■BASKETBALL
Barkley faces driving charge
Retired NBA star Charles Barkley was arrested on Wednesday on a charge of suspicion of driving while impaired. Barkley, who now works as a television commentator, failed to stop his vehicle at a stop sign in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, at 1:30am. He was cited by police and released. The former Philadelphia 76ers, Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns star played 16 seasons in the NBA and retired as one of only four players in league history to have 20,000 points plus 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. Barkley, 45, was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 1993 and played on the 1992 and 1996 US Olympic gold medal teams. He was voted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
■BASEBALL
Indians sign DeRosa
The Cleveland Indians have acquired infielder Mark DeRosa from the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland said on Wednesday. The Indians sent three minor league pitching prospects — Jeff Stevens, Chris Archer and left-hander John Gaub — to the Cubs as part of the deal. The 33-year-old DeRosa played largely at second base for the Cubs but he is likely to play third with the Indians, who finished with a record of 81-81 last season. Chicago added the switch-hitting Aaron Miles from the St Louis Cardinals. Miles, who played mostly at second base, batted .317 with 15 doubles, four home runs, 31 RBIs and a .355 on-base percentage in 134 games for the Cardinals last season.
■SOCCER
Kinnear drops training
Newcastle’s injury crisis is so bad that manager Joe Kinnear has been forced to abandon normal training. With the number of casualties reaching double figures after Sunday’s 5-1 loss to Liverpool, Kinnear is struggling for players to face Hull City in the FA Cup tomorrow. “It’s been more or less a case of canceling training and wrapping all of my players up in cotton wool, and then we will see if we can get 11 out for Hull,” Kinnear said. “It’s tough, but it’s my job to keep them all up for it. I have to face it, and it is my job to lift whoever is fit to play. The pain in the neck is that I won’t know what my team is likely to be until Friday. We want a decent cup run and we are up for Hull, but it’s dependent on which players we have,” he said.
■SOCCER
Israeli FA cancels games
Israel’s Football Association postponed all games on Wednesday after a missile fired by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip hit a team’s pitch minutes before a training session. A Katyusha rocket exploded in the penalty area of third division Hapoel Ashkelon’s stadium on Monday, just minutes before the players were about to begin their training session. One person was killed when Hamas fired a rocket on Ashkelon earlier this week.
■BASEBALL
Angels snap up Fuentes
The Los Angeles Angels moved to replace Francisco Rodriguez by agreeing with reliever Brian Fuentes on a two-year contract, the team said on Wednesday. Fuentes, 33, is a left-handed closer who saved 111 games for the Colorado Rockies over the past four seasons. Fuentes’ contract with the Angels includes a club option for 2011, the team said on its Web site. Rodriguez set a single-season record with 62 saves last season before leaving via free agency for a three-year deal with the New York Mets.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but