Bucks trample travel-sick Lakers (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? The Milwaukee Bucks, missing key starters, stunned the travel-sick Los Angeles Lakers 100-89 Saturday, helped by a herculean effort from Drew Gooden.

The Bucks (8-11) were without leading rebounder Andrew Bogut, who has a broken ankle, while second top scorer Stephen Jackson sat out the game with suspension.

Gooden filled the void with 23 points - 18 coming in the second half - and eight rebounds, Mike Dunleavy and Ersan Ilyasova scoring 15 points each coming off the bench.

The loss dropped Los Angeles (11-9) to a woeful 1-7 on the road.

Gooden hit a three pointer late in the first quarter to spark a 17-0 Milwaukee run that extended into the second quarter to turn a six-point deficit into an 11-point lead at 34-23.

"I've been working on that day-in and day-out, and the best thing I like about it is coach (Scott Skiles) is giving me the confidence to shoot it," Gooden told reporters.

"I have to thank my coach and my teammates for having the faith in me shooting that three, and it is helping our offense."

Outside of a brief Lakers surge near the end of the third quarter that trimmed the Bucks lead to three points, Milwaukee maintained a comfortable grip on the lead.

Dunleavy scored 10 points in the first half but went silent in the second half until scoring five points in a 40-second span in the final two minutes of the game.

That spurt helped push the Bucks' lead back to an insurmountable 11 points.

"As so often happens, they made a little run at us and we had to make some big shots and big plays - and tonight we made them," said Skiles.

Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with a near triple double, including 27 points, nine assists and eight rebounds, while the Bucks limited Andrew Bynum to 15 points.

Spaniard Pau Gasol grabbed 15 rebounds but scored just 12 points.

"Before the game, the question was, 'How are we going to guard Bynum and Gasol?' And I kept saying they've got to guard us also," said Skiles.

"We put them in as many pick-and-roll situations as possible. We made (Lakers coach) Mike Brown have to switch the coverage numerous times.

"They got a little confused out there on certain occasions and it led to open jump shots or we made a play to the open man."

Brown lamented his team's poor play away from home

"I just hope that we don't need a home crowd to get us juiced, to play the right way," he said. "We're not bringing it mentally nor physically when we're playing on the road."

(Reporting by Mike Mouat in Windsor, Ontario. Editing by Alastair Himmer)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/sp_nm/us_nba_nuggets

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Apollo 1: the fire that shocked NASA

The Apollo 1 Command Module after the fire that claimed the lives of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Credit: NASA.

NASA?s Apollo program began with one of the worst disasters the organization has ever faced. A routine prelaunch test turned fatal when a fire ripped through the spacecraft?s crew cabin killing all three astronauts. Today marks the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire, a tragic and preventable accident. There were warning signs, similar accidents that had claimed lives both in the United States and abroad. The Apollo 1 crew could have been saved from a gruesome death.

Plugs Out

L-R: Roger Chaffee, Ed White, and Gud Grissom training for their Apollo 1 flight. Credit: NASA.

The commander for Apollo 1 was Gus Grissom, one of the original Mercury astronauts whose first spaceflight was marred by his capsule?s sinking after splashdown. He flew again in Gemini in a spacecraft he named ?Molly Brown.? Senior pilot on the Apollo 1 crew was Ed White, a Gemini veteran who made America?s first spacewalk in 1965. Rounding out the crew was pilot Roger Chaffee, a talented rookie more than capable of holding his own with his experienced crew mates. He was a notoriously good guy who took pains to thank everyone for their contributions to Apollo right down to the janitors.

By the end of January 1967, the crew was going through their final prelaunch tests; barring some major setback, they would make the first manned Apollo flight on February 21. One routine test NASA had done since Mercury was the ?plugs out? test, a final check of the spacecraft?s systems.

The spacecraft - Command Module 12 - arrives at the Kennedy Spaceflight Centre clearly destined for Apollo 1. Credit: NASA.

The spacecraft was fully assembled and stacked on top of its unfuelled Saturn IB launch vehicle on pad 34. The umbilical power cords that usually supplied power were removed ? the plugs were out ? and the spacecraft switched over to battery power. The cabin was pressurized with 16.7 pounds per square inch (psi) of 100 percent oxygen, a pressure slightly greater than one atmosphere. With everything just as it would be on February 21, the crew went through a full simulation of countdown and launch.

A full launch-day staff of engineers in mission control also went through the simulation. The White Room, the room through which the astronauts entered the spacecraft, remained pressed next to the vehicle. A crew of engineers monitored the spacecraft and were just feet away from the astronauts.

Cosmonaut Bondarenko. Credit: spacefacts.de

Grissom, White, and Chaffee suited up and entered the Apollo 1 command module at 1pm and hooked into the spacecraft?s oxygen and communications systems. For the next five and a half hours, the test proceeded with only minor interruptions. Grissom?s complaint of a smell like sour buttermilk in the oxygen circulating through his suit was resolved after a short hold, and a high oxygen flow through the astronauts suits tripped an alarm. But these were minor problems and didn?t raise any red flags in mission control.

The real problem was communication. Static made it impossible for the crew and mission control to hear one another. An increasingly frustrated Grissom began to question how they were expected to get to the Moon if they couldn?t talk between a few buildings.

The Apollo 1 official crew portrait. L-R: Ed White, Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee. Credit: NASA.

Just after 6:31 that evening, the routine test took a turn. Engineers in mission control saw an increase in oxygen flow and pressure inside the cabin. The telemetry was accompanied by a garbled transmission that sounded like ?fire.? The official record reflects the communications problem. The transmission was unclear, but the panic was obvious as an astronaut yelled something like ?they?re fighting a bad fire ? let?s get out. Open ?er up? or ?we?ve got a bad fire ? let?s get out. We?re burning up.? The static made it impossible to hear the exact words or even distinguish who was speaking.

But flames visible through the command module?s small porthole window left no doubt about what the crew had said. Engineers in the White Room tried to get the hatch open but couldn?t. It was an inward opening design, and neither engineers outside the spacecraft nor the astronauts inside were strong enough to force it open. The men in mission control watched helplessly as the scene played out on the live video feed.

The Apollo 1 crew in a less formal setting. L-R: Gus Grissom, Ed White, Roger Chaffee. Credit: NASA.

