Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Ex-President Sarkozy's home, offices searched

FILE This Friday, May 4, 2012 file photo shows France's then President and conservative candidate for re-election in 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy as he delivers a speech during a campaign meeting in Sables d'Ollonne, western France. French investigators searched former President Nicolas Sarkozy's home and office on Tuesday July 3, 2012 as part of a probe into suspected illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the L'Oreal cosmetics heiress, an official said. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

FILE This Friday, May 4, 2012 file photo shows France's then President and conservative candidate for re-election in 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy as he delivers a speech during a campaign meeting in Sables d'Ollonne, western France. French investigators searched former President Nicolas Sarkozy's home and office on Tuesday July 3, 2012 as part of a probe into suspected illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the L'Oreal cosmetics heiress, an official said. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

FILE This Friday, May 4, 2012 file photo shows France's then President and conservative candidate for re-election in 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy as he delivers a speech during a campaign meeting in Sables d'Ollonne, western France. French investigators searched former President Nicolas Sarkozy's home and office on Tuesday July 3, 2012 as part of a probe into suspected illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the L'Oreal cosmetics heiress, an official said. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

Members of the media are seen at the entrance of the building housing the offices of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, Tuesday July 3, 2012. French investigators searched Nicolas Sarkozy's home and office on Tuesday as part of a probe into suspected illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the L'Oreal cosmetics heiress, an official said.(AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

(AP) ? French investigators searched former President Nicolas Sarkozy's home and office on Tuesday as part of a probe into suspected illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the L'Oreal cosmetics heiress, an official said.

Potential legal troubles have threatened Sarkozy since he lost the presidency to Socialist Francois Hollande in May elections. Sarkozy, who lost his immunity from prosecution June 15, denies wrongdoing.

Judge Jean-Michel Gentil and other investigators from the Paris financial crimes unit conducted Tuesday's search of Sarkozy's home and offices, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be publicly named discussing an ongoing investigation.

Messages left with Sarkozy's staff were not immediately returned.

The probe centers on the finances of France's richest woman, L'Oreal cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

A long-running family feud over her fortune ballooned in 2010 into a multi-layered investigation and political affair. Allegations emerged that Bettencourt provided illegal campaign cash to Sarkozy's party during the 2007 campaign. Sarkozy vigorously denies the claims.

The allegations struck a chord with Sarkozy's critics, who were frustrated with Sarkozy's handling of the recession-hit economy and saw him as too cozy with the rich.

An accountant for Bettencourt said in 2010 that she gave ?50,000 in cash in 2007 to Sarkozy's party treasurer for the presidential campaign ? well beyond the ?4,600 legal limit on individual donations. A book released last year suggested that Sarkozy himself received undeclared campaign money. Sarkozy denies the claims.

The case also stirred up debate over media freedom. Le Monde filed a lawsuit accusing Sarkozy's office of using counterintelligence services to identify a source leaking information about the investigation. Sarkozy's office said it had never given such instructions to an intelligence agency.

Sarkozy faces other possible legal challenges.

Days after losing his presidential immunity, relatives of French victims of a deadly bombing in Pakistan in 2003 filed a lawsuit accusing Sarkozy and two former advisers of violating a duty to secrecy in an investigation of the attack.

The Karachi car bombing killed 15 people ? mostly French defense contractors. Investigators are probing whether a French defense deal in the 1990s with Pakistan involving suspected kickbacks set the stage for the attack. Sarkozy's office insisted the former president, who was budget minister in the 1990s, was not involved in any way.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-03-EU-France-Sarkozy/id-d1177e8207ef4f6c88588c56eafdbe85

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Amelia Earhart 75th anniversary prompts new expedition

In honor of the 75th anniversary of Amelia Earhart's disappearance, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) is setting out to search for Earhart's plane, the Electra, at Nikumaroro, an island in the western Pacific Ocean, where they believe Earhart was stranded and later died.

Seventy-five years ago on July 2, 1937, Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, mysteriously vanished somewhere over the Pacific Ocean during her attempted flight around the world. Her two-engine plane, Lockheed Electra, was never found and neither was Earhart or her navigator, Fred Noonan.

