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BofA: Laughlin tapped for chief risk officer

2012-03-15T06:56:00.000-07:00

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Bank of America Corp. said Friday it has tapped Terry Laughlin to be the lender's chief risk officer.

Laughlin is now head of the Charlotte-based company's legacy asset servicing business.

The bank that Paula Dominick, its global compliance executive, will fill in as chief risk officer until Laughlin takes over late in the third quarter.

The previous chief credit officer, Bruce Thompson, recently moved to the post of chief financial officer.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan noted that Laughlin has helped the company make significant progress dealing with its legacy mortgage issues.

The bank has been facing lawsuits from investors over …

Saudi official questions new sanctions on Iran

2012-03-15T04:31:00.000-07:00

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Monday expressed doubts about the usefulness of more sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

Prince Saud al-Faisal told a news conference in the Saudi capital that the threat posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions demands a more immediate solution than sanctions. He described sanctions as a long-term solution, and he said the threat is more pressing.

The Saudi minister spoke at a joint appearance with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is in the Persian Gulf to shore up support for new sanctions against Iran. The Saudi minister also said efforts supported by the U.S. to rid the Middle East of …

As market drops, recruits less interested in options

2012-03-15T02:10:00.000-07:00

As many tech stocks dive and employees watch the value of theirstock options evaporate, the currency of the "new economy" may giveway to an old standby: cash.

Compensation experts say the tumbling Nasdaq composite index iscasting a shadow over the liberal use of stock options, the "carrots"that cash-strapped high-tech firms and start-ups dangle in front ofjob candidates.

Experts say tech companies may have to scale back generous optiongrants and offer, instead, larger salaries and cash bonuses to lureworkers.

"Cash is king," said James McElligott Jr., a compensation expertand partner at Richmond, Va., law firm McGuire Woods Battle & BootheLLP. "That has …

Anchorage to Phoenix flight diverted to Seattle

2012-03-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

SEATTLE (AP) — A U.S. Airways flight from Anchorage, Alaska, to Phoenix made an emergency landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after one of its engines went out.

Airport spokesman Perry Cooper says the Airbus A319 landed safely and none of the 130 people aboard was injured when Flight 149 was diverted to Sea-Tac around 5:45 a.m. Friday.

U.S. Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder says a mechanical problem led to the engine shutdown. She says the passengers were placed on another plane to continue the flight to Phoenix.

THIS IS A …

Bill Clinton to bankers: engage the left

2012-03-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton urged the people who run Latin America's biggest development bank on Saturday not to turn their backs on the leftists in the region who parlayed the poor's discontent into electoral victories.

Clinton didn't name Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, whose presidents have all demonized Washington and expelled U.S. diplomats in recent months, referring to them rather as "Colombia's neighbors."

He said he doesn't agree with their politics but "I do understand why poor people who feel powerless turn away from the messy world of democracy."

"It shouldn't be surprising that a reaction to global …

Repairs complete after rockslide closes parts of road W.Va. 3

2012-03-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

SUNDIAL - Work crews have finished construction on W.Va. 3 inSundial where a rockslide from overhanging cliffs had left the roaddamaged since January.

For more than nine months, the rock fall zone has remained a one-lane highway with a temporary stoplight.

Brent Walker, West Virginia Division of Highways spokesman, saidthe lag time for the project's completion is typical throughout WestVirginia.

"It doesn't surprise us ... there are slides all over WestVirginia. We live in a mountainous state," he said. "Many slides gowithout repairs. We practice triage - we do the best we can with theresources we have."

Walker explained that the DOH …

Palestinians Install More Moderate Gov't

2012-03-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Palestinians installed a new, more moderate coalition government on Saturday, in hopes of persuading the international community to end its isolation of the Palestinian Authority and lift a year of bruising sanctions.

Israel promptly announced it wouldn't deal with the coalition, because governing partners Hamas and Fatah stopped short of explicitly recognizing the Jewish state or renouncing violence, as the international community has demanded.

But the new alliance, which replaced the militantly anti-Israel government led by the Islamic Hamas, appeared to implicitly recognize Israel by calling for a Palestinian state on lands the Israelis captured …

French university suspends classes after protest

2012-03-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

A university in the French city of Toulouse shut down indefinitely Tuesday, a day after students broke down doors and occupied administrative offices to protest government education reforms.

The University of Toulouse-Mirail suspended classes "until further notice," university president Daniel Filatre said.

Students and professors have held numerous protests and strikes since late January that have forced some schools to temporarily close in the past six weeks over the reforms aimed at streamlining the country's …

U.S. team tops Soviets in basketball

2012-03-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

The United States won its first major men's internationalbasketball competition in three years Tuesday with an 88-80 victoryover the Soviet Union in the gold medal game of the World UniversityGames at Duisburg, West Germany.

Stephen Thompson of Syracuse scored 16 points to lead the U.S.team, while Stacey Augmon, the only player on the squad who alsoplayed on the bronze medal team at Seoul, added 15 points.

Larry Johnson, who will join Augmon at Nevada-Las Vegas nextseason, had 14 points and 11 rebounds for the United States, whichovercame an early eight-point deficit to take a 47-40 halftime lead.

Goundars Vetra led all scorers with 27 points, 17 in the …

Australian court clears sale of Samsung Galaxy tab

2012-03-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

SYDNEY (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. is closer to selling its new Galaxy tablet computer in Australia after a court on Wednesday overturned a ruling that sided with Apple's allegations Samsung had copied its iPad and iPhone.

The Federal Court's decision is a victory for Samsung in its bitter, international patent war with Apple Inc., and might be just in time for the Suwon, South Korea-based company to capitalize on the Christmas shopping season in Australia.

The ruling Wednesday said evidence fails to show that the Galaxy tablet infringes Apple's touch screen patent and that Apple Inc. would be unlikely to win if the case went to a trial. It blasted the earlier decision in …

Canada to review Nortel-Avaya deal

2012-03-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

Canada's industry minister said Thursday he will review the sale of Nortel's enterprise division to U.S. telecom company Avaya to determine if the deal significantly benefits Canada.

The insolvent company announced last week it would sell the enterprise division to New Jersey-based Avaya Inc. for $900 million.

The enterprise unit supplies landline phone systems and other communications equipment to businesses and large organizations around the world.

Industry minister Tony Clement told an investment group that the Canadian government will review the deal under the Investment Canada Act to ensure the transaction benefits the country.

…

Call us with your commuter questions

2012-03-14T05:03:00.000-07:00

A strike on four commuter lines is headed our way. Lake ShoreDrive construction is shutting two lanes in each direction. TheKennedy is, well, the Kennedy. When the going to work gets tough,what's a commuter to do?

Call …

US Patriots to be stationed in northern Poland

2012-03-14T02:24:00.000-07:00

The Polish Defense Ministry says a battery of U.S. Patriot missiles will be stationed in northern Poland in April.

Ministry spokesman Janusz Sejmej said Wednesday that a base with up to eight launch pads and manned by some 100 U.S. troops will be installed in the town of Morag.

The Patriot defense missiles will be used to train the Polish military.

The Patriot garrison was a Polish condition for a 2008 deal to host long-range missile defense interceptors. The deal, which was struck by the Bush administration, angered Russia and was later reconfigured under President Barack Obama's administration.

Morag is 37 miles (60 kilometers) from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Grupo Mexico offers $2.9 billion for Asarco

2012-03-13T23:32:00.000-07:00

Grupo Mexico SAB offered $2.9 billion Tuesday to regain control of Arizona-based Asarco LLC and pull it out of bankruptcy protection, topping a bid from India's largest copper producer.

The two mining giants are seeking Asarco's assets, including three U.S. copper mines and a smelter. The Tucson-based Asarco has been attempting to reorganize under bankruptcy protection since 2005.

Under terms of its amended plan, Grupo Mexico's affiliate, Americas Mining Corp., would contribute $2.9 billion, which includes $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in escrow plus cash Asarco has on hand.

In April, Mumbai-based Sterlite Industries Ltd., a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources PLC, offered $1.1 billion in cash and a $600 million note.

A third plan came from hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, which Grupo Mexico said included $500 million in cash but no collateral.

The plans are pending before a U.S. bankruptcy judge in Texas overseeing the case.

Asarco's debts include more than $5 billion in claims for asbestos-related environmental cleanup and damages.

Grupo Mexico purchased Asarco in 1999 but lost control after Asarco filed for bankruptcy reorganization.

On the Net:

Asarco LLC: http://www.asarco.com/

Grupo Mexico SAB: http://www.grupomexico.com

Sterlite Industries Ltd.: http://www.sterlite-industries.com

Isotechnika completes recruitment for psoriasis trial

2012-03-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

Edmonton - Isotechnika Inc. has completed recruitment for its Canadian Phase III psoriasis trial for its lead immunosuppressive compound, ISA247. Of the 400 subjects enrolled in the trial, 207 subjects have commenced treatment. The company received a "No Objection Letter" from Health Canada on December 1, 2004 and commenced the trial on December 2, 2004.

The Phase III trial will be performed over a twenty-four week period at thirty-two centres across Canada involving subjects with moderate to severe psoriasis. It will be conducted as a randomized, double-blind study with four dose arms. Of the 400 subjects, 100 subjects will receive the high dose (0.4 mg/kg twice daily), 100 subjects will receive the mid dose (0.3 mg/kg twice daily), 100 subjects will receive the low dose (0.2 mg/kg twice daily) and 100 subjects will receive placebo. Subsequent to the first 12 weeks, those subjects who received placebo will move into the mid dose range dose of 0.3 mg/kg twice daily for the remaining 12 weeks of the study.

