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NEW YORKDivers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of the final two of nine victims of Saturday’s collision between a helicopter and small plane over the Hudson River, police said.
The wreckage of a PA-32 that collided Saturday with a helicopter is lifted Tuesday from the bed of the Hudson River.
“They were inside the wreckage when we pulled it up,” said New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne. Earlier Tuesday, police divers had attached chains and straps to the plane’s fuselage and used a crane to lift it from the riverbed 60 feet below the surface. On Saturday, the Piper PA-32 Saratoga carrying three people collided with a helicopter carrying six people, five of them Italian tourists, killing all nine people aboard both aircraft. The wreckage of the helicopter, operated by Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours, was lifted Sunday nearly intact from the Hudson.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the collision, which occurred shortly after the helicopter took off from a heliport in Midtown Manhattan on what was to have been a 12-minute sightseeing tour around New York. The Piper took off from New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport and was bound for Ocean City, New Jersey. It began its flight Saturday morning at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-area airfield.
Source:CNN

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council began debating a U.S. draft statement Tuesday seeking to condemn Myanmar for continuing its house arrest of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Any action was delayed for at least a day because of skepticism from China, Russia, Vietnam and Libya.
France called the emergency session, held behind closed doors for less than an hour. “There has to be an urgent reaction by the council,” said Deputy French Ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the United States sought a unanimous statement by the 15-nation council condemning Myanmar for extending the 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate’s house arrest by 18 months. China, Myanmar’s main trading partner, and Russia have blocked such council action in the past.
British Ambassador John Sawers, this month’s council president, said the debate would likely resume Wednesday after the draft council statement was sent back to capitals for diplomatic consideration.
“I haven’t heard anything yet so I have to send it back,” Deputy Chinese Ambassador Liu Zhenmin told reporters in passing while hurrying out of the meeting.
The draft statement calls on Myanmar to release Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners and expresses “grave concern about the political impact” of her conviction. It also urges free and fair elections next year “with full participation of all political actors” including Suu Kyi.
Security council members — who first put Myanmar on their agenda three years ago over strong objections from Russia and China — called in May for the release of all 2,100 political prisoners including Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi was convicted Tuesday of violating her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American to stay at her home, and sentenced to three years with hard labor. Moments later, an order from Senior Gen. Than Shwe, who heads the military-ruled country, was read aloud in court commuting the sentence to 18 months under house arrest.
The sentencing ensures Suu Kyi will be out of the way when the military junta stages its 2010 elections. She has already spent 14 of the last 20 years in detention, mostly under house arrest in her lakeside villa at Yangon, Myanmar.
President Barack Obama called the events an “unjust decision” that runs counter to Myanmar’s commitments to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and a sign of continued disregard for U.N. council statements.
“I join the international community in calling for Aung San Suu Kyi’s immediate unconditional release,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
“Today’s unjust decision reminds us of the thousands of other political prisoners in Burma who, like Aung San Suu Kyi, have been denied their liberty because of their pursuit of a government that respects the will, rights, and aspirations of all Burmese citizens. They, too, should be freed,” Obama said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who visited Myanmar last month but failed to meet with Suu Kyi, “strongly deplores” the court action and urged Myanmar’s ruling generals “to immediately and unconditionally release” Suu Kyi, Ban’s office said.
Ban is “deeply disappointed by the verdict” and also urges the government “to engage with her without delay as an essential partner in the process of national dialogue and reconciliation,” his office said.
“Unless she and all other political prisoners in Myanmar are released and allowed to participate in free and fair elections, the credibility of the political process will remain in doubt.”
Ibrahim Gambari, Ban’s top envoy to Myanmar, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the U.N. expected the ruling generals would release about 200 political prisoners soon after Ban’s visit in early July. That hasn’t happened.
“There was no deal. There were the expectations that all political prisoners should be released by the year 2010, but that as a show of good faith and following the secretary-general’s visit that they would release a significant number of political prisoners, and some estimates run to about maybe 10 percent.”
Gambari, who has made nine trips to Myanmar since 2006, said the U.N.’s expectations were based on assurances by a Myanmar diplomat who “did mention that the authorities were considering what is called amnesty — and we’re still expecting they will act accordingly.”
There had been much speculation about whether Ban had a deal before his visit and some criticism of his willingness to return to Myanmar seemingly without much assurance that he wouldn’t return empty-handed. In the end, Ban’s visit — he also went to Myanmar last year after Cyclone Nargis struck — did little to restore hope in Myanmar that anyone’s vote would ever count.
Suu Kyi’s international lawyers filed a legal petition to the Swiss-based Human Rights Council arguing the Nobel Peace laureate is being arbitrarily detained. It asks for an emergency ruling by a five-member working group that the court action violates Myanmar’s and international human rights laws.
The working group has made such a determination five times previously, but did not win her release.
Also Tuesday, 14 Nobel laureates including The Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Kim Dae-jung and Desmond Tutu urged the Security Council to take strong action on behalf of Suu Kyi and investigate the Myanmar government’s treatment of its own people.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The riot that ravaged a Southern California prison and injured 175 inmates began with a fight between black and Hispanic gang members, a stark reminder of the difficulty of race relations behind bars and the challenges of desegregating inmates.
In the nation’s largest state prison system, black, Hispanic, Asian and white gangs generally don’t mix. When they do, trouble typically follows.
“It isn’t that everybody in the inmate population is against integration — they like their teeth,” said David Miles, a 46-year-old black inmate at another prison, Sierra Conservation Center.
Mindful of that, California has for decades segregated inmates by race in their cells and sleeping areas. In general, whole cell blocks and open dormitories are mixed race.
But four years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court found the practice discriminatory, citing Brown v. Board of Education. The court said it reinforced a cycle of racial hatred and violence and ordered the state to desegregate its prisons.
At the California Institution for Men in Chino, segregation is still in place. The weekend riot started in a dormitory-style housing wing where many races are in a large room, but the sleeping arrangements are segregated. The exact cause of the riot remains under investigation.
All the state prisons were supposed to be integrated by the end of last year, but the process is far behind schedule.
Last fall, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation began desegregating two prisons in the Sierra foothills, southeast of the state capital. They are not yet fully integrated, and officials haven’t started on any other prisons.
The delay is due in part to state budget cuts that have reduced prison staff, corrections department spokesman Seth Unger said. The system has 1,000 vacancies and is to be reduced by 5,000 positions over two years.
The beginning of a desegregation effort also has hit a number of obstacles, many of them coming from the inmates themselves.
Powerful race-based gangs oppose integration and have threatened inmates who participate. That leads wardens, guards and inmates to predict it will take years to fully integrate the state’s 33 prisons, which hold 150,000 inmates.
“If I hung out with this black man on the street, that’s cool. But in here, the rules are different,” Tim Heffernan, a heavily tattooed 41-year-old white inmate at Sierra Conservation Center.
He and Daniel Mabson, a 25-year-old black inmate, sat across from each other on bunk beds as they spoke to a reporter about prison race relations and the halting desegregation efforts.
“How can we comply if it puts our lives in danger?” Mabson said.
California’s inmates are racially diverse: 26 percent white, 29 percent black, 39 percent Hispanic and 6 percent of other races.
Under the new policy, inmates are assigned housing based on their compatibility with members of another race, their age, the type of crime they committed and their physical characteristics. They are given a “racial eligibility code” showing their ability to be housed with others.
The department’s regulations permit segregating individual inmates if officials can show it is necessary for their safety. For example, members of the Aryan Brotherhood are not housed with members of the Black Guerrilla Family. The divisions even occur within races: Hispanic gang members from Northern California are kept apart from Hispanics from Southern California.
Prisoners also have a long-standing practice of self-segregating.
“If you’re a white inmate, you’re approached as soon as you get off the bus: Here’s where you eat, here’s where we stay,” said Lt. Jimmy Hurtado, of the Sierra Conservation Center. “It’s pretty much at all 33 prisons statewide.”
But with integration at the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown and Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, inmates have been required to take the first available bed. The approach was patterned after one adopted in Texas 18 years ago.
The two prisons are being integrated first because they were expected to be among the easiest. Both house gang dropouts, homosexuals, child molesters, the elderly, disabled and mentally ill, who were thought to be more amenable because they need protection from other prisoners. Sierra Conservation Center also houses lower security prisoners who hope to win a coveted transfer to one of the state’s 19 inmate firefighting camps that can earn them an early parole.
Even there, trouble arose soon after the policy was implemented.
At Sierra, hundreds of white and Hispanic inmates refused to work, eat or leave their cells for up to three days after integration began. Rules violations spiked fivefold.
“To me, this is like using us like lab rats, to see if it works,” said Glenn Brooks, a 44-year-old black inmate from San Bernardino. “It ain’t ever going to work. All it’s going to do is get somebody hurt, get somebody killed.”
Attempts to integrate bunk beds inside open dorms, where low- and medium-security inmates sleep, have been as problematic as trying to integrate prison cells.
Blacks, whites and Hispanics were willing to sleep side by side in beds spaced an arm’s length apart. But they would rather fight or risk longer sentences than accept an inmate of another race in a bed above or below them in the same bunk.
Inmates consider each tier of bunks like a cell without walls, and that’s where they draw an imaginary line.
Inmates who refuse to integrate can lose television, commissary and exercise yard privileges and have their sentences extended up to 90 days. Repeated violations can mean a transfer to a higher-security prison.
Resistance to integration is more about power than it is about race, said Rusty Otto, Sierra Conservation Center’s mental health director. The race-based gangs control the flow of contraband and money, who rules each cell house and who gets a share of the profits from crime on the streets.
The number of prisoners, level of racial diversity and extensiveness of gang networks make California’s prison system particularly prone to violence, meaning it’s a good idea for corrections officials to approach desegregation slowly, said University of North Texas professor Chad R. Trulson, who is advising California on its integration policy.
“Prisoners are known to blow the place up over little things,” he said. “And race in prison is not a little thing.”