TIGHAR, with the help of FedEx, plans to travel from Honolulu today to Nikumaroro. There, they will use advanced technology to search underwater off the west coast of the island for signs of manmade objects. They hope to find wreckage of Earhart's plane

"That's what should be down there based on the research and clues we have," Ric Gillespie, TIGHAR's executive director, said. "We think it should be down there, whether it thinks so is another question."

TIGHAR's theory regarding Earhart's disappearance is one of several. Here are five of them.

Earhart Crashed, Sank

This theory is probably the most obvious of them all. The default reasoning for Earhart's disappearance was that she ran out of gas somewhere near her destination, Howland Island, and crashed into the sea.

As Earhart and Noonan approached their destination, Howland Island, radio transmissions were sent between Earhart and their radio contact, the Itasca, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter. At 7:42 a.m., the Itasca picked up the message, "We must be on you, but we cannot see you. Fuel is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet."

The Itasca tried to respond, but there was no answer. At 8:45 a.m. Earhart reported, "We are running north and south." Nothing further was heard from Earhart. Many believe Earhart's plane ran out of gas and crashed in the ocean shortly after the last transmission.

Earhart Was a Spy Captured by Japan

There are many theories circulating about Earhart's being sent to Japan as a spy for the United States. One theory is that Earhart was simply asked by President Roosevelt to keep her eyes open as she flew over enemy territory to see what infrastructure they had.

Randall Brink, author of "Lost Star: The Search for Amelia Earhart," insists in his book that Earhart was a spy. He writes about interviewing a technician who told him, "I recall that I was directed to cut two 16-to-18-inch-diameter holes for the cameras, which were to be mounted in the lower aft fuselage bay and would be electrically operated.

Gillespie said, "There is no evidence that that's what happened. There are lots and lots of stories that people tell. Anecdotal recollections, witness testimony, old memories. Most of them conflict with each other and they all have one thing in common: there's no evidence to back them up."

Earhart Was Japanese Propagandist Tokyo Rose

This theory is another version of Earhart's being captured by the Japanese. Some believe after being captured, the pilot became Tokyo Rose, the Japanese propagandist. During World War II, Tokyo Rose was an English-speaking female broadcaster whose broadcasts were meant to lower the morale of Allied forces. The stories consisted of stories for servicemen about infidelity back at home and false reports of battle outcomes, all mixed with a few pop songs to keep sailors and soldiers listening.

In response to rumors that Earhart was Tokyo Rose, her husband, book publisher George Palmer Putnam, was flown to China for the purpose of hearing Tokyo Rose's voice. Afterward, Putnam said he would stake his life that it was not his wife's voice.

"Again, total absence of evidence," Gillespie said. "There were many Tokyo Roses. That was well investigated after the war. Amelia Earhart is Tokyo Rose? No."

Earhart Returned to the U.S. Under a New Name

One of the oddest theories is that Earhart returned to the United States under a new name. This theory came about after the 1970 book, "Amelia Earhart Lives" by Joe Klaas, claimed Earhart was living in the United States as Irene Bolham. Throughout the book, Klaas reported former Air Force Maj. Joseph Gervais' claims that he saw Bolham at a party and "just knew" she was really Earhart. Gervais said that he saw Bolham wearing similar decorations to those that had been given to Earhart including a medallion and a ribbon.

The theory should have died after Bolham sued Klaas, his associate Joe Gervais, and McGraw-Hill for defamation and McGraw-Hill pulled the book from shelves. But 33 years later, another book, "Amelia Earhart Survives" by Col. Rollin Reineck, came out in 2003 making the same claim.

Reineck's version of the story says that Earhart and Bolham share a remarkable physical resemblance. Reineck also says that prominent, retired Roman Catholic clergyman Monsignor James Francis Kelley was a part of the rescue of Earhart from Japan and the establishment of her new identity. While Kelley's memoirs have many outrageous and fictitious stories, he never actually mentioned having met Earhart or anything about rescuing her.

"She fought that to the day she died and again there is no evidence that Irene Bolham was Amelia Earhart," Gillespie said. "That whole theory is an illustration of just how crazy it can get with the whole Earhart mystery stuff."

Bolham died in New Jersey in 1982 but this theory regarding Earhart lives on.

