Putting Contests

* every player is entitled and obliged to play the ball from the position where it has come to rest after a stroke, unless a rule allows or demands otherwise (Rule 13-1)
* a player must not accept assistance in making a stroke (Rule 14-2)
* the condition of the ground or other parts of the course may not be altered to gain an advantage, except in some cases defined in the rules
* a ball may only be replaced by another during play of a hole if it is destroyed (Rule 5-3), lost (Rule 27-1), or unplayable (Rule 28), or at some other time permitted by the Rules. The player may always substitute balls between the play of two holes.

Only the last of these is also recognized by the Ladies European Tour. The other event that it recognizes as a major is the Evian Masters, which is not considered a major by the LPGA (but is co-sanctioned as a regular LPGA event). However, the significance of this is limited, as the LPGA is far more dominant in women's golf than the PGA Tour is in mainstream men's golf.

"Risk transfer is reasonably self-evident in most traditional per-risk or per-occurrence excess of loss reinsurance contracts. For these contracts, a predetermined amount of premium is paid and the reinsurer assumes nearly all or all of the potential variability in the underlying losses, and it is evident from reading the basic terms of the contract that the reinsurer can incur a significant loss. In many cases, there is no aggregate limit on the reinsurer's loss. The existence of certain experience-based contract terms, such as experience accounts, profit commissions, and additional premiums, generally reduce the amount of risk transfer and make it less likely that risk transfer is reasonably self-evident."

Insurance, the avoiding, mitigating and transferring of risk, creates greater predictability for individuals and organizations.

Georgia Health Insurance

QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuadorean officials say there's new hope that famed Galapagos giant tortoise Lonesome George, believed to be the last of his species, could soon be a father.
The Galapagos National Park says in a statement that one of the two female tortoises kept with George has laid five eggs.
Scientists say George, aged 90 to 100 years old, is the only known living Geochelone abigdoni tortoise. His companions are of a similar but different species, and eggs laid last year turned out to be infertile.
The park said Tuesday that the eggs are being cared for in an incubation center. It could be clear by November whether they are viable.
George was discovered in 1972 and has lived with the Geochelone becki females since 1993.

KASOTA, Minn. – A plainclothes sheriff's deputy shot and killed an unarmed 24-year-old man wearing only swim trunks after an argument ensued when he confronted the man for erratic driving, authorities and witnesses said Tuesday.
Le Sueur County Sheriff's investigator Todd Waldron, 37, shot Tyler Heilman after the two scuffled Monday in Kasota, a town about 60 miles southwest of Minneapolis, when Heilman returned from a day of swimming with friends. Those who saw the argument said it wasn't clear the man he was fighting with was a law enforcement officer.
"This ain't right," said Heilman's father, Mark Heilman. "I think the cop just freaked ... Why didn't he just say 'Freeze' or something? Or shoot him in the leg? He shot to kill ... I think he just flipped."
Authorities said Waldron was working another case and driving an unmarked sport utility vehicle on Monday when he saw Heilman driving a car erratically, and at times speeding, so he followed him. At one point, Heilman drove his car off the road and up an embankment.
Waldron called for backup from a marked squad car, but before the car arrived, Heilman pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex and got out of the vehicle. The two began arguing, and when Waldron tried to arrest Heilman, he resisted and the two got into a physical confrontation, said Andy Skoogman, a spokesman with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is investigating the case.
BCA investigators believe Waldron fired four shots. Skoogman said Waldron was not in uniform, but he had a sheriff's badge on his belt. Waldron was not working undercover, and Skoogman said authorities are investigating whether the deputy identified himself.
Witnesses give a similar account. Kris Hoehn, who was in the car with Heilman and other friends, said the group was on its way back from a day of swimming at the Minnesota River when they noticed an SUV following them. Hoehn acknowledged the vehicle may have swerved some, and he said Heilman drove up a sledding hill at one point.
Hoehn said the group didn't know Waldron was a deputy. When they arrived at the apartment complex, Waldron asked Heilman for a driver's license, and then the two started arguing, Hoehn said. He said Heilman and the deputy ended up wrestling on the ground.
Heilman ended up on top of Waldron, but got up and "that's when he seen the badge — as he's getting up," Hoehn said. "Then came the gunshots, just as my buddy's hands were going up.
"It was too late. ... We had no idea who he was. If we would have known he was a cop, none of this would've happened," said Hoehn, 24.
Hoehn said Heilman was gasping for breath and said, "I'm done, man. I'm done." He staggered a few feet and fell, face down, on the grass.
It wasn't clear if alcohol played a role in the argument. Tyler Heilman was treated for alcohol abuse while back in high school, but his father said he had kicked the problem, though he still drank a little bit. Hoehn said the group of friends had been drinking "a little" at the lake on Monday, but not enough to affect Heilman's driving. Authorities are conducting an autopsy, which will include toxicology tests.
Summoned by a friend who heard about the shooting, Heilman's father arrived at the scene moments later to find the area sectioned off by police tape, and his son lying on the ground as firefighters attempted to revive him. Heilman said his son was shot twice in the chest while another bullet grazed his right side, and he made the sign of the cross on his forehead a few times.
"I just knelt down by his head, brushed his head, brushed his scar," Heilman said in a telephone interview, noting that his son had brain surgery in May to remove a blood clot.
Skoogman said Waldron suffered non-life threatening injuries, but did not elaborate. The incident — from the time Waldron started following Heilman to the shooting — lasted less than 20 minutes, Skoogman said. There was no weapon found on Heilman or in his car, Skoogman said.
Waldron, who has been a deputy with the department for 10 years, has been placed on standard paid administrative leave, and the investigation could take six to eight weeks, Skoogman said. The BCA said Waldron has never been disciplined. Waldron's resume indicates he also worked as a jailer with the department. He was promoted to investigator in 2004, and focuses on narcotics, sexual assaults and robberies, Skoogman said.
Waldron also served as a patrol officer with three small-town police departments and has a degree in law enforcement from Minnesota State University, Mankato. He's taken several continuing education training courses, including training in use of deadly force, according to his personnel records.
A working phone number for Waldron could not be found and his parents, whose house he visited on Tuesday, declined comment.

