Schleck positive doping test jolts Tour de France

Bradley Wiggins of Britain, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, celebrates on the podium of the 15th stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 158.5 kilometers (98.5 miles) with start in Samatan and finish in Pau, France, Monday July 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours)

Bradley Wiggins of Britain, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, celebrates on the podium of the 15th stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 158.5 kilometers (98.5 miles) with start in Samatan and finish in Pau, France, Monday July 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours)

Bradley Wiggins of Britain, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, rides with teammates Christian Knees of Germany, right, and Michael Rogers of Australia, left, during the 15th stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 158.5 kilometers (98.5 miles) with start in Samatan and finish in Pau, France, Monday July 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Cadel Evans of Australia, right, and Bradley Wiggins of Britain. wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, cross the finish line of the 15th stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 158.5 kilometers (98.5 miles) with start in Samatan and finish in Pau, France, Monday July 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Bradley Wiggins of Britain, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, rides in the pack during the 15th stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 158.5 kilometers (98.5 miles) with start in Samatan and finish in Pau, France, Monday July 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Team Sky with overall leader Bradley Wiggins of Britain, front right, trains on the rest day of the Tour de France cycling race near Pau, France, as Pyrenees mountains are seen in the background Tuesday July 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

PAU, France (AP) ? The RadioShack Nissan Trek team pulled Frank Schleck, one of the biggest names in pro cycling, out the Tour de France on Tuesday after he failed a doping test, threatening to overshadow Bradley Wiggins' bid to win the three-week race in Paris this weekend.

The 32-year-old rider from Luxembourg, who was third in last year's Tour, left a police station in Pau where he had discussed the case with authorities after cycling's governing body announced the positive test.

The International Cycling Union, or UCI, said Schleck had tested positive for banned diuretic Xipamide in an anti-doping test conducted by a French anti-doping lab on a sample taken from him on July 14.

It marked the second doping scandal to hit this Tour, and was another reminder of the doping cloud that has damaged the image of cycling and its biggest event for years.

Schleck, the RadioShack leader, had been in 12th place overall ? 9 minutes, 45 seconds behind leader Wiggins ? going into the second and latter rest day on Tuesday.

The revelation was likely to add stress on the crash-and sickness-depleted pack, just as they were gearing up for two grueling days in the Pyrenees starting Wednesday.

Wiggins, who is aiming to become Britain's first Tour champion, leads fellow Briton and Sky teammate Christopher Froome by 2:05 and Vincenzo Nibali of Italy by 2:23. Defending champion Cadel Evans of Australia is fourth, 3:19 behind.

Competitors in the 99th Tour had plenty of time to ponder the tricky 16th and 17th stages on the rest day, with the Pyrenees visible on the horizon from the medieval, palm tree-lined city of Pau.

Wednesday's stage runs through the so-called "Circle of Death" along four brutal climbs ? none more daunting than the 7,000-foot Tourmalet. On Thursday, the last summit finishes atop the 5,300-foot Peyragudes.

Wiggins is talking a big game in his bid to become Britain's first Tour de France champion. He says Wednesday's stage "isn't any more difficult than any other stage we've done up to this stage, really."

Wiggins said the Tourmalet was nothing special.

"It goes uphill like all the others, doesn't it?" he said.

The four renowned passes the riders will climb Wednesday are the Peyresourde, Aubisque, Aspin and Tourmalet, the highest point on this year's Tour. The pack on Thursday must ascend the Col de Mente and Port de Bales before scaling Peyragudes.

"Generally, the Pyrenees are a bit harder than the Alps," said U.S. cyclist Tejay van Garderen. "The roads are a bit rougher. They're just a bit more taxing."

But the more immediate question for the whole pack was how it would surmount cycling's latest positive test for doping ? this time at the heart of a well-known cycling family and one of its big-name teams.

The RadioShack team said in a statement that it had decided to withdraw Schleck from the race, and said that the diuretic is not present in any medicine used by the team.

The statement said "the reason for the presence of Xipamide in the urine sample of Mr. Schleck is unclear to the team. Therefore, the team is not able to explain the adverse findings at this point."