Stranded Earhart Died on Nikumaroro

This theory, Gillespie believes, is the true story of what happened to Amelia Earhart.

According to TIGHAR, in the last in-flight radio message heard by the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, Earhart said, "We are on the line 157 337. ... We are running on line north and south." The numbers refer to compass headings and pass through Howland Island, Earhart's intended destination.

TIGHAR believes Earhart never found Howland Island and traveled to Gardner Island instead, 356 nautical miles away instead. At times the reef is smooth enough to land an airplane, making it possible that Earhart landed and was then stranded there. Although when Navy fliers flew over the area they did not see a plane, they did notice "signs of recent habitation" but believed that all the islands in the area were inhabited. In reality, Gardner Island had not been inhabited since 1892.

In their searches of the island, TIGHAR has found evidence that someone lived on Nikumaroro as a castaway. They found bones and clam shells that appeared to have been eaten. Gillespie said they're unsure how long Earhart lived as a castaway on the island.

"We just know the bones of a woman, Amelia we think, were found there," Gillespie said. "Based on the volume of food remains, and also, the context that a lot of the artifacts were found this was somebody who had figured out how to catch fish and birds and how to get clams open."

Although TIGHAR has yet to fully prove this theory, it believes it is the correct answer.

"We go where the evidence leads us," Gillespie said. "All of it that we've found points to landing on this island and dying there as a castaway."

Also Read

Source: http://gma.yahoo.com/amelia-earhart-75th-anniversary-prompts-expedition-163312278--abc-news-topstories.html

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Monday, July 2, 2012

Tarmoh gives up Olympic spot in 100 to Felix

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) ? It will be remembered as the most anticipated race never run. The runoff that turned into a walk away to conclude the U.S. track trials.

Jeneba Tarmoh conceded the final Olympic spot in the 100 meters rather than meet training partner Allyson Felix at the starting line to break a third-place tie. She notified USA Track and Field early in the day of her intention to withdraw from the Monday night race, later saying it was simply because her heart wasn't into the runoff.

In the original race on June 23, Tarmoh leaned across the finish line and looked up to see her name on the scoreboard in the third spot behind winner Carmelita Jeter and runner-up Tianna Madison. The 22-year-old Tarmoh then took a celebratory lap around the track, waving an American flag. She received a medal and held a news conference.

And then watched the moment evaporate as the race was ruled a dead heat. She was reluctant to take the line for a runoff from the start, especially since she believed she earned the final spot in the 100 fair and square.

"Running in this (runoff) came down to how I felt internally. Would my heart be at peace running or would I not be at peace? If I was at peace, I would have run," Tarmoh told The Associated Press on Monday night. "My heart was not at peace with running."

In an email sent through her agent to USATF, Tarmoh officially conceded: "I understand that with this decision I am no longer running the 100m dash in the Olympic Games and will be an alternate for the event."

The unique race was scheduled to be shown in prime time on NBC in conjunction with the network's coverage of the swimming trials. It would've been a boon for track. Now, it's another blow for a sport that's taken its fair share of late.

"This could've been something exciting for the sport, something new, something different," said Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee, whose husband, Bobby, coaches both sprinters. "It would bring people in that don't ordinarily watch. Reality at its best. This is reality. You've got everything ? emotion, drama.

"But you don't have a cast."

And without a cast, track's moment in the spotlight fizzled.

"It is very frustrating for me, for someone who would like more people watching sport our sport on a regular basis," NBC sprints analyst Ato Boldon said. "That anytime you hear a track and field story, it's going to have a clumsy, awkward, or cringe-worthy ending."

USATF President Stephanie Hightower said the organization was "disappointed" that Tarmoh had a change of heart.

The controversy in the 100 overshadowed the entire trials because USATF had no protocol in place to deal with a dead heat. And after top officials scrambled to draft a tiebreaking procedure on the fly, the athletes didn't want to talk about it until after the conclusion of the 200 ? nearly a week later.

The tiebreak also didn't exactly address this particular situation ? an athlete commits to racing and decides not to at the last minute. The matter, however, was resolved once Tarmoh stepped aside.

