Golf-Johnson wins windswept PGA season-opener at Kapalua

Jan 8 (Reuters) - It required a lot patience and overtime but American Dustin Johnson opened the PGA Tour season with a comfortable victory at the windswept Tournament of Champions in Hawaii on Tuesday.Johnson fired a five-under 68 on another blustery day at the Kapalua Resort to finish four shots clear of defending champion Steve Stricker (69).With the win, Johnson becomes the first player since...

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Rose, Sugar will host 1st semifinals in playoff

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) — The first semifinal games in the new college football playoff system will be played in the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2015.The BCS conference commissioners announced the dates and rotation for all 12 years of the upcoming postseason format after a meeting in Key Biscayne on Monday, the day after the BCS championship game in Miami."It was not a one-year decision,...

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Lilly 2013 profit forecast tops expectations

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Eli Lilly and Co. unveiled a better-than-expected 2013 earnings forecast Friday, in part because the pharmaceutical company expects growth from several established drugs to help make up for revenue lost to generic competition.The Indianapolis drug developer saw sales for its all-time best-selling drug, the antipsychotics Zyprexa, crater in 2012 after it lost U.S. patent protection....

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IMF cuts Malawi 2013 growth forecast on inflation, drought

The International Monetary Fund expects Malawi's economy to grow by 5.5 percent this year, more than double the rate estimated for 2012, but slightly lower than the 5.7 percent the IMF had previously projected.IMF head Christine Lagarde said a spike in inflation, lower-than-expected foreign exchange earnings and a drought that has cut into farm production have hurt the economy. But she was optimistic...

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Nepali charged with torture appears in UK court

LONDON (AP) — A British court on Saturday denied bail to a colonel in the Nepalese army facing charges of torture allegedly committed during the Himalayan nation's civil war.Kumar Lama, 46, was arrested Thursday at a residential address in the English town of St. Leonards-on-Sea, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) southeast of London. He was later charged with intentionally "inflicting severe pain or...

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Missoni scion on small plane missing in Venezuela

ROME (AP) — Rescue crews used boats and aircraft on Saturday to search for a small plane that disappeared in Venezuela carrying the CEO of Italy's iconic Missoni fashion house and five other people.But 24 hours after the BN-2 Islander aircraft disappeared from radar screens on its short flight from Venzuela's coastal resort island of Los Roques to Caracas, the capital, no sign of the plane had been...

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Bulgarians celebrate Epiphany with an icy dip

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Thousands of young men are plunging into icy rivers and lakes across Bulgaria to retrieve crucifixes cast by priests in an old ritual marking the feast of Epiphany.By tradition, a wooden cross is cast into the water and it is believed that the person who retrieves it will be freed from evil spirits.In the central city of Kalofer, 350 men in traditional dress waded into the icy...

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