Syria to discuss Brahimi peace proposals with Russia

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent a senior diplomat to Moscow on Wednesday to discuss proposals to end the conflict convulsing his country made by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.
Brahimi, who saw Assad on Monday and is planning to hold a series of meetings with Syrian officials and dissidents in Damascus this week, is trying to broker a peaceful transfer of power, but has disclosed little about how this might be done.
More than 44,000 Syrians have been killed in a revolt against four decades of Assad family rule, a conflict that began with peaceful protests but which has descended into civil war.
Past peace efforts have floundered, with world powers divided over what has become an increasingly sectarian struggle between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's security forces, drawn primarily from his Shi'ite-rooted Alawite minority.
Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad flew to Moscow to discuss the details of the talks with Brahimi, said a Syrian security source, who would not say if a deal was in the works.
However, a Lebanese official close to Damascus said Makdad had been sent to seek Russian advice on a possible agreement.
He said Syrian officials were upbeat after talks with Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy, who met Foreign Minister Walid Moualem on Tuesday a day after his session with Assad, but who has not outlined his ideas in public.
"There is a new mood now and something good is happening," the official said, asking not to be named. He gave no details.
Russia, which has given Assad diplomatic and military aid to help him weather the 21-month-old uprising, has said it is not protecting him, but has fiercely criticized any foreign backing for rebels and, with China, has blocked U.N. Security Council action on Syria.
"ASSAD CANNOT STAY"
A Russian Foreign Ministry source said Makdad and an aide would meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Mikhail Bogdanov, the Kremlin's special envoy for Middle East affairs, on Thursday, but did not disclose the nature of the talks.
On Saturday, Lavrov said Syria's civil war had reached a stalemate, saying international efforts to get Assad to quit would fail. Bogdanov had earlier acknowledged that Syrian rebels were gaining ground and might win.
Given the scale of the bloodshed and destruction, Assad's opponents insist the Syrian president must go.
Moaz Alkhatib, head of the internationally-recognized Syrian National Coalition opposition, has criticized any notion of a transitional government in which Assad would stay on as a figurehead president stripped of real powers.
Comments on Alkhatib's Facebook page on Monday suggested that the opposition believed this was one of Brahimi's ideas.
"The government and its president cannot stay in power, with or without their powers," Alkhatib wrote, saying his Coalition had told Brahimi it rejected any such solution.
While Brahimi was working to bridge the vast gaps between Assad and his foes, fighting raged across the country and a senior Syrian military officer defected to the rebels.
Syrian army shelling killed about 20 people, at least eight of them children, in the northern province of Raqqa, a video posted by opposition campaigners showed.
The video, published by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, showed rows of blood-stained bodies laid out on blankets. The sound of crying relatives could be heard in the background.
The shelling hit the province's al-Qahtania village, but it was unclear when the attack had occurred.
STRATEGIC BASE
Rebels relaunched their assault on the Wadi Deif military base in the northwestern province of Idlib, in a battle for a major army compound and fuel storage and distribution point.
Activist Ahmed Kaddour said rebels were firing mortars and had attacked the base with a vehicle rigged with explosives.
The British-based Observatory, which uses a network of contacts in Syria to monitor the conflict, said a rebel commander was among several people killed in Wednesday's fighting, which it said was among the heaviest for months.
The military used artillery and air strikes to try to hold back rebels assaulting Wadi Deif and the town of Morek in Hama province further south. In one air raid, several rockets fell near a field hospital in the town of Saraqeb, in Idlib province, wounding several people, the Observatory said.
As violence has intensified in recent weeks, daily death tolls have climbed. The Observatory reported at least 190 had been killed across the country on Tuesday alone.
The head of Syria's military police changed sides and declared allegiance to the anti-Assad revolt.
"I am General Abdelaziz Jassim al-Shalal, head of the military police. I have defected because of the deviation of the army from its primary duty of protecting the country and its transformation into gangs of killing and destruction," the officer said in a video published on YouTube.
A Syrian security source confirmed the defection, but said Shalal was near retirement and had only defected to "play hero".
Syrian Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar left Lebanon for Damascus after being treated in Beirut for wounds sustained in a rebel bomb attack this month.

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Tunisia seeks gold in former dictator's assets

On a crisp December morning in Tunis, a finance ministry official named Mohamed Hamaied was demonstrating the horsepower of maroon V-12 BMW on the runway of a national guard airfield. Beside him sat an agent for a potential buyer.
“You know, this is the same runway that Ben Ali fled from,” remarked another passenger, automotive expert Mourad Bouzidi, from the back seat.
The BMW is among the seized possessions of deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his inner circle that the government is selling to help fill depleted treasury coffers. But the sale of regime assets, which are often hard to track down and obtain, is not going to be enough. Long-term prosperity needs real reforms.
In Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, the fall of dictators has triggered a scramble for cash as new governments struggle to restore stability amid high expectations and damaged economies.
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In Tunisia, high unemployment has fueled labor strikes and rioting, which in turn provoke political squabbling. Last month, clashes in the rural town of Siliana between stone-throwing protestors and police – who fired birdshot – prompted some opposition politicians to demand Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali’s resignation.
Economic woes stem partly from last year’s revolution, which spooked tourists and foreign investors while the eurozone crisis hobbled key trading partners. But the roots of trouble go deeper, to a regime that spent years neglecting rural regions and letting unemployment rise while amassing great wealth for itself.
“Seemingly half of the Tunisian business community can claim a Ben Ali connection through marriage,” wrote then-US Ambassador Robert F. Godec in a June 2008 diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, describing an extended family seen as “the nexus of Tunisian corruption.”
TIGERS AND FRENCH ICE CREAM
A year later, Mr. Godec got a taste of regime opulence when Ben Ali’s son-in-law and heir-apparent, Sakher El Materi, invited him for dinner at his seaside villa. Godec’s July 2009 cable notes an infinity pool, ice cream flown in from St. Tropez, and a pet tiger named Pasha.
Ben Ali and most of his family fled Tunisia in January 2011 as protests brought down his regime. Two months later, then-interim president Fouad Embazaa ordered the seizure of assets belonging to 114 top regime figures, including Ben Ali and his wife, Leila Trabelsi.
It’s unclear how much the assets – from cars, yachts, and palaces to major stakes in Tunisian companies – are worth. One estimate last September by a government commission put their total value at around $13 billion.
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Ben Ali’s personal wealth is even harder to gauge, with most of his assets believed to be stashed abroad, says acting finance minister Slim Besbes. Many countries that froze his assets last year have been slow to unfreeze them – the European Union only did so last month – while other legal challenges remain.
The two largest known concentrations of Ben Ali wealth outside Tunisia are around $65 million in Switzerland and $28 million in an account under Mrs. Trabelsi’s name at Lebanon’s central bank, says Mr. Besbes. But while governments are cooperating, Ben Ali and his family's lawyers are fighting back.
Ben Ali’s Beirut-based lawyer, Akram Azoury, argues that a March 2011 seizure of his client's assets was illegal and says Ben Ali has no assets in his name outside Tunisia. Those in the country “are limited, to my knowledge, to his personal residence and a bank account whose value I cannot estimate, contrary to what Tunisian authorities have told the public,” he said by e-mail.
BIG NEEDS
Meanwhile, Tunisia relies heavily on foreign money. Last month it borrowed $500 million each from the World Bank and African Development Bank.
The government has also begun liquidating regime assets: 1.2 billion dinar ($776 million) generated from asset sales helped pay for a 2.5 billion dinar ($1.6 billion) increase in this year’s budget.
Latest on the block are thousands of personal items, including cars, jewelry, and fine art, which went on sale this week at a ritzy hotel near Tunis. To oversee things, the finance ministry tapped Mr. Hamaied, an old hand in commerce.
One morning earlier this month, Hamaied and Mr. Bouzidi, the car expert, were at the national guard facility in Tunisia, giving a preview of cars to the buyer’s agent. There was Ben Ali’s Maybach town car, with massage seats in back, a mini-fridge stocked with Evian, and a yard of leg room. Nearby was a black Aston Martin bearing a small plaque that read, “Handbuilt in England for Sakher El Materi.”
The scout was drawn to the BMW, seized from a Trabelsi. Hamaied popped the hood so he could photograph the big V-12 engine. The odometer showed 2,587 kilometers (about 1,600 miles).
“They’re all like that; these cars didn’t roll much – just between La Marsa and Hammamet,” Hamaied said, naming chic beachside towns near Tunis. Then he proposed a test drive. The men got in, Hamaied gunned the engine, and the BMW tore down the runway as the needle shot to 100 kilometers per hour (about 60 miles per hour).
Authorities hope the sale, which will last at least a month, will generate about $13 million. The government says the proceeds will be spent on development projects.
Ultimately, however, Tunisia has more work ahead to revitalize the economy, says Antonio Nucifora, lead economist on Tunisia for the World Bank. It must reform laws such as those governing foreign investment and labor, cut red tape, and combat a lingering penchant for cronyism.
“At present it is connections that make the system work,” he says. “They need to change from a system based on privileges and connections to one based on merit and competition.

