BRIEFLY : PLAYERS SEEK ASYLUM.

Sixteen Ethiopian soccer players requested political asylum Wednesday after slipping out of their hotel and trudging for miles in sneakers and their team uniforms.

The players, clutching passports, disappeared early Tuesday from their hotel in Ostia, a seaside town 12 miles from Rome.

``We had decided some time ago to leave Ethiopia, where there are political, religious and ethnic problems,'' Mohammed Timam, a striker for Ethiopia's national team, said at Rome's police headquarters.

The team was making a stopover in the capital en route to an African Nations Cup game in Morocco.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Linebacker Terrell Farley, kicked off the Nebraska football team after a second arrest for drunk-driving, pleaded no contest to that charge and leaving the scene of an accident, in Lincoln, Neb.

Lancaster County Judge James Foster scheduled sentencing for March 28.

BASEBALL: The Baltimore Orioles signed pitcher Scott Kamienecki to a minor-league contract and invited him to spring training.

Kamienecki, 32, spent his entire six-year major-league career with the New York Yankees.

WINTER SPORTS: Italy's Thomas Prugger upset American Mike Jacoby in the men's giant slalom at the World Snowboarding Championships in San Candido, Italy.

GOLF: Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal, who has not played competitively in more than a year because of rheumatoid arthritis in his feet, is in good shape after recent treatment and near a return to golf.

Although there has been no official announcement, Olazabal was said to be hoping to play in Dubai at the end of February.