Dwight Howard the biggest name available when NBA free agency opens
Dwight Howard could leave, Chris Paul is expected to stay, and plenty more will happen beyond Los Angeles when the NBA's free agency period opens.
Frontcourt players such as Josh Smith, David West, Andrew Bynum and Al Jefferson also can become free agents Monday at midnight EDT.
Howard heads the class after spending one largely unhappy season with the Lakers. They would like him back and can outspend other suitors by about $30 million, according to NBA rules, but teams such as Houston, Dallas and Atlanta will try to persuade him to take less money for more enjoyment.
He didn't fit right in Mike D'Antoni's offense and could end up with his third home in less than a year, having been dealt from Orlando to Los Angeles just last August.
Bynum was in that deal, too, going from the Lakers to Philadelphia in what was a four-team trade. He sat out all season because of knee problems and could leave without ever playing a game for the 76ers.
The Clippers are much happier with Paul, and he has plenty of reasons to stay in Los Angeles. The Clippers won their first Pacific Division title last season and will be coached now by Doc Rivers, who headed across the country after the Clippers sent a future first-round draft pick to Boston to let him out of his contract.
Players can agree to deals any time after free agency opens but can't sign until July 10, after next season's salary cap has been set.
That's when the blockbuster draft night trade that sent Kevin Garnett from Boston to Brooklyn will become official.
The more severe penalties in the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement now start to take effect, with stiffer luxury taxes and more restrictions on sign-and-trades.
Teams are chasing the two-time defending champion Miami Heat, who will try to hold onto key reserve Chris Andersen. The San Antonio Spurs, whom they beat in seven games in the NBA Finals, would see the end of their longtime Big Three if Manu Ginobili does not re-sign. Starter Tiago Splitter is a restricted free agent, so the Spurs can match an offer.
West helped Indiana take Miami to seven games in the Eastern Conference finals, and the Pacers would like to keep the veteran power forward. The versatile Smith (Atlanta) and the rugged Jefferson (Utah) also are available.
Key guards on the market include Olympian Andre Iguodala of Denver and Sixth Man of the Year J.R. Smith of New York.
Source: AP
Novak Djokovic cruises past Jeremy Chardy
World number one Novak Djokovic cruised into the fourth round of Wimbledon with victory over 28th seed Jeremy Chardy.
Djokovic made just three unforced errors on his way to a 6-3 6-2 6-2 win over the Frenchman, who found his opponent unplayable.
The Serb, 26, lost just six points on his own serve, in a match which lasted one hour and 26 minutes, to send out a warning to the rest of the draw.
His last-16 opponent will be Tommy Haas, who beat Feliciano Lopez. Djokovic and Chardy's last meeting came at Wimbledon in 2011, when the eventual champion again made easy work of his opponent, winning 6-4 6-1 6-1.
"I felt very confident stepping onto the court but it's never easy against Chardy, he's a quality player," said Djokovic.
"Everything went my way. I haven't lost many points on my service game, I enjoyed it very much and it's very enjoyable when everything works well.
"Not many times on the grass against a big server do you get to return this well on what is the fastest surface."
Australian Bernard Tomic beat ninth seed Richard Gasquet to reach the fourth round for the second time.
Tomic, ranked 59 in the world, won 7-6 (9-7) 5-7 7-5 7-6 (7-5) in a match which lasted two hours and 46 minutes.
The 20-year-old will next face seventh seed Tomas Berdych after he beat Kevin Anderson of South Africa 3-6 6-3 6-4 7-5.
Delano Williams seals England deal
Top Caribbean junior sprinter Delano Williams has completed the IAAF transfer allegiance and is now eligible to compete for the Great Britain (GB) & Northern Ireland (NI) team in international competition with immediate effect.
The announcement was made by British Athletics, which was later confirmed by the IAAF through its monthly bulletin issued this week.
The 2012 World Junior 200m champion, who holds dual citizenship for both Turks & Caicos and GB & NI, was previously eligible to compete for the British team at the Olympics due to TCI's status as a British overseas territory, but narrowly missed out on selection after competing at the British 2012 trials in June last year.
After 2012, Williams decided he wished to compete for GB & NI in all international competitions, and his immediate transfer was granted by IAAF last week, according to British Athletics.
