McIlroy makes history at U.S. Open

Rory McIlroy acknowledges the crowd during the final round of the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club.Rory McIlroy wins U.S. Open title at Congressional by eight shotsMcIlroy leads from start to finish to claim his first major titleHis aggregate of 16-under 268 is a record for the U.S. OpenAustralian Jason Day finishes second on eight-under-par

(CNN) -- Rory McIlroy enjoyed a triumphant march Sunday to his first major title as a two-under-par 69 gave him a eight-shot victory in the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Maryland.

McIlroy's 16-under aggregate of 268 was a record for the U.S. Open, breaking the mark set by Tiger Woods, who was 12-under in winning at Pebble Beach in 2000.

He became only the third player in U.S. Open history to return all four rounds in the 60s and he was the youngest winner of the tournament since the legendary Bobby Jones in 1923.

"The whole week has been incredible," McIlroy said as he lifted the trophy.

"I know how good TIger was at Pebble in 2000 and I went out today to try and emulate him in some way. Augusta was a valuable experience. I knew what I needed to do today to win. I put a few new things into practice and it paid off,"

I know how good TIger was at Pebble in 2000 and I went out today to try and emulate him in some way
--Rory McIlroy

Australian Jason Day closed with a three-under 68 to claim his second straight runner-up spot in a major on eight-under 276, but he never challenged runaway winner McIlroy.

The 22-year-old from Northern Ireland led from start to finish and took an eight-shot advantage into the final round over playing partner YE Yang, the 2009 PGA champion.

McIlroy's victory leaves all four holders of the major titles, South African Louis Oosthuizen who won last year's British Open, Germany's Martin Kaymer, the 2010 PGA champion and South African Charl Schwartzel, who took this year's Masters, under 30 years of age.

McIlroy doubtless settled his own nerves and those of his supporters, who feared a repeat of the disastrous rounds which ended his hopes at last year's British Open and April's Augusta Masters, with a first-hole birdie.

A spectacular approach to the fourth set up a second and extended his lead to double figures on 16-under-par.

His chasers would have been further frustrated by a 15-foot par save on the next and he reached the turn in two-under 34.

But he reserved his very best for the 218-yard 10th, positioned in front of the clubhouse where a huge gallery had gathered.

Yang played first and his approach finished within four feet of the hole. McIlroy with a six-iron bettered that as it rolled to within a few inches of the cup.

"Rory, Rory" was the chant from the crowd as if he was their own and he duly holed out for a birdie.

A dropped shot on the 12th scarcely interrupted his victory procession and he returned to 17-under with a birdie on the par-five 16th.

A three-putt bogey on the 17th was followed by a par on the last, holing a short putt to seal his victory before being embraced by his father Gerry.

Yang bogeyed the last to fall back into a tie for third with American pair Kevin Chappel and Robert Garrigus and England's Lee Westwood on six-under.

Woods, who missed the tournament through injury and has not won a major since the 2008 U.S. Open, sent his congratulations.

"Heck of a performance," Woods said in a statement. "Congrats and well done. Enjoy it. This was an impressive performance."

McIlroy succeeds fellow Northern Ireland golfer Graeme McDowell as U.S. Open champion.

McDowell also closed with a 69 to tie for 11th on two-under and was waiting to applaud his friend and compatriot on to the final green.

CNN

Greek PM makes rival finance chief to shore up support (Reuters)

ATHENS/BERLIN (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou sacrificed his unpopular finance minister on Friday and put his main socialist party rival into the job in a bid to force through an austerity plan to avert bankruptcy.

The appointment, which analysts said was a second-best after Papandreou failed to persuade respected former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos to come aboard, came just before a crucial Franco-German summit to discuss future aid to Athens.

The elevation of Defense Minister Evangelos Venizelos to the finance ministry was aimed at securing party backing for crucial tax rises, spending cuts and sell-offs of public assets required for the EU and IMF to disburse emergency loans to keep Greece afloat next month and avoid a default which could unleash global financial turmoil.

