Gossip: Drew Barrymore plans wedding

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long still have another couple of months to go before they hit their milestone one-year anniversary, but a tabloid is already convinced they're ready to commit to an eternity together.

In Touch claims the perpetually puckered-up honeys engaged in a matrimonial-related discussion while lunching at a Los Angeles eatery on May 10.

"She said she wanted to find a wedding planner and he said they should look at engagement rings that day," a big-eared eyewitness relays to the mag. "But Drew said, 'You know what I like, surprise me.' They seemed very happy."

This is the second time in recent months that wedding whispers have hit Drew, 33, and Justin, 29, who kicked off their very public saliva exchange program last August.

While making an appearance on "Oprah" in March, the sunshiny and seemingly loud-talking actress, who already has two divorces under her belt, was reportedly overheard talking about the possibility of a destination wedding.

"She's beautiful and funny," the sometime Mac guy swooned to the Big O of his squeeze. "The most compassionate person I've ever met."

Barrymore, for her part, opened up about her romantic contentment in the March issue of Vogue, gushing, "My cheeks hurt, I'm so happy."

In more concrete nuptial news, Jessica Alba went the unconventional route when she selected the "something blue" for her frills- and guest-free courthouse wedding to Cash Warren Monday afternoon in Beverly Hills, Calif.

People magazine reports the about-to-pop bride sported a ponytail and a long blue dress for the fake flower-festooned civil ceremony, while her groom styled a white shirt and brown pants.

"Jessica and Cash's ceremony surprised even good friends," an insider tells the mag, pointing out that it was the actress who pulled the trigger on the shotgun hitching. "She [used to feel] it would be OK to wait until after the baby was born to get married. But her traditional side must have really kicked in."

Either way, adds the mole, "Cash is a wonderful guy. And she really does love him."

Alba's brother blabs to E! News that he, too, was in the dark about the "I dos," and says the newlyweds are planning a more elaborate celebration after the baby arrives (they are said to be expecting a girl).

Also out of the loop was Jessica's dad, who tells Latina.com that the knot-tying is "good news," opining, "I'm glad for her. She's a beautiful girl. I'm her dad and I'm happy for her no matter what happens." (OK, so maybe he's kvelling about his new son-in-law on the inside.)

The newlyweds were sans rings but sporting big smiles as they stepped out together Tuesday night for a charitable soiree in Beverly Hills, where Warren and NBA buddy Baron Davis picked up a humanitarian award for producing a documentary on gang violence in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Pete Wentz has learned that being married to Ashlee Simpson is all about sharing with her family, who are tighter than his suctioned-on skinny jeans.

The swoopy-banged, flat iron-dependent flames are featured on the current cover of People, which reportedly shelled out more than a million bucks for the exclusive on their "Alice in Wonderland"-inspired wedding, but they're not alone.

In addition to Pete's Victorian-collared English bulldog, who looks mortified to be part of the proceedings, Ashlee's big sister Jessica receives prominent placement on the cover courtesy of a candid shot showing her bumping and grinding with her capricious quarterback beau, Tony Romo.

And speaking of sharing, the happy couple apparently has a refreshingly realistic attitude when it comes to romance.

"We have signed a pre-nup," Pete revealed during a chat this week with Ryan Seacrest, adding that his supposedly stork-awaiting wife is now legally Mrs. Wentz. "[We don't] know what she'll do with her stage name, that's up to her. She hasn't decided on that."

As race wanes, talk of Clinton as VP grows

While Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her advisers insist that she is determined to win the Democratic nomination, friends of the couple say that former President Bill Clinton , for one, has begun privately contemplating a different outcome for her: As Senator Barack Obama ’s running mate.

The reports about Mr. Clinton’s musings surface as the Obama camp has quietly begun the process of searching for a partner on the Democratic ticket.

The prospect of an Obama-Clinton ticket has been fodder for political gossip for months, with some Democratic leaders pushing the idea as a way to unify the party. The Obama and Clinton campaigns have consistently shrugged off the idea, however, and Mrs. Clinton has been adamant that she is only interested in the presidency.

Yet anyone who knows the Clintons is well aware that, at times, they come to politics with different motivations. Both of them want to return to the White House; Mrs. Clinton, of New York, also enjoys being a senator, while Mr. Clinton, according to associates, sees the vice presidency as perhaps her best path to becoming president someday if she loses the nominating fight. And Mr. Clinton has his own ideas about his wife’s best interests — even if she sometimes does not share them.

A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign said Thursday that Mr. Clinton had not had private conversations in which he was pushing her for the vice presidency or arguing that she deserved it, and that he believed the choice of a running mate was a personal one for the nominee.

Friends of the former president say his musings have been more casual: He believes that an Obama-Clinton ticket could help unify the party, and he thinks she has earned a meeting with Mr. Obama to discuss the possibility.

According to these friends, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to be identified revealing private talks, Mr. Clinton believes that his wife’s victories in major primary battles, like Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the 16 million votes cast for her candidacy make her the proper choice for Mr. Obama.

"If she’s not going to be the nominee, then he wants her in the second spot," said one friend of the Clintons. "In the long run, it’s the best way for her to run again in 2016."

Time magazine first reported Mr. Clinton’s interest in the No. 2 slot for Mrs. Clinton on Thursday.

Clinton advisers were emphatic that neither Mr. Clinton nor anyone else in the campaign had given up on Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, and they emphasized that no efforts were being made to position Mrs. Clinton to be the running mate with the Illinois senator.

"Senator Clinton is solely focused on being the Democratic nominee," said Howard Wolfson , the Clinton campaign’s communications director. "I have seen no interest on her part in being vice president."

The chief strategist for the Obama campaign, David Axelrod, said Thursday that no overtures had been made by Mr. Clinton or any prominent supporters to place Mrs. Clinton on the ticket.

"There have been no contacts between the campaigns, and no one is looking for a deal of any kind," Mr. Axelrod said in an interview. "She’s running for the nomination for president, as we are. We’re focusing on closing out the nominating fight. We’ll deal with vice presidential questions in sequence."

Mr. Obama has asked a tight circle of advisers to set up a confidential search for prospective running mates, with a goal of having an early list of names to begin sifting through shortly after the final two primaries on June 3.

With the Democratic National Convention three months away, Mr. Obama is already about two months behind the period when preliminary vetting would normally have begun. The search will be guided by Jim Johnson, a longtime Democratic hand in Washington.

Mr. Johnson, who is a vice chairman of the Obama campaign, led the vice presidential searches for Senator John Kerry , Democrat of Massachusetts, in 2004 and for Walter F. Mondale in 1984. In recent weeks, officials said, he started to compile information — largely biographical and political — for a list of potential running mates.

Democratic officials on Thursday discussed Mr. Johnson’s role on condition of anonymity because Mr. Obama had demanded that the process be kept secret and they did not want him to know they were talking about it. Advisers to Mr. Obama declined to discuss the search or any elements of the process.

Mr. Obama declined on Thursday to discuss the role Mr. Johnson would be playing.