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Russia's adoption ban exposes political rift

Russia's upper house of parliament today unanimously approved a ban on US citizens adopting Russian children, a highly charged move that appears to have prompted an unusual public split among government officials.
The Dima Yakovlev bill, named after one of 19 Russian children to die due to abuse or negligence at the hands of adoptive US parents in the past two decades, now goes to the Kremlin for President Vladimir Putin’s consideration. In his only comments so far on the anti-adoption measure, Mr. Putin said last week that it was "emotional but adequate," which is widely seen as an indication that he will sign it into law.
The legislation was originally framed as a tit-for-tat response to the Magnitsky Act, a US measure signed into law by President Barack Obama earlier this month that aims to punish officials connected to the 2009 prison death of Russian whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. But the Russian legislation has been amended beyond recognition by hardline lawmakers and now looks like a shotgun law to punish US citizens who become involved in almost any kind of non-business activity in Russia.
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Many experts think that Putin may yet act as the "voice of reason" and strip the ban on adoption out of the bill before he signs it.
"This whole discussion over the adoption ban has served the purpose of shifting public attention from the corrupt Russian officials targeted under the US Magnitsky Act to the problems of orphans and the dangers they face in foreign homes," says Nikolai Petrov, an expert with the Moscow Carnegie Center.
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"It's perfectly possible that Putin will ultimately adjust the adoption ban, but leave in place many of the other tough measures in this bill that haven't gotten much attention," Mr. Petrov says. Those measures include even harsher restrictions that would prevent any US passport holder from holding a leadership post in any Russian organization that is deemed by authorities to engage in politics.
The adoption ban has also become the focus of controversy and prompted a rare government split inside Russia. This week a liberal radio station leaked news of a memo by Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets warning that the proposed ban would violate Russian law and at least two treaties that Russia is party to. It would also overturn a bilateral accord on adoptions, negotiated between the United States and Russia, which came into force last month.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Education Minister Dmitry Livanov have also spoken out against the anti-adoption bill. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, voiced annoyance that the government’s internal disagreements were being aired in public, but still signaled support for the measure.
"Learning about official correspondence from the media is not always pleasant," Mr. Peskov told the Kommersant FM radio station yesterday. But "it would be a mistake to think that there is staunch opposition to the bill within government. On the contrary, there are many arguments in favor of it," he said.
Many Russians believe it is a national shame that thousands of children are adopted by foreigners each year. According to a public opinion survey published this week by the state-run Public Opinion Fund, 56 percent of Russians support the proposed adoption ban, while just 21 percent oppose it.
Pavel Astakhov, the Kremlin's children's rights ombudsman and a strong supporter of the ban, said in a letter to Putin published today that Russia could simply pull out of the bilateral agreement with the US and that the move would violate no Russian laws.
Meanwhile, about 130,000 Russians have signed a petition at the website of opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta asking the Kremlin to scrap the proposed ban.
In a sign that the ill will generated by the issue might snowball further, a petition posted at the White House's website, signed by over 54,000 Russians and Americans, urges President Obama to expand the so-called Magnitsky List by adding the names of all the Russian lawmakers in the two chambers who voted for the adoption ban. About 7,000 signed a petition calling for Obama to add Putin's name to the list.
Over the past two decades, about 60,000 Russian children have been adopted by US families. Of those, at least 19 died due to parental abuse or neglect. Each one of those cases ignited a firestorm of public outrage in Russia, and led to two suspensions of all foreign adoptions.
It also led to several efforts to tighten up Russia's once-lax foreign adoption process. Today, prospective parents are no longer able to arrange an adoption on their own, but must work through heavily regulated and fully accredited agencies, says Alyona Senkevich, a representative of Hand-in-Hand, one of fewer than 40 US-based adoption agencies still accredited to work in Russia.
"It's heartbreaking to think that we just signed the bilateral adoption agreement. . .. The main impact of this law (if Putin signs it) would be to strip Russian orphans of the right to be adopted abroad,” she says. “They will become the victims of political games."
Under Russian law, a child is not eligible for foreign adoption until the child has been rejected at least three times by prospective Russian adoptive parents— which usually happens for health reasons.
Albert Likhanov, president of the non-governmental Russian Children's Fund, says that the proposed ban would result in the approximately 1,000 orphans adopted each year by US families to be institutionalized instead of ending up in loving homes.
"I fully understand the wish of many Russians that our children would all be adequately cared for in Russia. But this is not the situation today, and a child cannot wait for everything to get stabilized," he says.
Mr. Likhanov said that Putin’s predecessor, Dmitry Medvedev, once pointed out that in 2008 alone there were 130,000 cases in Russia of violence against children and over 2,000 deaths.