Outgoing Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, who negotiated a first 110 billion euro bailout for Athens last year and had the confidence of international lenders and financial markets, was shunted aside to the environment ministry in a crisis-driven reshuffle.

"Venizelos is politically powerful and that might bode well for the implementation of fiscal consolidation, even though he has no track record in financial matters," UBS analyst Alexander Kyrtsis said.

Initial Greek market reaction was positive with bank shares rising by as much as 4 percent and the Athens stock market index up 2 percent.

But bond markets remain spooked by fears of a Greek default and most economists are overwhelmingly skeptical that Greece can ever repay its debt mountain, which has reached 340 billion euros or 150 percent of the country's annual economic output.

Reuters' calculations based on 5-year credit default swap prices from Markit show an 81 percent probability of Greece eventually defaulting on its debt based on a 40 percent recovery rate.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will try to overcome sharp differences on how to involve private investors in the second rescue plan without sparking carnage in financial markets.

A German minister said he expected them to strike a compromise after weeks of wrangling that has rattled markets.

"I believe the meeting today will yield a solution," German Deputy Foreign Minister Werner Hoyer told ZDF television. "I am sure they will come to a compromise."

The European Central Bank and European Commission have warned that any form of private sector involvement that causes a "credit event" or a downgrading of Greek debt to default status could wreak devastating damage on the euro zone.

BOND MARKETS RATTLED

Battered by strikes, protests and a string of resignations in his PASOK party, Papandreou has vowed to drive through his unpopular reform program for the sake of stability in Greece.

The political drama in Athens, where mass street protests turned violent and efforts to form a national unity government collapsed on Wednesday, and the splits in the EU continued to rattle bond markets on Friday.

The yield on 10-year Greek government bonds spiked to a record high of 18.9 percent just before the reshuffle was announced, and the cost of insuring Greek debt against default also hit a new all-time peak.

There were some signs on Thursday of growing tension in interbank lending on money markets, as occurred when the Greek debt crisis erupted early last year.

In the latest warning from the ECB, policymaker Yves Mersch said a "disorderly insolvency" would have devastating effects for the whole currency bloc and "a new financial crisis would be more than likely."

The European Union's top economic official, Olli Rehn, told a Finnish newspaper he was sure the EU and the International Monetary Fund would release a crucial 12 billion euro loan tranche in early July to keep Athens from defaulting.

Rehn acknowledged it would take longer to put together a second rescue package for the heavily indebted state, due to differences over how to involve private investors, but he called for decisions by mid-July rather than leaving the issue until September, as EU paymaster Germany is suggesting.

China weighed in, saying it had a vital interest in the euro zone overcoming its debt woes and had increased its holdings of euro debt, but gave no figures or timeframe.

"Whether the European economy can recover and whether some European economies can overcome their hardships and escape crisis, is vitally important for us," Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying told a media briefing in Beijing.

Rehn said he expected euro zone finance ministers to take decisions on a successor program for Greece on July 11.

But two sources briefed by the German government said Berlin wanted to postpone agreement on a new 120 billion euro program, including 30 billion in privatization proceeds, until September due to disputes over how to involve private investors.

Backed by the Netherlands and Finland, Germany wants a "voluntary" debt swap in which bondholders would be given new bonds with a seven-year maturity, but credit rating agencies have warned they would treat that as a selective default.

That could prompt the ECB to refuse to accept Greek bonds as collateral, depriving Greek banks of vital liquidity on which it is totally dependent.

The European Commission, the ECB and France favor a softer form of private sector involvement under which banks would agree to roll over Greek bonds as they mature and are redeemed.

Fitch Ratings appeared to open the door to a possible compromise on Wednesday by saying that while it would treat such a rollover as a "restrictive default," it would keep Greek bonds rated at CCC.

