■ Basketball
Kemp arrested for marijuana
Shawn Kemp was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana on Friday, the latest drug-related trouble for the former NBA All-Star. Kemp, 36, was arrested following a traffic stop for driving without a license plate shortly after midnight. An officer with the Harris County Sheriff's Department pulled Kemp over and said he noticed the smell of burning marijuana coming from Kemp's vehicle. The officer later found less than 56 grams of the illegal drug in Kemp's possession. The six-time All-Star was released from the Harris County Jail after posting a US$500 cash bond and faces a court appearance on Friday. Kemp checked into a rehabilitation clinic for cocaine use in 2001. In April last year, he was arrested for possessing small amounts of cocaine and marijuana in his truck.
■ Soccer
Pull down flags: Dhaka cops
Police in the Bangladesh capital yesterday asked residents to remove the flags of foreign nations they hoisted to show their support during the soccer World Cup. Thousands of flags, mainly of Brazil and Argentina, were hoisted in Dhaka, a city of 10 million people, during the World Cup, with most yet to be removed. After the departure of two the South American teams in the quarterfinals, many even raised the flags of Germany and France to continue their support at the tournament. Bangladesh has never contested a World Cup, but most of its soccer-crazed population support either Brazil or Argentina. Authorities postponed classes and examinations at a leading university for a month after violent protests by students in Dhaka who complained that regular classes interfered with them watching World Cup matches.
■ Diving
China wins springboard gold
China's Wang Feng and He Chong took home the gold on Friday for the men's 3m synchronized springboard event, while teammates Jia Tong and Chen Ruolin won the women's 10m synchronized platform at the FINA World Cup competition. Wang and He split up last year but resumed their partnership at this year's Grand Prix, bagging three wins in a row before the World Cup. They led the competition with 446.73 points, while Americans Mitchell Richeson and Troy Dumais won the silver with 428.43 points. Germany's Tobias Schellenberg and Andreas Wels finished third with 393.30 points. They placed second in the 2004 Athens Olympics. The 14-year-old Jia took home her second gold medal with the help of Chen.
■ Soccer
Laporta to quit Barcelona
Joan Laporta, president of European champions FC Barcelona, plans to resign ahead of the club's forthcoming presidential elections. Speaking on Friday at a press conference, Laporta said he would leave his post on Wednesday. Barcelona judge Roberto Garcia Ceniceros ruled this week in favor of three club members who claimed Laporta's four-year term in office had finished at the end of last month -- and not on June 30 next year as argued by the club's management. Laporta was picked in early elections in 2003, prompted by the resignation of Joan Gaspart. One clause in the club statutes says that, in the event of early elections, the new president's first year in office runs from the date of the election to the end of the fiscal year, which for Barcelona is June 30.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB