Riot 'unacceptable face of multiculturalism'

Islamic Protest in the streets of Sydney from Hyde Park to George Streets. Pic. Simon Bullard Source: The Australian

VIOLENCE at a Sydney protest against an anti-Islamist film revealed the 'unacceptable face of multiculturalism', NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell says.

While people have the right to protest in Australia, that freedom comes with a responsibility to do so lawfully, he said today.

The Premier said city authorities and police were not informed about yesterday's protest in the CBD in which six police and 17 others were injured, and six men were later charged.

"What we saw yesterday was the unacceptable face of multiculturalism," Mr O'Farrell told Sky News.

"I'm just horrified by what I saw."

The premier said he had discussed the protest with Islamic leaders, who considered it out of step.

But he said in any grouping there would be some extremists.

"What we shouldn't do is condemn the great bulk of Muslims by the actions of a few extremists, any more than you should do with Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus or others," he said.

Mr O'Farrell said the film that sparked a global protest, which resulted in the US ambassador to Libya being killed in a attack on the US consulate, was made by a "fool in the US".

"That foolish action doesn't match what we saw in Sydney yesterday," the premier said.

"It was a stupid film, it's a stupid reaction and worse than that it's an unacceptable reaction because of the violence involved."

Australia and Sydney had one of the world's most successful multicultural societies.

"Episodes like yesterday really do attack what is one of the great foundations of our success which is our multiculturalism," Mr O'Farrell said.

Andy Roddick will retire after US Open

It is hard to believe that it was 12 years ago that Andy Roddick was considered the next great US male tennis player. He was supposed to be the heir apparent for Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. It looked like he was fulfilling that promise with a US Open win in 2003. But that will be the only Grand Slam title of his career, as Roddick announced at a press conference on Thursday that he will retire once he is done playing in this year’s US Open.

Matt Cronin of Tennis Reporters was the first to report the story.

Roddick will probably be thought of as someone who didn’t live up to the hype, but the truth may be that he just happened to be a really good tennis player that showed up at the wrong time. Roger Federer began to dominate the game, and Roddick just wasn’t on his level.

The 30-year-old will retire with career wins of over $20 million. He did reach the #1 ranking following the US Open win in 2003, and is currently 20th overall. He reached the 3 Wimbledon finals, losing to Federer each time.  The US is still waiting for the next great tennis player.

China Retailers Lose Steam, Deepening Wen’s Challenges

China’s retailers from clothing to computers are reporting weaker sales growth, undermining Premier Wen Jiabao’s goal of relying more on consumer spending for expansion as the economy cools.

Passenger-vehicle sales trailed analysts’ estimates in July. Sportswear seller Li Ning Co. shut 1,200 stores in the first half and department-store chain Parkson Retail Group Ltd. (3368)’s same-store sales rose at less than a quarter the pace of a year earlier. Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd. (493) said it would report a first-half loss on lower sales.

The reports show an extra drag on the second-largest economy after export growth almost stalled in July and factory output missed forecasts. The year’s fastest decline in industrial companies’ earnings and a stock market at a three- year low mean income gains may slow, giving consumers less money to spend and boosting odds Wen will add stimulus.

“The pressure on retail sales is growing bigger and bigger,” said Shen Jianguang, Hong Kong-based chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. “When exports are fragile and investment is weak, if companies started to reduce their production or workforce, how can it be possible for consumer spending to stay strong?”

Retail sales missed economists’ forecasts in three of the last four months and Mizuho said they will stay weak. Sales increased 13.1 percent in July from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Aug. 9, compared with the median 13.5 percent estimate of 32 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4 percent as of 10:04 a.m. local time after companies’ reports of profit declines.

Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan criticize President Obama’s health care law in visit to New Hampshire

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, coming here to the state with one of the oldest median ages, on Monday morning criticized President Obama for his health care law and said the Republican ticket would be more likely to put Medicare on sounder financial footing.

“Medicare should not be a piggybank for Obamacare!” Ryan said.

It was their first unscripted event since Ryan was named the vice president candidate nine days ago, with a town hall meeting where voters could ask questions. But little went awry, and most of the event was carefully choreographed by the Romney campaign.

Under blue skies on a St. Anselm’s College quad, a giant banner – “America’s Comeback Team” – was draped over a brick building covered in ivy. Some 3,000 attendees waved little American flags that were handed out from the campaign. It was Romney’s 100th town hall meeting, a tally that includes both personal meetings and those conducted over the phone.

New Hampshire has become an increasing focus in the presidential election. President Obama was in the state on Saturday, using his third trip of the year to rail against Republican plans on taxes and changing Medicare.
“You would think they would avoid talking about Medicare, given the fact that both of them have proposed to voucherize the Medicare system,” Obama said during a campaign stop in Windham, N.H. “But I guess they figure the best defense is to try to go on offense.”

Ryan and Romney seemed to be eager for the debate, and hoping to cast it in their own terms.

“We keep hearing about Medicare lately from the president,” Ryan said. “We want this debate, we need this debate, and we are going to win this debate on Medicare.”

Ryan criticized President Obama for using $716 billion in savings from Medicare and applying it to his health care law. But Ryan did not mention that his own budget plan also used the same amount of savings, but applied them to different uses.

He noted that his mother has been on Medicare for 10 years, and that it helped him and his mother take care of his grandmother as she suffered from Alzheimer’s.

“It’s not just a program with numbers and words,” Ryan said. “It’s personal security that has been there for my family when we needed.”

Ryan was planning on Monday afternoon to visit the Romney campaign headquarters in Boston, meeting for the first time the staff for a campaign that he joined a week ago. After two days last week of campaigning together, Romney and Ryan had not planned to campaign together until the Republican National Convention next week.

But Romney campaign advisers, noting the chemistry that Romney and Ryan have and the excitement they draw from crowds, decided to schedule another event for them in New Hampshire. The campaign had initially planned to announce the vice presidential selection in New Hampshire, but had to move it back a day so that Ryan could attend a memorial service in his Wisconsin congressional district.

Town hall meetings can provide off-the-cuff moments with candidates, who are forced to respond to questions from any voter who can get before a microphone. But on Monday, Romney and Ryan were thrown few curveballs from the crowd.

The only time they seemed to be put on the spot was when topics turned to foreign policy.

“Our guys are coming home in body bags,” one man said. “If you guys take over in Washington, what are you going to do about this damn mess in Afghanistan?”

Romney criticized President Obama for not talking about the topic enough, saying he ought to “time and time again” address the American public about what’s happening with troops overseas. But Romney himself didn’t have a fundamental difference in policy.

“I will do everything in my power to transition from our military to their military as soon as possible,” Romney said. “Bring our men and women home and do so in a way consistent with our mission, which is to keep Afghanistan from being overrun by a new entity which would allow Afghanistan to be a launching point for terror again like it was on 9/11.”

New Hampshire offers a mere four electoral votes, but in some election forecasts that may be enough to decide the entire race. It is the only swing state in New England, a region where the other 29 electoral votes are all but assured to be given to the Democratic incumbent.

But New Hampshire has shown a willingness to buck the regional trends. Three of the past five elections have been decided by 1 percentage point or less. And, as Granite Staters like to mention, if Al Gore had won New Hampshire, the state of Florida – and its weeks-long recount – would not have mattered (Gore lost New Hampshire by 7,211, while Ralph Nader got 22,198 votes).

The state offers a national barometer. If Romney is unable to secure independents in New Hampshire – a state that fits closely with his brand of politics – he is unlikely to fare well in other crucial swing states.

Ryan is not a complete stranger to New Hampshire. He visited in February 2010, headlining a fundraiser and speaking at St. Anselm College. At the time he dismissed any speculation that he would seek the presidency.

“I’m not one of those people,” he said at the time, according to the Portsmouth Herald. “I’m not seeking a promotion.”

Voters here had some knowledge of Ryan before seeing him.

At least one woman brought a cheesehead, in apparent homage to the vice presidential nominee’s beloved Green Bay Packers. One questioner noted that her son was skipping work to attend the event, another said her son was skipping the first day of school (“We’re not going to clap for that,” Ryan said).

Gene Nelson, a 64-year-old retiree from Bedford, N.H., said at first he was “spooked” that Ryan would trigger a bitter divide and give Democrats ample ammunition. He said he’s been impressed with Ryan, and is optimistic that there will be a debate over how to rein in growing health care costs.

“What I’m hoping is there will be a genuine debate on the issue, and not each side trying to lambaste each other with some pie-in-the-face caricature,” Nelson said.

Donna Sweet, a 55-year-old Republican from Penacook, N.H., said she was giddy over the pick.