"We are pleased that our recruitment has been completed in just two months," stated Dr. Randall Yatscoff, Isotechnika's President and CEO. "This indicates an unmet medical need for people suffering from this debilitating disease."

Millionaire leaves estate to Calif. university

2012-03-13T17:47:00.000-07:00

Bruce Lindsay left behind a tip officials at Vanguard University won't soon forget.

Lindsay, who passed away last month at 79, bequeathed his estate to the small Christian university in Orange County where he ate daily at the cafeteria for decades. The donation, estimated to be at least several million dollars, will likely help the school that is saddled with $42 million in debt.

Known as the "campus grandpa" by students, Lindsay amassed his fortune by buying up cut-rate oil leases and flipping beachfront homes. A product of the Great Depression, Lindsay relished a good, cheap meal and abandoned a nearby hospital cafeteria for Vanguard where he found all-you-can-eat meals for $1.25.

"'Frugal' is not the right word for Bruce," suggested business professor Ed Westbrook, who befriended Lindsay. "He was real miserly."

Lindsay ate all of his meals on campus and often talked with both students and teachers, doling out advice. A former university president gave Lindsay the title of "student advocate" in the 1980s and with the title came free cafeteria food.

He became such a fixture at the 2,200-student university, he would often hold court in the crowded dining hall.

"I didn't sit with him every day, but there was always a big group of people who would eat with him at breakfast," recalled sophomore Brandon Arias.

Lindsay, who was never married and had no children, wasn't shy about commenting on the cafeteria fare. Lindsay's last words to Westbrook: "The cook put too much salt in the soup."

It's a good bet that a portion of Lindsay's money will be used to help build a new dining hall.

"That way," Westbrook said, "students will always be eating with Bruce."

___

On the Net:

http://www.vanguard.edu/

A step ahead

2012-03-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

It starts at infancy: Babies are now introduced to computerkeyboards through infant software.

By the age of 10, some kids are so technologically savvy thatthey're creating their own Web sites and teaching their teachers andparents how to download software.

"The kids know more than me," said Claudia Braithwaite, a first-grade teacher at Washington School in Evanston. "Some third-gradersjust showed me how to create a booklet on a computer when I washaving trouble."

Computers are transforming education for tens of thousands ofChicago area students, most of whom know their way around technologybetter than teachers.

Many teachers are trying to catch up by taking courses to learnmore about computers and software. Still others, like Braithwaite,are taking their students on computer-related field trips to TheChildren's Museum at Navy Pier, where kids recently checked out newMicrosoft science software.

Computers have helped both high- and low-ability students learn ina way that is "richer, better connected and more applicable tosubsequent learning," according to Thomas C. Reeves, a professor atthe University of Georgia who has studied the impact of computers onlearning.

Students say they wish their teachers used computers more.

"One of my teachers used a PowerPoint presentation to show ussomething_it was incredible and it made it fun," said Sam Rosen,referring to the computerized version of the overhead projection."But I think a lot of teachers are scared of the computer."

Sam, a freshman at Niles West High School in Skokie, should know.

The 14-year-old makes "computer house calls," helping teacherswith their computers for $15 an hour. He also works for Niles West,replacing computer hardware and fixing cables for $8 an hour. In hisspare time, he has made about $2,000 creating Web sites.

"Computers are a wonderful way to make learning more fun_the bestteachers realize that," said Sam, of Lincolnwood.

Thanks to technology, Sam doesn't even type his school papersanymore. He uses voice-recognition software and dictates into aheadset microphone. The computer recognizes the words and creates thepaper for him.

Many kids are so enthusiastic about computers that parents limitthe amount of time they're online to ensure that they still play andread books.

"We make sure our kids only spend 15 or 20 minutes a day on thecomputer," said Kathy Readyoff-Jones, 37, of Evanston.

But her boys, Joshua, 9, and Gabriel, 7, often ask for morecomputer time.

Many children are teaching themselves computer programminglanguage. Bryant Smith, 10, taught himself programming codes frombooks he checked out from the Oak Park Public Library.

Now, not only does he have his own Web page,www.bryant.allhere.com, but he also has the potential to earn moneyfrom his Web site sponsors, including Barnes & Noble and AmericanGreetings.

Every time someone clicks on some of the sponsor links, Bryantgets a few cents. He says he's just happy to have kids checking outhis site, which includes games, music and movie clips.

"I like having people know more about it and being entertained bysomething I built," said Bryant, a fifth-grader at Beye School in OakPark.