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Iraq: New protests break out in Sunni stronghold

 Large, noisy demonstrations against Iraq's government flared for the third time in less than a week Wednesday in Iraq's western Anbar province, raising the prospect of a fresh bout of unrest in a onetime al-Qaida stronghold on Syria's doorstep.
The rallies find echoes in the Arab Spring. Protesters chanted "the people want the downfall of the regime," a slogan that has rippled across the region and was fulfilled in Tunisia and Egypt. Other rallying cries blasted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government as illegitimate and warned that protesters "will cut off any hand that touches us."
While the demonstrators' tenacious show of force could signal the start of a more populist Sunni opposition movement, it risks widening the deep and increasingly bitter rifts with the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. If left unresolved, those disputes could lead to a new eruption of sectarian violence.
The car bombings and other indiscriminate attacks that still plague Iraq are primarily the work of Sunni extremists. Vast Anbar province was once the heart of the deadly Sunni insurgency that emerged after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and later the birthplace of a Sunni militia that helped American and Iraqi forces fight al-Qaida.
Today, al-Qaida is believed to be rebuilding in pockets of Anbar, and militants linked to it are thought to be helping Sunni rebels try to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The demonstrations follow the arrest last week of 10 bodyguards assigned to Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi, who comes from Anbar and is one of the central government's most senior Sunni officials. He appeared before Wednesday's rally and was held aloft by the crowds.
Al-Issawi's case is exacerbating tensions between the Shiite-dominated government that rose to power following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and Iraq's Sunnis, who see the detentions as politically motivated.
"The danger is that the revolution in Syria is perpetuating Sunni opportunism and overconfidence in Iraq," said Ramzy Mardini, an analyst at the Beirut-based Iraq Institute for Strategic Studies. "Al-Maliki may have sparked a Sunni tribal movement that will attempt to harness and capitalize on the revolutionary spirit," he said.
Protesters turned out Wednesday near the provincial capital Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad. The city and nearby Fallujah were the scenes of some of the deadliest fighting between U.S. troops and Iraqi insurgents.
Demonstrators blocked the main highway linking Baghdad with neighboring Jordan and Syria, just as they did at another protest Sunday.
Wednesday's protesters held banners demanding that Sunni rights be respected and calling for the release of Sunni prisoners in Iraqi jails. "We warn the government not to draw the country into sectarian conflict," read one. Another declared: "We are not a minority."
Al-Issawi, the finance minister, addressed the rally after arriving in a long convoy of black SUVs protected by heavily armed bodyguards. He condemned last week's raid on his office and rattled off a list of grievances aimed at al-Maliki's government.
"Injustice, marginalization, discrimination and double standards, as well as the politicization of the judiciary system and a lack of respect for partnership, the law and the constitution ... have all turned our neighborhoods in Baghdad into huge prisons surrounded by concrete blocks," he declared.
Large numbers of protesters also took to the streets in Samarra, a Sunni-dominated town 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, according to Salahuddin provincial spokesman Mohammed al-Asi.
Many Sunnis see the arrest of the finance minister's guards as the latest in a series of moves by the Shiite prime minister against their sect and other perceived political opponents.
Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, another top-ranking Sunni politician, is now living in exile in Turkey after being handed multiple death sentences for allegedly running death squads — a charge he dismisses as politically motivated.
Al-Maliki has defended the arrests of the finance minister's guards as legal and based on warrants issued by judicial authorities. He also recently warned against a return to sectarian strife in criticizing the responses of prominent Sunni officials to the detentions.
In a recent statement, the prime minister dismissed the rhetoric as political posturing ahead of provincial elections scheduled for April and warned his opponents not to forget the dark days of sectarian fighting "when we used to collect bodies and chopped heads from the streets."
Al-Maliki's spokesman, Ali al-Moussawi, criticized al-Issawi's participation in the protest Wednesday.
"He can't be in the government and use the street against it at the same time. If he can't shoulder his responsibilities then he has to step down so that another person can take over," he said.
The political tensions are rising at a sensitive time. Iraq's ailing President Jalal Talabani is incapacitated following a serious stroke last week and is being treated in a German hospital. The 79-year-old president, an ethnic Kurd, is widely seen as a unifying figure with the clout to mediate among the country's ethnic and sectarian groups.
Also Wednesday, the United Nations mission to Iraq said its monitors have determined that a hospital that treated a member of an Iranian exile group who died this week at a refugee camp near Baghdad did not consider his health condition serious enough to warrant hospitalization when he arrived for treatment in November.
An organization representing the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq exile group on Monday accused Iraqi authorities of preventing 56-year-old Behrooz Rahimian from being hospitalized, and alleged that the U.N. failed to take sufficient steps to intervene. Iraq considers the MEK a terrorist group and wants its members out of the country.

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NewsWatch features Hyatt Hotel and The Michael Mondavi Family's "Canvas Art of Wine" iPad App on AppWatch

NewsWatch, a nationwide television show, recently aired a news segment about “Canvas Art of Wine”, a new app by Hyatt Hotels and the Mondavi Family. The segment aired as part of “AppWatch”, a weekly review of the top apps in the marketplace.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) December 26, 2012
NewsWatch, a nationwide television show, recently aired a news segment about “Canvas Art of Wine”, a new app by Hyatt Hotels and the Mondavi Family. The segment aired as part of “AppWatch”, a weekly review of the top apps in the marketplace.
Hyatt Hotels and The Michael Mondavi Family teamed up to create Canvas Wines, the signature wine brand of the hotel chain. The app allows users to take photos of their travels, share experiences, and mail customized postcards to their friends and family.
The Canvas Art of Living Postcard app offers the ability to create digital and print postcards to share with family and friends. Users can capture everyday moments or special occasions with the Canvas Art of Living Postcard app!
To download the app, users should visit http://www.canvaswines.com/living or at their next stay at a Hyatt, order a glass of Canvas wine. When they receive the glass of wine, the Hyatt Hotel bartender will provide a coaster that will include a QR code. This code will automatically direct a mobile phone’s web browser to the Canvas Wines website. From the site, users can download the Canvas Art of Living app and start sharing their many travel and wine experiences!
Once users have downloaded the app from either the iTunes Store or Google Play, they can select one of the many postcard designs inspired by Canvas Wines, upload a photo from their smartphone or take a new photo, create their own personalized headline and custom message, then send the card. All finished postcards are automatically saved to a user’s personal gallery.

