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Pakistani remember Benazir Bhutto

Masses mourn Pakistan’s Bhutto, one year on

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 The NFL stages its Week 4 on Sunday, while baseball concludes its regular-season schedule. This week’s NFL trends, free NFL expert pick and NFL betting odds are up.

Here’s a glimpse at the action in today’s edition of the Daily Sports Roundup.

The Gridiron Spotlight

The Titans, Broncos, Bills, and Cowboys will all be looking to run their records to 4-0 on Sunday when they take to the field. Tennessee and Dallas are both favored at home in their games; the Titans are favored by 3 points against the Vikings, while the Cowboys will be looking to cover an 11-point spread against the Redskins. The Broncos and Bills are both road favorites; it’s Denver (-10) at Kansas City, and Buffalo (-8) at St. Louis.

At the other end of the standings, the 0-3 Bengals will play host to the 0-3 Browns on Sunday afternoon. The loser of that AFC North matchup will be in a huge hole in the playoff race, and the oddsmakers have given the Bengals the 3.5-point edge to win.

Other Sunday afternoon matchups include San Francisco at New Orleans (-5), Arizona at the Jets (-1), Green Bay at Tampa Bay (-1), Atlanta at Carolina (-6.5), and Houston at Jacksonville (-7). As well, the 1-2 Chargers will be looking to get their record back to the .500 mark when they take on the 1-2 Raiders in Oakland as big 7.5-point road favorites.

Rounding out the Sunday NFL schedule will be Philadelphia at Chicago at 8:15pm ET. The Eagles are 2-1 in the tight NFC East, while the Bears have struggled to a 1-2 record on the season. And even though this game is being played at Soldier Field the Eagles have been pegged as the 3-point favorites, with the total listed at 40 points.

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California Vulcans Ready to Win PSAC

What’s this about? Just a cheap attempt of Grandmaster sports handicapper Joe Duffy to brag that his alma mater, the California Vulcans beat their chief rival, the Indiana PA Indians, expect the sissies they are, they don’t even call themselves Indians anymore.

Back to Division 1 or the FBS, whatever it’s called. Penn State football is back, but the USC Trojans, Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators await to see how far they’ve dropped in the college football polls. Regardless, the opening college football odds will be up later today and OffshoreInsiders.com will have them.

Other Notable Events

The drivers of the Sprint Cup Series will hit the track at Kansas Speedway on Sunday afternoon for the Camping World RV 400 presented by Coleman. Greg Biffle has won each of the first two Chase events, and he’ll be trying to make it three in a row on Sunday. Biffle and Johnson are tied for second place in the current driver standings, 10 points back of Carl Edwards. Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick are sitting fourth and fifth.

Biffle won the series’ event at Kansas last season, and he’s tied with Johnson, Edwards, and Kyle Busch as the 6/1 Vegas favorite to take the checkered flag on Sunday. Tony Stewart, who won the Banquet 400 at Kansas back in 2006, is pegged at 11/1 odds to visit victory lane. Two-time Kansas champion Jeff Gordon is listed at 15/1.

The Rest of the Schedule

The NL Wild Card berth is still in play, with the Mets and Brewers now tied in that race. Milwaukee will send CC Sabathia (10-2, 1.78 ERA in the NL) to the mound at home against the Cubs on Sunday afternoon, while Oliver Perez (10-7, 4.25 ERA) will try to pitch the Mets past the Marlins at home at the same time. If those teams are still tied at the end of the day on Sunday they’ll play a one-game playoff Monday in New York.

Also still to be decided is the AL Central title, with the White Sox and Mark Buehrle (14-12, 3.87 ERA) hosting Cleveland on Sunday, and the Twins and Scott Baker (10-4, 3.59 ERA) getting a visit from Kansas City. Minnesota has a half-game lead on Chicago in the division, and they can clinch top spot with a win Sunday combined with a White Sox loss. However, if Chicago is still a half-game back after Sunday they’ll play a makeup game with the Tigers on Monday. Should the Twins and White Sox be tied in the standings after that Monday contest they’ll play a one-game playoff on Tuesday.