"I feel very good about my decision. Most people don't understand why. But I'm not here to explain anything," Tarmoh said. "I'm saying I'm at peace."

Both athletes are represented by Nike, but Tarmoh insisted the shoe company didn't play a role in the decision.

"Nobody got any kind of money," Tarmoh said. "Nike didn't even know, in fact."

Tarmoh said she would not pursue any legal action to get her spot.

"No legal action at all," she said.

Tarmoh also said this hasn't affected her relationship with Felix, who's taken the young sprinter under her wing.

"I've told Allyson numerous times, 'I have the utmost respect for you. I don't want you to think I'm mad at you or anything negative,'" Tarmoh said. "She's an inspiration to me, helping me on and off the track."

There was no guarantee Felix would've run in the race, either. She said Sunday that she would allow her health to make the final decision. If she warmed up and didn't feel right, that's it, Felix was going to pull out of the competition. She wasn't about to risk anything this close to London.

One of the faces of track, Felix will now race in both the 100 and 200 in London. She is the favorite to win her signature event, the 200, after winning silver medals in the last two Olympics.

Although Tarmoh didn't qualify in the 200, she's eligible to run in the Olympic 400-meter relay.

"The situation has been difficult for everyone involved," Felix said in a statement. "I had accepted the USATF decision and was prepared to run at 5 p.m. I wanted to earn my spot on this team and not have it conceded to me so I share in everyone's disappointment that this runoff will not happen. All I can do now is turn my focus to London."

This has been a debacle since Felix and Tarmoh crossed the line in 11.068 seconds. The options USATF presented to settle the tie were a runoff, coin flip or one athlete conceding the spot to the other.

The athletes and their agents met with USATF representatives Sunday, and Felix and Tarmoh chose to settle matters on the track. Tarmoh, however, was clearly unhappy with the choice.

On Sunday, she said felt "like I was kind of robbed."

A day later, she's at peace even if millions of fans were looking forward to the race.

"I didn't even think about that," Tarmoh said. "Honestly, when they said runoff, all I thought about was me and Allyson.

"It's not because she's my training partner. After I ran the 100 and saw my name as third place on the scoreboard, took my victory lap, got a medal, went to the press conference and then they tell me that you don't have third place anymore? It kind of broke my heart a little bit."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tarmoh-gives-olympic-spot-100-felix-174707685--oly.html

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HTC picks former AT&T exec Mike Woodward as North American president

HTC picks former AT&T exec Mike Woodward as North American presidentHTC has been fighting to get a better relationship with US carriers lately, and it may have just chosen a clever (if roundabout) approach: hire one of their executives. As of today, AT&T's former phone portfolio VP Mike Woodward is now HTC's president of its North American division, reporting directly to worldwide sales head Jason Mackenzie. The new position won't necessarily get him any privileged access, but it certainly gives HTC someone who's well versed in what carriers want out of a device launch. We'll have to wait awhile to see what Woodward's strategy will be; suffice it to say that the company wants more One X-level anticipation and fewer of those bumpy, Inspire 4G-like releases.

Continue reading HTC picks former AT&T exec Mike Woodward as North American president

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Syrians brand world talks on crisis a failure

The opposition and state media on Sunday both branded an international plan for a transition in strife-torn Syria a failure, as the death toll for a weekend of violence topped 140.

World powers meeting in Geneva on Saturday agreed that the transition plan could include current regime members, but the West did not see any role for President Bashar al-Assad in a new unity government.

Russia and China insisted that Syrians themselves must decide how the transition takes place, rather than allow others to dictate their fate.

Moscow and Beijing, which have twice blocked UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, signed up to the final agreement that did not make any explicit call for Assad to cede power.

Official Syrian media and the opposition Local Coordination Committees (LCC) group demonstrated rare agreement in slamming the outcome.

The meeting "failed," trumpeted Al-Baath, newspaper of the ruling party of the same name.

"The agreement of the task force on Syria in Geneva on Saturday resembles an enlarged meeting of the UN Security Council where the positions of participants remained the same," it said.

The LCC, which organises protests on the ground in Syria, said the outcome showed once again a failure to adopt a common position.

It called the transition accord "just one version, different in form only, of the demands of Russian leaders allied to the Assad regime and who cover it militarily and politically in the face of international pressure."

