Inside 'Teen Mom 2? Star Leah Calvert's Baby Shower! ? The ...

Leah sporting an adorable "Mom-to-Be" sash!

Teen Mom 2 star Leah Messer Calvert is anxiously awaiting the birth of her third child next month, but her friends and family gathered today to celebrate the impending arrival with a baby shower!

Although Leah, who is expecting a little girl with her husband of nearly one year, Jeremy Calvert, arrived a tad late for her own shower, things seemed to go off wonderfully. The shower was planned by Leah?s mom, Dawn and Jeremy?s mom, Tammy.?

The Ashley has learned that there was a strict ?No Camera? policy at the shower. After a family ?friend? snuck a camera into Leah?s twins? birthday party one year and then sold the photos to a tabloid, Leah and her mom didn?t want to take any chances.

The Ashley has also learned that the shower was not captured by MTV cameras or attended by any of the show?s production staff, so fans will not get a chance to see this play out on ?Teen Mom 2.? Also missing were Leah?s ?Teen Mom 2? co-stars Kail Lowry, Chelsea Houska and Jenelle Evans.

Congrats to Leah and Jeremy!

(Photo: Facebook)

Source: http://theashleysrealityroundup.com/2013/01/26/inside-teen-mom-2-star-leah-calverts-baby-shower/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=inside-teen-mom-2-star-leah-calverts-baby-shower

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Victims of Nazi anatomists named

27 January 2013 Last updated at 22:39 ET By Victoria Gill BBC reporter

Liane Berkowitz was just 19 years old when she was executed by the Nazis.

She was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942 when they caught her putting up posters that displayed messages of protest against an exhibition of Nazi propaganda. She was pregnant at the time of her arrest, but this just led to her execution being postponed until after the birth of her child.

Liane's grim story did not end in her death; her body was one of thousands that were delivered to anatomists and used for dissection and experimentation.

The identity of victims who met this same fate is now coming to light thanks to researchers who are scouring legal records to identify the victims of Nazi terror who ended up on anatomists' dissection tables.

Liane was one of 182 people whose corpses were claimed by the anatomy researcher Hermann Stieve, who, at the time, was a leading anatomist at the University of Berlin.

The full names of the people on "Stieve's list" - the vast majority of whom were women - has now been published by Dr Sabine Hildebrandt, a German-born anatomist based at the University of Michigan.

"Stieve himself put this list together in 1946," explained Dr Hildebrandt, who has been investigating the history of German anatomy for a decade. Stieve's own thorough record of his macabre work has enabled her to identify his victims.

Stieve's crimes have been exposed, but Dr Hildebrandt has now focused her efforts of telling the stories of his victims.

"I wanted to find out who these people were," Dr Hildebrandt told the BBC. "I wanted to make them known again."

'Doomed women'

Stieve was interested particularly in reproductive anatomy; a key reason why so many victims on his list were women.

"Before 1933, he was able to source the bodies of executed men, but no women; Germany was not executing women."

"Then, suddenly, during the Third Reich, women were being executed too."

About half of these women, including Liane Berkowitz, were executed for treason; some were betrayed to the Gestapo by fellow citizens for airing their anti-Nazi politics.

William Seidelman, former professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, has also spent years uncovering links between "medicine and murder" in the Third Reich.

In a 1999 paper in Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust Studies he revealed some of the details of how Stieve worked closely with the prison in Berlin where prisoners were executed.

"When a woman of reproductive age was due to be executed, Stieve was informed, a date of execution was decided upon, and the prisoner told the scheduled date of her death," wrote Prof Seidelman.

"Stieve was particularly interested in the effects of stress and psychological trauma on the doomed woman's menstrual pattern.

"Upon the woman's execution, her pelvic organs were removed for examination. Stieve published reports based on those studies without hesitation or apology."

Stieve referred to the organs he used as "material". His publications during this time were some of the first to suggest that stress - in the form of being sentenced to death - disrupted a woman's menstrual cycle.

In a mission to reveal the human lives behind this "material", Dr Hildebrandt studied through the personal files of Stieve's victims, which are held at the Memorial Site for the German Resistance in Berlin.

