It looked over for Evander Holyfield 10 years ago when he lost his world

It looked over for Evander Holyfield 10 years ago when he lost his world title for the second time and suffered a mild heart attack during a fight in Las Vegas, but on Saturday night his truly amazing career continued in New York. Referee Williams, one of three officials, ended the game and gave Towers a 2-0 win.The BBL chairman Vince Razaq, described the events as “ludicrous, it beggars belief.”. Clearly something happens to people who buy singles at this time of the year, putting them in the mood for repeated doses of sugary sentimentality as they prepare to spend several trying days cooped up with their relatives.But the Band Aid single is problematic for other reasons. Even in the more innocent age in which it was first recorded, it seemed absolutely gob-smacking that no one involved in the project questioned the appropriateness of singing “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in the context of a famine in Ethiopia. With close to 500 bemused fans watching the bizarre events unfold, Williams gave the ball to London’s American Jerry Williams who scored an unchallenged basket. However, as LVSI and the rest of the gambling “industry” show no dedication or commitment to creating wealth but only to shifting it about a bit, mostly in their direction, I am afraid I cannot.ANDREW PRING Bradford.

British Basketball League clubs today begin deciding how to respond to the most damaging public relations disaster in their 18-year history, after the referee, Keith Williams, abandoned Saturday night’s Trophy group game at Crystal Palace, because Milton Keynes Lions’ recently-signed forward Robert Youngblood did not have a registration card with him. I suppose we’re supposed to be grateful that we’ll have “just a handful of ’super-casinos’ ” (report, 12 November), when one is too many?HUW JONES London N3Sir: I would like to thank Rodney Brody of the Las Vegas Sands casino company for his generous offer of commitment and dedication to creating jobs and supporting communities throughout the UK (letter, 9 November). We get ridiculed by our friends, who then come out with the apologetic line, “Well, of course, they are clearly the best lot; if I thought they could win I would vote for them.”ELSPETH CHRISTIE Alston, Cumbria Rape victims Sir: According to your report (13 November) “Several dozen white women have been raped in the Ivory Coast over the past week”. Surely rape is abhorrent whatever the colour of your skin, or is your reporter confusing “white” with “European”?GRAHAM RICKARDS Clanfield, Hampshire No better off Sir: Government tactic that is beginning to wear thin: announce the atrocious and retreat to the undesirable as a “responsible” answer to public debate. The same could be said of, amongst others, Nelson Mandela, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, ex-president Carter, and dare I say, John Peel. So the point is…?JEFREY G PIRIE Totnes, Devon Deliberate voting Sir: With all this talk about voting Lib Dem to be tactical (letters, 13 November), please don’t forget the large numbers of us who vote that way because we would like the Lib Dems to win.

I don’t think we get any of that sort of thing round here.PHILIP CRESSWELL Oxford Men behaving well Sir: I was rather confused as to why K Turner (letter, 13 November) felt the need to point out that Ataturk, Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot were all men. I have spoken to her a couple of times in the last few months and always receive the same level of reassurance that my call is valued.I am curious about the implication that some areas might have real live police officers, touring around the area and occasionally even talking to the general public. She is calm and courteous, and we know that we can tell her our concerns, safe in the knowledge that we will never hear of them again. I know perfectly well the first name of our local police officer.Her first name is “Call” and her last name is “Centre”, and she took over from her much-loved predecessor, PC Answering Machine last year following the substantial increase (13.6 per cent) in the local police rate. I was particularly glad to learn that bulldogs are suitable for people who have no desire to exercise themselves because “owing to breathing problems, bulldogs aren’t usually capable of doing much exercise” – how fortunate.It might also have been prudent to point out that approximately 50 per cent of Persian cats, number seven on the list, have a potentially fatal, inherited kidney disorder. The results of the inquiry and any recommendations will naturally and properly be used to inform future decisions by Network Rail regarding risk assessments and the appropriate form of level crossing in any location.JOHN ARMITT Chief Executive, Network Rail London NW1 Police access Sir: I don’t understand the need for the Home Office’s latest attempts to make the police “accessible” (report, 10 November). Network Rail has requested that the Rail Safety & Standards Board (RSSB) holds a formal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the incident at Ufton Nervet.

The “50 Best Pets” feature shows that The Independent has unfortunately not yet got the message. In running such a feature in the run-up to Christmas, you risk encouraging the irresponsible impulse-buying of animals.STEFAN LLOYD Alton, HampshireSir: You can indeed pay £200 for a pet greyhound. Never mind, at least they have “spectacularly luxurious fur” and are apparently happy to live in an apartment with no access to the outside world.If you plan in the future to compile a list of pets you might consider including a vet on your panel of experts and even feature a healthy mongrel like the one on the front cover of the supplement.EMMA MILNE The Minster Veterinary Practice YorkSir: Every year, in January, animal rescue centres see an increase in unwanted pets, as people who have bought puppies as Christmas presents discard them once they get bored or cannot cope with their boisterous behaviour. My section on the “50 Best Pets” was missing the subtitle: “if you want to spend all your time and money at your vets”.Almost all of the breeds of dog and cat listed have numerous predispositions to disease and illness and the giant-breed dogs in particular can be extremely costly to treat because they require larger doses of medication. Clothing design as well as manufacturing is carried out in Romania and Sri Lanka.Simply gaining skills in a conventional sense is not enough – the challenge for Western economies is to continue to re-invent themselves to stay ahead of the offshoring trend. In fact, the one group of people that really are safe are the cleaners and the burger flippers – you can’t do that from India.RICK SIMMONDS London EC1 Pet ownership Sir: I think there must have been a printing error in my edition of The Independent (13 November).

In particular, coroners’ juries could show very considerable understanding of and sympathy for suicides and their families, and by very frequently returning the verdict that suicides had acted while of unsound mind effectively disabled many of the sanctions of the law.A POPP Widnes, Cheshire Risks of offshoring Sir: Digby Jones has missed the really worrying aspect of offshoring (“CBI warns on exodus of unskilled jobs”, 8 November). Computer programming for US and European companies is commonly carried out in, for example, Jamaica, Ghana and the Philippines, as well as India and China. However, with regard to the historical record his argument requires some qualification.As Olive Anderson demonstrated in her study of suicide in Victorian and Edwardian England, the general public was rarely straightforwardly censorious in its attitude, despite the apparently uncompromising teachings of both state and church. Not only was it hard to believe that starving children and their parents had given much thought to Santa, but as Julie Burchill pointed out at the time, many of the intended recipients of Geldof’s largesse were Muslims.Two decades later, with Islam at the top of the political agenda, it would be reasonable to expect a greater degree of cultural sensitivity from even the most bone-headed celebrities.