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful. It’s an awesome pick,” Sweet said, while wearing a “Mommas for Mitt” T-shirt. “Him picking Paul Ryan, it’s like a gold star on top of the gold star he already had. He couldn’t have picked a better running mate.”

“I like Romney, and I think he’ll be a good president just on his own,” said Mark Surmeier, a 56-year-old Republican who was traveling from Mascoutah, Ill. “But with Ryan, the two work together like salt and pepper. Some things are just meant to be a pair.”

Ryan is planning to be back in New Hampshire on Saturday for a fundraiser – and possibly a public event -- and Romney campaign advisers say they plan to use him a lot in the Granite State, particularly in southern areas where voters share his Catholic faith.

“We are small government, we are frugal economic government,” said Tom Rath, a New Hampshire-based adviser. “Ryan also radiates an energy, a commitment to these things. He’s the kind of politician who’s not been afraid to put his name on things, even if people criticize him. That’s respected here.”

Will the Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up

By now, most Americans have certainly heard that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has selected U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate

in this year's presidential race. Ryan is considered one of the GOP's gurus on fiscal and budgetary issues, and enjoys immense popularity among fiscal

conservatives.

In Ryan, Romney has selected a tea party darling, the chief architect of the Republican Party's plan for tax and spending cuts and an advocate of reshaping

the country's Medicare program. The austere budget proposal that bears Ryan's name would cut $770 billion from Medicaid and other health programs for the

poor over 10 years as compared with President Obama's recent budget. He also takes an additional $205 billion from Medicare and an additional $1.6 trillion

from food stamps, welfare, federal employee pensions and support for farmers. In addition, his plans include changing Medicare into a program that would rely

largely on vouchers.

To add insult to injury, Ryan's budget would offset these $5.3 trillion in spending cuts by offering a $4.2 trillion dollar tax cut to the wealthiest in this

country, according to Citizens for Tax Justice.

Whew. Looks like it will be a long winter for the 99 percent if the Wisconsin congressman gets his way. Indeed, if this plan were to be put in place, those

who criticize Obama for not doing enough for the poor and middle class would have to start a new poverty tour.

But by choosing Ryan, Romney has also muddled his ticket's message. Indeed, shortly after Saturday's announcement, Romney appeared to distance himself from

his running mate's controversial budget plan, which many Americans have expressed doubts over. In talking points sent out by the campaign, the candidate

suggested that he didn't necessarily agree with everything in Ryan's controversial budget.

"Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget," the campaign said, according to CNN Political Tracker. "As president he

will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance."

But this lukewarm statement differs wildly from the enthusiastic endorsement Romney has offered of Ryan's plan in the past.

"I think it'd be marvelous if the Senate were to pick up Paul Ryan's budget and to adopt it and pass it along to the president," the New Yorker quoted him as

saying in March.

In addition, in public statements, Romney has said: "I spent a good deal of time with Congressman Ryan. When his plan came out, I applauded it as an

important step," he said. "We're going to have to make changes like the ones Paul Ryan proposed."

So, why would Romney choose a running mate, then immediately attempt to distance himself from him in this critical area?

How could the presumptive GOP presidential nominee at one moment express consistent support for the budget plan and then all of a sudden claim that it is

merely "going in the right direction"?

Is he so nervous about the results from three polls released in the past several days that show Obama widening his lead to as much as nine points?

Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the plan has been received with skepticism by the American public. When the Ryan plan was first unveiled last year,

several polls found that a majority of voters -- especially seniors -- weren't supportive of Ryan's ideas.

For instance, in June 2011, a Pew Research Center poll found that 40 percent of Americans opposed turning Medicare into a voucher system. That poll also

found that a majority of older Americans, 51 percent, opposed the idea. At the same time, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey found that 58 percent of

American adults opposed Ryan's Medicare proposal, while just 35 percent said they supported it.

It's obvious that the majority of the American public knows what it believed regarding Ryan's plan when it was unveiled. But the question is, what does Mitt

Romney really stand for?

I suspect that Romney is treading very carefully -- hoping to woo conservatives on the one hand by selecting Ryan but distancing himself from support of

Ryan's budget plans so as not to alienate mainstream Americans who appear to be skeptical of the budget document. It's very likely that putting some space

between himself and the plan was an act of political necessity, even if it wasn't entirely an accurate representation of the candidate's feelings, opinions,

plans or position.

This flip-flopping should give pause to both Democrats and Republicans who are attempting to sift through the political games and decipher what Romney's real

positions are, since they seem to be ever evolving and ever changing.

Sooner or later, the real Mitt Romney must present himself to the American people. Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up?

After ‘chains’ remark, Biden’s staff tries to edit press pool reports

Vice President Joe Biden’s “penchant for off-message moments regularly sends aides in the West Wing and at Chicago reelection headquarters into orbit,”

Jonathan Martin writes in Politico, so his staff tries “to save Biden from himself.” On a recent trip to Virginia, “aides tried to edit media pool reports

for any potential landmines that could be seized on by Republicans and even hovered at close range to eavesdrop on journalists’ conversations with attendees

at Biden rallies.”

Their efforts to manage pool reports is a new tactic in message control:

    Because the entire press corps cannot easily jam in, say, a diner or private home, it is standard practice to have a single designated reporter take

notes and share the material with colleagues from other news organizations. These reports are designed entirely for the media, but are distributed by White

House staffers. In the case of Obama, as with his predecessors, the reports are simply forwarded without comment by email to a news media distribution list.

    But on two occasions during Biden’s Virginia trip, his staff sought to have certain elements in the reports highlighted while reporters drafted them and

discussed the contents with the reporters after the summaries had been sent but before they had before sent to the broader media.

In mid-July, The New York Times’ Jeremy W. Peters reported on both presidential campaigns’ increasing demands to approve quotes before they are published.

Some news outlets don’t play along with such demands, but others do.

After a rally, Martin reports, a press aide “was eavesdropping as a reporter attempted to interview attendees who had spoken with the vice president on the

rope line.”

Related: Politico’s Harris: ‘Quote doctoring does bother me’ | Dan Rather: Quote approval is ‘a jaw-dropping turn in journalism’ | What’s the deal with

quote approval? | National Journal, McClatchy ban quote approval

Rep. Paul Ryan and his Medicare plan are all the buzz on the campaign trail, but Mitt Romney’s VP choice has not given him the anticipated bump in the polls

 Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan to ride shotgun was supposed to be a game-changer — but the polls have barely budged.

The first tracking poll taken after the Wisconsin Congressman was added to the GOP ticket over the weekend reveals that Ryan has yet to provide a real bump

for Romney.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was polling at 46% in the days before he tapped the conservative darling to be his VP, according to Gallup.

And in the four days after Romney unveiled his selection of Ryan, his support increased no further than 47%, the polling firm found.

Gallup suggested that a bounce may still be on the horizon, since Ryan’s numbers were slightly better on Tuesday than they were last Saturday, when the

choice was made official.

However, another Gallup poll suggested that voters were skeptical of Ryan. Only 39% of voters thought Ryan was an “excellent” or “pretty good” choice,

while 42% thought he was “only fair” or “poor.”

Romney — who should receive a more sizeable surge after the Republican National Convention at month’s end — bested President Obama 47% to 45% in the

Gallup poll released Wednesday. Most recent national polls have shown Obama in the lead by a handful of percentage points.

The President wrapped up his three-day bus tour of the crucial swing state of Iowa on Wednesday by unleashing a vicious attack on the Republican plan to

transform Medicare — the central reason why critics say Ryan’s addition to the ticket was a mistake.

“I think they know their plan is not very popular,” said Obama at a rally in Dubuque. “You can tell that because they are being dishonest about my plan.

Especially when it comes to Medicare.”

The most controversial aspect of Ryan’s proposed budget, which Romney has largely endorsed, is to transform Medicare into a voucher program — which critics

believe would leave senior citizens without adequate health care.

Obama also ripped Romney’s tax proposals, calling it “trickle-down snake oil” — some of the harshest language the President has directed at his opponent

during the campaign.

Romney will return to the Hamptons on Friday for a pair of big-money fund-raisers. Last month, the GOP candidate was the guest of honor at a $50,000-per-

person event at the oceanfront estate of conservative titan David Koch, part of a fund-raising sweep of Long Island’s glitzy South Fork.

Ad Tying Romney to Cancer Death Airs ‘In Error’

A controversial TV ad tying Mitt Romney to a woman’s cancer death aired today for the first time in Ohio, apparently in error, according to the pro-Obama

super PAC that produced it.