Team spokesman Philippe Maertens said Schleck went to the Pau police station of his own accord to cooperate with authorities. Maertens said the rider knew police would likely be coming for him.

Maertens said the team is likely to ask for the "B'' sample to be analyzed. That request must come within the next four days, according to the UCI.

"If it comes back positive he will be suspended by the team," Maertens said.

He added that police did not search the riders' rooms at the hotel, and that RadioShack will continue to compete in the race, he said.

Still, it was more bad news for the RadioShack squad, which was built on the remains of former teams of Lance Armstrong, who helped land the top-line sponsorship of the American retail chain for the team.

The team manager, Johan Bruyneel, has been targeted in the same U.S. anti-doping case targeting the seven-time Tour champion. Bruyneel opted to skip the Tour to avoid being a distraction to the race and RadioShack riders.

Schleck's younger brother and RadioShack teammate, Andy, was awarded the 2010 Tour victory after Alberto Contador was stripped of the title over his positive test for clenbuterol.

The younger Schleck is missing this year's race because of a spinal injury.

The case is also likely to cast new doubt on cycling's ability to root out drug cheats despite vigorous controls put in place by the UCI and its allies in the anti-doping fight.

It is the second doping-related case to emerge at the Tour this year. Cofidis rider Remy Di Gregorio of France was arrested on the first rest day on July 10 as part of a Marseille doping probe.

The diuretic is classified as a specified substance and does not require a provisional suspension. The World Anti-Doping Agency defines specified substances as those that are "more susceptible to a credible, non-doping explanation." Bans for such substances are often shorter, and athletes have a better chance of proving that they did not intend to consume it or enhance their performance.

Contacted by phone by The Associated Press in Mondorf-les-Bains, Luxembourg, Frank's 36-year-old brother Steve said he had tried to contact the RadioShack rider by phone but was not successful.

"We're a little bit shaken up," Steve Schleck said.

___

Eds: Samuel Petrequin and Greg Keller in Pau contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-07-17-Tour%20de%20France/id-301fa68d3ac24ad49a323ad7f0301c32

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Andy Griffith dies: The last Great American Dad who knew best

Andy Griffith was "Paw" to a city girl from a broken home ? the last Great American Dad was so much more than TV fathers today who have slid into comic relief and perpetual beer swilling, cheating, idiocy.

By Lisa Suhay,?Correspondent / July 3, 2012

Andy Griffith dies: He was the last Great American Dad for a city girl.

AP/File/1983

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?Paw is dead.? Despite the fact that I learned of the passing of Andy Griffith on my impersonal, smartphone?s news alert, my internal self heard a seven-year-old Ron Howard tearfully delivering the news to my city girl heart.

Skip to next paragraph Lisa Suhay

Lisa Suhay, who has four sons at home in Norfolk, Va., is a children?s book author and founder of the Norfolk (Va.) Initiative for Chess Excellence (NICE) , a nonprofit organization serving at-risk youth via mentoring and teaching the game of chess for critical thinking and life strategies.

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To me ? a kid growing up in a broken home in the mid-1960s, raised by a single mother in New York City ? watching "The Andy Griffith Show" in black and white re-runs was my version of The Fresh Air Fund.

Opie (Ron Howard) was my pal and Sheriff Andy and Aunt Bea were my role models in a world that came without aprons, apple pie, or emotional stability. That was Mayberry and a tune I still whistle as my own blue heaven in every place I have been ? from reporting in Tel Aviv during a SCUD missile attack to living on a sailboat.

It hurts me to hear him eulogized as ?folksy? because folks just don?t really see that as a good thing these days but more as something to be dismissed as cute.

Frankly, I think I am the happiest I have ever been in life since moving to Norfolk, Va. seven years ago because there is that twang and homespun feel that reminds me of the childhood I pretended to have in Mayberry. Mr. Griffith?s home in North Carolina is just close enough to send that vibe by osmosis. Urban legend even has it that Griffith himself chose the name of the fictional Mayberry community after the community of Mayberry, Va.

It probably explains my unending patience with every version of Don Knotts (Barney Fife, the goofy deputy) I have ever met.