She cross-checked each file against a copy of Stieve's list that is on file at the German Ministry of Justice, identifying every person on the list.

Continue reading the main story

Nazi experiments

• According to medical historian Paul Weindling, almost 25,000 victims of Nazi scientific experiments have now been identified.
• Dr Weindling says there were different "phases" to the Nazi's experiments. The first was linked to eugenics and forced sterilisation.
• The second phase coincided with the start of the war. "Doctors began experimenting on patients in psychiatric hospitals," Prof Weindling writes in a BBC report. "Sporadic experiments were made in concentration camps like Sachsenhausen near Berlin, and anthropological observations at Dachau."
• The third phase began in 1942, when the SS and German military took greater control of the experiments. There was a surge in the numbers of experiments, with lethal diseases including malaria and louse-borne typhus administered to thousands of victims.
• During a fourth phase in 1944-45, explains Dr Weindling, "scientists knew the war was lost but they continued their experiments".

Dr Hildebrandt noted the correct spelling of the names of the 174 women and eight men on the list, their exact dates of birth and death, their nationality, the reason for their execution and any other biographical information she could find.

Some of the files contained personal letters expressing final wishes of condemned prisoners. "Some of them expressed wishes to be reunited with their families in death," said Dr Hildebrandt.

One letter by Libertas Schulze-Boysen, a German-born resistance fighter who was once a member of the Nazi party, but left in 1937 and went on join the resistance and collect photographic evidence documenting National Socialist crimes of violence.

Libertas was arrested in September 1942 and sentenced to death for treason in December of the same year.

In a letter to her mother, she wrote: ''As a last wish I have asked that my 'material substance' be left to you. If possible, bury me in a beautiful place amidst sunny nature.''

Dark history

Dr Hildenbrandt said that her research made it "painfully clear" how little anatomists at the time were interested in the fate of the people whose bodies they were dissecting.

This left German anatomical research tainted by association.

Of the 31 anatomical departments at universities in Germany and its occupied territories between 1933 and 1945, Dr Hildebrandt found that "all of them - without exception - received bodies of the executed from execution chambers".

The issue only came to public attention in the past two decades.

Prof Seidelman explained that, in 1989, an anatomy lecturer at the University of Tubingen indicated that specimens he was showing were from Russian or Polish slave labourers executed during the Third Reich.

Prof Seidelman told the BBC: "The students were dismayed and demanded an explanation."

The university held a formal investigation, and all anatomy specimens of "suspect or uncertain origin" were buried in a special section of the Tubingen cemetery and, on July 8, 1990, a commemorative ceremony was held.

Continue reading the main story

Pernkopf's Atlas: A textbook tainted by Nazi association

• Eduard Pernkopf, chairman of anatomy at the University of Vienna between 1933 and 1945, was a member of the Nazi party whose sourcing of executed prisoners for dissections is on permanent record in his now infamous anatomical atlas.
• The detailed illustrations in anatomical atlas that Pernkopf produced made it famous among anatomy students.
• Pernkopf worked 18-hour days dissecting corpses while a team of artists created the images; he worked for over two decades on the book.
• AS Sabine Hildebrandt revealed in a 2006 paper in the journal Clinical anatomy, as well as confirming Pernkopf's strong affiliation to the Nazi party, this project "revealed the delivery of at least 1,377 bodies of executed persons to the Anatomical Institute of Vienna" during the Third Reich. "The possible use of these bodies as models cannot be excluded for up to half of the approximately 800 plates in the atlas."

Several universities, have carried out formal investigations into their own anatomy departments' procurement of bodies during the Third Reich.

Many institutes in Austria were also involved, notably the University of Vienna.

"The University of Vienna had a special streetcar hearse that delivered the cadavers from the execution chamber of the regional court to the anatomy institute," explained Prof Seidelman.

Eduard Pernkopf, who was chairman of anatomy there between 1933 and 1945, left a printed legacy in the form of a now infamous anatomy tome. It is now understood that many of the incredibly detailed illustrations in Pernkopf's atlas depicted the bodies of victims of Nazi terror.

