Column: Phelps a puzzle as he proves human after all

LONDON (AP) -- The crowd at the Olympic Aquatics Centre arrived late, as if they were trying to stall off the inevitable. Anyone with a prized ticket to the first big showdown of the London Games had to know Michael Phelps was in trouble earlier in the day when he barely qualified for the final of the event he owns two gold medals in.

That was a shocker, but what happened Saturday night in the Olympic pool was simply mystifying. No self-respecting London bookie would have even dared to lay odds that the greatest swimmer in the world - no, make that the greatest swimmer ever - wouldn't even win as much as a bronze medal in his first race in these games.

The great swimming showdown to open the Olympics was a giant bust - unless, of course, your name is Ryan Lochte. The surfer dude from Florida dominated the 400-meter individual medley from the opening stroke, making an early case for himself as the face of swimming in these games while thrashing a guy he never used to be able to beat.

Queen tours Olympic Park after debut as Bond Girl

LONDON (AP) -- Fresh from her star turn as the latest Bond Girl, Queen Elizabeth II returned to Olympic Park for an encore Saturday, while the usually biting British press gave a resounding review: We are amused.

The queen visited with fawning British Olympians in the athletes village and rode to the top of the 377-foot (115-meter) Orbit tower beside the stadium, where on Friday night she officially opened the 2012 Games. Her husband, Prince Philip, and London Mayor Boris Johnson accompanied her.

Dressed in a royal blue silk dress, crepe coat and matching hat, the queen could be heard remarking at the views of the London skyline and countryside. She wore a brooch given to her in 1948 - the last time London hosted the Olympics and four years before her accession to the throne.

Fragile European economy dampens CEOs' outlook

NEW YORK (AP) -- Deteriorating financial conditions in Europe are weighing down companies' profits. And hope of salvation from other regions - such as China, Brazil and the United States - is starting to dim as those economies weaken.

That's the message from this week's parade of second-quarter earnings from some of the world's largest companies.

"The new reality is that this world is not in a normal growth mode," Dow Chemical CEO Andrew N. Liveris said on a conference call Thursday. "And it does not appear that we will see this for at least 12 to 24 months."

One CEO after another told investors and Wall Street analysts that Europe was making them nervous.

Lin's former coach, teammates and opponents surprised by his departure from New York

MANCHESTER, England (AP) -- Mike D'Antoni was there for the start of Linsanity, Kobe Bryant on the wrong end of its greatest highlight.

Neither imagined next season opening without Jeremy Lin on the New York Knicks.

"No. Not when the kicker was they can match. I'm thinking, for sure," said former Knicks coach D'Antoni on Wednesday before the U.S. Olympic team practiced. "Even when I was there, well at least we got him, we don't have to worry about him blowing up and us not being able to afford it."

But the Knicks ultimately decided they couldn't or wouldn't.

Review: `Versailles' an escape that turns somber

The documentary "The Queen of Versailles" begins life as a juicy guilty pleasure, allowing us to gawk and cluck at the nouveau-riche ostentation of an elderly time-share mogul and his much-younger trophy wife as they build their dream home: a 90,000-square-foot palace that would be the biggest house in America.

And then the economy collapses. And suddenly, in some ways, David and Jackie Siegel are just like us.

Sure, they're stuck in their 26,000-square-foot mansion in Orlando, Fla., which they're bursting out of with their eight kids, various nannies, maids and animals and wall-to-wall tacky furniture and artwork. Jackie, a buxom and Botoxed former model and pageant queen who's about 30 years younger than her husband, rides in the back of a limo to pick up fries at McDonald's.

'Weeds' marks 100th episode as finale looms

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "Weeds" is part of a rare group of cable TV shows: The Showtime series starring Mary-Louise Parker celebrated the taping of its 100th episode.

Showtime's entertainment president, David Nevins, told the "Weeds" cast and crew Tuesday that only a few cable series have reached 100 episodes. Among them is "Monk."

'Dark Knight' creator Nolan sticks to 2 dimensions

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Batman has all the gadgets Bruce Wayne's resources can buy, but he doesn't have one thing nearly every other summer blockbuster has: 3-D.

Director Christopher Nolan made the 2-D vs. 3-D choice easy for fans seeing "The Dark Knight Rises," the finale of his superhero trilogy that began with 2005's "Batman Begins" and continued with 2008's wildly praised "The Dark Knight."