“Station error is all,” explained Priorities USA Action senior strategist Bill Burton. ”Kind of like when the Florida station accidentally aired Restore

Our Future’s anti-Gingrich ad in June.”

The ethics and accuracy of the claims in the 30-second spot — titled “Understands” — have been the subject of intense debate since it first appeared

online one week ago.

Republicans and some Democrats say the group crossed a line in suggesting Romney’s role at Bain Capital contributed to a woman’s death, especially after

fact-checkers debunked the suggestion that the woman died immediately after her husband’s layoff from a Bain-owned factory or entirely lacked health

insurance because of the move.

The Obama campaign has refused to disavow the ad, claiming no affiliation with the super PAC, even though administration officials have fundraised for it and

former White House staffers run its operations.

Burton has argued that criticism of the ad is overblown and that it fairly reflects the long-term consequences of bankruptcies and corporate buyouts by

Romney’s Bain Capital.

With the outcry and debate, there has been much speculation about whether the ad would air at all. Priorities USA officials have been coy about the delay in

the ad’s hitting the airwaves, insisting only that it has been “shipped to television stations” and would air on demand.

The free attention garnered by the controversy alone seemed to be a desired effect of Priorities. The spot has had over 700,000 views online, and as of

Friday, four of the top five states in which it’s been viewed online include Florida, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, a Priorities official said.

BuzzFeed’s Zeke Miller first reported tonight that the ad officially aired in Cleveland this morning, citing an “ad buy tracking source.”

Taylor Swift Has 'Cool News' For Fans On Monday

Taylor Swift has some big news for her Swifties, but those fans will have to wait almost a week to hear what the country star has to share with them.

The singer announced on Tuesday (August 7) that she will be doing a live webcast on Monday (August 13) at 7 p.m. ET. The event will go down on her official

YouTube channel. The date of the livestream is hardly a coincidence as 13 just so happens to be Swift's lucky number.

"Hey, it's Taylor. So I really want to talk to you about something. I would love it if you would join me August 13 for a live webchat," she said in a video

tease posted online. "You can ask questions. I want to share some news with you, some really cool news. Not gonna go into it too much, but it's cool. I'll

see you there."

Fans who want to get in on the action can ask Swift questions through a live social chat that will take place during the stream. Additionally, there will be

a Google+ Hangout created around the event.

Given that Swift has been hard at work on her follow-up to 2010's chart-topping Speak Now, it seems likely that Swift's "really cool news" has something to

do with some new music.

She has worked with folks like British singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran on the release, and when MTV News last caught up with the singer at the top of 2012, she

explained that this album will show her growth as an artist.

"I made my last album, Speak Now, with this idea I really wanted to make an album without writing with anyone else just because I always wanted to do that.

And now I have a different approach to this record. I'm getting to work with people that I've always wanted to work with." That means that she's seeking out

some assistance "from all different places in music."

"I'm trying to be as much of a sponge as possible," she explained. "You have to evolve and try new things and change and that's what I've loved to do with

this album."

While some of what she's putting out may sound different, there will remain one central Swift-ism that remains. She will be writing about the ups and downs

of love.

"I think that love is always going to be a huge theme in what I write about just because there are no two similar relationships, there are no two times that

you feel love the same way or hurt the same way or [feel] rejection [in] the same way. It's all different and I'm fascinated by that," she said. "I really

love to go back to human interaction and the way we make each other feel. But that at 22 is different than it was at 18 or 19 when I made my last album and

16 and 17 when I made Fearless. As you grow, you change in the way you process emotion."

What do you think Taylor will reveal? Give us your thoughts in the comments below!

NOTE IT!

ABC’s AMY WALTER: As Ohio goes, so goes the election. And right now even many GOPers concede that the state is tilting heavily toward Obama. This is a huge

change from earlier this year when many Democrats were privately writing off the Buckeye State. If Romney can’t bring Ohio back, it’s hard to see how he

captures the White House.

ABC’s RICK KLEIN: Add tax cheat to the list of horrible things President Obama and his supporters are calling Mitt Romney. Another new ad drops as two new

national polls show Obama opening up some breathing room against Romney — a seven-point gap in a new CNN poll, nine points in Fox polling. The scattershot

strategy stands in contrast with the Romney campaign; to cite this week’s example, the Romney folks didn’t make a big — that is, candidate-level — deal

out of David Plouffe’s speechmaking. (Think Team Obama would have let that one slip by?) It puts more pressure on the Romney campaign to deliver on their

one big piece of messaging, around the economy, meaning the veepstakes-fueled bus tour needs extra mileage.

Olympic Daily Preview - Thursday, August 9th

Jamaican sprinting star Usain Bolt will try to captivate the crowd at Olympic Stadium with another historic performance as the London Games hit Day 13 on

Thursday.

Bolt will aim for his fifth Olympic gold medal when he races in the 200-meter final. Four years ago in Beijing, he won gold in the men's 100, 200 and 400-

meter relay and he's already won the 100 here in London. Bolt joined Carl Lewis of the United States as the only men to win consecutive 100 golds and no man

has ever claimed two Olympic titles in the 200.

Once again, the biggest threat to end Bolt's run of gold is expected to come from his countryman Yohan Blake, who beat Jamaica's national hero in both the

100 and 200 earlier this summer at the country's Olympic trials.

Bolt easily qualified for the final of the 200 on Thursday with a time of 20.18 seconds. Blake had the best time of the three heats, running the half- lap in

20.01 seconds. American sprinter Wallace Spearmon was next after Blake, finishing only .01 seconds behind. Spearmon crossed the finish line third at the

Beijing Games, but was later disqualified for stepping out of his lane.

Also, U.S. athlete Ashton Eaton will try to finish strong in the decathlon to win gold. The world record holder in the event is leading the field in London

with 4,661 points -- 220 more than countryman Trey Hardee.

The decathlon concludes Thursday with the final five disciplines: the 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 meters.

Thursday's track and field competition will also see the women battle for gold in javelin, while the men will vie for medals in the triple jump and 800

meters.

Following a thrilling semifinal victory against Canada, the U.S. women's soccer team will try to capture its third consecutive Olympic gold. The Americans

only reached the final after winning their semifinal on an Alex Morgan header in stoppage time of the second extra period against Canada.

The U.S. will face Japan, which edged France on Monday to advance. The final will be a rematch of the 2011 Women's World Cup final, which was won by Japan.

However, the Americans have won three of four gold medals in women's soccer since the sport became part of the Olympic program in 1996.

Brazil's Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego will play Germany's Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann in the gold medal match for men's beach volleyball. The bronze

medal match will feature Latvia's Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins against Reinder Nummerdor and Rich Schuil of the Netherlands.

Reigning Olympic champion Chen Ruolin heads into the semifinals of the women's 10-meter platform event as a heavy favorite. Chen, who has already captured

synchronized platform gold with Wang Hao in London and is the world champion in both platform events, was the top finisher in the preliminaries Wednesday.

She will be looking to sweep the platform events for the seconds straight Olympics. Brittany Viola, the daughter of 1988 American League Cy Young Award

winner Frank Viola, was among the 18 divers who qualified for the semis. The final is Thursday night.

Rhythmic gymnastics kicks off its slate for the London Games, with Russia's Evgeniya Kanaeva looking to win her second straight all-around Olympic gold. On

the group side of things, Italy has won the past three world titles, but has never won Olympic gold in the group all-around.

Thursday will feature the individual gymnasts doing a pair of routines -- the hoop and ball -- while the groups will perform one routine with five balls.

The U.S. women's basketball team will look to move another step closer toward a fifth consecutive gold medal, as it plays Australia in the semifinals. The

Americans have a 39-game Olympic winning streak, which began 20 years ago and was continued with a quarterfinal win against Canada. Australia has taken

silver behind the U.S. at each of the last three games.

In the other women's basketball semifinal, France plays Russia, which has won the last two bronze medals. Semifinal winners move on to Saturday's gold medal

game.

Gold medals will be awarded in women's boxing for the first time in Olympic history, and an American has a chance for one. Claressa Shields will fight

Russian Nadezda Torlopova, the 2011 world champion, in the middleweight final. Great Britain's Nicola Adams fights Ren Cancan for flyweight gold, while

Ireland's Katie Taylor is up against Russian Sofya Ochigava for the lightweight title.

There are four sprint canoe medal events Thursday -- the men's 1,000-meter canoe double and kayak four, and the women's 500m single and double kayak.

In sailing, medals will be awarded in the men's 470 class. Australians Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page head into the medal race with a four-point advantage

over Great Britain's Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell. Additionally, there are sail-offs to determine fifth through eighth place in the women's Elliott 6m

match racing competition.