Just three seconds after the crew?s garbled report of a fire, the pressure inside the cabin became so great that the hull ruptured. Men wrestling with the hatch were thrown across the room as flames and smoke spilled into the White Room. Many continued to fight their way towards the spacecraft but were forced to retreat as the smoke grew too thick to see through. In mission control, the telemetry and voice communication from Apollo 1 went completely silent.

An hour and a half later, firemen and emergency personnel succeeded in removing the bodies; Ed White was turned around on his couch reaching for the hatch. Over the next two months, the spacecraft was disassembled piece by piece in an attempt to isolate the cause of the fire. The full investigation lasted a year.

The Apollo 1 crew floats around during water egress training. Credit: NASA.

The Apollo 1 accident review board determined that a wire over the piping from the urine collection system had arced. The fire started below the crew?s feet, so from their supine positions on their couches they wouldn?t have seen it in time to react. Everything in the cabin had been soaking in pure oxygen for hours, and flammable material near the wire caught fire immediately. From there, it took ten seconds for spacecraft to fill with flames.

The crew?s official cause of death was asphyxiation from smoke inhalation. Once their oxygen hoses were severed they began breathing in toxic gases. All three astronauts died in less than a minute. Many who had tried to save them were treated for smoke inhalation.

The Chamber of Silence

Astronaut Frank Borman's official Gemini era portrait. Borman was the astronaut's representative on the Apollo 1 accident review board. Credit: NASA.

The fire that claimed the lives of Grissom, White, and Chaffee is eerily similar to one that killed cosmonaut Valentin Bondarenko in 1961. Bondarenko was known to his colleagues as a congenial and giving man with great athletic prowess who worked tirelessly to prove he deserved the honour of flying in space.

Part of the cosmonauts? training was done in an isolation chamber designed to mimic the mental stresses spaceflight. The room, which the men called the Chamber of Silence, was spartan to say the least. It was furnished with a steel bed, a wooden table, a seat identical to what they would have in the Vostok capsule, minimal toilet facilities, an open-coil hot plate for warming meals, and a limited amount of water for washing and cooking. The chamber was pressurized to mimic the capsule?s environment in space. In this case, the oxygen concentration was 68 percent.

Ed White III touches his father's name on the Apollo 1 panel of the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Centre visitor complex. Credit: NASA.

During the test, cosmonauts would exercise mental agility with memory games using a wall chart with coloured squares. They would keep busy by reading or colouring ? subjects were supplied with some leisure material. The silence was frequently interrupted by classical music to see how the subjects reacted to a pleasurable shock. Aside from these distractions, sensory deprivation inside the chamber was absolute. The room was mounted on thick rubber shock absorbers that muffled any vibrations from movement outside, and the 16-inch thick walls absorbed any sound. The cosmonauts communicated with doctors by lights. A light told the subject to apply medical sensors to his body, and a light outside the chamber signaled to doctors that they could begin their tests. A different light would signal the end of the isolation test.

The environment was designed to challenge the cosmonauts? mental stability and adaptability. But the hardest part was that no subject knew beforehand how long his test would last. It could run anywhere from a few hours to weeks.

The Apollo 1 crew walks across the gantry before entering the spacecraft on January 27. Credit: NASA.

Bondarenko was the 17th cosmonaut to go into the Chamber of Silence and on March 23, his ten day test came to an end. A light signaled that technicians outside had started depressurizing the chamber to match the atmosphere outside. It was a routine part of the test, but this time it was interrupted by a fire alarm.

While he waited to leave the chamber, Bondarenko removed his biomedical sensors and wiped the adhesive off with rubbing alcohol on a cotton pad. In his haste to leave, and exhibiting the lack of concentration expected after ten days of mental testing, he didn?t look where he threw the pad. It landed on the hot plate?s coil. Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich theorized that he had been standing next to it at the time. Many subjects left the small heater on all the time to warm up the chilly room.

A dummy rides in a Vostok capsule seat. Credit: Associated Press.

A fire sparked and spread in an instant; everything, including Bondarenko, was saturated with a high concentration of oxygen. Technicians wrenched the door open and exposed the chamber to air, killing the fire instantly, but the damage was done. Doctors pulled a huddled and severely burnt Bondarenko from the room. ?It?s my fault,? he whispered when doctors reached him, ?I?m so sorry? no one else is to blame.? The severity of the fire was immediately obvious. Bondarenko?s wool clothes had melted onto his body and the skin underneath had burned away. His hair had caught fire. His eyes were swollen and melted shut.

In Moscow, surgeon and traumatologist Vladimir Julievich Golyakhovsky got a frantic call at his office; the severely burned patient was on his way. Ten minutes later, a team of men in military uniforms arrived carrying the blanket-wrapped cosmonaut. They were accompanied, Golyakhovsky later recalled, by an overwhelming smell of burnt flesh.

The damage to the Apollo 1 crew cabin, after the bodies were removed and before the disassembly began. Credit: NASA.

Bondarenko pleaded for something ?to kill the pain.? Golyakhovsky obliged and gave the patient a shot of morphine in the soles of his feet. It was the one unscathed part of his body thanks to his heavy boots, and the only place the doctor could find a vein. There was nothing he could do to save the man?s life. Bondarenko died the next morning. The official cause was shock and severe burns.

Lessons at Home

Parallels between the Apollo 1 crew?s and Bondarenko?s deaths are obvious, but how each space agency dealt with the deaths was very different. Grissom, White, and Chaffee were each given very public funerals in accordance with their respective military traditions. Bondarenko?s death was kept secret, his identity covered by a pseudonym. Not until 1986 did the world hear the true story of his death. This has bred speculation that had the Soviet system been more open, NASA would have know about the dangers of training in a pressurized pure oxygen environment and could have saved the Apollo 1 crew. Former cosmonaut Alexei Leonov even suggested that the CIA knew about Bondarenko since the US had pierced the Iron Curtain before the accident.

But this is unlikely. And besides, NASA wouldn?t need to look to the Soviet Union to know the dangers of testing in a pressurized oxygen environment. There were enough incidents in the US to make the danger very clear. Four oxygen fires in the five years before the Apollo 1 accident were proof enough.