Yahoo! News

Yahoo says makes headway in Alibaba talks (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Yahoo Inc said it had made significant progress in negotiations over compensation for a Chinese online payment company spun off from the Alibaba Group that Yahoo partially owns.

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse flew to Asia last week to engage Alibaba and investor Softbank about the issue, though Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz admitted the situation was complex.

"There're a lot of moving parts but we're making progress," Bartz told investors at an annual analysts' meeting on Wednesday. "We're not going to get into a public back and forth."

Investor attention has been squarely focused on Yahoo's Asian assets, which include a 43 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and a 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan Corp. Some investors believe those assets could potentially be worth as much as Yahoo's entire current market value.

Yahoo's stock rose as much as 5.3 percent on Wednesday but later retraced its steps and was up 0.5 percent at $16.22 in early afternoon trading on Nasdaq

Bartz, who joined Yahoo as CEO in 2009, also said the management team was focused on reviving the stalled revenue growth within Yahoo's core business, which includes a vast collection of websites and its Web-based email service.

Yahoo is one of the most popular destinations on the Web and the No. 1 provider of online display ads in the United States, but the company is facing increasing competition from social networking service Facebook and continuing pressure from search leader Google Inc.

"I know it's somewhat very popular to say Yahoo is not turning around. But we have 14,000 people and a management team that's working very, very hard to do just that," Bartz said. "I would insist that you give us some credit for turning this company around," she later added.

Bartz cited the improvements in operating margins and earnings in recent years, as well as in improving the company's Web publishing infrastructure, but said that the company's number one priority was to boost revenue.

"I want to make sure you understand that we're not running this company based on cost. We are running this company for growth," she said.

While a landmark search partnership with Microsoft Corp has failed to deliver the expected lift in ad rates, Bartz reiterated previous comments that revenue-per-search rates will start to rise in 2012.

ALIBABA ASSET TRANSFER

Yahoo's shares have fallen roughly 12 percent since early May, when the company disclosed that Alibaba had transferred its popular online payment subsidiary Alipay to a separate entity controlled by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, potentially diminishing the value of Yahoo's stake in Alibaba.

Alibaba said the transfer was done in order to meet Chinese regulations regarding foreign ownership of online payment companies.

Bartz spent the first 45 minutes of Yahoo's analyst day flanked by Morse and Yang addressing Alipay and fielding questions from analysts.

The CEO, feeling the pressure from complaints that Yahoo was too slow in announcing the asset transfer, said its disclosure was "timely and appropriate."

The trio of executives repeatedly stressed that all parties in the negotiations were agreed on basic principles, particularly to ensure that Alipay continue to be a driving force behind auctions site Taobao -- Alibaba's key strategic asset -- and that the payments system be among the first to win an operating license from the Chinese government.

Bartz also said all were agreed that the Alibaba Group -- and hence Yahoo -- receive adequate "compensation" for Alipay.

"Alipay needs a license to be worth anything," Yang said.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic and Edwin Chan; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Tim Dobbyn and Bernard Orr)

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Obama makes stop in Los Angeles, wraps up campaign swing

President Barack Obama has already started rallying supporters for his 2012 presidential campaign. STORY HIGHLIGHTSThe president urges an audience that includes Hollywood moguls to help get him re-electedParticipants include Jamie Foxx and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio VillaraigosaMore than 2,500 campaign contributors attend one event Obama holds six fundraisers over two days Los Angeles (CNN) -- Despite switching an audience of tech executives for Hollywood moguls, President Barack Obama on Thursday night made the same plea for help in his re-election as he wrapped up a two-day West Coast campaign swing in Los Angeles.

At the first of two fundraisers on the lot of Sony Studios in Culver City, Obama told an audience of about 100 guests he needed the same commitment from them in 2012 that drove them to support his unlikely candidacy four years earlier.

"Let's face it, it was not likely that I was going to end up in the Oval Office," Obama said of his supporters' grassroots efforts in his first campaign.

