Human rights groups and Indonesian religious organizations were appalled by Thursday's award, saying President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has done too little to suppress a rising tide of violence against minority faiths.

Rabbi Arthur Schneier with the Appeal of Conscience Foundation implicitly noted the controversy, saying, "You fully understand that the work is not complete. This is just a step in the right direction."

Yudhoyono, who did not mention religious rights, accepted the award in the name of all of Indonesia, saying "statesmanship can be collective." He said he hoped for "a harmonious society founded in peace and prosperity."

The foundation has handed out its "world statesman" award for decades, without controversy, to leaders such as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Kissinger handed the award to Yudhoyono. President Barack Obama sent him a letter praising his award, as did East Timor's former president, Jose Ramos-Horta, who guided the country to independence from Indonesian rule in 1999.

But Usman Hamid, a noted activist with the Indonesian human rights group Kontras, questioned the foundation's credibility in giving the award to the Indonesian president, who he said "is still far from protecting minorities from intolerance."

Indonesia is a secular country. The majority of its 210 million Muslims are Sunni, and most practice a moderate form of the faith. But the country's religious affairs minister, Suryadharma Ali, called for the Ahmadiyah to be banned in 2011 and proposed last year that Shia Muslims convert to Sunni Islam.

A researcher with Human Rights Watch, Andreas Harsono, said Yudhoyono's administration has basically laid down the legal infrastructure that discriminates among religious minorities. "He makes them second-class citizens," Harsono said.

Human Rights Watch has reported a steady increase in brutal attacks over the past few years due to the Indonesian government's failure to confront harassment of Christians, Shia Muslims and the Ahmadiyah, an Islamic sect. The group cited reports from the Jakarta-based nonprofit Setara Institute, which recorded 264 religious attacks last year, up from 244 the previous year and 216 in 2010.

A senior U.S. State Department official, Dan Baer, last week expressed concern over such attacks and ineffective Indonesian government responses, saying it threatens to tarnish the nation's reputation for religious tolerance. He also referred to a "disturbing trend" in forcible closures of churches including 50 in 2012 alone and of Ahmadiyah mosques.

Human Right Watch's Asia advocacy director, John Sifton, said the problem is Yudhoyono's "religious affairs minister and his home minister are pretty conservative Sunni Muslim politicians who were brought into the government as a political compromise."

Sifton added, "The problem is the attitude where a Sunni extremist group professes extremist interpretations and advocates persecution and hostility toward a religious minority. A lot of politicians don't have the spine or guts to stand up to them."

___

Associated Press writers Margie Mason and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta contributed to this report.

Trustees also warned President Gordon Gee that any future inappropriate comments could result in punishment including dismissal.

"The board will have no choice but to take such action," according to a copy of the March 11 letter obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

An AP report this week revealed remarks Gee made to the university's Athletic Council in December, saying that Notre Dame wasn't allowed to join the Big Ten because its leaders were not good partners. He criticized its Roman Catholic priests as "holy hell" on days other than Sunday and joked "those damn Catholics" can't be trusted.

He also questioned the academic integrity of schools in the SEC and the University of Kentucky.

Gee apologized in a statement Thursday and again on Twitter Thursday night.

"I am truly sorry for my comments_such attempts at humor do not reflect Ohio State values, nor my role as its president," the tweet said.

In their letter, the trustees laid out steps Gee must take including issuing personal apologies, getting help from professionals to revisit his personal communications and speechwriting processes and rethinking what speaking engagements he accepts.

Trustees told Gee that his attempts "to bring a bit of levity" to significant issues have had the opposite effect at times.

"As a result, instead of your words promoting and uniting us, they have sometimes embarrassed and divided us," trustee chairman Robert Schottenstein and trustee Alex Shumate, who led the search committee that hired Gee in 2007, said in the three-page letter obtained through a records request.

"Such comments are not befitting a great university like Ohio State or its leadership," the letter continued. It added: "Although we do not believe that you intended harm, such comments risk diminishing the effectiveness of our collective efforts and of your good work."

The letter said Gee is making progress on the board's list of requirements.

"Your willingness to seek guidance and counsel on multiple levels, from a variety of sources, on how to adapt and grow is a hallmark of your leadership style and one that we value highly," the letter said.

University and athletic conference officials have almost universally called Gee's remarks inappropriate but also said his apology has been accepted.