"I haven’t hired him," Mr. Obama told reporters at the Capitol. "He’s not on retainer. I’m not paying him any money. He is a friend of mine. I know him. I am not commenting on vice presidential matters because I have not won this nomination."

Mr. Obama, who this week crossed the threshold of winning a majority of pledged delegates, intends to wait until next month before declaring victory in the Democratic nominating fight.

A wide array of Democrats — from Congress, governor’s offices, the military and the private sector — will be included on an early list of possible ticket mates. Mr. Obama has told his associates that he wants to keep an open mind and to cast a wide net, even possibly including independents or Republicans.

The growing discussion about a ticket of Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton is largely being fueled by Clinton supporters, although it is a suggestion that Obama supporters do not dismiss. Also expected to be included on a list will be most of the former Democratic presidential candidates — Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut.

Prominent supporters of Mrs. Clinton also are sure to be included, like Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio.

Jerry Crawford, a Des Moines lawyer who is the Midwest co-chairman of the Clinton campaign, said in an interview Thursday that he supported the notion of Mrs. Clinton serving as a vice presidential candidate for Mr. Obama should he become the nominee. Mr. Crawford said he was "freelancing" and had not spoken with the Clintons about it, but he called the partnership "more of an irresistible force than either of them alone."

Some Democratic supporters of Mrs. Clinton said Thursday that it was premature to talk about slotting her as Mr. Obama’s running mate.

"I can see it happening, though I still like the idea of Clinton-Obama much more," said Denny Farrell, a New York assemblyman who is a convention superdelegate .

The idea of an Obama-Clinton ticket is on the minds of some voters, too.

At the end of a meeting with voters Thursday in Boca Raton, Fla., a man asked whether Mr. Obama would consider picking any candidate, even someone who might be challenging to him.

"Two weeks from now, we will know who wins the Democratic nomination," Mr. Obama replied. "I don’t want to jump the gun. I will tell you though that my goal is to have the best possible government — and that means me winning. So I am very practical-minded guy."

Pistons prove Celtics are beatable in Boston

BOSTON (AP) - Home wins are no longer good enough for the Boston Celtics. The road to the NBA finals in the Eastern Conference now goes through Detroit.

Richard Hamilton bounced back from a poor series opener with 25 points, and the Pistons beat Boston 103-97 Thursday night, tying the conference finals at one game apiece and seizing the home-court advantage that has meant everything to the Celtics.

"It is even," forward Rasheed Wallace said. "We don't sit back and say, 'Oh, look. They are undefeated at home,' or 'They didn't win a game on the road.' ... A lot of the teams they played in the postseason and the regular season were scared of them, as far as KG and Ray and Paul. They are good players, but we have good players, also."

Kevin Garnett had 24 points and 13 rebounds for the Celtics, who lost at home for the first time since March 24 against Phoenix. No team has reached the finals without a road victory, and there's no longer a chance for Boston to be the first.

"I fully believe, and I've said many times, at some point we're going to have to win on the road," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "We've gotten away with it thus far. That's been taken away. And if we want what we want, we have to win on the road and that's just the way it is."

Chauncey Billups had 19 points and seven assists, and his rookie backup, Rodney Stuckey hit some clutch jumpers in the fourth quarter and added 13 points for the Pistons, who host Game 3 on Saturday.

"The atmosphere's going to be crazy," Hamilton said. "We're geeked about getting back to our home court. The fans are excited, and now it's our job to take care of home court."

Paul Pierce scored 26 points for the Celtics, who had won 15 straight at home and gone 9-0 in the playoffs. But the only record that matters now is 0-6 - their playoff road mark.

"We have no choice now but to get it done on the road," Pierce said.

Ray Allen broke out of a shooting slump with 25 points, his best performance in three months. But he was limited to 29 minutes by foul trouble, picking up his fifth foul with 3:09 left in the third quarter after his flurry had given Boston the lead.

"I would rather be sitting here saying I can't make a shot but we won the game," Allen said. "I knew at some point my shot had to drop."

Antonio McDyess scored 15 points, Tayshaun Prince had 14, and Wallace had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Pistons, who were rusty in Game 1 but found their groove in the second quarter of this one, shooting 49 percent against the league's best defensive team.

The Pistons led 86-75 after Stuckey's jumper with 8:05 remaining.

Allen had seven points, including his first 3-pointer since Game 5 of the second round, during a 13-4 run that cut it to 90-88 with 4:39 to play.

Later, Boston was down four and forced Detroit to call time with the shot clock about to run out, but then blew the defensive assignment and left Billups alone for a layup on the inbounds. Detroit led 100-94 with 18 seconds left.

Another 3 by Allen cut it to three, but Wallace hit a free throw on the other end. The Pistons were 28-of-32 (87.5 percent) from the line.

Billups was limited to nine points in Game 1, his first action since straining his right hamstring early in Game 3 against Orlando in the second round.

He shed the tights he wore in the opener and came out aggressively, drawing a foul on the first possession and hitting two free throws. He added two free throws later in the first quarter when he appeared to create contact while attempting a 3-pointer by kicking the Celtics' Eddie House in the groin.

"One thing I told Chaunce, you ain't got to be overaggressive out there," Hamilton said. "You can take your time and be the captain of our ship, and we'll try to do a good job of helping you out."

The Celtics missed their first six shots in the second quarter and didn't make a field goal until James Posey's 3-pointer with 7:03 left that tied it at 27. McDyess scored the next five points and the Pistons led the remainder of the half, opening a 50-43 lead at the break.

Allen was limited to 11 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble. He picked up his third with 8:41 to go and didn't play again until coming in when the Celtics had the ball in the final seconds of the half.

Boston stormed out of the half with a 15-4 surge, featuring eight points from Allen in his best stretch in a while, to open a 58-54 lead. The Pistons steadied themselves with 3-pointers by Hamilton, Wallace and Billups to regain the lead, and Allen later had to return to the bench when he picked up his fourth and fifth fouls.

"It's sometimes the basketball gods," Rivers said. "Things are going well and then he picks up his fourth and fifth. I took the gamble on it and actually lost."

Detroit went 4-of-5 from behind the arc in the quarter, with Wallace's 3 with 7.1 seconds left sending the Pistons to the final period with a 78-69 lead.

Notes

After a review, the NBA upgraded a foul Hamilton committed on Garnett early in the fourth quarter of Game 1 to a flagrant foul, penalty one on Thursday. Hamilton appeared to throw an elbow at Garnett's head while being picked. "It was instinct, it was flagrant. I can tell you that, we thought that at the time," Rivers said before the game. "But again, Rip's a good guy, great guy, and it's an emotional game, that kind of stuff happens." ... New England QB Tom Brady and girlfriend Giselle Bundchen watched from seats behind the baseline. ... Hamilton played in his 112th playoff game, tying Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars for second on the franchise's career list. He will tie Bill Laimbeer's team mark in Game 3.