I will never forget the episode wherein Opie and a new ?city kid? played a prank on the loveable Goober Pyle character by putting a walkie-talkie under a dog?s collar and making the poor guy believe he had himself a ?talkin? dawg.?

This was a lesson nobody in my house was around to teach me, the little prankster, always acting out and being smart-alecky to cover for being caught in the adult cross-fire. I remember the sad, stern countenance of Griffith when he made the discovery and how low Opie felt when he realized he and ?city boy? had been cruel to a trusting, kind-hearted, innocent.

I was ?city girl? acting just like ?city boy,? and I knew I needed to mend my ways and my fences. That wasn?t something the writers accomplished with a simple storyline. It was what happened when Andy Griffith sorrowfully shook his head and then gave that look of disappointment.

The best thing was watching Griffith get angry or annoyed with some hopelessly clueless person he was stuck trying to help. When my dad got angry, things got broken ? people included. When Sherriff Andy got angry, he?d say something like, ?You blew it. You stood right there and blew it.? No exclamation point. Just a simple, plain, honest statement of fact, head shake and a look that told us he?d rather be out giggin? a frog than dealing with whatever the crisis of the day was.
?
As a teen his gruff, witty, Matlock wisdom made me like lawyers. Today, my own lawyer is pretty much a carbon copy of Matlock right down to the Carolinian accent. I can see him delivering the Matlock line, ?What's the matter with you? Did someone cut the wire between your brain and your mouth??

The Andy Griffith Show was also one of the last times American television allowed fathers to know and do best. Not long after that fathers began to slide into comic relief and perpetual beer swilling, cheating, idiocy. Homer Simpson and Married with Children became the new, lower standards for fatherhood and the lessons kids watching learned began to change society and family structure here in America.

Still, Andy Griffith was the bedrock and no matter how much polluted TV water flows over his legacy there are still those whose lives he touched, like Ron Howard, who are there to filter out the impurities and pass those lessons on in their work.

I know we always complain that kids ?are being raised by the idiot box? (TV), but if you were like me, raised on the likes of Andy Griffith, then the parenting wasn?t all that bad.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/nVEqh5uh6Lo/Andy-Griffith-dies-The-last-Great-American-Dad-who-knew-best

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-falls-96-factory-data-fading-eu-hopes-112141213--finance.html

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Who's in town, who's not as Washington recovers, slowly, from big storm

Many top government officials had left Washington in time to avoid Friday night's storm ? and the subsequent (and lingering) power outage. More than 2 million on the East Coast sweltered without air conditioning for a third day.

By David Cook,?Staff writer / July 2, 2012

An American beech tree lies on Capitol Hill grounds in Washington, Saturday, June 30, in front of the Supreme Court, background, after a powerful storm swept across the Washington region late Friday.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

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Many top federal officials are out of town as Washington recovers ? slowly ? from a severe storm Friday night that has left more than 2 million utility customers on the East Coast sweltering without air conditioning in record heat for a third day.

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As a violent windstorm pounded the Washington area late Friday, members of Congress had already left town for their July 4 recess. The US Supreme Court had delivered its controversial health-care reform decision and closed shop for the summer. Saturday morning, as utilities assessed storm damage, Marine One took off from the White House South Lawn, taking President Obama to Camp David atop a mountain in Maryland, where his family had already begun a brief summer vacation.?

GOP presumptive nominee Mitt Romney is also far from the capital, vacationing with his family in New Hampshire.

It is not just officials who had fled the city for the Fourth of July week. Some influential journalists had decamped for the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. Mike Allen of Politico described the gathering this morning in his Playbook memo as ?summer camp for D.C. and the Upper East Side: an intellectual utopia where David Brooks is God?.?

The pace of recovery from the storm is drawing widespread criticism, from officials such as the governors of Maryland and Virginia as well as from those checking utility company progress reports at 2 a.m. by flashlight in homes where the interior temperature had been pushing triple digits. The US Department of Energy says?2.2 million utility customers remained without power as of 2 p.m. EDT Monday in the 10 states and District of Columbia that suffered storm damage. That is down from a peak of 4.1 million power-deprived customers. The largest of the outages are in Ohio (510,922 customer outages), West Virginia (457,856), Maryland (428,342), and Virginia (454,244), the Energy Department says. The District of Columbia is reporting 41,123 customers without power. ??