Prof Seidelman said that researchers were at the "very early stage of the journey of revealing the stories of those humans who became 'experimental material'".

"They became inanimate objects," he added.

Dr Hildebrandt agrees that the issue still casts a shadow on anatomy today, and while a great deal has been published about the crimes of the perpetrators, "German post-war anatomy was built in part on the bodies of [the] victims".

She added: "It's time to return the names to the numbers - to give faces and biographies to the so far anonymous victims of anatomy in the Third Reich in order to remember and honour their humanity and the iniquities they had to endure."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21086388#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Celebs now fashionable targets in hoax 911 calls

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Celebrities have long contended with the occasional downsides of stardom ? tabloid scandals, stalkers, box office bombs, the paparazzi. Now, add "swatting" to the list ? a prank that sends police charging to the gates of stars' homes on false reports of gunmen, hostages or other crimes in progress.

Instead of bad guys, responding officers, police dogs, helicopters and sometimes SWAT teams have found only stunned domestic and security staff unaware of any trouble ? because there wasn't any.

The recent hoax 911 calls to the homes of Tom Cruise, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher, Chris Brown and other stars are leading authorities to eye some 911 calls with extra suspicion and lawmakers to call for stiffer penalties for the pranksters.

"This is a very vexing problem that needs to be fixed at the early stages," said California State Sen. Ted Lieu, who is proposing tough consequences, including hefty fines, for those caught swatting. "If this isn't resolved, this will result in a tragic situation."

Swatting is the rare trend that actually didn't start in Hollywood. Authorities in Dallas, Washington state, Alabama and elsewhere have arrested teens and young men for bogus 911 calls that have drawn large police responses and in some cases, resulted in innocent people being detained by police.

The term comes from the pranksters' desire to have heavily armed special weapons teams dispatched to their calls. That doesn't always happen, but the calls tie up resources ranging from dispatchers, patrol officers, helicopters, detectives and cyber-crime specialists.

The Beverly Hills Police Department estimated more than half of its emergency resources were occupied with the Cruise swatting call on Jan. 17. It was just one of a rash of calls aimed at celebrities over the next several days, including a false claim there was a domestic violence incident at Brown's home.

"We're getting much better at deciphering what is real and what is not," said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The agency has handled calls at Bieber's home and a former Kardashian family home.

Patrol units will check out every call but will hold off calling in the big guns until signs of an actual crime emerge, he said.

Authorities in the Los Angeles area are concerned that the high-profile calls against stars are inspiring copycats who perhaps notice the immediate attention swatting incidents command on tabloid news sites.

Los Angeles police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said the department has seen an increase in the number of swatting calls since last year, when stars such as Kutcher, Bieber and Cyrus were targeted.

"People are jumping on the bandwagon thinking it's funny or a clever or interesting," Smith said. The calls aren't just tying up patrol officers, but also investigators probing the pranks who could be assigned to larger crimes.

"The last thing we want to have our detectives do is spend a bunch of time on a foolish prank like this," he said. "We want our detective handling robberies, burglaries and other crimes."

Police arrested a 12-year-old boy in December who is suspected of placing swatting calls at numerous homes, including Kutcher's. That call brought out many heavily-armed officers and prompted the actor to leave the set of "Two and a Half Men" to make sure his home and workers were safe.

Prosecutors are still evaluating potential charges against the boy.

"If we catch you, and we're going to catch you, you're going to be prosecuted," Smith said. "We've got some pretty clever detectives in this department. They'll find out who did these things."

There are also concerns that swatting will lead officers to treat certain 911 calls differently.

"At some point, we don't want law enforcement to feel like this is another cry-wolf situation," Lieu said.

Smith said that's a possibility, but he said officers are being told to treat all 911 calls with caution, even if they know they're traveling to a celebrity's home and the call has the traits of a prank.

The California bill, which is also being proposed by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, would increase the penalties for convicted swatters to up to three years in jail if someone was hurt as a result of their call, and also make them responsible for the costs of the emergency response.

Whitmore and Smith said they did not have precise estimates for how much swatting calls cost, and it does not appear any agency is tracking the phenomenon nationwide.

