Justin Timberlake Goes Big Band For Grammy Blowout

Singer teams with Jay-Z for 'Suit & Tie' and goes solo for 'Pusher Love Girl.'
By Gil Kaufman

Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z perform at the 55th annual Grammy Awards
Photo: Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1701709/grammys-justin-timberlake-suit-tie.jhtml

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Snedeker on the rise with Pebble win

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) ? Everything about Brandt Snedeker moves at warp speed, including his rapid rise into golf's elite.

He talks so fast that he always seems to be a few words short of a complete sentence. He plays fast, giving his hips a quick swivel to set his position before pulling the trigger. Even his putts go into the hole quickly, most of them struck with purpose instead of hope.

But when he reached the 18th tee box at Pebble Beach, he had to wait for the fairway to clear before taking a victory stroll up one of the prettiest closing holes in golf.

And that was OK with him.

"There's not much better place to be on the planet with a three-shot lead on that tee box," Snedeker said Sunday. "It felt pretty special there."

Indeed, Snedeker is in a special place.

With his 10th consecutive round in the 60s, Snedeker finally had a trophy to show for his astounding start to the 2013 season. He knew the opening seven holes were critical, and he made an eagle and three birdies to build a quick lead. He realized a late birdie would give him a cushion, and he fired at the flag on the par-3 17th to 10 feet below the cup and holed the putt. He closed with a 7-under 65 for a two-shot win over Chris Kirk in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

It was the fifth win of his career, and his fourth in the last 22 months. But it's the last six months that have really turned heads.

He captured the $10 million FedEx Cup prize with a win at the Tour Championship, where he held off the likes of Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and Luke Donald going into the final round. He played in his first Ryder Cup. He started this year with a third-place at Kapalua, and runner-up finishes in consecutive weeks to Woods and Phil Mickelson, both of whom had big leads going into the final round.

Go back to the start of the FedEx Cup playoffs last August and Snedeker now has six top 3s in his last nine starts. Since missing the cut at the PGA Championship, he has broken par in 33 out of 37 rounds. No wonder he now is No. 4 in the world, the best ranking of his career.

"Just hard to put into words, to have a stretch of golf like I had the last couple of months," Snedeker said. "Something you dream about. Something you think that you can do, but you don't really know until you actually put it together. And I have.

"I'm really enjoying this, and hopefully can parlay this into the best year of my career."

Snedeker set the tournament record at 19-under 267, one shot better than Mickelson (2007) and Mark O'Meara (1997), who each had a 20-under 268 when Poppy Hills (par 72) was part of the rotation. It has been replaced by Monterey Peninsula, which is a par 70.

Chris Kirk closed with a 66 to finish alone in second, though he was never closer than two shots of the lead on the back nine and finished with a birdie. Kirk finished on 269, a score that would have been good enough to win all but four times at Pebble Beach since this tournament began in 1937.

"We've had a lot of tournaments like that on tour this year where somebody has really just kind of blitzed the field," Kirk said. "I felt like I played well enough to win a golf tournament and came up a little bit short."

Snedeker could have said the same thing ? except for Woods at Torrey Pines, and Mickelson going obscenely low to win the Phoenix Open.

He wasn't about to take a back seat to anyone at Pebble Beach.

Snedeker started the final round tied with James Hahn, a 31-year-old rookie from the Bay Area, with Kirk one shot behind. He set the tone early with a 4-iron into the par-5 second hole that was on the edge of the left green. It hit the collar and kicked slightly to the right, rolling toward the pin until it settled 4 feet behind the cup.

"Kind of lucky, but it was a good shot, and to end up where it did was a great way to start the day," he said.

Hahn hit his approach high and pure, and it nearly hit Snedeker's ball before stopping 6 feet away. Hahn missed. Snedeker made. It was like that over the front nine.

Snedeker started to pull away with a 3-wood that came off the edge of the green, ran by the cup and stopped 20 feet away for a two-putt birdie. Then, he holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the seventh and was on his way.

