SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― As prosecutors moved closer to finishing their case against Barry Bonds, former major league infielder Randy Velarde described meeting the slugger’s personal trainer outside spring training ballparks for injections of human growth hormone.Velarde said he sought out Greg Anderson because of his link to Bonds, and they met “in various parking lots.”“I can’t remember each,” Velar

Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, had its debt rating cut for the first time by Standard & Poor’s, which cited market share losses and “weaker” operating margins at the Finnish company.The long-term rating was lowered one step to “A-” with a stable outlook, S&P said in a statement Wednesday. S&P has since June 1998 ranked the debt “A,” the sixth-highest of 10 investment grades

Toyota Motor Corp. may delay the production of at least 500,000 vehicles in Japan because of a shortage of parts and electricity after the nation’s record earthquake, said an analyst at Advanced Research Japan.Toyota’s operating profit may be hurt by at least 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in the fiscal year ending Thursday and up to 200 billion yen next fiscal year, said Koji Endo, an auto analys

RANCHO MIRAGE, California (AP) ― Yani Tseng got a good laugh when she walked past the pond where she celebrated her Kraft Nabisco Championship victory last year by leaping into the water ― and then remembering she doesn’t know how to swim.Tseng survived that traditional plunge and swam all the way to the world No. 1 ranking after winning the LPGA Tour’s first major of the year at Mission Hills in

Seoul National University Hospital opened a new cancer center last week. The SNU hospital is the latest addition to the boom in cancer-centers. With SNU famed in Korea for its advanced diagnostic techniques, the center is expected to raise the overall medical service level here. The six-storey building has 26 units, including 15 specialized cancer sections and nine comprehensive units. The center

Hair loss has long been considered a problem of middle-aged men, but nearly half of those visiting medical facilities for the condition are from the younger generation, according to the National Health Insurance Corporation.The public body said the number of those treated for hair loss, which is classified as dermatological disorder, reached 181,000 in 2009, up about 24.8 percent from 145,000 in 2

After months of preparation, NCsoft, a South Korean online game company, launched a new professional baseball team on Thursday.At the Changwon Convention Center here, about 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul, NCsoft celebrated the first expansion in the Korea Baseball Organization since 1991.You Young-koo, commissioner of the KBO, said, “A new history has been written” in South Korean baseball.“Dur

The basketball season is reaching its climax here, with the final four teams in the top-division league getting ready for semifinals next week. KCC Egis reached the semifinals of the 2009-2010 Korean Basketball League playoffs for the fourth straight year by defeating Samsung Thunders on Wednesday night. The Jeonju-based team took a third straight win in a best-of-five playoff against the Seoul-ba

NEW YORK (AP) ― Rising prices at the gas pump and in grocery aisles are starting to crimp shoppers’ outlook.The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell sharply from a three-year high in February, reversing five straight months of improvement.The decline raises questions about Americans’ ability and willingness to spend in coming months.The index fell more than expected to 63.4 from a rev

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The world’s biggest economies are recovering from the Great Recession at troublesome speeds: too fast or too slow. China, India and other major developing countries quickly returned to breakneck rates of growth after escaping the worst of the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009. Their rapid recoveries showed for the first time that emerging economies have grown big and strong enou

A senior German official at the international governing body of football, along with German journalists and politicians, will travel to North Korea this week as part of their tours to participating countries at an international women’s tournament in the European nation this summer.The German Football Association announced Tuesday that Theo Zwanziger, its president and a member of FIFA’s Executive

Korea’s top-division volleyball team manager Cho Hye-jung said Wednesday she would resign from her post, citing an “inability” to lead the team.The former national team player was appointed by the GS Caltex volleyball team last year, becoming the first female manager in Korean professional sport.But Cho has decided to leave the team after just one year there, taking responsibility for the team’s p

KBO champions SK Wyverns to face strong challenge in their bid to repeatThe SK Wyverns, which have won three of the past four championships in South Korean baseball, are once again considered a strong favorite. Led by the disciplinarian of a manager, Kim Sung-keun, they are a team built on pitching, defense and just enough hitting to put runs on the board. Though they haven’t made much improvement

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) ― Our time. Right now.That is the rallying cry Virginia Commonwealth University has adopted during its basketball team’s improbable nothing-to-lose, everything-to-gain run to the Final Four.The Rams are having blast and their confidence is growing with each win.“It comes from our personalities and coach (Shaka) Smart,” forward Bradford Burgess said. “He wants us to be out t

The American coach for South Korean figure skating star Kim Yu-na will fly in from the U.S. to join his pupil in Seoul this week to prepare for the upcoming world championships.All That Sports, Kim’s agency in Seoul, announced Tuesday that Peter Oppegard will arrive in Seoul from Los Angeles on Thursday.The agency said Oppegard and Kim will train in Seoul for the April 24-May 1 World Figure Skatin

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Barry Bonds’ former mistress testified Monday that he blamed a 1999 elbow injury on steroid use, and that the body and behavior of baseball’s home run king changed during their nine-year relationship.Called by prosecutors to the witness stand, Kimberly Bell choked up as she recalled Bonds once threatening “to cut my head off and leave me in a ditch,” an outburst prosecutors at

NCsoft, a local online game company, received its final stamp of approval Tuesday to launch a new professional baseball team in South Korea.The Korea Baseball Organization announced that NCsoft met the required support from owners of the league’s eight existing teams. The league office said seven owners approved the expansion, and the company needed two-thirds of support.After the company received

Thailand’s central bank may raise interest rates further as oil above $100 a barrel and surging food prices add to inflation pressures stoked by the fastest economic growth in 15 years.“The risk on growth is probably less of a concern, so the risk balance is tilted toward inflation,” Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Bangkok Monday. “You can expect f

Sandra Gal holds off Shin on the 18th to capture Kia ClassicINDUSTRY, California (AP) ― Sandra Gal won the Kia Classic to become the second German winner in LPGA Tour history, beating second-ranked Shin Ji-yai with a 2-foot birdie putt on the final hole Sunday.The 25-year-old Gal made the winning putt after Shin’s 5-foot birdie attempt caught the right edge and spun out.“It was big pressure, she w

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu is facing calls to quit after the crisis at the utility’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant capped a tenure that has seen $26 billion wiped off the company’s market value. The share price decline since Shimizu took charge in June 2008 at Tepco, as the company is known, has deepened to 67 percent in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster, as of the