Burhan Ghalioun, a senior member and former head of the opposition Syrian National Council, told pan-Arab television Al-Arabiya that "this is the worst international statement yet to emerge from talks on Syria."

According to the SNC's official Facebook page, he described the plan as a "farce."

Ghalioun called a "mockery" the notion that Syrians should negotiate with "their executioner, who has not stopped killing, torturing... and raping women for 16 months."

SNC spokeswoman Basma Qadmani, however, told AFP in Ankara there were some "positive elements" in the deal, although "important elements remain too ambiguous... and the plan is too vague to foresee real and immediate action."

"The first one is that the final declaration says that the participants agree to say that the Assad family cannot rule the country any more, and therefore the Assad family cannot lead the transition period."

"The second positive element is the agreement that the transition should comply with the legitimate aspirations of Syrian people.

"For us this means that Assad should go because Syrian people have already said that they want Assad to go."

Iran, a strong ally of Assad, said the Geneva meeting was "unsuccessful" because Damascus and Tehran were not invited.

The United States and European nations reportedly opposed the presence of Iran, although UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan and UN chief Ban Ki-moon had wanted Tehran to attend.

Opposition groups are to hold a two-day meeting in Cairo from Monday and are also expected to hold talks on Tuesday with Arab ministers in a bid to agree on a shared platform, Egyptian media and the Arab League said.

The Geneva deal came despite initial pessimism over the talks amid deep divisions between the West and China and Russia on how to end the violence that the Observatory says has killed more than 15,800 since March 2011.

Syria's neighbour Turkey, which attended the Geneva talks, scrambled fighter jets after Syrian helicopters flew close to its border, the army said on Sunday, hiking tensions following last month's downing of a Turkish plane.

Six F-16 warplanes took off from airbases in south Turkey on Saturday after Syrian helicopters flew closer to the border than is normal, the army said, specifying there had been three incidents but no violation of Turkish airspace.

In weekend violence, more than 140 people were killed across Syria, including 120 on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. On Sunday, at least 21 people were killed, including five in the central province of Hama, according to the Britain-based watchdog.

Annan said on Saturday it was up to the Syrians to decide who they wanted in a unity government. But he added: "I would doubt that Syrians... would select people with blood on their hands to lead them."

The United States and France both said it was clear there was no future role for Assad.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague admitted the deal was a "compromise agreement" as Russia played up the fact that it had convinced other world powers that it would be "unacceptable" to exclude any party from the transition.

Moscow is loath to cast aside its ally Assad, even as relations between them have cooled.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: "How exactly the work on a transition to a new stage is conducted will be decided by the Syrians themselves.

"There are no demands to exclude from this process any one group. This aspect had been present in many of our partners' proposals. We have convinced them that this is unacceptable."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrians-brand-world-talks-crisis-failure-093208520.html

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Alvarez slam lifts Pirates to 4th straight win

By R.B. FALLSTROM

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 6:27 p.m. ET June 30, 2012

ST. LOUIS (AP) - The Pittsburgh Pirates stuck with Pedro Alvarez, and now it's paying off.

Alvarez hit a grand slam in the first inning off suddenly scuffling 10-game winner Lance Lynn and Andrew McCutchen had two hits before leaving with a sprained left wrist as the Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-3 Saturday for their fourth victory in a row.

"I'm the guy who kept running him out there. Not everybody was on that bandwagon," manager Clint Hurdle said. "There weren't a lot of `Pedro for Mayor' signs being hung up in the ballpark.

"We know this guy's significant in a lot of different ways and we had to ride this out and see where it took us," he said.

The Pirates got good news on a player they can't afford to lose, too. X-rays showed no significant injury to McCutchen, who tweaked his wrist making a diving catch.

"I thought it was awesome and then I thought he was hurt," pitcher Jeff Karstens said. "And I was like, `I wish he'd have missed it and not dived.

"He's our best player, there's no ifs and buts about it. He's electric, he changes the game.'

Manager Clint Hurdle said McCutchen will probably rest on Sunday.

"I don't get days off, I'm not trying to get days off," McCutchen said. "I get days off in the offseason."

