Klementyna blog

Josh Smith scores 29 with 16 boards in Hawks' win

WASHINGTON – Josh Smith scored 29 points and added a season-high 16 rebounds to lead the Atlanta Hawks to a 99-92 win against the Washington Wizards Saturday night.

Atlanta has won the last 12 meetings. Overall, the loss extended the Wizards' losing streak to eight, a season high.

Washington hasn't beaten the Hawks since an overtime win in Atlanta on Jan. 11, 2008.

Joe Johnson scored 21 points and Marvin Williams added 15 and 12 rebounds — his second double-double this season — for Atlanta, who has won three in a row.

Nick Young led the Wizards with 21 points and Andray Blatche scored 14.

Washington's star rookie point guard John Wall scored 18 points but was 2 of 7 from the free throw line. He also had a scary moment in the third quarter, when Jason Collins fell on his left ankle in a tangle for a loose ball. Wall briefly stayed on the ground, clutching his ankle with a grimace. He was tended to by trainers during a time-out but remained in the game.

Atlanta led the entire first half, building the lead to 13 early in the second quarter. The Hawks were up 52-46 at the half before the Wizards clawed back.

Washington briefly took the lead late in the third quarter before the Hawks closed the period on a 12-4 run, the final six scored by Jamal Crawford, and Atlanta never relinquished the lead in the fourth quarter.

The last serious threat from the Wizards came when Kirk Hinrich's 3-pointer drew Washington within three points, 80-77, with eight minutes to play. Atlanta held Washington scoreless for the next three minutes as the Hawks scored six straight points, including a dunk by Damien Wilkins, to open up a comfortable lead.

Atlanta outrebounded the Wizards 45-33.

NOTES: Hawks All-Star C Al Horford sat out with a back bruise he got Friday, when he had a hard fall after a flagrant foul by the Clippers' Blake Griffin. Horford made two free throws in the final second of Atlanta's 101-100 win, but coach Larry Drew said he was still sore Saturday. ... Washington F Yi Jianlian left the game in the fourth quarter with a sprained left ankle. Yi jumped to defend a shot and his leg buckled after his ankle landed awkwardly on Wall's foot. Yi stayed on the ground before being helped to the locker room and did not return. ... The Wizards' losing streak is their longest since a 16-game skid last March. ... Atlanta is 12-4 in the second game when playing back-to-back this season.

NATO says new headquarters to cost $1.3 billion

BRUSSELS – This is not a time of austerity for NATO, at least where its headquarters are concerned. The military alliance says its new complex will cost euro1 billion ($1.3 billion), a sum critics are calling unnecessary in a time of international belt-tightening.

NATO officials defended the project Tuesday, saying maintenance costs for the "temporary" complex into which NATO moved in 1966 were excessive.

"We're not spending more, we're actually spending less," spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said. "This is a project that's been decided on years ago, way before the financial crisis."

"We even have concrete rot, some parts don't even comply with Belgian safety regulations," Lungescu said.

Construction, scheduled to be finished in 2015, will cost about euro460 million ($600 million), nearly 30 percent less than the original price, Lungescu said.

The rest of the money will be spent to demolish an old Belgian air force base on the site, clear the terrain of bombs left over from World War II, and to pay for new security systems, equipment and furniture as well as the architectural costs.

NATO was formed in 1949 at the height of the Cold War. Its political headquarters was initially in London, but moved to Paris in 1951.

In 1966, French President Charles De Gaulle kicked the alliance out, complaining it was dominated by the United States, and NATO relocated to Brussels, the Belgian capital. It was offered the site of a former airfield just east of the city, from which Nazi bombers had struck at London during World War II.

In more than 60 years of existence, NATO has never had a headquarters built specifically for its use, although it has expanded from 15 members, when it relocated to Brussels, to 28 today.

But the move comes as member governments are cutting defense spending and as the alliance is struggling in the Afghan war, its most ambitious mission yet. Over the past two years, defense spending by NATO's European members has shrunk by about $45 billion.

It also comes as questions are being raised about the continuing relevance of the Cold War alliance, and when NATO's ties with Russia are growing increasingly close.

