London defeated its European rival Paris in the race to host the 2012 Olympics, bringing the Games back to the British capital for the first time since 1948.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge announced the winner Wednesday in Singapore, where IOC members voted 54-50 in favor of the Brits.

Thousands of people who had gathered in London's Trafalgar Square cheered after Rogge announced the winning bid, which was shown live on huge TV screens.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is in Gleneagles, Scotland, to host the G-8 summit, said he was "thrilled" with the results, and couldn't even bear to watch the final bids.

"This is a momentous day for London. It's very good news,'' Blair said.

French President Jacques Chirac, who travelled to Singapore for the city's final presentation to the IOC, congratulated London and wished "good luck" and success to the British people.

James Christie of The Globe and Mail said Paris had been "the bookmakers' favourite" since the bidding process began.

"That they fell short this time can only attest to what happened in backrooms," Christie said, suggesting that a deal between London and Madrid may have swayed the final tally.

Many analysts and insiders credited London's winning bid to Blair, who spent two days in Singapore meeting with IOC members individually.

"I think all of Britain should be thankful for that," said Canadian IOC member Dick Pound.

The voting process:

The five bidding cities gave final 45-minute presentations to IOC members.

Electronic balloting began at around 6 a.m. ET. Moscow was eliminated in the first round, followed by New York in the second and Madrid in the third.

A fourth and final ballot was cast around 6:45 a.m. ET for the winner, which wasn't announced until around 7:45 a.m. ET.

The big surprise was Madrid, which received 31 votes on the third ballot, compared to 39 for London and 33 for Paris.

The 2012 Summer Olympics will follow the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.

The surprise winners would have been New York and Madrid -- neither of which have ever hosted the Summer Games.

The New York bid died after the second round of balloting, despite star-studded support from boxer Muhammad Ali and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Moscow was considered a long shot going into the vote. Its bid was undermined by security worries after terrorist attacks connected with conflict in the Russian province of Chechnya.

London has hosted the Olympics twice before -- once in 1908 and again in 1948.

NFL fines Tice $100,000 for scalping Super Bowl tickets

Los Angeles Kings forward Sean Avery says NHL players were wrong and are sorry for the lockout which cost fans an entire NHL season.

"We were brainwashed," he tells the Los Angeles Times about the decision to follow the union's advice during contract talks with the owners.

"We burned a year for nothing. We didn't win anything. We didn't prove anything. We didn't get anything. We wasted an entire season."

Avery places the blame for the situation squarely on the shoulders of union boss Bob Goodenow, who he says "embarrassed" a lot of players.

"I am furious at Bob (Goodenow)," Avery tells the newspaper. "Bob thought he was bigger than he was. Bob brainwashed players like me."

Avery claims most of the players did not know what was going on during the talks, did not know the "real story".

"We underestimated how rich the owners were," he said. "Nobody thought they would be willing to burn a season."

"They won. They beat us."

Avery says he understands the fans negative reaction towards the players.

"The saddest thing that happened to me during the lockout was the two or three times that fans asked me what was going on," he said. "I wished I could have apologized to them then. I apologize to them now."

"We owe the fans everything, we need to get them back, we need to cross our fingers that they will come back," he said.

Avery is the latest player to come out and criticize the union's position during the lockout in the last week. Detroit Red Wings goaltender Manny Legace, a union representative, called the past year "a farce" and that they wasted a lot of money for nothing.

"Whenever a tentative agreement is reached the NHLPA will have meetings where all players will be invited to attend and every player's questions will be answered by Bob and the members of the Executive Committee, prior to a ratification vote by the full membership taking place," said a spokesperson for the NHLPA. "The proposed agreement and everything that has occurred will be reviewed in great detail.

"Throughout these negotiations players have received and had more access to information than ever before. Given the complexities of all the CBA issues, we will not respond to media speculation and other commentary, prior to the terms of any new agreement being released and the upcoming player meetings."

Major League Baseball is half way through their season and the All Star game is just around the corner. Following are the top 10 mid-season power rankings as labeled by CBS.

1.		Chicago White Sox "A veteran rotation keeps them in the mix." We had that right, but their preseason No. 17 ranking was our biggest mistake of all.
2.		St. Louis Cardinals "Mulder is what they lacked in October." What? I guess they needed a fifth starter for the Series, because that is how he has pitched. But the revamped middle infield has been a pleasant surprise for our preseason No. 3.
3.		Los Angeles Angels "That new name is hideous (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim), but the names that truly matter here are newcomers Orlando Cabrera, Steve Finley, Paul Byrd and rookie Dallas McPherson." Byrd has been the only word worth repeating. But at least we knew they would be in the top four.
4.		Boston Red Sox "Wade Miller is the steal of the offseason." Yeah, he's going to make quite a long reliever when Curt Schilling returns. Their disappointing first half has them only two spots lower than where they started in February.
5.		Washington Nationals "A new home will finally do some good, but ... The NL East is far too competitive for them right now." Haha. That's a good one. About as big of a joke as their preseason No. 28 spot. Suddenly, we're not laughing.
6.		Cleveland Indians "A true sleeper." After being asleep most of the first half, the surging Indians are actually even better off right now than we anticipated when we slotted them No. 11 in February.
7.		Minnesota Twins "Emerging superstars Johan Santana, Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer will become the best in their league at their positions, if they aren't already." This could still come to fruition, perhaps, just not this year. They are only one spot worse than we projected.
8.		Atlanta Braves "Watching Raul Mondesi and Brian Jordan patrol your corner outfield spots will get old -- literally." Perhaps the easiest call of the preseason. They are right where we expected them to be at No. 8.
9.		San Diego Padres "A nice, well-rounded team that can pitch and play defense, but they lack that one slugger who scares you." As true today as it was then -- much like their No. 10 preseason ranking.
10.		Baltimore Orioles "... there is no reason to spend to watch the Yankees and Red Sox run away and hide once again." Well, perhaps if they bought some pitching, they would have run away and hid themselves in the first half. They are continuing to slide down toward the embarrassingly low No. 19 spot we opened them at.

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