wmldswlxh

<div class="nbaStoryText">
<p><strong id="nbaOpeningText">DALLAS — </strong>A  fellow would have to be a pretty good pitcher to go 28 starts

across  three major league seasons without winning a game. <a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com">Women nike

free run&nbsp;</a> And a team would have  to be pretty good to blow a double-digit lead late in a game of the NBA 

Finals.</p>
<p>Just as Toronto Blue Jays hurler Jo-Jo Reyes couldn't  have stuck around through his awkward victory drought

that mercifully  ended the other night with a rout of Cleveland, the Miami Heat — like  every other team that has

lost control, hit the wall, spit the bit and  seen a sure thing snatched away in The Finals — couldn't have been

in  position to blow Game 2 against the Dallas Mavericks Thursday night  without doing an awful lot right prior to

their trap-door moment.</p>
<div class="IEContainerRinline">
<div class="IErow">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Your browser does not support iframes.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</div>
</div>
<p>Miami put itself in position to squander its 15-point  lead over the final seven minutes by A) getting to The

Finals in the  first place, with its clincher over Chicago in the East coming on a  similar 18-3 snatchback in the

closing minutes, and B) building the  88-73 cushion over the Mavericks.</p>
<p>No one but the Mavericks knew they were going to put the <em>whoopee!</em> in that cushion.</p>
<p>"No matter what happens in the game,&nbsp; <a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com">nike free run shoes</a>

we're going to play until it ends," Dallas center Tyson Chandler said that night.</p>
<p>And  just how did Chandler and his teammates learn that lesson? They had  been on the wrong side of Portland's

comeback from 24 points down in the  first round. The Mavs drew on that the night they dug out of a 16-point  hole

against the Lakers in the next round.</p>
<p>"When we pulled our  first comeback," Chandler said, "we came to the bench and said, 'Listen,  if it could

happen to us, it could happen to somebody else.' "</p>
<p>So  it has gone through the ages, with good teams dominating for some part  or even most of Finals game, only to

have the lead and the outcome  slip-slash-snatched away. Sometimes the disappointed team gets lucky and  squanders

only that one game. Other times, it leads to a squandered  series — or it happens in the final game, at which

point there is zero  chance of coming back from the other guys' comeback.</p>
<p>And that  really is the proper term for it: Comeback. A half-full perspective  seems appropriate at this point.

Collapses happen to lottery teams.</p>
<p>So here, in chronological order, are some of the greatest comebacks in Finals history:</p>
<p><strong>1948: Baltimore vs. Philadelphia, Game 2</strong></p>
<p>The  Bullets, refugees from the old American League who had found a new home  with the big boys of basketball,

trailed by 21 points at halftime of  Game 2 against Philadelphia. "In those days, if you got behind that far,  the

game was over," Baltimore player-coach Buddy Jeannette recalled  much later. "There was no 24-second clock to help

you come back."</p>
<p>But  the Bullets methodically worked their way back, and the Warriors' Joe  Fulks uncharacteristically started

missing shots. A 20-7 run in the  third quarter got Baltimore within 48-40, and from there, the  Philadelphia fans

sat stunned as the Bullets went on for a 66-63 victory  that propelled them to the championship in six games.</p>
<p><strong>1970: New York vs. Los Angeles, Game 5</strong></p>
<p>Everyone  remembers Game 7 or, at least, <a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com">nike&nbsp; free run</a> the

first few minutes before and into  Game 7 when Willis Reed hobbled through the tunnel and hit his first two  shots

in his defining "Captain" moment. But that doesn't happen if New  York doesn't survive Game 5 without Reed.</p>
<p>The Knicks center had  fallen while shooting and left with a leg injury just eight minutes into  the game at

Madison Square Garden. The Lakers pounced and opened a lead  of 16 points in the third quarter, until Knicks coach

Red Holzman's  pressure defense and the players' drive to "win one for the Captain"  took over. New York got L.A.

to cough up 19 turnovers in the second  half, Bill Bradley's shot tied it at 87-87 and the Knicks pulled away  for

a 107-100 victory. They couldn't win Game 6 for Reed back in L.A.  but did win the series clincher with him, in

that famous cameo  appearance.</p>
<p><strong>1975: Golden State vs. Washington, Game 4</strong></p>
<p>OK,  maybe there was a little bit of collapse in this one, but only from the  standpoint that Washington — in

beating Boston to reach The Finals –  was considered a far superior team to Golden State and a heavy favorite  to

win the NBA title. Except that the Warriors, while lacking star power  besides forward Rick Barry, were a true team

and were dedicated to  defense.</p>
<p>The Bullets had built and lost a lead of 13 points in  Game 2, so what happened a few nights later when they

already were down  0-3 in the series couldn't have been too surprising. Golden State  trailed by 14 points this

time, but scratched back with defense and  Butch Beard's hot hand in scoring his team's final seven points in the 

96-95 finale. The Warriors swept Washington but won the four games by a  total margin of 16 points.</p>
<p><strong>1983: Philadelphia vs. L.A. Lakers</strong></p>
<p>This  was a series of comebacks, all by Philadelphia near the end of its  famous "Fo, Fi, Fo" playoff run

(center Moses Malone had predicted that  the 76ers would sweep through the postseason but they actually dropped 

one game to Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference finals). The Lakers were  hurt by injuries to Norm Nixon and Bob

McAdoo, but Philadelphia's  dominance and resilience were hard to deny.</p>
<p>The Lakers led each  game at halftime, only to get caught and passed by Malone, Julius  Erving, Maurice Cheeks

and the rest. In the fourth and final game, the  Sixers found themselves down by 16 points, which they whittled to 