Jonathan Berger, 17, a senior at the Illinois Math and ScienceAcademy, uses wireless technology to do homework on his laptop from a24-hour-a-day Internet connection in his dorm room. For years, hetaught his parents to use their computer. Now that he's getting readyto go to Stanford University, his parents are worried, he said.

"My parents are getting a lot better at it, but they keep askingme, `What are we going to do now that you're leaving?' " Jonathansaid.

Harsh crimes, hard time: when juveniles are sentenced to life without parole

2012-03-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

EDITOR'S NOTE _ Another in a series of occasional stories on a growing effort to reduce penalties against juvenile offenders.

By ADAM GELLER

AP National Writer

DETROIT (AP) _ It began as a feud only a child could invent _ teenage chest-thumping over who had the right to sneak across a golf course after dark and scoop lost balls out of a pond.

But by the time it ended in the pre-dawn blackness of a long-ago June morning, that juvenile bravado had exploded into a crime whose horror defied adult comprehension.

Buried inside the charred skeleton of a home, three children lay dead. They perished at the hands of two local teens who hurled pop-bottle firebombs through the windows so one could settle a petty score.

For taking three innocent lives, a judge decided, Michael Lee Perry had to pay. Perry was 16 at the time of the fire in the Michigan city of Saginaw, but for an adult crime he would have to do adult time _ and spend the rest of his life in prison, without any chance for parole.

That was 17 years ago. And today, when Perry rises and offers his hand to a visitor allowed inside the razor wire-topped brick of Detroit's Mound Correctional Facility _ 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of the crime scene _ it is clear that prisoner No. 217645's claim on childhood has long since lapsed.

He is graying at the temples, his hairline receding. No question, Perry is a man now.

He appeals, though, for the understanding he says the boy he once was still deserves.

"I was wrong. I took people's lives who didn't even have a chance to grow up and experience life. But, I mean, I didn't even experience life myself," says Perry, now 34. "I'm not saying a child should go unpunished. ... (But) it's like I'm just abandoned, discarded, left for nothing."

Perry is far from alone.

At least 2,381 people are serving life without parole in U.S. prisons for crimes when they were 17 or younger, the vast majority for taking another life.

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that sentencing juveniles to death is unconstitutional, advocates have been nudging lawmakers, courts and the public to go one step further and re-examine the life sentences meted out to young people convicted of the most serious crimes.

If we believe that juveniles are intrinsically different from adults _ that their judgment is lacking, that they are capable of learning from mistakes _ then how can we justify locking them away forever?

It is a difficult question and a painful one to contemplate. Some of the crimes are horrific. The age of the perpetrators _ and often of their victims _ is enough to make any parent say a quiet prayer.

Then there is the fact that laws often give courts little choice in weighing punishment. Even when some discretion is allowed, it can distort the choices.

When the time came to sentence Michael Perry, state law forced a judge to decide between widely disparate options. He could treat Perry as a juvenile and see him released by 21. Or he could send him away forever.

"The only conclusion that I can reach," Judge Leopold Borrello told two grieving families gathered in the courtroom that day, "is that the law deprives me of doing justice."

___

Quantel Lotts was 14. He and his brothers were at a friend's house in St. Francois County, Missouri, and Quantel and his stepbrother Michael Barton started fighting. Quantel chased Michael _ who was three years older _ with a bow and arrow before an adult stepped in. Not long after, while they snacked, one of the younger children noticed Quantel holding a knife and reported him to Michael.

"Let's take this outside," Michael told Quantel. In the yard, their shoving match ended in Michael's death. Found guilty, Quantel Lotts was sentenced to life without parole.

Today, speaking by telephone from prison, Lotts will not talk about what happened that day. But he remembers clearly where it left him.

"They say my stepbrother's dead and they say I killed him," he says. "When I first got locked up, I spent the first six months crying to myself every night."

___

Americans believe in stiff punishment. But U.S. courts long applied a more forgiving standard when the accused was a juvenile.

Then in the late 1980s and early 1990s, alarm over violent youth crime set off widespread fears. In state after state, lawmakers and prosecutors decided to get tough.

Many states began requiring that juveniles accused of first-degree murder be tried as adults. To show they meant business, lawmakers mandated stiffer punishments.

Today, inmates in 39 states and a federal prison are serving life without parole for crimes they committed as youngsters. Five states _ Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Michigan, Florida and California _ account for two-thirds of the cases documented by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Tougher laws were applauded by prosecutors and victims' advocates as necessary tools to fight crime and protect the public.

"If they can do these kinds of crimes, then they've got to face the punishment," says Maggie Elvey, a California activist whose husband, Ross, was beaten to death in 1993 by two teens, ages 15 and 16.

"My theory is when Ross can walk the face of the Earth again, that's when you can get out," Elvey says.