The Apollo 1 spacecraft nearing the end of the disassembly. Sometime towards the end of March, 1967. Credit: NASA.

On September 9, 1962, a fire broke out in a simulated spacecraft cabin at Brooks Air Force Base. The cabin was pressurized to 5psi with pure oxygen. Both subjects were protected by pressure suits. Neither sustained burns, but both were treated for smoke inhalation.

Two months later on November 16, four men had been inside the US Navy?s Air Crew Equipment Laboratory for 17 days in an environment pressurized to 5psi of 100 percent oxygen when an exposed wire arced and started a fire. It spread rapidly over the men?s clothing and hands for 40 seconds before they were rescued. All were treated for severe burns, and this was the only instance in which the source of the fire was identified.

Two Navy divers were killed on February 16, 1965 in a test of the Navy?s Experimental Diving Unit, which was pressurized to 55.6psi to mimic conditions at a depth of 92 feet. It was a multi-gas environment: 28 percent oxygen, 36 percent nitrogen, and 36 percent helium. Somehow, the carbon dioxide scrubbers that were designed to remove the toxic gas from the air caught fire. Pressure inside the chamber rose making it impossible for technicians outside to open the door and remove the men.

Gus Grissom's funeral procession. Credit: NASA.

A 1966 oxygen environment fire came frighteningly close to anticipating the Apollo 1 accident. A fire broke out during an unmanned qualification test of the Apollo Environmental Control System on April 28. The cabin was pressurized to 5psi of 100 percent oxygen, just like the spacecraft would be in flight. The fire was blamed on a commercial grade strip heater inside the cabin and the incident was consequently dismissed. The commercial material would not be onboard any manned flights. The board that investigated the accident made no mention of the hazardous environment.

A Lack of Imagination

The Apollo 1 mission patch. Credit: NASA.

These accidents weren?t secret. NASA knew the dangers of a pressurized oxygen environment, which has prompted conspiracy theorists to suggest that the space agency intentionally put the Apollo 1 crew in danger. But this was hardly the case. In truth, no one at NASA gave much thought to a fire in the spacecraft.

In the early 1960s when Apollo was in its preliminary stages, a dual gas system (likely oxygen and nitrogen) was proposed for the crew cabin. This would have been safer in the event of fire, but more difficult overall. A mixed gas environment requires more piping and wiring, which in turn adds weight. Pure oxygen was simpler, lighter, and was already familiar to NASA. The dual-gas idea was scratched.

NASA did address the possibility of a fire in the spacecraft, but only developed procedures for an event in space when the nearest fire station was 180 miles away. Apollo, like Mercury and Gemini, had no specific fire fighting system on board. The 5psi of oxygen in space was considered too thin to feed a significant fire. Anything that could spark in that environment could be taken care of with a few well aimed blasts from the astronauts? water pistol.

Grissom's, White's, and Chaffee's death are the cover story of Life Magazine's February 10 issue. Credit: Life.

There was no procedure for a fire on the ground. With so many engineers on hand for every test, it was assumed that the astronauts would safe so long as fire extinguishers were nearby. But more importantly in the case of Apollo 1 is the plugs out test?s status: it wasn?t classified as dangerous.

Frank Borman, a Gemini veteran who would go to the Moon on Apollo 8, served as the astronaut?s representative to the Apollo 1 accident investigation board. He made this point about the plugs out test?s status abundantly clear. ?I don?t believe that any of us recognized that the test conditions for this test were hazardous,? he said on record. Without fuel in the launch vehicle and all the pyrotechnic bolts unarmed, no one imagined a fire could start let alone thrive. Borman himself hadn?t thought twice when he went through the plugs out test before his Gemini 7 mission. He was confident in NASA and its engineers and stated on record that he would have gone through the Apollo 1 test had he been on the crew.

The Apollo 1 crew expressed their concerns over the Apollo spacecraft in a joke crew portrait. They said a little prayer, and gave the picture to the manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office Joe Shea in 1966. Credit: NASA.

Borman alluded to the Apollo 1 crew?s shared confidence. There had been problems with Apollo?w development, and every astronaut had the right to refuse to enter a spacecraft. ?Although there are sometimes romantic silk-scarf attitudes attributed to this type of business, in the final analysis we are professionals and will accept risk but not undue risks,? explained Borman. The Apollo 1 crew felt the dangers were minimal.

With that statement, Borman identified what he considered the crux of the problem and the real reason, however indirect, behind the death of the crew. ?We did not think,? he said, ?and this is a failing on my part and on everyone associated with us; we did not recognize the fact that we had the three essentials, an ignition source, extensive fuel and, of course, we knew we had oxygen.?

A plaque commemorating the Apollo 1 crew on what's left of launch pad 34. Credit: Christopher K. Davis (via Wikipedia).

Gus Grissom serendipitously wrote his memoirs during the Gemini program. He addresses the inherent risk of spaceflight in the book?s final passage. ?There will be risks, as there are in any experimental program, and sooner or later, inevitably, we?re going to run head-on into the law of averages and lose somebody. I hope this never happens? but if it does, I hope the American people won?t feel it?s too high a price to pay for our space program. None of us was ordered into manned spaceflight. We flew with the knowledge that if something really went wrong up there, there wasn?t the slightest hope of rescue. We could do it because we had complete confidence in the scientists and engineers who designed and built our spacecraft and operated our Mission Control Centre? Now for the moon.?

Though tragic, their deaths were not in vain. The substantial redesigns made to the Apollo command module after the fire yielded a safer and more capable spacecraft that played no small role in NASA reaching the moon before the end of the decade. It is a fitting tribute to the crew that the plaque on the pad where they perished reads ?ad astra per aspera? ? a rough road to the stars.

Suggested Reading:

- Official Apollo 1 site:?http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollo204/

- Colin Burgess and Rex Hall. The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team. 2009.

- Gus Grissom. Gemini. 1968.

- Apollo 204 Accident. Report of the Committee on Aeronautical and Space Science, United States. 1968. Available online:?http://klabs.org/richcontent/Reports/Failure_Reports/as-204/senate_956/index.htm

- Report of the Apollo 204 Review Board to the Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 1968. Available online:?http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollo204/content.html

- Hearings Before the Subcommittee on NASA Oversight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics. 1967.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=0eace55ab634dec7f49ebc5b7e406a36

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LMFAO Joining Madonna At Super Bowl?

