nsidered a shallow pool of top-end players available,

BEIJING -- Former basketball star Dennis Rodman apologized on Monday for not being able to help an American missionary detained in North Korea while he played there to celebrate the birthday of his friend and leader Kim Jong Un. "Im sorry, Im sorry I couldnt do anything," Rodman told media on his arrival at Beijing airport from a weeklong trip. "Its not my fault. Im sorry. I just want to do some good stuff, thats all I want to do." He said he would return to North Korea next month, but gave no details. Rodman and the squad of retired NBA players he took to North Korea for an exhibition game marking Kims birthday have met with criticism in the U.S. because of North Koreas human rights record and its development of nuclear weapons. Acknowledging the controversy surrounding the trip, one of the players, Charles D. Smith, said Rodman "opened the door and he did some missteps along the way." In an interview in Beijing, Smith said Rodmans singing of "Happy Birthday" to Kim before the exhibition game at a Pyongyang stadium was something that he alone had decided to do. "I think that it might not have been the right thing to do, but he did it ... if it was done in private it would be different, but when its done in the open like that, people are going to have opinions." During the trip, Rodman was also slammed for not using his influence with Kim to help free Kenneth Bae, the missionary in poor health who has been detained for more than a year for "anti-state crimes." Rodman apologized last week for comments he made in a CNN interview implying Bae was at fault, saying he had been drinking and was upset because some of his teammates were under pressure to leave. Smith said the controversy surrounding Bae was a "bad situation" that "overshadowed some of the things that we were doing." "Dennis is not a member of the State Department, he is not a member of the UN," Smith said. "For them to put the flag in his hands and say go and negotiate and talk about it, he probably would have made it worse, you know." He said North Korean officials had invited the team back "at any given time." On Monday, Rodman reiterated that his trip was one of goodwill. "This is not a bad deal," he said. "I want to show people that no matter whats going on in the world, for one day, just one day, no politics, not all that stuff. "Im sorry for all the people and whats going on, Im sorry," he continued. "Im not the president, Im not an ambassador, Im just an individual that wants to show the world the fact that we can actually get along and be happy for one day." Rodman and Kim struck up a friendship when the basketball-player-turned-celebrity first travelled to the secretive state last year. Scarpe NMD R2 Italia . The Durban-based Sharks withstood a furious second-half fightback to beat the Queensland Reds 35-20 for a fourth straight win which gave them a five-point lead atop the championship table. The Hamilton-based Chiefs scored two late tries to beat the Cape Town-based Stormers 36-20 for their third win, after the Stormers rallied from 24-6 down to 24-20 with six minutes remaining. Nmd Human Race Italia . 9 Baylor Bears just needed some time to get on track in their first game after the Christmas break. http://www.scarpenmdscontate.it/scarpe-springblade-outlet.html . Now comes an off-season of questions about manager Matt Williams decisions and a handful of key roster choices, including what to do about Ryan Zimmerman, whether to sign Jordan Zimmermann and Ian Desmond to long-term deals, and how to upgrade an offence that fell flat in October. Adidas Nmd Sconti . -- Canadas Milos Raonic defeated Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France on Saturday to advance to the third round of the BNP Paribas Open. Scarpe Stan Smith Scontate ... as usual. Even with the salary cap being set lower than many general managers expected and hoped for at $69 million and whats considered a shallow pool of top-end players available, this unrestricted-free-agent period figures to follow the familiar script of teams bidding up prices to keep up with each other.KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Top-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia rallied to beat Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 Friday and reach the semifinals of the Malaysian Open. The 10th-ranked Cibulkova saved 20 break points to prevail over her sixth-seeded opponent after more than 2 1/2 hours. Cibulkova will play third-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who defeated Caglla Buyukakcay of Turkey, 6-4, 6-4.dddddddddddd In the other semifinal, second-seeded Shuai Zhang of China will take on Donna Vekic of Croatia. The 45th-ranked Zhang fought off 10 break points to beat Magda Linette of Poland 6-2, 2-6, 6-1. Vekic, who is yet to win a title on the circuit, hit 10 aces to overcome fourth-seeded Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria 6-4, 7-5. ' ' '