The term swatting was coined by the Dallas FBI office a few years ago after its agents busted a group responsible for 60 hoax calls around the nation. The group's leader was sentenced to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay more than $75,000 in fines, although most swatting calls are handled by local authorities.

Hoaxers often use a computer and programs available online to trick 911 systems into thinking the distress calls are coming from the address where officers are dispatched, even though the prankster may be miles, or several states, away.

Although the use of Internet phone providers can make it harder to track the callers, "nothing on the internet is ever terribly secret," Smith said. "There's always going to be a trail,"

Spoofing a phone number is legal and used for many legitimate business purposes, but it has become a favorite technique of pranksters to harass strangers or send pizza deliverymen or locksmiths to unwitting targets' homes.

Dr. John Grohol, a research psychologist who studies internet behavior and founded the online community PsychCentral.com, said the motivation for celebrity swatting may be rooted in the hoaxers desire to impact the stars' lives and gain notoriety for themselves in online communities.

"You have to kind of look at it from the perspective that most people don't have a lot of opportunity to affect a celebrity's life directly," Grohol said. "This is a way that a person can feel empowered."

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/celebs-now-fashionable-targets-hoax-911-calls-150505911.html

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Ethics & OED: Practitioner Discipline at the USPTO July/Aug. 2012 ...

In addition to discussing the impact of the America Invents Act on ethics, specifically from a malpractice standpoint, I will also discuss the enforcement efforts of the Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED) during 2012.

An odd order sequencing I know, but with great energy and certainty that I wouldn?t run out of time I set out to ambitiously review the 48 disciplinary actions taken by OED during 2o12. Then as the calendar started to no longer be an alley I thought that perhaps I should work my way backwards.

With this in mind, what follows is discussion of the two disciplinary proceedings undertaken by the USPTO during the months of July and August 2012. There were no OED disciplinary decisions from September 2012.

Hugh D. Jaeger of Wayzata, Minnesota, is an attorney licensed ?to practice in both Minnesota and Pennsylvania. ?He is also a registered patent attorney (Registration No. 27,270). The Supreme Court of Minnesota suspended Jaeger for violating various Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct for neglecting client matters, signing documents without consent, failing to return client files and failing to cooperate with the disciplinary investigation into his actions. ?In what was essentially a negotiated resolution, the August 11, 2011?Order of the Supreme Court of Minnesota indefinitely suspended Jaeger for a minimum of 120 days and ordered that he be placed on inactive status (i.e., retired) following the end of his suspension period. The Supreme Court of Minnesota Order also notes that Jaeger agreed not to apply for reinstatement to practice in Minnesota and that he would not apply for admission (or readmission) to any other bar in any other jurisdiction. As the result of this Minnesota proceeding Jaeger was also similarly ordered suspended by Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

The USPTO issued a Notice and Order Under 37 CFR 11.24, which gave Jaeger 40 days to respond. No response was forthcoming. Thus, as the result of this?reciprocal disciplinary proceeding, the USPTO suspended Jaeger for a minimum of 120 days. After serving the 120 day suspension, the OED Order suggests that he may request reinstatement pursuant to 37 CFR ? 11.60 for the sole purpose of being placed on voluntary inactive status. The OED order, similar to the Order of the Supreme Court of Minnesota, forbids Jaeger from being restored to active status as a member of the patent bar. ?Thus, for all intents and purposes Jaeger was disbarred.

If you read through disciplinary orders from OED you start to become familiar with the language used and the penalties handed out. This effective disbarment of Jaeger is peculiar in ways, but illustrative of what we see over and over again in other ways. It is peculiar for the Office to invite reinstatement only for the purpose of voluntarily going on inactive status. That, however, seems perfectly consistent with the Order of the Supreme Court of Minnesota. Thus, once again we see that the discipline handed out by the State will be equivalent to the discipline ordered by the USPTO in a reciprocal disciplinary proceeding.

Reading between the lines, and based on a 27,270 registration number, it seems that Jaeger was at or near the end of his career anyway. In order to get this disciplinary matter to go away he essentially agreed never to practice law again. In return the States of Minnesota, Pennsylvania and the USPTO will allow Jaeger to end his practice career as ?retired inactive? rather than disbarred.