Kevin Garnett leads Celtics past Pistons, 88-79

BOSTON - Not even a week of rest could prepare the Detroit Pistons for the hottest home team in the NBA. Kevin Garnett had 26 points and nine rebounds and Paul Pierce scored 22 points Tuesday night to lead Boston to an 88-79 victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics' 15th straight home win.

Kendrick Perkins had 10 rebounds and Rajon Rondo added 11 points and seven assists for Boston, which earned home court through the playoffs with a league-best 66-16 regular season record. The Celtics rode that advantage to seven-game series victories over Atlanta and Cleveland and held serve in the opener against Detroit.

Game 2 is in Boston on Thursday night.

Tayshaun Prince scored 16 points, and Antonio McDyess added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Pistons.

Chauncey Billups, who missed most of the last three games of Detroit's Eastern Conference semifinal against Orlando because of a strained right hamstring, had nine points and two assists and went about 40 minutes between baskets.

Billups and the rest of the Pistons were able to rest the past week after they eliminated the Magic in five games to advance to the conference finals for the sixth straight year. They looked rusty early, missing their first five shots while allowing Boston to take an 8-0 lead on Ray Allen's drive with 8:36 left in the first.

Billups hit a second-chance 3-pointer to end the drought and make it 8-3. But he did not make another field goal — he had four points and no assists in the first half — until there was 4:47 left in the game.

The Pistons quickly erased the first-quarter lead, even going ahead 13-12. But they trailed 41-40 at halftime and scored just 17 points in the third quarter, 10 from Richard Hamilton, while the Celtics took a 69-57 lead on Eddie House's 3-pointer with 2 seconds left.

Notes:@ Allen, who shot only 33 percent in the second-round series against Cleveland, was 3-for-10 from the field. ... The Pistons are 3-3 on the road in the playoffs. ... Hamilton, Detroit's leading scorer in the playoffs, had just three points in the first half and finished with 15. ... New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick was at the game, sitting near the Pistons bench. He received a rousing ovation and a chant of "Bel-i-chick!" every time he was shown on the scoreboard. ... Detroit, which set an NBA record with just three turnovers in its series-clinching win last week against Orlando, had three in the first quarter and seven in the third.

Lowe's Motor Speedway chief Humpy Wheeler retiring

CONCORD, N.C. - Humpy Wheeler announced his retirement as president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway on Wednesday, ending a 33-year career as one of NASCAR's top promoters.

Wheeler will step down after Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at the track near Charlotte. No replacement was selected for the 69-year-old Wheeler, who plans to write a book and host a television show.

Wheeler said he first considered retirement about a year ago, although he sidestepped a question on whether the decision to leave was completely his. Wheeler's boss is Speedway Motorsports CEO Bruton Smith, who hired Wheeler in 1975 and made him track president a year later. Smith was not present at Wednesday's news conference.

"Some of it is on my own terms. I won't say it all is," Wheeler said. "Some of it is and I'll let it rest at that."

Reached at his office Wednesday afternoon, Smith denied he forced Wheeler out.

"Six months ago we had a meeting and he told me then that he had discussed retiring," Smith said. "He was laying the groundwork quite some time ago. It was not unexpected."

Wheeler joked that his retirement announcement wasn't simply a gimmick to sell tickets for this weekend's race, before adding, "but if it does, that's OK."

Wheeler has done almost everything to get fans to his track. He employed magicians, used back-flipping dogs, re-enacted war scenes in elaborate pre-race shows and emphasized driver rivalries to sell the sport and make his track one of the premier locations in NASCAR.

"We did a lot of things to try to make it better for the fans, and he did a lot of that," Smith said.

Wheeler was also behind several of the sport's innovations. To prevent NASCAR from moving the All-Star race to Richmond, Va., Wheeler vowed to make his track the first superspeedway to erect lights. The NASCAR Sprint All-Star race has made LMS its permanent home, and is now run on Saturday nights.

LMS, formerly Charlotte Motor Speedway, was also the first major track to reach a naming rights deal. Under his management, the track expanded its seating capacity to 167,000, and was the first track to offer extensive VIP suites, condominiums and extravagant pre-race entertainment.

"People that don't even know his name became NASCAR fans solely due to Humpy's creative promotions," said Eddie Gossage, president of Texas Motor Speedway, who tutored under Wheeler. "I know that I am a far better promoter as a result of being a graduate of 'Humpy University.'"

A tireless worker and cutthroat negotiator, Wheeler spent countless hours at the track and befriended numerous drivers. He was known as a stickler for details and was a calm influence during tragedy.

Wheeler's lowest point came in 1999, when three spectators were killed and eight others injured from flying debris after a wreck during an Indy Racing League event. Wheeler immediately canceled the rest of the race and the IRL has yet to return to the track.

"As long as I was running the place there would not have been another one here," Wheeler said.

Wheeler also helped develop other forms of racing. He was instrumental in the creation of the Legends Car and said he hopes to develop another low-cost car that will help make sure talented drivers don't miss out on the sport because of the cost.

"The biggest thing that worries me about racing in the future is we don't get the great race drivers," Wheeler said. "That we leave out the next Kyle Busch or the next Dale Earnhardt Sr. because a guy can't afford to race and gets stuck in the cornfields of Iowa."

He'll have no consulting role with the track after Sunday's finale. Wheeler will become the chairman of the Charlotte Regional Partnership in 2009 and could be considered for a post at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which is scheduled to open in 2010 in downtown Charlotte.

"It's just one of those things. It's time to go," Wheeler said. "It's not something I'm really looking forward to. But there just comes a time and place when you've got to move on."

Ties between Dolphins, Jason Taylor all but severed

MIAMI - The feud between Jason Taylor and Bill Parcells intensified Wednesday, making it likely the six-time Pro Bowl defensive end has played his last game for the Miami Dolphins.

Coach Tony Sparano said Taylor isn't expected to take part in any team activities through training camp. The revelation came less than 24 hours after Taylor finished second to Kristi Yamaguchi in the finals of "Dancing With the Stars" in Los Angeles.

For weeks the new Dolphins regime, led by Parcells, has fumed while Taylor spent his offseason focused on his budding Hollywood career rather than back in South Florida working out with teammates.

Following a voluntary team practice Wednesday — with only Taylor missing — Sparano signaled the Dolphins are ready to move on without their top defender.

"I'm glad we know this. We've gotten the information, and that's important," Sparano said. "I know that Jason is not going to be in any minicamps, and I know that right now Jason is not going to be at training camp.

"So that's what we know. Jason's a player under contract with the Miami Dolphins. He knows that. Both parties are well aware of the information. That's all I'm going to say about it. ... We need to discuss the current players on our team right now that have been busting their butt for nine weeks here."

While Sparano implied that Taylor initiated the latest development in the soap opera, the coach declined to be more specific. Taylor and his camp were mum about the situation.

In a recent interview, Taylor said he was unhappy he had talked "probably less than a minute each" with Parcells and new general manager Jeff Ireland, which he perceived as silent treatment. But the 33-year-old Taylor said he still planned to play this season.

