Nats bolster pitching staff with deal for Haren

(Reuters) - The Washington Nationals bolstered their already strong pitching rotation by agreeing to a one-year, $13 million contract with right-hander Dan Haren, Major League Baseball's (MLB) website reported on Tuesday.
Haren, pending a physical, will join a rotation that boasts Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann and Gio Gonzalez, effectively replacing Edwin Jackson from a staff that helped the Nats to an MLB-best 98-64 record last season.
Three-time All-Star Haren played the last two-plus seasons with the Los Angeles Angels. Haren, 32, missed time because of back and hip injuries but still made 30 starts and won 12 games for Los Angeles last season.
Haren, who has a career 119-97 record, began his career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2003 before playing three seasons with the Oakland Athletics and two and a half seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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Australian league is next move, says NZ head

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Entering a team in Australia's Baseball League by 2014 and building a permanent facility was now in the sights of Baseball New Zealand after their credible performance at last month's World Baseball Classic qualifying tournament, according to the sport's chief executive.
The Diamondblacks, a team of locals, expatriates and North Americans with New Zealand heritage, made the final of the four-team tournament but were beaten by seventh-ranked Taiwan 9-0.
New Zealand had been unranked prior to the tournament, but after a 12-2 win over Thailand and 10-6 over the Philippines they were given a world ranking of 29 by baseball authorities, something that Ryan Flynn said had vindicated their leap of faith in inviting the team to the tournament.
"They took a gamble," Flynn told Reuters in a telephone interview from Auckland. "We were unranked. We came out of nowhere but ... they trusted we could put a team on the field that would represent the tournament, country and global baseball and we did.
"I think everybody around the world is quite pleased with jumping up to 29 in the world."
The two losses to Taiwan, 10-0 in pool play and then 9-0 in the final, had been a lot closer than the scorelines suggested Flynn said, with the Taiwanese scoring eight runs in the fifth innings of the first game and six in the fourth innings of the final.
"Taiwan are one of the true super powers of the sport, and we matched them for half of two games before our inexperience and lack of depth showed through.
"But I (have never been) as proud of a group of men in my life. Our staff, and coaches were world class and our players believed they could play with anyone in the world and used it to showcase their talent."
AUSTRALIAN LEAGUE
The impact of the qualifying tournament had been even more far reaching for the sport that struggles for attention in rugby-mad New Zealand.
People in the United States had "come out of the woodwork" asking Flynn if he wanted help with coaching and development, while the ABL were receptive to allowing an Auckland-based team to enter their competition.
"There is talk that our performance will speed up that process to have a franchise in Auckland," he said.
"I would say (by) 2014 at the latest. I used to say at the earliest but we have momentum that we do not want to let die."
The ABL currently has six teams, with Major League Baseball contributing about $3.2 million a year to offset operational costs and the cross-Tasman leagues in other sports that already operated were successful models they could emulate, he said.
New Zealand-based teams play in Australian's National Rugby League, A-League soccer competition and Australian Basketball League, while a joint netball competition also operates.
"The model is there (and) ...we think out of the gate we would be one of the best supported teams in the league.
"We would also have an advantage in that we would have just one team that makes it easier for us to coalesce talent, resources and sponsors."
The second priority for BNZ was to find a permanent, purpose-built venue that would house the potential ABL team, host international games and provide training and conditioning facilities.
The organization was looking at three possible sites for the facility already, which could cost between NZ$3-$5 million ($2.46-$4.1 million) to construct.
Once a team was established and it was attracting regular revenues, a bigger facility could be in the pipeline within three to five years, Flynn said.
"We'd like to get to a NZ$12 to NZ$15 million facility, which isn't Yankee Stadium but it's enough to scale up for bigger tournaments, host international teams, maybe even host the next WBC qualifier here.
"We believe Major League Baseball will help with their Baseball Tomorrow Fund in helping to build a stadium.
"That will be pretty crucial for this country to see a stadium. It's important for that to happen."
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Baseball: Rays extend Longoria contract until at least 2022