106-104 late. Out of a timeout, Erving got a steal and a dunk, then  followed with a 3-point play and a one-hander

from the perimeter. They  won at the Forum 115-108.</p>
<p><strong>1992: Chicago vs. Portland, Game 6</strong></p>
<div class="IEContainerRinline">
<div class="IErow">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Your browser does not support iframes.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</div>
</div>
<p>The Chicago Bulls always seemed to toy with The Finals a  little, never needing a Game 7 in their dual three-

peats but  occasionally looking as if they might get pushed to one. That surely was  the case against Portland,

with the Blazers up by 15 points to start  the fourth quarter and Michael Jordan sitting on the bench at Chicago 

Stadium.</p>
<p>But it was the Bulls' other Hall of Famer from that  squad, <a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com">nike free

2011</a> Scottie Pippen, who got his team back into the game. Pippen, on  his way to 26 points, sparked the Chicago

rally and then Jordan sealed  it. He got the Bulls in front with a steal and a dunk, and scored twice  more in the

final minute of the 97-93 victory.</p>
<p><strong>1995: Houston vs. Orlando, Game 1</strong></p>
<p>Nick  Anderson would appreciate it if more people thought about this as a  comeback game by the Rockets. Too

many, for Anderson's liking anyway,  recall it as the game in which the Orlando guard missed four free throws  in

the final minute of regulation.</p>
<p>The fact is, Houston needed to  overcome an early 20-point deficit to even put Anderson in a position  to, er,

struggle. Guard Kenny Smith hit seven 3-pointers to bring  Houston back and push the game into overtime, and then

Hall of Fame  center Hakeem Olajuwon got the tip-in in the final second to win it.  This was the start of a sweep,

with Houston winning its second  consecutive NBA title and the Magic getting their only Finals trip with a  young

Shaquille O'Neal.</p>
<p><strong>2006: Miami vs. Dallas, Game 3</strong></p>
<div class="IEContainerRinline">
<div class="IErow">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Your browser does not support iframes.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</div>
</div>
<p>It happened five years ago, but this game got a lot of  attention the other night in Miami when some media folks

referenced it  in the wake of Dallas' comeback in Game 2. The situation was reversed  and not quite as deep into

The Finals, and the real similarities won't  be known until this 2011 version plays out. But still, same teams,

same  stunning turnaround.</p>
<p>The Mavericks had taken a 2-0 lead in the  series at home and, in Miami for Game 3, led 89-76 with 6:33 left to 

play. The series would not be heading back to Texas, it seemed. Then  everything changed, fueled by Dwyane Wade

scoring 12 of his game-high 42  points to lead Miami on a 22-7 run to close the game. Aging Gary Payton  made the

winning jumper that broke a 95-95 tie with nine seconds left  and Dirk Nowitzki missed one of two free throws in a

chance to force OT.  Thus propelled, Miami then won the next three for its first NBA  championship.</p>
<p><strong>2008: Boston vs. L.A. Lakers, Game 4</strong></p>
<div class="IEContainerRinline">
<div class="IErow">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Your browser does not support iframes.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</div>
</div>
<p>Los Angeles seemed certain to even this Finals at two  games each when it opened a 24-point lead in the first

half against old  rival Boston. But what once was a 45-21 advantage got obliterated when  the Celtics outscored the

Lakers the rest of the way, 76-46.</p>
<p>In  Game 2, <a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com">nike free run</a> the Lakers had cut a 21-point Boston

lead down to two points  before falling short. But the Celtics finished the job, outscoring the  home team 31-15 in

the third quarter and then using all the arrows in  coach Doc Rivers' quiver to get completely back in the fourth.

James  Posey scored 18 off the bench for Boston, Eddie House hit a pair of key  3-pointers, and Ray Allen converted

a layup that sealed the victory. The  Lakers won Game 5 at Staples Center but went all the way to Boston to  suffer

a 39-point spanking in the Celtics' championship clincher two  days later.</p>
<p><em>Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA for 25 years. You can e-mail him </em><em>here</em><em> and

</em><a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com"><em>follow him on twitter</em></a><em>. </em></p>
<p><em>The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner

Broadcasting.</em></p>
</div>

<div class="nbaStoryText">
<p><strong id="nbaOpeningText">DALLAS — </strong>A  fellow would have to be a pretty good pitcher to go 28 starts

across  three major league seasons without winning a game. <a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com">Women nike

free run&nbsp;</a> And a team would have  to be pretty good to blow a double-digit lead late in a game of the NBA 

Finals.</p>
<p>Just as Toronto Blue Jays hurler Jo-Jo Reyes couldn't  have stuck around through his awkward victory drought

that mercifully  ended the other night with a rout of Cleveland, the Miami Heat — like  every other team that has

lost control, hit the wall, spit the bit and  seen a sure thing snatched away in The Finals — couldn't have been

in  position to blow Game 2 against the Dallas Mavericks Thursday night  without doing an awful lot right prior to

their trap-door moment.</p>
<div class="IEContainerRinline">
<div class="IErow">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Your browser does not support iframes.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</div>
</div>
<p>Miami put itself in position to squander its 15-point  lead over the final seven minutes by A) getting to The