Will.i.am claims party rockers LMFAO will perform with Madonna at Super Bowl.
By Gil Kaufman

LMFAO
Photo: Steven Lawton/ FilmMagic

It's a good thing the Super Bowl provides its halftime performer with the biggest platform in television, because according to the latest rumors Madonna is going to need a seriously massive stage to hold all her guests at the February 5 game.

Following reports that Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. as well as "The Voice" coach Cee Lo Green
 may make appearances comes news that LMFAO could be called off the bench also.

A year after his group, the on-hiatus Black Eyed Peas, played the big game,
 will.i.am told English radio station Capital FM that his party rocking homies will be in the mix. "I'm going to the Super Bowl this year to see my group LMFAO perform with Madonna," he said. "Check that out, Will.i.am Music Group is pretty freaking two for two! One year the Super Bowl, the next year another group part of the Super Bowl in collaboration with Madonna. That's still happening."

According to sources, the Madonna asked Green to perform with her at the showdown in Indianapolis between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, which is traditionally the most-watched TV event of the year. "The Insider" reports that he's been flying to New York to rehearse with the pop icon. The sources add that he will contribute his signature flair to some of her classic tunes.

The pairing would make sense given that the new season of "The Voice" premieres right after the Super Bowl next month. MTV News caught up with the Queen of Pop at her "W.E." premiere earlier this week in New York, and the singer only had one tease about the Super Bowl gig. "I am not saying 'Yes,' and I am not saying 'No,' " she replied when asked whether Minaj and M.I.A. would take the stage with her. She added, "Pom poms. That's all I can tell you."

As if the pom poms and all the alleged guests aren't enough, the halftime show will be "imagined" by trippy Canadian circus troupe Cirque du Soleil and Madonna's longtime choreographer and creative director Jamie King. According to reports, the set list could include Madonna's new single, "Give Me All Your Luvin," as well as such classics as "Ray of Light," "Vogue" and "Music."

In addition to her Super Bowl performance, Madonna's fans are awaiting the release of her next studio album, M.D.N.A., out later this year.

Related Artists

• Lmfao
• Madonna

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678014/lmfao-madonna-super-bowl-halftime.jhtml

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Man's lover inspects wife's mess on 'Hoarding'

By Ree Hines

Every episode of TLC's "Hoarding: Buried Alive" features jaw-dropping moments, but usually those moments are related to the mess at hand ? or whatever mass amount of creepy crawlies calls that mess home. Not so on the next installment of the clutter-filled show.

No, a sneak peek of the action to come reveals that, while Janet and Herv have quite the cobweb covered hoard, their secret shocker is the other woman who comes by to inspect it.

"About three years ago, Herv started a relationship with Wendy," Janet revealed. "He said it was just sex and it didn't mean anything. I let it go on."

To make matters worse, Wendy is Janet's friend, or maybe frenemy.

"I felt like I was just keeping an enemy close as a friend," Janet explained. "But she was getting what she wanted by having him as a sexual partner. It just hurt me terribly."

And now, evidently, what Wendy wants -- in addition to Herv -- is to get a gander at the state of Janet and Herv's home, even though it disturbs Janet.

It's easy to see why.

"You sleep on this?" Wendy asked as she stood on the couple's bed. "You do anything else on it?"

Catch the rest of the messy relationship story when "Hoarding: Buried Alive" airs Sunday night at 9 p.m. on TLC.

Which do you think will call for a bigger clean-up, the house or the relationship? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

?

Also in The Clicker:

Source: http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10252643-mans-mistress-inspects-his-wifes-mess-on-hoarding

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Nokia plans board of directors refresh, chairman to step down

Following on from today's mixed bag of Nokia financials, the Espoo-based company will see some changes on its directorial board, after its Annual General Meeting in a few months. As forecast last year, non-executive chairman Jorma Ollila joined Nokia in 1985 and has been on the board through Nokia's explosive growth into the world's biggest handset manufacturer -- and its more recent troubles. He will leave the board alongside more recent members Bengt Holmström and Per Karlsson, while existing board memeber Risto Siilasmaa is currently pegged to take the helm once the new board of directors is formed. New candidates earmarked for the board include Bruce Brown, of Procter and Gamble, Mårten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems and independent corporate advisor Elizabeth Nelson. The whole Nokia nitty-gritty awaits at the source below.

Continue reading Nokia plans board of directors refresh, chairman to step down

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Slave port unearthed in Brazil

The Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janerio was the busiest of all slave ports in the Americas and has been buried for almost two centuries.

? A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

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Not far from here at least 500,000 Africans took their first steps into slavery in colonial Brazil, which took in far more slaves than the United States and where now half of its 200 million citizens claim African descent.

The ?Cais do Valongo? ? the Valongo Wharf ? was the busiest of all slave ports in the Americas and has been buried for almost two centuries under subsequent infrastructure projects and dirt.

That is, until developers seeking to turn Rio?s shabby port neighborhood into a posh tourist center allowed teams of archaeologists to check out what was being unearthed.

?We knew we had found the wharf,? says archaeologist Tania Andrade Lima, showing a ramp made up of knobbly, uneven stones used by slaves. It lay beneath a layer of smoother cobblestones from a dock installed later for the arrival of a Portuguese royal.

Ms. Lima and other community leaders are creating a walking tour that will include the wharf, a nearby cemetery for Africans who died soon after their arrival, and a holding pen called the ?Lazareto,? derived from Jesus? parable about a beggar named Lazarus, where newly arrived Africans were checked for diseases.

The wharf alone is nearly 22,000 square feet. ?This gives a dimension to how huge the influx of slaves was,? says Lima.

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Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/C8HzhyUXmb0/Slave-port-unearthed-in-Brazil

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AP Interview: Haitian leader could pardon Duvalier (AP)

DAVOS, Switzerland ? Haiti's president suggested Thursday that he might pardon former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, saying reconciliation for his nation is more important than making the man known as "Baby Doc" pay for his bloody rule.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Michel Martelly pledged to respect the independence of the judge expected to rule within days whether Duvalier should face trial on corruption and human rights violations. Duvalier was driven into exile in 1986 and returned to Haiti a year ago.