Obama told the audience that included Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and actor Dennis Haysbert that with the power of incumbency also comes an even tougher electoral atmosphere in the next cycle.

View the Original article

Down in the Polls, Obama Makes Dash for Cash

-- Rose Ann DeMoro, who heads the 65,000-member California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle mocking President Obama’s solicitations of California’s well-heeled donors.

President Obama is looking to rake in more than $4 million from wealthy donors in a West Coast campaign swing as the embattled incumbent looks to deepen his cash reserves.

Obama’s campaign team is counting on massive early fundraising to re-establish the president as a strong bet for re-election despite a spate of struggles.

Bruising battles with Republicans over federal spending, unpopular foreign policy positions in Libya and Afghanistan and continued economic instability have left Obama in a weakened position with voters. His poll numbers have been rapidly retreating from a post-election revival. Obama’s job approval in the Real Clear Politics average is back down to its mid 40s range from the health care doldrums of 2010 and still sliding.

Today and tomorrow Obama will be the headliner at six fundraisers, including one for 60 donors who will pay $35,800 apiece for dinner, a Thursday breakfast with seats ranging from $5,000 to $35,000 and a star-studded event Thursday night at the Sony Theater where the president will tap the entertainment industry for similar sums.

This follows his fundraising kickoff in Chicago and will likely be followed by a trip to New York to go trawling for Wall Street big fish. It’s part of an effort to raise what Democrats believe will be an insurmountable sum. The goal is to beat the president’s 2008 haul of $750 million and do so without the need to spend money on a costly primary campaign.

That effort will be augmented by unrestricted spending by outside groups led by Obama loyalists like former spokesman Bill Burton and the president’s labor allies. The range of spending in support of Obama’s bid for a second term could be far in excess of the eye-popping $1 billion that first caught attention.

The message to Republicans (and any Democrats daydreaming of a primary challenge) is that they can’t afford the stakes at Obama’s table.

There are downsides to Obama’s gold rush, though. Canoodling with corporate donors and the heir and heiress set who populate Democratic fundraising circles reinforces Obama’s image as out of touch with regular Americans and diverts his attention from governing at a time when he is struggling to show he is in control.

Democrats hope that Obama can raise enough money early on to rev up the machinery necessary to put the squeeze on mid-level donors soon with an avalanche of postal, electronic and telephonic solicitations. That effort will be expensive, but less time consuming for the president.

By buttering up the rich folks this spring, Obama is trying to build a perpetual motion political machine.

 

 

Obama Jabs, Geithner Dabs

View the Original article

The Federal City Makes A (Last) Stand

FoxNews.com

Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet

Tax day is not being delayed by three days this year because of a sudden surge in federal generosity. Trust me, they need the money.

Your due date was instead delayed from the April 15 to April 18 because of Emancipation Day, a government holiday in the District of Columbia that commemorates the 1862 freeing of the slaves in the District by President Abraham Lincoln.

D.C.’s slaves were freed nine months earlier than those in other Union-controlled territories who were liberated by the Emancipation Proclamation. To commemorate this head start, District workers and federal workers in the District have had the day off since 2005.

The official date is the 16th, but what’s the use of having a government holiday on a Saturday? So, that means that the procrastinators among the nation’s 140.5 million tax filers have until Monday to dawdle before making their panicked dash to the Post Office.

Giving the fiscally frazzled two more days to sweep up coffee-stained receipts and buy stamps has been one of the few bits of happy news to come from the District of late.

Getting arrested is not typically considered a savvy political move for big city mayors, but Washington is hardly the typical American city.

Mayor Vincent Gray, under fire for cronyism and mismanagement after just four months on the job, was hauled away from the U.S. Capitol in handcuffs this week after leading a sit-in to protest a bipartisan spending plan. Gray’s problem with the deal is that it forbids subsidized abortions in the District and reopens a school voucher program unpopular with Gray and his supporters in the teachers’ unions.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s non-voting delegate to the House, compared the legislation to

View the Original article