Finals in the  first place, with its clincher over Chicago in the East coming on a  similar 18-3 snatchback in the

closing minutes, and B) building the  88-73 cushion over the Mavericks.</p>
<p>No one but the Mavericks knew they were going to put the <em>whoopee!</em> in that cushion.</p>
<p>"No matter what happens in the game,&nbsp; <a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com">nike free run shoes</a>

we're going to play until it ends," Dallas center Tyson Chandler said that night.</p>
<p>And  just how did Chandler and his teammates learn that lesson? They had  been on the wrong side of Portland's

comeback from 24 points down in the  first round. The Mavs drew on that the night they dug out of a 16-point  hole

against the Lakers in the next round.</p>
<p>"When we pulled our  first comeback," Chandler said, "we came to the bench and said, 'Listen,  if it could

happen to us, it could happen to somebody else.' "</p>
<p>So  it has gone through the ages, with good teams dominating for some part  or even most of Finals game, only to

have the lead and the outcome  slip-slash-snatched away. Sometimes the disappointed team gets lucky and  squanders

only that one game. Other times, it leads to a squandered  series — or it happens in the final game, at which

point there is zero  chance of coming back from the other guys' comeback.</p>
<p>And that  really is the proper term for it: Comeback. A half-full perspective  seems appropriate at this point.

Collapses happen to lottery teams.</p>
<p>So here, in chronological order, are some of the greatest comebacks in Finals history:</p>
<p><strong>1948: Baltimore vs. Philadelphia, Game 2</strong></p>
<p>The  Bullets, refugees from the old American League who had found a new home  with the big boys of basketball,

trailed by 21 points at halftime of  Game 2 against Philadelphia. "In those days, if you got behind that far,  the

game was over," Baltimore player-coach Buddy Jeannette recalled  much later. "There was no 24-second clock to help

you come back."</p>
<p>But  the Bullets methodically worked their way back, and the Warriors' Joe  Fulks uncharacteristically started

missing shots. A 20-7 run in the  third quarter got Baltimore within 48-40, and from there, the  Philadelphia fans

sat stunned as the Bullets went on for a 66-63 victory  that propelled them to the championship in six games.</p>
<p><strong>1970: New York vs. Los Angeles, Game 5</strong></p>
<p>Everyone  remembers Game 7 or, at least, <a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com">nike&nbsp; free run</a> the

first few minutes before and into  Game 7 when Willis Reed hobbled through the tunnel and hit his first two  shots

in his defining "Captain" moment. But that doesn't happen if New  York doesn't survive Game 5 without Reed.</p>
<p>The Knicks center had  fallen while shooting and left with a leg injury just eight minutes into  the game at

Madison Square Garden. The Lakers pounced and opened a lead  of 16 points in the third quarter, until Knicks coach

Red Holzman's  pressure defense and the players' drive to "win one for the Captain"  took over. New York got L.A.

to cough up 19 turnovers in the second  half, Bill Bradley's shot tied it at 87-87 and the Knicks pulled away  for

a 107-100 victory. They couldn't win Game 6 for Reed back in L.A.  but did win the series clincher with him, in

that famous cameo  appearance.</p>
<p><strong>1975: Golden State vs. Washington, Game 4</strong></p>
<p>OK,  maybe there was a little bit of collapse in this one, but only from the  standpoint that Washington — in

beating Boston to reach The Finals –  was considered a far superior team to Golden State and a heavy favorite  to

win the NBA title. Except that the Warriors, while lacking star power  besides forward Rick Barry, were a true team

and were dedicated to  defense.</p>
<p>The Bullets had built and lost a lead of 13 points in  Game 2, so what happened a few nights later when they

already were down  0-3 in the series couldn't have been too surprising. Golden State  trailed by 14 points this

time, but scratched back with defense and  Butch Beard's hot hand in scoring his team's final seven points in the 

96-95 finale. The Warriors swept Washington but won the four games by a  total margin of 16 points.</p>
<p><strong>1983: Philadelphia vs. L.A. Lakers</strong></p>
<p>This  was a series of comebacks, all by Philadelphia near the end of its  famous "Fo, Fi, Fo" playoff run

(center Moses Malone had predicted that  the 76ers would sweep through the postseason but they actually dropped 

one game to Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference finals). The Lakers were  hurt by injuries to Norm Nixon and Bob

McAdoo, but Philadelphia's  dominance and resilience were hard to deny.</p>
<p>The Lakers led each  game at halftime, only to get caught and passed by Malone, Julius  Erving, Maurice Cheeks

and the rest. In the fourth and final game, the  Sixers found themselves down by 16 points, which they whittled to 

106-104 late. Out of a timeout, Erving got a steal and a dunk, then  followed with a 3-point play and a one-hander

from the perimeter. They  won at the Forum 115-108.</p>
<p><strong>1992: Chicago vs. Portland, Game 6</strong></p>
<div class="IEContainerRinline">
<div class="IErow">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Your browser does not support iframes.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</div>
</div>
<p>The Chicago Bulls always seemed to toy with The Finals a  little, never needing a Game 7 in their dual three-

peats but  occasionally looking as if they might get pushed to one. That surely was  the case against Portland,

with the Blazers up by 15 points to start  the fourth quarter and Michael Jordan sitting on the bench at Chicago 

Stadium.</p>
<p>But it was the Bulls' other Hall of Famer from that  squad, <a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com">nike free

2011</a> Scottie Pippen, who got his team back into the game. Pippen, on  his way to 26 points, sparked the Chicago

rally and then Jordan sealed  it. He got the Bulls in front with a steal and a dunk, and scored twice  more in the

final minute of the 97-93 victory.</p>
<p><strong>1995: Houston vs. Orlando, Game 1</strong></p>
<p>Nick  Anderson would appreciate it if more people thought about this as a  comeback game by the Rockets. Too

many, for Anderson's liking anyway,  recall it as the game in which the Orlando guard missed four free throws  in

the final minute of regulation.</p>
<p>The fact is, Houston needed to  overcome an early 20-point deficit to even put Anderson in a position  to, er,

struggle. Guard Kenny Smith hit seven 3-pointers to bring  Houston back and push the game into overtime, and then