But Martelly suggested he has little appetite for a trial that could be explosive for the Caribbean nation, recovering from decades of political turmoil and a devastating earthquake two years ago.

"My way of thinking is to create a situation where we rally everyone together and create peace and pardon people, to not forget about the past ? because we need to learn from it ? but to mainly think about the future," he said, adding: "You cannot forget those who suffered in that time, but I do believe that we need that reconciliation in Haiti."

Duvalier assumed power in 1971 at age 19 following the death of his notorious father, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier. The two presided over a dark period in which their private militia of thugs in sunglasses, known as the Tonton Macoute, tortured and killed opponents. The younger Duvalier has been accused of stealing millions of dollars from public funds; he denies the accusations.

Martelly said any decision on a possible pardon would come only with "a consensus among all leaders, all political parties."

Martelly also pledged to build a new Haitian security force to maintain order without the U.N. peacekeepers ? about 11,000 foreign military and police officers have patrolled Haiti since 2004. They have recently come under fire for allegations of sexual abuse and suspicion of being the source of a cholera outbreak that has killed nearly 7,000 people and sickened a half-million.

The president refused to blame the United Nations for the problems, saying individual troops should be held accountable for their own misdeeds. But he said he will replace the peacekeepers with a Haitian security force that will create jobs for 3,000-5,000 Haitian youths and help Haiti become self-sustaining.

Martelly said he'll need foreign cooperation to fund and train the security force, but pledged to have it at least partially in place by the end of his term in 2016. He has run into opposition from donor countries that criticized earlier pledges to build a new Haitian army ? disbanded in disgrace in 1995 ? and he acknowledged Thursday that a new army wasn't realistic.

He refused to put a time frame on an exit for the peacekeepers.

"We are working with them to establish a calendar where they can retreat," he said. "I don't want to force the peacekeeping nations to feel like I'm pushing them out."

The Haitian president spoke on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of global power brokers at the Swiss ski resort of Davos, where he came to meet with potential investors.

Martelly, a popular musician sworn in as president in May, said he has already provided new homes to thousands of earthquake refugees, sent nearly 1 million more children to free schools and made progress on rebuilding the airport and the ports. Investment, he said, is booming.

His main priority, he said, is to create jobs so Haiti can support itself without being dependent on foreign aid.

"The Haiti that has been waiting for help and not moving no longer exists," he said. "Enough handouts; we need hands up. Enough aid; we need trade."

Part of that mission will involve helping Haitians to take over the earthquake reconstruction work, which has been dominated by foreigners working for non-governmental organizations.

"When I came in, Haiti was not governed by Haitians anymore. Probably mostly by NGOs. And that has done what to Haiti? It has weakened our institutions," he said. "We need to focus on the plan that Haiti has today. We have a plan. When we want to go somewhere we are going to have them accompany us. ... We need to organize and better use that aid.

A key part of that will be drawing home well-educated Haitians who have abandoned their country amid corruption and lack of opportunity. This week the foreign affairs minister in Paris appealed to Haitians abroad to return.

"The diaspora will be put back to work. We need them," Martelly said.

But he said he wouldn't be offering them specific incentives: "It's not we have anything to offer. They need to have something to offer too. They need to come back and understand that Haiti is their country. By going away..." He broke off and sighed.

"Don't they always come back?"

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_eu/eu_davos_forum_haiti

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The Dark Art of the Political Smear (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

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Keeping brain sharp may ward off Alzheimer's protein (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) ? People who challenge their brains throughout their lifetimes -- through reading, writing and playing games -- are less likely to develop protein deposits in the brain linked with Alzheimer's, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Prior studies have suggested that people who are well educated and stay mentally active build up brain reserves that allow them to stay sharp even if deposits of the destructive protein called beta amyloid form in the brain.

But the latest study, based on brain-imaging research, suggests that people who stay mentally engaged beginning in childhood and remain so throughout their lives actually develop fewer amyloid plaques.

"We're not talking about the brain's response to amyloid. We're talking about the actual accumulation of amyloid," Dr. William Jagust of the University of California, Berkeley, whose study appears in the Archives of Neurology, said in an interview. "It's a brand new finding."

While small, the study also shows that starting brain-stimulating activities early enough might offer a way to prevent Alzheimer's-related plaques from building up in the brain.

Currently, there are no drugs that can prevent Alzheimer's disease, which scientists now think begins 10 to 15 years before memory problems set in.

Alzheimer's Disease International estimates there are now 36 million people with the disease worldwide. As the population ages, that number will increase to 66 million by 2030, and to 115 million by 2050.

Last week, the U.S. government released draft recommendations for a national Alzheimer's plan that calls for finding effective treatments or prevention strategies by 2025.

The new study involved the use of an imaging agent known as Pittsburgh Compound B or PiB, which works with positron emission tomography, or PET scanners. This chemical sticks to and highlights deposits of beta amyloid.

"Beta amyloid is the protein that many people feel may be the initiating factor in Alzheimer's disease. It is the protein that is in the plaques of the brains of people with Alzheimer's," Jagust said.

STARTING CROSSWORD PUZZLES LATE WON'T HELP

The researchers studied 65 healthy, cognitively normal people aged 60 and older. Study participants were asked a battery of questions about how mentally active they had been during different periods of their lives starting at age 6. The questions included whether they had read newspapers, went to the library, wrote letters or e-mails and played games.

They also underwent extensive testing to assess their memory and thinking skills and their brains were scanned using the new tracer to look for amyloid deposits in the brain.

The team compared the brain scans with those of 10 Alzheimer's patients and 11 healthy people in their 20s.

They found that people who had been the most mentally active had lower levels of beta amyloid than others who had been less mentally active.

People in the study who had recently taken up crosswords and other mental exercises did not appear to see much benefit.

"What our data suggests is that a whole lifetime of engaging in these activities has a bigger effect than being cognitively active just in older age," said Susan Landau, another Berkeley researcher who worked on the study.

She said amyloid probably starts accumulating many years before symptoms appear, so by the time memory problems start, there is little that can be done. "The time for intervention may be much sooner," she said in a statement.

One weakness is that the study relies on people's memory of their mental activities, Jagust said.

