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Thursday's raid followed a two-year criminal investigation into the company and corporate officers, including founder Ryan DeLuca, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to search warrants filed in U.S. District Court. The searches were conducted at Bodybuilding.com's headquarters at 2026 S. Silverstone Way, Meridian, and its warehouse off Gowen Road in south Boise, after two warrants were signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy W. Dale, said Wendy Olson, an assistant U.S. attorney in Boise. DeLuca could not be reached for comment, but a spokeswoman said the company is cooperating fully in the investigation. "We are not the manufacturers...

At just 2ft 9in, Indian muscleman Aditya 'Romeo' Dev is the world's smallest bodybuilder. Pint-sized Romeo is well-known in his hometown of Phagwara, India - for his ability to lift 1.5kg dumbbells - despite his overall 9kg body weight. Every day, crowds flock to the local gym to the see the mini-muscleman in training.

A STEP-BY-STEP guide to building a body like President Vladimir Putin's was available to readers of a Russian newspaper yesterday. Official photographs of the 54-year-old leader holidaying in southern Siberia last week showed him fishing with his shirt off to display a well-honed torso. He was also shown on horseback in sunglasses, gloves and a body-hugging white vest. “He has some great definition under that shirt,” said the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid, Russia's biggest circulation newspaper which specialises in admiring coverage of President Putin. Under the headline: “Get a body like Putin's”, the daily published an exercise guide by a fitness...

"Old School" was expelled Friday, thanks to an aspiring professional bodybuilder. It all happened in Lynnwood when a suspected serial bank robber known as the "Old School Bandit" because of his old-school bandanna disguise tried to rob a Banner Bank. The bodybuilder — Todd Jewell, 26, of Yakima — had just arrived at the bank on 188th Street Southwest with his wife, Shawna, 27, who was waiting to hand in her résumé. They're both between careers. They saw a man, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, slip on a bandanna, approach a teller and demand money. "It took a few...

A well-built man was forced to take a drugs test in Stockholm recently after a police officer assumed that muscles like his could only have been developed with the help of illegal substances. The female assistant police officer got into a conversation with Tomislav Boduljak and his friend late at night in central Stockholm. According to Boduljak, 27, the police officer was pleasant at first, but changed her attitude when he said he worked out. Saying his muscles were 'abnormal', she said he must have used drugs. "I asked if she didn't think it possible that I work out a...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has handed control of the obscure Board of Chiropractic Examiners to appointees, including two friends from his bodybuilding days, who fired the executive director, ejected a deputy attorney general from a meeting and took other controversial actions in what a critic described as a "coup." --snip-- "It was a coup," said former board member Barbara Stanfield, who attended the March 1 meeting. "They said, 'This is what we're going to do,' and they did it." Stanfield said Schwarzenegger appointees to the board, including two-time Mr. Olympia Franco Columbu, have made clear in public meetings that they want...

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...

By Ken Ritter, Associated Press Writer | December 23, 2005 LAS VEGAS --Professional bodybuilder Craig Titus and his wife, Kelly Ryan, were arrested Friday in Massachusetts as fugitives in the slaying of a woman whose body was found last week in Ryan's burned-out luxury car abandoned off a remote desert highway. Titus, 40, and Ryan, 33, were arrested by federal agents and local police at a grocery store parking lot in Stoughton, Mass., and were being held in nearby Canton, FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said. The two towns are about 15 miles south of Boston.

Khosraw Basheri feverishly pumped iron for years, toning his body so it rippled with muscle and veins. His hard work paid off when he claimed a historic title in his war-battered country -- Mr. Afghanistan. The 23-year-old businessman from western Herat province flexed and grinned his way to victory Saturday in Afghanistan's first-ever national competition to select a top bodybuilder. "I will never forget this day, the day I became Mr. Afghanistan," said Basheri, sweat and makeup streaming down his massive frame. "This has been my hope for the past two years, since I started preparing myself for this." At...

BAGHDAD -- When he belches around Baghdad's old quarter on his spotless Harley Davidson, Kadhem Sharif, a power-lifting champion sporting wraparound sunglasses, makes for an unlikely sight. And the 53-year-old is fully aware that his passion for one of the most recognizable symbols of the American way of life is not to everybody's liking in post-war Iraq. But his garage is a carbon copy of any Harley aficionado's den in the United States, complete with posters of naked "babes on bikes". And his collection of 40-plus motorbikes provides a condensed history of 100 years of national turmoil. "This Norton was...

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...

Arnold Schwarzenegger says he's not sorry for pumping up with steroids during his heyday as a champion bodybuilder. "I have no regrets about it, because at that time, it was something new that came on the market, and we went to the doctor and did it under doctors' supervision," the action hero turned Governator told ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

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...

Even as he flexes political muscle in Sacramento, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger quietly presses his influence in another universe -- as executive editor of two leading bodybuilding magazines. Schwarzenegger's oiled and eye-popping physique, from a classic 1970s pose, graces newsstands on this month's cover of Muscle & Fitness magazine, which -- along with its sister publication, Flex -- proudly lists "Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger" as its executive editor.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - High schools nationwide are struggling with rising steroid use, not just among football linemen battling for college scholarships but also among non-athletes who think bigger biceps will make them more popular. Most schools cannot afford the costly tests for detecting illegal bodybuilding drugs. Even those that test for marijuana and cocaine do not check for steroids, which are potentially more destructive. "For a small district to do this kind of testing would be cost-prohibitive," said Joseph Wilimek, school superintendent for Angels Camp. At Bret Harte High School in Angels Camp, all student-athletes and cheerleaders take urine tests...

LAS VEGAS — The worlds of bodybuilding and politics met Saturday night as California Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger handed out medals at the Mr. Olympia event, a competition he won seven times. Schwarzenegger's surprise appearance drew cheers and chants of "Arnold!" and "Governator!" from the estimated 6,000 people gathered in the arena at the Mandalay Bay Hotel-Casino. "Finally I feel at home again," a smiling Schwarzenegger told the crowd. "This is a terrific sport, and if it wouldn't have been for bodybuilding I wouldn't have any of this. It's a great foundation." Joe Weider, founder of the competition, said Schwarzenegger proves...