LOS ANGELES — Maria Sharapova's tennis career and Olympic hopes are in jeopardy, and she claims it's all because she failed to click on a link in an email that would have told her to stop taking meldonium.

The five-time major champion says she failed a doping test at the Australian Open in January for the little-known drug, which became a banned substance under the WADA code this year. The former world No. 1 took full responsibility for her mistake when she made the announcement at a news conference Monday in Los Angeles.

Sharapova could face a lengthy ban from the International Tennis Federation, possibly ending her season and preventing her from competing for Russia at the Rio Olympics.

"I know that with this, I face consequences," Sharapova said. "I don't want to end my career this way, and I really hope I will be given another chance to play this game."

The 28-year-old Sharapova received notice last week that she tested positive for meldonium, a blood flow-promoting drug she has been taking for 10 years for numerous health issues. Meldonium was banned because it aids oxygen uptake and endurance, and several athletes across international sports have already been caught using it.

Sharapova and all players were notified of the changes in the WADA banned substances list in December. Sharapova claimed she simply missed the change, neglecting to click on the link.

"I take great responsibility and professionalism in my job, and I made a huge mistake," Sharapova said. "I let my fans down. I let the sport down that I've been playing since the age of 4, that I love so deeply."

Meldonium, also known as mildronate, is a Latvian-manufactured drug popular for fighting heart disease in former Soviet Union countries. Meldonium treats ischemia, or lack of blood flow, but can be taken in large doses as a performance-enhancer.

Sharapova said she began taking meldonium for "several health issues I had back in 2006," including a magnesium deficiency, regular influenza, "irregular" heart test results and early indications of diabetes, of which she has a family history.

Sharapova's penalties could range from a multiyear ban to a minimal sanction with no suspension if officials believe she made an honest mistake. WADA President Craig Reedie told The Associated Press that any athlete found guilty of using meldonium would normally face a one-year suspension.

The ITF's anti-doping program announced in a statement that Sharapova will be provisionally suspended starting this weekend while her case is examined. WADA spokesman Ben Nichols said the organization won't comment until the ITF makes a decision.

Sharapova and her attorney, John J. Haggerty, declined to say where Sharapova was put on the drug or where she gets it now, citing the ongoing process with the ITF. Meldonium is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"I understand the drug is sold particularly in Eastern Europe," Reedie told the AP in a telephone interview. "You can almost get it over the counter. For stronger versions, you might need a prescription. There has been a whole rash of these cases since the 1st of January when it appeared on the banned list. This might not be happening if athletes would be taking more care of the things that are on the list."

Reedie said meldonium can be "very strong medicine."

Although she has lived in the U.S. since childhood, Sharapova won a silver medal and served as Russia's flag-bearer at the London Olympics four years ago.

In this Jan. 20, 2016, file photo, Maria Sharapova, of Russia, hits a forehand return to Aliaksandra Sasnovich, of Belarus, during their second-round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Vincent Thian / Associated Press

"I think it's all nonsense," Shamil Tarpshchev, the president of the Russian Tennis Federation, told the state Tass agency. "Athletes take what they're given by physiotherapists and doctors. I think that Sharapova will play at the Olympics anyway. But we have to see how events develop."

Two Ukrainian biathletes and Russian cyclist Eduard Vorganov have tested positive for meldonium since it was banned. Earlier Monday, Russia's Ekaterina Bobrova, a European champion ice dancer, told local media she had tested positive for meldonium.

Sharapova said she took the test shortly before she lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarterfinals on Jan. 26. Sharapova hasn't played since then while recovering from a forearm injury, and she had already dropped out of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, which begins this week.

"She is very organized and she takes her career very seriously," Haggerty told the AP. "When she first started to take this back in 2006, she made sure it was approved, that it wasn't on the banned list, and checked in future years. Because she had taken it for so many years, and it was OK year after year, it just got off the radar.

"When she got the letter, she was shocked, completely stunned. She takes great pride in her integrity and how she approaches the game, and she immediately wanted to come forward and take responsibility."

Sharapova is one of the greatest players of her generation, with 35 career singles titles and over USD$36 million (1.3 billion baht) in career earnings. She is currently No. 7 in the WTA rankings after playing just three tournaments and the Fed Cup final in the last eight months since Wimbledon due to injuries.

Sharapova is thought to be the world's highest-paid female athlete due to endorsement deals and her extensive business ventures, including a high-profile candy line, Sugarpova. Forbes estimated her earnings at USD$29.5 million (1 billion baht) for 2015.

"I am very saddened to hear this news about Maria," WTA CEO Steve Simon said in a statement. "Maria is a leader and I have always known her to be a woman of great integrity. Nevertheless, as Maria acknowledged, it is every player's responsibility to know what they put in their body and to know if it is permissible."

