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Arnold Schwarzenegger appears to have avoided serious injury after the 71-year-old former Governor of California was blindsided and dropkicked in the back while at an event in South Africa Saturday. The 'Terminator' actor is in Sandton, South Africa, for a sporting event called the Arnold Classic Africa, per The Sandton Chronicle.

Two more people linked to a nationwide investigation into the illegal sale of steroids were arraigned Tuesday on drug-related charges as published reports implicated more athletes, including the winner of the Ohio bodybuilding competition named for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Steven and Karen Lampert of Anti-Aging Centers in Nanuet pleaded not guilty in an Albany County, N.Y., courtroom and were released without bail. They are charged with submitting prescriptions to a Florida pharmacy - some "obviously forged" according to the district attorney - for drugs totaling more than $50,000 for people without a medical need. Steven Lampert is charged with 20...

The first year Sabah Mahdi tried to come to America for the Arnold Fitness Expo, he couldn’t get a passport to leave his war-torn country. Later that year, Mahdi’s gym, named the Arnold Classic, was ripped apart by blasts from two truck bombs. Last year, a tight curfew in Baghdad stopped him from making the flight — even after Arnold Schwarzenegger personally paid for the airfare. This year, despite the continuing war in Iraq, Mahdi made it to Columbus and basked in the glory of a man he has idolized for 33 years. And Schwarzenegger returned the admiration: He took...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger conceded Sunday that getting drugs out of the bodybuilding sport he loves so dearly will be close to impossible. "I think it's very challenging to really bust people," he said. "Sometimes you do, but it's a rarity. Because you know when you look at the performances, no matter what sport it is, people take something. But to detect it is really the other question." The Republican governor's comments came at the end of his three-day trip here to preside over the annual Arnold Sports Festival. ---snip-- Schwarzenegger is not a purist and his position...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, down in the popularity polls and trying to regain his support, took up his other persona as a strongman Saturday at his annual bodybuilding competition. Fans shouted, "We love you, Arnold!" and "Arnold rules!" as Schwarzenegger entered the Greater Columbus Convention Center, one of the venues for the weekend's 2006 Arnold Sports Festival. The event combines a trade show, contests in several sports, and the centerpiece - the 18th annual Arnold Classic bodybuilding competition. Schwarzenegger stopped frequently to shake hands, pose for pictures and sign autographs as members of his California Highway Patrol security detail cleared...

It's touted in ads as "pure might battling pure fear,'' a marriage of "raw power and brute force'' complete with girls, guts, blood and plenty of grit. And while so-called gladiator or ultimate fighting has gained legions of new fans and celebrity supporters nationwide, the planned appearance of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at a major pay-per-view fight in Columbus, Ohio, this weekend could fire up not only sports aficionados but the governor's critics as well. That's especially true because Schwarzenegger signed legislation last September paving the way for such fights to be legal in California -- where the first such state-sanctioned...

Jamie Francis has made two trips to Iraq, most recently in April when he and senior correspondent Susan Taylor Martin spent four weeks there looking at the war's effect on the country. On a warm evening in Baghdad's old Jewish quarter last month, I was taking photos in a crumbling building when I was literally pushed toward a Westerner with ivory skin and a red beard. He was lifting weights inside the Arnold Classic Gym. He wore black steel-toed boots as he grunted out exercises beneath dozens of portraits of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Iraqis called him Mr. Nick. I was...

Mr. Schwarzenegger may find himself politically embattled these days in his home state, but here he is still a major draw. Along Saddoun Street, one of the capital's main arteries, Mr. Talib has hung a black-and-white billboard showing a young Mr. Schwarzenegger in a formidable bicep-flexing pose. "The first inspiration I had for bodybuilding was Arnold," Mr. Talib, a squat man built like a bulldozer, said in his back-room office as metal weights clanked outside. "Now I aspire to improve the sport in Iraq." Mr. Talib is in regular e-mail contact with Governor Schwarzenegger's office in Sacramento, apprising officials there...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ended his $8-million contract with a muscle magazine publisher last week. But his deep emotional, political and business ties to bodybuilding — and to the supplement industry that feeds it — won't be so easily severed. Since becoming governor, Schwarzenegger has remained closely involved with the bodybuilding world and with the supplement companies whose products promise such things as ripped muscles, "thermonuclear" energy and better sex. According to documents and interviews with industry leaders, Schwarzenegger has continued to give the industry advice. He has participated in private meetings about government regulations. The governor also received...