Heilman acknowledged his son had gotten into past trouble for stealing and getting into fights, but said he had no serious problems in the last five years. Court records show Tyler Heilman has over a dozen convictions in recent years, mostly from 2004-2006, and mostly for traffic and alcohol violations. He pleaded guilty to burglary in 2004 and also has a petty misdemeanor drug conviction and a misdemeanor assault conviction. His most recent conviction was in 2008 for driving with a suspended license.

___

Amy Forliti contributed to this report from Minneapolis.

BAGHDAD – Iraqi officials outraged by the abuse of prisoners at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison are trying to contain a scandal of their own as allegations continue to surface of mistreatment inside Iraqi jails.
Accounts of Iraqis being beaten with clubs, blindfolded and coerced into signing false confessions are attracting increased attention partly because the United States is getting out of the prison business in Iraq. The U.S. has transferred 841 detainees into Iraq's crowded prison system and more are on the way.
Allegations of mistreatment have persisted since 2005, when U.S. troops raided an Interior Ministry lockup in a predominantly Shiite area of southeastern Baghdad and found scores of emaciated prisoners. The matter returned to the spotlight after the June 12 assassination of Sunni lawmaker Harith al-Obeidi, an outspoken advocate of prisoner rights.
The issue is a test of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's commitment to the rule of law and to reconcile with the Sunni minority, who account for most of the prisoners held in security cases. Sunnis claim they are being unfairly targeted by security forces run by al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government.
"The cases are as bad as what took place at Abu Ghraib, but it is painful when these things take place in Iraqi prisons," said Sunni lawmaker Salim Abdullah. "We met some of those who were released and saw the scars on their skins. They use different kinds of torture like tying the shoulders and hanging the body, which normally leads to dislocation of the shoulders."
The allegations pale in comparison with the horrific accounts of Saddam Hussein's prisons, where inmates were systematically beaten, jammed into tiny windowless cells and executed on the flimsiest of evidence and where men were forced to watch their wives and daughters raped.
Still, the current Iraqi leadership came to power with the promise to hold itself to a higher standard and respect human rights.
Iraqi officials acknowledge some abuse and insist improvements are being made. The issue, however, poses a thorny question for Americans: How can the United States transfer detainees into a system where abuse has occurred?
The U.S. military says it sends Iraqi prisoners only to detention facilities approved by Iraq's Ministry of Justice.
However, Iraqi lawmakers, human rights advocates and the Human Rights Ministry claim most of the abuse is not taking place in prisons run by the Justice Ministry, but in those operated by the Interior and Defense Ministries. Prisoners there are generally accused of links to Sunni and Shiite insurgent groups.
Abu Ali al-Rikabi, a father of five who owns a vegetable shop in Diwaniyah, said scars on his legs and back are evidence of his mistreatment at the hands of the Iraqi police who accused him of being involved with a former Shiite militia.
"At dawn one day in November 2007, I was sleeping in my room with my wife when the Iraqi police broke in, handcuffed me and took me blindfolded to their headquarters," al-Rikabi told The Associated Press. "As soon as they reached the place, they began beating me severely with thick clubs and batons, hitting every part of my body, especially my legs and back. They kept on doing that for three days."
He said he was ultimately transferred to another prison in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, and was released the following October. "No one told me why I was arrested or why I was released," he said.
An eight-member panel that al-Maliki set up after al-Obeidi's assassination to look into abuse is expected to complete its investigation in a month of two.
A military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, said the panel has visited three detention centers in Baghdad and will inspect others. He said most of the abuse uncovered so far took place in Rusafa prison in eastern Baghdad.
At a human rights symposium this month, al-Maliki said allegations would be investigated. The prime minister said detainees should have rights but that no one should ignore the victims of crime — "orphans and the widows who lost their husbands because of terrorism."
"If every imprisoned person is innocent ... then who has destroyed the country? Who killed people?" he asked.
Al-Maliki's prison investigation follows a limited Interior Ministry probe of 112 complaints of abuse. Of those, the ministry found 23 cases of human rights abuses and 20 cases where inmates were incarcerated without warrants. Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said 43 police officers face charges.