NEW YORK – Jennifer Hudson has a new role — that of a proud mother.
The 27-year-old Oscar winner gave birth to her first child, David Daniel Otunga Jr., on Monday, according to her publicist, Lisa Kasteler of WKT Public Relations. He is named after her fiance, David Otunga. The baby weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces (3.57 kilograms).
“The baby is beautiful and perfect,” says Hudson’s publicist Lisa Kasteler. “His parents are ecstatic.”
Hudson, who is also a Grammy-winning singer, had not confirmed she was expecting before announcing news of the birth.
The entertainer suffered a tragic blow last fall when her mother, brother and nephew were slain in her native Chicago. Her sister’s estranged husband is charged with the killings.
Hudson, who gained fame first as a top contender on “American Idol,” won an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Effie in “Dreamgirls” in 2007. Earlier this year, she won a Grammy for best R&B album for her self-titled debut CD.
The birth was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter’s Showbiz411.com.
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On the Net:

http://www.jenniferhudson.com

‘Alien scene’ of tadpoles feast
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News

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“Alien-like” scenes of tadpoles feasting on eggs emerging from their mother have been caught on camera.The footage marks the success of a captive breeding programme for the critically endangered mountain chicken frog, one of the world’s largest frogs. In April, 50 of the amphibian giants were airlifted from Montserrat after a deadly fungus swept through the island, devastating the population. Now several breeding programmes are under way to save the frogs. Once numbers have been boosted in captivity, researchers hope to reintroduce the frogs back into the wild within the next two years. Bizarre sightThe remarkable footage was recorded at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, in Jersey, which took in 12 of the rescued frogs. Twenty-six others went to Parken Zoo in Sweden, and 12 are now housed in ZSL London Zoo.
Giant of the forest
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So far, four pairs of mountain chicken frogs have started to breed – which could result in hundreds of frogs. And this has given researchers an insight into the way that these unusual amphibians care for their offspring. Professor John Fa, director of Durrell, said: “Mountain chickens have very peculiar breeding habits because they form foam nests in burrows in the ground.” The females lay their eggs in these nests, which eventually hatch into tadpoles. But as the nests are underground, food is scarce – so the frogs need to find a way to provide nutrition for their young. Professor Fa explained: “In the case of mountain chickens, we have discovered that the female comes into the nest and starts laying a string of infertile eggs.
“We thought that the eggs would come out and drop to the bottom of the nest and then the tadpoles would start eating them. But the footage shows about 40 tadpoles congregating around the female and eating the eggs as they come out of the female’s body. “Every now and again, the female uses her back legs to push the tadpoles away from her body so another set can come up and eat as much as they can.” He added: “It is really weird – it is an alien scene. This is the first time we have caught this on film.” Frog killerThe mountain chicken frog (Leptodactylus fallax) is one of the world’s most threatened frogs. The frog is so called because its meat tastes like chicken. It was once found on seven Caribbean Islands, but thanks to hunting and environmental pressures it is currently found only on Montserrat and Dominica.
Now, however, the deadly chytrid fungus, which has devastated amphibian populations around the globe, has also ravaged Dominica’s mountain chickens. The fungus was first detected on the island in 2002, and within 15 months, 80% of the mountain chicken population had been obliterated. Conservationists were extremely concerned when they found that the chytrid fungus had spread to Montserrat earlier this year, and was sweeping quickly through the last mountain chicken population. The team made a decision to airlift some of the last healthy frogs and bring them into captivity in a bid to save the creatures from extinction. Professor Fa said: “Things are not going terribly well in Montserrat because chytrid has now infected the safe population – or at least the one we thought was safe.” The breeding success has offered scientists a ray of hope in an otherwise bleak situation, and they are now concentrating on increasing the frogs’ numbers.
They hope to eventually release the captive mountain chickens back to their native home of Montserrat, and are currently looking for sites that are free of the deadly fungus. But Professor Fa said: “If that doesn’t work, if the area is infected, we will have to think again, and it could be that we take the animals to another island. “Within a year or two we have to get these animals back to the wild. The longer you keep them in captivity, the more difficult it is for them to enjoy a life in the wild again.”