Most impressive about Snedeker this week was bouncing back from bogey. He made five bogeys for the entire week, and four times made birdie on the next hole. On Sunday, his lone mistake was knocking an 18-foot birdie off the green and three-putting for bogey at No. 9.

The answer, like everything else about him, was fast and furious.

He knocked in a 25-foot birdie putt on the 10th, and then holed from 15 feet for birdie on the 12th. Right when it looked as though he would make another bogey on the par-3 12th, he made par from just short of 10 feet.

There's a reason Snedeker led the PGA Tour in putting last year, though it's his driving that has vastly improved. Snedeker studied some statistics last year that showed his odds of hitting the green go way up when he starts in the fairway. And once he's on the green, he's tough to beat.

Hahn, who shot 70 and tied for third, was looking forward to learning something from his debut in the final group, and he saw Snedeker put on a clinic.

"I learned that he is a better guy than he is a golfer. The dude is world class," Hahn said. "He's obviously one of the best, if not the best golfer right now, and possibly for the last year. But how he conducts himself as a person on an off the golf course, that's also world class. He deserved to win today. ... I'm sure if you ask him, it was never a doubt that he was going to win the golf tournament."

Snedeker concurred.

"I definitely didn't want to do anything but win today," he said. "I was out there for one purpose and one purpose only, and I was extremely focused all day. I did a great job of staying patient and I did a great job of playing the golf course the way you're supposed to play it."

And the outcome was just what he expected. The way he has been playing, it shouldn't have been any surprise to anyone.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/snedeker-rise-pebble-win-082211961--spt.html

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Spanish PM publishes tax returns amid kickbacks scandal

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's prime minister published his tax returns on Saturday in a bid to quell reports he and other conservative politicians received secret cash payments but the opposition said many questions remain unanswered.

The government's website posted tax authority documents detailing Mariano Rajoy's income and tax payments from the past ten years. His ruling People's Party (PP) also revealed four years of financial accounts on Friday, in another attempt to put the matter to rest.

The scandal, centered on ledgers supposedly made by a former party treasurer, have cut support for the PP to the lowest level on record and pushed up borrowing costs just as it seemed Spain was getting to grips with a financial crisis that had raised questions about the future of the euro zone.

Former PP treasurer Luis Barcenas has described as fake handwritten ledger entries published on January 31 by El Pais newspaper purporting to show payments funded by construction firms made to PP leaders including Rajoy.

Rajoy has said the payments were not made and that the party is organizing an external audit into the affair.

The opposition Socialists said the published accounts of Rajoy and the PP did nothing to explain the Barcenas papers.

Socialist spokeswoman Soraya Rodriguez said Spaniards wanted more than Rajoy's tax records.

"Spaniards are fed up of waiting for answers that never come," she told journalists in Valladolid on Saturday.

Cayo Lara of the United Left party said the publication of the accounts was meaningless as members of parliament have to declare their assets in any case.

The tax returns do not cover the first half of the period of entries in the ledgers published by El Pais, which run from 1990 to 2009.

In the last year of detailed returns published, for 2011, Rajoy earned more 400,000 euros before tax. He paid 870,292 euros in tax over the period covered by the published accounts. His parliamentary salary was supplemented by investments in public debt and real estate, the government said.

Support for the PP fell to 24 percent in a Metroscopia poll published on February 3, the lowest on record and barely more than half the support the party received when it won a landslide election victory in late 2011.

Spain, the euro zone's fourth-largest economy, has been at the centre of concerns about the future of the euro currency and was pushed to the brink of following Greece, Ireland and Portugal in asking for an international bail-out.

A pledge by the European Central Bank to act as a backstop for bets against peripheral euro zone countries has reduced borrowing costs, but Spain is still struggling with a deep recession and unemployment of 26 percent.

The yield on Spain's 10-year government bonds rose to almost 5.5 percent on February 6, up from 5.2 percent on January 30, the day before El Pais published the alleged accounts.

Fitch affirmed Spain's investment grade rating on Friday but warned that it could still downgrade the country's sovereign bonds in coming months on worries about the economy and public debt levels.

