Nylander Powers Rangers Past Thrashers

ATLANTA - For the New York Rangers, scoring first was the key. Michael Nylander scored two goals, including one 15 seconds into the game, and added an assist Friday night to power the New York Rangers to a 5-2 win over the Atlanta Thrashers.

Jaromir Jagr had three assists and Matt Cullen added two more for the Rangers, who won for the fourth time in five games and ended Atlanta's four-game winning streak.

"It's huge to take a 1-0 lead right away," Jagr said. "It always helps with the confidence."

The Rangers got off to a quick start by scoring on two of their first three shots in front of Atlanta's first sellout crowd (18,545) of the season.

First it was …

US plan to arm militias scares some in Afghanistan

A U.S.-backed plan to create militias and give them guns to fight the Taliban is drawing criticism from local authorities in areas where the first units are being rolled out, raising questions as to whether the effort can succeed in Afghanistan.

The militias have been compared to the U.S.-fostered Awakening Councils in Iraq, which have often been credited with reducing violence there, and are similar to neighboring Pakistan's tribal armies which also have been touted as a success.

On Saturday, Afghanistan's interior minister announced the program had begun, and that the United States would be paying for all aspects, including buying Kalashnikov automatic …

Mart takes news hard

NEW YORK Stock prices closed sharply lower Tuesday in activetrading as Wall Street expressed its disappointment over a decisionby the Federal Reserve Board to boost the discount rate.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which dropped 11.73 Monday,fell 28.27 to close at 2,079.13. The Dow has lost about 55 points inthe past four sessions.

Declines swamped advances 1,206-339 on the New York StockExchange on volume of 200.1 million shares.

The volume, however, included about 52 million shares of HoustonIndustries. The stock carries 9.3 percent dividend yield and goesex-dividend today.

Shortly after the market opened, the Federal Reserve Board saidit …

Kuwait holds SKorea to 1-1 in searing heat

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Defender Hussain Fadel scored an equalizer in the 54th minute as Kuwait held South Korea to a 1-1 draw in searing conditions for their World Cup Asian qualifier.

Fadel's shot canceled out Park Chu-young's goal which had given the visitors the lead in the 9th minute Tuesday, when temperatures reached an energy-sapping 44 Celsius …

New York agricultural secretary uses food, baseball bat to promote products in Cuba

New York Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker came to Cuba on Monday armed with steaks, wine, cheesecake and a feast of other products from his state, as one of America's top food producers looks to crack the communist-run island's food-import market.

But in case all that food doesn't whet Cuba's appetite, New York is betting baseball might.

Hooker, leading the state's first official trade mission to Cuba, also brought an engraved wooden Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. bat and presented it to Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Cuba's food import company, Alimport.

"I think it's only fitting that you see here and now one of the great forest products …

He wants 'alone time,' causing girlfriend to pout; He worries

Dear ABBY: I have been dating "Kate" for a year. She's caring and down-to-earth. We have so much in common, and time goes by quickly when we're together.

That's why, when a new job brought Kate closer to my place, I told her she could stay with me, so her commute would be less stressful while she gets used to the job. I enjoy making us dinner, since I get home two hours before she does.

After being single and living alone for six years, I want a relationship. Maybe in the future I'll want her to move in with me. We spend weeknights together and go out as a couple every weekend. But I also like "my time" and "my night out."

I am a part-time publicist for an …

Tobo Tenax Supplying Carbon Fiber for Low-Weight Compressed Natural Gas Tanks to Thailand

Toho Tenax Co., Ltd. the core company of Teijin Group's carbon fiber business, will supply "Tenax" carbon fiber for compressed natural gas tanks developed and manufactured by Metal Mate Co., Ltd., a leading pressure-vessel manufacturer in Thailand. Toho Tenax envisions sales of US$10 million annually under the agreement, which establishes Toho Tenax as the exclusive supplier of carbon fiber to Metal Mate.

"Tenax" carbon …

New-look England faces All Blacks side with much to prove

An England team with an eye on the future will meet an All Blacks team haunted by its past in the first of two rugby union tests at Eden Park on Saturday.

England's caretaker coach, Rob Andrew said the match, at the venue for the 2011 World Cup final, will give his new-look team experience of New Zealand conditions as its looks towards the next world tournament.

Prop Andy Sheridan is the only member of the tourists' starting lineup who played against France in last year's World Cup final in Paris, indicating the degree to which England has broken with the past.