Sharapova became a 17-year-old Wimbledon champion in 2004. She ascended to No. 1 in 2005, won the U.S. Open in 2006 and added the Australian Open in 2008 before completing the career Grand Slam with French Open titles in 2012 and 2014.

But Sharapova has struggled with injuries throughout her career, repeatedly forcing her to take extended breaks from competition. She had surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff, forcing her to change her serving motion, and has struggled with hamstring injuries.

Sharapova was born in Russia before moving to Florida. She lives primarily in Los Angeles now.

The star had a moment of levity when she acknowledged the incorrect assumptions about the reason she had called a news conference.

"If I was going to announce my retirement, it wouldn't be in a downtown Los Angeles hotel with this fairly ugly carpet," she said.

Story: Greg Beacham / Associated Press

SEOUL — When North Korea threatens to nuke its enemies, as it has twice over the last several days, outsiders often have one of two reactions: to dismiss it as yet another example of empty propaganda or to panic.

There are good reasons to do neither. There are many ways the North can retaliate that fall short of war, nuclear or conventional.

North Korea's latest warning came Monday in response to the beginning of annual South Korean-U.S. military drills, and included vows to turn its enemies into "seas in flames and ashes" with nuclear missiles aimed at South Korea, U.S. bases in the Pacific and the U.S. mainland.

Pyongyang always responds furiously to the springtime South Korean-U.S. drills, which it views as an invasion rehearsal. This year's drills are the largest ever, meant to respond to the North's recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing unidentified military sources, reported that the allies will work on drills for precision attacks on North Korean leadership and its nuclear and missile arsenal in the event of war.

The first thing to keep in mind is that Pyongyang's near-term nuclear warnings are mostly bluff; more of a strong deterrent that Pyongyang can use in its propaganda, rather than an actual sign of imminent war.

The North knows that its atomic program, which is still relatively primitive, is outgunned by the thousands of warheads the United States possesses. Pyongyang is very unlikely to do something that could lead to overwhelming retaliation by superior militaries in the United States and South Korea, and therefore end the ruling autocratic Kim dynasty in Pyongyang.

Still, the bellicose bluster is not without danger.

North Korea is so poorly understood by outsiders, even by analysts in the South, that its threats make the already jittery Korean Peninsula even tenser. This general anxiety causes both Korean militaries to bolster their positions and increases the possibility that a misjudgment by North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un, could lead to an escalation of violence should a skirmish erupt. South Korea has vowed to hit back hard on future North Korean attacks, raising the possibility of escalation.

South Korean analysts believe North Korea will follow its nuclear threats with some sort of low-level provocation. It launched short-range projectiles last week, hours after the U.N. Security Council approved new sanctions, and it could fire more missiles or artillery pieces into the sea as a show of force. It also could stage a cyberattack, which South Korea says Pyongyang has done in the past.

Rather than traditional military confrontations, in which it would be heavily outgunned, the North favors covert, surprise attacks that South Korea cannot immediately respond to. In 2010, North Korea was said to have staged a torpedo attack on a South Korean warship and an artillery bombardment on a South Korean island that killed a total of 50 South Koreans. The ship sinking happened when South Korean and U.S. militaries were conducting springtime military drills.

North Korea denies it torpedoed the South Korean ship, though it acknowledges shelling the South's frontline Yeonpyeong Island, its first attack on a civilian area in South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The North's tenaciousness marks another reason the threats should worry.

The exact status of North Korea's nuclear weapons program is a mystery, but a general outside consensus is that North Korea has yet to master the technology needed to build a nuclear-armed missile that can directly attack the U.S. mainland.

Still, after four rounds of tests since 2006, the North is thought to have a handful of rudimentary nuclear bombs. Some analysts think it can arm shorter-range missiles with warheads. And even a crude nuclear weapon could be delivered by other means, such as a plane.

The country, one of the world's poorest, has also successfully sent satellites into orbit twice, rocket launches that outsiders say were covers for tests of banned technology used in long-range missile firing. Seoul defense officials believe North Korea doesn't yet have a workable re-entry vehicle necessary to get a warhead safely back into the Earth's atmosphere; this is something not tested in satellite launches.

Analysts, however, believe it's only a matter of time before North Korea gets a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile because its scientists will continue to explode new, advanced atomic devices, and send up rockets, to improve their designs and technologies.

By Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press

JAKARTA — Indonesia's anti-graft commission on Monday said government agencies have agreed on a plan to combat corruption in the forestry industry that costs the state billions of dollars in lost revenue and is behind fires that pollute Southeast Asia.