Hall of Fame  center Hakeem Olajuwon got the tip-in in the final second to win it.  This was the start of a sweep,

with Houston winning its second  consecutive NBA title and the Magic getting their only Finals trip with a  young

Shaquille O'Neal.</p>
<p><strong>2006: Miami vs. Dallas, Game 3</strong></p>
<div class="IEContainerRinline">
<div class="IErow">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Your browser does not support iframes.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</div>
</div>
<p>It happened five years ago, but this game got a lot of  attention the other night in Miami when some media folks

referenced it  in the wake of Dallas' comeback in Game 2. The situation was reversed  and not quite as deep into

The Finals, and the real similarities won't  be known until this 2011 version plays out. But still, same teams,

same  stunning turnaround.</p>
<p>The Mavericks had taken a 2-0 lead in the  series at home and, in Miami for Game 3, led 89-76 with 6:33 left to 

play. The series would not be heading back to Texas, it seemed. Then  everything changed, fueled by Dwyane Wade

scoring 12 of his game-high 42  points to lead Miami on a 22-7 run to close the game. Aging Gary Payton  made the

winning jumper that broke a 95-95 tie with nine seconds left  and Dirk Nowitzki missed one of two free throws in a

chance to force OT.  Thus propelled, Miami then won the next three for its first NBA  championship.</p>
<p><strong>2008: Boston vs. L.A. Lakers, Game 4</strong></p>
<div class="IEContainerRinline">
<div class="IErow">&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Your browser does not support iframes.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</div>
</div>
<p>Los Angeles seemed certain to even this Finals at two  games each when it opened a 24-point lead in the first

half against old  rival Boston. But what once was a 45-21 advantage got obliterated when  the Celtics outscored the

Lakers the rest of the way, 76-46.</p>
<p>In  Game 2, <a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com">nike free run</a> the Lakers had cut a 21-point Boston

lead down to two points  before falling short. But the Celtics finished the job, outscoring the  home team 31-15 in

the third quarter and then using all the arrows in  coach Doc Rivers' quiver to get completely back in the fourth.

James  Posey scored 18 off the bench for Boston, Eddie House hit a pair of key  3-pointers, and Ray Allen converted

a layup that sealed the victory. The  Lakers won Game 5 at Staples Center but went all the way to Boston to  suffer

a 39-point spanking in the Celtics' championship clincher two  days later.</p>
<p><em>Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA for 25 years. You can e-mail him </em><em>here</em><em> and

</em><a href="http://www.nikefreeruncheap.com"><em>follow him on twitter</em></a><em>. </em></p>
<p><em>The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner

Broadcasting.</em></p>
</div>

Li Na beat defending champion Francesca Schiavone to take the French Open women’s title, becoming the first Chinese player to win a Grand Slam tennis singles final.

Li, 29, defeated the Italian, 6-4, 7-6 (7-0) on Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros in Paris.

Chinese women had won Olympic gold medals and Grand Slam titles in doubles. In January, Li became the first Asian player to reach a major championship match at the Australian Open, where she lost to Kim Clijsters of Belgium.

The sixth-seeded Li, who was introduced to tennis at age 9 in Wuhan, China, after playing badminton for two years, had defeated three-time major champion Maria Sharapova of Russia in the semifinals to become the first Chinese player to reach a Roland Garros singles final.

“She tried to come back,” Li said at the side of the court. “I needed to stand up and make it. Everyone must be so excited” in China.

Her progress at the French Open was closely followed by Chinese media and state-run China Central Television. After her match against Sharapova, which was watched by the Chinese ambassador to France, the Shanghai-based Oriental Daily said Li was the ‘Number One Sister’ of Chinese sport. Her win over the former top-ranked Russian was watched by as many as 65 million viewers in China, according to the French Open website.

“You couldn’t push her forward from the baseline,” Schiavone said at the side of the court. “She deserved to win.”

Li is part of a generation of women’s tennis players from China who were nicknamed the “Golden Flowers” by state media after Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian won the women’s doubles gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

In 2006, Zheng Jie and Yan Zi became the country’s first Grand Slam champions, taking the women’s doubles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Zheng and Yan got a bronze medal in the women’s doubles. China now has four women inside the top 100.

Slump After Melbourne

Li’s run in Australia contributed to a slump of form in the following months because of increased off-court demands on her time, she said in an interview at the Foro Italico in Rome two weeks before Roland Garros. After Melbourne, Li lost in the opening round of her next four tournaments.

Her play improved when she started working with Denmark’s Federation Cup coach, Michael Mortensen, during the European clay-court season. She made the semifinals of tournaments in Madrid and Rome on clay, a slow surface she had never played on while learning the game in China.

The women’s tournament was marked by early exits of the top seeds. The second-seeded Clijsters lost in the second round, top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark was beaten in the third round and No. 3 Vera Zvonareva of Russia lost in the fourth round.

Williams Sisters

Serena and Venus Williams, the American sisters who have won 20 Grand Slam singles titles between them, were absent from Roland Garros because of injuries, while four-time champion Justine Henin of Belgium retired after the Australian Open with an elbow injury.

As many as 65 million people watched Li’s first Grand Slam final appearance in Melbourne on television in China, nike free run the women’s WTA tour said at the time. The tour last year estimated that 14 million people in China regularly play tennis, up from 1 million when the sport returned to the Olympics in 1988.

