Stage 2 of the World Match Racing Tour will head for the southern German town of Langenargen on Lake Constance for Match Race Germany. Fresh from his win at the Brasil Sailing Cup, new World Tour leader Paolo Cian of Team Shosholoza will head up a field of 12 teams including America’s Cup skippers and crews.

The 12 team field will include:

1. Paolo Cian (ITA) - Team Shosholoza
2. Matthieu Richard (FRA) - French Match Racing Team
3. Ian Williams (GBR) - Team Pindar
4. Bjorn Hansen (SWE) - Alandia Sailing Team
5. Sébastian Col (FRA) - K Challenge/French Match Racing Team
6. Peter Wibroe (DEN) - Team Wibroe
7. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) - Alandia Sailing Team
8. Adam Minoprio (NZL) - Emirates Team New Zealand
9. Jes Gram Hansen (DEN) - Trifork Racing
10. Damien Iehl – French Match Racing Team
11. Eric Monin (SUI) - Search.ch ‘Qualifier from the German Championship’
12. Markus Wieser (GER) - Team Sea Dubai ‘Qualifier from the Berlin Match Race’

Team Shosholoza is on top of the World Championship standings with their win at the Brasil Sailing Cup. They are the favorites going into Germany having won the event last year sailed in matched Bavaria 35’s “We sailed well in Brazil and had a great event to kick off our World Tour season” commented Paolo Cian “we are the defending Champions in Germany but anything can happen and it’s still a long way to win the World Championships” The fiery Italian will be up against some familiar foes this weekend including current World Champion, Ian Williams and his Team Pindar as well as Tour regulars Col, Hansen and Richard.

Frenchman Sébastien Col comments on the additional benefits the tour is providing him other than the opportunity of competing to become World Champion “Match Race Germany is our first event on the World Match Racing Tour this year. My objective this season is to sail at the highest level and to use the WMRT to prepare for our next America’s Cup campaign with K-Challenge. This will enable me to test different configurations with crew members and trimmers who would be interesting for us to recruit in the team. I’m starting the week with a two days training with Mathieu Richard in Pornic, then we will head to Langenargen to start the event on Wednesday.”

Perhaps no other venue on the World Tour is as stunning as Lake Constance which is bordered by Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Measuring 40 miles in length and 8.5 miles in width, Lake Constance, also called Bodensee, covers 220 square miles, making it central Europe’s second largest freshwater lake. With over 20,000 spectators last year, the event prides itself on its public access and festival atmosphere that takes place along the promenade of Langenargen at Lake Constance. With a large beer tent, many food vendors and bands playing everything from Dixieland to reggae, the event offers a slice of Oktoberfest in early summer.

Racing starts May 7 at 9.00hrs GMT subject to weather conditions. The format will see the teams split into two groups of 6 with the top three from each going to the quarter finals and the bottom three from each sailing a repechage for the final two places in the quarter final. From there the knockouts begin culminating in a first to three point final on Monday, May 12th which is a public holiday in Germany.

For more information about the World Match Racing Tour, visit the WMRT website at www.worldmatchracingtour.com.
Yvonne Reid

[Source: bymnews.com]

By LIZ SIDOTI, Press Writer

GREENVILLE, N.C. - Resolute rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama straddled North Carolina and Indiana on Monday on the eve of a pair of crucial primaries in the unceasing contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Both predicted the race would stretch into June, regardless of Tuesday’s outcomes.

Seeking an edge in the final hours, Clinton plugged her summertime gas-tax holiday proposal at every stop and released a new TV ad in both states that assailed Obama for his opposition to it. The ad called her “the candidate who is going to fight for working people.”

“He is attacking Hillary’s plan to give you a break on gas prices because he doesn’t have one,” says the ad. “Hillary wants the oil companies to pay for the gas tax this summer — so you don’t have to.”

Obama has accused Clinton of pandering with the proposal, and many economists are against it.

With polls showing Clinton chipping away at Obama’s advantage here, both candidates darted back to North Carolina for some last-minute campaigning. It was a brief diversion from the more competitive Indiana, where each planned to return by nightfall. At stake Tuesday were 187 Democratic delegates.

“Let’s listen to what the people are telling us … because if we listen, we will hear this incredible cry,” Clinton said, keeping up her populist pitch before a couple hundred people in a gymnasium at Pitt Community College.

Elsewhere, Obama campaigned among white, blue-collar workers in Evansville, Ind., before flying to North Carolina. The Democratic front-runner noted that the polls are very tight and the day’s schedule had him “bouncing back and forth” between the two states.

“We’re working as hard as we can and I desperately want every single vote here, in North Carolina and in Indiana,” the Illinois senator said during an appearance at a construction site.

