Kyrgyz interim leader in Osh, vows to restore city

Kyrgyzstan's interim president on Friday made her first visit to the riot-hit southern town of Osh, vowing to restore the battered city and work for the return of hundreds of thousands of Uzbek refugees who fled deadly ethnic violence.

And U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake, visiting a refugee camp in Uzbekistan about five kilometers (3 miles) from the Kyrgyz border, called for an investigation into the violence and said he was working to ensure the refugees would be able to return home safely

Interim President Roza Otumbayeva arrived early Friday by helicopter in the central square of Osh, a city of 250,000. Parts of the city have been reduced …

NBA PLAYOFFS: Spurs put the 'D' on Dirk in winning game one of series

SAN ANTONIO - Hands pumping, feet moving, eyes staring straightahead, Bruce Bowen wasn't about to let Dirk Nowitzki start the secondround of the playoffs with the groove he had in the first round.

Making up a 5-inch height difference with in-your-face tenacity,Bowen got Nowitzki out of whack early, then got the ball out of hishands on the final play to help the San Antonio Spurs beat the DallasMavericks 87-85 on Sunday.

Nowitzki scored 20 points, but missed 12 of 20 shots and was 1-of-4 in the fourth quarter. The Mavericks went into the period leadingby one, but scored only 13 points - two in the final 4:08.

Oh, the winning shot for San Antonio? Bowen hit that, …

No. 13 Duke Routs Eastern Kentucky

Duke has more than one freshman capable of taking over a game.

Freshman Taylor King scored a career-high 27 points to lead No. 13 Duke to a 78-43 rout of Eastern Kentucky on Sunday.

DeMarcus Nelson had 12 points and Gerald Henderson added 10 for the Blue Devils (6-0), who played their first game on the mainland since winning the Maui Invitational and showed no effects of jet lag.

Duke never looked back after a dominant first half in which the Colonels made just four of 17 shots and had 18 turnovers. The Blue Devils never trailed, led 34-12 at the break and cruised to their NCAA-best 54th straight nonconference victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

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Not all seniors can keep working

May I offer another perspective on the issue of later retirement age raised by Jeremy Kohn ["Raise the retirement age," letter, Aug. 25]:

My wife and I, both retired and in our mid-60s, find ourselves in the position of being caregivers and companions for aging parents (three of them, in our case). I'm sure our …

Big tallies mark action in Champs

There are two days left to enter the 27th annual ChicagoSun-Times Beat The Champions bowling contest.

Entering is easy. Fill out the card provided by your leaguesecretary, pay the $1 entry and bowl.

Mary Gambos is happy she entered this week. Gambos, a 191average bowler in the AMF Forest Lanes Scratch League, rolled a 735series. With her 19 pins handicap, Gambos totaled 754.

In the same league, Sandy Postma rolled a 783 scratch, but shedidn't enter Beat The Champions. Postma's score is high in the statethis season.

Among other big scores at AMF Forest Lanes were 706 by PhilReiman and 716 by Pam Meilahn in the Sunday Trio Mixed.

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'Tin Whiskers' Imperil Electronics

SAN JOSE, Calif. - They've ruined missiles, silenced communications satellites and forced nuclear power plants to shut down. Pacemakers, consumer gadgets and even a critical part of a space shuttle have fallen victim.

The culprits? Tiny splinters - whiskers, they're called - that sprout without warning from tin solder and finishes deep inside electronics. By some estimates, the resulting short-circuits have leveled as much as $10 billion in damage since they were first noticed in the 1940s.

Now some electronics makers worry the destruction will be more widespread, and the dollar amounts more draining, as the European Union and governments around the world enact laws to …

Never count Milutinovic out, not even with Iraq

By now, it is easy to understand why Bora Milutinovic has one of the biggest smiles in football.

After leading five different nations at the World Cup, he pulled his latest trick Sunday in the Confederations Cup opener.

A master at turning underdogs into overachievers, he made sure Iraq escaped with a 0-0 draw against favored host South Africa. A lack of goals never looked better to him.

"The only thing that is important for me is that the team is playing the way we played," the veteran Serb coach said.

And if his dour, negative tactics riled the Bafana Bafana fans, he didn't care.

"It depends how you watch …