Li hoped her performance in Paris would inspire young children in China to pick up a racket and start playing.

“When I was young, I never had a chance to watch tennis,” Li said in a news conference in Paris. “But it is getting better because now the young players, they can see me on TV.”

In years past, this marked the week golf season truly got under way.

That’s a moving target, of course. Greg Norman, in his heyday, liked to say the season didn’t really begin until the Florida swing. Then again, Norman’s longchamp outlet West Coast portfolio was limited mostly to the Tournament of Champions and an occasional Pebble Beach appearance.

For a new generation, Torrey Pines brought Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson out of offseason hibernation. OK, preseason over.

This year, though, it feels like they’re late leaving the gate.

Maybe it’s the melding golf calendar in which the tournament-free window now lasts about as long as it takes to recite “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” More likely it’s about whom already grabbed a headline or two.Martin Kaymer passed Woods for No. 2 in the world rankings, beating a marquee field to do it. Padraig Harrington and Camilo Villegas picked up DQs via TV (and Twitter). Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy took digs at The Players Championship.

Most of the fun has been taking place overseas. As for Tiger and Phil — well, we know cheeseburgers are back on the Mickelson menu.

The PGA Tour could use some good theater from one or the other — if for no other reason than to swing a little bit of the focus back on these shores. Even as new-generation talents such as Dustin Johnson and Hunter Mahan assert a greater presence, Woods and Mickelson still move the needle.

Woods has won his last five trips to Torrey Pines. Before his epic 2008 U.S. Open triumph, air max he captured four consecutive editions of what’s now the Farmers Insurance Open. He almost won the Chevron World Challenge seven weeks ago but blew a four-shot lead to Graeme McDowell.

Mickelson, meanwhile, hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish since last year’s U.S. Open. He was 37th last week in Abu Dhabi, showing plenty of rust.

With TV negotiations heating up later this year, it would help to have the needle-movers in top form — especially Woods.

“Having him return to the competitive level that he enjoyed for 14 to 15 years has a positive effect on the sport,” PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said. “That positively affects everything we do because he creates a lot of attention.”

Both Woods and Mickelson are multiple winners at Torrey Pines. Their final-day pairing in 2003 made good TV drama, mostly because Mickelson had needled Woods in a magazine piece for using “inferior equipment.”

Woods got his payback on the fairways, dusting Mickelson by six shots and everyone else by at least four.

It’s an important week for the PGA Tour.Coach Outlet Online The European circuit has big-money stops upcoming in Qatar and Dubai, bringing Westwood, Kaymer and McIlroy back to center stage.

In that light, the PGA Tour season really wouldn’t begin until the Florida swing.

Thousands of Egyptians vented their rage against President Hosni Mubarak’s autocratic government in a second day of protests Wednesday that Nike defied a ban on public gatherings. Baton-wielding police responded with tear gas and beatings in a crackdown that showed zero tolerance for dissent.

Egypt’s largest anti-government protests in years echoed the uprising in Tunisia, threatening to destabilize the leadership of the most important U.S. ally in the Arab world. The ability of the protesters to sustain the momentum for two days in the face of such a heavy-handed police response was a rare feat in this country.

One protester and a policeman were killed Wednesday, bringing the two-day death toll to six. Some 860 people have been rounded up, and Facebook, Twitter and cell phones — key to organizing protests — have been disrupted.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Egypt to adopt broad reforms and not crack down on the anti-government crowds. She urged the Coach Store Mubarak regime to “take this opportunity to implement political, economic and social reforms that will answer the legitimate interests of the Egyptian people.”

Still, there was no indication that Mubarak, who has ruled with an iron fist for nearly 30 years, intends to relinquish power or make democratic or economic concessions, and no sign he would rein in his security forces.
The defiant demonstrations continued late into the night. In Cairo, dozens of riot police with helmets and shields charged more than 2,000 marchers on a downtown boulevard along the Nile. Smaller clashes broke out across the capital. In one, protesters stoned police, who responded with a volley of tear gas from a bridge over the Nile.

One protester, businessman Said Abdel-Motalib, called the civil unrest “a red light to the regime. This is a warning.”

In cities across Egypt, protesters incensed by Egypt’s grinding poverty, rising prices and high unemployment hurled rocks and firebombs at police and smashed the windows of military vehicles.

The Interior Ministry warned Wednesday that police would not tolerate any gatherings, and thousands of security forces were out on the streets poised to move quickly against any unrest. Many were plainclothes officers whose leather jackets and casual sweat shirts allowed them to blend in easily with protesters.

Thousands of policemen in riot gear and backed by armored vehicles also took up posts in Cairo, on bridges across the Nile, at major intersections and squares, as well as outside key installations, including the state TV building and the headquarters of Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party.

Police fired tear gas longchamp bags to disperse a crowd of several hundred activists on a main thoroughfare, chasing them through side streets as both sides pelted each other with rocks while hundreds of onlookers watched. Plainclothes officers shoved some into waiting vans, slapping them in the face.

Observing the clashes, Omima Maher, a 37-year-old housewife lamented her money woes. “Everything is so horrible. I hope we can change it,” she said.

Reporting from New York and Washington — Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was sentenced Tuesday in New York to life in prison for his role in the 1998 U.S. Air Yeezy embassy bombings in East Africa, making him the first terrorist to be plucked from the prison camp at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and successfully prosecuted in a civilian court.

The term of life without parole probably will boost the position of the Obama administration, eager to close the Caribbean military prison and move prisoners to civilian courts in the U.S. The administration argues that suspected terrorists can safely be tried, convicted and sentenced in a U.S. civilian courtroom — including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind, and other alleged plotters in the attacks.

