■ BASEBALL
Bonds indictment revised
Federal prosecutors in San Francisco dropped four counts of lying to a grand jury against baseball star Barry Bonds, leaving him to face trial next year on 10 counts of making false statements plus an addition obstruction of justice charge. Bonds faces the same potential sentence range — probation to roughly two years in prison — if convicted. His trial is scheduled to begin on March 2. Thursday’s indictment, the third against the MLB home run king, came in response to US District Judge Susan Illston’s decision last week ordering prosecutors to again rewrite the technically faulty indictment. Bonds was originally charged last year with four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. After a motion by his lawyers to dismiss the case, Illston ordered prosecutors to rewrite the indictment because multiple alleged lies were lumped into single charges. She agreed with Bonds’ attorney to dismiss two of the charges that were based on questions posed by prosecutors asking Bonds if he ever took steroids or received “flax seed oil stuff” because, she said, they were too vague to sustain a perjury charge. Illston also threw out another count based on Bonds’ repeated denials that he obtained human growth hormone from his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, because it too closely mirrored another charge, she said.
■BASKETBALL
Rogers reportedly paralyzed
Rodney Rogers, who starred in college and played in the NBA for 12 seasons, is paralyzed from the shoulders down as a result of an all-terrain vehicle accident, the News & Observer of Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, reported on Thursday. Dave Odom, who coached Rogers for four years at Wake Forest University, told the newspaper that his former All-America forward is paralyzed from the shoulders down. The report said the 37-year-old Rogers, who was working in his hometown for the city public works department as a heavy machine operator, was riding in the woods last week in rural Vance County when he fell off his vehicle. Chosen by Denver in the first round of the 1993 NBA draft, the rugged, Rogers averaged 10.9 points and 4.5 rebounds in 866 career games before retiring at the end of the 2004-2005 season.
■BIATHLON
Jonsson wins opener
Sweden’s Helena Jonsson won the opening event of the women’s World Cup biathlon calendar in Oestersund, Sweden, on Thursday ahead of Germany’s Kati Wilhelm and Russian Ekaterina Iourieva. Jonsson, a world champion in last year’s mixed relay event, produced a faultless shooting display on her way to winning the 15km race in 45 minutes, 5.1 seconds for her second victory on the world circuit.
■BASEBALL
Boston, Tazawa ink deal
Daisuke Matsuzaka helped the Boston Red Sox win the World Series in his first year and he won 18 games in his second. Now he’s pitching in with recruiting. The Red Sox signed their third pitcher from Japan on Thursday, adding right-handed amateur Junichi Tazawa to an organization that already included Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima. Tazawa said he spoke to his countrymen before signing the US$3.3 million, three-year deal and was impressed with the way the organization had helped them acclimate to the US. Tazawa, 22, played for four years for Nippon Oil of the Japan Industrial League. He was 13-1 with 5 saves and a 0.80 ERA this season in 21 games, 11 of them starts, striking out 114 batters and walking 15 over 113 innings and pitching four shutouts.
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