Deepening his personal involvement in an industry that has business pending at the Capitol, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this year helped dietary supplement companies launch a lobbying group. An article in the August 2005 edition of Muscle & Fitness magazine, for which Schwarzenegger serves as executive editor, recounts his attendance at a March 5 meeting at which the lobbying group formed and says the governor remains "a phone call away" from the organization. The meeting took place while legislation was pending that would restrict high school athletes from using some performance-enhancing supplements. The bill still awaits action in the Legislature....

ARNOLD COMMITS TO FIGHTING STEROID USE LATEST: California Governor ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER has pledged to combat the over use of steroids in sport after causing outrage by admitting he took the drugs at the beginning of his bodybuilding career. The action man shocked TV viewers a week ago (27FEB05) when he told a US news show that he had no regrets about taking doctor-supervised steroids in the 1970s. Speaking at his annual ARNOLD FITNESS WEEKEND in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday (05MAR05) the actor-turned-politician conceded he has done little to rid sports of illegal drugs. And he has committed to convene a...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Arnold Schwarzenegger returns this weekend to the bodybuilding contest that bears his name, continuing his embrace of a sport in which steroid use endures from his own days - at a time when talk of doping is a national pastime. California's governor, who acknowledges taking steroids as a competitor, makes his annual pilgrimage to the Arnold Classic to reconnect with adoring fans of the sport that made him famous, far from a gathering political storm back home. Instead of politics, the weekend is about athletes and big muscles. But just below the surface, it's also about...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- preparing to host a major international body-building expo bearing his name -- is facing increasing pressure from critics urging him to take a tougher stand against performance- enhancing substances touted at his annual Arnold Classic this weekend. Schwarzenegger will be a top attraction at the annual bodybuilding competitions and fitness expo beginning Friday in Columbus, Ohio, where as many as 100,000 are expected. The governor plans to appear at several events, including Saturday's marquee Arnold Classic men's competition, which will feature 14 invited pro bodybuilders. But in a year in which the BALCO scandal has focused...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Despite Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's repeated denunciations of steroid use among bodybuilders, the annual bodybuilding contest that bears his name has come under the spotlight for steroid use ever since federal drug agents swept in to subpoena current and past competitors last year. Schwarzeneggger, a former bodybuilder and seven-time Mr. Olympia winner, will be on hand again this year at the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio, scheduled to begin on March 5. He's attended the festival every year since it first began in 1989. The raid by federal agents at last year's gathering helped lead to the indictments...

<p>Advisers to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sought to distance him Friday from reports that an international bodybuilding event he co-founded was visited by federal authorities last weekend as part of a widening probe into steroid distribution in the sports world.</p> <p>The Governor's Office declined to respond to an ESPN report that at least five subpoenas were issued at the Arnold Fitness Weekend in Columbus, Ohio. The event, which drew an estimated 80,000 spectators and participants, includes the Arnold Classic bodybuilding competition and dozens of exhibits advertising a range of nutritional supplements, hormones and steroids.</p>

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s top gym has changed its name to "The Arnold Classic" to honour ex-bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites)'s win in the California governor's race. The victory even had some Iraqis -- long ruled by another strongman, Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), until his ouster in April by U.S.-led forces -- calling for a new leader in Schwarzenegger's mould. Thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq, dubbed "Arnie's army" after the movie star visited them on America's July 4 independence day, were also elated. Fans urged the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger to follow in...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's top gym changed its name Wednesday to "The Arnold Classic" to honor former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger's win in the California governor's race. The victory even had some Iraqis -- long ruled by another strongman, Saddam Hussein, until his ouster in April by U.S.-led forces -- calling for a new leader in Schwarzenegger's mold. Thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq, dubbed "Arnie's army" after the movie star visited them on America's July 4 Independence Day, were also elated. Fans urged the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger to follow in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan to the White House, although...