It has been more than a year since Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. postponed plans for a New York trial for the Sept. 11 plotters, and now with the Ghailani trial over and the midterm elections done, a decision is likely to come soon on where that larger trial is held.

“Hundreds of individuals have now been convicted in federal court of terrorism or terrorism-related crimes since Sept. 11, 2001,” Holder said. “As this case demonstrates, we will not rest in bringing to justice terrorists who seek to harm the American people, and we will use every tool available to the government to do so.”

Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project, said the life sentence proved that “federal courts work, military commissions don’t.”

The jury in the Ghailani trial, convened in the same courthouse where the Department of Justice had hoped to try the top five alleged Sept. 11 plotters, acquitted him last fall of 284 counts of murder and conspiracy, and convicted him of only a single charge of conspiracy to damage or destroy U.S. government buildings and property.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) called the case a “near disaster” in that U.S. prosecutors “barely won a guilty verdict. The trial proved what Republicans have been saying all along: that civilian trials grant foreign terrorists the same rights as U.S. citizens. This makes it harder for prosecutors to obtain a conviction.”

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan cast aside suggestions that Ghailani should receive a lesser sentence, perhaps 20 years, because he was tortured by U.S. agents and acquitted of so many charges.

“Whatever Mr. Ghailani suffered at the hands of the CIA and others in our government, the impact on him pales in comparison to the suffering” Gucci Outlet Online of the victims, the judge said.

He called the bombings “a cold-blooded killing and maiming of innocent people on an enormous scale. … It wrecked the lives of thousands of others. … The very purpose of it was to create terror.”

In all, 224 people, including 12 Americans, were killed in the August 1998 embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.

Because the 36-year-old Tanzanian was acquitted on all but the one count, his defense lawyers had urged Kaplan to overturn the single guilty count. But with government evidence that Ghailani had purchased the TNT and the truck that carried the bomb to the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the judge refused.

And prosecutors stressed that Ghailani hurriedly left Nairobi, Kenya, the site of the second bombing, carrying multiple passports and a cellphone shared by other conspirators — all signs, they said, that he was deeply involved in planning the attacks. There also was evidence indicating that he had served as a bodyguard to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and had met with some of the men who became the Sept. 11 hijackers.

But lead defense attorney Peter Quijano, in a newly unsealed court filing, said his client deserved a lighter sentence because he provided information to U.S. agents and was repeatedly tortured “at the hands of the United States government” — shaved, stripped, diapered, hooded, strip-searched and deprived of sleep.

Ghailani did not address the court, nor did he look at any of the survivors or victims’ relatives, including 11 who testified about the blasts and their shattered lives. Dressed in a light blue button-down shirt and gray slacks, the defendant simply stared down at his hands.

James Ndeda, a Nairobi embassy worker whose skull was fractured in the attack, asked for a 224-year sentence, one year for each of the dead.Cheap Jordans “I know he may not live for that 224 years,” Ndeda said, “but I know if a [criminal] dies in prison in Africa, his grave is chained until the period elapses.”

Yasmin Pressley and her husband, Frank, were both injured in the Nairobi bombing. He has undergone surgeries to repair his jaw and still lives in agony. She turned toward Ghailani and said, “If we are going to live with pain, also should he.”

President Barack Obama will challenge Republicans Tuesday to adopt limited spending cuts and invest in new research and education to Nike generate a job-creating “Sputnik moment” for America in a speech designed to revitalize his leadership.

Obama, seeking to assure Americans weary of 9.4 percent unemployment and fearful of rising debt, was to lay out his plan to reinvigorate economic growth in a State of the Union address at 9 p.m.

At the midpoint of his four-year term and now preparing for his 2012 re-election campaign, Obama will seek to strike a centrist tone and say that what’s at stake is “not who wins the next election.”

“At stake is whether new jobs and industries take root in this country, or somewhere else. It’s whether the hard work and industry of our people is rewarded,” he will say, according to White House excerpts.

Obama will propose a five-year freeze on some spending along with limited cuts, but also say the country needs to increase its investment in research and education to achieve a “Sputnik moment” — akin to the space race unleashed when the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957. The aim would be to trigger a wave of innovation and create jobs at home.

In a nod to Republican concerns, Obama was to propose a five-year freeze in some government spending but not enough to satisfy his opponents, who say voters last November gave them increased power in order to roll back the size and scope of government.

“A few years ago, reducing spending was important,” Wisconsin Republican Representative Paul Ryan was to say in the Republican response to Obama. “Today, it’s imperative. Here’s why. We face a crushing burden of debt.”

CHANGED ATMOSPHERE

The speech was taking place in a changed atmosphere on Capitol Hill. Resurgent Republicans enjoy increased power in Congress after November’s congressional elections and Obama was forced to take account of that shellacking by emphasizing areas where agreement might be possible.

“With their votes, the American people determined that governing will now be a shared responsibility between parties. New laws will only pass with support from Democrats and Republicans,” Obama will say.

Obama will call for a five-year halt on non-security, discretionary spendingCoach Store increases, extending a previous call for a three-year freeze. Such a freeze would amount to $400 billion in cuts and would not apply to big entitlement programs — such as Social Security and Medicare — at the heart of America’s deficit problem.

Discretionary spending, excluding money for security, makes up just 13 percent of the $3.7 trillion U.S. budget.

Republicans sought to pressure Obama over spending before the speech, criticizing an expected call for investment in areas like education. Republicans say “investment” is just a Democratic code for “borrow and spend” policies.