The U.S. women's water polo team will try to capture its first gold, as it plays Spain in the final of that tournament. Since women's water polo became an

Olympic sport in 2000, the American women's team has won two silvers and a bronze, but have a chance to make history. Australia and Hungary play for bronze.

Great Britain's Keri-Anne Payne will try to capture gold for the host country in the women's 10-kilometer swimming marathon. She won silver four years ago in

Beijing, and is the reigning world champion in the event. Haley Anderson will compete for the United States.

In women's volleyball, the U.S. team will try to get back to the gold medal match as it plays South Korea in a semifinal. The Americans finished with silver

at the 2008 Beijing Games. Brazil, which won four years ago, takes on Japan the other semifinal.

The final medals in equestrian will be handed out at the London Olympics after the dressage individual grand prix freestyle while synchronized swimming will

be back with teams technical routines.

Two taekwondo weight classes will be contested -- the women's 57-kilogram and men's 68kg. Additionally, freestyle wrestling medals will be awarded in women's

55kg and 72kg classes. Ali Bernard, a bronze medalist at the 2011 world championships in the 72kg weight class, competes for the U.S.

Semifinals will take place in women's handball and men's field hockey, while BMX has men's quarterfinal action.

Majority say foreign talent is the way to go

   
I am for foreign talent if they can also push our local athletes to a higher level.

I read with disappointment the number of discouraging reports about Singaporeans not being proud of Feng Tianwei for winning the bronze at the recent

Olympics because she is not a "local".

We must all agree that despite the many promises of our local athletes, all of them have failed when it really mattered.

I think one of the main reasons is that we do not really have a sporting culture in Singapore.

Yes, we have the Singapore Sports School, but focus there is also on academic excellence, rather than sporting excellence alone.

I watched Feng during the Olympics and was hugely impressed by her determination and her never-say-die spirit.

Sure, detractors will say that she was playing for the $250,000 carrot dangled by the SNOC but I choose to believe in what I saw - a woman representing

Singapore and playing her heart out for the country.

If Singapore wants to establish itself as a sporting nation, getting foreign talent is the way to go.

- Deborah Kong

Accept the universal reality of engaging FT

FOREIGN talent is the way to go for Singapore if we want to achieve and excel in sports, arts, sciences and music etc. for the following reasons:

1. Our small population will get smaller and smaller because of the declining birth rate. With a smaller population, it will be more difficult to develop

talent.

2. Most, if not all Singaporean parents, do not encourage their children to pursue professional sports as a career. So how can we groom local talent?

Generally parents emphasise careers that provide material gain.

3. Singapore can make good use of the screening and training infrastructure of countries such as China to attract budding talent.

After they have received the fundamental training, let them bloom in Singapore. Singapore's attractiveness as a place to live will draw FT.

4. Most important, as long as the heart, soul and mind of the foreign talent is for Singapore after he or she has settled in, it does not matter where they

came from originally.

5. With globalisation, it is not only Singapore attracting foreign talent, every country in the world also seems to be doing this.

So let's wake up and accept reality.

- Patrick Chia

We celebrated Feng's triumph

I WAS down with high fever, watching the table tennis match between Feng Tianwei and Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa with my two children.

Every time Feng won a point and released a yell, my two kids jumped up and down, with my daughter also doing a victory dance from the living area to her

room.

In the end, the triumph was fantastic and gave us joy.

Feng is an imported foreign talent. A medal won by a foreign import is for Singapore.

Whatever awards won during that individual's representation as a Singapore citizen belongs to Singapore.

When he or she flies the Singapore flag, that's the country he or she is representing at that point in time.

I respect and applaud Feng for her passionate and arduous fight in the sport she loves and for the country she represents.

So stop complaining, Singaporeans.

- Nigel Gan

Yes, and no...

IS FOREIGN talent the way?

Yes, if they stay here long enough to adapt and speak English or are groomed from young. No, if you want to focus on our training systems as well as coaches

to further enhance the competitiveness of the locals.

- Jamil Pungot

What about grooming locals?

I AM against pursuing Foreign Talent (FT) to represent the Republic in local and overseas competitions.

It is a waste of public funds to groom FT.

What is the point of having the Singapore Sports School (SSS) when most of the time the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) and other sporting

associations focus on FT to boost their medal chances in competitions.

The SSS graduates have little chance of competing with the FT who receive great support, and train and play full time.

Why can't Singapore focus on locals as do Malaysia and Thailand?

A Thai girl lost in the quarter-final against a Chinese player, but her effort made the Thais proud. I will be proud if we have such a player.

What is so great about Feng Tianwei's bronze-medal triumph?

She is a product of very strong support from the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) who use much of their funds to develop FT.

In a report in The New Paper, we read that in the STTA stable are five Chinese FTs waiting to take over from Feng and company.

Where is the talk about grooming local talent?

- Daniel Chan

It's a shame...

I STRONGLY feel that it's a shame to use foreign talent to gain glory for Singapore.

They may be citizens, but only on paper. They are not truly Singaporean.

- Cheong Koon Guan

Olympics 2012: Lolo Jones's marketing blitz masks reality about ability

We interrupt this Lolo Jones Program to bring you some less-titillating news.

She might not win the 100-meter hurdles on Tuesday. It may go to an Aussie or a Turk or even another American
 That might shock millions of people who don’t realize there actually are other American women who can hurdle. One of them is even the defending gold

medalist.

Ever heard of Dawn Harper?

Maybe if you subscribe to Track and Field News. Almost every other magazine and TV show went loco for Lolo in the buildup to London.

She has a compelling story—poor upbringing, deadbeat dad, redemption after falling in Beijing. But let’s be honest.

If Jones wasn’t H-O-T, she might as well be rowing for Burma. Among her many skills is marketing, and she has preened her way to the top of the Olympic

medal stand.

Lolo was on the cover of Time magazine’s Olympic preview edition. She’s been profiled by Rolling Stone, HBO and NBC Nightly News. She did the Tonight Show.

All that, and she barely made the U.S. team.

Harper won the Olympic Trials and Kellie Wells was second. The fact fame can out-race accomplishment isn’t exactly a shock. Ask Tim Tebow.

But isn’t the whole point of the Olympics to run really fast?

What Paris Hilton rock have I been living under? Celebrity inevitably trumps substance, so we might as well enjoy Lolo’s semi-nude magazine spreads. It’s

just hard not to be bothered if you actually have a substantial resume.

“Hmm,” Harper said. “At one point it did.”

When that point ended, she didn’t say. You get the feeling we’re not there yet.

Harper has a pretty good story of her own. She was raised in tough East St. Louis. She didn’t even have a shoe sponsor last Olympics, so she went to China

with scruffy old spikes.

Embarrassed, she borrowed some nice ones from training partner Michelle Perry. Harper won, but most people just remember Jones hitting the next-to-last

hurdle to lose.

And it’s not as if Harper isn’t attractive. It’s easy to imagine her posing in only a red ribbon, as Jones did for Outside magazine.

Harper has been asked to pose for a few pictures at the Olympic Village the past week. But if Lolo is Tebow, she is Matt Hasselbeck.

“I’ve had my family issues as well,” Harper said. “But I’m not willing to say all of them just so I can be in the paper.”

It sure sounds as if Lolo-mania rankles her. Jones went from genuine article to marketing maven when she came out as the Almost-30-year-old Virgin a couple

of months ago.

Then she did the Tonight Show and told Jay Leno she might ask Tebow on a church date.

Talk about media catnip. Kim Kardashian probably fired her publicist that day for not thinking up a Tebow/virginity angle .

Jones is now up to 247,660 Twitter followers, by far the most of any U.S. track and field athlete. She has a half-dozen sponsors, ranging from Red Bull to

Asics to Oakley to BP.

Harper has one. Nike has spared her the indignity of borrowing shoes for London’s races.

“Everything Lolo’s gotten is wonderful,” Harper said. “I don’t want to take anything away from her. That’s her journey.”

You can’t blame Jones for taking it. But when the hurdlers go on their big Olympic journey Tuesday night, I can’t help but pull for Harper.

Even if all she does well is run really fast.

Firestone agony for Furyk after last-hole collapse

(Reuters) - PGA Tour veteran Jim Furyk knows better than most how cruel professional golf can be, and he was on the receiving end of a bitter reversal of

fortune at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday.

Having led the elite World Golf Championships (WGC) event from the opening round at Firestone Country Club, Furyk stayed in control until the 72nd hole where

he wound up with a double-bogey to lose the title by one shot.

