Golf: McIlroy pulls out of PGA event with toothache

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida: World No. 1 and defending champion Rory McIlroy withdrew from the US PGA Honda Classic during his second round on Friday, saying he was struggling due to pain from a sore wisdom tooth.

McIlroy struggled through the back nine on Friday, his opening nine holes of the round, and hit his approach at the 18th into water. He then walked off the course and quickly departed the grounds with his coach and caddie.

"I sincerely apologise to The Honda Classic and PGA Tour for my sudden withdrawal," McIlroy said. "I have been suffering with a sore wisdom tooth, which is due to come out in the near future."

It was the first time in his career that McIlroy withdrew from a tournament and it comes as the 23-year-old from Northern Ireland struggles to find his form after switching to Nike equipment for this season.

McIlroy is a 6-1 co-favorite with 14-time major champion Tiger Woods in next month's Masters, but the tooth issue could dim his bid to add to a major haul that includes the 2011 US Open and 2012 PGA Championship.

"It began bothering me again last night," said McIlroy. "It was very painful again this morning, and I was simply unable to concentrate. It was really bothering me and had begun to affect my playing partners."

McIlroy gave no hint as to how the injury might impact his plans for playing in the weeks leading up to the year's first major tournament at Augusta National.

He had plans to play next week in a World Golf Championships event at nearby Doral and the Houston Open in the week before the Masters.

Especially gutting for McIlroy was the fact the pain flared as he was trying to defend the title he won a year ago to put himself atop the world rankings for the first time in his career.

"I came here with every intention of defending my Honda Classic title," said McIlroy. "Even though my results haven't revealed it, I really felt like I was rounding a corner. This is one of my favorite tournaments of the year and I regret having to make the decision to withdraw, but it was one I had to make."

McIlroy endured a horror-show start on Friday alongside South Africa's Ernie Els, the reigning British Open champion, and American Mark Wilson.

At the par-4 11th, he nearly put his approach into the water, then chipped across the green on his way to a double bogey.

On the par-4 13th, McIlroy went way to the right off the tee and missed a six-foot par putt.

After a pair of pars, he put his tee shot into the water at the par-4 16th, then took a drop and put his third shot into the water as well on the way to a triple bogey.

At the par-3 17th, the Northern Irishman three-putted from 42 feet for bogey to stand seven-over par for the round through eight holes.

McIlroy, who missed the cut in his first 2013 start at Abu Dhabi and lost in the first round of the WGC Match Play Championship last week, opened with a par-70 on Thursday but admitted he was still working on his timing and adjusting to his new clubs.

"It's hard to commit to the shot that you need to play every time," McIlroy said Thursday. "I felt like I hit the ball OK, not as good as I can, but it's getting there."

-AFP/ac

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Sariska villagers block tourists’ entry

ALWAR: About 2,500 villagers on Thursday blocked the main entrance of the Sariska Tiger Reserve, protesting their relocation from areas near the sanctuary.

Sariska field director RS Shekhawat said the villagers had locked the entrance and didn't allow tourists to enter the park. "We are trying to sort out the problem on a priority basis," Shekhawat said.

The villagers, who are on an indefinite sit-in, said they would not clear the blockade unless their demands were met. This is the third such protest in the past eight months against the relocation plan.

Tension began in Sariska when about 2,500 people from 50 villages gathered for a mahapanchayat against the alleged "cheating" by the district administration. "We had called off the agitation in May last year when the district administration agreed on some of our demands including lifting ban on the registry of land, construction of a concrete road and earmarking a grazing area. But now they have backtracked on the promise citing the Supreme Court orders," said Jaikishan Gujjar, a villager.

Since 2008, the farmers in the periphery of the reserve have been protesting the state government and wildlife authorities' decision to relocate them. On February 20, villagers thrashed a few senior sanctuary officials when 70 cattle were seized while grazing in the sanctuary area.

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WHO: Slight cancer risk after Japan nuke accident

LONDON (AP) — Two years after Japan's nuclear plant disaster, an international team of experts said Thursday that residents of areas hit by the highest doses of radiation face an increased cancer risk so small it probably won't be detectable.