Nolan is not a fan of digital 3-D, which essentially has turned a fleeting 1950s cinema gimmick into a multi-million-dollar value-added tax on fans who decide they want to put on the glasses and see a film with the illusion of depth.

28 New Zealand gold miners rescued after fire

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Rescuers saved 28 miners who were trapped underground for up to seven hours on Tuesday as smoke from a truck engine fire spread through the gold mine where they had been working.

Mine spokesman Kit Wilson said one man was being checked by medical officials for suspected smoke inhalation but the rest were fine.

The engine caught fire early Tuesday at the Trio mine in the North Island town of Waihi. Mine officials said the ventilation system pumped smoke through the mine and it could be seen coming out the vent shaft.

Initially, 28 men were trapped about 150 meters (500 feet) underground in safety chambers. After more than 5 hours, 13 men taking refuge in two safety chambers were rescued. After seven hours, the remaining men in a third chamber were also rescued.

Reshuffle puts N. Korean leader's mark on military

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea is reshuffling its most powerful institution: its million-man military. The authoritarian regime has dismissed the army chief - a key mentor to young ruler Kim Jong Un - and promoted a little-known general to an important position.

Illness was the reason cited for army chief Ri Yong Ho's departure, but to some outside analysts it resembled a purge by Kim as he tries to shape the government he inherited seven months ago. The announcement Tuesday of Hyon Yong Chol's promotion could further that goal; his is the fourth vice marshal appointment North Korea has made public since the death of Kim's father, Kim Jong Il.

Romney adviser Gillespie charges Obama campaign making false charge against former governor

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney's campaign is pushing back against Obama campaign commercials depicting him as having shipped jobs overseas while a private venture capitalist.

Romney campaign adviser Ed Gillespie says the charge is, in his words, "a lie."

Appearing Thursday on NBC's "Today" show, Gillespie said there isn't any evidence Romney outsourced jobs as head of Bain Capital.

Gillespie says that job outsourcing wasn't the policy at Bain Capital when Romney was in charge.

PC sales fall by 6 pct to 11 pct in US during 2Q

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Personal computer sales sagged during the spring as shifting technology trends, upcoming product releases and a shaky economy dampened demand for the machines currently on the market.

The second-quarter decline in the U.S. ranged from 6 percent to 11 percent compared with the same time last year, according to separate reports released Wednesday by Gartner Inc. and International Data Corp. Gartner came up with the lower of the two figures in the research firms' quarterly look at shipments of desktop and laptop computers.

Worldwide PC shipments held up better during the quarter, dipping by just 0.1 percent from last year.

This marks the seventh consecutive quarter in which global PC shipments have either decreased or edged up only slightly from the previous year, according to Gartner's calculations.

Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc., the biggest PC makers in the U.S. market, suffered the steepest drops during the three months spanning from April through June.

46 years later, US military 6 airmen lost in Laos plane crash buried together in Arlington

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- Ever since Sherrie Hassenger's husband went missing with five other U.S. airmen over Laos in 1965, her purpose has been to wish and to hope he would come home. When those men's remains were buried in a single casket Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, she said, some of that purpose was taken away.

"All I listen to is `50s, `60s music," she said. "When I saw those Air Force men in those dress blues, just like back then, I just wanted to go up and hug them and kiss them. It felt like maybe I could find a piece of my husband in them."

The charred remains of the six airmen - identified not through DNA matches but through dental records, personal items and other circumstantial evidence - were buried in a single casket with full military honors, as is common in situations where remains can't be conclusively linked to a specific individual. The remains are representative of six Air Force servicemen: Col. Joseph Christiano of Rochester, N.Y.; Col. Derrell B. Jeffords of Florence, S.C.; Lt. Col. Dennis L. Eilers of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Chief Master Sgt. William K. Colwell of Glen Cove, N.Y.; Chief Master Sgt. Arden K. Hassenger of Lebanon, Ore.; and Chief Master Sgt. Larry C. Thornton of Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Staples stores to sell Google's Nexus 7 tablet

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Staples office supply stores will sell the Nexus 7, a computer tablet that Google designed to compete against the Kindle Fire and iPad.

Monday's announcement makes Staples Inc. the second major retailer to embrace the Nexus 7 since Google unveiled the device last month. Video game retailer GameStop Corp. also plans to stock the Nexus 7 in its U.S. stores.