"I am very pleased that my transfer of allegiance has been confirmed, and I am excited to be aiming towards a British team this summer," said Williams.
"Any athlete who saw the Olympics would feel an affinity with British fans as they showed how much they love the sport. I hope to receive a similar warm welcome in a British vest this season."
British Athletics Performance Director Neil Black welcomed Williams' transfer of allegiance.
"Delano is determined to earn a regular place on the team and to represent GB & NI every year rather than just in Olympics, and that shows exactly the right commitment.
"We very much look forward to working with him as he develops into a senior athlete. He is already a real talent and he will be vying for selection to the team for Moscow World Championships when he competes at the Sainsbury's British Championships in Birmingham in July."
England knocked out after Egypt defeat
England have been knocked out of the Under-20 World Cup at the group stage following a 2-0 defeat by Egypt.
Peter Taylor's side needed to win to reach the quarter-finals in Turkey but were beaten by late goals from Trezeget and Hassan Ahmed.
Their exit follows a disappointing performance from the Under-21s,who lost all three games at the European Championship.
England drew their first two matches - 2-2 with Iraq and 1-1 with Chile. Egypt goalkeeper Awad Mossad made fine saves from Larnell Cole, Conor Coady and Harry Kane to deny England a first-half lead.
Defender Eric Dier then cracked a 20-yard free-kick against the crossbar midway through the second half.
And England were punished for missed opportunities when Trezeget curled in a brilliant 80th minute strike before Ahmed added a second in injury time.
Following the game Taylor said: "I was disappointed with our performance in open play, but we created more chances."
And reflecting on the tournament he added: "We could have won our first match, we were 2-0 up and then I thought we played exceptionally well against Chile when we could have won too.
"I thought we would win tonight to be honest, because I thought we were improving as a team.
"I think we're very disappointed tonight because they didn't do as well but the experience of playing in the U20 World Cup will have been fantastic for everybody."
England have now gone 16 matches without a victory at the Under-20 World Cup - their last win was in 1997.
Australia complete victory over Somerset
Australia completed a routine victory over Somerset by mid-afternoon on the final day of their game at Taunton.
Chasing 260 to win, the tourists began day four on 36-0 against a weakened attack as tendonitis prevented paceman Jamie Overton from taking the field.
Ed Cowan (46) shared an opening stand of 86 with Usman Khawaja (73), who then added 76 with Phillip Hughes (50).
Spinner George Dockrell (3-78) delayed the victory charge but Brad Haddin (52 not out) won the match with a six.
Vice-captain Haddin raced to his half century from only 40 balls, hitting three fours from a Gemal Hussain over before hoisting Dockrell over the ropes for the second time to reach his fifty and secure his side's victory. Shane Watson, who had made 90 in the first innings, was not required to bat as the other batsmen - notably top scorer Khawaja - pressed their Ashes claims while Somerset toiled.
Hussain removed Cowan when he induced an edge to keeper Alex Barrow, but left-handers Khawaja and Hughes made their way to 153-1 by lunch before Dockrell began to profit from bowling into the rough outside off stump.
The Ireland left-arm spinner had Hughes dropped at short leg on 38 before Khawaja edged to captain Marcus Trescothick at slip.
As the Aussies pressed ahead, Dockrell bowled Hughes and Aussie skipper Michael Clarke (26) in successive overs as they tried to take him on, but Haddin saw the tourists home without further hindrance.
The Aussies now head to Worcester for their final warm-up before the Ashes - a four-day match beginning on Tuesday, where the hosts' batting line-up will be boosted by England opener Nick Compton.
Before then, England - without Compton, and with Joe Root opening in his place alongside captain Alastair Cook - take on Essex in a four-day game at Chelmsford, starting on Sunday.
Region urged to reduce deficits
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments have been told there must be sustained economic diversification if they are to successfully reduce their fiscal deficits.
Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart gave the advice as he addressed the opening ceremony of the 31st Annual Caribbean Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean.
He said it was imperative for the region to overcome some of the global challenges that had emerged, while continuing to maintain “a reasonably adequate safety net”, and social development system.
He outlined a six-pronged strategy, which, he said, would put the Caribbean back on a path of development and expansion.
