Venus, Serena aim to defend Olympic doubles title

Venus Williams, left, and her sister Serena, of the United States, smile during a press conference to present Saturday's exhibition match against Italy's Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone in Milan, Italy, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Venus Williams, left, and her sister Serena, of the United States, smile during a press conference to present Saturday's exhibition match against Italy's Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone in Milan, Italy, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Venus Williams, left, and her sister Serena, of the United States, smile during a press conference to present Saturday's exhibition match against Italy's Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone in Milan, Italy, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

MILAN (AP) ? The Williams sisters want to defend their Olympic doubles title in London next summer.

Serena Williams said Friday that she and sister Venus are eager to go for their third Olympic gold together after victories at the 2000 Sydney and 2008 Beijing Games.

First up, the sisters will play an exhibition match in Milan on Saturday against Italian duo Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta.

"We're the defending champion and we want to defend our title and I don't see why we wouldn't," Serena said of the London Games. "This is a good preview to the Olympics, we both want to play. So this is a great, great time for us, so exciting."

The sisters were unable to defend their title in Athens 2004 after Serena injured her knee.

Venus also won the singles gold medal in Sydney. However, the five-time Wimbledon champion's ranking has fallen to No. 104 because of injuries, while Serena's ranking has improved to 12th after missing nearly a year with injuries and health issues.

Venus has played just once since pulling out of the U.S. Open three months ago because of an immune system disease. She defeated Serena 6-4, 7-6 (5) in an exhibition match in Colombia last week.

Venus has changed her diet to include more vegetables after being diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, which can cause fatigue and joint pain.

"I'm eating different things and that's helping." Venus said. "I need to try and be stronger for next year. This is a good start for me. It'll show me where I'm at physically.

"The goal is to come back in Australia. I'm taking each day at a time. When I feel good, I feel really happy. Today I feel really good, so it's a great day."

Serena returned shortly before Wimbledon after dealing with foot surgeries and blood clots in her lungs. She fell to No. 175 but has managed to rise in the rankings.

"I told myself I wanted to end the year in the Top 20," Serena said. "But I didn't think I would. So I'm really happy now."

Serena has played just once since losing to Samantha Stosur in the U.S. Open final in September.

"I was tired after the Open and didn't want to go to Asia," she said before bursting into laughter and correcting herself. "Well no, I was injured."

The Williams sisters, who often design their own tennis outfits and have launched clothing lines, said they've been to Armani during their stay.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-02-TEN-Williams-Sisters-Olympics/id-693545a7d98a4f9390bc1a97d2950832

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The Cain marriage (Politico)

The Daily Beast takes a look at the relationship between Herman and Gloria Cain, and reports that the two have lived in separate residences at times, and seemed to at least some friends to live distant lives:

?It never felt like a real marriage when I was around them,?? says the friend. ?Mostly he was always gone and his wife seemed to be OK with it. Not being together seemed the norm for their marriage, and Gloria didn?t seem to mind. His kids didn?t seem to mind either. ?? ?

Several people who know the Cain family say Gloria and Herman have even lived in separate residences over the years. ?They stayed together for good face. They?re old school where you stay just because. Herman likes to give the appearance of living this holier-than-thou life. But it?s anything but,? says someone close to the family. ?

Continue Reading

Sources close to the campaign say Gloria Cain wants her husband to leave the race and has no desire to do additional interviews about their marriage or the constant accusations. They describe a woman angry that her life has been turned upside down by her husband?s need for attention and power by any means.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1211_69626_html/43785528/SIG=11mgdgtqt/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/69626.html

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Head of Russian election watchdog detained

MOSCOW?? The leader of Russia's only independent election monitor was detained at a Moscow airport for 12 hours, a colleague said Saturday, the latest government pressure on the group ahead of Sunday's parliamentary vote.

Golos has documented thousands of election law violations during the latest campaign ? most of them linked to the United Russia party, which dominates the Kremlin and supports Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

United Russia dominates Russia's political life and has received overwhelmingly favorable coverage during the campaign, mostly from Kremlin-controlled national television. But the party is increasingly disliked, seen as representing a corrupt bureaucracy and often called "the party of crooks and thieves."

Golos leader Lilya Shibanova was held at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after refusing to give her laptop to security officers late Friday, the group's deputy director Grigory Melkonyants said. She was released after giving up the computer, he said.