While his playing partner Keegan Bradley savored unexpected ecstasy after sinking a 15-foot par putt at the last to win the tournament, Furyk had to deal

with the agony of a squandered chance at landing a 17th PGA Tour title.

"Right now I'm just a little bit in shock with the way I finished up," Furyk told reporters after his one-stroke lead coming down the par-four last had been

wiped out with an ugly six, having missed a five-foot putt for bogey.

"I turned a five into a six and lost the golf tournament on the last hole. There's no way I should have made double bogey.

"I've lost some tournaments in some pretty poor fashions, but I don't think I've let one ever slip nearly as bad as this one. This was my worst effort to

finish off an event."

Furyk, who had tumbled out of a tie for the lead with three holes to play at the U.S. Open in June, played good golf for virtually the entire final round on

a Firestone layout softened by overnight and early morning rain.

He birdied the first three holes and initially resisted a stirring Bradley charge after the turn with rock-solid pars and an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-

five 16th.

FINAL-HOLE NIGHTMARE

His final-hole nightmare began when his second shot ended up in the rough on the edge of a greenside bunker from where he had an awkward stance.

From there, he chunked his chip to just short of the fringe, then chipped from a poor lie to five feet short of the hole before missing a five-foot bogey

putt to gift the title to Bradley.

"If I wanted one shot over, I guess it would be the third especially as I had the ball sitting high in the rough," 2003 U.S. Open champion Furyk said. "I got

too steep. I got the ball real high in the face.

"That's why it came out kind of dead, didn't have any power to it, and I kind of dumped it short there. The third shot was the one that probably is the thorn

in my side.

"I've known it's a cruel game for a long time. I go back to the U.S. Open and the chances I had there, coming in tied with three holes to play, and I played

poorly the last three holes."

At Firestone, however, Furyk had been in complete control since firing a dazzling 63 in the opening round and his failure to finish the job was a bitter pill

for him to swallow.

"I led the golf tournament the entire way and lost it on the very last hole," said the 42-year-old, who is renowned for his rock-steady play and unorthodox

looping swing.

"To get that close and to know that I played more than good enough to win the golf tournament and not close the door is disappointing."

Tebow brought in to spark Jets with his legs more than his arm

CORTLAND, N.Y. -- The tabloid-ready Mark Sanchez-Tim Tebow quarterback drama that everyone wants to make the New York Jets 2012 season all about misses the

point. Or at least half the point.

Tebow isn't a Jet because New York coveted his passing arm. When the Jets choose to throw this season, Sanchez will deliver it the vast majority of the time.

That much is all but certain. But it's New York renewed commitment to the running game, a re-emphasizing of its once-vaunted Ground and Pound attack, that

will be the real story of the season in Rex-ville. And how that goes will determine just how much Tebow's role cuts into Sanchez's playing time and whether

there will be a quarterback controversy at some point.

After all, it wasn't Tebow's left arm that so memorably beat the stunned Jets 17-13 with a late 95-yard touchdown drive on a Thursday night in Week 11 last

season in Denver. As you'll recall, that victory seemed to ramp up Tebow-mania to a new level of frenzy, and it was what Tebow did with his legs that fully

got the attention and admiration of Jets head coach Rex Ryan. Tebow had seven carries for 58 yards during the game-winning drive, none bigger than the 20-

yard touchdown burst around left end with 58 seconds remaining, when he ripped through a Jets defense that seemed to want no part of a 250-pound runner on

that pivotal 3rd-and-4 play.
I'm convinced that play, that touchdown, that galling New York loss, went a long ways toward making Tebow a Jet today. The Broncos improved to 5-5 that night

and eventually went to the playoffs with Tebow leading the way. The Jets dropped to 5-5 with the loss and eventually missed the playoffs for the first time

in Ryan's three seasons on the job, as their locker room dissolved into dysfunction and their offense lost a good bit of its winning, run-first identity of

2009-10.

"The fact that he beat us and we couldn't defend him, absolutely, that certainly didn't hurt the equation,'' Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum told me the

other day, discussing the team's decision-making in the Tebow acquisition. "When the quarterback is a threat as a runner, it's hard to defend. It was a

philosophical decision. We want to be a tough team, and be able to be game-plan specific with what Tim does best. It was like adding another club to our bag

at a reasonable price. It doesn't mean we always have to use that club, but it's there.''

It's there all right, and how it's used this season is going to receive a bit of scrutiny. Down to a microscopic level. But focusing solely on the Sanchez-

Tebow dynamic overlooks the Jets' really big move of the offseason, the hiring of new offensive coordinator Tony Sparano.

The ex-Dolphins head coach was quickly snapped up by Ryan in an attempt to reclaim the type of hard-nosed approach to the running game that helped New York

lead the NFL in rushing in 2009 and finish fourth overall in 2010 -- results that coincided with the Jets reaching the AFC title game both years. Last year,

under since-departed offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, New York's muddled approach produced a running game that averaged just 3.8 yards per carry

(tied for 29th), and only 105.8 yards per game (22nd).

Ryan still doesn't know exactly how his 2011 Jets lost the offensive identity he talked so long and loudly about his first two seasons, but he knows they

did. And he's determined to make that a one-year trend, with Sparano's top priority being a restoration of the Jets running game as the foundation of the

offense.

"I think we did lose it,'' Ryan said. "Whether it was because we were behind, or what it was, I'm not sure. But that's something that clearly jumped out

about last season. We struggled in the preseason running the ball and we struggled early in the season. We finally got it going a little bit as the year went

on, but clearly for our team, the best thing for it is to run the football. Or to at least have the ability to run, so that teams know you'd better be

careful against us. You'd better defend the run, because if you don't, we will run it. We have to be able to impose our will on defenses with our running

game. We have to be able to run the football even when they know we're going to run it. That's when you know you have an excellent football team.''

The Jets, Tannenbaum said, made poor decisions last year in terms of how to best utilize their offensive personnel. This is the modern-day NFL. You have to

be able to pass, and pass effectively, to win big. But the Jets convinced themselves that aging receivers Plaxico Burress and Derrick Mason had to have major

roles in their offense, and that drew focus and carries away from running backs Shonn Greene, LaDainian Tomlinson and Joe McKnight. With disappointing

results.

"We initially went into the season thinking with Derrick Mason and Plaxico that our best personnel was one back, one tight end and three receivers,''

Tannenbaum said. "Over the course of the season we did evolve back to the running game, but at the beginning we kind of felt our best personnel was going in

a different direction. In hindsight it wasn't the right decision.''

At a recent Jets training camp practice I attended, it was Sparano's distinctive bellowing voice that dominated the proceedings on the field. Barking

instruction, encouragement or criticism, Sparano has everyone's attention at all times. His task is to re-establish the Jets' tough-guy persona, and the ex-

Cowboys offensive line coach has enthusiastically thrown himself into the renovation project.

"I understand why Rex hired me and what he's looking for,'' Sparano said. "What we're trying to do here is get a physicality, and a mentality that when

people watch us, it's not a case of What are they? They're going to have a pretty clear idea of what we are. A big part of winning in this league is taking

care of the football and being able to run the football, particularly in our division, in weather.

"I wasn't here in the past and I'm not really concerned about that part of it. But everything we do, it starts with physicality in the running game. What we

want is when people play the New York Jets, they line up against our offense and know it's going to be a physical football game.''

If you don't think Tebow will factor significantly into that return to a style of physicality in the Jets running game, you either haven't been paying

attention or you were in a coma and missed all of last season. The threat he poses with his legs and his ability to muscle his way through tacklers is one of

the primary reasons New York was interested in his unique and controversial skill package.

And of course, Sparano brings the Wildcat offensive formation that he helped make an NFL sensation back in 2008, when he led the Dolphins to a surprise AFC

East title in part by utilizing running back Ronnie Brown in that direct-snap quarterback role. The Jets used receiver Brad Smith effectively in the Wildcat

in 2009-10, but he signed with AFC East foe Buffalo in 2011, indirectly opening the door for Tebow this year.

Tebow will get plenty of work in the Wildcat in New York, as well as the read-option formation he thrived in (sporadically) last year in Denver. Earlier

indications are that he will be featured in red zone situations mostly, but given his success at times in Denver throwing deep patterns (Tebow had three

passes of at least 40 yards in one quarter of the Broncos' wild-card round upset over the Steelers, one more such throw than Sanchez completed all season), I

wouldn't be surprised to see him challenging a defense vertically on play-action calls. Second-round receiver Stephen Hill of Georgia Tech is a speed threat

who will be asked to stretch the field as a rookie.

