Alade Aminu scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds while Ike Diogu added 13 points and 10 rebounds as Nigeria just beat Tunisia 60-56 in the opening game of the Olympic men's basketball tournament.

Al-Farouq Aminu, who played for the NBA New Orleans Hornets last season, added 10 points and nine rebounds for the Nigerians, who have not lost to reigning African champion Tunisia in international competition since 1987.

The organizers of the London Olympics faced a growing storm Sunday over blocks of empty seats at several venues, while British police were reportedly probing an alleged black-market scandal.

Local organizers LOCOG and the International Olympic Committee said they were urgently investigating why there were rows and rows of unoccupied seats at venues including Wimbledon for the tennis and the Aquatics Centre.

arah Menezes made history by becoming the first Brazilian woman to win an Olympic judo gold medal when she triumphed in the under-48kg category here on Saturday.

The second-seeded Menezes dethroned reigning champion Alina Dumitru of Romania in the final.

Freshly-crowned Olympic road race champion Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan said he was finally ready to retire from the sport.

"It's magnificent to end it like this," said Vinokourov, who beat Colombia's Rigoberto Uran to the gold medal after 249.5 km of racing.

The Olympic cauldron will be broken up at the London closing ceremony and each of its 204 copper 'petals' given to the competing nations as a souvenir, its creator said Saturday.

Thomas Heatherwick said he had wanted to create a cauldron for the Olympic flame that would "root the whole ceremony in the spectators, in the people who would be there".

China's world number one Yi Siling won the first gold of the London Olympics in the women's 10m air rifle competition at London's Royal Artillery Barracks on Saturday.

In a tense contest Poland's Sylwia Bogacka took silver while Yu Dan of China won bronze.

Prince Charles added a touch of royal glamour to the start of the men's Olympic road race Saturday when he attended the start line to greet the peloton.

Prince Charles was accompanied by his wife Camilla at the start of the 250km race for which Britain's world champion Mark Cavendish is the hot favorite.

NBC's Bob Costas noted a controversy over honoring Israeli athletes killed at the Olympics 40 years ago during his coverage of the opening ceremony Friday but stopped short of offering his own protest.

The International Olympic Committee had declined a request to hold a moment of silence during the ceremony to acknowledge the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed by Palestinian gunman in Munich in 1972. Costas called that decision insensitive during an interview this month and indicated he would call for his own moment of silence when Israeli athletes marched into the Olympic Stadium Friday.

James Bond and David Beckham starred as Britain welcomed the world to the Olympics in an eccentric opening ceremony showcasing the country's rich history and sense of fun.

Seven young athletes lit the cauldron in the climax to a show which ran into the early hours of Saturday before former Beatle Paul McCartney brought the curtain down at London's Olympic Stadium.

Senegal striker Papiss Cisse expressed his disappointment on Friday at having to give up on his dream of winning an Olympic medal.

The 27-year-old was wanted by his country as one of their overage players for the football tournament, which they kicked off with a 1-1 draw against hosts Great Britain at Old Trafford last night.