(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Bolt leads Jamaica to relay world record

(AP) LONDON - Usain Bolt got the gold medal and another world record, too, anchoring the Jamaicans to victory in 36.84 seconds Saturday night to cap off his second straight 3-for-3 Olympics.

The United States finished in 37.04 seconds, the old world-record time set by Bolt and the Jamaicans last year. Trinidad & Tobago got the bronze medal when Canada was disqualified after finishing third.

Scores killed in northwest Iran earthquakes

Officials say at least 180 dead after twin earthquakes strike near town of Tabriz, officials tell state news agency.

The two tremors hit the towns of Ahar and Varzeghan within minutes of one another [EPA]


Two strong earthquakes have hit northwestern Iran, killing at least 180 people, Iranian officials have told the state news agency.

Khalid Saie, the head of the regional natural disasters centre, told state television that more than 1,300 others had been injured.

"Unfortunately, the toll is mounting and we are now at 180 dead and some 1,300 injured," Saie said.

"Up to now, there are no deaths reported in the cities and all the victims come from rural areas," he said.

The scale of the disaster was still emerging as rescue operations in the devastated zone northeast of the city of Tabriz pushed through the night after Saturday's quakes.

Earlier, Gholamreza Masoumi, the country's head of emergency services said that the injured were being taken to Tabriz, the biggest city in the region, and Ardebil, a neighouring province.

Panicked residents fled their homes after the earthquakes on Saturday, which the US Geological Survey ranked at 6.4 and 6.3 on the Richter scale.


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Iran earthquake kills at least 180, over 1350 hurt 

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake killed at least 180 people and injured over 1350 others in northwestern Iran on Saturday, state TV said.

Allyson Felix Earns 3rd London Olympics Gold As U.S. Women Win 4x400-Meter Relay

Sanya Richards-Ross of the United States celebrates as she crosses the finish line to win gold in the Women's 4 x 400m Relay Final on Day 15 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 11, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images) 

LONDON (AP) — Allyson Felix won her third gold medal of the London Olympics, giving the United States a 20-meter lead after the second leg of the 4x400-meter relay and then watching teammate Sanya Richards-Ross bring home the victory Saturday night.

The U.S. runners finished in 3 minutes, 16.87 seconds for the country's fifth straight Olympic title in the event. Russia finished second in 3:20.23 and Jamaica was third in 3:20.95.

DeeDee Trotter ran the opening leg for the United States and built a lead before handing to Felix, who more than doubled the advantage by the time she passed to Francena McCorory.

Richards-Ross had a stress-free anchor leg to add this gold medal to her 400-meter gold. Felix earlier won the 200 and 4x100 relay.

Congrats Bolt!

Bolt adds to developing legacy with second straight gold in 100 meters


Usain Bolt finished just .05 seconds shy of his own 100-meter world record.

Dan Rowley/Colorsport/Icon SM

LONDON -- In many ways, this one was better. Four years ago in China, Usain Bolt transformed the 100 meters into performance art, and the Olympics into a soliloquy, winning with such playful arrogance that it seemed less like a competition than a palette on which an emerging and transcendent talent could splash his greatness in great, broad strokes. The other sprinters were like extras in the Bolt Show, useful in the same way that painted planks of background scenery are deployed in a Broadway production. Bolt was bigger than all of them and so much faster. It wasn't a race, it was an exhibition (and one that Bolt would repeat four days later in the 200 meters and again in the 4x100-meter relay; three gold medals and an unprecedented three world records. He did likewise a year later at the 2009 world championships in Berlin).

The world gathered again to witness Bolt on Sunday night in London's Olympic Stadium. Many had surely not seen him since Beijing, as track and field lives on the distant margins of mainstream sport and Bolt is its only true star. In a superficial sense, he did not leave them wanting, winning the 100-meter gold medal in 9.63 seconds, an Olympic record and the second-fastest time in history (behind only his world record of 9.58 from Berlin) and .06 faster than he ran in Beijing. But this was not a virtuoso encore, this was a race, and it had begun more than two years earlier.