "A Matter of Size." The comedy is about overweight Israelis who decide to become sumo wrestlers, so festival organizers thought it would be fun to let the audience see the Japanese wrestling style up close. In addition to the 7 p.m. sumo demonstration, Japanese appetizers will be served before the movie at 9...

The Japan Sumo Association is distributing about 60 iPads among all the 51 training stables and top association officials from this week to help improve communication. "It seems rather easy to use," association chief Hanaregoma. "Sending emails was very easy." ...The iPad was chosen because the sumo association believed the device was big enough to cater to wrestler's fat fingers, unlike the smaller keys on mobile phones, according to reports. Sumo officials decided to go digital and buy iPads as the ancient sport attempts to mend its ways after scandals over wrestlers' ties with gangsters and illegal gambling, match-fixing and...

TOKYO – Sumo wrestlers with pot bellies, yes. Sumo wrestlers with pot? Now that's harder to grapple with. In the past six months, four wrestlers have been kicked out of the ancient sport for allegedly smoking marijuana, creating the biggest drugs-in-sports scandal that Japan has ever seen. Although three of the wrestlers who have been expelled from the sport were from Russia, the arrest last week of a 25-year-old Japanese athlete who goes by the ring name of Wakakirin for possession of marijuana has raised concern that use of the drug may be more widespread than originally thought.

A 14-year-old schoolgirl who weighs 20st is aiming for sporting glory, as she takes part in the Sumo world championships. Samantha-Jane Stacey, is Australia's strongest medal hope at the world championships in Estonia next month. She began Sumo training two years ago after previous experience of wrestling and will compete in the junior women's heavyweight division. A diet of Weetabix and lasagne is credited with helping her maintain the sturdy frame required for the sport. However she dismissed suggestions that Sumo is all about bulk. "I love it because it's a physical, body-contact sport but you've also got to use...

TOKYO (Reuters) - A woman invaded a sumo ring -- a sacred arena from which females are banned -- in Tokyo during a major tournament, domestic media said on Thursday, then was pulled down by a referee and one of the sport's huge wrestlers. The middle-aged woman dashed from the side of the Kokugikan sumo stadium on Wednesday and shoved away a female security guard before rolling onto the ring just as a bout was set to begin, the Yomiuri newspaper said. The Japan Sumo Association insisted that though the woman did enter the raised platform around the batting...

Babies, held by amateur sumo wrestlers, cry loudly during a baby-crying contest at Sensoji temple in Tokyo April 28, 2007. Eighty-four babies born in 2006 took part in the event, which is held to pray for the babies' health and growth. The winner of the contest is the baby who cries the loudest.

Rosie O’Donnell To Be Fired From “View” My CBS insiders just had "too many cocktails for a Tuesday night" with ABC insiders. Word on West 66th Street (ABC) is that Barbara Walters, who has life or death decision authority for “The View,” has had it with Uber-Dyke Rosie O’Donnell and has given ultimatum to the suits at ABC. There was a recent makeup room spat, but that is just latest in the Battle of the Broads. Other heavy battles between each woman's supporters have not been reported, but there have reportely been vicious behind-the-secenes cat fights. (Actually, other than being...

Here is a light-hearted Saturday story of chivalry with a dash of comedy.Japanese TV reported this story today. Here is the video clip.It seems a young Japanese lady, minding her own business, became the target of a sexual harasser (so-called "chikan") at an underground stairway in a Tokyo subway station.Just as the women was being accosted by the perp, it happened that too rather beefy, young, sumo wrestlers were passing by. Great timing.Needless to say, they made 'chanko nabe' of that little pervert in no time at all, grabbing a hold of him, getting him in a headlock, and...

A majority of Japanese sumo fans support a tradition which bans women from stepping on the raised dirt wrestling mound, according to a survey released by the Japan Sumo Association on Wednesday. The association conducted the survey, distributing 350 questionnaires at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan on Sept. 12 for a response rate of 51 percent, Kyodo News Agency said. Fifty-four percent said the ban should be maintained, and 46 percent said the prohibition should be scrapped. A similar survey in 2004 also showed a majority opposed to lifting the ban. JSA officials were not immediately available for comment. The 2,000-year-old national...

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YAMAGATA (Kyodo) Female sumo wrestlers wearing "mawashi" belts over their underwear once competed in tournaments throughout Japan, Taiwan and Hawaii, a popular entertainment until it disappeared in the 1960s. But women's sumo is attracting attention again. A biography of a former ozeki, the top rank for women wresters, was published last year. In addition, novelist Akira Hayasaka plans to stage a play on female sumo wrestlers, and a university in Yamagata Prefecture, where women's sumo originated, is promoting studies on its roots. "Female wrestlers wore light makeup, so they looked not only gallant but also beautiful. They were like present-day...

Kickboxer beats sumo wrestler A former world kick-boxing champion managed to win his latest fight - against an opponent more than 18 stones heavier than him. Rick Roufus was up against Hawaiian sumo wrestler Akebono who, apart from the massive weight advantage, was also nine inches taller. But, partly due to his tactic of peppering Akebono's legs with kicks, Roufus managed to come out on top, reports Sherdog News. Akebono couldn't pin the smaller man down and Roufus, one of the United States greatest kickboxers, enjoyed a unanimous win on points. "I feel like a kid again in the sandbox,"...

Big boys Pictured are Dzhambulat Khotokhov, a 4-year-old Russian weighing 123 pounds (right) and 112-pound Georgy Bibilauri, a Georgian who turned 5 on Wednesday. After the boys tied in a wrestling match, they went off to celebrate Bibilauri's birthday with ice cream and chocolate. (AP photo by Shakh Aivazov) Young wrestler Dzhambulat Khotokhov, a 4-year-old Russian weighing 123 pounds, flexes his muscles in Tbilisi on July 9. (AP/Shakh Aivazov) TBILISI, Georgia -- A wrestling match today between two of the world's largest preschoolers ended in a draw -- and a party with ice cream and chocolate. In one corner...

Small sumo mix it up Lighter wrestlers use a wider range of tactics. 15 July 2002 JOHN WHITFIELD For a lightweight sumo wrestler, unpredictability may be the key to success. Small wrestlers even the odds by using a diverse range of tactics, say ecologists. The same could happen in unequal contests between animals, suggests Perri Eason of the University of Louisville, Kentucky. "I think examples will emerge when people start to look at them," she says. Despite the common Western perception of sumo as a behemoths' shoving match, it is a sport of speed, grace and agility. Sumo recognizes 70...

OSAKA -- No. 4 maegashira Akinoshima tripped up ozeki Kaio for his second loss Tuesday and gave Musashimaru a little more breathing space as the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament heads into its final five days. Yokozuna Musashimaru took full advantage of Kaio's slip-up, breezing past rank-and-filer Otsukasa to move two wins clear of the field and another step closer to a 10th title on the 10th day of the 15-day tourney at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. Kaio (8-2), who headed the list of challengers just one off the pace going into Tuesday's bouts, burst too quickly out of the blocks and...