NBA-Suns scorch Bulls to end road losing streak

Jan 12 (Reuters) - Luis Scola and the fast-paced Phoenix Suns snapped a 12-game road losing streak with a rousing 97-81 win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.
Argentine forward Scola scored 22 points and bench player Michael Beasley weighed in with 20 as the Suns stunned the Bulls at the United Center to improved to 13-26 for the season.
Phoenix outshot Chicago by 49 percent to 36 from the field and out-rebounded their opponents 46-42 with a welcome return to form after being beaten in their five previous games.
Forward Carlos Boozer led the way with 15 points on six-of-14 shooting for the Bulls, who slipped to 20-15 just three days after an upset 104-96 defeat by the lowly Milwaukee Bucks.
With guard Richard Hamilton getting his jump shot going early on to score eight points, the Bulls made a promising start to lead 21-20 after a closely contested opening quarter.
However the Suns took control as the red-hot Beasley drained 14 points on seven-of-eight shooting to help his team forge ahead 49-42 by halftime.
A Sebastian Telfair three-pointer stretched the Phoenix lead to 77-63 after the third quarter and they outscored Chicago 20-18 in the fourth to remain in charge. (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue)

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UPDATE 1-NBA-Suns scorch Bulls to end road drought

* Record 2,000th franchise win
* Suns snap five-game losing run with rare road win (Adds quotes, detail)
Jan 12 (Reuters) - Luis Scola and the fast-paced Phoenix Suns heaved a collective sigh of relief after snapping a 12-game road losing streak with a rousing 97-81 win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.
Argentine forward Scola scored 22 points and bench player Michael Beasley weighed in with 20 as the Suns stunned the Bulls at the United Center to improve to 13-26 for the season.
Phoenix outshot Chicago by 49 percent to 36 from the field and out-rebounded their opponents 46-42 with a welcome return to form after being beaten in their five previous games.
"It was a much, much, much-needed win for us," Suns head coach Alvin Gentry told reporters after his team recorded a 2,000th victory for the franchise in their 3,599th game.
"And it was against a quality team, so that made it even better. For the first time in a long time, I thought we played well for four quarters, where we executed."
Forward Carlos Boozer led the way with 15 points on six-of-14 shooting for the Bulls, who slipped to 20-15 just three days after a 104-96 upset by the lowly Milwaukee Bucks.
"I have to get more out of our team," Chicago head coach Tom Thibodeau said. "Everyone has to do it, starting with me. It's my job to have them ready. Right now we're not doing as well as we should.
"We have to play with more intensity, more of an edge. We are not doing that. We have to correct it."
With guard Richard Hamilton getting the stroke going early on to score eight points, the Bulls made a promising start to lead 21-20 after a closely contested opening quarter.
However, the Suns took control as the red-hot Beasley drained 14 points on seven-of-eight shooting to help his team forge ahead 49-42 by halftime.
A Sebastian Telfair three-pointer stretched the Phoenix lead to 77-63 after the third quarter and they outscored Chicago 20-18 in the fourth to remain in charge.
"I stayed ready," said Beasley after his most productive game since he scored 21 points against the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 8.
"It felt good to have the ball finally drop my way. I'm going to build on this personally and just get better throughout the season." (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Alastair Himmer)

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Suns scorch Bulls to end road drought

(Reuters) - Luis Scola and the fast-paced Phoenix Suns heaved a collective sigh of relief after snapping a 12-game road losing streak with a rousing 97-81 win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.
Argentine forward Scola scored 22 points and bench player Michael Beasley weighed in with 20 as the Suns stunned the Bulls at the United Center to improve to 13-26 for the season.
Phoenix outshot Chicago by 49 percent to 36 from the field and out-rebounded their opponents 46-42 with a welcome return to form after being beaten in their five previous games.
"It was a much, much, much-needed win for us," Suns head coach Alvin Gentry told reporters after his team recorded a 2,000th victory for the franchise in their 3,599th game.
"And it was against a quality team, so that made it even better. For the first time in a long time, I thought we played well for four quarters, where we executed."
Forward Carlos Boozer led the way with 15 points on six-of-14 shooting for the Bulls, who slipped to 20-15 just three days after a 104-96 upset by the lowly Milwaukee Bucks.
"I have to get more out of our team," Chicago head coach Tom Thibodeau said. "Everyone has to do it, starting with me. It's my job to have them ready. Right now we're not doing as well as we should.
"We have to play with more intensity, more of an edge. We are not doing that. We have to correct it."
With guard Richard Hamilton getting the stroke going early on to score eight points, the Bulls made a promising start to lead 21-20 after a closely contested opening quarter.
However, the Suns took control as the red-hot Beasley drained 14 points on seven-of-eight shooting to help his team forge ahead 49-42 by halftime.
A Sebastian Telfair three-pointer stretched the Phoenix lead to 77-63 after the third quarter and they outscored Chicago 20-18 in the fourth to remain in charge.
"I stayed ready," said Beasley after his most productive game since he scored 21 points against the Los Angeles Clippers on December 8.
"It felt good to have the ball finally drop my way. I'm going to build on this personally and just get better throughout the season."