___

Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo, Tom Coyne in South Bend, Ind., Janet Cappiello in Louisville, Ky., Stephen Hawkins in Irving, Texas, and Mark Long in Destin, Fla., contributed to this report. Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus .

James, the NBA's reigning most valuable player, was fined along with David West and Lance Stephenson of the Indiana Pacers for exaggerating contact during Tuesday's Game Four of the best-of-seven series, which is tied at two games apiece.

With the intense series set to resume on Thursday in Miami, the league decided to crack down on the theatrics displayed in Game Four, where the players involved tried to trick referees into calling fouls off limited contact.

James and West were cited for flopping on the same play during Indiana's 99-92 home victory.

West, guarded by James, was backing in toward the basket in anticipation of receiving a pass when the nine-time Miami All Star spun and sprawled onto the floor as West stumbled awkwardly toward the baseline after minimal contact.

Stephenson earned his fine for exaggerating contact after a slight elbow push from Ray Allen following an Indiana basket.

The NBA instituted an anti-flopping policy this season to cut down on the practice.

(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue)

President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on foreign financial institutions that conduct or facilitate significant transactions in the Iranian rial currency.

In an executive order, the president also approved sanctions against people who do business with Iran's auto sector, which the White House said was a major source of revenue for Tehran.

The United States and Western powers have imposed a series of economic sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran into halting what they say is a drive to build a nuclear weapon. Tehran says its nuclear program is purely for generating power and for medical devices.

Last week, the United States blacklisted eight companies in Iran's petrochemical industry.

"We hold the door open to a diplomatic solution that allows Iran to rejoin the community of nations if they meet their obligations," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. "However, Iran must understand that time is not unlimited. If the Iranian government continues down its current path, there should be no doubt that the United States and our partners will continue to impose increasing consequences."

The sanctions imposed on the rial on Monday included a ban on maintaining significant accounts outside Iran denominated in that currency. It is the first time that trade in the rial has been targeted directly for sanctions, the White House said.

(Reporting By Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Peter Cooney)

By Toby Davis

PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) - Ask her to describe the way she plays and Serena Williams has a one-word response - fierce.

She is unlikely to hear a word of disagreement from Roberta Vinci after the Italian was beaten 6-1 6-3 in the fourth round of the French Open on Sunday, a result that keeps Williams on course to win a first Roland Garros title since 2002.

The match hammered home the inescapable truth that there is no substitute for raw power in the modern women's game as Williams, whose array of shots could blow holes in concrete, ably demonstrated by out-muscling the canny Vinci.

The Italian found out that as you head into the second week of a grand slam, you need at least one weapon in your armoury that can put your opponent on the back foot.

As it happens, Williams has a whole arsenal at her disposal and wrapped up victory for the loss of only four games, to take the total she has conceded in the entire tournament to 10.

Asked for a word to describe Vinci, a doubles specialist who relies more on her wiles to stay afloat, Williams replied: "Tricky".

Her own epithet was more emphatic.

It was certainly a fearsome display that she put in to complete her 28th straight victory and underline her title potential.

She coped better with the blustery conditions on Philippe Chatrier Court and broke three times to take the first set.

Vinci, who has won three grand-slam doubles titles with last year's French Open singles finalist Sara Errani, tried to move her opponent around the court to compensate for her lack of firepower but it was ultimately a futile effort.

Although she put up a better fight in the second set, she came up short at crucial moments and lost the last 10 points in a row to succumb in one hour 10 minutes.

A sterner test for Williams is likely to come in the next round as her quarter-final opponent is 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, who is not seeded at Roland Garros for the first time since 2003 but beat the American when they last played at Roland Garros.

The Russian dropped to 85th in the world after a six-month injury layoff following last year's Wimbledon, but has climbed to 39 and is a walloping baseliner who can crunch winners off both flanks.

"The last time we played here she won, so that will probably get her pumped up and she's on a comeback," Williams said. "She has nothing to lose but everything to gain."

Kuznetsova booked her place in the quarter-finals by outplaying German eighth seed Angelique Kerber 6-4 4-6 6-3.

"She's the best in the world so far. She's been playing unbelievable tennis," Kuznetsova said of Williams. "But I believe that I have my game and my good days, as well. Let's cross fingers I will have a good day that one. She's just a fighter." (Editing by Clare Fallon)

A day after attending the New York premiere of the post-apocalyptic thriller, "After Earth," he admits the film was a great family drama, but the space scenes were not realistic.

