Thompson shoots 66 to lead US Open, Tiger lurking

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Any comfort Michael Thompson took looking up at the leaderboard at The Olympic Club and finally seeing his name at the top fizzled fast when he saw the player one spot below.

Tiger Woods.

Thompson shot a 4-under 66 in the first round of the U.S. Open on Thursday, taking a three-shot lead in the clubhouse over the hard-charging Woods and David Toms.

The 2007 U.S. Amateur runner-up at Olympic Club sure played as though he knew the course, finishing with seven birdies to go with three bogeys in an aggressive and fearless round. The 27-year-old former Alabama standout still couldn't feel satisfied with 48 holes remaining and a familiar face lurking behind in another major.

"Give Tiger the spotlight," Thompson said. "I don't care. I'm going to go out and play my game. If I go out and putt the way I did today, I'll be in contention."

What a way for this championship to begin.

Woods birdied consecutive holes late in his round and played the undulating Lake Course with the kind of confidence that has made him a 14-time major champion. He bogeyed his second-to-last hole and finished with a 1-under 69 to blow away playing partners Phil Mickelson (76) and Bubba Watson (78).

That's a stirring start for one of the world's most watched ? and scrutinized ? athletes of any generation considering how he played at the last major. Woods never broke par in four rotten rounds at the Masters in April.

"I felt very pleased with every facet of my game today and I stayed very patient out there," Woods said. "I was very pleased how I executed my game plan."

That could be a scary for the rest of the field.

The morning fog that blanketed the tight, twisting grounds lifted by the time the group of Woods, Mickelson and Watson made the turn. Not that Woods needed faster and firmer conditions under the sun against longtime nemesis Mickelson and reigning Masters champion Watson.

All the roars belonged to Woods.

Twirling his clubs instead of kicking them, Woods was in complete control of his game, finding fairways, sticking greens and avoiding the thick rough and towering trees that line the course built on the side of a hill across the street from the Pacific Ocean. He opened with five straight pars until his approach on the par-4 14th bounced off the tiny green and into the thick rough, forcing him to settle for bogey.

That was one of the few mistakes he made.

With the marine layer hovering above the grounds and San Francisco's steep hills in the backdrop until mid-morning, Woods surgically worked his way through the course. He holed a 45-foot birdie putt on the par-4 fifth, giving a small fist pump and bringing the gallery roaring to its feet the way only he can.

"I know I can hit the ball this way and I know I have been hitting the golf ball this way," Woods said. "And I was able to put it together in a major championship. I'm going to need it the next three days. This golf course is only going to get faster."

Thompson was anything but conservative on this course.

After all, he knows it well.

Thompson lost 2 and 1 to Colt Knost in a grueling 36-hole finale at the U.S. Amateur at Olympic five years ago, and hadn't played a meaningful round on the Lake Course until after he qualified for the U.S. Open last week.

Thompson had three bogeys on his front eight ? the USGA sent players off holes Nos. 1 and 9 instead of the usual 1 and 10 during the first two rounds because of the close proximity to the clubhouse ? and looked lost for long stretches. Instead, he found his groove with a powerful punch at the end.

Thompson had four birdies in his final eight holes, including a putt on 18th that brought the fans from the grandstand to those sitting up the steep hill below the clubhouse to their feet. He gently tossed the ball into the gallery and waved to the crowd.

If not for a few misses, Woods might be the one on top already.

Woods missed birdie putts on the first and second holes on the ? yanking the latter off the lip from about 4 feet ? and followed with another par. He stuck his approach within 8 feet on the par-4 fourth and sunk another birdie putt to bring some of those roars back to Olympic for the first time since the club last hosted the event in 1998.

The round was the first time Woods and Mickelson were paired in the U.S. Open since Torrey Pines in 2008. That's when the U.S. Golf Association grouped players off the world ranking, and also the last time Woods won a major.

While Woods never lost his composure, his playing partners never found it.

Mickelson and Watson turned thousands of spectators in the gallery into moving targets. On the 14th, Mickelson apologized to the fans in the gallery when he retrieved his ball. The fan said he wasn't hit ? Mickelson jokingly told him to walk ahead before his next shot.

Lefty also hooked his first tee shot way right and the towering cypress trees gobbled it. After a five-minute search for the ball, Mickelson had to tee off again for one of three straight bogeys.