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Influential Israeli Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in hospital

Israel's Shas party, blesses a man after casting his ballot at a polling …more
JERUSALEM (AP) — The spiritual leader of an Israeli ultra-Orthodox political party was hospitalized after a suspected minor stroke in Jerusalem on Saturday, a development that could shake his party's fortunes and mute one of Israel's most influential voices.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, 92, is conscious and in a stable condition, Hadassah hospital spokeswoman Etti Dvir said, adding that doctors had requested he remain in the facility for several days for observation and further checks. She did not provide further details on his ailment.
The enigmatic, Baghdad-born Yosef is the chief spiritual adviser of the Shas party, which represents Israeli Jews of Middle Eastern descent. His followers consider his decisions as binding religious law — rare discipline in Israel's otherwise fragmented political landscape.
Israeli media reported he was rushed to Hadassah hospital after collapsing during morning prayers in a synagogue on Saturday morning.
Dr. Yuval Weiss of Hadassah told reporters Saturday night that the rabbi "likely had a very mild stroke."
"He is conscious and fully communicating with those around him," Weiss said. "I hope he can return home in a few days," he said.
Yosef's influence reaches beyond the party, which holds 10 seats in the 120-seat Israeli parliament. Comments from the rabbi, with his trademark turban, gold-embroidered robes and dark glasses, have cast a pall over political debates ranging from whether ultra-Orthodox Jews should be conscripted into Israel's military, to war and peace with Palestinians.
He is known for his fierce statements that have offended widely disparate segments of society, including Holocaust survivors, gays, Palestinians and secular Jews.
The rabbi said during a sermon in August 2010 that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should "perish from the world" and described Palestinians as "evil, bitter enemies of Israel." He later apologized for the remarks.
In 2007, he said that Israeli soldiers died in battle because they were not religious enough and said the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. suffered "because they have no God."
In 2008, Shas under his direction forced new elections by refusing to remain in the government after then-prime minister Ehud Olmert resigned.
Olmert's successor, Tzipi Livni, was unable to preserve a governing coalition because Yosef insisted she commit to not discussing the future of Jerusalem in expected peace talks with Palestinians.
Politicians from outside Yosef's party often lobby for his support on tough decisions, including whether to target arch-foe Iran.
Despite his often hawkish stances, Yosef has signaled he would support Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank, a territory Palestinians seek for their future state, if it saves lives.
Shas was predicted to recoup its seats when Israelis vote later in January, but the party's fortunes are unclear if Yosef remains hospitalized.
The rabbi is literally the face of Shas: On the main entrance to Jerusalem, Yosef's face is draped over a large building, urging people to vote for the ultra-Orthodox party, saying they will remember the poor.
Yosef has been hospitalized with heart problems in the past.
Shas party members were unavailable for comment because it is the Jewish Sabbath, when the devout refrain from non-lifesaving work.
Yosef is a highly respected religious scholar, often called the outstanding rabbinical authority of the century from the Sephardic tradition, that of Jews from Arabic-speaking and other Middle Eastern nations.
His insistence that Sephardic tradition is as valid as the European Ashkenazi version of Judaism spawned a religious and cultural awakening among Jews of Middle Eastern, or Mizrahi, background.
He used that influence to transform the Mizrahi Jews from a downtrodden community of immigrants into a proud, powerful force in Israeli politics. Jews who descend from Arabic-speaking countries make up nearly half of Israel's Jewish population.
Yosef came to national prominence when he served as Israel's chief Sephardic rabbi from 1972 to 1983.
Born in the Iraqi capital in 1920, Yosef was four years old when his family moved to Jerusalem.

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Gunmen shoot birdshot at Egypt protesters; 15 hurt