His main point of contention: "There was a lot of noise. In space, you don't get that much noise."

Aldrin, who followed Neil Armstrong onto the surface of the moon during the historic Apollo 11 landing in 1969, says that "noise doesn't propagate in a vacuum. We talked over headsets."

"Fortunately, we were free of static. We could communicate with each other pretty clearly, and mission control, though we were 50,000 miles away."

The 83-year old Apollo 11 crew member was the guest of honor at an event for a new luxury camera from Hasselblad. The Swedish company has supplied cameras used in space for more than 50 years.

And who does he think perfected the realistic telling of space stories?

"Arthur C. Clarke added a bit of reality to the genre with the (function) of the ship and people flying out in space on a mission," Aldrin said.

Clarke wrote the forward for Aldrin's 1996 sci-fi novel, "Encounter With Tiber." That book is being turned into a TV series.

As for "After Earth," Aldrin enjoyed the father-son dynamic between Will Smith and son Jaden, but thought there was a little too much "Shoot'em-up" for his taste.

"I hope the aliens are more peaceful than they are in this film, wherever they are," Aldrin joked.

But, he was impressed by the set design of earth 1,000 years into the future.

"The scenes of the cities were really remarkable," Aldrin said.

That differed significantly from his experience on the moon.

"The place was just totally lifeless, and that prompted me to use the words, 'magnificent desolation' in contrast to the magnificent experience that humanity could move itself ahead to get to the moon," Aldrin said.

"And as Neil says, that was sort of a small step for man, but to me the giant leap is establishing permanence on another planet."

Aldrin wants it to be Mars, but feels it won't happen in his lifetime, unless he's "really, really long-lived."

___

Online:

www.buzzaldrin.com

---

Follow John Carucci on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jacarucci

(Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch tried to convince Wall Street on Tuesday that there is still money to be made in newspapers, reminding investors that he had defied skeptics over the past 60 years to build one of the world's biggest media empires. As News Corp prepares to separate its publishing business from its entertainment assets, Murdoch said that while some brands face individual challenges, as a whole the publishing portfolio is "undervalued and underdeveloped."

Thomson Reuters hires Economist CEO to lead media unit

(Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp said on Wednesday it had hired Andrew Rashbass, currently group chief executive of The Economist Group, to be CEO of its Reuters news business. "We are determined that Reuters news should not only fulfill its critical mission but also its potential in creating long-term value for our customers and shareholders," David Thomson, chairman of Thomson Reuters, said in a statement.

IAC seeking buyer for Newsweek: Variety

(Reuters) - IAC/InterActive Corp is looking for potential buyers for Newsweek, the venerable magazine that stopped print publications in the United States last year in favor of an all digital format, the Hollywood trade paper Variety reported on Tuesday, citing sources who have been briefed on the matter. IAC obtained a stake in the 80-year-old Newsweek in 2010, when it merged with the Daily Beast, and under an agreement with investor Sidney Harman, who had bought Newsweek from the Washington Post for $1 and assumption of liabilities.

Readers of German mass daily Bild to pay for some online content

BERLIN (Reuters) - Readers of Germany's best-selling daily, Bild, will have to pay for some online content from mid-June, an executive at Axel Springer said on Monday, as the company fights against an era of "free beer for everyone". Bild's website will adopt a so-called "freemium model", with some content remaining free while items such as exclusive interviews, stories and photos will be subject to a charge.

News Corp to take charge of up to $1.4 billion this quarter

(Reuters) - News Corp said on Friday it will write down the value of its Australian and U.S. publishing assets by up to $1.4 billion, as the company prepares to split its business between its newspaper and entertainment operations. The company said the goodwill impairment charge was primarily for its Australia newspapers though it gave no more details. It also said it expected reduced cash flows in the future.

Obama in heated exchanges with Code Pink anti-war protester

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The woman who interrupted President Barack Obama's speech on counterterrorism policy on Thursday is well-known around Washington as a perennial protester on national security issues. Medea Benjamin, a founder of anti-war women's group Code Pink, began demonstrating years ago on Capitol Hill, becoming an almost routine presence at hearings where high-ranking officials of the Bush administration appeared to talk about the Iraq war.

Attorney general signed off on Fox phone records subpoena

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Eric Holder personally approved a decision to subpoena Fox News telephone records as the Justice Department investigated an unauthorized leak regarding North Korea, officials said on Tuesday. The Justice Department did not mention the subpoena when it issued a statement on Friday describing how Holder had vetted a decision to seek a search warrant for the contents of an email account used by Fox News reporter James Rosen.