"It's sometimes a tendency that I'll have in a U.S. Open," said Mickelson, who has been a runner-up a record five times in this championship. "I'll make tentative swings because of what could happen as opposed to making aggressive, confident swings."

Defending champion Rory McIlroy, top-ranked Luke Donald and Lee Westwood had an afternoon start.

McIlroy shattered U.S. Open records last year at rain-softened Congressional when he reached double figures under par before he even turned in his second-round scorecard. He finished at 268 to break the 72-hole record by four shots, and his 16-under total was four better than Woods' mark at Pebble Beach in 2000.

Through 10 holes, McIlroy and Westwood were 4 over, and Donald was 5 over.

"This is not like it was last year,'" Woods said. "This is a tough one. This is tough to make birdies."

James Hahn was 2 under after seven holes.

Some qualifiers who made waves all week didn't do so when the tournament started.

The 14-year-old Andy Zhang, believed to be the youngest qualifier in championship history, shot a 9-over 79. Casey Martin, who has a painful circulatory disorder in his right leg and won a Supreme Court ruling that allowed him to ride a cart at Olympic Club in 1998, was 5 over through 13.

___

Follow Antonio Gonzalez at: www.twitter.com/agonzalezAP

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UN observers enter town overrun by Syrian troops

BEIRUT (AP) ? Smoldering buildings, looted shops, smashed cars and a strong stench of death greeted U.N. observers who entered the nearly deserted Syrian town of Haffa on Thursday, a day after President Bashar Assad's forces overran it as part of a major offensive to recover rebel-controlled territories.

The observers had been trying to get into the town for a week after fears were raised that a brutal assault by regime forces was under way. They found the main hospital burned, state buildings and an office of the ruling Baath party in ruins and a corpse lying in the street.

"A strong stench of dead bodies was in the air," said Sausan Ghosheh, spokeswoman for the U.N. observers. She said there was still fighting in some pockets of the mountainous town in the seaside province of Latakia.

The number of casualties was unclear, Ghosheh said, and it appeared likely that, as in the past, bodies had been removed or buried before the U.N. mission got in.

The fighting, now mostly quelled in Haffa, was mirrored in other parts of Syria, where more than 40 civilians and opposition fighters were killed Thursday, according to activists, alongside more than a half-dozen Syrian forces.

From the day's early hours, Syrian troops bombarded rebel-held areas with tanks, mortars and helicopters in the central town of Rastan, the Damascus suburb of Douma, the central city of Homs and the northern towns of Anadan and Hreitan, near the Turkish border, the activists said.

They said the fighting included clashes in the town of Hamuriya, near Damascus, that killed at least nine men who were allegedly butchered with knives. A video circulated by activists showed a pile of lifeless men, including one who was clearly slashed through the neck.

"Slaughter, slaughter!" a person could be heard screaming in the background. Another video showed a man lying in a garden, his arm blown off. There was no way to independently confirm the content of the videos because reporters are not allowed to work freely in Syria.

For more than a week, Syrian troops have been sweeping through villages and towns in Syria's northern, central, southern and seaside provinces, attacking rebel-held areas and opposition strongholds in what appears to be the largest offensive since an internationally-brokered cease-fire went into effect two months ago. The regime and the opposition have both largely ignored the April 12 truce.

Rami Abdul-Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian observatory for Human Rights, said it appeared the Syrian regime was trying to implement a kind of scorched earth policy in the central city of Homs, which government forces have been heavily shelling for the past week. He said the use of tanks and helicopters to smash residential buildings and city infrastructure indicated that they wanted to destroy areas, not just chase out rebels.

The U.N. observers' description of the smoldering ruins they found in Haffa suggested Syrian forces were using intense force to quell rebels. But it also indicated the rebels were determined to smash all symbols of the hated Assad regime, including state institutions.

"Most government institutions, including the post office, were set on fire from inside," Ghosheh said. "Archives were burnt, stores were looted and set on fire."

She said homes were broken into, while the ruling Baath party headquarters was shelled, "and appeared to be the scene of heavy fighting." The observers also found remnants of heavy weapons scattered through the town; it was not clear who they belonged to.

On Tuesday, an angry crowd hurled rocks and sticks at the U.N. mission's vehicles near Haffa, forcing them to turn back. But the Syrian government urged them to enter after they announced Wednesday that they had "cleansed" Haffa of "armed terrorist groups" ? the regime's term for rebel fighters.