($1 = 0.7474 euros)

(Additional reporting by Teresa Larraz and Andres Gonzalez; Editing by Toby Chopra and Jason Webb)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spain-pm-publishes-tax-returns-amid-corruption-scandal-140126628.html

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Arif Latif unseats Wong Wing Ki in Men's Singles event of 2013 ...

Arif Latif unseats Wong Wing Ki in Men?s Singles event of 2013 Djarum Superliga Badminton

Malaysia?s spirited shuttler Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif employed all of his brilliance in the game and thrashed Wong Wing Ki in a Men?s Singles encounter of Djarum Superliga Badminton on February 8, 2013.

This short-lived but hard fought tussle remained in full swing for one hour in the local badminton arena of Surabaya, Indonesia.

Both contenders challenged each other in all departments of game and finished this crucial match with a decisive result of 23-21 and 21-16.

Arif Latif, who is playing for Malaysia Tigers Badminton Club, looked bit off colour in the beginning but he ended this bad patch and locked the honour.

On the other hand, Wong Wing failed to make best out of his brilliant start and crashed out after receiving a straight-set defeat.

In the opening game, he played flawless badminton and established a decent lead without wasting time.

However, his supremacy was really short lived as the opposing shuttler counterbalance the situation with a staggering knock.

The Malaysian campaigner prevailed in couple of continuous rallies and added many valuable points in his total. He finished first half of the set with a respectable score.

After the id-game break, Arif Latif played with an authoritative approach and strengthened his grip in third quarter of the set,

Though, he made couple of mistakes which allowed his competitor to narrow the gap on points table but then few productive strokes reinstated his dominance. He registered a tight yet favourable margin of 23-21 and bagged this crucial match point.

The following game was a one-sided affair after the interval as Wong Wing hardly put any resistance and surrendered tamely.

Initially, it was felt that he will survive this nerve-racking contest and take this match to third set but then his fluctuated performance made the situation worse.

On the other hand, Arif Latif capitalised his rival?s blunders and gained a significant advantage. He maintained that difference until the game point situation and piled up an impressive total of 21-16.

His straight-set victory helped his team a lot as they defeated PB Jaya Raya Suryanaga with a significant margin of 3-2.

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Arif-Latif-unseats-Wong-Wing-Ki-in-Mens-Singles-event-of-2013-Djarum-Superliga-Badminton-a213429

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Canadian who spied for Russia jailed for 20 years

RCMP via Reuters

Naval intelligence officer Jeffrey Delisle is shown in this still image taken from video of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police videotaped interrogation of the confessed spy in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia on Jan.13, 2012. Delisle found himself facing Mountie Jim Moffatt at the RCMP detachment after he was arrested following the interception days earlier of attempted transmissions to the Russians.

By Eric Martyn, Reuters

Published at 7:15 p.m. ET -- A Canadian naval officer who handed over secrets to Russia for more than four years, damaging Canada's relations with the United States and other key allies, was jailed for 20 years on Friday.

Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle, dressed in a blue hooded sweatshirt and jeans, showed no reaction when found guilty of breach of trust and handing information to a foreign entity that could harm national interests.

He was also fined $111,817 (Canadian), the sum he received from his Russian spy masters.

Delisle, 41, worked at a security unit in Halifax that tracked vessels entering and exiting Canadian waters. He stole secret information by copying it onto a computer memory stick.

Officials told a sentencing hearing last week that allies had threatened to withhold intelligence from Canada unless it tightened security procedures.

Canada shares sensitive information with the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Australia.

Gen. Tom Lawson, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said Canada was boosting security in the wake of what he called Delisle's odious behavior.

"A critical foundation of our intelligence mission is the mutual trust we have forged with our allies ... Sub-Lieutenant Delisle failed each and every Canadian," he said in a statement.

Delisle, unhappy after his marriage started to break up, walked into the Russian embassy in Ottawa in July 2007 and offered to sell secrets.