A 2008 report by the Human Rights Ministry identified 307 cases of alleged torture and ill-treatment among 26,249 detainees in Iraqi custody at the end of last year. The Iraqi prison population has risen to nearly 30,000 since then and is slated to grow as the U.S. either releases or transfers its remaining 10,429 detainees.

The ministry report stated that most of mistreatment occurs when the detainee is first arrested and taken to facilities run by combat soldiers and not trained prison guards.

"It's an uncomfortable place to be in an (Iraqi) Ministry of Defense facility," said David King, a British adviser to Iraq's Ministry of Defense. "They are very overcrowded and they are very poorly equipped."

King said, however, that the Iraqi government was interested in improving the system and supplying clean bedding and clothing and allowing relatives to visit detainees.

That's little consolation to Iraqis who say they have been abused.

Mohammed al-Obeidi, 28, a Sunni, told the AP that he was selling mobile phones in a rented shop in Amiriyah, 25 miles west of Baghdad, when Iraqi soldiers arrived in Humvees and apprehended him and six others in 2006. He said they were taken to a prison in northern Baghdad where he was blindfolded and handcuffed during interrogation.

"The investigation officer used to tell me to confess that I was a terrorist and was planting roadside bombs," said al-Obeidi, who was never charged and was released for lack of evidence. "They used insults and sectarian slander. They normally tied me to a hook on the ceiling to keep me hanging, and then they were beating me with electric sticks. In one of these investigation sessions, my left shoulder was dislocated."

Politicians loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, a firebrand anti-American Shiite cleric, also are pressuring the government on the issue. Al-Sadr's followers were rounded up in droves last year as part of a government crackdown against militia fighters.

Sadrist lawmaker Falah Hassan Shanshal said he visited a month ago with detainees facing the death sentence.

"One of them was 22 years old. He was crying and asked to talk to me in private," Shanshal said. "He told me that officers raped him and abused him sexually and then forced him to confess things he did not commit."

"These officers were committing the same violation conducted during the former regime," he said.

LONDON (AFP) –
England quick James Anderson got a royal endorsement of his efforts as he played a key role in making Australia struggle during the first Ashes Test here at Lord's on Friday.

Anderson made 29 with the bat during a last-wicket stand of 47 that helped propel England to a first innings total of 425.

He then took two wickets before lunch, including the prize scalp of Australia captain Ricky Ponting for just two, on his way to Test-best figures against England's oldest foes of four wickets for 36 runs in 17 overs.

Australia at stumps had collapsed to 156 for eight, still needing another 70 runs to avoid the follow-on at a ground where they last lost a Test in 1934.

At lunch the teams lined up in front of the Pavilion to be presented to Queen Elizabeth II, monarch of both Britain and Australia, and her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Anderson said that while the Queen did not say anything to him the Duke, a former President of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which owns Lord's, had stopped for a word.

