Classic Rivalries: Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon

Shawn Michaels wasn?t always The Showstopper, The Icon and Mr. WrestleMania. Long before his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, HBK was just another competitor hoping for a shot at superstardom. That all changed on March 20, 1994, at WrestleMania X. On that night, he found himself standing atop a ladder in the middle of The World?s Most Famous Arena, New York City?s Madison Square Garden, with his close friend Razor Ramon lying prone on the mat beneath him.

Michaels was motivated heading into the unique Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match, but he never could have expected the reaction people around the world would have when he took a leap of faith from the top of the ladder and into sports-entertainment history.

?You always go into WrestleMania wanting to have the best match,? Michaels told WWE Classics. ?But we didn?t go into the match thinking we were going to create history or revolutionize the business.?

As he flew through the air, Michaels had no idea that he was altering the course of sports-entertainment. By the time he came crashing down to the canvas, a new generation of Superstars had been inspired to climb to new heights.

?They redefined the Ladder Match,? Cody Rhodes?said. ?They set the bar so high that guys probably wouldn?t want to have [a Ladder Match] because it couldn?t be better than what Shawn and Razor did.? (PHOTOS?| VIDEO PLAYLIST)

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Could China's Shenzhou 9 success usher in a new space race? (+video)

Chinese astronauts successfully docked with a prototype space station, making China only the third nation, after the United States and Russia, to perform such a maneuver. ?

By Associated Press / June 18, 2012

In this screen grab from the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Chinese astronaut Liu Wang, left, tries to help his female colleague Liu Yang move forward as their commander Jing Haipeng waves, in the orbiting Tiangong-1 lab module Monday afternoon.

Beijing Aerospace Control Center via Xinhua/AP

Enlarge

A Chinese spacecraft carrying three astronauts docked with an orbiting module Monday, another first for the country as it strives to match American and Russian exploits in?space.

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The Shenzhou 9 capsule completed the maneuver with the Tiangong 1 module shortly after 2 p.m. (0600 GMT), 343 kilometers (213 miles) above Earth. The docking was shown live on national television.

Astronauts will live and work in the module for several days as part of preparations for manning a permanent?space?station. The crew includes 33-year-old Liu Yang, an air force pilot and?China's?first female?space?traveler.

The docking was a first for Chinese manned spaceflight. In November 2011, the unmanned Shenzhou 8 successfully docked twice with Tiangong 1 by remote control.

Monday's docking also was completed by remote control from a ground base in?China. A manual docking, to be carried out by one of the crew members, is scheduled for later in the mission.

Liu is joined by mission commander and veteran astronaut Jing Haipeng, 45, and crew mate Liu Wang, 43. About three hours after the docking the three were shown on live television entering the Tiangong 1, grabbing handles as they floated along in their blue spacesuits.

They will spend at least 10 days in?space?on?China's?fourth manned mission, which was launched Saturday from the Jiuquan center on the edge of the Gobi desert in northern?China.

China?is hoping to join the United States and Russia as the only countries to send independently maintained?space?stations into orbit. It is already one of just three nations to have launched manned spacecraft on their own.

Another manned mission to the module is planned later this year. Possible future missions could include sending a man to the moon.

The Tiangong 1, which was launched last year, is due to be replaced by a permanent?space?station around 2020. That station is to weigh about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA's Skylab of the 1970s and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International?Space?Station.

China?has only limited cooperation in?space?with other nations and is excluded from the ISS, largely on objections from the United States.

China?first launched a man into?space?in 2003 and conducted a two-man mission in 2005. A three-man trip in 2008 featured the country's first spacewalk.

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Fed meets as many await possible help for economy

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Federal Reserve is meeting this week at a time of high alert ? over the slumping U.S. economy, the aftermath of the Greek elections and the shaky financial markets.

Whether that means it will announce any new action when its two-day meeting ends Wednesday isn't certain. But many analysts think the struggles of the U.S. economy and the threats from Europe will compel the Fed to say or unveil something to try to boost confidence.

A major issue is Europe's debt crisis. Do Fed officials think the Greek election results will help steady Europe's economy because Greece now seems likely to remain in the euro currency union? Or do they worry that Europe's crisis remains unresolved and could tip the global economy into recession?