Authorities first became suspicious after Delisle returned to Canada from a meeting with a Russian handler in Brazil in 2011, carrying tens of thousands of dollars in cash and pre-paid credit cards. This prompted an investigation that ended with the officer's arrest in January 2012.

He was the first person to be charged under a secrecy law that was enacted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and can carry a life sentence. Prosecutors had demanded a 20-year sentence while Delisle's lawyers argued a 10-year term would be appropriate.

As he left court he glanced briefly at several members of his family in the room.

Defence lawyer Mike Taylor said Delisle "is a little bit shocked. It's a significant sentence that he received and one that quite frankly I don't think he was really expecting."

Taylor told reporters it was too early to say whether an appeal would be lodged.

Delisle was also given nine years in jail for attempting to communicate information to a foreign entity and five years for breach of trust, with all sentences to be served concurrently.

Taking the time he served in pretrial custody into account, Delisle will spend 18 years and five months in jail.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/08/16903610-canadian-officer-who-spied-for-russia-jailed-for-20-years?lite

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Amish beard-cutting ringleader gets 15 years

CLEVELAND (AP) ? The ringleader in hair- and beard-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison and 15 family members received sentences of one year to seven years.

"The victims were terrorized and traumatized," U.S. District Court Judge Dan Aaron Polster said in sentencing leader Sam Mullet Sr., 67, who sat without emotion during the sentencing.

The judge said the defendants had violated the constitutional rights protecting religious practice that had benefited them as Amish ? such as an exemption from jury service and allowing Amish children to leave school at age 14.

"Each of you has received the benefits of that First Amendment," Polster said.

The judge said the defendants have two weeks to file an appeal of their sentence or conviction. Defense attorneys have indicated such appeals are likely.

Before his sentencing, Mullet told the judge that he had been blamed for running a cult and was ready to take the punishment. Mullet, his ankles in chains and a white beard down to mid-chest, said if his community is seen as a cult, "Then I'm going to take the punishment for everybody."

With relatives of victims and his family sitting on opposite sides of the public gallery, Mullet said he has lived his life trying to help others.

"That's been my goal all my life," Mullet said to a hushed courtroom, with his fellow defendants and their attorneys sitting at four defense tables and filling the jury box.

"I'm not going to be here much longer," said Mullet, who didn't elaborate on any health issues.

Mullet and his family deny his community is a cult. The government asked for a life sentence for Mullet. The defense asked for two years or less.

The 10 men and six women were convicted last year in five attacks in Amish communities in 2011. The government said the attacks were retaliation against Amish who had defied or denounced Mullet's authoritarian style

Amish believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards once they marry. Cutting it would be offensive to Amish.

Other defendants, some in tears, also offered to take the brunt of the blame and punishment on behalf of Mullet or spouses. Addressing the judge one-by-one, the defendants said there would be no more beard-cutting attacks.

Freeman Burkholder, 32, husband of a Mullet niece and father of eight children, apologized to the judge.

"I won't do it again," he said.

Anna Miller, 33, married to a Mullet nephew and mother of six, also apologized, turning to relatives of victims as she said, "I'm sorry, it won't happen again." Like most of the women, she was sentenced to one year.

A federal prosecutor, Bridget Brennan, urged the judge to punish Mullet adequately.

"He is a danger to this community," she said. "He is capable of controlling 15 defendants."

Brennan repeated key testimony against Mullet and said he has remained the leader of his eastern Ohio community despite being locked up since his arrest in late 2011.

The defendants were charged with a hate crime because prosecutors believe religious differences brought about the attacks.

Nine of 10 men who were convicted have been locked up awaiting sentencing. The six women, who all have children, have been free on bond.

In a rare interview last week in Bergholz at the sprawling Mullet farm amid rolling hills in eastern Ohio, Mullet's unmarried 19-year-old grandson, Edward Mast, discussed the family's attitude. He said they are steadfast in the belief that the attacks didn't rise to the level of a hate crime.

"The beard, what it stands for me, what I know about it, once you're married, you just grow a beard. That's just the way the Amish is," Mast said.