Source:BBC

‘Shock’ over stroke death rates
Stroke death rates are three times higher in the poorest areas of England and Wales, a study has shown.The audit of death figures found there were 29 deaths per 100,000 men under 65 each year in the poorest areas compared with just eight in the wealthiest. For women, the gap was less at 17 per 100,000 in the most deprived and six in the least, the British Heart Foundation and Stroke Association found. The groups said more needed to be done to tackle the “shocking” difference. The two charities used death rates broken down by local authority areas to compare the least deprived 5% with the most deprived.
The audit did not set out firm reasons for the differences in death rates, although it is thought to be linked to lifestyle and access to services. BHF medical director Professor Peter Weissberg said: “The figures argue for a concerted effort to identify and modify risk factors by lifestyle and drug interventions in those communities with the highest risks. “We don’t underestimate the challenge this poses, but success will save the lives of thousands of people and prevent disability in many more.” Joe Korner of the Stroke Association agreed. He said the statistics were “shocking”, adding: “Decreasing inequalities in our society will also lessen inequalities in health outcomes.” The government has already made improving stroke care a priority in recent years. A national strategy was launched in England in 2007 aimed at giving people earlier access to diagnostic scans and treatment. Similar schemes have been set out elsewhere in the UK as stroke is the third biggest killer in the country – behind cancer and heart disease – responsible for 50,000 deaths a year. The Department of Health said as part of the stroke strategy local networks of experts were being put in place charged with tackling this issue. A spokesman added: “The last 10 years have seen great progress in stroke – more patients than ever before are being seen by stroke specialists and advancing medical understanding gives every prospect for a real revolution in stroke treatment over the next few years.”

Source:BBC

Family-friendly baby units urged
Neonatal units looking after premature babies need redesigning to put parents at the heart of care, say campaigners.Parents’ needs can get overlooked as the medical needs of the babies are the main priority for staff, Bliss and the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) found. They are asking health workers to put themselves “in the shoes” of parents. Part of the problem, they say, is a lack of family-friendly facilities, like designated rooms on units for parents or play areas for siblings. A survey of UK neonatal units by investigators from the University of Warwick found one in 10 units did not have a parents’ sitting room close to clinical areas where the babies were being cared for.
A quarter of units had no single rooms for babies in which families could care for their newborn while preparing for discharge home. Few had playrooms or areas for siblings and there were also important gaps in psychosocial support services for parents. Only half of the units had a parents’ group and only a third had a one-to-one parent support scheme. And few had policies on proven beneficial ways to involve families in care, including opportunities for parents to have skin-to-skin contact with their newborn. Family-friendlyParents say they value being given consistent, clear information about the unit and caring for their baby, as well as receiving emotional advice. Bliss chief executive Andy Cole said: “While babies are the main priority for health professionals in a neonatal unit, it is extremely important not to forget the needs of parents and the positive impact that they can have on the care of their baby too. “This project highlights the importance of effective communication and support for families and that services both in hospital and at home should take full account of their individual needs at what can be a very uncertain and stressful time. “Parents must feel confident and supported to provide the best possible care to their vulnerable baby.” Professor David Field, president of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine, said: “This is a very important piece of work in highlighting the needs of parents who have a baby requiring neonatal care. “These needs are easily forgotten when so much focus is on the baby.” The lottery-funded POPPY Project (Parents of Premature babies Project), run by Bliss, the NCT, the Royal College of Nursing Research and the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University, will send out a range of materials to help units implement family-centred care.

Source:BBC

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. – Police say a 6-year-old boy rescued a 2-year-old girl from a fire at a Long Island house where three adults later were found dead.
They say the adults found in the burned Central Islip (EYE’-slip) house had been shot but it’s unclear if they died from their gunshot wounds or the fire, which has been ruled arson.
Homicide Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick says firefighters were called to a blaze Tuesday morning. When rescuers arrived, they found the two-story house engulfed in flames.
The three adults were found in a back bedroom. Police say their bodies were so badly damaged it may take some time for their identities to be determined.
The boy and girl were found outside the home and are doing OK. They’ve been taken to a hospital.

LOS ANGELES – A high-profile Beverly Hills real estate agent has been acquitted of participating in a massive mortgage fraud scheme that caused federally insured banks to lose more than 40 million.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says real estate agent Joseph Babajian (BAH’-bah-jahn) was acquitted on 13 criminal counts. His partner, Kyle Grasso, and appraiser Lila Rizk were convicted Monday of conspiracy and bank and loan fraud charges in U.S. District Court.
The jury couldn’t reach a verdict on eight other counts against Babajian and the federal judge declared a mistrial.
Grasso was also convicted of three counts of money laundering for his role in obtaining inflated mortgage loans for homes in some of California’s priciest neighborhoods.
Babajian’s clients have included Barbara Streisand, Warran Beatty, David Beckham and Janet Jackson.

Ex-Nepal PM urges anti-US unity
Former Nepalese Prime Minister Prachanda says Asian countries should develop a unified security strategy to combat US influence in South Asia.In an interview with the BBC, he said India, China and Nepal should work together to counter American power. The Maoist, who was a rebel leader before becoming prime minister, was speaking during a visit to Britain. Prachanda resigned in May over the Nepalese president’s decision to reinstate the army chief he had sacked. Speaking at the Nepalese embassy in London, Prachanda said the emerging Asian economies should rely less on the West, especially the United States. He said being the sole super power, the US was trying to have a greater influence in Asia, but India and China should come together to provide security and prosperity to their people. New constitutionPrachanda, who became prime minister in 2008, said Delhi was wrong to think that he was closer to communist China than to India. He said he wanted a good relationship with both neighbouring countries. Prachanda acknowledged that India supported the dialogue between his Maoists and other political parties, after the Nepalese King Gyandendra assumed direct power in 2005. But then, he said, Delhi lost its warmth towards the Maoists when historic elections resulted in him becoming prime minister. On the domestic front, he said his party was striving to change the basic structure of Nepal through the Constituent Assembly, which would authorise a new constitution for Nepal. He rejected any possibility of the restoration of monarchy, which was abolished in May 2008 after 240 years. He said that over 90% of people were opposed to it.

