Prominent mathematician Israel Gelfand dies in NJ

Israel Gelfand, who was considered one of the world's top mathematicians and did work that was important in the development of medical imaging devices, has died at age 96.

Gelfand's son Sergei Gelfand said his father died Monday of natural causes at a hospital in New Brunswick.

Gelfand, from Ukraine, was a distinguished professor of mathematics at Rutgers University. He conducted pioneering research, mentored mathematicians and established correspondence schools in Russia and the United States for budding mathematicians in remote areas. He remained active until 2008, running seminars that placed the pursuit of math knowledge ahead of academic titles.

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Marlin takes it nice and easy

The trotting action was supposed to be confined to Sportsman'sPark this weekend, but the $500,000 Secretariat Stakes on Sundayturned into a trotting race when Marlin seized the lead from nineoverly patient opponents.

By setting the kind of early fractions that usually are reservedfor horses that pull a buggy, Marlin made every pole a winning one inrolling to a four-length win on the Arlington turf course.

Shane Sellers, who left Arlington three years ago in search offaster horses and bigger purses, returned as a conquering hero. Hegave a clinic on how to slow down the pace, finishing the 1 1/4miles in 2:01.

Pat Day, who was attempting to win the …

Boswell targets American heavyweight dream

HELSINKI (AP) — Cedric Boswell is looking to become the first American boxer in five years to hold any of the major world heavyweight belts when he meets WBA champion Alexander Povetkin on Saturday.

The 42-year-old Boswell has won 14 successive fights since the only loss of his career to Jameel McCline in 2003. The only win of note since then was a 10-round decision over a then-45-year-old Oliver McCall in March. McCall won the WBC title from Lennox Lewis in 1994, defended it against Larry Holmes, then lost it to Frank Bruno the next year.

Boswell, in the leadup to his first shot at one of the major belts, said "the American dream will soundly defeat the Russian …

Free show by Jimmy Buffett along Alabama coast

Oil weary residents on Alabama's coast got a boost from Jimmy Buffett who put on an impromptu free show at his sister's restaurant Wednesday evening, bringing in hundreds of fans.

He sang crowd favorites including "Fins," "Pascagoula Run" and "Volcano" during a more than two-hour show that had hundreds of fans swaying to the music and holding up bottles of beer in the night air at Lulu's restaurant, owned by his sister, Lucy Buffett.

Word spread quickly through Facebook and the grapevine that the singer known for his love of the beach life was going to be on stage in Gulf Shores.

He and other singing stars had planned a …

Ex-Farragut star gives Arizona the Wright stuff

MINNEAPOLIS Illinois came up short, but Arizona's Michael Wrightgives the Final Four a Chicago connection. Wright, a muscular, 6-7power forward from Farragut, averages 15.8 points and 7.9 reboundsfor the Wildcats and appears to have a bright basketball future aftercollege.

Wright, who didn't attempt a field goal in Arizona's 87-81 victoryagainst the Illini in the Midwest Regional final last Sunday, waslooking to bounce back from his subpar four-point, two-rebound effortin that game. He responded with 13 points, all in the second half, inthe Wildcats' 80-61 victory Saturday against Michigan State.

"That's pretty rare," Wright said of his production againstIllinois. "It was kind of crazy, just one of those days. But I'drather not take a shot and win than score 30 points and lose."

Wright was recruited heavily by Illinois, but he opted for a moreproven program to develop and showcase his skills. He said if he werecoming out of high school today, the Illini's trip to the Elite Eightwould make passing them up more difficult.

"That's a real big factor," Wright said. "I considered Illinois.One of my guys, (former Westinghouse star) Kiwane Garris, went there,and it was close to home. Plus, I played at their basketball camps.But I knew they were going to become a good team because I knewFrankie (Williams) and Sergio (McClain) and Marcus Griffin."

NO SURPRISES: For all the talk about the record number of upsetsin the early rounds of the tournament, the cream rose to the top forthis Final Four.

No. 1 seeds Duke and Michigan State were joined by No. 2 seedArizona and No. 3 seed Maryland. And were it not for a couple ofregular-season stumbles that aren't all that relevant now, Arizonaand Maryland might have been No. 1 seeds. Both started the season asconsensus top-five picks.

Arizona was ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press' preseason poll.Duke was No. 2, Michigan State No. 3 and Maryland No. 5. Stanford,which was ranked No. 4 in the AP preseason poll, was beaten byMaryland in the West Regional final.

FOUR ON THE FLOOR: The fourth game of the season Saturday betweenDuke and Maryland was unusual, but it wasn't unique. Wisconsin andMichigan State also played for a fourth time in the nationalsemifinals last season in Indianapolis. The Spartans beat the Badgers53-41 and won all four games between the teams.

"I was sitting there worrying about how you beat a team fourtimes," Spartans coach Tom Izzo said. "Then I talked to (formerWisconsin coach) Dick Bennett later, and he was sitting thereworrying about how you beat a team that has beaten you three times."