"When we made the [Tebow] decision, obviously I talked to [Jets owner] Woody [Johnson],'' Tannenbaum said. "But it was Tony Sparano, Rex and myself in the

room. It was a football decision. Coach Sparano had coached him in the Senior Bowl and obviously ran a Wildcat with success in Miami, and Rex from the day he

walked in the door as a head coach, with his defensive acumen, always referred to it as 11-man football, where the quarterback is a threat as a runner. So

from a football standpoint, I'm looking to my left and I'm looking to my right and for really different reasons, they weren't scared of him.

"For a guy who has three years left on a contract, and may have been the best college football player of all time, we just felt the price of the trade was

reasonable and bringing Tim in here could really help our offense.''

The Tebow factor aside, Sparano's main focus in the running game will be coaxing a career year out of Jets lead running back Greene, who despite being

productive last season (1,054 yards, 4.2-yard average carry) didn't seem to be able to churn out the big yards at the biggest moments, or take over late in

games the way he did during his rookie season of 2009. Greene, who is entering the fourth and final year of his first Jets contract, will have the

opportunity under Sparano to prove he's New York's present and future at running back.

Ryan said he didn't think the Jets did a good job of blocking downfield for Greene last season, citing the departure of receiver Braylon Edwards as a

contributing factor to that decline. "Braylon was a big part in the way we blocked down field,'' Ryan said. "We actually would motion Braylon in and run

behind him, like a tight end. I think you're going to see us get back to that. That's a New York Jet thing. That commitment to blocking downfield. That's

going to help Shonn.''

But Sparano makes it sound as if re-energizing Greene's game will be as easy as giving him the ball. Early, often, and religiously. According to Sparano,

Greene just needs more work, and he defends his 2011 season by pointing out that Greene averaged 79.1 yards in the season's final 12 games, which Sparano

said ranked fourth in the league over that span.

"This guy is a big physical back, and he's built the way I like them, a low-to-the-ground, move-the-pile guy,'' Sparano said. "With Shonn, I have a feeling

this guy gets lathered up the more times he touches the ball. He carried the ball a lot in college [at Iowa]. That's the type of back he is. The most

important thing I try to talk to him about, because of the way we want to use him, is to make sure you take care of your body. It's a long season, and we're

going to use you. That's how we get his game to the next level.''

All of which is music to Greene's ears, with his next contract just around the corner. And the Jets offensive line, which includes the likes of Pro Bowl

selections Nick Mangold at center, D'Brickashaw Ferguson at tackle and Brandon Moore at guard, likes the renewed run-first mentality, too. What offensive

linemen doesn't love to run block, moving forward instead of backward in pass protection?

"We're a team with a great defense, a physical defense, and a physical-minded coach,'' Moore said. "You want to be able to run the football, and we have the

personnel to do that. But saying you're going to Ground and Pound and run the ball doesn't mean you're not going to throw the football. We'll throw it

plenty. But to get our identity back of being a physical, tough-minded team, a team with attitude, you've got to be able to run the ball. It's a welcomed

change around here. You don't feel tough or play like a tough team if you're slinging the ball all over the place.''

With Tomlinson retired after two seasons in New York, the Jets will ask Joe McKnight to add to his kickoff return duties, filling the speed-back role and

posing a receiving threat out of the backfield. And young runners like second-year veteran Bilal Powell and rookie Terrance Ganaway may contribute in

complementary roles. It's up to Sparano to find ways to employ them all, giving opposing defenses a host of different looks and packages to contend with in

stopping New York's running game.

If the plan holds this season, nobody will be used more creatively than Tebow, New York's high-profile backup quarterback, punt protector and X-factor

extraordinaire. But my guess is we'll be talking about his running a lot more than his passing in 2012, and the same might go for the entire Jets offense

this year. There seems to be no daylight between Ryan's and Sparano's mentality on the direction New York is headed.

"It's funny, but when we were researching our options at offensive coordinator, Rex and I spoke to Anthony Lynn, our running backs coach, who had been with

Tony in Dallas,'' Tannenbaum said. "I said, 'Anthony, in 30 seconds or less, what is Tony Sparano?' He said 'He's Rex Ryan on offense.' And that could not be

more accurate. He's tough, he's demanding, he's funny and he's fair.

"Of all the things we did this offseason, I think as much as anything, Tony is going to make a huge difference. Not just on our offense, but our football

team, because he sees the game from the eyes of a head coach.''

So it's time to Ground and Pound again in New York. Even if Tebow Time and the back-page circus has arrived, for Mark Sanchez, it's the Jets' recommitment to

their running game -- and not his celebrated new teammate -- that might wind up being his best friend.

End of 007? Bond takes a bullet in latest Skyfall trailers

THE title is still confusing but at least we now have a plot for Skyfall.

In between the shots of Bond running, jumping, swaggering, kissing and adjusting his cufflinks, the latest full length trailers offer up the following plot points:

- MI6 screws up and loses a drive that unbelievably contains the identity of every agent embedded in terrorist organisations around the world.

- The screw-up somehow involves YouTube and M's past sins.

- James Bond dies, shot on M's orders by an agent played by Naomie Harris.

- James Bond comes back from the dead after a tequila bender in a seedy bar.

- Javier Bardem is blonde, evil and p***ed off.

- Ralph Fiennes is a balding government spook, and let's face it, knowing his track record, is also a bad guy.

- "Mommy was very bad" is best said in a thick Spanish accent.

The trailer also gives us the first look at the new Q, played by the geeky-looking Brit actor Ben Whishaw. He gives Bond a gun only he can fire, which is likely to be important at some point in the film, probably when the villain is looking to off Bond.

Skyfall is released in November.

A variation on the trailer above offers fans more.

Libyan election hints at blow to Islamists

Libya's first nationwide elections in nearly five decades brought hints Sunday of an Arab Spring precedent: Western-leaning parties making strides over Islamist rivals hoping to follow the same paths to power as in neighbors Egypt and Tunisia.

While final results from Saturday's parliamentary election could still be days away under a two-tier selection system, unofficial and partial counts from Libya's biggest cities suggested liberal factions were leading the Muslim Brotherhood and allies in a possible first major setback to their political surge following last year's uprisings.

If the Libyan trend holds — which is still far from certain — it would challenge the narrative of rising Islamist power since the fall of Western-allied regimes from Tunis to Cairo. It also could display the different political dynamics in Libya, where tribal loyalties run deep and groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood at times cooperated with the rule of Moammar Gadhafi.

"Anyone with past ties with old regime is hated, even despised," said Fathi al-Fadhali, a pro-Islamist Libyan political analyst who lived in exile for 30 years. "Any political names associated with the regime are immediately politically burnt by that association."

Ultimately, the 200-seat parliament will face the task of forming a government — which could become tests of strength for Islamists and secular forces over questions such as women's rights, the extent of traditional Islamic law and relations with the U.S. and other Western nations that helped bring down Gadhafi.

U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Libyans on the vote, calling it "another milestone on their extraordinary transition to democracy." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the people of Libya and the candidates who "contested the election in a peaceful, democratic spirit," according to his spokesman.

Now, the ballots have to be portioned out according to two categories: Eighty seats are set aside for party lists, and the remaining 120 for individual independent candidates.

In the first group, a liberal alliance led the former rebel prime minister Mahmoud Jibril appeared to hold more than half the seats in the capital Tripoli and the revolution stronghold of Benghazi, according to several party representatives. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

In western Libya, where Jibril's tribe, the Warfalla, is prominent, his party also was on the top in the early counting, the political officials said. In Libya's third-largest city, Misrata — which was besieged by Gadhafi forces for weeks — an upstart faction of local politicians appeared to hold the lead in another possible blow to Islamists.

Faisal Krekshi, secretary general of Jibril's Alliance of National Forces, said the results were based on reports by party representatives at ballot counting centers across the vast desert nation of 6 million people. Even officials from rival Islamist parties — the Muslim Brotherhood's Justice and Construction Party and the Islamist Al-Watan — described Jibril's alliance as the biggest winner in the race for the 80 party seats.

But even if true, that is still a long way from victory.

The bulk of the parliament — 120 seats — will be decided by the results from the head-to-head races among thousands of candidates, making it nearly impossible to predict.

Shortly before the voting, Libya's Grand Mufti issued a religious edict prohibiting Libyans from voting for secularists. Meanwhile, independent candidates are seen as possible wildcards and could punish both the Muslim Brotherhood and Jibril's factions for having former ties to the Gadhafi regime.