As for the victims, he added, "They got their beard back again, so what's the big deal about it?"

Arlene Miller, whose husband, an Amish bishop, was among the victims, thinks Mullet deserves a tough sentence and the others should get less time if they get cult deprogramming counseling.

"It's a cult," said Miller, 48, of Carrollton. "Their minds were programmed in the wrong way by Sam Mullet, so we feel like these people are very deceived and they are actually victims of Sam Mullet."

She said there were no winners in the ordeal.

"There's no happy ending to this," she said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-amish-beard-cutting-ringleader-gets-15-years-183805098.html

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Stars salute MusiCares honoree Bruce Springsteen

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Be it concert or charity auction, Bruce Springsteen can bring any event to a crescendo.

Springsteen briefly took over auctioneering duties before being honored as MusiCares person of the year Friday night, exhorting the crowd to bid on a signed Fender electric guitar by amping up the deal. The 63-year-old rock 'n' roll star moved the bid north from $60,000 by offering a series of sweeteners.

"That's right, a one-hour guitar lesson with me," Springsteen shouted. "And a ride in my Harley Davidson sidecar. So dig in, one-percenters."

That moved the needle past $150,000. He added eight concert tickets and backstage passes with a bonus tour conducted by Springsteen himself. That pushed it to $200,000, but he wasn't done.

"And a lasagna made by my mother!" he shouted as an in-house camera at the Los Angeles Convention Center cut to his 87-year-old mother Adele Ann Springsteen.

And with an extra $250,000 in the musicians charity's coffers, Springsteen sat down and spent most of the evening in the unusual role of spectator as a string of stars that included Elton John, Neil Young, Sting, Kenny Chesney, John Legend, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Patti Smith, Jackson Browne took the stage two nights before the Grammy Awards.

"Here's a little secret about Bruce Springsteen: He loves this," host Jon Stewart joked. "There's nothing he'd rather do than come to Los Angeles, put on a suit ... and then have people talking about him like he's dead."

Alabama Shakes kicked things off with "Adam Raised A Cain" and over the course of the evening there were several interesting takes on Springsteen's voluminous 40-year catalog of hits. Natalie Manes, Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite played a stripped down "Atlantic City." Mavis Staples and Zac Brown put a gospel spin on "My City of Ruins." John added a funky backbeat to "Streets of Philadelphia." Kenny Chesney offered an acoustic version of "One Step Up."

Jim James and Tom Morello burned through a scorching version of "The Ghost of Tom Joad" that brought the crowd out of their seats as Morello finished the song with a fiery guitar solo. And Mumford & Sons took it the opposite way, playing a quiet, acoustic version of "I'm On Fire" in the round that had the crowd leaning in.

Legend offered a somber piano version of "Dancing in the Dark" and Young shut down the pre-Springsteen portion of the evening with a "Born in the USA" that included two sign-language interpreters dressed as cheerleaders signing along to the lyrics.

"John Legend made me sound like Gershwin," Springsteen said. "I love that. Neil Young made me sound like the Sex Pistols. I love that. What an evening."

Springsteen spoke of the "miracle of music," the importance of musicians in human culture and making sure everyone is cared for. And he joked that he somehow ended up being honored by MusiCares, a charity that offers financial assistance to musicians in need run by The Recording Academy, after his manager called up Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich to seek a performance slot on the show in a "mercenary publicity move."

In the end, though, he was moved by the evening.

"It's kind of a freaky experience, the whole thing," Springsteen said. "This is the huge Italian wedding Patti (Scialfa) and I never had. It's a huge Bar Mitzvah. I owe each and every one of you. You made me feel like the person of the year. Now give me that damn guitar."

He asked the several thousand attendees to move toward the stage ? "Come on, it's only rock 'n' roll" ? and kicked off his five-song set with his Grammy nominated song "We Take Care Of Our Own." At the end of the night he brought everyone on stage for "Glory Days."

___

Online:

http://grammy.com

___

Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stars-salute-musicares-honoree-bruce-springsteen-105916761.html

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