Tiger's record chase slipping away?

The first thing I considered when I learned that Tiger Woods had withdrawn from the upcoming Masters Tournament wasn't that the event would suffer from the absence of its four-time champion.
Sure, it's a big deal for the game that Tiger won't play in Augusta next week, but the Masters is bigger than any one player.
Instead, I began to wonder how this latest injury, which will keep Woods out of his first Masters in 20 years, is a setback that could severely hurt his chances of breaking Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championships.
Nicklaus' record is all that keeps Tiger playing. It's not to win FedEx Cups or to break Sam Snead's mark of 82 career PGA Tour wins or to amass more millions in earnings.
Nicklaus' record alone holds our attention.
This was supposed to be a special year in the majors for Tiger -- one that was sure to end his six-year winless drought in these events.
Woods had won six of his 14 majors on 2014's major courses. Even with the incredible depth in the game, it was a good bet that Tiger was going to win on at least one of these courses.
Now nothing is certain about his season of majors.
The back surgery this week is just one more calamity to derail Tiger's path to Jack in a long line of injuries and personal trials over the past several years.
How is Tiger going to beat kids nearly half his age with a bad back?
It's a shame.
Can you imagine if Henry Aaron got to 550 home runs and injuries kept him from reaching Babe Ruth's all-time record of 714? Or if Pete Rose had been kicked out of baseball nearly 1,000 hits shy of Ty Cobb's record?
Wouldn't it put a small blemish on one of the greatest sports stories of all time if Tiger couldn't complete the fairy tale and best Nicklaus? Wouldn't Tiger getting to 19 majors complete that wonderful arc that started with his 12-shot win at the 1997 Masters?
This injury and absence from Augusta has to scare the hell out of Tiger. How many more majors does he have to realistically be a top contender?
It's very presumptuous to think that Tiger would have won next week at Augusta. He had three victories last year going into Augusta and didn't break 70 in a tie for fourth. At the next three majors, his play was uninspired.
Withdrawing from the Masters just renders a win that was doubtful in the first place merely impossible to achieve because he's not in the field to create buzz about what he will do.
No need now to get your hopes up that he will do something miraculous to win his fifth green jacket.
For Tiger, Nicklaus' record must now feel like a very difficult climb at this point in his career. He turns 39 in December, and no matter what you do in terms of diet and exercise, the body continues to age.
But the good news is that when Tiger is healthy and in the field, he has at least a chance of competing. What's for sure is that he can't break the record if he is not healthy enough to play.
The game is at its best when he is competing at his best in the majors, and even better when he is winning these tournaments.
Down the line, what we may remember most about this time is not whether Tiger broke Nicklaus' record, but everything that he went through to try to do it.
After all the injuries that he has struggled through over the years, it's likely that whatever befalls him in his remaining days on tour will be borne out of great struggle and some pain.

 Read More : http://espn.go.com/golf/masters14/story/_/id/10709978/tiger-woods-record-chase-slipping-away-golf

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Chile earthquake: 6 dead, almost a million evacuated

SANTIAGO, Chile

  Hundreds of thousands of people evacuated from Chile's low-lying coastal areas returned home Wednesday morning after authorities called off a tsunami alarm as damage from a massive overnight earthquake seemed mostly limited.

The major earthquake, with a magnitude 8.2, struck off the coast of northern Chile on Tuesday, killing six and triggering a tsunami that pounded the shore with 7-foot waves.