In fact, experts calculated that increase at about 1 extra percentage point added to a Japanese infant's lifetime cancer risk.

"The additional risk is quite small and will probably be hidden by the noise of other (cancer) risks like people's lifestyle choices and statistical fluctuations," said Richard Wakeford of the University of Manchester, one of the authors of the report. "It's more important not to start smoking than having been in Fukushima."

The report was issued by the World Health Organization, which asked scientists to study the health effects of the disaster in Fukushima, a rural farming region.

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and tsunami knocked out the Fukushima plant's power and cooling systems, causing meltdowns in three reactors and spewing radiation into the surrounding air, soil and water. The most exposed populations were directly under the plumes of radiation in the most affected communities in Fukushima, which is about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Tokyo.

In the report, the highest increases in risk are for people exposed as babies to radiation in the most heavily affected areas. Normally in Japan, the lifetime risk of developing cancer of an organ is about 41 percent for men and 29 percent for women. The new report said that for infants in the most heavily exposed areas, the radiation from Fukushima would add about 1 percentage point to those numbers.

Experts had been particularly worried about a spike in thyroid cancer, since radioactive iodine released in nuclear accidents is absorbed by the thyroid, especially in children. After the Chernobyl disaster, about 6,000 children exposed to radiation later developed thyroid cancer because many drank contaminated milk after the accident.

In Japan, dairy radiation levels were closely monitored, but children are not big milk drinkers there.

The WHO report estimated that women exposed as infants to the most radiation after the Fukushima accident would have a 70 percent higher chance of getting thyroid cancer in their lifetimes. But thyroid cancer is extremely rare and one of the most treatable cancers when caught early. A woman's normal lifetime risk of developing it is about 0.75 percent. That number would rise by 0.5 under the calculated increase for women who got the highest radiation doses as infants.

Wakeford said the increase may be so small it will probably not be observable.

For people beyond the most directly affected areas of Fukushima, Wakeford said the projected cancer risk from the radiation dropped dramatically. "The risks to everyone else were just infinitesimal."

David Brenner of Columbia University in New York, an expert on radiation-induced cancers, said that although the risk to individuals is tiny outside the most contaminated areas, some cancers might still result, at least in theory. But they'd be too rare to be detectable in overall cancer rates, he said.

Brenner said the numerical risk estimates in the WHO report were not surprising. He also said they should be considered imprecise because of the difficulty in determining risk from low doses of radiation. He was not connected with the WHO report.

Some experts said it was surprising that any increase in cancer was even predicted.

"On the basis of the radiation doses people have received, there is no reason to think there would be an increase in cancer in the next 50 years," said Wade Allison, an emeritus professor of physics at Oxford University, who also had no role in developing the new report. "The very small increase in cancers means that it's even less than the risk of crossing the road," he said.

WHO acknowledged in its report that it relied on some assumptions that may have resulted in an overestimate of the radiation dose in the general population.

Gerry Thomas, a professor of molecular pathology at Imperial College London, accused the United Nations health agency of hyping the cancer risk.

"It's understandable that WHO wants to err on the side of caution, but telling the Japanese about a barely significant personal risk may not be helpful," she said.

Thomas said the WHO report used inflated estimates of radiation doses and didn't properly take into account Japan's quick evacuation of people from Fukushima.

"This will fuel fears in Japan that could be more dangerous than the physical effects of radiation," she said, noting that people living under stress have higher rates of heart problems, suicide and mental illness.

In Japan, Norio Kanno, the chief of Iitate village, in one of the regions hardest hit by the disaster, harshly criticized the WHO report on Japanese public television channel NHK, describing it as "totally hypothetical."

Many people who remain in Fukushima still fear long-term health risks from the radiation, and some refuse to let their children play outside or eat locally grown food.

Some restrictions have been lifted on a 12-mile (20-kilometer) zone around the nuclear plant. But large sections of land in the area remain off-limits. Many residents aren't expected to be able to return to their homes for years.

Kanno accused the report's authors of exaggerating the cancer risk and stoking fear among residents.