MAUI FIELD SET: The field for the 2001 Maui Invitational, whichwill be held Thanksgiving week, is headlined by Duke, Kansas andUCLA. Other schools in the eight-team field are Seton Hall, SouthCarolina, Houston, Ball State and host Chaminade.

Despite widespread support from players and coaches, tournamentsplayed outside the contiguous 48 states are in jeopardy because of aproposal initiated by conference commissioners. The proposal, whichwould take away the multigame exemption such tournaments enjoy, willbe voted on by the NCAA Management Council on April 9. A favorablevote would bring the proposal one step closer to be being enacted bya final vote that could come in October.

The move against the exempt tournaments would give teams one morehome game, which can be worth a few hundred thousand dollars to bigschools. Proponents of the tournaments have initiated lawsuits aimedat allowing them to keep their status.

MAGICAL ADVICE: Former Michigan State star Magic Johnson arrivedat the Final Four to cheers of "Magic! Magic!" and with some advicefor underclassmen in college basketball: Stay in school.

Though Johnson left for the NBA after leading the Spartans to anNCAA title as a sophomore in 1979, he said a key to his success wasthe two NCAA tournament games he played as a freshman.

"The next year was like, `Oh, my,' " Johnson said. "I was so muchbetter."

Contributing: Associated Press

Japan may pledge $1 billion to Pakistan

Japan is considering pledging up to $1 billion to Pakistan over the next two years at an international donors conference, a report said Thursday.

Kyodo news said the pledge was to be made Friday, when Japan hosts the one-day conference.

Foreign Ministry official Daisuke Nakanishi refused to confirm the amount Japan will pledge, but said Tokyo will contribute "a significant amount" of the total.

Pakistan is hoping to get as much as $6 billion in pledges during the conference, but Japanese officials have said they expect the figure to be closer to $4 billion and have warned against inflated expectations.

Japan has also stressed that the conference will try to steer away from getting too involved in issues that are more closely associated with Afghanistan, but acknowledged that there is a growing awareness the two often overlap and can be hard to deal with separately.

The conference is scheduled to be divided into two main sessions, one focusing on coordinating political support for Pakistan's economic reforms and the second to delve more deeply into specific pledges.

Japan, which is hoping its role as host will bolster its international clout, says the conference, supported by the World Bank, will be attended by about 25 backers, including the United States, China and Saudi Arabia. A tally of pledges is expected to be announced at the end of the meeting.

Japan provided Pakistan with 48 billion yen ($480 million) in development assistance in 2008.

The meeting, the first of its kind for Pakistan, is separate from Washington's plans to give Pakistan $1.5 billion in aid for the next five years, and a $7.6 billion bailout granted by the International Monetary Fund in November to avert the country's most recent balance-of-payments crisis.

The troubles of Pakistan's one-year-old, pro-Western government are deep.

As part of the IMF deal, Pakistan has been asked to reduce its fiscal deficit and to tighten its monetary policy.

But the central bank forecast this month that economic growth for the year through June will slump to between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent, far below the 5.5 percent the government has projected _ and too slow to create enough jobs for its fast-growing population of about 170 million people.

The government has had to slash its development budget and is resisting calls to tax the narrow landowning elite that dominates its politics. Industry is also hampered by severe power shortages that are not expected to ease until next year at the earliest.

Economic improvement in Pakistan is seen as a key not only to preventing the expansion of poverty, but also to slowing the growth of terrorism, which depends on the poor to fill its ranks.

Michael faces 7 counts of child molestation; 2 counts of intoxicating boy

A war of words followed California's District Attorney Tom Sneddon's formal filing of sexual charges against pop star Michael Jackson Thursday prompting the singer's lawyer to label the allegations nothing but a "shakedown" to get his client's money.

Jackson faces seven counts of child molestation charges and two additional counts of allegedly administering an intoxicating agent to a child.

It was like showtime with the curtain going up for Sneddon who, in a televised press conference, told reporters rumors that his case was weak against Jackson were "categorically...false."

Sneddon brushed off charges of why he was holding the trial in the mostly white area of Santa Maria saying that is simply the way the law works.

But, less than an hour later, Jackson's attorneys and allies held court with the press with Jackson's attorney, Mark Geragos saying, "I can tell you right now, categorically, that based upon this complaint that has been filed, that Michael Jackson is unequivocally and absolutely innocent of these charges.

"I can also tell you that contrary said during that (Sneddon's) press conference that the defense does know what the prosecution thinks they have in this case," Geragos said. "I can also tell you that beyond any shadow of a doubt I know that the investigators or so-called investigators do not know what we know."

"I believe that all the good people of Santa Barbara understand something and understand it greatly that there is no way you're going to divide people into an us and them, no way you're going to be dismissive of what trained investigators have spent an inordinate time investigating unless you have what we have here.

"What we have here is an intersection between a shakedown, somebody's looking for money, with somebody in investigation that's got an axe to grind; otherwise, there is no way that any self-respecting prosecutor would be going forward of the basis of this patent and unbelievably shakedown."

Geragos said he has been involved in this investigation since its inception and said "there is no truth to any of this...."

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