Officials said the dead included people--a firefighter among them--who were crushed by collapsing walls or were killed by heart attacks.
Angamos, a key copper exporting port in northern Mejillones, escaped major damage, but workers were evacuated as a precaution, port union leader Enrique Solar told Reuters.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was shallow at 12.5 miles below the seabed and struck about 950 miles from the capital, Santiago. The most heavily affected area appeared to be the mining port of Iquique near the Peruvian border.
The country's president, Michelle Bachelet, declared parts of Chile's north a disaster zone, promising troops and police reinforcements to maintain order while damage was repaired after landslides blocked roads.Authorities were evaluating the full extent of damage.
Bachelet was scheduled to visit the affected areas later Wednesday.
Over 900,000 people were evacuated from the coastline along Chile. Many still have fresh memories of a deadly February 2010 quake and tsunami that struck the country's central-southern regions fresh in its memory.
An unusually large number of tremors that preceded Tuesday's quake unnerved residents, who emptied beaches, rushed to buy emergency rations, and prepared for an eventual evacuation.
"The government of Chile has been working hard to improve the awareness of people living along the coast to the threat from tsunamis and on what to do if one is approaching," said Steven Godby, an expert in disaster management at Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, England.

"Several tsunami drills have taken place since the (earthquake and) tsunami that killed an estimated 500 plus Chileans in February 2010, and recent earthquakes in the region have helped to keep the threat firmly in people's minds," he added.
High alertIquique is a key port, close to Chile's main copper mines. The area has been on high alert in recent weeks after an unusual number of tremors, and a series of aftershocks further frayed nerves in the early hours Wednesday.
Seismic Chile has strict tremor-proof construction regulations and most residents stay calm during quakes, which helps to limit harm.
State-owned miner Codelco and other major copper companies reported no harm to workers or mines and said operations in northern Chile were normal. Still, the massive Collahuasi mine evacuated workers so they could be with their families.
History of quakes
Much of Chile's coast borders the oceanic Nazca tectonic plate, which is being pushed under the continental South American plate, creating a geologic hot spot responsible for the creation of the Andes mountains.
That pressure can produce earthquakes greater than magnitude 9, the same class of temblor that caused the 2004 Sumatra and 2011 Japan tsunamis.
Southern Chile produced the most powerful earthquake on record, a magnitude 9.5 temblor in 1960 which killed thousands around the city of Valdivia and brought tsunamis to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines and the U.S. West Coast. A magnitude 8.8 earthquake in southern Chile killed 524 people and destroyed 220,000 homes in 2010.
Swarms of earthquakes off the northern coast, including a magnitude 6.7 shaker that struck March 16, preceded Tuesday's temblor.
But one earthquake expert who has studied the area warned Tuesday that the quake was unlikely to have relieved the enormous pressures that have built up along the massive fault, which he said had not broken in that area since 1877.
"It's probably not big enough to have released all of the energy that had been stored up along that locked plate boundary for the last 140 years or so," said Rick Allmendinger, a Cornell University professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences. "Is this the big one for that area? Or was it a foreshock to a presumably even bigger earthquake?"

Read More : http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-chile-earthquake-20140402,0,5625672.story

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Yulia Tymoshenko : UK banks in row over fake Accounts of millions

Report’s claims of accounts across the world are ‘lies’, says ex-Ukraine PM

Prominent UK banks are at the centre of a dispute over allegations that numerous foreign accounts were set up in the name of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her family.