CAIRO (AP) — A dozen masked attackers fired birdshot late Saturday at protesters who have camped outside Egypt's presidential palace in Cairo for the past month, wounding several along with security forces standing watch nearby, witnesses said. It was the latest in a series of shootings of protesters in Egypt.
Paramedic Mohammed Sultan put the total number of wounded in the attack at 15, including nine members of the security forces and six protesters.
The witnesses said attackers also threw Molotov cocktails at protesters' tents, setting some on fire. Footage on Egyptian TV stations showed more people coming to join the protests.
The sit-in was started Dec. 4 by opponents of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. They are demanding the annulment of Egypt's new Islamist-backed constitution. The document deeply polarized Egyptians but passed by a 64 percent "yes" vote in a referendum in which around 33 percent of voters participated. Critics called the process flawed.
The political conflict has been accompanied by street violence. At least 10 people died in clashes outside the palace on Dec. 5 that broke out when supporters of Morsi attacked the sit-in. Some were reportedly killed by gunfire.
On Dec. 31, gunmen shot and critically wounded a well-known activist at the site of another sit-in in downtown Cairo's Tahrir square. Police said they arrested a cafe owner who told them that he fired on the square after people manning makeshift checkpoints there searched his car and shot at him.
The current attack comes two weeks before the anniversary of the Jan. 25 start of the 2011 uprising that overthrew Mubarak. Activists opposed to Morsi are expected to organize large protests that day.
Earlier Saturday, a Cairo court ordered a religious TV program hosted by a fiery preacher off the air on charges of libeling and defaming a well-known actress, one of three legal reverses that day suffered by Islamists in cases related to the media.
The court ruled that the program "In The Scale" be suspended for 30 days following a lawsuit by Elham Chahine. A widely circulated video clip shows the program's host, Abdullah Badr, accusing Chahine of practicing "prostitution" and "teaching Egyptians how to strip naked, make love and commit adultery."
"Go ask God for forgiveness for your scandals," he says in the August interview. Chahine's lawyer said in court that the actress had been exposed to "insults, cursing and humiliation."
Last month, Badr was sentenced to a year in jail over the same charges. The program is aired on el-Hafiz TV, one of several networks associated with the ultraconservative Salafi Islamist movement.
In another case, a court dropped one of several lawsuits filed against popular satirist Bassem Youssef, known as Egypt's Jon Stewart. Youssef had been accused of "corrupting morals" and violating "religious principles" in his show, "The Program," in which he frequently mocks ultraconservative clerics and Islamists.
He still faces trial on March 9 on charges of insulting President Mohammed Morsi, a lawsuit that was leveled by lawyers associated with the Islamist group from which Morsi hails, the Muslim Brotherhood. This is one of many cases brought against media personalities who criticized the president. Morsi's office maintains that the president has nothing to do with the legal procedures against his critics.
In a separate court cast, a court ruled that Dream TV, a private liberal-leaning network that is sharply critical of the Brotherhood, could resume broadcasting. Egypt's Islamist minister of information Salah Abdel-Makksoud suspended it for an alleged zoning violation and broadcasting from outside an authorized area.
Neither Badr, Youssef nor Dream TV could immediately be reached for comment.

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Yankees sign former rival Youkilis to one-year deal

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Red Sox rival Kevin Youkilis officially joined the New York Yankees on Friday when he signed a one-year contract to fill a void left by the absence of Alex Rodriguez, the American League team said.
The three-time All-Star, 33, will serve as the starting third baseman with slugger Rodriguez expected to be sidelined until midseason after having surgery on his left hip.
The deal for Youkilis, a career .283 hitter, will pay the infielder $12 million, according to media reports.
Youkilis, who has played all but 80 games of his nine-year major league career for Boston, batted a combined .235 last season with 19 home runs and 60 runs batted in 122 games for Boston and the Chicago White Sox, to whom he was traded in late June.
Rodriguez told reporters at a recent charity event in Miami that Youkilis would be a good addition to the Yankees' lineup.
"Youk has always been a tough out," he said. "He's a tough player, a guy that's a winning player."
With Youkilis's deal finalized, the Yankees were working to finalize a two-year contract with Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki.
Acquired by the Yankees in July from the Mariners, Ichiro thrived in New York, batting .322 with five homers, 27 RBIs and 14 stolen bases in 67 games and provided a late-season spark that helped the club win the American League East title.
Overall last season, Ichiro batted .283 with nine homers, 55 RBIs and 29 stolen bases.
It was believed New York was nearing agreement on a two-year deal that would present Ichiro a chance to reach the 3,000-hit mark with the Yankees.
Ichiro, a career .322 hitter, has amassed 2,606 hits in the major leagues since coming to the Mariners from Japan in 2001.

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Pitcher Adams agrees to two-year deal with Phillies

(Reuters) - The Philadelphia Phillies and relief pitcher Mike Adams have agreed to a two-year, $12 million contract, Major League Baseball's website said on Saturday.
The deal is pending a physical.
Adams, 34, posted a 5-3 record with a 3.27 earned run average in 61 appearances with the Texas Rangers last season.
Regarded as one of the major league's top setup men, Adams underwent surgery in October for a condition in which a rib bone presses against a nerve, causing pain and numbness in the arm. He is expected to recover in time for spring training.
In eight Major League seasons, Adams has an 18-15 record with a 2.28 earned run average.

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