Clinical India ease to victory over West Indies (AFP)

PORT OF SPAIN (AFP) – Half-centuries from Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel followed up Amit Mishra's career-best bowling to lead India to a seven-wicket victory over West Indies in the rain-affected second One-day International on Wednesday.

Kohli struck six fours and one six in 81 from 103 balls to earn the Man-of-the-Match award, and Patel made 56 from 64 deliveries, as the Indians, chasing a revised target of 183 from 37 overs due to rain, reached their target with 20 balls remaining.

India captain Suresh Raina clinched victory, when he steered a delivery from Ravi Rampaul wide of point for two runs.

India now lead the five-match series 2-0, following a four-wicket victory in the first ODI two days ago at the same venue.

"It was another good performance, especially Amit Mishra, who was unbelieveable, when he bowled in the Power Play," said Raina.

Mishra had upstaged half-centuries from Lendl Simmons and Ramnaresh Sarwan, triggering a batting collapse with a career-best spell, as West Indies posted 240 for nine from their allocation of 50 overs.

Mishra captured four for 31 from his allotment of 10 overs, as the Windies collapsed dramatically from a comfortable 175 for two in the 36th before the hosts' captain Darren Sammy added some late order runs.

Munaf Patel bagged three for 35 from 10 overs, and Yusuf Pathan took two for 51 from eight overs to play their part in destabilising the West Indies' batting.

"We got ourselves into a good position, but we did not capitalise on it in the end," said Sammy. "Again, we were about 30 runs short."

India suffered an early setback, when Shikhar Dhawan was caught at square cover off Ravi Rampaul for three in the third over.

But a second wicket stand of 120 between Kohli and Patel put India firmly on track, enduring two stoppages for rain.

Patel was caught behind down the leg-side off leg-spinner Anthony Martin in the 27th over, and Kohli was caught at long-off off Devendra Bishoo, the other West Indies leggie, in the 31st over.

Earlier, India were on the back-foot, when West Indies benefitted from three straight half-century stands.

Sarwan's 56 off 90 balls was the top score, and Simmons' supported with 53 from 84 deliveries.

But five wickets - three to Mishra - fell for 22 in the space of 47 deliveries before Sammy struck one four and two sixes in 22 from 19 balls to push West Indies to a respectable total.

India's new-ball pair of Praveen Kumar and Patel failed to make the early breakthrough, but Mishra had opener Kirk Edwards caught behind for 25 in the 13th over, leaving West Indies 57 for one.

The Indians continued to find wickets hard to come, as Sarwan joined Simmons, and they added 67 for the second wicket.

A back-foot drive off Pathan for a single carried Simmons to his 50 from 76 balls, but the off-spinner had the West Indies opener stumped in the 27th over.

A short delivery from Kumar was pulled over mid-wicket to usher Sarwan to his 50 from 80 balls, but he miscued a pull at a high full toss from Patel, and was caught at deep backward square leg in the 41st over.

The drama then began to unfold, when Mishra trapped Kieron Pollard lbw for a duck, getting down on one knee and trying to sweep in the 42nd over, and in his next over, the portly Indian leg-spinner struck twice.

Mishra had Dwayne Bravo caught at long-off for eight, and bowled Carlton Baugh Jr for two to leave West Indies 197 for seven in the 44th over.

But India let West Indies off the hook, when Ravi Rampaul joined Sammy and they pushed the home team past their best total on home soil this season in a stand of 31 for the eighth wicket before Patel struck twice in his final over.

The beanpole fast-medium bowler had Rampaul caught at mid-wicket for 14, and Devendra Bishoo caught behind for a duck.

The third ODI will be played on June 11 at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua.

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Ecuador government declares referendum victory

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador's vice president declared victory after an exit poll Saturday indicated voters roundly approved 10 ballot questions proposed by leftist President Rafael Correa that critics say will strengthen his grip on power, inhibit press freedom and lessen the judiciary's independence.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa reacts after listening favorable reports about a referendum he proposed Saturday.

The exit poll by SP Investigacion y Estudios, which regularly does work for the government, said voters approved all the questions by greater than 60 percent. First official results were expected later Saturday.

The plebiscite was an important gauge of popularity for Correa, who was first elected in 2006 and easily re-elected in 2009 after a rewrite of the constitution. He is eligible for re-election in two years.

Some of the questions were straightforward, such as whether to ban bullfighting and gambling. Others were quite complex. Each required a separate vote.

Two of the most controversial measures would bar owners of news media from having other commercial interests and create a government media oversight panel.

Critics say both would make it easier for Correa, who is often at loggerheads with the largely opposition news media and business community, to subtly impose censorship.

Another important ballot question called for dissolving Ecuador's judicial oversight council and replacing it with a temporary body given the task of reworking the system. Another would allow authorities to detain people for longer without filing charges.

Results of the exit poll were broadcast immediately after polls closed, and Vice President Lenin Moreno told reporters that the government took the victory with "humility" but added that lawmakers now have a mandate from the public to convert the vote's results into law.