A leaked report, seen by The Independent, claims that 85 bank accounts containing millions of pounds were linked to Ms Tymoshenko and relatives.
This global review of Ms Tymoshenko's finances was carried out as part of a wider investigation by Lawrence Graham, the London law firm, which was commissioned last March by the then-Ukrainian Ministry of Revenues and Duties of toppled president Viktor Yanukovich to trace assets allegedly misappropriated by the former prime minister.
The investigation done for Lawrence Graham reviewed 278 bank accounts in 26 countries and claimed that Ms Tymoshenko or her family were either beneficiaries or signatories to accounts which included a number of UK banks although it says these are now closed. The report claimed that 13 bank accounts in countries all over the world remain open.  But the Tymoshenko camp is adamant that she has not been involved in any commercial activity since she became a politician in early 1997.
Her lawyer, Sergey Vlasenko, said of the allegations of foreign accounts: “This is a direct lie and not true… She has had no property, no assets, no accounts in USA, UK and Switzerland.”
He added: ”We are absolutely pure and open to talk to anyone who wants to investigate us“
Mr Vlasenko argues that information given to the investigation ”has been falsified and is part of a big dirty propaganda war“ against the former prime minister who is expected to stand for president in May. ”This [investigation] was sponsored by the Yanukovych regime to discredit Mrs Tymoshenko“, he told The Independent.
The Yanukovich regime hired Lawrence Graham to trace more than $200 million which the former Ukrainian government alleged was  siphoned off by Tymoshenko and another former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, among others.  The funds allegedly disappeared from the mid-1990s onwards at a time when Tymoshenko ran United Energy Systems. UES was awarded the monopoly rights by Lazarenko, then Prime Minister, to import Russian gas into Ukraine.  These allegations were entirely separate to those which much later saw Tymoshenko jailed, and which were widely criticised as politically-motivated.
The allegations in relation to UES and Tymoshenko were however rejected during a criminal investigation in the USA into Lazarenko.  In 2004 Lazarenko was convicted of money laundering, theft and hiding the funds in foreign accounts.  Most of his Appeal was rejected and he was sentenced to eight years in a California prison.
The indictment stated:  “It was further part of the conspiracy that Lazerenko received money from companies owned or controlled by Tymoshenko, including United Energy Systems, in exchange for which Lazarenko exercised his official authority in favour of Tymoshenko's companies”.  The US Prosecutor, Martha Boersch, had claimed that she “had evidence that companies controlled by Tymoshenko took part in the schemes for transferring money to Lazarenko's accounts.  There were bank statements”.  The report commissioned for Lawrence Graham claims that amongst these was an account at a London bank in the name of United Energy Systems which contained £40million. But Tymoshenko was not arrested or charged with any offence and in 2004 the US court dismissed all the allegations in the indictment concerning Lazarenko’s relationship with UES and Tymoshenko, saying there was “insufficient evidence to confirm these schemes.”
The US prosecutors found assets all over the world, notably a NatWest bank account based in London Bridge. The account contained £40 million and was in the name of United Energy Systems with the joint beneficiaries being Lazerenko and Tymoshenko's husband Oleksander.
Tymoshenko's lawyers deny that she has opened a bank account since she became a politician and that the US case exonerated her: “The US case was launched because Kuchma (president of Ukraine at the time) did his best to provide the US prosecutor with all the information, but the court ruled that there was not even small evidence of any corrupt activity by Mrs Tymoshenko.”
Tymoshenko is a polarising but pivotal figure in the current crisis and turmoil in Ukraine.  She is expected to be a contender in the forthcoming presidential election.  But her track record as prime minister in 2005 and between 2007 until 2010 will be under scrutiny, because the demonstrators are demanding a zero tolerance of corruption after the demise of President Yanukovych.  “Tymoshenko belongs to the old generation of Ukrainian politics”, Orysia Lutsevych, a Ukrainian analyst based at Chatham House, told 'The Independent'.  “After the Orange Revolution she did nothing to reform economy and establish rule of law.  Instead, she focused her attention on infighting inside the Orange Coalition in order to prepare her presidential race. Most people on the [Maidan] square were not demanding her release.”
But her supporters hail Tymoshenko as a hero for her role in the Orange revolution of 2004 and regarded her as a political prisoner when she was jailed during Yanukovych's rule over a gas deal with Russia which she arranged while she was prime minister.  Her lawyer Geoffrey Robertson argued last week:  “Tymoshenko was accused of abuse of office, because she made a deal with Putin when he stopped gas supplies to Ukraine in the winter of 2009...Her actions, taken to avoid a humanitarian disaster, cannot rationally be regarded as a crime.  But for making what her enemies called a 'bad deal', she was jailed.”