"I'm enraged," he said.

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Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and AP Science Writer Malcolm Ritter in New York contributed to this report.

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Online:

WHO report: http://bit.ly/YDCXcb

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Obama Admin to Urge End to Gay Marriage Ban

Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, plans to file a brief today with the Supreme Court in favor of challengers of Prop. 8, according to an administration source.

It would mark the first time that the Obama administration has come out in court against the California ballot initiative that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

As far back as 2008, the president said that he thought Prop 8 was "divisive and discriminatory," but his Justice Department has never opined on its constitutionality. Because the DOJ is not a party to the case, it is not required to file a "friend of the court" brief, but the deadlines for briefs supporting the challengers to Prop 8 is tonight at midnight.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Theodore Olson, one of the lead lawyers challenging Prop 8, told reporters last week that he hoped the DOJ lawyers would take the opportunity to set down a legal position.

In Depth: Obama's Prop 8 Decision

"However," Olson added, "whether they do or not, the president of the United States made it very clear in his inaugural address that we cannot rest in America until all civilians have equal rights under the law so, in a sense, the president has made that statement already."

Today, 39 states have laws restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples. This number includes voter-approved constitutional amendments in 30 states barring same sex marriage. Nine states allow gay marriage.

Related: Eric Holder Says Gay Marriage is the Next Civil Rights Issue

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Football: 'Business as usual' for Chelsea after Rafa blast

LONDON: Chelsea insisted Thursday would be just another day at the office despite interim manager Rafael Benitez hitting out at the club's fans and management the day before.

Benitez launched a broadside following his side's 2-0 win at Middlesbrough in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday, criticising fans for protesting against him and questioning why he was only appointed on a temporary basis.

His outburst sparked speculation on social media that his position was in immediate danger, but a spokesperson for the club said: "It's business as usual."

Benitez was expected to take training as scheduled on Thursday as the European champions began preparations for Saturday's league game with West Bromwich Albion.

The 52-year-old Spaniard has risked the wrath of owner Roman Abramovich by asking why the club insisted on making him an 'interim' manager when he replaced the sacked Roberto di Matteo in November.

"I have a title. Someone decided the title would be 'interim'. Why? Just in case?" he said on Wednesday.

"If they want to blame me for everything that is wrong and then they say, 'We will put interim just in case,' fine, that is your decision.

"I don't agree, but it's your decision and now everybody has to take responsibility. If we are in the Champions League, I will be the happiest man in the world.

"But next year, I will leave anyway because I have finished my contract, so they (his critics) don't need to be worried about me. What they have to do is concentrate on supporting the team.

"I have a contract until the end of the season, that's it, so they don't need to be worried about me."

Benitez has faced opposition from a core of disillusioned Chelsea fans ever since he arrived at the club but he says those supporters have unrealistic expectations about the current squad.

"It's a team in transition -- they don't realise," said the former Liverpool manager.

"In the past, we had (Didier) Drogba, (Michael) Essien, (Salomon) Kalou. These players, it was a very strong squad, players with experience in the Premier League.

"Now we have a group of players with talent, really good players with talent, but they need time. It's a time of transition.

"But they don't realise it was a time of transition when I came here."

Benitez received support from some of his fellow Premier League managers, with Fulham's Martin Jol expressing sympathy for the Spaniard's predicament.

"I feel for any manager who is not well-liked and he wasn't well-liked from the start, so I feel for him," said Jol.

"He is a professional so he will probably do his job until the end of the season."

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew agreed that being installed as an 'interim' manager had undermined Benitez from the start.

"The title probably didn't do him any favours," Pardew said.

"It probably didn't help Chelsea, and perhaps even upstairs, they might regret that title, if you want to call it that.

"He's a great manager; they are a great club. They will sort it out."

West Brom manager Steve Clarke, whose side visit Stamford Bridge on Saturday, also spoke out in support of Benitez.

"It is difficult for me to say whether it was a rant or not by Rafa because I didn't hear the interview," said the former Chelsea player and assistant coach.

"I read it and seeing a transcription is different to hearing someone say something.