He said staying mentally engaged may make the brain more efficient, which could have a protective effect, but that is still not clear.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/seniors/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/hl_nm/us_alzheimers

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Verizon posts $2B 4Q loss on pension adjustment

NEW YORK (AP) ? Verizon paid dearly to put iPhones in the hands of subscribers in the latest quarter, holding back its profits in the hope that its customers will rack up higher monthly bills and stay loyal.

The quarter saw the launch of the iPhone 4S, the second model to be sold by Verizon, and it was clear that many had been waiting for it. Verizon sold 4.3 million of them, and 7.7 million smartphones total.

But by the upside-down logic of the wireless industry, higher sales mean lower profits for the quarter. Verizon Wireless subsidizes each smartphone by hundreds of dollars, figuring that it will make the money back in service fees over a two-year contract. That means the wireless division, though still highly profitable, posted a rare drop in operating income for the fourth quarter.

In the results of Verizon Communications Inc., the phone company that owns 55 percent of Verizon Wireless, this was masked by large charge for adjusting the value of its pension plans.

The New York-based company on Tuesday said that it lost $2.02 billion, or 71 cents per share, in the last three months of 2011. That compares with net income of $2.64 billion, or 93 cents per share, a year ago.

Verizon had warned that the big pension charge was coming.

Excluding the pension effect and another one-time item, Verizon earned 52 cents per share. That was a penny shy of the average forecast of analysts polled by FactSet. Comparable earnings last year were 54 cents per share.

Verizon had warned that hefty smartphone sales would hold back earnings, but analysts had expected a slightly smaller drop. Verizon shares fell 76 cents, or 2 percent, to $37.64 in premarket trading.

Revenue rose 7.7 percent to $28.4 billion from $26.4 billion a year ago. The latest figure was in line with analysts' expectations.

Wireless accounted for all of the revenue increase, as Verizon's wireline division saw a small decrease. The "old" phone company essentially breaks even, despite the popularity of its cable-like FiOS TV and Internet service.

Usually, Verizon's overall revenue increase is driven higher monthly wireless service revenues, as it gains customers. But this quarter, the largest contributor to the rise in revenue was phone sales, which doubled from last year to $2.2 billion.

Verizon Wireless added 1.2 million new subscribers on contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative. It was the second-best result in the last two years, further solidifying the company's position as the industry leader, with 87.4 million phones and other devices on contract-based plans, and 108.7 million total.

Vodafone Group PLC of Britain owns the remaining 45 percent of Verizon Wireless, and lays claim to a corresponding share of the profits.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-24-Earns-Verizon/id-929d7568e2024580a20d27b52c19c0a0

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Richard Gere On 'Arbitrage': 'All Adrenaline, Cocaine Rush'

You might think ?Arbitrage? is a staid affair, one more film about financial shenanigans in a long line of them ? each one about men with expensive suits and bankrupt morals, about buying low and selling high, about the money, money, money.

Well, it is about all those things. But as Richard Gere put it to [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/23/richard-gere-arbitrage/

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Iowa GOP now says Santorum won caucuses (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Offering no explanation, the Iowa Republican Party has declared Rick Santorum as winner of the Iowa caucuses, days after saying incomplete vote results precluded it from doing just that.

GOP State Chairman Matt Strawn and the party's State Central Committee issued a statement late Friday naming the former Pennsylvania senator as the winner, "in order to clarify conflicting reports and to affirm the results" that were released Wednesday.

The committee's release Wednesday said Santorum was 34 votes ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the final certified results from 1,766 precincts. But because eight precincts never turned in certified results, Strawn said in the statement Thursday that the party could not declare a winner. He congratulated both Santorum and Romney. Sixteen days earlier, Strawn had announced that Romney had won the caucuses by eight votes.

Saturday's statement offered no explanation of what had changed since Thursday, and Strawn did not return calls seeking comment.

Two central committee members told The Associated Press that the group held a conference call Friday night to discuss the "confusion" about the results of the caucuses and directed Strawn to issue a statement making it clear that the party considered Santorum the winner.

"There had been too much confusion and we needed to clear things up once and for all," said Steve Scheffler of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, a committee member who was on the call.

Another committee member, Drew Ivers of Webster City, said the new statement declaring Santorum the winner was issued "to try to clarify the validity of the Iowa process."

Scheffler said there was no vote by the 17-member committee but it was clear from the call that the consensus was to issue the statement.

The certified results announced by Strawn on Thursday had Santorum with 29,839 votes and Romney with 29,805, a difference of 34. Ron Paul finished third with 26,036. Newt Gingrich finished fourth with 16,163 votes.

Unofficial election night results from the eight missing precincts gave Santorum 81 votes and Romney 46. If those results had been certified to state party officials by Wednesday's deadline, Santorum's lead in the final tally would have been 69 votes.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_el_pr/us_iowa_caucuses

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PFT: NFL defends decision not to review Evans' non-catch

Reuters

Shortly before Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff did his best Gary Anderson impersonation (to the chagrin of Matt Birk), Ravens receiver Lee Evans had the ball in his hands, in the end zone.? But Patriots defensive back Sterling Moore knocked the ball out of Evans? hands, and the ruling on the field was that the would-be touchdown pass was incomplete.

Though it wasn?t a scoring play, fewer than two minutes remained in the game.? Thus, the decision (or not) to review the play was to be initiated by the replay assistant in the booth.? Even though the slow-motion angle shown by CBS seemed to suggest that it may have been a catch, the replay assistant didn?t instruct referee Alberto Riveron to take a look via the on-field portable TV on wheels.

As to whether a catch was made, the standard is simple.? From Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3, Item 3:? ?If a player controls the ball while in the end zone, both feet, or any part of his body other than his hands, must be completely on the ground before losing control, or the pass is incomplete.?

There?s no Calvin Johnson component.? No requirement of a football move.? Possession plus two feet down equals a catch, and a touchdown.

So why didn?t the replay assistant direct Riveron to take another look?? Absent indisputable visual evidence that the call on the field was correct, the replay assistant must tell the referee to look for indisputable visual evidence to overturn it.

The league disagrees.? ?The ruling on the field of an incomplete pass was confirmed by the Instant Replay assistant, correctly, and as a result, there was no need to stop the game,? the league said in a statement forwarded to PFT by spokesman Michael Signora.? ?The receiver did not get his second foot down in the end zone with possession, and as a result, it was an incomplete pass.?