New Zealand has not been able to put the 2007 tournament behind it to the same degree. …

Earnings outlook, fuel-price drop boost stocks More improvements in labor market also encourage investors

NEW YORK -- Stocks trekked higher Thursday as the prospect of agood earnings season and lower fuel prices brightened's Wall Street'smood, offsetting mixed retail sales for March and some bad news forthe pharmaceutical sector.

While investors still seem to be taking a day-to-day approach, thelack of seriously bad news combined with easing oil prices to boostbuyer confidence. Barring any negative surprises, analysts said themarket's path of least resistance, at least in the short term, couldbe to slowly trend higher.

"We see a lot more things right now pointing to the possibility ofa higher market than we do to a panic selloff," said Bill Groenveld,head trader for …

KILL BILL; Here comes the bride to slice off your hide

Toward the end of Quentin Tarantino's new film Kill Bill Vol. 1, assassin O-Ren Ishii (played by the massively unthreatening Lucy Liu) tells similarly deadly assassin "The Bride" (Uma Thurman), "Your instrument is quite impressive."

The comment is meant to apply to a hand-forged blade, but could also apply to Tarantino's cinematic vision. In Kill Bill, he of the super chin has totally abandoned the "plots" that unfortunately constrained Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, and instead has totally immersed himself in the kitschy stylistic instrument that made those films such turbulently cheerful killfests.

Kill Bill is the crystallization of the other Tarantino films' most …

Bangladeshi group gets largest humanitarian prize

The world's largest humanitarian prize has been given to the Bangladeshi nonprofit organization BRAC for helping more than 110 million poor people with microcredit and basic services.

The US$1.5 million (euro1.1 million) Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize goes each year to an organization chosen for making extraordinary contributions to alleviating human suffering.

…

Super Bowl notebook: ; Welker can't bail out Patriots

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Told he was too small to play in the NFL yearsago, New England receiver Wes Welker had one of the biggest games inSuper Bowl history.

The 5-foot-9, 185-pound speedster caught 11 passes for 103 yards,tying the receptions mark set by Cincinnati's Dan Ross in 1982, SanFrancisco's Jerry Rice in 1989 and New England's Deion Branch threeyears ago.

But it wasn't enough to bail out the Patriots in a 17-14 loss tothe New York Giants.

"I don't know if it's really set in or not," Welker said.

Welker, acquired by New England in the offseason, tied for theNFL lead with 112 catches this season.

It only seemed as if he caught that many against …

Supporting Innovation Requires Consistency and Vision

American policymakers of all stripes are talking a lot about the importance of innovation to jumpstarting job growth and regaining economic momentum. In September, for example. President Obama signed a new patent reform bill into law, saying: "If we're going to create jobs now and into the future, we're going to have to out-build, out-educate, and out-innovate every country on earth."

Many of Obama's political opponents also talk about the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship as a key to short-term economic recovery and long-term economic health. As a result, a sort of broad bipartisan agreement about the importance of innovation to our future has emerged. It is time to embrace this common ground and find actionable, meaningful, and consistent ways to support innovation.

The Administration and policymakers need to focus on stimulating and growing existing innovative American industries. Look no further than America's biopharmaceutical research sector to find a dynamic, technology-driven industry. A recent report on employment in the sector by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice postulated that an "ideal" industry for stimulating US economic growth would: have the ability to grow and increase output in tough economic times; provide high-wage, good quality jobs; be innovative and deploy the latest technology to generate competitive advantages for US companies; generate significant exports; create a strong supply-chain that drives further economic growth; encourage capital flow with sustained growth; and be profitable and provide funds for reinvestment into R&D.

Battelle concluded that the biopharmaceutical research sector has all of these characteristics, "and more." In fact, the sector already makes an enormous contribution to the national, state, and local economies. According to Battelle, biopharmaceutical research companies supported more than four million jobs nationwide as of 2009, including nearly 675,000 direct industry jobs. The report showed that each direct sector job supported nearly five additional indirect and induced jobs nationwide. The jobs created were broad-based and touched a variety of businesses and skill levels.

Based on this sector's performance, it is both perplexing and frustrating to hear President Obama and others from across the political spectrum talk glowingly about innovation and innovative industries. The problem is that there has been little follow-up or a horizontal and long-term strategy designed to support their stated goal. When talking about deficit reduction and efforts to control spiraling healthcare costs. President Obama and some in Congress have pushed for policies that could actually discourage biopharmaceutical R&D and innovation.