In both states, Obama was trying to recover from a rough patch and put Clinton away after a difficult 16-month fight that has split the party. The former first lady, meanwhile, hoped to hang in the race with a win in one, maybe two states. Her aides lowered expectations for a victory in North Carolina, where Obama is favored, but sounded more optimistic about Indiana, where demographics seem to tilt in her direction.

Obama is ahead in the hunt for convention delegates — 1,743.5 to 1,607.5, according to an Associated Press count Monday — but Clinton senses an opening after a win in Pennsylvania last month. Still, the delegate math works to Obama’s advantage, and it will be hard for Clinton to overtake him.

Nevertheless, TV ads, automatic phone calls and mailed literature flooded both Indiana and North Carolina in the run up to Tuesday while thousands of volunteers for both candidates canvassed countless neighborhoods knocking on doors. With far more cash on hand, Obama outspent Clinton by an estimated $4 million to $5 million — roughly a third more — on TV ads in both states combined.

Both candidates had punishing schedules in the final hours. Clinton was holding five events across the two states, while Obama was jetting from Indiana to North Carolina and back again over a several-hour span. Both began their day at dawn and would end it well into the night.

In the interviews, Obama and Clinton expressed confidence in their chances of winning the Tuesday contests but would not predict that voting this week would be decisive enough to end the primary fight.

On NBC’s “Today” show, Obama predicted that after the final contests June 3 in Montana and South Dakota, “We will be in a position to make a decision who the Democratic nominee is going to be,” he said. “I will be the Democratic nominee.”

Clinton refused to predict Tuesday’s results, but said her campaign has made up some ground after falling behind.

“I think we’ve closed the gap,” she said on CNN’s “American Morning.”

Much of the exchange Monday centered on proposals Clinton has embraced to give drivers some relief from soaring gas prices. Clinton pushed her plan for a summer suspension of the gasoline tax, which she would pay for with a windfall profit tax on oil companies.

“I think a lot of people don’t understand my plan,” Clinton responded on CBS’ “The Early Show.” “I want to the oil companies to pay that $8 billion this summer instead of having the money come out of the pockets of consumers and drivers.”

The last-minute campaigning came as a new poll showed that most people are being squeezed by higher gas prices.

Six in 10 say gas prices have caused financial hardship for their family, including one in five who said it is causing severe problems, according to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll released on Monday. That’s actually a bit fewer than the number who said the cost of gasoline was hurting them a year ago.

Eight in 10 said they consider it likely they’ll be paying $4 a gallon sometime this year, and more than four in 10 said they expect prices to hit $5 per gallon.

____

Associated Press Writer Tom Raum in Evansville, Ind., and Alan Fram in Washington contributed to this report.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, believed to be the last surviving member of an unsuccessful 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, has died at the age of 90.
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The German Defense Ministry issued a statement on Friday saying Boeselager had died on Thursday night. No cause of death was given.

Boeselager was just 25 when he and a group of other officers, led by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, attempted to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb at his “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters in eastern Prussia on July 20, 1944.

The bomb went off, killing four men, but the Fuehrer was shielded from the blast by a heavy oak table and only slightly injured. Stauffenberg and most of his co-conspirators were executed within days.

But despite brutal torturing by the Nazis, none of them revealed the role of Boeselager, who had provided the explosives used in the assassination attempt, and his participation in the plot remained secret until after the war.

He carried cyanide on him every single day until the war ended, convinced the Nazis would eventually find him out.

The plot to kill Hitler has become a famous symbol for German resistance to the Nazi regime, discussed in school lessons and honored in museums. A movie about the plot called “Valkyrie,” and starring Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg, is due out later this year.

In a 2004 interview with Reuters, Boeselager said his sleep remained troubled, 60 years later, by dreams of the failed plot and visions of his fellow conspirators.

“If you are the only one among some 100 who is still alive, that makes you think. I feel they are watching me and I have a certain responsibility towards them,” he said.

After the war, Boeselager studied economics and became a forestry expert. He urged young people to get politically involved and feel responsible for their country.

(Writing by Noah Barkin; editing by Sami Aboudi)

CHICAGO (AFP) - A lack of magnesium accelerates aging in human cells, which may explain the link between any long-term deficiency and a higher risk of aging-related diseases, according to a new study.

Magnesium is essential for hundreds of biochemical reactions in the body. It helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function, keeps heart rhythm steady, and keeps bones strong.

Yet research has shown that, at least in the United States, more than half the population is lacking in magnesium due to deficiencies in their diet, potentially increasing their risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis and some cancers.

To try to understand why magnesium deficiency predisposes people to disease, Bruce Ames and researchers at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California studied the long-term effects of moderate magnesium deficiency on human fibroblasts, cells that provide a structural framework for many tissues in the body.