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/T7AmNQpf9Lk/Who-s-in-town-who-s-not-as-Washington-recovers-slowly-from-big-storm

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Mexico returns former ruling party to power

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Mexico's old guard sailed back into power after a 12-year hiatus Sunday as the official preliminary vote count handed a victory to Enrique Pena Nieto, whose party was long accused of ruling the country through corruption and patronage.

The second place candidate, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, refused to concede, saying he would wait for a full count.

The Federal Electoral Institute's representative count said Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, won about 38 percent of the vote, prompting wild cheers from a party that was voted out in 2000 after 71 autocratic years in power. Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party had 31 percent and Josefina Vazquez Mota of the ruling National Action Party had about 25 percent, according to the institute.

Pena Nieto, who sought to cast himself as the leader of a new PRI, called his victory "a fiesta of democracy."

"There is no return to the past," said the youthful, 45-year-old who is married to a soap opera star. "You have given our party a second chance and we will deliver results."

He promised a government that would be democratic, modern and open to criticism. He pledged to fight organized crime and said there would be no pacts with criminals.

"My gratitude tonight is for the millions of Mexican who voted for me," he said. "I will work for all of Mexico ... I will govern for everyone."

Despite a clear victory, more than 60 percent of voters did not support him and it was not the mandate the PRI had anticipated based on the pre-election polls.

Vazquez Mota, 51, was the first to concede, followed by New Alliance candidate Gabriel Quadri, who had only single-digit support.

At the PRI headquarters in Mexico City, a party atmosphere broke out with supporters in red dancing to norteno music.

There were plenty of reasons to celebrate. The party also appeared likely to retake at least at least one of the two houses of Congress and some governorships.

Critics say the party's 71-year rule was characterized by authoritarian and corrupt practices. But the PRI has sought to portray itself as a group that has been modernized and does not seek a return to its old ways.

Enrique Pena Nieto appears to be accomplishing what many thought would never happen again: the return of a strong and dynamic PRI," said Eric Olson of the Washington-based Mexico Institute. "The question: How will they govern?"

Lopez Obrador took hundreds of thousands of supporters to the streets in protest when he narrowly lost in 2006.

"We hope the candidate of the left will act with democratic maturity and also recognize the results," Coldwell said.

Vazquez Mota garnered little more than 23 percent in exit polls released by Milenio and TV Azteca networks and quick count by Mitofsky. Lopez Obrador had about 30 percent of the vote.

The PRI has been bolstered by voter fatigue due to a sluggish economy and the sharp escalation of a drug war that has killed roughly 50,000 Mexicans over the past six years.

Hugo Rubio, 33, a municipal employee in Nezalhualcoyotl, says what he expects is "more jobs, more tranquility in terms of security" under Pena Nieto.

"He has demonstrated that (the party) had changed, that he cares about the people who are most in need," Rubio said at a red-clad crowd of supporters gathered with banners and balloons.

There were very few reports of problems during the vote, though some polling stations ran out of ballots and at least nine people were arrested in the southern state of Chiapas for trying to pass ballots pre-marked for the PRI.

Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire said that across the country federal security forces were working closely with local and state authorities, as well as electoral officials, to guard the peace during the vote.

Sergio Ortega, a 31 year old businessman from the city of Guadalajara, said he would vote against Pena Nieto to try to prevent the return of the PRI.

"He had too much favoritism. They played many tricks," Ortega said.

Pena Nieto has cast himself as a pragmatic economic moderate in the tradition of the last three PRI presidents. He has called for greater private investment in Mexico's state-controlled oil industry, and has said he will try to reduce violence by attacking crimes that hurt ordinary citizens while deemphasizing the pursuit of drug kingpins.

Pena Nieto also has been dogged by allegations that he overspent his $330 million campaign funding limit and has received favorable coverage from Mexico's television giant, Televisa.

University students launched a series of anti-Pena Nieto marches in the final weeks of the campaign, arguing that his party hasn't changed since its days in power.