"I want to win, period, and I would love to win in Miami," he said Saturday from Los Angeles. "There are a lot of things out here going on, and a lot of opportunities coming up, but the plan is to play. Football is still my priority. I still have a passion to play football."

Taylor was in New York on Wednesday for post-"Dancing" network TV appearances. He planned to fly back to Los Angeles for meetings Friday with executives of Universal and Warner Bros., while the Dolphins hold a voluntary three-day minicamp this weekend.

A mandatory minicamp is scheduled June 6-8. Taylor is expected to return to South Florida by June 2, when he hosts a charity golf tournament.

Taylor was the lone Pro Bowl player for the Dolphins last season, when they went 1-15. Defensive tackle Vonnie Holliday, who is close to Taylor, said his friend's absence isn't a distraction for the other players.

"All they want to know is if and when he's coming back," Holliday said. "That's the only issues we have with JT right now."

Taylor has been plotting a Hollywood career since joining the Dolphins as a rookie in 1997, and he envisions himself in the kind of action roles that made Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson a movie star.

Taylor was the subject of trade speculation throughout NFL draft weekend, but at the time, Ireland denied the Dolphins were eager to part with him. Jacksonville Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio said his team pursued a deal, but the Dolphins took Taylor off the trading block.

Owner Wayne Huizenga has said the team's open to trading Taylor. Last month Miami drafted two defensive ends as potential replacements — Clemson's Phillip Merling in the second round, and Hampton's Kendall Langford in the third round.

Taylor had 11 sacks last season to increase his career total to 117, third among active players, and he was chosen NFL Man of the Year.

Marlins end Arizona's Webb's winning streak

MIAMI - The surprising Florida Marlins used a brazen bunt to help end Brandon Webb's winning streak. Florida scored its first run on a suicide squeeze, and Ricky Nolasco allowed only three hits over seven innings to beat Webb and the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-1 on Wednesday night.

Webb (9-1) was bidding to become only the third pitcher since World War I to win his first 10 starts. Instead, he left for a pinch hitter after allowing six hits and three runs in seven innings.

Matt Treanor bunted in a run for a 1-1 tie in the fifth inning, and Cody Ross followed with a homer. Stephen Drew hit his sixth homer for the Diamondbacks, but that's all the offense they could muster against Nolasco (3-3).

Florida won for the second straight night in the matchup of first-place teams. The NL West-leading Diamondbacks came into the series with the best record in the majors, but they have totaled three runs and 10 hits in the first two games against the Marlins, who lead the NL East despite baseball's lowest payroll.

Arizona had runners at the corners with one out in the eighth, but Matt Lindstrom struck out Orlando Hudson and Conor Jackson. Kevin Gregg completed the four-hitter with a perfect ninth for his second save in as many nights, and his ninth in 10 chances.

The Diamondbacks struck out 11 times.

Webb retired the first 11 batters and took a 1-0 lead into the fifth, when the Marlins scored twice to take the lead. Luis Gonzalez tripled with one out, then took off on a 1-0 pitch as Treanor bunted up the first-base line. Gonzalez scored standing up and Treanor was tagged out.

Ross then hit his fifth homer, pulling a 2-0 pitch over the scoreboard. It was only the third home run allowed by Webb this season.

Florida added a run in the seventh on Dan Uggla's double and a single by Gonzalez.

Drew homered to lead off the fourth and had three of Arizona's four hits.

The Marlins won without slumping shortstop Hanley Ramirez, held out of the lineup for the first time this season. Ramirez, who signed a $70 million, six-year contract extension Saturday, was 1-for-15 with 10 strikeouts in the past four games.

Notes:@ Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy wore a Marlins T-shirt to the game and visited beforehand with Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez, a longtime friend. ... Over the past five games, the Diamondbacks are 1-for-40 the first time through the order with 14 strikeouts.

Manchester United wins European Champions League

MOSCOW - Manchester United beat Chelsea 6-5 in a rain-soaked penalty shootout to win the European Champions League title Wednesday night following a 1-1 tie.

In the first final between two English teams, Edwin van der Sar batted away Nicolas Anelka's drive on the 14th kick to give Manchester United its third Champions League title. This championship, following titles in 1968 and 1999, came in the 50th anniversary year of the plane crash that killed eight United players in Munich, Germany.

Cristiano Ronaldo had scored in the 26th minute for Manchester United, his 42nd goal of the season. Frank Lampard tied it for Chelsea in the 45th at Luzhniki Stadium, pointing both hands skyward in honor of his mother, who died last month.

Ronaldo, considered by many Europe's top player this season, was stopped by goalkeeper Petr Cech on United's third penalty kick. That gave the advantage to Chelsea, which has never won Europe's top club title.

"When we missed the penalty kick, we thought we were in trouble," said United's Alex Ferguson, who led the club to its 22nd title overall since he became manager in September 1986.

Chelsea captain John Terry stepped up with the score 4-4 and the chance to win it. But he slipped and his kick hit a post as Manchester keeper Edwin van der Sar dived the other way. Terry sat on the ground in disbelief.

"I was thinking he's going to score," United defender Rio Ferdinand said of Terry, his defensive teammate on the England squad. "He's a great penalty taker normally. but he slipped."

Anderson and Ryan Giggs — making his club-record 759th appearance — then converted for United around Salomon Kalou's score for Chelsea.

That left it up to Anelka, whose failure at just past 1:30 a.m. set off another celebration for the Red Devils, who 10 days earlier won their second straight English Premier League title by beating out Chelsea on the final day of the season.

While his teammates ran to congratulate Van der Sar in front of the United fans behind the goal, Ronaldo lay face down in the center circle. Eventually he got up to join in the celebrations.

Terry was in tears at the end and was hugged and consoled by coach Avram Grant, who appeared to throw his runners-up medal toward Chelsea fans.

Carlos Tevez, Michael Carrick, Owen Hargreaves and Nani scored the other kicks for the Red Devils. Michael Ballack, Juliano Belletti, Lampard, Ashley Cole converted for Chelsea.

Manchester United won its first European title since it was purchased three years ago by Malcolm Glazer, whose Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the 2003 Super Bowl.

Chelsea, which has become a European power under high-spending Russian owner Roman Abramovich, finished with 10 men after Didier Drogba was ejected in the 116th minute for petulantly tapping Nemanja Vidic in the face with his hand.

Only the pre-game opening ceremony made it look like Moscow. After that it could have been Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge or Wembley as players so familiar with each other were roared on by English fans.

The first 25 minutes, however, were a poor advertisement for the Premier League as Chelsea stifled United's efforts to create moves and the action got stuck in the midfield.

Ronaldo, poorly marked by Michael Essien, Ronaldo headed in a cross from Wes Brown, who had neatly swapped passes with Paul Scholes on the right wing. Ronaldo scored a Champions League-leading eight goals in 11 matches, and his season total was third in United history behind Denis Law (46 in 1963-64) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (44 in 2002-3).