"I got a well done from Philip, he mentioned I'd had a good morning," the modest Anderson told reporters.

Reflecting on the state of the game, he said: "It's been a good couple of days for us as a team.

"After Cardiff (where Australia piled up 674 for six declared), we had a long chat, we knew we hadn't bowled well enough but we executed our plans better today," Anderson, 26, explained.

Anderson, who bats left-handed but bowls right, said getting to 400, when England had been 378 for nine, was a significant milestone for the team.

"It gave us some extra momentum and confidence. I felt good with the bat, I've been working hard and it's starting to pay off a little bit.

"Everyone wanted to start afresh (after Cardiff). We got out of jail a little bit and we didn't want to waste that."

Several Australia batsmen got out trying to pull. Anderson said that in some cases there had been a deliberate plan but in others England had frustrated the batsmen into making an error

"For a couple of their guys we decided on the short ball, for a couple we bowled tight. Marcus North (out for nought), we dried him up for runs."

Ponting had made a superb 150 in Cardiff but here Anderson exploited his tendency to play around his front pad early in his innings.

But there was some controversy attached to his exit. Anderson appealed initially for lbw but the ball carried to England captain Andrew Strauss at first slip.

On-field umpires Rudi Koertzen and Billy Doctrove referred the appeal to TV official Nigel Llong, only empowered to rule if the catch was fair.

He did and Ponting had to go, although replays suggested the ball had missed his bat.

"I was originally going up for lbw," Anderson said. "There were two noises there. The other guys were going for the catch and Straussy was alert enough to take it."

Known as a swing bowler, Anderson insisted England had not received excessive help from the cloud cover which eventually enveloped the ground.

"Anyone is vulnerable when the ball is moving around but it didn't move around much. We asked a lot of questions of their batsmen and bowled in challenging areas."

Michael Hussey, who top-scored with 51, was one of only three Australian batsmen Friday to reach double figures.

He was eventually bowled shouldering arms to paceman Andrew Flintoff, who provided good support to Anderson by taking one for 27 in 12 overs, although the figures did not reflect his impact on the game.

"It was a good spell," said Hussey. "I thought the ball would move away from stumps but unfortunately I judged wrongly."

Looking ahead, he added: "We saw England fight their way out of a pretty big hole in Cardiff and we've got to show similar resolve.

"The follow-on is the first target. We've also got to bat very well in the second innings and show a lot of fight."

Lighting is the deliberate application of light to achieve some aesthetic or practical effect. Lighting includes use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and natural illumination of interiors from daylight. Daylighting (through windows, skylights, etc.) is often used as the main source of light during daytime in buildings given its low cost. Artificial lighting represents a major component of energy consumption, accounting for a significant part of all energy consumed worldwide.

Artificial lighting is most commonly provided today by electric lights, but gas lighting, candles, or oil lamps were used in the past, and still are used in certain situations. Proper lighting can enhance task performance or aesthetics, while there can be energy wastage and adverse health effects of lighting. Indoor lighting is a form of fixture or furnishing, and a key part of interior design. Lighting can also be an intrinsic component of landscaping.

LED Rope Light

A chiptune, or chip music, is music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in realtime by a computer or video game console sound chip, instead of using sample-based synthesis. The "golden age" of chiptunes was the mid 1980s to early 1990s, when such sound chips were the most common method for creating music on computers. Chiptunes are closely related to video game music, which often featured chiptunes out of necessity. The term has also been recently applied to more recent compositions that attempt to recreate the chiptune sound for purely aesthetic reasons, albeit with more complex technology.

Early computer sound chips had only simple tone and noise generators with few channels, imposing limitations on both the complexity of the sounds they could produce and the number of notes that could be played at once. In their desire to create a more complex arrangement than what the medium apparently allowed, composers developed creative approaches when developing their own electronic sounds and scores, employing a diversity of both methods of sound synthesis, such as pulse width modulation and wavetable synthesis, and compositional techniques, such as a liberal use of arpeggiation. The resultant chiptunes sometimes seem harsh or squeaky to the unaccustomed listener.

Voice Cards

Creators Syndicate –
This week I was asked to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Here's what I said.

I testify today not as a wise Latina woman, but as an American who believes that skin color and national origin should not determine who gets a job, promotion, or public contract, or who gets into college or receives a scholarship.