But the sharp rise in juvenile violence that the new laws were meant to fight never came. Now some question whether the tougher approach went too far.

"There are probably many cases where I'd say, 'Yes, lock them up and throw away the key,'" says Linda J. Collier, a dean at Delaware County Community College in Media, Pennsylvania, among those who called for stiffer juvenile sentences. "But there are probably other cases where that kid, if you look into his eyes, if you look into his soul, you can say yes, they can be rehabilitated."

But how to do that? Should life without parole be eliminated for all juvenile offenders or only for some of them? What should the alternative be?

The questions get harder when they are applied to real lives rather than abstracts.

Addolfo Davis was only 14, but he had already known plenty of trouble _ the child of a Chicago crack addict, he'd been arrested for shoplifting, robbery and other offenses starting when he was 10. Then, in October 1990, Davis joined two other teens _ one 16, the other 18 _ in something far worse.

The trio, all carrying guns, headed to the third-floor apartment of a rival drug dealer, and when it opened, pushed inside.

One of the men inside knocked Davis' gun away and ran. But Davis' companions began shooting, killing two and wounding two others.

After he was arrested, Davis was transferred to adult court, in part because of his prior record. When he was convicted of murder _ found accountable although he had not fired a shot _ the law made it clear he would be sentenced to life. Today, he is 31.

"Gun towers, bars, walls, lock downs, hand cuffs, visits, letters, collect calls," he wrote for an assignment in a prison ministry class two years ago. "This is all I know."

___

Sentencing juveniles to life raises a host of tough questions. Colorado tangled with them last year when lawmakers made juvenile lifers eligible for parole after 40 years and the governor established a special clemency board to review cases.

Now, Michigan could be the next to face those questions.

At least that is the hope of Deborah LaBelle, an Ann Arbor attorney. She lambastes a legal system that deems people too immature to drink alcohol or serve on juries, but says they are old enough to be held accountable as adults for their crimes. Worse, she says, mandating life sentences forces courts to treat all youth convicted of murder the same.

"Aren't there kids who have done horrible things? Yes. But then you have to grant that aren't there kids who didn't, who just made a horrible decision," she says. "Shouldn't we individualize them? Aren't they at least entitled to that?"

LaBelle's files are filled with dozens of such stories.

They are people like Trevor Brownlee, who admonishes himself _ 18 years too late _ for his days as a teen drug dealer. In 1989, when Brownlee was 15, he and two friends set out for a party. Gangs in the city of Ypsilanti were feuding. Underneath his trenchcoat, Brownlee carried a sawed-off shotgun.

Soon Brownlee's group ran into teens they had never seen before. They traded words over turf. The confrontation seemed to fizzle. Then, Brownlee's friend shouted an alarm: Was one of the out-of-towners reaching for a gun?

Brownlee did not wait to find out. He opened fire, killing one teen, paralyzing another from the waist down.

Brownlee, serving life at Riverside Correctional Facility in Ionia, has plenty of time to think about that night. He's troubled about more than that he killed someone. It's that, in his words, the crime was "about nothing."

"It wasn't until I was 25 that I actually sat down and realized the full extent of what I did," says Brownlee, now 33. "Man, I was an idiot."

Brownlee and others like him hope Michigan lawmakers see that they are worthy of a second chance.

But backers of life without parole, like Saginaw Prosecutor Michael Thomas, sharply disagree. Years of violent juvenile crime have defiled his hometown, Thomas says, making clear the need to protect the public and see that justice is done.

"I think most people sitting on a jury, most people with houses in your neighborhood, pretty much understand that they (juveniles accused of heinous crimes) are the worst of the worst and that the penalty does fit the crime," he says.

___

On the day Michael Lee Perry was sentenced for the Saginaw firebombing, the judge sought a middle ground that did not exist.

Instead, he sentenced Perry to life, while recommending that after 20 years a Michigan governor consider him for a reprieve, commutation or pardon.

Perry is already preparing his petition for freedom.

"When I go see Michael he gives me hope that everything will be better when he comes home," his mother, Maria Chavira, says.

But Perry recognizes that political calculus makes exoneration rare. Even as he reassures his mother, he tries to makes peace with the possibility that will never happen.

"If I do (spend) my life within these walls and fences, I'll accept my punishment," he wrote the judge two years ago, in a letter intended for the family of his victims, "and do it in the memory of the pain, suffering, heartaches and deaths I helped cause."

"I will never forget."

Moya, Simon reach BCR Open final

2012-03-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

Carlos Moya defeated top-seeded Richard Gasquet of France 6-2, 6-4 Saturday to reach the final of the BCR Open Romania.

He will play defending champion Gilles Simon after the second-seeded Frenchman beat eighth-seeded Jose Acasuso of Argentina 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 in a match lasting nearly three hours.