Chelsea equalized when Essien's shot hit defenders Vidic and Ferdinand, and the ball dropped to the unmarked Lampard, who scored from 12 yards.

Lampard hit the crossbar in the fourth minute of injury time with a left-footed shot from 15 yards. Giggs, who broke Bobby Charlton's record for United appearances, nearly broke the tie in the 100th but Terry deflected the shot with his head.

Kobe, Lakers come back to win Game 1 over Spurs

LOS ANGELES - Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers waited until the third quarter to get going. Once they did, the San Antonio Spurs couldn't stop them. Bryant scored all but two of his 27 points after halftime, including a go-ahead, 10-foot jumper in the lane with 23.9 seconds remaining, and the Lakers rallied from a 20-point deficit to beat the Spurs 89-85 on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.

Game 2 will be played Friday night before the best-of-seven series shifts to San Antonio for the third and fourth games. The Lakers are 7-0 in the postseason at Staples Center, where they've won 13 straight games overall.

Bryant's jumper put the Lakers ahead for good after two free throws by Manu Ginobili with 1:22 remaining and a follow shot by Tim Duncan with 41 seconds left tied the game at 85. After Bryant's game-winner, Ginobili missed a 3-pointer and Sasha Vujacic made two free throws with 7.3 seconds to go, completing the scoring.

The Lakers outscored the Spurs 24-13 in the fourth quarter, when San Antonio shot 3-for-21, including 1-for-9 from 3-point range.

"We almost gave up home-court advantage to a great effort by the Spurs," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "That was a big comeback. We were deep in the hole, there was no doubt about it. Twenty down and half the quarter gone in the third period. It was a struggle to fight back into the ballgame by the end of the third quarter."

Bryant also had five rebounds and nine assists. Pau Gasol had 19 points and seven rebounds, and Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovic scored 10 points apiece for the Lakers.

Duncan led the Spurs with 30 points, 18 rebounds and four blocked shots. Tony Parker added 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists; Bruce Bowen scored 12 points, and Ginobili added 10 for the Spurs.

Ginobili shot just 3-for-13, and Jackson credited Vujacic for his defensive work on the Spurs' star.

"Sasha had an assignment out there tonight and he played Ginobili very well," Jackson said. "Offensively, Sasha had a lot better games, but defensively, that was one of his best."

Vujacic played a career playoff-high 31 1/2 minutes.

"Obviously a difficult loss and we had a great opportunity," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "We didn't take advantage of it. Hurts like hell."

The well-rested Lakers hadn't played since Friday, when they beat Utah to advance to the conference finals for the first time in four years. The Spurs advanced by winning at New Orleans three nights later, but their flight to Los Angeles was delayed several hours and they didn't arrive at their hotel in suburban Santa Monica until Tuesday morning around 9 a.m.

Popovich said that had nothing to do with his team's difficulties late in the game.

"They probably wore us down to some degree, I'm sure," he said. "And then, with that, we made very poor decisions. The ball stopped moving. Shots at the end of the clock, no penetration to the rim, all jump shots and they deserve credit for that and they came back and had a hell of a win."

Two straight baskets by Bryant cut San Antonio's lead to three points with eight minutes remaining. Bowen made a 3-pointer with 7:38 left, but the Spurs went stone cold at that stage, going scoreless for nearly 6 1/2 minutes.

The Lakers took advantage, scoring 10 straight points to take their first lead of the game. Bryant put them ahead for the first time by making two foul shots with 2:42 left, and added a jumper 24 seconds later following a turnover to make it 85-81.

The Spurs outscored the Lakers 14-2 to start the third quarter for a 65-45 lead, drawing groans from the crowd of 18,997 at Staples Center, where the Lakers haven't lost since March 28.

Suddenly, the Lakers came together, scoring 14 straight points in a span of 3:05 to draw within six. Bryant had seven points and two assists during the run.

Ginobili's 3-pointer ended a four-minute scoreless drought, and the Spurs led 72-65 entering the fourth quarter.

Duncan dominated the inside in the first half, getting 16 points and nine rebounds as the Spurs took a 51-43 lead.

Shadowed by Bowen wherever he went, Bryant scored only two points in the half, making one of three shots and going without a free throw. He averaged 33.3 points and 13.4 attempts from the foul line in the Lakers' previous 10 playoff games. Jackson joked after the third quarter that Bryant had been on vacation.

Backcourt mate Derek Fisher, averaging 11.9 points in the playoffs, went scoreless until the fourth quarter, when he scored four.

Radmanovic, averaging 8.2 points in the postseason, made five shots without a miss for 10 points in the first quarter, but didn't attempt a shot after that.

Notes:@ The Lakers are 52-7 when winning Game 1 in a best-of-seven series. ... The Lakers have beaten the Spurs in seven of their previous 10 postseason matchups, including all three in the conference finals. ... The teams are meeting in the playoffs for the sixth time since 1999, but the first since 2004, when the Lakers prevailed in six games in the conference semifinals. The Lakers didn't win a postseason series from 2005-07. ... Jackson has an NBA-record 188 postseason wins, while Popovich has 100, tied for the third-most in league history with Larry Brown. Pat Riley is second at 171. ... Jackson-coached teams are 40-0 when they win the opener of a seven-game series. ... San Antonio's Robert Horry has won seven championship rings — two with Houston, three with the Lakers and two with the Spurs. ... The Lakers have won 17 of their last 19 Game 1 home playoff games, and 19 of their last 22 home playoff games overall.

The Secret Medical Records of Presidential Candidates

Senator Paul Tsongas had a secret when he ran in the 1992 Democratic presidential primary - his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma had returned despite a bone-marrow transplant. Yet Tsongas and his physicians continued to claim he was "cancer-free" and his true medical condition became public only after his campaign folded. Had voters elected him president instead of Bill Clinton, Tsongas would have endured crippling cancer treatments and died in office, as he did just a few years later. "I don't know if he could have even gone to the inauguration. It would have been a public policy disaster," says Robert Gilbert, a political science professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass.

As the 2008 presidential race wears on, the medical records of presidential candidates remain shielded by federal law. None are legally required to disclose any medical conditions when running for commander in chief. But a number of historians, bioethics scholars and physicians have argued that medical privacy should not allow presidential candidates to hide serious health problems from voters.

"If you get on a plane, that pilot gets a physical every six months," observes Dr. James Toole, a professor of neurology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. Presidential candidates "need physicals," particularly mental health examinations, Toole says, to hold them accountable to voters. At least ten sitting presidents suffered from some mental disorder while in office, according to a 2006 study in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.

Some current and past candidates have gone public with certain medical conditions. Senator John McCain's campaign released thousands of pages of medical records relating to the candidate's mental health in the 2000 presidential election, and the senator has said he will do the same in 2008 when he turns 72.

Experts likewise suggest that a voluntary agreement on medical disclosure could provide a starting point for candidates to informally agree on some election ground rules.