(Reuters) - Evan Longoria pledged his loyalty to the Tampa Bay Rays by signing a multi-year contract extension that could keep him in uniform through 2023, the team said on Monday.
The 27-year-old's original deal was through 2016, but the third baseman has signed a six-year extension worth $100 million with an option for one additional year.
"In signing this contract, I kind of wanted to show that I'm committed to this organization," Longoria told the Rays website (http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com).
"I told them from the beginning that I didn't want to be the one sucking up all the payroll so we can't afford anybody else, because it's not giving us the best chance to win.
"There's no telling what the market is going to look like in five years," added Longoria, now looking set to finish his career with the Rays.
"Obviously contracts are going up and they are probably going to continue to go up."
Longoria was drafted by the Rays in 2006 and helped the team reach the World Series in 2008.
A three-time All Star, Longoria played in just 74 games last season because of a left hamstring ailment and also missed extended time in 2011 because of injury.
Longoria is supposed to be over his health woes and is expected to be ready for spring training.
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US rate on 30-year mortgage rises to 3.71 pct.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Average rates on fixed mortgages rose this week, the first increase in seven weeks. But mortgage rates remain near historic lows, boosting prospects for home sales this year.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year loan increased to 3.71 percent. That's up from 3.67 percent last week, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The average rate on the 15-year mortgage, a popular refinancing option, rose to 2.98 percent. That's up from 2.94 percent last week, also a record low.
The rate on the 30-year loan has been below 4 percent since early December. Low rates are a key reason the housing industry is showing modest signs of a recovery this year.
In April, sales of both previously occupied homes and new homes rose near two-year highs. Builders are gaining more confidence in the market, breaking ground on more homes and requesting more permits to build single-family homes later this year.
Low rates could also provide some help to the economy if more people refinance. When people refinance at lower rates, they pay less interest on their loans and have more money to spend.
Still, the pace of home sales remains well below healthy levels. Economists say it could be years before the market is fully healed.
Many people are still having difficulty qualifying for home loans or can't afford larger down payments required by banks. Some would-be home buyers are holding off because they fear that home prices could keep falling.
The economy is growing only modestly and job creation slowed sharply in April and May. U.S. employers created only 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year.
Mortgage rates have been dropping because they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. Uncertainty about how Europe will resolve its debt crisis has led investors to buy more Treasury securities, which are considered safe investments. As demand for Treasurys increase, the yield falls.
To calculate average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.
The average does not include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for 30-year loans was 0.7 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans also was unchanged at 0.7 point.
The average rate on one-year adjustable rate mortgages slipped to 2.78 percent from 2.79 percent last week. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans was 0.5, up from 0.4.
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US fixed mortgage rates fall to new record lows

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fixed U.S. mortgage rates fell again to new record lows, providing prospective buyers with more incentive to brave a modestly recovering housing market.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average on the 30-year loan dropped to 3.62 percent. That's down from 3.66 percent last week and the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The average rate on the 15-year mortgage, a popular refinancing option, slipped to 2.89 percent, below last week's previous record of 2.94 percent.
The rate on the 30-year loan has fallen to or matched record low levels in 10 of the past 11 weeks. And it's been below 4 percent since December.
Cheap mortgages have provided a lift to the long-suffering housing market. Sales of new and previously occupied homes are up from the same time last year. Home prices are rising in most markets. And homebuilders are starting more projects and spending at a faster pace.
The number of people who signed contracts to buy previously occupied homes rose in May, matching the fastest pace in two years, the National Association of Realtors reported last week. That suggests Americans are growing more confident in the market.
Low rates could also provide some help to the economy if more people refinance. When people refinance at lower rates, they pay less interest on their loans and have more money to spend. Many homeowners use the savings on renovations, furniture, appliances and other improvements, which help drive growth.
Still, the pace of home sales remains well below healthy levels. Many people are still having difficulty qualifying for home loans or can't afford larger down payments required by banks.
And the sluggish job market could deter some would-be buyers from making a purchase this year. The U.S. economy created only 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year. The unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent last month, up from 8.1 percent in April.
The government reports Friday on June employment.
Mortgage rates have been dropping because they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. A weaker U.S. economy and uncertainty about how Europe will resolve its debt crisis have led investors to buy more Treasury securities, which are considered safe investments. As demand for Treasurys increase, the yield falls.
To calculate average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.
The average does not include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for 30-year loans was 0.8 point, up from 0.7 percent last week. The fee for 15-year loans also was 0.7 point, unchanged from the previous week.
The average rate on one-year adjustable rate mortgages fell to 2.68 percent, down from 2.74 percent last week. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans rose to 0.5 point, up from 0.4 point.
The average rate on five-year adjustable rate mortgages was unchanged at 2.79 percent. The fee stayed at 0.6 point.
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W.Va. teachers to attend 'Finance University'

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia University's business school is teaming up with the state auditor's office and a nonprofit economic literacy group called the West Virginia Jump$start Coalition to present a conference for educators to learn personal finance — and how to teach it to their students.
This year's Finance University is the 10th annual event for middle- and high-school teachers. It will be held Monday through Friday at the Charleston Conference Center.
Conference organizers say that participants will take a course to prepare for teaching their students personal-finance topics, including credit-card use, saving and investing, insurance, retirement plans, and more. Fifteen financial experts also are expected to give presentations.
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South Africa: Nelson Mandela's recovery is good