The attempt to address a longstanding crisis in the management and conservation of Indonesia's prized tropical forests comes after a study by the anti-corruption commission estimated that the commercial value of undeclared logging was USD$60.7 billion to USD$81.4 billion (2.15 trillion baht to 2.86 trillion) baht) between 2003 and 2014. The study released in October estimated the government's loss of revenue from royalties at USD$6.5 billion to USD$9 billion over the same period.

Dian Patria, head of corruption prevention for natural resources at the Corruption Eradication Commission, said top officials from other ministries and agencies have given their backing to the plan.

Protecting extensive tropical forests that are among the largest in the world is a key issue for Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Unreported timber production deprives the Indonesian government of revenue it could use to improve infrastructure and services for its still largely poor population of more than 250 million.

Annual burning of forests and peatland in Sumatra and Kalimantan to clear land for palm oil plantations and other agriculture is a regular bane for Malaysia, Singapore, southern Thailand and parts of Indonesia. The fires produce a smoky haze that is a health hazard, often forcing people indoors and shutting down schools and airports.

Monica Tanuhandaru, the executive director of Kemitraan, which lobbies for clean government and business, said the plan is significant but will require continual support from President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to be fully implemented.

The plan developed by the anti-corruption commission, along with Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Ministry of Finance, Supreme Audit Agency, and financial regulatory agencies, leans heavily on technology to build an accurate picture of where illegal deforestation and conversion of peatland into farmland is occurring.

The anti-corruption commission hopes use of Landsat satellites, drones and LIDAR pulsed laser-based mapping will identify land clearing on a close to real-time basis. That will provide the information for prosecuting companies that log more than they declare.

According to the report released in October, official statistics on timber production capture less than a quarter of what is cut down.

The plan also requires the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to disclose more information about its monitoring efforts. For the first time, it would issue quarterly reports on where deforestation and peatland conversion has occurred and also detail what law enforcement actions it has taken.

Story: Stephen Wright / Associated Press

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TOKYO — A Tokyo zoo said Monday it will work on improving the living conditions for its 69-year-old elephant after an animal welfare expert recommended simple additions such as infrared heaters and new toys instead of moving her to a sanctuary.

"The zoo has done a lot of good," said Carol Buckley, who was invited to the zoo by the "Help Hanako" campaign that sought to improve the elephant's situation or move it to a Thai sanctuary.

Hanako was among the healthiest elephants, for her age, she has ever seen, she added. Their usual lifespan is about 70 years.

Inokashira Park Zoo has said moving Hanako would be too stressful. A gift from Thailand in 1949, Hanako, or "flower child," has lived in a zoo since she was 2.

Buckley said Hanako is happy and loves her zookeepers. Instead of moving her, Buckley recommends infrared heaters and rubber mats to make her small concrete pen more livable. She suggested playing music and adding more toys, such as frozen fruit inside a tire. Tires and a tube are Hanako's favorite toys now.

Buckley, an American who founded an animal sanctuary and has worked with other captive elephants, said renovating or enlarging Hanako's pen would require noisy construction that might stress the animal. And introducing other elephants and even foliage could bewilder Hanako.

Zoo Curator Hidemasa Hori, who met with Buckley during her visit, said the zoo will work on making the "environmental enrichment" changes, although some bureaucratic procedures would be required. The city of Tokyo runs the zoo.

Ulara Nakagawa, whose blog inspired the campaign, says funds can be raised to help make changes for Hanako.

It was unclear whether those who were behind the petition drive to move Hanako out of the zoo would be convinced by Buckley's findings.

Buckley noted animal activists need to be educated, regardless of their good intentions.

"You think she should be put on a plane or a boat and go to Thailand? What are you thinking?" she said.

Buckley noted Hanako was clearly bored and needs more toys as well as more time with the zookeepers.

"When her keepers let her in the barn, she just lit up. Her eyes got big, and her body relaxed, and she came in and her ears were flapping," she said. "She came right over to the bars where they were and solicited their petting the entire time and didn't stop talking."

In this Jan. 27, 2016, file photo, Hanako the elephant stands in her pen at Inokashira Park Zoo on the outskirts of Tokyo. Photo: Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press

Hori said the zoo was open to Buckley's ideas. He was happy the meeting had not been confrontational and was hopeful some of the easier changes might be in the works as early as Hanako's birthday party later this month.

"They agreed Hanako should not be moved," he said in a telephone interview, acknowledging that perhaps the zookeepers had too readily assumed Hanako did not want change. "This is just a beginning."

Story: Yuri Kageyama / Associated Press

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Petition Calls for Japan's Oldest Elephant to Return to Thailand