Former V.P. of officiating and current FOX rules analyst Mike Pereira expressed a similar sentiment via text message to PFT.? ?Clearly not a catch,? Pereira said.? ?Ball coming out before second foot clearly down. . . .? No need to review it because it was clearly incomplete.?

But where?s the harm in taking a look at the play?? The left foot may have been down a nanosecond before the ball was dislodged.? Why not have Riveron decide whether or not that was the case?? Moreover, a different camera angle may have shown that Evans had the ball before his left foot previously left the ground.? (There?s no doubt that the right foot was down while Evans had the ball.)

It could be that the replay assistant erred on the side of not giving Riveron a chance to make what could have been another Bill Leavy-style error.? Either way, under the league?s standard for initiating a booth review, we think a booth review should have been initiated.? And if it had been initiated, Riveron would have been faced with a decision that wouldn?t have been quite as easy as the league seems to think it would have been.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/22/league-defends-decision-not-to-review-evans-non-catch/related

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Witness in 'Rockefeller' case found bloodstains

FILE - In this July 8 2011 file photo, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German man who masqueraded as a member of the famous Rockefeller family, appears in an Alhambra, Calif. court. Gerhartsreiter faces a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012 in the cold case murder of John Sohus, 27, who disappeared from San Marino, Calif. in 1985. (AP Photo/Sarah Reingewirtz, Pool, File)

FILE - In this July 8 2011 file photo, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German man who masqueraded as a member of the famous Rockefeller family, appears in an Alhambra, Calif. court. Gerhartsreiter faces a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012 in the cold case murder of John Sohus, 27, who disappeared from San Marino, Calif. in 1985. (AP Photo/Sarah Reingewirtz, Pool, File)

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, center, a German immigrant who masqueraded as a member of the famous Rockefeller family, appears during a preliminary court hearing in Alhambra, Calif. Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Gerhartsreiter a convicted kidnapper faces a charge of murdering the son of his former landlady a quarter century ago, when he lived in California under one of his many pseudonyms. (AP Photo/Pasadena Star News, Walt Mancini, Pool)

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German immigrant who masqueraded as a member of the famous Rockefeller family, appears as he in handcuffed during a preliminary court hearing in Alhambra, Calif. Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Gerhartsreiter a convicted kidnapper facing a charge of murdering the son of his former landlady a quarter century ago, when he lived in California under one of his many pseudonyms. (AP Photo/Pasadena Star News, Walt Mancini, Pool)

Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German immigrant who masqueraded as a member of the famous Rockefeller family, walks into to a preliminary court hearing in Alhambra, Calif. Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Gerhartsreiter a convicted kidnapper facing a charge of murdering the son of his former landlady a quarter century ago, when he lived in California under one of his many pseudonyms, is faced with the murder of John Sohus, 27, who disappeared from San Marino, Calif. in 1985. (AP Photo/Walt Mancini, Pool)

ALHAMBRA, Calif. (AP) ? A forensic scientist testifying Friday in the murder case against a man who posed as an heir to the Rockefeller fortune said she found four bloodstains in the Southern California guesthouse where the suspect lived.

Criminalist Lynne Herold gave the testimony in a preliminary hearing to determine whether Christian Gerhartsreiter should stand trial for the death of John Sohus, whose remains were found at his former home in San Marino in 1994, nearly 10 years after he and his wife vanished.

Herold and her colleagues from the Los Angeles County coroner's office used a chemical reaction at the time to find the stains in the Sohuses' guesthouse, where Gerhartsreiter was a tenant known as Christopher Chichester when the couple disappeared, according to the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/yLd5Yp ).

Herold said three of the four stains showed patterns indicating they had been wiped or something like a body had been dragged through them.

She said she did not take a blood sample because in 1994 such a stain could not be tested for DNA analysis, and it may never be known whose blood it was.

Herold testified that she remembers the investigation despite the passing of so many years, because it was among the most memorable of her career.

"It has from Day One sort of been stuck in my head, and it probably always will be one of those cases that you just never forget," she said.

Many of the witnesses in the preliminary hearing have had difficulty remembering details because so many years have passed.

The couple disappeared in 1985. Gerhartsreiter left town soon afterward.

He is charged only with killing 27-year-old John Sohus; no sign of Linda Sohus has been found.

Gerhartsreiter has previously been exposed as a veteran impostor. On the East Coast, he claimed to be "Clark Rockefeller," a member of the famous family, and married a woman with whom he had a daughter. She divorced him when she found out he had duped her.

Last year, Gerhartsreiter was convicted of kidnapping his daughter in Boston during a custody dispute. He is serving a four- to five-year prison sentence for that crime. He would be eligible for parole this year if he was not facing the California charge, which could bring him 26 years to life in prison if he's convicted.

___

Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-20-Rockefeller%20Mystery/id-35eec215962443f7ae0c4d58bb233466

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Nadal, Federer take similar Australian Open paths

Switzerland's Roger Federer serves to Croatia's Ivo Karlovic during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)

Switzerland's Roger Federer serves to Croatia's Ivo Karlovic during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)

Switzerland's Roger Federer celebrates after winning the first set against Croatia's Ivo Karlovic during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)

Rafael Nadal of Spain serves to Lukas Lacko of Slovakia during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)

Spain's Rafael Nadal makes a forehand return to Slovakia's Lukas Lacko during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/John Donegan)

Spain's Rafael Nadal makes a backhand return to Slovakia's Lukas Lacko during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) ? In the same half of a Grand Slam singles draw for the first time since 2005, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are taking similar paths to a potential semifinal matchup at the Australian Open.

A rematch of the women's 2011 final is already in place, with defending champion Kim Clijsters and China's Li Na both winning Friday night to set up a meeting in the fourth round.

Neither the four-time Australian champion Federer nor 2009 titleholder Nadal have dropped a set, although Federer's path has been made easier by a walkover win in the second round.

The longtime rivals played back-to-back matches at Rod Laver Arena on Friday. Nadal, his right knee still taped from a recent injury, showed no problems while moving briskly around the court in a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win over qualifier Lukas Lacko.