Yet voluntary disclosure is a somewhat "perverse" system that only encourages presidential candidates to reveal health problems when they don't matter, says Robert Streiffer, a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Expecting presidential candidates to come clean with medical conditions that would jeopardize their chances of winning over the public is naïve, says Streiffer, especially if history serves as any guide.

Tsongas wasn't the first presidential candidate - or president - to hide a serious ailment. President Woodrow Wilson concealed the fact that he had three minor strokes leading up to his run for the presidency. In 1919, after guiding the United States through World War I and attempting to set up the predecessor organization to the United Nations, Wilson suffered a massive stroke that left him paralyzed and blinded on the left side of his body for the remainder of his second term.

"He was operating with great difficulty. He couldn't have a cabinet meeting for nine months," notes Robert Gilbert, who wrote several books on presidential illness. When Wilson's vice president refused to take over, Wilson limped along in his presidential duties with the help of his wife, Edith, who decided which issues deserved the president's attention.

As a presidential candidate, Wilson's deception about his earlier strokes resulted in the "disenfranchisement of the entire American people," according to Streiffer. He coauthored a 2006 article in the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy along with several philosophers and a physician suggesting that presidential candidates have a moral duty to reveal certain medical conditions. The idea is that voters have the right to an informed consent of the governed, which includes knowing any relevant conditions that would seriously affect how a president may perform in office.

At least one option now exists so that a president's illness - whether concealed prior to the presidency or acquired during office - does not leave the nation rudderless. The 25th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed following President John F. Kennedy's assassination to provide emergency options, such as the vice president taking over temporarily when the president is stricken.

Former President Carter pushed further for the creation of a "nonpartisan group" of physicians to help decide when a president's illness affects his judgment. In 1993, he published a speech in the Journal of the American Medical Association that led to the formation of the Working Group on Presidential Disability, consisting of scholars and physicians. "Doctors of previous presidents all said it [presidential disability] was a terrible problem," says Toole, who helped get former presidents Carter and Ford interested in the issue.

Toole and many physicians in the working group liked the idea of a nonpartisan medical panel. Sitting presidents customarily go through an annual physical with personal physicians, but the examination is not legally required. A similar process could also be applied to presidential aspirants in order to "certify that candidates are grade A," says Toole.

But Robert Gilbert is more cautious. As another former member of the working group, he fears such a medical panel could easily become politicized during election season. "What happens if the panel's doctors disagree?" he asks. "Suppose there was a 4-3 vote? It would undermine the presidency." Perhaps the 2000 election quagmire, decided by a 5-4 vote in the U.S. Supreme Court, serves as a reminder of how independent panels can be seen as undercutting rather than helping safeguard the right to decide who becomes president.

Congress did not follow up or act on the temporary Working Group for Presidential Disability's suggestions, leaving the situation still muddied today. The uncertainty even creates the opposite problem of voters struggling to sort through too much irrelevant medical information. The news media loves following up on every medical tidbit among the remaining presidential candidates, particularly focusing on Senator John McCain's age and past medical history of skin cancer, enlarged prostate and wartime wounds.

None of the experts interviewed for this article think those health issues should count against McCain in his bid for the presidency . However, that did not stop former Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee from sniping at McCain's age - whether through ads or through campaign trail surrogates such as Chuck Norris. Health gossip might make for juicy headlines and provide ammunition for political mudslinging, but it can also distract from the serious question of whether a candidate is capable of being president.

"Candidates have a lot of information that should be private, and you're putting them at a real disadvantage by forcing them to disclose everything," warns Wisconsin's Streiffer. Gilbert and Toole agree that forcing presidential candidates to reveal all details of their medical records would leave voters "buried under a landslide" of irrelevant medical information - and that would go against the goal of making elections more transparent.

"It seems to me if someone is really convinced that a medical condition - physical or psychological - would have an impact on the office, then they would have an obligation to reveal that condition, but only then," says Gilbert. "Everyone has privacy rights, and candidates have privacy rights too."

This article is provided by Scienceline, a project of New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. Jeremy Hsu is a staff writer for LiveScience.com.

Australian dilemma: too many kangaroos, too few devils

Researchers are trying to battle a cancer epidemic among Tasmanian devils, and on Wednesday they were listed as endangered. At the same time, an abundance of kangaroos has prompted the government to begin administering lethal injections to 400 of the animals.

Protesters have vowed to seek a court injunction to stop the slaughter of the eastern gray kangaroos, which are viewed as sacred symbols by Australia's indigenous people.

Scientists say the kangaroos' rapidly growing population threatens their survival, as well as that of some reptiles and insects that share their grassy habitat.

Police on Wednesday charged eight Aboriginal activists with trespassing on the Canberra site where the kangaroos are being killed. The activists hope to persuade officials to relocate the animals; the Defense Department says that would be too costly.

Canberra's local government leader, Jon Stanhope, said he understands that the killings distress many people. But he said more than 3.5 million kangaroos are commercially shot in the Outback each year. The meat is served in restaurants and is also used in pet food.

Pat O'Brien — president of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, whose patrons are the family of the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin — said government leaders miss the point.

"Shooting millions of kangaroos doesn't make it right," he said. "The national capital has a chance to lead by example and show that Australia has moved beyond solving all our wildlife management problems with a gun."

While the kangaroo population is growing, another Australian favorite — the Tasmanian devil — is threatened by a contagious cancer that has cut its population by up to 60 percent in a decade.

The disease, which causes disfiguring facial tumors, has spread so quickly that scientists last year estimated there might be no disease-free animals in the southern island state of Tasmania within five years.

The government of Tasmania, the only place where the devils exist in the wild, on Wednesday reclassified the animal from vulnerable to endangered status.

The change qualifies Tasmanian devils for greater government conservation aid and adds pressure on the federal government to revise its threatened species list.

"We are committed to finding an answer and saving the Tasmanian devil for Tasmanians and the world," state Primary Industries Minister David Llewellyn said in a statement.

Early European settlers named the devil for its spine-chilling screeches and reputed bad temper, and it gained fame as the Looney Tunes cartoon character Taz. Its larger cousin, the Tasmanian tiger, which like all marsupials carried its young in a pouch, was hunted to extinction in the 20th century.

Veterinarian Hugh Wirth, former president of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, said Australians have become more concerned about wildlife in the past 20 years.

He accused Defense Department officials of ignoring the growing kangaroo population until the animals were at risk of starvation.

"Impossibly high numbers have been allowed to develop, and then you have a mass slaughter. That's not close management and it's intolerable," Wirth said. "In a decade's time, we'll have another slaughter."

Dinosaur tracks found on Arabian Peninsula

The discovery of tracks of a large ornithopod dinosaur and a herd of 11 sauropods walking along a coastal mudflat in Yemen was reported in Wednesday's issue of the journal PLoS ONE.

"No dinosaur trackways had been found in this area previously. It's really a blank spot on the map," said Anne Schulp of the Maastricht Museum of Natural History in The Netherlands.

Only a few dinosaur fossils have been reported on the peninsula, including isolated bones from Oman and possible fragments of a long-necked dinosaur from Yemen, Schulp said.