"But I didn't see a lot wrong in what he said. The script, as it was written down, was OK.

"I think by and large we are all interim. Someone is going to come and take your position at some stage."

"Only Sir Alex (Ferguson) and maybe Arsene Wenger can say they are in it for the long haul, but eventually someone is going to take your job so we are all temporary managers."

-AFP/ac

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Cash-in-bag case: HC notice to CBI on Yadav's plea regarding prosecution sanction

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday issued a notice to the CBI on a petition filed by Justice Nirmal Yadav (retired), an accused in cash-in-bag case, seeking photocopies of the record of ministry of law and justice pertaining to her prosecution sanction.

While issuing notice to the CBI for March 21, Justice Ranjit Singh asked CBI to file its reply on the demand of Yadav, who filed an appeal after a special CBI judge, Chandigarh, rejected her demand for the record on February 2. The special court had allowed her to inspect the documents but not allowed her to photocopy them.

In her appeal, justice Yadav claimed that the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) came into force in 1973, when technology was not so advanced. In case of a voluminous record, inspection, rather than supply of copies, was a solution.

"Those were the days of manual typewriters. But over the years technology has progressed and providing copies of documents was now a matter of minutes due to efficient photocopiers," argued her counsel, adding that they are ready to bear the cost of photocopies of the record.

She also added that non-supply of documents was against the principles of natural justice, as these would be relied upon by the prosecution during the trial.

The scandal had come to the fore on August 13, 2008, after a clerk, allegedly sent by the then additional advocate general of Haryana, Sanjiv Bansal, dropped the money at the official residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur of the Punjab and Haryana high court. Later, an inquiry by CBI found that the money was meant for Justice Yadav.

Later, on March 4, 2011, CBI had filed charge sheet against Yadav, Bansal, Delhi based hotelier Ravinder Bhasin, Chandigarh based businessman Rajiv Gupta and Nirmal Singh for corruption, conspiracy, destroying evidence and creation of false evidence. The trial against all of these accused is pending with the special CBI court Chandigarh.

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Vt. lye victim gets new face at Boston hospital

BOSTON (AP) — The 2007 chemical attack left the Vermont nurse unrecognizable to anyone who knew her.

But now Carmen Blandin Tarleton's face has changed again following a facial transplant this month.

Doctors at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston said Wednesday that the 44-year-old's surgery included transplanting a female donor's facial skin to Tarleton's neck, nose and lips, along with facial muscles, arteries and nerves.

"I know how truly blessed I am, and will have such a nice reflection in the mirror to remind myself what selfless really is," Tarleton wrote on her blog Wednesday.

The Thetford, Vt., woman suffered burns on more than 80 percent of her body and was blinded after her estranged husband attacked her with a baseball bat and doused her with lye in 2007.

Tarleton, who once worked as a transplant nurse, has undergone more than 50 surgeries since the attack, including work to restore some of her vision.

The latest surgery took 15 hours and included a team of more than 30 medical professionals. The lead surgeon, Bohdan Pomahac, called her injuries among the worst he's seen in his career.

"Carmen is a fighter," the doctor said Wednesday. "And fight she did."

Pomahac's team has performed five facial transplants at the hospital. He said the patient is recovering very well and is in great spirits as she works to get stronger.

He said she was very pleased when she saw her face for the first time, and that her appearance will not match that of the late donor's face.

"I think she looks amazing, but I'm biased," he said with a smile.

The donor's family wants to remain anonymous, but released a statement through a regional donor bank saying that her spirit would live on through Tarleton and three other organ recipients.

The estranged husband, Herbert Rodgers, pleaded guilty in 2009 in exchange for a prison sentence of at least 30 years.

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Newtown Dad's Tearful Plea at Senate Gun Hearing

A father who lost his son in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School sobbed as he testified at a Senate hearing today in favor of an assault weapons ban.

Across town Vice President Biden alluded to untold horror of the Newtown tragedy in an appeal for help from the nation's attorneys general.

Despite their emotional appeals, the push for gun reforms championed by the White House and many Democrats faces an uncertain future.

