LOS ANGELES, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - Mexico fired national football team coach Hugo Sanchez and replaced him on an interim basis with Jesus Ramirez, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday.

The 49-year-old Sanchez served just 16 months as head coach and was criticized for Mexico's poor showing in a March tournament where the national team failed to qualify for the Olympics.

LONDON, Dec 21, 2007 (AFP) - Fulham on Friday sacked manager Lawrie Sanchez in the hope of finding a replacement to ensure the struggling club stays in the Premier League.

LONDON, Dec 21, 2007 (AFP) - Fulham on Friday parted ways with manager Lawrie Sanchez in the hope of finding a replacement to ensure the struggling club stays in the Premier League.

LA PAZ, Nov 23, 2007 (AFP) - Former Bolivian international defender Oscar Sanchez has died of cancer, local media reported on Friday.

Sanchez, 36, retired last March after surgeons removed his kidney which had a tumour. Since then he had a coaching role with Bolivian club The Strongest.

WASHINGTON, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - The Pentagon said Monday its commanders were 'comfortable' with the US military strategy in Iraq despite a former top commander's blistering attack on the conduct of the war.

Retired lieutenant general Ricardo Sanchez, whose tenure was marked by a spreading Sunni insurgency and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, blamed 'incompetent' leadership at the national level for creating 'a nightmare with no end in sight.'

WASHINGTON, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - The White House insisted that progress was being made in Iraq after a former top US commander there assailed its strategy and lamented that the war was 'a nightmare with no end in sight.'

Retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez delivered a scathing assessment of the management of the war as he denounced US political leaders as 'incompetent,' 'inept' and 'derelict in the performance of their duty.'

WASHINGTON, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - A former top US military commander in Iraq said the current White House strategy in Iraq will not achieve victory in the four-and-a-half-year war, which he described as 'a nightmare with no end in sight' in a hard-hitting speech.

In the bluntest assessment of Iraq by a former senior Pentagon official yet, retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez also lambasted US political leaders as 'incompetent,' 'inept,' 'derelict in the performance of their duty' and suggested they would have been court-martialed had they been members of the US military.

WASHINGTON, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - A former top US military commander in Iraq said Friday that the current White House strategy in Iraq will not achieve victory in the four-and-a-half-year war, which he described as 'a nightmare with no end in sight.'

In the bluntest assessment of Iraq by a former senior Pentagon official yet, retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez also lambasted US political leaders as 'incompetent,' 'corrupted,' 'derelict in the performance of their duty' and suggested they would have been court martialed had they been members of the US military.

MADRID, July 27, 2007 (AFP) - The Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET) on Friday saluted the entry of Arantxa Sanchez Vicario into the tennis Hall of Fame with an open letter from Federation chairman Pedro Munoz chronicling her achievements.

'Dear Arantxa, you are one of our all-time greats,' said Munoz of the 35-year-old from Barcelona, who as a 17-year-old beat world number one Steffi Graf to become the then youngest ever winner of the French Open - a year before Monica Seles took the title at just 16.