Jimmie Johnson didn’t qualify where he wanted, and his car never quite cooperated during the final practice session at Kansas Speedway. So he spent Saturday evening in the garage area, going over different setups with the rest of his team. That dedication, that attention to detail, is a big reason he’s chasing his sixth straight Cup title. Johnson and his team must have figured things out. The ...

Florida is out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Not just the Gators ― the entire state. For the first time since Dec. 6, 1982, no Sunshine State team was among the AP rankings on Sunday, marking the end of 472 straight polls where either Florida, Florida State or Miami ― and usually all three ― were on the list. Florida and Florida State both lost Saturday, the Gators losing at No. 1 LSU 41...

NEW YORK (AP) ― NBA players and owners still have no deal headed into the deadline for starting the season on time. Negotiators for the sides met for more than five hours Sunday before breaking for the night. They are scheduled to return Monday afternoon. “We’re not necessarily any closer than we were going in tonight, but we’ll be back at it tomorrow and we’ll keep putting time in,” said union...

MADRID (AP) ― Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher should be fit to face Spain on Tuesday as Scotland aim to beat the world champion and secure a playoff spot for the European Championship. Scotland must at least equal Czech Republic’s result at Lithuania to clinch second place in Group I. Fletcher made a quick recovery from tonsillitis to captain Scotland in the 1-0 win at Liechtenstei...

South Korea’s top businesses such as POSCO and Samsung Electronics Co. will have to significantly cut their greenhouse gas emissions output in 2012 to help stem global climate change, the government said Monday. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said leading steelmaker POSCO needs to cut emission levels by 963,000 CO2 equivalent tons next year, compared with business-as-usual or when no reductio...

HONG KONG (AP) ― An uneven set of results from Sotheby’s autumn Hong Kong sales that wrapped up last Thursday indicates that the surging Asian art market is pausing for breath amid rocky times for financial assets such as stocks. A 15th century Meiping vase sold on Wednesday for HK$168.7 million ($21.7 million), a world record for Ming dynasty porcelain, after intense bidding by telephone that d...

Ward catches 2 of Roethlisberger’s 5 TD passes PITTSBURGH (AP) ― Ben Roethlisberger has a pretty good explanation for how a guy with one good foot can throw for five touchdowns as he did in Pittsburgh’s 38-17 thumping of Tennessee on Sunday. “I told ya, I was just faking it,” Roethlisberger said. “I’m a wimp.” Not exactly. Limping slightly on his sprained left foot, Roethlisberger put togethe...

BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran for a career-high 136 yards and two touchdowns and the New England Patriots beat the New York Jets 30-21 with a vastly improved defense Sunday. Tom Brady had another strong game, completing 24 of 33 passes for 321 yards and one touchdown as the Patriots scored at least 30 points for the 13th straight regular-season game. Meanwhile, New York’s Mark Sanchez had another t...

The Financial Services Commission said Monday that it is considering allowing businesses to reject credit cards for small payments. The potential upper limit would be 10,000 won ($8.55) similar to the United States and Canada, which impose a $10 cap, the nation’s top financial regulator said. “This is a time to consider abolishing or easing the ban on the refusal of micro credit card payments,”...

SHANGHAI (AFP) ― U.S. auto giant General Motors said Monday its sales in China jumped 15.3 percent in September from a year earlier to 240,244 units, despite government moves to phase out incentives for buyers. In the first nine months of the year, GM and its joint ventures sold a record 1.89 million vehicles in the world’s biggest auto market, up 6.6 percent year on year, the company said in a ...