But many say the PRI would not be able to re-impose its once near-total control even if it wanted to because of changes in society, the judiciary and Congress.

"The context has changed dramatically," said Rodrigo Salazar, a professor at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Mexico City. "Society isn't the same. It's a very critical society, a very demanding society, with a strong division of powers."

Caldwell predicted the party would take two and possibly four of the six governor's seats up for grabs from rival parties. He said the party won in Jalisco and Chiapas, and stood to defeat the PAN in Morelos and Guanajuato, despite tight races and claims from both sides of victory.

Mexico's main leftist party appears to have won big in the Mexico City mayor's race.

Miguel Angel Mancera of the PRD says exit polls favor his victory after voting in the capital ended Sunday.

His closest challenger, Beatriz Paredes of the PRI, says none of the exit polls favor her. The conservative National Action's candidate, Isabel Miranda de Wallace, has not commented on the voting.

The PRD has struggled in the rest of Mexico, but it has held a lock on Mexico City since the mayorship became an elected position in 1997.

All of the parties were accusing rivals of emulating the traditional PRI tactic of offering voters money, food or benefits in return for votes. Lopez Obrador's party says Pena Nieto's campaign has handed supporters prepaid money cards worth nearly $5.2 million (71 million pesos).

"Where do they get so many resources to conduct the PRI campaign, so many billboards?" asked voter Marilu Carrasco, a 57-year-old actress who was lined up to cast her vote for Lopez Obrador in southern Mexico City's Copilco neighborhood. The PRI's return to the presidency "could be the worst thing that could happen to us," Carrasco said.

PRI activists, meanwhile, had published photographs of truckloads of handouts they say were given out by Democratic Revolution backers.

But electoral officials have repeatedly insisted that outright fraud is almost impossible under the country's elaborate, costly electoral machinery.

Lopez Obrador, 58, says he wants to keep state control over the national oil company, make Mexico self-sufficient in energy and food production, and fund new social spending and jobs programs by cutting waste and corruption, not by raising taxes.

By 11 p.m. the leftist candidate still remained confident of victory. At his party headquarters, there were only about 500 people showing support for a man known to draw crowds in the hundreds of thousands.

A group of about five people held up signs that call the election a fraud. One sign read, "General Obrador, I am ready for the revolution!"

___

Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson, Adriana Gomez Licon, and Carlos Rodriguez contributed to this report from Mexico City, Gloria Perez from Atlacomulco, Mexico, Gustavo Ruiz from Morelia, Mexico, and Manuel de la Cruz in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-returns-former-ruling-party-power-052201748.html

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Italian regulator threatens Apple with new fines: source

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italian-regulator-threatens-apple-fines-source-122553509--finance.html

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The Way I View Fatherhood | Las Vegas Family Photographer ? Lisa ...

I have joined a group of talented ladies in attempt to keep motivated, challenged, and grow in this fabulous world of photography!!! Each month we have a topic to think about and present an image or images. I will post my photos and then you can click the included link to see the next of the 10 dynamic images from my group. Last month we did images on The Way I View Motherhood.

This month, the topic is, ?Fatherhood?.

I feel so fortunate to have such a great partner in life with my husband, Jim. Not only is he supportive of me and all I do but he really is a GREAT dad! My rough and tumble boys really get to go on the floor and wrestle with their dad on a daily basis. He comes home from work each day and doesn?t skip a beat to engage with our kids. No matter the weather; sweltering hot, or freezing cold, it won?t deter him from getting our boys outside to learn and play. He takes every opportunity to bring them into the garage or into a household project to let Jack & Carter get hands on with tools and have great experiences.

Here is a recent favorite quiet time moment of them reading on the iPad. I love all the men (big and little) in my life!!!

Now that you have seen my images for ?Fatherhood? please check out more starting here: Jen at Lux Amoris.

Source: http://lisajphotography.com/blog/2012/06/the-way-i-view-fatherhood-las-vegas-family-photographer/

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Murray beats curfew, Cilic wins second longest match

Andy Murray reached the Wimbledon fourth round on Saturday with a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 win over Marcos Baghdatis in a match which finished just past the 11:00pm Centre Court curfew.