Federer followed in the marquee matinee program by beating Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (6), 7-5, 6-3, saving a set point in the tiebreaker with a scrambling lob over the 6-foot-10 Croatian. Federer will play Australian teenager Bernard Tomic on Sunday in the fourth round.

"He gave me a second serve and gave me a slight chance," Federer said. "Might have had a little bit of a lucky volley. ..."

Karlovic agreed.

"It was unlucky ... one in a 100 that I'm going to lose that point," Karlovic said. "I didn't really expect him to do that. I was there, I just miscalculated how much I was jumping. If I would have won that, everything would be different, but that's life."

Nadal had few dramas in his match against Lacko, which is just the way he wanted it. He felt a sharp pain in his knee while sitting in his chair in his hotel on the weekend, an innocent enough movement he initially feared would cause him to withdraw from the tournament.

Three matches later, Nadal says "the knee is fine ... being in the fourth round without losing a set, it's fantastic news."

Nadal will next meet fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, who beat No. 16 John Isner 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-7 (0), 6-1 to put the last U.S. man out of the draw.

It is the first time since the start of the Open Era in 1968 that no American men have reached the fourth round at the Australian Open, although no Americans entered the tournament in 1972 and 1973. The last American to win the Australian Open was Andre Agassi in 2003, his third win in four years at Melbourne Park.

"It's very ugly, to be honest, to have no one in the round of 16 ... very disappointing, not a good effort from the Americans," Isner said. "We've got to try to rectify that next time the big tournaments roll around."

No. 7 Tomas Berdych beat No. 30 Kevin Anderson of South Africa 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1), 6-1 and will next play No. 10 Nicolas Almagro of Spain, who beat 21st-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-4.

Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber defeated Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (3), 11th-seeded Juan Martin del Potro beat Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan 6-2, 6-3, 6-0 and Tomic defeated 13th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 4-6, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-3. Del Potro plays Kohlschreiber in the fourth round.

Defending champion and top-seeded Novak Djokovic and fourth-seeded Andy Murray, who has lost in the final at Melbourne Park the last two years, play their third-round matches Saturday, with a Djokovic-Murray replay only possible in the semis.

On the women's side, top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki also has not dropped a set in advancing to the fourth round as she continues her quest for a first Grand Slam title. She beat Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-2, 6-2 Friday, and third-seeded Victoria Azarenka defeated Mona Barthel 6-2, 6-4.

It's the toughest half of the women's draw, Wozniacki could face Clijsters in the quarterfinals. But before Clijsters gets that far, she will have to beat French Open winner Li.

Li advanced to the fourth round late Friday when her opponent, Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, had to retire in the first set after badly twisting her right ankle attempting a shot. Li won the first three games and was up 0-30 on Medina Garrigues' serve when the Spaniard went to the net to retire a game and a half after she had sustained the injury.

Clijsters advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Daniela Hantuchova earlier at Hisense Arena.

"I won, so that's the most important thing," Clijsters said. "I definitely wasn't playing my best tennis."

Clijsters' only loss to Hantuchova in 11 matches was at Brisbane two weeks ago when she withdrew with a hip injury in the second set of their semifinal.

On Saturday, the two biggest threats in the other half of the women's draw, five-time champion Serena Williams and 2011 Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova, play for a spot in the last 16.

Wozniacki, who needs to reach the quarterfinals to have any chance of retaining the No. 1 ranking, wasted one match point and was broken when she was serving for the match. But she broke back immediately to ensure she moved into a final 16 encounter against former No. 1-ranked Jelena Jankovic, who beat American Christina McHale 6-2, 6-0.

Azarenka, who beat Li to win the Sydney International last week, has only lost eight games at Melbourne Park and remains one of three women who can overhaul Wozniacki for the top ranking at the Australian Open.

The 22-year-old from Belarus will next meet Czech player Iveta Benesova, who beat Russian qualifier Nina Bratchikova 6-1, 6-3.

Azarenka was annoyed with herself for needing five match points to finish off Barthel, who was on a 10-match winning run in Australia after capturing her first title at the Hobart International last week as a qualifier.

"I've been playing in the end not brave enough to finish the match. ... I had to get a little," angry, Azarenka said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-20-TEN-Australian-Open/id-56dbd6ca273e4b78b32949aa53193a45

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Pakistan crisis: PM faces top court in contempt case

ISLAMABAD?? Pakistan's prime minister made a rare appearance before the Supreme Court Thursday in attempt to avoid being held in contempt for refusing to reopen an old corruption case against the president.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the court that he believes the president cannot being prosecuted because he enjoys immunity while in office.

The court launched contempt proceedings against Gilani earlier in the week for failing to obey a long-standing order to write a letter to Swiss authorities asking them to reopen a graft case against President Asif Ali Zardari dating back to the late 1990s.

"It is my conviction that he (Zardari) has complete immunity inside and outside the country," Gilani told the court. "In the constitution, there is complete immunity for the president. There is no doubt about that."

The immediate battle is about Gilani, but the larger political crisis is about Zardari and the fate of his government, the longest-running civilian administration in Pakistan's coup-marred history.

If Gilani is charged with contempt of court for failing to follow court orders, he could be disqualified from office and forced to resign.

That would further increase the pressure on the unpopular civilian government and the risk of instability in the nuclear-armed ally in America's war on militancy.

Thursday's adjournment did nothing to settle the issue, and was mainly to allow Gilani to explain his position.

After the hearing, a confident-looking Gilani appeared outside the court smiling and waving.

If found in contempt, Gilani could face up to six months in prison and be disqualified from holding office.

The court will resume hearing the case against Gilani on Feb. 1.

Gilani's legal troubles are the latest blow for the civilian administration which also faces pressure from the military over a mysterious memo seeking U.S. help to avert an alleged coup last year.

Gilani won a unanimous vote of confidence in parliament when he became prime minister nearly four years ago, and has been known as a peacemaker even among the ruling Pakistan People's Party's most bitter enemies. Unlike Zardari, he was seen as having smooth ties with the military before the latest turmoil.

But his diplomatic skills may not be enough to fend off both the Supreme Court and Pakistan's generals, who have ruled the country for more than half of its 64 years history through coups, and from behind the scenes.

"The fact is that it's not just the anger of the judges against the PM, it's the anger of the army against the PM as well," said Ayesha Siddiqa, a prominent defense analyst.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46051691/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

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