As well, the Yankees will have Mike Mussina (19-9, 3.47 ERA) trying for his 20th win of the season when they play at Fenway Park in Boston on Sunday afternoon, so they’ll be pulling out all the stops to try and get him to that mark for the first time in his career. New York and Boston will actually play twice on Sunday thanks to Saturday’s rainout.

The WNBA playoffs will continue on Sunday afternoon, with New York at Detroit in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, and Los Angeles at San Antonio in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. New York holds a 1-0 lead in their three-game set, while San Antonio pulled out a victory on Saturday afternoon to tie up that series at 1-1.

Finally, the CFL concludes its week on Sunday with Saskatchewan at Montreal (-6.5), while the PGA Tour wraps up its playoffs on the final day of THE TOUR Championship.

News from the Wire

Notable players listed as OUT for Sunday’s NFL games heading into the weekend: Arizona DE Bert Berry (groin), Browns S Sean Jones (knee), Dallas S Roy Williams (forearm), Chiefs QB Brodie Croyle (right shoulder), Saints WR Marques Colston (thumb) and TE Jeremy Shockey (hernia), Jets K Mike Nugent (right thigh), Raiders RB Justin Fargas (groin), Rams WR Drew Bennett (foot), Buccaneers WR Joey Galloway (foot), Titans QB Vince Young (knee/hamstring), and Redskins DE Jason Taylor (calf).

A Peek at the Future

A slow Monday in sports will be highlighted by the matchup of the Ravens and Steelers in Pittsburgh. The Steelers opened as 7-point home favorites in that contest, but that line has since fallen to just 5 points (with the total pegged at 34 points) . . .  as well, there will be a Game 3 in the WNBA’s Eastern Conference Finals in Detroit on Monday night if the Shock manage to knock off the Liberty in their Sunday afternoon matchup.

Entertainment Betting

What will Tina Fey and Saturday Night Live do next in mocking Sarah Palin? We expect BetUs Sportsbook will have more and more SNL proposition bets.

The lipstick of Rachel McAdams and death of Paul Newman are grabbing the headlines, but Dancing With the Stars dominates the Hollywood and entertainment betting odds.

Brooke Burke at +200 is the favorite to win Dancing With the Stars, but she’s followed closely by Toni Braxton, Cody Linley, Susan Lucci, Misty May-Treanor all at +400.

Not far behind at +500 is Warren Sapp and Lance Bass. The aforesaid Hollywood and entertainment betting odds have prop bets as well on Tom DeLay, Dan Rather, George Clooney, Wheel of Fortune, Heath Ledger and other actors in Batman-The Dark Knight.

Presidential Tracking

All political aficionados visit the political betting odds on a daily basis for the most accurate McCain-Obama tracking indicators.

Who won the debate

Open thread. Who “won” the first debate between John McCain and Barack Obama and why?

* Overall
* On the economy
* On foreign policy
* Will the debate make a difference? How does it set up the atmospherics for what follows?

Henry Kissinger has already weighed in on a subject touched upon during the debates. The Weekly Standard reports: “Henry Kissinger believes Barack Obama misstated his views on diplomacy with US adversaries and is not happy about being mischaracterized. He says: ‘Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality.’”

Source:

Black bride Sarah Jessica Parker

The ‘Sex and the City’ star said she and spouse Matthew Broderick decided to try and escape the media attention when they tied the knot in 1997.

Sarah - who has a five-year-old son James Wilkie with Matthew - explained: “I wore a black dress. As an actor, a lot of attention is paid to you. And for some reason, I felt on that day, that I should not bring attention to myself. And my husband kind of had the same attitude about it.

“I think we were embarrassed to be a traditional bride and groom. We wanted to throw a party, and deflect attention off us.”

The 43-year-old actress also revealed the first day of shooting ‘Sex and the City: The Movie’ was one of the most memorable days of her life.

She added: “The first scene was in chronological order. It was the scene of the four of us on Park Avenue. Kim Cattrall is in the red, I’m in the white Ralph Lauren, and it was one of the most unforgettable days of my life.

“It was this perfect September day and the streets were lined with hundreds and hundreds of people watching. It was like being in an alternate universe for about two hours.”

Sarah Jessica Parker has captained both a career and a public image that could be accurately classified under the heading Revenge of the Nerd.