Stuart, who the day earlier addressed a national consultation on the Barbadian economy, explained that the plan would involve diversifying the sources of “our economic drivers to align them more with faster growing areas of the world, through expanded and more intensive tourism marketing and product development”.
He said “expanded and more focused international business marketing, more and faster product development, increased labour content of our international business, and intensive work on the removal of foreign administrative hurdles to international business” would help Caribbean nations chart a path to recovery.
“We must restructure the energy basis of the economy and improve the competitiveness of production through greater energy efficiency; greater use of alternative renewable energy; an enhanced technological platform for the economy; and greater availability of requisite labour skills.
“We must improve the productive capacity of our economies through infrastructure development. We must rationalise and consolidate the fiscal sector by reducing wastage; cutting unnecessary programmes; confronting the ‘entitlement’ mentality in our countries; providing public goods and services more efficiently; and improving the facilitation role of Government,” he told the delegates.
Prime Minister Stuart said the economies of the Caribbean had suffered along with the rest of the world over the last six years from a generally low level of economic activity and had continued for this period because of increasing uncertainty about likely changes in global economic fortunes.
He said the global uncertainty had “badly shaken business and consumer confidence”, and as a consequence, there had been less investment and spending than usual throughout the world.
He said consequently regional states had to “shift the locus of investment and growth more towards the private sector”.
Stuart also suggested that both the public and private sectors needed to cooperate more on a regional basis on economic matters and deepen regional economic relations, by increasing regional cooperation in tourism and investment marketing, especially in new markets, in order to diversify the countries of origin of the economic drivers.
He said that this could be achieved by collaborating with airlines to increase intra-regional airlift and to increase and diversify airlift to the region; and by multi-destination marketing; tourism marketing and product development; international business marketing and product development.
Prime Minister Stuart also called for greater collaboration on security matters; more intra-regional trade in food; more intra-regional tourism; increased intra CARICOM trade in both goods and services, and more direct and portfolio investment in each other’s economies.
Figures released here show that Caribbean economies had been underperforming since 1990, with growth stagnating in the last two decades, except for commodity producers.
The figures show that since 2008, economic activity grew by less than one per cent in tourism oriented economies, and that slower economic growth was compounded by competitiveness issues, widening external current account deficits, declining share of world exports, and falling tourist arrivals and tourist receipts.
Blackberry shares plunge after $84m first-quarter loss
Shares in smartphone maker Blackberry have dived after it reported an $84m (£55m) loss for the three months to 1 June.
The figure was better than the $518m loss for the same period last year, but much worse than analysts' forecasts.
The company, based in Ontario, Canada, also said it would post an operating loss for the next quarter running to September.
Blackberry shares closed down 28% in New York.
Shipments of new smartphones increased, but Blackberry, which used to be called Research In Motion, did not release how many new handsets running the BB10 operating system were sold in the quarter. Chief executive Thorstein Heins said the company was continuing to focus on the global roll-out of BB10 and was confident it would be a hit with customers.
"We are still in the early stages of this launch, but already, the Blackberry 10 platform and Blackberry Enterprise Service 10 are proving themselves to customers to be very secure, flexible and dynamic mobile computing solutions,"he said in a statement.
He added that the group would be increasing investments to support the roll-out of new products and services over the next three quarters.
Revenue rose to $3.1bn in the quarter from $2.8bn a year earlier.
Analysts had been particularly keen to see the numbers for the new Z10 handset, as it was the first full quarter that the model had been on sale in the United States.
Blackberry launched two all-new smartphones this year, the touchscreen Z10 device, followed by the Q10, with a mini keyboard favoured by many Blackberry users.
Blackberry said that it had shipped 6.8 million phones overall in its first quarter versus 7.8 million in the same three-month period last year.
"It doesn't bode well for the initial Blackberry 10 launch, particularly the Z10. But even the outlook for a second-quarter loss doesn't bode well for the Q10 either," said Brian Colello, an analyst with Morningstar.
Blackberry has been battling stiff competition in the smartphone sector, and has struggled to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung.
Daniel Ernst from Hudson Square Research said the company fell between two camps.
"They're not the high-end provider any more, they're not Apple. They're not the low-end provider, they're not Nokia. So they are in the middle and they do relatively low volumes," he said.