Read More : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/exclusive-uk-banks-in-row-over-yulia-tymoshenko-millions-9177693.html

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Yulia Tymoshenko: Russia are holding the people of Crimea at gunpoint

Ukrainian opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko pauses while speaking as her daughter Yevgenia looks on at the European People's Party (EPP) Elections Congress in Dublin

The freed political prisoner who has become one of the symbols of the Ukrainian revolution has said Europe must act to repel Russian aggression.
Yulia Tymoshenko claimed the Russia was holding the people of Crimea at gunpoint.
She is one of the favourites for leadership in her country when presidential elections are held later this year.
And she paid tribute to the bravery of hundreds killed or injured during anti-government demonstrations which led to the toppling of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
"In recent weeks Ukraine became more than a country, it became a symbol, an idea, the idea of Europe in freedom, the idea of Europe in strength, don't let this be broken," she said.
She claimed European nation building contrasted sharply with Russia's use of the Kalashnikov firearm.
"The Kremlin must understand that Ukraine is a state and not a territory, a sovereign nation that is free to join Europe," she added.
"It is not a vassal...or a colony that can be driven into a cage.
"We are different, we are free and we want something else than (Vladimir) Putin can give us today.
"For the Kremlin to understand a simple truth, we need action, we need a bit of Europe, which has always spoken in one voice."

Source : http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/yulia-tymoshenko-russia-are-holding-the-people-of-crimea-at-gunpoint-30070079.html

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‘300: Rise of an Empire’ movie review

Gazing at actor Michael Fassbender’s fine tuxedoed self as he celebrated “12 Years a Slave’s” historic win at the Academy Awards earlier this week, it was hard to believe that seven years had gone by since we first met the dreamy Irish actor, when he played a brave Spartan soldier in the cult pulp classic “300.”
In that film, director Zack Snyder put his bombastic gifts to use in bringing ancient Greece, if not to life, then to some kind of mesmerizingly bizarro, synthetic version thereof. A super-stylized mashup of graphic novel narrative and video-game stagecraft, “300” was a huge hit, launching Fassbender into much finer things (including a longtime collaboration with director Steve McQueen) and star Gerard Butler into a Dante-esque limbo of forgettable rom-coms and middling action flicks.
“300: Rise of an Empire” isn’t a sequel to “300” as much as a parallel-quel, catching up with the Athenian-led Grecian forces at the same time that “300’s” King Leonidas and his Spartans are getting their toned tushies kicked at Thermopylae. While no big stars are likely to emerge from the speechifying and gruesome swordplay of this installment, the film does feature at least one genuinely memorable performance by Eva Green, here playing Persian naval genius Artemisia with such gothic bloodlust that the only things she’s missing are fangs and a coffin to sleep in. In “Rise of an Empire,” Artemisia has been sent by Persian god-king Xerxes (a blinged-out Rodrigo Santoro) to defeat Greece and avenge the death of Xerxes’s father, Darius, at the hands of the soldier Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton). Suffice it to say, things don’t go exactly according to plan.
Based on a still-to-be-published graphic novel by Frank Miller, “Rise of an Empire” has been adapted by Israeli commercial director Noam Murro with alternately crude and canny fealty to Snyder’s hyperventilating original: A series of smashing, crashing seafaring set pieces interrupted by variations on Henry V’s Crispin’s Day speech (or maybe the “Gentlemen, to bed” gag from Steve Coogan’s “The Trip”), this chapter is a dull, monochromatic affair, its dingy gray palette barely enlivened by syrupy blood that spurts, squirts and gushes with metronomic regularity. When the film isn’t sloppily directed, it’s a series of lazy filmmaking tics, including fetishistic slow-motion shots of blood, water and sweat, as well as sundry dismemberments, impalings and decapitations.
It sounds like a blast, doesn’t it? But “Rise of an Empire” is no fun at all — even those famous six-pack abs from “300” seem to be missing a can or two in this desperate attempt to up an already dubious ante. Despite a visibly sincere effort, Stapleton is a non-starter as the brave Athenian trying to unite the city-states of Greece in defending their experiment in democracy. His supporting players are little more than an anonymous tableau of shirtless, grunting dude-itude.
Oddly, for a franchise founded on the bedrock of man flesh and macho posturing, it’s the women of “Rise of an Empire” who make the most impact: Lena Headey, as Spartan Queen Gorgo, makes serious, focused use of her lamentably limited time on screen, and Green rips into her ruthless anti-heroine with throaty gusto, not to mention an endless supply of beautifully draped leather and chain mail. (Who knew Persian barges boasted that much closet space?)
Despite its comic-book sensibilities, “Rise of an Empire” is anything but family-friendly. In addition to its steady stream of gloppy bloodletting, the film includes aggressive sexuality that borders on the perverse, including a ludicrous scene of carnal passion below decks, and a startling moment of intimacy between a key character and a disembodied head. How do you follow a scene like that? “Rise of an Empire” makes an attempt, but it only looks sillier the harder it tries.