Other merchants are expected to agree to add the Nexus 7 to their store shelves when the tablet ships later this month.

Adding more stores as sellers exposes the Nexus 7 to more shoppers as Google Inc. tries to make a bigger dent in the increasingly important tablet computer market. Google is also peddling the Nexus 7 through its own online store, Google Play.

Rabbis call meeting on German circumcision ruling

BERLIN (AP) -- The Conference of European Rabbis says it's calling an emergency meeting in Berlin to discuss a regional court ruling that circumcising young boys for religious reasons amounts to bodily harm even if parents agree to it.

Conference president Pinchas Goldschmidt said in a statement Monday the Cologne court ruling last month "utterly failed to consider how fundamental" ritual circumcision is to the Jewish faith and identity.

The Tuesday through Thursday meeting seeks to produce a strategy for addressing the issue.

There's no law prohibiting the procedure but the ruling sets a precedent that could be taken into account by other courts.

Republican Party conservatives give business a hard time on transportation, other issues

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Conservative Republicans have roughed up the business community this year - and it's not over yet.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and major companies like Boeing Co. and Caterpillar Inc. all wanted quick reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, which helps finance American companies' overseas sales. Congress had reaffirmed the independent federal agency some two dozen times since its creation in 1934. But this year it took months of pleas, briefings and negotiations to overcome conservative opposition.

Similarly, industries ranging from asphalt to steel pressed for the popular transportation bill to rebuild the nation's infrastructure. Conservatives wanted to give authority to the states. Nine short-term extensions later - and almost three years after the last transportation bill expired - businesses finally prevailed last month.

The business community is now pressing the Senate to ratify a treaty governing the high seas, arguing that it would open a new path to oil, gas and other resources and produce thousands of jobs. Prospects are uncertain as conservatives stand united in opposition. They condemn the pact as a threat to U.S. sovereignty.

'You gotta go to work': Motto right to the end of durable Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- He was a tubby tough guy with a pug of a mug, as unlikely a big-screen star or a romantic lead as could be imagined.

Yet Ernest Borgnine won a woman's love and an Academy Award in one of the great lonelyhearts roles in "Marty," a highlight in a workhorse career that spanned nearly seven decades and more than 200 film and television parts.

Borgnine, who died Sunday at 95, worked to the end. One of his final roles was a bit part as a CIA records-keeper in 2010's action comedy "Red" - fittingly for his age, a story of retired spies who show that it's never too late to remain in the game when they're pulled back into action.

"I keep telling myself, `Damn it, you gotta go to work,'" Borgnine said in a 2007 interview with The Associated Press. "But there aren't many people who want to put Borgnine to work these days. They keep asking, `Is he still alive?'"

Taiwan photographer hopes images of doomed shelter dogs encourage pet owners to be responsible

TAOYUAN, Taiwan (AP) -- The photographer gingerly places a small, mixed-breed puppy on a platform in his makeshift studio at an animal shelter in northern Taiwan. The dog looks about 2 months old, with alert, trusting eyes and a shiny black coat.

Tou Chih-kang captures expressions, personality. He creates the kind of photos that any pet owner would love to have.

This puppy has no owner and will not get one. Once its photo shoot is over, it will be taken away by vets to be put down.

Tou has been recording the last moments of canines at the Taoyuan Animal Shelter for two years. He has captured the images of some 400 dogs, most of which were pets abandoned by their owners. To him the work is distressing, but he's trying to spread a message of responsibility.

WikiLeaks has data from 2.4 million Syrian emails

LONDON (AP) -- The secret-spilling group WikiLeaks said Thursday it was in the process of publishing material from 2.4 million Syrian emails - many of which it said came from official government accounts.

WikiLeaks' Sarah Harrison told journalists at London's Frontline Club that the emails reveal interactions between the Syrian government and Western companies, although she declined to go into much further detail.

Harrison quoted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as saying that "the material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria's external opponents."

WikiLeaks posted only a handful of the documents to its website Thursday, but the disclosure - whose source WikiLeaks has not made clear - wouldn't be the first major leak of Syrian emails.

Mystery disease kills 61 kids in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- Health workers are trying to determine whether a mixture of known diseases or something new is responsible for killing more than 60 children in Cambodia over the past three months, a World Health Organization expert said.