The sixth-seeded Moya, who reached the final in 1996, was more aggressive and appeared fresher than Gasquet despite winning a grueling three-set quarterfinal on Friday.

Gasquet was plagued by inaccuracy, winning less than a third of second-serve points and serving five double faults.

Djokovic makes winning return at Swiss Indoors

2012-03-13T04:58:00.000-07:00

BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — Novak Djokovic made his return after missing six weeks with a back injury and defeated Xavier Malisse 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors on Tuesday.

The top-ranked Serb overcame some difficult moments before improving his record this season to 65-3.

Djokovic arrived on the court for the first time since Sept. 18 wearing a fright mask resembling rock star Alice Cooper the night after Halloween. Dressed all in black, Djokovic broke his Belgian opponent's first service game.

However, Malisse rallied against the U.S. Open champion in the second set and broke in the ninth game.

Djokovic then broke to a lead in the decider, and Malisse required a medical time out one game later after colliding with the umpire's chair when racing to retrieve a drop shot.

However, Djokovic failed to serve out the match at 5-3 and wasted a match point chance in the next game.

The Serb then quickly closed out the last two games to complete a 2-hour, 13-minute win.

In Djokovic's previous match, he retired in a Davis Cup singles match against Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina.

Earlier, fifth-seeded Mardy Fish retired against fellow American James Blake after just one game because of a hamstring injury.

Fish held serve in the opening game and lost the first point of the next game when he decided the pain in his left leg was too much to continue.

Fish is hoping to qualify for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals for the first time. He stands in the eighth and final qualifying spot for the tournament starting in London on Nov. 20.

Although Fish cannot be overtaken this week, the last qualifying tournament is next week in Paris.

After third-seeded Roger Federer's victory Monday, Switzerland had two more first-round wins.

Michael Lammer, ranked No. 327, beat 37th-ranked Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, 6-4, 6-3 for his first tour win this year.

Swiss No. 2 Stanislas Wawrinka beat Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-4, 6-4.

Jarkko Nieminen of Finland fought back to beat Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3, and Italy's Andreas Seppi edged Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 6-2.

At Least 25 Die in Violence Around Iraq

2012-03-13T01:42:00.000-07:00

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber rammed a police checkpoint in northern Iraq with an explosives-laden vehicle Saturday, killing 14 people, including some who died when their homes collapsed in the blast.

The suicide bombing in Tal Afar - a city cited by President Bush earlier this year as an example of improving security in Iraq - was the deadliest attack on a day when more than two dozen people died in violence around the country.

Four policemen and 10 civilians were killed when the vehicle detonated after speeding into the checkpoint, police Brig. Sabah al-Maamari said. Some of the victims died when parts of nearby homes collapsed from the force of the blast in the city about 30 miles from the Syrian border.

Separately, more victims of Iraq's Shiite-Sunni violence were found, with seven bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad, where U.S. and Iraqi troops have been trying for more than a month to put down sectarian killings in intensified neighborhood-by-neighborhood sweeps.

One American soldier with the 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, died Friday near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, the military said Saturday. No other details were given.

In the city of Mosul, gunmen killed a woman who was walking with her 5-year-old son, Mosul police Col. Abdel-Karim al-Jubouri said. The boy was not harmed, he said.

The U.S. military had predicted a spike in violence with the onset of Ramadan two weeks ago - something that the chief U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said had been borne out.

"Unfortunately, as expected, attacks have steadily increased in Baghdad during these past weeks," he said Wednesday, adding that the number of car bombs found and cleared were at an all-time high.

Authorities extended indefinitely a regular Friday ban on all pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the northern city of Kirkuk, which has been hit by a wave of violence recently. A series of six bombings there on Sept. 17 killed 24 people and wounded 84.

Some 2,000 police and Iraqi soldiers used the curfew to conduct a series of raids, arresting 150 suspected insurgents, Police Lt. Gen. Sherko Shaker said.

Two bodies were fished out of the Tigris River in downtown Baghdad on Saturday, said police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid. Both had their hands and legs bound and showed signs of torture - hallmarks of the sectarian death squads that roam the capital.

Later in the southeastern suburbs of the capital, the bodies of five more people who had been shot and handcuffed were discovered, police Cap. Mahir Hamad Mousa said.

Two workers at a Shiite-run bakery in Baghdad's Mansour district were killed by unknown gunmen in the early afternoon, said police Lt. Maitham Abdel Razzaq. The gunmen got out of their car, sprayed the bakery with bullets - injuring a third person - and then drove away, he said.

On Friday night, gunmen killed a 37-year-old former Iraqi national volleyball player, said Saif al-Maliki, a member of the union of Iraqi sports journalists. Naseer Shamil, a Shiite, was killed in his shop in Baghdad, al-Maliki said.