A user’s digital postcards can be shared via email, text message or on Facebook. Users can convert their digital postcard into a printed postcard to share with family and friends. This customized postcard will be printed and mailed for just $1.99.
For more information or to download the “Canvas Art of Living” app, go to Canvas Wines.
NewsWatch is a weekly 30-minute consumer oriented television show that airs on the ION Network Thursday mornings at 5:30am across the nation. NewsWatch regularly features top travel destinations, health tips, technology products, medical breakthroughs and entertainment news on the show. A recent addition to NewsWatch, AppWatch is a weekly segment that provides viewers app reviews and game reviews of the latest and hottest apps and games out on the market for iOS and Android devices. The show airs in 180 markets nationwide as well as all of the top 20 broadcast markets in the country, and is the preferred choice for Satellite Media Tour and Video News Release Distribution.

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Caroms, quirks and odd bounces in sports in 2012

Maybe if they were 22 years old - throwing down drinks in a bar and their faces painted in school colors - this would make sense.
But they were far from 22 and their complexions had long lost the glow of youth. And, most assuredly, they were not in a bar.
They were two basketball fans, both past the age of Medicare eligibility, and they took their game seriously. They also happened to be patients in a dialysis clinic in Georgetown, Ky.
According to authorities, the confrontation came five days before Kentucky played Louisville in the NCAA semifinals. Wildcats vs. Cardinals can make for dicey conversation and the men began exchanging words.
Dialysis assists kidney function, keeping the body chemically balanced by removing salt, waste and excess water. In this case, however, not much was done to contain the buildup of bile.
The 68-year-old Kentucky fan receiving treatment extended a finger to the Louisville fan, and it was not to signify that the Wildcats were No. 1. The 71-year-old Louisville fan responded by punching him in the face.
Police were summoned to the clinic. The Kentucky fan chose to not press charges.
His pain and blood pressure perhaps eased by the weekend: Kentucky beat Louisville 69-61 and went on to win the national title.
Dialysis units were not the only odd spots where sports traveled in 2012: Two sumo wrestlers - one 6-foot-8 and 625 pounds - were cast in a Canadian opera production of ''Semele''; Cowboys Stadium outside Dallas became home to a Victoria's Secret outlet; Lance Armstrong was stripped not only his seven Tour de France titles but of his 2006 honorary degree from Tufts University; and one-time NFL star Chad Ochocinco and House Speaker John Boehner wound up Twitter buddies.
Great heft was not limited to opera. At the London Olympics, judo fighter Ricardo Blas entered the 220-pound-and-over division at 480 pounds, nearly double that of most competitors. It was noted that Blas - the heaviest man at these Olympics - weighed more than the entire Japanese women's gymnastics team.
The London Games also brought an outpouring of joy from the mother of Thailand's Pimsiri Sirikaew, a weightlifting silver medalist. A bacchanalian romp, however, was not in Amornat Sirikaew's plans. She told Thai media she would mark her daughter's triumph by joining a monastery.
Looking to get in on the Olympic fun was a New Zealand farm group that wants sheep shearing as an Olympic sport. It was not immediately clear if winners would forgo gold medals for cashmere sweaters.
Other countries, with seemingly more urgent needs, went in strange directions. Haiti, the Palestinian territories, Togo and Eritrea joined the International Ski Federation, a step that did not exactly strike fear into the Swiss and Austrians. Turkmenistan, where scorching heat can reach 120 degrees, was ordered by presidential decree to create an ice hockey league.
Politics and sports invariably find themselves as tag-team partners, and this year was no different.
Ochocinco, getting ready for the Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, was watching the state of the union address on TV. He was puzzled by the frowning man seated behind the president. When told it was the speaker of the House, Ochocinco (who has since reverted to his original name of Chad Johnson) consoled Boehner on Twitter: ''If all else seems bad in life, just remember I love you kind sir.''
Kindness was surely not on the mind of Donald Trump when he took on all of Scotland. The real estate magnate turned presidential candidate was incensed that a ''horrendous'' wind farm is to be built off the Scottish coast by his luxury golf resort. In a seething letter, in which he invoked his Scottish-reared mother, Trump wrote to First Minister Alex Salmond: ''With the reckless installation of these monsters, you will single-handedly have done more damage to Scotland than any event in Scottish history.''
After Germany's loss in the semifinals of soccer's European Championship, one of its lawmakers rebuked the players for not singing the national anthem with proper gusto, a performance he deemed ''shameful.''
Like politics, religion crossed paths with sports inn 2012.
Manchester City, preparing for its Premier League title defense, headed to a village in the Austrian countryside for rest and training. But one thing Man City did not count on - bells from a medieval church that rattled the players from sleep at 7 a.m. Egon Pfeifer, the priest at St. Oswald Church, held his almighty ground. He said the bells would keep ringing ''even if the queen of England wants them to stop.''
A divinely named baseball team in Minnesota shed its ecclesiastical ties for one night. Two atheists groups were in town for a conference and sponsoring a minor league game. So the St. Paul Saints rebranded themselves for one night as ''Mr. Paul Aints.''
This was also a year of odds-defying moments.
Caleb Lloyd was sitting in the left field seats at a Cincinnati Reds game one spring night when he caught a home run ball hit by Reds pitcher Mike Leake. The next batter, Zack Cozart, also homered to left. And there, as if out of the mist of ''Field of Dreams,'' was Lloyd yet again - ready to stab it, with one hand.
''I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, that's just crazy,''' he said.
As was the case Down Under: two amateur golfers in Sydney making consecutive holes-in-one. The odds of two golfers from the same foursome acing the same hole? The National Hole in One Registry website says it's 17 million to 1.
Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles also made a stop in the Twilight Zone. He went 0 for 8 and struck out five times as a designated hitter in a 17-inning victory over Boston. But with the bullpen depleted, he wound up being called to the mound, the first time he pitched in the pros. He threw two scoreless innings and got the win.
''I was like, 'Sweet!' I get to try something different today,'' he said. ''Because hitting ain't working.''
Lots of things weren't working for one team at a girls' high school basketball game in Indiana - Arlington lost to Bloomington South 107-2. Bloomington South coach Larry Winters said he wasn't trying to humiliate an opponent. He told the Indianapolis Star he didn't want his players to stop shooting because that ''would have been more embarrassing.''
But for real embarrassment - some might say perseverance beyond all dignity and reason - check in with Russ Berkman. He's from the Seattle area and he won a lottery for passes to a practice round the day before the Masters. His dog had other ideas. Sierra took to the four tickets like a shank of veal and ate them.
What to do? Berkman told KJR radio his girlfriend insisted there was but one course of action. So he got Sierra to cough it all up, and Berkman then began the unsavory task of piecing together 20 shreds of tickets coated with dog vomit.
He reassembled almost three-quarters of them, photographed his handiwork and explained what happened to Augusta National. The club reprinted his tickets, and the Masters was on.
A happy ending for Berkman, although Sierra may have seen it differently.