Those concerns have flared just as U.S. employers have reduced hiring. U.S. retail sales and manufacturing output have weakened. The housing market is still far from healthy. Investors are edgy.

Many economists say that if the Fed announces any new step this week, the most likely would be to extend a program called Operation Twist, which is set to expire in two weeks.

Under Operation Twist, the Fed sells shorter-term securities and buys longer-term bonds. The goal is to further reduce long-term interest rates to encourage borrowing and spending.

Some analysts think the Fed's policymakers might want to further assess the economic landscape before intervening. But even if the Fed decides against unveiling any new steps this week, it's expected to at least make clear it's willing to do more.

"I think Fed officials will send a pretty decisive signal that they are prepared to provide more support to boost economic growth and lower unemployment," said Brian Bethune, economics professor at Gordon College in Massachusetts.

If the Fed does unveil new action Wednesday, it might take a bolder step than Operation Twist. It might decide to expand its portfolio of securities through a third round of long-term bond purchases. If it did so, some analysts think the Fed would decide to buy mortgage securities as well as Treasury bonds to try to lower record-low mortgage rates even further to help revive the housing market.

Bethune thinks the Fed will wait until its next meeting at the end of July and that it will announce a third round of bond buying then. Delaying action now would give Chairman Ben Bernanke more time to build support within the Fed.

A less dramatic step would be for the Fed to extend the target date when it expects to begin raising short-term rates beyond its timetable of late-2014.

Yet it's unclear whether any Fed action would help the economy much. Long-term U.S. interest rates have already touched record lows. Businesses and consumers who aren't borrowing now might not be moved to do so if rates slipped a bit more.

And Republican opponents of President Barack Obama would be critical of a Fed move less than five months before U.S. elections because it could be perceived as helping Obama win re-election.

Any new action would be announced in a statement the Fed will issue after its meeting. Later Wednesday afternoon, it will publish updated economic forecasts, and Bernanke will hold his quarterly news conference.

One reason many analysts think the Fed may announce new action this week is that inflation is low. A gauge of U.S. consumer prices fell in May by the most in nearly four years. When price increases slow, Fed officials generally become less concerned that super-low interest rates might ignite inflation.

Others caution that a step such as Operation Twist might offer little benefit, and not only because rates are already at historic lows. The Fed is running out of short-term Treasurys to swap for longer-term bonds.

Still, some analysts, like Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, expect the Fed to announce an extension of Operation Twist for several more months. The program has been in place since September.

Extending Operation Twist could represent a compromise between Fed officials who favor expanding the Fed's portfolio through a third round of bond buying and those who say it's done enough and that further action could feed high inflation later.

Four members of the policy committee ? Vice Chairman Janet Yellen, Atlanta regional bank president Dennis Lockhart, San Francisco regional bank president John Williams and Chicago regional bank president Charles Evans ? signaled earlier this month that they'd consider backing further Fed action.

Other committee members ? such as Dallas regional bank president Richard Fisher and Jeffrey Lacker, head of the Richmond Fed ? have raised concerns about inflation. Complicating matters, the Fed will have two new members joining the debate at this week's meeting. Their views on interest-rate policies aren't known.

The two ? Jeremy Stein, a Harvard economics professor, and Jerome Powell, a former private equity executive ? won Senate confirmation in May. Their arrival brings the seven-member board to full strength for the first time in six years.

Many investors favor another round of bond buying because they think it might lift the stock market as more investors shift money out of low-yielding bonds into stocks. They were disappointed by a recent congressional appearance by Bernanke, who sent no clear signal of the Fed's next move.

The Fed chief spoke after the government issued a dismal jobs report for May. Bernanke said Fed officials need to see whether the economy can expand enough in coming months to accelerate hiring. In light of his comments, some economists say that unless the Fed thinks that turbulence in Europe compels it to act now, it may announce no action this week.

"I think the Fed will be in a wait-and-watch posture," said David Jones, chief economist at DMJ Advisors. "I think the odds still favor a third round of bond buying, but the June meeting will be too soon for the Fed to make that decision."

That reasoning relates, in part, to the sharp drop in gas prices this spring. Retail gasoline is averaging $3.51 a gallon nationally ? 43 cents below the year's peak in early April. Those lower prices give consumers more money to spend and could help revive growth in the second half of the year.