"Jesse was the love of my life," said Neil Heslin, sobbing as he described his 6-year-old son before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "He was the only family I had left. It's hard for me to be here today to talk about my deceased son. I have to. I'm his voice."

Heslin's son, Jesse Lewis, was among the 20 children and six teachers and school administrators murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. last December. Heslin recounted his last moments with his son when he took him to pick up his favorite, sausage egg and cheese sandwich and hot chocolate before dropping him off at school on the morning of Dec. 14.

"It was 9:04 when I dropped Jesse off. Jesse gave me a hug and a kiss and at that time said goodbye and love you. He stopped and said, I loved mom too." Heslin and his wife are separated.

"That was the last I saw of Jesse as he ducked around the corner. Prior to that when he was getting out of the truck he hugged me and held me and I could still feel that hug and pat on the back and he said everything's going to be ok dad. It's all going to be ok," Heslin said breaking down in tears a second time. "It wasn't ok. I have to go home at night to an empty house without my son."

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Heslin was one of eight witnesses testifying at a hearing to back a proposed assault weapons ban. Another witness was Dr. William Begg, a physician who made it to the emergency room the day of the Newtown shooting.

"People say that the overall number of assault weapon deaths is small but you know what? Please don't tell that to the people of Tucson or Aurora or Columbine or Virginia Tech, and don't tell that to the people in Newtown," Begg said as he choked up and people in the crowd clapped. "Don't tell that to the people in Newtown. This is a tipping point. This is a tipping point and this is a public health issue. Please make the right decision."

Related: Read More About Heslin's Testimony

The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to consider four gun safety measures, including the assault weapons ban, on Thursday. The three other bills aim to stop illegal gun trafficking, enhance safety in schools, and enact universal background checks.

As the hearing unfolded on Capitol Hill, Biden tapped into the stories that Newtown's first responders have shared with him as he urged attorneys general to help the administration push their gun proposals.

Related: The Tragedy at Sandy Hook

"With the press not here, I can tell you what is not public yet about how gruesome it was," Biden said of the massacre's gruesome aftermath at a Washington luncheon. "I met with the state troopers who were on the scene this last week. And the impact on them has been profound. Some of them, understandably, needing some help."

A spokeswoman for Biden could not clarify the non-public information to which he referred. The vice president suggested that what he heard in private conversations should spur lawmakers to enact some measures aimed at curbing gun violence.

Related: President Obama's Campaign Organization Turns to Gun Control

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Iran tells Zardari pipeline must advance despite US

TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday told the visiting Pakistani president that a much-delayed $7.5 billion gas pipeline project must go ahead despite US opposition.

"The Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline is an important example of Tehran-Islamabad cooperation, and despite hostilities towards the expansion of ties we must overcome this opposition decisively," Khamenei told Asif Ali Zardari, his office reported.

The gas pipeline project is strongly opposed by Tehran's archfoe Washington.

"Accessing safe energy source is the first priority for any country including Pakistan. In this region, the Islamic republic is the only nation that has safe energy resources and we are ready to provide Pakistan its energy needs," the all-powerful Khamenei said.

The pipeline project has run into repeated problems, including Pakistan's difficulty in finding funds and opposition to the project from Washington, which has slapped Iran with a raft of sanctions over its nuclear activities.

The Pakistani media reported last year that Zardari would visit Iran in mid-December 2012, when a final agreement was to have been signed, but the visit was delayed.

In 2010, Iran and Pakistan agreed that Tehran would supply between 750 million cubic feet (21 million cubic metres) and one billion cubic feet per day of natural gas by mid-2015.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Zardari that, "building the gas pipeline between Iran and Pakistan is a great and important event, and it serves the two nations' interests," the president's office reported.

"I believe that building this project is very beneficial for both sides and we support all the work carried out so far," Zardari said in talks his Iranian counterpart.

"The international and regional players have tried in vain to prevent an expansion of Iran-Pakistan ties but the people have learnt how to act against enemies of Islam," he was quoted as saying.