Five of the questions mandate constitutional changes. The other five require congressional action.

Former President Lucio Gutierrez, a fierce Correa opponent, told The Associated Press that with the referendum Correa "seeks to take by force justice and dominate the news media."

Correa, who did not immediately speak, is a close ally of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and is firmly in South America's leftist bloc.

He enjoys a 65 percent approval rating in a corruption-bedeviled country that in the decade prior to his election saw three presidents, most recently Gutierrez, ousted in popular revolts.

With a forceful, uncompromising style, Correa has alienated many former allies, including leaders of Ecuador's indigenous movement. They are angry with his insistence that the state have the last word on subsoil and water rights.

But Correa's populist programs, such as $35 monthly payments to nearly 2 million poor families, construction of low-income housing and a commitment to universal free education, have boosted his popularity in this small Andean nation of 14.3 million people.

Political analyst Adrian Bonilla of the FLACSO think tank says that with strong leadership, Correa has ably leveraged Ecuador's oil wealth and an effective tax system into popular programs.

He has drawn criticism for alleged autocratic tendencies, however. Former President Osvaldo Hurtado, a conservative in the Christian Democratic party, said before Saturday's vote that Correa has conjured "a perfect dictatorship" by manipulating democratic institutions much as many say Chavez has in Venezuela.

Correa has alienated many foreign investors by renegotiating oil contracts to give Ecuador a higher cut of profits and has forged new business ties with China and Iran.

Last month, he expelled U.S. Ambassador Heather Hodges after the WikiLeaks website disclosed a diplomatic cable from her suggesting Correa was well aware but tolerant of high-level corruption in Ecuador's national police. Correa denied the allegation.

Polls indicated before Saturday's vote that about half of Ecuadoreans were having trouble understanding the ballot questions.

Many voted "no" as a result.

"The truth is I don't understand a lot of the questions," said Nataly Mendez, a 24-year-old pharmaceutical representative voting in Quito's lower-middle-class Don Bosco neighborhood. "That's why I voted no."

Many who voted "yes" said it was out of esteem for the government.

"We Ecuadoreans should be committed and help out if we want things to change," said Maria Lourdes Silva, a 43-year-old cosmetics saleswoman.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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'Victory day' for first U.S. victim in war

Winfield, Alabama (CNN) -- Johnny Spann was driving down the road listening to music Sunday when he got the call: Turn on the news.

The father of the first U.S. victim in the Afghan war flipped to a news station.

Osama bin Laden was dead.

Spann swelled with emotion. He immediately grabbed his BlackBerry and logged on to Facebook, where he posted this status update: "The S.O.B. is finally dead."

"If you ask me if I am proud that he's dead, yes," Spann says a few days later, sitting in his real estate office in Winfield, a town of about 4,500 in northwestern Alabama. "Am I glad he's dead? Yes. The guy was a monster. He was a killer."

Spann's son, Johnny Michael Spann, known as Mike by his family, was a paramilitary officer for the CIA when he was killed November 25, 2001. Spann was at a fortress in Mazar-e Sharif where Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners were being held when the captives began rioting.

Johnny Michael "Mike" Spann served in the Marines for eight years before he joined the CIA in 1999.

Spann, 32, was the first American killed in combat during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Before he left for the region, he told his 8-year-old daughter: "You know people want to kill us and they're trying to kill us. ... People like me have to go do the things that I have to do."

"This would've been his victory day," his father says. "It sure would've.

"I really feel like Mike always thought Osama bin Laden was the cause (of 9/11), and he was the cause. He was the leader of al Qaeda. He's the one who recruited people to kill Americans. And, yes, there is not a doubt in my mind that this would've been a day of victory for Mike -- to know that Osama bin Laden was caught and was killed and some form of justice was served."

Mike Spann had always been driven to get bin Laden. He served in the Marines for eight years before he joined the CIA in 1999. He was always talking about the need to get bin Laden.

"In the average household, I suppose Osama bin Laden's name didn't come up at the dinner table," the father says.

But in theirs, it always did.

On 9/11, the father asked his son who was behind the attacks. "We all know who is responsible for this," the son said. "It's Osama bin Laden."

Johnny Spann says he's proud of his son, and proud that U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden.

"Dad, if my government doesn't do something about this, I think I'm going to quit. ... We have got to go stop this. We've got to do something about it."

How would his son feel about the killing of bin Laden?

"I think he'd have felt the same way as my family at this time. We're happy. We're glad that Osama's been found and been killed.

"If you ask me, am I vindictive? Yeah, I am. (Bin Laden) didn't shoot my son. He didn't kill my son physically himself. But his people did. It was his organization, al Qaeda, that not only killed Mike but killed all the people on 9/11."

The elder Spann, an avid supporter of former President George W. Bush, says he was proud that President Obama stepped up to the plate to greenlight the killing. He wishes America's leaders had been like that in the 1990s when al Qaeda was building its base.

