Sundhage Hired to Coach US Women

Former Swedish star Pia Sundhage was hired Tuesday to lead the U.S. women's soccer team through the 2008 Olympics, as American officials turn to a foreign coach for the first time.

Sundhage, an assistant for China during this year's World Cup, is familiar with many of the U.S. players after coaching in WUSA during the league's three years of existence.

The 47-year-old Sundhage replaces Greg Ryan, whose contract was not renewed after the Americans finished third at the World Cup. His departure followed a contentious decision to switch goalies before the U.S. team's lopsided semifinal loss.

Ryan was 45-1-9, with the lone loss resulting in the …

Are you ready for the new Apple tablet?

For all the excitement and discussion about the next great thing from Apple, its groundbreaking new tablet computer, one things seems to get lost in translation:

IT DOESN'T EXIST …

At last - McCaskey's shot at a McRoast

There probably isn't anyone who would enjoy roasting Jim McMahonmore than Michael McCaskey.

Now the Bears owner has his opportunity.

McCaskey - ridiculed extensively by McMahon in his best-sellingbook McMahon! - has been invited to be a roaster at "McMahon of theYear - A Roast."

And you thought Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvelous Marvin Hagler wasthe fight of the century.

McCaskey has yet to respond to the invitation, and yesterday didnot return a phone call on the subject.

If he decides to attend the April 24 event at the ChicagoHilton, …

Official: Japan Prime Minister to Resign

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose year-old government has suffered a string of damaging scandals and a humiliating electoral defeat, has told ruling party leaders he intends to resign, an official said Wednesday.

Tadamori Oshima, parliamentary affairs chief for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Abe would make a statement later in the day.

"Unfortunately, he will announce that he will resign," Oshima told party members.

National broadcaster NHK said Abe made the announcement in a morning meeting with ruling party leaders, citing unidentified top officials of the Liberal Democratic Party. Other TV networks carried similar reports.

…

Italy's Mediaset looks to grow in pay TV market

In one small corner of the media market, the world of Italian pay television, it's Berlusconi vs. Murdoch.

The chief financial officer of Mediaset, founded by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi before he went into politics, doesn't look at it that way, though.

Marco Giordani says Mediaset's push into pay television, which until two years was inhabited only by Murdoch's Sky Italia, was sparked by the advent of new technology in the form of digital terrestrial and the decline of advertising revenues on traditional free-to-air television _ not as an epic battle of media moguls.

"The decision to enter this market is not a decision to go up against …

Contrasting wines best with ham, lamb

It's lamb and ham time. It's spring. It's Easter. Celebratethe season with wines that make special occasions even more festiveand flavorful.

I love Pinot Noir from almost anywhere in the world with lamb.But I found some great Pinot Noir renderings closer to home inOregon.

Over-all, my old Oregon favorites are still pleasing my palatewith their 1989 releases.

Ponzi 1989 Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley ($15) offers a licoriceand orange bouquet and plenty of ripe cherry flavor. The color isslightly light cherry, but the flavor is intense. The price isroughly $20-$22 a bottle.

Adelsheim Vineyards 1989 Pinot Noir, Seven Springs Vineyard($20) is …

UN launches new assessment of NKorea food needs

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United Nations said Monday it had begun a new assessment of impoverished North Korea's food needs, as an influential Republican U.S. senator warned the Obama administration against resuming such aid to the communist nation without adequate monitoring.

Sen. Richard Lugar, the leading Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said any resumption should depend on ensuring that aid gets to hungry civilians rather than to the military, "whose care is already a priority over the rest of the population."

North Korea suffered a famine in the early and mid 1990s and still struggles to feed its people. It reportedly has asked the United States and other …