"The detention was politically motivated," Melkonyants told The Associated Press.

The detention follows a decision Friday by a Moscow district court to fine Golos $1,000 for violating a law forbidding the publication of public opinion research within five days of an election.

The group has come under growing pressure since Sunday, when Putin accused Western governments of trying to influence the election through their funding of unidentified Russian non-governmental organizations. Golos, whose name means "vote," is supported by grants from the United States and Europe.

The group's staffers all over Russia "face threats and psychological pressure," Melkonyants said.

Kremlin-controlled NTV television showed a half-hour program on Friday evening that attacked Golos directly. The program included shots of suitcases full of U.S. dollars and claimed that Golos was openly supporting opposition parties and trying to discredit the elections.

The Kremlin is determined to see United Russia maintain its majority in parliament. President Dmitry Medvedev and Putin, who serves as prime minister, both made final appeals for the party on Friday, warning that a parliament made up of diverse political camps would be incapable of making decisions.

Putin needs the party to do well in the parliamentary election to pave the way for his return to the presidency in a vote now three months away.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45533663/ns/world_news-europe/

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Good News: Windows 8 Tablets May Not Get Traditional Desktop Apps After All [Video]

According to Paul Thurrott, Microsoft may discard its original plans to include support for desktop applications in their tablets. Instead, they would go for Metro-only apps, like the ones found in Windows Phone 7. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/qE-gnnE0PR8/good-news-windows-8-tablets-may-not-have-traditional-desktop-apps-after-all

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Alien Planet Is Rolling Over, Forcing 4 Others to Do Same (SPACE.com)

A huge alien planet turns super-slow somersaults as it hurtles through space, dragging its four sibling planets along for the topsy-turvy ride, a new study suggests.

The giant exoplanet, known as 55 Cancri d, gets tugged by a faraway companion star as it orbits its own parent star. As a result, the planet performs a flip over the course of millions of years, and the other four planets in the system follow suit, researchers said.

"It kind of shepherds along the other planets," study lead author Nathan Kaib, of Queen's University in Canada, told SPACE.com.

Widely swinging planet

Located about 40 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cancer (the Crab), the 55 Cancri system contains two stars, one with five planets in a seemingly stable orbit. ?The other star is almost 1,100 times as far away from them as the sun is from Earth, but it still affects them. The effect is not on the planets' orbits but on their axes. [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]

The axis of a planet runs through its center; the planet spins around it each day. The axes of most planets tend to line up more or less with the axis of their star. Most planets change the angle, or precess, slightly over time, but only a few swing significantly.

55 Cancri d is one of the swingers.

Kaib and his team ran more than 450 computer simulations of the 55 Cancri system, taking into account the influence of the companion star. The researchers decided that the spin axis of 55 Cancri d probably flips completely upside-down after millions of years. The planet's north pole finds itself pointed in the direction the south pole once claimed.

Even more intriguing, the planet, which is about four times the size of Jupiter, causes the smaller bodies in the system to swing with it.

The influence of the companion star was probably overlooked until now because it is so distant, Kaib explained.

"Other studies looking at the effect of binary stars on planets tend to focus on tighter binaries," he said.

Closer companions make for unstable orbits, but the 55 Cancri system showed no obvious sign of orbital disruption.

"This planetary system looks very well ordered," Kaib said.

Exactly how long it takes the planets to swing from top to bottom depends on the time it takes the two stars to circle one another. Unfortunately, that's tough to nail down, researchers said.

Kaib and his team modeled a variety of paths for the two stars and found that most of them resulted in severe axis shifts for all five planets.

The research was published in the December issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Observational follow-up

In its solar system, 55 Cancri d is the most distant of the five planets from their sun ? a little farther than the distance between Jupiter and the sun. Three others are packed into orbits closer than Mercury is to the sun.

The closest of the five, the dense planet 55 Cancri e, completes the orbit of its sun in less than 18 hours. From Earth's viewpoint, the tiny planet passes directly in front of its parent star, which is expected to allow astronomers to measure a number of properties, including the angle of its spin orbit.

At about 8.5 times the mass of Earth, 55 Cancri e would be the smallest planet on which astronomers have detected a spin angle.

