Pyeongchang, South Korea  - Ole Einar Bjoerndalen on Sunday made history as he won the men's pursuit at the biathlon world championship in Pyeongchang - equalling the world record of 86 World Cup wins in the process.

There was, however, some doubt whether the results would stand as the race directors launched an investigation after Bjoerndalen and several others left the track for a while at the beginning of the race.

In the women's pursuit race, Sweden's Helena Jonsson stunned the favoured Germans taking the gold from Kati Wilhelm after a brilliant shooting display.

Pyeongchang, South Korea  - The world biathlon federation (IBU) announced on Sunday that Russian relay world champion Dmitry Yaroshenko failed a doping test in Oberhof in early January.

The IBU said that he has waived a B sample analysis and they now considered it to be a positive doping case.

"This case will be handed over to the IBU Doping Hearing as soon as IBU has received the complete documentation package from the laboratory," the IBU said.

This case will then be decided by the IBU Doping Hearing Panel.

Yaroshenko, who has now failed three doping tests this season, is one of three Russian biathletes who left the world championships before the start of the competition after testing positive.

Pyeongchang, South Korea  - Helena Jonsson on Sunday claimed the biathlon world championship gold in the women's pursuit after a near-flawless display on the shooting range in Pyeongchang.

The Swede stunned the favoured Germans in windy conditions missing just twice on the first shooting, but then hitting all the remaining targets, to move past Germany's Kati Wilhelm and win in a time of 34 minutes 12.3 seconds.

Wilhelm was 18.3 seconds behind.

Seoul - North Korea has started assembling a Taepodong-2 missile for a test at a missile launch base on the communist state's east coast, South Korean news reports said Friday.

Special transporters brought several parts of a missile to the Musudan-ri base, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, quoting government sources. It is believed that the first and second stage of the missile are being readied for test-firing by the end of this month at the earliest.

Pyeongchang, South Korea - Three Russian stars have failed doping tests and the world championship opening ceremony fell victim to bad weather on a black Friday for the sport of biathlon.

The International Biathlon Union (IBU) said that Ekaterina Iourieva and Dmitri Yaroshenko each failed two tests at the World Cup season-opener in Ostersund, Sweden, in early December. Albina Akhatova submitted one positive sample there as IBU boss Anders Besseberg spoke of organized doping.

Seoul  - South Korea's central bank on Thursday cut interest rates for the sixth time in four months to 2 per cent, a new record low, as the country heads towards recession.

The Bank of Korea cut its base rate by 0.5 percentage points to 2 per cent.

Since October, the rate was slashed by 325 basis points, but bank Governor Lee Seong Tae did not rule out further cuts to counter the recession threatening the country for the first time in 11 years.