Schulp conducted the study with Ohio University paleontologist Nancy Stevens and Mohammed Al-Wosabi of Sana'a University in Yemen.

Preserved in rocks at the site are the footprints of 11 small and large sauropods — long-necked, herbivorous dinosaurs that lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods — traveling together at the same speed.

A Yemeni journalist spotted one of the trackways in 2003. Stevens, Al-Wosabi and Schulp identified it as the footprint of an ornithopod, a large, common plant-eater that walked on its hind legs.

"It's an exciting find largely because it comes from a part of the world that is poorly known in terms of its vertebrate Mesozoic record," said Peter Makovicky, associate curator of dinosaurs at The Field Museum in Chicago. "This is part of the world with little body fossil record."

Scientists witness start of star's explosive death

On Jan. 9, astronomers used a NASA X-ray satellite to spy on a star already well into its death throes, when another star in the same galaxy started to explode. The outburst was 100 billion times brighter than Earth's sun. The scientists were able to get several ground-based telescopes to join in the early viewing and the first results were published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

"A star exploded right before my eyes," lead author Alicia Soderberg, an astrophysics researcher at Princeton University, said Wednesday in a teleconference.

She likened it to "winning the astronomy lottery. We caught the whole thing from start-to-finish on tape."

Another scientist, University of California at Berkeley astronomy professor Alex Filippenko, called it a "very special moment because this is the birth, in a sense, of the death of a star."

And what a death blast it is.

"As much energy is released in one second by the death of a star as by all of the other stars you can see in the visible universe," Filippenko said.

Less than 1 percent of the stars in the universe will die this way, in a supernova, said Filippenko, who has written a separate paper awaiting publication. Most stars, including our sun, will get stronger and then slowly fade into white dwarfs, what Filippenko likes to call "retired stars," which produce little energy.

The first explosion of this supernova can only be seen in the X-ray wave length. It was spotted by NASA's Swift satellite, which looks at X-rays, and happened to be focused on the right region, Soderberg said. The blast was so bright it flooded the satellite's instrument, giving it a picture akin to "pointing your digital camera at the sun," she said.

Soderberg said that by seeing it live in X-rays, astronomers on Earth learned of the supernova about a month before they normally would.

The chances of two simultaneous supernovae explosions so close to each other is maybe 1 in 10,000, Soderberg said. The odds of looking at them at the right time with the right telescope are, well, astronomical.

Add to that the serendipity of the Berkeley team viewing the same region with an optical light telescope. It took pictures of the star about three hours before it exploded.

This new glimpse of a supernova seems to confirm decades-old theories on how stars explode and die, not providing many surprises, scientists said. That makes the findings "a cool thing," but not one that fundamentally changes astrophysics, said University of California, Santa Cruz astrophysicist Stan Woosley, who wasn't part of the research.

The galaxy with the dual explosions is a run-of-the-mill cluster of stars, not too close and not too far from the Milky Way in cosmic terms, Soderberg said. The galaxy, NGC2770, is about 100 million light years away. One light year is 5.9 trillion miles.

The star that exploded was only about 10 million years old. It was the same size in diameter as the sun, but about 10 to 20 times more dense.

"The big stars live fast and die young," said Harvard astronomy professor Robert Kirshner. "We don't know if they leave a beautiful corpse."

The death of this star went through stages, with the core getting heavier in successive nuclear reactions and atomic particles being shed out toward the cosmos, Filippenko said. It started out in its normal life with hydrogen being converted to helium, which is what is happening in our sun. The helium then converts to oxygen and carbon, and into heavier and heavier elements until it turns into iron.

That's when the star core becomes so heavy it collapses in on itself, and the supernova starts with a shock wave of particles piercing through the shell of the star, which is what the Soderberg team captured on x-rays.

People at home can simulate how this shockwave works, Filippenko said.

Take a basketball and a tennis ball, get about five feet above the ground and rest the tennis ball on top of the basketball. Drop them together and the tennis ball will soar on the bounce. The basketball is the collapsing core and the tennis ball is the shockwave that was seen by astronomers, he said.

Big Oil defends profits before irate senators

WASHINGTON - On a day oil prices leaped to unheard-of highs, senators lined up Big Oil's biggest executives and pummeled them with complaints that they're pretending to be "hapless victims" while raking in record profits.

"Where is the corporate conscience?" Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked the top executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies.

It's all about economics, came the reply. Supply and demand. The company leaders tried to shift attention from motorists' anger over $4-a-gallon gasoline to a debate over new areas for drilling.

But senators at the Judiciary Committee hearing weren't having any of that. They wanted to press the executives about public anguish over paying $60 or more to fill up a car's gas tank.

"People we represent are hurting, the companies you represent are profiting," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the executives. He said there's a "disconnect" between legitimate supply issues and the oil and gasoline prices motorists are seeing.

The executives, sitting shoulder to shoulder in the hearing room, said they understood people were hurting, but they tried to blunt the emotion with economic analysis.

Profits have been huge "in absolute terms," conceded J. Stephen Simon, executive vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp., but they "must be viewed in the context of the massive scale of our industry." And high earnings "in the current up cycle" are needed for investments in the long term, including when profits will be down.

"'Current up cycle,' that's a nice term when people can't afford to go to work" because gasoline is costing so much, replied Leahy with sarcasm.

"The fundamental laws of supply and demand are at work," said John Hofmeister, chairman of Shell Oil Co., acknowledging it is something the oil industry has been saying for some time and that the explanation may sound "repetitive and uninteresting."

Hofmeister was joined by executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., BP America Inc. and ConocoPhilips Co. Together the five companies earned $36 billion during the first three months of this year.

As the executives sought to explain their profits and why prices are so high, the global oil markets were moving into new, uncharted highs, touching $133 a barrel for the first time. The national average price of a gallon of gasoline hit $3.80, with $4 showing up in more places. Crude prices increased even more in late electronic trading Wednesday hitting $134 for the first time.

It was the second time this year the executives had been summoned to testify before Congress. When they came in early April oil cost about $98 a barrel.

This time the exchanges got personal.

Simon was asked what his total compensation was at Exxon, a company that made $40.6 billion last year. Simon replied it was $12.5 million.

John Lowe, executive vice president of ConocoPhillips Co., said he didn't recall his total compensations. So did Peter Robertson, vice chairman of Chevron Corp. Hofmeister said his was "about $2.2 million" but was not among the top five salaries at his company's international parent. Robert Malone, chairman of BP America Inc., put his "in excess of $2 million."

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., noting that Exxon's profits had nearly quadrupled from $11.5 billion in 2002, said he had heard nothing from the oilmen that would explain "why profits have gone up so high when the consumer is suffering so much."

The executives, appearing under oath, cited tight global supplies with scant spare production capacity and the fact that large areas of land and offshore waters remain offlimits to drilling. And they said they're worried Congress was talking of requiring the five companies to pay more taxes.