As a pubescent actor most famous for her roles in the acclaimed high school-set TV series Square Pegs and in the big screen’s Footloose and Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Parker played the skinny girl with frizzy hair who was either the sidekick or underdog; when she wasn’t cleaning up after Lori Singer in Footloose, she was battling snotty rich girls for the right to dance on local television in Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

However, thanks to perseverance, talent, a fabulous stylist, and an HBO series called Sex and the City, Parker had emerged, by the end of the 1990s, as one of the most glamorous and employable actors around, known as much for the designer frocks she wore to awards ceremonies as for her work on the screen.

Source:msn

Billy, Crystal, returns, to, screen, for, ‘Tooth Fairy’

Veteran funnyman Billy Crystal is to star in his first film in more than six years with a role in the comedy “Tooth Fairy”, entertainment industry press reports said Wednesday.

Crystal, 60, the star of hits such as “When Harry Met Sally” and “City Slickers”, will join a cast that includes Julie Andrews, Dwayne Johnson and Ashley Judd when filming begins next week, Daily Variety reported.

Crystal, an eight-time host of the Academy Awards, last appeared in a live-action film in 2002’s comedy “Analyze That”, where he starred as an analyst treating Robert DeNiro’s mob boss in a sequel to “Analyze This.”

Since then Crystal has had voice roles in animated films including “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “Cars.

Source:msn

Drug maker plans to disclose payments to doctors

 WASHINGTON - In an industry first, Eli Lilly and Co. says it will begin disclosing how much money it paid to individual doctors nationally for advice, speeches and other services.

The drug company’s move comes as members of Congress push a disclosure bill in an effort to prevent such payments from improperly influencing medical decisions.

Beginning next year, Eli Lilly will disclose payments of more than $500 to doctors for their roles as advisers and for speaking at educational seminars. In later years, the company will expand the types of payments disclosed to include such things as travel, entertainment and gifts.

Some have voiced concerns that doctors are influenced by these payments in their treatment decisions and that this in turn can drive up medical bills. Although most physicians believe that free lunches or trips have no effect on their medical judgment, research has shown that these type of payments can affect how people act.

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Housing grim as financial rescue debate rages

 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prices of U.S. existing homes suffered a record drop in August and the rate of sales tumbled, offering little sign of improvement in the source of the financial crisis in the United States.

The pace of existing home sales decreased 2.2 percent to an annual pace of 4.91 million units while the median national home price declined a record 9.5 percent to $203,100, the National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday.

In what would normally be a potentially bright spot, the overstock of homes for sale shrank. However, the trade group said as many as 2 in 5 home sales were by borrowers who have seen their property lose value or are facing foreclosure.

“The NAR estimates that 35-to-40 percent of all sales are of distressed property, so underlying private activity is weaker than the headlines (imply) and there is little sign of imminent improvement,” Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

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FAA suspends sleeping airline pilots

HONOLULU - Two pilots for Hawaii’s Go airlines who slept through their flight’s landing procedure were suspended for the careless and reckless operation of an aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday.

The pilots, who have been fired by Go, completed their suspensions on Sept. 9, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said. He did not know whether they are flying again with a different carrier.

Captain Scott Oltman, 54, who was also cited for failing to maintain radio communications, had his license suspended for 60 days. First Officer Dillon Shepley, 24, was suspended for 45 days.

Gregor said no action was taken against Go because it did nothing wrong and provided the pilots with a 15-hour break before their shift, nearly double what the FAA requires.

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Clay is gay: Aiken comes out of the closet

NEW YORK - Clay Aiken appears on the cover of the latest People magazine holding his infant son, Parker Foster Aiken, with the headline: “Yes, I’m Gay.”

The 29-year-old former “American Idol” runner-up, multiplatinum recording artist and Broadway star credits his son, conceived by in-vitro fertilization with friend and producer Jaymes Foster, with making him realize that he could no longer hide his homosexuality from the world.

“It was the first decision I made as a father,” Aiken told the magazine, which arrives on newsstands Friday. “I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn’t raised that way, and I’m not going to raise a child to do that.”

Aiken, who rose to fame on “Idol” in 2003, has long been the subject of rumors and tabloid fodder that he was gay, but usually refused to acknowledge them. In an interview with The Associated Press two years ago, he said of the talk: “I don’t really feel like I have anybody to answer to but myself and God and the people I love.”

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