Baseball: Bonds guilty of obstructing justice

A US jury has convicted the baseball star Barry Bonds of one count of obstructing justice but was deadlocked on other charges that he lied to a grand jury about whether he knowingly used steroids.

Bonds, baseball's record home run hitter, sat impassively as the jury was dismissed after four days of deliberations in the three-week perjury trial. His attorney, Allen Ruby, said he would file a motion to dismiss the conviction. Bonds faces up to 10 years in prison on the obstruction conviction but would be likely to receive far less.

The US Attorney, Melinda Haag, said the government would decide "as soon as possible" whether to seek a retrial on the three deadlocked counts. US District Judge Susan Illston called a conference for 20 May to discuss the next moves in the case.

"We respect the jury's decision and their careful consideration of the evidence in this case and are gratified by the guilty verdict," Ms Haag said in a statement.

But the trial delivered a mixed result both for the prosecution, which pursued the case for several years, and for Bonds, who was fighting for his reputation.

The charges stemmed from his testimony to a 2003 grand jury investigating the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport. Testifying to the jury, Bonds said no one had ever injected him other than medical doctors.