Another tie for UFE gold

IT'S LIKE LIGHTNING STRIKING THE SAME place twice. For the second year in a row, and only the second time in history, two writers of the Uniform Final Examination have earned identical top scores. Blair Cook of Doane Raymond in Kentville, Nova Scotia, and Greg Meligrigoris of Caron Belanger, Ernst & Young in Montreal both scored 380 on the 1995 UFE, making them tied winners of the Governor General's Gold Medal.

While the coincidence of seeing another UFE tie so soon surprised many, 24-year-old Cook had a bigger surprise to contend with. "I was in disbelief that I was able to pull off what I did," he says. "It was not my objective to beat everyone in Canada--just to pass this …

Schering-Plough swings to 4Q profit

Drugmaker Schering-Plough Corp. posted a fourth-quarter profit that topped estimates as lingering buyout charges for Organon Biosciences NV decreased, but revenue suffered from a stronger U.S. dollar and lagging cholesterol drug sales.

The company continues to record quarterly charges for its November 2007 buyout of Organon, but they are substantially less compared to a year earlier. Meanwhile, the benefit from Organon product sales continues driving revenue.

Schering-Plough earned $480 million, or 27 cents per share, compared with a loss of $3.36 billion, or $2.08 per share, a year earlier because of hefty buyout charges. Schering says revenue rose 17 …

Missing girl's mom keeps vigil at lake

The mother of 10-year-old Denise Taylor sat in a car for hoursWednesday at Montrose Harbor, looking out over the gray water, hopingagainst hope her missing daughter was still alive.

Divers searched for the girl for less than two hours beforewaves and wind forced them to halt until the weather improved.

The mother, Elizabeth Selwyn, then reluctantly drove away fromthe lakefront, but returned again. She repeated this routine much ofthe day, even after divers had left.

"I just can't believe it," Selwyn said Wednesday night, afterreturning to her seven other children and a number of friends andrelatives gathered in the family's apartment at 839 W. Sheridan …

Jones Stars As Sun Down Silver Stars

UNCASVILLE, Conn. - Earlier this month, Connecticut became the first WNBA team to have all five starters named to the All-Star team. On Sunday, it was the Sun reserves that got most of the attention.

Connecticut's backups outscored their counterparts 42-13 with Asjha Jones leading the way. Jones, the first player off the bench, matched her career-high with 22 points and had eight rebounds to lead the Sun to a 72-65 win over the San Antonio Silver Stars.

"Our bench was really, really good," Sun coach Mike Thibault said. "I cant say enough about them being ready to play and doing the right things."

With his five starters struggling offensively, Thibault turned to …

That Was the Week That Was

Entertainment highlights during the week of July 13-19:

1933: Popeye the Sailor Man appeared in his first cartoon.

1953: Elvis Presley recorded "My Happiness" as a gift for his mother. It was his first recording.

1959: Jazz singer Billie Holiday died in a New York hospital while under arrest for narcotics possession. She was 44.

1965: "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" by James Brown was released. It sold more than two million copies.

1966: Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow got married. He was 51, she was 21.

1981: Singer Harry Chapin was killed when his car was struck by a tractor-trailer on New York's …

Doping hits Asian Games in Guangzhou

GUANGZHOU, China (AP) — And on the seventh day of competition, the Guangzhou Asian Games announced its first drug cheat.

Judo silver medalist Shokir Muminov was the first athlete caught for doping, with organizers announcing Friday that the 27-year-old from Uzbekistan had been disqualified from the games and stripped of his silver medal after failing a doping test.

Muminov lost the gold medal match in the 81-kilogram division to South Korea's Kim Jae-bum on Nov. 14.

Dr. Mani Jegathesan, chairman of the Olympic Council of Asia's medical committee, said Muminov's urine test taken after the competition showed traces of the banned stimulant Methylhexaneamine

The World Anti-Doping Agency recently loosened the classification of Methylhexaneamine for next year to the "specified stimulant" list, which covers drugs that are more susceptible to inadvertent use and can carry reduced penalties.

Sanctions for use of the drug can be reduced if athletes prove they did not intend to enhance performance. Penalties range from a warning to a two-year ban.

More than 10,000 athletes in 42 sports are competing in the games which end Nov. 27.

In the men's baseball final, South Korea beat Taiwan 9-3. South Korea moved ahead 2-1 in the second and then capitalized on some erratic pitching by Taiwan, scoring four runs in the third including two out-of-the-park shots by Lee Dae-ho and Kang Jung-ho.

Japan won the bronze by defeating China earlier in the day 6-2. Five of Japan's runs were scored in the first inning.

Nida Rashid scored an unbeaten 51 and took four wickets for 16 runs to lead Pakistan to the first-ever cricket gold medal awarded at the Asian Games with a 10-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the women's Twenty20 final

After being sent into bat, Bangladesh was bowled out for 92 in 20 overs. It was Pakistan's first gold at Guangzhou, after collecting silver in wushu and a bronze in snooker.

Earlier, Japan defeated China by seven wickets to clinch bronze. The men's competition starts on the weekend.

In men's football, North Korea is out of the tournament after losing 9-8 on penalties to United Arab Emirates after their quarterfinal ended in a scoreless draw. Japan advanced to the semifinals with a 1-0 win over Thailand. South Korea took on Uzbekistan and Iran played Oman in late matches.

In weightlifting, South Korea's Jang Mi-ran, dubbed the world's strongest woman, won gold in the super heavyweight class.

Jang lifted 130 kilograms in the snatch and 181 in the clean and jerk to finish with a total of 311. She was unsuccessful in her attempt to lift 188 in the clean and jerk, which would have broken her previous world record.