And while Europe's turmoil carries risks for the U.S. economy, it's also helped reduce the cost of U.S. mortgages and other loans. That's because investors seeking safety have poured money into U.S. Treasurys, driving down their rates, which filter through the economy.

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Analysis: Oil market shrugs at imminent Iran tanker insurance ban

(Reuters) - In less than two weeks, Iran's biggest oil buyers will lose access to the London-based insurance market that protects 95 percent of the world's tanker shipments against oil spills or catastrophic collisions.

Barring an unexpected last-minute deal to relax European Union sanctions, Europe's Protection and Indemnity (P&I) clubs will be unable to insure vessels carrying Iranian crude from July 1, an unforeseen but ultimately critical side effect of EU sanctions to punish Iran for its nuclear program.

In an extreme scenario, exports from OPEC's second-largest supplier -- already curtailed by separate U.S. sanctions and an EU import ban -- could grind to a halt next month as overseas oil companies cannot afford to take the risk of multibillion-dollar liabilities arising from an uninsured incident.

Such an outcome seems unlikely. In Japan, which now buys about a fifth of Iran's exports, legislators are expected to approve unprecedented government guarantees to insure shipments later this month.

But no other country has announced similar arrangements, and buyers in South Korea and India say they will have to stop loading any new cargoes from July without a solution.

Despite the risks, however, oil markets appear blase: Since April, Brent crude prices have slumped more than 20 percent to trade below $100 a barrel for the first time since early 2011; in a straw poll by Reuters, none of the five analysts who provided forecasts for Iranian exports expected more than a modest dip in sales in July and the rest of the year.

"Insurance issues may affect exports on top of volumetric targets, resulting in lower-than-expected Iranian exports, but as time passes market participants may find ways to deal with sanctions and exports may increase," Seth Kleinman at Citi said.

For the moment, traders are betting that reduced demand resulting from Europe's debt crisis, near-record Saudi oil production and a boom in North American output are more than sufficient to offset the estimated drop of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in Iran's exports since last year.

Group of Eight nations have also made clear they could release emergency oil reserves quickly if supplies are endangered.

In effect, market sentiment on Iran has swung from one extreme to the other. The fears earlier this year of an immediate Israeli military attack on Iran have been replaced by what some analysts warn is dangerous complacency.

"Our view is that a large part of the lower Iran exports is already priced in," said Hans van Cleef, energy economist at ABN AMRO, who declined to provide a forecast. "The price effect on July 1st will therefore be very limited."

More broadly, dimmer prospects for a resolution to high-level nuclear talks and growing risks of instability stemming from Syria's turmoil may be underestimated.

"I think it's a lot more volatile than the market recognizes," Barclays analyst Helima Croft said.

JAPAN INSURANCE

Citi expects exports to drop by 200,000 bpd compared to May, and then remain at around 1.25 million bpd for the rest of the year -- about half what Iran was exporting last year, before tougher sanctions.

On average, the analysts see Iran's exports slipping by only 216,000 bpd in July, and marginally thereafter. That implies a total loss of exports at close to the 1.5 million bpd level that analysts at Barclays warned could provide "significant upside to prices", particularly with summer demand rising.

The P&I block initially appeared to be an unanticipated side effect of Europe's sanctions, which included a more direct ban on imports of Iranian crude and a host of other measures meant to convince Tehran to quit its nuclear ambitions.

The West suspects Iran of trying to make atomic weapons, but Tehran says its nuclear program is for power generation.

However, insurance quickly become a central issue with wider implications. While U.S. sanctions have successfully convinced most Asian nations to cut Iranian purchases by a tenth or more, the lack of P&I coverage threatens to halt exports completely -- a development that not even Washington seems to want.

Major importers had lobbied the EU to relax the ban or delay the sanctions, but the EU has been resolute: "We have a clear position starting with the oil ban on the first of July," Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said last week.

Most are also seeking sovereign support, with few results outside of Japan.

Earlier this year Chinese shipowners prevailed on Beijing for coverage, but there has been no evidence that such steps are forthcoming. An Indian official said last week that New Delhi was struggling to resolve the problem. Industry sources said earlier that the country's mostly state-owned refiners would be forced to halt imports without a solution.