My message today is straightforward. Do not vote to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor. I say this with some regret, because I believe Judge Sotomayor's personal story is an inspiring one, which proves that this is truly a land of opportunity where circumstances of birth and class do not determine whether you can succeed.

Unfortunately, based on her statements both on and off the bench, I do not believe Judge Sotomayor necessarily shares that view. It is clear from her record that she has drunk deep from the well of identity politics. I know a lot about that well, and I can tell you that it is dark and poisonous. It is, in my view, impossible to be a fair judge and also believe that one's race, ethnicity, and sex should determine how someone will rule as a judge.

Despite her assurances to this Committee over the last few days that her statement that "a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life" was simply "a rhetorical flourish that fell flat," nothing could be further from the truth. Judge Sotomayor's words weren't uttered off the cuff. They were carefully crafted, repeated — not just once or even twice — but at least seven times over several years. If Judge Sotomayor were a white man who suggested that whites or males made better judges, we would not be having this discussion because the nominee would have been forced to withdraw once those words became public.

Judge Sotomayor's offensive words are a reflection of her much greater body of work as an ethnic activist and judge. Identity politics is at the core of who this woman is. And let me be clear here, I am not talking about the understandable pride in one's ancestry or ethnic roots, which is both common and natural in a country as diverse and pluralistic as ours. Identity politics involves a sense of grievance against the majority, a feeling that racism permeates American society and its institutions, and the belief that members of one's own group are victims in a perpetual power struggle with the majority.

From her earliest days at Princeton University and later Yale Law School to her 12-year involvement with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund to her speeches and writings, including her jurisprudence, Judge Sotomayor has consistently displayed an affinity for such views.

As an undergraduate, she actively pushed for race-based goals and timetables in faculty hiring.

In her senior thesis, she refused to identify the U.S. Congress by its proper name, instead referring to it as the "North American Congress" or the "Mainland Congress."

During her tenure with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, she urged quota-seeking lawsuits challenging civil-service exams.

She opposed the death penalty as racist.

She made dubious arguments in support of bilingual education and tried to equate English language requirements with national origin discrimination.

As a judge, she dissented from an opinion that the Voting Rights Act does not give prison inmates the right to vote.

Finally, and perhaps most dramatically, she showed in the New Haven firefighters case a willingness to let her policy preferences guide her, ruling that it was perfectly lawful for the city there to throw out the results of a promotion exam because those who did well on it were the wrong color.

Although she has attempted this week to back away from her own words — and has accused her critics of taking them out of context — the record is clear: Identity politics is at the core of Judge Sotomayor's self-definition. It has guided her involvement in advocacy groups, been the topic of much of her public writing and speeches, and influenced her interpretation of law.

There is no reason to believe that her elevation to the Supreme Court will temper this inclination, and much reason to fear that it will play an important role in how she approaches the cases that will come before her if she is confirmed. I therefore strongly urge you not to confirm Judge Sotomayor as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.

Linda Chavez is the author of "An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal." To find out more about Linda Chavez, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) –
Manchester United cancelled the Indonesian leg of their pre-season tour to Asia after a bomb exploded at the Jakarta hotel where they were due to stay next week.

"Following the explosions in Jakarta -- one of which was at the hotel the team were due to stay in -- and based on advice received, the directors have informed the Indonesian FA that the club cannot fulfil the fixture in Jakarta on the 2009 Asia tour," the club said in a statement.

They were due to fly to Jakarta after their match in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday evening and play an Indonesia XI in front of a sell-out 100,000 crowd.

The club said it was trying to reorganise that leg of the tour, which also includes matches in South Korea and China.

"We are working on a revised itinerary outside Indonesia with the promoters and we will make a further announcement when these decisions have been made," the statement added.

"We are deeply disappointed at not being able to visit Indonesia and thank the Indonesian FA and our fans for their support. Our thoughts go to all those affected by the blasts."

It would have been the first ever trip to the sprawling country by the team which was booked into the Ritz-Carlton hotel.

But the hotel, along with the JW Marriott, was hit by explosions that have left at least nine people dead and more than 40 injured, many of them foreigners, police said.

Two blasts shook the Ritz-Carlton and the nearby Marriott in the upscale Mega Kuningan business district in the centre of the city around 8:00 am (0100 GMT), sending a huge plume of smoke into the sky.

A third explosion was reported near a shopping complex in the north of the Indonesian capital several hours later, but police later denied initial reports that it was also caused by a bomb.