They cultured the cells for their entire lifespan, a period of three to four months, to mimic the effects of a lack of magnesium in the study which appeared Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They found that while the cells survived and divided normally under moderate magnesium-depleted conditions, they appeared to become older quicker than cells grown in normal magnesium concentrations.

“Magnesium deficiency affects the way the cells age. Accelerated cellular aging affects the way tissue functions,” said David Killilea, an associate staff scientist in the Nutrition and Metabolism Center at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute.

“We are now thinking that cellular consequences of magnesium deficiency may be driving long-term chronic disease.”

Ames and Killilea suggested the markers of accelerated cellular aging in magnesium-deficient cells may indicate that the cells were in triage mode, saving resources for indispensable metabolic processes at the expense of long-term function.

As for diagnosing and treating chronic moderate magnesium deficiency, there is no good laboratory marker for this type of condition. It tends to fly under the radar, the scientists said.

“You could be moderately deficient for a long time and not know it,” said Killilea.

Food sources rich in the micronutrient include green vegetables such as spinach, beans, nuts, and unrefined grains.

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Olympic torch reaches San Francisco on Wednesday and although pro-Tibet protests made laps in London and Paris chaotic, Olympics chief Jacques Rogge said there are no plans to cut short a global relay.

Hundreds of security officers deployed across San Francisco for the flame’s only U.S. stop. Activists fueled by anger about Beijing’s policies in Tibet and its reaction to deadly rioting in the Himalayan region last month were gathering for demonstrations.

Several hundred paraded through the city’s streets on the eve of the torch procession, many carrying Tibetan flags and signs and chanting “Shame on China.”

On Wednesday, some 700 security officers deployed in the West Coast city and airspace restrictions were imposed. Barricades were set up outside the Chinese consulate.

Coast Guard boats were to patrol the waterfront route of the torch. The relay was to start at 1 p.m. (4:00 p.m. EDT).

The fierce protests in London and Paris in recent days — efforts that succeeded even in extinguishing the flame for brief periods — have put city officials on edge.

“It’s getting a little scarier,” said retired State Appellate Court Judge Harry Low, a prominent figure in the city’s Chinese-American community. “The intensity of the opposition to the torch and to China seems to be increasing.”

The official route takes the torch from near the city’s baseball stadium along its scenic waterfront to the Fisherman’s Wharf area favored by tourists. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said he expected tens of thousands to attend and hundreds of police to patrol the route.

Authorities were stepping up patrols on the Golden Gate Bridge after three protesters scaled its cables on Monday to hang pro-Tibet banners.

China’s crackdown on anti-government protests in Tibet in March, which it says were orchestrated by Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has drawn sharp international criticism and clouded preparations for the Beijing Olympics in August.

Hours before the San Francisco torch relay, President George W. Bush urged China to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

He said he agreed at a meeting with Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong “that it would stand the Chinese government in good stead if they would begin a dialogue with the representatives of the Dalai Lama.”

Rogge told the Wall Street Journal that reports the International Olympic Committee executive board would consider scrapping the torch relay outside China, to avoid more ugly scenes, were “based on a misunderstanding.”

“I am saddened that such a beautiful symbol of the torch, which unites people of different religions, different ethnic origin, different political systems, cultures and languages, has been attacked,” Rogge said of the disruptions.

OLYMPIC FLAME

Rogge met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for about an hour on Wednesday. “It was a good meeting where a range of Games topics were discussed between both parties,” said an IOC statement.

Wen told Rogge the Olympic flame was a symbol of “peace, friendship, advancement and brightness.”

“We firmly believe that the Olympic flame, which belongs to all mankind, will never be extinguished,” the Foreign Ministry’s Web site paraphrased Wen as saying.

The troubled torch procession has kept Tibet in the headlines, and become a magnet for other groups unhappy about a range of China-related issues, including its involvement in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Beijing fiercely condemns the protests, and they have stirred up patriotic resentment among many ordinary Chinese who feel they politicize a sporting event that should be a celebration of 30 years of economic development and opening to the outside world.

Western leaders are facing a delicate balancing act as calls mount for them to boycott the opening ceremony.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in a speech to Chinese students that it was important to recognize there were “significant human rights problems” in Tibet, although he did not back calls for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics.

“I believe the Olympics are important for China’s continuing engagement with the world,” Rudd said, according to a transcript of the speech made on Wednesday.

China blames the Dalai Lama and his associates for orchestrating monk-led protests which later turned violent as part of a campaign for independence. The Dalai Lama denies the claims.

(Additional reporting by Guo Shipeng and Nick Mulvenney in Beijing, Lucy Hornby in Xiahe, and John Ruwitch in Hong Kong; Writing by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Charles Dick)