Consistency and perspective are lacking. Too many policymakers often see the cost of medicines, in particular, as part of the equation for solving immediate fiscal challenges. But they fail to recognize the long-term value of innovative medicines as a means of helping to control healthcare costs over the long term. As a result, they often pursue policies that undermine needed incentives for doing innovative medical R&D. These policies, in other words, that may be detrimental to both patients and for our economy in the short- and long-term.

For much of the past 50 years, America has been at the heart of a biopharmaceutical revolution. Our companies continue to lead the world both in investing in new medical R&D as well as in developing new drugs. The resulting life-saving medicines and innovative healthcare technologies have contributed enormously to the fight against disease as well as efforts to promote health and extend life.

Today, America's biopharmaceutical research companies grapple with more complex science, an evolving business model, and an often unpredictable regulatory environment. To continue thriving, it is essential for policymakers to take a larger, more integrated view of the role that innovative medicines play in securing quality and affordable healthcare for patients. A consistent, horizontal fabric of policies that foster medical innovation will go far towards securing a healthier as well as more economically competitive America.

[Sidebar]

Political leaders need to consider the impact of the biopharmaceutical industry on the economy.

[Author Affiliation]

John Castellani is president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

Lies about Israel must be condemned

An American politician acquitted of corruption charges years ago asked: "Which office do I go to get my reputation back?" Israel is asking that same question now that a U.N. commission's report accusing it of war crimes has been retracted by the panel's leader.

Richard Goldstone, a South African jurist who headed the commission, has disavowed the allegation that Israel intentionally killed civilians during its offensive in the Gaza Strip two years ago. Israel launched the operation to put a stop to thousands of rockets being fired by the Hamas overlords of Gaza into southern Israel.

It was ugly urban warfare. The terrorists, as they always do, hid out among civilians. Despite extensive Israeli efforts to warn civilians with thousands of phone calls and leaflets dropped from planes, civilians were among the 1,400 Palestinians killed during three weeks of fighting.

After it ended, the U.N. Human Rights Council launched a "fact-finding mission." The council is notorious for devoting its energies to denouncing Israel while giving a pass to the habitual human rights abusers in the Muslim world and in Cuba, China and Russia. Israel refused to cooperate with what it knew would be a kangaroo court and launched its own investigations into messy and tragic aspects of the operation.

Recently another U.N. panel found that "Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza" and bring charges against officers guilty of misconduct. These investigations, Goldstone acknowledges, "indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy."

The outlandish charges in the Goldstone Report are discredited, but they will live on to be used by Israel's enemies. It's still part of the U.N. record, and Palestinians continue to push the U.N. to condemn Israel for "war crimes."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is urging the United Nations to nullify the Goldstone Report. The Obama administration should back this effort in the strongest terms. As we have learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, pursuing terrorists means going after them where they live — among civilian populations. The Goldstone Report is nothing less than an attack on civilization's right of self-defense against barbarians.

Pull Quote: The outlandish chargesin the GoldstoneReport are discredited, but they will live on to be used by Israel's enemies.

Report: Banco Santander in Sovereign Bancorp talks

Spanish bank Banco Santander SA is in "advanced talks" to acquire Philadelphia-based thrift Sovereign Bancorp Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Spokesmen at Sovereign and Santander declined comment on the report.

The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said the two banks hope to have a deal in place by Monday, with Santander expected to pay roughly Sovereign's New York Stock Exchange closing stock price Friday of $3.81 a share. That would value Sovereign at about $2.53 billion, the Journal said.

Santander owns a 25 percent stake in Sovereign and speculation has mounted that the Spanish bank would seek to protect its investment by orchestrating a takeover of the U.S. company.

In late September, Sovereign named former Chittenden Corp. chief executive Paul A. Perrault to replace Joseph P. Campanelli as CEO, effective Jan. 3.

Campanelli served as president and CEO since taking over from his embattled predecessor Jay Sidhu in 2006. Sidhu had made investors unhappy by negotiating the Santander stake sale without asking for shareholder approval.

Sovereign Bancorp is the parent company of Sovereign Bank, which has a major presence in the Northeast. The bank has 750 branches and about 12,000 employees.

Former ECB Vice President Lucas Papademos joins Greek powersharing talks for new government

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Former ECB Vice President Lucas Papademos joins Greek powersharing talks for new government.