"Oil traders see Iran's buyers creating workable substitutes for EU maritime insurance through sovereign guarantees," said Mark Dubowitz, head of the non-profit group Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which advocates tough sanctions on Iran.

OWN FLEET?

NITC, the Islamic republic's biggest private tanker operator, has sought to reassure customers that it can keep shipments moving with $1 billion of insurance coverage on its own fleet, largely from privately owned Kish P&I.

If deployed in full, NITC's fleet of 39 vessels would theoretically be enough to carry a maximum of around 62 million barrels of oil, data from its website showed. Assuming a 35-day round trip to China, the fleet could theoretically ship 1.8 million bpd, more than Iran's current exports.

But brokers say as many as three-quarters of its 25 supertankers may already be occupied by storing surplus production at sea, while its smaller vessels would be ill-suited to longer-haul shipments. That would make it difficult to sustain current exports using only NITC vessels.

Ultimately, for some analysts the question is less about the immediate impact of sanctions than about the degree to which some countries may yet evade them.

Nic Brown at Natixis says China -- the only major importer not to have secured an exemption to U.S. sanctions -- may buy more than 500,000 bpd of crude in July.

"We suspect that Chinese importers have negotiated attractive terms to take more oil from Iran," he said.

(Reporting by Jonathan Leff in New York and Naveen Arul and Nallur Sethuraman in Bangalore; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Dale Hudson)

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Greek polls: Pro-bailout conservatives in first

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Americans suddenly on a roll in majors

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? In a little more than six months, they shared the stage in a playoff, became fast friends through their faith and then partners in the Presidents Cup.

Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson are linked again in ways they never imagined.

Major champions.

Simpson joined the most important fraternity in golf Sunday at The Olympic Club with a flourish of birdies and a steady diet of pars at the end. The last one came from a delicate chip out of a hole in the rough to 3 feet that wound up being the decisive stroke in the U.S. Open.

On a leaderboard loaded with possibilities, his name did not stand out. Simpson was playing in only his fifth major, and his second U.S. Open. He had missed the cut in his last two tournaments. And he was six shots out of the lead when he walked off the fifth green with his second bogey of the day.

Some four hours later, Simpson sat in the clubhouse with his pregnant wife, Dowd. They tried to take their mind off the finish by watching videos of their young son, James, who stayed behind in North Carolina. She squeezed tight on his hand as they watched Jim Furyk hit into the bunker on the 18th to eliminate his chances, and then Graeme McDowell miss a 25-foot birdie putt that would have forced a playoff.

"If I was honest with you, I believed in myself (that)I could win a major, but maybe not so soon," Simpson said. "And I just gained all the respect for the guys who have won multiple majors because it's so hard to do. The level of pressure is so much greater than a regular event."

"I probably prayed more the last three holes than I ever did in my life," said Simpson, a religion major at Wake Forest.

It was Simpson who called over to Watson, their caddies and their wives to huddle under an umbrella on the green at Royal Melbourne for a quick prayer after they won a match that set the tone in the Presidents Cup.

They are nothing alike. Watson manufactured a swing on a public course in the Florida Panhandle and doesn't have a formal teacher. Simpson grew up at a country club and even played Augusta National when he was a teenager. Watson speaks his mind. Simpson is more reserved.

Watson and Simpson traded text messages the morning of the final round last year in New Orleans. Watson wound up beating him in a playoff, but the relationship took root. When it became clear they would qualify for the Presidents Cup, they asked U.S. captain Fred Couples if they could be partners. They won three of their matches.

Couples was wandering around Olympic and watched it unfold.

Simpson had a 68-68 weekend ? he was the only player in the last nine groups who broke par in the foggy final round ? and finished at 1-over 281 for a one-shot win over McDowell and Michael Thompson, who had a 67 that was almost good enough to return Monday for a playoff.

He went to No. 5 in the world. He went to No. 3 in the Ryder Cup standings.

And he extended a modest streak that indicates a quiet return of American golf. The Americans now have won the last three majors dating to Keegan Bradley's playoff win at the PGA Championship in August. It might not sound like much, but it had been just over five years since Americans won three straight majors (two of those by Tiger Woods), and more than eight years since three different Americans put together a streak that long.

