Ukraine

The trouble with using experience as a guide is that the final exam often comes first and then the lesson. --Author unknown Have you ever been menaced by Russian Gypsy women? No? The same can't be said of me, I am afraid. One encounters all sorts of interesting folks on the Mongol Rally , the 10,000-mile road trip that my co-driver, Steve Priovolos, and I have undertaken. We left July 14 from Britain; we hope to make it to Ulan Bator, Mongolia, in about five weeks. In doing so, we will, we hope, be able to donate one book (to FirstBook.org )

I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean. - G. K. Chesterton The farther east I go, the nearer I am to starting the real adventures of the Mongol Rally , the 10,000-mile road trip from Britain to Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Western Europe is so very passe, it seems, for the adventure crowd. At least that's what the Mongol rally head honchos kept telling me. “Wait till you get to Kazakhstan, mate," one chap told me. "Then you will see some true craziness. " I wonder whether this chap has ever been to eastern Ukraine.

The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it. --Dudley Moore Lightning doesn't strike twice, although if you're in Ukraine it just might. You'd think I'd learned my lesson after Thursday's near-miss with a Ukranian prison cell. (I wonder what my friend the Ukranian policeman is doing with my 50 euro fine.) From this encounter, I learned again that speeding is bad. This is a good thing to know on a 10,000-mile road trip called the Mongol Rally that started Saturday in Britain and ends in about five weeks at Ulan Bator, Mongolia.  Speeding also happens to be a crime in most countries, except maybe Germany where we have the autobahn.

"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. " -- Mark Twain After what happened to me at last year's Mongol Rally, the 10,000-mile road trip from Britain to Ulan Bator, some people may think it's slightly unbalanced to have played a return engagement. And there may be some truth to that when you consider we had a near-fatal car crash in the dusty roads of a Romanian village. But being unbalanced keeps life interesting and fun, which helps when you encounter what we (Steve Priovolos, my partner in crime)

Wayne Rooney returned from suspension Tuesday and scored on a header in the 48th minute to give England a 1-0 victory over Ukraine at Donetsk, Ukraine, and a spot in the European Championship quarterfinals. England won Group D and will next face Italy in Kiev on Sunday. Ukraine appeared to have evened the score in the 62nd minute when Marko Devic's looping shot crossed the line before it was hooked clear by John Terry . But the goal was missed by the referee and his extra assistant behind the goal.

Andriy Shevchenko is determined to turn the European Championship into a farewell performance to remember, and so far he's putting on quite a show. Shevchenko one-upped Zlatan Ibrahimovic on Monday in a battle of past and present star strikers, scoring on two great headers to give co-host Ukraine a 2-1 win over Sweden in their opening match at Euro 2012 in Kiev. "I feel that I am 10 years younger today," the 35-year-old Shevchenko said. "I think that it's a great day for Ukraine.

All was not well in Poland and Ukraine, co-hosts of Euro 2012, when the planet's second-most-important soccer tournament kicked off Friday. And that could prove to be both good and bad thing as the sport moves toward World Cups scheduled in Brazil, Russia and Qatar over the next 10 years. It's a bad thing because, in the run-up to Euro 2012, attention has been focused away from the playing field because of charges of racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and worries about violence in the host countries.

The boys of "The Big Bang Theory" are slowly but stalwartly taking down the Death Star. The CBS sitcom, now in its fifth season, knocked off Fox's long-dominant "American Idol" for the second week in a row Thursday night among viewers in the 18-to-49 age range that many advertisers target. The geek comedy also pulled in more viewers overall, according to early figures from Nielsen, drawing 15.96 million viewers in the 8-8:30 slot compared with "Idol's" 15.46 million. "Idol" did better in its second half hour and wound up averaging nearly 17 million viewers for the broadcast — still good, but down markedly from a year ago. —Yvonne Villarreal ABBA reissue has new track Mamma Mia, here they go again.

The writer A.J. Liebling famously called boxing "the sweet science," but it doesn't always play out that way in fight films, where boxers often come off as lacking in personality, intelligence or both. When it comes to the subjects of "Klitschko," however, there is a lot more to the story than we are used to getting — twice as much, in fact. That's because this fascinating documentary is the story of two Ukrainian brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, who have done something unprecedented in their sport: They're both world heavyweight champions, simultaneously holding between them the titles of all five boxing federations.

Ukraine's former prime minister and leading opposition figure was found guilty of abuse of power and sentenced to seven years in prison Tuesday in a widely expected verdict that underscored the country's deep political divisions. Yulia Tymoshenko, who more than once during her trial accused the judge of acting on behalf of her rival, President Viktor Yanukovich, was convicted of exceeding her powers in signing a gas deal with Russia in January 2009 that the judge said had cost the state-owned gas company about $200 million.