The fourth seed will face Croatia's Marin Cilic, who clinched victory over Sam Querrey in the second longest match in tournament history, on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals.

On another day of high drama at the All England Club, three-time finalist Andy Roddick was knocked out, a defeat which sparked more questions over his future in the sport.

Scotsman Murray, asemi-finalist for the last three years, triumphed at 11:02pm (2202 GMT) under the roof on Centre Court, two minutes beyond the deadline set by the local municipality for health and safety reasons.

It was the latest-ever finish at the All England Club.

Murray had broken to lead 5-1 just as the clock hit 11:00pm and was allowed to serve out the match.

"When I got up at 4-1 I tried not to sit down. I don't know what the rules are, maybe the first time that's happened here," he said.

"Tough conditions. I was really struggling. I struck the ball a bit better under the roof and served better."

Murray took the first set 7-5 before Baghdatis levelled then tie by taking the second 6-3.

Just after 9:00pm (2000 GMT), play was stopped as the roof was closed, a process which took around half an hour.

On the resumption, Baghdatis broke in the third set for a 3-2 lead before Murray survived a nasty-looking fall to level at 4-4.

At 5-5 in the third set, Murray was docked a second point after his spare ball fell from his pocket onto the court during a rally for the third time.

He shrugged off that setback to take the set and start his race against time to finish the match which he did -- but only just -- against a physically wilting Baghdatis.

David Ferrer came back from a set down to clinch a 2-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-4, 6-3 triumph over Roddick and goes on to face 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro.

But it was Roddick's farewell gesture to Centre Court which was the talking point.

The 29-year-old applauded all four sides of the court, blowing a kiss to the fans, many of whom would have witnessed his three agonising final defeats to Roger Federer in 2004, 2005 and 2009.

That last loss, an epic five-setter, which ended 16-14 in the final set, was Roddick's last memorable campaign at the All England Club.

He lost in the last 16 in 2010, the third round last year and Saturday's loss, also in the third round, will only increase speculation over the former world number one's career.

"I don't have a definitive answer, I can't give you much else," said 2003 US Open champion Roddick, when asked if Saturday was his last farewell to Wimbledon.

Croatian 16th seed Cilic reached the last 16 for the second time in spectacular style with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4, 6-7 (2/7), 6-7 (3/7), 17-15 win over unseeded American Sam Querrey.

At five hours and 31 minutes, it was the second longest match in Wimbledon history.

At least the United States had the consolation of seeing two men into the last 16 -- Mardy Fish and Brian Baker.

Tenth seed Fish, a quarter-finalist last year and playing his first tournament since undergoing a heart operation, beat Belgian wildcard David Goffin 6-3, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (8/6).

Fish will face French fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a semi-finalist in 2011, who defeated Slovakia's Lukas Lacko 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

Qualifier Baker's fairytale return hit a new high when he enjoyed a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over France's Benoit Paire.

Baker lost six years of his career to an assortment of injuries that left him needing five different operations on a hernia, left and right hips and his right elbow.

"It's been unreal," said Baker, who took a job as a college tennis coach to maintain his feel for the sport during his lengthy lay-off.

Czech world 100 Lukas Rosol, who had caused one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport when he beat world number two Rafael Nadal in five sets in the second round under the Centre Court roof on Thursday, was knocked out.

On a windswept Court 12, normal service was resumed as German 27th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber eased to a 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) win.

Kohlschreiber will tackle Baker for a place in the quarter-finals.

Del Potro defeated Kei Nishikori, the first Japanese man since 1995 to reach the third round, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 and will face Ferrer.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/serena-wimbledon-last-16-150511142--ten.html

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Former Israeli leader Yitzhak Shamir dies

JERUSALEM?? Yitzhak Shamir, the hawkish Israeli leader who balked at the idea of trading occupied land for peace with the Palestinians, died on Saturday after a long illness. He was 96.

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He was twice prime minister in the 1980s and early 1990s. Rather than seek accommodation with the Palestinians, Shamir championed new Jewish settlements.

Israeli media said Shamir, who had Alzheimer's disease, died at a nursing home in Herzliya Saturday.