?

In the Matter of Anthony J. De Laurentis (August 1, 2012)

Anthony J. De Laurentis (Registration No. 24,757) was disbarred on consent from practicing law in Maryland for participating in a conspiracy to suppress completion in three auction sales of tax liens throughout the state of Maryland in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act (15 U.S.C. ? 1). He was not criminally charged, recognized his wrongful conduct and voluntarily terminated his participation in the conspiracy. De Laurentis also fully cooperated in an investigation by the United States Department of Justice that culminated in the indictment and conviction of his co-conspirators.

The USPTO issued a Notice and Order Under 37 CFR 11.24, which gave De Laurentis 40 days to respond. No response was forthcoming. Thus, as the result of this?reciprocal disciplinary proceeding, the USPTO excluded De Laurentis from practice for violating 37 CFR 10.23(a) and (b) as the result of being disbarred in the States of Maryland. Rule 10.23(a) is the one that prohibits a practitioner from engaging in ?disreputable or gross misconduct.?

Rule 10.23(b) lists various things not to do. There are any number of sections of 10.23(b) that, could fit. The closest fits seems to be:

• 10.23(b)(3), which prohibits a practitioner from engaging in ?illegal conduct involveing moral turpitude.?
• 10.23(b)(4), which prohibits a practitioner from engaging in ?conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.?
• 10.23(b)(6), which prohibits a practitioner from engaging in ?any other conduct that adversely reflects on the practitioner?s?fitness to practice before the Office.?

Moral of the Story: Don?t commit a crime!

?

In the Matter of Mark L. Chael (August 1, 2012)

On September 26,2011, the Supreme Court of Illinois ordered that Mark L. Chael (Registration number 44,601)?be suspended from the practice of law for six (6) months for violating Rules of Professional Conduct by attempting to charge an unreasonable fee, by engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, and by engaging in conduct which?tends to defeat the administration of justice, or to bring the courts or the legal profession into disrepute. According to the Illinois State Bar Association website, Chael ?recorded more than 260 hours of time he falsely claimed to have spent on behalf of one of the firm?s clients during a two-month period.?

?The USPTO issued a Notice and Order Under?37 CFR 11.24, which gave Chael 40 days to respond. No response was forthcoming. Thus, as the result of this?reciprocal disciplinary proceeding, the USPTO determined that there was no genuine issue of material fact. The USPTO further determined that suspension was the appropriate discipline. Chael was suspended from the practice of patent, trademark, and non-patent law before the USPTO for a period of six (6) months for violating 37 CFR 10.23(b)(6) via 37 CFR 10.23(c)(5)(i) by having his license to practice law in the state of Illinois suspended on ethical grounds by the Supreme Court of Illinois.

The USPTO suspension was applied?nunc pro tunc. Discipline imposed?nunc pro tunc is appropriate only if?the practitioner: (1) promptly notified the OED Director of his or her suspension or disciplinaary disqualification in another jurisdiction; (2) establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the practitioner voluntarily ceased all activities related to practice before the Office; and (3) complied with all provisions of 37 CFR ? 11.58. That was found to be the case effective October 17, 2011, thus the six (6) month suspension started effective that date.

Chael was a partner with a prominent Chicago patent firm. He is no longer listed on that firm?s site.

?

In the Matter of Heather L. Mansfield (August 2, 2012)

Heather L. Mansfield of Westfield, New Jersey, was a registered patent attorney (Registration No. 39,157). The Director o f the United States Patent and Trademark Office (?USPTO? or ?Office?) has accepted Ms. Mansfield?s affidavit of resignation and ordered her exclusion on consent from the practice ofpatent, trademark, and non-patent law before Office.

Mansfield voluntarily submitted her affidavit of resignation at a time when a disciplinary investigation was pending against her, thus she is deemed to have conclusively acknowledged that her conduct violated?37 C.F.R. ?? 10.23(b)(5) and 10.23(a) via 10.23(c)(1) predicated upon certain acts that culminated in her guilty plea and conviction of one count of ?Interference with Custody of Children ? Conceal? in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Hunterdon County on January 5,2012. ?This stemmed from charges brought on March 3, 2011, by the New Jersey State Police, for Kidnapping and Interference with Custody. An Amber Alert was authorized and she was apprehended near the Canadian border. See Hunterdon County Press Release.