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Sports ode 2012: London, Lance, a Tide of Giants

So how was your year? Setbacks, advances?
Hey, no doubt, it went better than Lance's.
First up on sports' yearlong ride:
An unrelenting Crimson Tide.
JoePa makes his great migration
Trailed by heartache, litigation.
Eli's coming and Giants roll
Past Brady in the Super Bowl.
Suddenly, all's Linsanity:
Headlines, puns, sheer inanity.
Banned Ryan Braun left fans aghast.
An arbiter says not so fast.
Daytona, Kenseth - let's explain:
The night sets fire to the rain.
Then football gets its jolt of jolts
When Peyton's place is not with Colts.
Tebow leaves the Mile High air
And joins the Jets - a time for prayer.
Kentucky wins, backed by Davis.
Rent a team (call Hertz or Avis).
Baylor follows. Need a reason?
Brittney Griner, perfect season.
Ozzie Guillen, with much to tell,
Sings loving praises of Fidel.
The shaken Saints now turn to Vitt.
Pat Summitt says it's time to quit.
Out at Indy, sitting pretty,
Once again it's all Franchitti.
Pro football vets demand their due.
Concussed and angry, thousands sue.
I'll Have Another's path seems clear,
But still no Triple Crown this year.
Wait a second. Can this be right?
Manny Pacquiao lost a fight?
Lord Stanley's Cup goes to the Kings
While hockey's woes wait in the wings.
After all the sound and fury,
Clemens walks, cleared by a jury.
The Heat are champs. It looks like reign.
South Beach party - LeBron and Dwyane.
Sandusky's jury has its say:
This coach won't see the light of day.
Soccer's armada, mighty Spain,
Captures the Euros in Ukraine.
Come Wimbledon, Serena's crown.
Paterno's statue taken down.
Then Wiggins rides with guile and grit.
The Tour de France goes to a Brit.
Olympics start, McCartney sings.
Phelps swims with gills, Bolt soars with wings.
Pistorius runs, Gabby's great.
A specter looms: Badmintongate.
Brilliant games, with heart and brio.
Snuff the flame and on to Rio.
Augusta bends. How awfully nice.
A female member - Condi Rice.
Lance lambasted for all to see,
His lies unfold as sponsors flee,
His titles stripped, life off its hinge.
Now it's all about the syringe.
Perfect time to make this wager:
Andy Murray wins a major.
The NHL then shuts its door.
(I think we've heard this song before.)
Replacement refs prove one big mess.
The league is forced to acquiesce.
Ryder Cup comes to Medinah.
Europe gives U.S. angina.
Hold no vote, form no committee -
Washington's a baseball city.
Those Oakland A's, no hand-me-down.
Miguel Cabrera, Triple Crown.
Buster Posey and Hunter Pence.
This really doesn't make much sense.
The Giants sweep to take it all.
Black and orange, the style for fall.
No marathon, New York City.
Sandy strikes and shows no pity.
Colts ride a wave of splendid Luck.
They shave their heads and play for Chuck.
The Lakers stumble, won't sit still,
Sign Mike D'Antoni, pass on Phil.
Keselowski, Penske Sprint to Cup.
Notre Dame, 'Bama, coming up.
College conferences realign,
In thrall to TV's dollar sign.
Maryland, Rutgers, Big Ten bound.
The money chase goes round and round.
The Chiefs and Cowboys reel from blows.
The NFL's in mourning clothes.
Johnny Football wins Heisman race.
Pacquiao's crushed, flat on his face.
The year is quickly put to bed,
With what's been done and what's been said,
While limbering up sight unseen
For what's on deck ... 2013.

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2012 sports review: a month-by-month look back