Source : http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/300-rise-of-an-empire-movie-review-sequel-is-no-fun-at-all/2014/03/05/ec76dd3e-a46f-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_story.html

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Yulia Tymoshenko's hopeful daughter Eugenia

Yulia Tymoshenko is in a wheelchair, suffering severe pain from her back and looks frail, but her daughter Eugenia is just thankful she has been freed from jail after nearly three years of torture.In dramatic scenes nine days ago, the braided heroine of Ukraine’s last revolution a decade ago and the country’s former Prime Minister was released after a vote in parliament. She rushed to Kiev’s Independence Square to give a passionate speech to the protesters who won her freedom.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent, her daughter – who stood behind her mother as she addressed the crowd – said the day was “like a surreal dream”.
“I was amazed she went straight there,” she said. “But it was the right decision to say thank you to the people and ask forgiveness for the mistakes of all politicians and the mistakes she made.”
Eugenia said it was the culmination of the most stressful 24 hours of her life. Her mother was held in Kharkiv, a stronghold of deposed President Viktor Yanukovych, and her family feared for her life amid the violence of his overthrow.
“I knew the regime would stop at nothing and think nothing of spilling more blood so until I saw my mother I was very worried.”
Their legal team flew to collect her, while Eugenia prepared Plan B to drive nearly 300 miles by car. “When I saw her at the airport in Kiev I was so relieved – I still can’t believe it is real.”
She said her mother spent an emotional few hours with her own mother, who is 76 and she had not seen since being jailed, before going to the grave of the first protester killed in the square then returning to the political struggle.
Eugenia refused to say if her mother will stand again for office. But she is almost certainly gauging the possibility of a successful tilt at power. Her allies including the interim President Oleksandr Turchynov, were given key posts in Ukraine’s new government. Success hinges on how they grapple with Russia’s invasion of Crimea; Yulia herself rapidly issued a five-point action plan in response to the threat.
“My mother is working full-time to ensure the most just outcome for all Ukrainians, to get financial help for the country and to get new elections,” said Eugenia. “She does not place much importance on her own position.”
Yet the truth is the response to her mother’s return has been mixed; many Ukrainians want new leaders given the scale of corruption and incompetence that has blighted their nation.
Eugenia, 34, sipped lemon tea as we talked in her mother’s office in a Kiev suburb last week. Outside, the walls were hung with photographs of the former Prime Minister greeting crowds and meeting army officers.
The only time Eugenia paused was when I asked if she really wanted her mother back in the front line. She sighed, then said: “I know it is her mission, the fight of her life.”
For all her mother’s fame and wealth, accrued in the gas industry after the collapse of the Soviet Union, she endured a tough time after being jailed on what many believe to have been trumped-up charges of abusing her power in office.
Since being released, the woman who won power after the Orange Revolution has talked by telephone with the US Vice-President Joe Biden and met Baroness Ashton, the EU foreign affairs chief who visited Ukraine last week. Reports claimed she was flying to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin, who is known to respect her – even reputedly calling her “the only man” in Ukrainian politics. Her office denied the stories.
Eugenia, who was educated in England, spent time at the Maidan protests and has close friends who were badly injured in the clashes. One almost had his leg amputated after being shot; others were savagely beaten by security forces.
“For four years beforehand we were wondering ‘Why did people not see what was going on?’ Then it was a relief that people started the protests against the government. It was a long struggle but should not have been done at such a terrible cost.”
Her daughter admits she remains worried about her mother. She is aware also there has been unsympathetic coverage around the world since Yulia’s release. “I know there has been hostile press – it looks well-organised to me. But I am convinced by her real heroism.”
“It is good people can criticise without being killed or kidnapped,” she added. “My mother said she understands the people don’t trust politicians. But we should remember many politicians joined the protests and stood there shoulder to shoulder with them.”
Now, like many in Ukraine, both mother and daughter say they want real change in their country – unsurprisingly, since the new government said last week $37 billion (£22 billion) went missing from state coffers under the deposed regime.
“Whatever politicians do must be controlled and checked by the people,” said Eugenia. “That is what it really means to be European.”