The team have a huge following in Asia, with everyone from poor street vendors to wealthy businessmen donning Red Devils shirts.

The huge fan base and the commercial opportunities it offers makes their visit as much about business as football, and a chance to play in Indonesia for the first time was earlier cited by Ferguson as important for the club.

"Our fans in Asia generate money for the club, there are no two ways about it," said United chief executive David Gill before they left Manchester.

Ferguson has brought a 22-man squad, but a glaring omission was Park Ji-Sung.

The South Korean was not on the team list on United's website and was not seen arriving in Kuala Lumpur. No reason was given for his absence.

Also missing was defender Nemanja Vidic. Again, United gave no reason for the Serbia international's absence although an ankle injury forced him out of a World Cup qualifier against the Faroe Islands last month.

The only other familiar face not to travel was Brazilian full-back Rafael Da Silva, although he too was suffering with an ankle problem.

Other than that United has a strong squad, with Michael Owen set to make his debut after his shock move from Newcastle earlier this month.

TURNBERRY, Scotland (AFP) –
Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez sunk a monster putt on 18 to take a one shot lead in the British Open on a day when Tom Watson produced a masterclass in links golf seven weeks short of his 60th birthday.

The American, who dominated world golf in the 1970s and 1980s, produced a flawless first round display on the same par-70 Ailsa course on which he defeated Jack Nicklaus in the fabled Duel in the Sun 32 years ago.

Out early on, he was the outright leader for much of the day on five-under 65 before 2003 winner Ben Curtis of the United States drew level and then Jimenez went one better with his snaking 60-footer at the last.

Late in the evening Japan's Kenichi Kuboya closed with an eagle and three birdies in a back nine of 30 to join Watson and Curtis at five under.

Watson was not alone among the old guard to shake off the cobwebs as former Open winners Mark Calcavecchia and Mark O'Meara both returned to the leaderboard in a major at the ages of 49 and 52 respectively.

They comfortably outscored tournament favourite Tiger Woods who was wayward off the tee as he struggled home with a one-over 71 and was languishing in a tie for 68th position as 50 players ducked under par.

Five times Open champion Watson, had five birdies and no bogeys on his card by the time he sunk a five-footer for par at the last to earn one of the earliest standing ovations ever at an Open.

"I played very well, kept the ball in play but the golf course was defenceless," he said alluding to the perfect, windless conditions that greeted the early starters in the 138th Open.

"I try not to live in the past, but a lot of the kids playing in the tournament were not even born in 1977.

"Still I have a chance to do well this week," added Watson whose last Open triumph was at Birkdale 26 years ago.

Jimenez, no spring chicken himself at 45, went bogey free in his round of 64, closing with birdies in the last two holes before paying tribute to compatriot Seve Ballesteros who is recovering from brain tumour surgery.

"To see the way he fights and the way he is going forward gives you lots of motivation to do anything in life," he said. "The power is inside yourself, and the power is inside Seve."

Curtis, who shocked the golfing world by winning at Royal St George's six years ago as an unknown debutant, eagled the seventh and then birdied four of the last six holes to match Watson's total.

The American warned that he was a better player now than he was back in 2003.

"Definitely. Just having 20, 30 more rounds under my belt (on links), obviously it makes it better," he said.

A further stroke back on 66 were a group of six players including Australian John Senden, who only made it into the Open field on Tuesday when India's Jeev Milkha Singh withdrew due to injury.

Level with him on 66 were Steve Stricker of the United States, Camilo Villegas of Colombia, Australia's Mathew Goggin and American Stewart Cink.

O'Meara and Calcavecchia both carded three-under 67s as they took advantage of the benign conditions to capitalise on their vast experience.

The 49-year-old Calcavecchia, who will join the seniors tour next year, won his only major at nearby Troon in 1989 and once again seemed inspired by an Ayrshire links.

Playing in the lead group with a 6:30 am tee-off time, he went out in one-under 34 and then added birdies at the 11th and 17th to come in with a three-under 67.

"Early does not bother me. I was ready to go at five," said Calcavecchia, whose wife Brenda was caddying for him.

O'Meara, winner at Birkdale in 1998 agreed that "experience counts a lot around these links courses."

"Calcavecchia is up on the board, a former champion, and Tom Watson at nearly 60. These guys can really play. The juices get flowing," he said.

