OLYMPICS
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) The rival Koreas agreed to form their first unified Olympic team and have their athletes parade together for the first time in 11 years during the opening ceremony of next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea, officials said.
The agreements still require approval from the International Olympic Committee. But they are the most prominent steps toward rapprochement achieved by the Koreas since they recently began exploring cooperation during the Olympics following a year of heightened tension over the North's nuclear weapons program.
During their third day of talks at the border in about a week, senior officials reached a package of agreements, including fielding a joint women's ice hockey team and marching together under a blue and white ''unification flag'' depicting their peninsula in the opening ceremony, Seoul's Unification Ministry said.
MOSCOW (AP) - The Russian track and field federation says it has launched an investigation after dozens of athletes reportedly withdrew from a competition following the arrival of drug testers.
According to Russian news outlet Championat, as many as 36 athletes withdrew from the Siberian indoor championship meet in Irkutsk last week, many citing illnesses.
The federation says it has asked athletes for explanations and ''has started an internal investigation.''
It's not the first time Russian athletes have been accused of dodging doping tests. The federation launched an investigation into five sudden withdrawals at a meet last year, but hasn't reported any results.
In 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency said one Russian track athlete had tried to bribe a drug tester, while another ran out of the stadium during her own race.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - Former California women's basketball player and current WNBA All-Star guard Layshia Clarendon has filed a lawsuit against Cal claiming she was sexually assaulted by a longtime member of the athletic department.
The school acknowledged the lawsuit and said the staff member, Mohamed Muqtar, had recently been placed on paid leave. The assistant director of student services, Muqtar has been working for the university for just more than 25 years, the school said. An e-mail to Muqtar's Cal email account was not immediately returned.
Cal said in a statement ''the University is aware of the complaint, but has not received a copy of the lawsuit nor had the benefit of reviewing the allegations.''
Clarendon, who plays for the Atlanta Dream and was at Cal from 2009-13, posted on Twitter her thoughts about the lawsuit.
PRO BASKETBALL
Trevor Ariza said nothing happened. The NBA strongly disagreed.
Ariza and Gerald Green will both be suspended for Houston's next two games, with the NBA coming down hard on both Wednesday for what the league said was their ''hostile, verbal altercation'' with several players in the Los Angeles Clippers' locker room earlier this week.
No other players were disciplined, including Rockets guards James Harden and Chris Paul - both of whom left the Houston locker room with hopes of defusing the situation, the league said.
The NBA said that Ariza and Green went into the Clippers' locker room to confront a Los Angeles player. The NBA didn't reveal specifics of what went on in the locker room, and didn't disclose the name of the player that Ariza and Green wanted to confront.
PRO FOOTBALL
CLEVELAND (AP) - Joe Thomas remains torn about his football future.
He's still holding.
Cleveland's star left tackle, who played more than 10,000 consecutive snaps before suffering a season-ending left triceps injury on Oct. 22, said Wednesday night that he's undecided about continuing his Hall of Fame-caliber career - or retiring.
''Making progress,'' the 10-time Pro Bowler said. ''Had a lot of time to think and spend some time with the family, but not ready definitively to make a decision one way or the other just yet. Really for me, my decision is just going to come down to do I feel like I'm healthy enough to survive another season?''
One of the NFL's premier tackles, Thomas was on the field for 10,363 straight plays before his triceps ripped while blocking on a running play against Tennessee. Thomas planned to take the offseason to weigh his options, and he remains unsure if he wants to make a comeback or move on to a new career, perhaps in the TV broadcast booth.