Hulu video site auction attracts four bidders: sources

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former News Corp president Peter Chernin and private equity fund Guggenheim Digital Media have placed bids for Hulu, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, triggering a tug-of-war for the online video service. Satellite operator DirecTV and cable operator Time Warner Cable Inc also put in bids, one of the people told Reuters.

Obama orders review of guidelines for probing journalists

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he directed Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a review of Department of Justice guidelines for investigations that involve journalists and report back by early July. Obama has come under criticism for his administration's pursuit of journalists who have reported leaked material.

Vivendi names new management for SFR

PARIS (Reuters) - Media and telecoms conglomerate Vivendi has appointed Jean-Yves Charlier as chief executive of French telecome operator SFR, its largest unit, where profits are under pressure from a mobile price war. Charlier, a former board member of Vivendi, has been piloting the group's telecom strategy since October as it seeks to sell telecom assets to focus more on media.

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KATHMANDU (Reuters) - An 80-year-old Japanese mountain climber who has had four heart surgeries reached the top of Mount Everest on Thursday becoming the oldest person to conquer the world's highest mountain.

Yuichiro Miura, who took the standard southeast ridge route pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay 60 years ago, reached the top of the 8,848 meter (29,028 feet) mountain at about 9:00 a.m. (0315 GMT). He was accompanied by three other Japanese, including his son, and six Nepali sherpas.

"This is the greatest feeling in the world," he told family members and supporters gathered in Tokyo, speaking from the summit by satellite phone.

"I never thought I'd get to the summit of Everest at the age of 80. It was the best feeling to get here, but now I'm completely exhausted."

Miura, who first climbed Everest in 2003 and repeated the feat five years later, takes the oldest climber record from Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan, who reached the summit at the age of 76 in 2008.

"The record is not so important to me," Miura told Reuters in April, before setting off for Everest. "It is important to get to the top."

Miura spent the night at 8,500 meters (27,887 ft) at the Balcony in the so-called death zone before launching his final ascent, rather than the 8,000 meter South Col which is used as a resting place by most climbers before the summit climb, said Gyanendra Shrestha, a Nepal Tourism Ministry official.

His ascent had been watched closely in Japan, with daily broadcasts of phone calls and photographs from the climb - including one night when he and his fellow climbers drank green Japanese tea and ate hand-rolled sushi in their tent high on the mountain.

A noted adventurer, Miura skied down Everest from the South Col in 1970, a feat that became the subject of a documentary. He has since skied down the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, following the tradition of his late father Keizo, who skied down Europe's Mont Blanc at the age of 99.

He trained for the Everest climb by hiking in Tokyo with weighted packs and working out on a treadmill in a special low-oxygen room in his home.

Nearly 4,000 climbers have reached the Everest summit since the pioneering May 1953 climb, while 240 have lost their lives on its slopes.

Miura is not the first record-setter on Everest this climbing season.

Raha Moharrak became the first Saudi Arabian woman to conquer the peak, while Sudarshan Gautam, a 30-year-old Nepali-born Canadian who lost both arms in an accident, became the first double amputee to summit.

Miura's record may only be his to savor briefly. Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan, now 81, plans to start climbing the peak this weekend.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma and Elaine Lies, editing by Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)

Dehydrated after 400 miles of racing at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it didn't take long for his sponsor's product to take effect. Keselowski beamed a mischievous grin, wiped away his foam mustache, and tried to figure out how to accept the Sprint Cup trophy from France without dropping his oversized beer glass.

He's fresh, he's fearless and he's certainly not your daddy's NASCAR champion.

What Keselowski might be is just the guy NASCAR needs to appeal to the younger crowd as it closes a season that will likely be remembered for a jet fuel explosion, Twitter, a garage-area fight. If the season-ending image that stays with the public is of a slightly drunk Keselowski being, well, Keselowski, that's OK.

After all, the racing itself was largely forgettable this season, a huge problem for NASCAR, and France reiterated last weekend that work is ongoing on the 2013 cars "to improve" the quality of racing.

So Keselowski's championship reign is critical for NASCAR. He's the face of the sport, the spokesman, the guy who will bang the drum for all things NASCAR over the next few months.

Keselowski proved he was different from the veteran drivers when he tweeted from inside his car during the season-opening Daytona 500, and his addiction to social media and his cellphone was a season-long theme. He's 28, tech savvy and unafraid to test his limits.