"We just needed somebody with enough balls to get up and say, 'You're not going to do this to American people,' " Spann says. "If we'd had somebody else in office that would've felt the same way ... during the time when Osama bin Laden was carrying out his attacks in the '90s, we wouldn't have had 9/11."

He says he's been glued to the television ever since the news. He's watched Americans who were just young children on 9/11 celebrating in the streets. He says his family hasn't "been out having parties, we haven't been out on the streets and we haven't been to any rallies.

A photo, headline, resolutions and the flag that draped Mike Spann's coffin line the walls of his father's office.

"There's still an empty seat at the table," he says. "(But) I don't blame those people for doing that.

"Quite frankly, it's a good feeling to me. ... One of the fears that I had was that over a period of time that we would forget -- that we'd forget about 9/11, we would forget what happened, we'd forget about who did it to us."

Spann strolls down the hallway in his office. On the walls hang the American flag that draped his son's coffin, a black and white photograph of Mike Spann about six months before he was killed and Alabama Senate resolutions in his honor.

"America's first combat casualty brought home," reads the framed headline from the military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

The last conversation Spann had with his son was on Thanksgiving Day, just days before he was killed. His son told him he was heading to a prison where hundreds of al Qaeda members had been captured and that he was optimistic of finding clues on bin Laden's whereabouts.

"I love you, son," the dad said before they hung up.

The last 10 years have brought a lot of pain to the family. The father avoids disclosing too much information about his son's family or even where they live now. He's already lost one to al Qaeda; he doesn't want to lose another.

Johnny Spann wears two lapel pins: an American flag and a "fight terror" badge.

He misses his son more than words can describe. He chuckles when telling a story of his son getting his pilot's license by his senior year in high school. His son, who played on the football team, buzzed a practice; all the players looked up and waved.

"I'm proud of the fact he loved America and he was a patriot. I'm proud of the fact that he was willing to lay his life on the line and do the things that it took to lead up to the capture of Osama bin Laden."

The father wears two lapel pins on his jacket. One is an American flag. The other is a "fight terror" badge with a guy holding an AK-47 over his head with a circle and slash through it.

"I'll never take it off," he says.

Bin Laden might be dead, but for Johnny Spann the fight is far from over.

CNN

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Bin Laden death a victory for special ops

For the elite troops who have hunted Osama bin Laden since 9/11, the daring attack by a team of Navy SEALs that ended his life was the Holy Grail of special operations missions.

Pakistani soldier stands near a compound Monday where it is believed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

By Anjum Naveed, AP

Pakistani soldier stands near a compound Monday where it is believed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

"Within hours of the announcement, I had dozens of phone calls and text messages from fellow SEALs celebrating this victory," says Eric Greitens, a SEAL and lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve.

"Every SEAL that I know would have wanted to have taken part in that operation," says Greitens, author of the book The Heart and the Fist.

Kyle Lamb, a retired sergeant major with the Army's elite Delta Force, which carries out similar missions, said it was the one mission any special operations member dreams about.

"I mean they've trained for it. They've thought about it. They've lived it since 9/11," says Lamb, a retired sergeant major with the Army's elite Delta Force, which carries out similar missions.

"You go through the ranks for all these years chasing bad guys and then you're there when the ultimate part of history is made. That would be awesome," says Lamb, who today owns Viking Tactics, a Fayetteville, N.C., company that offers training in leadership, tactics and firearms.

"Obviously, I wish it was Army guys," Lamb adds with a chuckle. "But good for them (the SEALs)."

In the hours after a team of Navy SEALs overran the compound north of Islamabad where bin Laden was hiding, word of the raid spread like wildfire through the 68,000-member special operations community including Navy SEAL teams and Army Delta Force commandos, Green Berets and Rangers.

"It was very personal to go into his house and kill him where he slept," Lamb says. "That means more to me than dropping bombs on him.We want these guys to be scared that at any moment, they're wondering if a bomb is going to drop on them or the doors are going to blow off the hingesand guys come in and do what they do."

"Obviously, the SEAL community takes a lot of pride in what happened," Greitens says.

"For a lot of the men in this community who are undertaking operations day after day, month after month that the public never hears about, this was an operation that could be celebrated by all Americans. So I think that makes it special," he says.

And the SEAL who fired the bullet that killed bin Laden?

"He will be revered for the rest of his life as the guy who, at the most important moment, took one of the most important shots in the history of the global war on terrorism," Greitens says.

John Nagl, a retired Army officer and expert on counterinsurgency, said "those SEALs will never have to buy another beer for the rest of their lives."

Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook

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University Of Connecticut Is Celebrating Its Victory In National Basketball Championship

HomeAbout Latest USA news Breaking NewsBusinessEntertainmentPoliticsSportsTechnologyUncategorizedWorldUniversity Of Connecticut Is Celebrating Its Victory In National Basketball ChampionshipKevin SP

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