Source:BBC

LEBANON, Pa. – Jeers and taunts drowned out Democrats calling for a health care overhaul at town halls Tuesday, and one lawmaker said a swastika was spray-painted at his office as debate turned to noisy confrontation over President Barack Obama’s plan. The president himself was treated more respectfully.
“You’ll be gone, by God the bureaucrats will still be here,” one man told Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., at a town hall in Lebanon, Pa.
“If they don’t let us vent our frustrations out, they will have a revolution,” Mary Ann Fieser of Hillsboro, Mo., told Sen. Claire McCaskill at her Missouri health care forum.
McCaskill admonished the rowdy crowd of some 1,500.
“I don’t understand this rudeness,” she said. “I honestly don’t get it.”
The bitter sessions underscored the challenge for the administration as it tries to win over an increasingly skeptical public on the costly and far-reaching task of revamping the nation’s health care system. Desperate to stop a hardening opposition, the White House created a Web site to dispel what it says are smears and House Democrats set up a health care “war room” out of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office to help lawmakers handle questions.
Obama answered his critics indirectly. At his town hall in Portsmouth, N.H., he urged Americans to ignore those who try to “scare and mislead the American people,” telling a cordial audience, “For all the scare tactics out there, what is truly scary is if we do nothing.”
Though his popularity is slipping in polls, Obama himself is repeatedly trying to make the case to the public for passage of comprehensive legislation this year to bring down costs and extend coverage to many of the 50 million uninsured.
Obama’s questions bore no resemblance to what Specter got.
At a crowded community college in Pennsylvania, Specter heard from speaker after speaker who accused him of trampling on their constitutional rights, adding to the federal deficit or allowing government bureaucrats to take over health care.
“My children and grandchildren are going to pay for this,” said another.
“One day God will stand before you and judge you!” shouted a man before security guards approached and he left the room.
Specter gamely tried to explain his positions — and on occasion mediate among shouting constituents — saying he wouldn’t vote for a bill that adds to the deficit. He also said he wouldn’t support a bill that extends coverage to illegal immigrants. None of the bills in Congress would provide health insurance to illegal immigrants.
One woman tried to make it personal for Specter, alleging that the Democrats’ plan would not provide care to a man in his 70s with cancer, like Specter had.
“You’re here because of the plan we have now,” she said.
Specter, 79, who has battled cancer twice since 2005, showed some heat at that.
“Well, you’re just not right,” he said. He called her claim a “vicious, malicious” rumor.
The passions of the crowd illustrated the problems for Democratic lawmakers around the country as they try to use the monthlong August recess to promote Obama’s agenda. There’s not a single plan to promote, which Specter later told reporters made his job harder, along with the complexity of the issue. The House bill is more than 1,000 pages.
And, Specter said, “The objectors have gotten ahead of the curve.” Asked why, he cited talk radio, among other factors.
In Georgia, Democratic Rep. David Scott’s staff arrived at his Smyrna, Ga., office outside Atlanta on Tuesday morning to find a large, black swastika spray-painted on a sign out front bearing his name. The vandalism occurred roughly a week after Scott was involved in a contentious argument over health care at a community meeting.
Scott, who is black, said he also has received mail in recent days that used N-word references to him and that characterized Obama as a Marxist.
“We have got to make sure that the symbol of the swastika does not win, that the racial hatred that’s bubbling up does not win this debate,” Scott said in a telephone interview. “That’s what is bubbling up with all of this. There’s so much hatred out there for President Obama.”
In Missouri, McCaskill was peppered with questions about health care for veterans, seniors and illegal immigrants and provisions funding abortions. One man was arrested after allegedly taking and ripping a sign from a woman that showed a picture of Rosa Parks sitting on a bus with the words, “First Lady of Civil Rights.”
Someone shouted out that they didn’t trust McCaskill.
“Beg your pardon … you don’t trust me?” McCaskill said. “I don’t know what else I can do.”
Specter said that in a long life in politics he hadn’t seen anything like what he witnessed Tuesday and at a town hall last weekend that turned even uglier.
“There is more anger in America today than at any time I can remember,” Specter said.
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Associated Press writers Ben Evans in Washington and Sheila Ellis in Hillsboro, Mo., contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON – Former White House political adviser Karl Rove was deeply involved in the firing of a U.S. attorney in New Mexico, according to White House e-mails and transcripts of closed-door testimony released Tuesday.
The House Judiciary Committee released more than 5,400 pages of White House and Republican National Committee e-mails, along with transcripts of closed-door testimony by Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers.
The documents show that staffers in Rove’s office were actively seeking to have U.S. Attorney David Iglesias removed. In one e-mail in 2005, Rove aide Scott Jennings sent an e-mail to another Rove aide, saying, “I would really like to move forward with getting rid of NM US ATTY.”
Miers testified that Rove complained to her about Iglesias, but she could not recall whether he specifically said he should be fired.
Iglesias was one of nine U.S. attorneys fired in part for apparently not being sufficiently loyal to the Republican administration.
The ensuing uproar led to a series of damaging revelations about the Bush administration’s political meddling with the Justice Department and the eventual resignation of then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Iglesias said in an interview Tuesday he was nauseated by the whole affair.
“It’s exactly what I feared. Over two years ago, I said that all roads lead to Rove,” Iglesias said. “I’ve said consistently that he was highly involved, and now the evidence is there.”
Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, did not immediately return a call for comment.
Miers was interviewed by House Judiciary Committee lawyers on June 15. Rove was interviewed July 7 and 30.
“After all the delay and despite all the obfuscation, lies, and spin, this basic truth can no longer be denied: Karl Rove and his cohorts at the Bush White House were the driving force behind several of these firings, which were done for improper reasons,” said Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Conyers said he provided a copy of the documents released Tuesday to acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy, who questioned Rove earlier this year to determine his precise role in the Bush administration’s politically tinged firings of U.S. attorneys.

WASHINGTONThe United States has received official confirmation that three Americans have been detained in Iran, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday.
Sarah Shourd, like the other two hikers, is a graduate of University of California-Berkeley.
Shane Bauer, 27; Sarah Shourd, 31; and Josh Fattal, 27, were picked up by Iranian authorities when they strayed across the border while hiking in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. “The Swiss ambassador did today receive formal notification by the Iranian government that it has three Americans in detention,” the State Department’s Philip Crowley said. “Iran has obligations under the Vienna Convention, and we demand consular access at the first opportunity.” Because the United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran, such communications are handled through the Swiss Embassy. Iranian media had previously reported that the three students had been detained and charged with “illegal entry,” but Tuesday’s notification was the first official notice through diplomatic channels. Also Tuesday, the families of the students issued a statement calling for a quick resolution of “this misunderstanding.” “It is now 12 days since our children were detained in Iran, when they strayed across the border while on a brief hiking vacation in Iraqi Kurdistan,” the statement said. “As loving parents, nothing causes us more heartache than not knowing how our children are, and not being able to talk to them and learn when we will hold them in our arms again.
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“Shane, Sarah and Josh are young travelers who share a great love of the world and a deep respect for different cultures, societies and religions. We believe that when the Iranian authorities speak to our children, they will realize that Shane, Sarah and Josh had no intention of entering Iran and will allow them to leave the country and reunite with their families.” Bauer, Shourd and Fattal were traveling with another friend, Shon Meckfessel, who was feeling ill and remained behind in Sulaimaniya, Iraq, when the other three went to Ahmed Awa, a spot near the Iranian border recommended by locals.
Source:CNN