Who were the top newsmakers this year in the world of sports? American-Statesman writer Kevin Lyttle revisits the year’s biggest stories — and the athletes, teams or coaches who made them so big:
JANUARY: ROLL, SEC
Those insufferable SEC football fans become even more empowered when Alabama beats LSU 21-0 in an all-SEC BCS title game. It’s the conference’s sixth consecutive national championship and the second in three years for Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide, truly the dominant program in the sport. The game itself is a stinker, with LSU incapable of moving against Courtney Upshaw, Dont’a Hightower and Bama’s impregnable defense. Tailback Trent Richardson scores the only touchdown.
Also …
Joe Paterno dies of lung cancer, at age 85. It’s the end of a tragic story for a coach who won 409 games for Penn State but whose legacy will forever be tarnished by the child sex-abuse scandal involving his longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
The Texans’ first playoff trip ends with an AFC semifinal loss to the Ravens in Baltimore. It’s third-string T.J. Yates, not Matt Schaub or Matt Leinart, quarterbacking Houston.
Novak Djokovic outlasts Rafael Nadal to win the Australian Open men’s singles title in 5 hours, 53 minutes, the longest Grand Slam final ever.
FEBRUARY: FAMILY FUELED
Score that Eli 2, Peyton 1.
Eli Manning steps out of his older brother’s shadow once and for all by winning his second Super Bowl as the Giants edge the Patriots, 21-17. Peyton Manning, despite all of his accomplishments, still has just one NFL title. Eli, in outperforming Tom Brady, is voted Super Bowl MVP for the second time. He guided a team that was 7-7 in mid-December to six straight victories.
Also …
Mack Brown and the Longhorns always own February, and they do it again by reeling in the consensus No. 2 recruiting class behind, naturally, Alabama. Receiver Dorial Green-Beckham is the one who got away (to Missouri).
Matt Kenseth wins a bizarre Daytona 500 over Dale Earnhardt Jr. Rain delays the event for about 32 hours and then the race is held up again when Juan Pablo Montoya runs into a safety truck, which catches fire and burns a hole in the track.
Texas exes Kevin Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge play in the NBA All-Star game, the first time the Longhorns have two players in the event.
Ricky Williams, 34, who won the Heisman Trophy at Texas in 1998, retires from football. The free spirited, soft-spoken star had five 1,000-yard rushing seasons and finished with 10,009 yards on the ground.
MARCH: GOODBYE, COACH G
When Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt called it quits, Texas women’s basketball got an established winner in Gail Goestenkors of Duke, but the seven-time ACC coach of the year struggled in the Big 12. Unable to land the top players in Texas, she resigns under duress after the Longhorns lose in the opening-round of the 2012 NCAA tournament. Despite being one of the few million-dollar women’s coaches, Goestenkors won only one NCAA tournament game in five years. She’s replaced by Karen Aston, a former Conradt assistant.
Also …
The New Orleans Saints are hammered by Roger Goodell for an alleged bounty system that targets opposing players.
Tiger Woods wins his first PGA Tour event, the Arnold Palmer in Orlando, Fla., since his sex-scandal troubles of 2009.
The Texas men join the women as first-round losers in March Madness.
Torrey Henry drills a 3-pointer from the corner with seconds to go as Dallas Kimball beats Houston Yates 78-75 in a Class 4A boys state final that rocks the Erwin Center.
APRIL: A LONE STAR DRAFT
It’s the year of the Texas/Big 12 quarterback in the NFL draft. Andrew Luck, who played for Houston Stratford, is the No. 1 overall pick by the Colts. The Redskins trade up to No. 2 for Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III of Baylor. Texas A&M’s Ryan Tannehill goes No. 8 to the Dolphins. Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden is tabbed No. 22 by the Browns. And in the possible steal of the draft, Westlake’s Nick Foles lands with the Eagles in round three. Each of the five becomes his team’s starter as a rookie.
Also …
Brittney Griner and Baylor become the first NCAA basketball team to finish 40-0, roughing up Notre Dame 80-61 in the final.
Kentucky’s freshmen phenoms are too much for Kansas, winning 67-59 in the NCAA men’s final.
Hall of Fame basketball coach Pat Summitt of Tennessee resigns after she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.
Good-guy golfer Bubba Watson is a popular first-time winner of the Masters.
The Austin Toros defeat the Los Angeles Fenders to win the NBA D-League title.
MAY: SPURS ON A ROLL
“Parker’s prints all over this victory,” the headline screams over a large photo of point guard Tony Parker leading San Antonio to another playoff win. This month is crammed with the exploits of Parker, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and the deeply talented Spurs, who bring the No. 1 seed in the West into the NBA postseason. They sweep the Jazz and the Clippers, win 10 playoff games in a row and exit May with a 2-0 lead on the Thunder.
Also …
Oklahoma City sweeps defending champion Dallas out of the NBA playoffs in the first round.
I’ll Have Another captures the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.
Josh Hamilton hits four home runs in one game for the Rangers.
For the first time in 14 years, Texas misses the cut for the NCAA baseball tournament.
The Big 12 hires Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby as its new commissioner.
Texas State announces it will leave the shaky WAC after one year to join the Sun Belt.
JUNE: IT’S GOOD TO BE THE KING
There’s no celebrating in Cleveland, but King James finally has his ring.
LeBron James, who took his talents to South Beach, goes all the way in year two with the Miami Heat, who make quick work of Kevin Durant and Oklahoma City in the championship series. “It means everything,” says the NBA MVP who also is named the Finals MVP. “I made a difficult decision to leave Cleveland, but I understood what my future was about. This is when it starts paying off.”
Also …
The BCS is dead. The BCS is dead. Well, not for a few more years, but college football power brokers decide — at long last — to implement a four-team playoff for the 2014 season.
The Spurs lose four straight to the Thunder and are eliminated from the Western Conference finals after having a 2-0 lead.
Roger Clemens is acquitted on all charges that he lied to Congress during steroid hearings.
I’ll Have Another’s Triple Crown bid is thwarted by a tendon injury.
JULY: DARK DAYS FOR PENN STATE
One of the most sordid chapters in NCAA history is written as Jerry Sandusky becomes a convicted serial child molester. The longtime Penn State assistant football coach is found guilty of 45 of 48 charges of child molestation. Sandusky, 68, is sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. An independent investigation reveals that Joe Paterno was involved in a cover-up, and the NCAA hits Penn State with a four-year bowl ban, significant scholarship reductions and a $60 million fine.
Also …
The Summer Olympics in London open to rave reviews from the world. U.S. swimmers get off to a roaring start.
Spain routs Italy to win the Euro Cup and remain the world’s No. 1 soccer power.
Roger Federer breaks British hearts by toppling Andy Murray for a record-tying seventh Wimbledon title.
Ernie Els takes advantage of a spectacular meltdown by Adam Scott to win the British Open.
Lin-sanity engulfs Houston as Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin signs as a free agent with the Rockets.
AUGUST: MAGIC MIKE (IN THE POOL)
Michael Phelps wraps up his final Olympics with an unprecedented 18th gold medal and a 22nd medal overall, covering three glorious Summer Games. He receives a trophy inscribed, “To Michael Phelps, the greatest Olympic athlete of all time.” Phelps retires with twice as many golds as any other athlete. “I was able to put the final cherry on top of the sundae,” said Phelps, whose last event was the 400 medley relay. “There’s nothing left for me to do here.”
The London Games are a terrific boost for the United States, which easily wins more golds (46) and more medals (104) than anyone else. Great Britain is buoyed by its strong third-place showing (29 golds, 65 medals).
Athletes with Austin ties haul in scores of medals, including Sanya Richards-Ross’ redemptive gold in the 400 meters.
Also …
Lance Armstrong decides not to fight severe sanctions leveled against him by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
USC is voted No. 1 in the preseason football poll. The Trojans will finish 7-5 and unranked.
The Round Rock Express follows up its 2011 first-place campaign with a losing record in 2012.
SEPTEMBER: MANNING UP IN DENVER
Admit it, when Peyton Manning signs with the Denver Broncos, you wonder if the aging, broken-down QB still has his fastball … or any pitch besides his commercials. Manning, recovering from a serious neck injury, throws for nearly 1,200 yards in the opening month and goes on to guide the Broncos to a 12-3 record and the division title.
Speaking of remarkable comebacks, Adrian Peterson, who suffered a devastating knee injury a year ago, comes out of the box flying, too. By late December, he leads the NFL in rushing by more than 400 yards.
Also …
In its SEC debut, Texas A&M puts up a valiant struggle but loses 20-17 to Florida at Kyle Field.
Replacement refs screw up enough NFL games that the league finally settles a labor dispute with its officials.
Marble Falls QB Mike Richardson smashes a state record with 724 yards passing in one game.
The Big 12 signs a $2.6 billion TV deal that brings stability to a league that was teetering just a year ago.
Geno Smith fires 8 TD passes and seizes the Heisman lead in West Virginia’s wild 70-63 win over Baylor.
Texas State falls to Texas Tech in its first home game as an FBS program.
“Austin Andy” Roddick retires from tennis after tumbling in the fourth round of the U.S. Open.
OCTOBER: LANCE GETS THE HAMMER
We interrupt the Red River Rivalry to bring you this non-football news deep-in-the-heart-of …
Lance Armstrong is not only stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and disqualified from every event he had entered since August 1998, but he’s also banned from cycling for life. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, in charging the celebrated cancer survivor with using illicit performance-enhancing drubs, labels Armstrong “a serial cheat who led the most sophisticated and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.” USADA released more than 1,000 pages of evidence and testimonies from 11 former teammates. Armstrong insists USADA engaged in a “witch hunt.”
Also …
The Texas-Oklahoma game is just as depressing as the Lance news, as the Sooners annihilate the Longhorns 63-21. It’s the fourth blowout loss of 38 points or more Mack Brown has suffered to Bob Stoops.
Not to pile on, but … The Rangers pull off an epic choke down the stretch, first blowing a huge division lead to the kiddie corps Athletics, then being eliminated by the Orioles in the new one-and-done wild-card playoff game.
San Francisco sweeps Detroit to win the World Series.
The NHL season is hijacked by another strike. At Christmas, it’s still unresolved.
NOVEMBER: AUSTIN’S WINNING FORMULA
If you build it, they will come. Three years in the making, Formula One racing in Austin becomes reality. And, oh, is it ever a spectacular show. F1, a foreign subject to most Central Texans, holds its first event at the beautiful new Circuit of the Americas and draws a sellout crowd of 117,429 on race day, part of a weekend total of 265,000 fans from around the country — and the world. Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain wins the race, overtaking series champ Sebastian Vettel. “Austin really shined,” Hamilton says. “This is a great place to showcase our sport to America.”
Also …
Longhorns icon Darrell Royal dies at age 88. The colorful, folksy Royal won three national championships and had a 184-60-5 record in 20 seasons at Texas. To honor DKR, the Horns come out in a wishbone formation to start the Iowa State game.
Texas A&M announces its shocking arrival as an SEC contender in year one, dumping No. 1 Alabama 29-24 in Tuscaloosa as QB Johnny Manziel dazzles and picks up Heisman steam.
TCU, subbing for A&M as Texas’ Thanksgiving foe, stifles the Longhorns at DKR.
Notre Dame, unranked in the preseason, beats USC to cap a 12-0 campaign and earn a shot at the national title.
Pflugerville ends Lake Travis’ state-record, 30-game football playoff winning streak. The Cavaliers won five straight Class 4A titles before moving up to 5A this year.
The conference realignment wheels continue to spin, with the Big Ten getting a new look (hello, Rutgers and Maryland) and more than a dozen other changes.
Brad Keselowski pockets a first NASCAR season title for legendary motorsports mogul Roger Penske.
DECEMBER: A WIN FOR JOHNNY FOOTBALL
Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel makes history by becoming the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. “Such a far-fetched dream,” says the former Kerrville Tivy Antler. The award completes Johnny Football’s meteoric rise to fame, considering he was lightly recruited and not even expected to start this year. Instead the Doug Flutie-like spark plug guides A&M to a 10-2 regular-season record in its maiden SEC voyage.
Also …
Cedar Park, which lost its first two games, rebounds to win the next 14 and the Timberwolves’ first state football championship, in Class 4A, Division II.
Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton says goodbye to Texas, signing a $125 million contract with the rival Angels.
The Texans rack up their second straight AFC South title.
Rookie QB Andrew Luck leads the Colts, 2-14 a year ago, into the playoffs at 10-5, and RG3 has the Redskins playing for the NFC East crown against the Cowboys.
Texas takes the NCAA women’s volleyball title, beating Oregon in straight sets.