"I think because of that, he'll do great," said four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who helped broaden NASCAR's mainstream appeal when he emerged in the early '90s. "His ability to reach out through social media and the younger crowd, he's somebody that takes it, wants to take it, and because of that, he'll put a lot of effort into it. He's entertaining. You never know what you're going to get with Brad."

That's part of Keselowski's charm, and while he is indeed authentic, he very much enjoys being anti-establishment.

A year ago, Keselowski participated in the season-ending celebration in Las Vegas for the first time in his career. Although the awards banquet is the only actual black-tie affair, the week is packed with appearances, events, cocktail parties, receptions and one sponsor-heavy luncheon.

When he boarded the bus that took all 12 drivers to the luncheon, Keselowski was wearing an old pair of jeans and an untucked shirt. The other 11 drivers were all in suits. Someone on the bus offered suggested they stop on the way so Keselowski could pick up something else to wear.

Keselowski, who had announced a multiyear contract extension with Penske Racing just hours earlier, refused.

"I'm a race car driver!" he declared. "Why do I need to dress like that?"

Perhaps he had a point. But it wasn't a fight he was going to win driving for Roger Penske, and Keselowski was upgrading his wardrobe a few weeks later.

Keselowski has changed on the track, as well.

He was rough and raw in the Nationwide Series, and he didn't care who he wrecked when he was trying to get noticed. He wanted a job, wanted to survive in NASCAR and thought it was every man for himself. When he feuded with Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards, and they tried to explain etiquette, he didn't want to listen.

It was maddening to more experienced drivers, who quickly ran out of patience with Keselowski. Because he was in a developmental deal with Hendrick Motorsports, he got to drive a handful of races for them and sit in on some competition meetings with the big boys.

He was opinionated and outspoken, and the Hendrick group found him wildly entertaining.

"Brad, he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He was very aggressive," Rick Hendrick said. "But he learned how to control that and how to race, and he did it in a hurry."

And it happened at Penske, where he was paired in the Nationwide Series with Paul Wolfe, who didn't want the job when first approached. He ultimately changed his mind, and the duo won the championship in their first year together.

Wolfe said he wasn't deterred by Keselowski's reputation, and looked only at the talent level and potential.

"I'm kind of the guy that takes it one day at a time, try to be better each and every day at what I do, and never really looked at it from the standpoint of 'I want to go win a championship with him,'" Wolfe said. "It was, 'I want to go win races and continue to grow as a team.' We've done that each and every week and every year."

While things were clicking in the Nationwide Series, Keselowski was struggling in Cup races. So Penske moved Wolfe up in 2011 to Cup, and Keselowski took off, winning three races to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

It set the pace for this season, the breakthrough year for Roger Penske's first Cup title 40 years after first entering NASCAR.

And it showed that Keselowski has come a very long way in three very short years.

He looks back now at how he behaved, both on and off the track, and understands that coming up with his family's low-budget race team helped mold him into who he is today, even if it gave him a narrow view of the world.

"I think I suffered from some serious confidence issues when I first came into Cup that were a result of mostly just not having the speed to be successful and trying to do too much," he said. "I was trying too hard to be the "I'' in team, and there is none. That's pretty obvious looking back now. But I didn't know that. I do now. It's not until you have a group around you that shows you that you don't have to do all the work, that you can share it, and that as long as you respect them, care about them and work with them, you can be successful. That's something I had to learn on my own.

"I never had anybody teach me that. Nobody ever taught me about teamwork. My family and my parents, my mom and dad, they taught me about work ethic, they taught me what it meant to be a part of a family that had each other's backs, but it's a lot different when you're not family."

But Keselowski is part of the family. The Penske Racing family, and the NASCAR family. He's the champion, and underneath his fancy new clothes is a hardworking blue-collar kid from the suburbs of Detroit who loves NASCAR and wants to do anything he can to promote the sport.

"It's not like the champion is Miss America who goes out to civic organizations and gives speeches or anything like that," said NASCAR analyst Kyle Petty, son of seven-time champion Richard Petty. "He grew up in Michigan. He grew up working on these cars. He's a blue-collar guy from a blue-collar family and when we go back to Dale Earnhardt Sr., David Pearson, 'The King' and to Darrell Waltrip and guys like that, they worked their way up through.

"Brad Keselowski traveled the same road to get to this point. He'll be a great champion for this sport."