MLB, players agree to expand drug testing

(Reuters) - Major League Baseball and the players' union have agreed to expand their drug program to include random in-season blood testing for human growth hormone and a new test for testosterone, they said on Thursday.The advanced testing will start this season, in what will be the sternest doping program in major North American professional sports."This agreement addresses critical drug issues...

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Baseball-Japan to stick with lucky 'Spiderman' pants

TOKYO, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Japan will stick with their lucky red Spiderman-style pants in their bid to win a third successive World Baseball Classic (WBC) title, head coach Koji Yamamoto said on Monday."We'll be wearing the red pants," Yamamoto told reporters, looking forward to his side's opening game against surprise qualifiers Brazil on March 2 in Fukuoka."Brazil have good pitching. The first game...

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Japan to stick with lucky "Spiderman" pants

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will stick with their lucky red Spiderman-style pants in their bid to win a third successive World Baseball Classic (WBC) title, head coach Koji Yamamoto said on Monday."We'll be wearing the red pants," Yamamoto told reporters, looking forward to his side's opening game against surprise qualifiers Brazil on March 2 in Fukuoka."Brazil have good pitching. The first game will...

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Venezuela holds symbolic inauguration for Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Nothing shows the extent of Hugo Chavez's grip on power quite as clearly as his absence from his own inauguration Thursday.Venezuela gathered foreign allies and tens of thousands of exuberant supporters to celebrate a new term for a leader too ill to return home for a real swearing-in.In many ways, it looked like the sort of rally the president has staged dozens of times...

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Lawmakers release documents on Wal-Mart bribery

 Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s CEO Mike Duke found out in 2005 that the retailer's Mexico unit was handing out bribes to local officials, according to emails obtained by lawmakers.The lawmakers say the emails contradict earlier claims by Wal-Mart that executives weren't aware of bribes being made by the company.Democratic Congressmen Elijah E. Cummings and Henry A. Waxman, who are investigating bribery...

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Thousands hold street inauguration for Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Thousands of chanting supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rallied outside his presidential palace Thursday in an exuberant alternative inauguration for a leader too ill to return home for the real thing.Backers wearing T-shirts with the slogan "I am Chavez" waved flags while upbeat music from Chavez's last presidential campaign blared from speakers, proclaiming:...

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