We’re the progressives – Osborne

Shadow chancellor George Osborne has said the Conservatives are now the “progressive” force in UK politics.He said they planned to reform public services such as schools in a way which could achieve necessary spending cuts without harming frontline services. Mr Osborne said Labour had “abandoned the field of progressive politics” and predicted they would be “condemned to irrelevancy for many years to come”. But Lord Mandelson said Tory “political cross-dressing” would “fool no-one”. ‘Caricature’In a speech to the Demos think-tank Mr Osborne also warned against a “caricature” of Conservatives as wanting always to “turn the clock back”. The party had led the way recently by holding an open primary to select the parliamentary candidate for Totnes, Devon, he added.
And attacking Labour’s record, Mr Osborne said: “There is nothing progressive about out-of-control spending that the poorest end up having to pay for, and nothing fair about huge national debts that future generations are left having to pay for. “And it is that fiscal responsibility allied to a passionate belief in public service reform – particularly in education – which is the only progressive route out of this debt crisis.” Spending on health had to be accompanied by “productivity gains”, while increasing pupil numbers meant education policy needed reform to ensure more money gets to the “frontline”. Mr Osborne said: “The torch of progressive politics has been passed to a new generation of politicians – and those politicians are Conservatives. “By pursuing a course of illiberalism, centralisation, fiscal incontinence and opposition to meaningful public service reform, the current leadership of the Labour Party has abandoned the field of progressive politics.” SwedenIn a question-and-answer session Mr Osborne said Labour was “nowhere on the terrain” of ideas to tackle the debt crisis and the need for spending restraint “and I personally think that will condemn them to irrelevancy for many years to come”. He praised Sweden as a country which had improved its education system, despite its own financial crisis, by allowing independent providers into the state sector. These companies were able to negotiate better contracts for computers, text books and land and had forced the state bureaucracy to reduce its costs, he claimed. Earlier, the shadow chancellor told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that he had not discussed the idea of increasing VAT to 20% to deal with the government’s deficit.

But Lord Mandelson told the BBC that Conservative plans to “take 5bn of public spending out of the economy” damaged the party’s claim to be progressive. He said : “I think my old friend George Osborne is involved in a bit of political cross-dressing and I don’t think it’s going to fool anyone.” Lord Mandelson added: “To say that they are the progressives in British politics at one level is laughable. I think it’s an audacious try by George Osborne. “To start taking those amounts of money out of the economy when we are not even out of recession, would they really consider that it would be progressive to do that with the economic and human consequences that this would have? “It’s frankly irresponsible of them even to put forward these ideas.” Liberal Democrat chief-of-staff Danny Alexander said: “It’s not clear if George Osborne developed his understanding of the word progressive with his chums in the Bullingdon Club or on the deck of Oleg Deripaska’s yacht, but it seems he has misunderstood the concept. “A progressive party would not cut taxes for multi-millionaires, stand in the way of reforming Parliament or side with bigots, homophobes and climate change deniers in Europe.”

Source:BBC

Woods aims to win ‘hardest’ major
The PGA Championship, Hazeltine National Golf Club, MinnesotaDate: 13-16 AugCoverage: Live on Radio 5 live and scorecard updates and reports on the BBC website
Tigers Woods believes he will have to beat the strongest field in golf if he is to win his 15th major at this week’s USPGA Championship at Hazeltine.The 33-year-old, who is bidding for his fourth USPGA title, has won his last two events on the PGA Tour. But with almost all of the world’s top 100 set to feature at Hazeltine, the world number one said: “This is the deepest field we get. “If you win this championship you have beaten the best field in all of golf.” Woods has won five tournaments since returning from an eight-month absence in February following reconstructive knee surgery. But he has not won a major in 2009 and missed the cut at the Open. “It’s been a great year either way, for me to come back and play as well as I’ve done,” added Woods, who has not gone through a year without a major victory since 2004.
“I don’t think any of us would have thought I could have won this many events this year. “I’m very proud of not only winning the golf tournaments but how consistent I’ve played. The one bad event I’ve had was missing the cut at the Open.” Woods is in pursuit of Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major titles, while his victory last Sunday at the World Golf Championship took his tally to 70 PGA titles – 12 behind Sam Snead’s record. “Those are numbers that are pretty mind-boggling,” said Woods. “To get up that high, those records don’t happen in the course of a few years. It’s an entire career.” Wood has been paired with defending champion Padraig Harrington and Rich Beem for the first two rounds of the tournament. Beem won the USPGA when it was last held in Hazeltime in 2002, while Woods defeated Harrington by four shots to win last weekend’s World Golf Championship. Harrington started the final round three shots ahead of playing partner Woods but the Irishman’s challenge ended with a triple bogey on the 16th, a hole that saw both men warned for slow play. “The great thing about golf is there’s always next week,” said Harrington as he looked forward to defending his title.
“That’s the fantastic thing. I didn’t sleep great Sunday night. I was tired but I struggled to get to sleep and I woke up early still thinking about it. “But the minute I hit the practice round here I’m thinking about the USPGA. It’s all about the USPGA.” Meanwhile, Woods has denied reports he has been fined by the PGA Tour for remarks he made about European Tour chief referee John Paramor, who issued the slow play warning on Sunday, saying he got “in the way of a great battle”. “I’ve heard from the Tour and there was no fine,” Woods added. “That was an erroneous report.”