The U.N. observers' visit to Haffa came hours after a suicide bomber detonated a van packed with explosives in a Damascus suburb, wounding 14 people and damaging one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, according to witnesses and Syria's state-run news agency.

It was not immediately clear whether the bomber intended to target the golden-domed Sayyida Zainab complex or a police station 15 yards (meters) away. Believed to house the remains of the granddaughter of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, the shrine attracts tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims from around the world.

U.N. observers have reported a steep rise in violence and a dangerous shift in tactics by both sides in Syria in recent weeks. Car bombs and suicide bombings have become increasingly common as the 15-month uprising against Assad becomes militarized. Most have targeted security buildings and police buses, symbols of Assad's regime.

In Rastan, a rebel-held town that was heavily bombed Thursday, two rights groups said the dead included Maj. Ahmad Bahbouh, an army defector who headed the town's opposition military council. Activists said helicopters pounded the town, which has been held by rebels for months.

They said troops also heavily bombed the Damascus suburb of Douma killing at least five people. Abdul-Rahman said Syrian forces seized control of the northern town of Hreitan, where they conducted house-to-house raids and set homes of anti-government activists on fire.

An amateur video from the nearby town of Anadan, showed two babies receiving treatment in a makeshift hospital. One baby, screaming in pain, had part of his left foot blown off and severe head injuries. A third baby was dead and covered with a blanket. Activists said the children were the victims of government shelling. There was no way to verify the claim.

Activists say some 14,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011.

A military expert said it was unlikely that Assad's forces would be able to defeat the insurgency.

"Rebels are not seeking to hold ground, but to confuse, exhaust and bleed out army forces by attacking them in different areas simultaneously," said Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese army general.

He said the army's response ? typical of conventional forces ? was to heavily shell the rebels' urban hideouts, which "creates more opposition against the regime, because it inflicts heavy civilian casualties, and damages and destroys their communities."

As the violence grows more chaotic, it is difficult to assign blame for much of the bloodshed. Western officials say there is little doubt that Islamist extremists, some associated with al-Qaida, have made inroads in Syria as instability has spread.

___

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

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Budget Hotels in North London: The Best Option for Staying

If you are looking for budget hotels in North London, then bed and breakfast hotels in North London are the best option for you. A trend has been observed that visitors in London prefer staying in these hotels because they are cheaper than luxurious hotels, offer required facilities and located centrally. Owing to the fact, these hotels have become first preference of many customers. Let's explore more facts about these hotels through this piece of writing.

Information about Budget Hotels in North London

The concept of bed and breakfast hotel is not new in the city. Many old spacious buildings are converted into hotels and refurbished from time to time to impart perfect look. Aiming at providing clean and comfortable stay to its customers, wide choices are offered to customers ranging from budgeted to stylish rooms.

It goes without saying that stylish rooms are more expensive than budgeted rooms. For larger families, family suites and rooms are also available. Some of the facilities offered in these hotels are hair dryer, ironing facilities, flat screen television, internet facility, daily room service, taxis reservation booking and many more.

A point worth to disclose is that breakfast is the only meal offered in these hotels. Customers are free to order breakfast of their choice. Buffet of vegetarian, non-vegetarian, English and Continental food is offered to customers as a breakfast choice. Mostly situated a few minutes of walking distance from shopping complexes and restaurants, it can be said that these budget hotels in North London are situated at prime location. Points of attractions like Oxford street, Madame Tussaude, Hyde Park, Marble Arch, etc. are located close by. Besides affordability, presence of many places of interests at walking distance is one of the main factors of choosing these hotels over luxurious hotels. If you are facing any problem in finding these hotels or want to gather more information about them, make extensive online search.

Make Online Bookings for Budget Hotels In North London

With the advent of internet, it has become much easier to make extensive search of budgeted hotels in the city of London. Simply browse the websites of various bed and breakfast hotels and check upon the facilities offered by them. Other factors like their location, which places of interests lie nearby, breakfast menu, price, etc. are other points necessary to keep in consideration while selecting hotels. Once you have gathered all important information, it becomes easy to make decision and choose one hotel out of many. As soon as hotel is selected, book your rooms by making payment online. For finding any other information about London hotels, take the advantage of internet.

