Troops, checkpoints Colombia mine for Pakistan, victims take Zimbabwe T20 stand by sitting THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2015 16 18 FIFA chief’s Mideast peace bid fails Page 19 OAKLAND: Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard dunks against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green during the first half fo Game 1 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals. — AP Warriors’ Curry too hot for Rockets OAKLAND: Stephen Curry won his personal 16-2 run to seize control by halftime. game. “We have to look at the film and cor- For the first time since 2004, the team in best One surprise shook up the selection order duel with James Harden as the Golden State Harden, who finished runner-up to Curry rect things and be better in Game Two.” position actually claimed the top pick, giving as the Los Angeles Lakers leapfrogged from Warriors overcame an early deficit and sur- for the regular season MVP award, nearly Houston center Dwight Howard suffered a Minnesota reason to rejoice after their lowly the presumed fourth pick to the second spot, vived a late scare to edge the Houston delivered a triple-double with 28 points 11 knee injury in the first quarter, returned for a 16-66 mark in the regular season. changing places with the New York Knicks. “I Rockets 110-106 in Game One of the Western rebounds and nine assists, and caught fire in while but left for good in the fourth and they “We just want a young man with a great just know right now there’s a lot of happy Conference Finals on Tuesday. the second half to rally the Rockets. Houston will need his inside presence as the series heart and a great mind,” said Timberwolves people in Los Angeles,” said Lakers coach Curry poured in 34 points, six rebounds have already proven capable of comebacks progresses. owner Glen Taylor, who attended the lottery Byron Scott. and five assists and added key buckets in the in overcoming a 3-1 deficit to oust the Los “He’s our top rebounder and protects the at a midtown Manhattan hotel ballroom. “This is a big step for us in the process of closing stages to give the top-seeded Angeles Clippers in the last round and used a paint,” Houston coach Kevin McHale said of Centers Karl-Anthony Towns from the rebuilding our team and getting back to ... Warriors a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series late 7-0 run to pull within 108-106 with 14 Howard. “Hopefully he’ll be better.” University of Kentucky and Jahlil Okafor from playoff championship basketball.” The in front of a raucous home crowd. “It’s enter- seconds remaining. Curry, however, settled Meanwhile, the Minnesota Timberwolves Duke are widely considered the prizes of the Philadelphia 76ers will select third and the taining basketball. We’re both supposed to the nerves by making two free throws to seal won the National Basketball Association’s draft to be held on June 25 at Barclays Center Orlando Magic fifth. help our team win and impact the game,” things for Golden State, who got 18 points draft lottery on Tuesday, giving them the first in Brooklyn. The Timberwolves’ draft choice will join Curry told reporters. “There’s going to be off the bench from Shaun Livingston. selection in the NBA draft for the first time. Other highly touted candidates include last year’s top pick Andrew Wiggins on stretches where (we both play well). He “Game One slipped away from us,” Harden The Timberwolves had a 25 percent point guards D’Angelo Russell (Ohio State) Minnesota’s roster as he was obtained from made some crazy plays.” The Golden State said after Trevor Ariza scored 20 points and chance-the best odds among the 14 non- and Emmanuel Mudiay, who played profes- the Cavaliers before the 2014-15 season as fans were nervous early, however, when their Josh Smith added 17 and seven rebounds for playoff teams in the draw-at winning the sionally this year in China, and Latvian power part of a deal that sent Kevin Love to team fell 16 points behind in the second the Rockets. weighted lottery after finishing with the forward Kristaps Porzingis, who played in Cleveland. Wolves President Flip Saunders quarter but the Warriors responded with a “We had several opportunities to win the worst record in the 2014-15 regular season. Spain’s professional league. was thrilled.