Source:BBC

VIENNA – Next month’s tribute to Michael Jackson on the grounds of a 17th century palace in Vienna will feature a three-hour, star-studded show to be televised live to a global audience of 1 billion people, the event promoter said Tuesday.
Georg Kindel of World Awards Media GmbH said negotiations are ongoing with networks over rights to broadcast what’s being billed as Jackson’s main global tribute, and the pop legend’s brother Jermaine is assembling the lineup of about 10 “of the biggest artists of our time.”
“Jermaine thinks maybe 1 billion people will watch the television show,” Kindel said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It will be a very special evening for the millions of fans around the globe.”
Austrian media reported that Madonna, U2, Lionel Richie and Whitney Houston might be among the artists performing 15-20 Jackson hits on a crown-shaped outdoor stage in front of Schoenbrunn Palace. But Kindel said the lineup is still in the works.
“I don’t even know myself” who will take the stage, he said.
The event will be held in the second half of September, he said. Organizers have pledged to announce the date and lineup soon. Tickets go on sale Aug. 20.
Kindel said the show — conceived amid a flurry of events honoring Jackson since his death June 25 in Los Angeles — also will feature family members and unidentified Hollywood stars reminiscing as images and video clips of Jackson are screened.
“It will be about Michael Jackson the man and the humanitarian,” he said, adding that a “significant portion” of the proceeds will benefit several charities, including the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, which helps patients who can’t afford heart surgery.
Kindel said the tribute originally was planned for London’s Wembley Stadium on Aug. 29, which would have been Jackson’s 51st birthday, but that Jermaine Jackson decided instead on Vienna. The singer had been rehearsing for a series of London concerts at the time of his death.
Kindel said the switch took him by surprise: “Everyone was expecting it would be staged maybe in London or New York or Los Angeles,” he said.
Explaining Vienna as a venue, Jermaine Jackson told “Larry King Live” on Friday that his brother loved the city and “loved castles.”
After Kindel organized a Jackson remembrance held last month outside a mothballed nuclear power plant west of Vienna, Jermaine Jackson spent a few hours touring Schoenbrunn, which his brother also had visited.
“He was really fascinated and said, ‘This is a really royal and ideal place for such a tribute to Michael,’” Kindel told the AP.
The majestic yellow palace and its sprawling, sculpted gardens are nothing like Los Angeles’ Staples Center, where a big Jackson memorial was held last month, Kindel said.
“You can’t compare it with a real historic palace which was built hundreds of years ago,” he said in his downtown Vienna office.
“This is not Disneyland,” Kindel said. But he added: “There’s a zoo, there are parks … I think (Michael Jackson) would like the site. It’s a little bit like Neverland, but much bigger.”
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On the Net:
Tribute site, http://www.tribute2009.com
Schoenbrunn Palace, http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en

WASHINGTON – A swastika was found Tuesday painted on a sign outside Rep. David Scott’s district office, an act the Georgia Democrat said reflects an increasingly hateful and racist debate over health care and should serve as a reminder for people to tone down their rhetoric.
Scott’s staff arrived at his Smyrna, Ga., office Tuesday morning to find the Nazi graffiti emblazoned on a sign bearing the lawmaker’s name. The vandalism occurred roughly a week after Scott was involved in a contentious argument over health care at a community meeting.
Scott, who is black, said he also has received mail in recent days that used N-word references to him, and that characterized President Barack Obama as a Marxist.
“We have got to make sure that the symbol of the swastika does not win, that the racial hatred that’s bubbling up does not win this debate,” Scott said in a telephone interview. “There’s so much hatred out there for President (Barack) Obama.”
A moderate Democrat who represents a majority-white district near Atlanta, Scott said he thinks the racism is isolated but can’t be ignored. He said the swastika probably was intended as a warning. He hopes it instead persuades reasonable people to maintain a more substantive debate over health care changes.
“We must not allow it to intimidate us,” he said.
Scott said his office immediately notified authorities, including the U.S. Capitol Police, who have warned lawmakers about potential threats stemming from the increasingly emotional debate over health care reform. An FBI spokesman said the bureau is investigating along with Capitol Police and the Smyrna Police Department.
Scott’s Smyrna office is located in a bank building, so the congressman said he was optimistic that surveillance cameras captured the vandalism.
At an Aug. 1 community meeting in Douglasville, Ga., Scott angrily yelled at protesters who peppered him with questions and complaints about Democratic health care proposals. He has said he was upset that they interrupted a meeting that was supposed to be about plans for a new highway in the area.
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On the Net:
Rep. David Scott: http://davidscott.house.gov/

CHASKA, Minn. – Tiger Woods has said he was not fined by the PGA Tour for his critical remarks about a rules official putting the last group on the clock at Firestone.
A PGA Tour official told The Associated Press on Monday that the world’s No. 1 player would be fined for his comment. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the tour does not publicize fines.
A section of the PGA Tour handbook says “it is an obligation of membership to refrain from comments to the news media that unreasonably attack or disparage tournaments, sponsors, fellow members, players or PGA Tour.”
“I’ve heard from the tour and there’s no fine,” Woods said. “That was an erroneous report.”
Woods was annoyed after his four-shot victory Sunday because he and Padraig Harrington were put on the clock after walking off the tee at the par-5 16th.
He said that caused Harrington to rush three difficult shots, leading to triple bogey that effectively ended the tournament.
European Tour chief referee John Paramor told Woods and Harrington they were being timed.
Woods said he told Harrington after it was over, “I’m sorry that John got in the way of a great battle.”
Asked Tuesday if he regretted making the issue personal by calling out Paramor, Woods said, “No. Because he’s the one who did it.”
Woods said he can appreciate the job of a rules official, and “that’s why I thought they would have used better judgment on that.”
“As I said, we were the ones that were probably going to win the golf tournament in the last group. We separated ourselves,” Woods said. “And after what Paddy went through, we were still right there behind the group in front of us. So I don’t know if the group in front of us was being timed or not. They didn’t look like they were rushing. But it certainly influenced us in how we played and influenced the outcome of a tournament.”
While the PGA Tour does not discuss fines, spokesman Ty Votaw confirmed that Woods has not been fined.
“The information that was conveyed to the reporter was inaccurate,” Votaw said. “There has been no process started with respect to any disciplinary action. Based on the reports we have read, Tiger’s comments related to the impact of the decision. We did not read them as being an unreasonable attack or disparaging.”
Harrington said he did not read or hear of Woods’ remark in his defense and couldn’t comment. He continued to blame himself for failing to keep it in the fairway, which required more thought over how to escape trouble.
“I reacted poorly to the situation, and that’s my own fault,” Harrington said.
Later, however, he said Woods was in a better position to speak his mind having won the tournament.
“He can take the moral high ground and say what he wants,” Harrington said. “Having lost the tournament … I’m going to take it on the chin and say it was my mistake.”