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Sports year: Sad sagas the story of 2012

AP SPORTS WRITER
Jerry Sandusky will spend the rest of his life in prison, Penn State football played under NCAA sanctions and Joe Paterno passed away.

Lance Armstrong abandoned his fight against doping allegations. Roger Clemens won his court battle, despite lingering skepticism over whether he used steroids. The impact of early-stage dementia forced Pat Summitt to step down from her coaching perch.

Again and again, it seemed, the sports world in 2012 saw the end of long tales with tragic or, at best, bittersweet endings.

And in so many cases, off-the-field news overshadowed what happened on it:

• In State College, Pa., where the Sandusky mess at Penn State destroyed lives and radically changed the face of a proud football program.

• In Washington, where Clemens emerged from court a winner, after a mistrial the first time around on charges he lied to Congress about performance-enhancing drug use.

• In Kansas City, Mo., where Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend, then drove to the team’s facility in the Arrowhead Stadium complex, thanked his coach and general manager, and turned the gun on himself.

• In Austin, Texas, where the news broke that Armstrong decided to give up his long fight against doping charges, saying “enough is enough” but acknowledging no wrongdoing. The move began the cyclist’s swift fall from his spot as cancer-fighting sports hero in the public eye. And though he maintains he was victimized by a “witch hunt,” Armstrong still was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France victories.

“We must create a culture in which people are not afraid to speak up, management is not compartmentalized, all are expected to demonstrate the highest ethical standards, and the operating policy is open, collegial and collaborative,” Penn State President Rodney Erickson said the day the NCAA levied massive sanctions against the Nittany Lions including a four year postseason ban.

Erickson was speaking of his own school.

But in 2012, at least some of those lessons could have applied to any number of topics.

Sure, there were amazing moments to remember and savor. Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian in history, adding to his enormous swimming haul with six more medals at the London Games, where the United States topped the winning charts once again. Usain Bolt became the first man to win the 100- and 200-meter dashes at consecutive Olympics, Eli Manning and the New York Giants reigned supreme in the NFL, San Francisco stormed its way to the World Series title, the Los Angeles Kings hoisted the Stanley Cup (no telling if any other team will anytime soon) and LeBron James and the Miami Heat silenced doubters by winning the NBA title.

Yet in a year like this, such times of achievement and triumph seemed few and far between.

Take March 21, for example. That was the day when Tim Tebow was traded by Denver to the New York Jets, a huge story simply for the Tebowmania factor — and one that wasn’t even the biggest in the NFL that day, not with the announcement that New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton would serve a yearlong suspension for his role in the bounty scandal.

Try August 15, when baseball got to experience a rarity — Felix Hernandez pitching the first perfect game in Seattle Mariners’ history — and an all-too-common occurrence, that being someone testing positive for something, in this case San Francisco’s Melky Cabrera basically forfeiting any shot at the MVP or the NL batting title by being suspended 50 games following a positive test for testosterone.

Or Oct. 10, when Raul Ibanez showed off a flair for the dramatic — twice — by hitting tying and winning home runs as the New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 3-2 to take a 2-1 lead in the AL Division Series, an enormous moment by any measure. Of course, those blasts came on the same day that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a report in which Armstrong was portrayed as the lead of the “most professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”

As stunning as Armstrong’s fall was, what went on at Penn State continued to dominate the sports lexicon.

Sandusky was arrested in November 2011, but resolution didn’t really begin until 2012 — part of why the case was voted the top sports story of the year by The Associated Press, based on balloting by U.S. editors and news directors.

The longtime Penn State defensive coordinator was convicted of 45 counts of abuse involving 10 boys, and later sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, which means Sandusky is likely to die behind bars.