 South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela has recovered from his recent lung infection and a surgical procedure to remove gallstones, according to an announcement Sunday by President Jacob Zuma.
Doctors say that Mandela, 94, has made "steady progress and that clinically, he continues to improve," according to a statement issued by Zuma's office. Mandela was hospitalized for nearly three weeks in December before going home on Dec. 26.
Zuma's statement said Mandela "continues to receive high care" at his home in the Houghton suburb of Johannesburg and that "his daily routine is being gradually re-established."
Zuma congratulated Mandela on his recovery and said the anti-apartheid icon has "the love and support of all South Africans."
Mandela has been reading newspapers, sitting up in bed and receiving visitors, according to reports in the South African media.
The news that Mandela has recovered from the recurring lung infection and the minor surgery will reassure many in South Africa concerned about the health of the aged leader, who has become increasingly frail over the years.
A year ago, Mandela was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for what officials initially described as tests but what turned out to be an acute respiratory infection. He was discharged days later. He also had surgery for an enlarged prostate gland in 1985.
Under South Africa's white-minority apartheid regime, Mandela served 27 years in prison, where he contracted tuberculosis, before being released in 1990. He later became the nation's first democratically elected president in 1994 under the banner of the African National Congress. He served one five-year term before retiring.
He last made a public appearance on a major stage when South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.
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7 killed, 7 wounded in northwest Nigeria attacks

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — A government official says suspected armed robbers terrorizing northwest Nigeria raided three villages there, killing at least seven people and wounding seven more.
Zamfara state Information Commissioner Ibrahim Birnin Magaji said Sunday that the attacks focused on the villages of Akuzo, Makera and Usu in the rural region. Magaji said the gunmen attacked the villages Saturday morning as people left the mosque following morning prayers.
The assault appeared to be the work of a violent gang blamed for several mass casualty attacks in the region in recent months as they raid rural villages in Zamfara and neighboring Kaduna state.
In June, gunmen killed at least 27 people in Zamfara state in attacks on villages preparing for a local market day. Another 20 were killed in an October attack.
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Ivory Coast report: Many factors caused stampede

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Officials say that the New Year's stampede in Ivory Coast which killed 64 people was caused by a combination of several factors including unofficial tree trunk barricades, the narrowing of a major thoroughfare, bad lighting and a shortage of police officers.
Abidjan prosecutor Simplice Kouadio announced the preliminary findings of a police investigation on state television Saturday night.
According to the report, a "human wave" of people leaving a New Year's fireworks display was confronted by a group of people going in the opposite direction on the Boulevard de la Republique by the Houphouet Boigny stadium.
Police interviewed 31 people including the injured, families of victims, firefighters, doctors, the district governor of Abidjan and the Commissioner of Police. The prosecutor said criminal proceedings will be initiated against any perpetrators.
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Home HIV Test -- No 'Live' Counselor