Alongside the two veteran Americans on three under were nine others including former major winners Vijay Singh of Fiji, Mike Weir of Canada, Retief Goosen of South Africa and Jim Furyk of the United States.

World number one Woods on his return to British Open action after missing Royal Birkdale last year due to knee surgery regretted "a few mistakes."

"Hopefully tomorrow I can play a little bit better, clean it up and get myself headed in the right direction," he said.

Woods was looking to follow in the footsteps of Watson (1977), Greg Norman (1986) and Nick Price (1994), the three previous winners at Turnberry.

The world number one is looking for his fourth Open win after St Andrews in 2000 and 2005 and Hoylake in 2006 and his 15th major in total to close in on the all-time record of 18 held by Jack Nicklaus.

Ireland's Padraig Harrington struggled at times again, but still came in with a hard-earned 69 to keep alive his hopes of becoming the first golfer since Australian Peter Thomson in 1956 to win three Opens in a row.

BEIJING – China's second-quarter growth accelerated on a stimulus-fed investment boom, the government reported Thursday, sparking a rise in Asian stocks on hopes the world's third-largest economy could help to lead a global recovery.
The economy grew by 7.9 percent from a year earlier, up from the first quarter's 6.1 percent growth rate, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Analysts said full-year growth should easily reach the government's 8 percent target.
"This should give people confidence that China's economy is on strong footing and that there are a lot better days ahead," said Alan Landau, Hong Kong-based president of Marco Polo Pure Asset Management.
The pickup in growth reflected the impact of Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus, an effort to offset a collapse in exports by pumping money into the economy through spending on public works construction.
"We are in a blood transfusion-led economic recovery," said Rock Jin, chief economist for Sinolink Securities Co. in Beijing.
Many analysts expect China to be the first major country to emerge from the worst global slump since the 1930s. That could help propel global growth as China imports more raw materials, industrial components and consumer goods.
In the United States, a Chinese recovery could help to boost exports of factory and construction equipment and farm goods such as soybeans. But the bulk of China's imports are raw materials such as Australian iron ore and components from other Asian countries, so the direct impact on the United States and Europe might be limited.
China's strong quarterly results, coupled with higher U.S. corporate profits, spurred a rally in Asian stocks. Markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore all rose. In mainland China, markets fell as investors took profits after a rally, but the benchmark index is still up 75 percent this year on enthusiasm about the stimulus.
The International Monetary Fund raised its forecast of China's 2009 growth this month by one percentage point to 7.5 percent. The World Bank boosted its forecast last month from 6.5 percent to 7.2 percent, citing unexpectedly strong stimulus results.
Still, the Chinese government warned that despite the latest improvement, a full-fledged recovery is not firmly established.
"The difficulties and challenges in the current economic development are still numerous," said a statistics bureau spokesman, Li Xiaochao. "The basis of the rebound of the people's economy is not stable."
Goldman Sachs said compared with the previous quarter — the way other major countries measure economic expansion — growth accelerated to a near-record 16.5 percent on an annualized basis. JP Morgan said it calculated that sequential expansion at 14.9 percent.
China's growth sank last year as global demand for exports collapsed, wiping out up to 30 million factory jobs. But the economy was regarded as poised for a quick a recovery, with strong banks unhampered by the mortgage crisis that battered Western lenders.
State-owned banks have boosted lending to record levels, pushing new credit in the first half to a record 7.3 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) and sparking a revival in China's real estate market.
Most of the stimulus has gone to state-owned construction companies and suppliers of cement and steel. But money is flowing to the private sector as builders hire workers and buy other materials.
Industrial output rose 10.7 percent in June from a year earlier, faster than May's 8.9 percent growth, the statistics agency said. It said retail sales rose 15 percent in the first half from a year earlier, while spending on factories and other fixed assets was up 33.5 percent.
Sinolink's Jin said 2.5 percentage points of the 7.9 percent quarterly growth came from stimulus-financed investment and the rest from production.
Zhu Jianfang, chief economist for Citic Securities Ltd., said he expects growth to accelerate to 9 percent in the third quarter and into double digits for the final three months of 2009.

"I think the economy is in a fairly good recovery state," Zhu said. "It's not only stimulated by the government investment but also followed by some private investment. This is a positive change."

Consumer prices in June fell 1.7 percent from a year earlier, the statistics agency said, giving Beijing a freer hand to keep spending on its stimulus without a danger of adding to pressure for prices to rise.