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If your dog is aggressive, maybe it is in pain

ScienceDaily (June 13, 2012) ? Dogs can sometimes suffer sudden episodes of aggression without their owners understanding why. But, in many cases, the cause of these attacks can be pain that has never been diagnosed or treated. For the first time the study describes the characteristics of this irritability, which can make dogs violent and increase aggression in already conflictive individuals.

There are many factors that explain aggression in dogs: the conditions of the mother during gestation, the handling of the puppy in the neonatal phase, the age at weaning, the experiences of the animal during the socialising phase, diet, exercise, genetics and learning techniques based on active punishment during adulthood. However, aggressive behaviour also arises from the presence of pathologies and pain in the dog.

Between 2010 and 2011 a team of researchers from the department of Animal and Food Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) in Spain analysed the aggression problems of 12 dogs (Giant schnauzer, Irish setter, Pit-bull, Dalmatian, two German shepherds, Neapolitan Mastiff, Shih-tzu, Bobtail, Catalan Sheepdog, Chow-chow and Doberman) who were brought to the UAB's Veterinary Hospital by their owners.

"All (eleven males and one female) were diagnosed as having aggression caused by pain. Out of the 12 studied, eight had suffered a hip dysplasia," as was outlined by Tom?s Camps, lead author of the study that was published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior and researcher at the Animal Nutrition and Welfare Service of the UAB.

Scientists identified the most frequent circumstances in which dogs were aggressive, the most characteristic positions, the most frequent target of attacks and if they were impulsive or, in other words, whether or not they showed signs before an imminent attack.

The study shows that dogs that were already aggressive for other reasons before the onset of pain attacked their owners more intensely and frequently when food was taken away, when they were moved from their rest area or when they were made to do something. Animals displayed aggression in the same situations (or nearly) as those that were already aggressive.

On the other hand, "dogs that had never been aggressive before the onset of pain began to behave in this way in situations were an attempt is made to control them," points out Camps.

In addition, the study shows that those dogs were more impulsive or, in other words, attacked with no prior warning in the form of growls, for instance. The research team states that "if the pet is handled when in pain, it will quickly act aggressively to avoid more discomfort without the owner being able to prevent it."

Diagnosing hip dysplasia

Canine hip dysplasia affects more than 40% of Golden Retrievers, Labradors and Rottweillers and is a hereditary and degenerative bone disorder that affects the joint connecting the hip and the femoral head. In general, it can affect any breed of large dog but is less frequent is small breeds.

The new study suggests that the pain produced by hip dysplasia is a key factor in the risk of large dogs becoming aggressive. But the problem begins when the dog experiences periods of little pain and the illness is not diagnosed on time.

The researchers have reassessed the importance of diagnosis and treatment of pain since, according to Camps, "it can cause aggression or worsen aggression problems."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Plataforma SINC, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Tom?s Camps, Marta Amat, Valentina M. Mariotti, Susana Le Brech, Xavier Manteca. Pain-related aggression in dogs: 12 clinical cases. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 2012; 7 (2): 99 DOI: 10.1016/j.jveb.2011.08.002

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Soldier found guilty of murder in Iraq shootings

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Analysis: Dispute with US nuns began decades ago

NEW YORK (AP) ? A conflict that has entangled the Vatican, American bishops and the largest umbrella group for U.S. nuns may seem to have erupted suddenly, but it actually has its roots in decades-old disputes over Roman Catholic teaching.

The headlines came in April, when the Vatican orthodoxy watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, concluded that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious had strayed far from authentic doctrine and gave three American bishops the authority to overhaul the organization.

The board for the nuns' group responded by calling the Vatican's investigation flawed and its conclusions unsubstantiated. Top executives of the sisters' organization brought their concerns to a meeting Tuesday in Rome with Vatican officials.

The meeting was conducted in an atmosphere of "openness and cordiality," according to a Vatican statement. But the church insisted that the nuns LCWR must promote church unity by stressing core church teachings.

On the face of it, the Vatican's timing is baffling. America's religious sisters are far from the height of their influence. Their numbers have plummeted from about 180,000 in 1965 to 56,000 last year, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Their average age is now above 70. Many orders go for years without any new candidates.

But the contretemps can be explained in the context of long-simmering differences that have also divided the broader church into opposing camps of theological liberals and conservatives ? with many Catholics caught in between. Each side is acting consistently according to long-established priorities.