The United States has put increasing pressure on the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take action to stop sectarian violence amid deep divisions within his Cabinet. Sunnis complain al-Maliki is hesitant to take tough action against Shiite militias because many of them are linked to parties he relies on.

In a joint statement, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Gen. George W. Casey, the top American military commander in the country, pledged to help the government find those behind Thursday's killing of a Kurdish lawmaker.

Mohammed Ridha Mahmoud and his driver were seized and killed after they left the northeast Baghdad offices of a government agency that oversees Sunni mosques. A Sunni Kurdish party blamed the attack on Shiite militias.

"The terrorists who carried out this attack are the enemies of the Iraqi people, desperate to derail the progress Iraq is making toward freedom and prosperity," Casey and Khalilzad said.

In two raids in the province of Diyala, an increasingly violent region north of Baghdad, Iraqi forces killed two al-Qaida suspects and captured 40, said Brig. Qassim al-Mussawi, spokesman for the the prime minister's military office.

Five insurgents were captured in a joint U.S-Iraqi operation in Mahaweel, 35 miles south of Baghdad, said police Capt. Muthana Khalid. Eight other suspected insurgents were seized in an Iraqi army raid in Saba al-Bor, also south of Baghdad, Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. command said it had captured 28 suspected terrorists in a raids Tuesday in southeastern Baghdad. The military said one of three "high-value" suspects captured was alleged to be responsible for killings and attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Polls: Key Senate Races Very Competitive

2012-03-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON - Democratic Rep. Harold Ford is running even with Republican Bob Corker in Tennessee, while Democrat Jon Tester has edged ahead of Sen. Conrad Burns in Montana, according to polls released Sunday for some of the most contested Senate races.

The findings suggest an intensely competitive campaign for Congress heading into the Nov. 7 elections.

Republican Sen. Mike DeWine is in a virtual tie with Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown in Ohio.

The three races are three that Democrats need to win if they are to take control of the Senate.

The Mason-Dixon polls done for various media outlets found:

-Ford had the backing of 43 percent in Tennessee, while former Chattanooga, Tenn., Mayor Corker was backed by 42 percent. Corker had a lead in midsummer polling matching the two.

-Tester has pulled ahead of Burns in Montana, by 47 percent to 40 percent. They were tied in August polling.

-Brown had 45 percent and DeWine had 43 percent in Ohio, findings similar to those of a Quinnipiac poll released a week ago.

The polls were conducted for MSNBC, McClatchy Newspapers and newspapers in each of the states - The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, the Lee Newspapers in Montana and The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Tenn., and Chattanooga Times Free Press in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The polls of 625 likely voters in each state were conducted Sept. 25-28. They had margins of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Gay group organizes 'Pink Christmas' in Amsterdam

2012-03-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

A Dutch gay group said Monday it has planned a "Pink Christmas" festival for the first time in Amsterdam, featuring a manger stall with two Josephs and two Marys.

Other attractions in the 10-day festival include parties, an open-air market, gay-themed films, an ice skating rink and religious services on Dec. 25.

ProGay group chairman Frank van Dalen said Monday the event is intended to increase the choices for homosexual men and women during the Christmas holiday week.

"Right now, there's not much to do," he said.

The festival will also encourage people to think about homosexuality and religion, Van Dalen added.

Some Christian groups protested. The organization Christians for Truth said the idea "mocks the core concepts of Evangelism."

"By putting Joseph and Mary down as homosexuals, a cracked human fantasy is being tacked on to history from the Bible," the organization said in a statement urging the city and organizers to cancel the event.

The manger, with actors playing the parts of Joseph and Mary, goes on display Dec. 21.

Van Dalen said it was not intended to be offensive, but was meant as a "wink" at heterosexual assumptions.

"Christmas is about more than religion, it's also about love and families, not to mention shopping," he said. "Two men or two women can form a family too these days, even one with a child."

Gay marriage was legalized in the Netherlands in 2001, and adoption rules are the same here for gay or straight couples.

Van Dalen said the Pink Christmas initiative was also intended to help promote Amsterdam as a gay capital after a decline in its reputation in recent years.

A study last month found that homophobia is an ingrained problem in the city despite the Dutch reputation for tolerance, and physical attacks on gay men are a weekly affair.

Most colleges not ready to ask about LGBT status

2012-03-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

ELMHURST, Ill. (AP) — Gary Rold didn't necessarily consider himself a pioneer when he decided that Elmhurst College would begin asking applicants about their sexual orientation.

"I thought from the recruitment standpoint we might be more proactive" in attracting gay and lesbian students, said Rold, admissions dean at the small, private liberal arts school tucked in a middle-class Chicago suburb. He also wanted to make sure the students got any help they needed. "I realized that many of them come to college feeling really isolated and alienated."