Jeff Karstens (1-2) thrived in sweltering heat, allowing four hits with seven strikeouts in seven strong innings for his first victory since Aug. 10, 2011 at San Francisco. Karstens changed his pregame routine, running and stretching inside, and then confounded the Cardinals by changing speeds.

Pittsburgh matched its longest winning streak of the year aided by fast starts with 11 first-inning runs the last three games, and stayed one game back of NL Central-leading Cincinnati. It was 99 degrees for the first pitch and the temperature spiked to 103 later in the game.

The Pirates are a season-best seven games above .500 after finishing June 17-10, their most victories in a month since August of 2007. If they complete their first three-game sweep in St. Louis since May 27-29, 1991 on Sunday it'll mark the franchise's high water mark since the final game of their 96-66 NL East championship team in 1992. Erik Bedard (4-8, 4.27 ERA) opposes Jake Westbrook (6-6, 3.77).

"We have a very good team," Alvarez said. "We've just got to keep it going and not change anything."

Carlos Beltran drove in a run with his 400th career double off Tony Watson in the eighth for St. Louis, one night after getting his 2,000th career hit. Beltran has an eight-game RBI streak, longest in the majors this season, and leads the league with 61 RBIs.

Jared Hughes retired the last four batters in order for his first career save as the Cardinals fell to 17-18 at home.

McCutchen, who leads the Pirates with a .346 average and 51 RBIs with 15 homers, was removed for a pinch hitter in the seventh, four innings after sprawling to catch Beltran's sinking liner. McCutchen also banged into the center field wall in an unsuccessful bid to rob Tony Cruz of a double to start that inning.

"I missed it, man," McCutchen said. "That would have been a sick catch if I caught it."

Alvarez is 2 for 2 with an astounding 10 RBIs with the bases loaded, the other hit a three-run double to go with two sacrifice flies and a walk. He has 13 RBIs in five games in St. Louis and 15 total against the Cardinals, most of any opponent.

The 25-year-old Alvarez, the second overall draft pick in 2008, batted just .191 in an injury-shortened 2011 and was hitting just .205 after the first two months this year. Though he's still batting just .226, in June he emerged with seven homers and 20 RBIs.

"I like getting an opportunity to play, no matter where it's at," Alvarez said. "That kind of production, it's just a coincidence. I never know one of these things until someone brings it up."

Lynn (10-4) was pummeled for the third straight start, surrendering six runs in five innings. Since combining for 23 strikeouts in consecutive victories earlier this month, the first-year starter who replaced injured Chris Carpenter in the rotation has given up 17 runs on 25 hits in 15 1-3 innings.

The 25-year-old right-hander said his troubles have nothing to do with fatigue.

"This is the best I've felt all year, and I'm not getting the job done," Lynn said. "You have times when you feel good and things don't go your way and then some when you feel bad and thing's seem to go your way.

"It's part of the game and that's just the way it is."

The Pirates homered an NL-leading 39 times in June to tie the franchise record set in 1975, and lead the league with 51 road homers.

Lynn got a pair of groundouts to open the game before running into trouble. McCutchen and Garrett Jones singled to put runners at the corners and Neil Walker walked before Alvarez swatted a full-count fastball into the right-field stands for his second career grand slam and 15th homer overall, tying McCutchen for the team lead.

"You can't give that guy a chance to do anything in the first inning, and I just didn't get it done," Lynn said. "It cost us the whole game right off the bat."

Karstens totaled 17 innings in his first four starts of a season interrupted by a shoulder injury. He struggled only in the third when Cruz scored on Jon Jay's groundout and Matt Holliday added an RBI single to cut the deficit to 4-2.

NOTES: The Pirates have won 11 of their last 14 against the NL Central. ... Holliday had two singles and a walk and is batting .500 (25 for 50) the last 12 games with two homers, eight doubles and 13 RBIs. ... The grand slam by Alvarez was the Pirates' first since Derrek Lee against the Cubs' Carlos Marmol last Sept. 3. ... Cardinals 3B coach Jose Oquendo missed his second straight game because of illness. ... Cardinals LHP Barret Browning, whose contract was purchased earlier in the day from Triple-A Memphis, worked two perfect innings in his major league debut after replacing Lynn.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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