While Ms. Mansfield did not admit to violating any of the Disciplinary Rules of the USPTO Code of Professional Responsibility, she acknowledged that, if and when she does apply for reinstatement, the OED Director will conclusively presume, for the limited purpose of determining the application for reinstatement, that (i) the allegations set forth in the disciplinary investigation against her are true, and (ii) she could not have successfully defended herself against such allegations.

Source: http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2013/01/27/ethics-oed-practitioner-discipline-at-the-uspto-julyaug-2012/id=33860/

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Performing Arts Education Centers Opens to the District, Community ...

The LVUSD Performing Arts Education Centers (PAEC) in Agoura Hills and Calabasas kicked off their grand opening festivities Friday night in both cities.

The $44 million identical facilities, located on the Agoura Hills and Calabasas high school campuses, were entirely funded through Measure G, which passed in 2006.

"I like to describe these as 'welcome to our new classrooms,'" Dan Stenosky, LVUSD superintendent, said at the Agoura Hills site reception. "This is a cultural community assett."

The gala weekend long festival entitled "LVUSD Festival of the Arts and Education: A Grand Opening Celebration" in Agoura began the evening with a donor reception and facility tour followed by performances from the Agoura High School music program.

Agoura High Principal Larry Misel, who is retiring at the end of this year, expressed his enthusiasm over the finished product.

"This is really designed as an educational facility, so kids are not only performing, they're learning everything they'll be able to use to go right out into the world to get a job," he said.

The debut of the program is a dream long held by former superintendent Don Zimring, who attended the celebration. "This was part of the vision we had backin 1996," he said. "It took us this long to get here but we never wavered ... I was hopefully one of its strongest, loudest advocates."

The center, designed by architect John Sergio Fisher, houses a 650-seat main theater and the smaller 'black box' for educational classes and smaller productions. The state-of-the-art facility will offer the school district theater arts education, cross-curricular instruction, virtual programs, lectures, live presentations and more.

In addition, the buildings are open for rental to outside groups.

"This will be a cultural hub where the arts and education will not only enrich the students but also the greater community," said Lesli Stein, school board president.

Theater student and senior Sydney Heller, a back-stage tour guide for the evening, said she feels fortunate to be a part of this program.

"With a lot of public schools across the country cutting back on arts programs, this is really a big deal for us, because it shows that our community really respects what we do," she said.

Another unique aspect of two district theaters is the opportunity for Agoura and Calabasas to join creative forces, according to theater manager Gilles Chiasson.

"I will continue to stress the notion that students from both communities will have an opportunity to perform at both venues, regardless of where they live," he said. "I don't see the rivalry."

Box offices at both sites will offer tickets to either theater. For program information and to purchase tickets, go to the PAEC website.

Source: http://agourahills.patch.com/articles/performing-arts-and-education-center-opens-with-flourish

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Azarenka beats Li, defends Australian Open title

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus hugs her trophy after winning the women's final against China's Li Na at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus hugs her trophy after winning the women's final against China's Li Na at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus reacts as she celebrates her win over China's Li Na in the women's final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

China's Li Na falls for a second time during her match against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the women's final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

China's Li Na receives treatment to her ankle during her match against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the women's final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus reaches for a backhand return to China's Li Na during the women's final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) ? Victoria Azarenka had the bulk of the crowd against her. The fireworks were fizzling out, and when she looked over the net she saw Li Na crashing to the court and almost knocking herself out.

Considering the cascading criticism she'd encountered after her previous win, Azarenka didn't need the focus of the Australian Open final to be on another medical timeout.

So after defending her title with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over the sixth-seeded Li in one of the most unusual finals ever at Melbourne Park, Azarenka understandably dropped her racket and cried tears of relief late Saturday night.

She heaved as she sobbed into a towel beside the court, before regaining her composure to collect the trophy.