"I urge you to resist these punitive policies," said Hofmeister.

It was not what many senators wanted to hear.

You have "just a litany of complaints that you're all just hapless victims of a system," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the executives. "Yet you rack up record profits ... quarter after quarter after quarter."

One senator after another cited the pain that high energy prices are causing farmers, small businesses and people trying to find a way to afford a vacation trip this summer.

"Is there anybody here that has any concerns about what you're doing to this country with the prices that you're charging and the profits that you're taking?" Durbin asked.

The titans of America's oil industry sat quietly for a moment.

"Senator," replied Exxon's Simon, "We have a lot of concern about that. And we're doing all we can to put downward pressure on prices."

Scientists discover "frogamander" fossil

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The discovery of a "frogamander," a 290 million-year-old fossil that links modern frogs and salamanders, may resolve a longstanding debate about amphibian ancestry, Canadian scientists said on Wednesday.

Modern amphibians -- frogs, salamanders and earthworm-like caecilians -- have been a bit slippery about divulging their evolutionary ancestry. Gaps in the fossil record showing the transformation of one form into another have led to a lot of scientific debate.

The fossil Gerobatrachus hottoni or elderly frog, described in the journal Nature, may help set the record straight.

"It's a missing link that falls right between where the fossil record of the extinct form and the fossil record for the modern form begins," said Jason Anderson of the University of Calgary, who led the study.

"It's a perfect little frogamander," he said.

Gerobatrachus has a mixture of frog and salamander features, with fused ankle bones as seen only in salamanders, a wide, frog-like skull, and a backbone that resembles a mix of the two.

The fossil suggests that modern amphibians may have come from two groups, with frogs and salamanders related to an ancient amphibian known as a temnospondyl, and worm-like caecilians more closely related to the lepospondyls, another group of ancient amphibians.

"Frogs and salamanders share a common ancestor that is fairly removed from the origin of caecilians," Anderson said.

Gerobatrachus hottoni was discovered in Texas in 1995 by a group from the Smithsonian Institution that included the late Nicholas Hotton, for whom the fossil is named.

Anderson's team painstakingly removed layers of rock to reveal the anatomy of the skeleton.

"The fossil itself is almost perfectly complete," Anderson said.

"It died on its back. Its legs and arms were curled up on its belly and it's that part that weathered away."

While scientific opinion moves slowly, Anderson thinks the find will confirm the prevailing opinion that frogs and salamanders share a more modern ancestor.

"I think they (scientists) will be very happy with this as a resolution," he said.

Red Hat updates enterprise Linux platform

San Francisco - Red Hat is announcing availability Wednesday of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2, with enhancements in virtualization, clustering, and hardware support.

Version 5.2 was described as a minor update by Red Hat's Daniel Riek, product marketing manager for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

"We do these twice-a-year updates," Riek said.

With the release, virtualization of very large systems with as many as 64 CPUs and 512GB of memory is possible. Support for NUMA architectures is featured as well as improvements in security, performance, and management, Red Hat said.

CPU frequency scaling is offered for virtualized environments and for reduction of?? power consumption. Also, enhanced capabilities are featured for such hardware architectures as Intel X/86/x86-64, Itanium, and IBM Power and System z. These capabilities provide for improved performance, power usage, scaling, and manageability, Red Hat said.

Support for Intel's Dynamic Acceleration Technology permits power saving by "quiescing" idle CPU cores, Red Hat said. With quiescing, a computer is put into an inactive state to save power but can be reactivated quickly because it is still available and has not been completely shut down.

Also, performance is improved by "overclocking" of busy cores within safe thermal levels. Other hardware enhancements include device driver updates and certification of IBM Cell Blade systems.

A smarter scripting facility boosts clustering in version 5.2, said Riek. "The ability to talk to the applications that are being clustered has been improved," he said.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 Desktop, meanwhile, includes enhanced support for laptop suspend/hibernate and resume, updated graphics drivers, and an update of desktop applications including OpenOffice 2.3 and Firefox v3.

Red Hat Linux 5.2 is available Wednesday via a Red Hat Network subscription.

U.S. military cites growing China space, cyber threat

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military painted China on Tuesday as posing a growing threat to the United States and others in space and cyberspace.

China is "aggressively" honing its ability to shoot down satellites along with other space and counter-space capabilities, said Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Horne of the U.S. Strategic Command.

Such know-how has big implications for Beijing's potential to curb access in the Taiwan Straits "and well beyond," he told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressionally created advisory group.

Horne, deputy head of the Strategic Command's joint component for space, said recent Chinese People's Liberation Army writings suggested China might target an enemy's spy satellites along with navigation and early-warning spacecraft "to blind and deafen."

China's unannounced destruction of one of its own defunct weather satellites in January 2007 showed the PLA's ability to attack satellites operating in low-Earth orbit, he said.

The United States and the old Soviet Union demonstrated such anti-satellite capabilities of their own, initially in the 1980s. The Chinese embassy did not return a call seeking comment.

Horne did not spell out the implications for possible U.S. responses to any Chinese attack on Taiwan but said the United States must "proactively protect our space capabilities."

Among arms makers eyeing this market are Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp, the Pentagon's top three contractors by sales.

Beijing regards Taiwan, a self-ruled island of 23 million people, as a breakaway province to be brought back to the fold, by force if necessary.

Another Strategic Command officer described cyber attacks as perhaps the most significant 21st century threat and said China was boosting its capability to carry them out.

Col. Gary McAlum of the command's Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations said several Chinese advances had surprised U.S. defense and intelligence officials.

He cited a new report by Kevin Coleman of the Technolytics Institute, a McMurray, Pennsylvania, consultancy, as saying China aims to achieve global "electronic dominance" by 2050, including the ability to disrupt information infrastructures.

"I think we could discuss that date offline," McAlum told the commissioners, seeming to imply he thought China might get there sooner than mid-century. Coleman is a former chief strategist of the Netscape division of America Online Inc.

One U.S. expert countered, in a telephone interview, that it would be odd to expect China to sit still if it perceived a threat to its strategic weapons and communications in any future conflict.

"It is unreasonable to think that Beijing will permanently accept vulnerability," said David Lampton of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and author of the new book "The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money, and Minds."

In a third presentation to the commissioners, a State Department official described China's nonproliferation record as mixed.

Chinese companies have kept on shipping weapons to Iran, despite evidence Tehran is supplying insurgents in Iraq and Islamist groups, said Patricia McNerney, principal deputy assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation.

But she praised two big Chinese companies sanctioned repeatedly in the past by the United States for alleged violations of international arms-export pacts.

McNerney said the United States had conferred with the two -- China North Industries Corp, or NORINCO, and China Great Wall Industries Co. Their response has been "very encouraging," she said.

"Both companies have adopted comprehensive internal compliance programs and are implementing policies to ensure that inadvertent transactions do not occur," she testified.

NORINCO, for example, had committed to not selling arms to North Korea and Iran and claims to have turned down more than $100 million in potential contracts with such governments, McNerney added.