"We are all waiting and we have nothing to suggest that one party is ahead of others," election commission chief Nouri al-Abar told reporters. He also refused to set a date for announcing complete results. Some observers believe it could take nearly a week.

Speaking to reporters, Jibril vowed to "commit ourselves to what the commission will announce officially" and urged for all political factions to work toward "national consensus."

Unlike Egypt — where the Muslim Brotherhood was seen as an alternative to Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian rule — its brethren in Libya must confront a reputation as compromisers with Gadhafi. A former rebel commander, Fadllah Haroun, called it "their black past."

Gadhafi's powerful son, Seif al-Islam, forged deals with the Muslim Brotherhood and allies in efforts to pave the way for his eventual rule. He released more than 150 Islamist political prisoners starting in 2003 and offered others positions in his various media outlets and foundations.

Because of such ties, the Muslim Brotherhood boycotted the first Libyan opposition conference in London in 2005 that called for overthrowing Gadhafi's regime at a time Libya was mending its relations with the West.

Abdel-Latif Karmous, deputy leader of the Libyan Brotherhood who was among the prisoners released by Gadhafi's son, acknowledged that the group faces perceptions as regime allies. "We didn't immerse ourselves in the regime ... We only kept channels open to achieve political mobilization," said Karmous, a professor at Tripoli University.

Since Gadhafi's fall, the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya also has faced questions about its close ties to the wealthy Gulf state of Qatar, which funneled weapons and funds to the anti-Gadhafi forces. Some critics accuse Qatar's rulers of trying to exert influence through Libya's Brotherhood as a bridge between Egypt and Tunisia.

In December, influential Egyptian cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi, who is based in Qatar, flew to Libya aboard a Qatari royal jet and was given a feast by a senior Brotherhood leader, Bashir al-Kebti.

Later, al-Qaradawi and Tunisian Brotherhood leader Rashid al-Ghannoushi traveled to Tripoli to attend a National Reconciliation conference. But members of the rebel-led National Transition Council withdrew in protest "because they only saw it as a promotion and propaganda for the Brotherhood," said Fathi Baja, head of political committee in the NTC.

"Qatar for the Brotherhood is like a shrine," he added. "Twenty-four hour visits, around the clock, members coming and going to Qatar."

Libya also is awash with rival Islamist groups, including the ultraconservative Salafis and jihadists inspired by al-Qaida, which could bring future power plays regardless of the election results.

Fathi Bin Essa, a prominent political analyst, described the elections as only a "rehearsal" to show "who has the real power in the street."

The run-up to the voting, too, showed the political complexities of trying to accommodate all sides in Libya.

Jibril's liberal alliance of about 40 groups emphasized the need for a "civil democratic" state, but said that Islamic Sharia law should guide legislation. Jibril also made a point to appear with Muslim clerics in campaign photos even though he is prohibited from running under rules barring NTC members from the ballot.

But a religious edict by Libya's Grand Mufti, Sheik Sadek al-Ghariani, accused the liberal factions of using Islam to try to court conservative Libyans.

"I advise you to choose the one who will rule by God's religion and God's Sharia," according to an audio clip posted by Libyan activists.

Independent candidate and Benghazi city council member Faraj Negm said "the Libyan street doesn't accept anyone to blackmail them."

"We are one Muslim nation that doesn't pretend to be politically savvy," Nagm said, "but we learn and we don't want anyone to dictate things on us."

War crimes trial adjourned as Mladic is hospitalized

(Reuters) - Former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic is expected to stay in hospital for a second day of tests after being taken ill during his war crimes trial on Thursday, his lawyer said.

Mladic, 70, is accused of genocide over the siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the 1995 killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, Europe's worst massacre since World War Two.

He was rushed to hospital on Thursday morning after he was taken ill in court. He asked the judge for a break, and then slumped with his head in his hands early on the fourth day of his war crimes trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), based in The Hague.

Already in poor health when arrested in Serbia last year after 16 years on the run, Mladic has several times said he is too ill to stand trial. He complains that he suffers from the effects of a stroke, has problems with his teeth and has been admitted to hospital with pneumonia.

Prosecutors and relatives of victims fear he could die without facing justice, as did former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, who died in a Dutch prison cell in 2006 while on trial before the ICTY.

Tribunal spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic told Reuters: "He (Mladic) complained he was feeling unwell during the hearing, so the hearing was adjourned."

Branko Lukic, Mladic's lawyer, told Reuters the trial was unlikely to continue on Friday.

"He really looked unwell," Lukic told Reuters. "It was a huge surprise for all of us because he'd been looking in pretty good shape."

Lukic said later Mladic's condition had improved, but he would stay in hospital for further tests on Friday.

"He's better than he was this morning, when he couldn't recognize people around him or move his right arm and leg," Lukic said.

A Reuters witness said Mladic asked for a break shortly after Thursday's session opened. He then put his head in his hands, and the judge called for medical staff and adjourned the hearing.

A member of Mladic's defense team had accompanied him to hospital, Lukic said.

Earlier this year, the opening of the trial had to be postponed after it emerged the prosecution had failed to disclose thousands of pages of evidence to the defense.

Why zombies, robots, clowns freak us out

SAN DIEGO (CNN) — What do zombies and androids have in common? They’re almost human, but not quite. That disconnect is creepy, in a way that scientists are searching to understand.

The uncanny valley is the idea that as a robot’s appearance becomes more and more humanlike, we don’t always respond to it more positively. Rather, there’s a point on the scale between robot and human where we are repulsed. If it’s mechanical but not entirely human, a robot seems disturbing.

Why would that be? It would make sense that as human likeness increases in a robot, so would our comfort with it. But on a graph showing that relationship, there’s a “valley” where this familiarity dips down into creepiness, and then comes back up again with more human characteristics.

You may have experienced feeling this while watching animated movies that incorporate humanlike forms. It’s also the reason that you might get freaked out by clowns or by photos people with extreme plastic surgeries that don’t look quite real anymore. Our brains come to an impasse when we see something that resembles a member of our species but just doesn’t make the cut.

Some animators sidestep the issue: in the movie “Wall-E,” for example, the main character has eyes but is not very humanlike otherwise, he is clearly a robot. His friend, Eva, looks like a white shape with eyes. Both express emotions clearly but don’t try to mimic the human shape or form. And HAL from “2001: A Space Odyssey” is just a red camera eye, but it too conveys feelings.

But when you get more humanlike, things get weird. Some reviewers were put off by the characters in the film “Polar Express,” for instance.

Then there are the Na’vi in “Avatar,” who have many physical human characteristics in addition to morphed features and tails. But they are also blue, creating a sense of “otherness” that may have made them less distasteful to viewers — in other words, they were sufficiently un-human.

Ayse Saygin, professor at the University of California, San Diego, is using cutting-edge brain science to understand this strange quirk of human nature. Although the idea of the uncanny valley has been observed, there has not been much rigorous scientific experimental work on it, partly because it’s hard to get at the heart of the matter objectively.

“Even if we don’t actually define it in words, we may be able to find signals for it in the brain,” Saygin said.

Saygin and colleagues published a study last year using functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI), looking at what’s happening in the brain that might explain the uncanny valley phenomenon. They hypothesized that, at least in part, the effect might result from a violation of the brain’s predictions. When we anticipate one thing but see another, we get an error, and that error makes us shy away from the thing we’re viewing.

The researchers showed 20 participants some video clips of three “actors” moving in the same ways: a human, an android modeled after the human, and a stripped-down robot (the same android without its humanlike form). Although this is a small sample of people, it is typical for neuroimaging studies, which are expensive and time-intensive.

Something interesting emerged in the results: “The network that normally processes your body movements is more active when you view an android,” compared with when you look at a stripped-down robot or a human, Saygin explains.

This could be because the brain has to combine conflicting information, she said.

“Your brain’s gonna be like, ‘Hey, wait a minute, you told me this was a human, and now this area told me that this is not moving like a human. So, I have to really compute that,’ ” she said. “That’s what we think the uncanny valley might be partially caused by, and we have seen some brain activity that looks like that.”

The uncanny valley phenomenon was put forth in an article in “Energy” in 1970 by Japanese robotics expert Masahiro Mori. But before that, Ernst Jentsch wrote about “the uncanny” in a 1906 essay, and Sigmund Freud followed up 13 years later.

Yet the idea is largely based on anecdotes, and researchers such as Karl MacDorman, associate professor of human-computer interaction at Indiana University, are working on experiments to hone in on possible explanations. MacDorman briefly worked with Saygin on animations in Japan.