Shamir served as prime minister for seven years, from 1983-84 and 1986-92, leading his party to election victories twice, despite lacking much of the outward charm and charisma that characterizes many modern politicians.

"Yitzhak Shamir was a brave warrior for Israel, before and after its inception. He was a great patriot and his enormous contribution will be forever etched in our chronicles," President Shimon Peres said in a statement obtained by YNet news of Israel.

"Yitzhak Shamir belongs to a generation of giants, who founded the State of Israel and fought for the freedom of the Jewish people in its land," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "He led Israel with deep loyalty to both the people and the land."

Gilada Diamant, Shamir's daughter, said that her father "belonged to a different generation of leaders, people with values and beliefs. I hope that we have more people like him in the future. His political doing has undoubtedly left its mark on the State of Israel.

"Dad was an amazing man, a family man in the fullest sense of the word, a man who dedicated himself to the State of Israel but never forgot his family, not even for a moment. He was a special man," she added.

Barely over 5 feet tall and built like a block of granite, Shamir projected an image of uncompromising solidity at a time when Palestinians rose up in the West Bank and Gaza, demanding an end to Israeli occupation.

Defeated in the 1992 election, he stepped down as head of the Likud party and watched from the sidelines as his successor, Yitzhak Rabin, negotiated interim land-for-peace agreements with the Palestinians.

The agreements, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's recognition of Israel, did nothing to ease his suspicion. In a 1997 interview with the New York-based Jewish Post, he declared: "The Arabs will always dream to destroy us. I do not believe that they will recognize us as part of this region."

He embraced the ideology of the Revisionists -- that Israel is the sole owner of all of the biblical Holy Land, made up of Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.

The Labor movement, in power for Israel's first three decades, agreed to a 1947 U.N.-proposed partition plan to allow the creation of the Jewish state alongside a Palestinian entity. To Shamir and other Revisionists, that was tantamount to treason.

In later years, asked his view of territorial compromise for peace, Shamir said often that Israel had already given up 80 percent of the Land of Israel ? a reference to Jordan.

Polish born
Born Yitzhak Jazernicki in Poland in 1915, he moved to pre-state Palestine in 1935. He joined Lehi, the most hardline of three Jewish movements resisting British mandatory authorities, taking over the Lehi leadership after the British killed its founder.

Captured twice, he escaped from two British detention camps and returned to resistance action. The second camp was in Djibouti, in Africa.

After Israel was founded in 1948, Shamir was in business for a few years before entering a career in Israel's Mossad spy agency.

In the mid-1960s he emerged to join the right-wing Herut party, which evolved into the present-day Likud.

Shamir succeeded Menahem Begin as prime minister in 1983 in the aftermath of Israel's disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

His term was marked by the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, and the 1991 Gulf war, when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel.

Arguing with the US
During the Gulf war, Shamir went along with American demands not to retaliate for the Iraqi missile strikes. After the war, the United States stepped up pressure to start a Middle East process that could lead in only one direction ? compromise with the Arabs.

Exasperated by Shamir's stubborn refusal to go along with their plans for a regional settlement, then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker once went on television, recited the switchboard number of the White House and told Shamir to call when he got serious about peace.

In the end, American pressure bent even Shamir. Despite his deep mistrust of Arab intentions, he agreed to attend the 1991 Middle East peace conference in Madrid, sponsored by the United States and Russia.

Shamir hotly rejected the deals his successors made with the Palestinians, in which Israel turned over control of some West Bank land to the Palestinians.

His pleasure at the 1996 election victory of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu soured when Netanyahu continued to negotiate with the Palestinians and carry out land-for-security deals.

Before the 1999 election, Shamir resigned from the Likud and joined a new right-wing block called National Union, headed by Begin's son, Ze'ev Binyamin.

The party, which rejected any turnover of land to the Palestinians, won only four seats in parliament, though it had seven members of the outgoing legislature on its list.

In 2001, Shamir was given his nation's highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize awarded annually to outstanding citizens in several fields.

Shamir will receive a state funeral, which has been set for Monday, YNet reported. He will be laid to rest in the Nation's Great cemetery on Mount Hertz.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48026958/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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