"The new headquarters is not going to be vacant, but it certainly won't be the nerve center of European defense and security policy that the old building used to be," said Marko Papic, senior analyst at Stratfor, a global intelligence analysis firm from Austin, Texas.

Famous faces lend voice to Egypt's protests

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt's cultural glitterati have joined thousands of protesters from all walks of life calling for an immediate end to President Hosni Mubarak 30-year-rule.

Khalid Abdalla, a British-Egyptian actor known for his lead role in the 2007 adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner," was among the crowd on Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) square on Saturday.

"I'm here because I'm asking for Mubarak to step down," Abdalla, 30, told Reuters. "I've been here since Friday before last."

Mubarak has pledged to stay on until the end of his term in September, but protesters mounted pressure on him to leave now as they gathered on the square for a 12th day of protests.

As demonstrations continued, an Egyptian army commander was shouted down when he tried to persuade thousands of demonstrators to stop the protest that has stalled economic life in the capital.

Khaled Youssef, director of films critical of the government, was another prominent face among the protesters.

"The Brotherhood are here in Tahrir, so what?" he said of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood group.

"They are part of this nation -- everyone is here. When citizens desire life, fate must respond."

The celebrated blind Egyptian composer Ammar El Shrei, who was guided by supporters through the throngs of demonstrators, was also among those who rallied on the square.

Abdalla denounced what he said was the intimidation of the international media and "brazen lies" by state media channels trying to weaken the protest movements.

"I think with or without Mubarak, the next six months will be complicated, and I think we're better off without him," he said. "The popular will here for social justice, political freedoms and political reform is now unstoppable whether it's here in Tahrir Square or it's moved out for other reasons."

(Editing by Maria Golovnina)

U.S. probes allegations of phony September 11 coins

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. authorities said on Tuesday they are investigating a New York coin dealer accused of selling phony September 11 commemorative coins supposedly made of metal from Ground Zero.

"These allegations are enormously troubling," said Jon Leibovitz, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, which investigates consumer fraud.

Two Democratic New York congressmen, Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Sen. Charles Schumer, have accused the National Collector's Mint in Port Chester, New York, of selling bogus September 11 coins in an attempt to exploit the tragedy for profit.

"With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaching, we should unfortunately expect more scams, as criminals and snake oil salesmen seek to profit from the deep emotional connection that millions of Americans have to that terrible tragedy," Nadler said.

National Collector's Mint's website claims designs of the Twin Towers and U.S.S. New York on the coins are made from "pure silver actually recovered from the vaults beneath the ashes of Ground Zero." It says the coins are government sanctioned and "minted under an exclusive license authorizing the official striking of the official Justice Department FBI insignia."

The coins sell for $29.95 and the company says they are considered legal tender in the African country of Liberia.

Schumer further criticized the company for diverting funds from official September 11 commemorative coins that Congress sanctioned last year to benefit The National September 11 Memorial & Museum under construction at Ground Zero.

National Collector's Mint President Avram Freedberg issued a statement defending his company's coins and adding that the company had donated more than $2 million from these commemorative sales to a handful of September 11 charities.

"We believe that in America anyone has the right to sell commemoratives," he said. "The purpose of coins, medallions, ingots, etc., is often specifically to remember happy events or tragedies."

The Better Business Bureau has given the company its lowest rating of F, with close to 100 consumer complaints about the company filed in the past three years.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)

Powerful 6.1 quake hits Papua New Guinea

SYDNEY (AFP) – Papua New Guinea was rattled by a strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake Monday, seismologists said, but the deep tremor was unlikely to have caused damage or sparked a tsunami.

The quake struck at a depth of 144 kilometres (90 miles), 40 kilometres southeast of Arawa in Bougainville at 11.14 am (0114 GMT), the United States Geological Survey said.

No tsunami warning was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Australian seismologists said damage was unlikely given the depth.

"It's very deep so we don't think there's any danger of any tsunami," a Geoscience Australia spokeswoman told AFP.

"(The extent of damage) depends on the structures, but it's probably not too much."

Papua New Guinea, which is mired in poverty despite rich mineral deposits, sits on the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire", a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates and quakes are frequent.

But large quakes often cause little damage in the mountainous nation, which has remote and sparsely populated areas.