Laureus World Sports Awards Chair Edwin Moses said on Wednesday that the 2014 Awards will be held in Kuala Lumpur on March 26 instead of Rio de Janeiro. The announcement "of the new venue for the 15th edition of the awards, also dubbed the Oscars of sports, was made less than a month after the organizers ended contacting with Rio due to financial constraints" (XINHUA, 2/5). ... Animal rights activists "from around the world are calling for the boycott of September's Incheon Asian Games, while planning to stage street protests against 'bosintang' or dog meat soup." As of Thursday, an "online petition on the website www.change.org denouncing dog eating in Korea has received 63,997 signatures and the campaign appears to be drawing increasing interest" (KOREA TIMES, 2/6). ... The Association of Surfing Professionals has "declined to confirm whether the sponsors for two of this year's 11 World Championship events have pulled out." Rumors have circulated that Volcom and Oakley have "withdrawn their support of, respectively, the Fiji Pro and Bali Pro." Emails "this week to both companies and the Association of Surfing Professionals have yielded no replies" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 2/7).