The mystery disease has killed 61 of 62 children hospitalized since April, but there's no indication it is spreading from person to person. Patients suffer a high fever, followed by severe respiratory problems that progress quickly. Some also experience neurological symptoms.

"At this stage, we cannot rule out if this is a mixture of a number of known diseases (virological, bacterial or toxicological) which have been reported as one syndrome or something new," Dr. Nima Asgari of the WHO in Phnom Penh said in an email Thursday.

Manchester United files for initial public offering of stock in US

NEW YORK (AP) -- Manchester United plans to go public. In the United States, to boot.

The record 19-time English champions filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday to hold an initial public offering of stock and become a listed company on the New York Stock Exchange. The deal could ease pressure on the club's cash flow as it tries to keep and acquire players in an attempt to regain English and European titles.

While the stock price and the number of shares were not listed, the registration statement said the club hoped to raise a maximum of $100 million - a place-holding figure that could change before the offering becomes effective.

"We intend to use all of our net proceeds from this offering to reduce our indebtedness," the team's filing said.

European aerospace giant Airbus announces it will build its 1st US assembly plant in Alabama

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -- European aerospace giant Airbus will build its first airplane factory in the U.S., aiming to compete better against archrival Boeing in the battle to dominate the global aviation industry.

The Mobile, Ala., factory - due to start up in 2015 -is expected to employ 1,000 people when it reaches full production two years later. Airbus hopes the plant will lower costs and improve its chances of winning business from the U.S. military. Last year, Boeing beat out Airbus' parent for a major Air Force contract.

"We needed to be visible in the States under the Airbus flag," Airbus President and CEO Fabrice Bregier said.

The new $600 million plant will make A320 passenger jets, which compete head-to-head with Boeing's 737. Those planes are the minivans of the airline world - widely-used people-haulers generally flown on short- and medium-haul trips. They generally carry about 150 passengers.

Mitt Romney, a privately devout Mormon, worships with family on vacation in New Hampshire

WOLFEBORO, N.H. (AP) -- Every year, Mitt Romney and his family spend a week at his estate on picturesque Lake Winnipesaukee. They go boating, play games - and attend church, an expression of the faith that's fundamentally shaped the Republican presidential candidate.

Romney, the first Mormon to clinch the presidential nomination of a major party, attended services Sunday with his wife, Ann, five sons, five daughters-in-law and 18 grandchildren. They made up nearly a third of the congregation that gathered inside the small, nondescript building that houses this tiny resort town's branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The Romney clan has attended the church in Wolfeboro many times before - only now the family patriarch carries the distinction of being President Barack Obama's Republican challenger.

Review: Google's Nexus 7 guns for the Kindle

NEW YORK (AP) -- In the 1982 sci-fi movie "Blade Runner," there are hints that the hero, played by Harrison Ford, is an artificial human - an "android" or "replicant." His job is to go out and kill other, rogue androids.

If he's an android, he's of the latest model, Nexus 7. That's also the name Google Inc. has picked for the first tablet to bear the Google brand. Clearly, its mission is to go out and kill rogue tablets running Google's Android software.

Specifically, the Nexus 7 seems to have been designed to give anyone who bought a Kindle Fire from Amazon.com Inc. or a Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble Inc. a lethal case of buyer's remorse.

The Nexus 7 costs $199, the same that Amazon and Barnes & Noble charge for their tablets. But it's better than theirs in significant ways, as it became clear to me after a couple of days of use. Google announced the tablet last week and is taking pre-orders for delivery in mid-July.

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College athletes' deaths in workouts prompt recommendations for better oversight, prevention

CHICAGO (AP) -- The most dangerous time for amateur athletes may not be during the heat of the game or even in rigorous practices. A total of 21 college football players have collapsed and died during conditioning workouts since 2000 - many on the first few days, when even the fittest players are often pushed too hard.

There's little regulation of these sessions, and coaches "just run willy-nilly" trying to make men out of boys, said athletic trainer Douglas Casa. "A lot of them are not focused on health and safety issues."

Conditioning sessions typically include running sprints, lifting weights, and endurance exercises. Games and practices have more oversight and safeguards. These include heat acclimatization rules limiting equipment worn, intensity and number of sessions for summer practices. Between 2000 and 2011, there were no deaths among top-level college football players in practices or games.