The wave of positive data in recent weeks has encouraged investors, driving a stock market boom that has boosted China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index by 75 percent since the start of the year.

The jump in lending and investment has prompted warnings from some analysts and even the central bank governor about a possible rise in bad loans and bubbles in real estate and stock prices. But most analysts say potential problems are still modest.

Li, the government spokesman, said Beijing is closely watching to make sure the stimulus does not ignite inflation.

"There are still quite a lot of uncertainties," Li said. "We should remain watchful about changes in prices."

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Associated Press Writer Jeremiah Marquez in Hong Kong and researcher Bonnie Cao in Beijing contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

National Bureau of Statistics (in Chinese): http://www.stats.gov.cn

CHICAGO (Reuters) –
People with the "Alzheimer's gene" begin to have memory declines tied to aging before they reach 60, even if they have no clinical symptoms of dementia, a U.S. research team reported on Wednesday.

In a separate study, a second team found that people who learned they had the gene were not emotionally scarred by it.

Both findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, offer new support for genetic tests for Alzheimer's disease, a mind-wasting condition for which there are few treatments and no cure. It affects 26 million people globally.

Several companies -- including Iceland's Decode Genetics' DeCodeME, 23andME backed by Google Inc and privately held Navigenics -- sell tests that allow people to learn if they have inherited the ApoE4 gene variant, which raises the risk of Alzheimer's by more than 50 percent.

A new study by Dr. Richard Caselli of Mayo Clinic Arizona and colleagues found people who had the ApoE4 gene variant showed signs of memory trouble at an earlier age than people who did not have the gene.

Caselli studied 815 healthy people aged 21 to 97 who were grouped according to their gene status.

They found people who had the ApoE4 gene were more likely to develop age-related memory trouble before age 60, and accelerated memory declines were worse in people who inherited the gene from both parents.

Having ApoE4 does not mean a person is doomed to have Alzheimer's, and a team led by Dr. Allen Roses at Duke University in North Carolina reported at an Alzheimer's conference earlier this week that a second gene closely linked to ApoE4 called TOMM40 also significantly raised Alzheimer's risk.

Roses said together, the two genes may account for 85 to 90 percent of inherited forms of Alzheimer's.

'CONSIDERABLE RELIEF'

Doctors do not routinely recommend people get tested for Alzheimer's disease, partly because of fears that genetic testing would distress them.

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues found that was not the case.

They studied 162 healthy adult children of patients with Alzheimer's who asked to be tested for the ApoE4 gene.

The team measured test-related distress in both groups at six weeks, six months and one year, and found people who learned they had inherited the gene "showed no more anxiety, depression or test-related distress than those who did not," Boston University's Dr. Robert Green said in a statement.

Those who were told they had not inherited the gene "experienced considerable relief," Green added.

Green said people in the study were carefully screened for emotional problems and trained genetic counselors disclosed the information. "It is not the same thing as simply providing risk information to anyone who asks," he said.

Two of the researchers had received funding from a now-defunct genetics testing company.

Dr. Gary Kennedy, director of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, said he did not recommend testing unless patients had several close relatives -- parents, brother or sister -- with Alzheimer's.

He does not recommend people get tested on their own. "That study is with a whole genetic counseling team. You have a very solid safety net to catch the person if they get frightened by it," Kennedy said in a telephone interview.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Peter Cooney)

WASHINGTON – Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee aren't letting go of the issue involving white firefighters from Connecticut who last month won a reverse discrimination case at the Supreme Court.
With firefighter Frank Ricci ready to testify, Sen. John Kyl questioned Judge Sonia Sotomayor aggressively Thursday about her ruling against him as a member of a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Sotomayor said repeatedly that the ruling was on a narrow issue and she sidestepped direct answers about the case.
Kyl interrupted her, demanding that she explain what precedent she had relied upon on in ruling against Ricci and other firefighters from New Haven, Conn. At one point, he told Sotomayor that she was "not answering my question."

WASHINGTON – A government official says the Obama administration is ramping up pressure on the mortgage industry to aid more homeowners on the verge of foreclosure.
Herbert Allison, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial stability, says the administration is prodding mortgage companies to add more staff and beef up training as part of an effort to "improve the execution quality of loan modifications."
In written remarks prepared for delivery at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee, Allison says 27 companies are participating in the $50 billion program, which President Barack Obama launched in March. Last week, top officials also summoned mortgage executives to a July 28 meeting to discuss their results.