Source : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-crisis-i-am-convinced-yulia-tymoshenko-is-a-real-heroine-says-eugenia-9163976.html

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'Son of God' review : The life of Christ

It’s not true to say that every Jesus movie is different. But we have seen a panoply in our time – from hippie-musicals (Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar) to accused heresy (The Last Temptation Of Christ) to alleged torture porn (The Passion Of The Christ).
The earnest Son Of God, produced by the husband-and-wife team of Mark Burnett (the reality TV kingpin behind Survivor, Shark Tank and The Voice) and Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel), is actually a Christ-only distillation from the couple’s hit 10-hour cable miniseries The Bible (with a bit of previously-unused footage).
And as such, it’s kind of a throwback to the Hollywood ‘60s Passion Play movies of my youth (King of Kings, The Greatest Story Ever Told) obstinately chronological in the telling, sort of “Jesus’ greatest hits.”
That is to say, a lot of Christ’s dialogue is one Gospel-based aphorism after another – “Live by the sword, die by the sword,” “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.” It’s a lot like watching Hamlet for the first time and realizing where these commonplace sayings come from.
At the same time, it’s a bit of a distraction and renders the dialogue prosaic at times. The filmmakers allow themselves the creative license to do things like greatly expand the roles of the criminal Barabbas (Fraser Ayres), Mother Mary (Downey) and Mary Magdalene (Amber Rose Revah) and lose characters like Herod Antipas entirely. Andrew Lloyd Webber put provocative words in Christ’s mouth, and has yet to be struck by lightning. I think it would have been okay to write something charismatic to suit the subject here.
Like those movies of yore, Christ, as played by the Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado, is insanely handsome, closer to Brad Pitt than the blue-eyed Jeffrey Hunter of King of Kings. This really makes it unnecessary for Judas to kiss Jesus for identification purposes. Just arrest the handsomest guy you see.
Morgado, with his ready smile (really the only one who smiles much in the movie) is of a piece with Downey and Burnett’s intent to portray a friendly Christianity not defined by “what we’re against.”
Buoyed by Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack, Son Of God moves with an unchanging pace from miracle-to-miracle (the loaves and fishes, walking on water), and selects single characters as plot devices (a single young Pharisee shouting “Blasphemy!” at him everywhere He goes, the Apostle John being the one who invariably “gets” every point Jesus makes).
And then comes the nitty gritty. The Crucifixion in Son Of God is only a notch less brutal than Mel Gibson’s, and I’m guessing FX has never been used before, or at least as imaginatively, in the portrayal of Christ’s wounds.
Still, the overwhelming esthetic sense of Son Of God is that it is a Passion Play designed to offend as few people as possible. There are artistic moments, notably one that recreates Michelangelo’s Pieta with Downey and Morgado.
But, revere them or reject them, in my mind the Christ stories that generated the most controversy were the most interesting films. Son Of God is TV-movie watchable, but it is not the greatest telling of ostensibly the greatest story ever told.
Twitter: @jimslotek
Jim.slotek@sunmedia.ca 

SOURCE : http://www.torontosun.com/2014/02/27/son-of-god-review-a-satisfying-christ-story

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