"I thought my form today was pretty good but ... now that the competition is over I'm sore all over," said Jang, an Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion who's now looking ahead to the London Games in 2012. "This gives me more confidence and motivation for the read ahead."

Haeider Hamarasheid, who does his training in a river due to the lack of a rowing basin in Iraq, earlier gave his country its first medal of the games, taking a bronze in the men's single sculls. The race was won by Bajrang Lal Takhar, who gave India its second gold of the games.

Hamarasheid, one of five Iraqi rowers at the Asian Games, said when he told his friends two years ago that he would one day compete at the Olympics in rowing, they weren't sure whether to believe him.

"They were very surprised that there was such a sport in Iraq," Hamarasheid said. "The bronze medal has come at a good time, I will be in the newspaper and on the TV back home. People will start to know me and more importantly, start to know about rowing."

He said he trained twice a day in the river and had a good support team.

"I have to thank my teammates and coach. We are like a family. When I train late, they wait for me," he said. "When they train late, I wait for them."

Steven Wong won the BMX cycling gold for Hong Kong in a time of 30.37 seconds, about a second ahead of the minor medalists from Japan, Akifumi Sakamoto and Masahiro Sampei. Ma Liyun won the women's race.

Georgia Tech Fires Coach Chan Gailey

Georgia Tech fired coach Chan Gailey on Monday, two days after his sixth straight loss to rival Georgia ended a disappointing season.

Athletic director Dan Radakovich made the announcement after a morning meeting with Gailey. Defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta will take over as interim coach for an expected trip to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco, and he could be a candidate for the job permanently.

The move was widely expected after Georgia Tech (7-5) came up far short of another run at the Atlantic Coast Conference championship one year after winning its division. Also, Gailey never beat the school's biggest rival, dropping to 0-6 with a 31-17 loss to the Bulldogs on Saturday.

Gailey's overall record was 44-32 in six seasons, and he never lost less than five games in a year. Radakovich said the latest loss to Georgia did not influence his decision; he already had decided to make a change.

Overall, Georgia Tech has lost seven in a row to Georgia, its longest drought in the series.

"We've been very consistent with wins and losses," said Radakovich, who's in his second year as AD and inherited Gailey from the previous regime. "I want to be able to ratchet that up, take the next step."

Radakovich said business considerations were as much as part of his decision as wins and losses. The 55-year-old Gailey had lost support among the fan base, which made fundraising more difficult, and he wasn't the sort of dynamic personality who could help the Yellow Jackets make a name in the crowded Atlanta sports scene.

"Obviously, he didn't agree with the decision, but he understood there's a business aspect to this," Radakovich said. "There's people who enjoy doing that part of the business of being a head coach, and some that don't. As far as Xs and Os, Chan is a very good coach. But there's more to it now. College football is more than just Xs and Os, especially in the competitive market where we are."

Navy coach Paul Johnson, who previously coached at Georgia Southern, could be a popular choice as the new coach. Tenuta also will be a candidate if he wants to pursue the job, Radakovich said.

"There's always people you have your eye on," Radakovich said. "There's no clear-cut number one, however."

Gailey and Tenuta were expected to address the media later in the day.

Throughout the season, Radakovich steadfastly declined to give Gailey a vote of confidence, merely saying he would evaluate the program after the season. It wasn't immediately clear who would coach Georgia Tech in its expected trip to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.

After Saturday's loss, Gailey, a former NFL head coach with the Dallas Cowboys, brushed off questions about his future.

"I'm not in charge of that," he said. "My job is to do the best job I can do."

Gailey's downfall actually began at the end of last season, when Georgia Tech dropped its final three games _ all by a field goal _ after winning the Coastal Division. That stretch included losses to Georgia in the regular-season finale, Wake Forest in the ACC championship game and West Virginia in the Gator Bowl.

Gailey has four years left on his contract at $1 million annually, and Georgia Tech intends to honor the contract. There was some speculation that the financially strapped athletic program would be reluctant to buy out the coach, but Radakovich clearly decided it would be more damaging to offend the big-money boosters by keeping Gailey.

The fans grew more and more impatient with Gailey, which was evident in the closing minutes of a 27-3 loss to Virginia Tech. When the coach was shown on the video board delivering a public service announcement, the crowd at Bobby Dodd Stadium booed loudly.

His players seemed to sense that the end was near. After Saturday's game, senior running back Tashard Choice passed up a chance to lobby for his coach when asked what he would do.

"I don't know," Choice said. "I have the utmost respect for coach Gailey because he gave me the chance to come to Georgia Tech. Having said that, it's up to everybody else."

Gailey was hired by the Yellow Jackets in January 2002 after George O'Leary left to take the coaching job at Notre Dame, then was hastily dismissed by the Fighting Irish because of inaccuracies in his resume.

Under O'Leary, the Yellow Jackets were a high-scoring team that beat Georgia three years in a row from 1998-2000, a streak that hastened the firing of Bulldogs coach Jim Donnan.

Mark Richt took over at Georgia in 2001 and quickly turned things around, handing O'Leary a loss in his final game at Georgia Tech. While the Bulldogs quickly rose to prominence, winning two Southeastern Conference titles and putting themselves in position for a major bowl this season, the Yellow Jackets languished in mediocrity.

Gailey had a pair of 7-6 seasons and went 7-5 three other times. The only break in that troubling trend was 2006, when the Yellow Jackets went 7-1 in the ACC and 9-5 overall.

After his success last season, Gailey was mentioned as a possible candidate for NFL coaching jobs in Pittsburgh and Miami, two teams for which he served as offensive coordinator. He stayed at Georgia Tech, but his flirtation with the pros further damaged his standing with Georgia Tech fans.