Soccer’s Maradona Is Back in Cuba

Former soccer great Diego Maradona returned to Cuba on Monday to resume treatment for cocaine addiction after a relapse confined him to a psychiatric hospital in his native Argentina and sparked unsuccessful attempts by his family to keep him at home.

Maradona, 43, declined to address reporters at Havana, greeting them only with a hasty “good night” before he smiled and left.

Maradona has been hospitalized repeatedly over the last four years, most recently in April, when doctors said he was suffering from a weakened heart and severe breathing problems.

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American goalkeeper Tim Howard was not activated by Manchester United for its English Premier League game against Liverpool because of errors that cost the team in the previous two games. Manchester United beat Liverpool, 2-1.

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Real Madrid accepted the resignation of Coach Jose Antonio Camacho, two days after the Spanish league team suffered its second loss in less than a week.

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Jurisprudence

A federal jury in East St. Louis, Ill., acquitted 19-year-old Katie Wolfmeyer of charges she helped former NHL player Mike Danton hire a hit man in a failed plot to kill his agent.

Danton pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in July and will be sentenced Oct. 22.

He did not testify in Wolfmeyer’s trial.

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Miscellany

Wimbledon women’s champion Maria Sharapova of Russia has landed an endorsement deal with an American company for a perfume that will bear her name.

Sharapova, 17, agreed to a three-year contract worth nearly $5 million, an industry source told Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Former UCLA men’s basketball assistant Jim Saia, who joined Henry Bibby’s staff at USC this summer, has replaced Mike Johnson as an assistant with the Trojans, Bibby said.

Johnson, who joined the Trojans last year after coaching at UC Irvine and Cal State Northridge, replaces Tim Farmer as USC’s director of basketball operations.

Saia, 40, was at UCLA from 1996 to 2003. Fourth-year assistant Eric Brown and Bob Cantu are Bibby’s other assistants.

Baseball returned to Japan after all 12 weekend games were wiped out by the first players’ strike in the sport’s 70-year history in the country, leading to losses for teams estimated to be about $17 million.

The Arena Football League board of directors approved Salt Lake City’s expansion bid and realigned divisions for 2005 after dropping Carolina, Detroit and Indiana.

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Passings

Pete Cutino, who coached California to eight water polo college national championships, has died. He was 71.

Cutino, who had a 519-172-10 record in 26 years at Cal, died of apparent heart failure in his Monterey home Sunday afternoon, the school’s athletics department said.

Cutino coached the U.S. team from 1972 to 1978 and the U.S. Olympic team in 1976.