In his view, the uncanny valley effect has to do with a mismatch in features of a single animation or robot, with some parts appearing much more humanlike than others. For instance, when a very human-looking head is placed on an obviously mechanical body, that can be creepy. So can a human face with robotic eyes.

“When there are elements that are both human or nonhuman, this mismatch can produce eerie sensation in the brain,” MacDorman said. “It’s when different parts of the brain are coming to different conclusions at the same time.”

There are other factors that may play in, however.

The uncanny valley effect could have to do with uncertainty about whether a robotic character is truly alive or dead, and even play into our deep-seated fears of death. Alternatively, it may be part of cognitive dissonance, which happens when a person’s beliefs are not in line with their behaviors — for instance, a smoker who berates other smokers.

From an evolutionary perspective, humans have developed an aversion to sickness, and a creepy-looking almost-human might tap into our internal system that warns us against sources of disease. In relation, we evolved to choose mates who are healthy, and weird robots may set off the same warning bells that told our ancestors to stay away from unfit sexual partners.

MacDorman’s current focus is on the uncanny valley with respect to empathy: that is, is the uncanny valley phenomenon related to a person’s difficulty in identifying with particular animated or robotic characters in films? Does it relate to the impression that these characters are somehow “soulless,” and in what ways?

Saygin’s ongoing studies make use of electroencephalography, or EEG, which measures electrical activity along the scalp. While fMRI tells where in the brain activity occurs, EEG is better for looking at when — that is, when in viewing agents with different degrees of humanness do people’s brain patterns change. EEG is also much more portable and less expensive. Rather a big scanner, it involves a cap worn on a person’s head.

Researchers may be able to understand the EEG patterns associated with the uncanny valley effect, and people’s comfort with various robotic forms. Eventually, this information could be used to help robot developers or animators who don’t want their creations to scare people.

“Instead of asking somebody, ‘Do you like this robot?’ we could get that information a lot more directly, and faster perhaps, if we can develop these technologies,” she said.

Lured by Patent Protection, OxyContin Maker Tests Pain Drug in Kids

The maker of the powerful pain drug OxyContin is beginning to test the medicine in children, hoping to secure an extra six months of protection for the drug's patent, which is set to expire in 2013.

The move is controversial, in light of problems with addiction to OxyContin, which belongs to the family of drugs called opioids that also includes morphine and heroin. But several pain specialists say the move is an important step in giving a more accurate picture of the drug's effect on children, considering that many doctors already prescribe the drug off-label for children.

OxyContin's manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, emphasized that the company is not trying to make a kid's version of the drug, nor is it hoping to seek the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval for pediatric use of OxyContin. The goal, said company spokesman James Heins, is to give more information on how the drug acts in the bodies of children who may need it for the overwhelming pain of conditions such as cancer, sickle cell anemia, severe burns and other trauma.

"Doctors are already prescribing it in limited cases for kids, but they don't have the benefit of any clinical studies showing how these drugs work in kids. Right now, all they have to go on is data from adult patients," Heins said.

The trials are already underway across the country, and Purdue hopes to enroll 154 children from ages 6 to 16 who would take the drug for four weeks. When the trial is complete, the company will send the results to the FDA. Whatever the outcomes of the study, Purdue will get an extra six months of patent protection for their trouble. OxyContin earned Purdue $2.8 billion in 2011.

The trial may seem to be centered in financial gain, and experts said the company is likely moved in large part by financial incentives. But Dr. Joseph Tobin, professor and chair of anesthesiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, said if drug companies are not given financial incentives to test drugs in pediatric populations, the studies would not get done at all.

"Children have become therapeutic orphans in the development or testing of new drugs. The expense and the risk are high, but the profit margin to be obtained is small compared with other diseases," Tobin said. "I think it's essential that this type of process goes forward so we can get better information on the safest uses of drugs in children."

In 2002, the government attempted to give drug companies incentives to test their medicines in kids with the Better Pharmaceuticals for Children Act, a law that allows an additional six months of patent protection for on-patent drugs. The patent that would be extended for Purdue would be the one covering OxyContin's formulation, which was modified in 2010 to make it harder for people to misuse and abuse the drug.

One of the drug's patents that will expire in 2013 is the one covering OxyContin's controlled release mechanism, which allows one pill to steadily dole out the medication over an extended period of time.

That mechanism is also what makes OxyContin different from other pain drugs, such as morphine and meperidine, or Demerol. It makes the drug more effective at treating pain, but it also makes it a highly attractive target for people addicted to opioids.

"The reason OxyContin has been such a social problem is that it locks up a large amount of drug in a small pill," said Dr. Elliot Krane, director of the pediatric pain management program at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University.

Obama Plan to Extend Bush Tax Cuts for Middle Class Is Dead on Arrival

Everyone knows the president’s middle-income tax proposal will never make it through the

House—and that’s just fine with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Patricia Murphy on

why now is the perfect time for the tax debate.
Two hours before President Obama stood in the East Room of the White House to call for an

extension of the Bush tax cuts for middle-income Americans, House Speaker John Boehner

fired off a statement panning the idea and declaring Obama “asleep at the switch” of the

American economy.
Boehner’s prebuttal confirmed what everybody in Washington, including the president,

already knew—that Obama’s pitch for half a loaf of Bush tax-cut extensions is going

absolutely nowhere on Capitol Hill as long as the GOP runs the House. Indeed, that was the

point of the whole exercise on both sides of the aisle: to remind voters of what is at

stake in the November elections.

For Americans watching from outside the Beltway, proposing an idea that everyone knows is

doomed might seem like a colossal waste of time at best and an example of Washington

gridlock run amok at worst. But for Democrats and Republicans in the nation’s capital, the

president’s go-nowhere proposal is just the opposite—a chance to have exactly the right

debate at exactly the right time.

The tax debate “is more important now than before because voters are starting to pay

attention,” says Ron Bonjean, a Washington consultant and former adviser for the

Republican House and Senate leadership.

Bonjean said upcoming votes on the Bush tax cuts can and likely will be used against

Democrats in campaign commercials and on the trail leading up to the November elections.

Republican candidates, he said, have nothing to lose if they frame their no-new-taxes

position as fighting for small businesses that could get hit by the higher tax rates under

Obama’s proposal.

    “Republicans are so clearly on the wrong side of every single poll. They are so

transparently only interested in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.”

“There is no downside to them to support extending the tax cuts,” Bonjean said.

Democrats, on the other hand, could have a tougher hand to play: “Saying, ‘The economy is

bad, so let’s raise taxes’ in the last few months of the campaign, that’s not a message

that’s going to work.”

Not surprisingly, Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill see the tax battle very

differently. But they are just as eager as Republicans to have the fight in front of

voters.

“Republicans have failed to put forward a plan to create jobs or end the outsourcing of

American jobs and continue to waste valuable time on bills to nowhere,” Democratic leader

Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “We must work together to extend tax cuts for the middle

class, put people to work, and grow our economy.”

A Democratic leadership aide put it more bluntly: “This is an easy debate for us.

Republicans are so clearly on the wrong side of every single poll. They are so

transparently only interested in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.”

A number of polls, including Gallup’s most recent survey on the tax issue, supports

Democrats’ confidence in pushing their position to extend the tax cuts only up to

$250,000. In the Gallup poll, 62 percent of respondents said upper-income Americans are

“not paying their fair share,” while just 25 percent said the top earners are “taxed

about right.”

Gallup editors noted that that Republicans’ efforts to extend the tax cuts for all

Americans could be especially dangerous if they are seen fighting for wealthy Americans at

the expense of the middle class, a risk that GOP aides say they are well aware of. They say

privately that that distinction is the driving force behind their message that Republicans

are fighting for small businesses that would get hit under the Obama proposal, not for the

billionaires in the same position.

In his remarks Monday, Obama said he will sign a tax-cut bill as soon as Congress sends it

to him. But House and Senate leaders have no plans to negotiate a real agreement before

Election Day on Nov. 6. Instead, both parties will vote on separate proposals that the

other side says it will quickly reject.

Republican aides told The Daily Beast that the House will vote in a one-year extension of

all of the Bush tax cuts before the end of the month, along with instructions for Congress

to reform the entire tax code. Democratic Senate aides say the Senate also will vote to

extend the Bush tax cuts before August, but will only consider the president’s proposal to

extend the cuts for incomes of $250,000 and below.

In the meantime, all of the Bush tax cuts, for all Americans, are scheduled to expire on

Jan. 1, 2013, along with the temporary 2-point cut to the payroll tax, which will expire on

the same day. Combined, the tax increases would be a multitrillion-dollar hit to Americans

’ incomes, but at the moment, no one in Washington is talking about that.