Rold's decision touched off a flurry of publicity after advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students lauded Elmhurst as the first in the nation to ask applicants about sexual orientation — an idea that has gotten little traction elsewhere. Now the question is, will other colleges follow suit?

Advocates say that besides being a recruiting tool to help diversify campuses, openly assessing a school's LGBT population would make colleges more aware of needs such as finding tolerant roommates and providing appropriate health care. And it would send a positive message to prospective students who may have faced discrimination in high school.

But officials at other colleges, especially those that are large and well-known, say they don't need to ask because they already have reputations for being diverse and inclusive, and a student's sexual orientation would have no bearing on admission. Others wonder if some schools worry about the controversy such a question might generate.

Nevertheless, the idea of asking about sexual orientation is not likely to go away.

"Colleges have a responsibility to take care of students they admit so all can succeed academically; a lot of (LGBT) youth get to campuses ... and are largely invisible," said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of the national advocacy group Campus Pride, who said asking applicants about sexual orientation should be as common as questions about race and ethnicity.

His group pushed for adding the question to The Common Application — a uniform document used by more than 450 colleges and universities, including some of the nation's most exclusive — but that group's board of directors rejected the idea earlier this year.

Schools already had other ways to signal support for LGBT students and for students to indicate their sexual orientation, said Rob Killion, executive director of The Common Application. What's more, some admissions officers and high school counselors worried the question could cause anxiety for some students, even though it would be optional.

"I think places like Elmhurst will be the vanguard," said Killion. "It will be good to get feedback from their applicants on whether the question is appealing or not. We're constantly changing as a society, so we'll see what happens."

Rold said Elmhurst, affiliated with the United Church of Christ — which officially supports same-sex marriage — will use the optional question to help increase diversity at its 2,900-student campus about 15 miles west of Chicago, to ensure it has the services LGBT students need and to consider them for scholarships.

The bottom line, he said, is to enrich the college experience for all students. A diverse environment is "the real world," he said.

The college received some complaints, including from within the conservative-leaning community and some supporters, but most feedback was positive, officials said.

Elmhurst students Ally Vertigan and Emily Ponchinskas, who is president of a campus group called Straights and Gays for Equality, say they're proud of their school.

"It's important if for the sole reason that Elmhurst is letting people know that diversity is more than just what color your skin is or what language you speak," said Vertigan, a senior majoring in religion and Spanish.

Shannon Sullivan, executive director of the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, a nonprofit that works with high school gay-straight alliances, said some colleges may be uncomfortable with the topic or afraid of offending people. "People sometimes think it's easier not to deal with it," she said.

Doris Dirks, coordinator of the Northwestern University LGBT Resource Center, said a campus advisory group has asked the private school to consider adding a sexual orientation question to its supplemental application.

"It's one of those potentially touchy issues," Dirks acknowledges, "but to my mind it's a diversity issue."

Penn State discussed whether to add the question "with some in favor and some suggesting it's not the best decision to make at this time," said Terrell Jones, vice provost for educational equity. So far, the university doesn't see the need, he said. Instead, the school touts its gay-friendly atmosphere in recruitment brochures, has a strong LGBT student resource center, "pride" ambassadors who give tours to prospective students, a scholarship for LGBT students and a presidential advisory commission on LGBT equity.

"We think we do project and provide a climate that is inclusive to all students," Jones said. "But I don't think the debate on this is over by any means."

___

Tammy Webber can be reached at http://twitter.com/twebber02.

Capitals-Devils, Sums

2012-03-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

Washington 0 1 3_4
New Jersey 0 0 0_0
First Period_None. Penalties_Washington bench, served by Ovechkin (too many men), 4:04	Fedorov, Was (roughing), 15:32.
Second Period_1, Washington, Green 17 (Semin, Fedorov), 11:27 (pp). Penalties_Greene, NJ (tripping), 10:36	Steckel, Was (delay of game), 12:08.
Third Period_2, Washington, Kozlov 13 (Ovechkin, Backstrom), :43. 3, Washington, Semin 20 (Poti, Backstrom), 8:59 (pp). 4, Washington, Brashear 4 (Bradley, Poti), 17:05. Penalties_Elias, NJ, double minor (high-sticking), 5:47.
Shots on Goal_Washington 4-12-13_29. New Jersey 6-10-2_18.
Power-play opportunities_Washington 2 of 3	New Jersey 0 of 3.
Goalies_Washington, Huet 22-12-6 (18 shots-18 saves). New Jersey, Brodeur 35-20-5 (29-25).
A_16,580 (17,625). T_2:12.
Referees_Don Van Massenhoven, Greg Kimmerly. Linesmen_Derek Amell, Pierre Champoux.