“I’m hopeful that the president has listened to the American people,” House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said. “I’m hopeful that the word ‘investment’ really isn’t more stimulus spending and a bigger government here in Washington.”

Republicans, who won control of the House in November congressional elections after campaigning for less government spending, have called for $100 billion in federal cuts.House Republicans approved a resolution directing committees to cut non-security discretionary spending to 2008 levels.

Obama, enjoying a modest rise in public opinion polls, hoped the annual address would help him start winning back disgruntled independent voters who will be central to his re-election prospects in 2012.

Americans have responded positively to better bipartisan cooperation after Obama struck a deal with Republicans over tax cuts, helping lift his approval ratings in recent weeks.

Washington’s often harsh tone was also tempered by efforts from both parties toward greater civility after Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords was wounded in a mass shooting on January 8. Six people died in the Arizona rampage.

The family of a 9-year-old girl who was among those killed was invited to attend the address with first lady Michelle Obama, while some lawmakers plan to break the practice of sitting as a bloc with only members of their own party.

Partisan differences were not likely to be set aside, however.

DEBT LIMIT LOOMS

Americans are fearful of a $1.3 trillion budget deficit and rising federal debt, which could hit a statutory limit of $14.3 trillion by March 31.

With 14.5 million Americans counted as out of work, the White House wants to ensure any cuts in federal spending do not undermine the country’s gradual economic recovery.

Financial markets will watch for anything Obama says about raising the debt limit,longchamp bags a move that has been resisted by some Republicans but which investors see as essential for the country to avoid defaulting on its debt.

U.S. grocers joined with food and drink makers to unveil a new system on Monday for putting nutritional information on packages ahead of plans from U.S. regulators, who have called for clear and accurate labels to help fight obesity.

Critics were quick to question the front-of-package labeling move by industry, saying itCoach Store Online appeared to be an attempt to circumvent federal regulators and to distract consumers from the unhealthy ingredients in some packaged foods.

The new program from the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) is called “Nutrition Keys” and will list calories, saturated fat, sodium and total sugars on the front of packages.

The Nutrition Keys icon on some products also will display information about “nutrients to encourage” — such as potassium, fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium, iron and also protein, the industry groups said.

Nutrition Keys icons could begin appearing on packages as early as 2011, they said.

Backers said the program was developed in response to a request from First Lady Michelle Obama, who has taken on childhood obesity as her signature issue.

“We share First Lady Michelle Obama’s goal of solving childhood obesity within a generation,” said Pamela Bailey, president and chief executive of the GMA.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says two-thirds of American adults and 15 percent of children are overweight or obese. In some states, the childhood obesity rate is above 30 percent.

Expanding waistbands are a growing problem for U.S. policymakers. Children today are likely to have a shorter life span than their parents — which will affect their ability to work and pay taxes, while threatening to drive up health care costs. Military recruitment also has been hampered because many young people are too overweight and out of shape to serve.

Critics, who have tangled with food makers before, were skeptical about the new labeling plan, in part because it fails to differentiate between good and bad nutrients.

“The industry’s unveiling today of its front-of-package labeling system is air yeezy troubling and confirms that this effort should not circumvent or influence FDA’s effort to develop strong guidelines,” Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro said in a statement.

DeLauro, the former chair of a subcommittee that sets FDA funding, was a fierce critic of “Smart Choices” a controversial industry-led nutrition labeling program.

In October 2009, FDA warned companies that the agency was investigating if nutrition claims on the front of packages were misleading and called out the “Smart Choices” labels. Officials said they were developing a proposal for those labels and exploring if consumers would benefit from a single symbol to give a quick, accurate idea of nutritional content.

Food makers like Kellogg Co, which sells Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes breakfast cereals, scrapped “Smart Choices” labeling shortly after the FDA criticism.

The Institute of Medicine and the FDA have been working to develop reports and potential guidelines for what type of nutrition information should be permitted and required on the front of food packages, said Kelly Brownell, Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.”There is much at stake,”Gucci bags sale
said Brownell. “Millions of people see thousands of products each day and deserve a labeling system that helps them understand nutrition information rather than misleads them.”

Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer group, said: “It’s unfortunate the industry wouldn’t adopt a more effective system or simply wait until the (FDA) developed a system that would be as useful to consumers as possible.”

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has vowed to track down and punish those behind an apparent suicide bomb attack at Nike Moscow’s Domodedovo airport killed 35 people and injured more than 100.

Two Britons were among those killed as the blast rocked the international arrivals terminal at Moscow’s busiest airport on Monday afternoon.

Unnamed officials said three suspects were being sought over the attack.

Suspicion has fallen on Russia’s restive North Caucasus region.

Last March the Russian capital’s underground system was rocked by two female suicide bombers from Russia’s volatile Dagestan region, who detonated their explosives on the busy metro system during rush hour, killing 40 people and injuring more than 80.

Militant groups fighting in the Caucasus know how important the perception that the president and prime minister provide a secure society is, Coach Store and to undermine that is a key aspect of their aims, analysts say.

Police sources have hinted that the Domodedovo airport bombing may be linked to Russia’s most volatile region.

Thick drops of blood

Monday’s explosion rocked in the airport’s busy international arrivals hall in a public area where friends and drivers meet passengers who have passed through customs.
Eyewitnesses told Russian TV that before a bomber detonated the equivalent of 7kg (15lb) of TNT, he had shouted: “I’ll kill you all!”

Scenes of panic ensued as the area filled with smoke, with bodies strewn across the floor.

Thick drops of blood and pieces of shrapnel were scattered across the snow-covered tarmac outside the hall, and emergency workers used luggage trolleys to ferry the dead and injured from the scene to hospitals in Moscow, 40km (25 miles) to the north-west.