Islamabad has said it will pursue the project regardless of US pressure, saying the gas is needed to help Pakistan overcome its energy crisis that has led to debilitating blackouts and suffocated industry.

Iran has almost completed the pipeline work in its territory, but Pakistan has not yet started construction of 780 kilometers (490 miles) of the pipeline on its side, which is said to cost some $1.5 billion.

Sanctions-hit Iran finally agreed to finance one-third of the costs of laying the pipeline through Pakistani territory to Nawabshah, north of Karachi, with the work to be carried out by an Iranian company.

Pakistani officials in mid-December said Iran had promised a $500 million loan and that Islamabad would meet the rest of the cost.

"There are impediments in view of the US opposition to the project but we are determined to complete it to meet our fast-growing energy requirements," said one government official on condition of anonymity.

Tehran has been strangled by a Western oil embargo that has seen its crude exports halve in the past year, while Pakistan has an acute need for energy and plans to produce 20 percent of its electricity from Iranian gas.

Iran has the second largest world gas reserves after Russia and currently produces some 600 million cubic metres a day, almost all of which is consumed domestically due to lack of exports means.

The only foreign client is Turkey, which buys about 30 million cubic metres of gas a day.

Tehran also plans to sell its gas to two other neighbours, Iraq and Syria. The three countries agreed in 2011 to build a pipeline, with the work already started on the Iranian side.

-AFP/ac

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IB sulks over govt bid to place NCTC outside its ambit

NEW DELHI: As it tries to assuage the concerns of states over the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), which sees the concept as an encroachment on their turf, now the Centre also has to contend with the resentment of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to the proposed mechanism.

Anxious to win over the states on the issue of NCTC which it sees as imperative for better co-ordination among counter-terror agencies, the Centre is considering keeping the proposed body out IB's ambit. States had apprehended that NCTC being part of the IB will help the Centre extend its jurisdiction to "law and order" issues which under the Constitution is not part of New Delhi's remit. The Centre has tried to appease states also by proposing that NCTC will be mandated not to carry out arrests of terror suspect in any state without informing the relevant DGP.

While the response of states to the fresh NCTC pitch is still awaited, the Centre has to put up with the sulks of IB. The leading intelligence body had seethed with resentment when the government responded to the trauma of 26/11 attack on Mumbai by setting up the National Investigating Agency (NIA). The arrival of NIA, with a countrywide jurisdiction that other central agencies can only envy, has been at the cost of IB's reputation as government's chief counter-terror agency.

The fear of loss has also fuelled anxiety about what the setting up of NCTC might spell for the IB. Sources in the home ministry said that concept of NCTC as the premier body tasked with gathering and disseminating counter-terror intelligence, which will be functioning independently of the IB, will be a blow to what a MHA source called "the Old Lady".

As per a Cabinet note prepared by the MHA for consideration by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) at its next meeting, the NCTC has been proposed as an independent body reporting directly to the Union home secretary. Its chief will now be a DGP-level officer, as against the additional DGP-rank proposed earlier: a change that can only add to the autonomy of the body vis-a-vis the IB.

The Cabinet note also seeks to revise the norms for exercising NCTC's powers of search and arrest during operations, and makes it mandatory for the body to inform the DGP of the state concerned, in advance.

According to sources in the government, the IB, in its comments on the CCS note, does not agree with the proposal to take NCTC out of its ambit and make it a parallel organization under the MHA. A senior government functionary indicated that the IB has even opposed powers of search and arrest for NCTC, stating that these should remain with the state governments or the NIA.

There is also a view that NCTC can be placed under NIA, as it would then automatically be empowered to search and arrest as per the NIA Act. A senior NIA official said creating a separate counter-terror body would pose practical problems like getting good officers on deputation and other infrastructure, something that has been ailing NIA as well.

The fresh thrust for operationalizing NCTC, created by an executive order passed in February, 2012, comes in the wake of the Hyderabad blasts pointing to gaps in intelligence coordination between the Centre and the states. Though both the Opposition as well as state governments agree on the basic need to have a specialized counter-terror body at the Centre, they are opposing NCTC in its current avatar.

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