LEBANON, Pa. – Voter fears of a government takeover of health care and rampant costs were on stark display Tuesday at a longtime senator’s noisy town hall, a session that underscored the challenge for President Barack Obama and Democrats in overhauling the nation’s system.
Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter faced hostile questions, taunts and jeers as he gamely tried to explain his positions. It was likely a moment of deja vu for the five-term lawmaker facing a tough re-election next year. Just a week ago, Specter encountered a tough crowd at a Philadelphia town hall.
At a crowded community college, Specter heard from speaker after speaker who accused him of trampling on their constitutional rights, adding to the federal deficit or allowing government bureaucrats to take over health care.
“You’ll be gone, by God the bureaucrats will still be here,” said one man.
“My children and grandchildren are going to pay for this,” said another.
“One day God will stand before you and judge you!” shouted a third man before security guards approached and he left the room.
Specter said he wouldn’t vote for a bill that adds to the deficit. He also said he wouldn’t support a bill that extends coverage to illegal immigrants. None of the bills in Congress would provide health insurance to illegal immigrants.
Specter explained repeatedly that there is no single Senate bill yet for him to talk about since the Finance Committee hasn’t finished writing one. That explanation was usually met by boos from the crowd. Many had read portions of a bill passed by three committees in the House and tried to get Specter to respond to that.
One woman tried to make it personal for Specter, alleging the Democrats’ plan would not provide care to a man in his 70s with cancer, like Specter had.
“You’re here because of the plan we have now,” she said.
Specter showed some heat at that.
“Well you’re just not right,” he said. He called her claim a “vicious, malicious” rumor.
The passions of the crowd illustrated the problems for Democratic lawmakers around the country as they try to use the monthlong August recess to promote Obama’s health care overhaul agenda. There’s not a single plan to promote, which Specter later told reporters made his job harder, along with the complexity of the issue. The House bill is more than 1,000 pages long.
And, Specter said: “The objectors have gotten ahead of the curve.” Asked why, he cited talk radio, among other factors.
Democrats are trying desperately to regain control of the debate, with the White House posting a new Web site designed to dispel what it called “the misinformation and baseless smears that are cropping up daily.” House Democratic aides have set up a health care war room out of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office designed to help lawmakers answer questions about the legislation.
Though his popularity is slipping in polls, Obama himself is repeatedly trying to make the case to the public for passage of comprehensive legislation this year to bring down costs and extend coverage to many of the 50 million uninsured.
Specter said that in a long life in politics he hadn’t seen anything like what he witnessed Tuesday and at a town hall last weekend that turned even uglier.
“There is more anger in America today than at any time I can remember,” Specter said.
Many in the crowd said they came of their own accord, and several told Specter they objected to Democrats characterizing them as mobs or organized opposition shipped in by lobbyists or the Republican Party. National conservative groups are encouraging people to attend town halls, but liberal groups are doing the same — with less apparent success.
Several in the crowd wore T-shirts proclaiming: “Proud Member of the Mob.”

NEW YORK – The former chief financial officer for Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy, admitting he helped Madoff carry out a massive fraud that cost thousands of people billions of dollars by lying to investors and testifying falsely when it seemed the fraud might be discovered.
“I was loyal to him. I ended up being loyal to a terrible, terrible fault,” Frank DiPascali said as he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to charges including securities fraud, falsifying records and international money laundering.
Afterward, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan surprised the defendant, prosecutors and a defense lawyer by ordering DiPascali jailed, a rarity for someone in a white-collar case who had pleaded guilty with a cooperation deal.
Sullivan said he may later reconsider his decision to jail the 52-year-old DePascali but felt compelled to keep him locked up after he had admitted that he lied to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2006 when he thought they might discover the fraud and that he lied repeatedly “to people who entrusted him with their life savings.”
The judge jailed him despite a request by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt that he be kept free or under house arrest to assist investigators studying millions of pages of documents and data that he is familiar with. His lawyer, Marc Mukasey, said his client was “completely unprepared for this.”
The cooperation deal may still earn him leniency against charges which carry a potential penalty of up to 125 years in prison at a sentencing that will not occur before May 2010.
Madoff is serving 150 years in prison for a Ponzi scheme that demolished thousands of people’s life savings, wrecked charities and shook confidence in the financial system.
Customers say DiPascali was their main contact with Madoff’s firm, a fact he admitted as he confessed to the 10 charges contained in a criminal information charging document.
His admission provided a wider understanding of how the fraud took place than had emerged during Madoff’s statements in court.
DiPascali said he began working for Madoff in 1975 — just after he finished high school — and had joined Madoff in his fraud by the 1980s or early 1990s, when he knew that he and Madoff were promising investors that transactions were being made which were not.
DiPascali says the transactions were “all fake. It was all fictitious. It was wrong, and I knew it was wrong at the time.”
DiPascali said he thought “for a long time” that Madoff had other assets to cover the claims of any investors who might demand their money back.
“That’s not an excuse. I knew everything I was doing was wrong and criminal,” he said.
He added: “I don’t know how I went from an 18-year-old kid who just happened to have a job to someone standing before you today.”
Mariam Siegman, who described herself as a 65-year-old Madoff victim, was the only victim to take up Judge Richard Sullivan’s invitation to speak at the hearing.
She said she opposed acceptance of the plea because it prevents a trial and “the kind of justice that allows truth to be spoken out loud in a courtroom.”
The judge said that he did not believe “the quest for truth ends today” and that he expected to learn much more before the 2010 sentencing.
“There will be more information and the court will sentence on the basis of additional information,” Sullivan said.
Customers say that for decades DiPascali answered their questions about their accounts with Madoff’s firm and helped them if they wanted to add or withdraw money.
He and Madoff came from the same part of Queens, and DiPascali’s first job was as Madoff’s assistant. In the 1980s, DiPascali held titles with Madoff’s firm including director of research and director of options trading. Since 1996, he had been the firm’s chief financial officer.
During his guilty plea in March, Madoff insisted that he acted alone. Only one other person — his accountant — had been charged during the seven-month investigation before the charges were revealed against DiPascali.
The conspiracy charge against DiPascali and his cooperation deal are likely to increase speculation that investigators might learn who carried out the details of the multi-decade fraud that led thousands of investors to sink at least 13 billion into Madoff’s firm to lose all.
Madoff had told investors late last year that their accounts contained nearly 65 billion, when he actually had only several million dollars left of their money.
Since Madoff revealed the fraud to his sons in early December and was arrested by FBI agents, investigators have looked into the actions of his wife, Ruth, his brother and two sons, who ran a trading operation under the same roof, and other insiders. No other Madoff family members have been charged.
The FBI has said it expects more arrests before it concludes the probe.

NEWPORT, R.I. – Tony Bennett and Dave Brubeck spun some of their old magic when they performed together for only the second time in their 60-plus-year careers.
Brubeck closed his set at the George Wein’s CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 at Newport, R.I., on Sunday with his quartet’s classic “Take Five,” which he recorded 50 years ago. A few songs into Bennett’s set, Brubeck returned to the stage at Fort Adams State Park to perform with the singer for the first time in 47 years.
“We decided to do a Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer song called `That Old Black Magic,’” said Bennett in an interview Sunday. “Harold Arlen is my favorite composer through the years … It’s one of the great jazz songs of all time.”
That was also the same tune that Bennett sang with Brubeck’s quartet outside the White House on Aug. 28, 1962 — a recording included on compilation albums by both artists. Although they were friends and labelmates at Columbia Records that was their only performance together until Newport.
The inspiration for their second performance came from documentary filmmaker Bruce Ricker. Ricker learned that the two music legends were performing back-to-back sets Sunday at the close of George Wein’s CareFusion Jazz Festival 55 at Newport, R.I.
Ricker had already done a film on Bennett, and was working on separate documentaries about Brubeck and Johnny Mercer (marking the centennial of the lyricist’s birth). Clint Eastwood, an avid jazz fan, has been involved both off and on screen as a producer and presenter.
“Clint Eastwood was pushing for this … and Bruce finally got everybody together. … You don’t want to mess with Clint,” laughed the 88-year-old Brubeck, in a telephone interview Monday from his home in western Connecticut.
Brubeck said he thought the performance turned out well, especially since there was no rehearsal and little talk before the pair went on stage.
“You’re taking a lot of chances when you do something in front of such a critical public without time to run down with everybody. … You feel very elated that it all came off.”
Brubeck rarely plays behind singers now, but earlier in his career he recorded with Carmen McRae and Louis Armstrong, among others,
Bennett got a thrill from playing with Brubeck.
“What I loved about it was he’s such an inspiration to me,” the 83-year-old Bennett said. “He shows me that I’m still learning, that we are not finished yet and he is such a great teacher.”
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On the Net:

http://www.tonybennett.net

htpp://http://www.davebrubeck.com

Murray eases through in Montreal
Andy Murray eased past Jeremy Chardy on his return to action to reach the third round of the Montreal Masters.Playing for the first time since Wimbledon, the Scot always looked in control, beating the Frenchman 6-4 6-2. Murray broke Chardy in the first game of the match and never looked troubled as the opening set went with serve. The third seed broke again in the first game of the second set and continued his dominance to book a date with Gael Monfils or Juan Carlos Ferrero. Having not played a competitive match since his Wimbledon semi-final defeat by Andy Roddick in July, it was a satisfactory comeback for Murray as he launched his hard-court season. “I shanked a few returns,” he said afterwards. “I’m hoping that will get better with a few matches. I retrieved well, tried to keep the ball low over the net and he made a few more errors than I did. It’s just match sharpness that I need to work on. Overall, I’m pleased with the state of my game right now.” The British number one, stepping up his preparation for the US Open which starts on 31 August, served consistently against his opponent who looked slightly overwhelmed on the Central Court.
Despite only breaking Chardy’s serve once in the first set, Murray never looked in any danger as his opponent made a string of unforced errors. Murray, who has been on a two-week training camp in Miami prior to the tournament, looked fit and in form despite lacking a cutting edge as he missed three more break points in the first set. The world number three threatened to run away with the second set as he immediately broke Chardy’s serve before holding his own. A second break from Murray in the seventh game put the Scot in position to win the match which, after Chardy had taken him to deuce, he duly served out. Murray could go into the US Open ranked second in the world if he manages to win the tournament in Montreal. He could also improve his ranking if he reaches the semi-finals in Canada and current number two Rafael Nadal loses in the second or third round, or if Murray features in the final and the Spaniard does not.

Calculations also show Murray could move up if Roger Federer advances further than Nadal this week, but the Scot insists he is not overly concerned about the rankings. “I obviously want to try to improve my ranking as much as possible and when I have got the opportunity I would love to do it. “But it is in the back of my mind and I am not focusing on it too much. I am just trying to play good tennis. “Rafa’s missed quite a bit of tennis and if I get the opportunity [to move up] I would like to try to maintain it, and not just stay there for a couple of weeks.” In the day’s first-round matches Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Lleyton Hewitt 6-1 6-4, while Tommy Robredo of Spain defeated American Alex Bogomolov 6-4 6-2, and Romanian Victor Hanescu beat Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-4 6-3.

Source:BBC

DEAR ABBY: My 18-year-old sister, “Cheryl,” left home abruptly a week ago. She suddenly stopped taking all her medications, shut off her cell phone and left town with her underage boyfriend. She is a delightful person who also happens to be diabetic, asthmatic and bipolar. Mom received one phone call (from a landline) mentioning that she “might” be heading toward the East Coast.
I consider my sister dangerous to herself and others because she has a history of reckless violence when she’s off her meds. My question is, how can you find someone who doesn’t want to be found when they NEED to be found? — HEARTBROKEN SISTER IN INDIANA
DEAR SISTER: If you think YOU are worried, what about the parents of the underage boy? Your next step should be to contact them and also your mother, so that all of you can notify the police and report them missing. And when you do, be sure to inform them that your sister has several conditions that require medications, that she’s off all of them and could be a danger to herself and the young man. Then cross your fingers.
DEAR ABBY: I have recently met a woman I really connect with, but I have a problem with settling down. I have always had difficulty restricting myself to one person when I’m seriously dating. I want to change so my lifestyle won’t come back and bite me in the butt — but I’m not sure what to do.
What I’m asking is, what do you suggest for someone like me to get comfortable with the idea of settling down so that I won’t be destined for failure? — UNSURE IN RICHMOND, VA.
DEAR UNSURE: Slow down. You may have been dating the wrong women. When two people are truly compatible, there is less temptation to look for other company. Take things slowly and get to know the lady you’re currently dating. If she qualifies in all the areas you think are important and you still find yourself looking around for something in addition, then you may have a problem and should talk to a therapist because no one woman can ever completely satisfy a man who craves variety.
DEAR ABBY: My father, who is in bad health, recently announced that he would like to be cremated and buried at the foot of my mother’s grave. My birth mother died 28 years ago when I was 2, after they had been married only three years.
Dad married my stepmother when I was 8. I feel he should be buried with the wife he’s been with for 22 years. She is the one who has seen him through the worst times in his life, his heart attack and stroke. My stepmother seems to have no negative feelings about it.
Am I wrong for thinking that a husband and wife should lie side-by-side when their time comes — with a single headstone with their names and dates of birth/death/marriage? Or is there some tradition I don’t know about that he should be buried with his first wife? — ENQUIRING IN CLARKSTON, WASH.
DEAR ENQUIRING: Your stepmother is realistic and unsentimental. She knows your father was married before, and they may have discussed this between the two of them. Perhaps she feels that because your father prefers to be interred with your mother, that’s where he belongs. Your stepmother had him during the most important years — while he was living and breathing. And who knows? She may marry again, so think positively.
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
To order “How to Write Letters for All Occasions,” send a business-sized, self-addressed envelope, plus check or money order for 6 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby — Letter Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Postage is included in the price.)

JOLIET, Ill. – Drowsy spectators in one Will County courtroom might want to stifle their yawns. A 33-year-old suburban Chicago man is facing six months in jail for yawning in Judge Daniel Rozak’s court last month. Clifton Williams will serve at least 21 days for stretching and yawning as his cousin was being sentenced for a drug charge.
A prosecutor in the courtroom at the time described the offending yawn as “loud and boisterous.” But Williams’ cousin says it wasn’t “outrageous.”
Rozak found Williams in contempt of court and had him jailed on July 23. Six months is the maximum sentence judges can give for criminal contempt without a jury trial.
Williams has written his family that he can’t believe he’s in jail.