The United States started the year with only six players among the top 15. Now there are nine.

And these majors are coming from unlikely sources.

Bradley became only the second player in nearly 100 years to win on his first try at a major. Watson always had the talent, though his composure was always in question until he made four straight birdies on the back nine at Augusta National. He won his playoff by hooking a wedge some 40 yards out of the trees and onto the green to win with a par.

Simpson won twice last year on the PGA Tour and lost a shot at the money title in the final round of the year. Even so, the 26-year-old had been quiet this year, and didn't have high expectations even as he played the final round.

"I never really wrapped my mind around winning," Simpson said. "This place is so demanding, and so all I was really concerned about was keeping the ball in front of me and making pars. The course is so hard, you don't know if you're going to make three or four bogeys in a row."

He left that to the others.

McDowell made four bogeys on the front nine and had to spend the rest of the day catching up. He holed a clutch birdie on the 17th hole to get within one shot and gave himself a look at birdie on the final hole. Furyk looked strong as ever, even rolling in a 30-foot par putt on the 12th hole, but a snap hook off the tee at the par-5 16th led to bogey, and he made bogey when he needed birdie on the 18th by hitting into the bunker.

While Simpson admired Woods and his 14 majors, inspiration came from Bradley.

"If I see Keegan Bradley win a major ? I respect his game a ton ? but I feel like, 'Keegan Bradley won one, I want to go win one,'" Simpson said. "All these guys that won before me, I thought, 'I want to win a tournament.' They're great players, but I want to do what they're doing."

It seems as though everyone is doing that.

Simpson is the 15th player who has won the last 15 majors, the kind of parity golf hasn't seen since a similar streak 14 years ago that ended with Lee Janzen's win at Olympic Club in 1998.

Simpson didn't have an answer for so many different players winning majors.

"One of my thoughts on the back nine was, 'I don't know how Tiger has won 14 of these things because of the pressure,'" Simpson said. "I couldn't feel my legs most of the back nine. It grew my respect for Tiger all the more. I think the prime of golf was mid-30s. Now it's moving closer to the mid-20s or late 20s. There's so many young guys."

That they are young is not a surprise. Six of the last eight major champions were in their 20s.

The surprise is that more of them are Americans.

Associated Press

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92% Safety Not Guaranteed

All Critics (73) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (67) | Rotten (6)

Neatly, the script embarks on one journey while dangling the possibility of another: the prospect of taking a sudden leap from comic reality into the realm of pure imagination.

"Safety Not Guaranteed" is most vibrant and vital at its edges, in the way that the characters interact with each other while waiting for something to happen.

It's brisk and assured and never begs the audience's indulgence. No time is wasted. The movie is, at every moment, either funny or pushing the story forward, or both.

The film is modest but skillful and heartfelt, spiced just so by Plaza and company.

Safety Not Guaranteed casts an enchanting spell from its opening scene.

Expectedly funny but unexpectedly touching, too.

Less of a philosophical argument and more of a character piece driven deep into the heart by Duplass and Plaza.

Have you ever wondered what mumblecore sci-fi would look like? Wonder no more.

Rather than trying to beat Hollywood at its own game of high-tech gadgets and weaponry, director Colin Trevorrow and writer Derek Connolly achieve a sly mix of the insane and the mundane.

A character-driven piece about regret and true partnership - our basic, primal need for someone to take the journey with us even if safety is not guaranteed.

Aubrey Plaza is the best thing about this iffy mock-sci-fi doohickey.

A strange, light-hearted bit of quasi-sci-fi, with no small amount of heart.

The material is played mostly for laughs and succeeds in that regard. The undercurrent of lament in Safety Not Guaranteed, though, is what holds the film together.

If safety isn't guaranteed by the film's title, a viewer's satisfaction with this genial, warm-hearted movie pretty much can be.

One central recasting and brutal editorial session away from being a lovely little short film, where its mystery and sentiment is more easily controlled and considered.

With its well-constructed screenplay, sharp dialogue and unapologetic sincerity, this first feature from former SNL interns Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly is its own act of nostalgia...

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