Ford plans profit-share payments; GM unsure

DETROIT Ford Motor Co.'s profit-sharing payments to its 110,000U.S. hourly workers are expected to average about $2,000 apiece earlynext year while General Motors Corp.'s payouts are expected to besmall or non-existent, sources at the two companies said yesterday.

Ford, whose profits should approach or exceed the company recordof $2.9 billion earned in 1984, paid $1,200 per worker inprofit-sharing earlier this year based on 1985 profits of $2.5billion.

GM, whose profits have been under pressure and will fallsignificantly below last year's $4 billion, paid its U.S. workers anaverage of $328 based on 1985 earnings.

Company sources said the giant automaker may find some money touse for profit-sharing for its more than 400,000 U.S. hourly workers,but even then such payments would not be expected to exceed $100each.

The GM sources said the profit-sharing situation is likely toanger GM's unionized workers even more when the figures are comparedwith the hefty bonuses traditionally paid executives.

GM, due to enter national labor contract negotiations with theUnited Automobile Workers union next summer, could find an angry workforce, the company sources said.

The bonus policy has boosted GM Chairman Roger Smith's pay bymore than $1 million annually since 1984.

UAW Vice President Donald Ephlin, who heads the union's GMdepartment, said, "The question of auto industry executive bonuseshas concerned us for many, many years, more particularly in the lastfew years when our members were asked to make big sacrifices.

"We think that is inappropriate when they are getting bonuses."

GM Chairman Smith on Monday defended bonuses for top managers,saying GM would face the possibility of losing white-collar talentwithout making such payments on top of regular salaries.

GM and Ford spokesmen declined comment, saying they do notforecast earnings.

Browns sign 5 draft picks to 4-year contracts

The Browns have signed all five of their 2008 draft picks to four-year contracts.

Cleveland had no picks in the first three rounds of the April draft. They had to wait until the fourth round to select UNLV linebacker Beau Bell and Missouri tight end Martin Rucker with picks acquired in trades with Dallas.

Rucker was a consensus first team All-American last year, and Bell won the Mountain West Conference defensive player of the year award.

Also signed are Ahtyba Rubin, an Iowa State defensive lineman, Paul Hubbard _ a receiver at Wisconsin and Alex Hall, a defensive end from St. Augustine in North Carolina.

Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Monte Carlo Masters Results

Results Tuesday from the Monte Carlo Masters, a euro2.54 million ($3.43 million) ATP event on clay at the Monte Carlo Country Club (seedings in parentheses):

Singles

First Round

Jurgen Melzer (15), Austria, def. Paul-Henri Mathieu, France, 6-3, 6-2.

Thiemo de Bakker, Netherlands, def. Eduardo Schwank, Argentina, 6-3, 7-5.

Michael Llodra, France, def. Fabio Fognini, Italy, 6-3, 6-3.

Florent Serra, France, def. Stephane Robert, France, 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-4.

Tommy Robredo (12), Spain, def. Horacio Zeballos, Argentina, 6-3, 6-3.

Stanislas Wawrinka (13), Switzerland, def. Victor Hanescu, Romania, 6-2, 6-4.

Viktor Troicki, Serbia, def. Lukasz Kubot, Poland, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Albert Montanes, Spain, def. Marcos Baghdatis (16), Cyprus, 6-4, 6-2.

Second Round

Marin Cilic (4), Croatia, def. Igor Andreev, Russia, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-4.

Fernando Verdasco (6), Spain, def. Julien Benneteau, France, 6-2, 6-1.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (5), France, def. Nicolas Almagro, Spain, 7-6 (5), 7-5

Tomas Berdych (10), Czech Republic, def. Richard Gasquet, France, 6-2, 6-0.

Morgan Crossing family friendly

Two decorated models will be unveiled on Saturday at MorganCrossing, a development of single-family homes in Oswego.

Base prices range from $198,000 to $216,000. The houses have 4bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and attached 2-car garages. Sizes range from2,017 to 2,604 square feet.

Both the Brighton and the Hogan models feature libraries, familyrooms, living rooms, dining rooms and master bedroom walk-in closets.

King's Court Builders, the developer, plans 94 houses.

Fireplaces, pantries and 3-car garages are optional.

Morgan Crossing, at Grove Road and Morgan Valley Drive, about onemile south of Illinois 71 and Plainfield Road, Oswego. King's CourtBuilders, (630) 554-5700.