Mr Medvedev has vowed a thorough investigation.”After previous similar events, we passed appropriate legislation, and we have to check how it has been applied,” he said. “Because obviously there have been lapses, and we have to get to the bottom of this.”

He has admitted that poverty, corruption and conflict in the North Caucasus is Russia’s biggest internal problem.

He ordered increased security across Russia’s capital, its airports and other transport hubs.

But he, like Vladimir Putin before him, appears unable to find a solution that would bring stability to that region and peace to Russia, says the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Moscow.

Mr Putin has built much of his reputation on a tough security stance to crack down on such violence.

More generally, security authorities internationally have been concerned that – longchamp bags while there is been a huge effort focused on airline passenger and airliner security – keeping airports and airport terminals themselves secure remains a major challenge.

The EU, US and UK were among those who condemned the attack, offering their support to the mourning Russian nation.

“We should never allow the terrorists to win,” said UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

President Barack Obama will call for a “responsible” effort to shrink the deficit but won’t offer detailed plans on spending and taxes in a State of the Union address Tuesday that will presage the broad themes for political debate through the 2012 election.

The president is expected to call for “shared sacrifice” from both parties, and to reach out to the GOP with a nod to possibly lowering the nation’s corporate income-tax rate as part of an overhaul of the corporate-tax code, according to people familiar with speech preparations.
The speech and the Republican response are likely to frame contrasting philosophies that will drive political discourse for the next two years. longchamp outlet Mr. Obama has chosen “competitiveness” and “investment” as terms to guide discussion over how to create jobs, daring Republicans to resist his push for new spending in areas that he will call vital to the nation’s future. He will seek to wall off education, infrastructure, science and energy from cuts, in effect making them the ground on which the 2012 campaign is to be fought.

Republicans have chosen House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to deliver the State of the Union response. Mr. Ryan has outlined a vision of smaller, less-intrusive government, extending to popular programs such as Medicare, which he would turn increasingly over to the private sector.

Since what Mr. Obama described as his party’s “shellacking” in November, he has tried to appeal to the political center by moving right. He struck a deal with Republicans on taxes and has been remaking the White House with deal makers from Bill Clinton’s White House schooled in bipartisan outreach. He also has reached out to business with pledges to pare regulations and consult more closely on trade, taxes and “competitiveness.”

The moves appear to be yielding political results. A slew of new polls have put the president’s approval ratings at levels not seen since the pitched partisan battles over Mr. Obama’s health-care overhaul began in August 2009.
In his address Tuesday, the president is expected to appeal for national unity and a bipartisan effort to grapple with festering problems, especially job creation and the deficit. He will point to the tax deal and other recent bipartisan successes, and say that momentum from last month’s lame-duck session of Congress must not be squandered, officials familiar with the speech say.

The president will try to keep the deficit conversation in broad terms, fearing that detailed proposals would put Republicans, Democrats and Washington interest groups into a defensive crouch before real negotiations can take place, according to those officials. White House officials, for instance, have assured Democratic lawmakers that the president will not explicitly call for cuts in Social Security benefits, though he will say changes are needed to put the program on a solid fiscal footing.

At the same time, Mr. Obama will call on both parties to be prepared to put everything on the table. That means Democrats have to be ready to look at changes to Social Security, and Republicans to consider tax-code changes to increase revenue.

Both the White House and House Republicans are making the budget deficit central to their economic programs.

Republicans want immediate, dramatic cuts to domestic programs in Congress’s annual spending bills. “We have to shrink government. We have to cut spending. And we need to really look to the private sector to grow jobs,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The White House and air max a bipartisan group of senators are focusing on restructuring the tax code and entitlement programs such as Social Security, which could have more dramatic impacts on the deficit in the long run but would do little in the short term. White House officials say Republican calls for $100 billion in spending cuts this year would choke off the economic recovery while doing little in the long run to tame the deficit.

“The American people say, don’t touch Social Security, don’t touch Medicare, don’t cut defense. That’s 84% of the federal budget,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.). who is retiring when his term ends in 2012, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “If you can’t touch 84% of the federal budget…you’re down to 16% of the budget at a time we’re borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we spend.”

An administration official said late last week that a tax overhaul was expected to get at least a mention in the address, in the context of improving U.S. competitiveness. The U.S. currently has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world, and is one of the few major economies that tax companies’ overseas profits when they’re brought back home. Mr. Obama and his top economic advisers have expressed interest in cutting rates to improve U.S. investment and exports.

On Friday, Jason Furman, principal deputy director of the National Economic Council, said reducing rates on corporations “could have meaningful benefits, especially in an increasingly global economy where business activity responds to tax rates.” He also suggested that the White House will focus on longer-term proposals to redesign the tax system’s basic architecture.

Such overtures and a renewed focus on fiscal matters have sparked hope that a comprehensive deal can be reached to reshape the government’s finances.”The president knows full well that we’re going to have to cut discretionary spending right away, and Republicans know we’ve got to focus on structural changes to entitlements,” Rep. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.) said Sunday.

But such an agreement won’t be easy. Republicans are on edge over news thatCoach Outlet Online Mr. Obama will call for increased “investment” in areas he believes are necessary to keep the nation competitive internationally, such as education, infrastructure, scientific research and renewable energy.

White House officials see no contradiction on spending more in some areas while pursuing some short-term spending cuts and trying to reach a broad deal on taxes and entitlements. Republican plans to immediately cut spending, especially on programs funded by the stimulus law of 2009, would kill programs that have men in hard hats right now, they say.