THE VATICAN:

Pope Benedict XVI is on a course correction. Benedict has been trying to restore Catholic traditions he believes were lost 50 years ago in the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. As he presses for a more conservative Catholicism, the pope has been vigilant about ensuring that groups and individuals that operate in the name of the church are adhering to core Catholic teaching.

Benedict recently approved new statutes for Caritas Internationalis, a global consortium of Catholic humanitarian aid groups, giving the Vatican more authority over the association's work. He dedicated much of his Holy Thursday homily this year to chastising a movement of Austrian clergy seeking women's ordination and optional celibacy for priests.

Last week, the same Vatican agency that rebuked the U.S. nuns' group sharply criticized a book on sexuality written by a prominent American nun, Sister Margaret Farley, saying its author had a "defective understanding" of Catholic theology.

The nuns' conference is accused of taking positions that undermine church teaching on the all-male priesthood and homosexuality while staying mostly silent on abortion and promoting "certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith."

THE U.S. BISHOPS:

American bishops are struggling to reassert their teaching authority, even as fewer Catholics are listening.

Less than a quarter of U.S. Catholics attend Mass every week. Most reject church teaching on artificial contraception and a majority support same-sex relationships. About one-third of Americans who were raised Catholic have left the church, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

These trends were already shaping Catholic life when the scandal over clergy sex abuse erupted in 2002, further eroding the bishops' standing.

Still, church leaders have been newly assertive. They have stepped up public condemnation of individuals and groups who call themselves Catholic while dissenting from core beliefs. According to officials involved in the review of the nuns' group, religious sisters are among those who need correction.

"What are the church's pastors to make of the fact that the (nuns' group) constantly provides a one-sided platform ? without challenge or any opposing view ? to speakers who take a negative and critical position vis-a-vis church doctrine and the church's teaching office?" said Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio, who conducted the doctrinal review for the Vatican.

After Blair began his inquiry, relations between U.S. bishops and the nuns worsened over the Obama administration's health care overhaul. The bishops said the changes would increase government funding for abortion; the Leadership Conference and other prominent sisters' groups disagreed and said so publicly.

THE U.S. SISTERS:

After the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, many religious sisters shed their habits and traditional roles as they sought to more fully engage the modern world.

Many were better trained than ever to carry out the changes. The sisters' formation movement of the 1950s had emphasized advanced education for the nuns. As a result, sisters started taking on higher-level professional work such as running colleges and hospitals.

Over the decades, the women's religious congregations focused increasingly on Catholic social justice teachings: fighting poverty and the nuclear arms race, advocating for civil rights and creating AIDS ministries, while continuing in their jobs as social workers and educators. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which the Vatican had created in 1956, became a platform for ideas fueling this activism. The group, based in Silver Spring, Md., represents the leaders for about 80 percent of U.S. sisters.

But as the nuns' advocacy increased, so too did the criticism from theological conservatives. They argued that the sisters' congregations had become secular and political, while abandoning traditional prayer life and faith. The nuns insisted prayer and Christ were central to their work.

This dispute continued as Pope John Paul II defended Catholic orthodoxy and appointed bishops and Vatican officials who shared his concerns about the proper direction of the church.

In 1992, the Vatican created a separate group for sisters with a traditional approach to religious life and church authority. The Conference of Major Superiors of Women Religious is significantly smaller than the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. But a recent study found the traditional religious orders are having greater success attracting new candidates.

Then, under Benedict, the conflict reached a turning point.

Around 2008, the Vatican announced the doctrinal review of the Leadership Conference and also launched an Apostolic Visitation, or investigation, of all U.S. women's congregations. That inquiry looked at quality of life, the response to dissent and "the soundness of doctrine held and taught" by the women. Results of the wider inquiry have not been released.

But for the next five years, the Leadership Conference will effectively be under Vatican receivership.

Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain and two other U.S. bishops will oversee rewriting the statutes of Leadership Conference, review the groups' plans and programs, approve its speakers and ensure the women properly follow Catholic prayer and ritual.

And despite the nuns' complaints, and the protests around the country organized by Catholics who support them, executives from the Leadership Conference acknowledge a hard reality: As a group created by the Vatican, they have few options for persuading Rome to reverse course.

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Leadership Conference of Women Religious: https://lcwr.org/

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-062e.cfm

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Rachel Zoll covers religion for The Associated Press.

An AP News Analysis

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