The Lithuanian women's basketball team lost 79-73 to France on Sept. 22, taking sixth place in the FIBA World Championships. The top scorers were Sandra Valuzyte with and Ausra Bimbaite, with 19 points each. Emile Gomes scored 22 points for the French team. A day before their game against France, Lithuania lost to eventual bronze medalist Spain 80 -71. The last time Lithuania placed top 10 in the World Championships was in Germany in 1998. The Baltic state placed eleventh in China in 2002.
Beijing authorities have closed more than 50 schools for the children of migrant workers in preparation for the 2008 Olympics, a U.S. human rights group reported. Human Rights Watch said the closures were part of a campaign to close all unregistered migrant schools by this month, threatening to leave thousands of children without education. The campaign seems to be designed to discourage migrants from staying in the capital, so they&"039;ll be gone by the Olympic Games. &"035;While governments have the right to license and regulate schools, China&"039;s international legal obligations require it to provide all children with an adequate and nondiscriminatory education," the group said.