Dan Nainan had never heard of a home test for HIV until a prospective girlfriend insisted that he take one. Apparently, she didn't trust him.
"I'm not some sleaze bag, but she's really suspicious," said Nainan, 31, who works as a comedian. "I'm like, 'Come on, you're kidding me.'"
The test became a sticking point in their budding relationship. "I didn't feel I had anything to be worried about," Nainan said, "but she didn't want to proceed."
He finally gave in and took the test his girlfriend foisted on him, certain he'd test negative. He swabbed his gums -- the test works on saliva -- put the test swab in a test tube and waited as his girlfriend grilled him about his sexual history.
"It was a bit uncomfortable," Nainan said.
Ten tense minutes passed as he watched a deep-pink line appear slowly in a tiny window on the testing device. He prayed it wouldn't be joined by a second line signaling a positive result, and wondered what he'd do if it did emerge.
"I felt like I was taking a pregnancy test," Nainan said.
Do-it-yourself home testing for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has arrived.
The OraQuick In-Home HIV Test -- the only one approved for over-the-counter use by the Food and Drug Administration that captures testing and results in one sitting -- hit drug-store shelves two months ago. An earlier HIV home test -- called Home Access -- required a user to prick a finger with a spring-loaded lancet, collect a drop of blood on a test card, mail it to a lab and call in one to seven days for the results.
"This was actually quite easy and painless," Nainan said of the OraQuick test. "It's so much better than what you used to have to do."
Aimed at those who might have avoided getting tested in the past either out of, fear, stigma, worries over confidentiality or inconvenience, the new home test has been hailed as a breakthrough.
"It's hard not to be fully enthusiastic about the test," said Dr. Myron Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Everything we do to increase testing has to have some degree of benefit. By identifying and treating people early, we preserve normal life span and excellent health and reduce contagion."
But the new home test, which sells for about $40 and can also be bought online, has generated its share of hand-wringing, too.
"We generally like this thing," said Dan Tietz, executive director of the research and advocacy group AIDS Community Research Initiative of America, or ACRIA. "It decreases some of the barriers to testing. It kind of puts HIV in front of people, but there's a bunch of cautions."
For one, there's what Tietz called the "freaking out by themselves problem" -- for the first time, there's no live counselor present -- not even a voice over the phone -- to deliver the results, offer support and make referrals.
Nainan tested negative for HIV, as he expected he would. Despite some sweat as he waited out the 20 minutes staring at the test window, "I really wasn't nervous," he said.
But for home-testers less certain of their HIV status, or who receive an unexpected result, the do-it-yourself route could be overwhelming, Tietz said. "I think about a young person with very little experience with the health care system who might pick up this test," he added.
Tony Martinez, 40, who works in New York's fashion district, took the home test as an "experiment." "If I didn't know I wasn't HIV positive, the test would be a different ballgame. I put myself back many years ago when I went to a clinic and took the test and was terrified. [The home test] was a lot of steps. I don't think I would have followed the directions in that [terrified] state. Am I really going to read the manual "What Your Results Mean" if the test is positive? It's like asking someone to read a drivers' ed manual after an accident."
In lieu of an in-person counselor, OraSure Technologies, which makes the OraQuick test that the FDA approved in July -- has set up a toll-free 24/7 customer support center with bilingual reps (English-Spanish). They're not certified counselors but have been trained to answer questions about HIV/AIDS, explain how the test works and what the results mean. They can also hook up callers to counseling and care, using the CDC National Prevention Information Network and the HIV Medicine Association, and can also transfer callers directly to a health care professional or agency, said Ron Ticho, senior vice president for corporate communications at OraSure.
"Our representatives go through more than 160 hours of training," Ticho said. Test kits come with instructions, warnings and precautions. Home-testers can find the same test information on OraSure's website, along with the same referral databases the call center uses.
But handing concerns about HIV over to a toll-free number has raised questions.
Much is made of the fact that without a counselor present, even with warnings on the box and inserts and brochures written for a seventh- to eighth-grade reading level, home-testers might not understand that, as with all HIV tests, regardless of the testing method, a positive result is preliminary and needs to be confirmed by a more specific test given at an HIV test site.
This is especially worrying with the home test because although the OraQuick test is the same rapid test that medical professionals have used at testing sites since 2004, it loses some of its accuracy in the hands of consumers: The percentage of results that will be accurately positive drops from 99.3 at a testing site to 92.9 when do-it yourselvers test themselves at home: This means that about one person in 12 could get a false negative.
Another stumbling block is the "window period" -- the time it takes, usually 12 weeks, for the body to develop the antibodies the test detects after exposure to HIV, giving some people a "false sense of safety" that they're HIV negative when they are in fact HIV positive and at their most contagious.
"That's always a huge, really important piece of counseling," said Barbara Adler, manager of HIV counseling and testing at the AIDS Alliance Project at the University of California at San Francisco, where the first HIV test was given 27 years ago.
But, Adler said, sometimes people who received a preliminary positive result didn't return for the results from the confirming test.
"So I don't know if sitting with another human being when they're getting a result is going to help that. I think the person who wants the physical presence of someone else probably won't do the home test.
"There's reasons, though, for wanting to test alone in your home. While the stigma is not like it was 30 years ago," Adler said, "it's still there and can be heavy. It's a disease around sex, or around needle use. Who wants to talk about those things? It's not like we're talking about cholesterol, or something you got because you ate certain foods or got too much sun."
OraSure emphasizes that its HIV home test is simply an additional option to the testing already available -- which often comes free -- at public health clinics, community service organizations and doctors' offices.
"We know that there's a lot of individuals who should be getting tested but aren't, and this is another opportunity for them to do so," OraSure's Ticho said. "Is it the right option for everyone? Probably not."
Nevertheless, with an HIV diagnosis no longer sounding a death knell, it could be a test whose time has come.
"The tide has really turned on HIV testing," said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, co-director of the Medical Practice Evaluation Center and an AIDS researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
"It's a lot more streamlined, and there's not a lot of counseling required now. Treatment is available, and there's a lot of literature that says that life expectancy is up to near normal if people engage in care early and take care of themselves.
"There are cancers, and many, many other diseases that have far worse outcomes than HIV that people deal with on their own without a lot of counseling."
Of the 1.2 million Americans living with HIV in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20 percent don't even know that they're infected and account for more than half of the 50,000 new infections a year in the United States.
Whether people most at risk -- African-American gay-bisexual men, especially those between the ages of 13 and 24, according to the CDC -- will have the money and motivation to go to the drug store and pay $40 for the home test is another question, Walensky said.
Even if they have the $40 to spend on an HIV home test, many won't be able to buy it anyway, because the OraQuick home test cannot be sold to anyone younger than 17, and requires ID.
"Any availability of any test anywhere is a good thing," Walensky said. "Whether this is going to be an epidemic game-changer is where I have to opt out.
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