Kaib says that he spoke with several other observers experienced in determining the angle for extrasolar planets, and they are confident that it's possible to calculate the spin axis angle of 55 Cancri e.

But Kaib cautions that the observational evidence may not be conclusive. The simulations model the star as a perfect sphere, but like most rotating bodies, it probably contains a bulge around its equator. The tidal forces from this bulge could act to erase evidence of the tipping of the orbital axis.

Astronomers compare the axis of the planets to the axis of the star to calculate just how much the planets have tipped.

"As the planets precess, they could drag the star along with it," Kaib said.

The orbital inclination of the star would then increase along with those of the planets, so the whole system could wind up on its head.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111201/sc_space/alienplanetisrollingoverforcing4otherstodosame

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'Standing on Ceremony' micro plays left at altar (AP)

NEW YORK ? A set of micro plays about gay marriage that made its debut earlier this month off-Broadway has been jilted.

Producers said Tuesday that "Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays" at the Minetta Lane Theatre will have its final performance on Dec. 18.

The plays by playwrights including Neil LaBute, Paul Rudnick, Doug Wright and Moises Kaufman opened Nov. 13 with an open-ended run and high hopes.

The cast includes Beth Leavel from "The Drowsy Chaperone", Richard Thomas from "Race", Craig Bierko from "The Music Man", Mark Consuelos from TV's "All My Children", Polly Draper from "thirtysomething" and Harriet Harris from "Thoroughly Modern Millie."

The other playwrights are Mo Gaffney, Jordan Harrison, Wendy MacLeod and Jose Rivera.

___

Online:

http://www.standingonceremony.net

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111129/ap_en_tv/us_theater_standing_on_ceremony

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Judge orders Mindy McCready: Return son to Florida (AP)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. ? Country singer Mindy McCready said Thursday she would not bring her 5-year-old son back from Tennessee to Florida, despite violating a custody arrangement and a judge's order.

McCready took the boy during a recent visit at her father's southwest Florida home and a judge signed an order Thursday ordering authorities to take the boy into custody and return him. It's not yet clear whether she could face criminal charges.

"I'm doing all this to protect Zander, not stay out of trouble," McCready wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday. "I don't think I should be in trouble for protecting my son in the first place."

McCready says she is in Tennessee and it is looking less likely that she will bring her son back to Florida. She says she cannot travel because she's nearly seven months pregnant with twins.

McCready and her mother have had a long custody battle over the boy. Until recently, the boy was living with McCready's mother. Her mother was awarded guardianship in 2007. McCready says her son has suffered abuse at her mother's house; her mother, Gayle Inge, denies the abuse allegations.

"Once the child is located, we will pick him up and bring him back to Florida," said Terri Durdaller, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Children and Families. "Although these circumstances are unfortunate for a young child, his safety and well-being are our number one priority."

Durdaller said any criminal charges would come at the discretion of law enforcement or the Lee County (Fla.) State Attorney's office.

McCready provided a series of emails to the AP with Lee County Judge James Seals' ruling to return the boy and correspondence with her attorney. Seals wrote to McCready's lawyer that once the boy is back in Florida "we'll pick up the pieces."

"Mom has violated the court's custody order and we are simply restoring the child back into our custody," the judge wrote. "Nothing more. Nothing less. The court makes no judgment about whether Mom will or will not competently care for the child while in her custody. It only wants the child back where the court placed him."

McCready was born in Florida and found fame in Nashville as a singer in the mid-1990s, including a No. 1 hit, "Guys Do It All the Time." She has lived a complicated life in recent years.

In August, she filed the libel suit in Palm Beach County against her mother and the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., over a story published in the tabloid newspaper that quoted Inge.

In July 2007, she was accused of scuffling with Inge and resisting arrest at her mother's home in Florida. She was sentenced to jail for 60 days for a probation violation and released; she served 30 days in jail. She also lost custody of her son.

And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a Nashville hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.

During the TV show "Celebrity Rehab 3" in 2010, McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, and host Dr. Drew Pinsky called her an angel in the season finale.

Also in 2010, police went to Inge's home for a report of an overdose, and McCready was taken to a Florida hospital. However, neither the hospital nor McCready's publicist would say why the singer was hospitalized.

McCready also fought the release of a tape in which she reportedly talked about former Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, with whom she had an affair as a teenager.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_en_mu/us_people_mccready

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