Paterno succumbed to lung cancer in January, and a statue of his likeness outside Beaver Stadium was removed six months later, one day before the NCAA announced a $60 million fine and four years of scholarship reductions. Still to come: civil suits brought by Sandusky’s victims and the trials of former school administrators accused of neglecting their duty to report allegations.

“We can expect more fallout,” Erickson said.

Paterno is still considered by many as a sympathetic figure, and still revered as a role model by some.

Clemens’ legacy doesn’t seem to resonate the same way with sports fans. It’s almost like his courtroom win was one that many did not expect to see happen, and it may be his last big victory for a while. Clemens — the only seven-time Cy Young Award winner — is on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year, and a recent survey of voters by the AP shows that he is likely to fall well short of the number of votes necessary for induction in 2013.

Clemens was accused by former personal trainer Brian McNamee in the Mitchell Report on drugs in baseball of using steroids and HGH, allegations Clemens denied before Congress. Eventually, after a Justice Department investigation looked into whether Clemens lied under oath, a grand jury indicted him on two counts of perjury, three counts of making false statements and one count of obstructing Congress.

He was acquitted of all the charges on June 19 after a 10-week trial.

“I’m very thankful,” Clemens said. “It’s been a hard five years.”

Armstrong’s fight lasted even longer than that.

The testicular-cancer survivor won the Tour de France seven times, all while dogged by the stigma of he-must-be-cheating. Armstrong was never caught by a drug test, but rather was ultimately done in largely by the words of his former teammates. Armstrong continues to deny doping, but simply said his fight had gone on long enough.

Giving up has come with a price. Armstrong cut ties to his well-known charity, Livestrong, and longtime sponsor Nike — among other corporations — cut ties with him.

And as for Summitt, one of the greatest names in coaching, her last loss was against an invisible opponent.

Summitt stepped down as Tennessee’s coach in April, a few months after revealing she has been diagnosed with early onset dementia. Summitt led Tennessee to eight national titles in her 38-year tenure, winning 1,098 Division I games along the way.

“It’s never a good time,” Summitt said. “But you have to find the time that you think is the right time and that is now.”

Still, the year wasn’t gloom and doom for everyone, not by a long shot.

Alabama got a chance to avenge a loss to LSU and win college football’s national championship, the second for the Tide in three years. The Tide will be back in the BCS title game again in January, against rising and surprising Notre Dame.

Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers became baseball’s first Triple Crown winner in 45 years. The Kings put together a stunning run through the Stanley Cup playoffs, the last celebratory moment the NHL got to enjoy before more labor strife led to a lockout. Baylor went 40-0 for the NCAA women’s basketball title, while Kentucky returned to the top of the men’s game. And the Giants (New York) and Giants (San Francisco) more than lived up to their names, in championship fashion.

But if there was one happy ending among all those the drawn-out sagas of this sports year, it was the year James had with the Heat.

Miami won the NBA title, beating Oklahoma City in five games for the franchise’s second title and the first for James, who left Cleveland for the Heat two years earlier for moments such as that. He won the league’s MVP award. He won the NBA Finals MVP award. He even helped the Americans win another basketball gold medal at the London Olympics.

After all he went through — from hero to villain, revered to pariah for his infamous “Decision” — James found a way to shake it all off and complete his quest.

“It’s a year I know I’m never going to forget,” James said.

Not many people will.

Thing is, in so many cases in 2012, it isn’t for the right reasons.

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NY surfer who survived Sandy drowns in Puerto Rico

 A lifeguard widely praised as a hero after Superstorm Sandy for rescuing neighbors endangered by rolling floodwaters and a fire that destroyed several homes in a small community where grief has been a frequent visitor has died in a surfing accident in Puerto Rico.
The death of 23-year-old Dylan Smith on Sunday brought sadness again to residents of the Belle Harbor section of the Rockaways, which lost several police officers and firefighters in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and was the site of a deadly plane crash just months later.
As word spread that Smith, who used his surfboard to ferry so many people to safety during the late October superstorm, had lost his life, a Heroes of Rockaway Facebook page said: "R.I.P. to Dylan Smith, our Rockaway Hero, tragically died this morning surfing in Puerto Rico. He will never be forgotten."
Troy Bradwisch, who lives on the same street as the Smith family, said the presumed drowning death was "crushing" for the neighborhood.
"It was more shocking than anything," he said. "You can go through the storm and all that, and he goes on vacation to get a sense of normalcy and something like that happens."
Marguerite Wetzel, a Montauk resident who knows the Smith family from trips to Puerto Rico, could barely talk about the death.
"I have two sons, and he exemplified everything you would want your sons to be. I'm going to start tearing up," she said, her voice cracking.
Smith had lived with his parents and a 19-year-old brother when he was not at college. Fire Department of New York Chief Michael Light, a longtime friend of Smith's recently retired firefighter father, said someone who was with Smith in waters off Maria's Beach in the Puerto Rican community of Rincon notified him of the death.
"We know he died in the water while he was surfing. It's under investigation as to the cause," Light said. "I believe he was with some friends."
Smith's body was found floating near his surfboard, police said. Authorities said a resident of the Puerto Rican town, whose beaches attract surfers from across the world, spotted Smith in the water and took him to shore. They said a doctor tried to resuscitate him.
Light said Smith rescued as many as a dozen people during the superstorm by paddling from porch to porch with his surfboard, moving the helpless, including children and the elderly, from imperiled perches amid swirling floodwaters and a sky filled with flames from a gas line explosion as more than a dozen homes around him burned to the ground.
"It was totally brave and selfless," Light said.
People magazine, which named Smith one of its Heroes of the Year, credited Smith and neighbor Michael McDonnell with rescuing six people trapped by the flood and fire by connecting electric cords and twine into a makeshift rope that could be gripped as they walked the surfboard with people on it to safety at the storm's height.
The flood and fire occurred in a Queens neighborhood with an unusually high population of police officers and firefighters, which might explain why a higher proportion of residents lost their lives on Sept. 11 than just about anywhere else. Two months later, American Airlines Flight 587 smashed into a home, killing 265 people and setting off fires that destroyed the homes of those living around Smith and his family.
The Smith family home was spared again during Superstorm Sandy when fires destroyed neighbors' homes and the Harbor Light Restaurant, where Smith sometimes worked as a bartender.
Smith, who helped neighbors clean up and rebuild after the storm, had gone recently to Puerto Rico, where his family had a home in the popular beach town. Light said he could understand if Smith wanted some relief from the destruction in Belle Harbor.
"It's tough to look at," he said. "He figured rather than look out the window at the destruction here, post Sandy, all the rebuilding, he was going to take a little break and do a little surfing in Puerto Rico and get away for a while.

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