"It isn't easy, that's for sure, but I knew what I had to do," the 23-year-old Belarusian said. "I had to stay calm. I had to stay positive. I just had to deal with the things that came onto me."

There were a lot of those things squeezed into the 2-hour, 40-minute match. Li, who was playing her second Australian Open final in three years, twisted her ankle and tumbled to the court in the second and third sets.

The second time was on the point immediately after a 10-minute delay for the Australia Day fireworks ? a familiar fixture in downtown Melbourne on Jan. 26, but not usually coinciding with a final.

Li had been sitting in her chair during the break, while Azarenka jogged and swung her racket around before leaving the court to rub some liniment into her legs to keep warm.

The 30-year-old Chinese player had tumbled to the court after twisting her left ankle and had it taped after falling in the fifth game of the second set. Immediately after the fireworks ceased, and with smoke still in the air, she twisted the ankle again, fell and hit the back of her head on the hard court.

The 2011 French Open champion was treated immediately by a tournament doctor and assessed for a concussion in another medical timeout before resuming the match.

"I think I was a little bit worried when I was falling," Li said, in her humorous, self-deprecating fashion. "Because two seconds I couldn't really see anything. It was totally black.

"So when the physio come, she was like, 'Focus on my finger.' I was laughing. I was thinking, 'This is tennis court, not like hospital.'"

Li's injury was obvious and attracted even more support for her from the 15,000-strong crowd.

Azarenka had generated some bad PR by taking a medical timeout after wasting five match points on her own serve in her semifinal win over American teenager Sloane Stephens on Thursday. She came back after the break and finished off Stephens in the next game, later telling an on-court interviewer that she "almost did the choke of the year."

She was accused of gamesmanship and manipulating the rules to get time to regain her composure against Stephens, but defended herself by saying she actually was having difficulty breathing because of a rib injury that needed to be fixed.

That explanation didn't convince everybody. So when she walked onto Rod Laver Arena on Saturday, there were some people who booed, and others who heckled her or mimicked the distinctive hooting sound she makes when she hits the ball.

"Unfortunately, you have to go through some rough patches to achieve great things," she said. "That's what makes it so special for me. I went through that, and I'm still able to kiss that beautiful trophy."

She didn't hold a grudge.

"I was expecting way worse, to be honest. What can you do? You just have to go out there and try to play tennis in the end of the day," she said. "It's a tennis match, tennis battle, final of the Australian Open. I was there to play that.

"The things what happened in the past, I did the best thing I could to explain, and it was left behind me already."

The match contained plenty of nervy moments and tension, and 16 service breaks ? nine for Li. But it also produced plenty of winners and bravery on big points.

Azarenka will retain the No. 1 ranking she's mostly held since her first Grand Slam win in Melbourne last year.

Li moved into the top five and is heartened by a recent trend of Australian runner-ups winning the French Open. She accomplished that in 2011, as did Ana Ivanovic (2008) and Maria Sharapova (2012).

"I wish I can do the same this year, as well," Li said.

Later Saturday, Bob and Mike Bryan won their record 13th Grand Slam men's doubles title, defeating the Dutch team of Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling 6-3, 6-4.

Sunday's men's final features two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic and U.S. Open winner Andy Murray. Djokovic is seeking to become the first man in the Open era to win three titles in a row in Australia.

Azarenka was planning a night of partying to celebrate her second major title, with her friend Redfoo and the Party Rock crew, and was hopeful of scoring some tickets to the men's final.

She said she needed to let her hair down after a draining two weeks and hoped that by being more open and frank in recent times she was clearing up any misconceptions the public had of her.

"When I came first on the tour I kind of was lost a little bit," he said. "I didn't know how to open up my personality. It's very difficult when you're alone. I was independent since I was, you know, 10 years old. It was a little bit scary and I wouldn't show my personality.

"So the (last) couple of years I learned how to open up to people and to share the moments. I wasn't really good before. I hope I got better. It's your judgment."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-01-26-Australian%20Open/id-f48beaa7dd8f4ab68978ea7e5fd4dcfd

JJ Watt jerry sandusky johnny depp hayden panettiere raul ibanez completely wrong mila kunis