"It's difficult to make great margins on that kind of volume, so I would say the outlook is quite negative."
Source-BBC
Facebook removes ads from controversial pages to avoid boycot
Facebook has announced a major revamp of its advertising systems in an attempt to deal with concerns about offensive content.
There will now be new restrictions on where adverts appear on the site.
Marks and Spencer and BSkyB were among companies to suspend advertising after complaints that adverts had been placed on pages with offensive material.
The social network is now planning to remove any advertising from many of its pages.
Facebook's move follows complaints about a Sky advert promoting an M&S voucher.
The advert was placed on a Facebook page called "cute and gay boys". The page featured photographs of teenage boys.
In a blogpost on Friday, Facebook said: "We recognize we need to do more to prevent situations where ads are displayed alongside controversial Pages and Groups. So we are taking action."
The company said that from Monday it will implement a new process to determine which pages or groups should feature adverts alongside the content.
There will be no adverts on pages that feature any violent, graphic or sexual content, even if such content is not in violation of the company's rules.
According to one source, Facebook will create a "gold standard" of around 10,000 pages that are deemed suitable for adverts, and then inspect other pages to see if they can be added to the list. All adverts will be removed from other pages.
A spokesman said this would be a labour-intensive process but we take this" very seriously."
BskyB said it looked forward to discussing the new measures and would keep the situation under review.
M&S had asked BSkyB to remove the advert, and it suspended some of its own advertising campaigns on Facebook.
BSkyB suspended all of its advertising on the social network, where it has been a major customer.
Both companies had said they were keen to use Facebook again, but needed to be sure that their advertising would not appear next to offensive content, or material that might reflect poorly on their brands.
Speaking before Facebook announced its policy change, a spokesman for BSkyB told the BBC: "We have asked Facebook to devise safeguards to ensure our content does not appear alongside inappropriate material in the future.
"We will review the situation in due course."
Sources at Marks and Spencer said Facebook had been taking the issue very seriously at the highest level.
In an additional statement, an M&S spokeswoman said the company did not "tolerate any inappropriate use or positioning of its brand and has very clear policies that govern where and how our brand is used".
She added: "We take any suggestion that these policies are not being adhered to very seriously and always investigate them thoroughly."
Earlier this month, Facebook was forced to act against misogynist content on its site after protests from women's groups led some advertisers to suspend campaigns.
Source-BBC
Terry Leahy legacy criticised by former chairman
Tesco's former chairman Lord MacLaurin has criticised the legacy left by ex-chief executive Sir Terry Leahy.
He told the annual meeting that current chief Philip Clarke needed three years to revive the UK's biggest retailer.
Sir Terry is credited with turning Tesco into an international force, but Lord MacLaurin said a legacy of writedowns and exit from the US was "all very sad".
Mr Leahy could not immediately be reached for comment.
After being arguably the UK's most successful retailer for years, Tesco issued a profit warning in January 2012 and withdrew from the US after five years trying to crack the market with it Fresh & Easy chain.
Sir Terry became Tesco's chief executive in 1997, when Lord MacLaurin was still chairman. Shareholders enjoyed double-digit growth during Sir Terry's tenure, but the company began to struggle not long after he was replaced by Mr Clarke in 2011.
Lord MacLaurin told the annual meeting in London that a chief executive should not only be judged on his day-to-day performance, but also his legacy. "And I think that we are all very sad in this hall to see the legacy that Terry Leahy left," he said.
"It is a very sad situation - your enormous writedowns, (and) the situation in America," he added.
Recovery will not happen overnight, he said. "This job is going to be probably two or three years," he said, noting that when rival Sainsbury's hit trouble in the early 1990s it took the retailer more than five years to reposition itself.
Gold price falls below $1,200 an ounce
At the same time, the slowdown in the global economy, prompted central banks across the world to lower interest rates - to historic lows in many cases - in an attempt to try to boost growth.
Analysts said that with interest rates so low, investors have been favouring gold.
However, things have started to change in the past few months.
The US economy has been recovering; as a result, the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has said that the US central bank will scale back its $85bn a month bond buying programme.
Analysts said that such a move may see interest rates rise again - making gold a less attractive option.
At the same time, the risks surrounding the eurozone crisis seem to have abated as well, which has also hurt gold prices.