Tiger Woods shot a four-under-par 67 to share the lead with fellow American Mark Wilson at the halfway stage of the BMW Championship in Illinois on Friday. Wilson had been in front for most of the day after his second-round 66 put him on seven-under 135 and lifted him to the top of the leaderboard before world No. 1 Woods began his charge. Woods had made an inauspicious start to the day when he bogeyed the first after he hooked ...

Rio de Janeiro's chances of becoming the first South American city to host the Olympics received a boost when the IOC published its evaluation of the four contenders for the 2016 Games on Wednesday. Rio is competing with Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo for the right to stage the 2016 Summer Olympics, with the final decision being made in Copenhagen on October 2. The IOC report is an important indicator ahead of the vote, making a series of judgments on ...

The father of a detainee beaten to death in an Iranian prison says he's satisfied with the way the Islamic government has handled the case -- even as it serves as proof imprisoned protesters were abused. A coroner's report showed Mohsen Rouhol-Amini, arrested for protesting the June 12 election, died of "repeated blows and severe physical injuries" at Tehran's Kahrizak prison, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported Monday, citing an informed source. Officials initially had said Rouhol-Amini had died from ...

Former world number one Kim Clijsters made a triumphant return to the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows as she routed Viktoriya Kutuzova of the Ukraine in their first round match on Monday. The Belgian ace has never lost to a player ranked outside the top 10 at the hard court grand slam and offered Kutuzova little respite during a 54-minute match. Clijsters was later joined in the second round by defending champion Serena Williams, who beat fellow American ...

European champions Barcelona began the defense of the Spanish Primera Liga title with a 3-0 demolition of Sporting Gijon in the Camp Nou on Monday night. Barca were missing Lionel Messi, who is on international duty with Argentina, and injured key midfielder Andres Iniesta, but it made little difference against the visitors, who narrowly avoided relegation last season. Mali international midfielder Seydou Keita proved the main influence for the Catalan giants in the first half, setting up Bojan Krkic for ...

Schools of robotic fish could one day map the ocean floor, detect pollution or inspect and survey submerged boats or oil and gas pipelines, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say. MIT engineers are showing off the latest generation of so-called robofish 15 years after they built the first one. The latest incarnation is sleeker, more streamlined and capable of mimicking the movements of a real fish. And it's capable of exploring underwater terrain submersibles can't, said Pablo ...

Now comes the hard part. Handed a sweeping mandate for change, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) begins the formidable task of delivering on a laundry list of promises intended to lift the country after its worst recession since World War II. Voters -- skeptical, pessimistic and impatient -- are unlikely to give the party, which has never held office, much time to make good. Japan is witnessing historic highs in unemployment and experiencing ramifications like homelessness for the first ...

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen claimed his fourth Belgian Formula One Grand Prix victory in five years at Spa to end an astonishing run of 26 races without a win for the 2007 world champion. Raikkonen was hounded all the way for the majority of the race by pole-sitter Giancarlo Fisichella, who gave Force India their first points in F1 after 30 races with a second-place finish. In a chaos-filled race, British duo Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton crashed out ...

Lines at polling places spilled out into Tokyo streets Sunday as Japanese citizens showed up in droves to vote in a parliamentary election that is expected to yield a historic shift in political power. With fours hours left until polls closed, 41 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots. While the number is slightly lower than the last elections in 2005, absentee ballots were 162 percent higher this time round, officials said. Combined, the overall turnout could reach near-record numbers. ...

When the First Lady attended a country-music event in July without a single strand of hair falling below her jawline, the blogosphere exploded with outbursts ranging from adoration to vitriol. Things settled down only when her deputy press secretary clarified that there had been no First Haircut. In the aftermath, a didactic post on MichelleObamaWatch.com proclaimed that anyone "familiar with the amazing versatility of black hair" would have known that the new summer look was simply "pinned up." ...