—Reuters Contador retains lead, Qatar World Cup ‘on schedule’ DOHA: The controversies surrounding timetable for the 2022 tournament. Zakarin wins Giro stage Qatar’s hosting of the football 2022 World Thawadi, a fervent Liverpool fan who talks Cup may continue unabated but so too do dreamily of his idol “King Kenny” Dalglish, MOLA: Spain’s Alberto Contador retained the lead of the Giro d’Italia the country’s preparations for the tourna- bullishly dismisses criticism and says: “We after yesterday’s 11th stage won by the Katusha team’s Russian rider ment itself. “I can say we are on schedule,” have always said we have been confident in Ilnur Zakarin. Zakarin biked in to victory alone after a long, solo break- tournament chief Hassan Al-Thawadi told the integrity of our bid.” away on the 153km ride from Forli to Imola. AFP earlier this month. On the ground, Qatar’s preparations Tinkoff’s Contador, whose goal is to become the first rider since Marco This week, the man who oversaw Brazil’s already mean that work has begun on Pantani in 1998 to win the Giro and the Tour de France in the same sea- preparations for the 2014 World Cup, potentially more than half of the stadiums Ricardo Trade, visited Qatar and announced that will be used by the world’s best foot- son, held on to the leader’s pink jersey, with a slender three seconds himself “impressed with the amount of ballers in seven years’ time. advantage over chief rival Astana’s Fabio Aru. detailed planning and stadium progress,” Qatar has unveiled the designs for or Contador, who launched an unsuccessful attack, admitted it had been achieved by the Qataris seven years away already begun reconstruction on five of the a tough day in the saddle. from the start of the tournament. grounds to be used. As few as eight stadi- “The terrain wasn’t ideal for an attack, but sometimes you just go on Confidence in the progress of Qatar’s ums-or as many as 12 — might be used for instinct: it depends on whether you feel good or not,” Contador said. preparation comes at the same time as the the first World Cup ever to be held in the “Today was very hard, much harder than yesterday, with 50km less. “I’m howls of protest at the country’s proposed Middle East, which is uniquely taking place feeling better each day, and the bruising on my legs (after last week’s hosting of the World Cup grow ever louder. in the months of November and December. fall) is getting better.” Just in the past few weeks alone, Qatar’s Last month, Thawadi was on hand to The experienced rider added: “A thousand things can still happen. It poor image in the eyes of many abroad has oversee the launch of the latest stadium may look easy, but there is still a very long way to go.” Stage winner been further battered by events. design for the 40,000-seater Al Rayyan sta- Anger over the arrests of two foreign dium, Doha, which will be used to host Zakarin, the shock Tour de Romandie winner last month, broke away journalist crews trying to expose the matches up until the quarter-final stage. from an escape group 23km from home. squalid living conditions faced by many Renovations have begun on the Khalifa With three laps of the Imola motor track to finish off the stage, the 25- labourers, the Council of Europe (CoE) call- International Stadium, which will also host year-old Zakarin held off the advances of the chasing pack led by ing for a re-run of the vote which awarded the 2019 World Athletics Championship. Australian Simon Gerrans, eventually finishing 53sec clear of a sextet led the tournament to the Gulf emirate, trades In the north of Qatar, the main construc- by Colombian Carlos Betancur. unions urging World Cup sponsors to lob- tion on the 60,000 Al-Bayt Stadium, which “I started the stage in good heart, and the breakaway riders worked by for reform, and the imminent publica- will be the site for one of the World Cup well together,” the Russian said.”I made one attempt to get away, and at tion of another unfavorable Amnesty semi-finals, will start later this summer. the second try, I made it. I learned a lesson in the stage that (Benat) International report, have all added to the In addition, preliminary building work Intxausti won (on Saturday) because that day I made the mistake of feeling that Qatar’s World Cup is under has begun on the Qatar Foundation permanent seige. Stadium and the Al Wakrah Stadium, attacking too early. Meanwhile a FIFA meeting later this shaped to look like a traditional dhow boat. “This time, I waited until the last moment. I still can’t believe that I month could see a resolution tabled to Each of these has a capacity of 40,000. won the Tour de Romandie, and now I’ve won a stage of the Giro. I feel remove the World Cup from Qatar because It has also been announced that many emotions, and I’m very happy.” of the slow pace of labour reforms.